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Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Returning the plates
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| Reputed location of the plates during translation | A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)
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Witness accounts |
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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
Summary: A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia in December 2009.Section review
Returning the plates
From the Wikipedia article:
After translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, although he did not elaborate about this experience.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Van Horn (1881) ; Smith (1853) , p. 141.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
According to accounts by several early Mormons, a group of Mormon leaders including Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and possibly others
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Young (1877) , p. 38 (mentioning only Smith and Cowdery); Packer (2004) , pp. 52, 55 (including David Whitmer in the list and describing Whitmer's account of the event, and citing William Horne Dame Diary, 14 January 1855, stating that Hyrum Smith was also in the group).
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Packer (2004) , p. 52.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Young (1877) , p. 38 (Young said he heard this from Oliver Cowdery).
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
According to Brigham Young's understanding, which he said he gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates, and inscribed with the words "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ."
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Young (1877) , p. 38.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed".
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Smith (1842) , p. 707.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
This "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof".
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:7.
FAIR's analysis:
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Packer (2004) , p. 55.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Packer (2004) , p. 55 (quoting a statement by Orson Pratt).
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
David Whitmer is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate).
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Packer (2004) , p. 55 (citing reporter Edward Stevenson's 1877 interview with Whitmer).
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which he said "testify that they are there".
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Packer (2004) , p. 55. At least one Mormon scholar doubts the existence of a Cumorah cave and instead argues that early Mormons saw a vision of a cave in another location.Tvedtnes (1990)
FAIR's analysis:
References
| Wikipedia references for "Golden Plates" |
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Further reading
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