Book of Mormon/Translation/Method/1836-1840

1836

Truman Coe (non-eyewitness), Hudson Ohio Observer

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. ^[1]

• 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

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.^[2]

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

1837

Alphonoso Wetmore 1837

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.^[3]

• 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

Then Smith, that is Joseph, the prophet indeed,
In search of some treasures, at last he has found
A pair of white glasses, of stone, it is said,
And then saw the Bible that lay under ground.
The new Golden Bible{, the new fangled Bible.
The fictitious Bible that lay under ground.}^[4]

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

’Twas through the stone glasses those wonderful stories
Were read to the people with sacred renown:
In language unknown the mysterious glories,
Unfolded by Mormon just raised from the ground.

The new Golden Bible, &c.^[5]

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

1842

John A. Clark (non-eyewitness), Gleanings by the Way

The way that Smith made his transcripts and transcriptions for Harris was the following. Although in the same room, a thick curtain or blanket was suspended between them, and Smith concealed behind the blanket, pretended 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 draw near the sacred chest, or look at Smith while engaged in the work of decyphering the mysterious characters. This was Harris's own account of the matter to me. ^[6]

• Scribe: Martin Harris
• Curtain: present
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("spectacles"); Transparent stones
• Method: "look through his spectacles"

Charles Anthon (non-eyewitness), Gleanings by the Way

A young man, it seems, had been placed in the garret of a farm-house, with a curtain before him, and, having fastened the spectacles to his head, had read several pages in the golden book, and communicated their contents in writing to certain persons stationed on the outside of the curtain. He had also copied off one page of the book in the original character, which he had in like manner handed over to those who were separated from him by the curtain, and this copy was the paper which the countryman had brought with him. ^[7]

• Scribe: Martin Harris
• Curtain: present
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("spectacles")
• Method: "fastened the spectacles to his head"

1867

Pomeroy Tucker (non-eyewitness), Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism

Translations and interpretations were now entered upon by the prophet, and manuscript specimens of these, with some of the literally transcribed characters, were shown to people, including ministers and other gentlemen of learning and influence.... The manuscripts were in the handwriting of one Oliver Cowdery, which had been written down by him, as he and Smith declared, from the translations, word for word, as made by the latter with the aid of the mammoth spectacles or Urim and Thummim, and verbally announced by him from behind a blanket-screen drawn across a dark corner of a room at his residence-for at this time the original revelation, limiting to the prophet the right of seeing the sacred plates, had not yet been changed, and the view with the instrument used was even too brilliant for his own spiritualized eyes in the light! This was the story of the first series of translations, which was always persisted in by the few persons connected with the business at this early period of its progress. The single significance of this theory will doubtless be manifest, when the facts are stated in explanation, that Smith could not write in a legible hand, and hence an amanuensis or scribe was necessary. Cowdery had been a schoolmaster, and was the only man in the band who could make a copy for the printer. .... The work of translation this time [after the loss of the 116 pages] had been done in the recess of a dark artificial cave, which Smith had caused to be dug in the east side of the forest-hill near his residence. , .. [T]hough another version was, that the prophet continued to pursue his former mode of translating behind the curtain at his house, and only went into the cave to pay his spiritual devotions. ^[8]

• Scribe: Oliver Cowdery
• Curtain: mentioned
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("mammoth spectacles"); Urim and Thummim; "the instrument"
• Method: Not specified

1870

Martin Harris (eyewitness)

Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote the portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone. Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, "Written," and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used. ^[9]

• Scribe: Martin Harris
• Curtain: Not mentioned
• Instrument: The seer stone and the Urim and Thummin mentioned as separate items
• Method: Not specified

Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery (eyewitness)

"I cheerfully certify that I was familiar with the manner of Joseph Smith's translating the book of Mormon. He translated the most of it at my Father's house. And I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together. Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director in his hat, and then place his [face in his] hat, so as to exclude the light, and then [read] to his scribe the words as they appeared before him." ^[10]

• Scribe: Unknown
• Curtain: Denied that a curtain had been used.
• Instrument: A "director"
• Method: Hat.

Editorial comment: Where this may tell us more than it says is the specific statement that "Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating." The statement made by Elizabeth virtually requires that there be a story in current circulation that there was a curtain, and that this statement was made to counter that story. This indicates that among the Saints there may have been two versions circulating and that there was no clear understanding about which was the accurate picture. Therefore, Elizabeth wanted to clarify the account based on her experience.

