View source for Book of Mormon/Translation/Method/1836-1840

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==1836==
===Truman Coe (non-eyewitness), ''Hudson Ohio Observer''===
<blockquote>
An angel descended and warned him that God was about to make an astonishing revelation to the world, and then directed him to go to such a place, and after prying up a stone he should find a number of plates of the color of gold inscribed with hieroglyphics, and under them a breastplate, and under that a transparent stone or stones which was the Urim and Thummim mentioned by Moses....The manner of translation was as wonderful as the discovery. By putting his finger on one of the characters and imploring divine aid, then looking through the Urim and Thummim, he would see the import written in plain English on a screen placed before him. After delivering this to his emanuensi, he would again proceed in the same manner and obtain the meaning of the next character, and so on till he came to a part of the plates which were sealed up,and there was commanded to desist: and he says he has a promise from God that in due time he will enable him to translate the remainder. This is the relation as given by Smith. A man by the name of [Martin] Harris, of a visionary turn of mind, assisted in the translation, and afterwards Oliver Cowdery.<ref>{{CriticalWork:Coe:Mormonism|pages}} Also cited in {{EMD|vol=1|pages=47}}</ref>
</blockquote>

* Scribe: Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery
* Curtain: not mentioned
* Instrument: transparent stone, Urim and Thummim
* Method: "looking through the Urim and Thummim."

===Hostile press account 1 Sept 1836===
<blockquote>
The translation was commenced by the prophet himself, who was enabled to read the “reformed Egyptian” by the aid of the “peepstone.”  this was done by putting the stone in a hat or box, and then by applying his face, the prophet was enabled to read one word at a time, which he pronounced aloud to an amanuensis....The three most important of these witnesses, are Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whiteman [sic]; the first two of whom acted as amanuenuis of Smith.<ref>{{CriticalWork:Ohio Repository:1 September 1836:History of Mormanism|pages=xx}}</ref>
</blockquote>

* Scribe: Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris
* Curtain: Not specified
* Instrument: "peepstone"
* Method: Face in hat or dark

==1837==
===Alphonoso Wetmore 1837===
<blockquote>
he professed to have found in the earth a book with golden leaves. This book, leaf by leaf, Joe Smith, by aid of inspiration, read to a friend, “who held the pen of a ready writer,” and it was written out in dull, drawling, oriental style. The reader could only translate and read these golden tablets with the aid of a pair of marble spectacles, strapped to his head with thongs of leather; and this part of the solemn farce was performed in a closet, from which much of the light of heaven was excluded.<ref>{{CriticalWork:Wetmore:Gazetteer of the State of Missouri|pages=93–96}}</ref>
</blockquote>

* Scribe: Not specified
* Curtain: Not specified
* Instrument: Marble spectacles, strapped to his head with thongs of leather
* Method: Closet (in the dark?)

===Satirical poem/song  1837===
<center>
Then Smith, that is Joseph, the prophet indeed,<br>
In search of some treasures, at last he has found<br>
A pair of white glasses, of stone, it is said,<br>
And then saw the Bible that lay under ground.<br>
The new Golden Bible{, the new fangled Bible.<br>
The fictitious Bible that lay under ground.}<ref>The material enclosed in braces {} is taken from the first stanza of the song.  This is the refrain, which in the original text is only printed for the first verse, and then indicated with "The new GOlden Bible, &c."</ref><br><br>

Jo Smith has pretended to a new revelation,<br>
While angels and spirits encricled him round,<br>
He professed to translate, by divine inspiration,<br>
The new Golden Bible that he dug from the ground.<br>
The new Golden Bible, &c.<br><br>

’Twas through the stone glasses those wonderful stories<br>
Were read to the people with sacred renown:<br>
In language unknown the mysterious glories,<br>
Unfolded by Mormon just raised from the ground.<br>
The new Golden Bible, &c.<ref>{{CriticalWork:Painsville Telegraph:26 May 1837|pages=xxx}} </ref></center>

* Scribe: Not specified
* Curtain: Not specified
* Instrument: White glasses of stone
* Method: Not specified

==1838==
===Joseph Smith (translator) ''Elders' Journal''===
<blockquote>
Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?
Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the Book of Mormon [42] was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon.<ref>{{Periodical:Elders' Journal|article=[Questions and Answers]|num=3|vol=1|date=July 1838|pages=42–44}} {{link|url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/BOMP&CISOPTR=1790&REC=2}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: Urim and Thummim
*Method: Not specified

