FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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"
- "this same stone in the hat....from his folk magic days"
- "this 'translation' process did not involve the golden plates"
- "which begs the question as to why the plates were needed at all?"
"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?