Translation of the Book of Mormon

There is growing confusion among Latter-day Saints about the translation of the Book of Mormon. It's an important issue because the origin of the Book of Mormon is a fundamental to its divine authenticity.

The issues are easy to understand once we examine the historical and scriptural references in context.

1. Urim and Thummim (U&T). Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery always said Joseph translated the record by means of the Nephite interpreters, also called the Urim and Thummim, that came with the plates. They never said or implied that Joseph used any other instrument. The revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants affirm their statements.

2. Seer stone (SITH). Decades after Joseph and Oliver died, other people, including David Whitmer and Emma Smith, claimed that Joseph didn't use the Urim and Thummim after all but instead read words that appeared on a stone he put into a hat. This is the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) theory that was described in 1834 in the anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed. Joseph Smith explained that Mormonism Unvailed was a lie, but some modern scholars, including LDS, have nevertheless embraced SITH over the U&T.

While there is historical evidence to support each of these interpretations, the issue boils down to whether we accept or reject what Joseph and Oliver explicitly taught. They left no room for ambiguity, as the references below demonstrate.

Once we see what Joseph and Oliver taught, we can reconcile the purported conflicting sources by realizing that whatever Joseph did with the seer stone (if anything), he was not translating the Book of Mormon with it.

One currently popular narrative is that Joseph and Oliver said only that the translation was done by "the gift and power of God," but that's not accurate because it omits the rest of what they said. They both also emphasized that Joseph translated by means of the U&T that came with the plates. They were explicit about that, particularly after the 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed put forth the SITH narrative.

The U&T was essential to the divinity of the translation. SITH not only contradicts what Joseph and Oliver said, but it opens the question of the source of the words that supposedly appeared on the stone. This is why non-LDS Christians say that any book that came from an occult practice (i.e., SITH) could not be divine.

Another popular narrative among some LDS historians seeks to reconcile the accounts by theorizing that Joseph used the term Urim and Thummim to include both the seer stone and the interpreters that came with the plates, but that idea contradicts the plain language Joseph and Oliver used, as well as the common usage at the time.

For decades, those who accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet reaffirmed his claim that he translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim, while critics said Joseph actually used the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) method.

In recent years, some faithful LDS scholars have embraced the SITH narrative. Some have concluded that Joseph and Oliver deliberately misled everyone about the translation. To make informed decisions, readers should review the accounts for themselves.

Joseph Smith made several definitive statements about the translation, clarifying that he used the Urim and Thummim (U&T) as instructed by Moroni. At times he and others referred to the U&T as "spectacles" or "interpreters." Those statements that postdate the 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed can be read as responses to the SITH claim in that book.

1829. Doctrine and Covenants 5:3-4

3 And I have caused you that you should enter into a covenant with me, that you should not show them [the plates and U&T] except to those persons to whom I commanded you; and you have no power over them except I grant it unto you.

4 And you have a gift to translate the plates; and this is the first gift that I bestowed upon you....

1838-9, first published in 1842. Joseph Smith History (JS-H) 1:35 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. . . .

JS-H 1:42 Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed.

Joseph also wrote:

“After I had obtained the above revelation [D&C 3], both the plates and the Urim and Thummim were taken from me again; but in a few days they were returned to me, when I inquired of the Lord, and the Lord said thus unto me:

[D&C 10].

1. Now behold I say unto you, that because you delivered up those writings which you had power given unto you to translate, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, into the hands of a wicked man, you have lost them:

2. and you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened;

3. nevertheless, it is now restored unto you again, therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun.

...

30 Behold, I say unto you, that you shall not translate again those words which have gone forth out of your hands;

31 For, behold, they shall not accomplish their evil designs in lying against those words. For, behold, if you should bring forth the same words they will say that you have lied and that you have pretended to translate, but that you have contradicted yourself.

...

39 Yea, and you remember it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these things upon the plates of Nephi.

40 And now, because the account which is engraven upon the plates of Nephi is more particular concerning the things which, in my wisdom, I would bring to the knowledge of the people in this account—

41 Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained;

42 And behold, you shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words.

...

45 Behold, there are many things engraven upon the plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel; therefore, it is wisdom in me that you should translate this first part of the engravings of Nephi, and send forth in this work.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-1-june-1842/3

Responding to ongoing confusion about the translation, Joseph Smith answered the question in the Elders Journal in 1838, unambiguously identifying the instrument he used as the one that came with the plates.

Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the Book of Mormon?

