2000 Changes in the Book of Mormon Pt 1.

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2000 Changes In The Book of Mormon Pt 1.

T MAY not seem a matter of importance to some to learn just how the plates were translated. But it seems to me that a great matter rests upon even this small point of history.

If it is a fact that Joseph had the plates as he said, and translated them as we are told he did, the probabilities are that those who were intimately connected with the work would get a correct understanding of the way it was done, and we would be furnished with correct data regarding so great a subject.

I have considered, carefully, all the references made to the way the work of translation was performed that I have been able to find, but at present cannot tell how the work was accomplished.

It is necessary that we learn as much about the historical evidence as we can before we enter into the subject matter of this little work. Indeed we should have the whole truth to do it justice. But since I have not found what satisfies me as being the whole truth, we will go to work as best we can.

Elder George Reynolds, in writing on the subject of "Time Occupied in Translating the Book of Mormon," says:

1. "Objection has been made to the divinity of the Book of Mormon on the ground that the account given in the publications of the Church, of the time occupied in the work of translation is far too short for the accomplishment of such a labor, and consequently it must have been copied or transcribed from some work written In the English language, most probably from Spaulding's 'Manuscript Found.' But at the outset it must be recollected that the translation was accomplished by no common method, by no ordinary means. It was done by divine aid. There were no delays over obscure passages, no difficulties over the choice of words, no stoppages from the ignorance of the translator; no time was wasted in investigation or argument over the value, intent or meaning of certain characters, and there were no references to authorities. These difficulties to human work were removed. All was as simple as when a clerk writes from dictation. The translation of the characters appeared on the Urim and Thummim, sentence by sentence, and as soon as one was correctly transcribed the next would appear. So the enqiry narrows down to the consideration of this simple question, how much could Oliver Cowdrey write in a day?" - Myth of the Manuscript Found, Page 71.

Again, from the same author, we have a quotation from Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses, Joseph's first scribe, a man who befriended Joseph, and was in his company at first, when the work was yet in embryo; the man who saw as much of the process as God designed man-other than his prophet Joseph-to see at that time:

2. "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 be 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. -Myth of the Manuscript Found, Page 91.

M. T. Lamb has quoted David Whitmer's description of the process from the Deseret Evening News of December 24, 1885:

3. "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." - The Golden Bible, page 241.

B. H. Roberts, in his "Brief History of the Church," has the following footnote, but he does not tell where he gets it. 0. F. Whitney has almost the same thing in his "History of Utah:"

4. "The following is the manner in which it is said the Book of Mormon was translated: The Prophet, scanning through the Urim and Thummim the golden pages, would see the strange characters engraved their equivalent in English words. These he would repeat, and the scribe, separated from him by a veil or curtain, would write them down, * * * Until the writing was correct in every particular, the words last given would remain before the eyes of the translator, and not disappear. But on the necessary correction being made, they would immediately pass away and be succeeded by others.'"- Brief History of the Church, page 28.

Dr. Wyle, an anti-Mormon author, quotes Emma's-the Prophet's first wife-death-bed statement to her son Joseph:

5. "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. -Mormon Portraits, page 203.

Daniel P. Kidder published a work in 1842. This, too, is anti-Mormon, and we can take it for what it is worth. We make an extract from a statement made by Joseph's father-in-law, Isaac Hale:

6. "The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the book of plates was at the same time hid in the woods."- Mormonism and the Mormons, page 32.

A Chicago Times correspondent visited David Whitmer, and published an article which was criticized by the Deseret Evening News at the time. Our extract was not criticized, so it must have been correct, according to the ideas of the editor

7. "Frequently one character would make two lines of manuscript, while others made but a word or two words. -Myth of M. F., page 83.

In order to avoid trouble in calling attention to the above extracts we have numbered them.

The only point of interest to me in Nos. 5 and 6 is that the stone was placed in Joseph's hat. Just where the plates were I cannot tell, for if Joseph had the stone and his face buried in his hat, it is hardly probable that the plates could have been there too. If they were, the light must have been excluded, so he could not view them with his natural eyes, and the work could not be read as we would read a work by the light of the sun.

Extract No. one says: "The translation of the characters appeared ON the Urim and Thummim." No. three says Joseph viewed the characters "THROUGH" the glasses. No. four also says that he viewed the plates THOUGH the Urim and Thummim. The question which now presents itself is, did the translation appear ON the stone, or Urim and Thummim, or did Joseph look THROUGH the instrument and see the translation beyond it, or was it sometimes one way and sometimes the other way. As a matter of fact, after reading what all three extracts say, I do not know anything about it.

Number three says: "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. In number four Joseph "would see appear, IN LIEU of the strange characters engraven thereon, their equivalent in English words." Number one says "The translation of the characters appeared on the Urim and Thummim." It is important that we understand this matter, so please note carefully. Number three says both character and English appeared, number four says only the English appeared; number one says the translation appeared, but says, nothing about the characters appearing. So after getting all I can out of this, I am not certain of the way the translation was performed.

