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Wikipedia Main Article: Golden plates–
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Wikipedia Footnotes: Golden plates–Notes
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A FAIR Opinion
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- According to Joseph Smith and others, the book of Golden Plates contained a "sealed" portion
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- containing "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof."
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- Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:7. The "sealing" of apocalyptic revelations in a book has precedents in the Bible. See, for example, Isaiah 29:11, Daniel 12:4, and Revelation 5:1–5. The Book of Mormon states that this vision was originally given to the Brother of Jared, recorded by Ether on a set of 24 plates later found by Limhi, and then "sealed up". Book of Mormon, Ether 1:2. According to this account, Moroni copied the plates of Limhi onto the sealed portion of the Golden Plates.
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- Smith never described the nature of the seal, and the language of the Book of Mormon may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical,
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- i.e. that the book was "sealed" in the sense that its contents were hidden or kept from public knowledge
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- physical, or a combination of these elements.
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- The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" by being buried in order to be revealed at some future time. For example, the Book of Mormon says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord"
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- Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14:26
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- One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read.
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- Book of Mormon, Ether 3:22.
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- Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10),
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- Quinn (1998) , pp. 195–196.
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- An author's opinion has been converted to fact— An opinion expressed by the author of a secondary source is being portrayed in the article as if it were a proven fact.
Note that Quinn's interpretation is given precedence (i.e. it appears first) in the wiki article over statements of multiple eyewitnesses listed later, who simply stated that a portion of the plates were physically sealed.
- From the cited source, Quinn's opinion is that the seal was "a non-material restriction":
Modern Mormons have often pictured a physical seal, especially when reading about the untranslated portion of the plates. This expectation appears in official LDS magazines as an illustration of a band of metal securing the leaves of the gold plates. Such a view was a parallel to the book described in Revelation 5:1, but the Book of Mormon nowhere describes a physical seal. Instead, the seal was a non-material restriction. "For the book shall be sealed by the power of God" (2 Ne. 27:10)
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- an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" (Urim and Thummim) with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed."
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- Book of Mormon, Ether 4:5. According to Martin Harris, anyone who looked into the "interpreters", "except by the command of God", would "perish" Harris (1859) , p. 166.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sources off-site— Wikipedia articles should rely mainly on published reliable secondary sources and, to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources. All interpretive claims, analyses, or synthetic claims about primary sources must be referenced to a secondary source, rather than original analysis of the primary-source material by Wikipedia editors.
Wikipedia editors are not supposed to directly interpret primary sources. To draw a conclusion and say that something is "supported by a reference" in the Book of Mormon violates this.
- Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
Harris' statement is tangential and has nothing whatsoever to do with a portion of the plates being sealed.
- For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Viewing gold plates would result in death
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- Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith."
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- Cowdery (1835b) , p. 198.
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- Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni. David Whitmer said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them,"
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- David Whitmer interview, Chicago Tribune, 24 January 1888, in David Whitmer Interviews, ed. Cook, 221. Near the end of his life, Whitmer said that one section of the book was "loose, in plates, the other solid". Storey (1881) .
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- that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable,"
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- "as solid to my view as wood,"
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- and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed"<ref name="Harvtxt|Storey|1881">Storey (1881)
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- with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them."
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- Orson Pratt, who said he had spoken with many witnesses of the plates,Pratt (1859) , p. 30,
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- assumed that Joseph Smith could "break the seal" if only he had been "permitted" Pratt (1877) , pp. 211–12.
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- In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose."
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- The account of the Eight Witnesses says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as [Joseph] Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion.
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- In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed;
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- Cole (1831) ; Poulson (1878) .
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- in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed.
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- Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses,
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- that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up".
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