tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66217501651973031772024-03-16T12:20:29.150-07:00LDS historical narrativesHistorical narratives are created by word and image. Eventually they acquire a reality of their own. This blog focuses on the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. I think Joseph and Oliver were honest and candid and that their teachings are corroborated by extrinsic evidence. President Nelson taught that "good inspiration is based upon good information." Good history is also based on good information. jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-74222345421797656042024-02-27T16:36:00.000-08:002024-03-01T11:38:42.611-08:00March 2024 Liahona articles on the translation and the plates<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEis87SZ9odeqmSbKDZHZCBVEfuJGvyRftz9fyB7nbYTskm84qE5OTW_q-Mp_Q08Hb9lFRgYfeflhUJ24F-wLO7Z7Zs5sL7YCcITu7UhkysbesBc_4ETCWopUGYthXvjKPvs8-McIJ4IIGuotisQpCJ9TvKkC1lp60pg_gQ3gBi-xCMRPWi_TMOsyD0T" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEis87SZ9odeqmSbKDZHZCBVEfuJGvyRftz9fyB7nbYTskm84qE5OTW_q-Mp_Q08Hb9lFRgYfeflhUJ24F-wLO7Z7Zs5sL7YCcITu7UhkysbesBc_4ETCWopUGYthXvjKPvs8-McIJ4IIGuotisQpCJ9TvKkC1lp60pg_gQ3gBi-xCMRPWi_TMOsyD0T" width="200" /></a></div><br />In this article we'll review two articles published in the March 2024 <i>Liahona </i>in the "United States and Canada section." Both articles contain inexplicable yet serious omissions from the historical record.<div><br /></div><div>These articles raise the question, what is going on in the Church History Department? Here are two professional historians who are experts in Church history, fine, exemplary people who are faithful Latter-day Saints, yet they deliberately manipulate the historical sources by editing some and omitting others. What explains this? </div><div><br /></div><div>To be sure, every author must choose among reference materials. Editorial choices can be made to clarify and accurately represent original sources, or they can be made to promote the author's narrative or agenda. In my review, readers can assess the editorial decisions in these articles for themselves and make their own informed decisions.</div><div><br /></div><div>In my view, the editorial decisions are suspect because of the narratives they promote. One explanation is deep groupthink that leaves these scholars unaware of the historical sources they omit. But that doesn't explain the deliberate editing of the sources they do quote. </div><div><br /></div><div>That leaves only one explanation for this manipulation of the historical record: an institutional determination to accommodate SITH (the stone-in-the-hat narrative) and M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs narrative). See what you think once you've read the analysis.</div><div><br /></div><div>And if you can think of an alternative explanation, let me know at lostzarahemla@gmail.com and I'll update this post.</div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>The two articles:<br /><p></p><p>1. "The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon" by Gerrit Dirkmaat, PhD, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University</p><p><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/03/united-states-and-canada-section/02-the-miraculous-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng" target="_blank">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/03/united-states-and-canada-section/02-the-miraculous-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng</a></p><p>2. "Witnesses of the Gold Plates of the Book of Mormon," by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Senior Historian, Joseph Smith Papers Project, Church History Department</p><p><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/03/united-states-and-canada-section/03-witnesses-of-the-gold-plates-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng" target="_blank">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/03/united-states-and-canada-section/03-witnesses-of-the-gold-plates-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng</a></p><p>_____</p><p>Let's start with the better of the two articles.</p><p>_____</p><p><b>2. "Witnesses of the Gold Plates of the Book of Mormon," by Mark Ashurst-McGee.</b></p><p>This article includes a significant improvement over the Mary Whitmer account as presented in <i>Saints</i>, <i>BYU Studies</i>, Book of Mormon Central, and other organizations and publications. Instead of repeating the "Mary Whitmer met Moroni" narrative, this article accurately presents some of the original sources.</p><p>But not all of them.</p><p>Inexplicably, this article omits the two primary sources for the identification of the messenger who showed the plates to Mary Whitmer.</p><p>The article also inexplicably omits important additional historical references that were well known during Joseph Smith's lifetime and actually preceded the references cited in the article.</p><p>Look at these omissions and let me know if you can think of an explanation other than the institutional accommodation of SITH and M2C.</p><p>Original in <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">blue</span></b>, my comments in <b><span style="color: #990000;">red</span></b>, other quotations from original sources in <b><span style="color: #38761d;">green</span></b>.</p><header style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3.556em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Ensign:Sans, Zoram, Zoram ldsLat, Arial, sans-serif-light, sans-serif" style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">In addition to the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses, whose testimonies appear in the introduction to the Book of Mormon, several others saw or felt the gold plates.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Ensign:Sans, Zoram, Zoram ldsLat, Arial, sans-serif-light, sans-serif" style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">In 1823, when the angel Moroni first appeared to Joseph Smith, he told Joseph about the gold plates, saying “there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates. … He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants” (Joseph Smith—History 1:34).</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Ensign:Sans, Zoram, Zoram ldsLat, Arial, sans-serif-light, sans-serif" style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Four years later, on September 22, 1827, Moroni committed the plates into his charge. As Joseph later explained: “He told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken ... I should not show them to any person; ... only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them” (Joseph Smith—History 1:42).</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Ensign:Sans, Zoram, Zoram ldsLat, Arial, sans-serif-light, sans-serif" style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">While this is the canonized account, composed by Joseph's scribes and first published in 1842 in the <i>Times and Seasons</i>, the earliest detailed account of Moroni's visit was published in 1835, copied into Joseph's journal as part of his life story, and republished in the T<i>imes and Seasons, Millennial Star, Gospel Reflector</i>, and <i>The Prophet</i>. This account gives us additional details that contemporary readers of Joseph Smith - History were familiar with.</span></span></p></header><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><header style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3.556em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #38761d;">He [Moroni] then proceeded and gave a general account of the promises made to the fathers, and also gave a history of the aborigenes of this country, and said they were literal descendants of Abraham. He represented them as once being an enlightned and intelligent people, possessing a correct knowledge of the gospel, and the plan of restoration and redemption. He said <b>this history was written and deposited not far from that place</b>, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, <b>to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record</b>.</span></span></p></header></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68</a> </p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;">Ask yourself, why would LDS historians omit this important reference--the earliest formal Church history, written by, Oliver Cowdery, the Assistant President of the Church with the assistance of Joseph Smith--that was so important Joseph had it republished multiple times after having it copied into his own history? </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;">Notice the two passages in bold. If Moroni said </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">"this history was written and deposited not far from that place,"</span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"> referring to Joseph's home near Palmyra, then it was not written in Mesoamerica and transported to western New York. That obviously refutes M2C. </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;">And if Moroni told Joseph that it was his privilege to translate the record </span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">"by means of the Urim and Thummim which were deposited for that purpose with the record,"</span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"> that obviously refutes SITH. </span></p><header style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3.556em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The plates were sacred, and Joseph did not show them to others without permission; however, many individuals felt the plates while covered and even heard the metal sounds of the plates. When the translation was finished, the Three and the Eight Witnesses saw the plates uncovered, and the Eight Witnesses handled them uncovered. The plates were, therefore, witnessed with three senses: seeing, touching, and hearing.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Witnesses saw the full stack of plates, as well as the rings that bound it; the sealed and unsealed portions, as well as the seal binding the sealed portion; each of the individual plates of the unsealed portion; and the engraved inscriptions on each side of each leaf.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Witnesses touched the plates when they hefted the full stack in their arms to assess its weight, thumbed the side of the stack like thumbing the pages of a book, and felt every single plate in the unsealed portion as they turned the leaves one by one.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Witnesses heard the metal plates rustle, tinkle, and clink when moved.</span></span></li></ul><p></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Over time, the plates were witnessed in three places: Manchester, New York; Harmony, Pennsylvania; and Fayette, New York.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Witnesses in Manchester</b></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Smith family and others in their area were given opportunities to heft the ancient record and feel its individual plates at the Smith family home in Manchester Township, New York. Joseph’s younger brother William, age 16 in 1827, had a vivid memory of witnessing the plates, which he later shared in a sermon: “When the plates were brought in they were wrapped up in a tow frock. My father then put them into a pillow case. Father said, ‘What, Joseph, can we not see them?’ [Joseph responded,] ‘No. … I was forbidden to show them until they are translated, but you can feel them.’ We handled them and could tell what they were. … Could tell whether they were round or square. Could raise the leaves this way (raising a few leaves of the Bible before him). One could easily tell that they were not a stone, hewn out to deceive, or even a block of wood.”1</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note: Even the online version of this article doesn't give a link to this obscure reference, so I've provided it below. William gave this sermon in 1884, nearly 60 years after the events, just two weeks before William died. The article characterizes William's memory as "vivid," but the historians don't mention that in this sermon, William also claimed the angel identified the hill where the plates were as "Cumorah" because that contradicts M2C. </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Actually, William's account conflates the First Vision with Moroni's visit (an issue for another day) but he does corroborate what Lucy Mack Smith said about the angel identifying the hill as Cumorah--a point that Joseph himself made in D&C 128:20.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Here's the passage from William's account: </span><span style="color: #38761d;">"While he was engaged in prayer, he saw a pillar of fire descending. Saw it reach the top of the trees, He was overcome, became unconscious, did not know how long he remained in this condition, but when he came to himself, the great light was about him, and he was told by the personage whom he saw descend with the light, not to join any of the churches. That he should be instrumental in the hands of God in establishing the true church of Christ. <b>That was the record hidden in the hill Cumorah </b>which contained the fulness of the gospel. You should remember Joseph was but about eighteen years old at this time, too young to be a deceiver."</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">To find the reference, search for "Cumorah" at this link: <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IA/sain1882.htm#100484" target="_blank">http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IA/sain1882.htm#100484</a></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;">Note also that William claimed Joseph translated by putting the Urim and Thummim into a hat, but he was never a witness to the translation, so his statements were hearsay at best. And note that he related this narrative specifically to refute the Spalding theory, just as Emma and David Whitmer did. William discussed the Spalding theory quite a bit in his sermon, which should tell us how much urgency he felt to refute it.</span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">On another occasion, William provided further information: “I could tell they were plates of some kind and that they were fastened together by rings running through the back.”2 He also wrote that in addition to feeling the individual plates and rings, he had hefted the entire artifact: “I was permitted to lift them. … They weighed about 60 pounds according to the best of my judgment.”3 </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Joseph Senior reported that they weighed 30 pounds. Presumably he weighed them during the 8 witnesses experience. This is one indication that he weighed the small plates of Nephi while William (who was not one of the 8 witnesses) was referring to the abridged plates that Joseph Jr. brought home from the hill Cumorah.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph’s younger sister Katherine, age 14, also got to hold the plates the day Joseph brought them home. She “rippled her fingers up the edge of the plates and felt that they were separate metal plates and heard the tinkle of sound that they made.”4</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mother Lucy later shared her experiences with a neighbor, Sally Bradford Parker, who wrote: “I asked her if she saw the plates. She said no, it was not for her to see them, but she hefted and handled them and I believed all she said for I lived by her eight months and she was one of the best of women.”5 Though she never saw the plates uncovered, Lucy was certain of their authenticity and the validity of their translation. She remembered being visited by a deacon from one of the local churches who asked to see the plates. When she refused to produce the record, he asked her to stop talking to others about it. Lucy replied, “If you should … burn me at the stake, I would declare that Joseph has got that record.”6</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Others in the Palmyra and Manchester area, where the Smith family lived, were permitted to heft the plates while they were stored inside a box or in some other kind of container. Martin Harris reported that his wife, Lucy Harris, and one of their daughters—probably Lucy or Duty—visited the Smiths and were allowed to heft the plates. Both told Martin that they were quite heavy.7 Then Martin Harris himself visited the Smiths and had the same experience.8</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Martin Harris related that Alvah Beman, who lived in the area as well, was also permitted to heft the plates in a box and “said he heard them jink.”9 The plates had presumably moved when the box was handed to Alvah, making the sound of clinking metal.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Witnesses in Harmony</b></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">By December 1827 there had been several attempts to steal the plates, so Joseph decided to move with Emma to the home of her parents in Harmony Township, Pennsylvania.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">When Joseph and Emma arrived, Joseph allowed Isaac Hale, Emma’s father, to heft the plates in a box. Isaac later stated, “I was allowed to feel the weight of the box, and they gave me to understand, that the book of plates was then in the box.” Yet he was unconvinced and dissatisfied with the situation. He told Joseph to either show him the plates or remove them from his house. Joseph hid the plates in the nearby woods until he and Emma moved into their own home on the Hale property.10</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">An adjacent farm was owned by Joseph and Sarah McKune. Their granddaughter later reported that Joseph McKune had been allowed “to take in his hands a pillow-case in which the supposed saintly treasure was wrapped, and to feel through the cloth that it had leaves.”11</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In Harmony, Joseph Smith began his translation of the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Note: the article omits the Urim and Thummim here, despite the historical record that establishes Joseph did use the U&T in Harmony--and despite JS-H 1:62 and the note to 1:71.]</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">His initial scribes were his wife, Emma, and his friend Martin Harris.12 Like members of the Harris and Smith families, Emma hefted the plates, as she “would lift and move them” while cleaning.13 She also felt the individual leaves and heard the sound they made when moved, describing them in this way: “I once felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book.”14</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">The other principal witness of the plates in Harmony, Fayette, and Cumorah itself was Oliver Cowdery, whose testimony is inexplicably omitted from this article. Oliver wrote, "</span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’" </span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;">(Joseph Smith—History, Note, 1) Oliver later reported that he handled both the plates and the Urim and Thummim. Brigham Young and others reported that Joseph and Oliver entered the repository of records in the Hill Cumorah, where they saw "many wagonloads" of plates.</span></p><div><br /></div><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Witnesses in Fayette</b></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">By the end of May 1829, the same kind of persecution Joseph had experienced in Manchester began occurring in Harmony, and Joseph realized he would need to move again to complete the translation. </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Instead of the move being Joseph's realization as the article claims, Lucy Mack Smith reported that Joseph was commanded to move. We never see this account included by modern historians, apparently because it affirms Joseph's use of the Urim and Thummim, contrary to SITH.</span></span></p></header><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><header style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3.556em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #38761d;">In the mean time Joseph was 150 miles distant and knew naught of the matter e[x]cept <b>an intimation that was given through the urim and thumim for as he one morning applied the<m> latter to his eyes to look upon the record </b>instead of the words of the book being given him <b>he was commanded to write a letter </b>to one David Whitmore [Whitmer] this man Joseph had never seen but he was instructed to say him that he must come with his team immediately in order to convey Joseph and his family <Oliver [Cowdery]> back to his house which was 135 miles that they might remain with him there untill the translation should be completed for that an evil designing people were seeking to take away Joseph’s life in order to prevent the work of God from going forth among the world</span></span></p></header></blockquote><header style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3.556em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/100" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/100</span></a></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Along with his wife, Emma, and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph was taken into the household of some acquaintances: Peter and Mary Whitmer of Fayette Township, New York.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">While it's true that Emma eventually arrived at the Whitmer home, David originally picked up Joseph and Oliver.</span><span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18px;">Here this article omits another important witness of the plates; i.e., the messenger to whom Joseph gave the abridged plates in Harmony. This messenger, whom Joseph identified as one of the Three Nephites, met David, Joseph and Oliver on the road to Fayette but declined David's offer of a ride, explaining that he was going to Cumorah. </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mary Whitmer was shown the plates by a heavenly messenger. As far as we know, she never committed her experience to writing. But Mary shared her experience with her children and grandchildren, who later shared it with others. Her grandson John C. Whitmer related, “I have heard my grandmother (Mary M. Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by an holy angel.”15</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Her son David said that “she was met out near the yard by [an] old man.” </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">This is amazing editing that misleads readers. The original reference (cited only generally in note 15, which includes no links to these obscure references that have never been translated into other languages) reads, "</span></span><span><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Sometime after this, my mother was going to milk the cows, when she was met out near the yard <b>by the same old man</b> (judging by her description of him)."</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The source is the official report of an interview with David Whitmer by Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt to the Quorum of the Twelve, which you can see here:</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.lettervii.com/p/trip-to-fayette-references.html" target="_blank">https://www.lettervii.com/p/trip-to-fayette-references.html</a></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">This was not merely "<b>an </b>old man" but "<b>the same</b> old man" whom David saw along the road to Fayette. David reported that the man was the messenger who had the plates, so this is another important witness of the reality of the plates.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">This encounter is important because Edward Stevenson reported that during his interview with David, </span><span style="color: #38761d;">"Shortly afterwards, David relates, the Prophet looked very white but with a heavenly appearance and s<b>aid their visitor was one of the three Nephites </b>to whom the Savior gave the promise of life on earth until He should come in power."</span></span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;"> </span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;">The article lists Stevenson's account as a reference in note 15, but again without a link, making it difficult for anyone to read the full account. The article also inexplicably omits Mary Whitmer identification of the messenger as "Brother Nephi," which is consistent with Joseph's identification.</span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;">But to its credit, at least the article does not reiterate the "messenger was Moroni" narrative taught by M2C advocates who claim the real Cumorah is in Mexico so the messenger could not have been going to Cumorah, despite what David Whitmer said.</span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">[for more explanation, see <a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2017/12/opening-heavens-but-censoring-history.html">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2017/12/opening-heavens-but-censoring-history.html</a></span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;"> ]</span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;"> </span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Grandson John said this man was “carrying something on his back that looked like a knapsack” and that “at first she was a little afraid of him.” However, “when he spoke to her in a kind, friendly tone and began to explain to her the nature of the work which was going on in her house, she was filled with unexpressible joy and satisfaction.”</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">John provided further detail on the wonderful witness of the sacred record that Mary received at that time: “He then untied his knapsack and showed her a bundle of plates. … This strange person turned the leaves of the book of plates over, leaf after leaf, and also showed her the engravings upon them; the personage then suddenly vanished with the plates, and where he went, she could not tell.”</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">John stated: “I knew my grandmother to be a good, noble and truthful woman, and I have not the least doubt of her statement in regard to seeing the plates being strictly true. She was a strong believer in the Book of Mormon until the day of her death.”16</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">As note 16 explains, the statements by John are found in Andrew Jenson's <i>Historical Record</i>, but again, the online article doesn't provide a link to this difficult to find reference. You can see the actual page with commentary here:</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-mary-whitmer-problem.html" target="_blank">https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-mary-whitmer-problem.html</a></span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Inexplicably, the article failed to include a key point John made:</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">"I have heard my grandmother (Mary M. Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by an holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi. (She undoubtedly refers to Moroni, the angel who had the plates in charge.)" </span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Mary's explanation that she called the angel "Brother Nephi" corroborates Joseph's statement to David Whitmer that the messenger was one of the Three Nephites. Although we aren't given the name of the three, Nephi was one of the Twelve and their leader. We also know from Brigham Young that Nephi interacted with Joseph Smith. </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">We can see from the parenthetical that Andrew Jenson changed the narrative because, in his opinion, Mary Whitmer was wrong. This inexcusable and arrogant dismissal of Mary Whitmer's account led to the widespread teaching that Mary met Moroni, contrary to the historical record and common sense.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The article could have resolved this point by simply quoting the original sources, but instead it avoided the issue, enabling the continued fictional narrative in <i>Saints</i>, volume 1.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mary’s son David would become one of the Three Witnesses, who were shown the plates by an angel when the translation was complete. Moreover, Mary’s other sons would be among the Eight Witnesses to whom Joseph Smith showed the plates, who got to heft and handle the plates uncovered and to turn the plates and observe their ancient engravings.17</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Here, we note that none of the Eight Witnesses said there was a "sealed portion" of any sort, which is another indication that they witnessed the plates of Nephi and not the abridged plates.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Our Own Witness</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In matters of faith and history, many people want more evidence. Some might wish that the gold plates were available for all to view in a world-renowned museum. Though Joseph Smith returned the gold plates to the angel Moroni, and we do not get to personally inspect them, we have the testimonies of those who did.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Actually, Joseph's history says, </span><span style="color: #38761d;">"</span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: 18px;">When, according to arrangements, the [unnamed] messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight." </span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:60) The only account we have of Joseph delivering the plates to a messenger is when, before leaving Harmony, he delivered the abridged plates to the messenger who took them to Cumorah. </span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18px;">Separately, Brigham Young explained that Joseph returned the plates to the Hill Cumorah, which is presumably what Joseph did after showing the plates of Nephi to the Eight Witnesses. This seems like a contradiction until we realize they were referring to two separate sets of plates; i.e., Joseph returned the abridged plates to the messenger, and he returned the plates of Nephi to the repository in Cumorah.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Recall also that the original version of Joseph Smith - History (published in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> in 1842 when Joseph was the nominal editor, now found in the Pearl of Great Price) identified the messenger as Nephi, not Moroni. It's easy to understand why his scribes were confused because Joseph met both individuals at different times. Based on the accounts we have, the messenger who took the abridged plates from Harmony to Cumorah was named Nephi, and he was one of the Three Nephites. See <a href="https://www.lettervii.com/p/moroni-and-nephi.html" target="_blank">https://www.lettervii.com/p/moroni-and-nephi.html</a></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The history of the plates fulfills the divine law of witnesses: “The Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word” (2 Nephi 27:14). The men and women who saw and touched and heard the plates bore witness to the material reality of the plates and their inscriptions, their ancient appearance, and the heavenly approval of their divine translation.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As with the Three and Eight Witnesses, the testimonies of the other witnesses are not meant to convert us to gospel living. Rather, the testimonies of all the various witnesses provide a reason for us to take the Book of Mormon seriously, to read it, and to act on Moroni’s promise: “When ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Moroni 10:4).</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This promise is addressed to every person in the latter days. It is for you. Maybe this promise has already been fulfilled in your life. Maybe the words of those who saw the gold plates are calling you now to read the sacred scripture that was translated from their engravings. The men and women who saw and held the plates stayed true to their witness and we can do the same. We can hold our witness sacred, and we can share it with others.</span></span></p><p class="kicker" data-aid="158752948" id="kicker1" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.778em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">All good!</span></span></p></header><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;">_____</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>1. "The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon" by Gerrit Dirkmaat.</b></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The scriptures and the scribes and witnesses of the Book of Mormon shed light on how the Prophet Joseph translated it “by the gift and power of God.”</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In November 1845, Elder Wilford Woodruff (1807–98) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reflected in his journal on his love for the Book of Mormon. Thinking about how much he had read the book since he joined the Church in 1833, he wrote: “My soul delighteth much in its words, teaching, and prophesyings. And in its plainness. I rejoice in the goodness and mercy of the God of Israel in preserving the precious Book of Mormon and bringing it to light in our day and generation.”1</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note: The article quotes E. Woodruff here to establish his credibility for a later part of this article.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In our own day, President Russell M. Nelson has said, “The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.”2</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There are millions of women and men all over the world who have similarly felt the power of the Book of Mormon to change their lives and bring them closer to the Savior, Jesus Christ.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Because the Book of Mormon is so central to believers, it is natural to wonder just how the miracle of its translation took place. While it is not possible to fully explain or understand a miracle wrought “by the gift and power of God” (title page of the Book of Mormon), <b>we can better understand the translation process by looking to the scriptures and the historical accounts left by the scribes, witnesses, and those close to Joseph Smith.</b> These witnesses were certain Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>What Do the Scriptures Say about the Translation?</b></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">When the angel Moroni first appeared to Joseph to tell him of the work that God had for him to do, Moroni explained “that there were two stones … deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted ‘seers’ in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book” (Joseph Smith—History 1:35).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Whenever you see ellipses in an article by a modern Church historian, the first thing you should do is ask, "What are they omitting and why?"</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">This is especially true when they are <strike>censoring </strike>editing the scriptures.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Here is the passage without the omission:</span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span>35 Also, that there were two stones <b>in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—</b>deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. </span><span>(Joseph Smith—History 1:35)</span></span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">This <strike>censorship </strike>editing is consistent with what seems to be a prohibition on accurately and completely quoting what Joseph Smith said about the translation.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">The article omits the earliest published account of Moroni's visit, an account written by Oliver Cowdery which Joseph helped write and which Joseph had copied into his own journal as part of his life story. Joseph also had the account republished in the <i>Times and Seasons </i>and the <i>Gospel Reflector</i>. During Joseph's lifetime it was also republished in the <i>Millennial Star</i> and <i>The Prophet </i>by members of the Quorum of the Twelve.</span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">He [Moroni] said this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and <b>translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record</b>.</span></p></div><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68" target="_blank"><span style="color: #38761d;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68</span></a><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The use of sacred stones, specially prepared by the Lord to be used by seers to translate ancient records, is also referenced multiple times by the prophets in the Book of Mormon. The brother of Jared was given two sacred stones by the Lord to seal up with his writings so they could be used by some future seer to translate his record. The Lord declared, “I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write” (Ether 3:24).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note that this passage specifies it is <b>these </b>two stones--not any other stones--that would magnify the words on the plates.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mosiah, another seer, also possessed two stones that he used to translate the Jaredite records. Ammon explained that Mosiah had “wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters” (Mosiah 8:13). Mosiah “translated [the records] by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages; </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord. … </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“And whosoever has these things is called seer” (Mosiah 28:13–16).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Similar to Joseph Smith, Mosiah “did interpret the engravings by the gift and power of God” (Omni 1:20; emphasis added).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Because these sacred stones were prepared for use by a seer, they are sometimes referred to as seer stones. Though Joseph Smith would initially call the stones found with the plates “spectacles,” he would eventually use a biblical term for the sacred instruments, Urim and Thummim (see Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8).3 </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Let's look at note 3.</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Although the term “Urim and Thummim” is used in Doctrine and Covenants 17:1, this is <b>likely </b>a <b>later addition</b> to the text made by Joseph Smith (see “Revelation, June 1829–E [D&C 17],” note 5, josephsmithpapers.org). The Prophet also made an inspired addition of the term “Urim and Thummim” to Doctrine and Covenants 10:1 sometime after it was published in the 1833 Book of Commandments and before it was published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants."</span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Now, let's look at note 5. Inexplicably, even the online article does not provide a hyperlink, so here's the url: <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-june-1829-e-dc-17/1" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-june-1829-e-dc-17/1</a></span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note 5: </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In this version of the revelation, the use of “Urim and Thummim” (rather than the Book of Mormon term “interpreters” or the term “spectacles,” which JS used in 1829 and 1832) is <b>probably </b>a <b>later redaction</b> since “Urim and Thummim” does not appear in JS’s writings before 1833. The revisions in this section may in part be correcting errors made while copying from a source text that had itself been revised. (See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 172–173, 546 [Mosiah 8:13; Ether 4:5]; JS History, ca. Summer 1832; and “Joseph Smith Documents Dating through June 1831.”) </span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">The editors put their thumb on the history by using words such as "likely" and "probably" instead of simply relating the facts. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">While the note accurately reports that there are no extant records of Joseph writing the term "Urim and Thummim" prior to 1833, the note fails to acknowledge that Joseph's brother Samuel and Orson Hyde, while on a mission in Boston, did report, in 1832, that Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim. These are the facts. We can make assumptions and draw inferences from these facts to develop our own theories about where the use of the term originated. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">In my view, it seems unlikely that the missionaries would have come up with the term. Because both Joseph and Oliver quoted Moroni as having used the term (albeit after 1832), it is rational to assume they reported Moroni's explanations accurately. Joseph's failure to use the term in his scant writings prior to 1833 does not preclude his having used the term verbally. Furthermore, the absence of the term in the early writings is easily explained by the brief, descriptive nature of those writings. "Spectacles" is a more descriptive term than "Urim and Thummim," particularly where the two stones set in a bow are unlike the Old Testament description of the Urim and Thummim. </span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Instead of assuming that Joseph "probably" changed D&C 10 by inserting the term Urim and Thummim to make a connection to the Bible, we can infer that he made the change to clarify what everyone knew at the time of the original revelation; i.e., originally everyone knew he used the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, but with the confusion caused by Jonathan Hadley and <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, Joseph realized he had to edit the revelation to clarify the point.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He came to use this term to describe other sacred stones as well, not just the ones found with the plates. For instance, even though President Brigham Young (1801–77) taught that Joseph gave the Urim and Thummim stones back with the plates after finishing the Book of Mormon translation,4 when Joseph showed a seer stone to Elder Woodruff in 1841, he referred to it as a Urim and Thummim.5</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Inexplicably, the article doesn't point out that Brigham Young's record of the meeting in 1841 materially differs from Woodruff's. Brigham recorded that Joseph explained the Urim and Thummim and showed them his seer stone, thereby distinguishing between the two. Woodruff interpreted what Joseph said to mean that Joseph referred to the seer stone as the (or a) Urim and Thummim. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">While the Book of Mormon primarily referred to a sacred translation device that had two stones bound together, it also referred to a single stone that would be part of the translation: “The Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light” (Alma 37:23).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">This is an oddity in the Book of Mormon. Verses 21 and 24 refer to "interpreters," plural. In the 1830-1840 editions, the term used here was "directors," not interpreters, but in both cases it was plural. Alma makes a clear distinction between whatever "Gazelem, a stone" referred to and "these directors" that "were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled." (Alma 37:24)</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">At any rate, both Joseph and Oliver made it clear that Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, not with an alternative substitute stone. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">President Woodruff described how Joseph Smith found this particular seer stone named Gazelem buried underground: “The seer stone known as ‘Gazelem’ … was shown of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph to be some thirty feet under ground, and which he obtained by digging under the pretense of excavating for a well.”6 Though that separate seer stone is less well known by many members than the stones found in the box with the gold plates, President Woodruff revered it as sacred. The day after he dedicated the Manti Utah Temple, he wrote in his journal that he “consecrated upon the Altar the Seers Stone that Joseph Smith found by Revelation some 30 feet under the Earth.”7</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Of course, nothing Woodruff recorded states or implies that Joseph used this stone to translate the Book of Mormon.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Reviewing the scriptural references to the stones might allow believers to conclude several things about the miraculous translation even before reading what witnesses and scribes had to say about the process:</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">God prepared sacred stones to be used by a future seer to translate the gold plates (see Joseph Smith—History 1:35; Mosiah 28:13; Alma 37:23).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The seer would look at or in the stones to translate (see Mosiah 8:13).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There was more than one translation device composed of stones that God had prepared for the translation of unknown languages: the two stones given to the brother of Jared (see Ether 3:23), the two stones used by Mosiah (see Mosiah 28:13), and the single stone, Gazelem, mentioned in Alma 37:23.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It is possible that the way the stone Gazelem functioned is that it would “shine forth in darkness unto light” (Alma 37:23).</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>What Did Joseph Smith Say about the Translation Process?</b></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph Smith did not publicly provide a detailed explanation of the miraculous translation. He consistently said that he translated the record “by the gift, and power of God” but also noted that he translated “through the medium of the Urim and Thummim.”8 </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Notice how the quotations are sliced into segments, obscuring the original meaning. The amazing thing here is that the article cannot bring itself to quote what Joseph actually wrote, which is as plain as words can be.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note 8 reads: </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Joseph Smith, “Church History,” <i>Times and Seasons</i>, Mar. 1, 1842, 707; see also “Answers to Questions,” <i>Elders’ Journal</i>, July 1838, 43."</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Readers naturally wonder why the article didn't just quote the original instead of chopping it up. </span><span style="color: #990000;">Here is the original passage from "Church History," commonly known as the Wentworth letter, with the parts excepted in the article in bold.</span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,” which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. <b>Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim</b> I translated the record <b>by the gift, and power of God</b>.</span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2</a></span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">In full context, we see that Joseph Smith described the Urim and Thummim and clarified that "the ancients" called this instrument "Urim and Thummim," thereby corroborating the other accounts from Joseph and Oliver that it was Moroni who called the instrument Urim and Thummim. That obviously and unambiguously contradicts claims that Joseph used a stone he found in a well to produce the Book of Mormon.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">What about the second reference in Note 8 to the <i>Elders' Journal</i>? Why <b>not </b>quote that account to respond to the question in the heading of this section of the article; i.e., "What Did Joseph Smith Say about the Translation Process?"</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Like with the Wentworth letter, Joseph's response in the </span><span style="color: #990000;">July 1838 edition of the <i>Elders' Journal</i>, pages 42-43</span><span style="color: #990000;">, is apparently too clear and unambiguous to accommodate the theory that Joseph used a seer stone he found in a well.</span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?</span></p></div><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them,<b> and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates</b>; and thus came the book of Mormon.</span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/questions-and-answers-8-may-1838/1" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/questions-and-answers-8-may-1838/1</a></span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">In courtrooms, sometimes lawyers try to badger witnesses by asking the same question repeatedly, hoping for a different answer. Opposing counsel can successfully object based on "asked and answered." </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">In this case, Joseph Smith explained that he "translated the plates" "by the means of" "the Urim and Thummim" he obtained with the plates. There is no ambiguity or confusion here. Joseph did not say, imply, or even leave any room for the claim that he read words that appeared on a stone in the hat while the plates were covered with a cloth. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">We have to wonder, why omit Joseph's published answer to this obvious question? I've heard that some historians dismiss this statement on the ground that Joseph was just being concise and didn't want to get into the details of SITH. Others suggest that Joseph was embarrassed by the SITH narrative. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">If those (or any other reasons) justify omitting Joseph's answer to this question, historians should directly state that. Otherwise, omitting Joseph's answer is inexcusable.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In his earliest written explanation of the translation, Joseph wrote that even though he was not learned, “the Lord had prepared spectacles for to read the Book therefore I commenced translating the characters.”9 </span></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">The second quotation in the article, from Joseph's 1832 history, leaves no room for a seer stone in a hat. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">“the Lord had prepared spectacles for to read the Book therefore I commenced translating the characters.”</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He also explained that the angel had said that “the Urim & Thummim was hid up with the record, and that God would give me power to translate it with the assistance of this instrument.”10</span></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Notice that the third quotation in the article, taken from the November 9, 1835, entry in his history, is an excerpt which obfuscates Joseph's claim that it was Moroni who used the term Urim and Thummim.</span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">He [Moroni] also informed me that the Urim & Thummim was hid up with the record, and that God would give me power to translate it with the assistance of this instrument;</span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/125#josephsmithpapers" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/125#josephsmithpapers</a></span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">The relevance of Joseph's declarations is all the more significant under the circumstances. From as early as September 1829, when Jonathan Hadley claimed Joseph dictated the text by reading words off "spectacles" he put in a hat, through October 1834 when the book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> claimed Joseph dictated from a "peep stone" in a hat or, alternatively, the biblical Urim and Thummim with the plates nowhere in sight, rumors about the translation had circulated far and wide. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Joseph refuted Hadley's false reports when he wrote the Preface to the 1830 Book of Mormon. </span><span style="color: #38761d;"><span>"</span>As <b>many false reports have been circulated</b> respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that <b>I translated</b>, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, <b>the which I took from </b><b>the Book of Lehi,</b> which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon."</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">With Joseph's assistance, in 1834 Oliver Cowdery responded to <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> when he explained that </span><span style="color: #38761d;"><span>"</span><span>Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’"</span></span><span style="color: #990000;"> (Joseph Smith—History, Note, 1)</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Later, in 1835 and 1842, Joseph published his own accounts that emphasized he translated the plates with the instrument--the Urim and Thummim--that came with the plates. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">By omitting both the complete quotations from Joseph Smith and the historical context, the article accommodates an altered historical narrative; i.e., that, contrary to what Joseph and Oliver said, Joseph produced the Book of Mormon by reading words off a stone in the hat (SITH). </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">As we'll see, the article was constructed to promote the SITH narrative. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">That miraculous process produced a nearly 600-page book in about 60 working days.11</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">This is a small point often overlooked. David Whitmer says it took eight months, which is consistent with what Joseph said when he told his mother he started translating again in November 1828, but we can see from the Original Manuscript that Oliver started writing Alma in April 1829, so at most Joseph would have translated Mosiah before Oliver arrived.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>What Did the Scribes and Witnesses Say about the Translation Process?</b></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph’s scribes, friends, and other witnesses of the translation provided many more details of the mechanics of translation.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Oliver Cowdery repeatedly testified of the miracle of the translation but provided few details. He told a group of Shakers in 1830 that there was “in the box with the plates two transparent stones in the form of spectacles” and that Joseph used them along with a hat to translate.12 At another time he explained that Joseph “found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates.”13</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">We can all see that these statements, even though they are hearsay, reiterate and corroborate what Joseph and Oliver always said. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Inexplicably, the article omits Oliver's statement from Joseph Smith-History, which I included above.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Next the article paraphrases excerpts from the two Emma Smith accounts.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Emma Smith, the Prophet’s wife and primary early scribe, related that Joseph used two different instruments to translate. The first was the device containing two stones found with the plates, and the second was a single stone that was “a dark color.”14 </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">This is Emma's response to Emma Pilgrim. The original letter is not extant so we can't tell what the question was. In her response, Emma Smith explains that she no longer had her reference books so she had to rely on her memory. One wonders whether her statement would have been different if she had the <i>Times and Seasons</i> to refer to. Maybe if she re-read the Wentworth letter, for example, she would have remembered that Joseph said he translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim and didn't accommodate the SITH narrative at all.</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span>"Now, the first part my husband translated, was translated by the use of Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost. After that he used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color. I cannot tell whether that account in the Times and Seasons is correct or not because someone stole all my books and I have none to refer to at present, if I can find one that has that account I will tell you what is true and what is not."</span><span> </span></span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">Emma Smith Bidamon to Emma Pilgrim, March 27, 1870, in Vogel, <i>Early Mormon Documents</i>, volume 1, p. 532.</span></p></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This stone is in the possession of the First Presidency, and an image of it was first published in the <i>Liahona </i>and <i>Ensign </i>magazines in 2015.15 </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">The stone in the published photos is the stone that Zina Young purchased from her husband Brigham's estate and then gave to the Church. It purportedly was the stone that Oliver's widow gave to Phineas Young. Whether it matches the description from Emma--</span><span style="color: #38761d;">"not exactly black, but was rather a dark color"</span><span style="color: #990000;">--is up to the reader. Few if any observers would describe the multi-colored, striated stone as "not exactly black, but rather a dark color." Perhaps Emma was describing a different stone, or perhaps her memory was vague. [The striated stone appears to be a type of stone found in Wyoming in the specific areas traversed by Brigham Young on the way to Utah, suggesting maybe it was picked up along the way and acquired an accompanying narrative.] </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Emma explained that Joseph translated by placing a stone or stones into his hat, and then he would dictate the translation he saw on the stones.16</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note 16 cites Emma Smith, in Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” <i>Saints’ Herald</i>, Oct. 1, 1879, 289. The credibility and reliability of that account is dubious for several reasons. The "Last Testimony" was recorded by Joseph Smith III shortly before his mother died in 1879 (50 years after the events), was never publicly acknowledged by Emma, and was not published until six months after her death. The second part of the "Last Testimony" related to plural marriage and was soundly impeached by multiple witnesses in Utah. One of them, Eliza R. Snow, suggested that Emma didn't dictate the "Last Testimony" at all but that Joseph Smith III composed it to refute claims that his father practiced polygamy. Significantly, Joseph Smith III himself didn't quote from or even mention the "Last Testimony" in a detailed analysis of the translation issue he wrote years later, in which he refuted David Whitmer's SITH testimony and concluded that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim to produce the Book of Mormon. Brigham Young publicly denounced Emma as a liar. Furthermore, Joseph's contemporaries among the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints persisted in testifying that Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim even after Emma's "Last Testimony" was published.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Nevertheless, modern LDS scholars accept the "Last Testimony" on its face without offering any indicia of reliability and credibility apart from Emma's identity as Joseph's wife.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Why would he place the sacred stones into his hat? Several witnesses of the translation explained that Joseph needed to make the area around the stone dark so he could see the words of the translation that would miraculously appear on the stone.17 </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">The first problem is the phrase "several witnesses of the translation." Note 17 refers to Orson Hyde, who was not a witness. The paragraph then quotes Joseph Knight, Sr., who was also not a witness. Even those who claimed to be witnesses did not mention what, exactly, Joseph dictated during the event they witnessed, so there is no "chain of custody" between what they claimed and the text of the Book of Mormon.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Second, notice how this sentence mixes "stones" with "stone." Note 17 quotes an English translation of a German tract by Orson Hyde, which was based on a pamphlet by Orson Pratt. Rather than referring to "<b>the </b>stone" the way the article does, the original source refers to "two stones, called the Urim and Thummim." But you won't see that in the excerpt in Note 17, which is edited to accommodate the idea that the term <i>Urim and Thummim</i> could refer to one stone. </span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Note 17: Orson Hyde explained that the seer stones needed to be “placed where there was no light,” and then the translation would be “written with letters of light on the Urim and Thummim, but disappeared again soon after” (Ein Ruf aus der Wüste [A Cry out of the Wilderness], 1842, extract, English translation, 27, josephsmithpapers.org).</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Once again, unlike the inference in the article and the edited note, the original source clarifies that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, not a separate "seer stone." </span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Two transparent stones, clear as crystal, were found with the records. They were called “seers” and were used by the ancients. The manner in which they were used is as follows: These two stones, called Urim and Thummim, in diameter the size of an English crown (coin) but a little thicker, were placed where there was no light. Those using them then offered prayers unto the Lord and the answer appeared written with letters of light on the Urim and Thummim, but disappeared again soon after. Thus: “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not” [John 1:5] — In this manner these records were translated into English.</span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/orson-hyde-ein-ruf-aus-der-wste-a-cry-out-of-the-wilderness-1842-extract-english-translation/1" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/orson-hyde-ein-ruf-aus-der-wste-a-cry-out-of-the-wilderness-1842-extract-english-translation/1</a></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph Knight Sr., a close friend who provided paper to Joseph during the translation, explained the miracle this way: “The way [Joseph] translated was he put the Urim and Thummim into his hat and darkened his eyes,” and a sentence “would appear in bright … letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away [and] the next sentence would come and so on.” After giving the explanation, Brother Knight testified of the translation, “So we see it was marvelous.”18</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Joseph Knight provided paper but never claimed to be present during the translation. His account is hearsay, useless as direct evidence but an example of what he heard from others.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses, gave a similar description of translation. He explained that Joseph Smith “would put the seer stone into a hat … to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. … One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English.” Like Joseph Knight, David Whitmer heralded this process as miraculous and testified, “Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.”19</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Note 19 cites David Whitmer, <i>An Address to All Believers in Christ</i> (1887), 12. It remains astonishing that modern LDS scholars continue to cite this reference without qualification or context. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">As mentioned above, </span><span style="color: #990000;">Joseph Smith III rejected David's claims after careful analysis. As did Joseph's contemporaries and successors in Church leadership, none of whom adopted David's SITH narrative but instead reaffirmed what Joseph and Oliver said.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">David's original pamphlet can be read here:</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/12/mode/2up" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/12/mode/2up</a></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">It's very strange how eager certain historians are to quote from David's screed against Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the "Utah" church. Notice that David Whitmer himself rejected the claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which anyone can read on page 4 of his pamphlet that this article quotes from:</span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>We do not indorse the teachings of any of the so-called Mormons or Latter Day Saints</b>, which are in conflict with the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as taught in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. They have departed m a great measure from the faith of the Church of Christ as it was first established, by heeding revelations given through <b>Joseph Smith, who, after being called of God to translate his sacred word — the Book of Mormon — drifted into many errors and gave many revelations to introduce doctrines, ordinances and offices in the church, which are in conflict with Christ's teachings.</b> They also changed the name of the church. Their departure from the faith is also according to prophecy. "Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." (1 Tim. iv : 1). On account of God giving to Joseph Smith the gift to translate the plates on which was engraven the Nephite scriptures, <b>the people of the church put too much trust in him — in the man — and believed his words as if they were from God's own mouth.</b> They have trusted in an arm of flesh. (Jeremiah xvii : 6) "Thus saith the Lord : Cursed be the man that trusted in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." They looked to Joseph Smith as lawgiver ; we look to Christ alone, and believe only in the religion of Jesus Christ and not in the religion of any man.</span></p></div><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;">The doctrine of polygamy was not introduced until about fourteen years after the church was established ; <b>but other doctrines of error were introduced earlier than this.</b> I left the body in June, 1838, being five years before polygamy was introduced.</span></p></div><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span><b>Joseph Smith drifting into errors after translating the Book of Mormon, is a stumbling-block to many, but only those of very weak faith would stumble on this account... </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the church at Salt Lake City) believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet up to the time of his death, and accept his revelations which they have published in their Book of Doctrine and Covenants. In this book is the revelation on polygamy.</b></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>It is also a stumbling-block to those who desire to investigate as to the truth of the Book of Mormon, to see the believers in that book divided; but the divisions have been brought about by the revelations of Joseph Smith.</b></span></p></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Modern historians </span><span style="color: #990000;">have a duty to explain why they </span><span style="color: #990000;">pick and choose which among David's claims they accept to confirm their own biases. In my view, David's testimony is unreliable. He directly contradicts Joseph's account in several respects, such as by saying Joseph never hat the Urim and Thummim after he lost the 116 pages. David admitted he was not present for any of the translation in Harmony and did not observe most of the translation in Fayette. He recounted only one episode in Fayette as if he was present, the demonstration attended by several family members. All of this indicates his testimony was mostly hearsay, albeit stated as fact. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Furthermore, David was strongly motivated to refute the Spalding theory, which he discusses on page 10, and that motivation also explains other SITH accounts, including Emma's "Last Testimony."</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">All in all, this article would have been far more useful and informative had it included all of the statements by Joseph and Oliver, in context, along with the corroborating statements by their contemporaries and successors in Church leadership. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In an interview about the Book of Mormon, President Nelson explained the translation process this way: “We know they had the golden plates, covered usually. And Joseph used these: the Urim and Thummim, seer stones, in the hat. And it was easier for him to see the light when he’d take that position.”20</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">In this interview, President Nelson summarized the historical evidence as provided by the Church History Department. He did not assess and reject what Joseph and Oliver claimed or evaluate the relative merits of the SITH witnesses and their various agendas. Obviously, no living person was a witness to any of the events of the translation; we're all reading the same historical record, and no one is claiming revelation to elucidate the historical record. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"></span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">While we may not fully understand how the miracle of translation occurred, what matters most is that it resulted in the Book of Mormon. As President Nelson taught: “The great worth of the Book of Mormon lies not in its miraculous translation, wondrous as it was, nor in its stories that we read to our children. The great worth of the Book of Mormon is that it is another testament of Jesus Christ.”21 Believers can grow closer to Jesus Christ as they read the words He brought forth through the Prophet Joseph Smith.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">Yes! This is the main point of the Book of Mormon. </span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">But it's also obvious that minimizing Joseph's teachings to the point of censoring them in favor of the claims by his critics is not conducive to encouraging people to read and ponder the Book of Mormon.</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span>_____</span></p><p data-aid="158752957" id="p2" style="--height: 172.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span>Underlying these articles is a more general concern. </span>In my view, the way these articles and related materials are edited (such as using ellipses to change meanings and providing obscure citations without links) seems to contravene basic principles of the Standard of Professional Conduct from the American Historical Association, such as this one:</p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Professional integrity in the practice of history requires <b>awareness of one’s own biases </b>and a readiness to follow sound method and analysis wherever they may lead. Historians should document their findings and be prepared to <b>make available their sources, evidence, and data</b>, including any documentation they develop through interviews. Historians should not misrepresent their sources. They should report their findings as accurately as possible and <b>not omit evidence that runs counter to their own interpretation.</b></span><b> </b></p><p><a href="https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/statements-standards-and-guidelines-of-the-discipline/statement-on-standards-of-professional-conduct" target="_blank">https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/statements-standards-and-guidelines-of-the-discipline/statement-on-standards-of-professional-conduct</a> </p><p>Hopefully we can all do better in the future.</p><p>We all recognize and appreciate the diligent, professional historians who have assembled, compiled, organized, and presented the voluminous historical record of the Restoration, particularly those who have worked with the Joseph Smith Papers. </p><p>In the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding (<a href="http://nomorecontention.com" target="_blank">nomorecontention.com</a>), we have all been blessed by the world-class accuracy and reliability of the historical content in the Joseph Smith Papers.</p><p>For some time now we've also hoped that more accurate and complete information about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon would be made available to the Latter-day Saints around the world. For non-English speakers, the historical references are difficult to access. Few of these sources have been translated. Consequently, new, young and non-English speaking Latter-day Saints necessarily rely on a handful of materials, including the <i>Saints </i>books and the Gospel Topics Essays, for accurate information.</p><p>We've previously discussed the way the <i>Saints </i>book (Vol. 1) was written to accommodate the SITH (stone-in-the-hat) and M2C (Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs) agendas instead of to inform readers about the authentic historical record regarding the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. E.g., <a href="https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html" target="_blank">https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html</a></p><p>We've also discussed how the Gospel Topics Essays on Book of Mormon Translation and Geography were written to accommodate the same agendas. For example, it's unthinkable that an essay on the translation of the Book of Mormon would omit what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said about the topic, but everyone can read the essays and see for themselves. E.g., <a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essay-on-translation.html" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essay-on-translation.html</a></p><p>Even the editorial content of the Joseph Smith Papers accommodates these agendas. E.g., <a href="https://www.academia.edu/67756647/Agenda_driven_editorial_content_in_the_Joseph_Smith_Papers" target="_blank">https://www.academia.edu/67756647/Agenda_driven_editorial_content_in_the_Joseph_Smith_Papers</a></p><p>Thus, there is room for improvement, as we've discussed many times on this blog. This post encourages such improvement in accuracy in the editorial content of these and other ancillary materials, in this case the <i>Liahona </i>magazine.</p></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-17592150237421196932024-02-13T11:34:00.000-08:002024-02-22T11:49:42.967-08:00Changing Lucy Mack Smith's history<p>In the first version of her dictated history, Lucy Mack Smith did not mention the First Vision. Instead, she explains that Joseph's search for truth let do Moroni's first visit.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/40" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/40</a></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">One evening </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">we were sitting till quite late conversing upon the </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">subject of the diversity of churches that had risen up </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">in the world and the many thousand opinions in exis</span><span class="line-break hyphenate" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-left: var(--size6); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">tence as to the truths contained in scripture </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">Joseph </span><span class="deleted" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">who</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> never said many words upon any subject </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">but always seemed to reflect more deeply than com</span><span class="line-break hyphenate" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-left: var(--size6); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">mon persons of his age upon everything of a religious </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">nature </span><span class="deleted" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">This</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> After we ceased conversation he went to </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">bed <and was pondering in his mind which of the churches were the true one.> </span><span class="deleted" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">an</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> but he had not laid there long till <he saw> a bright </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><light> enter</span><span class="deleted" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">ed</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> the room where he lay he looked up and </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">saw an angel of the Lord </span><span class="deleted" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">stood</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> <standing> by him The angel spoke </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">I perceive that you are enquiring in your mind which is </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">the true church there is not a true church on Earth No </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">not one </span><span class="deleted" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">Nor</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> <and> has not been since Peter took the Keys <of the Melchesidec priesthood after the order of God> into the </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">Kingdom of Heaven the churches that are now upon the Ear</span><span class="line-break hyphenate" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-left: var(--size6); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">th are all man made churches....</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">There is a record for </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">you and Joseph <strike>when you have learned to keep the commandments of God</strike> but you cannot get it untill you learn to keep the commandments of God <For it is not to get gain.> For But it is to bring forth that light and intelligence which has been long lost in the Earth Now Joseph <or> beware <or> when you go to get the plates your mind will be filld with darkness and all man[n]er of evil will rush into your mind. To <strike>keep </strike><prevent> you from keeping the commandments of God <that you <strike>migh </strike>may not suceced in doing his work> and you must tell your father of this for he will believe every word you say the record is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place remove the Grass and moss and you will find a large flat stone pry that up and you will find the record under it laying on 4 pillars <of cement>— then the angel left him</span></span></span></p></blockquote><p>Notice that it was during this first visit that Moroni identified the "Hill of Cumorah" as the location of the plates.</p><p>Lucy's account is consistent with Joseph's later explanation that he didn't tell people about the First Vision, apart from the minister who disbelieved him.</p><p>In the second version of her history, the First Vision account from the <i>Times and Seasons</i> (now JS-History in the Pearl of Great Price) was simply copied into her history verbatim, with this introduction:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">While these things were going forward, Joseph’s mind became considerably troubled excited upon the subject of religion; and the following extract from his history (Times & Seasons) will show, more clearly than I can express, the state of his feelings and the result of his reflections on this occasion:</span></p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/80" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/80</a></p><p>This sequence suggests that Lucy had no independent recollection of Joseph's First Vision because he never told her about it when it happened, and may not have told her about it later. </p><p>The account of Moroni's visit was also inserted into the second version of her history:</p><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/86" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/86</a></p><p>While some may cite these discrepancies as evidence that Joseph invented the First Vision long after the fact, others may conclude that Joseph simply didn't tell his mother about his experience at the time it happened, which is consistent with what he later reported.