The Gold Plates and the Translation of the Book of Mormon
According to
Joseph Smith’s later accounts, three years after he experienced his first
vision of Deity, an angel appeared to him in 1823 and told him of an ancient
record written on gold plates. He explained that he retrieved the plates from a
hillside in upstate New York in 1827 and thereafter translated them with help
from several scribes.
Over the
course of his life, Joseph Smith wrote, dictated, or assigned others to prepare
texts that included information about how the Book of Mormon came to be. Some
of his contemporaries who heard him recount these events also wrote them down.
The following list identifies accounts found on the Joseph Smith Papers
website. The list is divided into three categories: detailed accounts from
Joseph Smith, other Joseph Smith documents that give partial accounts of or
mention these events, and accounts written by his contemporaries.
For further
discussion on the Book of Mormon and the translation process, see the
introduction to Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831,
xxviii–xxxiii. For a compilation of accounts by Joseph Smith’s contemporaries,
see John W. Welch, “The Miraculous
Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens:
Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch (Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005),
76–213.
Detailed Joseph Smith Accounts
History, ca.
Summer 1832,
4–6
Journal,
9–11 Nov. 1835 (later
copied into JS History, 1834–1836,
121–122)
“Church History,”
Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842 (also found in the 1844 essay
“Latter Day Saints,” in
Israel Daniel Rupp (ed.), He Pasa Ekklesia [The whole
church])
Other Accounts in Joseph Smith’s Papers
Revelation, July 1828 [D&C 3], regarding the lost manuscript pages of
the Book of Mormon
Revelation, Spring 1829
[D&C 10], regarding the lost manuscript pages of the Book of
Mormon
Revelation, March 1829
[D&C 5], regarding witnesses of the gold plates
Revelation, April 1829–D
[D&C 9], regarding Oliver Cowdery’s attempt to translate
Book of
Mormon, 1830 ed.,
110,
548 [2 Nephi 27:12;
Ether 5:2–4], prophecies of three witnesses to the gold plates
Preface to the Book of Mormon,
1830 ed., regarding the lost manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon (also
found in the
printer’s
manuscript of the Book of Mormon)
Articles
and Covenants, ca. April 1830 [D&C 20:5–12], includes a brief summary
of the angel’s visit and the origin of the Book of Mormon
Minutes, 25–26 Oct.
1831, reports a meeting at which Joseph Smith was invited (but declined)
to give details about the events
Revelation, 1 November
1831–B [D&C 1:29], mentions that Joseph Smith received power to
translate the Book of Mormon “by the mercy of God”
Letter to Noah C.
Saxton, 4 January 1833, mentions the divine origin of the Book of
Mormon
Minutes, 12 February
1834, reports a meeting at which Joseph Smith related his obtaining and
translating the plates
Minutes and Discourse, 21
April 1834, reports a meeting at which Joseph Smith related his obtaining
and translating the plates
Oliver Cowdery letters published
in the Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1834–July 1835, copied in
Joseph Smith’s 1834–1836 history, pp. 46–50 (recounting Cowdery’s
experience assisting with the translation), 62–65 (recounting the angel’s
visit), 81–99 (detailing the discovery
of the plates)
Journal,
14 Nov. 1835 (later copied
into JS History, 1834–1836,
129), reports that Joseph
Smith told Erastus Holmes about angelic visitations and the origin of the Book
of Mormon
Elders’ Journal,
July 1838,
42–43, summarizes
the angel’s visit and Joseph Smith’s discovery and translation of the
plates
John Corrill, A Brief
History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints,
11–14,
written as part of a history initiated at Joseph Smith’s assignment but
ultimately published independently, provides an overview of the Book of
Mormon’s origins
Letter to James Arlington
Bennet, 13 Nov. 1843,
mentions that Joseph Smith “communed with angels” and translated the Book of
Mormon “by the power of God . . . from hierogliphics”
Descriptions by Contemporaries of Joseph Smith
Orson Pratt,
A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions,
6–14,
22–23,
providing an overview of the Book of Mormon’s origins
Orson Hyde,
Ein Ruf aus der Wüste [A cry out of the wilderness],
18–21,
26–30
(modern English translation
here),
providing an overview of the Book of Mormon’s origins
Lucy Mack Smith, History,
1844–1845, providing many details about these events: bk. 3, [10]–bk. 4,
[3]; bk. 5,
[5]–[11]; bk. 6, [1]–bk. 8,
[1]; bk. 8, [4];
bk. 8,
[6]–[12]; bk. 9,
[1]–[4]; bk. 9,
[6]–[12]