===Hostile press account ''Supplement to the Connecticut Courant''===
<blockquote>
On removing it, the idiot discovered that it had served as a covering to a box or chest of the same material, under which were deposited ‘twelve golden plates or tables,” engraven all over with mystical characters. Upon the upper plate lay  ‘pair of spectacles’ made of freestone, (save the mark,) which the angel commanded Smith to place astride of his nose. On doing so, Joe’s ‘tongue was loosened,’ as he himself states, and his intellect instantly became like those of other men. He saw through the freestone and the engraving on the golden plates became perfectly intelligible to him. The angel then commanded him to associate with himself ‘twelve other men,’ whom he named as ‘Scribes,’ and to interpret to them the writing on the plates.<Ref>{{CriticalWork:Connecticut Courant:15 December 1838:Mormonism|pages=175–176}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Twelve of them (likely confusion with the three and eight witnesses)
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: Pair of spectacles
*Method: Not specified
==1839==
===Henry Caswall (hostile non-witness) ''America and the American Church''===
<blockquote>
an angel appeared to a man residing in the vicinity, and directed his attention [322] to the spot where the precious deposit was concealed.  He searched and found the golden plates; but the language inscribed upon them was unknown. He was accordingly furnished with some talismanic power, by which he translated the original, word by word, and thus produced the “Book of Mormon.”<ref>{{CriticalWork:Caswall:American and the American Church|pages=321–322}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: Not specified
*Method: Some talismanic power
=== James M’Chesney (hostile non-witness) ''Supplement to an Antidote''===
<blockquote>
This translation was made by Joseph Smith, Jr., it is said, while this book was hid in the woods, part of the time, where he could see as well to translate as if he had it by him—by means of an enchanted stone placed [2] in a hat put over his face, as we have been informed he done formerly in fortune-telling, &c.<ref>{{CriticalWork:M'Chesney:Supplement to Antidote to Mormonism|pages=1–2}}</ref>
</blockquote>

*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: "Enchanted stone"
*Method: Face in a hat
*Plates: not always present
=== John Storrs (hostile non-witness) ''Boston Recorder''===
<blockquote>
a man of money-digging memory who was accustomed to look into the ground by the aid of a peculiar stone, was in a similar manner enabled to read and translate it!<ref>{{CriticalWork:Storrs:Mormonism|pages={{NC}}}} {{io}}</ref>
</blockquote>

*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: "peculiar stone"
*Method: Not specified
==1840==
===Hostile press account ''A Letter to Those...''===
<blockquote>
He declared that an angel was sent from God to make known to him the place in which the book was concealed,—that he searched and found the same,—that the words were engraved on plates of gold in a language which no man understood,—and that two large jewels resembling diamonds were given to him, which, being applied to the eyes, like spectacles, enabled him to get at the meaning and translate the Book of Mormon into English. These jewels were, he said, the Urim and Thummim of the Old Testament.<ref>{{CriticalWork:A Letter to Those Who Have Attended Mormonite Preaching:1840|pages=1–4}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: Two large jewels resembling diamonds applied to the eyes like spectacles ("''Urim and thummim''")
*Method: Not specified
===Hostile press account ''A Little Talk...''===
<blockquote>
It is said, these plates contained the Book of Mormon engraven in the Egyptian language, and that Joseph Smith translated them into English by the help of the Urim and Thummim, which the angel gave him with the plates, and that the Book of Mormon is as much the Word of God as the Bible, and contains “the fulness of the Gospel of Christ”....
 It is not easy to understand what is meant by the Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible, but the Urim and Thummim which Joseph Smith says the angel gave him with the plates, consisted of two bright Stones, which, when he looked at them, shewed him the right words in English, and these words were copied by another person, as Joseph Smith was not able to write well enough to copy [4] them himself. So you see, if this be true, it was the Spirit of God which translated the book.<ref>{{CriticalWork:A Little Talk:1840|pages=3–4}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: "''Urim and thummim''" (two bright stones)
*Method: "looked at them"
===Parley P. Pratt (sympathetic non-witness) ''Millennial Star''===
<blockquote>
The record consisted of a large volume, in the Egyptian language, engraven on plates of gold. The plates were each about 7 by 8 inches in width and length, being about the thickness of common tin. These were filled with engravings on both sides, and a volume of them were bound together like the leaves of a book, and fastened at one edge with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness. With this record was found a large breastplate, apparently of copper, such as had been worn for defence; and also a curious instrument, called by the ancients the Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones, clear as chrystal, set in the rims of a bow of silver. This was in use, in ancient times, by persons called seers; it was an instrument by the use of which they received revelation of things distant, or of things past or future. By this means, and by the gift of the Almighty, Mr. Smith was enabled to translate the record into the English language, and it was first printed and published in 1830.<ref>{{MS1|author=Parley P. Pratt|article=Discovery of an Ancient Record in America|vol=1|num=2|date=June 1840|pages=30–37}} {{link|url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/BOMP&CISOPTR=2345&REC=13}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: " two transparent stones, clear as chrystal, set in the rims of a bow of silver" ("''Urim and thummim''")
*Method: With the above, "and by the gift of the Almighty."
=== Samuel Haining (hostile non-witness)''Mormonism Weighed in the Balance...''===
<blockquote>
An angel appeared unto him, gloriously, three times in one night, directing him to go to a neighbouring mountain, where he should find a stone chest, containing golden plates, on which the will of God was written. He did as he was commanded; found the plates, and, by the aid of Aaron’s urim and thummim, deciphered, translated, and published them, as a new revelation from God, of equal authority with the Old and New Testaments.... Two of these stones were [28] sealed up with the plates, and became spectacles to Joseph Smith, jun., according to a prophecy before Abraham was born!...Hedeposited them in a stone chest, and placed it on the side of a mountain, where it remained 1,400 years concealed, until Joseph Smith was directed by an angel to the place, and, by the aid of his glasses, and the urim and thummim, was enabled to decipher the plates and to write the book.<ref>{{CriticalWork:Haining:Weighed in the Balances|pages=26–28}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Not specified
*Curtain: Not specified
*Instrument: "Glasses and the ''urim and thummim''" / Two stones like spectacles
*Method: Not specified
===John A. Clark (hostile non-witness; quoting Martin Harris) ''Episocopal Recorder''===
<blockquote>
The way that Smith made his transcripts and translations for Harris was the following; Although as the same room, a thick curtain or blanket was suspended between them, and Smith concealed behind the blanket, pretend 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, who sat on the other side of the suspended blanket. Harris was told, that it would arouse the most terrible divine displeasure, if he should attempt to drawn near the sacred chest or look at Smith while in the work of deciphering the mysterious characters. This was Harris’ own account of the matter to me. What other measures they afterwards took to transcribe or translate from these metallic plates, I cannot say, as I very soon after this removed to another field of labour where I heard no more on this matter till I learned the BOOK of MORMON was about to be published.<ref> {{CriticalWork:Clark:Gleanings by the Way VI|pages=94}}</ref>
</blockquote>
*Scribe: Martin Harris
*Curtain: Present
*Instrument: spectacles or transparent stones
*Method: Look through the spectacles
{{Endnotes label}}
<references />

