Mormon Texts by the Numbers

The other day, I announced the new issue of the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture.

I've had a chance, thus far, to read only two articles in it, but I like them both very much and want to recommend them specifically:

"Stylometric Analyses of the Book of Mormon: A Short History," by Matthew Roper, Paul J. Fields, and G. Bruce Schaalje, is a really good overview of previous and current attempts to do what's sometimes called "word print analysis" of the Book of Mormon and, thereby, to resolve the question of the book's authorship.  A recent attempt to resuscitate the zombie-like Spalding Theory doesn't fare too well, I'm afraid.

John Gee's "Formulas and Faith" treats the somewhat esoteric but actually rather important question of the original length of the Joseph Smith Papyri.