Golden Plates
Encyclopedia
According to Latter Day Saint
belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th century literature, the golden Bible) are the source from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon
, a sacred text of the faith. Some witnesses described the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds, being golden or brassy in color, and being composed of thin metallic pages engraved on both sides and bound with one or more rings.
Smith said he found the plates on September 22, 1823 at a hill
near his home in Manchester, New York
after an angel directed him to a buried stone box. The angel at first prevented Smith from taking the plates because he had not followed the angel's instructions. In 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian
" language. Smith dictated a translation using a seer stone in the bottom of a hat, which he placed over his face to view the words written within the stone. Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon
.
Smith eventually obtained testimonies from eleven men, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses
, who said they had seen the plates. After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to their angelic guardian. Therefore, if the plates existed, they cannot now be examined. Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, while critics often assert that either Smith manufactured the plates himself or that the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience.
, "For most modern readers, the [golden] plates are beyond belief, a phantasm, yet the Mormon sources accept them as fact." Because Joseph Smith said he returned the plates to an angel after he finished translating them, their authenticity cannot be determined by physical examination. Most Mormons believe in the golden plates as a matter of faith.
Nevertheless, the golden plates were reportedly shown to several close associates
of Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon
exists as its reputed translation. Thus, Mormon apologists and Mormon critics can debate indirect evidence only: they may ask whether the Book of Mormon
narrative is consistent with science and history and whether its witnesses are credible.Mormon scholars have formed collaborations such as Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies
to provide apologetic
answers to critical research about the golden plates and topics in the field of Mormon studies. Among these topics, the credibility of the plates has been, according to Bushman, a "troublesome item."
The Book of Mormon
itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian
prophet-historians from around the year AD 400: Mormon
and his son Moroni. Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates. Their script, according to the book, was described as "reformed Egyptian
," a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists. Historically, Latter Day Saint movement
denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate, and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the plates. The Community of Christ
, however, while accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture, no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates. Moreover, even in the more theologically conservative LDS Church, some adherents who accept the Book of Mormon as inspired scripture do not believe it is a literal translation of a physical historical record.
Non-believers and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates. For example, it has been theorized that the plates were fashioned by Joseph Smith or one of his associates, that Joseph Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions
or hypnosis
, or that the plates were mystical
and should be understood in the context of Smith's historical era, when magic
was an accepted part of reality. These theories are explored in the article Origin of the Book of Mormon
. Scholarly examinations of the book's historicity are discussed in the article Historicity of the Book of Mormon
.
The story of the golden plates consists of how, according to Joseph Smith, Jr. and his contemporaries, the plates were found, received from the angel Moroni, translated, and returned to the angel prior to the publication of the Book of Mormon
. Joseph Smith is the only source for a great deal of the story because much of it occurred at times when he was the only human witness. Nevertheless, Smith told the story to his family, friends, and acquaintances; and many of these provided second-hand accounts. Other parts of the story are derived from the statements of those who knew Smith, including several witnesses
who said they saw the golden plates.
The best known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838 and incorporated into the official church histories of some Latter Day Saint movement
denominations. The LDS Church has canonized
part of this 1838 account as part of its scripture
, The Pearl of Great Price.
, Joseph Smith, Jr. lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York
. At the time churches in the region contended so vigorously for souls that western New York became known as the "burned-over district
" because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often. Western New York was also noted for its participation in a "craze for treasure hunting." Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer
, using what were termed "seer stones" in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure. Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone.
Smith did not consider himself to be a "peeper" or "glass-looker,"
a practice he called "nonsense." Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gift
s. Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves nor denied their presumed power to find treasure; nor did he ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised. He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a "seer", and indeed, in his view a seer was even greater than a prophet
. Joseph Smith's first stone, apparently the same one he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors. This stone may still be in the possession of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
, a name taken from the Book of Mormon
. Before dawn, Moroni reappeared two more times and repeated the information.
But the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain "commandments". Smith recorded some of these commandments, and contemporaries to whom he told the story said there were others, all of which are relevant to the modern debate about whether, or how closely, events of early Mormonism were related to the practice of contemporary folk magic. Smith's writings say that the angel required at least the following: (1) that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, (2) that he tell his father about the vision, and (3) that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person. Smith's contemporaries who heard the story—both sympathetic and unsympathetic—generally agreed that Smith mentioned the following additional commandments: (4) that Smith take the plates and leave the site where they had been buried without looking back, and (5) that the plates never directly touch the ground until safe at home in a locked chest. Some unsympathetic listeners who heard the story from Smith or his father recalled that Smith had said the angel required him (6) to wear "black clothes" to the place where the plates were buried, (7) to ride a "black horse with a switchtail", (8) to call for the plates by a certain name, and (9) to "give thanks to God."
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In the morning, Smith began work as usual and did not mention the visions to his father because, he said, he did not think his father would believe him. Smith said he then fainted because he had been awake all night, and while unconscious, the angel appeared a fourth time and chastised him for failing to tell the visions to his father. When Smith then told all to his father, he believed his son and encouraged him to obey the angel's commands. Smith then set off to visit the hill, later stating that he used his seer stone to locate the place where the plates were buried but that he "knew the place the instant that [he] arrived there."
Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone (or possibly iron). Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover, and prying it up with a lever, Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts.
Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" [sic]. Concluding that it was not, he said he prayed asking why he had been barred from taking the plates.
