How the Book of Mormon was Found and Translated
Joseph Smith at
the age of 16 ( maybe 14,15 or 17) was led to the site of the plates by the
angel
From these
plates came the Book of Mormon, translated by Joseph Smith from
"Reformed" Egyptian characters, inscribed on the gold plates. Or is
it?
Orson Pratt an
early Mormon apostle said," this book must be either true or false, if
false it is one of the most cunning wicked bold deeplayed
impositions ever pawned upon the world. Calculated to deceive and ruin millions
who will really receive it as the word of God and suppose themselves securely
built upon the rock of truth, until they are plunged with their families into
hopeless despair. The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is such if
true no one can possibly be saved and rejected. If false no one can possibly be
saved and receive it. If after a rigid examination it be found an imposition it
should be extensively published to the world as such the evidences and
arguments upon which the imposter was detected should be clearly and logically
stated. So that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived may
perceive the nature of the deception and be reclaimed. And that those who
continue to publish the delusion may be exposed and silenced by evidences
adduced from scripture and reason." (the Divine authority of the book of
Mormon)"
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publishes many pictures of Joseph Smith
dictating the Book of Mormon. The illustrations show Joseph carefully examining
the gold plates in front of him while he is seated at a table. The impression
given is that a careful translation and dictation was involved. That Joseph was
looking at the gold plates in front of him, then spoke out what he saw on the
plates to his scribe. But this is not the actual way it transpired.
This is an intentional
misleading on their part, and they know it.
How did he
really translate this reformed Egyptian into the English language? David Wittmer one of the three witnesses of the book of Mormon
writes in his book addressed to all believers In Christ telling us how Joseph
Smith placed the 'seer stone' into a hat to translate the Book of Mormon:"I will now give you a description of the
manner in which the book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the
seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat. Drawing it closely around
his face to exclude the light and in the darkness the spiritual light would
shine a piece of something resembling parchment would appear and on that
appeared the writing one character a time would and under was an interpretation
in English." Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power
of God, and not by any power of man." (An Address To All Believers In
Christ, by David Whitmer, Richmond, Missouri, 1887,
p. 12)
The writing
would appear one character at a time Joseph would read it off to Oliver Cowdery his principle scribe (Emma his wife and Martin
Harris were also scribes. When Oliver wrote it down, he would then repeat it
back to Joseph to see if it was correct. If correct it would then disappear
then another character with the interpretation would appear in the seer stone.
Interestingly the plates that he was supposedly were translating from were not
nearby. They were well off to the side covered up.
Others bear
witness to this as the means of translation. "'Martin explained the
translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and
were read by the prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say,
"Written," and 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.'" (Myth of the
Manuscript Found, Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883 edition, page 91)
According to
Joseph Smith's own father-in-law, Isaac Hale, the young Joseph translated the
Book of Mormon with the same stone that he used to search for buried treasures:
"I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, Jr. in November, 1825. He
was at that time in the employ of a set of men who were called 'money -diggers;'
and his occupation was that of seeing, or pretending to see by means of a stone
placed in his hat, and his hat closed over his face.... The manner in which he
pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the
money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the
Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods!" (The Susquehanna
Register, May 1, 1834)
The testimony
of those who were eyewitnesses to Joseph Smith's dictating the Book of Mormon
contradict his using the plates. These witnesses include all three of the
Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon (the same individuals whose testimony
appears in the front of every copy of the Book of Mormon), as well as Joseph
Smith’s wife, Emma Hale Smith. They all tell similar stories of Joseph dropping
a magical seer stone into his hat, then burying his face in the hat in complete
darkness and saw the words he dictated and proceeding to dictate the Book of
Mormon. Several of the witnesses noticed that the gold plates were sometimes
not even in sight when Joseph dictated the Book of Mormon to his scribes.
This is crucial
to understand what is actually taking place. For years Joseph daily went into
the woods with his father searching for buried treasure. A peep stone was used
to lead them to the booty. It should be noted they never found treasure, but
the angel
4 years before
the publication of the Book of Mormon, Joseph was arrested, jailed, and
examined in court in Bainbridge, New York on the charge of being "a
disorderly person and an impostor" in connection with his use of a peep
stone to search for buried treasure. While the evidence indicates he was found
guilty of this charge, the young Joseph was apparently released on the
condition that he leave the area .( Quinn, pp. 44ff.; and H. Michael Marquardt
and Wesley P. Walters, Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
(Salt Lake City: Smith Research Associates, 1994), pp. 70ff.)
