When Joseph Smith was writing the Book of Mormon, approximately 116 pages were lost. Don Bradley attempts to reconstruct what was in the lost pages by examining the scriptures and the accounts of those familiar with what was in the lost pages.

Interestingly, Joseph Smith’s father said there were Masonic symbols on the cover of the golden plates. (I didn’t realize until reading this book that the beehive was a Masonic symbol.)

Smith’s mother described the Urim and Thummim as three-cornered diamonds framed in silver, connected like a pair of spectacles. (They may have been triangular in shape to match the Masonic compass and square.) They could be attached to a breastplate by a rod which held them in front of the face. Joseph apparently used the Urim and Thummim to translate the lost portion, but used the stone in the hat to translate the Book of Mormon we have today.

Apparently, Martin Harris’s visit to Charles Anthon is alluded to in 2 Nephi 27:6-26, 2 Nephi 9:28, and 2 Nephi 28:15. Joseph refers to his seer stone in Alma 37:23.

Joseph Smith’s scribe Martin Harris asked if he could show the pages to his family and Joseph agreed. Martin’s cousin/wife Lucy Harris is often blamed for the disappearance of the lost pages. At the time Martin was scribing for Joseph, he avoided working his own farm for months, gave Joseph Smith money, and also missed his daughter’s wedding. Martin believed the Book of Mormon would make him rich, but Lucy thought it was foolishness and began preparing to separate from him.

Martin had Lucy lock the manuscript in her bureau. Wanting to show it to a friend while she was out, he picked the lock, damaging the bureau in the process. Lucy had been pleased with the manuscript, but was mad that Martin had damaged her bureau. Martin then locked the manuscript in his own bureau. He would often get the manuscript out to read to friends and family, always returning it to his locked bureau in his locked parlor. However, after returning from a trip, he found the manuscript was gone.

He wore the key around his neck, but the lock hadn’t been tampered with. When Martin resumed being Joseph’s scribe, Lucy accused Joseph of defrauding Martin of his money and ended up divorcing Martin. Lucy denied having anything to do with the theft of the manuscript to her dying day. Martin at first suspected Lucy of the theft, but later came to believe the angel Nephi had taken the pages.

Bradley doesn’t think Lucy stole the pages because D&C 10 says they were stolen by wicked men. He therefore offers alternate suspects like Martin’s son-in-law Flanders Dyke. Dyke was a known thief and swindler and once stole the Anthon transcript to make a copy of it. He lived on Martin’s property for free until the theft occurred, at which point Martin started to charge him, indicating they’d had a falling out. Another known thief, Samuel Lawrence, was one of Joseph Smith’s former treasure digging friends and was also friends with Martin Harris. Either of these men, or others like them, could have taken the manuscript.

The lost manuscript was written on 13×17 inch lined blue foolscap writing paper. Although Joseph Smith referred to the lost manuscript as The Book of Lehi, it actually contained the first half of the Book of Mormon up to Mosiah. The first two chapters of Mosiah were also part of the missing pages. The current Mosiah Chapter 1 was originally Mosiah Chapter 3. The missing two chapters are summarized at the end of Omni and again at the end of Words of Mormon.

The replacement text Joseph wrote totaled 116 pages, so that’s why he guessed there were 116 missing pages, even though there were likely more than this. After all, the replacement text was called a small account (Words of Mormon 1:3), indicating it was shorter than the original manuscript. 116 manuscript pages would be equivalent to 133 printed pages in today’s Book of Mormon. Martin Harris’s brother said Martin scribed nearly 200 pages (equivalent to 230 printed pages). This makes sense since Joseph ran out of paper when he let Martin borrow the manuscript. Back then, paper was sold in quires of 48 pages each. Four quires would be 192 pages.

However, Martin Harris wasn’t the only scribe. If he wrote 192 or more of the missing pages, we still need to add the pages written by the other scribes (Joseph’s wife Emma, his brother Samuel, and Emma’s brothers Alva and Reuben). Bradley calculates that Joseph wrote 6-7 pages a day on average. Taking the number of days he worked on the Book of Mormon with various scribes, the lost manuscript could have been over 300 pages long. This is also how long it would need to be to cover the events of the first half of the Book of Mormon with the same level of detail as the second half.

The lost manuscript was originally written in third person by Mormon abridging the large plates of Nephi. The replacement text (the current first half of the Book of Mormon) is written in first person by Nephi, Jacob, and their descendants on the small plates of Nephi. Nephi tells us in 1 Nephi 9:5 that he doesn’t know why he’s duplicating the large plates on the small plates.

