The Scribes' Description
Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 3:47 am
In the July '93 Ensign, Russell M Nelson wrote:As Oliver Cowdery testified a few years later: “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 … the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’ ” (Joseph Smith—H 1:71n.)
The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights. David Whitmer wrote:
“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 at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.” (David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Mo.: n.p., 1887, p. 12.)
Martin Harris said that the seer stone Smith possessed was a "chocolate-colored, somewhat egg-shaped stone which the Prophet found while digging a well in company with his brother Hyrum." Harris explained that it was by using this stone that "Joseph was able to translate the characters engraven on the plates" (Comprehensive History of the Church (CHC) 1:129).
Robert N. Hullinger, in his book: Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism, cites a personal interview Emma Smith-Bidamon gave to a committee of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1879. He notes on pages 9-10: 'Smith's wife Emma supported Harris's and Whitmer's versions of the story in recalling that her husband buried his face in his hat while she was serving as his scribe.' Specifically, Emma is quoted as telling 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... .'", pp 98-99, Vogel's The Word of God
A New Witness for Christ in America, Francis Kirkham, 2:417 wrote:JSJr's brother, William Smith: "The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God".
I am aware of no eyewitness, contemporary accounts that describe any other mechanics by which this 'translation' process took place. I am aware of no such accounts that indicate JSJr was looking directly at the gold plates when he spoke what his scribes took down as the English translation of any Book of Mormon text. The only such accounts of which I am aware that describe the mechanics, describe JSJr staring, face down in the crown of a hat, at a rock and the English text appearing above the rock. (If any TBM/defender can point me to any historical record that gives a description of any other translation specifics, please do. I look forward to any such citations anyone might provide.)
The LDS Church has long been embarrassed by this, instead preferring to perpetuate the myth (for which their is no eyewitness, contemporary account) that JSJr translated the gold plates by looking at them. So much so, that many life-long Mormons put Daniel C Peterson down when PBS aired the interview in which Peterson said that "most of the translation was done using something called a seer stone. The seer stone is obviously something like the Urim and Thummim. It seems to be a stone that was found in the vicinity, and I can't say exactly how it would have worked. It may have been a kind of a concentrating device or a device to facilitate concentration. He would put the stone for most of the concentration period in the bottom of a hat, presumably to exclude surrounding light. Then he would put his face into the hat."
It is South Park and not the LDS Church that has brought to the public's awareness an illustration of the only mechanics that any contemporary witness attested to having been used in the translation. Even in the October 2011 Ensign, there is an article that goes into detail about the translation of the Book of Mormon, but does not own up to the only method mentioned in contemporary accounts given by eyewitnesses, the only method for which there is historical evidence.
Not only does the face in the hat, looking at a rock method seem hokey, but these mechanics tie JSJr closely to his roots as a glass-looker for hire, for which he was brought up on criminal misdemeanor charges in 1826. The historically-based South Park depiction is like a gateway for those that might look, into one of the most embarrassing chapters in early Mormon history.
Can you imagine one of the missionary discussions beginning like this...
Our church was founded by JSJr. When he was 14, he prayed earnestly and God and his son Jesus appeared to JSJr. About 6 years after this, JSJr had started to refine his spiritual skills, using a brownish stone he found while digging a well. He used this stone to seek hidden treasures, but that didn't work out. In fact, he was brought up on criminal charges in 1826, a hearing with witnesses was held, and the sheriff sent out to serve subpoenas, but there is no record of a trial, conviction and sentencing (or acquittal)--so that really doesn't matter, does it, Mr Brown?
Three years after that, JSJr used that same rock to translate new scriptures that God has sent to us, because he loves us. JSJr was given gold plates, with a record of God's people here in the Americas and the resurrected Jesus appearing and ministering to them after he left Jerusalem. JSJr put that same rock in the crown of an upside down hat, then put his face down in that crown of the hat, English would appear above the rock and JSJr would dictate this sacred record.
Mr Brown, I have a testimony that God was involved in having JSJr look at the rock in the upside down hat, so we would know about the God-fearing people here in the Americas. How does that make you feel? Do you believe this too?
It's obvious how damning the face-in-the-hat method is for Mormons. They keep it pretty well under wraps, with only the rare mention, while the correlated teaching manuals and artists' depictions of the translation process predominantly continue to show a method that does not have historical basis. A method that does not include a rock or a hat, a method that keeps JSJr's treasure seeking past buried.
The inclusions of long passages from the Bible, such as Isaiah, being identically reiterated or virtually identical reiterated in the Book of Mormon suggests very strongly that JSJr was dictating those very passages from the Bible to his scribes working on the Book of Mormon translation. But there is no mention by any of these contemporary eye-witnesses of JSJr reading from the Bible when dictating the Book of Mormon. So it seems that these eyewitness's descriptions of the Book of Mormon translation process are only partial, opening the door for defenders to claim that the rock-in-the-hat method was obviously not the only method used.
However, the defenders can't go there. It is an argument premised on JSJr merely 'cutting-and-pasting' parts of Isaiah and the Gospels from the Bible into the Book of Mormon, and the defenders do not want to admit that.