Evidence #280 | December 6, 2021
Book of Mormon Evidence: Translation Witnesses
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Abstract
Numerous individuals witnessed Joseph Smith dictate the Book of Mormon. Their recorded statements strongly argue against theories of alternative authorship.Discussions of Book of Mormon witnesses often emphasize the visual or other sensory experiences of those who physically encountered the gold plates. What may sometimes get overlooked is the variety of individuals who also witnessed the Book of Mormon’s translation, which took place in different stages and circumstances between 1827 and 1829. Accounts and details about this crucial Restoration event are preserved in more than 200 historical documents.1
Primary Witnesses
The primary witnesses to the translation, in addition to Joseph Smith himself, include Emma Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. Nearly half of the relevant extant historical documents come from statements (some firsthand but most secondhand) made by these individuals.2 As the text’s purported translator, Joseph’s own comments about what happened are obviously of great interest. Emma, Martin, and Oliver all acted as scribes and thus were also intimately involved in the translation process. While David didn’t act as a scribe, a major portion of the translation took place at his parent’s home in Fayette, New York, allowing him a front-row seat to the process as it unfolded.
Additional Witnesses
Several family members of these individuals were also closely involved. In the early stages of the translation, Reuben Hale (Emma’s brother) acted as a scribe.3 Samuel Smith (Joseph’s younger brother) briefly assisted as a scribe sometime in March 1829.4 And John and Christian Whitmer (David’s brothers) served temporarily as scribes when the translation project moved to the Whitmer home in Fayette.5
When asked about the translation, Emma Smith described it as taking place in an open setting with Joseph visible to her view: “In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.” The plates themselves (although covered by a cloth) “lay on the table without any attempt at concealment” and Joseph had “neither manuscript nor book to read from.” Emma further remarked that if Joseph “had had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from me.”6
A similar report comes from David Whitmer, who stated that when translating at his father’s home, Joseph Smith “was at no time hidden from his collaborators, and the translation was performed in the presence of not only the persons mentioned, but of the entire Whitmer household and several of Smith’s relatives besides.”7
Thus, in addition to David and his brothers John and Christian (who, as previously mentioned, acted as scribes), it appears that Peter Whitmer Sr., Mary Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Elizabeth Ann Whitmer (who were all living in the Whitmer home at the time) would have witnessed the translation at times.8 An account from Elizabeth Whitmer helps corroborate this claim:
I cheerfully certify that I was familiar with the manner of Joseph Smith’s translating the book of Mormon. He translated the most of it at my Father’s house. And I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together. Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director in his hat, and then place his face in his hat, so as to exclude the light, and then [read the words?] as they appeared before him.9
Not everyone who observed the translation, however, was one of Joseph Smith’s close associates or followers. Michael Morse, Emma Smith’s brother-in-law, “had occasion more than once to go into [Joseph Smith’s] immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation.” Morse even reported specific details about the translation process.
The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph’s placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating, word after word, while the scribe—Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down.10
William Blair, who recorded these statements, noted that “Mr. Morse is not, and has never been a believer in the prophetic mission of Joseph.”11 Similar accounts come from other observers outside of Joseph Smith’s circle, including Elizabeth McKune,12 Joseph McKune,13 and William R. Hine.14 While all these reports (most of which are second hand) should be treated with caution, they lend additional support to the claim that Joseph, at least during some stages of the translation, dictated in an open setting visible to bystanders.
Conclusion
Altogether, historical sources indicate that more than a dozen individuals observed Joseph Smith dictate the text of the Book of Mormon, many of whom participated in the process as his scribes.15 This data plays a crucial role in the ongoing debate over the Book of Mormon’s authorship.
On one hand, multiple lines of evidence argue against Joseph Smith as being the book’s author or creator. The Book of Mormon is highly complex and sophisticated on numerous levels.16 It has archaic words, grammar, and syntax that haven’t yet turned up in Joseph Smith’s linguistic environment.17 It contains a variety of ancient literary, linguistic, and cultural features.18 And stylometric studies using several different statistical methods indicate that Joseph Smith wasn’t responsible for the Book of Mormon’s wording.19
When viewed together, these and other lines of evidence make it very difficult to ascribe the Book of Mormon’s creation to Joseph Smith, a frontier famer with limited education and no prior literary experience in 1829.20 Faced with this convergence of data, it may be tempting to assume that one or more individuals besides Joseph Smith were either partly or completely responsible for the text’s creation. Yet, as this summary has demonstrated, that assumption is also highly problematic. Too many people witnessed Joseph dictate the words of the Book of Mormon to various scribes between April 7 and June 30, 1829. The overwhelming preponderance of historical data indicates that he—and he alone—brought forth its contents.21
This places the Book of Mormon in an interesting situation. Multiple lines of internal textual evidence point away from Joseph Smith as being its author. Yet, the external historical sources decisively point towards Joseph Smith as its sole producer. While perplexing under purely secular or naturalistic theories, these unusual circumstances agree perfectly with Joseph Smith’s own claim of having been the text’s divinely aided translator, rather than its author. No other explanation can so easily account for what otherwise must be viewed as powerful sets of contradictory data.