</p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-84496398411492285682024-01-14T09:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T07:10:35.678-08:00Oliver Cowdery's eight essays on the history of the Church<p>In this article, we'll discuss the Introduction to Oliver's letters in the Joseph Smith Papers, how Don Carlos republished them in the <i>Times and Seasons</i>, and the way Oliver emphasized the factual basis of his essays.</p><p>_____</p><p>The Joseph Smith Papers introduced the essays with this note. Original in <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>blue</b></span>, my comments in <span style="color: #990000;"><b>red</b></span>.</p><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/48" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/48</a></p><div class="bold center" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); font-weight: 700; line-height: var(--size26); text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Editorial Note</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The following section includes transcripts of eight letters <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="13418935357012103905" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link13418935357012103905" person="per47" ro="per47" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Oliver Cowdery">Oliver Cowdery</a></aside> wrote in 1834 and 1835 regarding JS’s visions of an angel and his discovery of the gold plates of the Book of Mormon.</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;">That summary sentence omits the topic of Cumorah, featured in two of the eight letters.</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> Cowdery addressed the letters to <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="6814744818582999454" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link6814744818582999454" person="per73" ro="per73" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="William Wines Phelps">William W. Phelps</a></aside> and published them as a series in the <span class="title" face="var(--McKay)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size18); font-style: italic; line-height: var(--size26);">Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate</span> between October 1834 and October 1835. The titles and formatting employed in this history are similar to those in the published series of articles, indicating that the Cowdery letters were copied into the history from the <span class="title" face="var(--McKay)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size18); font-style: italic; line-height: var(--size26);">Messenger and Advocate,</span> not from a manuscript version of the letters. <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="16044271189787236195" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link16044271189787236195" person="per63" ro="per63" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Frederick Granger Williams">Frederick G. Williams</a></aside> could have begun the transcription in JS’s history as early as 6 December 1834, the date of Cowdery’s last historical entry in the preceding section of the history. However, Cowdery probably gave the history to Williams around 2 October 1835, when he gave Williams JS’s journal. On 29 October 1835, JS retrieved the history from Williams and delivered it to <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="3069752339289926859" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link3069752339289926859" person="per622" ro="per622" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Warren Farr Parrish">Warren Parrish</a></aside>, who continued copying the Cowdery letters. It is likely that Parrish finished copying the letters by early April 1836, when he gave JS’s journal (and presumably the 1834–1836 history along with it) to <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="12203740689407774679" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link12203740689407774679" person="per589" ro="per589" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Warren A. Cowdery">Warren Cowdery</a></aside>.<aside class="popup-wrapper" id="14882661603155378794" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="editorial-note-static staticPopup" id="link14882661603155378794" name="trans25" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--Zoram); font-size: var(--size10); line-height: var(--size17); margin-right: var(--size1); padding: 2px 4px 2px 3px; position: relative; top: -9px; transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Note"><span face="var(--Zoram)" id="documenttrans25" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-size: var(--size10) !important; line-height: var(--size26); overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none;">25</span></a></aside></span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;">JS' journal, on 29 October 1835, Thursday, records that: "</span><span style="color: #990000;">my scribe commenced writing in <my> journal a history of my life, concluding President [Oliver] Cowdery 2d letter to W. W. Phelps, which president Williams had begun."</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/12" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/12</a></span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;"> </span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;">This observation is significant because it recognizes that Cowdery was Assistant President of the Church and because it shows that JS considered these letters to be "a history of my life."</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: var(--size16);">In the first letter,</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: var(--size16);"> </span><aside class="popup-wrapper" id="16030234898009192360" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link16030234898009192360" person="per47" ro="per47" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Oliver Cowdery">Oliver Cowdery</a></aside><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: var(--size16);"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: var(--size16);">recounted his experiences with JS beginning when the two first met in April 1829. The letter includes an account of the vision he and JS had of John the Baptist, who gave them the authority to baptize. </span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16);">Characterizing this as a "vision" instead of a "visitation" implies a spiritual instead of a physical experience, which contradicts Cowdery's narrative. Cowdery wrote, "</span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;">the angel of God came down clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message, and the keys of the gospel of repentance!"</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">After composing this letter, but before its publication, Cowdery developed a new history-writing plan: he decided that in subsequent letters he would relate the “full history of the rise of the church,” beginning with JS’s early life and visions. As editor of the <span class="title" face="var(--McKay)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size18); font-style: italic; line-height: var(--size26);">Messenger and Advocate,</span> Cowdery prefaced the published version of the first letter with an explanation (also transcribed into the history) of the new plan. Although he had no firsthand knowledge of church history prior to April 1829, Cowdery assured his readers that “our brother J. Smith Jr. has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensible.” Some passages in the ensuing narrative seem to have been related to Cowdery by JS, since Cowdery recounts events in which only JS participated.</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16);">Cowdery also explained that "</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif;">To do <Justice to> this subject will require time and space: we therefore ask the forbearance of our readears [sic], assuring them that it shall be founded upon facts." Throughout the narrative, Cowdery fulfills this assurance by distinguishing between facts and speculation.</span></span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><aside class="popup-wrapper" id="3217031183685958179" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link3217031183685958179" person="per47" ro="per47" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Oliver Cowdery">Cowdery</a></aside> composed the letters to inform the Latter-day Saints of the history of their church, but he also wrote for the non-Mormon public. Employing florid romantic language, frequent scriptural allusions, and much dramatic detail, he clearly intended to present a rhetorically impressive account of early Mormon history. He placed the rise of the church in a dispensational framework, characterizing the time between the end of the New Testament and JS’s early visions as a period of universal apostasy. He included the revivalism of various denominations during the Second Great Awakening, which JS experienced in his youth, as an example of the doctrinal confusion and social disharmony present in Christendom. Throughout the series of letters, he defended JS’s character and that of the Smith family, and his explicitly apologetic statements include apparent allusions to both Alexander Campbell's <span class="title" face="var(--McKay)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size18); font-style: italic; line-height: var(--size26);">Delusions</span> (1832) and <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="5716325730657631427" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link5716325730657631427" person="x4271" ro="x4271" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Eber Dudley Howe">Eber Howe</a></aside>’s <span class="title" face="var(--McKay)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size18); font-style: italic; line-height: var(--size26);">Mormonism Unvailed</span> (1834).</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Beginning in the third letter, <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="9345162855421850379" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link9345162855421850379" person="per47" ro="per47" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Oliver Cowdery">Cowdery</a></aside> provided the most extensive account of the origins of the Book of Mormon published up to that time. He related JS’s initial visions of the angel Moroni and, using biblical prophecies, elaborated on the angel’s message concerning the gathering of Israel in the last days in preparation for the Millennium. Cowdery continued his narrative up to, but did not include, JS’s receiving the gold plates in September 1827.</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The transcription of the <aside class="popup-wrapper" id="7736930199725465932" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link7736930199725465932" person="per47" ro="per47" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Oliver Cowdery">Oliver Cowdery</a></aside> letters into JS’s history was evidently conceived in terms of the entire series, not as a piecemeal copying of the individual letters. </span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;">The importance of Cowdery's letters to JS is evidenced by JS giving express permission to Benjamin Winchester to republish them in Winchester's <i>Gospel Reflector</i> in 1841. JS's brother Don Carlos reported that JS gave him "essays on the Priesthood" to publish, after which Don Carlos published the letters serially in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> in 1841. Parley P. Pratt republished the letters in the <i>Millennial Star</i>, also in 1841, and a special pamphlet consisting of all eight essays was published in England that sold several thousand copies. JS's brother William Smith republished all eight essays in <i>The Prophet</i> in 1844. </span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As noted above, Cowdery probably gave the “large journal” containing the history begun in 1834 to</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><aside class="popup-wrapper" id="6377143031716526289" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe; display: inline; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); position: relative; scroll-margin-top: 64px; text-indent: 0px; text-wrap: nowrap;"><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link6377143031716526289" person="per63" ro="per63" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Frederick Granger Williams">Williams</a></aside><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">in October 1835, the month of the</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span class="title" face="var(--McKay)" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe; font-size: var(--size18); font-style: italic; line-height: var(--size26);">Messenger and Advocate</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">issue in which his final installment was published.</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">By the time Williams received the history, Cowdery may have already written the final letter; he had at least conceived of it as the final installment in his series. With the serialized Cowdery letters complete or nearing completion, the new history kept in the “large journal” could serve as a repository—more permanent than unbound newspapers—for a copied compilation of the entire series.</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="color: #990000;">It seems likely that when Joseph gave his brother Don Carlos the "essays on the Priesthood" to publish in the <i>Times and Seasons</i>, he gave him this large journal. Don Carlos published the essays serially under the heading RISE OF THE CHURCH, almost word-for-word from the original articles, but with some omissions.</span></span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="color: #990000;">For example, when Don Carlos published Letter VII in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> on April 15, 1841 (p. 377), he began by continuing from page 364 of the previous issue. </span></span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;"><a href="https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n12.htm" target="_blank">https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n12.htm</a></span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;">In that issue, on page 360, Don Carlos included the heading "Letter VI." </span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;"><a href="https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n11.htm" target="_blank">https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n11.htm</a></span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: McKay, serif;">He concluded that excerpt with this sentence from Letter VII on page 364: "</span><span style="color: #990000;">Such was the instruction and this the caution."</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;">In the April 15 edition, he correctly begins with the next sentence from Letter VII: "Alternately, as we could naturally expect, the thought of the previous vision was ruminating in his mind, with a reflection of the brightness and glory of the heavenly messenger..."</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;">However, in the April 1 edition, Don Carlos omitted the last two paragraphs of Letter VI and the first two paragraphs of Letter VII, replacing them with ellipses. Consequently, he omitted the heading "Letter VII" which may explain why some people did not realize Letter VII was republished in the <i>Times and Seasons</i>.</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #990000;">We can see the omitted paragraphs here:</span></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/83" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/83</a></div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;"> </div><div class="indent wasptag" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: var(--size16); line-height: var(--size26); text-indent: 22px;">_____</div><p>Cowdery's assurance that his narrative "shall be founded upon facts" is evident throughout his eight essays. He used the term "fact(s)" 23 times in the 8 essays.</p><p>- That our narrative may be correct, and particularly the introduction, it is proper to inform our patrons, that our brother J. Smith Jr. has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensible. With his labor and with authentic documents now in our possession, we hope to render this a pleasing and agreeable narrative, well worth the examination and perusal of the Saints.—28</p><p>To do <Justice to> this subject will require time and space: we therefore ask the forbearance of our readears, assuring them that <b>it shall be founded upon <span style="color: #cc0000;">facts</span></b>.</p><p>- In the Last Messenger and Advocate I promised to commence a more particular or minute history of the rise and progress of the church of the Latter Day Saints; and publish for the benefit of enquirers and all who are disposed to learn. There are <b>certain <span style="color: #cc0000;">facts</span></b><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span>relative to the works of God worthy the consideration and observance of every individual, and every society:— They are that he never works in the dark—his works are always performed in a clear, intelligible manner: and another point is, that he never works in vain.</p><p>- Perhaps an apology for brevity may not be improper, here, as many important incidents consequently transpiring in the organization and establishment <establishing> of a society like the one whose history I am about to give to the world, are overlooked or lost, and soon buried with those who were the actors, will prevent my giving those minute and particular reflections which I have so often wished migh[t] have characterized the “Acts of the apostles,” and the ancient Saints.</p><p>But <b>such <span style="color: #cc0000;">facts</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>as are within my knowledge</b>, will be given without any reference to inconsistencies, in the minds of others [p. 57] or impossibilities, in the feelings of such as do not give credence to the system of salvation and redemption so clearly set forth and so plainly written over the face of the sacred scriptures:</p><p>Upon the propriety, then, of a narative of this kind, I have briefly to remark: It is known to you, that this church has suffered reproach and persecution, from a majority of mankind who have heard but a rumor, since its first organization. and further, you are also conversant with the <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">fact</span></b>, that no sooner had the messengers of the fulness of the gospel began to proclaim its heavenly precepts, and call upon men to embrace the same, than they were vilified and slandered by thousands who never saw their faces, and much less knew aught derogatory of their characters, moral or religious—upon this unfair and unsaint like manner of procedure they have been giving in large sheets their own opinions of the incorrectness of our system, and attested volum[e]s of our lives and characters. Since, then, our opposers have been thus kind to introduce our cause before the public, it is no more than just that a correct account should be given; and since they have invariably sought to cast a shade over the truth, and hinder its influence from gaining ascindency, it is also, proper that it should be vindicated, by laying before the world a correct statement of of events as they have transpired from time to time.</p><p>Whether I shall succeed so far in my purpose as to convince the publick of the incorrectness of those scurulous reports which have inundated our land, or even but a small portion of them, will be better ascertained when I close than when I commence; and I am content to submit it before the candid for perusal, & before the Judge of all for inspection, as I most assuredly believe that before Him I must stand and answer for the deeds transacted in this life.</p><p>- I gave, in my last, a few words, on the subject of a few items, as spoken by the angel at the time the knowledge of the record of the Nephites was communicated to our [p. 71] brother, and in consequence of the subject of the gospel and that of the gathering of Israel’s being so connected, I found it difficult to speak of the one without mentioning the other; and this may not be improper, as it is evident, that the Lord has decreed to bring forth the fulness of the gospel in the last days, previous to gathering Jacob, but a preparatory work, and the other is to follow in quick succession.</p><p>This being of so much importance, and of so deep interest to the sainst [saints], I have thought best to give a farther detail of the heavenly message, and if I do not give it in the precise words, <b>shall strictly confine myself to the <span style="color: #cc0000;">facts </span>in substance</b>.</p><p>- You are aware of the <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">fact</span></b>, that to give a minute rehearsal of a lengthy interview with a heavenly messenger, is verry difficult unless one is assisted immediately with the gift of inspiration. There is another item I wish to notice on the subject of visions. The Spirit you know, searches all things, even the deep things of God. When God manifests to his servants those things that are to come, or those which have been, he does it by unfolding them by the power of that Spirit which comprehends all things, always; and so much may be shown and made perfectly plain to the understanding in a short time, that to the world, who are ocupied all their life to learn a little, look at the relation of it, and are disposed to call it false. You will understand then, by this, that while those glorious things were being rehearsed, the vision was also opened, so that our brother was permitted to see and understand much more full<y> and perfect<ly> than I am able to communicate in writing. I know much may <be> conveyed to the understanding in writing, and many marvellous truths set forth with the pen, but after all it is but a shadow, compared to an open vision of seeing, hearing and realizing eternal things. And if the <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">fact </span></b>was known, it would be found, that of all the heavenly communications to the ancients, we have no more in comparison than the alphabet to a quarto vocabulary.</p><p>- It will not be expected that I shall digress so far from my object, as to go into particular explanations on different items contained in yours; but as all men are deeply interested on the great matter of revelation, I indulge a hope that you will present <b>such <span style="color: #cc0000;">facts </span>as are plain and uncontrovertible</b>, both from our former scriptures and the book of Mormon, [p. 79] to show that such is not only consistent with the character of the Lord, but absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of that sacred volume, so tenaciously admired by professors of religion—I mean that called the bible.</p><p>- You will remember that in my last I brought my subject down to the evening, or night of the 21st of September, 1823, and gave an outline of the conversation of the angel upon the important fact of the blessings, promises and covenants to Israel, and the great manyifestations of favor to the world, in the ushering in of the fulness of the gospel, to prepare the way for the second advent of the Messiah, when he comes in the glory of the Fathers with the holy angels.</p><p><b>A remarkable fact </b>is to be noticed with <regard> to this vision.</p><p>- He could not have been decieved <b>in the fact </b>that a being of some kind appeared to him; and that it was an heavenly one, the fulfillment of his words, so minutely, up to this time, in addition to the truth and word of salvation which has been developed to this generation, in the book of Mormon, ought to be conclusive evidence to the mind of every man who is priveleged to hear of the same.</p><p>- At about one mile west rises another ridge of less height, running parallel with the former, leaving a beautiful vale between. The soil is of the first quality for the country, and under a state of cultivation, which gives a prospect at once imposing, <b>when one reflects on the <span style="color: #cc0000;">fact</span>, that here, between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed.</b></p><p>- Here may be seen where once sunk to nought the pride and strength of two mighty nations; and here [p. 87] may be contemplated, in solitude, while nothing but the faithful record of Mormon and Moroni is now extant <b>to inform us of the <span style="color: #cc0000;">fact</span></b>, scenes of misery and distress—</p><p>- How far below the surface these records were placed by Moroni, I am unable to say; but <b>from the <span style="color: #cc0000;">fact</span></b><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span>they had been some fourteen hundred years buried, and that too on the side of a hill so steep, one is ready to conclude that they were some feet below, as the earth would naturally wear more or less in that length of time. But they being placed toward the top of the hill, the ground would not remove as much as at two-thirds, perhaps. Another circumstance would prevent a wearing away of the earth: in all probibility, as soon as timber had time to grow, the hill was covered, after the Nephites were destroyed, and the roots of the same would hold the surface. However, on this point I shall leave every man to draw his own conclusion, and form his own speculation, as I only promised to give a description of the place at the time the records were found [p. 90] in 1823.—126 It is sufficient for my present purpose, to know, that <b>such is the fact</b>: that in 1823, yes, 1823, a man with whom I have had the most intimate and personal acquaintance, for almost seven years, actually discovered by the vision of God, the plates from which the book of Mormon, as much as much as it is disbelieved, was translated! Such is the case, though men rack their verry brains to invent falshood, and then waft them upon every breeze, to the contrary notwithstanding.</p><p>- Connected with this, is the character of the family: and on this I say as I said concerning the character of our brother—I feel myself bound to defend the innocent always when oportunity offers. Had not those who are notorious for lies and dishonesty, also assailed the character of the family I should pass over them here in silence; but now I shall not forbear. It has been industriously circulated that they were dishonest, deceitful and vile.137 On this I have the testimony of responsible persons, who have said and will say, that this [is]138 basely false; and besides, a personal acquaintance for seven years, has demonstrated that all the difficulty is, they were once poor, (yet industrious,) and have now, by the help of God, arisen to note, and their names are like to, (indeed they will,) be handed down to posterity, and had among the righteous.— They are industrious, honest, virtuous and liberal to all. This is their character; and though many take advantage of their liberality, God will reward them; but <b>this is the </b>[p. 100]<b> fact,</b> and this testimony shall shine upon the records of the saints, and be <recorded on the archives of heaven to be> read in the day of eternity, when the wicked and perverse, who have vilely slandered them without cause or provocation, reap their reward with the unjust, where there is weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth!— if they do not repent.</p><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-79009184096099931982024-01-01T07:28:00.000-08:002024-01-01T07:28:49.426-08:00Original manuscript now online<p>The Joseph Smith Papers project has made the Original Manuscript available online. You can see it here:</p><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/the-papers/revelations-and-translations/jsppr3/jsppr3-sub-om" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/the-papers/revelations-and-translations/jsppr3/jsppr3-sub-om</a></p><p>For context, here is the press release:</p><p><a href="https://www.thechurchnews.com/history/2023/12/27/23988738/joseph-smith-papers-digital-images-original-book-of-mormon-manuscript-gospel-learning" target="_blank">https://www.thechurchnews.com/history/2023/12/27/23988738/joseph-smith-papers-digital-images-original-book-of-mormon-manuscript-gospel-learning</a></p><p>The Printer's Manuscript is also available at that site.</p><p>Kudos to the Joseph Smith Papers!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz4igg56RQUEAkEOnPjSuiaP9XnIWWj2Km-a69ucfy7a_S1fmn6QlKBhRu9gklbJWVuhvrVqyTRq8d1DRhU6htGi4vOx9iMJUjCbA2X4rF0AV5aCv3Mto6q6wNzXGaWadM8wsGVDuDkJmZcIx3404Oz8RjavTQgJ5nLvuFis9dFyOYAyZZm7Zab0Fu/s868/JSP-OM%20p%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz4igg56RQUEAkEOnPjSuiaP9XnIWWj2Km-a69ucfy7a_S1fmn6QlKBhRu9gklbJWVuhvrVqyTRq8d1DRhU6htGi4vOx9iMJUjCbA2X4rF0AV5aCv3Mto6q6wNzXGaWadM8wsGVDuDkJmZcIx3404Oz8RjavTQgJ5nLvuFis9dFyOYAyZZm7Zab0Fu/s16000/JSP-OM%20p%203.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-12448470299066094042023-12-29T07:30:00.000-08:002023-12-29T08:18:32.780-08:00The obsolete Gospel Topics Essays<p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fxcaX_5OLU2RS8Mt38lA1VPUvA4i27ocmcgsrrhg-hewz3GGvlQyyVaiLgs8KshyDruhJ-Ld3O2UYlKcSayJ9EKAeT7GTiNxLvisofN_JicBjNbFxGDOEVqwzAqoYu1l_Om-Q14c3lEuFjknsHgZuV2vIQsfNfpchpdNXvYK-W-vFQcg6qTA3CQP/s1080/obsolete-grunge-stamp-vector-19035290-267582379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fxcaX_5OLU2RS8Mt38lA1VPUvA4i27ocmcgsrrhg-hewz3GGvlQyyVaiLgs8KshyDruhJ-Ld3O2UYlKcSayJ9EKAeT7GTiNxLvisofN_JicBjNbFxGDOEVqwzAqoYu1l_Om-Q14c3lEuFjknsHgZuV2vIQsfNfpchpdNXvYK-W-vFQcg6qTA3CQP/s320/obsolete-grunge-stamp-vector-19035290-267582379.jpg" width="296" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Gospel Topics Essays on Book of Mormon Translation and Geography have always been </span><span>notorious for the way they studiously avoid the clear, direct and unmistakable statements by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on these topics. This is now more obvious than ever </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">because of a recent announcement on the Church's website that renders those essays obsolete, as anyone can see.</span></span><p></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In December the Church announced a new resource called "Topics and Questions" which replaces "Gospel Topics." </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/guiding-principles-to-help-answer-gospel-questions" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/guiding-principles-to-help-answer-gospel-questions</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This is a significant improvement. We will see many changes if the concept and methodology permeates all Gospel instruction and study throughout the Church.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Topics and Questions "provides resources for those seeking answers and for helping others with their gospel questions." The link is here:</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/life/church-and-gospel-questions?lang=eng" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/life/church-and-gospel-questions?lang=eng</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The new resource offers two categories of principles based on "Helping Others with Questions" and "Seeking Answers to Questions." </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This resource is congruent with the Institute course "Answering Gospel Questions" that I've been teaching online. </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">One of the principles under "Seeking Answers to Questions" is "Consult Reliable Sources." Here's the link:</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/seeking-answers/05-consult-reliable-sources?lang=eng" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/seeking-answers/05-consult-reliable-sources?lang=eng</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The following excerpt shows the aspirations of the new approach. When we compare this aspiration to the reality of the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation and the short article on geography we see that the essays need a lot of work. </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Translation essay violates every one of the principles outlined in the following excerpt. Instead of quoting and citing what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said about the translation, the essay quotes and cites the speculative opinions of certain modern scholars.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">We can hope that in 2024, this essay, along with others we've discussed, will be revised according to the principles set out in "Seeking Answers."</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #333333;">Original in </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>blue</b></span><span style="color: #333333;">, my comments in </span><span style="color: #990000;"><b>red</b></span><span style="color: #333333;">.</span></span></p><header style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 3.556em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 data-aid="158189177" id="title1" style="--height: 50.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; font-family: "Ensign:Sans", Zoram, "Zoram ldsLat", Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 2.333em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; inset-block-start: 0px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0.125em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Consult Reliable Sources</span></h1></header><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158189178" id="p1" style="--height: 201.578125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught, “Never in the history of the world have we had easier access to more information—some of it true, some of it false, and much of it partially true.”<a class="note-ref" data-scroll-id="note1" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/seeking-answers/05-consult-reliable-sources?lang=eng#note1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.1em;">1</sup></a> In this environment of uncertainty, the Church urges members to “seek out and share only credible, reliable, and factual sources of information.”<a class="note-ref" data-scroll-id="note2" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/seeking-answers/05-consult-reliable-sources?lang=eng#note2" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.1em;">2</sup></a> We should avoid sources that are founded on rumor or that promote contention or anger.</span></p><p data-aid="158189179" id="p2" style="--height: 86.390625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Learning to assess the quality of our sources of information involves both spiritual and intellectual work. Here are some tips for evaluating information:</span></p><ul class="bullet" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.889em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.222em; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158189180" id="p3" style="--height: 317.765625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face=""Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Evaluate the reliability of sources.</span> Not all sources are of equal value on all topics. The best sources will have direct knowledge of a topic instead of relying on hearsay, rumor, or innuendo. They will speak from a position of direct knowledge or expertise. </span></p></li></ul><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Comment. The Translation essay omits the best sources about the translation; i.e., what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said. These two men had direct knowledge. Their statements are not hearsay related decades after the events, but explicit, clear, and unmistakable explanations of the translation, published in an environment of criticism and false claims. Omitting their statements is a direct, obvious defiance of the new guidance. At a minimum, the revised Translation essay must include the full published statements of Joseph and Oliver regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon.]</span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div><ul class="bullet" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.889em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.222em; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158189180" id="p3" style="--height: 317.765625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">They will refer to other reputable sources so you can check their claims. Reliable sources will not always affirm what you already think. They may challenge your views. If you have questions about official Church teachings, look first at what current Church leaders have and have not said. This will help you evaluate other, earlier statements.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Comment. This principle brings an element of irony to the discussion. The reliable sources of Joseph and Oliver will definitely not "affirm what you already think" if you've succumbed to the SITH narrative (stone-in-the-hat) or M2C (the Mesoamerican/two Cumorahs narrative.]</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><ul class="bullet" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.889em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.222em; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158189181" id="p4" style="--height: 173.78125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face=""Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Learn to recognize bias.</span> Almost all sources have some bias. This does not automatically make them unreliable, but it is important to take the source creator’s perspective into account. Examine your source’s motives and background. Be wary of sources that claim to be unbiased or that express views in inflammatory ways.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Comment. The obvious problem with the Gospel Topics Essays is that they are anonymous. It is literally impossible to recognize the bias of an anonymous source that neither admits nor explains any bias. Since the Gospel Topics Essays were originally published, we've wondered why they authors did not explain their bias. We've had to infer that the authors sought to accommodate M2C and SITH because there is no other apparent explanation for why they omitted the direct, explicit teachings of Joseph, Oliver and their successors regarding both Cumorah and the translation by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. We infer that their motives involve their background as intellectuals who have promoted M2C and SITH. Revised essays that acknowledge the principle of recognizing bias will surely correct this fundamental error.] </span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><ul class="bullet" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.889em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.222em; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158189182" id="p5" style="--height: 202.578125px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face=""Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Corroborate what you learn.</span> It is significant when multiple reliable sources agree or speak with clarity on a topic. This is especially true when studying sources discussing Church history and teachings. Though it is not always possible to find this kind of agreement among sources, it is helpful to compare information from different sources so you can better assess their quality.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Comment. The teachings of Joseph and Oliver about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon are not only clear and consistent, but they are corroborated by the teachings of their peers and successors in Church leadership. Readers of the current versions of the essays would never know this because the essays omit what Joseph, Oliver and their successors taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.]</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><ul class="bullet" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.889em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.222em; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="158189183" id="p6" style="--height: 317.765625px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 0.889em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face=""Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Distinguish facts from interpretation.</span> Some pieces of information are facts. But much of what we encounter on the internet and in other publications consists of someone’s interpretation of the facts. The best interpretations try to account for all the facts. They consider specific details or facts in broader context and give them proper weight. They don’t simply dismiss information that doesn’t agree with a particular point of view. Check the sources used to make a particular interpretation to ensure they support the claims being made and are not taken out of context.</span></p></li></ul><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Comment. This is one of the most glaring errors in the Translation and Geography essays. Both are replete with interpretations by scholars who promote M2C and SITH, and both lack authentic historical facts taught by Joseph and Oliver. They link to third-hand accounts and speculations of scholars instead of to authentic published statements by Joseph and Oliver and their successors.]</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span>_____</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span>For anyone unfamiliar with the problems with the Gospel Topics Essays, I've discussed the subject several times.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><a href="goog_718295681"><br /></a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Ensign:Serif, McKay, McKay ldsLat, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essays-do-not-supersede.html">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essays-do-not-supersede.html</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essay-on-translation.html">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essay-on-translation.html</a></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Ensign:Serif, McKay, McKay ldsLat, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Palatino-Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/02/the-gospel-topics-essays-my-view.html" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/02/the-gospel-topics-essays-my-view.html</a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Ensign:Serif, McKay, McKay ldsLat, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Palatino-Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://www.lettervii.com/" target="_blank">https://www.lettervii.com/</a></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span>Here is a brief summary of the issues.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><b>1. Essay on geography. </b>The obvious omission in the geography essay is that it completely omits (aka censors, or decorrelates) the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah in New York, including those listed here:</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><a href="http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html" target="_blank">http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html</a>. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span>Church leaders have always been clear about two things: (i) The Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in western New York, and (ii) we don't know the location of other settings. These twin teachings are well established and are corroborated by extrinsic scientific evidence. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span>Omitting these teachings from the essay is confusing to Latter-day Saints and others interested in the Restoration. The only conceivable rationale for omitting these teachings is to accommodate the M2C theory (Mesoamerican/two Cumorahs theory) promoted by certain RLDS and LDS scholars, who explicitly reject the teachings of the prophets. Which is fine. People can believe and teach whatever they want. But obfuscating the issue by censoring the teachings of the prophets is the antithesis of clarity, charity and understanding. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span>Revising the obsolete essay will go far to promoting clarity, charity and understanding among all those interested in the Restoration.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><b>2. Essay on Translation.</b> </span>The obvious omission in the translation essay is that it completely omits (aka censors, or decorrelates) the teachings of the prophets about the translation of the Book of Mormon.</div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;">In the Preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith wrote:</div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon.</span></div></div></div></blockquote><div class="body-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><div><br /></div><div>The "many false reports" circulated consisted of the article by Jonathan Hadley that related SITH in Hadley's effort to ridicule the Book of Mormon. In the Preface, Joseph explicitly states that he translated the text that he took from the Book of Lehi and not from a stone (or spectacles) in a hat. </div><div><br /></div><div>Joseph and Oliver repeatedly explained that Joseph translated the engravings by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, but the essay on Translation neither quotes nor cites what they taught. </div><div><br /></div><div>The obsolete essay can be easily edited to provide the complete list of statements by Joseph and Oliver. If the authors decide to repudiate those teachings in favor of SITH, they should at least do so overtly and clearly so everyone can see their bias and agenda instead of avoiding the issue by omitting those teachings.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-68902558288454960152023-12-04T08:12:00.000-08:002023-12-04T08:12:30.405-08:00The Urim and Thummim narratives<p>My book I<i>nfinite Goodness</i> includes a section on the Urim and Thummim. It's a useful overview of the narratives about the Urim and Thummim that I want to be able to refer to people, so I'm posting that section from the book here, with an additional link not in the book.</p><p>_____</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtVBDnrtIBELa7GBUclAMD0veO7Ub6bIviOHkcP8t7TFjBR4Iw9PK9KdGljd-AOGL1t55wUu3uaqwegLPpYEMp6vwdOt7Ad8MvBi7lotu5GZ-wxCkVqiFeIuZJYRysJ8gnvIorbBkapAj4cqx9q5y2rcPB-08Hz4pi-9KnU2hPF5gaPA44NKoG_Hx2/s2775/Infinite%20Goodness%20Kindle%20Cover3b%20jn%20OR%20cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2775" data-original-width="1931" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtVBDnrtIBELa7GBUclAMD0veO7Ub6bIviOHkcP8t7TFjBR4Iw9PK9KdGljd-AOGL1t55wUu3uaqwegLPpYEMp6vwdOt7Ad8MvBi7lotu5GZ-wxCkVqiFeIuZJYRysJ8gnvIorbBkapAj4cqx9q5y2rcPB-08Hz4pi-9KnU2hPF5gaPA44NKoG_Hx2/s320/Infinite%20Goodness%20Kindle%20Cover3b%20jn%20OR%20cropped.jpg" width="223" /></a></b></div><b><br />Urim
and Thummim. </b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Jonathan
Edwards’ observations about the “Urim and Thummim” may shed light on some unresolved
questions in Church history.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Throughout
this book, we’ve noted alternative faithful narratives for the Book of Mormon:
translation (U&T) vs. vision (SITH). Statements by both Joseph and Oliver
suggest it was Moroni who used the term “Urim and Thummim” when explaining the
existence of the plates and how Joseph would translate them. For example,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="Quotationindented" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He also informed me that the Urim & Thummim was hid up with the
record, and that God would give me power to translate it with the assistance of
this instrument; he then gradually vanished out of my sight or the vision
closed</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></blockquote></blockquote>
<p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">However,
neither the text of the Book of Mormon nor any extant documentation prior to
1832 refers by name to the Urim and Thummim. The text refers to “interpreters”
while early documentation refers to “spectacles.” This leaves believers to
speculate about the origin of the term as applied to the Nephite interpreters/spectacles,
particularly Moroni’s use of a biblical term that involved a much different
relic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">The earliest known published account of
the translation is from August 11, 1829, six weeks after the translation was
completed in the <i>Palmyra Freeman.</i> The article titled “Golden Bible”
included this passage:</span></p>
<p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p class="Quotationindented" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Its proselytes give the following account… By placing the <b>spectacles</b>
in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret
the characters.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a></span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">This article was republished in the <i>Niagara
Courier</i> on August 27, 1829, the <i>Rochester Daily Advertiser and Telegraph</i>
on August 31, 1829, and the <i>Painesville [Ohio] Telegraph</i> on September
22, 1829. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">A separate article published in Rochester
on September 5, 1829, directly attributes the account to Martin Harris.</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="Quotationindented" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A man by the name of Martin Harris was in this village a few days since
endeavoring to make a contract for printing a large quantity of a work called
the Golden Bible. He gave something like the following account of it.... By
placing the <b>spectacles</b> in a hat and looking into it, Smith interprets
the characters into the English language.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a></span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">The reliability and precision of these early
accounts (“he gave something like”) is questionable. No one could have seen
Joseph put the Urim and Thummim into a hat because Joseph had been forbidden
from displaying the interpreters until the translation was complete. That’s why
Joseph used a stone during the demonstration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Perhaps Martin said “stone” and the
reporter conflated it with prior accounts about the “spectacles.” Whether and
how much earlier events, rumors, and misunderstanding influenced these
newspaper articles is impossible to say.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">In
his 1832 History, Joseph Smith wrote “the Lord had prepared spectacles for to
read the Book therefore.” His scribe Frederick G. Williams continued the
sentence: “I commenced translating the characters.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Translating characters isn’t merely reading words off a stone in a hat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">That
Joseph did not use the term “Urim and Thummim” in the 1832 history does not
mean that the term was not in circulation at that point. “Spectacles” is a
shorter and more descriptive term, perhaps more appropriate in the brief 1832
history. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Joseph
had apparently used the term Urim and Thummim at least by the time he wrote his
1832 history. The earliest known documented historical reference connecting the
“Urim and Thummim” to the Book of Mormon dates to August 1832, roughly
concurrent with Joseph’s 1832 history. An article in the <i>Boston Investigator</i>
from August 5, 1832,<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
reported a question-and-answer sequence with Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith who
were serving as missionaries in Boston.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-By whom was a fac simile of some part of the
language and characters taken, and on what material.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-It was taken by Joseph Smith on paper from the
original plates themselves…. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-In what manner was the interpretation, or translation
made known, and by whom was it written?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented"><b>A.-It was made known by the spirit of the Lord
through the medium of the Urim and Thummim</b>; and was written partly by
Oliver Cowdery, and partly by Martin Harris.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented"><b>Q.-What do you mean by Urim and Thummim?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-The same as were used by the prophets of old,
which were <b>two crystal stones, placed in bows something in the form of
spectacles,</b> which were found with the plates.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-What became of the plates after the translation
was made?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-They were delivered into the hands of the angel
of the Lord by whom they were afterwards shown to the three witnesses, who have
testified to that effect.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-At what place was the translation made?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-Partly at Manchester, Ontario county, N.Y. where
the plates were found, and partly on the banks of the Susquehannah river in
Pennsylvania.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">[Note: this error confuses Fayette with Manchester,
likely an error by the reporter.]<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-How many were present at the time and who?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris-and
several others at least part of the time whose names were mentioned but not
taken down.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">[Note: this is evidence that this exchange was not
recorded verbatim.]<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-When were the plates seen by the eight who saw
them, and who have testified to that fact; before they were translated, or
since?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-They were seen at different times while they were
in the hands of Joseph Smith and during the time of their translation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">[Note: This is another error or misunderstanding
because the witnesses did not see the plates until after the translation was
completed.]<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">Q.-Did they see the fac simile also, and if so, did
they compare the fac simile with the plates to see if they agreed?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Quotationindented">A.-They saw the fac simile also, but did not compare
it with the plates to see whether it agreed or not.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">The
missionaries’ response uses a phrase identical to the one Joseph used in the
1842 Wentworth letter. “<b>Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim</b> I
translated the record by the gift, and power of God.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
That phrase could be coincidental, but it also suggests that that Joseph was
the common source; i.e., that his brother Samuel and/or Orson Hyde learned
about the Urim and Thummim from Joseph.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Some
scholars conclude that the phrase “Urim and Thummim” was adopted years after
Moroni’s first visit, but both Joseph and Oliver published accounts depicting
Moroni himself as having used the term.</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He [Moroni] said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates,
giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source
from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting
Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient
inhabitants;</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones,
fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called <b>the Urim and Thummim</b>—deposited
with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what
constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them
for the purpose of translating the book.</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:34–35)</span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">In
1835, Oliver, who had kept a notebook of what Joseph told him starting in April
1829, related what Moroni told Joseph during their first encounter in 1823.</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="Quotationindented" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He [Moroni] said this history was written and deposited not far from
that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the
commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the
Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[7]</span></span></span></span></span></a></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Nothing
in the historical record contradicts what Joseph and Oliver taught in these
examples. Moroni could have used the term whether Joseph published it or not.
Evidently, at least by summer of 1832 Orson and Samuel had heard about it from
someone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">On
top of the vague chronology of events, we wonder why Moroni would have called
the interpreters the “Urim and Thummim.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Scholars
have long observed that the Urim and Thummim described by Joseph Smith differs
from the Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible. There are only a few
references in the Bible.</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Garamond",serif;">30 ¶ And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the <b>Urim
and the Thummim</b>; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in
before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel
upon his heart before the Lord continually. (Exodus 28:30)</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Garamond",serif;">8 And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the
breastplate the <b>Urim and the Thummim</b>. </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(Leviticus
8:8–9)</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">8 ¶ And of
Levi he said, Let thy <b>Thummim and thy Urim</b> be with thy holy one, whom
thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of
Meribah; (Deuteronomy 33:8)</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">63 And the
Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things,
till there stood up a priest with <b>Urim and with Thummim</b>. (Ezra 2:63)</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">65
And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy
things, till there stood up a priest with <b>Urim and Thummim</b>. (Nehemiah
7:65)</span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">These
obscure passages don’t explain much. The biblical Urim and Thummim was “put in”
the breastplate and the priest could stand up with them. There is no suggestion
of “spectacles” such as those Joseph found with the plates or any connection to
a “seer” here.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A good summary of biblical interpretations is here: </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><a href="https://www.biblestudy.org/bible-study-by-topic/the-urim-and-thummim.html" target="_blank">https://www.biblestudy.org/bible-study-by-topic/the-urim-and-thummim.html</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Even
assuming Joseph was familiar with these biblical passages, it would have been confusing
for Moroni to use the term <i>Urim and Thummim</i> to refer to the Nephite
interpreters. However, Joseph’s understanding of the Urim and Thummim was not
necessarily limited to what he could read in the Bible. Jonathan Edwards
discussed the Urim and Thummim in several passages in the 1808 edition of his
work. He pointed out that:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(i) the ancient priests determined matters by Urim and Thummm, </span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(ii) that the Jews had lost the Urim and Thummim, </span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(iii) that it was something by which the high priest inquired of God
and receive immediate answers from him,</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(iv) that God revealed himself by Urim and Thummim.</span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">These
characteristics roughly fit the Nephite interpreters, or spectacles, which had
been prepared to enable Joseph to translate the plates. In a sense, the
translation process required Joseph to inquire of God and receive answers. If
Moroni referred to the spectacles as “Urim and Thummim,” Joseph could have
understood the term as explained by Edwards: a means for getting answers from
God and an object that had been lost to the Jews (although once he translated
the plates, he would learn that the interpreters originated with the brother of
Jared). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Other
Christian writers offered brief explanations of the Urim and Thummim, but Edwards
wrote enough about the topic to support Moroni’s use of the term (assuming
Joseph read Edwards’ writings). Edwards pointed out that there was no account
of the Urim and Thummim “being ever restored.” Moroni putting the interpreters
with the plates could be seen as restoring the Urim and Thummim.</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Again another thing that was lost that the Jews had before was
the </span><b><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Urim and Thummim</span></b><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. This is evident
by Ezra 2:63, "And the Tirshatha [said unto them], that they should
not eat of the most holy things, till there should stand up a priest with Urim
and with Thummim." And we have no account of this being ever <b>restored</b>,
but the ancient writings of the Jews say the contrary. <b>What this Urim and
Thummim was I shall not now inquire</b>, but only shall observe that <b>it was
something by which the high priest inquired of God and received immediate
answers from him, or by which God gave forth immediate oracles on particular
occasions. </b>This was now withdrawn, the time approaching when Christ, <b>the
great antitype of the Urim and Thummim</b>, the great word and oracle of God,
was to come…</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And it was of vast importance that we should have an inspired history
of these times of the Jewish church <b>wherein there was kept up a more
extraordinary intercourse between God and them</b>, and while he used to dwell
among them, as it were, visibly revealing himself to them by the Shekinah, <b>by
Urim and Thummim</b>, and by prophecy, and so more immediately to order their
affairs….</span></p><p class="Quotationindented"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It was by the Urim and the
Thummim</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> that the high priest was especially
furnished to make intercession for the people, and <b>to reveal the mind and
will<a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[9]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
of God to them. The Urim and Thummim</b> had their principal importance, as
they were typical, and represented the perfection, and merit, the light, and
glory, there are in Christ.</span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Another
puzzle involving the Urim and Thummim is the expanded application of the term
around 1843 (D&C 130). In the early years of the Church, the term meant the
Nephite interpreters. The 1834 book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> distinguished
between the Urim and Thummim and the “peep stone” that some people claimed
Joseph put in a hat to see the words he dictated to his scribes. In response to
<i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, Oliver Cowdery emphasizes that Joseph translated
with the Urim and Thummim. (JS-H 1:71, note 1). Subsequent teachings by Joseph
and Oliver reaffirmed this point.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">On
April 2, 1843, however, Joseph taught that “the placed where God resides is a
great Urim and Thummim,” that the earth “will be a Urim and Thummim to the
inhabitants who dwell thereon,” and “the white stone mentioned in Revelation
2:17 will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one.” Although
not presented as revelation, these teachings have been canonized as such.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Perhaps Joseph was
influenced by comments Jonathan Edwards made in his notebooks of ideas and
insights that he drew upon for his sermons and treatises. Some, but not all, of
these <i>Miscellanies</i><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
were published in the 1830 10-volume collection of <i>The Works of President
Edwards</i>, edited by his grandson Sereno Edwards Dwight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;">Entry number 240
discusses the Urim and Thummim. I’m not aware that it was published in whole or
in part prior to 1843, or whether Joseph would have had access to it if it was
published, but Edwards’ here explains that in his view, the term referred not
to specific objects but to the spiritual power to prophesy and obtain divine
responses. This expanded concept of the term is congruent with what Joseph
taught, so it’s worth considering. I’ve highlighted relevant portions in <b>bold</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-vertical-align-alt: auto; text-align: left; text-autospace: ideograph-numeric ideograph-other; text-indent: 0in;"><span class="head"><b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Gothic"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;">240. URIM AND THUMMIM.</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">There has been great
inquiry</span></b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">,
what was that urim and thummim that was in the breastplate of the high priest,
whereas I think we have it plainly described in <span class="bibl"><i>Exodus
28:17–21</i></span>. … <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Every jewel stood for a
tribe, and had the name of that tribe written on it that it stood for. God's
people are called his jewels. So Christ bears our judgment; that is, he is our
representative in judgment and, as to God's dealings with respect to his law,
he stands for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The name "urim and
thummim" signifies light and perfection;</span></b><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and it being 'tis the plural number, may
more properly be rendered "glisterings" (or "brightnesses")
and "beauties," because of the charming appearances that the jewels
made by their different kinds of glisterings, and the beautiful proportion of
their different colors. …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The use of it seems to be
much the same with the <b>plate of gold</b> on the miter mentioned in <span class="bibl"><i>Exodus 28:36</i></span>, whereon was engraved "holiness to
the Lord"; which the high priest was to have on his forehead, that he
might bear the iniquity of the children of Israel, and that he might be
accepted when he came in before the Lord (as <span class="bibl"><i>Exodus
28:38</i></span>). <b>By the urim and thummim he was to bear the judgment
of the children of Israel on his heart; by this plate of gold he was to bear
the iniquity of the children of Israel on his head. </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">We find them both
mentioned after the same manner, where we have an account of Moses <b>putting
the holy garments upon Aaron</b>, as in <span class="bibl"><i>Leviticus
8:8–9</i></span>, …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">But if the objection be
allowed, <b>all that it can argue is that the urim and thummim was not any
material thing, but a power given to the breastplate of foretelling or of
obtaining divine responses. </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">For we can't imagine in
reason, that any material thing was expected to be sent down from heaven, to be
put into the breastplate; but <span class="bibl"><i>Leviticus 8:8</i></span> proves
it was [a] material thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Therefore, if they had
those jewels in the breastplate at that time, the reason of their speaking in
this manner must be, because they did not think them worthy the name of urim
and thummim till they had such a power given them as the former urim and
thummim had.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: #580A;"> </span><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/125"><span lang="es-419" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; mso-ansi-language: #580A;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/125</span></a><span lang="es-419" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: #580A; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span lang="es-419" style="mso-ansi-language: #580A;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p align="left" class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: left;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
“Golden Bible,” <i>The Freeman</i>, August 11, 1829, online at <a href="http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/Phelps/1829_0811PF-pg2.gif">http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/Phelps/1829_0811PF-pg2.gif</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p align="left" class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: left;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> “A
Golden Bible,” <i>The Gem, of Literature and Science</i>, Rochester, NY,
September 5, 1829, Vol. I, No. 9, online at <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/ny/miscNYSf.htm">http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/ny/miscNYSf.htm</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Joseph
Smith, <i>History, circa Summer 1832</i>, online at <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/5">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/5</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a name="_Hlk76629591">“Questions proposed to the Mormonite Preachers and their
answers obtained before the whole assembly at Julian Hall,” <i>Boston
Investigator</i>, August 5, 1832, online at </a><a href="https://user.xmission.com/~research/central/hydesmith.htm"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk76629591;">https://user.xmission.com/~research/central/hydesmith.htm</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk76629591;">. See note 5 at </span><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk76629591;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk76629591;"></span>.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> “Church
History,” <i>Times and Seasons</i>, March 1, 1842, online at <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Oliver
Cowdery, “Letter IV,” <i>History, 1834-1836</i>, p. 64, online at <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 13.7pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Jewish traditions have
various understandings, ranging from the Urim and Thummim as lots or dice cast
for divination to their being illuminated words or jewels on the breastplate
that formed words. Whether Joseph was familiar with this speculation is unknown
but unlikely. See Trevan G. Hatch, “Magic, Biblical Law, and the Israelite Urim
and Thummim,”</span> <i><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Studia
Antiqua</span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">
5, no. 2 (2007). </span><a href="https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua/vol5/iss2/10"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua/vol5/iss2/10</span></a><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn9" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The non-biblical
phrase “mind and will” appears only in D&C 133:61 (November 3, 1831). “And
this according to the mind and will of the Lord.”<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn10" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Bever/Documents/1-JN%20books/Infinite%20Goodness/Infinite%20Goodness%20Nov%2022%202021-6-12-23%20print%20version%20JN.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; letter-spacing: -.1pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> A
complete list of the Miscellanies is available here: <a href="http://edwards.yale.edu/research/misc-index">http://edwards.yale.edu/research/misc-index</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><br /><p></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-10107723048205920762023-11-20T13:04:00.000-08:002023-11-20T13:04:01.775-08:00Origins of M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory)<p>One of the most problematic historical narratives that persists in the Restoration involves the setting of the Book of Mormon.</p><p>Everyone can see that Joseph, Oliver and their contemporaries and successors in Church leadership taught that the Cumorah/Ramah of Mormon 6:6 is the same hill in western New York where Moroni had deposited the abridged plates in the stone box he constructed. </p><p><a href="https://www.mobom.org/cumorah-overview" target="_blank">https://www.mobom.org/cumorah-overview</a></p><p>Yet for the past few decades, prominent LDS and RLDS (now Community of Christ, or COC) scholars have taught that the "real Cumorah" is somewhere in southern Mexico because they believe most Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica, and New York is too far away. Thus, they claim the hill in New York was not the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 but instead a false tradition. This means there are "two Cumorahs," the real one in Mexico and the false one in New York. This is the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory (M2C).</p><p>How did scholars arrive at this conclusion?</p><p>In a September 2023 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW2hkI7OXLU&t=2565s" target="_blank">YouTube interview</a>, Kirk Magleby of Book of Mormon Central reiterated the fundamental premise of M2C; i.e., the M2Cers believe that Joseph Smith wrote or edited articles published in the 1842 <i>Times and Seasons</i> newspaper in Nauvoo that quoted from books by Stephens and Catherwood about their discoveries of ancient ruins in Central America. </p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/travelinyucatan01step/page/n5/mode/2up" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/travelinyucatan01step/page/n5/mode/2up</a></p><p>The articles claimed that ruins in Central America were left by Nephites. One article even speculated that the city of Zarahemla was in Guatemala. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>You can find these articles in WordCruncher in the "Early LDS Periodicals" database. Search for "Catherwood" or another related term. If you don't have WordCrucher, you should download it now and start using it.</p><p><a href="https://wordcruncher.com/" target="_blank">https://wordcruncher.com/</a></p></blockquote><p>Because nothing in the Book of Mormon itself refers to America, or even the western hemisphere, LDS and RLDS scholars who promote the Mesoamerican setting have relied on these articles in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> for authority. They claim that (i) Joseph Smith did not know where the Book of Mormon events took place, (ii) he learned about Central America from the Stephens and Catherwood books, and (iii) modern scholars are following the model established by Joseph Smith when they study archaeology in Central America.</p><p>Assuming these articles were written or edited by Joseph Smith, RLDS scholar L.E. Hills further assumed that the hill in New York was "too far away" to be the Cumorah described in the text, so in 1917 he published a map showing Cumorah in southern Mexico. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrGdLI15239B9OtPDmqJl5KT6t7-iRd59ZVmxhQWDLclpniF8qpStEklWU13y3OXmjG_1QvyzdOKDVZLuMJOOFm3Lg4KrQLXypqhkoOEgWmVnKWupHYrU_08wdXVs23P750aowZ9QoOYf1saBRf6_yEDV1tdIw5dqACAyCI3rBRjRwfHKtXEZMeESX/s400/Hills'%201917%20Cumorah.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="400" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrGdLI15239B9OtPDmqJl5KT6t7-iRd59ZVmxhQWDLclpniF8qpStEklWU13y3OXmjG_1QvyzdOKDVZLuMJOOFm3Lg4KrQLXypqhkoOEgWmVnKWupHYrU_08wdXVs23P750aowZ9QoOYf1saBRf6_yEDV1tdIw5dqACAyCI3rBRjRwfHKtXEZMeESX/s320/Hills'%201917%20Cumorah.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L.E. Hills map from 1917<br />click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Eventually LDS scholars, particularly John Sorenson, agreed with Hills and also put Cumorah in southern Mexico. Even today, <i>BYU Studies</i> includes this M2C map on its website.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORBezGWpeBhCQU-lZZ_vBveUrBvl77P36ZpRqb0OUEQrreMkzv-pLqcAnPHCSUUAbpI1Z_Yknj2MAem7F88XrXmXz9IZcHol3rToTBMmUXBUXwb8xxQ_gWTyaoHnz8iAKvJiak4eVW0W4ODo4oE23BCLI92KoauRfHVySMg8iwiDGpgtLu7ipjDv5/s2740/M2C%20BYU%20Studies%20Cumorah%20outlined.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1755" data-original-width="2740" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORBezGWpeBhCQU-lZZ_vBveUrBvl77P36ZpRqb0OUEQrreMkzv-pLqcAnPHCSUUAbpI1Z_Yknj2MAem7F88XrXmXz9IZcHol3rToTBMmUXBUXwb8xxQ_gWTyaoHnz8iAKvJiak4eVW0W4ODo4oE23BCLI92KoauRfHVySMg8iwiDGpgtLu7ipjDv5/s320/M2C%20BYU%20Studies%20Cumorah%20outlined.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>The height of M2C was probably the "Worlds of Joseph Smith" in 2005, when BYU and the Library of Congress sponsored a two-day academic conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's birth. Scholars presented M2C to the entire world as a fact, including exhibits of the Stephens and Catherwood illustrations and text.</p><p><i>BYU Studies</i> published a special edition about the conference.</p><p><a href="https://byustudies.byu.edu/product/the-worlds-of-joseph-smith-a-bicentennial-conference-at-the-library-of-congress-hardcover/" target="_blank">https://byustudies.byu.edu/product/the-worlds-of-joseph-smith-a-bicentennial-conference-at-the-library-of-congress-hardcover/</a></p><p>One of the most amazing articles was written by John Clark, a thoughtful scholar and great guy. You can read it here: </p><p><a href="https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/archaeological-trends-and-the-book-of-mormon-origins/" target="_blank">https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/archaeological-trends-and-the-book-of-mormon-origins/</a></p><p>The article includes this graphic, which emphasizes the central role the 1842 Times and Seasons articles played to justify M2C.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Qe_pIHyrnxWuVLJjhbatv2DW1544Y2jrHT_kmNdgVxTPAqPw_BmSTLekwlg2VR2F5OBCGduYykHfmYBhp7iNFAtQ5rYtcQcnf4d9wH7jchILEROQA-DvrNsNDX45TW201FF_rcdti39ectfI200SOPWLqO126wUS49-DQEguIvjp7Lcle3mng1fS/s580/Worlds%20of%20Joseph%20Smith%20maps%20-%20hemispheric.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="580" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Qe_pIHyrnxWuVLJjhbatv2DW1544Y2jrHT_kmNdgVxTPAqPw_BmSTLekwlg2VR2F5OBCGduYykHfmYBhp7iNFAtQ5rYtcQcnf4d9wH7jchILEROQA-DvrNsNDX45TW201FF_rcdti39ectfI200SOPWLqO126wUS49-DQEguIvjp7Lcle3mng1fS/s320/Worlds%20of%20Joseph%20Smith%20maps%20-%20hemispheric.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">click to enlarge</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>I commented on the article here: <a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2016/05/fun-with-john-e-clark-byu-studies-and.html" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2016/05/fun-with-john-e-clark-byu-studies-and.html</a></p><p>Of course, none of the scholars mentioned that Joseph had refuted the Mesoamerican setting when he wrote the Wentworth letter, but few Latter-day Saints know about that because the manual on the <i>Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith</i>, actually censored that part of the Wentworth letter to accommodate M2C.</p><p><a href="https://www.lettervii.com/2018/07/editing-wentworth-letter.html" target="_blank">https://www.lettervii.com/2018/07/editing-wentworth-letter.html</a></p><p>_____</p><p>Implicit in the M2C argument is the claim that Joseph and Oliver, their contemporaries and successors, were not only all wrong about the New York Cumorah, but they misled believers for decades until the scholars figured out the truth.</p><p>Thus, we have a set of cascading assumptions about Cumorah</p><p>The articles were signed "Ed." for "editor." Because the boilerplate language at the end of each issue said the newspaper was printed, edited and published by Joseph Smith, people assumed that Joseph himself wrote or edited the articles.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUoImfS_4yGcFw-d9mL4IUNM9ndpmrN_CyXTAtBH6UMlcjBjf89_ZPMHHBgncBYq6c5UjWvEbJnc3VPfl9Uigvnxoz4vBtgRoecJKprJ2r0EGRuEi2l9eUJSlx6ZPKcw2-qyesFWsVqKzdNISTcGKbd9pnxYkcocDsA8XM8oId6Lopr-bhmYz5kHp/s385/Lost%20City.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUoImfS_4yGcFw-d9mL4IUNM9ndpmrN_CyXTAtBH6UMlcjBjf89_ZPMHHBgncBYq6c5UjWvEbJnc3VPfl9Uigvnxoz4vBtgRoecJKprJ2r0EGRuEi2l9eUJSlx6ZPKcw2-qyesFWsVqKzdNISTcGKbd9pnxYkcocDsA8XM8oId6Lopr-bhmYz5kHp/s320/Lost%20City.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>However, no one believes that Joseph actually printed the newspaper. No one thinks he was setting type, operating the press, etc. <p></p><p>He was merely the nominal printer; i.e., the printer in name only.</p><p>Consequently, there is no reason to assume, from the boilerplate alone, that Joseph was anything more than the nominal editor; i.e., the editor in name only.</p><p><br />And, as I showed in <i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">T<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Zarahemla-Guatemala-Again/dp/1515337995/" target="_blank">he Lost City of Zarahemla</a></span>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Brought-Light-jonathan-neville/dp/1944200010" target="_blank">Brought to Light</a>, </i>and <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Editors-Joseph-William-Carlos-Smith/dp/1937735532" target="_blank">The Editors</a></i>, there is plenty of extrinsic evidence that indicates Joseph was not the actual author or editor of these articles.</p><p>Instead, the evidence indicates that Benjamin Winchester, working with William Smith and/or W.H. Phelps, was the actual author. This post is too limited to review all of the evidence, which is why there are three books on that topic.</p><p>Here is a summary using the FAITH model:</p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Facts<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Letter VII,
