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Source:John Whitmer handled the plates - "Theodore Turley's Memorandums"
Revision as of 21:57, 21 October 2014 by RogerNicholson (talk | contribs) (→John Whitmer: "I now say I handled those plates. there was fine engravings on both sides. I handled them...and they were shown to me by a supernatural power.")
John Whitmer physically handled the plates
Parent page: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Eight witnesses
John Whitmer: "I now say I handled those plates. there was fine engravings on both sides. I handled them...and they were shown to me by a supernatural power."
John Whitmer said:
...all I know, you have published to the world that an angel did present those plates to Joseph Smith." Whitmer replied "I now say I handled those plates. there was fine engravings on both sides. I handled them." and he described how they were hung "and they were shown to me by a supernatural power." he acknowledged all. Turley asked him why the translation is not now true, & he said "I cannot read it, and I do not know whether it is true or not.[1]
So, the apostate Whitmer insists that he physically handled the plates, and attests to having seen fine engraving "on both sides." Even when apostate, he would not deny what he had seen, but had to claim that he couldn't know if the translation was accurate, since he had no witness of that.
Notes
- ↑ "Theodore Turley's Memorandums," Church Archives, handwriting of Thomas Bullock, who began clerking in late 1843; cited in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 5:241.; see also with minor editing in Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 3:307–308. Volume 3 link