In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary (sic) and saught (sic) the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have". According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands", and according to a non-believer, Smith said "I had forgotten to give thanks to God" as required by the angel.
Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the "right person": his older brother Alvin. Alvin died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do. Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the "right person"—although the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be. For the visit on September 22, 1825, Smith may have attempted to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T. Lawrence, but eventually, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale, his future wife.
Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823, but there is no record of him being in the vicinity of Palmyra between January 1826 and January 1827 when he returned to New York from Pennsylvania with his new wife. In January 1827, Smith visited the hill and then told his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord", which may have meant that he had missed his annual visit to the hill in 1826.
traveled to Palmyra, in part, to be there during Smith's scheduled visit to the hill.
Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T. Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned he might cause trouble. Therefore, on the eve of September 22, 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark. If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Joseph was to tell him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill. Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah
with his wife Emma. While Emma stayed behind kneeling in prayer, Joseph walked to what he said was the site of the Golden Plates. Some time in the early morning hours, he said he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah. At the same time, Joseph said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the "Urim and Thummim
" or "Interpreters", with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother
when he returned in the morning.
Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon
to earn enough money to buy a solid lockable chest in which to put the plates. By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith said he had been successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their share of the profits from what they viewed as part of a joint venture in treasure hunting. Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith, Sr. determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly talented seer from 60 miles (96 km) away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination
. When Emma heard of this, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith, Jr., who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim
that the plates were safe. He nevertheless hurriedly rode home with Emma.
Once home in Manchester
, he said he walked to Cumorah
, removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked home through the woods and away from the road with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm. On the way, he said a man had sprung up from behind a log and struck him a "heavy blow with a gun." "Knocking the man down with a single punch, Joseph ran as fast as he could for about a half mile before he was attacked by a second man trying to get the plates. After similarly overpowering the man, Joseph continued to run, but before he reached the house, a third man hit him with a gun. In striking the last man, Joseph said, he injured his thumb." He returned home with a dislocated thumb and other minor injuries. Smith sent his father, Joseph Knight
, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found no one.
Smith is said to have put the plates in a locked chest and hid them in his parents' home in Manchester. He refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or the other artifacts he said he had in his possession, although some people were allowed to heft them or feel what were said to be the artifacts through a cloth. A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which he said had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates. After letting his mother feel through a thin cloth what she said was the breastplate, he placed it in the locked chest.
The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the chest where Smith said the plates were kept. After hearing that a group of them would attempt to enter the house by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth, and the family was able to scare away the intended intruders. Fearing the chest might still be discovered, Smith hid it under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby, then being used as a cooper
shop. Later, Smith told his mother he had taken the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floor boards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax. Shortly thereafter the empty box was discovered and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates, who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find the hiding place by looking in her seer stone.
(now Oakland Township
), Emma's hometown, where Smith and his wife had moved in October 1827 with financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris. The translation occurred in two phases: the first, from December 1827 to June 1828, during which Smith transcribed some of the characters
and then dictated 116 manuscript pages to Harris, which were lost. The second phase began sporadically in early 1829 and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery
, a schoolteacher who volunteered to serve as Smith's full-time scribe. In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York
, completing the translation early the following month.
Smith used scribes to write the words he said were a translation of the golden plates, dictating these words while peering into seer stones, which he said allowed him to see the translation. Smith's translation ability evolved naturally out of his earlier treasure seeking, and he used a process that was "strikingly similar" to the way Smith used seer stones for treasure hunting. For the earliest phase of translation, Smith said that he translated using what he called the "Urim and Thummim
"—a set of large spectacles with stones where the eye-pieces should be. There is no eye-witness testimony that Smith ever wore the large spectacles, although some witnesses understood that he placed them in his hat while translating. Witnesses did observe Smith using a single seer stone (not part of a set of spectacles) in the translation, the same brown stone Smith had earlier used for treasure seeking.
Smith seems to have used a single stone during the second phase of translation. Smith placed the stone in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation. A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked. Sometimes Smith dictated to Martin Harris from upstairs or from a different room.
Smith's "translation
" did not require any use of the plates themselves. As he looked into the stone, Smith told his friends and family that the written translation of the ancient script appeared to him in English. There are several proposed explanations for how Smith composed his translation. In the 19th century, the most common explanation was that he plagiarized the work
from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding. This theory is deemed to be repudiated by Smith's preeminent modern biographers. The most prominent modern theory is that Smith composed the translation in response to the provincial opinions of his time, perhaps while in a magical trance-like state. As a matter of faith, Latter Day Saints generally view the translation process as either an automatic process of transcribing text written within the stone, or an intuitive translation by Smith assisted by a mystical
connection with God through the stone.
Smith's dictations were written down by a number of assistants including Emma Smith
, Martin Harris, and notably, Oliver Cowdery
. In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 un-duplicated manuscript pages to Martin Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply re-translate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again." According to Grant Palmer, Smith believed "a second transcription would be identical to the first. This confirms the view that the English text existed in some kind of unalterable, spiritual form rather than that someone had to think through difficult conceptual issues and idioms, always resulting in variants in any translation."
In April 1828, Martin Harris' wife, Lucy
, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates. When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods. According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large black snake and thus prevented from digging up the plates. As a result of Martin Harris' loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim
as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man." According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the autumn equinox and the anniversary of the day he first received them.
In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates. Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself." Harris followed these directions but could not find the plates.
In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer
and his parents in Fayette, New York
. Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house where Smith could recover them. The translation was completed at the Whitmer home.