written by Oliver Cowdery as Assistant President of the Church with the
assistance of Joseph Smith, Jr., declared it is a fact that Cumorah/Ramah is the
same hill in western New York from which Joseph obtained the abridged plates
that had been deposited by Moroni in the stone box. Lucy Mack Smith, David
Whitmer, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt and many other corroborated the New
York Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Assumptions<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">M2Cers<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Heartlanders<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph Smith
did not know anything about the setting of the Book of Mormon. Joseph,
Oliver, and everyone else who taught the New York Cumorah were ignorant
speculators who were wrong. Joseph learned about Book of Mormon geography in
1841-2 from the books by Stephens and Catherwood. Thus, the setting of the
Book of Mormon is a question of scholarship.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph and
Oliver knew Cumorah/Ramah was in New York because they had personal
experience inside the repository of records there. Lucy Mack Smith recalled
Joseph referring to the hill as Cumorah even before he got the plates. Joseph
said he learned about the Nephites directly from Moroni. Thus, the location
of Cumorah is not a question of scholarship but an authoritative declaration
by prophets.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Inferences<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The 1842 articles
in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> that linked Mesoamerican ruins to the
Nephites were written and/or edited by Joseph Smith because the boilerplate
at the end of each issue said the paper was printed, edited, and published by
Joseph Smith.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The 1842 articles
in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> that linked Mesoamerican ruins to the
Nephites were not written and/or edited by Joseph Smith because (i) he didn’t
have the time or interest to do so, (ii) the boilerplate at the end of each
issue said the paper was printed, edited, and published by Joseph Smith,
showing he was merely the nominal printer, editor, and publisher, and (iii)
extrinsic evidence indicates that Benjamin Winchester wrote the articles with
William Smith and/or WW Phelps as editors.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Theories<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Because Joseph
adopted the Mesoamerican setting, and because Mesoamerica is too far from New
York for Cumorah to fit the narrative, the real Cumorah must be in southern
Mexico.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Because Cumorah/Ramah
is in western New York, any proposed setting of the Book of Mormon must start
with Cumorah as a “pin in the map” that cannot be moved.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Hypothesis<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The prophets
have all been wrong about Cumorah because the Book of Mormon took place in a
limited area of Mesoamerica, with Cumorah in southern Mexico, and further
refinements are a subject of scholarship.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The prophets
have all been correct about Cumorah because the Book of Mormon took place in
the eastern United States with a variety of possible locations relative to
the New York Cumorah, and the possible settings can be refined through
scholarship.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><p>_____</p><p>To see how fundamental the 1842 Times and Seasons articles are to M2C, here is an article published by BMAF.org, the corporate owner of Book of Mormon Central:</p><p><a href="http://www.bmaf.org/articles/smith_stephens_times_seasons__handy" target="_blank">http://www.bmaf.org/articles/smith_stephens_times_seasons__handy</a></p><p>I did a review of that article over 8 years ago:</p><p><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2015/06/peer-review-bomaf-joseph-smith-john.html" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2015/06/peer-review-bomaf-joseph-smith-john.html</a></p><p>Another review of the "origins of M2C" here:</p><p><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2015/02/the-of-mesoamerican-model.html" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2015/02/the-of-mesoamerican-model.html</a></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-65463534861034971362023-11-16T16:32:00.000-08:002023-11-16T16:32:55.756-08:00Nonbiblical intertextuality database-supplement to Infinite Goodness<p>The debates about the origin of the Book of Mormon range from 100% naturalistic to 100% supernaturalistic.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCevqFXz7Xpvyi3EJqjuMIgWOvVTPQ8_MuuTegpI6r8tesitKmffKwJ8oG0XKUY0EbWMhREXl_xwZD2qIsJsWLv2CjrfUFpS_plAhgNBrTDTAmhKawpgJ0Pm5CRcpXl4kCUhYsJyq4tvdkU27r7YKEZyzQYawoCLe8hCN00ljAYxNdIF6YLcLdFMN_/s3053/Theories%20of%20BofM%20origins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="3053" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCevqFXz7Xpvyi3EJqjuMIgWOvVTPQ8_MuuTegpI6r8tesitKmffKwJ8oG0XKUY0EbWMhREXl_xwZD2qIsJsWLv2CjrfUFpS_plAhgNBrTDTAmhKawpgJ0Pm5CRcpXl4kCUhYsJyq4tvdkU27r7YKEZyzQYawoCLe8hCN00ljAYxNdIF6YLcLdFMN_/w400-h155/Theories%20of%20BofM%20origins.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The explanation that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery gave--that Joseph translated the engravings on the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim--is the most rational and parsimonious. Alternative explanations, whether entirely naturalistic or entirely supernaturalistic, rely on the assumption that Joseph and Oliver misled everyone; i.e., they deliberately lied. <div><br /></div><div>Some people cite "eyewitness" testimony to support the stone-in-the-hat theory (SITH). Because translation is a mental process, no one can observe translation. A witness could observe Joseph dictating words, but, unless the witness also observed words on a document or source Joseph was reading to see if the words were English or not, the witness could not observe the origin of the words and thus could not know whether Joseph was reading, translating, or dictating from memory. The witness would have to rely on Joseph's explanation for the source. And Joseph always said he translated the engravings on the plates, after having copied and translated the individual characters by means of the Urim and Thummim.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some people cite evidence of composition, such as passages, phrases, and terminology from the King James Bible, <i>The Late War</i>, and other sources presumably available to Joseph. However, evidence of composition is also evidence of translation because a translator, like an author, must rely on his/her mental language bank. No one can translate an English text into French if he/she does not know French. Similarly, no one can write or translate in English using words he/she does not know.</div><div><br /></div><div>Every reader of the Book of Mormon who is familiar with the King James Version of the Bible recognizes biblical language in the text. Scholars such as Royal Skousen have documented these examples of intertextuality between the Bible and the Book of Mormon. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, a substantial portion of the text consists of words and phrases not found in the Bible. If Joseph was actually illiterate and uneducated (apart from his familiarity with the Bible), accounting for the nonbiblical language is problematic and supports both a naturalistic explanation (i.e., that someone else composed it, such as the Spalding theory) and a supernaturalistic explanation (i.e., that Joseph read words off the seer stone that he didn't know).</div><div><br /></div><div>Evidence that Joseph was familiar with the nonbiblical language in the text supports his claim that he actually translated the engravings on the plates. </div><div><br /></div><div>The book <i>Infinite Goodness: Joseph Smith, Jonathan Edwards, and the Book of Mormon</i> makes a case for Joseph having become familiar with the works of Edwards, a prominent Christian minister and author from the 1700s. An 8-volume set of Edwards' works was on sale in the print shop in Palmyra that Joseph visited weekly, and Edwards' sermons were widely available in magazines, newspapers and separate pamphlets. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I wrote I<i>nfinite Goodness</i>, I accumulated a database of nonbiblical terms in the Book of Mormon that I add to from time to time. This is the Nonbiblical Intertextuality Database or NID. On the mobom.org site, I posted an early version of the NID in conjunction with the Mormon History Association in June 2022. However, as a .pdf file, that version of the NID was not easily accessible.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the interim, I've added many new entries. I use the NID frequently. At present, the database is 1,382 pages in a Word document. Because so many people expressed interest in the NID, I have published it as a work in progress on Kindle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the link:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNJBTG8R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CEPLDMKB6X3T" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNJBTG8R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CEPLDMKB6X3T</a><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-56586308396632863092023-10-04T08:07:00.005-07:002023-10-04T08:09:36.103-07:00Update on Jonathan Hadley and SITH<div>Because of the interest in this topic, I've added a side-by-side analysis of the material to make it easier for everyone to follow.</div><div><br /></div><div>The original post is here: </div><div><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/the-jonathan-hadley-account-and-sith.html" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/the-jonathan-hadley-account-and-sith.html</a></div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 9pt 0in 0in;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18pt;">The 1829 Jonathan Hadley account of the translation of the Book of Mormon<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 9pt 0in 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Questions about the origin of the Book of Mormon revolve around a preliminary truth claim; i.e., did Joseph Smith translate the engravings on the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim (aka Nephite interpreters or spectacles) that came with the plates, as he said?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Or did Joseph Smith produce the text by dictating words that appeared on a stone in a hat, thereby misleading everyone with his explanation about the Urim and Thummim?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">(Variations on this view have Joseph Smith receiving the Book of Mormon by direct revelation of some sort, ignoring or reversing the process described in D&C 9:8-9 where study must precede inspiration.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Since these approaches all rely on setting aside the plates-and-interpreters process given by Joseph Smith in favor of stone-in-the-hat accounts, I treat them together here.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Faithful scholars on both sides of this debate cite historical documents, make assumptions, draw inferences, and present theories that explain the facts the way they see them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In my view, the historical evidence corroborates what Joseph Smith claimed; i.e., that he translated the engravings on the plates with the interpreters that came with the plates. This once prevailing narrative has been supplanted in recent years by scholars who claim the historical evidence favors the stone-in-the-hat narrative.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In this post, we will examine the arguments made by two of the most prominent advocates of the faithful version of the stone-in-the-hat narrative, Michael MacKay and Gerrit Dirkmaat.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">We pause to note that critics who reject the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon universally (and necessarily) reject the claim that Joseph actually translated the engravings on the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">These same critics readily embrace the “stone-in-the-hat” narrative (SITH) for two reasons. First, it permits them to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">argue that SITH is the “true history” that has been “hidden” by Church leaders. Second, they observe that SITH accommodates explanations that deny divine intervention, including (i) the explanation that Joseph composed the text either in advance or during his oral “performance” based on prompts or (ii) the explanation that Joseph used occult methods to obtain a supernatural text that was not divine.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Believers who accept SITH obviously disagree with critics about the source of the words that appeared on the stone directly, or which came into Joseph’s mind without any preparatory study through some form of catalysis by the stone in his hat.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">However, believers who reject SITH point out that the strongest narrative to support the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon is the one Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery gave; i.e., that he translated the characters on the plates with the interpreters prepared by God for that purpose.</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">_____<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The first known published account about Book of Mormon translation was an article entitled "Golden Bible" which appeared in the </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Palmyra Freeman</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> in August 1829 by Jonathan Hadley (“Hadley 1829). Hadley claimed that Joseph Smith said he could translate characters by placing spectacles in a hat.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829 has been cited in the Joseph Smith Papers, the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation, and several other books, including my own </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A Man That Can Translate </i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">and </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">From Darkness Unto Light</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> by Michael MacKay and Gerrit Dirkmaat.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Most recently Hadley 1829 was elevated to greater prominence in the 2023 book </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Let’s Talk about the Translation of the Book of Mormon</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">, also by MacKay and Dirkmaat. MacKay/Dirkmaat have created a narrative based on assumptions and inferences that supports their claim that Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon by reading words that appeared on a stone he placed in a hat.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">However, MacKay/Dirkmaat apparently overlooked a subsequent article Hadley published in 1842 (Hadley 1842) that contradicts important elements of this MacKay/Dirkmaat narrative.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In this paper, we will compare the MacKay/Dirkmaat narrative to the full Hadley accounts, including both 1829 Hadley and 1842 Hadley. Then we will review the evidence that Joseph Smith himself rejected the Hadley SITH narrative.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">To enable full comparison, relevant portions of the MacKay/Dirkmaat books are excerpted below, with commentary, beginning with Page 1 of their Let’s Talk About book (LTA).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><tbody><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">MacKay and Dirkmaat<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Comments: Jonathan Hadley 1829 and 1834 <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA, p. 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In August 1829, newspaper editor Jonathan Hadley was angry at Joseph Smith. Joseph had recently approached Hadley and Egbert Grandin, rival editors in Palmyra, a few weeks earlier with the prospect of publishing the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Hadley never said Joseph came to his shop. He never said he met Joseph. While historians could argue Joseph’s presence was implied in Hadley 1829, Hadley 1842 explicitly states that only Martin Harris came to the shop and met with Hadley.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Grandin, who competed with Hadley for readers and was his political rival, had already vigorously refused to publish the book. Grandin published in his paper his disdain for the entire project, calling Joseph Smith’s account of gold plates “a pretended discovery.” 1<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">MacKay/Dirkmaat argued previously that Grandin refused to publish the book out of concern that Martin Harris would lose his money. Grandin sought to dissuade Harris from the project.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">1. <i>Wayne Sentinel</i>, June 26, 1829.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Unlike his nemesis Grandin, Hadley had not rejected the project outright. But Hadley’s small facilities were totally inadequate to publish the nearly six-hundred-page book, especially at a print run of five thousand copies.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This speculative, mind-reading claim by MacKay/Dirkmaat contradicts Hadley’s own explanation in Hadley 1842.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“Soon after the translation was completed, I was one day waited upon by Harris, and offered the printing of the Book of Mormon. This was in the summer of 1829, at which time I was carrying on the printing business at Palmyra. Harris owned a good farm in that town, and offered to mortgage it to secure the expense of printing. Though he was a subscriber to my paper, and had frequently "labored" to convert me to the Mormon faith, I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang.”<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Possibly hoping to still share in the profits from publication, Hadley had referred Joseph and Martin to his mentor and friend, Thurlow Weed, in Rochester.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is pure speculation that contradicts Hadley 1842. In <i>From Darkness Unto Light</i>, the authors couch their speculation more carefully by writing “it is very likely that Hadley was the principal reason Smith and Harris traveled the considerable distance to Rochester… Hadley likely told Joseph that… he had no experience in book printing or binding.” But Hadley never claimed he met Joseph.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Though Joseph Smith and Martin Harris tried, they were unable to convince Weed to publish the book. However, with an agreement with another Rochester publisher in hand, Joseph returned to Palmyra and was able to convince Grandin to relent in his opposition and publish the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This sentence is accurate.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">When Hadley learned that it would not be his friend but his chief competitor publishing the Book of Mormon and that thousands of Martin Harris’s dollars would be pouring into Egbert Grandin’s coffers, Hadley reacted in anger and lashed out at Joseph Smith.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This narrative contradicts Hadley 1842, quoted above, in which Hadley had threatened at the outset to “expose [Harris] and the whole Mormon gang” if Harris proceeded with the publication.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley’s chief weapon was always his biting, sarcastic wit, which he used to pillory politician and religionist alike when the crossed him. And Joseph Smith had now crossed him. Hadley published a lengthy attack on the “Gold Bible in his newspaper, repeating the story of the discovery of the gold plates and Joseph Smith’s explanation of the miraculous translation.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley simply followed through on the threat he made when Harris first asked him to publish the Book of Mormon. Hadley 1842 explains, “He took the work, however, to the other office in the village, and it was soon put to press. It was then I wrote and published an article, which you may recollect, headed "THE GOLDEN BIBLE," giving a history of the humbug up to that time. This article was extensively copied, it having been the first ever published about the Mormons.” Hadley </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">1842 also asserts that he never indicated any interest in the publication of the Book of Mormon, rejecting it from the beginning as a “humbug.”</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 2<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Unlike later antagonists of Joseph Smith, Hadley did little to attack Joseph Smith personally. He did not need to. Anyone who heard Joseph’s story of angelic visitations, ancient plates, holy devices used to translate them, and receiving revelations from God would, Hadley assumed, immediately reject the whole idea as preposterous.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829 only briefly mentions Joseph Smith, whom Hadley did not claim to have met in person. MacKay/Dirkmaat’s statements about Hadley’s reasoning are speculation since their Hadley 1829 source is silent. And when Hadley did speak to the issue in Hadley 1842, he again contradicts MacKay/Dirkmaat as Hadley 1842 was very much a direct attack on Joseph Smith that reiterated charges made in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> published in 1834.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“But you wish to know something about the earlier history of the Smiths. They were always considered by their own townsmen as a lazy, vicious, profane, unlearned, superstitious family. They lived "from hand to mouth," spending most of the time not required for the provision of their immediate wants, in digging in the hills of Manchester for money, under the belief often expressed by them, that Capt. Kidd or some other person of wealth, had there deposited their treasures. For many, many years to come, traces of these excavations will be visible -- monuments alike of the superstition and folly of the Smith family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As for Jo, he is altogether too stupid to write an ordinary newspaper paragraph of common sense, as the columns of the Mormon paper will bear abundant testimony. Before he got up his humbug, he was so illiterate as scarcely to be able to write his name intelligibly or spell it correctly. -- He could have no farther agency in the preparation of the Book of Mormon for the press, than that which I have already awarded him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I may here add, that Harris, disgusted with Mormonism, left the tribe nearly two years since, as have also all of the honest persons of ordinary intelligence, who had become the dupes of Jo and his assistant wire-pullers.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Without the manuscript in his hand, Hadley particularly scoffed at the idea that Joseph Smith could even produce such a book—one that proclaimed itself to be another book of scripture, equal if not superior to the Holy Bible itself. After all, Joseph Smith was, Hadley asserted, “very illiterate.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829. “Now it appears not a little strange that there should have been deposited in this western world, and in the secluded town of Manchester, too, a record of this description, and still more so, that a person like Smith (very illiterate) should have been gifted by inspiration to read and interpret it. It should be recorded as a "new thing under the sun." It is certainly a "new thing" in the history of superstition, bigotry, inconsistency, and foolishness.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As fantastical as Joseph’s story of the angel sounded, the idea that this uneducated farm boy translated the purported book from ancient records seemed even more implausible to Hadley.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829 claimed Joseph had a dream and did not mention angels. Hadley 1842 says “Jo was one night visited by an angel” and made two other references to angels. Perhaps MacKay/Dirkmaat confused the two articles? At any rate, they never cited Hadley 1842.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">At the time Hadley published his dismissive article, there were few indications to him or anyone else that Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon would amount to anything more than a curiosity that would quickly be lost in the rapidly shifting sands of time. There was not yet a Church of Christ (the original name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and it would not be organized for another eight months.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This sentence is accurate.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Palmyra, where Hadley lived, only Joseph Smith’s own family seemed to have accepted Joseph’s claims. The lone exception was Martin Harris, whom even Hadley in his criticism seemed perplexed about because Harris was “an honest and industrious farmer,” well respected in the community.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley never said or implied that Harris was the “lone exception.” Hadley 1829 said “the greatest piece of superstition… still occupies the attention of a few superstitious and bigoted individuals of this quarter. Hadley refers to “its proselytes” without naming anyone, then says “A few however, believed the "golden" story, among whom was Martin Harris, an honest and industrious farmer of this town.” The “few” presumably included Joseph’s own family along with others identified by Harris, such as Oliver Cowdery and the Whitmers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Hadley 1842, Hadley writes “At first, no one would listen to his absurd story; but he soon let some knowing ones into the secret, and by dint of their united efforts, a few of the unlearned and superstitious of their neighbors were made to gulp down the story.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Harris notwithstanding, Hadley dismissed Joseph’s claims and the Book of Mormon, believing that they would be rejected entirely by anyone who heard the story or read the book 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As we just saw, Hadley acknowledged that some people had already accepted the “story.” His purpose was to warn the public. “It should, and it doubtless will, be treated with the neglect it merits. The public should not be imposed upon by this work, pronounced as it is, by its proselytes, to be superior in style, and more advantageous to mankind, than the Holy Bible!”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">2. “Gold Bible,” <i>Palmyra Freeman</i>, August 11, 1829.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 3.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">For his part, Joseph Smith always maintained that the translation of the Book of Mormon was a miracle. He affirmed that “through the medium of the Urim and Thummim,” he had “translated the record by the gift and power of God.” 3<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">There are no instances of Joseph describing the translation as a “miracle.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The full quotation from the Wentworth letter explains the origin of the name “Urim and Thummim” and gives a specific description that contradicts the SITH narrative.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,” which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">3. Joseph Smith to John Wentworth, <i>Times and Seasons</i>, March 1, 1842.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As soon as believers and skeptics were able to peruse the book’s pages, they set forth explanations for how it was produced. Believers added details to Joseph’s description of the process of translation. Meanwhile, skeptics offered explanations for how Joseph Smith either attempted to pawn off someone else’s prose as a miracle or had himself creatively produced a fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In his Preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph responded to alternative explanations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following work…I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon.” Hadley 1829 had been reprinted in several newspapers and constituted the most notorious of the “false reports” that circulated. As we’ll see below, the only factual error in Hadley 1829 was the account of the spectacles in the hat, which Joseph explicitly contradicted by saying he took the translated from the plates.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Thus, even before it was published (and even more so afterward), the Book of Mormon became the focal point of those joining or deriding the Church of Christ. Many offered their own explanations of how the Book of Mormon came into being. Those various explanations often did not take the accounts Joseph and his scribes gave at face value. Some attempted to prove it was not a miracle, while others would later embellish the events to try to make it seem more miraculous. In either case, the explanations did not describe the miracle as the participants said that it happened.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">There were no contemporaneous accounts of the translation from the participants for believers and non-believers to argue over as implied by MacKay/Dirkmaat. The earliest specific account is what Joseph wrote in the Preface. The rest appeared later in the 1830s after <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> was published in 1834. And then the accounts published by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery consistently credited the translation as coming from the plates through the interpreters by the gift and power of God, with no mention of a stone in a hat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829 restated what unnamed “proselytes” said, combined with whatever Martin Harris said, but Hadley did not state or imply that he met Joseph personally.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829 explains that no one was permitted to see the spectacles, which makes the spectacle-in-the-hat narrative inherently hearsay.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 7<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This book expands upon the historical explanation found in the Gospel Topics essays, but readers should be aware that other faithful Latter-day Saints have proffered different theories about the translation of the Book of Mormon, which attempt to describe the process in different ways. But this book addresses common questions that arise in light of the <i>historical</i> explanation of the miracle of translation, and those subscribing to different theories of translation will no doubt find some of our questions and answers unsatisfying.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The irony of this statement is threefold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">First, the Gospel Topics essay on translation never quotes what Joseph and Oliver said about the translation, apart from a truncated excerpt that changes the meaning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Second, LTA invents a demonstrably false narrative about Hadley 1829 to promote the authors’ SITH narrative.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Third, despite their claim to a historical approach, the authors avoid a detailed contextual analysis of the SITH statements. They also do not acknowledge that one of the alternative “theories” of translation is Joseph Smith’s plates-and-interpreters account which was accepted by all faithful believers in the Book of Mormon in all of the churches of the Restoration until only the most recent times when scholars like MacKay/Dirkmaat began to put aside Joseph’s account.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">NOTE: MacKay/Dirkmaat revisit Hadley 1829 in this later chapter in the book.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 70.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Though Hadley's small-time operation could not accommodate the herculean project of printing the Book of Mormon, he went from amiable to incensed after Joseph eventually agreed to terms with the recalcitrant Grandin rather than Hadley's more well-positioned friend in Rochester. Joseph had described to Hadley many of the remarkable events that had let him to the plates and how they were translated. Now Hadley determined to undermine Joseph Smith by relating the fantastical events Joseph had told him.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">According to Hadley's original article and his 1842 letter, he never met Joseph Smith. Nor was Hadley ever "amiable" about the project nor did he want to have anything to do with furthering it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Hadley 1842, he wrote: “I was one day waited upon by Harris, and offered the printing of the Book of Mormon…. I was so sceptical [sic] as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang. He took the work, however, to the other office in the village, and it was soon put to press. It was then I wrote and published an article, which you may recollect, headed "THE GOLDEN BIBLE," giving a history of the humbug up to that time. This article was extensively copied, it having been the first ever published about the Mormons.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 70.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The earliest written account of the translation of the Book of Mormon comes from Palmyra editor Jonathan Hedley, whom we met in the introduction to this book. 14<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This sentence is accurate but misleading in the sense that Hadley purported to relate the translation but presented a narrative that his own article shows was hearsay at best.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">14. See the introduction, p. 1 herein.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">After Egbert Grandin not only refused to print the Book of Mormon but attempted to stop Martin from supporting the project, Joseph sought to employ the offices of Hadley’s Palmyra Freeman. Hadley was Grandin’s outspoken local nemesis.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley never said or implied that he met Joseph personally. Instead, he expressly said it was Harris who approached him.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Though Hadley’s small-time operation could not accommodate the herculean project of printing the Book of Mormon, he went from amiable to incensed after Joseph Smith eventually agreed to terms with the recalcitrant Grandin rather than Hadley’s more well-positioned friend in Rochester.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is a repeat of the false narrative we discussed above. Hadley was never amiable or interested in assisting with the publication project, but opposed the “whole Mormon gang” from the outset.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Joseph had described to Hadley many of the remarkable events that had led him to the plates and how they were translated. Now Hadley determined to undermine Joseph Smith by relating the fantastical events Joseph had told him.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Again, Hadley never said or implied that he met Joseph personally.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">While antagonistic sources can clearly make a believer uncomfortable, Hadley's account is unlike any of the others that would follow it.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">To the contrary, <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> related a version of SITH.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 71.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">When Hadley wrote his piece, there were no other published accounts for him to twist and distort. Yet he knew details of how Joseph obtained the plates and their exact size and about Martin’s trip to scholars in the East, as well as the translation process.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley never said or implied that he relied on “other published sources.” He said he had learned the story directly from Martin Harris and the “proselytes.”</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">He could only have gotten these details from a conversation with Joseph Smith or one of the witnesses to the translation.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is an obvious logical fallacy because Hadley could have learned these details from anyone who heard rumors circulating in town.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley explicitly stated that he got the information from the vague, unnamed "proselytes" and that Martin Harris came to his printing shop several times. Martin was not a witness to any of the translation of the text we have today, except possibly for part of the Book of Mosiah in Harmony (D&C 5:30). Again, Hadley never claimed he met Joseph Smith or ever had a conversation with him. <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley averred he had talked to Joseph himself.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is the MacKay/Dirkmaat inference, but it contradicts what Hadley actually said about his conversation with Martin Harris. If Hadley 1829 is ambiguous, Hadley 1842 is explicit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">When Hadley wrote “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters,” he was relating what others said Joseph said. Hadley did not write "Smith told me" or anything close to that. <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Because Hadley did not think Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon would amount to anything, he did not feel the need to embellish or distort the story of the plates.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This paragraph is mind-reading that contradicts what Hadley actually wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Hadley 1842, he explained “I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">If Hadley did not think the BofM would amount to anything, he had no need to “expose… the whole Mormon gang.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley 1829 and Hadley 1842 show that Hadley thought Joseph’s narrative was not credible. He was highly motivated to “embellish and/or distort” the story of the plates in his effort to warn the public.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">But because MacKay/Dirkmaat want to persuade readers that SITH is authentic, they turn logic on its head and conclude that Hadley "did not feel the need to embellish or distort the story." <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Readers can decide for themselves whether Hadley's explicit animosity would make him more likely to distort the story to make it sound even more ridiculous.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Nevertheless, MacKay/Dirkmaat read Hadley's mind further.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">He dismissed it, for sure, but did not think the story needed to be sunk by torpedoes that were more explosive than common sense and satire. The idea was fantastical enough that no sane person would believe it--at least, that's what he assumed.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></b></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Here, MacKay/Dirkmaat make a good point: SITH is difficult to believe, both on its face and because it directly contradicts what Joseph and Oliver always said. It's no wonder why Joseph Smith complained when "false reports, lies, and foolish stories were published in the newspapers."<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">He published his account of the translation of the Book of Mormon in August 1829, before even the first word of the book was typeset on Grandin's press.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></b></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley did exactly what he told Martin Harris he would do if Martin published the book.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley told his readers: “In the fall of 1827, a person by the name of Joseph Smith, of Manchester, Ontario county, reported that he had been visited in a dream by the spirit of the Almighty, and informed that in a certain hill in that town, was deposited this Golden, [sic] Bible, containing an ancient record of divine nature and origin. After having been thrice thus visited, as he states, he proceeded to the spot and . . . the Bible was found, together with a huge pair of spectacles!”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Notice that Hadley’s account has Joseph relating a dream visitation with no mention of an angel. Joseph always said it was an angel who appeared to him, which indicates that Hadley was reporting hearsay.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Joseph once mentioned he supposed it had been a dream, but he knew it was not. “I immediately went to the place and found where the plates was deposited as the angel of the Lord had commanded me and straightway made three attempts to get them and then being excedingly frightened I supposed it had been a dreem of Vision but when I considred I knew that it was not.” </span><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/4"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/4</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley explained that Martin Harris, “an honest and industrious farmer of this town,” had come to believe the story and had taken characters copied from the gold plates to the East and met with the renowned Professor Samuel Mitchell in 1828. 15<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley reported that Harris was among “a few” who believed the story, suggesting that Hadley had multiple sources for his version.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">15. Jonathan Hadley, “Golden Bible,” <i>Palmyra Freeman</i>, August 11, 1829.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Evidence that his knowledge came directly from Joseph Smith is further bolstered by Hadley's explanation of the gold plates, which provide the same dimensions that Joseph Smith would himself publish but in 1829 had not ever been publicly declared: “The leaves of the Bible were plates of gold,” wrote Hadley, “about eight inches long, six wide, and one eight of an inch thick, on which were engraved characters or hieroglyphics.” 16</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is not evidence that Hadley’s knowledge came from Joseph Smith directly. In fact, everything Joseph knew about Harris’ trip to the East came from Harris himself, making Harris the original source.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Regarding the plates, MacKay/Dirkmaat edit the original text here to omit the third-party nature of this quotation. Instead of claiming that Joseph Smith directly told him anything, Hadley wrote “<i>It was said that</i> the leaves of the Bible were plates, of gold about eight inches long, six wide, and one eighth of an inch thick, on which were engraved characters or hieroglyphics.” (emphasis added)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Harris, as one of the Three Witnesses, was an obvious source for the description of the plates.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">16. Hadley, “Golden Bible.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">While the witnesses of the plates provided various accounts of the size of the plates, Hadley’s 1829 description is the closest to the one Joseph Smith himself gave in the Wentworth letter in 1842: “These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance of gold, each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long and not quite so thick as common tin.” 17<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Orson Pratt’s 1840 pamphlet, which scholars believe Joseph adapted for the Wentworth letter, reads “These records were engraved on plates, which had the appearance of gold. Each plate was not far from seven by eight inches in width and length, being not quite as thick as common tin.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-orson-pratt-an-interesting-account-of-several-remarkable-visions-1840/12"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/appendix-orson-pratt-an-interesting-account-of-several-remarkable-visions-1840/12</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">17. Joseph Smith, “Church History,” <i>Times and Seasons</i>, March 1, 1842.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley also used the peculiar term “spectacles” to describe the device containing the two seer stones that was found with the plates.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“Spectacles” was a common descriptive term used by many close to the translation for the Nephite interpreters.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Though his recitation of Joseph’s explanation of the translation was filled with incredulity, Hadley explained, “By placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least) interpret these characters.” 18<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This sentence is the source of the claim that Joseph personally told Hadley how he translated, but notice that Hadley does not say “Smith told me.” Instead, he relates what others said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">That this is a hearsay statement is obvious from the context. MacKay and Dirkmaat omitted the preceding sentences from Hadley 1829. “He had been directed, however, not to let any mortal being examine them, "under no less penalty" than instant death! They were therefore nicely wrapped up, and excluded from the "vulgar gaze of poor wicked mortals!"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Given the command never to display the spectacles, anyone who claimed Joseph put the spectacles in the hat must have related hearsay and/or assumption.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">18 Hadley, “Golden Bible.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Joseph Smith’s first written account of the translation of the Book of Mormon, he also described the stones as “spectacles,” explaining that though he felt overwhelmed by the task because he was unlearned, God had prepared the spectacles so he could translate.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“Spectacles” is an obvious description of the two stones set in a silver bow. Lucy Mack Smith described the instrument as “connected with each other in the same way that old fashioned spectacles are made.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/62"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/62</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Thus this earliest published account of translation described the same process of placing the stones in a hat to block out the light—a description that Emma Smith, Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Joseph Knight affirmed, and one that Oliver Cowdery also described according to multiple early (1830 and 1831) sources.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is misleading because the statements from Emma, Martin, David and Joseph Knight occurred decades later and were inconsistent. Further, they provide no reference for their statement that Oliver Cowdery also endorsed the SITH account “according to multiple early (1830 and 1831) sources.” In fact, in direct contradiction of this very misleading statement, Oliver Cowdery’s accounts always referred to the use of the interpreters. It cannot be over-emphasized that Oliver and Joseph contradicted the SITH narrative because they always said Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">At times the testimonies of these witnesses have been dismissed by modern Latter-day Saints.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is misleading because the testimonies of these witnesses regarding SITH have always been dismissed by Latter-day Saints, from Joseph Smith through the present.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Joseph Smith himself dismissed the SITH account in Hadley 1827 when he wrote the Preface to the 1830 edition, as Hadley’s article was the major attack on the Book of Mormon in print at the time of its publication.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In the ensuing years, Joseph’s contemporaries and successors in Church leadership reaffirmed the Urim and Thummim narrative. For a list of 95 examples from LDS General Conference between 1856 and 2007, see<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.mobom.org/urim-and-thummim-in-lds-general-conference"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">https://www.mobom.org/urim-and-thummim-in-lds-general-conference</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Confronted with these descriptions, which may be foreign to how they previously envisioned the process of translation, some have invoked the later apostasies of Martin Harris, Emma Smith, and David Whitmer in order to discard their testimonies.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This sentence makes a legitimate objection. Rejecting the testimonies of Martin, Emma, and David on the sole basis of their later apostasies is a superficial analysis, especially when all three claimed they were supporting the divine authenticity of the translation. However, this argument is a red herring because there are specific evidentiary problems with their testimonies, as discussed in books such as <i>By Means of the Urim and Thummim: Restoring Translation to the Restoration</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">However, taking a much more measured approach, one can recognize that though some of these witnesses of the translation left the Church (Joseph Knight did not), none ever denied their testimony of the gold plates or of Joseph Smith as the translator of the Book of Mormon. Indeed, Latter-day Saints correctly and proudly affirm that none of the witnesses of the gold plates ever denied their testimony, despite their various apostasies.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Instead of a “much more measured approach,” this is a dodge. The issue is not whether these witnesses apostatized but whether their testimonies are credible and reliable. This involves questions of whether they were actually witnesses, what they actually witnessed (versus what they assumed or inferred they saw), whether they had apologetic motives or other bias, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">It is inconsistent to herald the witnesses’ testimonies about the existence of the gold plates but then to cast aside their explanation of translation that they provided at the same time they were affirming the truthfulness of the work.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Superficially, this is a rational argument. But it’s one thing to observe physical objects and quite another to describe a mental process (translation). Emma never saw the plates. Oliver always said Joseph used the U&T. Martin always said Joseph used the U&T except for one hearsay deviation related years later after Martin had died. David Whitmer changed his story over the years, was never in Harmony, and admitted he wasn’t around for most of the translation in Fayette.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Emma was, for instance, seeking to affirm the prophetic nature of her husband. Virulent anti-Mormons of her day, such as Eber Howe, mocked the fact that Joseph translated with a seer stone and a hat. Why then would Emma describe the process of translation by repeating the description given by Howe, who hated Joseph and mocked the miracle, rather than describing how it actually occurred? If the process involved neither the seer stones nor a hat, what motivation would Emma Smith have in making that claim while still desperately defending Joseph as a prophet?<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">While Howe mocked SITH, Joseph and Oliver promptly responded with Letter I (JS-H, Note 1) which reaffirmed that Joseph translated with the Urim and Thummim.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The dominant narrative from <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> was not SITH, but the Spalding theory that was widely adopted by the media. Emma had a strong motivation to refute the Spalding theory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Emma’s “Last Testimony” started with a rebuttal of the Spalding theory, a rebuttal that continued with her SITH account.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Similarly, Martin Harris affirmed his testimony both inside and outside of the Church. Did he also, though disconnected from Emma Smith, provide a false explanation that he knew was ridiculed by antagonists of the gold plates and the Book of Mormon?<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Martin always testified about the Urim and Thummim, except for the stone-swapping account related as hearsay after his death.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Indeed, Jonathan Hadley’s account (the earliest) agrees with David Whitmer’s (the latest). Thus, historians have concluded that the translation process must have, in some way, involved placing the stones into a hat.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As we’ve seen, the Hadley account is obvious hearsay that did not come from Joseph Smith. And it did not involve putting a seer stone in a hat anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">LTA p. 74.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">They have also concluded that the traditionally held notion that Joseph translated with the gold plates open in front of him has almost nor support, early or late, among witnesses and scribes of the translation of the gold plates. This new understanding is reflected in the Church’s Gospel Topics essay on the subject as well as in various other publications enumerated later in this chapter.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Notice the careful wording here, focusing on “witnesses and scribes.” Joseph himself said he translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim, but he was neither a witness nor a scribe, so his statements are excluded (and omitted from the Gospel Topics Essay, apart from an out-of-context excerpt).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The principal witness/scribe was Oliver Cowdery, who corroborated what Joseph said about the Urim & Thummim in both formal publication and when he returned to the Church (as recorded by Reuben Miller). Another scribe, John Whitmer, also said Joseph used the Urim & Thummim. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The only witness/scribe who related SITH was Emma, in a statement written by her son that Emma never publicly acknowledged that was published months after she died. And that son, Joseph Smith III, who conducted the interview, did not quote or cite it in his own analysis of the translation in 1886, in which he instead repudiated the SITH narrative and concluded the translation was performed with the Urim & Thummim.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">All of the witnesses of the translation describe Joseph using the seer stones or a single seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon, referring to them variously as interpreters, Urim and Thummim, spectacles, stones, crystals, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is obfuscation. Joseph and Oliver never referred to the Nephite interpreters as stones or crystals.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Several of these scribes and witnesses also affirmed that Joseph used more than one device during his translation. Emma Smith, for instance, explained, “Now the first that my husband translated, was translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly, black, but was rather a dark color.” 19<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Here Emma clearly distinguished between the Urim & Thummim and the seer stone, contrary to the MacKay/Dirkmaat theory, but she also never said she saw the Urim & Thummim and was not among those authorized to do so. Thus, she related hearsay and/or assumption and/or inference.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Her claim in this one late (1870) letter that Joseph used a stone after Martin lost the 116 pages contradicts what Joseph said about recovering the Urim & Thummim with the plates, as well as everything Joseph and Oliver said about the translation.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">19. Emma Smith to Emma Pilgrim, March 27, 1870, in John T. Clark, “Translation of Nephite Records,” Return (Davis City, IA), July 15, 1895, 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">As one of the main scribes of the translation of the gold plates, Emma’s description of the translation as miraculous and involving more than one device should be taken very seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">No one knows for sure what part of the translation Emma scribed because she never said what she wrote. (I think she scribed the Book of Mosiah in Harmony and part of 2 Nephi in Fayette, but others have different ideas.) But as we’ve seen, her two statements are inconsistent and unreliable.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Joseph Smith’s possession and use of at least one separate seer stone during the translation of the Book of Mormon was once more widely understood in the Church, as a statement from Martin Harris published in the Deseret Evening News in 1881 indicates: [sic] He described Joseph using both the “spectacles” that had been found in the box with the gold plates as well as a separate, different stone. He stated that Joseph “possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.” 20<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Joseph’s possession and use of a seer stone was well known, as Zenas Gurley explained. The question is what Joseph used it for. Gurley said Joseph used it to “satisfy the awful curiosity” of his followers, which makes sense. It was an aid to their faith, not an instrument he needed (unlike the Urim and Thummim).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The Martin Harris statement published years after his death is hearsay that could have originated with what others said from the Fayette or similar demonstrations.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 232.15pt;" valign="top" width="310"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">20. <i>Deseret Evening News</i>, December 13, 1881, 4.<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 235.35pt;" valign="top" width="314"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The following excerpts are from the previous book written by MacKay/Dirkmaat in which they also discussed Hadley 1829 article without mentioning Hadley 1842.<o:p></o:p></span></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><tbody><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">MacKay/Dirkmaat – <i>From Darkness Unto Light</i><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Comments<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 14.75pt 0in 1.85pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Jonathan A. Hadley of the <i>Palmyra Freeman</i></span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1.85pt 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Rebuffed by Grandin, who not only refused to help with printing but aggressively sought to derail the entire project, <b>Joseph and Martin appear to have next solicited</b> the aid of Jonathan A. Hadley, editor of another Palmyra newspaper, the <i>Palmyra Freeman</i>....</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1.85pt 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Actually, in his 1842 letter, Hadley reported that it was only Martin Harris who approached him. There is no basis for claiming that it "appears" Joseph approached Hadley.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Barely twenty years old in the summer of 1829, Hadley was nevertheless <b>apparently approached by Joseph Smith</b> with the same proposal: a massive print run of a lengthy book. It is likely that Smith approached Hadley because the latter repeatedly advertised his abilities and facilities, including his acquisition of “a new and choice assortment of Job Type.” ...</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Now the authors skew the record even more, to say it was Joseph Smith who approached Hadley (instead of Joseph and Martin together). </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In his 1842 letter, Hadley said that it was Martin Harris who approached him, not Joseph Smith. Nowhere did Hadley state, imply, or suggest that he met Joseph personally.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Soon after the translation was completed, <b>I was one day waited upon by Harris, and offered the printing of the Book of Mormon.</b> This was in the summer of 1829, at which time I was carrying on the printing business at Palmyra. Harris owned a good farm in that town, and offered to mortgage it to secure the expense of printing. Though he was a subscriber to my paper, and had frequently "labored" to convert me to the Mormon faith, I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang. He took the work, however, to the other office in the village, and it was soon put to press. It was then I wrote and published an article, which you may recollect, headed "THE GOLDEN BIBLE," giving a history of the humbug up to that time. This article was extensively copied, <i>it having been the first ever published about the Mormons</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley’s immediate reaction to Smith’s proposal can only be speculated, but his publication later that summer of a scornful diatribe against the impending publication of the Book of Mormon <b>suggests that Hadley had extensive, very detailed discussions with Joseph Smith or one of his closest associates.</b> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">It's difficult to understand why MacKay and Dirkmaat say that Hadley's reaction "can only be speculated." Hadley himself wrote, in the paragraph quoted above, that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Nor does the evidence "suggest" that Hadley had any discussions with Joseph Smith whatsoever. Hadley's original article explains that he learned this from the "proselytes" of the "Golden Bible."</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 254, 237); color: #cc0000; font-family: times, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">"The greatest piece of superstition that has ever come within the sphere of our knowledge is one which has for sometime past, and still occupies the attention of a few superstitious and bigoted individuals of this quarter. It is generally known and spoken of as the <i>"Golden Bible."</i> <b>Its proselytes give the following account of it</b>:"</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In his 1842 letter, Hadley explained that:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 254, 237); color: #cc0000; font-family: times, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The story of the manner in which it is said the plates were found, <b>I have often had from Martin Harris</b>, (the only honest man, if there was one, among the original Mormons,) which is briefly as follows:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In fact, Hadley’s negative article on “the Gold Bible” contains the earliest surviving account of many of the foundational events in Joseph’s retrieval and translation of the plates, <b>all of which Hadley indicated were told him by Joseph himself</b>...</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">To the contrary, Hadley <b>expressly said</b> that he learned the account from "its proselytes." Here, "proselytes" could have meant Martin specifically (as he claimed in his 1842 letter) or others such as the Smith family or anyone who was spreading the story. Hadley said the account was "soon circulated," which suggests lots of people were talking about it.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">After proceeding to explain to his readers that Smith was not allowed to let anyone look at the plates, Hadley gave the earliest surviving description of the plates. In that description, the dimensions of the plates as outlined by Hadley are <b>almost identical </b>to those later sent by Joseph Smith to newspaper editor John Wentworth in his famous 1842 letter....</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This similar description is not evidence that Joseph Smith described the plates to Hadley. After all, Martin Harris was one of the three witnesses and had seen the plates only a few weeks before visiting Hadley. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">More than just the dimensions, Hadley gave the earliest published account of the translation process, stating that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it,<b> Smith could (he said so, at least,) </b>interpret these characters.” </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This description of the translation process is in the paragraph of the account Hadley said was given by "its proselytes." Whether Hadley meant Martin specifically or other proselytes, the parenthetical in no way indicates Joseph Smith told this to Hadley personally. First, Hadley never said he met Joseph. Second, the "proselytes" describing the event would naturally say Joseph said he could interpret the characters. That was common knowledge.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley's version is obviously hearsay. Prior to describing SITH, Hadley had emphasized that the proselytes told him that Joseph "had been directed, however, not to let any mortal being examine them, "under no less penalty" than instant death!" Therefore, no observer could have watched Joseph place the "Spectacles" in the hat.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Whether it was Martin or another "proselyte" who related this account of the translation to Hadley, Hadley could have conflated alternative versions he had heard from the "proselytes" and critics, or he could have repeated his understanding of Martin's account. In either case, because no one could have seen Joseph place the spectacles in a hat, the account appears to be a combination of the seer stone demonstration Joseph conducted in Fayette and Joseph's explanation that he could interpret the engravings on the plates with the spectacles. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hadley was also familiar with Martin Harris’s trip to the East with characters from the plates, and even that Dr. Samuel Mitchell was one of the scholars visited.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Because it was Martin who visited Hadley, it's not surprising that he related this account. Hadley wrote this in the paragraph after the account related by the "proselytes." </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Despite the obvious contempt he held for the story of the gold plates by August 1829, <b>it is very likely </b>that Hadley was the principal reason Smith and Harris traveled the considerable distance to Rochester in search of a printer rather than in the much more convenient surrounding communities. <b>Hadley likely told Joseph that</b>, despite the expansive printing skills he advertised, he had no experience in book printing or binding. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Even assuming it is "likely" that Hadley's response prompted Joseph and Martin to travel to Rochester, his response was nothing like what MacKay/Dirkmaat imagine here. As noted above, Hadley explained his response:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, <b>telling him</b> at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Note that Hadley wrote "telling him," referring to Martin Harris. He did not write "them" or in any other way suggest or imply that Joseph was present.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">But the master he apprenticed under in Rochester, Thurlow Weed, would be a better candidate. Given the connection between Hadley and Weed, the possibility that Smith just happened to approach both men by chance seems remote. Hadley’s referral of Weed also helps explain why, by Weed’s account at least, Smith and Harris came to him first rather than other printers in Rochester that were more famous and experienced.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Here we see MacKay/Dirkmaat compound their demonstrably false speculation by portraying Hadley as having referred "Smith and Harris" to Weed. To the contrary, Hadley didn't want the book published at all, and threatened to "expose.. the whole Mormon gang" if Harris did publish it.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-image: initial; border-left: 1pt solid windowtext; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-32098673799877727832023-08-26T11:17:00.003-07:002023-08-26T11:17:58.252-07:00U&T in the Elders' Journal - Outdated narratives in the Joseph Smith Papers<p> The Joseph Smith Papers project has produced outstanding documentation of historical records. </p><div>Unfortunately, the editors have an editorial agenda that undermines the credibility of the notes throughout the Joseph Smith Papers, both online and in print.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their agenda has led them to create a false historical narrative in the Joseph Smith Papers that supports the false historical narrative in the <i>Saints </i>book, volume 1.</div><div><br /></div><div>In this post we'll look at an example from the notes on an article in the <i>Elders' Journal</i> from 1838.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the link: <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/questions-and-answers-8-may-1838/2" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/questions-and-answers-8-may-1838/2</a></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxA1mcDuf05RWnlgyxWOG1LY4ElweBEqOfVh5DFOQWiCc9ka6Hsqg2dgqKoPf9oMK12Y58VeqiXowRzwfjR3NccMVr-0EE5XV4lIiDLX9UhYpd8md5VncJZhg0SR6uPHqtBWsacc1yaX9xOwOQ9BBdN0E7BPfUkXbMtjPuGQQ6WlDbyLPTtKyJg/s1398/JSP%20%20EJ%20on%20U&T.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="1398" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxA1mcDuf05RWnlgyxWOG1LY4ElweBEqOfVh5DFOQWiCc9ka6Hsqg2dgqKoPf9oMK12Y58VeqiXowRzwfjR3NccMVr-0EE5XV4lIiDLX9UhYpd8md5VncJZhg0SR6uPHqtBWsacc1yaX9xOwOQ9BBdN0E7BPfUkXbMtjPuGQQ6WlDbyLPTtKyJg/s320/JSP%20%20EJ%20on%20U&T.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Note 5 annotates this sentence:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon.5</span></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Note 5:</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXt6WvkmvIx_xJgGLDWQh9yCwBxmXus9nwX90G-pOHrT7bUty4N9iV4-4fufynGSjEP0yRF5_gV2R8Bzy8Clml2aqsJKnctiV7SV4AzLBZ49HLZ68onV0QvPaUcY3XLTQWoLf2XQ2NfyMTTv0vqpQTImmyvfsdj_JWYAiRpOfvb8-3SrBo0Qpccg/s588/JSP%20note%20to%20EJ%20on%20U&T.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="555" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXt6WvkmvIx_xJgGLDWQh9yCwBxmXus9nwX90G-pOHrT7bUty4N9iV4-4fufynGSjEP0yRF5_gV2R8Bzy8Clml2aqsJKnctiV7SV4AzLBZ49HLZ68onV0QvPaUcY3XLTQWoLf2XQ2NfyMTTv0vqpQTImmyvfsdj_JWYAiRpOfvb8-3SrBo0Qpccg/s320/JSP%20note%20to%20EJ%20on%20U&T.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>We will discuss each part of Note 5 underlined in a different color.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkkuT9SKWUQiK-MsuanpX0CxlWm2ghz8hlqQv812gA3-RdmRqtYvLNgh7xbKTLIDB_pYdRj8ojXxNPQw8F7OYSfkgDoexsbYPBtCXlxalsQ7_uFdUsRkNYoXsGdbPjXc1zMXdhEZnfnl3cLGOAzpdBX3Jal3Fm_QMjHd0Vx9jxvALsXjnYqP--OQ/s328/JSP%20note%205%20annotated.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkkuT9SKWUQiK-MsuanpX0CxlWm2ghz8hlqQv812gA3-RdmRqtYvLNgh7xbKTLIDB_pYdRj8ojXxNPQw8F7OYSfkgDoexsbYPBtCXlxalsQ7_uFdUsRkNYoXsGdbPjXc1zMXdhEZnfnl3cLGOAzpdBX3Jal3Fm_QMjHd0Vx9jxvALsXjnYqP--OQ/s16000/JSP%20note%205%20annotated.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>At the outset, we recognize that the editors may have not been aware of some of these problems when they printed the volumes, but that is no justification for preserving these errors in the online version.</div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Red</span></b><span style="color: #990000;">.</span> The note claims that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"the biblical term Urim and Thummim was first applied to the interpreters by William W. Phelps in 1833."</span> <div><br /></div><div>The editors know this is false because there is a well-documented use of the term from 1832, a year before Phelps used the term. The 1832 source is even found in the Joseph Smith Papers themselves!</div><div><br /></div><div>(See the Glossary under "Urim and Thummim," discussed below).</div><div><br /></div><div>An article in th<span style="font-family: inherit;">e <em style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Boston Investigator</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">2 (August 10, 1832), reported on the missionary efforts of Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith (Joseph's younger brother). They had been called on a mission to the "eastern countries" in January 1832 (D&C 75:13). </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The article included this exchange:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Q.-In what manner was the interpretation, or translation made known, and by whom was it written?</span></b></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">A.-It was made known by the spirit of the Lord through the medium of the Urim and Thummim; and was written partly by Oliver Cowdery, and partly by Martin Harris.<img height="1" hspace="15" src="https://user.xmission.com/~research/central/blank.gif" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px;" vspace="0" width="1" /></span></b></div><div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Q.-What do you mean by Urim and Thummim?</span></b></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>A.-The same as were used by the prophets of old, which were two crystal stones, placed in bows something in the form of spectacles, which were found with the plates.</b></span></span></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>There is no extant documentation to explain how Samuel Smith or Orson Hyde learned the term. Orson had been baptized in Kirtland in October 1831, merely 10 months earlier. He was 27 years old when the article was published, while Samuel was 24. </div><div><br /></div><div>Samuel was one of the Eight Witnesses of the plates and one of the original six members of the Church. He is known as the first missionary. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is unlikely that either Orson or Samuel invented the use of the term Urim and Thummim in connection with the translation. Samuel could have heard it directly from Joseph Smith when Joseph related his experiences to his family. Either or both could have heard it in Kirtland. </div><div><br /></div><div>The description of the instrument they gave in their response to the questions matches that given by Joseph and others. They specified that the instrument was "found with the plates." </div><div><br /></div><div>William W. Phelps' 1833 article may reflect what he learned from the same source that taught either or both of Orson and Samuel, a different source, or something he developed independently. </div><div><br /></div><div>The point is, Phelps was not the first to apply the biblical term to the interpreters, as the note claims. This is important because of the next item. </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>NOTE: Those interested in more details can see my more discussion here:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.lettervii.com/p/urim-and-thummim-in-1832.html" target="_blank">http://www.lettervii.com/p/urim-and-thummim-in-1832.html</a></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #e69138;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwbIqljaVQclL7mIkyYD15suFmZ1QVii0OmKMQBK2J8EribGGpkgFZaLnZ_cVaw53JdCtyQPg7NvjklN8ZD9i1PIDFiq5i5c7JE0E17X2CLziVCQIY3Dd-LuGk82XV5K9Ix3kp5eX-uYkKmkUSUjaqWnXEN492mE0QrByZZVfd0_OGzOUvxSabAg/s278/JSP%20note%205%20gold.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="58" data-original-width="278" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwbIqljaVQclL7mIkyYD15suFmZ1QVii0OmKMQBK2J8EribGGpkgFZaLnZ_cVaw53JdCtyQPg7NvjklN8ZD9i1PIDFiq5i5c7JE0E17X2CLziVCQIY3Dd-LuGk82XV5K9Ix3kp5eX-uYkKmkUSUjaqWnXEN492mE0QrByZZVfd0_OGzOUvxSabAg/s1600/JSP%20note%205%20gold.jpg" width="278" /></a></div>Gold</b></span>. The note claims that "JS adopted the term thereafter.c" The idea that Joseph adopted the term from Phelps is pure speculation based on the false claim that Phelps was the first to apply the term to the interpreter. </div><div><br /></div><div>This speculation also assumes that Joseph didn't use or know about the term before Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith used it in 1832. Readers can compare that possibility to the alternative possibility that it was Joseph himself who explained the Urim and Thummim, by name, to Orson and Samuel, as well as others. </div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Subnote c in turn cites biblical passages and this entry in Joseph's journal from 9-11 Nov. 1835: "<span style="color: #2b00fe;">also that the Urim and Thumim,73 was hid up with the record, and that God would give me power to translate it, with the assistance of this instrument.