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(→Question: What message does the Book of Mormon translation painting convey?) |
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===The translation was carried out openly—Joseph had no opportunity to hide notes or books=== | ===The translation was carried out openly—Joseph had no opportunity to hide notes or books=== | ||
What religious message(s) does the Del Parson translation picture convey? | What religious message(s) does the Del Parson translation picture convey? | ||
− | [[Image:Parson BoM Translation.png|frame| | + | [[Image:Parson BoM Translation.png|frame|center|500px|Artist Del Parson's rendition of Joseph and Oliver translating the Book of Mormon.]] |
[[File:Joseph rock hat 1.png|thumb|550px|center| Image from video "Seer Stones and the Translation of the Book of Mormon," The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Copyright (c) 2015 Intellectual Reserve]] | [[File:Joseph rock hat 1.png|thumb|550px|center| Image from video "Seer Stones and the Translation of the Book of Mormon," The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Copyright (c) 2015 Intellectual Reserve]] | ||
# The translation was carried out openly—Joseph had no opportunity to hide notes or books. This was confirmed by Elizabeth Ann Cowdery and Emma Smith.<ref>Cowdery: “Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe” [John W. Welch and Tim Rathbone, “The Translation of the Book of Mormon: Basic Historical Information,” F.A.R.M.S. report WRR–86, 25.] Emma: Joseph translated "hour after hour with nothing between us." [Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” ''Saints’ Advocate'' 2 (October 1879).]</ref> | # The translation was carried out openly—Joseph had no opportunity to hide notes or books. This was confirmed by Elizabeth Ann Cowdery and Emma Smith.<ref>Cowdery: “Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe” [John W. Welch and Tim Rathbone, “The Translation of the Book of Mormon: Basic Historical Information,” F.A.R.M.S. report WRR–86, 25.] Emma: Joseph translated "hour after hour with nothing between us." [Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” ''Saints’ Advocate'' 2 (October 1879).]</ref> |
What religious message(s) does the Del Parson translation picture convey?
The hat detail causes problems for the critical theory that Joseph cheated with notes while dictating. With a curtain in place, it is much easier to postulate that Joseph used notes or a Bible in the translation process. With the stone and the hat, however, witnesses were able to view the entire process, thus highlighting the total lack of notes or Bible in the translation process. Note also that in Parson's painting, with it's open setting, the cheat-notes theory can't get any traction.
One needs to consider the impressive witness testimonies of the plates' reality, and the fact that the use of a seer stone in a hat is not intrinsically less plausible than the use of two seer stones mounted in a set of "spectacles" attached to a breastplate. In fact, there are even accounts which effectively mix the two methods, with Joseph purportedly removing one of the stones from the "spectacles" and placing it in a hat.
Efforts to diminish the miracle of the translation effort by emphasizing the substitution of one seer stone for another seems to convey something to a modern audience that it never portrayed to the participants—that the Book of Mormon was uninspired and uninspiring.
Notes
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