Joseph Smith?

Question

Did Smith read the gold tablets out of a hat???

Answer 1

No....and where did you hear that?

Answer 2

Not actually.

In fact, the "plates" were not present (they were 'hidden' in a tree outside) when JS dictated to his scribes: Emma Smth, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdrey. Emma made a detailed description in her diary of Joseph's face buried in his hat 'reading" portions of script that he saw.

Here's a portion of the transcipt Elise Soucup interview rgarding the translation issue:

"Bloomington, IN: Why does the church continue to depict Joseph Smith translating the plates by looking at them when the majority of the eye witness accounts say he translated the plates by putting his seer stone in a hat and then put his face in the hat to read the translation. According to these accounts most of the time the plates were not even in the room where the translation was occurring.

Elise Soukup: I think most Mormons have the idea that Smith was laboring over hieroglyphs on the plates and was actually translating them word for word. You're right in saying that most of the translation was done by using a seer stone which he placed in a hat. Somehow that stone helped him to dictate the bulk of 500+ pages over the course of some 90 days. Smith himself said that he translated the book by inspiration. It's unclear what he meant by that, so we can only speculate. One belief among Mormons is that he used the seer stone to make him concentrate on impressions and words that came from the Lord. The predominant non-LDS belief is that he simply made it all up."

Answer 3

This is taken from a page on the "Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (lds.org):

“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.”
http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1993.htm/ensign%20july%201993.htm/a%20treasured%20testament.htm

Answer 4

south park has a good episode on joseph smith and how he translated the golden tablets...i cracked up the WHOLE SHOW!!!

Answer 5

Go to your public library and check out a few books. The man was a charlatan and a deceiver of the first magnitude. That's why he invented the elaborately silly tablet story in the first place, but it backfired on him and gullible people began to forget his past, and consider him a "Prophet" when he was anything but. The silliness of these "tablet" readings are so ridiculous you will laugh your socks off when you read them for yourself.

Answer 6

Yes he put the plates into some sort of hat and used the urim and thummim which are two stones to read out the words. What he actually did is plagiarise vast verses of the bible and also other texts and claim to be reading from gold plates. An interesting fact is that the words and verses of the book of mormon were read word for word off the gold plates (allegedly) funnily enough the gold plates were written word for word in King James English. Now if they were put there 600 years BC as Smith claims, then whoever wrote the gold plates i.e Nephi, wrote in language that woud be translated word for word exactly the same as verses written in the bible by scribes who had nopt even written them yet. By some sort of hat, he put his face into something. Could not possibly let the scribes see something that did not exist now could he?

Answer 7

He was inspired of God. If you can accept that a young man with not even a complete elementary school education translated the plates by the power of God, why would you not be able to think that God could inspire him without staring at the characters themself. Also, do you have a better explanation of how an uneducated boy could "create" a book like that. Maybe you should read it and then it will be easier for you to believe in modern revelation and angels than that Joseph Smith could have created the Book of Mormon.

Answer 8

no, he had some weird glasses, but don't ask me where did he got them, maybe they an ofert with the gold tablets

Answer 9

depends what you read, the mormons say the yurim and thummin and i know I didn't spell it right, because I threw away my Book of Mormon a long time ago, but nonmormons say the story was first magical glasses, but the mormons are told something else, and then the witnesses signed the book of Mormon stating they saw Jo Smith translate it, but they never did, they heard him talk to his translator and never saw the instrument he used.

Answer 10

http://www.allaboutcults.org/joseph-smith-faq.htm

Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont to Joseph Smith, Sr., a struggling farmer and sometime treasure hunter who descended from an early American family of more than average means and influence. Lucy Mark Smith, Joseph's mother, was a highly mystical woman who was given to unimaginable tales of exaggeration. Lucy's father claimed experiences of divine visions from God.

At the age of 14, Joseph Smith, Jr. claimed he was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ. In 1823, according to his account, he was visited by an angel who told him of thin golden plates containing an ancient record of God's dealings with the early American inhabitants. During this same time, Smith was enamored of the "seer stones" used in occult practices and gained some small reputation as a clairvoyant able to locate lost objects.

In 1827, Joseph Smith began translating the golden plates using what he claimed as the "gift of God." Three years later, the Book of Mormon was published. In that same year (1830), Smith organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became its first president. He continued to claim receipt of various prophecies and revelations, earning him the title "The Prophet" until his death in 1844 when he was arrested for treason and murdered by a mob.

Joseph Smith's writings are the foundation of Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). The influences from the occult, Shakers, Quakers, Seekers, teachings of William Miller which formed the basis of the Seventh Day Adventist church, as well as Jewish cabalistic traditions and the Masonic order can all be found throughout Smith's writings. Most of these came out of the nineteenth century religious environment of western New York during his lifetime.

In 1833, ten years before Joseph Smith's death and three years after the publication of the Book of Mormon, the Smith family men were described in an affidavit signed by several prominent citizens of Manchester, New York, as "lazy, indolent, intemperate, destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious habits."

Answer 11

lol. South Park, right? hahaha Nope, not true. But good episode!