Joseph Smith translated by revelation, professor says

PROVO — The only way Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could have written the Book of Mormon is the way he said he did, Daniel C. Peterson said in a lecture at the Olivewood book store Thursday.To have created it any other way would have required scholarly instincts and experience the young, uneducated farm boy did not have, Peterson said.Yet critics claim the church's first prophet may have copied another manuscript or memorized passages to appear he was translating as he dictated to a series of scribes, including his wife, Emma. To do so, he would have had to memorize some 5,000 words daily, day after day, an impossible feat, Peterson said.Making up the book "on the fly" would have also been impossible for the unlearned young man, Peterson said.The Brigham Young University professor of Islamic studies and Arabic also sought to dispel some of the myths surrounding the Prophet's translation of the scripture.Peterson said the Book of Mormon was revealed to Smith through a seer stone. Smith never went through the golden pages of the ancient record, but instead put the seer stone in a hat, then buried his head in the hat to shut out ambient light. The stone lit up a line of text, about 30 words at a time, which Smith then dictated to his scribe. Once the text was transcribed correctly, the line disappeared and a new line came into focus, Peterson said, quoting eye witnesses who were 19th Century farmers associated with Smith.When Smith came across words he couldn't pronounce or understand, he spelled them out. The translation in 1829 took about two months of time, although it was spread beyond two months.One of his scribes, Martin Harris, found a stone that looked much like the seer stone and when Smith wasn't looking, switched it. When Smith buried his head in the hat, the stone failed to respond. The seer stone was put back in place and translation continued, Peterson said."It was a translation by revelation," he said.No single account of how Smith translated the Book of Mormon exists, but scholars have assembled bits and pieces to put the story together. Smith, himself, never disclosed how he did it, Peterson said.If Smith had negative feelings toward his wife, the seer stone quit working until Smith apologized. Then the translation could continue, Peterson said.A common belief among LDS members is that Smith put up a blanket or sheet between him and the scribe, primarily Oliver Cowdery, so the scribe couldn't see Smith working with the plates. But Peterson said the only sheets that were put up were to screen the work from folks passing by the windows, more often at the Peter Whitmore home where much of the translation took place.So why did Smith even need the gold plates? Peterson said he didn't know, except perhaps as a reassurance and an evidence to him that they existed. The plates and other objects, including the sword of Laban, may have helped him understand that the translation wasn't subjective, Peterson said.Emma Smith said when her husband wasn't in the room she felt the plates under a cloth, heard the rustle of the metal pages, but never admitted lifting the cloth to take a look.Peterson cited several passages in the Book of Mormon that stood out for him and which would be impossible for Smith to know. Among them were the correct descriptions of the land in the Middle East that the prophet Lehi's family and followers passed through; accurate descriptions of seismic events in what is now known as South America; and word structures that are more Hebrew in nature than English."Critics seem to think he (Joseph Smith) had access to things, even which hadn't been written yet," Peterson said.He also disputed studies that the DNA of Native Americans fails to coincide with the Book of Mormon claim that the people were of Hebrew heritage. The Americas were already populated with natives when the followers of Lehi arrived 2,600 years ago, Peterson said. The people of the Book of Mormon were by comparison a small group."(By now) the genetics in a lot of areas is gone," he said.