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According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th-century literature, the golden bible)Use of the terms golden bible and gold bible by both believers and non-believers dates from the late 1820s. See (use of the term gold bible by Martin Harris in 1827); (use of the term gold Bible in 1827–29 by believing Palmyra neighbors); (stating that by 1829 the plates were "generally known and spoken of as the 'Golden Bible). Use of those terms has been rare since the 1830s. are the source from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith. Some accounts from people who reported handling the plates describe the plates as weighing from ,. Vogel estimates that solid gold plates of the same dimensions would weigh about . gold in color, and composed of thin metallic pages engraved with hieroglyphics on both sides and bound with three D-shaped rings.
Smith said that he found the plates on September 22, 1823, on Cumorah near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. He said that the angel prevented him from taking the plates but instructed him to return to the same location in a year. He returned to that site every year, but it was not until September 22, 1827, that he recovered the plates on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve them. He returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. He allowed others to heft the box but said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language.
Smith dictated the text of the plates while a scribe wrote down the words which would later become the Book of Mormon. Eyewitnesses to the process said Smith translated the plates, not by looking directly at them, but by looking through a transparent seer stone in the bottom of his hat.; ; (citing numerous witnesses of the translation process); (describing similar methods for both the two-stone Urim and Thummim and the chocolate-colored seer stone). Smith's use of a single stone is well documented , although Smith said that his earliest translation used a set of stone spectacles called the Urim and Thummim which he found with the plates . Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, was the only known witness of the Urim and Thummim, which she said she had observed when covered by a thin cloth . Smith published the first edition of the translation in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon, with a print run of 5,000 copies at a production cost of $3,000 (or 60 cents per book).
Smith obtained testimonies from 11 men who said that they had seen the plates, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses.Critics question whether Martin Harris physically saw the plates. Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement. He "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience." Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2: 255. The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like." Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867) p. 71 in EMD, 3: 122. John H. Gilbert was the typesetter for most of the book, and he said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye. John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in EMD, 2: 548. Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes." Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in EMD, 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in EMD, 3: 22. In 1838, Harris told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination." Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in EMD, 2: 291. A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen the with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision." Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in EMD, 2: 385. After the translation was complete, Smith said that he returned the plates to the angel Moroni; thus, they could not be re-examined. Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, while critics often assert that Smith manufactured them himself. "His remark that a plate was not quite as thick as common tin may have been meant to divert attention from the possibility that they were actually made from some material otherwise readily available to him. Indeed, his prohibition against visual inspection seems contrived to the skeptic who might explain that the would-be prophet constructed a set of plates to be felt through a cloth."
The Book of Mormon itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian prophet-historians from around the year AD 400: Mormon and his son Moroni.See , which outlines the main arguments for and against Book of Mormon authenticity. Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates. Their script, according to the book, was described as "reformed Egyptian", a language unknown to linguists or Egyptology. Standard language treatises contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian", including ; ; and . "Reformed Egyptian" is also not discussed in , although it is mentioned in . Scholarly reference works on languages do not acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or "reformed Egyptian" script as it has been described in Mormon belief, and there is no archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in ancient America. Historically, Latter Day Saint movement denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate, and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the plates.Book of Mormon (LDS edition), Introduction expressing the LDS view that the Book of Mormon "is a record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas", and that the book is a translation of the golden plates "into the English language". The Community of Christ, however, accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture but no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates.W. Grant McMurray|McMurray, W. Grant, "They 'Shall Blossom as the Rose': Native Americans and the Dream of Zion," an address delivered February 17, 2001, accessed September 1, 2006 Some adherents accept the Book of Mormon as inspired scripture but do not believe that it is a literal translation of a physical historical record, even in the more theologically conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Non-Mormons and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates. For example, it has been theorized that the plates were fashioned by Smith or one of his associates, that Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions or hypnosis, or that witnesses were having ecstatic visions.
The best-known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838 and incorporated into the official church histories of some Latter Day Saint movement denominations.; (official history of the LDS Church); History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, vol. 1, ch. 1–2 (official history of the Community of Christ). The LDS Church has Biblical canon part of this 1838 account as part of its religious text, the Pearl of Great Price.