, David Whitmer
, and possibly others accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah. There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall. According to Brigham Young
's understanding, which he said he gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates, and inscribed with the words "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ."
Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed". This "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof". Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time when the sealed part will be translated and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples.
David Whitmer
is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate). Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which he said "testify that they are there".
. It is unclear whether the witnesses believed they saw the plates with their physical eyes, or they "saw" the plates in a vision. For instance, although Martin Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon
even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."
According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son; but this child was stillborn in 1828. In March 1829, Martin Harris came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found. The next day, Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himself to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view [the plates] as they are".
By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith. During the second half of June 1829, Smith took Harris, Oliver Cowdery
and David Whitmer
(known collectively as the Three Witnesses
), into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves. The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard. A few days later, Smith took a different group of Eight Witnesses
to a location near Smith's parents' home in Palmyra
where they said Smith showed them the golden plates. Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Joseph Smith, were published in 1830 as an appendix to the Book of Mormon
. According to later statements ascribed to Martin Harris, the witnesses viewed the plates in a vision and not with their "natural eyes."
In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates. For instance, Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith
said she had "seen and handled" the plates. Smith's wife Emma
and his younger brother William
also said they had examined the plates while they were wrapped in fabric. Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates.
The plates were said to be bound at one edge by a set of rings. In 1828, Martin Harris, is reported to have said that the plates were "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires". In 1859 Harris said that the plates "were seven inches [18 cm] wide by eight inches [20 cm] in length, and were of the thickness of plates of tin; and when piled one above the other, they were altogether about four inches [10 cm] thick; and they were put together on the back by three silver rings, so that they would open like a book". David Whitmer
, another of the Three Witnesses
, was quoted by an 1831 Palmyra newspaper as having said the plates were "the thickness of tin plate; the back was secured with three small rings...passing through each leaf in succession". Anomalously, Smith's father
is quoted as saying that the plates were only half an inch (1.27 centimeter) thick. Smith's mother
, who said she had "seen and handled" the plates, is quoted as saying they were "eight inches [20 cm] long, and six [15 cm] wide...all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate".
Hyrum Smith
and John Whitmer
, also witnesses in 1829
, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book". Joseph Smith's wife Emma
and his younger brother William
said they had examined the plates while wrapped in fabric. Emma said she "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". William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book.
Joseph Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches [15 cm] wide and eight inches [20 cm] long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were...bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches [15 cm] in thickness".
described the plates as having "the appearance of gold". The Book of Mormon describes the plates as being made of "ore". In 1831, a Palmyra newspaper quoted David Whitmer
, one of the Three Witnesses
, as having said that the plates were a "whitish yellow color", with "three small rings of the same metal".
Joseph Smith, Jr.'s first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold". But Smith said that Moroni had referred to the plates as "gold." Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds" (18–23 kg), "were lead or gold". Joseph's brother William Smith, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper...much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood".
Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently. According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter. Smith's father Joseph Smith, Sr.
, who was one of the Eight Witnesses
, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg). Joseph Smith's brother, William, said that he lifted them in a pillowcase and thought they "weighed about sixty pounds [27 kg] according to the best of my judgment". Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 pounds [27 kg]. Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds [18–23 kg]". Joseph Smith's wife Emma
never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work". None of the witnesses specified the exact size of the plates or the number of leaves contained in them, but one scholar speculates that, had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg).
may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical, physical, or a combination of these elements.
The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" to be revealed at some future time. For example, the Book of Mormon
says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord" and that separate records of John the Apostle
were "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times
. One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read.
Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural
or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10), an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" (Urim and Thummim) with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed." Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith."
Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni. David Whitmer
said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them," that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable," "as solid to my view as wood," and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed" with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them." In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith
said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose." The account of the Eight Witnesses
says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as [Joseph] Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion. In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed; in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed. Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt
, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up".
. Smith described the writing as "Egyptian characters...small, and beautifully engraved," exhibiting "much skill in the art of engraving."
John Whitmer
, one of the Eight Witnesses
, said the plates had "fine engravings on both sides," and Orson Pratt
, who did not see the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, understood that there were engravings on both sides of the plates, "stained with a black, hard stain, so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read."
because they are the reputed source for the Book of Mormon
, which Joseph Smith, Jr. called the "most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion." However, the golden plates are just one of many known and reputed metal plates with significance in the Latter Day Saint movement. The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of writing historical records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination. See List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement). In addition, Joseph Smith once believed in the authenticity of a set of engraved metal plates called the Kinderhook Plates
, although these plates turned out to be a hoax by non-Mormons who sought to entice Smith to translate them in order to discredit his reputation.
Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree Plates
and the Book of the Law of the Lord
, were purportedly translated by James Strang, one of three major contenders to succeed Joseph Smith and the eventual leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)
.
Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ
, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance. For most Latter Day Saints, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith. For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins.
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th century literature, the golden Bible) are the source from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
, a sacred text of the faith. Some witnesses described the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds, being golden or brassy in color, and being composed of thin metallic pages engraved on both sides and bound with one or more rings.
