mentalgymnast wrote:Could you be a bit more specific? I'm totally open to having it pointed out to me where I may not be aligned with the first hand accounts given by Joseph's contemporaries. What they actually saw.
We don't know what they "actually saw" because we weren't there.
“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.)
With the sanction of David Whitmer, and by his authority, I now state that he does not say that Joseph Smith ever translated in his presence by aid of Urim and Thummim, but by means of one dark colored, opaque stone called a ‘Seer Stone,’ which was placed in the crown of a hat, into which Joseph would put his face, so as to exclude the external light. Then, a spiritual light would shine forth, and parchment would appear before Joseph, upon which was a line of characters from the plates, and under it, the translation in English; at least, so Joseph said. (High Priest Martin Harris, The Saints' Herald, Vol. 26, No. 22, November 15, 1879, p. 341, Col. 3.)
‘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 (Emma Smith)
The point is that none of these situations allow for Joseph to then bring other sources into the Book of Mormon and yet he did.
So what we're trying to be clear on is that the evidence we have does not allow for a loose translation, but a loose translation is needed to give the Book of Mormon even the more remote possibility of being a true document from God.
Yet there is nothing that we have from those involved in the process to indicate that Joseph Smith was allowed to expand on the text or use outside sources even thought we know that he did.
So either everyone involved was lying or Joseph was deceiving them. The evidence pretty strongly points to the latter.
