All About Mormons

[Matt Amos]

You are wrong, mnn727...very wrong about the "rock in a hat" story. Let's see how much you really know. Please name the "only one original source" to whom you were referring.

[ryanw]

I think it's 4 people who were involved in or witnessed the rock in the hat mnn.

In his Comprehensive History of the Church (CHC), LDS historian and Seventy Brigham H. Roberts quotes Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses whose name is found in every edition of the Book of Mormon since its original edition. Harris said that the seer stone Smith possessed was a "chocolate-colored, somewhat egg-shaped stone which the Prophet found while digging a well in company with his brother Hyrum." Harris went on to say it was by using this stone that "Joseph was able to translate the characters engraven on the plates" (CHC 1:129).

Martin Harris was one of the scribes Joseph Smith used to record the writing on the plates. This enabled him to give a first-hand account of how Smith performed this translation. Harris noted, "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).

Harris' description concurs with that of David Whitmer, another one of the three witnesses whose testimony appears at the front of the Book of Mormon. Whitmer details exactly how the stone produced the English interpretation. On page 12 of his book An Address to All Believers in Christ, Whitmer wrote, "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."

Robert N. Hullinger, in his book: Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism, cites a personal interview Emma Smith-Bidamon gave to a committee of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1879. He notes on pages 9-10: "Smith's wife Emma supported Harris's and Whitmer's versions of the story in recalling that her husband buried his face in his hat while she was serving as his scribe."

Dan Vogel also mentions Emma's 1879 interview on pages 98-99 of his book, The Word of God. "Smith's wife, Emma Smith Bidamon, was interviewed late in her life by her son Joseph Smith III about her knowledge of the early [p.99] church. This interview took place in February 1879 in the presence of Lewis C. Bidamon, her husband. At one point Emma stated the following:

[Ray Agostini]

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the following link, and the author of the link asks for corrections if one finds mistakes. But there does seem to be some consensus about the "rock in the hat" method.

http://www.lds-mormon.com/transltn.shtml

There has been some debate about the "word for word" translation as recorded by Whitmer. It would have been much nicer to hear this from, say, Oliver Cowdery, who did the majority of the writing.

[dude]

Nice post Ryan, but you're confusing me.

Was it just to prove mnn727 wrong?

I thought your position was the story was a complete fabrication?

And then you provide 4 pretty similar personal testimonies which give the method of translation credibility. Why would all these frauds keep their story straight?