"'People
of State of
Joseph Smith,
being the Lord's chosen instrument, became the prophet of the Mormon church,
holding the office of Seer. According to the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 8:13, A Seer can translate records that are
untranslatable. Joseph Smith was a seer able to translate the golden plates
into the Book of Mormon by his Seer abilities not by the plates themselves.
This whole concept of finding the book of Mormon on plates is a sham. One can
only wonder why he had to wait for
"I, as
well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery
and Martin Harris, were present during the translation. . . . He [Joseph Smith]
did not use the plates in translation"( Interview given to Kansas City
Journal, June 5, 1881, reprinted in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints Journal of History, vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.)
Joseph's wife
Emma Hale Smith was the first person to serve as his scribe. Here is what she
recounted to her son Joseph Smith III: "In writing for your father I
frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he
sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating
hour after hour with nothing between us." ( History of the
. . . He
[Joseph Smith] did not use the plates in translation"( Interview given to
Kansas City Journal, June 5, 1881, reprinted in the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints Journal of History, vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.
So why have the
revealing of the plates if they were not used in the process?
This what is
called clairvoyance, It is the power of discerning objects not present to the
senses. It certainly is not Gods power
The
eyewitnesses to the translation of the Book of Mormon describe a different
method than the one depicted by the
URIM and THUMMIM
In 1823 an
angel told him about 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 and
former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the
book." (J. Smith History 1:35).
Joseph was to
be the one to translate the plates with the help of the Urim
and thumim. These objects were necessary for the
translating process, but where were the plates?
Because
"But at
the outset it must be recollected that the translation was accomplished by no
common method, by no ordinary means. It was done by divine aid. There were no
delays over obscure passages, no difficulties over the choice of words, no
stoppages from the ignorance of the translator; no time was wasted in
investigation or argument over the value, intent or meaning of certain
characters, and there were no references to authorities. These difficulties to
human work were removed. All was as simple as when a clerk writes from
dictation. The translation of the characters appeared on the Urim and Thummim, sentence by
sentence, and as soon as one was correctly transcribed the next would
appear." (Myth of the Manuscript Found, 1883 edition, page 71)
Mormonism states
"It was through the use of the Urim and Thummim that Joseph Smith was able to translate into
English, from the gold plates, the Book of Mormon, consisting of over five
hundred printed pages." " the Prophet 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." Convenience or necessity?
But he used the
same stone he had to look for buried treasure. Isaac Hale, the father of Emma
Hale Smiths wife, in an 1834 affidavit stated: "The manner in which he
pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the
money-diggers, with a stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the
Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods." (Affidavit dated
March 20, 1834, cited in Rodger I. Anderson, Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation
Reexamined, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990), pp. 126-128).
Its amazing
that no one in the NT period used the Urim and Thummim, there was no need for it, neither do we find any
historical reason that it existed then.
The Apostle
Orson Hyde claimed that the words appeared on the Urim
and Thummim. He wrote a pamphlet in the German
language entitled, A Cry From the Wilderness, A Voice From the Dust of the
Earth. This pamphlet was translated into the English language by Justus Ernst
of the Church Historian's office, and is reproduced in a thesis by Paul R. Cheesman. In this record the following appears:
"These
were used in the following manner: These two stones, called Urim
and Thummim, in diameter the size of an English crown
(coin) only a little thicker, were placed where all light was excluded. The
persons using these offered their prayers to the Lord, and the answer became
visible, written in 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.' In this manner the sacred records were translated into English." (An
Analysis of the Accounts Relating Joseph Smith's Early Visions, A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Graduate Studies in Religious
Instruction, Brigham Young University, May, 1965, by Paul R. Cheesman, page 167)
This quote
should be noted, that it is found in Jn.1 and it speaks about the person of
Christ incarnating on earth. Not about translating a book through sticking ones
head in a dark hat and seeing words pass by on a stone.
Also in
Doctrines and Covenants 9:7-10 they were to "study it out in your
mind," and if the translation was correct, "your bosom shall
burn," otherwise "you shall have stupor of thought." Through the
experience of burning gave a testimony. Seducing Spirits bear witness to lies,
they work well through occult methods. To have a stupor of thought is not
beneficial in any manner, this means one is dependent on their feelings the
very thing that can deceive us.
