Recently Jack Welch discussed his timeline for the translation of the Book of Mormon on a podcast. That reminded me of the article he published in BYU Studies.
It's an important article that has become a sort of standard for everyone considering the topic. It's excellent work that gives us a lot of useful information, in context, which enables everyone who reads it to make better informed decisions.
The opening sentence of the article prompted me to write this informal, unsolicited "peer review."
"This paper aims to stimulate specific thinking about the intense and complex events during which the Book of Mormon was translated in 1829."
Although Jack's article is excellent, there are some omissions and assumptions that, if addressed, would improve the narrative.
In some ways I understand the apologetic benefit of having as short a period as possible for Joseph to dictate the Book of Mormon. It arguably makes the process more miraculous.
On the other hand, pushing the apologetic approach can distort the historical record. For that reason, in this peer review I'll look at some of the areas for improvement.
Basically, I think the historical evidence shows that Joseph translated all or most of Mosiah before Oliver arrived in Harmony, which means it took longer to translate the plates than Jack proposes in his article.
It's not a big difference, but it has some implications that are worth considering.
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The article appeared in the issue featuring the "Moroni" painting on the cover.
I love the painting.
But I disagree with the Moroni narrative for all the reasons we've discussed before, not the least of which is that Joseph Smith specifically said the messenger was one of the Three Nephites.
And, of course, David Whitmer conversed with both this messenger and with Moroni and knew they were different people. And Mary Whitmer herself said he introduced himself as "Brother Nephi."
In my view, the whole "Moroni" narrative promoted by Jack and Scripture Central deflects from the point that the messenger took the abridged plates from Harmony to Cumorah before bringing the plates of Nephi (D&C 10) to Fayette. But that's a separate topic from this peer review
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Jack's articles are always well organized and thoughtful, and this one is no exception. It is definitely worth reading carefully. I'm not taking the time to go through the entire article here. I start with a paragraph under the section Five Anchor Dates.
Original in blue,
my comments in red, other quotations
in green.
Before that date, and without property rights and protective security, little translation took place in the first three months of 1829.
How much translation took place before Oliver arrived is the main question here.
Of course, a year before, the book of Lehi had been
translated, with Martin Harris as the main scribe. Emma and Reuben Hale
apparently acted as scribes in those three months as well.20 When
Emma said in 1856 that she wrote “a part of” the manuscript of the Book of
Mormon, she was referring to a time when Joseph said to Emma that he was
surprised to read that Jerusalem had walls.21 But
that text about Jerusalem could have been either at the beginning of the lost
book of Lehi, translated in April 1828, or at the beginning of 1 Nephi,
translated in June 1829, and was likely not translated between September 1828
and April 7, 1829.
At least six documents say that
a little was translated in 1829 prior to April 7.
There is also evidence that some
was translated in 1828 after September, when Joseph got the plates and
interpreters back.
David Whitmer said the
translation took eight months.
The work of translating the tablets
consumed about eight months, Smith acting as the seer and Oliver Cowdery,
Smith’s wife, and Christian Whitmer, brother of David, performing the duties of
amanuenses [scribe], in whose handwriting the original manuscript now is.
Vol. XLV, The Chicago Daily
Tribune, Thursday, December 17, 1885
Oliver and Christian were
scribes at the Whitmer home in Fayette. David may also have observed Emma acting
as scribe in Fayette, or have seen Emma’s scribal work on the manuscript Joseph
brought from Harmony. John Gilbert, the typesetter, said
“I would know that manuscript today
if I should see it. The most part of it was in Oliver Cowdery’s handwriting.
Some in Joseph’s wife’s; a small part, though.”
James T. Cobb interview with John H.
Gilbert in “The Hill Cumorah,” The Saints’ Herald (Plano, ILL), Vol. 28,
No. 11, June 1, 1881, p. 165. Online at http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IL/sain1872.htm#060181
If David was correct, counting
back eight month from June 1829 when the translation was completed at the
Whitmer home in Fayette means Joseph resumed translating in November 1828.
In his 1832 history, Joseph explained that before
Oliver arrived in Harmony in April 1829, his brother Samuel scribed for him.
my wife had written some for me to translate and also my Brothr Samuel H Smith but we had become reduced in poverty and my wives father was about to turn me out of doores & I had not where to go and I cried unto the Lord that he would provide for me to accomplish the work whereunto he had commanded me.