Doctrine and Covenants 10 says the lost manuscript contained an abridgement of the large plates of Nephi. 1 Nephi 9:2-4 tells us the large plates focus on the reign of kings and war, while the small plates are concerned with ministry and prophecies. Jacob 1:2-4 says the large plates are for history, the small plates for sacred things. However, 2 Nephi 4:14 says the large plates also contain his and his father’s teachings, 1 Nephi 19:1-2 says the large plates also contain prophecies, Lehi’s genealogy, and more of Lehi’s wilderness exodus, and 1 Nephi 19:6 says everything written on the large plates is sacred, so there’s not really much distinction between the two after all. It seems the large plates are just longer.

The lost Book of Lehi likely included things Nephi says he didn’t include in his record: Lehi’s earliest dreams and visions (1 Nephi 1:16) his genealogy (1 Nephi 6:1), and details of his exodus (1 Nephi 6:3).

Words of Mormon 1:4 tells us Mormon included the duplicate small plates because they mentioned Christ, which implies the lost manuscript didn’t. Joseph Smith originally saw his mission as bringing in the Jews rather than restoring the Church of Christ, so it makes sense for the missing pages to not mention Christ. A friend of Martin Harris described the text being a history of the lost tribes of Israel, confirming the Old Testament. The current Book of Mormon is filled with New Testament material and numerous references to Christ which wouldn’t have been in the original manuscript. Lehi is a second Moses leading his people through the wilderness to a new promised land where they divide into tribes and build a new temple.

Palmyra resident Fayette Lapham was given a summary of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith Sr. Lapham gets a lot of details wrong in his retelling, but his garbled memory may contain hints to what was in the lost manuscript. One added detail is that a feast was occurring when Nephi killed Laban and everyone in town was drunk. Bradley guesses this feast is Passover. After all, 1 Nephi begins during the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, which would have been during Nisan, the same month in which Passover was celebrated.

Bradley thinks Lehi’s vision included a vision of Christ in the large plates because this is mentioned in the small plates (1 Nephi 1:19), but I thought the large plates didn’t mention Christ (Words of Mormon 1:4). Hmm.

Lehi’s exodus parallels the Exodus of Moses in many ways including a dream warning, a pillar of fire, people seeking to kill him, and the journey taking him near the Red Sea. As Aaron and Moses bargained with Pharaoh to let them go, Lehi’s sons bargain with Laban to give them the brass plates. Instead of taking gold and silver from the Egyptians, Lehi’s sons offer gold and silver for the brass plates. Nephi explicitly mentions the Red Sea story in 1 Nephi 4:2-3.

The “It’s better that one man perish than that a nation dwindle and perish in unbelief” saying in 1 Nephi 4:13 echoes John 11:50, making the wicked Laban a Christ stand in!

In addition to the large plates and small plates, we have Laban’s brass plates which were  passed down and updated by the Old Testament Joseph and his descendants (1 Nephi 5:14-16) and contained their genealogy (1 Nephi 3:3). They include prophets not mentioned in the Bible such as Zenos and Zenock (3 Nephi 10:16-17). There are additional details about Joseph of Egypt which aren’t found in the Bible (2 Nephi 3, Alma 46:23-24). Strangely, the brass plates were written in Egyptian (Mosiah 1:4, 1 Nephi 1:2)!

A friend of Martin Harris named Francis Gladden Bishop claimed the sword of Laban was originally made by Joseph in Egypt under the direction of God and used by Joshua during the genocide of the Canaanites. This detail may have been in the lost pages. The Nephites keep the sword as a relic, like the sword of Goliath was kept in the Tabernacle (1 Samuel 21:8-9).

Lapham’s account adds another detail not found in the current Book of Mormon, that Lehi and his family erected a tabernacle (a portable temple) where they could inquire when they didn’t know what to do, a further parallel to the Exodus story.

Bishop adds detail regarding the Liahona, a brass compass shaped like a ball that the Nephites used to guide them. In the surviving Book of Mormon, the Liahona had two spindles. One spindle pointed in the direction they should go, but the Book of Mormon doesn’t say what the second spindle did.

In his telling, Bishop says the Liahona had 24 pictures of various things found on earth (animals, vegetables, rivers, etc.) that the two spindles would point to (each spindle could point to only 12 of the 24 pictures). (This brings to mind the titular Golden Compass from the Philip Pullman novel!) Lapham’s version of the Liahona has one spindle pointing where they should go and the second spindle pointing out where to get provisions.

We’re told the Liahona was prepared so “if they would look they might live” (Alma 37:46), bringing to mind Moses’ brazen serpent Nehushtan (Alma 33:19).

