Mormon historians are cheering the newly released English edition of LDS scriptures, pointing t
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“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 a 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.” (Martin Harris, “Address to All Believers in Christ”, Richmond, Missouri, 1887, p.12)
“The translation was just as it was engraven on the plates precisely in the language then used… The translation of the characters appeared on the Urim and Thummim, sentence by sentence, and as soon as one was correctly translated the next appeared.” (Martin Harris, The Myth of Manu-Script Found, p.71 and p. 91)
“Martin Harris related an incident that occured during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say “Written,” and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used.” (Edward Stevenson, “One of the Three Witnesses,” reprinted from Deseret News, 30 Nov. 1881 in Millennial Star, 44 , 6 Feb. 1882, pp. 86-87).
“Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and darkened his eyes then he would take a sentance and it would appear in brite roman letters then he would tell the writer and he would write it then that would go away the next sentence would come and so on. But if it was not spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous. Thus was the hol (whole) translated.” (Spelling as in the original cited in Dean Jessee, ‘Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,’ BYU Studies, vol. 17:1, Autumn 1976, p. 35)
“When my husband was translating the Book of Mormon, I wrote a part of it, as he dictated each sentence, word for word, and when he came to proper names he could not pronounce, or long words, he spelled them out, and while I was writing them, if I made a mistake in spelling, he would stop me and correct my spelling, although it was impossible for him to see how I was writing them down at the time.” (Emma Smith, Edmund Briggs interview, 1856)
“(The Book of Mormon is) the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (History of the Church, Vol. IV, p.461)
‘These plates have been… translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct.’ (History of the Church, Vol. I, pp.54-55)
“Some persons have thought that the Lord revealed to Joseph the ideas, and that Joseph conveyed those ideas into the English language. But this is not so. The Lord gave not only the ideas but the language itself – the very words.” (Joseph F. Smith, sixth president of the Mormon Church, “The Territorial Inquirer”, March 2, 1881)
“Joseph did not render the writing on the gold plates into the English language in his own style of language as many people believe, but every word and letter was given to him by the gift and power of God…The Lord caused each word spelled as it is in the book to appear on the stones in short sentences or words, and when Joseph had uttered the sentence or word before him and the scribe had written it properly, that sentence would disappear and another would appear. And if there was as a word wrongly written or even a letter incorrect, the writing on the stoned would remain there.” (Joseph F. Smith, “Journal of Oliver Huntington”, p.168, Utah State Historical Society)
If the text was translated as Mormon Leaders first claimed, each word was examined carefully prior to being written down on paper. All the minute details were verified in advance of the printing, and even small grammatical errors should not exist in something Mormons claim to be the Word of God. After all, God is supposed to be the source of the translation.