History, circa Summer 1832, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/6 .
When Joseph’s parents visited Harmony in November 1828, Joseph told them that the messenger had returned the plates with the U&T in September 1828 and that Emma was then writing for him. (Some historians think they visited in September, but Lucy quotes Joseph referring back to September.)
Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/142
Lucy recalled that
For
nearly two months after Joseph returned to his family in Pennsylvania we heard
nothing from him; and becoming anxious about him, Mr. Smith [Joseph Smith Sr.]
and myself set off to make him a visit….
when I
entered his house the first thing that attracted … my attention was a red
morocco trunk, that set on Emma’s bureau; which trunk Joseph shortly informed
me, contained the Urim and Thummim and the plates….
[Lucy
related Joseph’s account that] on the 22d of September, I had the joy and
satisfaction of again receiving the Urim and Thummim; and have commenced
translating again, and Emma writes for me; but the angel said that the Lord
would send me a scribe, and <I> trust his promise will be verified. The angel
He also seemed pleased with me, when he gave me back the Urim and Thummim; and
he told me that the Lord loved me, for my faithfulness and humility.
Joseph separately reported that after he received the plates and U&T again, he “did not however go immediately to translating but went to laboring with my hands upon a small farm… to provide for my family.”
History, circa June 1839-circa 1841, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/13 , published in the Times and Seasons, 15 June 1842, p. 817, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-15-june-1842/3
It makes sense that Joseph
did not resume translating immediately because he would need to work on the
farm during the last week of September and most or all of October during the
harvest and preservation season.
Note that in his history, Joseph mentions that his father visited in February 1829, which led to D&C 4, but Joseph does not mention the visit of his parents in November.
Another
pre-Oliver scribe might have been Martin Harris, who visited Harmony in March
1829 and requested a revelation. The revelation (D&C 5) includes this
comment about the translation.
29 And if this be the case, I command you, my servant Joseph, that you shall say unto him [Martin Harris], that he shall do no more, nor trouble me any more concerning this matter.
30 And if this be the case, behold, I say unto thee Joseph, when thou hast translated a few more pages thou shalt stop for a season, even until I command thee again; then thou mayest translate again.
This raises the possibility, or likelihood, that Martin resumed some scribal activity in March.
As
the following references show, we can’t know how many pages Joseph dictated
before Oliver arrived on April 5, 1829, partly because no one said what parts
of the text they scribed and partly because the Original Manuscript is not
extant prior to Alma 10:31 (which is in Oliver’s handwriting).
Without going into all of these
sometimes conflicting historical sources in detail,22 here
are the main documents relevant to this point:
- In 1832, speaking of the time before Oliver Cowdery received
his vision and then came to Harmony “to write for me,” Joseph Smith
personally recorded, “Now my wife had written some for me to translate and
also my Brother Samuel H Smith.” How many pages they wrote is unknown, but
apparently it was not very many—only “some”—and still not enough to
“accomplish the work” as “commanded.”23
Emma
and Samuel must have written “some” of the Book of Mosiah, but it’s impossible
to know how much from this statement alone.
- Emma said in 1879 that Joseph Smith “would dictate to me hour
after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he
could at once begin where he had left off.”24 Unfortunately, as
she describes his “usual” dictation practices she does not say when it was
that he so dictated to her, or perhaps to others, or how many pages of
text were created before or after the manuscript pages were lost.
As
mentioned above, Emma apparently did write some of the text we have today, but
we can’t know how much she wrote in Harmony or Fayette. The claim that she wrote
“hour after hour” suggests considerably more work than just a handful of pages.
- Oliver said of the Book of Mormon to William Frampton (as
recorded in 1901), “I wrote it (with the exception of a few
pages) with this right hand (extending his hand) as the inspired words
fell from the lips of Joseph Smith.”25 Apparently, those
“few pages” would have included whatever pages were written by any other
scribes at the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, after Joseph’s arrival
there about June 4, 1829, and also whatever pages were translated before
April 7.
Frampton
dated this letter September 15, 1901. He was recalling what Oliver Cowdery said
in 1848. His recollection is similar to that of Reuben Miller, who recorded
Oliver’s testimony contemporaneously. “I wrote with my own pen the entire
Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the
prophet…”
Obviously
at least one of the accounts is not verbatim. Probably neither one is. Maybe
Frampton had access to Miller’s journal, or met with Miller at some point to
share recollections.