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 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 I.3:42 ¶20–43 ¶1)

In 1842, the question persisted so Joseph explained it again in the Wentworth letter, published as "Church History" in the Times and Seasons. Again, he unambiguously identifying the instrument he used as the one that came with the plates.

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. They were filled with engravings, in Egyptian characters and bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed. The characters on the unsealed part were small, and beautifully engraved. The whole book exhibited many marks of antiquity in its construction and much skill in the art of engraving. 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.

(Times and Seasons III.9:707 ¶5–6)

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-1-march-1842/5

Joseph reiterated this statement in 1844.

Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/latter-day-saints-1844/3

A few people claimed Joseph did not use the plates or the Urim and Thummim, but instead put a seer stone into a hat and read words that appeared on the stone (SITH). This stone, described as about the size and shape of a hen's egg, was dark brown with light brown striations. Joseph had found in a well years earlier.

For detailed analysis of the SITH accounts, compare From Darkness Unto Light, which argues that Joseph used SITH to produce the Book of Mormon, with A Man that Can Translate, which argues that Joseph did not translate with the seer stone but instead used it to demonstrate the process to a few of his supporters.

The 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed articulated the SITH narrative as an alternative to the Urim and Thummim narrative.

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 [Joseph] 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.[1]

This description of the stone-in-the-hat theory is familiar to modern Latter-day Saints because it is now the prevailing narrative among many LDS scholars.

Continuing on the same page 18, Mormonism Unvailed provided readers a second, alternative description of the translation, based on the explanation that Joseph and Oliver always gave, albeit embellished with sarcasm.

Another account they give of the transaction, is, that it was performed with the big spectacles before mentioned, and which were in fact, the identical Urim and Thumim mentioned in Exodus 28 — 30, and were brought away from Jerusalem by the heroes of the book, handed down from one generation to another, and finally buried up in Ontario county, some fifteen centuries since, to enable Smith to translate the plates without looking at them![2]

In a sense, this alternative narrative is also a stone-in-the-hat theory; i.e., the spectacles-in-a-hat theory. However, because Joseph had covenanted with the Lord (D&C 5:3) not to display the plates or the Urim and Thummim, accounts claiming that Joseph placed the "spectacles" in the hat could not be direct observations. They were necessarily hearsay, assumption, or inference. But as Mormonism Unvailed explained, the distinction is insignificant because, if both scenarios ignored the plates, Joseph wasn't really translating the plates as he claimed:

Now, whether the two methods for translating, one by a pair of stone spectacles “set in the rims of a bow,” and the other by one stone, were provided against accident, we cannot determine—perhaps they were limited in their appropriate uses—at all events the plan meets our approbation.

We are informed that Smith used a stone in a hat, for the purpose of translating the plates. The spectacles and plates were found together, but were taken from him and hid up again before he had translated one word, and he has never seen them since — this is Smith’s own story.[3] Let us ask, what use have the plates been or the spectacles, so long as they have in no sense been used? or what does the testimony of Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer amount to?

Joseph refuted SITH in the Elders' Journal and in the Wentworth letter (shown above). Joseph also expressly commented on Mormonism Unvailed by writing that “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.”

(Elders’ Journal I.4:59 ¶12–60 ¶3)

_____

[1] See https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18

[2] Intentionally or not, the author missed the points that (i) the U&T that Joseph received was not brought from Jerusalem by Lehi but instead had been used by the Jaredites in America, and (ii) Joseph actually looked at the plates with the spectacles.

[3] Joseph and Oliver responded to this claim by emphasizing that Joseph translated the entire Book of Mormon with the U&T. Separately, Joseph explained that the angel returned the U&T to Joseph in September 1828 following the loss of the 116 pages.

Aside from the discrepancies in the historical accounts, there is extrinsic evidence that Joseph Smith actually translated the plates. One of these is the lexicon in the text he dictated. Much of it draws from the King James Bible. There are extensive direct quotations, but also many examples of Joseph blending different biblical verses into a single verse in the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon also contains considerable non-biblical language, including words and phrases. Many if not most of these appear in the work of Jonathan Edwards, the influential18th century minister and author who died in 1753. An 8-volume edition of Edwards' works, published in 1808, was on sale in the Palmyra book store that Joseph visited weekly to get the newspaper for his father. Thus, Joseph had access to the non-biblical lexicon we find in the Book of Mormon--just as we would expect if Joseph actually translated the plates, as he said. For more information, see https://www.mobom.org/nonbiblical-intertextuality-database.