Can You See What I See?

When was the last time you saw or heard a Mormon brag about Joseph Smith's translation methods? View the official Mormon websites and see who illustrates it the way it really happened. Who can tell us how he did it? The man whose home Joseph used to translate the plates. He is also one of the three witnesses at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. He wrote a book called Address to All Believers in Christ. David Whitmer related
"I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear.”

Just why would the LDS church not want to make everyone know about this incredible way to translate the golden plates? I have my opinion. Did Joseph have a prior history of using a rock in a hat? Not just any history, but a criminal record. But wait, according to most Mormons, though Joseph was arrested multiple times he was NEVER found guilty. Unfortunately for Mormons that is wrong. The abundance of material from sources (friendly and not so friendly) confirm Joseph was a con artist. His trade was searching for hidden treasure in the earth. To find this treasure Joseph would put a 'seer stone' into a hat, pull it over his face, and then be able to locate the treasure. On one of these treasure seeking expeditions he stayed at the home of Issac Hale, his future father-in-law. Mr. Hale had comments about Joseph's translation methods: “The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the Money-diggers. With the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods!” Susquehanna Register 9

The reason the LDS church does not want you to study the way he translated the plates, is that it is too easy to connect it with his con artist scam. About Joseph being found guilty, that will come soon again.

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.