Joseph Smith’s Rock in Hat Translation of the Book of Mormon

Traditionally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS Church) depicts Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon in a manner that implies a reverent, direct reading of ancient golden plates. Today, church leaders are shifting this narrative to reflect the more historically accurate manner of translation. In reality, Joseph Smith barely used the Gold Plates and the Urim and Thummim to translate, rather he placed his own brown rock he called a seer stone, or peep stone, into his upturned stovepipe hat, buried his face in the hat (in order to block out ambient light), presumably at his rock, and dictated the words of the book to his scribe. This shows Joseph’s use of the occult and folk magic in the church’s foundation. It also highlights the deceitfulness of the narrative, which has pushed a more miraculous manner of translation.

Nearly all the paintings and teaching materials showcase Joseph sitting at a table, often with the plates in front of him, covered or partially exposed, while he appeared to read or dictate to a scribe in a straightforward manner. Some include the Urim and Thummim, but most don’t even include the scriptural interpreters. This depiction, found in early to mid-20th-century art and church literature, aligns with a more conventional image of translation, akin to reading from an open book or scroll. The church is stuck between a rock (or seer stone) and a hard place, they can perpetuate the misleading and scriptural account of translation, or they can admit the church’s teachings have been misleading and come clean. It seems they have opted for the more confusing option of coming clean and adjusting the narrative but skipping the step where they admit the church’s teachings have misled members.

Narrative Influenced by Scripture

The books held as scriptures even contribute to the story that the Urim and Thummim were the only tools used in translation, and that they were prepared by God for the purpose of translation. Joseph Smith history, which is canonized as scripture mentions only the Urim and Thummim.

Joseph Smith History

There were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.

Joseph Smith History 1:35
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng&id=p35#p35

The Joseph Smith History echoes the verses in the Book of Mormon which describe these interpreters and that they were passed along with the records to be used in translating them. These verses even mention Mosiah using the same interpreters to translate other records and include them in the Gold Plates (as the Book of Ether).

Book of Mosiah

13 And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.

14 Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages;

15 And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people;

16 And whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times.

17 Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records…

20 And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of brass, and all the things which he had kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the interpreters, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem.

Mosiah 28:13–17, 20, Book of Mormon
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/28?lang=eng&id=p13-p17,20#p13

Correlated Church Narrative

Church-published Sunday school lessons depicted simply that Joseph Smith used the Urim and Thummim which he received with the Gold Plates to translate them.

Scripture Stories for Children

The Scripture Stories books introduce young children to the stories of the church. The Doctrine and Covenants Stories book covers church history topics. There are multiple chapters about this period of church history, it discusses when Joseph retrieves the gold plates, his translation work with Martin Harris that becomes the lost 116 pages, the subsequent translation work with Oliver Cowdery and the Book of Mormon being published. Here’s what it has to say about the translation process.

In Pennsylvania, Joseph began to translate the writing on the gold plates. He did not know what the writing meant, but when he used the Urim and Thummim, God helped him understand the words. (Joseph Smith—History 1:62)

Scripture Stories for Children, Doctrine and Covenants Stories, Chapter 4, page 18
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-stories/chapter-4-martin-harris-and-the-lost-pages-1827-1828
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/31122_eng.pdf

Primary Lesson Manual

The Urim and Thummim is a sacred tool given by God to help prophets receive revelations from the Lord and translate languages (see Bible Dictionary, “Urim and Thummim”).

Joseph Smith described the Urim and Thummim as “two stones in silver bows … fastened to a breastplate” (JS—H 1:35). The Prophet stated that when he was humble and prayerful, he could look into these stones and read the strange language on the gold plates. He could also look into these stones and get Heavenly Father’s word about certain things he ought to know and do.

Lesson 5: Joseph Smith Receives the Gold Plates. Primary 5 Manual: Doctrine and Covenants, Church History (For teaching children ages eight through eleven), 1997.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/34602_eng.pdf?lang=eng

Institute of Religion Manual

Also, the church-published institute and BYU religion class student manual, published as late as 2003 only mentions the Urim and Thummim in describing the translation method. The whole 693-page manual does not even contain the word “seer stone.” Meanwhile, the Urim and Thummim are mentioned sixteen times.

