As for my explanation of Johm Whitmet…Peyote. sorry, in a amused mood today
Forgive me, I am just having fun with you. As for my thoughts on the matter, I will research and comment later.
Okay. Here is another site:
en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon_witnesses:Eight_witnesses
Response
The critics’ attempt to argue that the witnesses only ‘saw’ the plates in a spiritual state, and then were allowed to heft a covered box. This flatly contradicts their own reports, and those of others.[1]
John Whitmer
Critics rely on one report from then-apostate John Whitmer and attempt to use this as the ‘smoking gun’ for a “visionary only” experience:
…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.[2]
So, the apostate Whitmer insists that he physically handled the plates, and attests to having seen fine engraving “on both sides.” The critics grasp at straws, and ignore the very clear implication that Whitmer (here a bitter enemy of Joseph Smith) claims to have actually seen and handled the plates. The “supernatural power” citation seems to be the imposition of the interviewers’ bias (it appears in none of Whitmer’s first person accounts or in the Testimony of the Eight Witnesses). It is also possible that Whitmer was insisting that Joseph Smith could not have showed him the plates without divine aid; this perspective is not present in any of his other statements, however. The Three witnesses likewise insisted on the physical reality of their experience with the angel, despite the supernatural trappings of their witness experience.
Why, then, did Whiter apostatize? He rationalized his choice to disbelieve the translation of the Book of Mormon (despite knowing that the plates were literal and physical) thusly:
I cannot read it, and I do not know whether it is true or not.[3]
Whitmer also published his witness to the plates:
I have most assuredly seen the plates from whence the Book of Mormon is translated, and that I have handled these plates.[4]
Richard Anderson has collected eight accounts of John Whitmer’s that confirm the reality of his handling of the plates.[5] The critics ignore much documentary evidence in Whitmer’s case alone, simply because his witness is inconvenient for their speculations.
Whitmer’s final interview is impressive:
I said: I am aware that your name is affixed to the testimony in the Book of Mormon, that you saw the plates? He–It is so, and that testimony is true. I–Did you handle the plates with your hands? He–I did so! I–Then they were a material substance? He–Yes, as material as anything can be. I–They were heavy to lift? He–Yes, and you know gold is a heavy metal, they were very heavy. I–How big were the leaves? He–So far as I recollect, 8 by 6 or 7 inches. I–Were the leaves thick? He–Yes, just so thick, that characters could be engraven on both sides. I–How were the leaves joined together? He–In three rings, each one in the shape of a D with the straight line towards the centre. . . . . I–Did you see them covered with a cloth? He–No. He handed them uncovered into our hands, and we turned the leaves sufficient to satisfy us.[6]
Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith wrote:
In a few days we were follow by Joseph and Oliver and the Whitmers who came to make us a visit and also to make some arrangements about getting the book printed soon after they came They all that is the male part of the company repaired to a little grove where it was customary for the family to offer up their secret prayers. as Joseph had been instructed that the plates would be carried there by one of the ancient Nephites. Here it was that those 8 witnesses recorded in the Book of Mormon looked upon the plates and handled them of which they bear witness in the [title page of the Book of Mormon]. . . . After the witnesses returned to the house the Angel again made his appearance to Joseph and received the plates from his hands.[7]
Hyrum Smith
Multiple writers recalled Hyrum’s testimony:
[W]ee wass talking about the Book of Mormon which he is one of the witnesses he said he had but too hands and too eyes he said he had seen the plates with his eyes and handled them with his hands.[8]
“[Mary Fielding Smith] bears testimony that her husband [Hyrum] has seen and handled the plates, &c.”[9]
Another writer heard Hyrum “declare, in this city in public, that what is recorded about the plates, &c. &c. is God’s solemn truth.”[10]
After being in Liberty Jail, Hyrum wrote:
I felt a determination to die, rather than deny the things which my eyes had seen, which my hands had handled, and which I had borne testimony to, wherever my lot had been cast.[11]
Samuel Smith
Daniel Tyler reported hearing Samuel Smith:
He knew his brother Joseph had the plates, for the prophet had shown them to him, and he had handled them and seen the engravings thereon.[12]
Conclusion
William Smith summarized the matter well when he said of all the Eight witnesses
that they not only Saw with their eyes but handled with their hands the said record . . . nor has either or any one of these witnesses ever to my knowledge Counteracted the testimony as given above Concerning the real existence of these Mormon tablets.[13]
The Eight witnesses consistently affirmed the accuracy of their published testimony, and the physical reality of their experience. The critics will have to seek elsewhere to support their speculations.