Smith said he found the plates on September 22, 1823 at a hill
Cumorah
Cumorah is a drumlin in Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith, Jr...
near his home in Manchester, New York
Manchester (town), New York
Manchester is a town in Ontario County, New York, USA. The population was 9,258 at the 2000 census. The town was named after one of its villages, which in turn was named after the original Manchester in Greater Manchester, England....
after an angel directed him to a buried stone box. The angel at first prevented Smith from taking the plates because he had not followed the angel's instructions. In 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian
Reformed Egyptian
According to the Book of Mormon, that scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement was originally written in reformed Egyptian characters on plates of "ore" by prophets living in the Western Hemisphere from perhaps as early as 2600 BC until as late as AD 421. Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the...
" language. Smith dictated a translation using a seer stone in the bottom of a hat, which he placed over his face to view the words written within the stone. Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
.
Smith eventually obtained testimonies from eleven men, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses
Book of Mormon witnesses
The Book of Mormon witnesses are a group of contemporaries of Joseph Smith, Jr. who said they saw the golden plates from which Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon...
, who said they had seen the plates. After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to their angelic guardian. Therefore, if the plates existed, they cannot now be examined. Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, while critics often assert that either Smith manufactured the plates himself or that the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience.
Origin and historicity
In the words of LDS historian Richard BushmanRichard Bushman
Richard Lyman Bushman is an American historian and Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University. He is currently the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University...
, "For most modern readers, the [golden] plates are beyond belief, a phantasm, yet the Mormon sources accept them as fact." Because Joseph Smith said he returned the plates to an angel after he finished translating them, their authenticity cannot be determined by physical examination. Most Mormons believe in the golden plates as a matter of faith.
Nevertheless, the golden plates were reportedly shown to several close associates
Book of Mormon witnesses
The Book of Mormon witnesses are a group of contemporaries of Joseph Smith, Jr. who said they saw the golden plates from which Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon...
of Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
exists as its reputed translation. Thus, Mormon apologists and Mormon critics can debate indirect evidence only: they may ask whether the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
narrative is consistent with science and history and whether its witnesses are credible.Mormon scholars have formed collaborations such as Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies
Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies
The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies is an informal collaboration of academics devoted to Latter-day Saint historical scholarship. The group is formally part of the Neal A...
to provide apologetic
Apologetics
Apologetics is the discipline of defending a position through the systematic use of reason. Early Christian writers Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of reason. Early Christian writers...
answers to critical research about the golden plates and topics in the field of Mormon studies. Among these topics, the credibility of the plates has been, according to Bushman, a "troublesome item."
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
prophet-historians from around the year AD 400: Mormon
Mormon (prophet)
Mormon is believed by followers of Mormonism to have been the narrator of much of the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which describes him as a prophet-historian and a member of a tribe of indigenous Americans known as the Nephites...
and his son Moroni. Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates. Their script, according to the book, was described as "reformed Egyptian
Reformed Egyptian
According to the Book of Mormon, that scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement was originally written in reformed Egyptian characters on plates of "ore" by prophets living in the Western Hemisphere from perhaps as early as 2600 BC until as late as AD 421. Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the...
," a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists. Historically, Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate, and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the plates. The Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
, however, while accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture, no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates. Moreover, even in the more theologically conservative LDS Church, some adherents who accept the Book of Mormon as inspired scripture do not believe it is a literal translation of a physical historical record.
Non-believers and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates. For example, it has been theorized that the plates were fashioned by Joseph Smith or one of his associates, that Joseph Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
or hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
, or that the plates were mystical
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and should be understood in the context of Smith's historical era, when magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
was an accepted part of reality. These theories are explored in the article Origin of the Book of Mormon
Origin of the Book of Mormon
There are several theories as to the actual origin of the Book of Mormon. Most adherents to the Latter Day Saint movement view the book as a work of inspired scripture...
. Scholarly examinations of the book's historicity are discussed in the article Historicity of the Book of Mormon
Historicity of the Book of Mormon
The question of the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon has long been a source of contention between members of the Latter Day Saint movement and non-members. Many, but not all, Mormons hold the book's connection to ancient American history as an article of their faith. However, this view...
.
Story of the golden plates
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
. Joseph Smith is the only source for a great deal of the story because much of it occurred at times when he was the only human witness. Nevertheless, Smith told the story to his family, friends, and acquaintances; and many of these provided second-hand accounts. Other parts of the story are derived from the statements of those who knew Smith, including several witnesses
Book of Mormon witnesses
The Book of Mormon witnesses are a group of contemporaries of Joseph Smith, Jr. who said they saw the golden plates from which Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon...
who said they saw the golden plates.
The best known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838 and incorporated into the official church histories of some Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
denominations. The LDS Church has canonized
Biblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
part of this 1838 account as part of its scripture
Religious text
Religious texts, also known as scripture, scriptures, holy writ, or holy books, are the texts which various religious traditions consider to be sacred, or of central importance to their religious tradition...
, The Pearl of Great Price.
Background
During the Second Great AwakeningSecond Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
, Joseph Smith, Jr. lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York
Palmyra (village), New York
Palmyra is a village in Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 3,490 at the 2000 census. The village, along with the town, is named after Palmyra in present-day Syria.The Village of Palmyra is in the Town of Palmyra...
. At the time churches in the region contended so vigorously for souls that western New York became known as the "burned-over district
Burned-over district
"Burned-over district" refers to the religious scene in western and central region of New York, in the early 19th century, where religious revivals and Pentecostal movements of the Second Great Awakening took place....
" because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often. Western New York was also noted for its participation in a "craze for treasure hunting." Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer
Scrying
Scrying is a magic practice that involves seeing things psychically in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling. The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals,...
, using what were termed "seer stones" in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure. Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone.
