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The Book
of
Mormon
Introductory
1

Study Resources
• The Book of Mormon: A Reader's
Edition Paperback – November 14, 2005 by Grant
Hardy (Editor)
• A New Approach to Studying the Book of Mormon:
Another Testament of Jesus Christ Paperback –
August 1, 2017 by Lynn A.
Rosenvall (Author), David L. Rosenvall (Author)
• The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus
Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition Paperback –
December 31, 2018 by Grant Hardy (Author), Brian
Kershisnik (Illustrator
• The Book of Mormon: The Earliest
Text Hardcover – September 22, 2009 by Royal
Skousen (Editor), Joseph Smith (Translator)
2

One of Joseph Smith’s seer stones
In Joseph Smith’s day, some individuals claimed that they had a gift to
“see,” or receive divine or supernatural messages, through seer stones.
These beliefs came from the Bible and from European cultural traditions
brought to early America by immigrants. Joseph Smith and his family
accepted these beliefs, and Joseph occasionally used stones he
located in the ground to help neighbors find missing objects or search
for buried treasure.
(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/seer-
stones?lang=eng)
4

When Joseph Smith received the golden plates in 1827, he also received a translation instrument with them,
“two stones in silver bows” used by “‘seers’ in ancient or former times” (Joseph Smith—History 1:35). This
instrument was referred to in the Book of Mormon as the “interpreters.” During the translation of the Book of
Mormon, Joseph Smith apparently used both of these instruments—the interpreters and his seer stone—
interchangeably. They worked in much the same way, and the early Saints sometimes used the term “Urim
and Thummim” to refer to the seer stone as well as the interpreters. (ibid)
5

How long did it take Joseph
Smith to transcribe the plates?
• One of the most amazing facts about the Book of Mormon is that it took Joseph
Smith only about sixty-five working days to translate a book that, in the current
edition, is 531 pages long. Historical details about the time it took to translate
the book are remarkably well preserved, and they are corroborated by the
independently consistent statements of numerous witnesses.
• Almost all of the Book of Mormon as we now have it was translated between 7
April and 30 June 1829. Before that, from 12 April to 14 June 1828, Joseph had
translated the 116 pages that Martin Harris lost when he borrowed them to
show to members of his family. In addition, during March 1829, Joseph
translated “a few” pages—with his wife, Emma, acting as scribe—before he was
commanded to “stop for a season.”
• (John W. Welch, professor of law at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben
Clark Law School and president of the Foundation for Ancient Research and
Mormon Studies (FARMS).
6

Martin Harris
• “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, the
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” (CHC 1:29).
9

–Martin Harris
William Pilkington Affidavit, April 3, 1934, 4–6, typescript, CHL;
published in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:355–356; Morris, A
Documentary History of the Book of Mormon, 403.
Statement of William M. Glenn to O. E. Fischbacher, May 30, 1943,
Cardston, Alberta, Canada, cit. Deseret News, October 2, 1943; published in
Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, 116, 120n.28.
“Just as sure as you see the Sun shining, Just as sure
am I that I stood in [p.4] the presence of an Angel of
God ... and saw him hold the Gold Plates in his
Hands.”
“Gentlemen, do you see that hand? Are you sure you
see it? Are your eyes playing a trick or something?
No. Well, as sure as you see my hand so sure did I
see the angel and the plates.”
10

Oliver Cowdery
Before an audience of approximately two
thousand, including non-members of the
Church, Cowdery bore witness of the
coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the
restoration of the Aaronic and
Melchizedek priesthoods, and the divine
calling of Joseph Smith. “I beheld with
my eye and handled with my hands the
gold plates from which it was translated. I
also beheld the Interpreters. That book is
true.” ( Journal of Reuben Miller, 1848,
and MS 21 (20 August 1859): 544. [See
originals.] Edward Bunker was still
talking in 1894 of the “powerfull
testimony” he heard Oliver Cowdery give
at Winter Quarters in 1848. See Larson
and Larson, Diary of Charles Lowell
Walker, 2:774.)
11

–Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery’s Letter to Cornelius C. Blatchley, November 9, 1829;
published in Morris, A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon, 375.
“It was a clear, open beautiful day, far from any
inhabitants, in a remote field, at the time we saw the
record, of which it has been spoken, brought and laid
before us, by an angel, arrayed in glorious light,
ascend out of the midst of heaven. Now if this is
human juggling—judge ye.”
12

David Whitmer
• “I will now give you a description of the
manner in which the Book of Mormon was
translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer
stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat,
drawing it closely around his face to exclude
the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light
would shine. A piece of something resembling
parchment would appear, and under it was the
interpretation in English. Brother Joseph
would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery,
who was his principal scribe, and when it was
written down and repeated to brother Joseph
to see if it was correct, then it would
disappear, and another character with the
interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of
Mormon was translated by the gift and power
of God, and not by any power of man.” ( An
Address to All Believers in Christ,p 12)
13

–David Whitmer
Report of Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith, Millennial Star, 40 (December 9, 1878): 772.
Memoirs of Joseph Smith III, cit. Mary Audentia Smith Anderson, Joseph Smith III and the
Restoration (Independence, MO. 1952), pp. 311–312; published in Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon
Witnesses, 88, 92n.33.
“I saw [the Nephite artifacts] just as plain as I see this
bed (striking his hand upon the bed beside him), and I
heard the voice of the Lord, as distinctly as I ever
heard anything in my life.”
“I was not under any hallucination, nor was I
deceived! I saw with these eyes and I heard with
these ears!”
14

• The combined testimonies of the Three and Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon provide powerful evidence of the
Restoration.
• The Three Witnesses said they beheld the angel Moroni, who showed them the gold plates and other Nephite
artifacts. They also heard a voice from heaven, declaring the truth of the Book of Mormon’s translation.
• In contrast, the Eight Witnesses viewed and handled the plates without any accompanying divine manifestations.
• Throughout their lives, none of these eleven men ever denied their testimonies, which have been published in every
edition of the Book of Mormon since 1830. Despite the consistency of the witnesses’ testimonies, some have
questioned the reality of their experiences—especially the vision shown to the Three Witnesses.
• Warren Parrish, while apostatizing from the Church in 1838, claimed that Martin Harris “has come out at last, and says
he never saw the plates … except in vision” (emphasis added).
• Stephen Burnett, another dissenter, similarly represented Harris as saying that the three witnesses only saw the
plates “in vision or imagination” (emphasis added).
• And John Murphy once interpreted David Whitmer as saying that his testimony was based only on spiritual
“impressions.”
• In these and other cases, individuals have chosen to emphasize the visionary nature of the Three Witnesses’ shared
experience in a way that questions its actual occurrence in reality.
• The witnesses themselves, however, openly refuted such insinuations. Harris once declared, “No man ever heard me
in any way deny … the administration of the angel that showed me the plates.”Whitmer likewise responded to
Murphy’s statement by saying that what he had seen “was no Delusion” and that he had “never at any time, denied
that testimony or any part thereof, which has so long since been published” in the Book of Mormon.
• https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/did-the-book-of-mormon-witnesses-really-see-what-they-claimed
15

• video — https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/did-the-
book-of-mormon-witnesses-really-see-what-they-claimed
16

Eight Witnesses
• Christian Whitmer
• Jacob Whitmer
• Peter Whitmer, Jun. (age 19 in 1829)
• John Whitmer
• Hiram Page
• Joseph Smith, Sen. (age 59 in 1829)
• Hyrum Smith
• Samuel H. Smith
• Unlike the Three Witnesses, the Eight testified that they both saw and handled the
plates. Another difference is that the Eight testified that they were shown the plates
by Joseph Smith rather than by an angel as had the Three Witnesses. (average age of
witnesses was age 30)
17

Hiram Page
• Hiram Page, another of the Eight Witnesses, was whipped in Jackson County,
Missouri, in 1833 for his profession of Mormonism. He left activity in the Church in
1838 and in 1847 wrote to William McLellin:
• “As to the Book of Mormon,” he affirmed: it would be doing injustice to myself and to
the work of God of the last days, to say that I could know a thing to be true in 1830,
and know the same thing to be false in 1847. To say my mind was so treacherous that
I had forgotten what I saw. To say that a man of Joseph’s ability, who at that time did
not know how to pronounce the word Nephi, could write a book of six hundred pages,
as correct as the Book of Mormon, without supernatural power. And to say that those
holy angels who came and showed themselves to me as I was walking through the
field, to confirm me in the work of the Lord of the last days—three of whom came to
me afterwards and sang an hymn in their own pure language. Yea, it would be treating
the God of heaven with contempt to deny these testimonies, with too many others to
mention here.
• Steven C. Harper, "Evaluating the Book of Mormon Witnesses" in Religious
Educator 11, no. 2 (2010): 37-50. https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/evaluating-book-
mormon-witnesses
• Hiram Page to William McLellin, May 30, 1847, in Ensign of Liberty, January 1848, 63
18

Emma Smith
Died: April 30, 1879, Nauvoo
House, Nauvoo, IL
Children: Joseph Smith
III, Alexander Hale Smith, Julia
Murdock Smith
Spouse: Lewis C. Bidamon (m.
1847–1879), Joseph Smith (m.
1827–1844)
Parents: Isaac Hale, Elizabeth
Lewis Hale
Emma Smith With son David
Hyrum. Photograph, unknown
photographer, 1845. (Courtesy
Community of Christ Library-
Archives, Independence, MO)
19

https://archive.org/stream/TheSaintsHerald_Volume_26_1879/the%20saints%20herald%20volume%2026%201879#page/n287/mode/2up
20

• Question. What of the truth of Mormonism?
• Answer. I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the Church to have been established by
divine direction. I have complete faith in it. 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, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.
• Question. Had he not a book or manuscript from which he read, or dictated to you?
• Answer. He had neither manuscript nor book to read from.
• Question. Could he not have had, and you not know it?
• Answer. If he had had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from me.
• Question. Are you sure that he had the plates at the time you were writing for him?
• Answer. The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a
small linen tablecloth, which I had given him to fold them in. I once felt of the plates, as they thus
lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and
would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does
sometimes thumb the edges of a book.
Emma Smith, 1879 interview by son
Joseph Smith III, Saints Herald
21

• Question. Where did father and Oliver Cowdery write?
• Answer. Oliver Cowdery and your father wrote in the room where I was
at work.
• Question. Could not father have dictated the Book of Mormon to you,
Oliver Cowdery and the others who wrote for him, after having first
written it, or having first read it out of some book?
• Answer. Joseph Smith (and for the first time she used his name direct,
having usually used the words, "your father" or "my husband") could
neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone
dictate a book like the Book of Mormon. And, though I was an active
participant in the scenes that transpired, and was present during the
translation of the plates, and had cognizance of things as they
transpired, it is marvelous to me, "a marvel and a wonder," as much so
as to anyone else.
22

• Question. I should suppose that you would have uncovered the plates and examined them?
• Answer. I did not attempt to handle the plates, other than I have told you, nor uncover them to
look at them. I was satisfied that it was the work of God, and therefore did not feel it to be
necessary to do so;
• Major Bidamon here suggested: Did Mr. Smith forbid your examining the plates?
• Answer. I do not think he did. I knew that he had them, and was not specially curious about
them. I moved them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work.
• Question. Mother, what is your belief about the authenticity, or origin, of the Book of Mormon?
• Answer. My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity - I have not the slightest
doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless
he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me hour after hour;
and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he could at once begin where he had left
off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him. This was a
usual thing for him to do. It would have been improbable that a learned man could do this; and,
for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply impossible.
• ("Last Testimony of Sister Emma," Saint's Herald, Vol. 26, No 19 p. 289. (1 October 1879)
23

References/Sources for
study
24

https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/book-mormon-plates-and-records-029

https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/7-short-videos-to-kick-off-your-book-of-mormon-come-follow-me-study
The Story of the Book of Mormon: The Plates of Mormon
video
30

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Introductory pages to The Book of Mormon

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Introductory pages to The Book of Mormon