Lost in the Translation

Just how good a translator was Joseph Smith? On YouTube you can find videos by people letting us all know. You can find on Mormon sites that a PhD in Egytpian languages does not really know how to translate like Joesph Smith. These experts rely on grammar, association, science and other tools; but they do not understand the importance of religion in translating. Amazing how there is no special "religious code" to translate anything in the Bible. Greek (koine), Aramaic, and Hebrew seem to be pretty straight forward.

The above photo is some of the characters copied by Joseph from the rarely seen gold plates. These were presented to Dr. Anthon by Martin Harris. Anthon thought they were just randomly drawn figures that meant nothing. Today no one knows what any of these characters are. But leave it to Joseph to say Anthon thought his translation was one of the best he had ever seen. Mormons today say it is Joseph's word verses Anthon's. But why would Anthon have any more insight than any expert today.

Joseph had a chance to redem himself as a world class translator when the Book of Abraham papyrus was rediscovered in 1967. The LDS church was confident that Joseph's ability to translate would be verifed. With the discovery of the Papyri, Hugh Nibley (the Mormon's favorite think tank) was quickly put to work. He asked Dee Jay Nelson to first look at the work. He found it a fraud. (Unfortunately he also decided to improve his credentials and falsely started calling himself a PhD. ) Then Dr. Richard Parker from Brown University was asked, he published his findings in Dialogue. He also found it fraudulent. Unfortunately any Egyptian expert that has looked at the papyrus has also found it to be an Egyptian fureral text.

Now Joseph had a very creative method of translating most of his works. The golden plates for the Book of Mormon were translated with a stone in a hat pulled up over his face. (I am not kidding. This was recorded by David Whitmer whose home was used to do the tanslating.) Now I am certain none of the Egyptian experts tried to translate it that way. Sadly with the determination of the LDS church to justify Joseph, you can imagine their current prophets taking the infamous seer stone doing the same thing. Where did this method of rock in hat come from? It is the same method he used to search for buried treasure in the hills of New England. More on that later.