KnoWhy #776 | February 4, 2025
Why Are the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon Translation Reliable?
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
“Ask that you may know the mysteries of God, and that you may translate and receive knowledge from all those ancient records which have been hid up, that are sacred; and according to your faith shall it be done unto you.” Doctrine and Covenants 8:11
The Know
While Joseph Smith did not describe the process by which he translated the Book of Mormon in much detail, he affirmed throughout his life, “By the power of God I translated the Book of Mormon from hieroglyphics; the knowledge of which was lost to the world.”1 As Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat have noted, “Some historical accounts claim Joseph explained the process further, but it is also clear that at times Joseph insisted on saying less.”2
Joseph was apparently hesitant to describe the process in detail so that he could instead emphasize God’s role in bringing forth the Book of Mormon; however, several others who saw the translation process would later recall and share their firsthand experiences, bearing strong testimonies of the miraculous translation of the Book of Mormon.3 Joseph’s scribes, including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery, were firsthand witnesses to the translation process, as were other individuals who were able to watch the translation occur and who were close friends with Joseph and his scribes. This included, for instance, David Whitmer and other members of the Whitmer family, who testified that at various points they had watched Joseph and Oliver translate portions of the Book of Mormon.
Because these witnesses each left accounts of their experiences, we can ascertain many things about the general process that Joseph Smith and his scribes underwent during the translation process. Furthermore, these accounts can typically be viewed as reliable for a number of reasons, including their overall unity, the long exposure each witness had to this process, and how each witness held true to the Book of Mormon and its translation even while some of them broke off from the mainstream Church later in life.
First, the accounts of the translation of the Book of Mormon are typically unified on a number of important points. These details include not only the method of translation but also how Joseph told them the translation was received through the sacred instruments he used. Witnesses recalled Joseph using two similar sacred instruments in functionally identical ways. Joseph used the Nephite interpreters, a pair of clear, sacred seer stones attached together in a metal frame preserved with the golden plates, but sometimes he used a personal seer stone for convenience.4 Both were later called Urim and Thummim after the ancient Israelite revelatory tool.5
According to the witnesses, Joseph would often place one of these instruments in a hat to block out ambient light, allowing him to clearly see the words that would appear on the stones.6 One early friend and supporter of Joseph Smith, Joseph Knight Sr., recalled, “Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes.”7 Emma Smith, Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery also reported that Joseph did this with either the Nephite interpreters or his own seer stone.8 Additionally, newspapers from 1829 to 1831 even state that Joseph and Oliver personally told reporters that the Nephite interpreters were placed in a hat.9 This detail is corroborated by multiple individuals and helps verify that the witnesses were telling the truth about what they experienced.
Furthermore, multiple witnesses testified that Joseph Smith had no written text to refer to while he was translating, not even the Bible. Emma Smith testified shortly before she died that Joseph Smith “had neither manuscript nor book to read from.”10 Similarly, a correspondent from the Chicago Times wrote on October 17, 1881, that in an interview, David Whitmer “emphatically asserts as did [Martin] Harris and [Oliver] Cowdery, that while Smith was dictating the translation he had no manuscript notes or other means of knowledge save the seer stone and the characters as shown on the plates, he [that is, David Whitmer] being present and cognizant how it was done.”11
Another detail that can help confirm the reliability of the witnesses is the long exposure they had to the process. Certain witnesses said they had seen the translation occur over a long period of time. Naturally, the scribes to the Book of Mormon are in this category.12 However, others were also able to familiarize themselves with this process over a long period as well. Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery, for instance, reported that she was able to sit in the room and watch Joseph and Oliver for extended durations: “I cheerfully certify that I was familiar with the manner of Joseph Smith’s translating the book of Mormon. . . . I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together.”13 The Whitmer family as a whole would likely have had similar opportunities, including Elizabeth’s brother David. Being able to often view the process for hours at a time would help the witnesses accurately describe the processes they had seen when they later shared their experiences.
