The Gospel Topics Essays - my view

There has been a lot of discussion about my comments regarding the Gospel Topics Essays. My position is simple and clear.

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.

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I encourage people to read the essays partly because the introduction to those essays expresses my objection to the M2C/SITH citation cartel. 

The introduction to the 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."

Contrary to that guidance, the citation cartel (the Interpreter, Book of Mormon Central, FAIRLDS, Meridian Magazine, and all their followers) insist on "only one set of opinions" regarding M2C and SITH. 

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 Witnesses.

Book of Mormon Central is so adamant that only one set of opinions is permissible that they've embedded M2C right in their logo.

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.

If the intellectuals in the citation cartel heeded the guidance from the Gospel Topics Essays, there wouldn't be a citation cartel. 

They would be open to alternative "interpretations" of the scriptures, the teachings of the prophets, and authentic historical documents--including an interpretation that corroborates and supports those teachings, instead of M2C/SITH which expressly repudiate those teachings.

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To be clear, I agree with, embrace, and do not dispute, what Elder Ballard said about the essays being important. I encourage people to read and study the essays because they contain useful references to reliable sources. 

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. 

Nevertheless, some people (including my critics) refer to the essays as though they have been canonized. 

The introduction to the Gospel Topics Essays is here: 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng

The introduction also says, "The Church places great emphasis on knowledge and on the importance of being well informed about Church history, doctrine, and practices." 

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, "Good inspiration is based upon good information." 

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; both groups deprive people of good information through censorship and sophistry purely to promote their respective agendas.

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To repeat: the Gospel Topics Essays 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 reliable sources from the Joseph Smith Papers that have so far been omitted.

Review of Gospel Topics Entry on Book of Mormon Geography

Recently we looked at the Gospel Topics entry on Book of Mormon Geography.

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/06/rethinking-entry-on-book-of-mormon.html

Today we'll focus on one aspect of the entry in light of an article in the Interpreter on SITH. For those interested, I posted a peer review of that article here:

http://interpreterpeerreviews.blogspot.com/2020/06/seers-and-stones-peer-review.html
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One of the most delightful examples of M2C Groupthink is the Gospel Topics entry on Book of Mormon Geography. I bring this up because the Interpreter article about SITH that I peer reviewed includes a fascinating twist on Joseph Smith as editor of the Times and Seasons.

Here's what the Gospel Topics entry says:

The Prophet Joseph Smith himself accepted what he felt was evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in both North America and Central America. 

[This is a clever rhetorical sentence. It makes specific factual claims about what Joseph thought, and then diminished his credibility by framing that evidence as merely what he "felt." The sentence is designed to establish skepticism about what follows next. 

When we look at the evidence cited to support the two claims, we see that they are actually quite different in terms of credibility and reliability, although the Gospel Topics entry treats them as equivalent. Notice also that the entry makes a distinction between "North" and "Central" America.] 

Here is the evidence cited regarding North America.

While traveling with Zion’s Camp in 1834, Joseph wrote to his wife Emma that they were “wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls and their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity.”1 

[By any standard, this is direct evidence of what Joseph thought, in his own words. It is a statement of fact; there is no hint that he merely "felt" these mounds were evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations. Instead, Joseph personally declared the mounds and bones in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were "proof of its divine authenticity." He does not equivocate or speculate. Words cannot be more unambiguous than this.]

Here is the evidence cited regarding Central America.

In 1842, the Church newspaper Times and Seasons published articles under Joseph Smith’s editorship that identified the ruins of ancient native civilizations in Mexico and Central America as further evidence of the Book of Mormon’s historicity.2

[By any standard, this is not direct evidence of what Joseph thought. The entry engages in mind-reading when it states, as fact, that "Joseph Smith himself accepted what he felt was evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in... Central America." 

Worse, this mind-reading is based on compound questionable assumptions: first, that Joseph was the actual acting editor, and not merely the nominal editor, and second, that as "editor" he allowed material in the Times and Seasons only if he personally agreed with it. Both of those assumptions are too tenuous to support the factual claim that he "accepted" what he "felt" was evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in Central America.  

An accurate statement in the Gospel Topics entry would be something such as this: The Prophet Joseph Smith himself identified evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in the Midwestern United States, and may have approved speculation about additional evidence in Central America.]

We can see from the equivalence given to these two substantially different pieces of evidence that the author(s) of the Gospel Topics entry had an agenda to read Central America into Joseph's mind. To do so, the entry assigned great weight to the mere assumptions that (i) Joseph was an active editor who (ii) only allowed material to be published if he personally agreed with it.

