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Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Translating
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Reputed location of the plates during translation |
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An analysis of the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" (Version December 10, 2009)
Translating the plates
Joseph Smith said that the plates were engraved in an unknown language, and Smith told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them. This translation took place mainly in Harmony, Pennsylvania (now Oakland Township), Emma's hometown, where Smith and his wife had moved in October 1827 with financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris.[1] The translation occurred in two phases: the first, from December 1827 to June 1828, during which Smith transcribed some of the characters and then dictated 116 manuscript pages to Harris, which were lost. The second phase began sporadically in early 1829 and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher who volunteered to serve as Smith's full-time scribe. In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York, completing the translation early the following month.
Smith used scribes to write the words he said were a translation of the golden plates, dictating these words while peering into seer stones, which he said allowed him to see the translation. Smith said that he translated using what he called the "Urim and Thummim"—a set of large spectacles with stones where the eye-pieces should be.[2] There is no eye-witness testimony that Smith ever wore the large spectacles, although some witnesses suggest he placed them in his hat while translating.[3] Witnesses did observe Smith using a single seer stone (not part of a set of spectacles) in the translation,[4] and some said that this stone was one of those Smith had earlier used for treasure seeking.[5] Smith placed the stone (or the spectacles) in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation.[6] A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked.[7] Sometimes Smith dictated to Martin Harris from upstairs or from a different room.[8]
Smith's "translation" did not require his understanding of the source text. As he looked into the seer stone, Smith said that the words of the ancient script appeared to him in English. His dictations were then written down by a number of assistants including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and notably, Oliver Cowdery.[9] In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 un-duplicated manuscript pages to Martin Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply re-translate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again."[10] According to Grant Palmer, Smith believed "a second transcription would be identical to the first. This confirms the view that the English text existed in some kind of unalterable, spiritual form rather than that someone had to think through difficult conceptual issues and idioms, always resulting in variants in any translation."[11]
- ↑ The local Presbyterian minister, Jesse Townsend, described Harris as a "visionary fanatic". A acquaintance, Lorenzo Saunders, said, "There can't anybody say word against Martin Harris...a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But he was a great man for seeing spooks." Walker (1986) , p. 35.
- ↑ Smith (Mulholland) , p. 5. Early followers of Smith used the term Urim and Thummim to refer both to these large spectacles and Smith's other seer stones, most notably one commonly called the "Chase stone" that Smith had found in a Palmyra well during the early 1820sWagoner (1982) , pp. 59–62.
- ↑ Martin Harris, one of Smith's scribes, is reported to have said that the spectacles were made for a giant, and would not have been wearable by Joseph Smith Anton (1834) . David Whitmer, another scribe, also said that the spectacles were larger than normal spectacles, and indicated that Smith placed them in his hat while translating, rather than wearing them Whitmer (1875) . However, a man who interviewed Smith's father in 1830 said that Smith did at least some of the translation while wearing the spectacles Lapham (1870) .
- ↑ Hale (1834) , p. 265; Smith (1879) , pp. 536-40; Wagoner (1982) , pp. 59–62 (containing an overview of witnesses to the translation process).
- ↑ Smith's father-in-law, Isaac Hale, said that 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!" Hale (1834) , p. 265.
- ↑ Whitmer (1875) ("Having placed the Urim and Thummim in his hat, Joseph placed the hat over his face, and with prophetic eyes read the invisible symbols syllable by syllable and word by word."). Michael Morse, Smith's brother-in-law, stating that he watched Smith on several occasions: "The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face." (Wagoner (1982) , quoting W.W. Blair, Latter Day Saints' Herald 26 (15 Nov. 1879): 341, who was quoting Michael Morse). Smith's wife Emma stated that she took dictation from her husband as she sat next to him, and that he would put his face into a hat with the stone in it, dictating for hours at a time. Smith (1879) , pp. 536-40.
- ↑ Cook (1991) , p. 173. However, Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, later to be the wife of scribe Oliver Cowdery, said she had never seen a curtain raised between Smith and Cowdery or her brothers while translation took place in the Whitmer home Wagoner (1982) , p. 51.
- ↑ Howe (1834) , p. 14.
- ↑ Clark (1842) ("Although in the same room, a thick curtain or blanket was suspended between them, and Smith concealed behind the blanket, pretended to look through his spectacles, or transparent stones, and would then write down or repeat what he saw, which when repeated aloud, was written down by Harris."); Benton (1831) ("Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the book, testified under oath, that said Smith...translated his book [with] 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.").
- ↑ Phelps (1833) , p. 24.
- ↑ Palmer (2002) , p. 7.