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Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/"Questions and Answers" on Mormon Stories/Translation of the Book of Mormon
| Treasure digging | A FAIR Analysis of: John Dehlin's "Questions and Answers" A work by author: John Dehlin
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Historicity of the Book of Mormon |
"Joseph Smith used this....stone in the hat....to produce the Book of Mormon"
The author(s) make(s) the following claim:
Joseph Smith used this....stone in the hat....to produce the Book of Mormon
FAIR's Response
The "Urim and Thummim" used by Joseph Smith to translate the "gold plates"
Jump to details:
- Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?
- Question: What are the Nephite interpreters?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith use his own seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Has the Church tried to hide Joseph's use of a seer stone?
- Gospel Topics: "Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat"
- Question: Did Joseph ever place the Nephite interpreters ("Urim and Thummim") into his hat?
- Gospel Topics: "Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term 'Urim and Thummim' to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters"
- Ensign (Jan. 2013): "He...referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim...He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed"
- W.W. Phelps (1833): "through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles—(known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)"
- Question: Which method of translation was more "believable": seer stone or Nephite interpreters?
- Question: What does the Church teach investigators and members regarding the method by which the Book of Mormon was produced?