I bring this up because in the Interpreter article, we see a different agenda--the establishment of SITH (the stone-in-the-hat theory of translation).

One obstacle to SITH (and to M2C) is the Wentworth letter, which was published as "Church History" in the March 1, 1842, Times and Seasons above Joseph's signature.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2

In the Wentworth letter, Joseph specifically claims that "Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God." Obviously, that's a problem for those who claim Joseph didn't use the Urim and Thummim. As we noted before, the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation handled this obstacle by simply omitting this passage, an astonishing feat of censorship in an essay that purportedly informs the Saints about the translation.

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/06/review-of-gospel-topics-essay-on.html

The author of  the Interpreter article used a different strategy to evade the problem of the Wentworth letter. The article questions Joseph's ownership not only of material published under his "editorship" but of this specific well-known article he separately signed and republished later. Look at what the article says:

First, the description of the stones as transparent in the Wentworth Letter may have not been intended by Joseph Smith... Although the Wentworth letter is printed over his name, it is unclear how involved he was in its composition and how much control he exerted over the text. p. 56

Central American ruins = Book of Mormon	Wentworth letter on Urim and Thummim
Joseph Smith was a hands-on editor who controlled and personally approved of everything published in the Times and Seasons, including anonymous editorials.	Joseph Smith didn’t even control the contents of the Wentworth letter, which he signed separately when it was published in the Times and Seasons that contained the boilerplate naming him as editor, printer and publisher.

This form of "situational responsibility" assigns credibility and authorship based not on extrinsic evidentiary factors, but on the degree of agreement with the respective authors' views.

We see a lot of that in the work of the M2C and SITH citation cartels. Just look at all the credibility assigned to Emma Smith's "Last Testimony" and David Whitmer's pamphlet, "An Address to All Believers in Christ."

In those two examples, our SITH promoters assign credibility to different parts of the same documents based on whether they agree or disagree with the different parts.

The end result is our beloved Ensign referring readers to David Whitmer's pamphlet that claims Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet who changed early revelations, never received any Priesthood from angelic messengers, etc.

We discussed that here:

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/01/january-2020-ensign.html

In my view, it makes more sense to teach the Saints and the world what the prophets have taught.

Book of Mormon Translation

The Gospel Topics Essay on the translation is located here: https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng

I think it's very well written and annotated, and it is effective from the perspective of believers. However, the essay omits some key historical facts that members should know about, as I explain below.

More importantly, the essay does not prepare youth, missionaries, or members generally, not to mention investigators, for commonly encountered challenges to the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. One such challenge is The Late War, a book about the War of 1812 written in a pseudo-Biblical style. Because it was published before the Book of Mormon, some critics claimed Joseph Smith copied The Late War. Additional challenges include the claim that others, such as Sidney Rigdon, wrote the Book of Mormon for Joseph Smith, that Joseph copied from books by Ethan Smith or Solomon Spaulding, etc.

Because the essay does not address these challenges, those with questions have to resort to such unofficial websites as FairMormon and Book of Mormon Central, both of which reject the Church's position of neutrality about Book of Mormon historicity and geography in favor of promoting the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory (M2C). Because the foundation of M2C is the claim that the LDS prophets are all wrong about the New York Cumorah, I think it is unwise for faithful Church members to rely on those sites.

A better approach would be to fortify the Gospel Topics Essays, such as I suggest here. These essays are written by and cite scholars and experts in various field. Although they are approved by Church leaders, the essays are anonymous and are not scripture or doctrine, so they can be changed as appropriate.
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The original text is in blue. My comments are in red.

Wilford Woodruff summed up a day's teaching by Joseph Smith about the Book of Mormon by recording that it was “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.”1 The Book of Mormon came into the world through a series of miraculous events. 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.

“By the Gift and Power of God”

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 "gave a general account of the promises made to the fathers, and also gave a history of the aborigenes of this country."2 He informed Joseph that “this history was written and deposited not far from that place [Joseph's home], 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." This was no ordinary history, for it contained “the fullness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior.”3

The angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in which it was written. 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.”4 Joseph’s wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.”5

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. 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.6

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. His chief scribe during these months was Oliver Cowdery, 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. Of his experience as scribe, Cowdery wrote, “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven.”7

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.8 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.9 Joseph did not dictate punctuation, a modern invention not found in ancient languages. 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.10

Some critics claim Joseph copied or plagiarized the Bible or other books published before the Book of Mormon. The ancient authors specifically explained they were quoting from ancient records that contained portions of the Old Testament. When the Savior visited the ancient people in America, he related teachings similar to those he gave to the people in Israel during his ministry. 