According to Richard Bushman, Smith did not consider himself to be a "peeper" or crystal gazing, a practice he is said to have called "nonsense", despite his use of seer stones.. Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as .. Lucy Mack Smith later remembered that the family did not abandon its labor "to win the faculty of Abrac, drawing magic circles, or sooth saying to the neglect of all kinds of business. We never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation but whilst we worked with our hands we endeavored to remember the service of & the welfare of our souls." Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves, denied their presumed power to find treasure, or ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised. Smith "never repudiated the stones or denied their power to find treasure. Remnants of the magical culture stayed with him to the end;" Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition, University of Illinois Press, p. 11. He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a "seer".. Smith's first stone, apparently the same one that he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of a chicken egg,. Roberts was at the time the official historian of the LDS Church. found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors.; . The stone was found in either 1819 ( ) or 1822 . The LDS Church released photographs of the stone on August 4, 2015.Joseph Fielding Smith (an apostle of the LDS Church): "The statement has been made that the Urim and Thummim was on the altar in the Manti Temple when that building was dedicated. The Urim and Thummim so spoken of, however, was the seer stone which was in the possession of the Prophet Joseph Smith in early days. This seer stone is currently in the possession of the Church." ( Doctrines of Salvation 3: 225).
In the morning, Smith began work as usual and did not mention the visions to his father because, he said, he did not think his father would believe him.; (stating that Smith told the angel during the fourth visit that he was afraid his Father would not believe him). Smith said he then fainted because he had been awake all night, and while unconscious, the angel appeared a fourth time and chastised him for failing to tell the visions to his father.; . When Smith then told all to his father, he believed his son and encouraged him to obey the angel's commands.; . Smith's brother William, who was 11 at the time, said he also told the rest of his family that day prior to visiting the hill , but he may have been remembering Smith tell the story the night after he visited the hill, according to their mother's recollection . Smith's sister Katharine said that Joseph told his father and the two oldest brothers Alvin and Hyrum Smith the morning before visiting the hill, but Katharine was too young (10 years old) to understand what they were talking about . Smith then set off to visit the hill, later stating that he used his seer stone to locate the place that the plates were buried (statement by Henry Harris, a non-Mormon Palmyra resident); (statement by Martin Harris, a Latter Day Saint who became one of the Three Witnesses of the golden plates). According to one hearer of the account, Smith used the seer stone to follow a sequence of landmarks by horse and on foot until he arrived at the place that the plates were buried.. but that he "knew the place the instant that he arrived there.".
Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone (or possibly iron).Most accounts, including those written by Smith, say the plates were found in a stone box (; ; , calling it a "stone casket," and stating that Smith had to dig down for the box "two and a half or three feet"); according to two non-believing witnesses, however, Smith said they were buried in an iron box (; ). Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover and prying it up with a lever, Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts.. According to various accounts, the artifacts may have included a breastplate (; ; , saying it was the "breast-plate of Laban"), a set of large spectacles made of seer stones (; ; ), the Liahona, the sword of Laban (; ), the brass plates of Laban , the vessel in which the gold was melted, a rolling machine for gold plates, and three balls of gold as large as a fist .
Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" sic.. Concluding that it was not, he said he prayed to ask why he had been barred from taking the plates.; (saying Smith exclaimed, "why Cant I stur this Book?"); (saying that Smith exclaimed, without premeditation, "Why can I not obtain this book?"); (saying Smith asked, "Lord, what have I done, that I can not get these records?")
In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary and saught the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have an eye single to the Glory of God" sic.; (saying the angel said "you cant have it now," to which Smith responded, "when can I have it?" and the angel said "the 22nt Day of September next if you Bring the right person with you".); (stating that although Smith "supposed his success certain," his failure to keep the "commandments" led to his inability to obtain them). In Smith's 1838 account he said the angel had already told him that he would not receive the plates for another four years . Smith's brother, who was 11 at the time, said "upon his return he told us that in consequence of his not obeying strictly the commandments which the angel had given him, he could not obtain the record until four years from that time" . Smith's sister Katharine (who was 10 at the time) said that Moroni told Smith, "You have not obeyed the commandments as you were commanded to; you must obey His commandments in every particular. You were not to lay them out of your hands until you had them in safe keeping" . According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands,"; . and according to a nonbeliever, Smith said, "I had forgotten to give thanks to God," as required by the angel. (statement of Orson Saunders, who heard the account from his uncle Benjamin Saunders, who heard it from Smith in 1827).
Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the "right person": his older brother Alvin. (account of Joseph Knight Sr., a lifelong follower of Smith); (account of Fayette Lapham, who became a skeptic after hearing the story from Smith's father in 1830); (account of Smith's sister Katharine). Alvin had died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do.. (account of Smith's mother). About the time of the scheduled September 22, 1824, meeting with the angel that Alvin was to attend, there were rumors in Palmyra that Alvin's body had been dug up and dissected. To quell such rumors, Smith's father brought witnesses to exhume the body three days after Smith's reported meeting with the angel (September 25) and then ran a notice in a local newspaper, stating that the body remained undisturbed, except, of course, by Smith Sr., and the witnesses. . Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the "right person" but the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be.; (saying the angel said, "You will know her when you see her."). However, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Smith, his future wife.; (saying that Smith "knew when he saw her that she was the one to go with him to get the records"). For the visit on September 22, 1825, Smith may have attempted to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T. Lawrence.; (saying Lawrence was a seer and had been to the hill and knew what was there); (identifying Samuel T. Lawrence as a practitioner of crystal gazing).
Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823,. but there is no record of him being in the vicinity of Palmyra between January 1826 and January 1827, when he returned to New York from Pennsylvania with his new wife.. In January 1827, Smith visited the hill and then told his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord,". which may have meant that he had missed his annual visit to the hill in 1826.Smith's father is cited as stating Smith was late one year and missed the date for visiting the hill and therefore was chastised by the angel .
Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T. Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned that he might cause trouble. (saying Lawrence was a seer, had been to the hill, and knew what was there). Therefore, on the eve of September 22, 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark. If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Smith was to tell him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill. Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah with Emma.; (Emma "didn't see the records, but she went with him"). While Emma stayed behind kneeling in prayer,. Smith walked to the site of the buried plates. Sometime in the early morning hours, he said that he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah.; (Smith had cut away the bark of a decaying log, placed the plates inside and then covered the log with debris); ; (saying Smith "brought them part way home and hid them in a hollow log"). At the same time, Smith said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the Urim and Thummim or "Interpreters," with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother when he returned in the morning.. Smith's friend Joseph Knight Sr., said that Smith was even more fascinated by the Interpreters than the plates .
Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon to earn enough money to buy a solid lockable chest in which to put the plates.. By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith had said that he had been successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their share of the profits from what they viewed as part of a joint venture in treasure hunting.. Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith Sr., determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly talented seer from 60 miles (96 km) away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination.; (saying that Smith's father "heard that they had got a conjurer, who they said would come and find the plates." When Emma heard of that, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith,; . who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim that the plates were safe. He nevertheless hurriedly rode home with Emma..
Once home in Manchester, he said he walked to Cumorah, removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked home through the woods and away from the road with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm.. On the way, he said a man had sprung up from behind a log and struck him a "heavy blow with a gun.... Knocking the man down with a single punch, Joseph ran as fast as he could for about a half mile before he was attacked by a second man trying to get the plates. After similarly overpowering the man, Joseph continued to run, but before he reached the house, a third man hit him with a gun. In striking the last man, Joseph said, he injured his thumb."; ; ; . He returned home with a dislocated thumb and other minor injuries. (mentioning the dislocated thumb); (mentioning an injury to his side); (mentioning the dislocated thumb and an injury to his arm). Smith sent his father, Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found no one.; .
Smith is said to have put the plates in a locked chest and hid them in his parents' home in Manchester.; . He refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or the other artifacts that he said he had in his possession, but some people were allowed to heft them or feel what were said to be the artifacts through a cloth.; ; . A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which he said had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates. After letting his mother feel through a thin cloth what she said was the breastplate, he placed it in the locked chest. (saying she saw the glistening metal, and estimating the breastplate's value at over 500 dollars).