It is also noteworthy that none of the witnesses to the plates ever denied their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and often referred to their experiences with the plates or the translation process as miraculous. There is little reason to believe that they would have felt the need to lie about their experiences as they defended the Book of Mormon. Dirkmaat and MacKay observed, “It is inconsistent to herald the witnesses’ testimonies about the existence of the gold plates but then to cast aside their explanation of the translation that they provided at the same time they were affirming the truthfulness of the work.”14 For each of the witnesses, the translation process was miraculous evidence that the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God.
The Why
While each witness to the translation of the Book of Mormon mentioned different details or occasionally conflated a few details as they remembered events they had seen decades ago, each paints a consistent picture of the process of the Book of Mormon’s translation. These witnesses, like the Three and the Eight Witnesses to the gold plates themselves, tell a unified story about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. As such, they can each be seen as reliable witnesses to one of the most important events of the Restoration of the gospel— each one describes the translation as a miracle.
Emma Smith perhaps described the translation most saliently when she explained, “Though I was an active participant in the scenes that transpired, and was present during the translation of the plates, and had cognizance of things as they transpired, it is marvelous to me, ‘a marvel and a wonder,’ as much so as to anyone else.’”15 Similarly, Oliver Cowdery described this event as one of the most remarkable instances in his life: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history, or record, called ‘The Book of Mormon.’”16
Over all of the details regarding the Book of Mormon translation, the most important is the crucial point that the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God. The Lord Himself told Joseph, “You have a gift to translate the plates; and this is the first gift that I bestowed upon you” (Doctrine and Covenants 5:4). The Lord also instructed Joseph and Oliver that it was only through faith “that you may translate and receive knowledge from all those ancient records which have been hid up, that are sacred” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:11). Hence, the translation process could not have been done without revelation from God. Joseph Smith could not have produced the Book of Mormon by his own natural abilities or by any other means.17
While we may never know the full details of the Book of Mormon’s translation, the witnesses to it help us better understand the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as an important miracle orchestrated by the enabling powers of the living Christ. All the details shared by these many witnesses help modern readers gain a testimony through the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon was translated and brought forth through God’s power. As all readers seek to understand the origins and messages of the Book of Mormon, they will be enabled to see how the Book of Mormon truly is “a marvel and a wonder.”
Gerrit J. Dirkmaat and Michael Hubbard MacKay, Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon (Deseret Book, 2023).
Larry E. Morris, ed., A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon (Oxford University Press, 2019), 250–369.
John W. Welch, “Documents of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestation, 1820–1844, 2nd ed., ed. John W. Welch (Brigham Young University Press; Deseret Book, 2017), 126–227.
Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2015), 61–140.
Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, “Firsthand Witness Accounts of the Translation Process,” in The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, ed. Dennis L. Largey, Andrew H. Hedges, John Hilton III, and Kerry Hull (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2015), 61–79.
- 1. “History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844],” p. 1775, The Joseph Smith Papers. A similar statement first appeared in the preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon.
- 2. Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, “Firsthand Witness Accounts of the Translation Process,” in The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, ed. Dennis L. Largey, Andrew H. Hedges, John Hilton III, and Kerry Hull (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2015), 63. For example, at an 1831 conference, Joseph stated, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon,” but at another conference three years later, Joseph apparently “gave a relation of obtaining and translating the Book of Mormon.” See “Minute Book 2,” p. 13, The Joseph Smith Papers; “Minute Book 1,” p. 44, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 3. For compilations of these accounts, see Larry E. Morris, ed., A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon (Oxford University Press, 2019), 250–369; John W. Welch, “Documents of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestation, 1820–1844, 2nd ed., ed. John W. Welch (Brigham Young University Press; Deseret Book, 2017), 126–227.