</span>" <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/26" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-1835-1836/26</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>Here we see Joseph specifying that the Urim and Thummim "was hid up with the record," not found in a well, and that Joseph's power to translate was "with the assistance of <b>this </b>instrument." (emphasis added)</div><div><br /></div><div>Subnote 73 in turn says, "<span style="color: #2b00fe;">JS here used the phrase to describe an instrument buried with the golden plates, “two stones in silver bows,” which he used to translate characters inscribed on the gold plates into English.</span>"</div><div><br /></div><div>In assessing these references, it's important to remember that Joseph implied that it was Moroni who used the term when he explained the instruments to Joseph in 1823, a timeline that makes sense.</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">34... He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:34–35)</span></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Because we can all see that the JSP note about Phelps is factually false, we are left with the earliest extant documented use of the term in 1832 by Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith, verses Joseph's later recollection that he learned the term from Moroni.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmO7gOfg5ZUUdadrILdUoFd6cW0AvCz2aGpCQMEd5ka7bxtuzvBkjl6oGEMP9Xlw5jVwjtvywYm3IQ1TGHyPUBrjNQijErVSWJI7w9zm9zUybNeEY0iK9lGkryudiGGIFByDW4oEUZZbmeMTkVfvKkt6DgKBCJv6GDt7i5MJ6HSHtqm10yXpkLg/s292/JSP%20note%205%20blue.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="59" data-original-width="292" height="59" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmO7gOfg5ZUUdadrILdUoFd6cW0AvCz2aGpCQMEd5ka7bxtuzvBkjl6oGEMP9Xlw5jVwjtvywYm3IQ1TGHyPUBrjNQijErVSWJI7w9zm9zUybNeEY0iK9lGkryudiGGIFByDW4oEUZZbmeMTkVfvKkt6DgKBCJv6GDt7i5MJ6HSHtqm10yXpkLg/s1600/JSP%20note%205%20blue.jpg" width="292" /></a></div><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Blue</span></b>. The note states as a fact that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"JS also used other seer stones to translate the plates."</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>Because the sources cited contradict what Joseph and Oliver always said, an accurate narrative would not report this claim as a fact, but instead would report something such as this: "Some accounts indicate Joseph may have used other seer stones to translate the plates."</div><div><br /></div><div>Subnote d refers to "Urim and Thummm" in the glossary, which is found here:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Besides including the 1832 article that the <i>Elders' Journal</i> note ignores, the Glossary makes this claim:</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The term was also applied to seer stones JS said he used to translate and to receive some of his early revelations.6 </span></div><div><br /></div><div>The references cited in subnote 6 directly contradict what Joseph and Oliver said, as anyone can see.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-g6iFrStJeErYB0C4MH-qnAWzWa1SrCkstC-9--G7WcPJOtgAM2zg15SRu-y6YfqBJ1QqcI_jGP66AFXgazZN84C9szY4qU5x6ZEuZhDETm5CIk-PEYQauxy_ODbhkWPZ6fI9Ssb7ydUDnBTCQo8zuVbW9ijWyFOH4E5EJKcPOFEglaRNbrTgQ/s292/JSP%20note%205%20green.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="85" data-original-width="292" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-g6iFrStJeErYB0C4MH-qnAWzWa1SrCkstC-9--G7WcPJOtgAM2zg15SRu-y6YfqBJ1QqcI_jGP66AFXgazZN84C9szY4qU5x6ZEuZhDETm5CIk-PEYQauxy_ODbhkWPZ6fI9Ssb7ydUDnBTCQo8zuVbW9ijWyFOH4E5EJKcPOFEglaRNbrTgQ/s1600/JSP%20note%205%20green.jpg" width="292" /></a></div><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Green</b></span>. The note states <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"After 1833, JS at times referred to seer stones as Urim and Thummim.e"</span></div><div><br /></div><div>The note cites the Woodruff and Young journals again. While Woodruff did say he saw the Urim and Thummim in December 1841, Brigham Young reported the meeting differently. He said Joseph explained the Urim and Thummim and also showed them his seer stone. </div><div><br /></div><div>Because the note doesn't give a link to the page in Brigham's history, I'll include it here:</div><div>https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/d13d909b-8390-4227-870b-0407e5169596/0/77</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">27 Dec. I met with the Twelve at Bro Joseph S. He conversed with us in a familiar manner on a variety of subjects and explained to us the Urim and Thummim which he found with the plates, called in the Book of Mormon, the Interpreters. He said that every man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone, and should have one, but they are kept from them in consequence of their wickedness, and most of those who do find one make unwise use of it. He showed us his seer stone.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Brigham Young relates that Joseph explicitly contrasted the U&T that came with the plates, described by Joseph the same way he and Oliver always identified it, with the seer stone Joseph possessed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Woodruff apparently understood the conversation differently, providing far less detail than Brigham Young. Woodruff's account could also be interpreted to mean he "saw" in the sense of "understood" the Urim and Thummim for the first time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet the SITH scholars emphasize Woodruff's account instead of Brigham's.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because the note doesn't give a citation to the page in Woodruff's journal, I'll include the specific citations here for people to read.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Dec. 27th. The Twelve or a part of them spent the day with Joseph the seer and he unfolded unto them many glorious things of the kingdom of God the privileges & blessings of the priesthood &c. I had the privilege of seeing for the first time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM.</span></div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/125" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/125</a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>More Woodruff entries:</div><div><br /></div><div>Woodruff gets the Stephens books from Bernhisel:</div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/104" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/104</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Woodruff reads and is enthusiastic about the Stephens books (p. 108):</div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/107" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/107</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Woodruff arrives in Nauvoo.</div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/112" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/112</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Woodruff mentions Joseph for the first time on Oct 31 because Joseph "severely reproved Benjamin Winchester for getting out of his place and doing wrong."</div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/116" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/116</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Woodruff writes to Bernhisel on Nov 5th and reports that on the 7th, Joseph taught that "charity covers a multitude of sins and what many people call sin was not sin and he did many thing sto break down superstition."</div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/117">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/117</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Nov. 28th. "I spent the day at B. Young in company with Joseph & the Twelve in conversing upon a variety of subjects it was an interesting day... Joseph said the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any Book on earth and the key stone of our religion and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than any other book.</div><div><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/120" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/28b53d73-2ba2-418b-8ef7-dafcc935bee3/0/120</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The end</div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-23260541688563045332023-08-26T10:20:00.001-07:002023-08-26T10:20:11.717-07:00Credibility of Emma Smith's "Last Testimony"<p><span style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Discussions about the origin of the Book of Mormon inevitably involve quotations from Emma Smith's "Last Testimony," an interview recorded by her son Joseph Smith III shortly before her death, which was published several months after she died and which she never publicly acknowledged.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Usually the people involved in the discussions accept Emma's "Last Testimony" on its face; i.e., they simply assume that Emma actually spoke the words her son recorded, that her memory was intact and accurate, that she had no agenda to promote, etc.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This, despite the obvious lack of basic details such as time, place and manner, which any witness would be asked in a serious interview. Her son didn't even ask her what parts of the text she translated. Or, if he did, she couldn't remember so he didn't write it down. For that matter, it would be surprising if, as a lawyer, Joseph Smith III did not ask more detailed questions during the conversation. Not in the nature of cross-examination, but for clarification and precision.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Nevertheless, historians are so eager to accept the "Last Testimony" that they insert their own interpretation of the missing information, such as in this paragraph from the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation:</p><blockquote style="background-color: #fdfafe; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 15.4px;">Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 15.4px;">“frequently wrote day after day”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 15.4px;"> at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 15.4px;"> “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.”</span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In the actual interview, Emma didn't say where she wrote, but our scholars felt entitled to supply the missing information. </p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">(For a discussion of that essay, see: <a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2022/09/analysis-gospel-topics-essay-on-book-of.html" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2022/09/analysis-gospel-topics-essay-on-book-of.html</a>)</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">While we are never satisfied with the paucity of the historical record--we always wish people had kept and preserved more records, especially contemporaneous records--that is no excuse for simply embracing vague recollections as accurate history.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">_____</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In our book <i>By Means of the Urim and Thummim: Restoring Translation to the Restoration</i>, Jim Lucas and I point out that years after conducting the interview with his mother, Joseph Smith III concluded that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim to translate. In an 1886 article in the <i>Saints' Herald</i> reviewing the evidence, he didn't even mention his mother's "Last Testimony." Instead, he relied on what Joseph and Oliver said all along. He also rejected the SITH statements from David Whitmer.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 110%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Saints_Herald/qmqsXWe1xFAC?gbpv=1&bsq=707">https:/<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span>/<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span>www.google.com/<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span>books/<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span>edition/<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span>Saints_Herald/<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span>qmqsXWe1xFAC?gbpv=1&bsq=707</a></span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's ironic that while Joseph Smith III did not cite his own mother's "Last Testimony" as authoritative or even persuasive, modern SITH proponents cite the "Last Testimony" as conclusive evidence.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">_____</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Another consideration is the contemporaneous response the "Last Testimony" received in Salt Lake City. Here's an excerpt from the chapter on the "Last Testimony" in my book <i>A Man that Can Translate</i>:</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">[Joseph F. Smith] suggested that Emma’s “Last Testimony” may not have been hers. In his letter, he quoted from Emma’s “Last Testimony” and then rebutted its claims about polygamy with sworn statements and affidavits. Among these were</span><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><blockquote style="background-color: #fdfafe; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">Two of the wives of the Prophet Joseph Smith, which I think, will assert quite as strong claims for belief and present a much better appearance of veracity than the published dialogue between Joseph Smith [III] and his mother, for this reason, if no other, these people, well known to this community, are mostly still living and can be cross-examined, </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">while “Sister Emma,” whose lips are sealed in death, is represented as denying facts which it can be abundantly proven, were well known to her</b><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">, and to many now living in these mountains…</span></p><p></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although he focuses on the polygamy question, JFS’s observations about the credibility of the “Last Testimony” and Emma’s unavailability for questioning apply to the entire document.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the same page of the <i>Deseret News</i> another letter to the editor questioned the authenticity of the “Last Testimony.” This one was from Eliza R. Snow, who identified herself as “A wife of Joseph Smith the Prophet.” Snow wrote:</span><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><blockquote style="background-color: #fdfafe; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">To my great astonishment, I read an article headed “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” published in the </span><i style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">Saints’ Advocate</i><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">, a pamphlet issued in Plano, Ill…. I once dearly loved “Sister Emma,” and now, for me to believe that she, a once highly honored woman, should have sunk so low, even in her own estimation, as to deny what she knew to be true, seems a palpable absurdity. </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">If what purports to be her “last testimony” was really her testimony, she died with a libel on her lips</b><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">—a libel against her husband—against his wives—against the truth, and a libel against God; and in publishing that libel, her son has fastened a stigma on the character of his mother that can never be erased…. So far as Sister Emma personally is concerned, I would gladly have been silent and let her memory rest in peace, </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">had not her misguided son, through a sinister policy, branded her name with gross wickedness</b><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt;">—charging her with the denial of a sacred principle which she had heretofore not only acknowledged but had acted upon….</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b00fe; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p><p></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This strong denunciation of Emma’s “Last Testimony” with respect to polygamy serves to impeach, or invalidate, the entire statement. If she was lying this blatantly about polygamy, the argument goes, why should we trust her regarding the translation?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">When Emma gave her "Last Testimony" in 1879, 35 years had elapsed since the polygamy days in Nauvoo. Emma's contemporaries strongly disputed her account of polygamy. We can't know what Emma was thinking, or whether her memory was faulty, she had an agenda, or her son guided (or composed) her testimony. But with respect to the translation, she was looking back 50 years. </span><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Emma's "Last Testimony" is a good example of the wisdom of using "multiple working hypotheses" as we assess historical accounts. </p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The only historical fact about the "Last Testimony" is that Joseph Smith III wrote the questions and answers. We can all agree on that. Anyone can obtain a copy of the original document (as I have). </p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Joseph Smith III also claimed that he actually visited his mother and asked the questions. There is documentation to support that claim. But we cannot observe the visit; we can only assume he told the truth about visiting and interviewing his mother.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Beyond that, we apply our assumptions, inferences and theories to interpret the actual fact (the document) and develop our hypotheses about its accuracy and relevance.</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Historians are free to accept the "Last Testimony" on its face. Or they can reject it in whole or in part. But in any case, everyone involved should be clear about what they assume, infer, etc. so others can accurately understand their positions. That way we can fairly compare multiple working alternatives in our own pursuit of clarity. </p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-58030223708643106902023-08-25T13:26:00.011-07:002023-10-04T08:08:45.625-07:00The Jonathan Hadley account and SITH<div><br /></div><div>NOTE: Because of the interest in this topic, I posted an update here: </div><div><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/10/update-on-jonathan-hadley-and-sith.html" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/10/update-on-jonathan-hadley-and-sith.html</a>)</div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>ORIGINAL POST</div><div><br /></div>The first known published account about the Book of Mormon was published as "Golden Bible" in the <i>Palmyra Freeman</i> in August 1829 by Jonathan Hadley. This is the relevant section of Hadley's article. I've numbered the sentences for ease of reference.<div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">1. Its proselytes give the following account of it: In the fall of 1827, a person by the name of Joseph Smith, of Manchester, Ontario county, reported that he had been visited in a dream by the spirit of the Almighty, and informed that in a certain hill in that town, was deposited this Golden Bible, containing an ancient record of a divine nature and origin. </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>2. After having been thrice thus visited, as he states, he proceeded to the spot, and after having penetrating "mother earth" a short distance, the Bible was found, together with a huge pair of spectacles! </p><p>3. He had been directed, however, not to let any mortal being examine them, "under no less penalty" than instant death! </p><p>4. They were therefore nicely wrapped up, and excluded from the "vulgar gaze of poor wicked mortals!" </p><p>5. It was said that the leaves of the Bible were plates, of gold about eight inches long, six wide, and one eighth of an inch thick, on which were engraved characters or hieroglyphics. </p><p>6. By placing the spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.</p></blockquote><div><div>Proponents of the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) narrative cite Hadley's article, particularly paragraph 6, as authoritative. This includes Stephen O. Smoot, writing in the <i>Interpreter</i>, and Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, authors of <i>From Darkness Unto Light </i>and <i>Let's Talk about the Translation of the Book of Mormon.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>However, Hadley was a staunch opponent of the "whole Mormon gang" (to use his phrase). He ridiculed the idea that Joseph translated ancient records. As we'll see below, Hadley's assertion that Joseph Smith translated by "placing the spectacles in a hat, and looking into it," was hearsay that Joseph denounced. </div><div>_____</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>The Joseph Smith Papers cites the Hadley article as authoritative. In the Glossary entry for Urim and Thummim, the editors made this statement with an accompanying note:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">JS later recounted that he found such a device deposited with the gold plates, which he described as “spectacles,” or “two stones in silver bows,” and which he used to translate the plates.4</span></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Note 4: JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 5; “Golden Bible,” <i>Palmyra (NY) Freeman</i>, 11 Aug. 1829, 2; JS History, vol. A-1, 5–6.</span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim</a> </p></blockquote><div><div>For a good overview of early publications about Mormons, see </div><div><a href="https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1425&context=jbms" target="_blank">https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1425&context=jbms</a>. </div><div>That article briefly discusses the Hadley account.</div><div><div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The Joseph Smith Papers listed several reprints of the Hadley article.</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Newspapers as far away as Ohio reprinted this denunciation of the “Golden Bible.” (News item, <i>Wayne Sentinel</i> [Palmyra, NY], 26 June 1829, [3]; “Golden Bible,” <i>Palmyra (NY) Freeman</i>, 11 Aug. 1829, [2], italics in original; see also, for example, “Golden Bible,” <i>Niagara Courier</i> [Lockport, NY], 27 Aug. 1829, [2]; “Golden Bible,” <i>Rochester [NY] Daily Advertiser and Telegraph</i>, 31 Aug. 1829, [2]; “Golden Bible,” <i>Painesville [OH] Telegraph</i>, 22 Sept. 1829, [3]; and “Golden Bible,” <i>Salem [MA] Gazette</i>, 2 Oct. 1829, [1].)</span></p></blockquote><div><!--[endif]--><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteTextCxSpFirst">See Note 1 at <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-oliver-cowdery-22-october-1829/1" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-oliver-cowdery-22-october-1829/1</a></p><p class="MsoFootnoteTextCxSpFirst">Hadley's "Golden Bible" article was widely circulated and was the source for much of the popular narrative about the Book of Mormon. For example, in February 1831, a month before Joseph recorded his observation, E.D. Howe published an article titled "The Golden Bible" in the <i>Painesville Telegraph</i>, stating that "some two or three years since, an account was given in the papers of a book purporting to contain new revelations..." Thus it is likely one of the sources of E.D. Howe's 1835 <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> SITH narrative. The "Golden Bible" article remained a topic in the newspapers as late as 1842 when Hadley wrote about it.</p></div></div></div></div><div><i>_____</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Smoot, MacKay and Dirkmaat are all fine people and careful scholars. Surely they have an explanation for why they omitted a relevant historical source here. It's difficult to imagine what such an explanation might be, but we give them the benefit of the doubt with the hope that they clarify and, perhaps, correct the record.</div><div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzZZlWyM4CrRrgsSDdaGohxnm05DLfplv52Vsj0jc4hWBCCBpEDVLDy8BosBHlcjykzuvbiH4bxSmdulU1zyo1VcRBgg2kPPnmzSYcUhVdW4K6Tyd7zGdONmJbC9xJuYLY76pkBUqlW2SHzPBR7KsapSD5x5FuoPRlNL4kdnbrJLmfyasr6viE_ud/s500/From%20Darkness%20Unto%20Light%20cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzZZlWyM4CrRrgsSDdaGohxnm05DLfplv52Vsj0jc4hWBCCBpEDVLDy8BosBHlcjykzuvbiH4bxSmdulU1zyo1VcRBgg2kPPnmzSYcUhVdW4K6Tyd7zGdONmJbC9xJuYLY76pkBUqlW2SHzPBR7KsapSD5x5FuoPRlNL4kdnbrJLmfyasr6viE_ud/w133-h200/From%20Darkness%20Unto%20Light%20cover.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Unless and until they do clarify, it appears MacKay and Dirkmaat skewed the historical record for no discernable purpose other than to promote the SITH narrative.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, without bothering to read the original sources, Stephen O. Smoot further skews the MacKay/Dirkmaat version, again apparently in an effort to promote Joseph Smith as the source of SITH.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>This is an important object lesson in the fallacy of relying on someone else's work just because you like what they say. </b>IOW, always read the original sources before purporting to tell people what they say.</div><div><br /></div><div>We'll discuss Smoot's review after we discuss the MacKay/Dirkmaat narrative.</div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdZyqWTLGD1RESGReRXDFuKSux9aF-NOlOvtCt2u5FIXRgU-WuRjQWJXW3pZQV_gk_AgSKzDEvam45s92Oz8tT7iMu6nAXuqNNU_aWXi8PyHCBFOz2-qyVKQeQ1OLQASa5SThXL4CURFeBbsmsI1OkBWTcX55VV7o-ZdZwIir5_2yBV1o6a4_aIYH/s499/Let's%20talk%20about%20cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="303" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdZyqWTLGD1RESGReRXDFuKSux9aF-NOlOvtCt2u5FIXRgU-WuRjQWJXW3pZQV_gk_AgSKzDEvam45s92Oz8tT7iMu6nAXuqNNU_aWXi8PyHCBFOz2-qyVKQeQ1OLQASa5SThXL4CURFeBbsmsI1OkBWTcX55VV7o-ZdZwIir5_2yBV1o6a4_aIYH/w121-h200/Let's%20talk%20about%20cover.jpg" width="121" /></a></div>It's important to note that MacKay/Dirkmaat also wrote a book titled <i>Let's Talk about the Translation of the Book of Mormon</i> (Deseret Book Company, published February 13, 2023).</div><div><br /></div><div>This book summarizes their conclusions in <i>From Darkness Unto Light. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><b>Except this book opens on page 1 with their imaginative description of the Hadley account that contradicts what Hadley himself said.</b></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Then, later in the book, MacKay/Dirkmaat attribute SITH to Joseph Smith because of the Hadley account. </div><div><br /></div><div>In this post, after we discuss Joseph Smith's reaction to the newspaper accounts, we'll focus on the Hadley account as MacKay/Dirkmaat describe it in their first book. Then we'll look at the <i>Let's Talk About</i> book before proceeding to discuss Smoot's review.</div><div>_____<br /><div><br /></div><div>When we look at the Hadley article, we see that it tracks the narrative provided by Joseph Smith with one major exception. </div><div><div><div id="ftn1"></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>The exception becomes obvious when we consider what Joseph Smith said about newspaper accounts. The Preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon is the earliest known
public statement Joseph made about the translation.<span style="font-family: Adobe Garamond Pro, serif;"> (</span>Prior revelations (D&C 2-19) were not published until 1833.)</div><div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>
</div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">To the Reader—</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><p class="BlockQuotationCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><p class="BlockQuotationCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As <b>many false reports have been circulated</b>
respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil
designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that <b>I
translated</b>, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one
hundred and sixteen pages, <b>the which I took from the Book of Lehi</b>, which
was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon… <b>thou
shalt translate from the plates of Nephi</b>, until ye come to that <b>which ye
have translated</b>, which ye have retained…</span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class="BlockQuotationCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">What were those “false reports” that were
circulating even before the Book of Mormon was published in April 1830?</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Joseph did not itemize the false reports, but his emphatic declaration that he <i>translated</i> 116 pages, which he <i>took</i>
from the Book of Lehi, indicates he was responding to Hadley's account of SITH--specifically sentence number 6. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>From Joseph's statement we rationally infer that the
“false reports” included claims that Joseph <i>did not</i> translate ancient
records. </b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The “false reports” then circulating were reprints of the article first published in Palmyra by Jonathan Hadley in August 1829. Based on
interviews with Martin Harris and/or other “proselytes,” the article claimed
that “by placing the spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith interprets
the characters into the English language.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Joseph refuted this false claim by emphasizing that he translated 116 pages which he "took from the Book of Lehi." He further explained he had been commanded by God to "translate from the plates of Nephi."<br /></p></div><div><div><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteTextCxSpFirst">_____</p><p class="MsoFootnoteTextCxSpFirst">Later, on March 7, 1831, Joseph Smith was still complaining about false newspaper reports when he explained the background of D&C 45:</p></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">At this age of the church <b>many false reports, lies, and foolish stories were published in the newspapers</b>, and circulated in every direction, to prevent people from investigating the work, or embracing the faith. A great earth-quake in China, which destroyed from one to two hundred thousand inhabitants, was burlesqued in some papers, as “Mormonism in China.” But to the joy of the saints who had to struggle against every thing that prejudice and wickedness could invent, I received the following.</span></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/110" style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro", serif; font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/110</a> </div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>While Joseph gave just one ridiculous example, we can reasonably infer from this that Joseph Smith didn't embrace the mainstream journalism of his day. </div><div><br /></div><div>BTW, while he didn't specifically refer to the "Golden Bible" in this comment, a note in the Joseph Smith Papers suggests that Joseph had the article in mind when he wrote to Oliver Cowdery on October 22, 1829. See note 1 here: <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-oliver-cowdery-22-october-1829/1" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-oliver-cowdery-22-october-1829/1</a></div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>Thus, in the Preface to the 1830 edition Joseph refuted SITH by emphasizing that he translated the plates "by the gift and power of God." While he did not mention the Urim and Thummim by name, his main focus was on translating the plates.</div><div><br /></div><div>Contrast Joseph's view of these newspaper articles with the way modern historians accept these articles on their face to support SITH.</div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>Although people cite the article (“Golden Bible,” <i>Palmyra Freeman</i>, 11 August 1829), no one gives an online link or mentions a source. Unfortunately, this is the type of obfuscation that leads most readers to simply take the word of the authors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apparently there is no extant original copy of the publication. Those who cite it rely on reprints (in whole or in part) in other newspapers. A facsimile from the <i>Rochester Advertiser</i> is here: <a href="https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/BOMP/id/4264" target="_blank">https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/BOMP/id/4264</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>A reconstruction of the original article from the Aug. 27, 1829 issue of the <i>Niagara Courier</i> is here (search on the page for Golden Bible): <a href="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1830.htm" target="_blank">http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1830.htm</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1842, Hadley wrote a letter to the editor of the <i>Wayne County Whig</i>, explaining the background of his article. In his letter, Hadley incorporated the Spalding theory from <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, along with affidavits from that book and other rumors. </div><div><br /></div><div>That letter is available here: <a href="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1840.htm#091442" target="_blank">http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1840.htm#091442</a></div><div><br /></div><div>For convenience, I included both the 1829 article and the 1842 letter at the end of this post.</div><div>_____<br /><div><br /></div><div>The book <i>From Darkness Unto Light</i> refers to the Hadley account in the chapter "Negotiating with Printers." </div><div><br /></div><div>The follow excerpts from the book shows how this is done. Original in <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">blue</span></b>, my comments in <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>red</b></span>. </div><div><br /></div><div><p class="Heading_2" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 1.231em 0em 0.154em; position: relative; text-align: center; z-index: 2;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Jonathan A. Hadley of the <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Palmyra Freeman</i></span></p><p class="NoIndent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; margin: 0.154em 0em; position: relative; z-index: 2;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Rebuffed by Grandin, who not only refused to help with printing but aggressively sought to derail the entire project, <b>Joseph and Martin appear to have next solicited</b> the aid of Jonathan A. Hadley, editor of another Palmyra newspaper, the <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Palmyra Freeman</i>....</span></p><p class="NoIndent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; margin: 0.154em 0em; position: relative; z-index: 2;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></p><p class="NoIndent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); margin: 0.154em 0em; position: relative; z-index: 2;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">Actually, in his 1842 letter, Hadley reported that it was only Martin Harris who approached him. There is no basis for claiming that it "appears" Joseph approached Hadley.</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">Barely twenty years old in the summer of 1829, Hadley was nevertheless </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">apparently approached by Joseph Smith</b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"> with the same proposal: a massive print run of a lengthy book. It is likely that Smith approached Hadley because the latter repeatedly advertised his abilities and facilities, including his acquisition of “a new and choice assortment of Job Type.” ...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Now the authors skew the record even more, to say it was Joseph Smith who approached Hadley (instead of Joseph and Martin together). </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">In his 1842 letter, Hadley said that it was Martin Harris who approached him, not Joseph Smith. Nowhere did Hadley state, imply, or suggest that he met Joseph personally.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">Soon after the translation was completed, <b>I was one day waited upon by Harris, and offered the printing of the Book of Mormon.</b> This was in the summer of 1829, at which time I was carrying on the printing business at Palmyra. Harris owned a good farm in that town, and offered to mortgage it to secure the expense of printing. Though he was a subscriber to my paper, and had frequently "labored" to convert me to the Mormon faith, I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang. He took the work, however, to the other office in the village, and it was soon put to press. It was then I wrote and published an article, which you may recollect, headed "THE GOLDEN BIBLE," giving a history of the humbug up to that time. This article was extensively copied, <i>it having been the first ever published about the Mormons</i>.</span></div></span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><div style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;">Hadley’s immediate reaction to Smith’s proposal can only be speculated, but his publication later that summer of a scornful diatribe against the impending publication of the Book of Mormon </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;">suggests that Hadley had extensive, very detailed discussions with Joseph Smith or one of his closest associates.</b><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">It's difficult to understand why MacKay and Dirkmaat say that Hadley's reaction "can only be speculated." Hadley himself wrote, in the paragraph quoted above, that </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang.</span></span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Nor does the evidence "suggest" that Hadley had any discussions with Joseph Smith whatsoever. Hadley's original article explains that he learned this from the "proselytes" of the "Golden Bible."</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: times;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: times;">"The greatest piece of superstition that has ever come within the sphere of our knowledge is one which has for sometime past, and still occupies the attention of a few superstitious and bigoted individuals of this quarter. It is generally known and spoken of as the </span><i style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: times;">"Golden Bible."</i><span style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: times;"> <b>Its proselytes give the following account of it</b>:"</span></span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">In his 1842 letter, Hadley explained that:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: Times;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The story of the manner in which it is said the plates were found, <b>I have often had from Martin Harris</b>, (the only honest man, if there was one, among the original Mormons,) which is briefly as follows:</span></span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In fact, Hadley’s negative article on “the Gold Bible” contains the earliest surviving account of many of the foundational events in Joseph’s retrieval and translation of the plates, <b>all of which Hadley indicated were told him by Joseph himself</b>...</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">To the contrary, Hadley <b>expressly said</b> that he learned the account from "its proselytes." Here, "proselytes" could have meant Martin specifically (as he claimed in his 1842 letter) or others such as the Smith family or anyone who was spreading the story. Hadley said the account was "soon circulated," which suggests lots of people were talking about it.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">After proceeding to explain to his readers that Smith was not allowed to let anyone look at the plates, Hadley gave the earliest surviving description of the plates. In that description, the dimensions of the plates as outlined by Hadley are <b>almost identical </b>to those later sent by Joseph Smith to newspaper editor John Wentworth in his famous 1842 letter....</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">This similar description is not evidence that Joseph Smith described the plates to Hadley. After all, Martin Harris was one of the three witnesses and had seen the plates only a few weeks before visiting Hadley. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">More than just the dimensions, Hadley gave the earliest published account of the translation process, stating that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it,<b> Smith could (he said so, at least,) </b>interpret these characters.” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">This description of the translation process is in the paragraph of the account Hadley said was given by "its proselytes." Whether Hadley meant Martin specifically or other proselytes, the parenthetical in no way indicates Joseph Smith told this to Hadley personally. First, Hadley never said he met Joseph. Second, the "proselytes" describing the event would naturally say Joseph said he could interpret the characters. That was common knowledge.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Hadley's version is obviously hearsay. Prior to describing SITH, Hadley had emphasized that the proselytes told him that Joseph "</span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">had been directed, however, not to let any mortal being examine them, "under no less penalty" than instant death!" Therefore, no observer could have watched Joseph place the "Spectacles" in the hat.</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;">Whether it was Martin or another "proselyte" who related this account of the translation to Hadley, Hadley could have conflated alternative versions he had heard from the "proselytes" and critics, or he could have repeated his understanding of Martin's account. In either case, because no one could have seen Joseph place the spectacles in a hat, the account appears to be a combination of the seer stone demonstration Joseph conducted in Fayette and Joseph's explanation that he could interpret the engravings on the plates with the spectacles. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hadley was also familiar with Martin Harris’s trip to the East with characters from the plates, and even that Dr. Samuel Mitchell was one of the scholars visited.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Because it was Martin who visited Hadley, it's not surprising that he related this account. Hadley wrote this in the paragraph after the account related by the "proselytes." </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Despite the obvious contempt he held for the story of the gold plates by August 1829, <b>it is very likely </b>that Hadley was the principal reason Smith and Harris traveled the considerable distance to Rochester in search of a printer rather than in the much more convenient surrounding communities. <b>Hadley likely told Joseph that</b>, despite the expansive printing skills he advertised, he had no experience in book printing or binding. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif; text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">Even assuming it is "likely" that Hadley's response prompted Joseph and Martin to travel to Rochester, his response was nothing like what MacKay/Dirkmaat imagine here. As noted above, Hadley explained his response:</span></span></div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">I was so sceptical as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, <b>telling him</b> at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang.</span></span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;">Note that Hadley wrote "telling him," referring to Martin Harris. He did not write "them" or in any other way suggest or imply that Joseph was present.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;">But the master he apprenticed under in Rochester, Thurlow Weed, would be a better candidate. Given the connection between Hadley and Weed, the possibility that Smith just happened to approach both men by chance seems remote. Hadley’s referral of Weed also helps explain why, by Weed’s account at least, Smith and Harris came to him first rather than other printers in Rochester that were more famous and experienced.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, serif;"><span style="text-indent: 35.4432px;">Here we see MacKay/Dirkmaat compound their demonstrably false speculation by portraying Hadley as having referred "Smith and Harris" to Weed. To the contrary, Hadley didn't want the book published at all, and threatened to "expose.. the whole Mormon gang" if Harris did publish it.</span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>In their <i>Let's Talk About</i> book, MacKay/Dirkmaat repeat their false narrative about the Hadley account. Using the mind-reading tactic they frequently employ, they invent history out of whole cloth that contradicts the historical record, solely to promote SITH.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, on page 70 they write, </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Though Hadley's small-time operation could not accommodate the herculean project of printing the Book of Mormon, he went from amiable to incensed after Joseph eventually agreed to terms with the recalcitrant Grandin rather than Hadley's more well-positioned friend in Rochester. Joseph had described to Hadley many of the remarkable events that had let him to the plates and how they were translated. Now Hadley determined to undermine Joseph Smith by relating the fantastical events Joseph had told him.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>We've already seen that according to Hadley's original article and his 1842 letter, he never met Joseph Smith. Nor was Hadley ever "amiable" about the project. Quite the contrary.</div><div><br /></div><div>But then MacKay/Dirkmaat engage in an Orwellian argument on page 71.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">While antagonistic sources can clearly make a believer uncomfortable, Hadley's account is unlike any of the others that would follow it... He could only have gotten these details from a conversation with Joseph Smith or one of the witnesses to the translation. </span></div></div></blockquote><p>These details could have been provided by anyone who heard rumors circulating in town. Hadley explicitly stated that he got the information from the vague, unnamed "proselytes" and that Martin Harris came to his printing shop several times. Martin was not a witness to any of the translation of the text we have today, except possibly for part of the Book of Mosiah in Harmony (D&C 5:30). Again, Hadley never claimed he met Joseph Smith or ever had a conversation with him. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hadley averred he had talked to Joseph himself. </span></div></div></blockquote><p>This is the MacKay/Dirkmaat inference, but it contradicts what Hadley actually said about his conversation with Martin Harris. When Hadley wrote “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters,” he was relating what others said Joseph said. Hadley did not write "Smith told me" or anything close to that. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Because Hadley did not think Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon would amount to anything, he did not feel the need to embellish or distort the story of the plates</b>.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>By now, we all know that Hadley did not hear it from Joseph himself. But even worse, look at how MacKay/Dirkmaat read Hadley's mind in the sentence I bolded.</div><div><br /></div><div>We can see from Hadley's original article and his 1842 letter that he was highly antagonistic from the outset. But because MacKay/Dirkmaat want to persuade readers that SITH is authentic, they turn logic on its head and conclude that Hadley "did not feel the need to embellish or distort the story." </div><div><br /></div><div>Readers can decide for themselves whether Hadley's explicit animosity would make him more likely to distort the story to make it sound even more ridiculous.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless, MacKay/Dirkmaat read Hadley's mind further.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He dismissed it, for sure, but did not think the story needed to be sunk by torpedoes that were more explosive than common sense and satire. The idea was fantastical enough that no sane person would believe it--at least, that's what he assumed. </span></div></div></blockquote><p>Here, MacKay/Dirkmaat make a good point: SITH is difficult to believe, both on its face and because it directly contradicts what Joseph and Oliver always said. It's no wonder why Joseph Smith complained when "false reports, lies, and foolish stories were published in the newspapers."</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He published his account of the translation of the Book of Mormon in August 1829, before even the first word of the book was typeset on Grandin's press.</span> </div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>Hadley did exactly what he told Martin Harris he would do.</div><div>After relating Hadley's SITH account, MacKay/Dirkmaat write, </div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Evidence that his knowledge came directly from Joseph Smith is further bolstered by Hadley's explanation of the gold plates, which provide the same dimensions that Joseph Smith would himself publish but in 1829 had not ever been publicly declared.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>We dealt with that previously, but it's unbelievable that these two professional historians would misrepresent the historical record this blatantly.</div><div><br /></div><div>The mind-reading and misrepresentation continues in their book, but no need to belabor the point. Anyone can read it and see for themselves. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sample pages from that book are shown at the bottom of this post.</div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>A review in the <i>Interpreter </i>by Stephen O. Smoot considers this "the most fascinating insight" in this section of the book. Original in <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>blue</b></span>, my comments in <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>red</b></span>.<br /></div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px;">But perhaps the most fascinating insight to be found in this section of the book is the discussion of Jonathan A. Hadley’s 1829 account of his visit with Joseph Smith. Printer of the </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px; vertical-align: baseline;">Palmyra Freeman</em><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px;">, Hadley reported in August 1829 that the Prophet had recently come to him seeking to contract the publication of the Book of Mormon.</span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">This claim tells us that Smoot did not read the original source but instead merely relied on what MacKay/Dirkmaat falsely reported in their book. As we saw above, Hadley never said Joseph visited him. He never said he ever met Joseph at all. Instead, Hadley said Martin Harris visited him.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">MacKay/Dirkmaat first imagined that Joseph and Martin visited Hadley together. Smoot skews that further by claiming it was Joseph who visited Hadley. </span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px;">Although he contemptuously dismissed his account of the recovery of the plates, Hadley nevertheless reported Joseph’s description to him of the physical dimensions thereof. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">MacKay/Dirkmaat merely noted that Hadley's description (which he heard from the "proselytes") matched Joseph's description in the Wentworth letter. Smoot skews that so that Hadley's description is now "Joseph's description."</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px;">“The leaves of the Bible were plates of gold, about eight inches long, six wide, and one eighth of an inch thick, on which were engraved characters or hieroglyphics,” Hadley conveyed. He likewise </span></span><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">reported one of the earliest accounts of the translation method of the Book of Mormon, again as it was related to him by Joseph Smith: “By placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.” </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Smoot repeats the demonstrably false MacKay/Dirkmaat assertion that "</span><span style="color: #cc0000;">Hadley’s negative article on “the Gold Bible” contains the earliest surviving account of many of the foundational events in Joseph’s retrieval and translation of the plates, all of which Hadley indicated were told him by Joseph himself..."</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></p><p><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 38px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hadley’s early report is “almost identical” in these two regards to the accounts left by participants in later years, thus reinforcing the overall credibility of the eyewitnesses who were associated with Joseph in the production of the Book of Mormon (167–168).</span></span><a href="https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/telling-the-story-of-the-coming-forth-of-the-book-of-mormon/#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #9e292d; font-family: minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 38px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; bottom: 1.5ex; font-size: 12px; font-weight: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">23</span></a></p><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Smoot's logic is inverted. First, we can all see the claim that Joseph put the spectacles in the hat is necessarily hearsay. Second, the Hadley article was republished multiple times, thereby forming a narrative that contributed to the confusion about what, exactly, happened during the translation. Just as Hadley invoked the claims of <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> in his 1842 letter, that book may have relied on Hadley's SITH narrative when it described the two alternative modes of translating without the plates; i.e., the "peep" stone vs. the Urim and Thummim or spectacles.</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Witnesses who related these events 40-50 years later would naturally incorporate these earliest publications, particularly when they were trying to refute the Spalding theory.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Note <a href="https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/telling-the-story-of-the-coming-forth-of-the-book-of-mormon/#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #9e292d; font-family: minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif; font-size: 15.2px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">23</a><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 15.2px;">. See also the discussion in Gerrit J. Dirkmaat and Michael Hubbard MacKay, “Joseph Smith’s Negotiations to Publish the Book of Mormon,” in </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif; font-size: 15.2px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon</em><span face="minion-pro-n4, minion-pro-1, minion-pro-2, "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 15.2px;">, 155–171.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/telling-the-story-of-the-coming-forth-of-the-book-of-mormon/" target="_blank">https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/telling-the-story-of-the-coming-forth-of-the-book-of-mormon/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>It's important to note that the MacKay/Dirkmaat narrative is embedded in the Joseph Smith Papers as well. In the Introduction to the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, they provide this narrative:</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[Joseph] may have provided some information to Jonathan Hadley, editor of the Palmyra Freeman, whom he and Martin Harris visited in 1829 when searching for someone to print the Book of Mormon. After the visit from Smith and Harris, Hadley wrote in his paper that a “huge pair of Spectacles” was found with the plates and that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.”62</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/intro/introduction-to-revelations-and-translations-volume-3" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/intro/introduction-to-revelations-and-translations-volume-3</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Hadley himself said it was Martin who visited. He never said or implied that Joseph Smith visited.</div><div><br /></div><div>With misleading editorial content such as this, it's easy to see why Latter-day Saints and everyone else who reads the Joseph Smith Papers is persuaded to accept SITH, even though, as MacKay and Dirkmaat point out, "no sane person would believe it." </div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>Original Hadley article from <a href="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1830.htm" target="_blank">http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1830.htm</a>:</div><div><br /></div><div><center style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: times;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-large;"><b>THE PALMYRA FREEMAN.</b></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small;"><br /><br />Vol. ? Palmyra, New-York, August 11, 1829. No. ?<br /><br /></span></center><span style="background-color: #fffeed; font-family: times;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><br /><p align="center" style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><b><big>"Golden Bible."</big></b></p><blockquote style="font-family: times;">The greatest piece of superstition that has ever come within the sphere of our knowledge is one which has for sometime past, and still occupies the attention of a few superstitious and bigoted individuals of this quarter. It is generally known and spoken of as the <i>"Golden Bible."</i> </blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: times;">Its proselytes give the following account of it: In the fall of 1827, a person by the name of <i>Joseph Smith,</i> of Manchester, Ontario county, reported that he had been visited in a dream by the spirit of the Almighty, and informed that in a certain hill in that town, was deposited this Golden Bible, containing an ancient record of a divine nature and origin. After having been thrice thus visited, as he states, he proceeded to the spot, and after having penetrating "mother earth" a short distance, the Bible was found, together with a huge pair of spectacles! He had been directed, however, not to let any mortal being examine them, "under no less penalty" than instant death! They were therefore nicely wrapped up, and excluded from the "vulgar gaze of poor wicked mortals!" It was said that the <i>leaves</i> of the Bible were <i>plates,</i> of gold about eight inches long, six wide, and one eighth of an inch thick, on which were engraved characters or hieroglyphics. By placing the spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.<br /><br />An account of this discovery was soon circulated. The subject was almost invariably treated as it should have been -- with <i>contempt.</i> A few however, believed the <i>"golden"</i> story, among whom was <i>Martin Harris,</i> an honest and industrious farmer of this town. So blindly enthusiastic was Harris, that he took some of the characters interpreted by Smith, and went in search of some one, besides the interpreter, who was learned enough to <i>English</i> them; but all to whom he applied (among the number was Professor Mitchell, of New York,) happened not to be possessed of sufficient knowledge to give satisfaction! Harris returned, and set Smith to work at interpreting the Bible. He has at length performed the task, and the work is soon to be put to press in this village!! Its language and doctrines are said to be far superior to those of the Book of Life!!!<br /><br />Now it appears not a little strange that there should have been deposited in this western world, and in the secluded town of Manchester, too, a record of this description, and still more so, that a person like Smith (very illiterate) should have been gifted by inspiration to read and interpret it. It should be recorded as a <i>"new thing under the sun."</i> It is certainly a <i>"new thing"</i> in the history of superstition, bigotry, inconsistency, and foolishness. -- It should, and it doubtless will, be treated with the neglect it merits. The public should not be imposed upon by this work, pronounced as it is, by its proselytes, to be superior in style, and more advantageous to mankind, than the Holy Bible!<br /><br />The following, it is said, will be the title page of the work:<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><small></small></span><blockquote><small><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"The Book of Mormon:</i> an account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi:<br /><br />"Wherefore it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi; and also of the Lamanites, written to the Lamanites, which are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile; written by way the commandment, and also by the spirit of prophesy and of revelation; written, and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed. -- to come forth by the gift and power of God; unto the interpretation thereof -- sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by the way of Gentile -- the interpretation thereof by the gift of God: an abridgement taken from the Book of Ether.<br /><br />"Also, which is a Record of the people of Jared, which were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people when they were building a tower to get to Heaven; -- which is to shew unto the remnant of the house of Israel how great things the Lord hath done for their fathers: -- and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever; and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God; manifesting himself unto all nations. And now if there be fault, it be the mistake of men; wherefore condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgement seat of Christ. -- By J<small>OSEPH</small> S<small>MITH</small>, Junior, Author and Proprietor."</span><br /></small><span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><br /><br /></span></blockquote><span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;">Note 1: The above is thought to be a faithful reproduction of the text of the article appearing in Jonathan A. Hadley's <i>Palmyra Freeman</i> a few days before it was reprinted in the <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/miscNYS1.htm#082729">Aug. 27, 1829</a> issue of the <i>Niagara Courier.</i> A shortened version of the article was featured in the <a href="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/miscNYSf.htm#083129">Aug. 31</a> issue of the <i>Rochester Daily Advertiser and Telegraph.</i> That edited version of the article was reprinted by Eber D. Howe in the <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/OH/painetel.htm#092229">Sep. 22, 1829</a> issue of his <i>Painesville Telegraph</i> and in the <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NE/miscne00.htm#100229">Oct. 2, 1829</a> issue of the Massachusetts <i>Salem Gazette.</i><br /><br />Note 2: An exhaustive search of old upstate and western New York newspapers has, so far, failed to uncover any earlier, specific published reference to the Book of Mormon. However, the <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/miscNYSf.htm#072529">July</a> and <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/miscNYSf.htm#080129">August</a> 1829 issues of the Rochester paper, <i>Paul Pry's Bulletin,</i> make some obscure references to Joseph Smith's "Golden Bible." No contemporary sources provide any indication that Joseph Smith, Jr. was being "persecuted" as early as 1823-27 for claims regarding a gold Bible (or even for his miracle-affirming, restorationist religious views). The picture which emerges from a close study of early sources, is that Smith first began to talk in public about the gold Bible in the year 1827, and that he did not proclaim it to be a divine revelation intended for modern Christians, until late 1827 or early 1828. For more details see Jonathan A. Hadley's <a href="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1840.htm#091442">1842 letter</a>, in which he refers to the 1829 <i>Palmyra Freeman</i> calls it "the first article on the Mormons."<br /></span></blockquote><p style="font-family: times; font-size: small;">_____ </p><div><span style="color: maroon; font-family: times; font-size: small;">Hadley's 1842 Letter, from </span><span style="color: maroon;"><a href="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1840.htm#091442" target="_blank">http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1840.htm#091442</a></span></div><div style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: times; font-size: small;"><center style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-large;"><b>WAYNE COUNTY WHIG.</b> </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;"><img height="7" src="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/mastspc2.gif" width="540" /><br />NS Vol. 3. Lyons, N. Y., Wed., Sep. 14, 1842. No. 51.<br /><img height="7" src="http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/mastspc2.gif" width="540" /><br /></span></center><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><p align="center"><b><big>ORIGIN OF MORMONISM.</big></b></p><blockquote>We have the following letter in a late number of the Lowell (Mass.) Journal. It was not intended for the public eye, but giving as it does a history of the origin of Mormonism, it was solicited for publication by a number of gentlemen of that city. -- We copy it, believing that many of the facts it contains may be new to a large proportion of our readers.<br /><br /><small> Rochester, N. Y., July 14, 1842.<br /><br />Dear Brother: -- Yours of the 10th inst., making inquiries about Jo Smith and the origin of Mormonism, I proceed to answer without delay.<br /><br />I went to Palmyra, the residence of the Smiths and of the early dupes of Jo, in the Spring of 1828, a year or two after the pretended finding of the plates from which the book of Mormon was translated. The story of the manner in which it is said the plates were found, I have often had from Martin Harris, (the only honest man, if there was one, among the original Mormons,) which is briefly as follows:<br /><br />Jo was one night visited by an angel, and told that in a certain hill in Manchester, a town adjoining Palmyra, was deposited a record of God' s ancient people, which he was commanded to disinter and cause to be translated, for the benefit of the present and future generations. In the morning, as Jo afterwards said, he supposed this "vision," as he used to call it, to be no more nor less than "the baseless fabric of a dream," and paid no attention to it. Soon afterward he was visited again, and told that through his agency, the Lord purposed to do wonderful things for fallen man; the locale of the record was distinctly brought before his mind's eye, and he was still more strongly urged to execute the command previously made. On awakening from his slumbers, Jo said the hair of his head stood on end, like the quills of "the fretful porcupine;" that he hardly knew what to think of his holy visitor; but still he hesitated, thinking, after all, that the matter must have been only the creature of a disordered imagination. A third time was Jo visited, and threatened with the most direful calamities in this world, and eternal damnation in the next, if he did not immediately enter upon the glorious task to which he had been appointed. As there appeared to be no longer any room for doubt in the mind of Jo, the next night he took a lantern and proceeded to the spot indicated and applying a crow-bar to the end of a flat stone which projected an inch or two from the surface of a small mound, the plates were revealed to his anxious eyes! They had been deposited in a miniature vault, and rested on a flat stone, and were preserved from contact with the earth above, by the first-mentioned stone being placed upon four small stone pillars, one at each corner of the vault.<br /><br />Now, understand me; these are the circumstances under which it is <i>claimed</i> that the plates were found -- not that I credit a single word of the story; on the contrary, I have every reason for believing that this is only the first of the numerous humbugs hatched by Jo and his Mormon horde. Indeed, Mormonism <i>originated</i> in humbug, has ever since been a humbug, will continue a humbug until fully exploded, and will hereafter be remembered only as a humbug.<br /><br />But to proceed: These plates were said to be some dozen in number, and of the purest gold, not in the least tarnished with age, about the thickness of tin, and some nine inches long and six wide. They were fastened on the back by gold wire, which enabled them readily to open like a book; and hence the name of the "Golden Bible." These plates were covered with hieroglyphics, the like of which man had never before seen, and probably will never see again.<br /><br />Now it was that Jo noised abroad his precious discovery. At first, no one would listen to his absurd story; but he soon let some knowing ones into the secret, and by dint of their united efforts, a few of the unlearned and superstitious of their neighbors were made to gulp down the story. No one, however, was allowed to examine the plates, except three or four, to which the privilege was specially granted by the angel. These individuals, the more successfully to prosecute their imposition, signed a paper, (and I believe made affidavits to its correctness,) stating that they had seen and examined the plates, &c.<br /><br />Fac similes of these pretended hieroglyphics were shown to some of the most learned in this section of the country, but they proved quite too ignorant to render them into English. Some lines of them were even sent to the late Dr. Mitchell, of New-York, but notwithstanding his profound literary researches, he was equally unsuccessful.<br /><br />But, fortunately, a translator was soon found, believed to be in the person of a fellow of some learning, by the name of Cowdery. Now mark: An old manuscript historical novel, the property of a deceased clergyman in Pennsylvania, had previously fallen into Jo' s possession, <i>by means best known to himself --</i> the novel having been written during the college days of the deceased, and preserved in the family as a relic by no means devoid of interest, showing as it did in its design, a genius of no ordinary stamp. It was never offered to the printer, for the reason that the writer became pious, soon after it was finished, and determined to devote the energies of his mind to divinity, instead of law, could not consent to lend the influence of his plan in multiplying the works of fiction then extant. The existence of this manuscript volume was known, however, to his neighbors, many of whom had read it with much interest, all the scenes being laid in America.<br /><br />If I recollect right, it was about a year after Jo obtained possession of this volume, (he having spent a few months in the neighborhood of the widow,) that the Mormon plates were alledged to have been found. It is believed that the locality of its scenes, and the historical nature of its contents, first suggested to him the origin of this miserable humbug. Hence, the coined story of the angel's visits, the finding of the plates, their wonderful contents, &c.<br /><br />The "translator," whether Cowdery or some other person, dressed up this old manuscript, merely adding to it whatever the Book of Mormon can be said to contain of a religious cast, and adapting its general phraseology as far as possible to that of the bible; but preserving the general original narrative as nearly, as <i>to enable every one who read the manuscript, readily to detect the plagiarism on a perusal of the Book of Mormon.</i> Affidavits to this effect are already before the public.<br /><br />Soon after the translation was completed, I was one day waited upon by Harris, and offered the printing of the Book of Mormon. This was <span style="color: maroon;">in the summer of 1829, at which time I was carrying on the printing business at Palmyra</span>. Harris owned a good farm in that town, and offered to mortgage it to secure the expense of printing. Though he was a subscriber to my paper, and had frequently "labored" to convert me to the Mormon faith, I was so <i>sceptical</i> as to utterly refuse to have any "part or lot" in the imposition, telling him at the same time, that if he proceeded with the publication, I should feel it my duty, as the conductor of a faithful public journal, to expose him and the whole Mormon gang. He took the work, however, to the other office in the village, and it was soon put to press. <span style="color: maroon;">It was then I wrote and published an article, which you may recollect, headed "T<small>HE</small> G<small>OLDEN</small> B<small>IBLE</small>," giving a history of the humbug up to that time</span>. This article was extensively copied, <i>it having been the first ever published about the Mormons.</i><br /><br />I have not the patience, nor do I consider it necessary, to trace all the movements of the Mormons up to the time of their emigration to the "Land of Promise" in the West.<br /><br />The appearance of their Bible, (which by the way, cost Harris his farm,) seemed to inspire them with fresh hopes, and in the course of a few months they were able to muster for their Western tour, some hundred and fifty or two hundred souls, including women and children. Since that time their position has been sufficiently public to render anything farther from me in regard to it, an unnecessary task.<br /><br />But you wish to know something about the earlier history of the Smiths. They were always considered by their own townsmen as a lazy, vicious, profane, unlearned, superstitious family. They lived "from hand to mouth," spending most of the time not required for the provision of their immediate wants, in digging in the hills of Manchester for money, under the belief often expressed by them, that Capt. Kidd or some other person of wealth, had there deposited their treasures. For many, many years to come, traces of these excavations will be visible -- monuments alike of the superstition and folly of the Smith family.<br /><br />As for Jo, he is altogether too stupid to write an ordinary newspaper paragraph of common sense, as the columns of the Mormon paper will bear abundant testimony. Before he got up his humbug, he was so illiterate as scarcely to be able to write his name intelligibly or spell it correctly. -- He could have no farther agency in the preparation of the Book of Mormon for the press, than that which I have already awarded him.<br /><br />I may here add, that Harris, disgusted with Mormonism, left the tribe nearly two years since, as have also all of the honest persons of ordinary intelligence, who had become the dupes of Jo and his assistant wire-pullers.<br /><br />Thus have I complied with your request, though with great haste; but imperfect as this sketch is, I doubt not that you have not always thought so, you will now concur with me in the opinion, that, to say the least, Mormonism was "conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity."<br /><br /> Ever yours. J. A. H.<br /></small><span style="color: maroon; font-size: small;"><br /><br />Note 1: This is an important and greatly overlooked historical sketch by a person who was living in Palmyra at the time the Book of Mormon was published. In tone and content the reminiscence resembles somewhat the one supplied by another Palmyra newspaperman, Orsamus Turner, <a href="http://olivercowdery.com/texts/1851Trn1.htm#turn1850">in 1851</a>. The author probably chose to contribute the letter for publication in the <i>Wayne County Whig</i> due to his connections with the "newspaper people" in that town. The <i>Wayne County Whig</i> began its life at Palmyra in 1838 but was moved the next year to Lyons, where it was continued by William H. Cole until 1855.<br /><br />Note 2: Jonathan A. Hadley was editor of the <i>Palmyra Freeman</i> and the <i>Lyons Countryman.</i> The 1830 New York Census shows a "John Hadley" living in Galen township, Wayne Co., just east of Lyons -- this may have been a relative. Milton W. Hamilton's 1836 book, <i>The Country Printer,</i> has the following entry on p. 275: Hadley, Jonathan A., appt. Rochester, 1825; pr. <i>Palmyra Freeman;</i> 1829; <i>Lyons Countryman;</i> 1831 (with Myron Holley, ed.); Penn Yan <i>Yates Republican,</i> 1835; Warsaw <i>American Citizen,</i> 1836-37; jrmn., foreman on <i>Rochester Daily Democrat,</i> 1837-1847..." This abbreviated resume does not disclose the detail of Hadley serving his apprentice with the famous Thurlow Weed at the <i>Roches ter Telegraph</i> during 1825-26. At this time Benjamin Franklin Cowdery was employed Weed's foreman -- thus, Hadley went directly from his training under the Cowdery in Rochester (Franklin) to founding the <i>Palmyra Freeman</i> at the very time another Cowdery (Oliver) was active the same town, helping to get the Book of Mormon published. Mr. Hadley's <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/wayn1830.htm#081129">Aug. 11, 1829</a> <i>Palmyra Freeman</i> article on the Book of Mormon is not extant today; its text is most easily consulted in a reprint published by the <i>Niagara Courier</i> of <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NY/miscNYS1.htm#082729">Aug. 27, 1829</a> -- see also the <i>Painesville Telegraph's</i> abriged version of Hadley's article in that paper's issue of <a href="http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/OH/painetel.htm#092229">Sept. 22, 1829.</a><br /><br />Note 3: The "paper" of the Mormons that Mr. Hadley makes mention of in his letter was the Church's Nauvoo <i>Times & Seasons.</i><br /></span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: small;"><i>_____</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">Pages from the MacKay/Dirkmaat book,<i> Let's Talk About Book of Mormon Translation.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">(click to enlarge)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWRqQ270wh5PYIM4nKpanjWgnGJoVzbLU835vxWo2n710_8JY-QjJkIzTyJkmB2vid6moBSfehzv1EZdaFJD-DBtgmfbrMbIZvxGtq1F6CU3Xnvs0pNn-Tu4lalcC04bL1T7TqOfQhsbyWRAxSah8LwQUxjhnN8ckG492QISowKoXX6Fa_J0ncVYa/s3540/Let's%20talk%20about%20p.1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3540" data-original-width="2167" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWRqQ270wh5PYIM4nKpanjWgnGJoVzbLU835vxWo2n710_8JY-QjJkIzTyJkmB2vid6moBSfehzv1EZdaFJD-DBtgmfbrMbIZvxGtq1F6CU3Xnvs0pNn-Tu4lalcC04bL1T7TqOfQhsbyWRAxSah8LwQUxjhnN8ckG492QISowKoXX6Fa_J0ncVYa/w245-h400/Let's%20talk%20about%20p.1.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yUxj68hcV3g98uNxxpgGh0doYBLbo7eHdEL-y520nUUa_7C_HHy1dT97vw2pBovSM9btYR2H9gfVc_OLyktiDh6HiKssCEAcAmSSCrTcwKRH-gp7c0YfmwmsYhCSNe4JYY_RLyXT9tz8KC0B0b8x_OrIwk7MrGFXqB7V9mVEvtMvSPjlfChId216/s4000/Let's%20talk%20about%20p.2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yUxj68hcV3g98uNxxpgGh0doYBLbo7eHdEL-y520nUUa_7C_HHy1dT97vw2pBovSM9btYR2H9gfVc_OLyktiDh6HiKssCEAcAmSSCrTcwKRH-gp7c0YfmwmsYhCSNe4JYY_RLyXT9tz8KC0B0b8x_OrIwk7MrGFXqB7V9mVEvtMvSPjlfChId216/w220-h400/Let's%20talk%20about%20p.2.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i></span></div></span></div></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>the end </div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-83858406807506473792023-08-13T23:15:00.001-07:002023-08-13T23:15:11.952-07:00SITH narrative explained by Brant Gardner<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #d52a33; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2023/08/epic-interview-with-brant-gardner-on.html" style="color: #d52a33; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-decoration-line: none;">Epic interview with Brant Gardner on SITH</a></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-9138291357840463569" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><p>This is an amazing interview. </p><p>It is the single best explanation of the SITH worldview that I'm aware of. Brant Gardner, who is one of the most if not <i>the</i> most qualified people to address the topic, draws back the "veil" over SITH. </p><p>[SITH is the acronym for stone-in-the-hat theory of Book of Mormon translation.]