It took Moses forty years to cross a desert. Lehi and his family made better time, but still proceeded remarkably slowly, taking eight years to go from Jerusalem to the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula, a pace of about 5 miles per week. Mosiah 1:16-17 and Alma 37:38-42 tell us the slow pace was due to the family being smitten with famine and afflictions and being driven backwards when unfaithful. The extant Book of Mormon touches only lightly on this journey. The lost portion would have gone into more detail.

Lehi’s family is descended from Joseph’s son Manasseh (Alma 10:3), but we aren’t told the genealogy of Ishmael or Zoram, two non-related individuals who traveled with them. According to Franklin D. Richards (as well as Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow), Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon fulfilled the stick of Ephraim prophecy in Ezekiel 37:16-19 since Ishmael’s family was descended from Ephraim. (Charles B. Thompson adds that Zoram was also of this tribe.) Joseph Smith said this was included in the lost pages, of course he may have come up with this as an explanation after the fact. 2 Nephi 3:12 echoes Ezekiel 37, even though Ezekiel would have been writing after Lehi left Jerusalem and so Lehi shouldn’t have known about it.

Just as Jacob divided his family into twelve tribes upon his death bed, Lehi likewise divides his party into seven tribes on his deathbed (2 Nephi 1-4): Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. Strangely, Nephi’s brother Sam doesn’t get his own tribe (being lumped in with Nephi) and the sons of Ishmael are likewise lumped together into a single tribe, probably because the number seven has more spiritual significance than the number nine. In the small plates, these seven groups are lumped together into just two: Nephites and Lamanites, but Jacob 1:13-14 indicates that the missing large plates made more of a distinction between the seven tribes.

Just as Moses died before arriving at the promised land, Lehi dies shortly after arriving. After the death of Moses, Joshua sends in spies and leads the Israelites to wage war against the native inhabitants of the promised land, including some giants (Numbers 13:33). The existing Book of Mormon doesn’t parallel this (although later on in the Book of Mormon, Zeniff spies on the Lamanites in order to take their land in Mosiah 9:1). According to Lapham, Lehi does send out spies in the lost pages who find the native inhabitants had been a “very large race of men” who were “a very rich agricultural and manufacturing nation”. The original inhabitants of America were already gone, so a war of conquest wasn’t necessary for the Nephites.

The group which settled America before the Nephites are known as the Jaredites, and they are described as being exceptionally large in the extant Book of Mormon (Ether 1:34, Ether 15:26, Mosiah 8:10). Likewise, the breastplate and spectacles Joseph found with the golden plates were made for a much larger man and early church periodicals described the Jaredites as being giant.

Just as the Israelites battle the Canaanites who were descendants of the cursed son of Noah, the Nephites battle the cursed Lamanites. Nephi uses the sword of Laban against them (Jacob 1:10) which was also the same sword Joshua used against the Canaanites. Like the Canaanites, the Lamanites practiced idolatry (Enos 1:20, Alma 17:15, Mormon 4:14,21). As the Israelites were forbidden from mixing with the Canaanites, the Nephites are forbidden from mixing with the Lamanites. The Canaanites and Lamanites are both described as being a scourge (Joshua 23:13, 1 Nephi 2:19-34, 2 Nephi 5:20-25). The boundary between the Lamanites and Nephites is called Sidon (Alma 22:27-29) just as the boundary between Israelites and Canaanites is also called Sidon (Genesis 10:15-19).

D&C 98:32 refers to laws of warfare given to Nephi which don’t appear in the existing text and thus may have appeared in the missing pages. (See also Alma 43:45-47.) The temple Nephi built in the new world was likely called “the temple of Nephi” as this phrase appears in a newspaper in 1829. The existing Book of Mormon doesn’t say where the Nephites kept their sacred relics, but Martin Harris used the term “arc” matching the Arc of the Covenant.

The current Book of Mormon has a large gap of over two centuries between Jacob and Omni which the lost pages would have covered in more detail. Just like there was 200 years of ascent after Jesus appears in the new world (4 Nephi 1:22-26) followed by 200 years of decline (Mormon 8:6-7), there were 200 years of ascent after Lehi (Jarom 1:5-13) followed by 200 years of decline with the low point being Mosiah’s exodus to Zarahemla. Also, Amaron of the first Nephite nation reports most of the wicked Nephites were wiped out 320 years after Lehi (Omni 1:4-5) and Ammaron of the second Nephite nation hides the sacred records 320 years after Christ (4 Nephi 1:48-49).

Mormon provides introductions for geographic locations the first time he mentions them in the text. We can infer from this that places he introduces likely didn’t appear in the lost pages. Surprisingly, the River Sidon, the narrow neck of land, distinctions between the land northward and the land southward, and the land of Bountiful are not introduced until the Book of Alma, so they probably didn’t appear in the lost pages.