Surely
Oliver knew exactly how many pages other scribes wrote, but apparently he did
not quantify that in his statement. It’s unclear why both accounts put the “few
pages” within parentheses. Maybe it was something Oliver said later, maybe
Miller and Frampton inserted the parenthetical because they knew Oliver was not
the only scribe, or maybe Oliver said “a few” in an apologetic sense, minimizing
the contributions of the others scribes to bolster his own testimony and to respond
to claims that Joseph composed the text.
At any
rate, it’s impossible to specifically quantify “few pages.” The Book of Mosiah
contains about 31,348 words, which is about 11.6% of the total word count of 269,320.
All or some portion of that could be described as “a few” compared with the
rest of the text.
- David Whitmer once said in 1878 that a “few pages” were written
by Emma, John Whitmer, and Christian Whitmer.26 John and Christian
would have written in June 1829, but it is uncertain what time David has
in mind when he says that Emma wrote a few pages. He may be talking about
translation during June 1829, but perhaps David had become aware that Emma
and Samuel had written “some” for Joseph prior to April 7, well
before David came to Harmony.
David
was never in Harmony during the translation, so he was likely referring to pages Emma and his brothers wrote
in Fayette. He had no first-hand knowledge of which scribes wrote what in
Harmony, unless he analyzed the handwriting on the pages. But again, “few pages” is vague.
- Lucy Smith recalled in her 1844–1845 memoir, “Emma had so much
of her time taken up with her [house] work that she could write but
little for him.”27
The link in the note is a page off. Here’s the correct link: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/96
This part of Lucy’s history does not relate her personal
experience but instead the experience of Oliver and Samuel when they went to
Harmony in April 1829. Notice that this was a month after the Lord told Joseph
to stop translating (D&C 5).
In her 1845 history, Lucy said it slightly differently; i.e., Emma "could write for him but a small portion of the time," which suggests that her previous statement--"write but little"--referred to the time she had instead of the number of pages she wrote.
Joseph had been so hurried with his secular affairs, that he could not proceed with his spiritual concerns as fast as was necessary for the speedy completion of the work— there was also another disadvantage under which he labored: Emma had so much of her time taken up with the care of her house, that she could write for him but a small portion of the time:— In consequence of these embarrassments Joseph called upon the [p. 143] Lord, three days previous to their arrival, to send him a scribe, according to the promise of the angel; and he was informed that the same should be forth coming in a few days. Accordingly, when Mr. Cowdery told him the business upon which he had come, Joseph was not at all <surprized>
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/150
But
Lucy gives no hint about what that “little” amount consisted of or when she
thought Emma had done this writing. She may have been referring to pages that
were written in the spring of 1828 and thus were among the lost manuscript
pages or perhaps to pages written in the early months of 1829.
These are both possibilities, but Emma could also have been referring to her writing in November and December of 1828. And, as just shown, Lucy apparently referred to the amount of time Emma had, not the number of pages she wrote.
Lucy
was present in Harmony for a winter visit in February 1829, and so she did not
see much of Joseph’s activity during the months from the end of September 1828
to the beginning of April 1829 personally.
As we
saw above, Lucy visited Joseph in November 1828. Had she not, she couldn’t have
known that Joseph needed help. She specifically said they visited because “we heard
nothing from him” and they were “becoming anxious about him.” She may have accompanied her husband in February also, but Joseph didn't mention her in his history.
But she
was in contact with Joseph and was aware enough of his great need for scribal
help, which is why she and others in the Smith family, when they met Oliver
Cowdery and found him to be trustworthy, told Oliver of the plates and of
Joseph’s great need for help.28
According
to Lucy, Oliver actually “began to hear about the plates from all quarters” and
asked JS Sr. about them, but Joseph’s father declined to discuss it “for a long
time.”
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/92
- In March 1829, in a revelation, now found in Doctrine and
Covenants 5, given to Martin Harris,29 Joseph was told to
translate “a few more pages” and then to “stop for a season” (D&C
5:30). How much translation Joseph did before stopping is unknown.