Allusions and phrases from the New Testament are found throughout the text, as well as terms and phrases found in non-Biblical sources that Joseph would likely have been familiar with before he began the translation. 10a These naturally contributed to his dialect and manner of speech, and he would draw on his own knowledge of English to render the text as any translator would. The Lord explained that he spoke to Joseph and others after the manner of their own language. 10b

Unlike most dictated drafts, the original manuscript was considered by Joseph Smith to be, in substance, a final product. 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.11 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.12

Translation Instruments

Many accounts in the Bible show that God transmitted revelations to His prophets in a variety of ways. Elijah learned that God spoke not to him through the wind or fire or earthquake but through a “still small voice.”13 Paul and other early apostles sometimes communicated with angels and, on occasion, with the Lord Jesus Christ.14 At other times, revelation came in the form of dreams or visions, such as the revelation to Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, or through sacred objects like the Urim and Thummim.15

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.

Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English. 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.16 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.”17

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.”18 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.19 As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.20

Apparently for convenience, Joseph often translated with the single seer stone rather than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. 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.21 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.22 Latter-day Saints later understood the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer exclusively to the interpreters. 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.

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 rod of Aaron, a brass serpent, holy anointing oils, the Ark of the Covenant, and even dirt from the ground mixed with saliva to heal the eyes of a blind man.23

The Mechanics of Translation

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.” 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”24 and once added, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon," although this statement may have referred to particulars other than the translation since people present at that meeting felt free to discuss the particulars of the translation.”25

Some of the scribes and others who observed the translation left numerous accounts that give insight into the process. 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. According to some of these accounts, such as Oliver Cowdery and Joseph's mother Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph used the Nephite interpreters to look on the engravings on the plates. The English words would appear so he could read them out loud. Other sources said that 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.26 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.”27

The scribes who assisted with the translation unquestionably believed that Joseph translated by divine power. Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she “frequently wrote day after day” at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.”28 According to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth,” although not necessarily during the translation itself. Her statement suggests that much of the time, Joseph did conceal the plates. 

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.” 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.”29

Another scribe, Martin Harris 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.” 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.”30

Joseph's mother Lucy Mack Smith explained that Joseph would apply the Urim and Thummim to his eyes and look on the plates. Usually the words of the translation would be given to him, but sometimes instead he would receive a revelation, such as the Lord's instructions to contact David Whitmer to come to Harmony to pick up Joseph and Oliver and take them to Fayette. It is possible that Joseph received other revelations in the same manner, such as D&C 9 and 10. 

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.”31 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.”32

Conclusion

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.”33 The translation of the Book of Mormon was truly marvelous.

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.”34

Resources

1. Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 28, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
2. On the identity of the angel, see Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, vol. 1 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers,edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 223 n 56. See Oliver Cowdery, Letter IV, Joseph Smith Papers, History, 1834-1836, pp. 64-5. http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68 
3. Davidson et al., Joseph Smith Histories, 223; punctuation regularized; Joseph Smith, “Church History,” Times and Seasons 3 (March 1, 1842): 706–7. See also Joseph Smith—History 1:33–34.
4. Mormon 9:32. See also 1 Nephi 1:2.
5. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 290.
6. 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., Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, vol. 1 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 252–3; available at josephsmithpapers.org; Doctrine and Covenants 3:5–15.
7. Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16; Oliver Cowdery to William W. Phelps, Sept. 7, 1834, in Messenger and Advocate 1 (Oct. 1834): 14; italics in original. These letters were republished several times during Joseph's lifetime, and were copied into his personal history. See Joseph Smith-History, footnote, in the Pearl of Great Price, and "Letter I," Joseph Smith Papers, History, 1834-1836, p. 47 http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/49 
8. 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 The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text, 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 The Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typological Facsimile of the Entire Text in Two Parts, 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 The Joseph Smith Papers. (Dean C. Jessee, “The Original Book of Mormon Manuscript,” BYU Studies 10, no. 3 [Spring 1970]: 261–72; Royal Skousen, “Piecing Together the Original Manuscript,” BYU Today 46, no. 3 [May 1992]: 18–24.)
9. For example, when Joseph translated the text that is now in 1 Nephi 13:29, the scribe wrote “&” in one place where he should have written “an.” At 1 Nephi 17:48, 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., Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins [Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997], 67; see also Grant Hardy, “Introduction,” in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, ed. Royal Skousen [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009], xv–xix.)
10. John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon” and “Names of People: Book of Mormon,” in Geoffrey Kahn, ed., Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (Brill Online, 2013); M. Deloy Pack, “Hebraisms,” in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, 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., Rediscovering the Book of Mormon(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., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 155–89.