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The whole history is shrouded in the deepest mystery. Joseph Smith Jr., who read through the wonderful spectacles, pretended to give the scribe the exact reading of the plates, even to spelling, in which Smith was wofully deficient. Martin Harris was permitted to be in the room with the scribe, and would try the knowledge of Smith, as he told me, saying that Smith could not spell the word February, when his eyes were off the spectacles through which he pretended to work. This ignorance of Smith was proof positive to him that Smith was dependent on the spectacles for the contents of the Bible. Smith and the plates containing the original of the Mormon Bible were hid from view of the scribe and Martin Harris by a screen. 199





He farther showed this manuscript to Knight, which he claimed was translated by himself by looking through the Urim and Thummim while he sat behind a blanket hung across a room in order that the sacred records might be kept from profane eyes, and read off the "Book of Mormon," or Golden Bible as he sometimes called it, to Oliver Cowdery who wrote it down.emd4-232





Hence the magic spectacles were very opportunely found with the plates. The little low chamber in Smith's house was used as a translating-
room. The prophet and his plates were screened even from the sight of
his scribes, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery and Reuben Hale, by blankets
secured with nails. While the translation was going on the neighbors frequently called to discuss the forthcoming book, which, it was alleged, would make the Hale family very rich. Occasionally a visitor was allowed to feel the thickness ofthe Golden Book as it reposed within a pillow-case, but no one was permitted to see it. emd4-364



REFERENCES
No Curtain Accounts

Opening the Heavens

Early Mormon Documents 4 by Dan Vogel

[365] Frederick G. Mather, "The Early Days of Mormonism," Lippincott's Magazine (Philadelphia) 26 (August 1880): 199-203, 211.

Here are some of the accounts that don't mention the hat while mentioning the Nephite Interpreters or Urim and Thummim (inclusively or ambiguously):






I went down to Harmony, and found everything just as they had written me. The next day after I got there they packed up the plates and we proceeded on our journey to my father's house where we arrived in due time, and the day after we commenced upon the translation of the remainder of the plates. I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris were present during the translation. The translation was by Smith and THE MANNER AS FOLLOWS:
"He had two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg shaped and perfectly smooth, but not transparent, called interpreters, which were given him with the plates. He did not use the plates in the translation, but would hold the interpreters to his eyes and cover his face with a hat, excluding all light, and before his eyes would appear what seemed to be parchment, on which would appear the characters of the plates in a line at the top, and immediately below would appear the translation in English..." {{ref|kcjournal.1881}}
{{note|kcjournal.1881}}''Kansas City Daily Journal'', June 5, 1881.

... In regard to my going to Harmony, my statement was that "I found everything as Cowdery had written me, and that they packed up next day and went to my father's, (did not say 'packed up the plates') and that he, Smith, (not 'we') then commenced the translation of the remainder of the plates." I did not wish to be understood as saying that those referred to as being present were all of the time in the immediate presence of the translator, but were at the place and saw how the translation was conducted. I did not say that Smith used "two small stones;' as stated nor did I call the stone "interpreters." I stated that "he used one stone (not two) and called it a sun stone." The "interpreters" were as I understood taken from Smith and were not used by him after losing the first 116 pages as stated. It is my understanding that the stone referred to was furnished him when he commenced translating again after losing the 116 pages.















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