Near the top of the hill Joseph found a large stone, “thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges” (v. 51). It was the lid of a stone box. We can only imagine his excitement as he opened the box. There, having laid hidden for centuries, were the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate just as Moroni had explained. (Page 40)

For the first time in weeks Joseph was able to work in relative peace. Between December 1827 and February 1828, he copied many of the characters from the plates and translated some of them by using the Urim and Thummim. In the early stages of the work, Joseph spent considerable time and effort becoming familiar with the language of the plates and learning how to translate. (Page 46)

By this time Joseph Smith had gained considerable experience with various means of revelation. He had communed with God and his Son and with angelic messengers. He had seen visions, felt the promptings of the Spirit, and grown in skill in using the Urim and Thummim. (Page 50)

Joseph and Oliver labored “with little cessation” on the translation throughout April. With Oliver’s help, Joseph proceeded faster than ever before. During the next three months Joseph and Oliver completed the amazing task of translating approximately five hundred printed pages. This was a glorious period in their lives. Oliver wrote: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven. . . . Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim . . . the history, or record, called ‘The Book of Mormon.’” (Page 53)

Elder Wilford Woodruff, who learned in leadership councils of the Prophet’s translation and some of its contents, recorded in his journal his feelings about the Prophet’s work: “Truly the Lord has raised up Joseph the Seer … and is now clothing him with mighty power and wisdom and knowledge. … The Lord is blessing Joseph with power to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God; to translate through the Urim and Thummim ancient records and Hieroglyphics as old as Abraham or Adam, which causes our hearts to burn within us while we behold their glorious truths opened unto us.” (Page 257)

The Translation Accelerated, Chapter 5, Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon and Restoration of the Priesthood, Church History in the Fulness of Times, Student Manual, Religion 341 through 343. Published 1989, 1993, 200, 2003.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/32502_eng.pdf

Sunday School Manual

The adult Sunday School, or gospel doctrine, lesson manual covering Doctrine and Covenants and Church History doesn’t mention the translation process at all. It was published by the church in 1999 and updated in 2003. It mentions the Urim and Thummim only one time in a quote from Dallin H. Oaks, and not in reference to Joseph Smith. It doesn’t mention a seer stone and especially not in relation to the Book of Mormon translation. The manual discusses Joseph’s Book of Mormon translation work in passing, but focuses more on the story of the lost 116 pages, Oliver Cowdery’s failure to translate, and Joseph’s new “translation” of the Bible.

Point out that the Book of Mormon, translated by a young prophet in humble
circumstances, is now indeed flooding the earth. The Book of Mormon or
selections from it have been published in more than 90 languages. More than
100 million copies have been printed. …

4. “Translated by the gift and power of God” (D&C 135:3) Joseph Smith completed the translation of the Book of Mormon in about 65 working days (“I Have a Question,” Ensign, Jan. 1988, 46–47). Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve commented on the speed of this process:

“One able LDS translator in Japan, surrounded by reference books, language dictionaries, and translator colleagues ready to help if needed, indicated that he considered an output of one careful, final page a day to be productive. And he is retranslating from earlier Japanese to modern Japanese! More than 50 able English scholars labored for seven years, using previous translations, to produce the King James Version of the Bible, averaging about one precious page per day. The Prophet Joseph Smith would sometimes produce 10 pages per day! (see the bulletin Insights: An Ancient Window [Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (F.A.R.M.S.), Feb. 1986], 1).

It does repeat the misleading statement that “Joseph Smith completed the translation of the Book of Mormon is about 65 working days.” This claim is misleading because it omits the fact that these 65 days were spread across multiple years. Joseph received the gold plates in September 1827, and published the Book of Mormon in 1830.

Ensign 2001

In February 2001, the church published an issue of the Ensign magazine highlighting the Book of Mormon translation. The issue cover is a full bleed image of a Simon Dewey painting showing Joseph Smith reading uncovered Gold Plates by candlelight. This issue highlights an article about Joseph Smith’s Susquehanna Years. The article contains nothing about a seer stone. It barely even mentions the Urim and Thumim (3 times), and only in passing as it was taken from Joseph along with the Gold Plates, and then returned after a season. It is implied though, much like the correlated lesson manuals, that the Urim and Thummim are the only tools for translation and were provided by God. The article tells the story of translating the plates, the lost 116 pages, and subsequently Moroni taking the plates and interpreters and then returning them again so Joseph could resume translation. It also mentions the multiple scribes Joseph used and documents many of the historical places where the translation occurred. It says very little about the translation process other than it required a faithful scribe.

Joseph Smith’s Susquehanna Years

The years 1825 through 1831 on the land along the Susquehanna River near Harmony, Pennsylvania, proved to be a time of growth and chastisement as well as great joy and sorrow for the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was here in 1825 that 19-yearold Joseph worked, obtained some schooling, and met, courted, and married his future wife, Emma Hale, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale. Together they suffered the death of their first child. Here much of the Book of Mormon was translated, the Aaronic and the Melchizedek Priesthoods were restored, and 15 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received. …

Translating the Plates

A house of his own provided Joseph with added freedom of access to the gold plates. It was there that he was enabled to prepare the transcript of characters and their accompanying definitions which Martin Harris took to learned men in eastern New York during February 182. The transcript was shown to the Honorable Luther Bradish at Albany and Doctors Samuel Latham Mitchill and Charles Anthon in New York City… With Martin acting as scribe, 116 pages of transcript were prepared between 12 April and 14 June 1828. After repeated requests from Martin Harris and after the Prophet’s persistent importuning of the Lord on his behalf, Martin was allowed to take the manuscript to his Palmyra home in order to satisfy the many inquiries of a skeptical Harris family.

