Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Introduction

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A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia: Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here) Golden plates, Introduction

Origin and historicity

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An analysis of the Wikipedia article "Golden plates"  Updated 9/21/2011

Reviews of previous revisions of this section

• December 2009—
  A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia in December 2009. (Link)

From the Wikipedia article:
According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th century literature, the golden Bible)

Wikipedia footnotes:
Use of the terms golden bible and gold Bible by both believers and non-believers dates from the late 1820s. See, for instance, Harris (1859) , p. 167 (use of the term gold Bible by Martin Harris in 1827); Smith (1853) , pp. 102, 109, 113, 145 (use of the term gold Bible in 1827–29 by believing Palmyra neighbors); Grandin (1829) (stating that by 1829 the plates were "generally known and spoken of as the 'Golden Bible'"). Use of these terms has been rare, especially by believers, since the 1830s.

FAIR's analysis:

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

From the Wikipedia article:
are the source from which Joseph Smith, Jr. translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith. Some witnesses described the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds,

Wikipedia footnotes:

• Anthon (1834) , p. 270; Vogel (2004) , p. 600n65; 601n96. Vogel estimates that solid gold plates of the same dimensions would weigh about 140 pounds.

FAIR's analysis:
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From the Wikipedia article:
being golden or brassy in color, and being composed of thin metallic pages engraved on both sides and bound with one or more rings.

FAIR's analysis:
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From the Wikipedia article:
Smith said he found the plates on September 22, 1823 at a hill near his home in Manchester, New York after an angel directed him to a buried stone box. The angel at first prevented Smith from taking the plates because he had not followed the angel's instructions. In 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language. Smith dictated a translation using a seer stone in the bottom of a hat, which he placed over his face to view the words written within the stone.

Wikipedia footnotes:

• Although Smith's use of a single stone is well documented Wagoner (1982) , pp. 59–62, Smith said that his earliest translation used a set of stone spectacles called the Urim and Thummim, which he found with the plates Smith (Mulholland) , p. 5. Other than Smith himself, his mother was the sole known witness of the Urim and Thummim, which she said she had observed them when covered by a thin cloth Smith (1853) , p. 101.

FAIR's analysis:

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  Joseph himself never spoke of the exact method by which the translation occurred—he only said that he translated by the "gift and power of God." It was David Whitmer (who, as far as we know, never attempted to translate) who spoke in detail near the end of his life of Joseph reading words off the stone. We do not know if this is Whitmer's assumption or whether Joseph told him this.
• There is evidence that Joseph began the translation—specifically, the production of the 116 pages of manuscript that were lost—using the Nephite Interpreters that were found with the plates. Joseph appears to have switched to using the seer stone after the loss of the manuscript, and performed the bulk of the Book of Mormon translation using this method. Both the Nephite Interpreters and the seer stone were referred to at various times as the "Urim and Thummim."
• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Translation/Method
• It should be noted that the hill to which Joseph was directed was not named "Cumorah" until much later. The hill was later named "Cumorah" because of the Book of Mormon.
• For a detailed response, see: Term "Cumorah" in early LDS history

From the Wikipedia article:
Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon.

Wikipedia footnotes:

• None provided

FAIR's analysis:

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

From the Wikipedia article:
Smith eventually obtained testimonies from eleven men, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses, who said they had seen the plates.

Wikipedia footnotes:

• Critics question whether one of these witnesses, Martin Harris, physically saw the plates. Although Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience." Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2: 255. The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like." Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867), 71 in EMD, 3: 122. John H. Gilbert, the typesetter for most of the book, said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" According to Gilbert, Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye." John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in EMD, 2: 548. Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes." Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in EMD, 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in EMD, 3: 22. In 1838, Harris is said to have told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination." Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in EMD, 2: 291. A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen [the plates] with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision." Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in EMD, 2: 385.

FAIR's analysis:
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From the Wikipedia article:
After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to their angelic guardian. Therefore, if the plates existed, they cannot now be examined. Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, while critics often assert that either Smith manufactured the plates himself

Wikipedia footnotes:

• Vogel, 98: "His remark that a plate was not quite as thick as common tin may have been meant to divert attention from the possibility that they were actually made from some material otherwise readily available to him. Indeed, his prohibition against visual inspection seems contrived to the skeptic who might explain that the would-be prophet constructed a set of plates to be felt through a cloth."

FAIR's analysis:
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From the Wikipedia article:
or that the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience.

FAIR's analysis:
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References

Wikipedia references for "Golden Plates"

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Mormonism and Wikipedia

FAIR's Wikipedia Article Reviews

• A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris" (Link)
• A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia article "Oliver Cowdery" (Link)
• A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia article "First Vision"—
  Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/17/2011. This article has undergone moderate improvements in its use of sources since our last review. The article still contains a substantial amount of original research based upon primary sources, with the intent to disprove the vision and highlight perceived discrepancies between vision accounts. Believing scholars are labeled "apologists" in an attempt to diminish their credibility. (Link)
• A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"—
  Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/3/2011. This article has undergone substantial improvements in its use of sources since our initial review in 2009. Most of the citations are now accurately represented. (Link)
• A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia article "Golden plates"—
  Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/21/2011. This article has undergone only minor improvements in its use of sources since our last review. The article contains a large amount of original research on the part of the wiki editors. (Link)
• A FAIR Analysis of Wikipedia article "Three Witnesses"—
  Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/28/2011. This article has been constructed in such a way as to discredit the witnesses by emphasizing any perceived contradictions in their various statements regarding their encounter with the gold plates. (Link)

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