</p><p><b>We might call this interview "SITH Unvailed."</b></p><p>The discussion below is long. I did it to document all the SITH claims that have been made over the years and the rhetorical tactics used by the SITH sayers.</p><p>_____</p><p>In the interest of clarity, charity and understanding, yesterday we discussed the first part of Brant Gardner's interview on the YouTube channel "Mormonism with the Murph," found here:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DvvRyYXgq0&t=3133s" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DvvRyYXgq0&t=3133s</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1k2v67kTMjByDCfMNhpzVesxqQ7VQ5b7c2kB65tMVJYjrMtVxy2My0kZyD3_TWMrvtaC2ueWSi6DHP-OjG2za0AYWQn-RecQsqxQftu1bnq8phcpVobPE5j9uAbN5PrSIoby_O0jyxKh_tcgvC2u73a5ZUQQF_bqAjPOcrW02ZHu4qaq40VCvIpRmpA/s1603/Brant%20with%20murp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1045" data-original-width="1603" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1k2v67kTMjByDCfMNhpzVesxqQ7VQ5b7c2kB65tMVJYjrMtVxy2My0kZyD3_TWMrvtaC2ueWSi6DHP-OjG2za0AYWQn-RecQsqxQftu1bnq8phcpVobPE5j9uAbN5PrSIoby_O0jyxKh_tcgvC2u73a5ZUQQF_bqAjPOcrW02ZHu4qaq40VCvIpRmpA/s320/Brant%20with%20murp.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>All the kudos and concerns I listed yesterday apply to this post as well. Hopefully it is obvious that we're not taking "the advantage of one because of his words." The pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding overlooks simple errors made in an informal context. </p><p>The parts of the interview we're discussing here are not simply inadvertent misstatements Brant made, but specific assertions that are core to his advocacy of M2C and SITH. [M2C is the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory that rejects the New York Cumorah in favor of the "real Cumorah" somewhere in southern Mexico.]</p><p>Today we'll discuss Brant's comments on the translation of the Book of Mormon.</p><p>_____</p><p><b>Let's start with reasons why people should care what Brant Gardner says.</b></p><p>1. He's a nice guy, a faithful Latter-day Saint, and a thoughtful, rational scholar who has written thousands of pages in books and articles about the Book of Mormon. Plus, he's one of the few M2C/SITH scholars who are willing to engage in the issues outside of the M2C/SITH silos.</p><p>2. He represents much of the "consensus" views among M2C and SITH scholars. It's not only his self-proclaimed expertise, either. He is widely recognized by the M2C/SITH scholars as an expert in this area.</p><p>3. He is a key participant at the <i>Interpreter</i>, where he is on the Board of Advisors.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif5US_flGtGucuz4BjVx7liOX_1AFIG4ywqRig7FSslWqXpO6NjG8DDiyiu9biibhlSnZ3PSOTkiTSbJAiZFRDg1GMT0DX52jA44I-Zc--bCHUz6_1fp-edkf0WrW8CTp5LyMhoM1BFoLwytPWc8xEGNVCDBTX72vcjasoEHryF5AtN6UT5sylQ76n7rc/s718/Interpreter%20Board%20of%20Advisors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="718" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif5US_flGtGucuz4BjVx7liOX_1AFIG4ywqRig7FSslWqXpO6NjG8DDiyiu9biibhlSnZ3PSOTkiTSbJAiZFRDg1GMT0DX52jA44I-Zc--bCHUz6_1fp-edkf0WrW8CTp5LyMhoM1BFoLwytPWc8xEGNVCDBTX72vcjasoEHryF5AtN6UT5sylQ76n7rc/s320/Interpreter%20Board%20of%20Advisors.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.4px; text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)<br /><a href="https://interpreterfoundation.org/foundation/" style="color: #d5cc29; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://interpreterfoundation.org/foundation/</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p>He has been, and maybe still is, one of the webmasters who decides which comments are allowed on the <i>Interpreter </i>website. IOW, he's the censor there.</p><p>He is also part of their network of volunteers, as seen in this "mash-up" along with the other M2Cers and SITH sayers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. They're all great people.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapJgF3PKU_cm6nRSQ50UPht5PvT73y2VJi0IMkg-D-TItCRTmzhdHoXvsSKVk5VUQQvSrayX4XbuMAmm3YTtpsLNmGXWbozi7zKLul-5qorU1k0RKuZhnfp6QrjX4Gy_LtWcyxcDWa2PLce7noTHH-FQnvjdINIySXUNr-BcnJCYR7nQXqlO8ubsw0hE/s933/Interpreters%20mash-up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="933" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapJgF3PKU_cm6nRSQ50UPht5PvT73y2VJi0IMkg-D-TItCRTmzhdHoXvsSKVk5VUQQvSrayX4XbuMAmm3YTtpsLNmGXWbozi7zKLul-5qorU1k0RKuZhnfp6QrjX4Gy_LtWcyxcDWa2PLce7noTHH-FQnvjdINIySXUNr-BcnJCYR7nQXqlO8ubsw0hE/s320/Interpreters%20mash-up.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>4. He has an important role at Book of Mormon Central, serving on the "Research and Writing Team" along with other Interpreters.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUG0WksDRRcNkyxfZDb2UKBH7r1Xheol38k93rgr1SveTr7RJgi4kY3ferawL8CjqvOC6vBxxzYMK1xtijPhZi0-vD3t8oQZ4GKR0Y83viwm81enHKL19w_nR7PhcXsnyF0byJdzoUXPoXm4SEn8IEhNuuUMPVLK9BiCuEkNeIzlxdGhSvYNINJfI_64k/s511/BMC%20Research%20team.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="511" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUG0WksDRRcNkyxfZDb2UKBH7r1Xheol38k93rgr1SveTr7RJgi4kY3ferawL8CjqvOC6vBxxzYMK1xtijPhZi0-vD3t8oQZ4GKR0Y83viwm81enHKL19w_nR7PhcXsnyF0byJdzoUXPoXm4SEn8IEhNuuUMPVLK9BiCuEkNeIzlxdGhSvYNINJfI_64k/s320/BMC%20Research%20team.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.4px; text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)<br /><a href="https://bookofmormoncentral.org/directory" style="color: #d5cc29; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://bookofmormoncentral.org/directory</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>All of this is more of the same. If you look at the BMC directory, you'll see Scott Gordon, President of FAIR, is on the BMC Board of Directors, Jack Welch is featured in the Interpreter photo, etc.</p><p>I used to call these interlocking organizations the "citation cartel," but people got offended by that term so I stopped using it in the interest if charity and understanding. That doesn't change the reality that we can all see these are the same people wearing different hats. </p><p>I consider it deceptive and misleading for these scholars, as good and thoughtful as they are, to use multiple organizations to convey the impression that this small, incestuous group of academics represents a broad-based, independent consensus on SITH and M2C that justifies suppressing and attacking alternative faithful interpretations, but it is what it is. </p><p>Readers can decide for themselves.</p><p>_____</p><p>Maybe Murph's viewers would like him to do a podcast on the group formerly known as the "citation cartel."</p><p>_____</p><p>Before starting, I emphasize that I have deep respect for the detailed, comprehensive, and accurate work of professional historians. Their work-product is awesome. The <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Joseph Smith Papers</a>, like the <a href="http://edwards.yale.edu/" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Jonathan Edwards Center</a> at Yale University, are a world-class resource that everyone interested in Church history must become familiar with. </p><p>That said, there is a huge difference between (i) finding, preserving, organizing and presenting historical documents and (ii) interpreting those documents.</p><p>And there is a huge difference between (i) providing objective, factual context and (ii) editorializing about the meaning, significance, and relevance of historical documents.</p><p>In my view, the Joseph Smith papers has too often blended editorializing with factual context. I've given several examples elsewhere, and I include a few here. The distinction becomes obvious once you look for it.</p><p>This problem with historical analysis resembles the problem with experts generally. As a young lawyer, I soon learned that you can find experts to testify convincingly for both sides of pretty much every issue. People are easily persuaded when they hear only one side of an issue. That's why trials require a controversy; i.e., two sides (at least) present their respective cases to a decisionmaker. Allowing only one side to be heard is a kangaroo court with a predetermined outcome.</p><p>As a businessman who funded university research, I also learned that scientists can design experiments to produce whatever results you want (within reason). That's one reason why peer reviewed studies are often not replicable.</p><p>For these and other reasons, I don't defer to the opinions of experts. I'll listen and assess their claims based on logic, reason, and whatever facts they cite. </p><p>Whenever a member of the credentialed class claims expertise, per se, as a reason to accept their theories (or to reject a noncredentialed theory), that's a "tell" for a poor argument that is primarily, if not completely, subjective.</p><p>_____</p><p>Another aspect of historical research is the treatment of witnesses. I can't tell how historians are trained to assess witness statements, but in many cases, they seem to take witness statements at face value. </p><p>That might seem acceptable to most people, but as a lawyer, this baffles me. The credibility of witness testimony depends on many factors, including but not limited to (i) exploring defects in perception (not actually present, incorporating hearsay and assumptions, conflated memories, etc.), (ii) reconciling inconsistent statements, (iii) exposing bias, agenda, ulterior motives, etc., and (iv) evaluating competency (mental and physical). On top of these issues, we have the inherent problem of hearsay, including newspaper reports, journals, letters, etc., that are not verbatim and often without context.</p><p>As if that isn't enough complexity, we have advocates who focus on defending their theories at, seemingly, all costs. As we'll see in this discussion, they falsely blame others (in this case me) of doing what they themselves are doing.</p><p>Hopefully this analysis will help everyone interested come closer to achieving clarity, charity, and understanding.</p><p>_____</p><p>Back to Brant Gardner on the translation.</p><p>Here is a summary of today's post:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We can all see that Brant and the other SITH sayers reject what Joseph and Oliver wrote about the translation and other topics. And that’s fine. People can believe whatever they want.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But the SITH sayers are promoting a particular interpretation of the historical record based on choices they’ve made, informed by their own assumptions, inferences, and theories. Their interpretations are not facts.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">An alternative narrative that corroborates what Joseph and Oliver said is also supported by the historical evidence. In my view, this narrative is better supported and more plausible than the SITH narrative.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Here's a key: those of us who still believe what Joseph and Oliver said have no problem with full disclosure and consideration of all the evidence. We embrace clarity, charity and understanding. But throughout this interview, like other SITH sayers Brant Gardner obfuscates, misrepresents, reads the minds of historical figures, and invents historical evidence, as we can all see.</span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">_____</span></p><p>We'll start out of chronological order to highlight a complaint Brant made about others without realizing it is the basis for everything he writes about M2C and SITH.</p><p>The time code is from Murph's youtube video, here:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DvvRyYXgq0&t=3133s" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DvvRyYXgq0&t=3133s</a></p><p></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; width: 594px;"><tbody><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">49:09<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant: it is an apologetic for a particular idea where you say I'm uncomfortable with that history and I want it to be different therefore I will find things that fit my premise.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Comment. As we’ll see when we get to this part of the interview, Brant was referring (falsely) to my approach to SITH. But I start with this because it’s a fascinating Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, in which Brant describes his own approach to these issues.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We saw several examples of this in his discussion of Book of Mormon geography, such as when he claimed Joseph Smith said he was <span style="color: #4472c4;">“crossing the plains of the Lamanites.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">His mind so deeply rejects the North American setting that it apparently won’t allow Brant to accurately recall Joseph’s actual statement, which was “crossing the plains of the Nephites.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s books about the setting of the Book of Mormon employ this type of confirmation bias.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">To his credit, Brant rejected the Stela 5 meme that was popular among M2Cers. But as we read his books and articles on the topic, we see a pattern of seeking for and finding details in Mesoamerica that “parallel” his interpretation of the text while rejecting data that contradict his interpretation (such as Letter VII).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We all do this, more or less, so this is not a surprise. But it’s telling to see Brant articulate this problem only in the context of finding fault with those who disagree with him.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">[Now back to the beginning of this part of the conversation]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">7:55 Murph: Understanding how the Book of Mormon was translated… you know I grew up believing that Joseph Smith translated it, you know, by the gift and power of God. Most of the depictions show him, you know, with the plates, you know, looking at the gold plates. We read about in his official history as he describes it, using the Urim and Thummim which are the Nephite interpreters or the spectacles, like they're like two, sort of like whiteish Stones, weren't they?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In a silver bow…<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">8:29<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">… and they're kind of worn as spectacles<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here Murph accurately relates the traditional understanding of how the Book of Mormon was translated, based on authentic historical documents; i.e., Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. He and Oliver were consistent whenever they discussed the translation.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">One example is from the 1838 <i>Elders’ Journal</i>:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><b><span style="color: #4472c4;">Question 4th.</span></b><span style="color: #4472c4;"> How, and where did you<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">obtain the book of Mormon?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><b><span style="color: #4472c4;">Answer</span></b><span style="color: #4472c4;">. Moroni, the person who deposited<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead; and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">raised again therefrom, appeared unto me,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">and told me where they were; and gave me<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">directions how to obtain them. I obtained<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">them, and the Urim and Thummim with<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">them; by the means of which, I translated<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 12.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Link: <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/%E2%80%8C%E2%80%8C%E2%80%8Cpaper-%20summary/elders-journal-july-1838/10" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith Papers</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">That explanation is clear, direct, and unequivocal. Joseph explains he translated the plates by means of <i>the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates</i>. The statement leaves no room for a seer stone found elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">8:29 but actually there's quite a few statements from some eyewitnesses like uh Emma Smith his wife, Martin Harris, David Whitmer uh maybe some others as well who talk about him having a Seer Stone and him putting it into his hat burying his face in the hat and then either reading and we'll get into that later with your review<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">or dictating the words as they appeared on the stone<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">8:54<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">and for a lot of for a lot of people I didn't know about that until um I think after my mission, the Seer Stone was used… I remember somebody said to me that the church anoints the seer Stone because I went on my mission 2015.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I think that was the year the church were like publicly you know, released it and there was, I think an article Joseph the Seer about it so I think it could be good to initially talk about, you know, seer stones and Joseph Smith sort of uh folk magic, you know, the culture and, you know, the 18th 19th century of using not just seer stones but things like uh divining rods and people believing in you know buried treasure underground guarded by spirits that was sort of like the culture that, the environment that he was in. Is there anything you want to tell us a bit about yeah sort of like the 19th century magical folklore and culture he grew up?<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph does a good job establishing the fundamental discrepancy between what Joseph and Oliver said versus what others said. He also describes the “magic world view” that has become widely accepted.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The <i>Ensign</i> article to which he refers is here:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Link: <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/%E2%80%8Censign/2015/10/joseph-the-seer?lang=eng" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Ensign 2015</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I’ve discussed this article several times, such as here:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">It's a great article, overall, but it started a theme that continues to cause a lot of confusion in the Church. For example, the article says</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 17.3pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">In another Book of Mormon account, Alma the Younger gives the interpreters to his son Helaman. “Preserve these interpreters,” Alma counsels him, referring to the two stones in silver bows. But Alma also quotes a prophecy that appears to refer to a single stone: “And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.” (Alma 37:21, 23).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">The problem here: the original version of Alma 37 did not read “interpreters.” It read “directors.” The term was changed in the 1920 edition of the Book of Mormon. Thus, when Oliver Cowdery said "interpreters" he could not have been referring to Alma 37.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">The article also claimed this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 17.3pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">By 1833, Joseph Smith and his associates began using the biblical term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to any stones used to receive divine revelations, including both the Nephite interpreters and the single seer stone.17 This imprecise terminology has complicated attempts to reconstruct the exact method by which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">This paragraph states a weak theory as a fact. Note 17 refers to the Wilford Woodruff account of seeing the Urim and Thummim in Nauvoo, but Brigham Young’s account of the same meeting clearly distinguished between the Urim and Thummim and the seer stone Joseph showed on that occasion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">Besides, as anyone knows who has read the 1834 book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, that book made a clear distinction between the Urim and Thummim and the seer or "peep" stones. It presented them as alternative accounts that were circulating at the time. That context explains why it is significant--critical--that Joseph and Oliver always said Joseph translated with the Urim and Thummim and never said he translated with a seer stone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Link: <a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/01/january-2020-ensign.html" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">BookofMormonCentralAmerica</a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">9:50<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant: I think it's important to know that that that existed because it gives a context<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">to what Joseph was doing because when we hear it you know it's the reaction everybody has to the seer stone which is, oh no, this is weird, this is strange and what we don't understand because we come from a very different world view is, for the people who lived in that world view and at that time this was perfectly normal this was accepted this is what you do and if you dig into the history of this it actually has a very long history and it goes back into England…<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant is accurately relating the modern LDS scholarly narrative about the acceptability of seer stones in Joseph Smith’s time, but it’s obviously apologetic when we consider how the topic was actually treated during Joseph’s lifetime.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It was hardly “perfectly normal” to use seer stones to find treasure, let alone to translate an ancient record. Instead, the practice was an object of ridicule and scorn, as we read right in the 1834 <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 18.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">The translation finally commenced. They were found to contain a language not now known upon the earth, which they termed "reformed Egyptian characters." The plates, therefore, which had been so much talked of, were found to be of no manner of use. After all, the Lord showed and communicated to him every word and letter of the Book. Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old “peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile%E2%80%8C00howe/page/18/mode/2up" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile%E2%80%8C00howe/page/18/mode/2up" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Archive.org Mormonism Unvailed</a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">After digressing into a discussion of herbalists vs doctors, Brant continues.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">13:04<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Up until the translation of the Book of Mormon Joseph Smith is part of this culture of people who believe that you can find things with the Seer Stone and before the translation of the Book of Mormon there are records of Joseph Smith using a Seer Stone to find lost things</p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If there are records of these events that predate the translation of the Book of Mormon, they aren’t documented anywhere I’ve seen, apart from the trial when Joseph was charged with fraud, essentially, for using the stones, as Brant discusses later. The other accounts are post facto recollections.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">13:23<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">He found a lost wallet he told somebody where they're you know where their lost horse was<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">um famously Martin Harris was testing Joseph and he said you know I just dropped a pin can you find it in you know the tall grass right Joseph you know takes out of seer Stone and is able<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">to find it um he describes Josiah Stoal’s property as well on Josiah Stoal is convinced of his uh his seeric gift and hires him uh to come to Harmony Pennsylvania to help you know dig on the silver mine they were going to yeah and all of that says you know this is a context where Martin Harris believed that this was possible other people believed it was possible so it's not strange at all.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">These accounts were related after the fact, which doesn’t make them untrue but it does raise the possibility of embellishment, conflation with other stories, etc.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Oliver Cowdery addressed these and related charges in Letter VIII, which Joseph had copied into his own journal as part of his life history and encouraged its republication in the <i>Gospel Reflector</i> and <i>Times and Seasons</i>. , as well as the <i>Millennial Star</i> and the <i>Prophet</i>. IOW, Oliver’s eight letters were widely distributed among the Saints during Joseph’s lifetime. Part of Letter I is canonized in JS-H in the Pearl of Great Price.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here's an excerpt from several pages of explanation:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 18.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">On the private character of our brother I need add nothing further, at present, previous to his obtaining the records of the Nephites, only that while in that country, some verry officious persons complained of him as a disorderly person, and brought him before the authorities of the country county; but there being no cause of action he was honorably acquited.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/107" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/107" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith Papers</a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">14:07 what I think is fascinating is you know if somebody comes to me and you know an angel Moroni came to me and said by the way you're going to translate something my first response is okay where are the dictionaries you know give me the dictionary give me the you know where is the apparatus where's the grammar where's the dictionary how am I going to do this? </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Moroni comes to Joseph and Joseph's got the same question how in the world am I going to do this?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is all projection and mind-reading. Naturally, as a scholar, Brant would think this way. But we have no record of Joseph saying or implying anything of the sort.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">To the contrary, Joseph knew exactly what to do because Moroni told him he was going to use the Urim and Thummim to translate the record. <span style="color: #4472c4;">“God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.”</span> (Joseph Smith—History 1:35)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Letter IV explains that Moroni <span style="color: #4472c4;">“said this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</a>: <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith Papers</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And that’s exactly what Joseph actually did once he got to Harmony (long before Martin Harris went there.)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">By this timely aid was I enabled to reach the place of my destination in Pennsylvania; and immediately after my arrival there I commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of them, which I did between the time I arrived at the house of my wife’s father, in the month of December, and the February following.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:62)</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">14:35</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And so one of the questions that gets asked is, okay, maybe we'll find someone to translate it and so they actually, uh, with that in mind you know, we've got the plates. We're going to get them translated they said. Martin Harris goes off, goes east to consult with the scholars to see if he can get someone to translate</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: yeah he takes some of the characters with him<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“with that in mind” is more mind reading by Brant.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Note the glaring error here. Martin did not take just the characters with him. He took the characters <i>along with Joseph’s translation</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This was the whole point of Martin’s trip. Not to get the characters translated, but to validate Joseph’s own translation he had done before Martin even came to Harmony.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">14:57<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: and the whole thing with Charles Anthon is because they're looking for someone to translate and this is yeah I can't do it you know I you know like they look good but yeah I can't do it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">So everything comes back and it gets to Joseph and Joseph realizes okay I'm going to have to do it.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant contradicts Joseph’s explicit history, which quotes Martin Harris.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">“I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters <b>which had been translated, with the translation thereof</b>, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:64)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I realize the SITH sayers have problems with Martin’s version of events, just as they have problems with Joseph’s version. But here Brant is reading Joseph’s mind to say Joseph “realizes” he’s going to have to translate only after Martin returns from New York, despite the fact Joseph had explicitly translated the characters <i>before</i> giving them to Martin along with the translation to take to New York.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Nowhere does Brant explain these passages from JS-H, nor does Murph call him out on them.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In the interest of charity, we can assume Brant and other SITH sayers have an explanation. One I’ve heard is that Joseph tried to translate using his own intellect, but failed, and that’s why he resorted to the seer stone. That strikes me as pure fiction because Joseph said he did successfully translate the characters with the U&T before Martin took them to New York. Like Brant’s mind-reading, this is just a retroactive justification for SITH.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">15:14 how is he going to do that? You know he looks at the plates and everything else and he goes how in the world am I going to see something that I can't see? how do I get the hidden message from this?<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is not merely mind-reading by Brant. It’s calling Joseph a liar for claiming he copied and translated the characters.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It is hardly a “hidden message” when he can copy the characters and translate them into English, as he said he did.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">15:27 and his only concept is to go back to what he knew which is, you know, I can find things with a seer stone. I can see things that otherwise could not be seen. And so it's absolutely logical in his world that he's going to use that Seer Stone as a means of translation because he's got nothing else. There's no grammars. There's no, there's no nothing. Even if there were grammar Joseph wouldn't probably know how to read that darn thing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If Joseph is going “back to what he knew,” he is going back to the Urim and Thummim he had already used to translate the characters.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant says Joseph has “got nothing else” than the seer stone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Seriously, it is difficult to believe that Brant Gardner is unaware of JS-H. But if he is aware, this is obvious and intentional misinformation to fool listeners into accepting SITH.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">15:58 Murph: like the magical culture and it's described as Folk magic. Some people, particularly you know some Christians might criticize that, you know is this uh dark magic, you know black magic satanic stuff they were engaged with. My understanding is it was term deemed as Folk magic because it's the magic of<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">the people uh you know engaging in you know using Seer stones or divining rods and it was more their magical worldview and sort of like a you know pseudo-science there, understanding of how the world works.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph does a good job summarizing the SITH narrative here.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> put it this way:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 14.3pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">Joseph, Jun. in the mean time, had become very expert in the arts of necromancy, jugling, the use of the divining rod, and looking into what they termed a "peep-stone,” by which means he soon collected about him a gang of idle, credulous young men, to perform the labor of digging into the hills and mountains, and other lonely places, in that vicinity, in search of gold.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/12/mode/2up" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</a><a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/12/mode/2up" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">: Archive.org Mormonism Unvailed</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But Joseph and Oliver hardly approved of <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>. See a short discussion here:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/04/mormonism-unvailed-then-and-now.html" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a><a href="http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/04/mormonism-unvailed-then-and-now.html" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;"> LDSHistoricalNarratives</a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">16:35 Brant: yeah it is unfortunate that it got<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">labeled as magic because then you can say okay wait a minute. Magic is not right. And then you<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">get this occult thing. When I was talking about that clash between the old traditional and this newer modern science coming in the idea that the um that old folk belief was satanic is actually much later in history. It's a reaction to that right it's a denial it's sort of saying okay yeah that's a bad thing. Well it wasn't at the time. It's a different reaction that people have when you get that label and it's unfortunate.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This begins a discussion of how seer stones were perceived as acceptable at the time. To normalize SITH, the SITH sayers pursue this line of argument, resorting to a lot of generalities.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But when Brant says the idea that seer stones were Satanic “is actually much later in history,” he should at least cite and explain why the Lord told Joseph to have Oliver tell Hiram Page that “Satan deceiveth him” when Page used a stone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">That’s explicitly Satanic, and September 1830 is hardly “later in history.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">11 And again, thou shalt take thy brother, Hiram Page, between him and thee alone, and tell him that those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me and that Satan deceiveth him;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">(Doctrine and Covenants 28:11)</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">17:22<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph: almost kind of like presentism isn't it? Because whenever I talked to Dan Vogel he said that the Smiths and other people that would have engaged in these folk magic practices. They wouldn't have seen it as uh anything satanic or dark. They just would have understood that's how the world works and they're invisible forces.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Naturally, Dan would frame it this way because it fits his narrative. But we can all read D&C 28:11.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">There were probably some people who thought seer stones were fine, others who thought they were evil, and others who didn’t care. But the 1830 revelation explicitly links the Page stone to Satan, so it’s hard to say that Joseph’s contemporaries “wouldn’t have seen it as anything satanic.”<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">18:47<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant: so yeah this the whole idea that satanic that is actually a reaction that comes much later in time<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant reiterates his bizarre claim that September 1830 (D&C 28:11) is “much later in time.”<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">[The discussion veers into divining rods, others who used seer stones, more anecdotes about Joseph using the stone, etc.]<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The credibility of the seer stone accounts is subjective; i.e., people can believe or disbelieve them and give arguments to justify their beliefs.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here, though, Brant gives us more extensive mind-reading, telling us what Joseph was thinking when he was supposedly using the stone.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">[after discussing more accounts, including animal sacrifice, Murph asks] 34:13 have you looked at those quotes and do you have any thoughts?<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">34:20 there are a whole bunch of things that<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">were collected after the fact, where somebody's going in they're saying I want to get all these affidavits. Well they're trying to get things, trying to encourage people to say bad things about Joseph<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: yeah and Hurlburt affidavits<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: yeah these are people who uh you know who are familiar with the kinds of things that went on and so I wouldn't be surprised that somebody was involved with animal sacrifice I also wouldn't be surprised that they said Joseph was, whether he was or he wasn't uh you know these were things that had happened people had done that and so okay here's a bad story let me impute that with the Joseph… my take on it is that those based on the context the way they're being collected and the nature of the stories uh I think what we're seeing is people who know that those things happened and therefore imputed them to Joseph because they wanted the person collecting the stories wanted something bad to say about Joseph. so I don't necessarily think that that actually happened with Joseph I think it actually happened with someone um and they just imputed that story to Joseph because it didn't sound good and therefore it would make Joseph look bad…<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Comment. This is a good discussion of the subjectivity and dubious reliability of these historical narratives.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Contrast these accounts with what Oliver wrote in Letter VIII, cited above.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">During Joseph’s lifetime, Oliver’s letters (essays) were the most frequently republished accounts of the Restoration, explicitly approved by Joseph Smith.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">However, to the extent Oliver’s essays refute SITH and M2C, modern LDS historians reject them. But rejecting these essays for ideological reasons is the epitome of presentism.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">38:14<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph: okay so we'll transition away from Seer Stone treasure digging. We'll talk briefly before we get into your theories of the different translation theories. So when Joseph receives the gold plates after they, you know, go to Charles Anton he can't translate it and then Joseph begins translating with Martin Harris<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here Murph repeats Brant’s revisionist history, ignoring (or oblivious to) Joseph’s own account in JS-H.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">38:33<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">there's from Martin and from Emma that he uses Urim and Thummim or the spectacles in translation although I remember I brought up with Steven Smoot you know the story of Martin<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">swapping the stones with Joseph so there's a bit of ambiguity was it only the Urim and Thummim<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">or was the Seer Stone also used during the 116 pages but it seems that the sources indicate that after the loss of the 116 Pages it was predominantly the Seer stone that was placed in the hat for the Book of Mormon as we have it today. Do you agree with that? do you have any thoughts on you know the Urim and Thummim and spectacles versus seer stone?<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph continues explaining the SITH theory, including the stone swapping account, a hearsay account that was published only after Martin’s death, based on a conversation Martin had years previously on the train to Utah, shortly after his bout of delirium in Ohio.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The other fallacy here, of course, is that the SITH sayers seem to forget or ignore that the statements from Joseph and Oliver describe what happened after the loss of the 116 pages.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">39:10<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant: the first thought I have is I have to correct language here. The idea that the Urim and Thummim was ever used with the Book of Mormon is wrong.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">How do you like that for a statement?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: Explain.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: The Urim and Thummim is never in the Book of Mormon. The Urim and Thummim has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon. The Urim and Thummim was never in the new world.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">39:35<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: right<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant tries to be provocative here, which is good rhetorical technique, but it’s pure word thinking.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When Brant claims the Urim and Thummim has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon, he refers to the Old Testament Urim and Thummim. He intentionally doesn’t make that clear because he has implicitly rejected what Joseph Smith said about the term.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Obviously, the term “Urim and Thummim” can apply to more than one object.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph reported that Moroni said “that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates;”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:35)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">As Oliver explained, Moroni told Joseph it was his <span style="color: #4472c4;">“privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record.”</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/69" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/69" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith Papers</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">To be clear: Brant, like other SITH sayers, claim Joseph and Oliver were misleading everyone by retroactively misquoting Moroni.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is the pattern. To promote their own theories, the SITH sayers say Joseph and Oliver misled everyone by saying Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. They misled everyone by even using the term Urim and Thummim. They misled everyone about the hill Cumorah in New York.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s position is not irrational or counterfactual. It’s a deliberate choice to reject what Joseph and Oliver claimed in favor of accepting what others said.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And that’s fine, if people want to adopt that interpretation. It’s one of multiple working hypotheses. But Brant should give people clarity about his position instead of obscuring it with word thinking.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: It was a term that at least uh as early as W.W Phelps, we believe he was the earliest one, applied to the Seer stones or the interpreters and then it became common usage.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For a long time scholars believed Phelps coined the term because his 1833 publication was the earliest known reference.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But recently an earlier reference was discovered in an 1832 Boston newspaper. It’s surprising Brant doesn’t know about this. Maybe he does but he didn’t mention it because it contradicts his narrative and he would just as soon leave his readers and listeners ignorant of the reference.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We can all read about it in the Joseph Smith Papers.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/urim-and-thummim" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith Papers</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“JS and other church members began referring to the instrument as the Urim and Thummim by 1832.5”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Let’s pause and look at the agenda-driven rhetoric in that sentence. The JSP editors claim JS “began” using the term Urim and Thummim “by 1832.” But that’s not what the historical evidence tells us.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Published accounts can’t tell us when JS “began” using the term because we have few accounts (and even fewer verbatim accounts) of what Joseph said between 1823 and 1832. All we can legitimately say is the first known published use of the term was this article from 1832 in Boston. But just as the 1832 article contradicted the long-held claim that Phelps coined the term, an earlier discovery would contradict the claim that JS began using the term in 1832.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Besides, unless Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith coined the term themselves for this interview, they must have heard it from Joseph Smith previously. Samuel could have heard it as early as 1823, actually.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If the JSP editors were not promoting the SITH agenda, they would have factually reported merely that this was the first known published account of the term Urim and Thummim in connection with the translation.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But this is not the only historical evidence. Joseph and Oliver both said that Moroni used the term back in 1823. Scholars can reject their claim, but the interest of clarity requires them to do so openly, not by rhetorical tricks the way Brant does here.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Now, let’s look at Note 5 in the JSP. It gives this citation, which isn’t all that helpful because there is no link.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“Questions Proposed to the Mormonite Preachers and Their Answers Obtained before the Whole Assembly at Julien Hall, Sunday Evening, August 5, 1832,” <i>Boston Investigator</i>, 10 Aug. 1832, [2]</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It’s odd that the JSP editors did not provide at least an excerpt from the content of the article so readers could see it in context. Well, maybe not odd, given the way they promote SITH throughout the JSP.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In that article, Samuel Smith and Orson Hyde are quoted in this Q&A session:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">Q.-In what manner was the interpretation, or translation made known, and by whom was it written?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">A.-It was made known by the spirit of the Lord through the medium of the Urim and Thummim; and was written partly by Oliver Cowdery, and partly by Martin Harris.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">Q.-What do you mean by Urim and Thummim?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">A.-The same as were used by the prophets of old, which were two crystal stones, placed in bows something in the form of spectacles, which were found with the plates.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Obviously, these answers are another refutation of SITH. They even specifically explain what they mean by "Urim and Thummim." Maybe that’s why Brant didn’t bring it up during the interview.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For more discussion of the U&T issue, see <a href="https://www.mobom.org/urim-and-thummim-in-1832" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.mobom.org/urim-and-thummim-in-1832" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Mobom.org</a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">39:54<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">in the Book of Mormon they're interpreters. And so a Seer stone is one that Joseph had before. The interpreters are the ones that came with the plates. The Urim and Thummim is just a name that somebody applied later, frankly because by the time they started getting members of the church uh there were a lot of people coming where the shift away from that previous magical worldview was already occurring and it was getting stronger and so people kind of wanted to distance themselves from the seer stones and one of the ways you did it is you biblicized them by giving them the name Urim and Thummim.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here again, Brant is reading the minds of the early members of the Church, accusing them of wanting to “distance themselves from the seer stones.” In his version of history, Moroni did not use the term the way Joseph and Oliver said.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Instead, Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith “biblicized” the narrative by telling the people in Boston that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim, which they described as spectacles found with the plates.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Another version of history (which I consider more congruent with the historical record) is that Joseph, Oliver and their contemporaries did want to distance themselves from the seer stone because Joseph never used the seer stone to translate the plates. They related accurate history; i.e., that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim, identified by Moroni, to translate the plates.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">[here they discuss the “gift of Aaron” for a while]<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">41:14 you know the very fact that we think of dividing rods and Seer Stones as, you know, unusual and strange, that is an opinion that was beginning early on and it informed the way some of the early church members reacted to the<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">stories and so you get things like renaming or re-labeling the interpreters and the Seer Stones as Urim and Thummim which makes them much more palatable. But you also get changes in the Doctrine and Covenants where you remove the rod because that's a little too strange and we want to make things a little more normal.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">41:54<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">now you get people who will say that Joseph never used the Seer Stone because they have this belief, again coming from the occult, this other reaction to that, that we were talking about, that says that this is black magic<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here, Brant repeats the SITH sayers’ insistence that the term Urim and Thummim applied to both the intepreters and the seer stone(s).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">To repeat, in case readers are skipping around through this discussion, there is no historical record that anyone used the term Urim and Thummim to mean both the Nephite interpreters and the seer stone people claim Joseph put in the hat. <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, David Whitmer, Emma Smith and Marting Harris all made a clear distinction between the two; i.e., there was the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, and there was a separate seer stone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Nevertheless, to avoid any confusion, Joseph specifically explained that he translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s rhetoric about the occult is a red herring intended to lead readers/viewers to think past the sale.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">42:08<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: people like the Stoddards and things<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The Stoddards do focus on the black magic element, an area of disagreement between us, which is fine.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: yeah but you get that still you know with people in, the church casts a wide net and we get lots of different people with lots of different histories and beliefs and some of those ideas that developed in later Evangelical Christianity have come into the heritage of some of the people in the church but that whole idea that they're trying to distance themselves<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">42:39<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">that's the reason why it faded from church history. Not that they were trying, you know, actively trying to hide it they were trying to sort of assimilate.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Which I think if you really think about it is the same thing as hiding.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s narrative that LDS leaders were hiding the actual church history “to sort of assimilate” is a plausible narrative. It’s an essential narrative to support SITH.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">However, an alternative narrative has Joseph and Oliver stating facts to counter false rumors and innuendo. That’s exactly how Oliver and Joseph explained their efforts, and that’s also why they denounced <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Oliver introduced his eight essays this way:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">That our narrative may be correct, and particularly the introduction, it is proper to inform our patrons, that <b>our brother J. Smith Jr. has offered to assist us.</b> Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensible. With his labor and with authentic documents now in our possession, we hope to render this a pleasing and agreeable narrative, well worth the examination and perusal of the Saints.—</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">To do <Justice to> this subject will require time and space: we therefore ask the forbearance of our readears, <b>assuring them that it shall be founded upon facts.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/48" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/48" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith Papers</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph introduced his own history this way:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">1 Owing to the <b>many reports which have been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons</b>, in relation to the rise and progress of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church and its progress in the world—I have been induced to write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and <b>put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts,</b> as they have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so far as I have such facts in my possession.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">2 In this history I shall present the various events in relation to this Church, <b>in truth and righteousness,</b> as they have transpired, or as they at present exist, being now [1838] the eighth year since the organization of the said Church.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:1–2)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We can all see that Brant and the other SITH sayers reject what Joseph and Oliver wrote about the translation and other topics. And that’s fine. People can believe whatever they want.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But the SITH sayers are promoting a particular interpretation of the historical record based on choices they’ve made, informed by their own assumptions, inferences, and theories. Their interpretations are not facts.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">An alternative narrative that corroborates what Joseph and Oliver said is also supported by the historical evidence.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Those of us who believe what Joseph and Oliver said have no problem with full disclosure and consideration of all the evidence. But throughout this interview, Brant obfuscates, misrepresents, and invents historical evidence, as we can all see.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">42:58<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: my Impressions about looking at some of the quotes from Joseph Fielding Smith it sounds to me like he probably genuinely believed there was accounts of the seer stone that were hearsay. I think he just dismissed them. He didn't believe them. So I don't know how much was an intentional covering or he just didn't um accept or believe it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">43:16<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: there were several who, by the time they got around to looking at history, and they didn't have all the documents, they didn't look at that thing seriously, they just looked at the history and that<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">whole dichotomy of saying uh you know we're modern people but how do you account for Joseph and the seer stone one of the ways of doing is by denying that he had a seer Stone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">43:41<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But the good historical work that's been done and encouraged by the church recently and supported and then published by the church it's very very clear that a Seer Stone was used.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">So yes there was a historical time when they were trying to kind of distance themselves from it and you know become part of the modern world and separate themselves from that folk Magic.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">History now allows us to go back and not be as embarrassed about our history as we might have been at one time.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph hits on a key point: the credibility, reliability, and plausibility of the statements of the SITH witnesses.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">There are lots of ways witness testimony can be impeached. Joseph Fielding Smith and others recognized the clear distinction between hearsay and direct evidence, between vague generalities and specifics, etc.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This has been a main difference between my approach and that of the SITH sayers, as I’ve explained in my books and presentations.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s claim that people “didn’t have all the documents” is inexplicable.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> was not only well known, but specifically refuted by Joseph and Oliver.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Emma’s “Last Testimony” was not only published in the<i> Saints’ Herald</i>, but it was discussed robustly at the time in the <i>Deseret News</i> in Utah.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">David Whitmer’s <i>An Address to All Believers in Christ</i> was published and widely distributed and discussed.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Martin Harris’ accounts were published in the <i>Deseret News</i> before and after his death.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">There are few if any “new discoveries” in Church history. Joseph's contemporaries understood these issues far better than modern historians looking back and speculating.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Nevertheless, the modern revisionists such as Brant Gardner have resurrected long-known accounts to repudiate what Joseph and Oliver taught.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">44:10 Murph: What would you say to those people who say the Seer Stone was never used?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Because I've been sent a book by I believe it's Jonathan Neville and James Lucas which I'm going to read their book and bring them on. I think they enjoy the work I'm doing but they disagree very much with the seer stone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I, you know, I said I'll read the book and I'll engage, but to me the thing that I always<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">find a little bit strange is you know you have statements for Martin Harris, Emma Smith, David Whitmer who are your faithful Witnesses, eyewitnesses who would have been around who would have witnessed The Book of Mormon translation but they're not claiming that you know it was fraud or he's making it up they’re claiming it was miraculous you know by the gift and power of God using the stone.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant: yeah</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Murph: they're faith promoting statements but then these people want to just reject them and these are like prominent Witnesses of the restoration and they say like, no, just trust, you know because Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith only mentioned Urim and Thummim and I think they say that the Lord uses the word Urim and Thummim in the doctrine and covenants so I've had one person said to me, well, who you're going to trust, the Lord, Joseph Smith or you know all these other ones<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Comment. Here Murph explains that he doesn’t understand why my co-author and I don’t think Joseph used the seer stone, although that is not our position.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We’ll get into that when we do the podcast with Murph, but he seems to be conflating our approach with that of the Stoddards.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We think the evidence is clear that Joseph possessed and used seer stones, just not for translating the plates.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In the book, we discuss all the evidence, including Martin, Emma, and David, but I’ll save that for the podcast.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It’s the problem I mentioned in the introduction, that people take witness statements at face value without examining credibility, reliability, veracity, etc.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">45:24<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant: they actually don't really know much about how the Doctrine and Covenants was put together.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This one is funny, actually. In this very interview, Brant misquotes sources, demonstrates that he doesn’t know much about what Joseph actually wrote, and omits references that contradict his theories. Then he accuses me of not knowing much about how the D&C was put together, even though in our book we discuss the specific point of the addition of the U&T in the 1835 D&C.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And there’s an entire article about it here:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.mobom.org/urim-and-thummim-in-1832" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.mobom.org/urim-and-thummim-in-1832" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Mobom.org</a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">45:30<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The doctrine covenants is heavily edited and changed and altered and you know as you mentioned things like the rod are taken out<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s framing here seems intentionally misleading. Anyone can see that the 1835 D&C is not “heavily edited and changed and altered” from the Book of Commandments (BOC).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Critics say these relatively few edits were made to “hide” weird parts from the Book of Commandments (BOC), but printed copies of the BOC existed at the time (and still exist today), so hiding seems a futile effort.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Another interpretation treats these edits as clarifications (my view).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The change to D&C 8 regarding the gift of Aaron (replacing the gift of working with the rod), which Brant and Murph discussed elsewhere in the podcast, supports both interpretations, so people can believe whatever they want.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">45:42<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">what happens with those books, so the Stoddards have one and Neville has one,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> for some of the statements of the faithful people who saw it those are late statements and they say, Well, they're apostates by then and they didn't like the church and so therefore they must be making that up yeah in other words they're finding excuse to deny it<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">As much as I like Brant personally and respect his scholarship, it is inexcusable for him to misrepresent my views this way.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I disagree with the Stoddards in several respects, including their claim that the SITH statements came from apostates who made up the SITH narrative.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">46:00 the second thing is they just assume that urim and Thummim is real. You know, when it says Urim and Thummim it means Urim and Thummim.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">They don't understand that that was a generic term that was used for the interpreters.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">46:10 and so basically they'll say it was always the interpreters and never a seer stone<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: because my understanding it's sort of like your mythology is the term used for both the<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">46:24<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">interpreters or the Seer Stone because they're both sort of seeric devices used in the translation<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Assume</i> it is real? Maybe Brant misspoke, but is he implying the U&T was not real?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Next, he claims I “don’t understand” that U&T is a generic term used for the Interpreters, as if that is a fact instead of a weak theory promoted by the SITH sayers.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Because the SITH theory defies the statements from Joseph and Oliver, the SITH sayers recognize they need to (i) redefine the term Urim and Thummim and (ii) read Joseph’s mind to discern his true intent that contradicts the plain meaning of his words.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">However, we can all see that <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> clearly distinguished between the “peep stone” and the U&T. We can all see that David, Emma, and Martin also clearly distinguished between the two.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">More importantly, when Joseph used the term to describe the translation, he emphasized that he used the Urim and Thummim <i>that came with the plates</i>. He left no room for a seer stone he found elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">46:30 Basically any of the books that are promoting that are promoting the idea are massaging history without actually doing good history<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In this Orwellian statement, Brant claims that quoting actual historical sources instead of mind reading is not “good history.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">As he demonstrates throughout this interview, Brant claims “good history” consists of ignoring sources that contradict his SITH theory while promoting as fact his weak theory that the term Urim and Thummim was so generic it included the seer stone Joseph found in a well.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">As bad as Brant’s theory is, it doesn’t matter because Joseph specified he used <i>the U&T that came with the plates</i>.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">46:40<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">yeah you don't have actual historians doing it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When we were talking in the other part about you know scholars uh you know people who know what they're doing uh looking at<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">geography or geology. Now there's a reason why we want to look at the people who have training in those fields as opposed to people who are, you know, armchair geologists and saying this looks like that we have the parallels we talked about parallelism and the problems of that<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here is the deference to the credentialed class that the SITH and M2C scholars play as their trump card. “Trust me,” they say.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Except the appeal to experts doesn’t work, for the same reason it doesn’t work in court; i.e., there are experts on all sides with completely contradictory conclusions.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If you polled all the experts in geography, geology, anthropology, or any other field, how many would conclude that the evidence in Mesoamerica proves, or even corroborates, the Book of Mormon?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Only a handful of LDS apologists such as Brant. The rest—the vast mainstream of scholars and experts—find Brant’s propositions preposterous.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">That said, parallelism can problematic, a point I’ve made many times with respect to John Sorenson’s “correspondences.”<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">47:13<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">yeah well when you get into these books again you're dealing with people who are not trained historians who are complaining about what trained historians have found<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Again, Brant might be referring to the Stoddards here because of their animus toward Richard Bushman and other historians.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">However, he cannot point to any statement of mine complaining “about what trained historians have found” because I appreciate the work of the historians and discuss all of their findings.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I have no problem with what the historians have literally found. But I do have problems with some of what they have metaphorically “found” as they express their interpretations.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">47:20<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">well the trained historians have been through the Joseph Smith papers the trained historians have been through all of the documents yeah why are they wrong and the people who are not trained as historians and are pushing an idea that they had before they started doing the research<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">why are they right?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">…<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant commits an obvious compound fallacy here.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>First</b>, trained historians may be good at collecting and organizing historical information, and we can all see that the Joseph Smith Papers (JSP) are exemplary in this respect.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But “going through” the evidence is merely the first step.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The problems arise in interpreting the evidence.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Different historians reach different conclusions from identical facts because conclusions are subjectively based on assumptions, inferences, theories, etc.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The JSP documents are impeccable, but the commentary is rife with speculation and agenda promotion. I’ve shown many examples of this.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Second</b>, Brant asserts that I am pushing an idea I had before I started doing the research. That’s an outright lie that I can show from my own publications. [see below]<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">47:49<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">you know if you start looking for something you'll find what you're looking for. So you know, in scholarly work if you start with a premise and you know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to find something that that verifies my premise, well you'll find what you're looking for because anything that doesn't fit you find an excuse for and you cast off.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: Yeah, you ignore.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is an amazing admission from Brant because it explains all of his work on both SITH and M2C.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">He started and ended believing in and promoting both SITH and M2C. We all know he is heavily invested in both theories due to his years of research, publication, and activity with the organizations formerly known as the citation cartel.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In this very interview, we’ve seen him find an excuse for historical evidence (such as Zelph) that contradicts his theories, which he then cast off.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Unbelievable.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">48:00<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Historians start with the reverse and they say where is the evidence? What does the evidence say? And then I'll collect and bring the theory.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: That's important. Take all the sources into account and not just dismiss the ones even if you don't like the implication because some people may have trouble with the implication of you know him using a seer stone and he used the same stone in folk magic, treasure digging and they may not like that.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This idealized theory of how historians work is contradicted daily by historians everywhere. Critics and faithful scholars look at the identical evidence and yet they disagree about the interpretation.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">To be sure, they have converged into a consensus on SITH, but in both cases they reach that consensus by repudiating what Joseph and Oliver unambiguously claimed.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Faithful scholars justify their SITH saying by simply omitting evidence that contradicts their theories.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">A good example of this is <i>From Darkness unto Light</i> by MacKay and Dirkmaat, who proposed the generic application of U&T but forgot to quote and discuss the passage in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> that clearly distinguishes between the two.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Another example is the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation that never once quotes or discusses what Joseph and Oliver said about the translation (apart from a truncated out-of-context excerpt).<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">48:36<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">yeah and then they also stop and don't, you know, remember what happens with these sear stones after the fact. That you know the Urim and Thummim was dedicated on the altar but it was a Seer stone and you know the descriptions tell us that it was a Seer Stone so you know we've got those same seer stones and their history<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is more sleight-of-hand, if not an outright lie. Brant appears to be referring to Wilford Woodruff dedicating a seer stone on the altar of the Manti temple in 1887, but he did not refer to it as the Urim and Thummim. See, e.g., <a href="https://www.ldsliving.com/joseph-smith-had-a-second-seer-stone-heres-what-we-know-about-it/s/83084" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">Link:</a> <a href="https://www.ldsliving.com/joseph-smith-had-a-second-seer-stone-heres-what-we-know-about-it/s/83084" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;">LDSLiving</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant should provide a reference or citation when he makes claims such as this one.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">yeah the history itself is very strong that Joseph Smith had and did use the seer stone<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This assertion, oft repeated in this podcast, is a red herring distraction from my approach.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I accept the evidence that Joseph had and used a seer stone. That’s not the question. The question is, what did he use it for?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I say the totality of the evidence demonstrates that whatever he did with the stone, he didn’t use it to produce the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">49:09<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B-it is an apologetic for a particular idea where you say I'm uncomfortable with that history and I<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">want it to be different therefore I will find things that fit my premise.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And that's where those other books come from.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I've read them both and both of them are basically starting with a premise and finding any way they can to support the premise without actually doing the full historical research<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I can’t speak for the Stoddards, but in my case, Brant’s accusation is demonstrably false. And he would know that if he was a serious scholar. Yet he falsely represents my views, either ignorantly or intentionally, it’s difficult to tell.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In my book <i>Whatever Happened to the Golden Plates</i>, published in 2016, I proposed that Joseph used the U&T in Harmony and the seer stone in Fayette. On page 99, I wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 18.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">I think the best way to resolve these specific discrepancies is to conclude that Joseph used both the interpreters and the seer stone. Some people prefer to believe that he used only one or the other, but to do so they must reject evidence purely because they don’t like it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 18.8pt;"><span style="color: #4472c4;">I also think Joseph returned the interpreters with the Harmony plates when he gave them to the messenger before moving to Fayette. This explains why witnesses in Fayette didn’t mention the interpreters.