FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Difference between revisions of "Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?"
(→Emma Smith confirmed that Joseph switched between the Nephite interpreters and his own seer stone during the translation) |
(→Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?) |
||
| Line 23: | Line 23: | ||
</onlyinclude> | </onlyinclude> | ||
{{endnotes sources}} | {{endnotes sources}} | ||
| + | <!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> | ||
| + | [[en:Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?]] | ||
| + | [[es:Pregunta: ¿José Smith usar los intérpretes nefitas a traducir? O usó su propia piedra vidente?]] | ||
| + | [[pt:Pergunta: Será que Joseph Smith usar os intérpretes nefitas traduzir? Ou ele usou sua própria pedra de vidente?]] | ||
| + | |||
[[Category:Letter to a CES Director]] | [[Category:Letter to a CES Director]] | ||
[[Category:John Dehlin's "Questions and Answers"]] | [[Category:John Dehlin's "Questions and Answers"]] | ||
| Line 28: | Line 33: | ||
[[Category:No Man Knows My History]] | [[Category:No Man Knows My History]] | ||
[[Category:One Nation Under Gods]] | [[Category:One Nation Under Gods]] | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
Revision as of 18:36, 25 April 2017
FAIR Answers—back to home page
Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?
Joseph Smith used both the Nephite interpreters and the seer stone, and both were called "Urim and Thummim"
Joseph Smith used both the Nephite Interpreters and his own seer stone during the translation process, yet we only hear of the "Urim and Thummim" being used for this purpose.
- He described the instrument as ‘spectacles’ and referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim.
- He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed, called ‘seer stones’ because they aided him in receiving revelations as a seer. The Prophet received some early revelations through the use of these seer stones.
- Records indicate that soon after the founding of the Church in 1830, the Prophet stopped using the seer stones as a regular means of receiving revelations. Instead, he dictated the revelations after inquiring of the Lord without employing an external instrument.
Emma Smith confirmed that Joseph switched between the Nephite interpreters and his own seer stone during the translation
Emma Smith Bidamon described Joseph's use of several stones during translation to Emma Pilgrim on 27 March 1870 (original spelling retained):
Now the first that my <husband> translated, [the book] was translated by use of the Urim, and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly, black, but was rather a dark color.”[1]
Joseph Smith's small, egg-shaped seer stone. Emma said that "he used a small stone, not exactly, black, but was rather a dark color." Photograph by Welden C. Andersen and Richard E. Turley Jr. Copyright © The Church Historian's Press.
Notes
- ↑ "Emma Smith Bidamon to Emma Pilgrim, 27 March 1870," Early Mormon Documents, 1:532.