Smith did not consider himself to be a "peeper" or "glass-looker,"
Crystal gazing
Crystal-gazing is a form of divination or scrying achieved through trance induction by means of gazing at a crystal....
a practice he called "nonsense." Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gift
Spiritual gift
In Christianity, spiritual gifts are endowments given by the Holy Spirit. These are the supernatural graces which individual Christians need to fulfill the mission of the church. They are described in the New Testament, primarily in , , and . also touches on the spiritual gifts...
s. Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves nor denied their presumed power to find treasure; nor did he ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised. He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a "seer", and indeed, in his view a seer was even greater than a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
. Joseph Smith's first stone, apparently the same one he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors. This stone may still be in the possession of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Finding the plates
According to Smith, he found the plates after he was directed to them by a heavenly messenger whom he later identified as the angel Moroni. According to the story, the angel first visited Smith's bedroom late at night, on September 22 in 1822 or 1823. Moroni told Smith that the plates could be found buried in a prominent hill near his home, later called CumorahCumorah
Cumorah is a drumlin in Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith, Jr...
, a name taken from the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
. Before dawn, Moroni reappeared two more times and repeated the information.
But the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain "commandments". Smith recorded some of these commandments, and contemporaries to whom he told the story said there were others, all of which are relevant to the modern debate about whether, or how closely, events of early Mormonism were related to the practice of contemporary folk magic. Smith's writings say that the angel required at least the following: (1) that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, (2) that he tell his father about the vision, and (3) that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person. Smith's contemporaries who heard the story—both sympathetic and unsympathetic—generally agreed that Smith mentioned the following additional commandments: (4) that Smith take the plates and leave the site where they had been buried without looking back, and (5) that the plates never directly touch the ground until safe at home in a locked chest. Some unsympathetic listeners who heard the story from Smith or his father recalled that Smith had said the angel required him (6) to wear "black clothes" to the place where the plates were buried, (7) to ride a "black horse with a switchtail", (8) to call for the plates by a certain name, and (9) to "give thanks to God."
Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone (or possibly iron). Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover, and prying it up with a lever, Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts.
Unsuccessful retrieval attempts
According to Smith's followers, Smith said he took the plates from the box, put them on the ground, and covered the box with the stone to protect the other treasures it contained. Nevertheless, the accounts say, when Smith looked back at the ground after closing the box, the plates had once again disappeared into it. According to two non-believing Palmyra residents, when Smith once again raised the stone and attempted to retrieve the plates, Smith saw something in the box like a toad that grew larger and struck him to the ground. Although Smith's followers do not mention a toad-like creature, they agree with several non-believers that Smith said he was stricken by a supernatural force that hurled him to the ground as many as three times.Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" [sic]. Concluding that it was not, he said he prayed asking why he had been barred from taking the plates.
In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary (sic) and saught (sic) the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have". According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands", and according to a non-believer, Smith said "I had forgotten to give thanks to God" as required by the angel.
Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the "right person": his older brother Alvin. Alvin died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do. Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the "right person"—although the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be. For the visit on September 22, 1825, Smith may have attempted to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T. Lawrence, but eventually, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale, his future wife.
Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823, but there is no record of him being in the vicinity of Palmyra between January 1826 and January 1827 when he returned to New York from Pennsylvania with his new wife. In January 1827, Smith visited the hill and then told his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord", which may have meant that he had missed his annual visit to the hill in 1826.
Receiving the plates
The next annual visit on September 22, 1827 would be, Smith told associates, his last chance to receive the plates. According to Brigham Young, as the scheduled final date to obtain the plates approached, several Palmyra residents expressed concern "that they were going to lose that treasure" and sent for a skilled necromancer from 60 miles (96 km) away, encouraging him to make three separate trips to Palmyra to find the plates. During one of these trips, the unnamed necromancer is said to have discovered the location, but was unable to determine the value of the plates. A few days prior to the September 22, 1827 visit to the hill, Smith's loyal treasure-hunting friends Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight, Sr.Joseph Knight, Sr.
Joseph Knight, Sr. was a close associate of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and provided significant material support to Smith's translation and publication of the Book of Mormon....
traveled to Palmyra, in part, to be there during Smith's scheduled visit to the hill.
Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T. Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned he might cause trouble. Therefore, on the eve of September 22, 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark. If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Joseph was to tell him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill. Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah
Cumorah
Cumorah is a drumlin in Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith, Jr...
with his wife Emma. While Emma stayed behind kneeling in prayer, Joseph walked to what he said was the site of the Golden Plates. Some time in the early morning hours, he said he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah. At the same time, Joseph said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the "Urim and Thummim
Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the Urim and Thummim were a set of seer stones bound by silver bows into a set of spectacles, that founder Joseph Smith, Jr...
" or "Interpreters", with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother
Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during...
when he returned in the morning.
Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon
Macedon (town), New York
Macedon is a town in Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 9,148 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the ancient Macedonian Kingdom of Macedon, the birthplace of Alexander the Great....
to earn enough money to buy a solid lockable chest in which to put the plates. By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith said he had been successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their share of the profits from what they viewed as part of a joint venture in treasure hunting. Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith, Sr. determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly talented seer from 60 miles (96 km) away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
. When Emma heard of this, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith, Jr., who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim
Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the Urim and Thummim were a set of seer stones bound by silver bows into a set of spectacles, that founder Joseph Smith, Jr...
that the plates were safe. He nevertheless hurriedly rode home with Emma.