The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the chest, where Smith said the plates were kept.. After hearing that a group of them would attempt to enter the house by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth,; . and the family was able to scare away the intended intruders.. Fearing the chest might still be discovered, Smith hid it under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby that was then being used as a cooper shop. Later, Smith told his mother he had taken the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floorboards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax. Shortly thereafter the empty box was discovered, and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates,; . who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find the hiding place by looking in her seer stone. The scrying was the sister of Willard Chase, who said that she had "found a green glass, through which she could see many very wonderful things."
Smith used scribes to write the words he said were a translation of the golden plates, dictating the words while peering into seer stones, which he said allowed him to see the translation. Smith's translation process evolved from his previous use of seer stones in treasure-seeking.; . During the earliest phase of translation, Smith said he used what he called Urim and Thummim, two stones set in a frame like a set of large spectacles.. Early followers of Smith used the term Urim and Thummim to refer to both the large spectacles and Smith's other seer stones, most notably one that was commonly called the "Chase stone" and found by Smith in a Palmyra well in the early 1820s; . (referring to the Urim and Thummim as "mammoth spectacles"). Witnesses said Smith placed the Urim and Thummim in his hat while he was translating.. Martin Harris, one of Smith's scribes, is reported to have said that the spectacles were made for a giant and could not have been worn by Smith . 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 . However, a man who interviewed Smith's father in 1830 said that Smith did at least some of the translation while he wore the spectacles .
After the loss of the first 116 manuscript pages, Smith translated with a single seer stone, which some sources say he had previously used in treasure-seeking.; ; (containing an overview of witnesses to the translation process); (Whitmer said that the angel had taken the Urim and Thummim after Smith lost the first 116 pages of manuscript but allowed Smith to continue translating with the brown stone); ;; : "Most of Smith's disciples did not emphasize the fact that he was now using for religious purposes the brown seer stone he had previously used for the treasure-quest." 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!" . Smith placed the stone 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. ("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." (, quoting W. W. Blair, Latter Day Saints' Herald 26 (15 November 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. . 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.. However, Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, later to be the wife of scribe Oliver Cowdery, said that she had never seen a curtain raised between Smith and Cowdery or her brothers while translation was taking place in the Whitmer home . Sometimes, Smith dictated to Harris from upstairs or from a different room..
Smith's translation did not require the use of the plates themselves.; . Though Smith himself said very little about the translation process, his friends and family said that as he looked into the stone, the written translation of the ancient script appeared to him in English. (Joseph said almost nothing about his method); . There are several proposed explanations for how Smith composed his translation. In the 19th century, the most common explanation among anti-Mormons was that he copied the work from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding. (most common 19th-century theory); . That theory is repudiated by Smith's preeminent modern biographers.; ; (arguing that the theory has been repudiated). The most prominent modern theory among many ex-Mormons is that Smith composed the translation in response to the provincial opinions of his time,; ). perhaps while in a magical trance-like state.; . As a matter of faith, Latter Day Saints generally view the translation process as either an automatic process of transcribing text written within the stone (arguing that this transcription method is the only one consistent with the historical record). or an intuitive translation by Smith, assisted by a mystical connection with God, through the stone. (expressing his personal view shared by several other Mormon apologists and noting that while that view might pose problems because of the historical record, it helps to explain the origin of the Book of Mormon's grammatical mistakes). Some Latter Day Saint apologists argue that because of the length of the Book of Mormon (roughly 270,000 words) and the timeframe in which the Book was dictated, it is unlikely that he wrote it or memorized the words from elsewhere. It is also argued that Smith was unfamiliar with the text, often pausing to attempt to pronounce names of people and places that were unfamiliar to him, and therefore it is unlikely that he had read the text before or written it previously.
Smith's dictations were written down by a number of assistants, including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery. ("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."); ("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."). In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 unduplicated manuscript pages to Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply retranslate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again.". 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.".
