Difference between revisions of "Detailed response to CES Letter, Conclusion"

**September 1974 ''Friend'': "To help him with the translation, Joseph found with the gold plates “a curious instrument which the ancients called Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones set in a rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.” '''Joseph also used an egg-shaped, brown rock for translating called a seer stone.'''" <br>&mdash;“A Peaceful Heart,” ''Friend'', Sep 1974, 7 {{link|url=http://www.lds.org/friend/1974/09/a-peaceful-heart}}

**September 1977 ''Ensign'': “'''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.'''" <br>&mdash;{{Ensign1|author=Richard Lloyd Anderson|article=‘By the Gift and Power of God’|date=Sep 1977|start=79, emphasis added}} {{link|url=http://www.lds.org/ensign/1977/09/by-the-gift-and-power-of-god}}

**January 1988 ''Ensign'': "Once Martin found a rock closely resembling the seerstone Joseph sometimes used in place of the interpreters and substituted it without the Prophet’s knowledge.''' When the translation resumed, Joseph paused for a long time and then exclaimed, “Martin, what is the matter, all is as dark as Egypt.” Martin then confessed that he wished to “stop the mouths of fools” who told him that the Prophet memorized sentences and merely repeated them." &mdash;{{Ensign|author=Kenneth W. Godfrey|article=[http://www.lds.org/ensign/1988/01/a-new-prophet-and-a-new-scripture-the-coming-forth-of-the-book-of-mormon A New Prophet and a New Scripture: The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon]|date=Jan 1988|pages6-13,(both quotations on page 11)}}

**July 1993 ''Ensign'': "David Whitmer wrote: ' '''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.'" <br>&mdash;Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” ''Ensign'', Jul 1993, 61. {{ea}} {{link|url=http://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/07/a-treasured-testament}}

**January 2013 ''Ensign'': "Some of the Prophet Joseph’s earliest revelations came through the same means by which he translated the Book of Mormon from the gold plates. . . .He described the instrument as “spectacles” and referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim. . . . He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed, called “seer stones” because they aided him in receiving revelations as a seer. The Prophet received some early revelations through the use of these seer stones." (NOTE: This was published after the author constructed his "Letter to a CES Director.")

*'''March 1976 ''Ensign:''''' A Book of Breathings text that closely matches the Joseph Smith version (and there are precious few of them) is the so-called Kerasher Book of Breathings. It too has a frontispiece, only in this case it is the same as our Facsimile No. 3, showing that it too is closely associated with our text." <br>&mdash;Hugh Nibley, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Mar. 1976, 34–36 {{Link|url=http://www.lds.org/ensign/1976/03/i-have-a-question}}

*'''July 1988 ''Ensign:''''' Why doesn’t the translation of the Egyptian papyri found in 1967 match the text of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price? <br>&mdash;Michael D. Rhodes, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, July 1988, 51–53 {{Link|url=http://www.lds.org/ensign/1988/07/i-have-a-question}}