The Come Follow Me manual for 2025 focuses on the Doctrine and Covenants. In this post we'll consider some recommendations for improvements in the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding.
We all recognize there has been a big push toward promoting SITH (the stone-in-the-hat narrative). And that's fine if people want to believe that.
But the pursuit of clarity requires us to compare the authentic historical record with the SITH narrative to see how the SITH narrative is being promoted.
Here's one example.
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After the chapter for Feb 3-9, the Come Follow Me manual offers a short section titled "Voices of the Restoration: Translation of the Book of Mormon."
It's good to provide additional materials, of course, but why not provide what Joseph Smith said about the translation while he was alive instead of what Emma said decades later?
At a minimum, the manual should inform readers about everything Joseph said, including the Preface to the 1830 edition, the Elders' Journal, and the Wentworth letter. These are all available in the Joseph Smith Papers.
https://www.mobom.org/translation-references
Let's review the lesson manual. Original in blue, my comments in red, additional quotations in green.
Translation of the Book of Mormon
In April 1829, the month when sections 6–9 of the Doctrine and Covenants were received, Joseph Smith’s main work was the translation of the Book of Mormon. We don’t know many details about the miraculous translation process, but we do know that Joseph Smith was a seer, aided by instruments that God had prepared: two transparent stones called the Urim and Thummim and another stone called a seer stone. 1
Joseph never once said or implied that he used "a seer stone" to translate the Book of Mormon. To say that we "know" he did requires (i) rejecting what Joseph (and Oliver) explicitly stated and (ii) accepting what critics claimed.
There is also no historical record to support the idea that God prepared a seer stone for Joseph to use to produce the Book of Mormon. To the contrary, the SITH narrative contradicts everything Joseph (and Oliver) said about the translation and raises the question of why the plates and Nephite interpreters, aka the Urim and Thummim, were ever needed.
This is precisely the issue raised in the 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed, which ridiculed the idea that Joseph used a stone-in-a-hat to produce the Book of Mormon without even looking at the plates and asked what the value of the testimony of the witnesses was if Joseph didn't even use the plates in the first place.
Partly to refute Mormonism Unvailed, Joseph and Oliver several times reiterated that Joseph translated the plates using the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.
Nevertheless, the SITH narrative persisted among critics and now modern LDS historians have embraced SITH. Many Latter-day Saints are confused because they have long been taught what Joseph and Oliver taught, instead of what the critics (and modern scholars) claim.
Note 1 refers to these references:
For more information, see Topics and Questions, “Book of Mormon Translation,” Gospel Library; Richard E. Turley Jr., Robin S. Jensen, and Mark Ashurst-McGee, “Joseph the Seer,” Ensign, Oct. 2015, 48–55).
Topics and Questions
Topics and Questions
Ensign
I've discussed these elsewhere. See links below.
When asked later to relate how this record was translated, Joseph said “that it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars.”2
Anyone who looks at the reference can see that Joseph was not asked "to relate how this record was translated."
Note 2 cites “Minutes, 25–26 October 1831,” Minute Book 2, 13, josephsmithpapers.org.
Br. said that he thought best that the information of the coming forth of the book of Mormon be related by Joseph himself to the present that all might know for themselves.Br. Joseph Smith jr. said that it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon, & also said that it was not expedient for him to relate these things &c.
Hyrum asked Joseph to relate "The coming forth of the book of Mormon," a topic that is far broader than the translation and may not have even included the translation anyway. Some of those present in the meeting did later discuss their own thoughts about the translation, which indicates they did not interpret Joseph's response to pertain to the translation per se.
The "coming forth" would include the visits of Moroni, Joseph's interaction with other divine messengers including the Three Nephites (one of whom introduced himself to Mary Whitmer as "Brother Nephi), the visits to the repository in Cumorah, the two sets of plates, and much more.
At any rate, Joseph (and Oliver) were specific about one thing. They claimed that Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, which refutes the claims that he used another "instrument."