I staid in Richmond two days and nights. I had a great deal of talk with widow Cowdry, and her amiable daughter. She is married to a Dr Johnson, but has no children. She gave me a certificate, And this is the copy. "Richmond, Ray Co., Mo. Feb 15, 1870--I cheerfully certify that I was familiar with the manner of Joseph Smith's translating the book of Mormon. He translated the most of it at my Father's house. And I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together. Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director in his hat, and then place his face in his hat, so as to exclude the light, and then [read the words?] as they appeared before him: ^[11]

• Scribe: Unknown
• Curtain: Not mentioned
• Instrument: A "director"
• Method: Hat.

1877

John Gilbert (non-eyewitness), Detroit Post and Tribune

As he claimed to be the author of the "Book of Mormon" his story was that by the aid of his wonderful stone he found gold plates on which were inscribed the writings in hieroglyphics. He translated them by means of a pair of magic spectacles which the Lord delivered to him at the same time that the golden tablets were turned up. But nobody but Joe himself ever saw the golden tablets or the far-seeing spectacles. He dictated the book, concealed behind a curtain, and it was written down by Cowdery. This course seemed to be rendered necessary by the fact that Joe did not know how to write. ^[12]

• Scribe: Oliver Cowdery
• Curtain: Mentioned
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("magic spectacles," "far-seeing spectacles")
• Method: Not specified

1878

William S. Sayre (non-eyewitness)

Richards [Martin Harris], got into the Stage house when on <the> rout & Said he resided at Palmira, & had been to Quages, which was in the town of Colesville a few miles from South Bainbridge village to See Jos[eph] Smith, who had resided in Palmira, & had found a gold bible & stone in which he looked & was thereby enabled to translate the very ancient chara[c]ters which <he> found in the bible. He Said Smith was poor & was living in a house which had only one room <in which he could keep [for?]> & Smith had a sheet put up in one corner & went behind it from observation when he was writing the bible. He SaId Smith kept the bible hid or covered up & put it in a hat & had the Stone which <he> found in Pal=mira & look[e] d through it & then wrote what he read in the bible. He Said <he> would not let him see the bible but let him feel of it when it was covered up. Smith read to him a good deal of the bible & he repeated to those in the Stage verse after verse of what Smith had read to him; ^[13]

• Scribe: Not specified (Martin Harris?)
• Curtain: mentioned ("a sheet")
• Instrument: Either the Nephite interpreters or the seer stone ("the Stone which he found in Palmira")
• Method: Looked "through" it.

1879

Emma Smith Bidamon (eyewitness)

In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us. ^[14]

• Scribe: Emma Smith
• Curtain: Not present
• Instrument: Seer stone
• Method: Hat

S.F. Walker

He had seen the plates; and it was his especial pride and joy that he had written sixty pages of the Book of Mormon.... When the work of translation was going on he sat at one table with his writing material and Joseph at another with the breast-plate and Urim and Thummim. The later were attached to the breast-plate and were two crystals or glasses, into which he looked and saw the words of the book. The words remained in sight till correctly written, and mistakes of the scribe in spelling the names were corrected by the seer without diverting his gaze from the Urim and Thummim. ^[15]

• Scribe: Not specified
• Curtain: Not present
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("Breast-plate and Urim and Thummim," "two crystals or glasses")
• Method: Joseph "looked" into the crystals or glasses
• Location: Scribe "at one table" and Joseph "at another"

1880

Sallie McKune (non-eyewitness)

MRS. SALLIE MCKUNE, widow of Joseph McKune and mother of Sheriff [Benjamin] McKune, is now eighty years old. She was between twenty-five and thirty years old when Joe Smith was performing about Susquehanna, and lived upon a farm adjoining Joe Smith's lot and the Isaac Hale farm, and in sight of the place where they dug for the ton of silver, on Jacob I. Skinner's farm. Smith's residence was between the residence of an addition to the house, and Mrs. McKune lived in the house about forty years. She remembers the arrangement of the nails used for hooks to hang blankets on during the translation of the golden bible. ^[16]

• Scribe: Unknown
• Curtain: Mentioned
• Instrument: Not specified
• Method: Not specified

