Joseph Smith/Translator

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Joseph Smith as a translator

Summary: It is claimed that Joseph Smith claimed to translate other texts or items, which can be checked against modern academic translations. They claim that this "cross-checking" proves that Joseph could not have translated the Book of Mormon or other ancient texts.

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• The "Urim and Thummim" used by Joseph Smith to translate the "gold plates"
• Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook plates
• Third party translation claims

The "Urim and Thummim" used by Joseph Smith to translate the "gold plates"

Jump to details:

• Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?
• Question: What are the Nephite interpreters?
• Question: Did Joseph Smith use his own seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon?
• Question: Has the Church tried to hide Joseph's use of a seer stone?
• Gospel Topics: "Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat"
• Question: Did Joseph ever place the Nephite interpreters ("Urim and Thummim") into his hat?
• Gospel Topics: "Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term 'Urim and Thummim' to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters"
• Ensign (Jan. 2013): "He...referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim...He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed"
• W.W. Phelps (1833): "through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles—(known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)"
• Question: Which method of translation was more "believable": seer stone or Nephite interpreters?
• Question: What does the Church teach investigators and members regarding the method by which the Book of Mormon was produced?

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Source(s) of the criticism

• MormonThink.com website (as of 28 April 2012). Page: http://mormonthink.com/joseph-smith-polygamy.htm
• George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy: "...but we called it celestial marriage" (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008), 3. ( Index of claims , (Detailed book review))

Third party translation claims

Summary: Joseph Smith is claimed by others to have translated certain documents for which an actual translation was never produced. Joseph Smith is claimed to have not been given the right to have any other prophetic gift beyond translating the Book of Mormon.

Jump to details:

• Question: Did Joseph Smith misidentify a Greek "psalter" as a containing "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphics?
• Question: Was Joseph Smith’s only mission to bring forth the Book of Mormon?