When Mormon mentions a place without first introducing it, that means it likely did appear in the lost pages. The land and city of Zarahemla, the land and city of Lehi-Nephi, Shilom and the hill north of Shilom, the hill Manti, the land of Sidom, the land of Midian, the hill Onidah, and the hill Riplah are all mentioned without introduction, implying they were introduced in the lost pages.

In a sermon Joseph Smith gave April 16, 1843, he says to the aborigines, the burial places of their fathers were more sacred than anything else. This isn’t mentioned in the current Book of Mormon, so it could have appeared in the lost pages.

Jarom 1:10 refers to the people of Nephi receiving a warning of coming destruction a hundred years before 320, but doesn’t give specifics. A likely candidate to have given this warning is Aminadi, forefather of Amulek mentioned in Alma 10:2-3 who interpreted writing written by the finger of God upon the temple wall. He’s mentioned like everyone should know who he is, so he probably appeared in the lost pages.

Since the Book of Mormon often parallels the Bible, Aminadi’s story likely paralleled that of Daniel in the Bible who interpreted writing that appeared on the wall in Daniel 5. It may also be an allusion to God writing the Ten Commandments with his finger on stone tablets (Exodus 31:18, Deuteronomy 9:10). Aminadi’s name is similar to another Book of Mormon prophet named Abinadi who also prophesied in a city named Nephi and who referenced the Ten Commandments.

Mosiah (which is how Joseph Smith spelled and pronounced Messiah) is a significant figure in the Book of Mormon. His grandfather, also named Mosiah, was a significant figure as well, but his story has mostly been lost. He led the Nephites to Zarahemla, established the temple of Mosiah, initiated a new dynastic monarchy, founded a new nation, and received revelation through the Jaredite interpreters (later called the Urim and Thummim) instead of using the Liahona.

We know he taught about an evil spirit per Mosiah 2:32. Mosiah 11:13 references a hill north of Shilom the Nephites used as a refuge as if it had been mentioned before. Shilom was located between the land of Nephi and Zarahemla, so Mosiah may have stopped here during his exodus.

Fayette Lapham refers to an event not in the Book of Mormon in which the Nephites find an item they aren’t familiar with, go to the tabernacle to ask what it does, and are answered by a voice telling them to put it on their face and put their face in a skin (like Joseph Smith putting a rock in his beaver-skin top hat), and they will see what it is. They do so and can see everything past, present, and future. The item is the spectacles Joseph Smith found with the Golden Plates. The gold ball (the Liahona) stopped working at this point. This event likely took place during Mosiah’s exodus.

In the Bible, the Tabernacle and the Urim and Thummim were kept at Shiloh before the Temple of Solomon was built. Since the hill Shilom has a similar name, it would make sense for Mosiah to have found the interpreters here. The brother of Jared went to similarly-named Mount Shelem to have God create the interpreters in the first place in Ether 3. Mosiah’s finding of the interpreters may have paralleled the brother of Jared’s interaction with God.

The people of Limhi find the Book of Ether, but the sealed plates of the brother of Jared are a separate account from the Book of Ether. Since the interpreters are sealed up with the brother of Jared’s record, Mosiah likely found the sealed plates as well.

When Mosiah arrives in Zarahemla, he encounters a group of people called the Mulochites who left Jerusalem and came to America the same time Lehi and his family did (Omni 1:14-16). They’re descended from Mulek/Muloch, the son of the Biblical King Zedekiah (Mosiah 25:2, Helaman 8:21). The Book of Mormon doesn’t say much more about these people, but the lost pages did.

Martin Harris’s brother Emer Harris gave a sermon on April 6, 1856. According to him, while Zedekiah’s children were killed in front of him (2 Kings 25:7), Mulek and three other males of the royal family hid themselves. When they emerged from their hiding place, they found four females of the royal family who had also hid themselves. They married and went to the new world and became a tribe where Mosiah found them. This information likely originated in the lost pages.

The current Book of Mormon doesn’t tell us how Mosiah acquired the holy relics (the brass plates, plates of Nephi, sword of Laban, and Liahona), so there may have been a story in the lost pages explaining how he got them. While King Benjamin’s later life is detailed in the current Book of Mormon, we have only a broad outline of his early life. The lost pages would have fleshed his story out more.

In the introduction, Bradley assures the reader he’ll reconstruct what was on the missing 116 pages using only evidence compelling for both believers and non-believers alike. However, most of the book is clearly written for a believing Latter-day Saint audience. It seems like he immediately forgot about the existence of non-LDS people after writing his introduction. I appreciate how much work he put into this book, however, he jumps to a lot of conclusions based on tenuous connections and parallelomania that only believers will find convincing. That said, I did learn a lot of interesting things.