Martin Harris Holds the Gold Plates on His Knee for an Hour and a Half

Before receiving his formal witness as one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, Martin Harris had a powerful intimate physical encounter with the plates themselves. He testified to David Dille in 1853:

'did I not at one time hold the plates on my knee an hour and a half, whilst in conversation with Joseph, when we went to bury them in the woods, that the enemy might not obtain them? Yes, I did. And as many of the plates as Joseph Smith translated I handled with my hands, plate after plate.'

He then described their physical dimensions by pointing to his own hand: 'I should think they were so long, or about eight inches, and about so thick, or about four inches; and each of the plates was thicker than the thickest tin.'

This physical handling of the sacred record — so tangible that he could describe their dimensions precisely decades later — formed the bedrock of his unshakeable testimony for the rest of his life.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I know that the plates have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice declared it unto us; therefore I know of a surety that the work is true. For did I not at one time hold the plates on my knee an hour-and-a-half, whilst in conversation with Joseph, when we went to bury them in the woods, that the enemy might not obtain them? Yes, I did. And as many of the plates as Joseph Smith translated I handled with my hands, plate after plate. I should think they were so long, or about eight inches, and about so thick, or about four inches; and each of the plates was thicker than the thickest tin.