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When I wrote that in 2016, I was still relying on the research and theories promoted by the SITH scholars. Subsequently, I had some time to do independent research. I discussed my findings with others and concluded that the evidence, taken as a whole, does not support SITH as an explanation for the origin of the Book of Mormon. That’s why I wrote <i>A Man that Can Translate,</i> why I have revised <i>Whatever Happened,</i> and why I co-authored the book with Jim Lucas.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is the similar process I went through when I changed my mind from accepting M2C, based on deference to the M2C scholars, to rejecting M2C based on my own independent research.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">By contrast, Brant and his fellow M2C scholars have not only never changed their SITH and M2C views, but they don’t tolerate alternative faithful views in their organizations. Like Brant in this very podcast, they misrepresent the evidence and the views of those they disagree with.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Their work is pure confirmation bias, dressed up as legitimate scholarship through their faux academic organizations.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">[the next part of the podcast they speculate about why Joseph would use a hat and how SITH proves Joseph wasn’t reading from a manuscript]<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is exactly my point; i.e., David and Emma related SITH to refute the Spalding theory that Joseph read from a manuscript.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For the rest of the interview, you need to watch or read it yourself to see what else Brant claims.<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.25pt;" valign="top" width="286"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 231pt;" valign="top" width="308"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">One last comment. Based on the books he has published, Brant knows that every book that proposes a scenario based on research is written to support that premise. If the author’s research led him/her to a different conclusion, the book would support that different conclusion.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This should be axiomatic, but Brant describes it as a problem—even though that’s precisely what he has done with every book and article he has written.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Maybe in Brant’s case he never considered alternative scenarios, but that that doesn’t mean other authors haven’t changed their initial ideas after doing research. As I’ve shown, that’s what I did with respect to SITH (and also what I did with respect to M2C, which I had accepted for decades because I relied on Brant and other experts before taking another look at their evidence and rationales).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant also claims I haven’t “actually” done “the full historical research.” If I’ve overlooked any historical evidence, he should point it out. In my books I’ve cited all the available evidence as well as commentary (such as Brant’s) that contradicts my own interpretations.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I do this because I seek clarity, charity and understanding. Clarity requires full disclosure and openness, which I’ve done in all my work. Anyone watching this podcast can see that Brant cannot say the same.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">We can all see the same approach taken by the organizations Brant works for: Book of Mormon Central, the Interpreter Foundation, and FAIRLDS.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Hopefully this podcast will help clear the air and open doors for Latter-day Saints and people everywhere to learn that there are viable interpretations of the historical and other extrinsic evidence that corroborate and support what Joseph and Oliver said all along.<o:p></o:p></p><div><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-58246867888628774982023-08-10T07:03:00.004-07:002023-08-25T07:09:23.395-07:00Brant Gardner on Book of Mormon geography<p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif;">In the interest of clarity, charity and understanding, we'll discuss Brant Gardner's interview on the YouTube channel "Mormonism with the Murph," found here:</span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4052828223929705274" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DvvRyYXgq0&t=3133s" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DvvRyYXgq0&t=3133s</span></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZLkTOQ92WbrCle-CkHT4lkLBGEGtJw3Ytv1WBSNTz_y2U607Z5rNwaQjMFXG7V5X3-XMCVCDzpS7PZ6TpBPEJJfXenHS_yuBjIYx_u5W39pNhz74YFwzBOdlybx0W1rcsj1O6nThH-7TZot8qhzCCfTothXYctnm4zaI2gnP9xNZBXooyld5x48W6UE/s1630/Brant%20on%20Mormonism%20with%20the%20Murph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1630" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZLkTOQ92WbrCle-CkHT4lkLBGEGtJw3Ytv1WBSNTz_y2U607Z5rNwaQjMFXG7V5X3-XMCVCDzpS7PZ6TpBPEJJfXenHS_yuBjIYx_u5W39pNhz74YFwzBOdlybx0W1rcsj1O6nThH-7TZot8qhzCCfTothXYctnm4zaI2gnP9xNZBXooyld5x48W6UE/s320/Brant%20on%20Mormonism%20with%20the%20Murph.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><b>First</b>, kudos to Murph for his thoughtful, informed questions. His channel is gaining an audience because of his preparation and pleasant, inquisitive and intelligent demeanor.</p><p><b>Second</b>, kudos to Brant for appearing on social media to discuss these issues that he has written and spoken about for many years. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2SKxL9ntg90J17aGqShD1tj1fHFw35lunCW_E43Vo4l7D2TgBq2u_3HauZ0Pq6GAjRDki9aLPOoEfbm_IhRSjYOkWakHQHS5RjnsP1Z5OLOJUn1Y0_Uz-gjOPwAin2XaYtUYso2sadsPuTMYS3yC0mSWhKKHNvEte80w3N77_IIk_CwJqyGF6clO8Rh0/s432/Brant%20Gardner%20Gift%20and%20Power%20cover.jpg" style="clear: left; color: #d5cc29; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="301" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2SKxL9ntg90J17aGqShD1tj1fHFw35lunCW_E43Vo4l7D2TgBq2u_3HauZ0Pq6GAjRDki9aLPOoEfbm_IhRSjYOkWakHQHS5RjnsP1Z5OLOJUn1Y0_Uz-gjOPwAin2XaYtUYso2sadsPuTMYS3yC0mSWhKKHNvEte80w3N77_IIk_CwJqyGF6clO8Rh0/w139-h200/Brant%20Gardner%20Gift%20and%20Power%20cover.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="139" /></a></div>This episode focuses on Brant's excellent book, <i>The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon</i>, which was published in 2011.<p></p><p>Brant is a staunch defender of both SITH and M2C. He's articulate and thoughtful, and he's a nice guy. This interview, like his books, might be persuasive to those who accept his assumption, inferences, and biases, and we give him the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. </p><p>When we're all looking at the same evidence (and <i>all </i>the evidence), it is not the facts that lead to different outcomes, but instead our assumptions, inferences, theories and biases. </p><p>The pursuit of clarity requires examination of those assumptions, inferences, theories and biases, especially when they are not made explicit. Clarity, combined with charity, leads to understanding one another with "no more contention." [see <a href="http://www.nomorecontention.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">www.nomorecontention.com</span></a>]</p><p>But sometimes we have to step back and make sure we're all looking at the same evidence--and <i>all </i>the evidence. </p><p>As a thoughtful scholar, Brant emphasizes the need for accuracy and thoroughness. But in this post, Brant inexplicably misstates underlying facts and makes claims and accusations that don't hold up. Whether consideration of accurate facts would impact his assumptions, inferences, and theories remains to be seen. Because Brant is a good guy and an honest scholar, surely he will correct these errors, explain why he made them, and adjust his positions accordingly. </p><p><b>Third</b>, kudos for everyone involved with these discussions because when we get into specifics we can finally reach more clarity, charity and understanding; i.e., no more contention.</p><p><b>Fourth</b>, I'm fine with people believing whatever they want. People can choose whom and what to believe. (Article of Faith 11)</p><p>Ideally, everyone would seek to make informed decisions based on all the evidence, fully aware of the assumptions, inferences, and theories that lead to the hypotheses that form their worldview (the FAITH model). With those elements laid out (clarity), we would all have empathy (charity) for one another. Instead of contention, we'd have understanding and no compulsion to try to convince others.</p><p>But we're not there yet, neither in the world as a whole nor as Latter-day Saints. It seems that few people seek clarity, charity and understanding. Instead, to the extent they think about issues at all, they accept evidence that confirms their biases and reject evidence that contradicts their biases. People do that all the time. That's how people cope with cognitive dissonance. And that leads to contention, not understanding.</p><p>But we can overcome that through clarity, charity and understanding.</p><p>What I'm not fine with is scholars purporting to base their views on facts and then deliberately misstating the facts, omitting facts that contradict their theories, and otherwise using sophistry instead of clarity. Readers can decide for themselves how this applies to Brant's interview.</p><p style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We've previously discussed Brant's approach to so-called "Heartlanders," here:</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2022/04/m2c-citation-cartel-hanna-seriac-and.html" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2022/04/m2c-citation-cartel-hanna-seriac-and.html</a></span></p><p>_____</p><p>The podcast is 2.5 hours long. In this post, we'll discuss a few of the key points Brant made about the geography issue. We'll use the transcript from youtube with time code for those interested in referring to the youtube interview.</p><p>Tomorrow we'll discuss what Brant said about the translation issue.</p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><tbody><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">YouTube transcript<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Comments<o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">3:19 Murph: in the last episode there's one um sort of pushback that I forgot to ask you about that people would raise against the mesoAmerican geographical model so we'll talk about that briefly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Zelph the white Lamanite which I believe comes when Joseph Smith and some of the church leaders are sort of marching in Zion's camp and he points…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think he writes in a letter how they cross like the plains of the Nephites to his wife Emma</span></b><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joseph’s letter to Emma in the Joseph Smith Papers (JSP), describing his activities while traveling west across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-emma-smith-4-june-1834/2" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-emma-smith-4-june-1834/2</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #4472c4; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The whole of our journey, in the midst of so large a company of </span>social honest <span class="deleted"><s><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: var(--size26);">men</span></s></span> and sincere men<b>, wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting </b><b>occasionaly the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity</b>,14 and gazing upon a country the fertility, the splendour and the goodness so indescribable, all serves to pass away time unnoticed,</p><p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">and then there's some<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">3:46<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">sources or accounts of there being like a skeleton and he says that's Zelph the white Lamanite. I know heartlanders would use that to support oh The Book of Mormon happened here in North America.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">What's your take on that on Zelph the white Lamanite?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Note 14 above in the JSP:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">On 3 June, the Camp of Israel passed through the vicinity of what is now Valley City, Illinois, where several members of the camp climbed a large mound. At the top, they uncovered the skeletal remains of an individual JS reportedly identified as Zelph, a “white Lamanite.” Archeologists have since identified the mound as Naples–Russell Mound #8 and have classified it as a Hopewell burial mound of the Middle Woodland period of the North American pre-Columbian era (roughly 50 BC to AD 250). (Godfrey, “The Zelph Story,” 31, 34; Farnsworth, “Lamanitish Arrows,” 25–48.)</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">4:00<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Brant: I think first of all it's important to note that it's a lamanite and not a nephite</span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant is correct that Zelph was identified as a Lamanite. However, the identification was in the context of the larger identification of the Nephites and the great last battle. E.g., Wilford Woodruff recorded this in his journal:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Zelph was a large thick set man and a man of God he was a warrior under the great prophet ^Onandagus^ that was known from the hill Camorah ^or east sea^ to the Rocky mountains.</span> <span style="color: #0070c0;">The above knowledge Joseph </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">receieved in a vision.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/b048a7c5-6b6b-438a-bce7-262d5ba297d8/page/b7e83f61-fb13-43c4-bee7-5ab95fb957f1" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/b048a7c5-6b6b-438a-bce7-262d5ba297d8/page/b7e83f61-fb13-43c4-bee7-5ab95fb957f1</span></a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">the second thing is they talk about going over the planes of uh you know what is it <b>the plains of the lamanites they're plains anyway</b> I think if I remember right but I yeah<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">4:19<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">but <b>they're not mentioned in the Book of Mormon</b> so this is not a book of Mormon geographic location uh this is some<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">4:26<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">location somewhere but it isn't mentioned in the Book of Mormon<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Comment: Brant says JS referred to the “plains of the Lamanites.” Murph doesn’t correct him, but we can all read the account above, where Joseph writes “plains of the Nephites.” </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Maybe Brant simply misspoke, but in the context of his interview, this seems like deliberate misinformation to persuade unsuspecting viewers. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant says the plains are “not mentioned” in the text. While the generalized phrase “plains of the Nephites” is not specifically used in the current text (we can’t know what the 116 pages said), we have several references to Nephite "plains" that were significant in the war chapters and during the destruction before Christ’s visit. In one passage, a specific "plains" is identified "the plains of Nephihah," but in other passages the term is generalized, just as Joseph used the term to describe Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">There were also Jaredite plains, supporting the idea that the Jaredites lived in the same area as the Nephites.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Nephite plains:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">I saw the <b>plains</b> of the earth, that they were broken up;</span><span style="color: #0070c0;">(1 Nephi 12:4)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">20 And it came to pass they sent embassies to the army of the Lamanites, which protected the city of Mulek, to their leader, whose name was Jacob, desiring him that he would come out with his armies to meet them upon the <b>plains</b> between the two cities. But behold, Jacob, who was a Zoramite, would not come out with his army to meet them upon the <b>plains</b>. </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">(Alma 52:20)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">And it came to pass that when they had come to the city of Nephihah, they did pitch their tents in the <b>plains</b> of Nephihah, which is near the city of Nephihah.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;"> 19 Now Moroni was desirous that the Lamanites should come out to battle against them, upon the <b>plains</b>; </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">(Alma 62:18–19)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Jaredite plains:<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">28 And it came to pass that Shared fought against him for the space of three days. And it came to pass that Coriantumr beat him, and did pursue him until he came to the <b>plains</b> of Heshlon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;"> 29 And it came to pass that Shared gave him battle again upon the <b>plains</b>; and behold, he did beat Coriantumr, and drove him back again to the valley of Gilgal. </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">(Ether 13:28–29)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">15 And it came to pass that Lib did pursue him until he came to the <b>plains</b> of Agosh. And Coriantumr had taken all the people with him as he fled before Lib in that quarter of the land whither he fled.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;"> 16 And when he had come to the <b>plains</b> of Agosh he gave battle unto Lib, </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">(Ether 14:15–16)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant should explain why he misrepresented the scriptures this way.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">4:33<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">we know that uh you know some of the peoples came North there is no reason to believe that we don't have lamanites moving North after the end of The Book of Mormon<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">M: so it's like uh here you go the lamanite<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">B: yep<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">4:47<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">yeah I mean having lamanites that are northward is not unusual,<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Comment: Brant’s point that Lamanites may have moved north is a red herring. Everyone agrees that the Lamanites likely migrated in all directions after the end of the Book of Mormon.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant simply doesn't address the point that Joseph specifically identified Nephites while crossing Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. They were roving over their mounds and picking up their bones “as proof of the divine authenticity” of the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Nor does Brant mention that Joseph also identified Jaredites in this area.</p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">so you know having him there uh the only thing you have to worry about is this<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">4:59<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">idea of being a white lamanite and what does that mean and the definition that you would get from The Book of Mormon would have been that he was a converted lamanite<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When he says "the only thing you have to worry about" he's referring to the M2C advocates. Proponents of the North American setting (Heartland) don't worry about anything regarding the Zelph account.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s idea is congruent with what Wilford Woodruff recorded:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">His name was Zelph he was a white lamanite, a large </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">thick set man, and a man of God. The curse had been taken from him because of his righteousness.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/7fa48660-76da-4b7d-be34-ec03b88b3d57/page/59f7b665-644c-418f-9338-1a1e8a67bacd" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/7fa48660-76da-4b7d-be34-ec03b88b3d57/page/59f7b665-644c-418f-9338-1a1e8a67bacd</span></a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">and that must mean that somewhere as Mormon or Moroni is doing these travels he managed to talk to some<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">people and you know convert a few people perhaps some who uh you know kept that tradition going<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant’s speculation here ignores the historical accounts and merely confirms his M2C bias and worldview.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Instead of engaging in such raw speculation, we ought to look at the actual historical accounts.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For some events in Church history, Wilford Woodruff is the sole source (much like Lucy Mack Smith for JS’s early years). In the case of Zelph, there are multiple accounts from different people who were present. Naturally, each recorded different elements of the event. A good overview is here:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.mobom.org/zelph-account" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://www.mobom.org/zelph-account</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Woodruff’s account is the most detailed, so I’ll include it here.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">From his journal, May 1834:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">we visited many of the mounds which were flung up by the ancient inhabitants of this Continent probably by the Nephites & Lamanites[.]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">we visited one of these Mounds and several of the brethren dug into it and took from it the bones of a man[.] Brother Joseph had a vission respecting the person he said he was a white Lamanite the curs was taken from him or at least in part[.] he was killed in battle with an arrow the arrow was found among his ribs, one of his thigh bones was broken this was done by a stone flung from a sling in battle years before his death his name was Zelph some of his bones were brought into the camp and the thigh bone which was broken was put into my waggon and I carried it to Missouri.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Zelph was a large thick set man and a man of God he was a warrior under the great prophet ^Onandagus^ that was known from the hill Camorah ^or east sea^ to the Rocky mountains. The above knowledge Joseph receieved in a vision.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/b048a7c5-6b6b-438a-bce7-262d5ba297d8/page/b7e83f61-fb13-43c4-bee7-5ab95fb957f1" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/b048a7c5-6b6b-438a-bce7-262d5ba297d8/page/b7e83f61-fb13-43c4-bee7-5ab95fb957f1</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">From the History of Zion’s Camp:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">On the tops of the mounds were stones which personated the apperance of three altars, one above the other, according to the ancient order, and the remains of bones </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">were shown over the surface of the ground.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Wilford Woodruff says, "this mound was considered three hundred feet above the Illinois river, we had a shovel and a hoe with us, and while we were desending the mound, the Prophet Joseph stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground and said. "Brotherin dig in there."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">And when we had dug one foot we uncovered the skeleton of a man, which was entire, and in a good state of perservation, and between his ribs in the back bone was found the stone point of a lamanitish arrow, whiched produced his death. Milton Homes took the arrow out of </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">the back bone, also one of the thigh bones which had been broken, and took it to camp, and put it into my wagon; and at noon while resting in camp, the Prophet Joseph, while lying in his wagon, was rap[p]ed in vision, </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">and the history of this man whoes body we discovered, was shown unto him.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">His name was Zelph he was a white lamanite, a large thick set man, and a man of God. The curse had been taken from him because of his righteousness. He was a warrior, and a chiefton He fought under the prophet Onondagus, who held domion from the east to the west sea including the Rocky-mountains. Zelph had his thigh bone broken from the sling of a stone, while in battle, many years before his death. He was killed in battle by the arrow found in his back bone, dureing a great struggle with the Lamenites, and I Wilford Woodruff, carried the thigh bone to Clay County and burried it in that country, I intended to </span><span style="color: #0070c0;">have burried it in Jackson County, thinking that some prophet might have prophisied to him that the members of Zions camp whould have taken his bones with them to Zion and buried them their, when they went up to redeem Zion; But not having the privlage of gowing to Jackson County, I buried it in Clay County.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/7fa48660-76da-4b7d-be34-ec03b88b3d57/page/59f7b665-644c-418f-9338-1a1e8a67bacd" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/7fa48660-76da-4b7d-be34-ec03b88b3d57/page/59f7b665-644c-418f-9338-1a1e8a67bacd</span></a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">so we don't know how long after the Book of Mormon closed<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">5:30<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">that that would have been there um if we actually had that skeleton and we dug it up archaeologically we'd found that it... we would find that it came from time period long after the Book of Mormon<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The note in the JS Papers quoted above explains otherwise:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Archeologists have since identified the mound as Naples–Russell Mound #8 and have classified it as a Hopewell burial mound of the Middle Woodland period of the North American pre-Columbian era (roughly 50 BC to AD 250).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In other words, archaeologists date the mound to Book of Mormon time frames. They have also sourced the artifacts in the mound to the Rocky Mountains and upper eastern Midwest, corroborating what Wilford Woodruff recorded.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant the anthropologist surely knows this, but he misled his viewers here. </p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">M: okay so you wouldn't see that as necessarily undermining the Mesoamerican geographical model and do you also think that this was Joseph Smith maybe guessing because you know you don't believe, we don't believe that he knew uh where the Book of Mormon took place<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">B: yeah, we don’t<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">M: do you think he was sorted guessing or speculating<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant claims that “we don’t" believe Joseph knew where the Book of Mormon took place. He's speaking on behalf of M2C proponents, of course.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I’ve discussed this before:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); color: #0070c0; font-size: 10pt;">The entire premise for M2C is that the scholars know what Joseph Smith was secretly thinking, and that among Joseph's thoughts was ignorance about the Book of Mormon and its setting (despite what Joseph actually said). This is how they deal with the extreme cognitive dissonance they experience when they confront Joseph's actions and statements.</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 10pt;"><br /><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">Here is an example. In 2005, BYU and the Library of Congress sponsored a two-day academic conference to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's birth. I blogged about it </span></span><b><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><a href="http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/05/fun-with-john-e-clark-byu-studies-and.html" style="color: #d5cc29; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); color: #0070c0; font-size: 10pt;">here</span></a></span></u></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250); color: #0070c0; font-size: 10pt;">. The conference proceedings included these statements about what Joseph was thinking in his inner thoughts:</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 10pt;"><br /><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">- Joseph Smith did not fully understand the Book of Mormon.</span><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">- One thing all readers share with Joseph is a partial understanding of the book’s complexities.</span><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">- Over the last sixty years, Hugh Nibley, John Sorenson, and other scholars have shown the Book of Mormon to be “truer” than Joseph Smith or any of his contemporaries could know.</span><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">- Consequently, what Joseph Smith knew and understood about the book ought to be research questions rather than presumptions. Thanks in large part to his critics, it is becoming clear that Joseph Smith did not fully understand the geography, scope, historical scale, literary form, or cultural content of the book.</span><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">- In 1842, after reading about ancient cities in Central America, Joseph speculated that Book of Mormon lands were located there.</span><br /><span style="background: rgb(251, 254, 250);">- Joseph did not know exactly where Book of Mormon lands were... he considered their location an important question addressable through scholarship.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">that incident for some people has taken as you know Revelation and some<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">6:12<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">people is just a discussion or speculation you know however you want to read that um <b>I would say that most of the scholars would not accept it as a revelation<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">"For some people" means those who were present at the time and those who accept what they said.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The M2C scholars don’t accept it as a revelation, but Brant offers no rationale for rejecting what Woodruff and others recorded except that Zelph contradicts their theories.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">As we saw above, Wilford Woodruff explained Joseph had a vision:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">The published history of Zion's Camp gives an account of the bones of a man which we dug out of a mound. His name was Zelph. <b>The Lord showed the Prophet the history of the man in a vision.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/093b0c5c-db84-40fa-96ea-b4185b18bf43/page/d4ceb072-2ecb-4e2f-a284-6b2d53344fcb" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/093b0c5c-db84-40fa-96ea-b4185b18bf43/page/d4ceb072-2ecb-4e2f-a284-6b2d53344fcb</span></a><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">6:25<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">even in the Heartland for the people who would say yes this was a revelation it would be a revelation that's so late that it wouldn't have anything to do with the Book of Mormon or a book of Mormon geography it would simply say you know this is you know something that occurred after the Book of Mormon ended<o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brant repeats his misstatement about the dating of Zelph’s mound and the artifacts there as we saw above.<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: Mark Wright gave a paper at<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">6:46<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Fair several years ago called um Heartland is Hinterland he argued that after the Book of Mormon there would have been a northern migration we know that there was a northern migration of peoples from uh mesoamerica up into at least the southeast uh so the fact that there is a lamanite that you might have known something you know might have either<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">retained something because of uh you know Heritage of the nephite because<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">they didn't all die you know the nation was gone but never not every single Nephite was dead or somebody that Moroni had converted but still after the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">M: okay right okay so it's possible that Joseph Smith could have been uh not wrong then in saying that that's um Zelf yeah it could have been something that maybe came from the book<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">B: yeah I mean for those people who want to believe that that was a revelation and<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">7:48<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">that that's exactly what happened there is a context of which we can see that happening<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Wright’s paper has lots of problems, but it was published anyway in the <i>Interpreter</i> because all of the “peer reviewers” (if any) already agreed with Wright’s premise. They are “peer approvers,” not reviewers.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I’ve written about that paper quite a bit. Here’s a sample:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">One of the most insightful articles on this topic is "Heartland as Hinterland: The Mesoamerican Core and North American Periphery of Book of Mormon Geography," published here. It deals with a few of Joseph's actions that I listed above, such as the letter to Emma and the Zelph account.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Of course, the article never mentions Letter VII or the revelations in the D&C.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Instead, it relies on the anonymous <i>Times and Seasons</i> articles, erroneously attributing them to Joseph and then using them to reinterpret and invert the plain language of what Joseph actually wrote.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Here's how the article handles Joseph's letter to Emma and his revelation about Zelph: "The individuals and geographic features that are named in these accounts are nowhere to be found in the text of the Book of Mormon. They are external to its history."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Joseph explained that he had learned about the Book of Mormon people even before he translated the plates, and his mother confirmed this, but the M2C scholars reject what he Lucy said. Instead, they insist Joseph knew nothing except what he translated.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">The reason they take this position is obvious: it puts them not only on an even playing field with Joseph (because they're both limited to interpreting the text), but (in their minds) it makes their interpretations superior to Joseph's because they have PhDs and decades of more recent archaeological, linguistic, and other research.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">___________________</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">When you consider theories about Book of Mormon geography, consider whether the proponents are relying on actual evidence, or instead on their subjective interpretations of what they think Joseph's inner thoughts were.</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p>[the interview proceeds with a discussion of the translation]</o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></p></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-33600601052152038382023-08-02T07:44:00.001-07:002023-08-02T07:45:54.920-07:00Mormonism Unvailed in the Joseph Smith Papers<p>It's difficult for people in our day to appreciate the real-world challenges faced by the early Latter-day Saints. An example is the 1834 book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>.</p><p>Without understanding the historical context, people today are easily misled by those who advocate the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon, which <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> set forth as an alternative to the Urim and Thummim account provided by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.</p><p>Compare the claims of <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> with what the SITH scholars are teaching today. Other than the term "peep stone" in lieu of "seer stone," the following account from <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> is indistinguishable from what Book of Mormon Central, the <i>Interpreter</i>, and even the Gospel Topics Essay teach today. It looks like the script from Dan Peterson's <a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2021/06/witnesses-movie-review.html" target="_blank"><i>Witnesses </i>movie</a>.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The translation finally commenced. They were found to contain a language not now known upon the earth, which they termed "reformed Egyptian characters." The plates, therefore, which had been so much talked of, were found to be of no manner of use. After all, the Lord showed and communicated to him every word and letter of the Book. Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old ''peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book.</span> </p></blockquote><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18/mode/2up" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18/mode/2up</a></p><p>Apparently these fine LDS scholars find the SITH narrative in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> so credible that it supersedes what Joseph and Oliver taught.</p><p>The Joseph Smith Papers provide historical background that illuminates the significance of <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> for people living in the mid 1800s. [For a discussion of Joseph Smith's response to that book, see <a href="http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/04/mormonism-unvailed-then-and-now.html" target="_blank">http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/04/mormonism-unvailed-then-and-now.html</a>.</p><p>For example, in discussing the article "Travel Account and Questions, November 1837," the editors provided this background:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In addition to summarizing his journey to Far West and the administrative decisions made there, JS enumerated a series of questions that he said were “daily and hourly asked by all classes of people whilst we are traveling.” Though the specific circumstances that prompted such questions are unclear, many of the queries were related to longstanding misconceptions about church doctrine and JS’s past. Avowedly anti-Mormon publications had long influenced how the public viewed JS and the church. <b>Eber D. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed, which had been published three years prior in Painesville, Ohio, had shaped some of the public discourse surrounding JS and the church.</b>7 </span>[emphasis added]</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Although JS stated his intention to answer the questions in the next issue of the <i>Elders’ Journal</i>, JS’s departure from Ohio and the seizure and burning of the Kirtland printing office in January 1838 delayed the publication of these answers until the paper resumed printing in Far West, Missouri, in July 1838.8</span></p></blockquote><p>Footnote 7:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">[7]Written to convince the public that JS was an imposter and to warn “those who are yet liable . . . to be enclosed within its [Mormonism’s] fetters,” Howe’s book featured a series of affidavits collected by Doctor Philastus Hurlbut from individuals who claimed to have been acquainted with JS and his family when they lived in New York. Following its publication, JS defended his and his family’s reputations, stating that he had never “been guilty of wronging or injuring any man or society of men” and that he was only guilty of having, in his youth, “a light, and too often, vain mind.” Howe’s book received a favorable review in Alexander Campbell’s <i>Millennial Harbinger</i> and was available for purchase throughout Ohio, western New York, and Pennsylvania. (Howe, <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, ix; JS to Oliver Cowdery, <i>LDS Messenger and Advocate</i>, Dec. 1834, 1:40; “Mormonism Unveiled,” <i>Millennial Harbinger</i>, Jan. 1835, 44–45; “Mormonism Unveiled,” <i>Fredonia [NY] Censor</i>, 25 Mar. 1835, [3]; <i>News Item, Naked Truths about Mormonism</i> [Oakland, CA], Apr. 1888, 4.) </span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Howe, Eber D. <i>Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time</i>. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Millennial Harbinger</i>. Bethany, VA. Jan. 1830–Dec. 1870.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Fredonia Censor</i>. Fredonia, NY. 1824–1932.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Naked Truths about Mormonism: Also a Journal for Important, Newly Apprehended Truths, and Miscellany</i>. Oakland, CA. Jan. and Apr. 1888.</span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-22209147298655171982023-07-24T08:46:00.001-07:002023-09-01T09:12:14.518-07:00Gazelem question<p>The question of Gazelem often arises because scholars who promote SITH (the stone-in-the-hat narrative) link it to the translation of the Book of Mormon. In particular, MacKay/Dirkmaat in their book <i>From Darkness Unto Light</i>, which I've discussed here:</p><p><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2022/07/from-darkness-unto-light-omitting.html" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2022/07/from-darkness-unto-light-omitting.html</a></p><p>In that post, I made these comments:</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">The authors entirely omitted two additional important statements by Joseph about the translation. </span></p><div style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">First, they forgot to tell readers that the Wentworth letter was later republished in 1844 as "Latter Day Saints" with some modifications, but the paragraph about the translation remained unchanged except for omitting the final comma.</span></div><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,”</b> which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim on a bow fastened to a breastplate. <b>Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record</b>, by the gift and power of God.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fdfafe; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/latter-day-saints-1844/3" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/latter-day-saints-1844/3</span></a></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Second, they forgot to quote and cite what Joseph explained when he </span><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">answered a question in the 1838 </span><i style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">Elders' Journal.</i><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"> Here, he reaffirmed that he translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates:</span></div><div style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon? </span></blockquote><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead; and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. <b>I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates</b>; and thus came the book of Mormon.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fdfafe; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/10" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/10</span></a></div></blockquote><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Continuing with the excerpt :</span></p><blockquote style="background-color: #fdfafe; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As the Book of Mormon prophesied, the word of God “shall shine forth in darkness unto light.”59</span> </blockquote><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">When read in context, the passage refers to a stone: "And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations." (Alma 37:23)</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">The authors refer to "Gazelem" seven times in their book, stating at one point that "it is likely that the brown stone was the one referred to as Gazelem, which the Book of Mormon prophesied had been prepared to help translate ancient Nephite records like the Book of Mormon." </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Whether that is a "likely" interpretation is subjective, but there are two problems with the claim. </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">First, as we saw above, in words as plain as words can be, Joseph clarified that he translated the plates <b>with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates</b>. He didn't qualify his statements by saying he translated some of the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, or that he used two or more different instruments.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Second, the passage in Alma goes on to explain that the prophecy in verse 23 was already fulfilled: "And now, my son, we see that they did not repent; therefore they have been destroyed, and <b>thus far the word of God has been fulfilled</b>; yea, their secret abominations have been brought out of darkness and made known unto us." </span><span style="color: #990000;">(Alma 37:26) </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">There is no statement, suggestion or implication that this stone would be used in the future.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">[Some have been confused by the term "interpreters" in verses 21 and 24; e.g., "</span><span style="color: #990000;">And now, my son, these <b>interpreters </b>were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying:" </span><span style="color: #990000;">(Alma 37:24) </span><span style="color: #990000;">In the original text, the term used in this passage was "directors." The term was changed for the 1920 LDS edition but the RLDS/Community of Christ edition retains the original reading. Thus, when Oliver said Joseph "t</span><span style="color: #990000;">ranslated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon,'" </span><span style="color: #990000;">(Joseph Smith—History, Note, 1), he was not referring to Alma 37.]</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">By the way, here's how the authors deal with Oliver's statement, which they partially quote twice in their book.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">They truncate the quotation after "Interpreters" to omit Oliver's statement that Joseph "translated... the history or record called the 'Book of Mormon'." Unsuspecting readers would not realize that Oliver actually said Joseph translated the history or record, which is much different from saying Joseph read words off a stone. [Later, in note 44 of chapter 7, they provide the entire quotation without comment.]</span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Nevertheless, after quoting the truncated passage from JS-H, note 1, they write, </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Whether he was using the spectacles or an individual stone, Joseph apparently used either instrument by placing it in the bottom of a hat in order to block out the ambient light so he could read the words that appeared on the stone." </span>[672 of 1233]</p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Obviously, nothing in Oliver's statement states, suggests or implies any such practice. </span></p><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">This leads to another important historical source that the authors omitted from their book. </span><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">Oliver reiterated his first-person testimony when he rejoined the Church in 1848.</span></p><div style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;">I wrote with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet as <b>he translated it by the gift and power of God by means of the Urim and Thummim, or as it is called by that book, holy interpreters.</b> I beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands <b>the gold plates from which it was translated.</b> I also beheld the Interpreters. That book is true. Sidney Rigdon did not write it. Mr. Spaulding did not write it. I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the Prophet.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.lettervii.com/p/oliver-returning-to-church-reuben.html" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.lettervii.com/p/oliver-returning-to-church-reuben.html</span></a></div><p style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Here again, </span><span style="color: #990000;">nothing in Oliver's statement states, suggests or implies that Joseph used a stone he found in a well and placed in a hat. This 1848 statement is all the more meaningful because on that occasion, Oliver possessed the brown stone that Joseph supposedly used. But he neither referenced it nor displayed it. Instead, he referred to the interpreters and the plates. </span></p><p>_____</p><p>Much of the confusion arises from a changed made in the text of the Book of Mormon in Alma 37. Originally the term was <i>directors</i>, but it was changed to <i>interpreters </i>in the 1920 and subsequent LDS editions. (Still <i>directors </i>in the RLDS editions.)</p><p>While I understand the rationale, I think this change was an error because it confuses people who read Church history (such as the footnote in JS-H) and because later in chapter 37 Alma refers to <i>director </i>again twice. Singular those times, but the same term.</p><p>After all, Joseph Smith (and Oliver Cowdery) edited the Book of Mormon twice after the 1830 edition and didn't make this change.</p><p>Here are the relevant verses. </p><div>21 And now, I will speak unto you concerning those twenty-four plates, that ye keep them, that the mysteries and the works of darkness, and their secret works, or the secret works of those people who have been destroyed, may be made manifest unto this people; yea, all their murders, and robbings, and their plunderings, and all their wickedness and abominations, may be made manifest unto this people; yea, and that ye preserve these <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">interpreters </span></b>[1830-1924: <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">directors</span></b>].<br /> 22 For behold, the Lord saw that his people began to work in darkness, yea, work secret murders and abominations; therefore the Lord said, if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth.<br />23 And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations.<br />24 And now, my son, these <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">interpreters </span></b>[1830-1924: <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">directors</span></b>] were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying:</div><div>25 I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works and their abominations; and except they repent I will destroy them from off the face of the earth; and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land.<br />26 And now, my son, we see that they did not repent; therefore they have been destroyed, and thus far the word of God has been fulfilled; yea, their secret abominations have been brought out of darkness and made known unto us.<br />27 And now, my son, I command you that ye retain all their oaths, and their covenants, and their agreements in their secret abominations; yea, and all their signs and their wonders ye shall keep from this people, that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed.<br />(Alma 37:21–27)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Interpreters:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>13 Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">interpreters</span></b>, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.<br />(Mosiah 8:13)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>19 And now, when Ammon had made an end of speaking these words the king rejoiced exceedingly, and gave thanks to God, saying: Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">interpreters </span></b>were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men.<br />(Mosiah 8:19)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>20 And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of brass, and all the things which he had kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">interpreters</span></b>, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem.<br />(Mosiah 28:20)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>5 Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">interpreters</span></b>, according to the commandment of the Lord.</div><div>(Ether 4:5)</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>* Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Interpreters</span></b>,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’</div><div>(Joseph Smith—History, Note, 1)</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Directors:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>1 Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">directors </span></b>which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.<br />(Doctrine and Covenants 17:1)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>16 And moreover, he also gave him charge concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass; and also the plates of Nephi; and also, the sword of Laban, and the ball or <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">director</span></b>, which led our fathers through the wilderness, which was prepared by the hand of the Lord that thereby they might be led, every one according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him.<br />(Mosiah 1:16)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>38 And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">director</span></b>—or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it.<br />(Alma 37:38)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">director </span></b>did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.<br />(Alma 37:45)</div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-84194692317069552812023-07-21T08:44:00.002-07:002023-07-21T08:44:36.573-07:00Cumorah: How historians choose narratives to promote<p>A common assertion by LDS historians is the claim that Joseph Smith never referred to the hill in New York as Cumorah or Ramah. </p><p>It's an absurd, deceptive statement used to excuse their treatment of Cumorah/Ramah and the false historical narrative present they produced in the <i>Saints </i>book (discussed here: <a href="https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html" target="_blank">https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html</a>).</p><p>Nevertheless, their deceptive claim is their justification for censoring the historical record about Cumorah in the <i>Saints </i>book and in the visitors centers in Palmyra and Salt Lake City.</p><p><i>Even in the display about Cumorah on Temple Square, they never mentioned the actual historical record.</i> </p><p>But get this. Instead of informing visitors about the actual historical record, they displayed M2C!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEKweDbbPiFYQSxSF6OR1ibizG3ukjU-h99xoYyH9xT9FxXGr8gdex_a1FjG1aLCm2sikn2F_SCigy-nzgxPzrNQ9l_sRCcsmL23TnGh0Cmzh76ABuMYqoSIL4zbnH4DjasfGbuUqmP0e1xkn4ZW3-v9ogTZIZqxoQxKUd-4EyiJvRIYPjB9G_jJBQ/s1500/2%20Cumorahs%20at%20Temple%20Square-JN-captioned.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEKweDbbPiFYQSxSF6OR1ibizG3ukjU-h99xoYyH9xT9FxXGr8gdex_a1FjG1aLCm2sikn2F_SCigy-nzgxPzrNQ9l_sRCcsmL23TnGh0Cmzh76ABuMYqoSIL4zbnH4DjasfGbuUqmP0e1xkn4ZW3-v9ogTZIZqxoQxKUd-4EyiJvRIYPjB9G_jJBQ/s320/2%20Cumorahs%20at%20Temple%20Square-JN-captioned.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Fortunately, this M2C display has been removed as part of the renovation on Temple Square. It remains to be seen what will replace it, but we can be sure, based on past experience, that the Church History Department will continue to censor the historical record about Cumorah/Ramah.<div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>How did we get here? Why do careful, thoughtful LDS historians choose this narrative to promote?</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously, no one knows everything that Joseph said throughout his lifetime. Even today, with all our video and audio technology, only a tiny portion of what we say is recorded. Regarding Joseph Smith and other historical figures, all we have is what the historical record has left us--and that consists of sparse written material, not speech.</div><div><p>We all recognize that Joseph wrote very little by himself. He dictated the Book of Mormon and other scriptures, as well as correspondence. If we compile every known document Joseph wrote or dictated (apart from the Book of Mormon and the revelations), we have less than a week's worth of speech to represent 39 years of an active life. </p><p>The historians can <i>accurately </i>say that we have no extant written first-hand record of Joseph referring to the hill as Cumorah (apart from the letter now canonized as D&C 128:20, which they omitted from <i>Saints </i>and dismissed as "late" because it contradicts their theory about Cumorah/Ramah). </p><p>But that accurate statement is much different from claiming Joseph <i>never </i>referred to the hill as Cumorah.</p><p>And excluding D&C 128:20, one of the few direct written statements by Joseph that is even canonized, is inexcusable by any standard.</p><p>_____</p><p>Historians commonly attribute lots of second-hand statements to Joseph. The Joseph Smith Papers are full of second-hand accounts of Joseph's sermons and other teachings. Historians readily embrace second-hand statements--so long as they don't involve Cumorah.</p><p>Even in the <i>Saints </i>book, they cited Lucy Mack Smith's history as authoritative and reliable over 100 times.</p><p>But they omitted her statements, including a direct quotation in quotation marks, about Cumorah. </p><p>Why?</p><p>There is no rational historical justification for omitting Lucy's statements about Cumorah. Lucy is the only source for much of the information published in <i>Saints</i>. There is no independent corroboration for many of her statements that are included as authoritative in the <i>Saints </i>book.</p><p>By contrast, Lucy's statements about Cumorah--that Moroni himself told Joseph the name of the hill the first time they met, and that Joseph referred to the hill as Cumorah even before he obtained and translated the plates--were corroborated by Joseph himself in D&C 128:20, which preceded Lucy's dictated account. </p><p>Lucy's statements about Cumorah were further corroborated by Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer.</p><p>Why have Church historians rejected Lucy's corroborated statements about Cumorah while citing her uncorroborated statements as authoritative?</p><p>Solely to accommodate the Mesoamerican/Two-Cumorahs theory (M2C) promoted by their colleagues at BYU and CES.</p><p><b>Lucy Mack Smith related two second-hand statements by Joseph that, if accepted as authentic, explain the entire Cumorah narrative.</b></p><p><b>If rejected, however, the Cumorah narrative is inexplicable.</b></p><p>That's just how the M2C promoters want the Cumorah narrative: inexplicable and vague, of uncertain origin, based on speculation, etc., so they can (in their minds) legitimately repudiate the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah.</p><p>_____</p><p>Second-hand statements can be problematic, of course. They must be evaluated in light of context, extrinsic evidence, and corroboration. In Lucy's case, her statements about Cumorah were well corroborated, which lends them more credibility and reliability than uncorroborated second-hand accounts. </p><p>But given the paucity of historical sources, historians necessarily rely on second-hand accounts to create a narrative.</p><p>A prime example is how historians transformed a single second-hand account, Wilford Woodruff's summary of a day's teachings, into a first-hand statement by Joseph Smith:</p><p><b>Woodruff journal:</b></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">28</span><span class="superscript" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px; vertical-align: super;"><span class="underscore" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--McKay); line-height: var(--size26); text-decoration-line: underline;">[th]</span></span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> Sunday I spent the day at </span><a class="reference staticPopup" id="link9466850609177846060" person="per168" ro="per168" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--McKay); font-size: var(--size18); line-height: var(--size26); text-wrap: nowrap; transition: color 300ms ease 0s;" title="Brigham Young">B[righam] Young </a><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">in </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">company with Joseph & the</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> </span>Twelve <span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">in </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">conversing upon a variety of subjects it was </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">an interesting day</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> </span>Elder Joseph Fielding <span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">was </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">present he had been in</span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> </span>England <span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">four years </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">we also saw a number of english Brethren </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">Joseph said the Book of Mormon was the most </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">correct of any Book on earth & the keystone of </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">our religion & a man would get nearer to </span><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">God by abiding by its precepts than any other Book</span></span></p><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/remarks-28-november-1841/1" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/remarks-28-november-1841/1</a></p><p>Note that, unlike in other parts of his journal, Woodruff did not put the statement in quotation marks, suggesting it was not a direct quotation but instead his own summary of what Joseph taught that day.</p><p>Nevertheless, early Church historians converted Woodruff's second-hand journal entry into a first-person statement, inserting it into Joseph's history. Note the insertion in the original text of the history.</p><p><b>History of the Church:</b></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><28> Sunday 28. I spent the day in Council with the Twelve <Apostles> at the house of </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-wrap: nowrap;">President [Brigham] Young </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><conversing with them upon a variety of subjects. Bro </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph Fielding </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">was present, having been absent 4 years on a mission </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">to England. I told the brethren that the book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the key stone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God </span><span class="line-break" style="border-right: var(--size1) dashed #6f6053; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: var(--size26); margin-right: var(--size6); text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><span style="color: #212225; font-family: McKay, serif;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/427?highlight=most%20correct" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/427?highlight=most%20correct</a></span></span></p><p>This history was then incorporated into the official Introduction to the Book of Mormon as a first-person statement by Joseph Smith.</p><p><b>Introduction to the Book of Mormon:</b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 27px;">Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”</span></p><p><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng" target="_blank">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-71303870947792410072023-04-27T10:12:00.003-07:002023-05-28T21:50:55.736-07:00Mormonism Unvailed: then and now<p>This month (April) marks the tenth anniversary of the release of the CES Letter, Jeremy Runnels' list of questions about Church history and doctrine. It's easy to understand why Jeremy was frustrated at the lack of answers to the questions he raised. </p><p>The Interpreters (FAIRMormon, the Interpreter, etc.) engaged the CES Letter, but as Runnels pointed out, they agreed on some of the key points, such as SITH (the stone-in-the-hat explanation for the Book of Mormon).</p><p>2023 also marks the tenth anniversary of John Dehlin's "Faith Crisis Report" and the first of the Gospel Topics Essays. The Faith Crisis Report proposed a way of "Breaking the cycle of disaffection."</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1) Mitigating Faith Crisis for Future Generations</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mitigating Faith Crisis for future generations is possible but will require bold steps. The key is to ensure future generations no longer become shocked by gaps between our official LDS narrative and our uncorrelated history.</span></p></blockquote><p>These so-called "gaps" included SITH vs. the Urim and Thummim explanation that Joseph and Oliver provided. </p><p>The sequence can be summarized this way.</p><p><b>1. In 1834,</b> the book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> set out the SITH narrative this way:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The translation finally commenced. They were found to contain a language not now known upon the earth, which they termed "reformed Egyptian characters." The plates, therefore, which had been so much talked of, were found to be of no manner of use. After all, the Lord showed and communicated to him every word and letter of the Book. Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old ''peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book.</span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18/mode/2up" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18/mode/2up</a> </p></blockquote><p>Notice that, apart from the term "old 'peep stone'," this description from <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> is essentially what the Interpreters advocate today. Dan Peterson even made a movie teaching this to the world.</p><p><b>2. Starting in 1834,</b> Oliver Cowdery wrote 8 essays about Church history to refute the claims of <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> (including Letter VII about Cumorah).</p><p>In December, 1835, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to the Elders of the Church about <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">We might farther say that, we could introduce him to “Mormonism Unveiled.” Also to the right honorable Doct. P. Hurlburt, who is the legitimate author of the same, who is not so much a doctor of physic, <b>as of falsehood</b>, or by name. We could also give him an introduction to the reverend Mr. Howe, <b>the illegitimate author of “Mormonism Unveiled,”</b> in order to give currency to the publication, as Mr. Hurlburt, about this time, was bound over to court, for threatening life. He is also an associate of the celebrated Mr. Clapp, who has of late immortalised his name by swearing that he would not believe a Mormon under oath; and by his polite introduction to said Hurlburt’s wife, which cost him (as we have been informed) a round sum. Also his son Mathew testified that, the book of Mormon had been proved false an hundred times, by Howe’s book: and also, that he would not believe a Mormon under oath. And also we could mention the reverend Mr. Bentley, who, we believe, has been actively engaged in injuring the character of his brother-in-law, viz: Elder S. [Sidney] Rigdon.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Now, the above statements are according to our best information: and we believe them to be true; and this is as fair a sample of the doctrine of Campbellism, as we ask, taking the statements of these gentlemen, and judging them by their fruits. <b>And we might and many more to the black catalogue; even the ringleaders, not of the Nazarenes, for how can any good thing come out of Nazareth, but of the far-famed Mentor mob: all sons and legitimate heirs of the same spirit of Alexander Campbell, and “Mormonism Unveiled,”</b> according to the representation in the cut spoken of above.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>The above cloud of darkness has long been beating with mountain waves upon the immovable rock of the church of the Latter Day Saints</b>, and notwithstanding all this, the mustard seed is still towering its lofty branches, higher and higher, and extending itself wider and wider, and the charriot wheels of the kingdom are still rolling on, impelled by the mighty arm of Jehovah; and in spite of all opposition will still roll on until his words are all fulfilled.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Our readers will excuse us for deviating from the subject, when they take into consideration the abuses, that have been heaped upon us heretofore, which we have tamely submitted to, until forbearance is no longer required at our hands, having frequently turned both hand the right and left cheek, we believe it our duty now to stand up in our own defence. </span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: right;">(Messenger and Advocate II.3:228 ¶2–5)</p><div>In 1836, Orson Hyde wrote to the Messenger and Advocate</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The cause of God will roll on in the face of an opposing world, and I cannot but make the expression of the Prophet, saying, “no weapon formed against thee shall prosper.” The first weapon raised against the spread of truth, of any consideration in this country, was the wicked and scurrilous pamphlet published by A. Campbell. Next, perhaps, were the letters of E. Booth, and thirdly, Mormonism unveiled written by Mr. E.D. Howe, alias. Doct. P. Hulbert.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">These were designed severally in their turn for the exposure and overthrow of “Mormonism” as they termed it; but it appears that heaven has not blessed the means which they employed to effect their object, “No weapon raised against it shall prosper.”</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The writings of the above named persons, I find have no influence in the world at all; for they are not even quoted by opposers, and I believe for no other reason than—that they are ashamed of them.</span></div><div><div style="text-align: right;">(Messenger and Advocate II.7:296 ¶9–11)</div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><p>In 1837, one missionary wrote a letter to the <i>Messenger and Advocate</i>, explaining that </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Mormonism unvailed” has been circulated in this part of the country, but that has but little influence on the minds of those who are seeking after truth: What is the chaff to the wheat? The truth is, the honest in heart will and do rejoice when they hear the truth proclaimed.</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: right;">(Messenger and Advocate III.11:549 ¶4)</p><p>The 1838 <i>Elders' Journal</i> included this discussion of <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>.</p><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Is it any wonder then, that we say of the priests of modern days that they are of Satan’s own making and are of their father the devil. Nay verily nay, for no being but a scandalous sycophant and base hypocrite would say other ways. As it was with Doctor Philastes Hurlburt, so it is with these creatures. While Hurlburt was held in bounds by the Church and made to behalf himself, he was denounced by the priests as one of the worst of men, but no sooner was he excluded from the Church for adultery, than instantly he became one of the finest men in the world. Old deacon Clapp of Mentor ran and took him and his family into the house with himself and so exceedingly was he pleased with him, that purely out of respect to him, he went to bed to his wife. This great kindness and respect Hurlburt did not feel just so well about but the pious old deacon gave him a hundred dollars and a yoke of oxen, and all was well again.</span></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This is the Hurlburt that was author of a book which bears the name of E. [Edward] D. Howe, but it was this said Hurlburt that was the author of it. But after the affair of Hurlburt’s wife and the pious old deacon, the persecutors thought it better to put some other name as author to their book than Hurlburt, so E. D. Howe substituted his name. The change however was not much better. Asahel Howe, one of E. D.’s brothers who was said to be the likeliest of the family, served apprenticeship in the work house in Ohio for robbing the post office. And yet notwithstanding all this, all the pious priests of all denominations were found following in the wake of these mortals.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hurlburt and the Howes are among the basest of mankind, and known to be such and yet the priests and their coadjutors hail them as their best friends and publish their lies, speaking of them in the highest terms. And after all this, they want us to say that they are pious souls and good saints. Can we believe it? Surely men of common sense will not ask us to do it.</span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Good men love to associate with good men, and bad men with bad ones, and when we see men making friends with drunkards, thieves, liars, and swindlers, shall we call them saints? If we were to do it, we might be justly charged with “partaking of their evil deeds.”</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Therefore until we have more evidence than we have now, we shall always think when we see men associating with scoundrels, that they themselves are scoundrels. And there we shall leave them for the present, firmly believing that when the day of decision had come that we shall see all the priests who adhere to the sectarian religions of the day. With all their followers, without one exception, receive their portion with the devil and his angels.</span></div></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: right;">(<i>Elders’ Journal</i> I.4:59 ¶11–60 ¶4)</div></div><div><br /></div><p><b>3. Starting in October 2011,</b> a team organized by John Dehlin conducted a survey and prepared an analysis about the so-called "faith crisis" among Latter-day Saints, emphasizing SITH.</p><p><b>4. April 2013.</b> Runnels released the CES Letter that, among other things, questions the historicity of the Book of Mormon and presents SITH as the "actual" origin of the Book of Mormon instead of the traditional narrative of the translation by means of the Urim and Thummim.</p><p><b>5. August 2013.</b> Dehlin and his team presented the final "Faith Crisis Report" to Church leaders.</p><p><b>6. November 2013.</b> The first Gospel Topics Essays were published on the Church's website, justifying SITH without even quoting what Joseph and Oliver said about the translation with the Urim and Thummim.</p><p>Ever since, on his Mormon Stories podcast John Dehlin has used SITH as a means to undermine faith, citing the Gospel Topics Essays themselves.</p><p><b>The Interpreters</b></p><p>The Interpreters also embrace and promote SITH, claiming Joseph didn't use the U&T or the plates, but differing with the critics in the sense that they claim Joseph was inspired by God, while the critics claim Joseph composed the text and lied about the Urim and Thummim and the plates.</p><p>For example, in 2016 Book of Mormon Central published an article claiming there is "ambiguity" about the translation.</p><p><a href="https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/why-was-a-stone-used-as-an-aid-in-translating-the-book-of-mormon" target="_blank">https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/why-was-a-stone-used-as-an-aid-in-translating-the-book-of-mormon</a></p><p>Like other SITH-sayers, Book of Mormon Central (BMC) ignores the specific and unambiguous explanations from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Instead, BMC cites the speculations of scholars to create a place for the SITH narrative from <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>.</p><p>Dan Peterson and his Interpreter Foundation produced a feature film to promote the SITH narrative from <i>Mormonism Unvaile</i>d.</p><p><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2021/06/witnesses-movie-review.html" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2021/06/witnesses-movie-review.html</a></p><p>_____</p><p>In my view, what Joseph and Oliver said about the translation makes more sense and is better supported by the evidence than what the SITH-sayers claim. This is just as true today as it was in 1834 when E.D. Howe published the SITH narrative in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>.</p><p>But that's just me.</p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-27411879109590534262023-04-12T10:00:00.002-07:002023-04-28T17:22:36.239-07:00GTE on translation - again<p>The translation essay keeps coming up, so I'll address it in a slightly different manner here.</p><p><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng" target="_blank">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng</a></p><p>People who cite the Gospel Topics Essays as doctrine or statements of the First Presidency but may not have read the introduction to those essays. Nowhere have Church leaders stated, suggested, or implied that these essays were ever intended to replace the scriptures, the teachings of the prophets, or authentic historical documents. Furthermore, they are subject to change at any time without notice, they have been changed in the past, and they will likely be changed in the future.</p><div>Plus, the Gospel Topics Essays are not the official history of the Church. Neither are the <i>Saints </i>books. These are merely aids to help understand the actual history, which is contained in the Joseph Smith Papers and related archival documents (such as Wilford Woodruff's journal).</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Here is the introduction to the essays:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><b>Gospel Topics Essays</b></div><div>In the early 1830s, when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was less than three years old, the Lord invited members of the Church to seek wisdom by study and by the exercise of faith: “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">This is more than a simple exhortation to learn about the gospel. It is an invitation from the Lord to recognize that <b>not all sources of knowledge are equally reliable</b>. Seeking “out of the best books” <b>does not mean seeking only one set of opinions, but it does require us to distinguish between reliable sources and unreliable sources.