Biblically,
What is the term "Urim and Thummim"?
It is mentioned seven times in the Old Testament (Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8;
Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65; Deuteronomy 33:8; Numbers 27:21; 1 Samuel 28:6 — in
the latter two passages "Urim" is used by
itself.). In these passages the Urim and Thummim are presented as a means of divine revelation, and
are frequently associated with the garments of the High Priest, the ephod and
breastplate. The Bible gives no description of the object(s) that constituted
the Urim and Thummim, nor
of the manner of their use.
Lev.
8:8-10 "Then he put the breastplate on him, and he put the Urim and the Thummim in the
breastplate.9And he put the turban on his head. Also on the turban, on its
front, he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the LORD had commanded
Moses.10Then Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all
that was in it, and consecrated them. This was uniquely tied to the tabernacle
notice he was also to have the breastplate. This was the emblem of the priests'
office. It was made to be worn on the chest of the high priest ONLY.
Exod 28:35-36
"And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound will be heard
when he goes into the holy place before the LORD and when he comes out, that he
may not die."You shall also make a plate of pure
gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE
LORD." This was for the priest to enter the tabernacle. Smith had no
tabernacle, since it was a temporary dwelling for
The Hebrew
meaning of Urim and Thummim,
means lights and perfections. It was a means by which God revealed His will to
men. So the Urim and the Thummim
was used for determining God's will. It had limited use in that it would ONLY
answer yes and no questions. The very word "light" shows in what way
it would answer. If the answer was yes, it would light up; if the answer was
no, it would not light up. Nowhere is this Tabernacle exclusive element used to
translate words but to inquire from the Lord on things that may not have been
written.
Mormons claim
that the servants of God who were allowed to use the Urim
and Thummim have been known as seers (Mosiah
Five examples
where the Urim and Thummim
are used in action are Joshua 7:14-18 (in determining Achan's
sin), I Samuel
It provided no
answer for Saul when he inquired of the Urim and the Thummim (I Samuel 28:6). Ezra 2:63. states that it was one
not in use in the second
It was used
exclusively for the tabernacle in the wilderness not in the temple .The Urim and Thummin are not found in
use after the time of David (about 1,000 BC.) This was used for the high priest
in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Since the tabernacle is gone and Jesus is
now the eternal high priest all this is inoperative for any preisthood.
Joseph Smith because of his lack of biblical understanding is promoting a lie.
As a high
priest which must come from the tribe of Levi ONLY (Smith claimed to come from
the tribe of Benjamin, again bible illiterate). He would be killed approaching
the tabernacle and certainly has no authority to use these elements.
The term "Urim and Thummin" is not
found in the Book of Mormon and was never used by Joseph Smith in referring to
produce the Book of Mormon until after the year1833. In its original form as
Chapter 9 of the 1833 Book of Commandments, the revelation makes no mention of
the Urim and Thummim. The
mention of the Urim and Thummim
in Doctrine and Covenants 10:1, dated "summer of 1828," was written
back into this revelation afterwards at a later date. It first appears in the
1835 edition of Doctrine and Covenants (commandments) 10:1, found in Section
36.
When Joseph
first announced the discovery of gold plates with strange engravings, he also
claimed there were special spectacles called "Interpreters" that were
with the plates. Joseph said these were to help in the translation process.
Joseph Smith
and others would refer to the seer stone both as "Interpreters" and
as the "Urim and Thummim."
Just because he called them this, does not mean they actually were that.
Considering all the stories and exaggerations of Smith we can rightly assume it
was not. How? Because of the testimonies of the witnesses.
David Whitmer one of the three witnesses gives testimony that the
entire Book of Mormon text came through Joseph's seer stone in a hat. This is
the same stone he used for buried treasure with his dad and was found guilty of
glass looking. This is what we can assume Joseph considered the Urim and thummim the same object
he used in his occult practices.
W.W. Phelps,
speculated that the ancient Nephite interpreters
mentioned in the Book of Mormon and by Joseph Smith might be the Urim and Thummim of the Old
Testament. Phelps wrote in the LDS publication The Evening and Morning Star
(Jan. 1833) that the Book of Mormon had been translated, "through the aid
of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles — (known perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim) W.W. Phelps, Evening and Morning Star, vol. 1, no.