Frederick G. Mather (non-eyewitness)

Joe Smith would write the translation from his plates upon a slate, or dictate what to write, and others would copy upon paper. His assistants were witness Martin Harris, and brother-in-law Reuben Hale.31 The translating and writing were done in the little low chamber of Joe Smith's house. The Prophet and his precious trust were screened even from the sight of his clerks by blankets nailed to the walls. 32 The nails remained for many years just as they were driven by the Prophet, and it was not until some repairing was done a short time ago that they were drawn out. Neighbors were free to call at the house as much as they pleased while the bible was concocting, and the matter of the golden bible would be talked over. Some persons were permitted to lift the pillow case in which it was kept, and feel the thickness of the volume the plates made, but no one was permitted to see them. ^[17]

• Scribe: Not identified
• Curtain: Mentioned
• Instrument: Not specified
• Method: Not specified

Eri B. Mullin (non-eyewitness), Saint's Herald

I for my part know he said that Joseph had the instrument Urim and Thummim. I asked him how they looked. He said they looked like spectacles, and he (Joseph) would put them on and look in a hat, or put his face in the hat and read. Says I, "Did he have the plates in there:' "No, ^[18]

• Scribe: Not identified
• Curtain: Not mentioned
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("spectacles")
• Method: Hat

1881

David Whitmer (eyewitness), Kansas City Daily Journal

My statement was and now is that in translating he put the stone in his hat and putting his face in his hat so as to excluded the light and that then the light and characters appeared in the hat together with the interpretation which he uttered and was written by the scribe and which was tested at the time as stated. ^[19]

• Scribe: Not identified
• Curtain: Not mentioned
• Instrument: "the stone"
• Method: Hat

1884

David Whitmer (eyewitness), St. Louis Republican

The understanding we have about it was that when the book was discovered an angel was present and pointed the place out. In translating from the plates, Joseph Smith looked through the Urim and Thummim, consisting of two transparent pebbles set in the rim of a bow, fastened to a breastplate. He dictated by looking through them to his scribes: ^[20]

• Scribe: Not explicitly identified ("his scribes")
• Curtain: Not mentioned
• Instrument: Urim and Thummim, two transparent pebbles set in the rim of a bow.
• Method: "dictated by looking through them"

1885

David Whitmer (eyewitness), Chicago Tribune

Each time before resuming the work all present would kneel in prayer and invoke the Divine blessing on the proceeding. After prayer Smith would sit on one side of a table and the amanuenses, in turn as they became tired, on the other. Those present and not actively engaged in the work seated themselves around the room and then the work began. After affixing the magical spectacles to his eyes, Smith would take the plates and translate the characters one at a time. The graven characters would appear in succession to the seer, and directly under the character, when viewed through the glasses, would be the translation in English. ^[21]

• Scribe: Not explicitly identified ("the amanuenses")
• Curtain: Not present
• Instrument: Nephite interpreters ("magical spectacles," "glasses")
• Method: "affixing the magical spectacles to his eyes"

David Whitmer (eyewitness), Chicago Tribune

In order to give privacy to the proceeding a blanket, which served as a portiere, was stretched across the family living room to shelter the translators and the plates from the eyes of any who might call at the house while the work was in progress. This, Mr. Whitmer says, was the only use made of the blanket, and it was not for the purpose of concealing the plates or the translator from the eyes of the amanuensis. In fact, Smith was at no time hidden from his collaborators, and the translation was performed in the presence of not only the persons mentioned, but of the entire Whitmer household and several of Smith's relatives besides. ^[22]

• Scribe: Not mentioned
• Curtain: Mentioned
• Instrument: Not specified
• Method: Not specified

1887

David Whitmer (eyewitness), An Address to All Believers in Christ

God gave to an unlearned boy, Joseph Smith, the gift to translate it by the means of a STONE. See the following passages concerning the ”Urim and Thummin," being the same means and one by which the Ancients received the word of the Lord. ^[23]

I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and pout his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man. ^[24]

• Scribe: Oliver Cowdery
• Curtain: Not mentioned
• Instrument: Stone, "Urim and Thummin," seer stone
• Method: Hat