</b></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">Recognizing that today so much information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be obtained from questionable and often inaccurate sources, officials of the Church began in 2013 to publish straightforward, in-depth essays on a number of topics. The purpose of these essays, which have been approved by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has been to <b>gather accurate information from many different sources and publications and place it in the Gospel Topics section of ChurchofJesusChrist.org</b>, where the material can more easily be accessed and studied by Church members and other interested parties.</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">The Church places great emphasis on knowledge and on <b>the importance of being well informed about Church history, doctrine, and practices</b>. Ongoing historical research, revisions of the Church’s curriculum, and the use of new technologies allowing a more systematic and thorough study of scriptures have all been pursued by the Church to that end. We again encourage members to study the Gospel Topics essays cited in the links below as they “seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>We can see that the intent of these essays was to "gather accurate information" into one place. The essays were never intended to change Church history or doctrine.</div><div><br /></div><div>When considering the essays, it is essential that readers distinguish between "accurate information" and mere commentary. In this case, it's significant that the essay on translation never even fully quotes what Joseph and Oliver said about the translation. Instead, the essay inexplicably</div><div><br /></div><div>(i) quotes an excerpt from the preface to the 1830 edition that omits the key point that he took the translation from the plates; i.e., not from a stone in a hat. "I would inform you that I translated by the gift & power of God & caused to be written one hundred & sixteen pages<b> the which I took from the Book of Lehi </b>which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi by the hand of Mormon." </div><div><br /></div><div>(ii) misrepresents the question posed in the Oct. 1831 conference (note 25), which involved the "coming forth of the Book of Mormon," not the translation per se.</div><div><br /></div><div>(iii) omits what Joseph wrote in the Wentworth letter, "With the records was found a curious instrument, which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,” which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God</div><div><br /></div><div>(iv) omits what Joseph wrote in the <i>Elders' Journal. "</i>How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon? Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, being dead; and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were, and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which, I translated the plates; and thus came the Book of Mormon. (Elders’ Journal, July 1838)</div><div><br /></div><div>(v) omits what Oliver Cowdery wrote about his experience. Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, "Interpreters," the history or record called "The book of Mormon."</div><div><br /></div><div>(vi) omits what Oliver related about Moroni telling Joseph it would be his “privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record."</div><div><br /></div><div>(vii) omits other statements that reiterate what Joseph and Oliver always claimed</div><div><br /></div><div>but</div><div><br /></div><div>(viii) instead relies instead on statements by various SITH sayers, along with commentary by editors who have long taught SITH. </div><div><br /></div><div>For example, look at note 20, which cites Mark Ashurst-McGee's Master's Thesis. Mark is an employee of the Church History Department and an editor of the Joseph Smith Papers. The note supposedly supports this statement: "As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture." That is purely Mark's speculation about what Joseph was thinking. It's pure mindreading, written in the essay as fact. It's the opposite of the "accurate information" these essays were intended to gather.</div><div><br /></div><div>People often quote the following sentences from the essay on translation. Again, the editors make statements of fact that are merely speculation:</div><div><br /></div><div><span face=""Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif" style="font-size: 18px;">Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. </span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The first sentence is misleading because Joseph Smith never once "wrote of two instruments." Nor did Oliver Cowdery. Whether it is misleading on purpose or just poorly written doesn't matter because there are no reliable sources from Joseph or Oliver to back up that claim. Instead, the SITH proponents rely on David Whitmer, who was never a scribe, on Emma, who was a scribe but we don't know what parts of the text she wrote, and Martin Harris, who never wrote any of the Book of Mormon we have today. As we discuss in the book, Emma's testimony is inconsistent and her own son, who recorded it, later decided Joseph used the U&T instead of the seer stone. Martin's statements are consistent about the U&T with the exception of the Edward Stevenson account of stone swapping, which Stevenson related only long after Martin had died and which Martin had never told anyone else. Whitmer's statements, as a non-scribe who was never present in Harmony (where most of the Book of Mormon was translated) and who said he was not around for most of the translation even in Fayette, are numerous but inconsistent and late. Plus, David also claimed that Joseph was a fallen prophet, that there was never any restoration of Priesthood, that God only called Joseph to produce the Book of Mormon and everything else was Joseph's invention, etc. </div><div><br /></div><div><span face=""Ensign:Serif", McKay, "McKay ldsLat", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, serif" style="font-size: 18px;">According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English.</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are two obvious problems here. First, no one other than Joseph could see what was on the instruments, so any such statements are hearsay at best. Second, while we can see that some of these people claimed to be witnesses of the translation, whatever they observed could not have been the actual translation because none of them were authorized to see the plates or the Interpreters.</div><div><br /></div><div>People usually accept Emma's "Last Testimony," which was published about 6 months after she died. During her lifetime, she never attested to this document, nor did anyone witness its creation other than her son, Joseph Smith III. Her "Last Testimony" also says Joseph never had another wife, etc. After it was published, several Saints in Utah published their accounts that contradicted Emma's. Eliza R. Snow said she couldn't tell whether it was Emma or Joseph Smith III who was the liar. And, of course, Brigham Young said Emma was the biggest liar he ever knew.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It's continually amazing to me how many people take Emma's statement out of context this way. People who know about the problems with the statement and accept it anyway don't explain why they think Emma told the truth about the translation but lied about plural marriage, or why people who knew her well, including Brigham and Eliza, said she was a liar. </div><div><br /></div><div>Few people explain why they believe Emma instead of Joseph Smith. Emma says directly that Joseph didn't use the plates or the Urim and Thummim, but instead used a stone in a hat. Even the essay points out that Joseph found this stone long before he obtained the plates. Thus, it could not have been the U&T that came with the plates. IOW, we have a direct conflict between Emma and Joseph. Joseph published his explanations in Church newspapers during his lifetime. Emma allegedly made her statement in private, shortly before she died, 50 years after the events she describes. </div><div><br /></div><div>For me, it's an easy decision. And yet, it's also appropriate for the essay to include the "Last Testimony" as part of the set of facts we all have to consider. I have not seen anything from the First Presidency stating that Emma's statement was correct and Joseph and Oliver misled everyone. However, by omitting the statements from Joseph and Oliver, the essay leads people to that conclusion. </div><div><br /></div><div>Still, as the introduction explains, "The Church places great emphasis on knowledge and on the importance of being well informed about Church history, doctrine, and practices." Those who simply accept these essays on their face, even though they omit relevant and "accurate information" that they should include, are abdicating their personal responsibility for seeking "learning, even by study and also by faith.” </div><div><br /></div><div>People usually discuss the stone Zina Young obtained from Brigham's estate after he died. The only link to the seer stone Joseph actually possessed (and gave to Oliver) is that it "matches the description." However, there are three major problems with it. </div><div><br /></div><div>First, Emma said Joseph "used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color." That description does not fit the striated stone the Church has published. </div><div><br /></div><div>Second, a newspaper account quoted David Whitmer as saying “He had two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg shaped and perfectly smooth, but not transparent, called interpreters, which were given him with the plates." This is consistent with Emma's statement about the color, but also does not fit the striated stone. Of course, such consistency does not preclude Emma or David influencing the other about the color of the stone. </div><div><br /></div><div>David later corrected the newspaper but not the description of the color of the stone. He said, "I did not say that Smith used “two small stones,” as stated nor did I call the stone “interpreters.” I stated that “he used one stone (not two) and called it a sun stone.” The “interpreters” were as I understood taken from Smith and were not used by him after losing the first 116 pages as stated. It is my understanding that the stone referred to was furnished him when he commenced translating again after losing the 116 pages." </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, David's statement here directly contradicts what Joseph and Oliver said, yet the SITH proponents prefer David's statement.</div><div><br /></div><div>The third problem is that the actual stone in the photos is a particular type of striated rock, laced with layers of iron, that geologists say exists only in Wyoming. That means it's highly unlikely that Joseph found it in New York (whether while digging a well or otherwise), and even less likely that Martin Harris could have found an identical one in the Susquehanna River. It seems far more likely that Brigham Young (or someone else) picked it up in Wyoming during the trek to Utah and Zina bought it thinking it was a seer stone.</div><div><br /></div><div>At any rate, people are free to believe whatever they want to believe. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>But the glaring omissions and misdirection in the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation should prevent anyone from relying solely on the essay for information, and certainly should prevent anyone from concluding that the First Presidency or other Church leaders have implicitly impeached Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by the contents of the essay. </div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-5411266590742184812023-02-24T07:31:00.000-08:002023-02-24T07:31:09.630-08:00The Gospel Topics Essays - my view<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">People often ask what I think about the Gospel Topics Essays. My position is simple and clear.</span></h3><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3868363243306594381" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 578px;"><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">The Gospel Topics Essays are useful resources that point to reliable sources. They have not been canonized. They have been revised in the past and can be revised and improved at any moment. I point out errors and omissions in the essays because I'm hopeful that the essays will continue to be improved, particularly by including the relevant and reliable sources from the Joseph Smith Papers that have so far been omitted.</blockquote><div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">_____</div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>I encourage people to read the essays partly because the introduction to those essays perfectly expresses my objection to the M2C/SITH citation cartel. </b></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b><br /></b></div><div><b style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">[M2C = Mesoamerican/Two-Cumorahs theory. SITH = stone-in-the-hat theory]<br /></b><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div><span style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The </span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng" style="color: #168bc8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">introduction </a><span style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">to the essays quotes D&C 88:118 and explains that </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">"Seeking 'out of the best books' <b>does not mean seeking only one set of opinions</b>, but it does require us to distinguish between reliable sources and unreliable sources."</span><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Contrary to that guidance,</b> the citation cartel (the <i>Interpreter</i>, Book of Mormon Central, FAIRLDS, <i>Meridian Magazine</i>, and all their followers) insist on "only one set of opinions" regarding M2C and SITH. </div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Interpreter Foundation's very name reflects its arrogant assumption of authority as the "interpreter" for ordinary Latter-day Saints. Typical of the credentialed class, they claim superiority over the rest of us who lack their credentials and status because they think we are incapable of understanding the gospel without their "interpretations" which they enforce through their journal, radio show, and even their movie <i>Witnesses</i>.</div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Book of Mormon Central is so adamant that only one set of opinions is permissible that they've embedded M2C right in their logo.</div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhVK6FutUwM_r_4Du5zwIwHQo0PKKRJrXyf0vgRS52BFB1Buak9_NJBNkvVr6cUMQsh7fkO39NcpvRVWJFe2bixxZjJ1YvYyLTwsZPXJgcn1OFNZloKFTQwxvMNjgwsfmxBo8cTfYpiyRby5Kua6lFvQd8A6gjJZ62-ssYcA-PBiOYC4uppOMZu1UXQ/s986/Mark%20of%20M2C.png" style="color: #168bc8; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="986" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhVK6FutUwM_r_4Du5zwIwHQo0PKKRJrXyf0vgRS52BFB1Buak9_NJBNkvVr6cUMQsh7fkO39NcpvRVWJFe2bixxZjJ1YvYyLTwsZPXJgcn1OFNZloKFTQwxvMNjgwsfmxBo8cTfYpiyRby5Kua6lFvQd8A6gjJZ62-ssYcA-PBiOYC4uppOMZu1UXQ/w200-h114/Mark%20of%20M2C.png" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">It's the same logo that FARMS (which has promoted M2C for decades now) used before the principals left to form the Interpreter Foundation and Book of Mormon Central.</div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_cTKmTlIUFNOF8GQTJQDpyRRqQXvb2PwpwcrYFt915v-WwdhNlNQQ7yvGc8RRz3fxL0jcjgPE31u4UFAIpLDMy-NzGArONhJOlyYfsm5f6XqRf0RJyg6VEJuSlk0IfOIed4iB8M0-JwoF1bYiq4tgGji2djY5t_fALsTUQYwOHzl-izPAxWrt6IAtgw/s731/FARMS%20logo%2095catalogthumb.jpg" style="color: #168bc8; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="555" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_cTKmTlIUFNOF8GQTJQDpyRRqQXvb2PwpwcrYFt915v-WwdhNlNQQ7yvGc8RRz3fxL0jcjgPE31u4UFAIpLDMy-NzGArONhJOlyYfsm5f6XqRf0RJyg6VEJuSlk0IfOIed4iB8M0-JwoF1bYiq4tgGji2djY5t_fALsTUQYwOHzl-izPAxWrt6IAtgw/w152-h200/FARMS%20logo%2095catalogthumb.jpg" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="152" /></a></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; font-weight: bold;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">In early 2023, Book of Mormon Central changed its logo to a more generic starburst, but it has not changed its editorial insistence on only one acceptable interpretation of the Book of Mormon. The organization makes this explicit in its Spanish-language site. </div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div><span style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><a href="https://geografia.centralldm.es/">https://geografia.centralldm.es/</a></span></span></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; font-weight: bold;"><b><br /></b></div><b style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">If the intellectuals in the citation cartel heeded the guidance from the Gospel Topics Essays, there wouldn't be a citation cartel. </b></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">They would (i) consider all relevant evidence and (ii) be open to alternative "interpretations" of the scriptures, the teachings of the prophets, and authentic historical documents--including an interpretation that corroborates and supports those teachings, instead of M2C/SITH which both expressly repudiate those teachings.<br /><div><br /></div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>To be clear, I agree with, embrace, and do not dispute, what Elder Ballard said about the essays being important. I <i>encourage </i>people to read and study the essays because they contain useful references to reliable sources. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>But nowhere have Church leaders stated, suggested, or implied that these essays were ever intended to replace the scriptures, the teachings of the prophets, or authentic historical documents. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless, some people (including my critics) refer to the essays as though they have been canonized. </div><div><br /></div><div>The introduction to the Gospel Topics Essays is here: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng" style="color: #168bc8; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng</a></div><div><br /></div><div>The introduction also says,<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> "The Church places great emphasis on knowledge and on the importance of being well informed about Church history, doctrine, and practices."</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>That, too, perfectly expresses my approach to Church history, doctrine and practices. I encourage people to be well informed so they can make informed decisions. As President Nelson has said, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Good inspiration is based upon good information."</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>My objection to the citation cartel is not that they promote different interpretations than I do. That's fine with me. I fully endorse the concept of multiple working hypotheses. My problem with the cartel is the same as my problem with the critics such as CES Letter and Mormon Stories; <b>both groups deprive people of good information through censorship and sophistry purely to promote their respective agendas.</b></div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>To repeat: the Gospel Topics Essays have been revised in the past and can be revised and improved at any moment. </div><div><br /></div><div>I point out errors and omissions in the essays because I'm hopeful that the essays will continue to be improved, particularly by including the reliable sources from the Joseph Smith Papers that have so far been omitted.</div></div></div></div></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">_____</div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">A memo dated Sept. 9 from the church’s "Priesthood Department" to "General Authorities; Area Seventies; Stake, Mission, and District Presidents; Bishops and Branch Presidents" explains the purpose of — and audience for — the essays.</div><div style="color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"The purpose of the Gospel Topics section is to provide <b>accurate and transparent information </b>on church history and doctrine within the framework of faith...</span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">When church members have questions regarding [LDS] history and doctrine, possibly arising when detractors spread misinformation and doubt, you may want to direct their attention to these resources."</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Leaders should emphasize that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"prayer, regular study of the scriptures and the teachings of the living prophets, the exercise of faith, and humility are fundamental to receiving inspired answers to sincere questions."</span></div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-19884560297215525292022-12-31T08:04:00.006-08:002023-07-21T07:19:01.798-07:00Nativity artwork and false narrativesThis week, critics created a false narrative that is a good example of how such narratives often originate, whether ignorantly, negligently, or intentionally.<div><br /></div><div>Gordon Monson, a columnist for the <i>Salt Lake Tribune</i> who usually writes thoughtful material, wrote a piece with this long title and subtitle:</div><div><br /></div><div><h1 class="headline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 44px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 12px;">Gordon Monson: When the LDS Church alters classic art in the name of modesty, it does more harm than good</h1><h2 class="article-subheadline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.25; margin: 8px 0px 16px;">Such moves are an affront to women and make the church look not just prudish but also extreme.</h2><div><br /></div><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/12/30/gordon-monson-when-lds-church/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/12/30/gordon-monson-when-lds-church/</a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It's a misleading and foolish article when we learn that the original artist himself painted at least two versions, one with the exact attributes that Monson complained about; i.e., no angels and more modest clothing.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">IOW, Monson accuses the Church of doing exactly what the original artist himself did!</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Note: In a tweet, Monson tried to justify himself by writing:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;"><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">To those making accusations that proper research wasn't done for a column about the LDS Church's altering a painting for modesty, I can assure you, it was done. The church confirmed to The Tribune that it had edited the depiction, and then had no comment. Thanks for reading.</span></span></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://twitter.com/GordonMonson/status/1609231549203099650" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/GordonMonson/status/1609231549203099650</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">Obviously, that doesn't address the problem with Monson's failure to mention that the original artist made similar (almost exactly the same) changes. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Monson relied on an earlier article in the SLTrib with an equally sensational and misleading title, this one by Scott D. Pierce:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><h1 class="headline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #121212; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 44px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 12px;">Latter-day Saints alter a Nativity painting to make Mary more modest</h1><h2 class="article-subheadline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.25; margin: 8px 0px 16px;">New version removes cleavage in Carlo Maratta’s 17th-century artwork.</h2></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/12/29/latter-day-saints-alter-nativity/" target="_blank">https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/12/29/latter-day-saints-alter-nativity/</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The illustration used in both articles:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwn94lMsBfhSb130dvcXTkVZ_QXs1S03kyXaxREBPy89eedJbVKKOFl0yu-Fsdc9GoS3dmvWGjT5R7u6pspdUKKg3piKcwPjRF5SCtMBZzVKWnS740nRyAFU-Ir8LW7sI8faEP6D467mBE2-5eHYwi9YuFD6O5v-EET9D4SuQTjqP_bKrrmucQQ/s852/Maratta%20painting%20Monson%20-%20Tribune.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="852" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwn94lMsBfhSb130dvcXTkVZ_QXs1S03kyXaxREBPy89eedJbVKKOFl0yu-Fsdc9GoS3dmvWGjT5R7u6pspdUKKg3piKcwPjRF5SCtMBZzVKWnS740nRyAFU-Ir8LW7sI8faEP6D467mBE2-5eHYwi9YuFD6O5v-EET9D4SuQTjqP_bKrrmucQQ/w400-h271/Maratta%20painting%20Monson%20-%20Tribune.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Here is the artist's original that they omitted:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQExrttpwPKF_DDNrgDGFGec4WV1KQqJGF2g3ccO54PlaaF3Mq5_7G7odpIkur44fluN5MS6mkyqBNyxs3y9aAXK-GTkqwUYKa4V2dYMygf3gUbXCrt2hNmmtHfuWuE4xFfILHB4J0XMBIu8UKs9uuBzLRs5Rh-HyBsQRYffpLfL8-sp8ryb6aDQ/s500/Maratta%20painting%20Monson%20omitted%20-%20Tribune.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="500" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQExrttpwPKF_DDNrgDGFGec4WV1KQqJGF2g3ccO54PlaaF3Mq5_7G7odpIkur44fluN5MS6mkyqBNyxs3y9aAXK-GTkqwUYKa4V2dYMygf3gUbXCrt2hNmmtHfuWuE4xFfILHB4J0XMBIu8UKs9uuBzLRs5Rh-HyBsQRYffpLfL8-sp8ryb6aDQ/s320/Maratta%20painting%20Monson%20omitted%20-%20Tribune.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-virgin-laying-the-sleeping-christ-on-straw/74f50d40-69d4-460d-ba58-f246fe8083de" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-virgin-laying-the-sleeping-christ-on-straw/74f50d40-69d4-460d-ba58-f246fe8083de</a></div><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: small;">The Prado explains the piece this way:</div><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: small;"><h1 about="http://museodelprado.es/items/E22_Man-Made_Object_74f50d40-69d4-460d-ba58-f246fe8083de_ce8637a5-07a0-4bbf-a05a-d899dffd018b" property="ecidoc:p102_E35_p3_has_title" style="border: 0px; color: #525252; font-family: "Hoefler Text A", "Hoefler Text B"; font-size: 34px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 34px; margin: 4px 10px 12px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Virgin laying the sleeping <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q302" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus" score="1" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q215627">Christ</a> on Straw</h1><span class="subtitulo" style="border: 0px; color: #6c6c6c; display: inline-block; font-family: "Hoefler Text A", "Hoefler Text B"; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ca. 1656. Oil on panel.<br /><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On display elsewhere</span></span><span style="color: #6c6c6c; font-family: "Hoefler Text A", "Hoefler Text B"; font-size: 17.5px;"></span><div about="http://museodelprado.es/items/E22_Man-Made_Object_74f50d40-69d4-460d-ba58-f246fe8083de_ce8637a5-07a0-4bbf-a05a-d899dffd018b" class="colapsado normal" property="cidoc:p3_has_note" style="border: 0px; color: #6c6c6c; font-family: "Hoefler Text A", "Hoefler Text B"; font-size: 17.5px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="details" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 28.5px; margin: 18px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This painting listed in the inventory of Queen Elizabeth of <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q859466" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Farnese" score="0,2983667" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q43229">Farnesio</a> offers a slightly varied reproduction of the central motive of the fresco of the <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q1029715" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Shepherds" score="0,2983667" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q151885">Adoration of the Shepherds</a> that decorates the Alaleone Chapel at the church of Sant’Isidoro Agricola in <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q220" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome" score="0,2983667" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q17334923">Rome</a>. An early work, it was Maratti’s most important commission from the mid 1650s. This was the moment when he began to free himself from the influences of <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q5597" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael" score="0,1631978" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q215627">Raphael</a>, <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q7824" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annibale_Carracci" score="0,1631978" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q215627">Carracci</a>, <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q109061" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Reni" score="0,1631978" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q215627">Reni</a> and <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q8457" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_da_Correggio" score="0,1631978" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q215627">Correggio</a>, opting for greater compositional freedom and movement favored by contrasting light and shadows. This is visible in the present small and very beautiful panel. Nonetheless, he never abandoned the measured and delicate gestures that mark his characteristically harmonious classicism and made him the most appreciated and influential Roman artist of the late 17<sup style="font-size: 11.4px; line-height: 1px;">th</sup> century (Text from <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">La Belleza Cautiva. Pequeños tesoros del <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q160112" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_del_Prado" score="0,1524377" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q17334923">Museo del Prado</a></em>, <a about="http://wikidata.org/entity/Q160112" class="entity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_del_Prado" score="0,1524377" style="border: 0px; color: #a71c15; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" type="http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q17334923">Museo Nacional del Prado</a>, Obra Social la Caixa, 2014, p. 99).</p></div></div></div><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: small;">_____</div><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: small;">The first Trib article points out that the Church's website removed the painting without giving an explanation, which implies guilt. Maybe a better approach would have been to point out the Prado piece.</div><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: small;">Excerpt from the Pierce article, provided for archival purposes in case they change the article:</div><div style="font-size: small;"><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encouraged members to download a painting of Mary and the baby Jesus for Christmas, but it was an edited version — altered to remove a hint of Mary’s cleavage.</span></p></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">On its website, the church <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/light-the-world/downloads" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-in-out 0s;">shared 18 Nativity images</a> for members to retrieve and share or maybe use as a screen saver on their laptops, tablets or phones. One of those pictures is a painting by Italian artist Carlo Maratta from the 1650s of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child — except that someone modified the painting before sharing it on the website.</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In the original Maratta painting, titled “The Holy Night” or “The Nativity,” small angels peek past Mary to gaze at the baby. In the church’s version, the angels have been removed.</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div id="FreeStarVideoAdContainerIncontentToFloating" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin-left: 184px; margin-right: 184px; max-width: 450px;"><div id="freestar-video-parent-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75;"><div id="freestar-video-child" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75;"></div></div></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(As of Wednesday, after an inquiry from The Salt Lake Tribune, the Maratta image had been removed from the website.)</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In Maratta’s original, Mary shows a hint of cleavage as she gazes adoringly at her newborn. In the Latter-day Saint version, someone has not only given Mary a higher neckline but also moved a shawl a bit higher on her left shoulder, giving her added modesty after more than 3½ centuries.</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The church declined to comment on the altered artwork.</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The edited version of Maratta’s painting was created for the 2016 Light the World initiative, which is intended to encourage acts of Yuletide service. The original painting hangs in the San Giuseppe dei Falegnami church, next to the Forum in Rome.</span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;">Excerpt from the Monson article, provided for archival purposes in case they change the article:</div><div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">When does a church’s effort to champion female modesty have a corrosive effect on the way women view and feel about their own bodies?</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Too often.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There’s no shame in the natural female form. It’s a good guess that even God would agree with that, since if you believe in him, you figure he was the author of it. But you wouldn’t know that by the way The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — a faith, by the way, that preaches of a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/05/08/latter-day-saints-are/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-in-out 0s;">Heavenly Mother</a> — attempts to keep it under wraps.</span></p><div id="FreeStarVideoAdContainerIncontentToFloating" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin-left: 184px; margin-right: 184px; max-width: 450px;"><div id="freestar-video-parent-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75;"><div id="freestar-video-child" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.75;"></div></div></div><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">By now, you may have read in <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/12/29/latter-day-saints-alter-nativity/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-in-out 0s;">The Salt Lake Tribune</a> about the Utah-based faith modifying classic works of art, including eliminating any hint of the Virgin Mary’s cleavage in Carlo Maratta’s 17th-century painting of the Nativity. In the church’s version, which had been made available on its website, Mary’s neckline is raised and a shawl covering her shoulder is a bit higher.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Not only are the alterations an affront to classic art — the church’s image also edited out surrounding angels depicted in the original — but they also either unwittingly or wittingly send the aforementioned message to women that there’s something shameful about their bodies. In other works, the church has previously <a href="https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=55930850&itype=cmsid" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-in-out 0s;">covered the shoulders of female angels</a>.</b></span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">We get it. The church is all-in on modesty. But the attendant shame put upon women coming alongside that overemphasis on keeping themselves covered backfires on the church, not just in the harm it creates among women and women’s self-esteem, but also in sexualizing them as objects or, even worse, possessions.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Not good, brethren.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Ironically, news of this doctored photo emerges at a time when members are praising the church’s <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/11/07/new-lds-pamphlets-message-teens/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s ease-in-out 0s;">new principle-based “For the Strength of Youth” guidelines</a> for backing away from proscriptive instructions on modesty.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Nothing wrong with respecting women; nothing wrong with modesty, but when the church drapes a shirt over the Virgin Mary in classic art, eliminating the slightest bit of cleavage, what exactly does that do? It draws more attention to that form, sexualizes it, even in a rendering that depicts the mother of the Lord in complete innocence, adoring her newborn.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It makes the church look not just prudish but also extreme.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Some experts believe such a heavy-handed approach to modesty becomes a controlling mechanism, a tool to suppress female expression and to — wrongly — make women feel as if they are responsible for men’s sexual thoughts.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">For women, that modesty mechanism can cause fear and anxiety, they say, particularly when the boundaries for compliance are spelled out primarily by male church leaders.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If the church makes a big deal out of the hint of a woman’s cleavage then it becomes … a big deal. What it should be is … natural and normal, which is to say, it should be normalized.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Nobody’s saying here to be disrespectful, especially when it comes to such a revered character as Mary. The encouragement and point isn’t, from the church’s perspective, for it to encourage the flaunting of a woman’s body to the edge of abject immodesty, wherever that neckline or hemline is to be drawn.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And those lines should be drawn by each woman for herself.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It’s the overwrought and overbearing messages, the extremes, that do more harm than good, the insistence that women cloak themselves because doing otherwise, even to the point of showing a little shoulder or midriff or whatever, in real modern life or in a centuries-old painting, is disfavored on the one end or deplorable on the other.</span></p><p class="body-raw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.75; margin: 18px 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Society has already done a negative number on the way too many women view their bodies. When faith leaders add to that number, women of all kinds, particularly females of faith, too often are made to look at themselves and feel what they should not feel — chagrin, dishonor, shame and disgrace.</span></p></div><div style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-63185057518909439292022-09-14T07:56:00.005-07:002022-09-14T07:56:51.885-07:00Edward Stevenson's journal account of the messenger<p>Edward Stevenson (<a href="https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/edward-stevenson-1820?lang=eng" target="_blank">1820-1897</a>) joined the Church as a teenager after Joseph Smith visited his family in Pontiac, Michigan. He became a famous missionary, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Stevenson" target="_blank">reportedly </a>traveling more miles as a missionary at his own expense than any other missionary. </p><p>Stevenson interviewed David Whitmer and was instrumental in bringing Martin Harris to Utah. </p><p>Stevenson's journal is available at the Church History site. On the page below, he related his conversation with David Whitmer about the messenger who took the abridged plates from Harmony to Cumorah. Joseph Smith identified him as one of the Three Nephites.</p><p>Here's the link:</p><p><a href="https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/bc546251-522d-430a-a259-964bd8bde02f/0/0" target="_blank">https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/bc546251-522d-430a-a259-964bd8bde02f/0/0</a></p><p>Go to page 203 of 330.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFF_BarF1eZ1kWbv4SX507FixzqALg_pBL9-Ft5IcMoWCIq_XiGuCnzPh_J02J5IB93IkR9FYTZK9AfZiwF5PBk5cJdzxh-8ugcuKbnv6BHOu6ZlR6fJOrJIXlknUcSX-OIzm0sPpgeu4f1Ij9bVlleHGo2dW2DbO67rX095460OshWlL4NS7d3w/s1522/Stevenson%20on%20David%20Whitmer%20and%20the%20Nephite%20going%20to%20Cumorah-full%20reference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1522" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFF_BarF1eZ1kWbv4SX507FixzqALg_pBL9-Ft5IcMoWCIq_XiGuCnzPh_J02J5IB93IkR9FYTZK9AfZiwF5PBk5cJdzxh-8ugcuKbnv6BHOu6ZlR6fJOrJIXlknUcSX-OIzm0sPpgeu4f1Ij9bVlleHGo2dW2DbO67rX095460OshWlL4NS7d3w/w400-h213/Stevenson%20on%20David%20Whitmer%20and%20the%20Nephite%20going%20to%20Cumorah-full%20reference.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-81130083885856976292022-09-01T08:37:00.003-07:002023-08-26T11:18:51.804-07:00Analysis: The Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation<p>One of the most fundamental truth claims of the Restoration is the divine origin of the Book of Mormon, including its origin as a translation of ancient Nephite records. That truth claim was challenged in the early days of the Church by critics (such as E.D. Howe in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>) who claimed Joseph Smith didn't really translate anything but instead </p><p><span> </span>(i) read words that appeared on a "peep stone" (the "stone-in-the-hat" narrative, aka SITH) and didn't even use the plates, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">or </p></blockquote><p><span> </span>(ii) read a manuscript written by Solomon Spalding. </p><p>Critics continue to employ the same arguments against the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. But recently, several faithful LDS scholars have embraced the SITH narrative; i.e., they agree with the critics that Joseph didn't actually translate the engravings on the plates. </p><p>They differ from the critics only in asserting that the words on the stone were from a divine source instead of from a human or malevolent source, as claimed by critics. </p><p>The Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation, as of 1 September
2022, accommodates the SITH narrative. I propose that it be revised or edited to provide Latter-day Saints and other interested readers an accurate resource with a range of alternative interpretations of the historical evidence.</p><p>_____</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The introduction to the Gospel Topics Essays quotes D&C
88:118 and explains that "Seeking ‘out of the best books’ does not mean
seeking only one set of opinions, but it does require us to distinguish between
reliable sources and unreliable sources." <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng</a>
<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The essays were originally intended “to <b>provide accurate
and transparent information</b> on church history and doctrine within the
framework of faith…” Leaders were told that “When church members have questions
regarding [LDS] history and doctrine, possibly arising when detractors spread
misinformation and doubt, you may want to direct their attention to these
resources.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">However, the essay as currently published <b>does not
provide accurate and transparent information</b> because it deliberately <b>omits</b>
what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught about the translation by means of
the Urim and Thummim (U&T) that came with the plates. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Readers deserve to be informed about what Joseph and Oliver
taught, even though their claims contradict the currently popular
“stone-in-the-hat” (SITH) narrative.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The current version of the essay is also misleading in
several respects because it is carefully worded to accommodate the SITH
narrative. Rather than acknowledge the irreconcilable contradiction between the
SITH narrative and what Joseph and Oliver taught, the essay simply <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(i)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->omits what Joseph and Oliver taught and <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(ii)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->tries to dodge the conflict by redefining the
term <i>Urim and Thummim</i> to include the seer stone, contrary to the plain
meaning of what Joseph and Oliver taught.
<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">To fulfill the stated purpose of the essay, at a minimum the
essay should <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(i)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->quote what Joseph and Oliver taught<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(ii)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->acknowledge the conflict between the SITH and
U&T narratives, and<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(iii)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->outline multiple alternative reconciliations. Among
these are the redefinition of terms approach and the evidence that the seer
stone accounts originated with a demonstration rather than the actual
translation process.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">_____<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The table below includes commentary on the essay.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng</a>
<o:p></o:p></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
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<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Gospel Topics Essay<o:p></o:p></b></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Commentary<o:p></o:p></b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">1. <a href="http://josephsmith.net/"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Smith</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> said
that the </span><a href="http://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/book-of-mormon"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Book of Mormon</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> was <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“the most
correct of any Book on earth & the keystone of our religion & a man
would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other Book.”</span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note1"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; font-size: 8pt; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">1</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> The Book of Mormon came into the world
through a series of miraculous events. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The footnote
explains this quotation comes from Wilford Woodruff’s journal, so it would be
better to explain that “Wilford Woodruff reported that Joseph Smith taught
that the Book of Mormon was ‘the most correct…’.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In the 1800s,
Woodruff’s summary was converted into a first-person quotation attributed to
Joseph Smith. Inexplicably, the fake quotation remains in the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng">official
Introduction</a> to the Book of Mormon.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">2. Much
can be known about the coming forth of the English text of the Book of Mormon
through a careful study of statements made by Joseph Smith, his scribes, and
others closely associated with the translation of the Book of Mormon.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is an
ideal aspiration, but as we’ll see below, the essay doesn’t follow through
because instead of offering “a careful study of statements made by Joseph
Smith” and his scribes, the essay omits those statements and focuses on
others.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">3. Joseph
Smith reported that on the evening of September 21, 1823, while he prayed in
the upper room of his parents’ small log home in Palmyra, New York, an angel
who called himself Moroni appeared and told Joseph that “God had a work for
[you] to do.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note2"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; font-size: 8pt; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">2</span></sup></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Readers
should know that the first and most reliable and authoritative identification
of the messenger as Moroni was in Cowdery’s Letter VI, written in 1835 when
Cowdery was Assistant President of the Church and with the assistance of
Joseph Smith. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/83">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/83</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The quotation
is from what is now Joseph Smith—History 1:33. That verse identifies the
angel as Moroni.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The original
version was published in the <i>Times and Seasons</i> on 15 April 1842. There, the angel who visited was identified
as Nephi. Lucy Mack Smith’s history quoted the Times and Seasons, also
identifying the angel as Nephi. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Some have
wondered why the compilers of this history would have identified the angel as
“Nephi” and why Joseph, supposedly the active editor of the Times and Seasons
when this account was published, would not have “corrected” the
identification. One reason could be that Joseph was merely the nominal
editor; i.e., someone else was the actual editor. (That’s what I think the
evidence shows. ) Another could be that the compilers knew Joseph interacted
with both Moroni and Nephi and weren’t sure which one appeared in 1823.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brigham Young
taught that Joseph had interactions with Nephi (one of the unnamed three
Nephites from 3 Nephi 28) as well as with Moroni. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">One such
incident can be pieced together from the historical record. Before leaving
Harmony in May/June 1829, Joseph gave the plates to a divine messenger he
later identified as <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“one of the Nephites.”</span> The same messenger later showed
the Fayette plates to Mary Whitmer. She said he identified himself as Brother
Nephi.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For more about the Moroni/Nephi problem, see "Moroni and Nephi clarified" here:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.mobom.org/church-history-issues" target="_blank">https://www.mobom.org/church-history-issues</a> </p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">4. He
informed Joseph that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates,
giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source
from whence they sprang.” </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Readers
should know that the earliest explanation was in Cowdery’s Letter IV, which
states that the messenger “said this history was written and deposited not
far from that place [the Smith farm near Palmyra], and that it was [Joseph’s]
privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and
translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited
for that purpose with the record.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/69">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/69</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">5. The
book could be found in a hill not far from the Smith family farm. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is an
uncredited paraphrase of President Cowdery’s 1835 Letter IV, in which Moroni
tells Joseph <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“this history was written and deposited not far from that place
[the Smith family farm near Palmyra].”</span> Letter IV gives additional details
from this visit that relate to the translation, but these details are omitted
in this essay. The angel <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“proceeded and gave a general account of the
promises made to the fathers, and also gave a history of the aborigenes of
this country, and said they were literal descendants of Abraham…. He said
this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it
was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to
obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which
were deposited for that purpose with the record."</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">See <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Readers
deserve to know that during his first visit, Moroni told Joseph <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“the record
is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/41">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/41</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Oliver
declared it was a fact that the hill Cumorah in New York is the same as the
hill Cumorah in Mormon 6:6.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">6. This
was no ordinary history, for it contained<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> “the fullness of the everlasting
Gospel as delivered by the Savior.”</span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note3"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">3</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is
another quotation from Joseph Smith—History 1:34. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Inexplicably,
the next verse, 35, is never quoted or cited in the essay. That verse
explains what accompanied the plates: <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Also, that there were two stones in
silver bows—<b>and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what
is called the Urim and Thummim</b>—deposited with the plates; and <b>the
possession and use of these stones</b> were what constituted “seers” in
ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of
translating the book.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">7. The
angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in
which it was written. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is an
inaccurate, misleading paraphrase of what Moroni said because it omits
Moroni’s explanation that Joseph would translate the plates by means of the
Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. The Urim and Thummim was
specifically prepared for a seer to translate the unknown language. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The essay
should quote, or at least cite, the actual source.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“Moroni said]
that it was [Joseph’s] privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the
Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim,
which were deposited for that purpose with the record.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/69">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/69</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">8. The
young man, however, had very little formal education and was incapable of
writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from
an unknown language, known in the Book of Mormon as “reformed Egyptian.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note4"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">4</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph’s
formal education was limited to three years, but he knew the many Biblical
passages Moroni quoted well enough to discern that Moroni had quoted some
exactly and changed the wording in other passages. Joseph was also
“intimately familiar” with Christian doctrines and writings.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">9. Joseph’s
wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“could neither
write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a
book like the Book of Mormon.”</span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note5"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">5</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Actually,
Joseph wrote a letter to his uncle Jesse before he translated the Book of
Mormon. Jesse said it looked like it had been written by a prophet. A letter Joseph
wrote to Oliver shortly after the translation was complete is both coherent
and well worded, and it does not merely repeat Book of Mormon language. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Emma
purportedly related this statement to her son, Joseph Smith III, shortly
before she died in 1879 (50 years after Joseph translated the plates). The
account was published after her death. Emma never publicly acknowledged the
statement. Plus, her statement doesn’t make sense because Joseph <i>did</i>
dictate the book.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">10. Joseph
received the plates in September 1827 and the following spring, in Harmony,
Pennsylvania, began translating them in earnest, with Emma and his friend
Martin Harris serving as his main scribes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Good as is,
except it is misleading because he didn’t receive the plates by themselves. Readers
should know about two key scriptural passages: <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“At length the time arrived
for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate.”</span> (Joseph
Smith—History 1:59)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“immediately
after my arrival [in Pennsylvania] I commenced copying the characters off the
plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and <b>by means of the Urim
and Thummim I translated some of them</b>, which I did between the time I
arrived at the house of my wife’s father, in the month of December, and the
February following."</span> (Joseph Smith—History 1:62)<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">11. The
resulting English transcription, known as the Book of Lehi and referred to by
Joseph Smith as written on 116 pages, was subsequently lost or stolen. As a
result, Joseph Smith was rebuked by the Lord and lost the ability to
translate for a short time.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note6"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">6</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The essay
doesn’t explain what “lost the ability to translate” means, but Lucy Mack
Smith explained that Joseph had to give up the Urim and Thummim after losing
the 116 pages. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Later, Joseph
told her that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“on the 22d of September [1828], I had the joy and satisfaction
of again receiving the Urim and Thummim; and have commenced translating
again, and Emma writes for me; but the angel said that the Lord would send me
a scribe, and I trust his promise will be verified. He also seemed pleased
with me, when he gave me back the Urim and Thummim; and he told me that the
Lord loved me, for my faithfulness and humility. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Soon after I
received them I inquired of the Lord, and obtained the following revelation”:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Now, behold
I say unto you, that, because <you> delivered up those writings, which
you had power given you to translate, by the means of the Urim and Thummim
into the hands of a wicked man, you have lost them; and you also lost your
gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened;”</span> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Notice how
the Urim and Thummim was directly linked to Joseph’s ability to translate throughout
this incident. The essay explains none of this; it merely says Joseph “lost
the ability to translate for a short time.”<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">12. Joseph
began translating again in 1829, and almost all of the present Book of Mormon
text was translated during a three-month period between April and June of
that year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">David Whitmer
said it took 8 months. Joseph said he started translating in the fall of 1828
after he received the record and the Urim and Thummim back. Some portion or
all of the Book of Mosiah was translated before Oliver Cowdery arrived in
Harmony in April.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">13. His
chief scribe during these months was </span><a href="http://history.lds.org/article/doctrine-and-covenants-oliver-cowdery"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Oliver Cowdery</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">, a schoolteacher
from Vermont who learned about the Book of Mormon while boarding with
Joseph’s parents in Palmyra. Called by God in a vision, Cowdery traveled to
Harmony to meet Joseph Smith and investigate further.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> Fine as is.</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">14. Of
his experience as scribe, Cowdery wrote, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“These were days never to be
forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the <em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">inspiration</span></em> of heaven.”</span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note7"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">7</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This
truncated quotation misleadingly omits a key teaching relevant to the topic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 9pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: "Palatino Linotype",serif; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from
his mouth, <b>as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites
would have said, ‘Interpreters,’</b> the history or record called ‘The Book
of Mormon.’</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt;">(Joseph
Smith—History, Note, 1)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">15. The
manuscript that Joseph Smith dictated to Oliver Cowdery and others is known
today as the original manuscript, about 28 percent of which still survives.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note8"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">8</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> This manuscript corroborates Joseph
Smith’s statements that the manuscript was written within a short time frame
and that it was dictated from another language. For example, it includes
errors that suggest the scribe heard words incorrectly rather than misread
words copied from another manuscript.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note9"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">9</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> In addition, some grammatical
constructions that are more characteristic of Near Eastern languages than
English appear in the original manuscript, suggesting that the base language
of the translation was not English.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note10"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">10</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> This is fine as is, except to the extent that, by citing Skousen's work, the essay could be interpreted as endorsing Skousen's theory that Joseph didn't translate the plates. Skousen has also claimed that Joseph and Oliver deliberately misled everyone by teaching that (i) Joseph translated the plates and (ii) used the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">16. Unlike
most dictated drafts, the original manuscript was considered by Joseph Smith
to be, in substance, a final product.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> This statement is not supported by anything Joseph said, and is contradicted by Joseph's later editing of the text in 1837 and 1840.</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">17. To
assist in the publication of the book, Oliver Cowdery made a handwritten copy
of the original manuscript. This copy is known today as the printer’s
manuscript. Because Joseph Smith did not call for punctuation, such as
periods, commas, or question marks, as he dictated, such marks are not in the
original manuscript. The typesetter later inserted punctuation marks when he
prepared the text for the printer.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note11"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">11</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> With the exceptions of punctuation,
formatting, other elements of typesetting, and minor adjustments required to
correct copying and scribal errors, the dictation copy became the text of the
first printed edition of the book.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note12"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">12</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p> This is fine as is.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">Translation
Instruments<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">18. Many
accounts in the Bible show that God transmitted revelations to His prophets
in a variety of ways. </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/1-kgs/19.11-12?lang=eng#p11"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Elijah</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> learned that God spoke not to him through
the wind or fire or earthquake but through a “still small voice.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note13"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">13</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/acts/9.1-8?lang=eng#p1"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Paul</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> and other early Apostles sometimes
communicated with angels and, on occasion, with the Lord Jesus Christ.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note14"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">14</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> At other times, revelation came in the
form of dreams or visions, such as the revelation to </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/acts/10.9-16?lang=eng#p9"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Peter</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, or
through sacred objects like the </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/urim-and-thummim?lang=eng"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Urim and Thummim</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note15"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">15</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p> This is fine as is, although it overlooks the obvious point that we have no original manuscripts of Biblical texts and that every English version is a translation. No one claims the English texts came by revelation.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">19. Joseph
Smith stands out among God’s prophets, because he was called to render into
his own language an entire volume of scripture amounting to more than 500
printed pages, containing doctrine that would deepen and expand the
theological understanding of millions of people. For this monumental task,
God prepared additional, practical help in the form of physical instruments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p> This is fine as is, except for the plural of "physical instruments." This would be a good place to explain that God prepared Joseph from a young age for his future role as translator.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">20. Joseph
Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book
of Mormon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>This is a
deliberately misleading sentence.</b> Joseph never wrote of any instrument other
than the Urim and Thummim. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Oliver
Cowdery, his main scribe for all but a few pages of the Book of Mormon we
have today, never wrote of any instrument other than the Urim and Thummim. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Another
scribe, John Whitmer, also spoke only of the Urim and Thummim. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">That leaves
only Martin Harris and Emma Smith as scribes who wrote about two instruments. However, Martin never wrote about
the translation, and Emma wrote only a brief letter in which she mentioned
two instruments. Additional verbal statements of varying reliability have been
attributed to Martin and Emma but were not written by them.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">21. According
to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the
words of scripture appeared in English.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is by
definition hearsay because the only person who looked into the instruments
was Joseph Smith. We have no record of a direct statement by Joseph about
what he saw or how he used the instruments, except that he used them to
translate. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The witness
statements reflect inference, assumption, and conjecture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Furthermore,
these witnesses could not have seen the actual translation because Joseph was
forbidden to show them either the plates or the Urim and Thummim. Instead,
the evidence suggests they merely observed a demonstration. All of their
statements are consistent with having observed a demonstration, not the
actual translation of the plates<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">22. One
instrument, called in the Book of Mormon the “interpreters,” is better known
to Latter-day Saints today as the “Urim and Thummim.” Joseph found the
interpreters buried in the hill with the plates.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note16"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">16</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is
another misleading statement, designed to imply that the term “Urim and
Thummim” was an invented term that is only "better known" to modern Latter-day Saints. That's directly contradicts the historical record.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The
“interpreters” were “better known” <b>during Joseph’s time</b> as the “Urim
and Thummim” because Joseph himself referred to the Nephite interpreters as
the “Urim and Thummim,” as is plain throughout Joseph Smith—History and his
other accounts of Moroni’s visit. The essay consistently evades that
important point. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Furthermore, they were not “buried.” They were “deposited”
in a stone box. “Buried” implies a false connection with “buried treasure.”<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">23. Those
who saw the interpreters described them as a clear pair of stones bound
together with a metal rim. The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument,
together with its breastplate, as a device “kept and preserved by the hand of
the Lord” and “handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of
interpreting languages.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note17"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">17</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Important:</b>
this is the only instrument that Oliver and Joseph ever said that Joseph used
during the translation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">As indicated
in the footnote, some scholars assume it was W.W. Phelps who coined the term
“Urim and Thummim” for the interpreters because Phelps’ article in the 1833 <i>Evening
and Morning Star</i> was thought to be the earliest extant published account
that uses that term. However, Phelps’ article is also consistent with prior
use of the term, whether verbal or printed; i.e., Phelps was providing an
explanation of the term for readers who were familiar with the Bible. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">More importantly, the
first known published use of the term “Urim and Thummim” that refers to the
Nephite interpreters was reported on August 5, 1832, when Orson Hyde and
Samuel Smith told an audience in Boston that the translation <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“was made known
by the spirit of the Lord through the medium of the Urim and Thummim.”</span> Of course, Orson and Samuel undoubtedly
heard that from someone else—presumably Joseph or Oliver.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Letter IV
portrays Moroni telling Joseph that it was his privilege <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“to obtain and
translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited
for that purpose with the record.”</span> When Oliver wrote these letters, he
explained he was using original documents then in their possession. He could
have referred to the notebook he kept during the translation process, in
which he recorded the things Joseph told him. In other words, it could have
been Moroni, not W.W. Phelps, who first identified the interpreters as the
Urim and Thummim.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The footnote
observes that Joseph <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“most often used the term “Urim and Thummim,”</span> but does
not explain that we have no record of Joseph ever using the term “seer stone”
to explain his translation of the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">24. The
other instrument, which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he
retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or “seer stone.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note18"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">18</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here the
essay leads readers to think past the sale by describing the “seer stone” as an instrument
used for the translation, contrary to what Joseph and Oliver expressly taught.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">25. As
a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a
seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note19"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">19</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph and
Oliver both jokingly acknowledged the allegations, but neither stated,
suggested, or implied it was anything as extensive as the critics (and some modern LDS historians and apologists) claim.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">26. As
Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use
this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note20"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">20</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The last
sentence is pure speculation, portrayed here as fact. There are no historical
records in which Joseph says or implies anything like this.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">27. Apparently
for convenience, Joseph often translated with the single seer stone rather
than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is also
pure speculation, portrayed as fact. Neither Joseph nor Oliver ever said he
used one seer stone to translate the text. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Others claimed they observed
Joseph dictating words, but none of them reported what the words were. No one quoted Joseph saying he was translating
the plates during these occasions. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">These accounts are consistent with people
who observed a demonstration and inferred it was the actual translation. But
these accounts also said Joseph did not use the Urim and Thummim or the plates, so by
their own admission, they did not observe what Joseph and Oliver claimed
about the actual translation.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">28. These
two instruments—the interpreters and the seer stone—were apparently
interchangeable and worked in much the same way such that, in the course of
time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim”
to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note21"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">21</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Although the
essay claims Joseph and his associates “often” used the term to refer to a
seer stone, the footnote gives only one example, and that example doesn’t
support the claim. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The example is from Wilford Woodruff's journal. This happens to be one of the few events that Woodruff recorded for which we have another contemporaneous account that differs significantly from what Woodruff recorded, but the essay doesn't tell readers about that.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Over a decade
after the translation, on December 27, 1841, Wilford Woodruff recorded in his
journal <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“The Twelve or a part of them spent the day with Joseph the seer + he
unfolded unto them many glorious things of the kingdom of God the privileges
+ blessings of the priesthood + I had the privilege of seeing for the first
time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM.”</span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Woodruff does
not describe the object, leaving historians to surmise he was referring to the
seer stone so many people reported seeing Joseph use years previously. But
Joseph had given that stone to Oliver Cowdery. Besides, if Woodruff was
referring to the seer stone that many people had already seen, he doesn’t
explain why it was such a privilege.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Brigham Young
recorded the same occasion differently.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“I met with
the Twelve at brother Joseph’s. He conversed with us in a familiar manner on
a variety of subjects, and explained to us the Urim and Thummim which he
found with the plates, called in the Book of Mormon the Interpreters. He said
that every man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone, and
should have one, but they are kept from them in consequence of their
wickedness, and most of those who do find one make an evil use of it; he
showed us his seer stone.“</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This
quotation contradicts the main thesis of SITH. Brigham Young made an <i>explicit
distinction</i> between "the Urim and Thummim which he [Joseph] found with
the plates," and the "seer stone" Joseph had, which Joseph
displayed to explain that "every man who lived on earth was entitled
to" such a seer stone. Every man on earth was not entitled to the Urim
and Thummim that Joseph found with the plates. Thus, Brigham Young specifically refuted the modern theory that the term "Urim and Thummim" referred to the seer stone Joseph found in a well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Unlike Brigham, Woodruff
didn’t mention two separate objects. His statement can be interpreted several
ways. Maybe he did use the terms interchangeably, contrary to Brigham. Maybe he missed part of the meeting or misunderstood. Maybe he didn’t care enough about the seer stone to mention it, but was impressed because Joseph still had the actual Urim and Thummim. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">On February
19, 1842, Woodruff recorded in his journal that “the Lord is Blessing Joseph
with Power to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God; to translate
through the Urim and Thummim Ancient records.” We can't tell whether Woodruff reported this from direct observation, from something Joseph said, or merely from his own inference.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Lucy Mack
Smith wrote that “Joseph kept the Urim and Thummim constantly about his
person.” She was writing about an event that occurred in 1827, but in Joseph
Smith—History 1:60, he says nothing about him delivering the Urim and Thummim
to the messenger.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Years later,
Heber C. Kimball declared in General Conference that Brigham Young had the
Urim and Thummim. Some say this referred to a seer stone, which is possible.