He often stated simply that it was translated “by the gift, and power of God.” 3
The reference in Note 3 directly refutes this statement.
3. In “Church History,” Times and Seasons, Mar. 1, 1842, 707; see also Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 441.
Anyone who looks up the reference can see that Joseph's statement in "Church History," aka the Wentworth Letter, is far more specific than the claim that he "often stated simply that it was translated "by the gift and power of God."
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 breast plate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God.
As with other statements by Joseph and Oliver, Joseph here excludes any possibility of misunderstanding. He translated the record with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, not with a seer stone in a hat.
Note. The link goes to the Joseph Smith Teachings manual which edits the Wentworth letter with the infamous ellipses that omit important information about the Book of Mormon.
See https://www.lettervii.com/2018/07/editing-wentworth-letter.html
Obviously this edit is contrary to Joseph's explicit request at the beginning of the letter that "all that I shall ask at his hands, is, that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation.”
The following statements, from eyewitnesses to the translation process, support Joseph’s witness.
Emma's statements partially corroborate what Joseph said and partly refute it. The strange thing, though, is this short article doesn't quote what Joseph said, apart from the truncated "gift and power of God" quotation.
Emma Smith
“When my husband was translating the Book of Mormon, I wrote a part of it, as he dictated each sentence, word for word, and when he came to proper names he could not pronounce, or long words, he spelled them out, and while I was writing them, if I made any mistake in spelling, he would stop me and correct my spelling although it was impossible for him to see how I was writing them down at the time. Even the word Sarah he could not pronounce at first, but had to spell it, and I would pronounce it for him.”4
This quotation purports to be from a visit by Edmund C. Briggs to Nauvoo in 1856, first published in 1916. Readers can decide how credible and accurate it may be, but we can all see that the Original Manuscript has a variety of spelling mistakes, usually with no corrections. Royal Skousen has done a phenomenal job documenting these. We don't have any manuscript pages that Emma wrote, so maybe she did make corrections on the manuscript. But here, as elsewhere, she doesn't tell us what parts of the text she wrote, apart from mentioning "Sarah," which presumably should be "Sariah" unless Emma was a scribe in Fayette for 2 Nephi 8:2.
“The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen tablecloth, which I had given him to fold them in. 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. …
This part is fine, but it is often misused to support SITH by inferring that Emma meant the plates lay on the table wrapped in a cloth even while Joseph was translating them, which is not what Emma actually says here.
“My belief is that 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, [Joseph] would dictate to me 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.
This would naturally be the case if Joseph was translating the plates and ended each session at the bottom of a plate.
This was a usual thing for him to do. It would have been improbable that a learned man could do this; and, for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply impossible.”
This part of Emma's statement appears more apologetic than factual. We can all see that Joseph had excellent penmanship when he wrote the passage in Alma on the original manuscript. While he did not attend school much, and thus was "unlearned" in that sense, his 1832 history shows he was a diligent student of the Bible even at a young age, and had "an intimate acquaintance with those of different denominations." The text of the Book of Mormon demonstrates that his "intimate acquaintance" flowed through as he dictated the text. It only makes sense that God would prepare Joseph for his role as translator and prophet. As President Nelson has taught, "good inspiration is based upon good information."
Oliver Cowdery
“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 he translated it by the gift and power of God, by means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by the book, holy interpreters. I beheld with my eyes, and handled with my hands, the gold plates from which it was translated. I also beheld the interpreters.”
Here, finally, we read one of Oliver's accounts. Like Joseph, he emphasized that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim, which he linked to the Book of Mormon. And like Joseph, he never once stated, suggested, or implied that Joseph used a seer stone instead.
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Comment on references:
Book of Mormon Translation essay:
https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essay-on-translation.html
Gospel Topics Essays generally:
https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essays-do-not-supersede.html
Joseph the Seer article:
https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2021/01/20-years-ago-latter-day-saints-still.html
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