Revision as of 10:35, 27 May 2012

Source analysis of MormonThink page "Translation of the Book of Mormon"

MormonThink's practice of copying blocks of text from a variety of websites produces a very confusing citation scheme. In many cases, citation links simply lead back to the main page of an anti-Mormon website without providing a path to the actual source document. This page lists the actual cited sources and provides links to them where possible. Since MormonThink does not provide a consistent citation list, we identify quotes using the first few words.

Primary sources

• "In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day..."
  • Emma Smith Bidamon Interview with Joseph Smith III, February 1879, cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, Vol. 1. p. 541.
  • The website does not provide this citation.
• "Smith's wife Emma supported Harris's and Whitmer's versions of the story..."
  • Personal interview Emma Smith-Bidamon gave to a committee of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1879, cited in Robert N. Hullinger, Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism, pp. 9-10.
• "I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated..."
  • David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: n.p., 1887), 12.
  • Misdirected link—The citation "4" does not link to the text of the actual source document, but instead links to the main page of the anti-Mormon site "Mormons in Transition"
  • The actual source document may be read on the neutral site Wikisource here: An Address to All Believers in Christ.
• "I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation..."
  • Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, p. 12. Also, Interview given to Kansas City Journal, June 5, 1881, reprinted in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Journal of History, vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.
  • Misdirected link—The citation "5" does not link to the text of the actual source document, but instead links to the main page of the anti-Mormon site "Mormons in Transition"
• "Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time..."
  • Edward Stevenson, "One of the Three Witnesses," Millennial Star, Vol. 44:86-87.
  • Misdirected link—The citation "7" does not link to the text of the actual source document, but instead links to the main page of the anti-Mormon site "Mormons in Transition"
• "chocolate-colored, somewhat egg-shaped stone which the Prophet found while digging a well..."
  • B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:129.
• "By aid of the Seer Stone, sentences would appear..."
  • B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:29.
• "The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret..."
  • Hale, Isaac (1834), "Affidavit of Isaac Hale", in Howe, Eber Dudley, Mormonism Unvailed, Painesville, Ohio: Telegraph Press, pp. 262–66.
  • Misdirected link—The citation "8" does not link to the text of the actual source document, but instead links to the main page of the anti-Mormon site "Mormons in Transition"
• "When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence..."
  • The first-hand account of Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, was published in an 1879 article in the RLDS publication Saint's Herald.
• "Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat..."
  • Joseph Knight, MANUSCRIPT OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH.
  • The website does not provide this citation.
  • The text of the entire source document may be read on the Maxwell Institute web site here: Dean C. Jessee, "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History".

Dean C. Jessee