The precise manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated was never described in detail by himself personally. In fact, he stated that it was not the will of God that it should be made known. Such descriptions come from secondary sources whose accuracy cannot always be trusted. What we know is that it was a miraculous event, and took place by the power of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
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"Relative to the manner of translating the Book of Mormon the Prophet himself has said but little. “Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God,” is the most extended published statement made by him upon the subject. Of the Urim and Thummim he says: “With the record was found a curious instrument which the ancients called a Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones set in a rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.”
Oliver Cowdery, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and the Prophet’s chief amanuensis, says of the work of translation in which he assisted: “I wrote with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages), as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by that book, 'Holy Interpreters.”’ This is all he has left on record on the manner of translating the book.
Another account of the manner of translating the record purporting to have been given by David Whitmer, and published in the
Kansas City Journal of June 5, 1881, says: He [meaning Joseph Smith] had two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg-shape, and perfectly smooth, but not transparent, called interpreters, which were given him with the plates. He did not see the plates in translation, but would hold the interpreters to his eyes and cover his face with a hat, excluding all light, and before his eyes would appear what seemed to be parchment on which would appear the characters of the plates in a line at the top, and immediately below would appear the translation in English, which Smith would read to his scribe, who wrote it down exactly as it fell from his lips. The scribe would then read the sentence written, and if any mistakes had been made, the characters would remain visible to Smith until corrected, when they would fade from sight to be replaced by another line.
It is evident that there are inaccuracies in the above statement, due, doubtless, to the carelessness of the reporter of the
Journal, who has confused what Mr. Whitmer said of the Seer Stone and Urim and Thummim. If he meant to describe the Urim and Thummim or “Interpreters” given to Joseph Smith with the plates—as seems to be the case—then the reporter is wrong in saying that they were chocolate color and not transparent; for the “Interpreters,” given to the Prophet with the plates, as we have seen by his own description, were “two transparent stones.” If the reporter meant to describe the “Seer Stone”—which is not likely—he would be right in saying it was of a chocolate color, and egg-shaped, but wrong in saying there were two of them.
Martin Harris’ description of the manner of translating while he was the amanuensis of the Prophet is 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.", Roberts, BH, New Witnesses for God, Vol 2, Deseret Book Company, 1909
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B.H. Roberts was an LDS Church Historian, an official church calling, from 1901-1933)
