The Miracles Of Joseph Smith

[zerinus]

After reading the thread that is now closed, I Googled for the "miracles of Joseph Smith," and found the following sites which I thought were interesting:

http://en.fairmormon...gs_and_miracles

http://scottwoodward...h_miracles.html

[ERayR]

After reading the thread that is now closed, I Googled for the "miracles of Joseph Smith," and found the following sites which I thought were interesting:

http://en.fairmormon...gs_and_miracles

http://scottwoodward...h_miracles.html

The greatest miracle is ongoing. It is the restored gospel which he restored under divine direction.

[Deborah]

Joseph Smith performed many blessings and there are numerous stories of healing in individual journals.

However as ERay indicates the greatest miracle is that this church has grown to fill the earth when it was thought on the death of Joseph it would die.

[zerinus]

The greatest miracle is ongoing. It is the restored gospel which he restored under divine direction.

I think the greatest miracle of Joseph Smith was the translation of the Book of Mormon.

[altersteve]

I think the greatest miracle of Joseph Smith was the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Which is part of the Restoration.

[blackstrap]

I am beginning to consider dropping the translation idea and replacing it with "revealed the Book of Mormon" Joseph was a revelator not so much a translator.

[zerinus]

I am beginning to consider dropping the translation idea and replacing it with "revealed the Book of Mormon" Joseph was a revelator not so much a translator.

D&C 21:

1 Behold, there shall be a record kept among you; and in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ,

D&C 107:

92 Behold, here is wisdom; yea, to be a seer, a revelator, a translator, and a prophet, having all the gifts of God which he bestows upon the head of the church.

D&C 124:

125 I give unto you my servant Joseph to be a presiding elder over all my church, to be a translator, a revelator, a seer, and prophet.

[blackstrap]

For someone to be a translator in a common sense,that person should bring something to the table,some skills with BOTH languages involved.By his own admission,Joseph was not well schooled,even in English .Apparently no one alive had any knowledge of the language of the Book of Mormon.In the sense that Joseph rendered one language into another,then he was the "translator".However,that rendering was 'revealed' to him by the power of God and not through his own familiarity with the sources.What evidence is there that he retained any ability to show the connections between the symbols he saw and the English he presented? As unfamiliar as I am with strange writing,after 500 pages of translating I would at least be able to say that symbol X meant ' and it came to pass'.On the other hand,if I never or rarely looked at the plates and the writing and instead dictated what was shown on the stone(s), then gaining any such translating knowledge would be difficult.Hence my contention that,in the case of the BoM and probably the PoGP also,Joseph acted as a revelator much more than a translator. It may just be semantics but still...

[zerinus]

For someone to be a translator in a common sense,that person should bring something to the table,some skills with BOTH languages involved.By his own admission,Joseph was not well schooled,even in English .Apparently no one alive had any knowledge of the language of the Book of Mormon.In the sense that Joseph rendered one language into another,then he was the "translator".However,that rendering was 'revealed' to him by the power of God and not through his own familiarity with the sources.What evidence is there that he retained any ability to show the connections between the symbols he saw and the English he presented? As unfamiliar as I am with strange writing,after 500 pages of translating I would at least be able to say that symbol X meant ' and it came to pass'.On the other hand,if I never or rarely looked at the plates and the writing and instead dictated what was shown on the stone(s), then gaining any such translating knowledge would be difficult.Hence my contention that,in the case of the BoM and probably the PoGP also,Joseph acted as a revelator much more than a translator. It may just be semantics but still...

I think you are making too many assumptions. You don't know what he knew and what he didn't know. Joseph possessed the gift of tongues, and showed extraordinary ability at learning languages. Once he quoted from a polyglot Bible printed in four different languages including German, and said that the German translation (after quoting it in German) was the most correct. Now I don't recall that he ever studied German (or any other language appart from Hebrew). If he had not done any proper translation, what would be the point of copying characters off the plates, and sending them to scholars to confirm his translations? The Lord calls him a translator, and the Book of Mormon a translation everywhere in the Doctrine And Covenants. Sure he was also a revelator; but that does not diminish his role also as a translator.