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    10a. Among these non-Biblical sources could be books written in the so-called "Ancient Historical Style" that sought to emulate Biblical language. Such books include The Late War and The First Book of Napoleon. While these books contain words and phrases also found in the Book of Mormon, detailed analysis shows significant differences between their syntax and the syntax used in the Book of Mormon, disproving the claim of plagiarism or copying. Evidence from Joseph Smith's revelations, both before and after he translated the plates, shows that he dictated the text in his own dialect. Evidence from his mother's dictated history also indicates that many of Joseph's unique speech patterns likely originated with his parents and siblings. 10b. D&C 1:24 Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.
11. 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., The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 383–405.
12. 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, How We Got the Book of Mormon (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 The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, xxx.)
13. 1 Kings 19:11–12.
14. Acts 9:1–8; 12:7–9.
15. Acts 11:4–17; 16:9–10; Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 21:9.
16. 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), xxix.
17. Mosiah 28:14–15, 20; see also Mosiah 8:13, 19; and Ether 4:5. 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 reada writing engraven upon the plates, though to himself, in a tongue unknown” (Nancy Towle, Vicissitudes Illustrated in the Experience of Nancy Towle, in Europe and America [Charleston: James L. Burges, 1832], 138–39.) Joseph’s 1832 history referred to “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16.) In January 1833, the Latter-day Saint newspaper The Evening and the Morning Star, 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,” The Evening and the Morning Star, 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 Journals: Volume 1: 1832–1839, 89; Joseph Smith, History, 1834–1836, in Davidson et al., Histories, Volume 1, 116; John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in John W. Welch, ed., with Erick B. Carlson, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 [Provo, UT, and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2005], 123–28.)
18. 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, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984], 69–70.)
19. According to Martin Harris, an angel commanded Joseph Smith to stop these activities, which he did by 1826. (See Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, 64–76; and Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” BYU Studies 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 Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 43, available at josephsmithpapers.org.) For the broader cultural context, see Alan Taylor, “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830,” American Quarterly 38, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 6–33.
20. 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).
21. 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 Doctrine and Covenants 130:10.
22. Cornelius Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 9–26.
23. Exodus 7:9–12; 30:25; 40:9; Leviticus 8:10–12; Numbers 21:9; Joshua 3:6–8; John 9:6.
24. Preface to the Book of Mormon, 1830 edition.
25. Minutes, Church conference, Orange, OH, Oct. 25–26, 1831, in Minute Book 2, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, available at josephsmithpapers.org; Welch, “Miraculous Translation,”,121–9. Particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon may have included the details about the two sets of plates and Mormon's depository of Nephite records in the Hill Cumorah, since the early Brethren were concerned about treasure hunters digging up the depository. Brigham Young explained that Oliver never talked about these things in meetings, but only privately. Yet Oliver did publicly discuss the translation process itself. David Whitmer also discussed the translation process, but never discussed the plates and depository except to explain that they were no longer in the hill Cumorah, but they were not far from there. 
26. 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 Ensign and in The Joseph Smith Papers. (See Neal A. Maxwell, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Jan. 1997, 36–41; Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign,July 1993, 61–63; Richard Lloyd Anderson, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Sept. 1977, 78–85; and Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831,xxix–xxxii.)
27. Alma 37:23–24.
28. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 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,” Palmyra Freeman, 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,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 2 [Spring 2011]: 143.)
29. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289–90. It is unclear when Emma would have done this. Had she served as scribe so frequently, it's unclear why Joseph needed the assistance first of Martin Harris and later of Oliver Cowdery. Other statements in her 1879 Last Testimony include Emma's denial of the revelations on plural marriage, leaving us to speculate about how much of her testimony was factual and how much was influenced by other considerations. 
30. “One of the Three Witnesses,” Deseret Evening News, Dec. 13, 1881, 4. Here Martin Harris uses the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the interpreters found with the plates.
31. A. W. B., “Mormonites,” Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate 2 (Apr. 19, 1831): 120.
32. Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar,” 143. For additional accounts of translation by one of the Three Witnesses, see David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness, ed. Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1991).
33. Joseph Smith History, ca. Summer 1832, 1, in Histories, Volume 1, 1832–1844,10; available at josephsmithpapers.org. Spelling modernized.
34. Moroni 10:3–5.

The Church acknowledges the contribution of scholars to the historical content presented in this article; their work is used with permission.

Originally published December 2013.

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