In April 1828, Martin Harris's wife, Lucy Harris, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates. When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods. According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large, black snake and so was prevented from digging up the plates.. Lucy may have caused the "loss" of the 116 manuscript pages, which Smith had lent her husband. As a result of Martin Harris's loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man." (stating that the angel took back the Urim and Thummim but referring to the revelation, which stated the plates were taken too); (referring only to the plates); (a revelation referring only to the plates and to Smith's "gift" to translate). According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the anniversary of the day that he first received them..
In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates. Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself." Harris followed the directions but could not find the plates..
In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer and his parents in Fayette, New York. Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house, where Smith could recover them. The translation was completed at the Whitmer home.; .
Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed.". The "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof."Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:7. Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time, when the sealed part will be translated. and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples. (quoting a statement by Orson Pratt).
David Whitmer is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate). (citing reporter Edward Stevenson's 1877 interview with Whitmer). Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods.". At least one Mormon scholar doubts the existence of a Cumorah cave and instead argues that early Mormons saw a vision of a cave in another location.
According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son; (citing Martin Harris as stating in 1829 that Smith's unborn son would translate the plates at the age of two (this son was stillborn), and thereafter, "you will see Joseph Smith Jr. walking through the streets of Palmyra, with the Gold Bible under his arm, and having a gold breast-plate on, and a gold sword hanging by his side."); (stating that the first witness would be "a young child"). but this child was stillborn in 1828.; . In March 1829, Martin Harris came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found.In March 1829, Martin Harris returned to Harmony and wanted to see the plates firsthand. Smith reportedly told Harris that Smith "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself"; after following these directions, however, Harris could not find the plates . The next day,. Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himselfTo qualify as a witness, Harris had to "humble himself in mighty prayer and faith" . to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view the as they are".. Smith's dictated text of the Book of Ether (chapter 2) also made reference to three witnesses, stating that the plates would be shown to them "by the power of God" .
By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith.In June 1829, around the time these eleven additional witnesses were selected, Smith dictated a revelation commanding Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer (two of the eventual Three Witnesses) to seek out twelve "disciples", who desired to serve, and who would "go into all the world to preach my gospel unto every creature", and who would be ordained to baptize and to ordain priests and teachers . According to D. Michael Quinn, this was a reference to selecting the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who would be a leading body of Smith's Church of Christ.. Mormon religious and apologetic commentators understand this revelation as referring to the eventual (in 1835, six years later) formation of the first Quorum of the Twelve. During the second half of June 1829,. Smith took Harris, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer (known collectively as the Three Witnesses)According to Smith's mother, upon hearing news in June 1929 that Smith had completed the translation of the plates , Martin Harris accompanied the Smith parents to the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, where Smith was staying , to inquire about the translation . When Harris arrived, he joined with Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to request that the three be named as the Three Witnesses, and Smith's dictated revelation designating the three of them as the witnesses . into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves.; . The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard.; . David Whitmer later stated that the angel showed them "the breast plates, the Ball or Directors, the Sword of Laban and other plates". ; ; see also . A few days later, Smith took a different group of Eight WitnessesThe Eight Witnesses consisted of two groups: (1) the males of the Whitmer home, including David Whitmer's brothers Peter, Christian, Jacob Whitmer, and John Whitmer, and his brother-in-law Hiram Page; and (2) the older males of the Smith family, including is father Joseph Smith Sr. and his brothers Hyrum Smith and Samuel. to a location near Smith's parents' home in Palmyra. Because of a foreclosure on their Manchester property, the Smith family was then living in a log cabin technically in Palmyra (; ) where they said Smith showed them the golden plates.. Though the Eight Witnesses did not refer, like the Three, to an angel or the voice of God, they said that they had hefted the plates and seen the engravings on them: "The translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship" . Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Smith,This is the conclusion of , who compared "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" to part of the Doctrine and Covenants written in 1829 (first published at ), and concluding that they show "the marks of common authorship". Palmer also compares a letter from Oliver Cowdery to Hyrum Smith dated June 14, 1829, quoting the language of this revelation (Joseph Smith letterbook (22 November 1835 to 4 August 1835), 5–6). Commentators generally agree that this letter refers to the revelation. See Larry C. Porter, "Dating the Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood", Ensign, June 1979, 5. were published in 1830 as an appendix to the Book of Mormon.. According to later statements ascribed to Martin Harris, he viewed the plates in a vision and not with his "natural eyes." (during the printing of the Book of Mormon, when asked whether Harris had seen the plates with his bodily eyes, he replied, "No, I saw them with a spiritual eye."); (Burnett "came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave away"); ("Martin Harris, one of the subscribing witnesses, has come out at last, and says he never saw the plates, from which the book purports to have been translated, except in vision, and he further says that any man who says he has seen them in any other way is a liar, Joseph not excepted."; Metcalf in EMD, 2: 347 (quoting Harris, near the end of his long life, as saying he had seen the plates in "a state of entrancement"). Harris was resolute, however, as to his position that he had seen the plates in a vision. See Letter of Martin Harris Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, Saints' Herald 22 (15 October 1875):630, in EMD 2: 338 ("No man heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates; nor the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the administration of Joseph Smith Jr."). See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118.
