In addition to Joseph Smith, several other men and women saw the plates and testified of their existence. Eleven men in particular, known as the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses, recorded their testimonies of seeing the plates and, in the case of the Eight Witnesses, of holding the plates. Their testimonies are included at the front of each copy of the Book of Mormon.
These men stand as powerful witnesses of the Book of Mormon, perhaps even more so because some of them became "for a time hostile to Joseph," affirms Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Nevertheless, they "testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had handled the plates. 'They have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man,' they declared. 'Wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.'"4