Number seven may throw a little light on the subject: "Frequently one character would make two lines of manuscript, while others would make but a word or two words." If the English appeared IN LIEU of the characters, how could Joseph tell which character made the English before him? And if the translation only came up upon the Urim and Thummim, how could he tell what part of time record he was working on? How could he tell when to turn over the leaf? Or is it a fact that they sometimes translated with the plates in the woods? Or were they placed in a hat and all the light of day excluded? If Joseph looked THROUGH the instrument, and saw the graven characters appear in succession, and the English too, it is possible that he might have known the amount of English each character made. But if he was looking at time whole page, what became of the characters that did not stand in view of the translator? Did time instrument cover time page with a mist, and only allow the proper character to appear through the mist, or does it look as though the story was fabricated out of whole cloth, and that it was not so carefully thought out that sometimes one story was told and sometimes another. In the second Martin says: "So that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in time language then used." This to me is a statement made at random, for as I understand translation, the thought is all that could possibly have been reproduced; and as Martin knew nothing of language, it was impossible to know more than that Joseph or some other power told him that such was the case. We expect to present, further on in this little work, a chapter on translation.

The spelling and punctuation is a matter of interest to me. The question is, did the heavenly instrument spell and punctuate the work for Joseph? From the extracts quoted one would be led to think the work was "correct in every particular, and as spelling and punctuation are both particulars," they must have been included. To be sure, the misspelling of many words could not lead one astray; but if the work came up, either on the instrument or on the plates, or in some divinely formed background, it must have come in script or print to have been understood by Joseph. If it came in either way, of course each word would have been spelled correctly. Probably the singular and plural of verbs would have given Joseph the most trouble if they were not spelled for him.

With his education at time time he would not have been likely to get all these things right, and if they had been written incorrectly, the printer would have been likely to want to change them, and if they were to have insisted that God was responsible for every word, as he most assuredly would have been if the instrument furnished every word, of course he would have let it remain as God gave it. Neither love, money nor threats would have induced him to have made a change, even if he had used the singular for the plural verb, or vice versa.

The punctuation, however, is a matter of very great importance. Occasionally we meet with sentences which can be punctuated so they will not convey the idea the author wished to convey. We often get letters written without punctuation, and many times they are difficult to understand. But as a matter of history the Book of Mormon manuscript was not punctuated. The typo who set the first edition says: "We had a great deal of trouble with it. It was not punctuated at all. They did not know anything about punctuation, and we had to do that ourselves." It seems to me that God could have added the punctuation just as well as not, especially when he was doing, as Orson Pratt says, "What could he more marvelous and wonderful, than for the Lord to cause an unlearned youth to read or translate a book which the wisdom of the most wise and learned could not read?" -Orson Pratt's Works, page 298.

Had this language been perfect, it would have been marvelous, and there is plenty of room for a perfect being to have improved even on time best, but if the most marvelous part is its clumsiness, and if the translator was not furnished with the punctuation, and had to leave so important a matter to a common scrub printer, (as Joseph F. Smith informs the writer that Grandon was, and that they could not get a first-class printer to do the work) to say the least, the work was not so marvelous as it could have been. God's way may not be as man's ways, but so far as the writer is concerned, he would have had more faith in the work if it had been "correct in every particular," a model of simplicity in English, and not need more than 3,000 amendments to make it passable among even scrub English scholars. My faith would have been greater if the words "Carefully revised by the translator" had not appeared in the title page of each edition except time first as far as the fourth. We close this subject with an extract set without paragraphs or punctuation:

And now Abinadi said unto them I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men and shall redeem his people and because he dwelleth in flesh be shall be called the Son of God and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father being the Father and the Son the Father because he was conceived by the power of God and the Son because of the flesh thus becoming the Father and the Son and they are one God yea the very eternal Father of heaven and of earth and thus the flesh becoming subject to the spirit or the Son to the Father being one God suffereth temptation and yieldeth not to the temptation but suffereth himself to be mocked and scourged and cast out and disowned by his people and after all this after working many mighty miracles among the children of men he shall be led yea even as Isaiah said as a sheep before the shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth yea even so shall he be led crucified and slain the flesh becoming subject even unto death the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father and thus God breaketh the bands of death having gained the victory over death giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men baying ascended into heaven having the bowels of mercy being filled with compassion towards the children of men standing betwixt them and justice having broken the bands of death taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions having redeemed them and satisfied the demands of justice and now I say unto you who shall declare his generation behold I say unto you that when his soul I has been made an offering for sin he shalt see his seed and now what say ye and who shall be his seed

We must go over these extracts for another point, the most important of all to me. Number four says: "Until the CORRECT IN EVERY PARTICULAR the words last given would remain before the eyes of the translator, and not disappear. But on the necessary corrections being made, they would immediately pass away and be succeeded by others. Number two says: "And if CORRECTLY written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place. But if not written CORRECTLY it remained until CORRECTED." Number one says: "There were no delays over obscure passages, no difficulties over the choice of words, no stoppages from the ignorance of the translator, no time was wasted in investigation or argument over the value intent or meaning of certain characters, and there were no references to authorities. These difficulties to human work were removed. All was as simple as when a clerk writes from dictation. The translation of the characters appeared on the Urim and Thummim, sentence by sentence, and as soon as one was CORRECTLY transcribed the next would appear."