Once home in Manchester
Manchester (town), New York
Manchester is a town in Ontario County, New York, USA. The population was 9,258 at the 2000 census. The town was named after one of its villages, which in turn was named after the original Manchester in Greater Manchester, England....
, he said he walked to Cumorah
Cumorah
Cumorah is a drumlin in Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith, Jr...
, removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked home through the woods and away from the road with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm. On the way, he said a man had sprung up from behind a log and struck him a "heavy blow with a gun." "Knocking the man down with a single punch, Joseph ran as fast as he could for about a half mile before he was attacked by a second man trying to get the plates. After similarly overpowering the man, Joseph continued to run, but before he reached the house, a third man hit him with a gun. In striking the last man, Joseph said, he injured his thumb." He returned home with a dislocated thumb and other minor injuries. Smith sent his father, Joseph Knight
Joseph Knight, Sr.
Joseph Knight, Sr. was a close associate of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and provided significant material support to Smith's translation and publication of the Book of Mormon....
, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found no one.
Smith is said to have put the plates in a locked chest and hid them in his parents' home in Manchester. He refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or the other artifacts he said he had in his possession, although some people were allowed to heft them or feel what were said to be the artifacts through a cloth. A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which he said had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates. After letting his mother feel through a thin cloth what she said was the breastplate, he placed it in the locked chest.
The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the chest where Smith said the plates were kept. After hearing that a group of them would attempt to enter the house by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth, and the family was able to scare away the intended intruders. Fearing the chest might still be discovered, Smith hid it under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby, then being used as a cooper
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
shop. Later, Smith told his mother he had taken the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floor boards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax. Shortly thereafter the empty box was discovered and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates, who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find the hiding place by looking in her seer stone.
Translating the plates
Joseph Smith said that the plates were engraved in an unknown language, and Smith told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them. This translation took place mainly in Harmony, PennsylvaniaHarmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Harmony Township is a township in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 558 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water.-History:Harmony, Pennsylvania, is...
(now Oakland Township
Oakland Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Oakland Township is a township in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 550 at the 2000 census. Oakland Township was once part of Harmony Township . Emma Hale Smith, wife of Latter-day Saint Movement founder, Joseph Smith, grew up in Oakland Township when it was still...
), Emma's hometown, where Smith and his wife had moved in October 1827 with financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris. The translation occurred in two phases: the first, from December 1827 to June 1828, during which Smith transcribed some of the characters
Anthon Transcript
The Anthon Transcript is a small piece of paper on which Joseph Smith, Jr. wrote several lines of characters. According to Smith, these characters were from the Golden Plates and represent the Reformed Egyptian writing that was on the plates...
and then dictated 116 manuscript pages to Harris, which were lost. The second phase began sporadically in early 1829 and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, Jr., an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836, becoming one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of...
, a schoolteacher who volunteered to serve as Smith's full-time scribe. In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York
Fayette, New York
Fayette is a town in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 3,643 at the 2000 census.The Town of Fayette is on the western border of the county and is southeast of Geneva, New York.- History :...
, completing the translation early the following month.
Urim and Thummim
In ancient Israelite religion and culture, Urim and Thummim is a phrase from the Hebrew Scriptures or Torah associated with the Hoshen , divination in general, and cleromancy in particular...
"—a set of large spectacles with stones where the eye-pieces should be. There is no eye-witness testimony that Smith ever wore the large spectacles, although some witnesses understood that he placed them in his hat while translating. Witnesses did observe Smith using a single seer stone (not part of a set of spectacles) in the translation, the same brown stone Smith had earlier used for treasure seeking.
Smith seems to have used a single stone during the second phase of translation. Smith placed the stone in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation. A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked. Sometimes Smith dictated to Martin Harris from upstairs or from a different room.
Smith's "translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
" did not require any use of the plates themselves. As he looked into the stone, Smith told his friends and family that the written translation of the ancient script appeared to him in English. There are several proposed explanations for how Smith composed his translation. In the 19th century, the most common explanation was that he plagiarized the work
Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship
The Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship is the theory that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized in part from an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding. This theory first appeared in print in the book Mormonism Unvailed, published in 1834 by E.D. Howe...
from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding. This theory is deemed to be repudiated by Smith's preeminent modern biographers. The most prominent modern theory is that Smith composed the translation in response to the provincial opinions of his time, perhaps while in a magical trance-like state. As a matter of faith, Latter Day Saints generally view the translation process as either an automatic process of transcribing text written within the stone, or an intuitive translation by Smith assisted by a mystical
Christian mysticism
Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions...
connection with God through the stone.
Smith's dictations were written down by a number of assistants including Emma Smith
Emma Hale Smith
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was married to Joseph Smith, Jr., until his death in 1844, and was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, during Joseph Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...
, Martin Harris, and notably, Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, Jr., an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836, becoming one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of...
. In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 un-duplicated manuscript pages to Martin Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply re-translate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again." According to Grant Palmer, Smith believed "a second transcription would be identical to the first. This confirms the view that the English text existed in some kind of unalterable, spiritual form rather than that someone had to think through difficult conceptual issues and idioms, always resulting in variants in any translation."