In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates. For instance, Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith said she had "seen and handled" the plates.. Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William and younger sister Katharine also said they had examined and lifted the plates while they were wrapped in fabric.; . Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates.For instances of people testifying to having seen the golden plates after Smith returned them to the angel, see the affirmations of John Young and Harrison Burgess in . In 1859, Brigham Young referred to one of these "post-return" testimonies: "Some of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God, were afterwards left to doubt and to disbelieve that they had ever seen an angel. One of the Quorum of the Twelve, a young man full of faith and good works, prayed, and the vision of his mind was opened, and the angel of God came and laid the plates before him, and he saw and handled them, and saw the angel." Journal of Discourses, June 5, 1859, 7:164.
Hyrum Smith and John Whitmer, also Eight Witnesses, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book".Statement by Hyrum Smith as reported by William E. McLellin in the Huron Reflector, October 31, 1831. See also . Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William said they had examined the plates while wrapped in fabric. Emma said she "felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book". William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book..
Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches 15 wide and eight inches 20 long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were ... bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches 15 in thickness"..
Smith's first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold", and Smith said that Moroni had referred to the plates as "gold."Joseph Smith–History 1:34. Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds" (18–23 kg), "were lead or gold".. Joseph's brother William, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper ... much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood".
Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently. According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter.. Smith's father Joseph Smith Sr., who was one of the Eight Witnesses, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg).. Smith's brother William, who had lifted the plates, thought they "weighed about sixty pounds 27 according to the best of my judgment".. Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 pounds 27 kg. Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds 18–23".. Smith's wife Emma never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work".
From descriptions of the plates' dimensions, had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg).. Based on the plates' lighter weight and Stowell's description of its corner's "greenish cast", one scholar has hypothesized Smith made the plates from copper, which weighs less than gold and rusts green. LDS writers have speculated the plates could also exhibit those qualities if it were made of a copper-gold alloy like Mesoamerican tumbaga.
The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" to be revealed at some future time. For example, the Book of Mormon says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord" and that separate records of John the Apostle were "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times.Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14:26. One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read.Book of Mormon, Ether 3:22.
Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10),. an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed."Book of Mormon, Ether 4:5. According to Martin Harris, anyone who looked into the "interpreters", "except by the command of God", would "perish" . Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith.".
Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni. David Whitmer said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them,"David Whitmer interview, Chicago Tribune, 24 January 1888, in David Whitmer Interviews, ed. Cook, 221. Near the end of his life, Whitmer said that one section of the book was "loose, in plates, the other solid". . that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable," "as solid to my view as wood,". and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed" with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them.". Orson Pratt, who said he had spoken with many witnesses of the plates,, assumed that Smith could "break the seal" if only he had been "permitted" . In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose." The account of the Eight Witnesses says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion. In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed;; . in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed. Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses,. that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up"..
Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance.: Were there really gold plates and ministering angels, or was there just Joseph Smith Seated at a table with his face in a hat dictating to a scribe a fictional account of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas?' Resolving that problem haunts loyal Mormons. The blunt questioner quoted is Brigham D. Madsen, a liberal Mormon and onetime history teacher at Brigham Young University." For most adherents of the Latter Day Saint faith, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith. For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins..
