The Gold Plates and the Translation of the Book of Mormon
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.
An earlier,
incomplete draft of this account is found in History, ca. June–October 1839,
[1]–[7],
[9]
Two later,
lightly edited drafts of this account are found in History, ca. 1841, draft,
5–48,
61–62; and
History, ca. 1841, fair copy,
5–48,
60–61
“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])
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
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