- 4. For a discussion on why a seer stone was used in the translation of the Book of Mormon—whether the seer stones constituted the Nephite interpreters or Joseph’s own seer stone—see Scripture Central, “Why Was a Stone Used as an Aid in Translating the Book of Mormon? (Alma 37:23),” KnoWhy 135 (July 18, 2016); Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2016), 45–64. Some argue that Joseph Smith did not use the seer stone after the 116 pages were lost, in part because of lawsuits Joseph faced in 1830 accusing him of being a “disorderly person.” Joseph was more specifically charged with a “breach of the peace against the state of New York, by looking through a certain stone to find hid treasures.” However, Joseph was released because he had not looked “in the glass within the space of two years last past,” or in other words, since July 1, 1828. For a discussion on these trials, see Gordon A. Madsen, “Being Acquitted of a ‘Disorderly Person’ Charge in 1826,” in Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters, ed. Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch (BYU Studies, 2014), 91–92.
- 5. The name Urim and Thummim derives from the name of a biblical instrument that consisted of stones worn in the ancient Israelite high priest’s breastplate that could be used to learn the will of God. When translated into English, these words mean “lights and perfections.” For a discussion on the comparison between the instruments used to translate the Book of Mormon and the Israelite Urim and Thummim, see Scripture Central, “Were Joseph Smith’s Translation Instruments Like the Israelite Urim and Thummim? (Alma 37:24),” KnoWhy 417 (March 20, 2018).
- 6. Words appearing on the stones is a detail that David Whitmer says Joseph Smith himself related to him in Zenos Hovey Gurley, Report, 1885, MS 4633, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. This is also consistent with reports from other close friends and associates of Joseph Smith, who would have also likely heard it from Joseph himself. See MacKay and Dirkmaat, “Firsthand Witness Accounts,” 68–69; Gerrit J. Dirkmaat and Michael Hubbard MacKay, Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon (Deseret Book, 2023), 67–69; MacKay and Frederick, Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones, 53–55. Also see Scripture Central, “Why Were the Plates Present During the Translation of the Book of Mormon? (Mosiah 1:6),” KnoWhy 366 (September 21, 2017), for a discussion about why the plates were important even if Joseph was not always looking at them during the translation process.
- 7. Joseph Knight Sr., history, reproduced in Dean Jessee, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies 17 (1976): 35.
- 8. See MacKay and Dirkmaat, “Firsthand Witness Accounts,” 68. For a discussion on Emma Smith’s role in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon specifically, see Amy Easton-Flake and Rachel Cope, “A Multiplicity of Witnesses: Women and the Translation Process,” in Largey et al., Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon, 143–48.
- 9. These accounts are discussed briefly in Dirkmaat and MacKay, Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon, 69–73; Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2015), 127–29. Although many of those newspaper reporters are antagonistic toward the Book of Mormon, Dirkmaat and MacKay note that they would have had little reason to lie about what they had been told, and it would be unlikely that these multiple reports agreed independently of one another given how nothing was written on the matter prior to this 1829.
- 10. Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26, no. 19 (October 1, 1879), 289–90.
- 11. Chicago Times, October 17, 1881, as cited in Lyndon W. Cook, David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Grandin Book, 1991), 76. The St. Louis Republican also reported on July 16, 1884, “Whitmer, who was present very frequently during the writing of this manuscript [of the Book of Mormon] affirms that Joseph Smith had no book or manuscript, before him from which he could have read as is asserted by some that he did, he (Whitmer) having every opportunity to know whether Smith had Solomon Spaulding’s or any other person’s romance to read from.” As cited in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 139–40.
- 12. For instance, Emma Smith reported that she “frequently wrote day after day” for her husband. See Edmund C. Briggs, “A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856,” Journal of History (October 1916): 454.
- 13. William E. McLellin to “My Dear Friends,” February 1870, Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, MI; as cited in Welch, “Documents of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” 186.
- 14. Dirkmaat and MacKay, Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon, 73.
- 15. Smith, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289–90.
- 16. Oliver Cowdery, “Letter I,” in Letters by Oliver Cowdery, to W. W. Phelps on the Origin of the Book of Mormon and the Rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Thomas Ward and John Cairns, 1844), 6, emphasis in original.
- 17. For another discussion on this, see Scripture Central, “Book of Mormon Evidence: Translation Witnesses,” Evidence 280 (December 5, 2021).