Reputed location of the plates during translation
When Joseph and Emma moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827, they transported a wooden box, which Smith said contained the plates, hidden in a barrel of beans. For a time the couple stayed in the home of Emma's father Isaac Hale; but when Smith refused to show Hale the plates, Hale banished the concealed objects from his house. Afterward, Smith told several of his associates that the plates were hidden in the nearby woods. Emma said that she remembered the plates being on a table in the house, wrapped in a linen tablecloth, which she moved from time to time when it got in the way of her chores. According to Smith's mother, the plates were also stored in a trunk on Emma's bureau. However, Smith did not require the physical presence of the plates in order to translate them.In April 1828, Martin Harris' wife, Lucy
Lucy Harris
Lucy Harris was the wife of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Life:Lucy and Martin were first cousins...
, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates. When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods. According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large black snake and thus prevented from digging up the plates. As a result of Martin Harris' loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim
Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the Urim and Thummim were a set of seer stones bound by silver bows into a set of spectacles, that founder Joseph Smith, Jr...
as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man." According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the autumn equinox and the anniversary of the day he first received them.
In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates. Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself." Harris followed these directions but could not find the plates.
In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
and his parents in Fayette, New York
Fayette, New York
Fayette is a town in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 3,643 at the 2000 census.The Town of Fayette is on the western border of the county and is southeast of Geneva, New York.- History :...
. Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house where Smith could recover them. The translation was completed at the Whitmer home.
Returning the plates
After translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, although he did not elaborate about this experience. According to accounts by several early Mormons, a group of Mormon leaders including Oliver CowderyOliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, Jr., an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836, becoming one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of...
, David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
, and possibly others accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah. There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall. According to Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
's understanding, which he said he gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates, and inscribed with the words "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ."
Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed". This "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof". Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time when the sealed part will be translated and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples.
David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate). Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which he said "testify that they are there".
Descriptions of the plates
Smith said the angel Moroni had commanded him not to show the plates to any unauthorized person. However, Smith eventually obtained the written statement of several witnessesBook of Mormon witnesses
The Book of Mormon witnesses are a group of contemporaries of Joseph Smith, Jr. who said they saw the golden plates from which Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon...
. It is unclear whether the witnesses believed they saw the plates with their physical eyes, or they "saw" the plates in a vision. For instance, although Martin Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."
According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son; but this child was stillborn in 1828. In March 1829, Martin Harris came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found. The next day, Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himself to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view [the plates] as they are".
By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith. During the second half of June 1829, Smith took Harris, Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, Jr., an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836, becoming one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of...
and David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
(known collectively as the Three Witnesses
Three Witnesses
The Three Witnesses were a group of three early leaders of the Latter Day Saint movement who signed a statement in 1830 saying that an angel had shown them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon and that they had heard God's voice testifying that the book had...
), into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves. The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard. A few days later, Smith took a different group of Eight Witnesses
Eight Witnesses
The Eight Witnesses were one of the two groups of witnesses who signed a statement stating that they had seen the golden plates which Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the book...
to a location near Smith's parents' home in Palmyra
Palmyra (town), New York
Palmyra is a town in Wayne County, New York, USA. The population was 7,672 at the 2000 census. The town is named after the ancient city Palmyra in Syria....
where they said Smith showed them the golden plates. Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Joseph Smith, were published in 1830 as an appendix to the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
. According to later statements ascribed to Martin Harris, the witnesses viewed the plates in a vision and not with their "natural eyes."
In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates. For instance, Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during...
said she had "seen and handled" the plates. Smith's wife Emma
Emma Hale Smith
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was married to Joseph Smith, Jr., until his death in 1844, and was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, during Joseph Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...
and his younger brother William
William Smith (Mormonism)
William Smith was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Smith was the eighth child of Joseph Smith, Sr...
also said they had examined the plates while they were wrapped in fabric. Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates.
Described format, binding, and dimensions
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
, another of the Three Witnesses
Three Witnesses
The Three Witnesses were a group of three early leaders of the Latter Day Saint movement who signed a statement in 1830 saying that an angel had shown them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon and that they had heard God's voice testifying that the book had...
, was quoted by an 1831 Palmyra newspaper as having said the plates were "the thickness of tin plate; the back was secured with three small rings...passing through each leaf in succession". Anomalously, Smith's father
Joseph Smith, Sr.
Joseph Smith, Sr. was the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe was translated by Joseph Jr. from the Golden Plates. In 1833 Joseph Sr...
is quoted as saying that the plates were only half an inch (1.27 centimeter) thick. Smith's mother
Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during...
, who said she had "seen and handled" the plates, is quoted as saying they were "eight inches [20 cm] long, and six [15 cm] wide...all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate".
Hyrum Smith
Hyrum Smith
Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr....
and John Whitmer
John Whitmer
John Whitmer was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates...
, also witnesses in 1829
Eight Witnesses
The Eight Witnesses were one of the two groups of witnesses who signed a statement stating that they had seen the golden plates which Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the book...
, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book". Joseph Smith's wife Emma
Emma Hale Smith
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was married to Joseph Smith, Jr., until his death in 1844, and was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, during Joseph Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...
and his younger brother William
William Smith (Mormonism)
William Smith was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Smith was the eighth child of Joseph Smith, Sr...
said they had examined the plates while wrapped in fabric. Emma said she "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". William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book.
Joseph Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches [15 cm] wide and eight inches [20 cm] long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were...bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches [15 cm] in thickness".