This is one point of history where there is no disagreement in testimony so far as I have been able to learn. Joseph was furnished with every syllable. He did not have to ransack his scanty vocabulary for the proper word. "It was all as simple as when a clerk writes from dictation, when the dictator reads from a printed page. If he could pronounce it he could spell it, and it did not matter whether he knew the meaning or not.

If language could be made stronger than the above in proof that Joseph had every word furnished him by the instrument, it is given in the following:

[NOTE-The parts set in light face type and enclosed in brackets have been eliminated since the first edition, in 1833. The parts set in light face type and not enclosed in brackets have been added since the first edition.]

1. Now, behold, I say unto you, that because you delivered up those [so many] writings which you had power given unto you to translate, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, into the hands of a wicked man, you have lost them;

2. And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened.

3. Nevertheless, it is now [has been] restored unto you again, therefore see that you are faithful and continue [go] on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun.

4. Do not run faster, or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end:

5. Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan [and those] that do uphold his work.

6. Behold, they have sought to destroy you; yea, even the man in whom you have trusted, has sought to destroy you.

7. And for this cause I said that he is a wicked man, for he has sought to take away the things wherewith you have been entrusted; and he has also sought to destroy your gift;

8. And because you have delivered the writings into his hands, behold, wicked men [they] have taken them from you:

9. Therefore, you have delivered them up; yes, that which was sacred unto wickedness.

10. And, behold, Satan has put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated, which have gone out of your hands.

11. And, behold. I say unto you, that because they have altered the words, they read contrary from that which you translated caused to be written;

12. And on this wise, the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, that be may destroy this work;

13. For he has put it into their hearts to do this. that by lying they may say they have caught you in the words which you have pretended to translate.

14. Verily, I say unto you, that I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing,

15. For, behold, he has put it into their hearts to get thee to tempt the Lord thy [their] God, in asking to translate it over again;

16. And then, behold, they say and think [for behold they say] in their hearts, we will see if God has given him power to translate, if so, he will also give him power again;

17. And if God giveth him power again, or if he translates [translate] again, or in other words, if he bringeth forth the same words, behold, we have the same with us, and we have altered them:

18. Therefore, they will not agree, and we will say that be has lied in his words, and that he has no gift, and that he has no power:

19. Therefore we will destroy him and also the work, and we will do this that we may not be ashamed in the end, and that we may get glory of the world.

20. Verily, verily. I say unto you, that Satan has great hold upon their hearts; he stirreth them up to [do] iniquity against that which is good,

21. And their hearts are corrupt and full of wickedness and abominations, and they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil: therefore they will not ask of me.

22. Satan stirreth them up, that he may lead their souls to destruction.

23. And thus he has laid a cunning plan, thinking to destroy the work of God, but I will require this at their hands, and it shall turn to their shame and condemnation in the day of judgment.

25. Yea, he saith unto them, deceive and lie in wait to catch, that ye may destroy: behold, this is no harm, and thus he flattereth them, and telleth them that it is no sin to lie, that they may catch a man in a lie, that they may destroy him.

26. And thus he flattereth them, and leadeth them along until he draggeth their souls down to hell; and thus he causeth them to catch themselves in their own snare.

27. And thus he goeth up and down, to and fro, in the earth, seeking to destroy the souls of men.

28. Verily, verily, I say unto you, we be unto him that lieth to deceive, because he supposeth that another lieth to deceive, for such are not exempt from the justice of God.

29. Now, behold, they have altered these [those] words, because Satan saith unto them, He hath deceived you: and thus he flattereth them away to do iniquity, to get thee to tempt the Lord thy [their] God.

30. Behold, I say unto you, that you shall not translate again those words which have gone forth out of your hands:

31. For behold, they shall not accomplish their evil designs in lying [lie any more] against those words. For behold, if you should bring forth the same words, they will [would] say that you have lied; that you have pretended to translate, but that you have contradicted yourself; [your words]

32. And, behold, they will [would] publish this, and Satan will [would] harden the hearts of the people to stir them up to anger against you, that they will [might] not believe my words.

33. Thus Satan thinketh to [would] overpower your testimony in this generation, that the work may [might] not come forth in this generation:

34. But behold, here is wisdom, and because I show unto you wisdom, and give you commandments I concerning these things, what you shall do, show it met unto the world until you have accomplished the work of translation.

Please note the language of the tenth verse, "Satan has put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written." Also the eleventh, "because they have altered the words that they read contrary from that which you have translated." Notice the thirteenth. The people who had the manuscript were going to lie by claiming that Joseph had not translated the work over again exactly as it was at first. Of course Joseph could translate it again word for word; but what was the use? The people would change the work, causing it to read "contrary." In my way of looking at it, language could not be put up setting forth the claim that Joseph was furnished every word, and if he was, we simply refer you to the next chapter, showing the changes he made himself after the book had been published to the world. Surely there can be no harm in wondering if this is a cunning plan laid by Satan, as set forth in verses twelve and thirteen.