Larry E. Morris, A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019).
John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, 2nd edition, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2017).
Lyndon W. Cook, ed., David Whitmer Interviews (Orem, UT: Grandin Press, 1991).
- 1. See John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, 2nd edition, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2017), 79–227; note that the hyperlink in this reference is to a previous edition of this book, which means that the pagination and document identification numbers provided throughout this evidence summary will be slightly different than those in the linked book chapter.
- 2. See Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon.”
- 3. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 143 (doc. 41), 142 (doc. 42), 220 (doc. 187), 225 (doc. 200).
- 4. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 99, 132 (doc. 13).
- 5. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,”163 (docs. 80–81), 168 (doc. 88), 170 (doc. 91), 172 (doc. 95), 177–179 (docs. 101–104), 219 (doc. 183)
- 6. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 143 (doc. 41).
- 7. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 172 (doc. 95).
- 8. These are the family members listed by Richard Lloyd Anderson who were living in the Whitmer home at the time of the translation. See Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Whitmers: A Family That Nourished the Church,” Ensign, August 1979, online at churchofjesuschrist.org.
- 9. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 186 (doc. 115).
- 10. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 219 (doc. 183).
- 11. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 219 (doc. 183).
- 12. As reported by her brother Hiel Lewis, Elizabeth McKune, who “worked in the families of Joseph Smith and [her] uncle Isaac Hale for about nine months” reportedly “saw Smith translating his book by the aid of the stone and hat.” Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents, 5 vols. (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1996–2003), 4:320.
- 13. As related by Rhamanthus M. Stocker, Joseph Fowler McKune, who “was quite often in Smith’s house” during the Book of Mormon’s translation, said that “Smith would bend over the hat with his face buried in it so that no light could enter it, and thus dictate to the scribe what he should write.” Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 225 (doc. 200).
- 14. William R. Hine claimed to have seen Joseph Smith translate at a tavern: “I went there and saw Jo Smith sit by a table and put a handkerchief to his forehead and peek into his hat and call out a word to Cowdery, who sat at the same table and wrote it down. Several persons sat near the same table and there was no curtain between them.” Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 209–210 (doc. 164).
- 15. The known witnesses include at least the following individuals: Emma Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Christian Whitmer, Samuel Smith, Reuben Hale, Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Sr., Mary Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., Elizabeth McKune, Joseph McKune, and William R. Hine. Not all of these individuals are known to have left statements about the translation, but there is reason to believe that they each observed or participated in the process. Importantly, none of these purported witnesses are known to have cast doubt on Joseph Smith’s singular role in the Book of Mormon’s production (i.e., dictating or producing its content). Those witnesses who said anything about it ascribed its production to him alone.
- 16. See Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Complexity (category),” online at evidencecentral.org.
- 17. For an overview of this data, see Royal Skousen with the collaboration of Stanford Carmack, The Nature of the Original Language, History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, Volume 3, Parts 3 and 4 (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2018).
- 18. Numerous examples of these features can be found on the thematic interface at Evidence Central.
- 19. See Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Stylometry,” Evidence# 0272, November 22, 2021, online at evidencecentral.org; Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Voice Diversity,” Evidence# 0273, November 22, 2021, online at evidencecentral.org
- 20. See Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Joseph Smith’s Limited Education,” Evidence# 0001, September 19, 2020, online at evidencecentral.org; Evidence Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Joseph Smith Compared with Contemporary Authors,” Evidence# 0106, November 2, 2020, online at evidencecentral.org.
- 21. The historically most popular theory of alternative authorship—the Spalding-Rigdon theory—has now been thoroughly discredited. See Matthew Roper and Paul J. Fields, “The Historical Case against Sidney Rigdon’s Authorship of the Book of Mormon,” Mormon Studies Review 23, no. 1 (2011): 113–125; Matthew Roper, “Myth, Memory, and ‘Manuscript Found’,” FARMS Review 21, no. 2 (2009): 179–223; Matthew Roper, “Mythical ‘Manuscript Found,’” FARMS Review 17, no. 2 (2005): 7–140. For more information on views of Book of Mormon authorship over time, see Brian C. Hales, “Naturalistic Explanations of the Origin of the Book of Mormon: A Longitudinal Study,” BYU Studies Quarterly 58, no. 3 (2019): 105–148; Daniel C. Peterson, “Editor’s Introduction: ‘In the Hope That Something Will Stick’: Changing Explanations for the Book of Mormon,” FARMS Review 16, no. 2 (2004): xi-xxxv; Daniel C. Peterson, “The Divine Source of the Book of Mormon in the Face of Alternative Theories Advocated by LDS Critics,” 2001 FairMormon Conference Presentation, online at archive.bookofmormoncentral.org; Louis Midgley, “Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? The Critics and Their Theories,” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1997), 101–139.