Hugh Nibley, a Latter-day Saint scholar, said in 1957 that he believed even proof of the actual existence of the golden plates would not settle disputes about the Book of Mormon and the story of its origin.Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon : "Critics of the Book of Mormon often remark sarcastically that it is a great pity that the golden plates have disappeared, since they would very conveniently prove Joseph Smith's story. They would do nothing of the sort. The presence of the plates would only prove that there were plates, no more: it would not prove that Nephites wrote them, or that an angel brought them, or that they had been translated by the gift and power of God; and we can be sure that scholars would quarrel about the writing on them for generations without coming to any agreement, exactly as they did about the writings of Homer and parts of the Bible. The possession of the plates would have a very disruptive effect, and it would prove virtually nothing. On the other hand, a far more impressive claim is put forth when the whole work is given to the world in what is claimed to be a divinely inspired translation – in such a text any cause or pretext for disagreement and speculation about the text is reduced to an absolute minimum: it is a text which all the world can read and understand, and is a far more miraculous object than any gold plates would be."
In 1843, after reading a missionary tract written by Orson Pratt, three men in Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois – Robert Wiley, Wilburn Fugate, and Bridge Whitton – decided to collaborate to counterfeit a set of metal plates and "startle the natives," as one of Fugate's sons recalled. The trio forged plates from copper, etched them with acid, and buried them in a mound, digging them up on April 23, 1843, in a pretended discovery. The Herald-Whig published a story on the discovery, and the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor, a publication of the church and of the city respectively, reprinted the story. The Mormon community soon expressed much interest in the plates.
By May 1, the plates had been brought to Nauvoo, and Smith, apparently believing they were authentic, attempted to translate them.;: "The whole of Nauvoo soon buzzed with the discovery. The Times and Seasons published full reproductions as further proof of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and the printing office sold facsimiles at one dollar a dozen." The original source is William Clayton's Journal, May 1, 1843 (See also, Trials of Discipleship – The Story of William Clayton, a Mormon, 117): "I have seen 6 brass plates ... covered with ancient characters of language containing from 30 to 40 on each side of the plates. Prest J. has translated a portion and says they contain the history of the person with whom they were found and he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth." Clayon's journal entry was republished in the first person (as if Smith had said it) in the History of the Church: "I insert facsimiles of the six brass plates found near Kinderhook ... I have translated a portion of them, and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of heaven and earth." More than six pages of History of the Church, 5:372–379 discuss the Kinderhook plates, and Smith directed Reuben Hedlock to make woodcuts of the plates. "Church historians continued to insist on the authenticity of the Kinderhook plates until 1980 when an examination conducted by the Chicago Historical Society, possessor of one plate, proved it was a nineteenth-century creation." Smith's private secretary William Clayton recorded that upon receiving the plates, Smith sent for his "Hebrew Bible & Lexicon", suggesting that rather than translate the plates by direct revelation, Smith attempted to translate the plates by more conventional means. That day, Clayton wrote in his journal:
Scholars examining the Kinderhook plates in retrospect have found that one character coincidentally resembles a character in Smith's Egyptian Alphabet Book, the alleged meaning of which matches Smith's attempted translation of the Kinderhook plates, further suggesting Smith tried to translate the plates as an amateur linguist.
Apostles John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, editors of the Nauvoo Neighbor, anticipated Smith would translate the plates in their entirety and promised in a June 1843 article that "The contents of the plates, together with a Fac-simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times and Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed."The Nauvoo Neighbor, Special Broadside June 24th, 1843. http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IL/kndrfac2.jpg However, the plates were returned untranslated to Wiley and Fugate in Kinderhook. Smith did not express reservations about the plates to any of his compatriots, but whether or not he recognized the Kinderhook plates as fraudulent, "he did not swing into a full-fledged translation" as he had with his earlier encounter with Egyptian scrolls.