8, p. 2)
"Martin
Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that
portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write
direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet
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, Martin explained the translation
as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by
the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say
"Written," and 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."( Edward Stevenson,
"One of the Three Witnesses," reprinted from Deseret
News, 30 Nov. 1881 in Millennial Star, 44 (Feb. 6, 1882): 86-87)
The dead speak
Mormonism from
its inception has been engrossed in trafficking with the dead. Spirits of the
dead visit Smith and others. This continues even today in their temple
ceremony. Joseph Smith said, "The greatest responsibility in this world
that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead" (Journal of
Discourses, Vol. 6, page 7).
The Mormon
Apostle Orson Hyde claimed that the words appeared on the Urim
and Thummim. He wrote a pamphlet in the German
language entitled, A Cry From the Wilderness, A Voice From the Dust of the
Earth. This pamphlet was translated into the English language by Justus
Ernst of the Church Historian's office, and is reproduced in a thesis by Paul
R. Cheesman. In this account the following appears:
Their
continuing occult connections is described by LeGrand
Richards, in his famous missionary book, A Marvelous Work and Wonder. He
describes the biblical prophesies fulfilled by the Book of Mormon. He uses
Isaiah 29:4 as the proof text of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon:
"And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low
out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as one that hath a familiar spirit,
out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust."
Richards
comments, "Now, obviously, the only way a dead people could speak
"out of the ground" or "out of the dust" would be by the
written word and this was done through the Book of Mormon. Truly, it has a
familiar spirit, for it contains the words of the prophets of the God of
This does not
help their case for Book of Mormon scholarship, the Hebrew word for
"familiar spirit" in Isaiah means necromancer, contacting the dead or
a spirit of witchcraft. There are 15 Old Testament references to familiar
spirits and all of them deal with witchcraft. The word for whisper here also
means "chirp or peep", in the same context. This practice is
forbidden in the bible but is claimed to be inspirational in the book of
Mormon.
Mormons who use
his words as evidence that the Book of Mormon has this same "familiar
spirit," are bearing witness to witchcraft, sorcery which God forbids. At
least the One God of the bible.
When
Joseph Smith "translated" Isaiah
The Bible
addresses this term elsewhere in Lev.19:31,20:6, 27 and Deut.18:9-12. Those
references obviously show that anyone or anything which has a familiar spirit
is an abomination before God. A person with a familiar spirit is a medium one
who is on friendly terms with demons. Isaiah uses the phrase identically in Is.
8:19 and 19:3, so it is clear he fully understands what a familiar spirit is.
The stone or
stones were used for many things in the church. In Deut. 18 it tells not to be
an enchanter or sorcerer. This is a familiar practice of using stones for
healing and seeing the future or communicating to what people think is God. The
Urim and thummim were not
used for man to communicate to God but God communicating to man, with a yes or
no answer. It was for
Hiram Page was
a early convert who left the Mormon Church in 1838, "Hiram Page Born in
Vermont 1800; baptized April 11, 1830; withdrew from the Church, 1838; died in
Ray Co., Missouri, August 12, 1852." (The Articles of Faith, James E. Talmage, page 503)
Page had a
vision in 1830 about the location of
"To our
great grief, however, we soon found that Satan had been lying in wait to
deceive, and seeking whom he might devour. Brother Hiram Page had in his
possession a certain stone, by which he had obtained certain revelations
concerning the upbuilding of
"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;" (also note the historical heading - Sept. 1830, Doctrine and
Covenants 28:11; History of the Church, 1:111) It seems only Joseph was allowed
to use this occult stone, had Hiram stayed with the Church they may not have
blamed Satan as the inspiration through the stone , but approved instead.
As there own
proclamation states, Mormonism, as it is called, must stand or fall on the
story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet of God, divinely called,
properly appointed and divinely commissioned, or he was one of the biggest
frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground, if Joseph Smith was
a deceiver, who willfully attempted to mislead the people, then he should be
exposed; his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false, for
the doctrines of an impostor cannot be made to harmonize in all truth. If his
claims and declarations were built upon fraud and deceit, there would appear
many errors and contradictions, which would be easy to detect. The doctrines of
false teachers will not stand the test when tried by the accepted standards of
measurement the scriptures." (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.1, page 188 by
Joseph Fielding Smith.)
After looking
at just a small portion of the evidence of how the plates were translated.
Since there is no Biblical validation for this. What is your judgment? Is it
the power of God or the power of the occult