Described composition and weight
The plates were first described as "gold", and beginning about 1827, the plates were widely called the "gold bible". When the Book of Mormon was published in 1830, the Eight WitnessesEight Witnesses
The Eight Witnesses were one of the two groups of witnesses who signed a statement stating that they had seen the golden plates which Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the book...
described the plates as having "the appearance of gold". The Book of Mormon describes the plates as being made of "ore". In 1831, a Palmyra newspaper quoted David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
, one of the Three Witnesses
Three Witnesses
The Three Witnesses were a group of three early leaders of the Latter Day Saint movement who signed a statement in 1830 saying that an angel had shown them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon and that they had heard God's voice testifying that the book had...
, as having said that the plates were a "whitish yellow color", with "three small rings of the same metal".
Joseph Smith, Jr.'s first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold". But Smith said that Moroni had referred to the plates as "gold." Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds" (18–23 kg), "were lead or gold". Joseph's brother William Smith, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper...much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood".
Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently. According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter. Smith's father Joseph Smith, Sr.
Joseph Smith, Sr.
Joseph Smith, Sr. was the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe was translated by Joseph Jr. from the Golden Plates. In 1833 Joseph Sr...
, who was one of the Eight Witnesses
Eight Witnesses
The Eight Witnesses were one of the two groups of witnesses who signed a statement stating that they had seen the golden plates which Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the book...
, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg). Joseph Smith's brother, William, said that he lifted them in a pillowcase and thought they "weighed about sixty pounds [27 kg] according to the best of my judgment". Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 pounds [27 kg]. Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds [18–23 kg]". Joseph Smith's wife Emma
Emma Hale Smith
Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was married to Joseph Smith, Jr., until his death in 1844, and was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, during Joseph Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...
never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work". None of the witnesses specified the exact size of the plates or the number of leaves contained in them, but one scholar speculates that, had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg).
"Sealed" portion
According to Joseph Smith and others, the book of Golden Plates contained a "sealed" portion containing "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof." Smith never described the nature of the seal, and the language of the Book of MormonBook of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical, physical, or a combination of these elements.
The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" to be revealed at some future time. For example, the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord" and that separate records of John the Apostle
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
were "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times
End times
The end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
. One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read.
Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10), an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" (Urim and Thummim) with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed." Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith."
Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni. David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them," that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable," "as solid to my view as wood," and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed" with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them." In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith
Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during...
said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose." The account of the Eight Witnesses
Eight Witnesses
The Eight Witnesses were one of the two groups of witnesses who signed a statement stating that they had seen the golden plates which Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the book...
says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as [Joseph] Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion. In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed; in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed. Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles...
, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up".
Claimed engravings
The Golden Plates were said to contain engravings in an ancient language that the Book of Mormon describes as Reformed EgyptianReformed Egyptian
According to the Book of Mormon, that scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement was originally written in reformed Egyptian characters on plates of "ore" by prophets living in the Western Hemisphere from perhaps as early as 2600 BC until as late as AD 421. Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the...
. Smith described the writing as "Egyptian characters...small, and beautifully engraved," exhibiting "much skill in the art of engraving."
John Whitmer
John Whitmer
John Whitmer was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates...
, one of the Eight Witnesses
Eight Witnesses
The Eight Witnesses were one of the two groups of witnesses who signed a statement stating that they had seen the golden plates which Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the book...
, said the plates had "fine engravings on both sides," and Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles...
, who did not see the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, understood that there were engravings on both sides of the plates, "stained with a black, hard stain, so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read."
The significance of the golden plates in the Latter Day Saint tradition
The golden plates are significant within the Latter Day Saint movementLatter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
because they are the reputed source for the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
, which Joseph Smith, Jr. called the "most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion." However, the golden plates are just one of many known and reputed metal plates with significance in the Latter Day Saint movement. The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of writing historical records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination. See List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement). In addition, Joseph Smith once believed in the authenticity of a set of engraved metal plates called the Kinderhook Plates
Kinderhook Plates
The Kinderhook plates were a set of 6 small, bell-shaped pieces of brass with strange engravings which were claimed to have been discovered in 1843 in an Indian mound near Kinderhook, Illinois....
, although these plates turned out to be a hoax by non-Mormons who sought to entice Smith to translate them in order to discredit his reputation.
Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree Plates
Voree Plates
The Voree Plates, sometimes called The Record of Rajah Manchou of Vorito, or the Voree Record, were a set of three tiny metal plates allegedly discovered by James J. Strang in 1845 in Voree, near Burlington, Wisconsin...
and the Book of the Law of the Lord
Book of the Law of the Lord
The Book of the Law of the Lord is a book accepted as scripture by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . It is alleged to be a translation by the Strangite prophet James Strang of the Plates of Laban, originally acquired by Nephi, a leading character in the early portion of The Book of...
, were purportedly translated by James Strang, one of three major contenders to succeed Joseph Smith and the eventual leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement with around three hundred members as of 1998...
.
Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance. For most Latter Day Saints, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith. For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins.
See also
- Mormonism and engraved metal platesMormonism and engraved metal platesEngraved metal plates hold a special significance in the Latter Day Saint movement because in 1827, the founder of that religion, Joseph Smith, Jr., claimed to have obtained a set of engraved golden plates from an angel and from them translated the Book of Mormon, a religious text of that...
- Reformed EgyptianReformed EgyptianAccording to the Book of Mormon, that scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement was originally written in reformed Egyptian characters on plates of "ore" by prophets living in the Western Hemisphere from perhaps as early as 2600 BC until as late as AD 421. Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the...
External links
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry: skeptical comments about the Golden Plates and their history.
- jefflindsay.com: LDS apologetic discussion of other ancient metal records.
- LDS magazine Ensign: apologetics regarding the gold plates.