But it is also congruent with Woodruff’s journal entry to infer that what
Woodruff saw and what Brigham Young possessed was the actual Urim and Thummim that
Joseph obtained with the plates.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">All of
Joseph’s contemporaries and successors in Church leadership, including
Brigham and Wilford, taught that Joseph translated the plates with the Urim
and Thummim. None said or implied that he used a seer stone instead.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">See the references and discussion here:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/u-in-elders-journal-outdated-narratives.html" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/u-in-elders-journal-outdated-narratives.html</a></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">29. In
ancient times, Israelite priests used the Urim and Thummim to assist in
receiving divine communications. Although commentators differ on the nature
of the instrument, several ancient sources state that the instrument involved
stones that lit up or were divinely illumined.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note22"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">22</span></sup></a> <span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">Latter-day Saints later understood the term
“Urim and Thummim” to refer exclusively to the interpreters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The Urim and Thummim in the Bible was never described as spectacles. Joseph never said or implied that the Urim and Thummim he had was the same as was mentioned in the Bible.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When the essay says "Latter-day Saints <i>later </i>understood the term..." it implies that the term was coined years after Joseph obtained the interpreters from Moroni. However, Joseph’s
history shows it was Moroni who identified the interpreters as Urim and
Thummim. JS-H 1:52.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">30. Joseph
Smith and others, however, seem to have understood the term more as a
descriptive category of instruments for obtaining divine revelations and less
as the name of a specific instrument.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“Seem to have
understood” is mindreading—and unsupportable historical revisionism. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It's true that by 1843,
usage had developed this way (D&C 130:8-10), but not before Nauvoo, and not with reference to the "seer stone" Joseph found in a well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In 1834,
there was no confusion about the two terms. The 1834 book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>
spelled out the two distinct and alternative explanations for the
translation: SITH and U&T. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In response
to <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>, Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith declared unequivocally
that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim. They published Letter I (now the
footnote to Joseph Smith—History 1:71 that we discussed above). Thereafter,
Joseph and Oliver consistently taught that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim.
All of Joseph’s contemporaries and successors did likewise. There are no
known instances in which Joseph or Oliver ever used the term Urim and Thummim to
refer to anything Joseph used for the translation of the Book of Mormon
<i>except the instrument Moroni put in the stone box</i>.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">31. Some
people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine
translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s
power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. In addition
to the Urim and Thummim, the Bible mentions other physical instruments used
to access God’s power: the </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/ex/7.9-12?lang=eng#p9"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">rod of Aaron</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">, a </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/num/21.4-9?lang=eng#p4"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">brass serpent</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/ex/29.4-7?lang=eng#p4"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">holy anointing oils</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">,
the </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/ex/25.10-22?lang=eng#p10"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Ark of the Covenant</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">,
and even </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/john/9.1-7?lang=eng#p1"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">dirt</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> from the ground mixed with saliva to heal
the eyes of a blind man.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">23</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">These
examples of divinely prepared instruments demonstrate that the Urim and
Thummim was not a generic term applying to ordinary rocks, but instead
referred to a specially prepare instrument, carefully preserved along with
the plates.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">The
Mechanics of Translation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">32. In
the preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith wrote: “I
would inform you that I translated [the book], by the gift and power of God.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This excerpt misleadingly portrays Joseph as saying merely that he
“translated” “by the gift and power of God.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">However, in
the balance of his statement, which the essay omits, Joseph explains the
source: <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“the which I took from the Book of Lehi,”</span> referring to the plates. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">He did not
say “the which I read on a stone.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When read in
context, Joseph unambiguously explained that he translated the plates. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">33. When
pressed for specifics about the process of translation, Joseph repeated on
several occasions that it had been done “by the gift and power of God”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note24"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">24</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> and once added, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“It was not intended to
tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of
Mormon.”</span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note25"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">25</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is
another misleading rephrasing of the original source.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The record
does not show that Joseph was <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“pressed for specifics about the process of
translation.”</span> He was asked about <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“the coming forth of the book of Mormon”</span> which
involved more than the translation, such as Joseph being tutored by divine
messengers (including Moroni and Nephi), details about the plates, the
breastplate, and the interpreters, information about the repository in the
hill Cumorah, whether there was only one or more sets of plates, or even
where the Title Page was published.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">While this
1831 statement <i>could</i> have also referred to the manner of translation, those
present at the meeting did not apparently understand it that way. David
Whitmer and Martin Harris were both present, and both later discussed details
about the translation. If Joseph meant “it is not intended to tell the world
all the particulars of the translation of the Book of Mormon,” then these two
men violated Joseph’s instructions. There is no record of anyone stating that
Joseph told them not to talk about the mechanics of the translation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For that
matter, after 1831 both Joseph and Oliver provided more details about the process
of translation when they testified that Joseph translated the plates by means
of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">34. Nevertheless,
the scribes and others who observed the translation left numerous accounts
that give insight into the process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This
statement simply assumes these non-scribe witnesses observed the actual
translation, even though their testimony directly contradicts what Joseph,
Oliver, and John Whitmer said.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If we accept
what Joseph and Oliver said, then whatever the witnesses observed regarding
SITH was not the translation. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">35. Some
accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates. Most of
the accounts speak of Joseph’s use of the Urim and Thummim (either the
interpreters or the seer stone), and many accounts refer to his use of a
single stone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This analysis
conflates the accounts and redefines “Urim and Thummim” to include the seer
stone.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Joseph said
he studied the characters (JS-H 1:62). Joseph and Oliver consistently said
that Joseph translated the plates with the U&T that Moroni put in the
stone box. Neither of them ever said or implied that Joseph used a seer
stone.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Other
observers who described SITH may or may not have observed the translation.
They did not record what words they heard Joseph dictate, so we can’t tell
what parts, if any, of the text they thought they witnessed being translated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Dan Vogel, a
critic of Joseph Smith, agrees with the anonymous authors of this essay.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">“Eyewitness
testimony confirms that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon in the
same manner that he once hunted for buried treasure: that is, with his
brown-colored seer stone placed in the crown of his white top hat and his
face snug to its brim. Rather than seeing treasures in the bowels of the
earth, Smith claimed he saw luminous words on the stone, which he read to a scribe.
In this manner the entire Book of Mormon as we have it came into existence.
This fact conflicts with Joseph Smith's official history, which claims that
he used magic spectacles—which he euphemistically called Urim and
Thummim—attached to a breastplate.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I agree with
Vogel that SITH conflicts with the official history, as well as every other
statement Joseph and Oliver made.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But I
disagree with Vogel—and this Gospel Topics Essay—when they claim the other
witnesses observed Joseph translating the Book of Mormon.<o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">36. According
to these accounts, Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in
a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read
aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note26"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">26</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here again,
the essay simply assumes the witnesses were describing the actual translation
of the Book of Mormon instead of a demonstration. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The essay’s
footnote claims two Apostles discussed accounts of the translation
process, but each involve isolated quotations from the historical record, not
rejections of what Joseph and Oliver taught about the Urim and Thummim. Obviously, neither one was a witness, and neither claimed revelation on this issue. In both cases, they relied on the same historical record that everyone else is.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The footnote cites a talk by Elder Maxwell in which he wrote, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“The Prophet Joseph alone knew the full process, and he was
deliberately reluctant to describe details. We take passing notice of the
words of David Whitmer, Joseph Knight, and Martin Harris, who were observers,
not translators…."</span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Taking "passing notice" of these observers is appropriate because they are part of the historical record. But these observers do not supersede what Joseph and Oliver explained.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Elder Maxwell continued. <span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Oliver Cowdery is reported to have testified in court that
the Urim and Thummim enabled Joseph ‘to read in English, the reformed
Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates.’”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This
statement by Oliver is consistent with everything else he taught; i.e., that
Joseph translated the characters with the Urim and Thummim.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Many years
before becoming President of the Church, Elder Russell M. Nelson wrote, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“The
details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known.
Yet we do have a few precious insights.”</span> He then quoted David Whitmer and
Emma Smith without further comment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">These
statements are part of the historical record, so it is appropriate to mention them, but as “precious insights,” they are insights into what? </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Like Elder Maxwell, then-Elder Nelson did not teach that the SITH statements superseded what Joseph and Oliver taught.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The statements from David and Emma give us insights into the context of the decades after Joseph and Oliver died. They apparently coordinated their statements more than 40 years after the events. As we can see from the context of the statements themselves, both David and Emma focused on SITH to refute the Spalding theory.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">37. The
process as described brings to mind a passage from the Book of Mormon that
speaks of God preparing “a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto
light.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note27"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">27</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The passage
in Alma (37:21-25) currently refers twice to “interpreters,” but that was a change made
in the 1920 edition. Earlier editions, including the original 1830 edition,
used the term “directors” instead. That suggests a meaning different from the
“interpreters” mentioned in Ether 4:5 and Mosiah 8 and 28, to which Oliver
Cowdery referred in Letter 1 (“the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites
would have said, ‘Interpreters’”). </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">In other words, when he and his contemporaries used the term "interpreters," Oliver would not have Alma in mind.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Besides, the
scriptural phrase in Alma doesn’t necessarily refer to shining words appearing on a
stone. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Consider the
other instances of the phrase “shine forth” in the scriptures. “Thou shalt
shine forth” (Job 11:17). “Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine
forth” (Psalms 80:1). “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun”
(Matthew 13:43). “The King of heaven shall very soon shine forth among all
the children of men” (Alma 5:50). “Then shall the righteous shine forth in
the kingdom of God” (Alma 40:25). “It shall be brought out of the earth, and
it shall shine forth out of darkness” (Mormon 8:16). “Prepare them [stones]
that they may shine forth in darkness” (Ether 3:4). “Thy church may… shine
forth” (D&C 109:73. “Arise and shine forth…” (D&C 115:5).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The teachings
of the Book of Mormon themselves “shine forth” regardless of the method of
translation.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">38. The
scribes who assisted with the translation unquestionably believed that Joseph
translated by divine power. Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“frequently
wrote day after day”</span> at a small table in their house in Harmony,
Pennsylvania. She described Joseph<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> “sitting with his face buried in his hat,
with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.”</span></span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note28"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">28</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The essay cites Emma's "Last Testimony," which her son Joseph Smith III recorded shortly before Emma died. Emma never publicly acknowledged this document, and Joseph Smith III did not publish it until several months after she died. From the context of the statement itself, it is apparent that Emma sought to refute the Spalding theory (which was based on the premise that Joseph dictated from behind a curtain because he was reading the Spalding manuscript.)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Although Emma claimed to work as a scribe, we have no record in which she specified when or where she wrote or what portion of the text she recorded. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The historical record supports three possibilities. Emma apparently acted as scribe before Martin Harris arrived in 1828, before
Oliver Cowdery arrived in 1829, and at the Whitmer home in Fayette. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Another translation reference by Emma relates to her credibility and reliability. Historians often cite Emma's 1870 letter in which she wrote, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Now the first that my husband translated was
translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that
Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly, black, but
was rather a dark color.”</span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">By specifically distinguishing between the two instruments, Emma's statement directly refutes the claim in the essay that we previously discussed: "Latter-day Saints <i>later </i>understood the term 'Urim and Thummim' to refer exclusively to the interpreters." The essay should at least acknowledge this point.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Note that Emma's statement implies Joseph did not use the U&T after
the 116 pages were lost. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">However,
Joseph said Emma wrote for him after he recovered the U&T in 1828 (they
had been taken because of the lost 116 pages). Lucy Mack Smith wrote in her
history that while Joseph and Oliver were working in Harmony, Joseph applied
the Urim and Thummim to his eyes and looked on the plates.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">It doesn’t
make sense to conclude that Joseph received the U&T back in September
1828 so he could resume translating, but then did not use the U&T with Emma, and then to begin using it with Oliver starting in April 1829.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I've proposed that Emma wrote part of 2 Nephi in Fayette when Joseph demonstrated the
process with a stone in a hat. That could have provided the basis for her
statements 40+ years later, especially if she sought to counter the Spalding
theory.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">For more on Emma's "Last Testimony," see</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/credibility-of-emma-smiths-last.html" target="_blank">https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/credibility-of-emma-smiths-last.html</a> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Note 28 here cites the Hadley article. For a discussion of that, see </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/the-jonathan-hadley-account-and-sith.html" target="_blank">http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2023/08/the-jonathan-hadley-account-and-sith.html</a> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">39. According
to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at
concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This
statement has been taken to mean Joseph never used the plates during the
translation, but that is not what it says. Joseph had to leave the plates
somewhere when he wasn’t using them. That doesn’t mean he didn’t actually use
them when he translated. This is not complicated.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">40. When
asked if Joseph had dictated from the Bible or from a manuscript he had
prepared earlier, Emma flatly denied those possibilities: “He had neither
manuscript nor book to read from.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is part
of the refutation of the Spalding theory, which was the original purpose for
the interview. Emma volunteered her comments about the manner of translation;
they were not in response to specific questions from her son.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">41. Emma
told her son Joseph Smith III, “The Book of Mormon is of divine
authenticity—I have not the slightest doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man
could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired;
for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me for hour
after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would
at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or
having any portion of it read to him.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note29"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">29</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If Joseph was
translating the plates, he naturally would have resumed the translation where
he ended it, with no need of seeing the manuscript to jog his memory.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" valign="top" width="312">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">42. Another
scribe, </span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1999/04/the-witness-martin-harris?lang=eng"><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">Martin Harris</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> sat across the
table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris
later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences
appeared. Joseph read those sentences aloud, and after penning the words,
Harris would say, “Written.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">After he
would say “Written,” Martin claimed that <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“if correctly written that sentence
would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly
it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was
engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The reference
to the engravings on the plates is consistent with the language of D&C
10. D&C 10, by directing Joseph to translate the engravings on specific plates (the plates of Nephi which he didn't have at the time), refutes the idea that he was reading words off a stone. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Martin’s
statement seems to imply a literal and perfect translation, but the only part of the translation that Joseph said was literal was the
Title Page. And we can all see that the Original Manuscript (OM) we have today contains inconsistent spellings and other errors that Joseph later corrected, so Martin's description contradicts the evidence from the OM.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, Martin wrote the lost 116 pages, so the process may have been different for the translation of the text we have today. In that sense, Martin's testimony is irrelevant.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Martin never
claimed to have seen what Joseph saw when he translated. He also didn’t claim
that Joseph told him what he saw. Instead, Martin apparently made this claim
based on his own inference of what occurred. This statement has led some to
conclude that the translation was “tightly controlled,” but we do not have
the 116 pages to see if there were misspellings and other errors of the type
present in the OM.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">43. An
associate who interviewed Harris recorded him saying that Joseph “possessed a
seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and
Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note30"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">30</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The essay’s
footnote here points out that Martin Harris recognized the distinction
between the Urim and Thummim (the Nephite interpreters) and the seer stone.
Like his contemporaries, Martin didn’t use the term to apply to both. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Of
course, Martin’s statement here contradicts Emma’s statement that Joseph used
the stone only after the 116 pages were lost. Martin’s first statement about
the seer stone was published in 1881, six years after Martin’s death in 1875,
and after David and Emma had used the seer stone scenario to refute the
Spalding theory.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">44. The
principal scribe, Oliver Cowdery, testified under oath in 1831 that Joseph
Smith “found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two
transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking
through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian
characters, which were engraved on the plates.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note31"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">31</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is
consistent with every statement by Joseph and Oliver about the translation,
although it contradicts the SITH narrative.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">45. In
the fall of 1830, Cowdery visited Union Village, Ohio, and spoke about the
translation of the Book of Mormon. Soon thereafter, a village resident
reported that the translation was accomplished by means of “two transparent
stones in the form of spectacles thro which the translator looked on the
engraving.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note32"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">32</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This report
has Joseph looking on the engraving instead of having the plates resting
nearby under a cloth. This is consistent with what Lucy Mack Smith wrote
about how Joseph translated the plates. The phrase “two transparent stones”
is the description always given of the Nephite interpreters.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">46. Joseph
Smith consistently testified that he translated the Book of Mormon by the
“gift and power of God.” His scribes shared that testimony. The angel who
brought news of an ancient record on metal plates buried in a hillside and
the divine instruments prepared especially for Joseph Smith to translate were
all part of what Joseph and his scribes viewed as the miracle of translation.
When he sat down in 1832 to write his own history for the first time, he
began by promising to include “an account of his marvelous experience.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note33"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">33</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"> The translation of the Book of Mormon was
truly marvelous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The term
“buried” is ahistorical and implies a false connection to “buried treasure.”
Moroni explained that the plates were “deposited.”<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;">47. The
truth of the Book of Mormon and its divine source can be known today. God
invites each of us to read the book, remember the mercies of the Lord and
ponder them in our hearts, “and ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of
Christ, if these things are not true.” God promises that “if ye shall ask
with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will
manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”</span><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note34"><sup><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit", serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration-line: none;">34</span></sup></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> Good as is.</o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #53575b; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">The Church acknowledges the contribution of scholars to the
historical content presented in this article; their work is used with
permission.</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Palatino Linotype", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></o:p></p>
</td>
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</tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> FOOTNOTES:</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note1" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">1.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046400" id="note1_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 28, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note2" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">2.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046401" id="note2_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On the identity of the angel, see Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844,</cite> vol. 1 of the Histories series of <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Joseph Smith Papers,</cite> edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 223 n 56.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note3" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">3.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046402" id="note3_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Davidson et al., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith Histories,</cite> 223; punctuation regularized; Joseph Smith, “Church History,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Times and Seasons</cite> 3 (March 1, 1842): 706–7. See also <a class="" data-scroll-id="note3" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note3" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith—History 1:33–34</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note4" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">4.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046403" id="note4_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note4" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mormon 9:32</a>. See also <a class="" data-scroll-id="note4" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Nephi 1:2</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note5" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">5.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046404" id="note5_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saints’ Herald</cite> 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 290.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note6" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">6.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046405" id="note6_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith History, 1838–ca. 1841, 8–11 (draft 2), in Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844,</cite> vol. 1 of the Histories series of <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Joseph Smith Papers,</cite> edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 252–3; available at <a class="" data-scroll-id="note6" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="language" lang="eng" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">josephsmithpapers.org</span></a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note6" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Doctrine and Covenants 3:5–15</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note7" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">7.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046406" id="note7_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith Histories,</cite> 16; Oliver Cowdery to William W. Phelps, Sept. 7, 1834, in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Messenger and Advocate</cite> 1 (Oct. 1834): 14; italics in original.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note8" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">8.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046407" id="note8_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most of the manuscript disintegrated or became otherwise unreadable due to water damage between 1841 and 1882, as a result of being placed in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House in Nauvoo, Illinois. Most of the surviving pages were later archived in the historian’s office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The extant original manuscript has been published in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text,</cite> ed. Royal Skousen (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001). A complete copy of this original, known as the printer’s manuscript, was made by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes between August 1829 and early 1830. It was used to set the type for most of the printing in Palmyra. The printer’s manuscript is published in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typological Facsimile of the Entire Text in Two Parts,</cite> ed. Royal Skousen (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001). Both the printer’s manuscript and the original manuscript will be published in future volumes of <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Joseph Smith Papers.</cite> (Dean C. Jessee, “The Original Book of Mormon Manuscript,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BYU Studies</cite> 10, no. 3 [Spring 1970]: 261–72; Royal Skousen, “Piecing Together the Original Manuscript,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BYU Today</cite> 46, no. 3 [May 1992]: 18–24.)</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note9" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">9.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046408" id="note9_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For example, when Joseph translated the text that is now in <a class="" data-scroll-id="note9" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note9" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Nephi 13:29</a>, the scribe wrote “&” in one place where he should have written “an.” At <a class="" data-scroll-id="note9" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note9" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Nephi 17:48</a>, the scribe wrote “weed” where he should have written “reed.” (See Royal Skousen, “Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript,” in Noel B. Reynolds, ed., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins</cite> [Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997], 67; see also Grant Hardy, “Introduction,” in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text,</cite> ed. Royal Skousen [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009], xv–xix.)</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note10" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">10.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046409" id="note10_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John A. Tvedtnes, “<a class="" data-scroll-id="note10" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note10" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon</a>” and “<a class="" data-scroll-id="note10" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note10" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Names of People: Book of Mormon</a>,” in Geoffrey Kahn, ed., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics</cite> (Brill Online, 2013); M. Deloy Pack, “Hebraisms,” in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Book of Mormon Reference Companion,</cite> ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 321–25; John A. Tvedtnes, “The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon,” in John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne, eds., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rediscovering the Book of Mormon</cite> (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 77–91; Donald W. Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities in the Book of Mormon,” in Donald W. Parry and others, eds., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon</cite> (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 155–89.</p><p data-aid="143409086" id="note10_p2" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You are about to access: <a class="" data-scroll-id="note10" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note10" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.encquran.brill.nl/</a></i></p><p data-aid="143409087" id="note10_p3" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You are now leaving a website maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We provide the link to this third party’s website solely as a convenience to you. The linked site has its own terms of use, privacy policies, and security practices that differ from those on our website. By referring or linking you to this website, we do not endorse or guarantee the content, products, or services offered.</i></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note11" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">11.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046410" id="note11_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On the role of the typesetter John Gilbert, see Royal Skousen, “John Gilbert’s 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon,” in Stephen D. Ricks and others, eds., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson</cite> (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 383–405.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note12" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">12.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046411" id="note12_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Some grammatical constructions that sound odd to English speakers were edited out of later editions of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith or others in order to render the translation into more standard current English. See Richard E. Turley Jr. and William W. Slaughter, <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How We Got the Book of Mormon</cite> (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 44–45. Approximately five-sixth of the 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon was typeset from the printer’s manuscript. The other one-sixth was typeset from the original manuscript. (Royal Skousen, “Editor’s Preface,” in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text,</cite> xxx.)</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note13" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">13.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046412" id="note13_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note13" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note13" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Kings 19:11–12</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note14" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">14.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046413" id="note14_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note14" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note14" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Acts 9:1–8</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note14" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note14" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">12:7–9</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note15" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">15.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046414" id="note15_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note15" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Acts 11:4–17</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note15" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">16:9–10</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note15" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Exodus 28:30</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note15" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leviticus 8:8</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note15" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note15" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Numbers 21:9</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note16" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">16.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046415" id="note16_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Michael Hubbard MacKay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, Grand Underwood, Robert J. Woodford, and William G. Hartley, eds., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831,</cite> vol. 1 of the Documents series of <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Joseph Smith Papers,</cite> edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2013), xxix.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note17" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">17.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046416" id="note17_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note17" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note17" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mosiah 28:14–15, 20</a>; see also <a class="" data-scroll-id="note17" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note17" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mosiah 8:13, 19</a>; and <a class="" data-scroll-id="note17" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note17" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ether 4:5</a>. Joseph Smith seems to have used the terms “interpreters” and “spectacles” interchangeably during the early years of the Church. Nancy Towle, an itinerant Methodist preacher, recounted Joseph Smith telling her about “a pair of ‘interpreters,’ (as he called them,) that resembled spectacles, by looking into which, he could <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">read</em> a writing engraven upon the plates, though to himself, in a tongue unknown” (Nancy Towle, <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vicissitudes Illustrated in the Experience of Nancy Towle, in Europe and America</cite> [Charleston: James L. Burges, 1832], 138–39). Joseph’s 1832 history referred to “spectacles” (Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith Histories,</cite> 16). In January 1833, the Latter-day Saint newspaper <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Evening and the Morning Star,</cite> edited by William W. Phelps, equated “spectacles” and “interpreters” with the term “Urim and Thummim”: the Book of Mormon “was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles— (known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)” (“The Book of Mormon,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Evening and the Morning Star,</cite> January 1833, [2]). By 1835 Joseph Smith most often used the term “Urim and Thummim” when speaking of translation and rarely, if ever, used the terms “interpreters” or “spectacles” (Joseph Smith, Journal, Nov. 9–11, 1835, in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journals: Volume 1: 1832–1839,</cite> 89; Joseph Smith, History, 1834–1836, in Davidson et al., <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Histories, Volume 1,</cite> 116; John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in John W. Welch, ed., with Erick B. Carlson, <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844</cite> [Provo, UT, and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2005], 123–28).</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note18" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">18.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046417" id="note18_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith probably possessed more than one seer stone; he appears to have found one of the stones while digging for a well around 1822. (Richard L. Bushman, <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism</cite> [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984], 69–70.)</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note19" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">19.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046418" id="note19_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Martin Harris, an angel commanded Joseph Smith to stop these activities, which he did by 1826. (See Bushman, <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism,</cite> 64–76; and Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BYU Studies</cite> 24, no. 4 [Fall 1984]: 489–560.) Joseph did not hide his well-known early involvement in treasure seeking. In 1838, he published responses to questions frequently asked of him. “Was not Jo Smith a money digger,” one question read. “Yes,” Joseph answered, “but it was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.” (Selections from <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Elders’ Journal,</cite> July 1838, 43, available at <a class="" data-scroll-id="note19" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note19" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="language" lang="eng" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">josephsmithpapers.org</span></a>.) For the broader cultural context, see Alan Taylor, “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">American Quarterly</cite> 38, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 6–33.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note20" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">20.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046419" id="note20_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Ashurst-McGee, “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet” (Master’s Thesis, Utah State University, 2000).</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note21" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">21.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046420" id="note21_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For example, when Joseph Smith showed a seer stone to Wilford Woodruff in late 1841, Woodruff recorded in his journal: “I had the privilege of seeing for the first time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM” (Wilford Woodruff journal, Dec. 27, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City). See also <a class="" data-scroll-id="note21" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note21" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Doctrine and Covenants 130:10</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note22" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">22.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046421" id="note22_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cornelius Van Dam, <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel</cite> (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 9–26.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note23" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">23.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046422" id="note23_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Exodus 7:9–12</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">30:25</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">40:9</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leviticus 8:10–12</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Numbers 21:9</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Joshua 3:6–8</a>; <a class="" data-scroll-id="note23" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note23" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John 9:6</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note24" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">24.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046423" id="note24_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Preface to the Book of Mormon, 1830 edition.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note25" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">25.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046424" id="note25_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Minutes, Church conference, Orange, OH, Oct. 25–26, 1831, in Minute Book 2, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, available at <a class="" data-scroll-id="note25" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note25" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="language" lang="eng" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">josephsmithpapers.org</span></a>; Welch, “Miraculous Translation,” 121–9.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note26" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">26.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046425" id="note26_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Virtually all of the accounts of the translation process are reproduced in Welch, “Miraculous Translation.” Two accounts of the translation process, including the use of a seer stone, have been written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and published in Church magazines. Historians have also written about the seer stone in Church publications, both in the <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ensign</cite> and in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Joseph Smith Papers.</cite> (See Neal A. Maxwell, “<a class="" data-scroll-id="note26" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note26" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘By the Gift and Power of God,’</a>” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ensign,</cite> Jan. 1997, 36–41; Russell M. Nelson, “<a class="" data-scroll-id="note26" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note26" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Treasured Testament</a>,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ensign,</cite> July 1993, 61–63; Richard Lloyd Anderson, “<a class="" data-scroll-id="note26" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note26" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘By the Gift and Power of God,’</a>” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ensign,</cite> Sept. 1977, 78–85; and <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831,</cite> xxix–xxxii.)</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note27" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">27.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046426" id="note27_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note27" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note27" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Alma 37:23–24</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note28" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">28.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046427" id="note28_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saints’ Herald</cite> 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 289–90. Some outside reports describe the spectacles being placed in the hat during the translation process. A Palmyra newspaper published the earliest known account of the translation in August 1829: Jonathan Hadley, a Palmyra printer who may have spoken with Joseph Smith about translation, claimed that the plates were found with a “huge pair of Spectacles,” and that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.” (“Golden Bible,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Palmyra Freeman,</cite> Aug. 11, 1829, [2].) In the winter of 1831, a Shaker in Union Village, Ohio, spoke of “two transparent stones in the form of spectacles” through which the translator “looked on the engraving & afterwards put his face into a hat & the interpretation then flowed into his mind.” (Christian Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar: The Earliest Book of Mormon Reviewer,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of Mormon History</cite> 37, no. 2 [Spring 2011]: 143.)</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note29" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">29.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046428" id="note29_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289–90.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note30" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">30.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046429" id="note30_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“One of the Three Witnesses,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deseret Evening News,</cite> Dec. 13, 1881, 4. Here Martin Harris uses the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the interpreters found with the plates.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note31" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">31.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046430" id="note31_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A. W. B., “Mormonites,” <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate</cite> 2 (Apr. 19, 1831): 120.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note32" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">32.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046431" id="note32_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar,” 143. For additional accounts of translation by one of the Three Witnesses, see <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness,</cite> ed. Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1991).</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note33" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">33.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046432" id="note33_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joseph Smith History, ca. Summer 1832, 1, in <cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Histories, Volume 1, 1832–1844,</cite> 10; available at <a class="" data-scroll-id="note33" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note33" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="language" lang="eng" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">josephsmithpapers.org</span></a>. Spelling modernized.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span id="rca-note34" style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 1 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: end; vertical-align: baseline;">34.</span></o:p></p><div style="background-color: #f7f8f8; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ensign:Serif", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column: 2 / auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p data-aid="128046433" id="note34_p1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="" data-scroll-id="note34" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng#note34" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Moroni 10:3–5</a>.</p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-91386062584825191712022-07-18T09:47:00.001-07:002023-09-01T09:48:23.850-07:00From Darkness Unto Light--omitting sources to revise history<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #2a33d5; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><br /></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4218915457720110116" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fdfafe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9qRDGDK-ePyx_u0PskrOJr4De03uIvmP9C_JUF4tGdpuHoYhcokq0NQ6peEaksNoduVU55_RUVhdpj7HLkDySoqiWZDOLuIheTjKwSUv9Cij-vnj8yW1RJ9JDZhr9k3iX_TvDH7-AXQgj3TO-2QDdkijuEmEDLX4RXNv0ShUghCXheC0DRV-i-AOR/s500/from%20darkness%20unto%20light-51kz1946VVL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #2a33d5; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9qRDGDK-ePyx_u0PskrOJr4De03uIvmP9C_JUF4tGdpuHoYhcokq0NQ6peEaksNoduVU55_RUVhdpj7HLkDySoqiWZDOLuIheTjKwSUv9Cij-vnj8yW1RJ9JDZhr9k3iX_TvDH7-AXQgj3TO-2QDdkijuEmEDLX4RXNv0ShUghCXheC0DRV-i-AOR/s320/from%20darkness%20unto%20light-51kz1946VVL.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="213" /></a></div>A little over five years ago I discussed this book, <i>From Darkness unto Light</i>. <div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/05/from-darkness-unto-light.html" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/05/from-darkness-unto-light.html</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>I pointed out there that the book omits important historical references that contradict the authors' theories. </div><div><div><br /></div><div>Now, five years later, people are still citing and quoting the book as authoritative. People who rely on this book, or the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation, have no idea about what Joseph and Oliver actually taught about the translation.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a time when so many are confused by the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) theory, this is a good time to revisit the book.</div><div>_____<br /><div><br /></div><div>The first time I read the book, I thought it was insightful and offered some new interpretations based on original documents from Church history. After all, the authors are two of the editors of Volume 1 of the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers. They are even cited in note 16 in the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation</a>.</div><div><br /></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Michael Hubbard MacKay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, Grand Underwood, Robert J. Woodford, and William G. Hartley, eds., Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, vol. 1 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2013)</span></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>With this pedigree, we might expect the book to be an open-minded analysis of the relevant historical documents. However, as we'll see here, it is less a book about history than an argument for the authors' interpretation of history (basically SITH), bolstered by their penchant for ignoring important historical references. </div><div><br /></div><div>_____</div><div><br />This book was published in 2015 and, so far as I know, has never been revised. I'm continually amazed that any current scholars would cite this book now that the authors' omissions are so obvious and well known.</div><div><br /></div><div>The authors set out their thesis <i>as fact</i> in this sentence at the end of Chapter 4.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">With the “gift and power of God” Joseph read the translated words that appeared on the seer stones and his scribes recorded them as the text of the Book of Mormon, a concept that will be further elaborated upon in following chapters.</span></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>Notice how the authors present their theory (their "concept") as a statement of fact, without qualification.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now let's read that sentence in the context of the entire paragraph, with commentary.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph declared throughout the remainder of his life that he translated by the power of God.</span> </blockquote><p><span style="color: #990000;">This sentence is technically accurate but misleading by omission because the authors omitted Joseph's declaration that he translated by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, as we'll see below. </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Beginning in the preface of the Book of Mormon, he wrote, “I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God.”</span> </blockquote><p><span style="color: #990000;">This is another example of misleading by omission; i.e., the authors simply deleted the rest of Joseph's sentence without even using an ellipsis to inform readers. The reason why becomes apparent when we read the complete sentence:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><span style="color: #990000;">"I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, <b>the which I took from the Book of Lehi</b>, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon."</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #990000;">Here, Joseph explained that he translated 116 pages that he "took from the Book of Lehi." By declaring the source of the translation--the Book of Lehi which was on the plates--Joseph contradicted rumors that he had not used the plates or that he had merely read words that appeared on a seer stone.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">The authors of <i>From Darkness Unto Light</i> were familiar with the entire sentence; they quoted in in note 58 of Chapter 5 in a discussion of how many pages Martin Harris actually lost. But they don't explain why they truncated Joseph's sentence in the passage above.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">If they had an argument against the plain language Joseph provided in this Preface, they should have made it instead of misleading readers by omitting it.</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">The paragraph continues.</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">That statement </span>[from the preface]<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> was distributed with the first five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph reiterated it in 1842 when he declared, “<b>With the records</b> was found a curious instrument <b>which the ancients called Urim and Thummim</b>, which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. <b>Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim</b> I translated the record by the gift and power of God.”58</span> (emphasis added)</blockquote><p><span style="color: #990000;">Note 58 cites the Wentworth letter, the source of this quotation, which anyone can read here:</span></p><p><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-1-march-1842/5" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-1-march-1842/5</span></a></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">While the authors accurately observe that Joseph reiterated his claim that he "translated the record by the gift and power of God," they fail to discuss the important clarification Joseph provided--again, because it contradicts their thesis.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Recall that Joseph wrote the letter at the request of Mr. Wentworth, who was asking on behalf of his publisher friend Mr. Bastow. Joseph explained, "</span><span style="color: #990000;">As Mr. Bastow has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information all that I shall ask at his hands, is, that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation." </span><span style="color: #990000;">(<i>Times and Seasons</i>, March 1, 1842, III.9:706 ¶5)</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">The "correct information" Joseph provided here includes his specific claim that he translated the records (the plates) "through the medium of the Urim and Thummim" which he found "with the records." </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Thus, there is no room in Joseph's statement for a seer stone he found in a well.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Surprisingly, the authors do not explain how they reconcile their claim about the seer stone with this key point about the origin, name and use of the Urim and Thummim. Nor do they quote or discuss this passage anywhere else in their book. </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">The authors entirely omitted two additional important statements by Joseph about the translation. </span></p><div><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">First, they forgot to tell readers that the Wentworth letter was later republished in 1844 as "Latter Day Saints" with some modifications, but the paragraph about the translation remained unchanged except for omitting the final comma.</span></div><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,”</b> which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim on a bow fastened to a breastplate. <b>Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record</b>, by the gift and power of God.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/latter-day-saints-1844/3" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/latter-day-saints-1844/3</span></a></div></blockquote><div><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000;">Second, they forgot to quote and cite what Joseph explained when he </span><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">answered a question in the 1838 </span><i style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">Elders' Journal.</i><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"> Here, he reaffirmed that he translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates:</span></div><div><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon? </span></blockquote><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;">Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead; and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. <b>I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates</b>; and thus came the book of Mormon.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/10" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/10</span></a></div></blockquote><p><span style="color: #990000;">Continuing with the excerpt :</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As the Book of Mormon prophesied, the word of God “shall shine forth in darkness unto light.”59</span> </blockquote><p><span style="color: #990000;">When read in context, the passage refers to a stone: "And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations." (Alma 37:23)</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">The authors refer to "Gazelem" seven times in their book, stating at one point that "it is likely that the brown stone was the one referred to as Gazelem, which the Book of Mormon prophesied had been prepared to help translate ancient Nephite records like the Book of Mormon." </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Whether that is a "likely" interpretation is subjective, but there are two problems with the claim. </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">First, as we saw above, in words as plain as words can be, Joseph clarified that he translated the plates <b>with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates</b>. He didn't qualify his statements by saying he translated some of the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, or that he used two or more different instruments.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Second, the passage in Alma goes on to explain that the prophecy in verse 23 was already fulfilled: "And now, my son, we see that they did not repent; therefore they have been destroyed, and <b>thus far the word of God has been fulfilled</b>; yea, their secret abominations have been brought out of darkness and made known unto us." </span><span style="color: #990000;">(Alma 37:26) </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">There is no statement, suggestion or implication that this stone would be used in the future.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">[Some have been confused by the term "interpreters" in verses 21 and 24; e.g., "</span><span style="color: #990000;">And now, my son, these <b>interpreters </b>were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying:" </span><span style="color: #990000;">(Alma 37:24) </span><span style="color: #990000;">In the original text, the term used in this passage was "directors." The term was changed for the 1920 LDS edition but the RLDS/Community of Christ edition retains the original reading. Thus, when Oliver said Joseph "t</span><span style="color: #990000;">ranslated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon,'" </span><span style="color: #990000;">(Joseph Smith—History, Note, 1), he was not referring to Alma 37.]</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">By the way, here's how the authors deal with Oliver's statement, which they partially quote twice in their book.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">They truncate the quotation after "Interpreters" to omit Oliver's statement that Joseph "translated... the history or record called the 'Book of Mormon'." Unsuspecting readers would not realize that Oliver actually said Joseph translated the history or record, which is much different from saying Joseph read words off a stone. [Later, in note 44 of chapter 7, they provide the entire quotation without comment.]</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Nevertheless, after quoting the truncated passage from JS-H, note 1, they write, </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"Whether he was using the spectacles or an individual stone, Joseph apparently used either instrument by placing it in the bottom of a hat in order to block out the ambient light so he could read the words that appeared on the stone." </span>[672 of 1233]</p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Obviously, nothing in Oliver's statement states, suggests or implies any such practice. </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">This leads to another important historical source that the authors omitted from their book. </span><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">Oliver reiterated his first-person testimony when he rejoined the Church in 1848.</span></p><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><br /></div><blockquote style="background-color: #fbfefa; border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #990000;">I wrote with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet as <b>he translated it by the gift and power of God by means of the Urim and Thummim, or as it is called by that book, holy interpreters.</b> I beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands <b>the gold plates from which it was translated.</b> I also beheld the Interpreters. That book is true. Sidney Rigdon did not write it. Mr. Spaulding did not write it. I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the Prophet.</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #fbfefa;"><a href="https://www.lettervii.com/p/oliver-returning-to-church-reuben.html" style="color: #2a33d5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.lettervii.com/p/oliver-returning-to-church-reuben.html</span></a></div><p><span style="color: #990000;">Here again, </span><span style="color: #990000;">nothing in Oliver's statement states, suggests or implies that Joseph used a stone he found in a well and placed in a hat. This 1848 statement is all the more meaningful because on that occasion, Oliver possessed the brown stone that Joseph supposedly used. But he neither referenced it nor displayed it. Instead, he referred to the interpreters and the plates. </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">_____</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000;">Now we return to the authors' thesis:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">With the “gift and power of God” Joseph read the translated words that appeared on the seer stones and his scribes recorded them as the text of the Book of Mormon, a concept that will be further elaborated upon in following chapters.</span></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>The authors elaborate upon this "concept" by invoking a variety of sources, which is fine. But they simply omit the sources that disprove their thesis.</div><div><br /></div><div>Readers should at least be alerted that the historical record includes sources that support and corroborate what Joseph, Oliver, and their successors in Church leadership have always taught about the translation.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>the end</div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6621750165197303177.post-4738492973483511302022-07-04T09:18:00.000-07:002022-07-04T09:18:33.600-07:00The seer stone in Harmony<p>Several times I've visited the Priesthood Restoration Site in what was once Harmony, Pennsylvania. We actually visited there the day before the official opening and went on the first "live" tour with the local ward members and the missionaries serving there.</p><p>The visitors center has wonderful displays, including awesome artwork.</p><p>But it also has a display about the translation, shown below.</p><p>The display nudges visitors toward accepting SITH, even to the point of misrepresenting what both Joseph Smith and Lucy Mack Smith actually wrote. </p><p>Because it's an overview display, we can't expect it to relate the entire history in any detail. But visitors should be able to rely on the display being at least accurate, instead of teaching the opposite of what the sources tell us.</p><p>(Click images to enlarge)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsh4xsysG3oWxsWuEwlKjkSy6_8x59jcpeGR9q7LukkGt5wkxDRqvh7OzWqtmULgmOpu7f1UQG-Kw9i5GRJ9K4Di9OQJCvKDSy0qhlLcDjaCAN9vwfT8wFlWO6Ur4TczthtGpvT5jXbN9K2xAZCNGvDiuXueluobgTrOY3AuVSN9AuKfkXPwO-Q/s4032/20200304_120510.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsh4xsysG3oWxsWuEwlKjkSy6_8x59jcpeGR9q7LukkGt5wkxDRqvh7OzWqtmULgmOpu7f1UQG-Kw9i5GRJ9K4Di9OQJCvKDSy0qhlLcDjaCAN9vwfT8wFlWO6Ur4TczthtGpvT5jXbN9K2xAZCNGvDiuXueluobgTrOY3AuVSN9AuKfkXPwO-Q/s320/20200304_120510.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDMhFvNcn2qONnu3dE9ABMAciRvlo_hnpudwBRqFxejc5u9_DT4GQkCKQS0yCWSM8dP9ZPa3YKuUuhbxR4eftFlW6zrUNk93BynESMrU0rG7IXqgBp-pCkqyrHcRnNgUboalonnb0rUtatNzEsZ94Q-ASSO71-wAsN9j83T6dOdmgNMJ2OAjIRA/s4032/20200304_120519.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDMhFvNcn2qONnu3dE9ABMAciRvlo_hnpudwBRqFxejc5u9_DT4GQkCKQS0yCWSM8dP9ZPa3YKuUuhbxR4eftFlW6zrUNk93BynESMrU0rG7IXqgBp-pCkqyrHcRnNgUboalonnb0rUtatNzEsZ94Q-ASSO71-wAsN9j83T6dOdmgNMJ2OAjIRA/s320/20200304_120519.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Caption: <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph Smith was inspired by God in his effort to translate the ancient record. At times when exercising the gift of revelation, Joseph used sacred objects to translate. He used the translation instruments buried with the record. And at other times, he used a seer stone, which he placed inside a hat to block out light.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">At first Joseph copied characters from the plates before trying to translate them. Over time he often worked without referring to the plates, which were covered or hidden close by.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh884mytrNpGAJigKV41SDcZx57a-z6kpOqzmwlP9cya8c9qAWvE0P-OW6dmlehFmRDFG3nht9audAvyWEhL2XcjLL51DdbEX6Hwe889FBXHrkSc82xz2u6vlr3S1OTPyiDApFvId3cS-aH8HGKU_9vYHUCzH5T7xd0sgbo1rRiiTw6dfwzKyqSXA/s4032/20200304_120526.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh884mytrNpGAJigKV41SDcZx57a-z6kpOqzmwlP9cya8c9qAWvE0P-OW6dmlehFmRDFG3nht9audAvyWEhL2XcjLL51DdbEX6Hwe889FBXHrkSc82xz2u6vlr3S1OTPyiDApFvId3cS-aH8HGKU_9vYHUCzH5T7xd0sgbo1rRiiTw6dfwzKyqSXA/s320/20200304_120526.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Caption: <span style="color: #2b00fe;">Pictured here is Joseph Smith's seer stone (not actual size), described by Book of Mormon witness David Whitmer as an "oval-shaped, chocolate-colored stone the size of an egg, only more flat." According to Joseph's mother Lucy, this instrument gave Joseph the ability to "discern things" that could not be seen by the natural eye." There are no photographs of the translation instruments buried with the plates.</span><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's look at these line-by-line, starting with the upper left panel.</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Joseph Smith was inspired by God in his effort to translate the ancient record. </span></div></blockquote><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div>So far, so good, although he <i>did not</i> describe it as an "effort to translate." He explained,<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span>"I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I <b>translated </b>the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon." <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/11" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/11</a><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">At times when exercising the gift of revelation, Joseph used sacred objects to translate.</span></p></div></blockquote><div><p>Now it's a "gift of revelation" instead of <i>translating </i>by the gift and power of God. There is a trend toward reframing the Book of Mormon as a revelation instead of a translation of an ancient record, and this display nods in that direction. Using "sacred objects" is accurate, at least so far in this narrative.</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">He used the translation instruments buried with the record. </span></p></div></blockquote><div><p>At least here the display acknowledges that "translation instruments" were buried with the record. Notice how the terminology doesn't track what Joseph and Oliver said--the spectacles, the Urim and Thummim and the Nephite interpreters--but adopts a modern phrasing that accommodates the seer stone.</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And at other times, he used a seer stone, which he placed inside a hat to block out light.</span></p></div></blockquote><div><p>Now the "seer stone" enters the narrative. What the display doesn't explain is that the SITH sayers, primarily David Whitmer and Emma Smith, said Joseph never used the Urim and Thummim after he lost the 116 pages. Now it's just "at other times" he used SITH.</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">At first Joseph copied characters from the plates before trying to translate them.</span></p></div></blockquote><div><p>Of course, Joseph didn't say he "tried" to translate them. He said he did translate them, with the Urim and Thummim. "I commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means of the Urim and Thummim <b>I translated some of them</b>." (Joseph Smith—History 1:62)</p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Over time he often worked without referring to the plates, which were covered or hidden close by.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>This is according to the SITH sayers. Neither Joseph nor Oliver said or implied any such thing. None of the SITH sayers reported what Joseph actually dictated while they observed SITH, so can't even say whether what Joseph dictated is in the Book of Mormon. </div><div>_____</div><div><br /></div><div>Small center panel.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Pictured here is Joseph Smith's seer stone (not actual size), described by Book of Mormon witness David Whitmer as an "oval-shaped, chocolate-colored stone the size of an egg, only more flat."</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>There is a reasonably reliable chain of custody of this stone from Joseph to Oliver to Oliver's wife Elizabeth (upon Oliver's death) to Phineas Young to Zina Young to Brigham Young down to the current First Presidency. </div><div><br /></div><div>This cannot be the "seer stone" Joseph showed to members of the Twelve as noted in the journal of Brigham Young because at the time, Oliver Cowdery had that stone. Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal that he saw the Urim and Thummim on that occasion, but he did not mention a stone. Nevertheless, scholars infer that Woodruff used the term to refer to a seer stone--just not the stone Joseph used, according to the SITH sayers. </div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">According to Joseph's mother Lucy, this instrument gave Joseph the ability to "discern things" that could not be seen by the natural eye." </span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div>This quotation is taken out of context and contradicts the plain meaning of what Lucy actually wrote. Instead of Lucy claiming the unspecified "certain means" gave Joseph that ability, she said that Josiah Stoal "<i>having heard</i>" that Joseph could discern things not seen by the natural eye. </div><div><br /></div><div>She proceeded to explain that Joseph tried to divert Stoal from the project and eventually prevailed upon him to cease the operations. </div><div><br /></div><div>IOW, Lucy said the exact opposite of what this display claims.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">A short time before the house was completed, </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">a man by the name of </span><aside class="popup-wrapper" id="11859256576209545837" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; position: relative; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><a class="reference staticPopup" href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/102#11859256576209545837" person="x4477" ro="x4477" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" title="Josiah Stowell Sr.">Josiah Stoal</a></aside><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> came from </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><aside class="popup-wrapper" id="17586187103146213223" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; position: relative; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><a class="reference staticPopup" href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/102#17586187103146213223" place="x5043" ro="x5043" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" title="Chenango County, New York">Chenango County</a></aside><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">, New York, to get Joseph to assist </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">him in digging for a silver mine. He came for </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">Joseph from having heard, that he was in possession </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">of certain means, by which he could </span><mark style="background: rgb(255, 255, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">discern things</mark><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">, </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">which</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> that could not be seen by the natural eye. Joseph </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">endeavered to divert him from his vain project; but </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">he was inflexible, and offered high wages to such </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">as would dig for him; </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">in</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">search</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">of</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">mine</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">; and </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">was </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;"><span class="illegible" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic;">[2 words illegible]</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> still very anxious </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;"><span class="illegible" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic;">[4 words illegible]</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> to have Joseph work for </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">him; consequently, he returned with the old gentle</span><span class="line-break hyphenate" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-left: 0.27em; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">man; besides several others </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">that</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> who were picked up in </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">the neighborhood, and commenced digging. After </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">laboring about a month without success, Joseph </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">prevailed on his employer to cease his opperations. </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">It was from this circumstance, namely, </span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">his having</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> working </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span class="deleted" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-indent: 22px;">worked</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"> by the month at digging for a silver mine, </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">that the very prevalent story arose, of his having been </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111, 96, 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;">a money digger.</span></span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: McKay, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-indent: 22px;"><span style="font-family: McKay, serif;"><a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/102" target="_blank">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/102</a></span></span></div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There are no photographs of the translation instruments buried with the plates.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>This makes sense, because Joseph was commanded not to show the Urim and Thummim to anyone. He never related any such commandment regarding any "seer stone" or "peep stone," which is why it's not surprising that people reported seeing the stones and passed them along until now the photographs are publicly available, including in this display. </div><div><br /></div><div>And, of course, we have the SITH exhibit of the table with the hat and the covered plates. I've spoken with missionaries who served there who have never even looked under the cloth to see what the plates look like.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZA_BqfoNbZiVBocULQt2Szp3pAGftz0wNXDm-_FqznaNgvKlEROhFZQRX6Gt1DMmEssJ3aIly8vAItN54a-Wp7wIvVqY4MnmRIfJ9MLLToioYcoCkg7NXP-Kc8q5zjY2kItjLguq4TUBV3DBi2wDzzb5KjYK4GuIF0q3Tl0jyIZDGqix-9VC0w/s4032/20200304_122332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZA_BqfoNbZiVBocULQt2Szp3pAGftz0wNXDm-_FqznaNgvKlEROhFZQRX6Gt1DMmEssJ3aIly8vAItN54a-Wp7wIvVqY4MnmRIfJ9MLLToioYcoCkg7NXP-Kc8q5zjY2kItjLguq4TUBV3DBi2wDzzb5KjYK4GuIF0q3Tl0jyIZDGqix-9VC0w/s320/20200304_122332.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>The SITH fun never ends...</div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0