A testimony of the Book of Mormon must of necessity embrace the understanding that it came as a “gift” of God, by the “power of God.” It is both the foundation upon which the modern Church is to rest and a miracle. To suppose that in its origin the Book of Mormon is less than a miracle is to attempt to build the house of one’s understanding upon something other than the foundation upon which the Lord placed it. It is not expected that miracles be explained.” The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon by Joseph Fielding McConkie (Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU) and Craig J. Ostler (Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, BYU) 2010.
Elder Ulisses Soares Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles April 2020
“My dear fellow companions in the gospel, many of today’s discoveries from ancient times occur during an archaeological excavation or even by accident during a construction project. Joseph Smith, however, was directed to the plates by an angel. That outcome by itself was a miracle.
The translation process of the Book of Mormon was also a miracle. This sacred ancient record was not “translated” in the traditional way that scholars would translate ancient texts by learning an ancient language. We ought to look at the process more like a “revelation” with the aid of physical instruments provided by the Lord, as opposed to a “translation” by one with knowledge of languages. Joseph Smith declared that through God’s power he “translated the Book of Mormon from [hieroglyphs], the knowledge of which was lost to the world, in which wonderful event [he] stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries, with a new revelation.” The Lord’s help in the translation of the plates—or revelation, so to speak—is also evident when considering the miraculously short time Joseph Smith took to translate them.
Joseph’s scribes testified of the power of God that was manifested while working on the translation of the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery once said: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated … ‘The Book of Mormon.’” Elder Ulisses Soares https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/04/23soares?lang=eng
Between the words that Elder Soares quoted above of, “translated…’The Book of Mormon’, the dot dot dot represents the missing words of, “with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called” I think these are important words to include with the complete testimony of Oliver Cowdery as I discuss how the Book of Mormon was translated.
Elder Soares words about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon are wonderful. I know also this book is the word of God. I also have a witness that Joseph Smith translated the plates by the “Gift and Power of God” We may all interpret differently what that means. Did Joseph use a seer stone, did he use the Urim and Thummim, did he dictate words from a shinning stone, did the Lord tell him what to say, etc. etc.
I believe the overwhelming evidence quoted from the only two first hand witnesses, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, is the truth. I don’t believe the second and third hand accounts of David Whitmer, Martin Harris, William McClellin, or Emma Smith. I don’t believe Joseph used a stone in a hat as the words miraculously read as a great tele- prompter in front of his eyes. I don’t believe the Lord just told him what to say. I don’t believe as many intellectuals do, that Joseph never looked at the plates. I don’t believe Joseph dictated or transliterated, but Joseph truly did “Translate” using the Urim and Thummim or Nephite Interpreters. Joseph learned translation from Moroni most likely and other heavenly beings along with his own hard work. Translation means Joseph looked at the plates with the assistance of the Urim and Thummim or Nephite Interpreters, and Joseph used his own memory bank of words he knew or had learned to put what he saw into words written down by Oliver as his scribe. If Joseph would have merely repeated to Oliver the words he saw in a stone, there wouldn’t have been any mistakes in the dictation. I assume the intellectuals who think Joseph read the words off of a stone, that they think those words came from God or an angel and thus Joseph would not have had to translate, but merely repeat the words off of a stone. That to me is silly.
By the way, the words Urim and Thummim are never used in the Book of Mormon. These are words from the Old Testament. The Bible dictionary defines Urim and Thummim as, “Instruments prepared by God to assist man in obtaining revelation and in translating languages. In the Hebrew language the words mean “lights and perfections.” The Urim and Thummim consist of two stones set in silver bows and sometimes used with a breastplate (D&C 17:1; JS—H 1:35, 42, 52).”
“The” Urim and Thummim is different from “a” Urim and Thummim. Things may function as a so called Urim and Thummim but the only item buried with the gold plates was “the” “Nephite Interpreters” sometimes called “a” Urim and Thummim. Why would the Lord have the Brother of Jared bury the breastplate and two stones in a silver bow with the Jaredite records, if the records were not to be translated with the items buried with them? (Ether 3:23-24).
Joseph found a few seer stones of his own as many in his day did, but they weren’t used to translate the plates. Maybe they were used for other promptings or helps to Joseph but. “the” Urim and Thummim” or “Nephite Interpreters” or the “two spectacles in the rim of a bow attached to a breastplate” that were buried with the plates is the only instrument used to translate said plates. No where is scripture can you find anything different. Doesn’t that make sense? Read below as the Lord touched 16 stones for the Jaredite barges, yet He touched two special additional stones to be buried with the Jaredite plates to be used to help Joseph Smith translate.
The Lord Touched 18 Stones not 16
“And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read.
And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write.
For behold, the language which ye shall write I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write.” Ether 3:22-24
Complete Words of Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’ Joseph Smith History
Joseph Fielding Smith
“While the statement has been made by some writers that the Prophet Joseph Smith used a seer stone part of the time in his translating of the record, and information points to the fact that he did have in his possession such a stone, yet there is no authentic statement in the history of the Church which states that the use of such a stone was made in that translation. The information is all hearsay, and personally, I do not believe that this stone was used for this purpose. The reason I give for this conclusion is found in the statement of the Lord to the Brother of Jared as recorded in Ether 3:22–24. These stones, the Urim and Thummim which were given to the Brother of Jared, were preserved for this very purpose of translating the record, both of the Jaredites and the Nephites. Then again the Prophet was impressed by Moroni with the fact that these stones were given for that very purpose. It hardly seems reasonable to suppose that the Prophet would substitute something evidently inferior under these circumstances. It may have been so, but it is so easy for a story of this kind to be circulated due to the fact that the Prophet did possess a seer stone, which he may have used for some other purposes” (Joseph Fielding Smith, “Doctrines of Salvation,” Vol. 3, 225-26).
Here is one of my blogs that go into more detail about the translation:
