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by
Scot and Maurine Proctor
Without
a Scribe
When
Martin Harris lost the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon that
Joseph Smith had translated from the gold plates, the young prophet
was heart broken. Joseph worried that his opportunity to translate
the precious book may have fled forever. Moroni took the plates
and the Urim and Thummim from him, but he was promised that if
he were humble and penitent, he would receive the precious objects
again the following September.
Joseph said
that he continued his supplications for forgiveness without ceasing,
and on September 22, 1828 in Harmony Pennsylvania, Moroni returned
the plates and Urim and Thummim to him. Still, the translation
process did not immediately move forward with any speed.
Moroni had
promised Joseph a scribe, and he had not yet come. Though Joseph
occasionally used Emma and her brother Reuben Hale to write for
him, secular duties kept interfering with the progress. In that
day when food had to be grown and wood chopped and hauled for
warmth, the duties of survival were a full-time activity. Emma "had
so much of her time taken up with the care of her house, that
she could write but little for him."(1)
Joseph,
too, had been so hurried with his secular affairs, that
he could not proceed with his spiritual concerns so fast
as was necesary for the speedy completion of the work."(2)
As he put
it, "Now, my wife had written for me and also my brother, Samuel
H. Smith, but we had become reduced in property and my wife's
father was about to turn me out of doors...I cried unto the Lord
that he would provide for me to accomplish the work whereunto
he had commanded me."(3)
Oliver
Cowdery in Palmyra
For
some time, the Lord had been preparing the answer to that prayer.
In January 1829, a man named Lyman Cowdery came to Palmyra and
applied for a teaching position to Hyrum Smith, who was one of
the principal trustees of the school. The trustees determined to
hire him but, as Lyman had unexpected business arise, the next
day he brought his brother Oliver, asking if he could have the
job instead. This was agreed upon and Oliver came to board with
the Smith family,
"He had not
been in the place long," said Lucy Smith, "until he began to
hear about the plates from all quarters and immediately commenced
importuning Mr. Smith upon the subject. He did not succeed in
eliciting any information from him for a long time." [The Smith's
had learned from too many blows that this matter was best left
undiscussed.] "At length however, he gained my husband's confidence
so far as to get a sketch of the facts which related to the plates.
"One day, Oliver
came home from school in quite a lively manner. As soon as he
had an opportunity of conversing with Mr. Smith, he told him
that he (Oliver) had been in a deep study all day, and it had
been put into his heart that he would have the privilege of writing
for Joseph. And when the term of school which he was then teaching
was closed, he would go and pay Joseph a visit.
"The next
day was so very stormy as to render it almost impossible to travel
the road between the schoolhouse and our place. The rain fell
in torrents all evening, so I supposed that Oliver would certainly
stop with some neighbor who lived nearer the schoolhouse than
we did. But he was not to be deterred from coming by any common
difficulty, for his mind was now fully set upon a subject which
he could not converse upon anywhere else.
"When he came
in, he said, 'I have now resolved what I will do for the thing
which I told you about yesterday seems working on my very bones,
insomuch that I cannot for a moment get rid of it...I have made
it a subject of prayer, and I firmly believe that if it is the
will of the Lord that I should go, and that there is a work for
me to do in this thing, I am determined to attend to it."(4)
Translation
Begins
Oliver
arrived at Joseph's Harmony home near sunset on Sunday evening,
April 5, and announced to Joseph, "Mr. Smith, I have come for the
purpose of writing for you."(5)
They sat down
together and conversed, as Joseph told Oliver the entire story
late into the night.
Business affairs
had to be settled on Monday, but on Tuesday, April 7, Joseph
and Oliver sat down in earnest to begin the translation. In Oliver,
Joseph had a twenty-two year old, vigorous, young man who could
work long and tedious hours, and someone who had already consulted
the Lord about the plates.
The next three
months, April through July, 1829 would be some of the most significant
in the Restoration as translation progressed rapidly and priesthood
and baptismal gifts were bestowed by heavenly messengers. It
appears that it only took some 63 to 70 working days to complete
the entire translation, a complex religious history covering
2,000 years and more than five hundred pages.
To demonstrate
how astounding this is, Hugh Nibley once asked his Book of Mormon
class at Brigham Young University, "Since Joseph was younger
than most of you and not nearly so experienced or well-educated
as any of you at the time he copyrighted the Book of Mormon,
it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of
the semester (which will give you more time than he had) a paper
of, say, five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred
book if you will, and give it the form of a history. Tell of
a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts
of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of
public and private vicissitudes; give them names--hundreds of
them--pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names
of circa 600 B.C.; be lavish with cultural and technical details--manners
and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions,
rites and traditions, include long and complicated military and
economic histories; have your narrative cover a thousand years
without any large gaps; keep a number of interrelated local histories
going at once; feel free to introduce religious controversy and
philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting;
observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the
derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials.
Above all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to
the really hard part of this little assignment. You and I know
that you are making this all up--we have our little joke--but
just the same you are going to be required to have your paper
published when you finish it, not as a fiction or romance, but
as a true history! After you have handed it in you may make no
changes in it (in this class we always use the first edition
of the Book of Mormon); what is more, you are to invite any and
all scholars to read and criticize your work freely, explaining
to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If
they seem over-skeptical, you might tell them that you translated
the book from original records by the aid of the Urim and Thummim--they
will love that! Further to allay their misgivings, you might
tell them that the original manuscript was on golden plates,
and that you got the plates from an angel. Now go to work and
good luck!"(6)
Interior
of the Peter Whitmer cabin in Fayette, New York where a
portion of the Book of Mormon was translated, 18 revelations
were received, and the Church was legally organized. |
Description
by the Closest Witnesses
In
1834, Oliver Cowdery described the transcendent work he had started
upon, "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.'(7)
When Joseph
had dictated to Martin, they apparently hung a blanket between
them lest Martin accidentally catch a glimpse of the plates.
Emma had a different experience, "In writing for your father,
I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table
close by him...and dictating hour after hour with nothing between
us."(8)
This was also
true for Oliver.
A
portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon took place
here in the Peter Whitmer Sr. cabin in Fayette, New York. |
Emma gave
this insight in an 1879 interview with her son, Joseph III:
"Q. Had he
[Joseph Smith] not a book of manuscript from which to read from?
A. He had
neither manuscript nor book to read from.
Q. Could he
not have had, and you not know it?
A. If he had
had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from
me.
Q. Are you
sure that he had the plates at the time you were writing for
him?
A. The plates
often lay on the table, without any attempt at concealment, wrapped
in a small linen tablecloth, which had been 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.
Q. Where did
Father and Oliver Cowdery write?
A. Oliver
Cowdery and your father wrote in the room where I was at work.
Q. 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?
A. Joseph
Smith could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded
letter; let alone dictating 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 as to anyone else.
Q. I should
suppose that you would have uncovered the plates and examined
them?
A. 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
[Lewis Bidamon, Emma's second husband] here suggested: Did Mr.
Smith forbid your examining the plates?
A. 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.
Q. Mother,
what is your belief about the authenticity, or origin of the
Book of Mormon?
A. 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 your scribe, your father would dictate to
me hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after
interruptions, he would 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."(9)
Translation
Process
What
was this translation process that demanded so much of the
Prophet? Those who knew the most about how it was accomplished,
Joseph and Oliver, said the least about it. Emma, Martin,
and David Whitmer left sketchy accounts, but these were recorded
much later in life, and have some contradictions. Still,
with that caution, their observations are fascinating.
Referring
to the time when the translation was completed at his Fayette,
New York home, David Whitmer gave us a picture of discipline,
hard work and spirituality that went into the process. He said, "that
each time before resuming the work all present would kneel in
prayer and invoke the Divine blessing on the proceeding."(10)
A reporter
of the Omaha Herald who interviewed David at length
on the matter, said the stone would not work unless Joseph was
cleansed of sin. "This rigorous exactment required him to be
humble and spotless in his deportment in order that the work
might progress. One occasion the Prophet had indulged in a ...quarrel
with his wife. Without pacifying her or making any reparation
for his... treatment, he returned to the room in the Whitmer
residence to resume the work with the plates. The surface of
the magic stone remained blank, and all his persistent efforts
to bring out the coveted words proved abortive. He went into
the woods again to pray, and this time was gone fully an hour.
His friends became positively concerned, and were about to institute
a search, when Joseph entered the room, pale and haggard, having
suffered a vigorous chastisement at the hands of the Lord. He
went straight in humiliation to his wife, entreated and received
her forgiveness, returned to his work, and much to the joy of
himself and his anxious friends surrounding him, the stone again
glared forth its letters of fire."(11)
In another
interview for the Bear Lake Democrat, a newspaper of
Richmond, Missouri, David Whitmer focused on the translation
method itself. "In regard to the translation it was laborious
work, for the weather was very warm; and the days were long,
but both Joseph and Oliver were young and strong and soon able
to complete the work. The way it was done was thus: Joseph would
place the Seer stone in a deep hat, and placing his face close
to it would see, not the Seer stone, but what appeared like an
oblong piece of parchment, on which the hieroglyphic would appear,
and the translation in the English language, all appearing in
bright luminous letters. Joseph would then read it to Oliver,
who would write it down as spoken. Sometimes Joseph could not
pronounce the words correctly, and if any mistake was made in
the copy, the luminous writing, would remain until it was corrected.
It sometimes took Oliver several trials to get the right letters
to spell correctly some of the more difficult words, and when
he had written them correctly the characters and the interpretation
would disappear, and be replaced by other characters; and their
interpretation. When the Seer stone was not placed in the hat,
nothing could be seen therein; but when placed there the hieroglyphics
would appear; some represented but one word or name. Some represented
several, and some from one to nearly two lines."(12)
With his head
in the hat, how could he see the plates? It is a question that
demands a spiritual answer, for the plates were often wrapped
in a napkin on the table before him.
When Joseph
and Oliver would resume translating after a break, Joseph would
not reread what they had written to see where they were or get
the flow of the speech. He would merely read on without backtracking.
Some ideas
were new to Joseph even as he translated them. Once when as he
was translating, the text referred to a wall around Jerusalem.
He stopped and said to Emma that he had never known that Jerusalem
had a wall. She assured him that it did.
Though they
were plagued with hatred from many of their neighbors and rumors
circulated about them, these were glorious months for Joseph
and Oliver. The unfolding account of the Nephite civilization
was fascinating to them and they grieved that "a people once
beloved and favored of heaven" could have fallen so far.
Oliver said, "After
writing the account given of the Savior's ministery to the remnant
of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be
seen, as the prophet said it would be, that darkness covered
the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people. On religion,
none had authority from God to administer the ordinances of the
Gospel."(13)
That would
soon change.
Notes
1. Revised
and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith, p. 184.
2. Ibid.
3. 1832
History
4. Revised
and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith, pp. 181-182.
5. Ibid.
6. Hugh
Nibley, The Prophetic Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book,1989) pp. 220-21.
7. Oliver
Cowdery, Messenger and Advocate, Vol. 1 (October 1834),
pp. 14-16, also in a footnotes in Joseph Smith--History, p.
58.
8. Saints'
Herald Journal, "Last Testimony of Sister Emma", October
1, 1879.
9. As
quoted in Porter, "Origins," p. 152. This statement is from Emma
Smith to Joseph Smith III, February 4-10, 1879 and printed in The
Saints' Herald , (op. cit.)
10. David
Whitmer Interviews, A Restoration Witness, Lyndon W. Cook,
ed. (Orem, Utah: Grandin Press, 1991) p.174
11. Ibid.
P . 199
12. Ibid.
123-24
13. Joseph
Smith History p. 58
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