1888

W.R. Hine (non-eyewitness), Naked Truths about Mormonism

Soon I learned that Jo claimed to be translating the plates in Badger's Tavern, in Colesville, three miles from my house. I went there and saw Jo Smith sit by a table and put a handkerchief to his forehead and peek into his hat and call out a word to Cowdery, who sat at the same table and wrote it down. Several persons sat near the same table and there was no curtain between them. ^[25]

• Scribe: Oliver Cowdery
• Curtain: Stated that there was no curtain
• Instrument: Not mentioned
• Method: Hat

== Notes ==

1. [note] Truman Coe, “Mormonism,” Cincinnati Journal and Western Luminary (25 August 1836). Reprinted from Hudson Ohio Observer, 11 August 1836. off-site; also cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:47.
2. [note]  “History of Mormanism,” The Ohio Repository (Canton, Ohio) (1 September 1836). Reprinted from New York Commercial Advertiser, circa August 1836. off-site
3. [note]  Alphonoso Wetmore, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri (St. Louis: C. Keemle, 1837), 93–96. off-site
4. [note]  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."
5. [note] “The Golden Bible,” Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Ohio) (26 May 1837). off-site
6. [note] John A. Clark, Gleanings By the Way (Philadelphia: W J. and J. K. Simon, 1842), 224, 228, 230-31; part of this chapter on the Mormons appeared as a letter in the Episcopal Recorder 18 (1846): 94. This interview was also reprinted in "Modern Superstition.-The Mormonites.-No. I;' Visitor, or Monthly Instructor (1841): 62, 63-64.
7. [note] Charles Anthon to Reverend T.W. Coit April 3, 1841, in Clark, Gleanings By the Way, 234-35.
8. [note] Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton, 1867), 29-49
9. [note] Francis W. Kirkham, "The Manner of Translating the Book of Mormon," Improvement Era 42. 10 (October 1939) quoting Deseret Evening News, September 5, 1870, which reports in part an address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
10. [note] Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery, "Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery Affidavit, 15 February 1870," in Early Mormon Documents, ed. Dan Vogel, 5 vols. (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1870), 5:260.
11. [note] William E. McLellin to "My Dear Friends;' February 1870, Community of Christ Library-Archives; cited in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 233-34. Elizabeth Whitmer, born in 1815, was the daughter of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Whitmer (and the sister of David Whitmer). She was fourteen years old when the translation was completed at her parents' home in Fayette, New York. She married Oliver Cowdery in 1832.
12. [note] "Joe Smith, Something about the Early Life of the Mormon prophet;' Detroit Post and Tribune, December 3, 1877, 3; cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:517, 520. John Gilbert (1802-95) was principal typesetter and proofreader when the Book of Mormon was printed in 1829-30.
13. [note] William S. Sayre to James T. Cobb, 31 August 1878, Theodore A. Schroeder Papers, Archives, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin.
14. [note] Joseph Smith III, "Last Testimony of Sister Emma;' Saints' Herald 26 (October 1, 1879): 289-90; and Joseph Smith III, "Last Testimony of Sister Emma;' Saints' Advocate 2 (October 1879): 50-52.
15. [note] S. F. Walker, "Synopsis of a Discourse Delivered at Lamoni, Iowa," Saints' Herald 26 (December 15,1879): 370.
16. [note] [Frederick G. Mather], "The Early Mormons. Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna," Binghamton Republican, 29 July 1880.
17. [note] [Frederick G. Mather], "The Early Mormons. Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna," Binghamton Republican, 29 July 1880.
18. [note] Eri B. Mullin, Letter to the editor, Saints' Herald 27 (March 1, 1880): 76.
19. [note] David Whitmer to the editor, Kansas City Daily Journal, June 19, 1881; cited in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 71-72.
20. [note] St. Louis Republican, July 16, 1884; cited in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 143.
21. [note] "The Book of Mormon;' Chicago Tribune, December 17, 1885, 3• The Tribune correspondent visited and interviewed Whitmer on December 15, 1885, at Whitmer's home in Richmond, Missouri.
22. [note] "The Book of Mormon;' Chicago Tribune, December 17, 1885, 3. The Tribune correspondent visited and interviewed Whitmer on December 15, 1885, at Whitmer's home in Richmond, Missouri.
23. [note] David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, (1887), p. 5. off-site
24. [note] David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, (1887), p. 11. off-site
25. [note] W. R. Hine's Statement, Naked Truths about Mormonism 1 (January 1888) 2.