In 1886, a signed letter from Fugate was published in the book Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and His Friends: A Study Based on Facts and Documents, and in the letter Fugate revealed the hoax and the fabrication of the plates. Nevertheless, many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a denomination of Mormons who followed Brigham Young after Smith's death) refused to accept Fugate's confession and defended the Kinderhook plates as authentic and Smith's translation as legitimate until 1980, when Northwestern University materials science professor D. Lynn Johnson examined a plate still held by the Chicago Historical Society and conclusively proved it was a nineteenth-century creation.
Oliver Cowdrey, one of the Three Witnesses, was a distant relative of Joseph Smith who also engaged in divination.Palmer, 179: "Oliver Cowdery came from a similar background. He was a treasure hunter and 'rodsman' before he met Joseph Smith in 1829. William Cowdery, his father, was associated with a treasure-seeking group in Vermont, and it is from them, one assumes that Oliver learned the art of working with a divining rod. Joseph told Oliver that he knew the 'rod of nature' Oliver used 'has told you many things. See Vogel EMD, 1: 599-621. Cowdery reported that his first witness of the golden plates was in a vision before he and Smith had ever met.Palmer, 179; Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1989), I: 10. In 1838, Cowdrey broke with Smith, accusing him of a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair" with Fanny Alger.Brodie, 182. The Cowdery quotation is from a letter to his brother. B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, 2: 308–09; Encyclopedia of Mormonism "Book of Mormon Witnesses"; Oliver Cowdery and History of the Church, 3: 14–17. David Whitmer, a friend of Cowdery, similarly reported visions and owned a seer stone.Palmer, 180–81, 193–94, 197–99.
Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the golden plates, described his witness as a visionary experience. John Gilbert, printer of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, recalled asking Harris if he saw the plates with his naked eyes, to which Harries replied "No, I saw them with a spiritual eye"."Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" Martin looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, "No, I saw them with a spiritual eye" John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, Early Mormon Documents, 2: 548."A gentleman in Palmyra, bred to the law, a professor of religion, and of undoubted veracity told me that on one occasion, he appealed to Harris and asked him directly,-"Did you see those plates?" Harris replied, he did. "Did you see the plates, and the engraving on them with your bodily eyes?" Harris replied, "Yes, I saw them with my eyes,-they were shown unto me by the power of God and not of man." "But did you see them with your natural,-your bodily eyes, just as you see this pencil-case in my hand? Now say no or yes to this." Harris replied,-"Why I did not see them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see any thing around me,-though at the time they were covered over with a cloth"
In 1837, Harris and others accused the Kirtland Safety Society bank of fraud. In December 1837, Smith and the Kirtland High Council excommunicated 28 individuals, Harris among them. In 1838, Smith called the Three Witnesses (Cowdery, Harris, and Whitmer) "too mean to mention; and we had liked to have forgotten them."B.H. Roberts, ed. History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1905), 3: 232. Parrish's church in Kirtland took control of the Kirtland Temple and became known as The Church of Christ. In 1838, Harris publicly admitted that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination."Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, April 15, 1838, in Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in Harris publicly denied that any of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had ever seen or handled the golden plates. Harris's statement reportedly induced five influential members, including three apostles, to leave the church.Stephen Burnett to Luke S. Johnson, April 15, 1838, in Joseph Smith's Letterbook, In the 1870s, Harris again gave an interview where he admitted "I never saw the golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state.""I never saw the golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state. I wrote a great deal of the Book of Mormon myself, as Joseph Smith translated or spelled the words out in English. Sometimes the plates would be on a table in the room in which Smith did the translating, covered over with cloth. I was told by Joseph Smith that God would strike him dead if he attempted to look at them, and I believed it. When the time came for the three witnesses to see the plates, Joseph Smith, myself, David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, went into the woods to pray. When they had all engaged in prayer, they failed at that time to see the plates or the angel who should have been on hand to exhibit them. They all believed it was because I was not good enough, or, in other words, not sufficiently sanctified. I withdrew. As soon as I had gone away, the three others saw the angel and the plates. In about three days I went into the woods to pray that I might see the plates. While praying I passed into a state of entrancement, and in that state I saw the angel and the plates." "Martin Harris Interview with Anthony Metcalf, Circa 1873-1874," in Vogel (ed.) Early Mormon Documents 2:346-347.
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