Because
the revelation was given at the request of Martin Harris, it seems reasonable
to infer that Martin was acting as scribe in March 1829. “I say unto thee Joseph, when thou hast translated
a few more pages thou shalt stop for a season, even until I command thee again;
then thou mayest translate again.” (Doctrine and Covenants 5:30)
We
naturally wonder how Joseph would know when to stop translating. “A few more pages” is
indeterminate, but more than one or two. Should he translate three more? Four? Five?
Presumably
he would know when to stop because he would reach a milestone, such as the end
of the Book of Mosiah. That would be a natural place to “stop for a season.”
Another
reason to infer that Oliver did not scribe the Book of Mosiah is that when he
copied the book for the Printer’s manuscript, he wrote “Helaman” instead of “Helam”
and then later crossed out the last two letters. Because he was the scribe for
the Book of Helaman, Oliver likely thought Emma (or another scribe) made a
mistake by writing Helam. But then, perhaps after Joseph reviewed the Printers
Manuscript, Oliver corrected the mistake.
Because
we don’t have the OM for Helaman we can’t be sure about any of this, but it’s a
factor to consider.
So how many pages of the original manuscript of the current Book of Mormon might have been written before Oliver Cowdery arrived on April 5? Of course, we do not know for sure. But the consistent use of the words “some,” “few,” and “little” leave the impression that not very many pages—perhaps as few as three or four—were written during those stressful, cold, dark, and needy months, when supplies were limited, visitors were frequent, and timber was being cut, although other farm chores may have been fewer than in the springtime.
Although our information is
limited, the foregoing six statements are evidence that only a few pages of
dictation were written between the summer of 1828 and April 1829.
This assumption of “as few as
three or four” doesn’t follow from the information we have. The Lord refers to
“a few more pages” in addition to what Joseph had already translated.
And as we’ve seen, Joseph resumed translating around November 1828. Adding “a
few” to the “some,” “few,” or “little” he had already translated leads to a
reasonable inference that Joseph had translated more than “a few” by the time
Oliver arrived.
…
Linking Translation Progress
with Words in These Thirteen Revelations
It is interesting to connect
these thirteen sections in the Doctrine and Covenants that were received in
April, May, or June with the timing and sequence of the translation of passages
in the Book of Mormon. Beyond the fact that receiving and recording these
revelations took time, these revelations can be connected to the unfolding of
words and phrases within the Book of Mormon itself. These correlations do not
affect estimations of how long the translation took, but they do suggest a
little more clearly approximate times when those revelations might have been
received as well as when certain portions of the Book of Mormon were
translated. For present purposes, these thirteen revelations have simply been
positioned on the chart on days close to where some of their phrases connect
with relatable Book of Mormon texts. This chronological coalescing happens
fairly consistently and distinctively, offering a stream of interconnections.
Doctrine and Covenants 8 can be
placed at about April 9, which is approximately the time of the
translation of Mosiah 8. Both of those texts deal with the power to
translate.54
It’s unclear why D&C 8 would
be placed at about April 9, just two days after Oliver began working as a
scribe. It seems more reasonable to infer that he would work with Joseph longer
than two days before the Lord would encourage him to “ask… that you may
translate.”
While Mosiah 8 does use the term
“translate,” that isn’t a direct link to D&C 8. Perhaps Joseph and Oliver
discussed the translation process and Joseph read Mosiah 8 to Oliver as part of
his explanation. More likely they were translating Alma 37 (Gazelem and the
directors) which led to Oliver wanting to translate. This makes sense because
the only part of the Original Manuscript in Joseph’s handwriting is Alma 45:22,
which would be the only part of the extant OM that Oliver could have translated (although some think Oliver
just got tired at that point). D&C 9:5 points out that Oliver “began to
translate” but “did not continue as [he] commenced.”
The phrases in Doctrine and
Covenants 9, dated to around April 26, connect with words in
Alma 11 or 40, which would have been translated around that date.55
For the same reasons mentioned
above, D&C 9 is more likely to have postdated Alma 45:22.
Doctrine and Covenants 7 has been placed on May 21 because of possible connections to 3 Nephi 28.56 Doctrine and Covenants 7 deals with the Apostle John not tasting death. That question was most relevant to the blessing that Jesus gave to the Three Nephites that they would not taste death either.
The rest of the anchor dates seem reasonable to me.
