And again, Mormons tend to ignore the most basic of issues:
* What evidence is there of "reformed Egyptian" even existing, especially in the Americas?
* Why would Jews in the Americas choose to write in the language of their enemies?
* So what if they needed to "save space" -- why not another language than selecting the language of their enemies?
* And if they needed to "save space" why do we have sentences in the BoM (4 Nephi 1:6) that's 57 words -- only to say that 59 years had passed!
Why would someone writing on a tight gold plate be so wordy?
In fact, if you look at the original 3 Nephi 21:2-7 (1830 version)...these six verses are actually all one sentence!
Why again does this matter?
Well, look at the way this Mormon apologist closed out his recent Mormon Times article:
When you take into consideration that the plates were engraved in space-saving reformed Egyptian, because, as Moroni wrote, "if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew," there appears to be room to spare (See Mormon 9:33). (Michael De Groote, "How gold were the golden plates?" Mormon Times, July 7, 2010)
According to Colleen Ralson, in her 1988 booklet, "Color Me Confused," p. 49 (Watchman Fellowship)-- as she commented upon the original verbiage of 3 Nephi 21:2-7 written as just one sentence in the original 1830 version:
'Father' is used 8 times,
'Gentile' 5 times,
'shall come forth' 4 times,
'that' and 'which' 20 times,
and 'me,' 'I' and 'my' over 11 times.
This Mormon Jesus is a lot more expressive in his statements than the Jesus of the Bible, who averaged only 19 words per sentence.
I can never understand how otherwise rational people can believe in this stuff.
But, heck, that’s their business and not mine.