The Prophet then made a hurried trip to Manchester to ascertain why Martin had been delayed beyond the agreed time. On discovering what turned out to be the irretrievable loss of the 116-page manuscript through Martin’s broken covenants, the Prophet was devastated. His soul-wrenching anguish was witnessed by his mother, who said, “He wept and groaned, and walked the floor continually.” Upon his return to Harmony, the Prophet was severely chastised by the Lord for having “feared man more than God” (D&C 3:7; see also D&C 10). Following this strong rebuke, Moroni took from him the gold plates and the Urim and Thummim for a season.

Father and Mother Smith Visit Harmony

Not hearing from their son for nearly two months, and worried at his state of mind when last seen. Father and Mother Smith traveled to Harmony and spent more than three months there during the winter of 1828-29. Lucy recalled the joy which they experienced when they learned that the plates and the Urim and Thummim had been restored to their son on 22 September 1828. She also recorded a choice expression exchanged between Moroni and Joseph at the moment of return. The Prophet told his mother that “the angel seemed pleased with me when he gave me back the Urim and Thummim, and told me that the Lord loved me, for my faithfulness and humility.” After all the agony experienced following the loss of the manuscript, it was important to the Prophet to know that the Lord continued to love His servant. …

Oliver Cowdery Becomes Scribe

Martin Harris was no longer allowed to act as scribe, which required finding another to perform that labor. The Prophet said that his brother Samuel and Emma gave some limited service to fill the void. Emma mentioned that her brother Reuben Hale helped… Oliver was fully satisfied that his assistance as scribe was a direct call from the Lord and commenced his labors with Joseph on 7 April. …

Publishing the Book of Mormon

Mobocracy reared its persistent head in Harmony as the translation of the Book of Mormon was nearing completion… The Prophet requested Oliver to write to his friend David Whitmer in Seneca County, New York, to see if the Whitmers could provide them a safe place to complete their labors with the gold plates. In an affirmative response, David Whitmer went to Harmony in the latter part of May 1829 and conveyed them to his father’s log home in the rural setting of Fayette Township by 1 June. During the month of June the translation was completed, a copyright filed, and initial arrangements commenced for printing the Book of Mormon.

When the problems of publication were worked out with Egbert B. Grandin of Palmyra, the Prophet left the work in the hands of Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, and Martin Harris, and returned to Harmony, reaching his home on 4 October 1829. As the time for the public release of the printed Book of Mormon neared, the Prophet and Joseph Knight Sr. drove to Palmyra with great anticipation and were there for that momentous event on 26 March 1830.

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Most of the work of translation on the Book of Mormon was accomplished while the Prophet foseph Smith and his wife, Emma, lived in the Harmony, Pennsylvania, area. (back cover)

Ensign, February 2001, Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, Joseph Smith’s Susquehanna Years, By Larry C. Porter (professor emeritus of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University)
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2001/02/joseph-smiths-susquehanna-years.html
https://archiveviewer.org/viewer/church-history-library/12401884-92d8-4eb2-82b8-e669d3a28f4a/0

Ensign 2011

In 2011, the church published a special issue of the Ensign magazine titled, Special Issue: The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It focused on the Book of Mormon and republished the story of translation. This issue mentions the Urim and Thumim once, and does not mention seer stones a single time. It includes artwork depicting Joseph reading the Gold Plates, but no artwork of the Urim and Thumim, seer stones, or Joseph translating with his rock and face buried in his hat. It includes still images from a 2002 church-published Movie, Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, which also shows Joseph reading directly from the gold plates.

4. On September 21, 1823, Joseph was praying when light filled his attic bedroom and an angel named Moroni appeared. Moroni told Joseph about writings by some ancient prophets. The record, engraved on golden plates, was buried in a nearby hill. Joseph was informed he was to translate the record.

5. Finally, on September 22, 1827, Joseph was entrusted with the plates, lifting them from a stone box buried under a large stone on a hill near Palmyra, New York.

6. As was common in rural areas in those days, Joseph Smith was largely uneducated. To assist him with the translation, God provided for him an ancient translation instrument called the Urim and Thummim. He was also blessed by the help of scribes who wrote what he dictated as he translated. Among these scribes were his wife, Emma; Martin Harris, a prosperous farmer; and Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher. The bulk of the translation work was finished less than three months after Oliver began serving as scribe.

Emma described what it was like to serve as Joseph’s scribe: “No man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when [I was] acting as his scribe, [Joseph] would dictate to me hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him.” (Interview with Emma Smith by
Joseph Smith III, Feb. 1879, in Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1, 1879, 290.)

Joseph explained the significance of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon: “By the power of God I translated the Book of Mormon from hieroglyphics, the knowledge of which was lost to the world, in which wonderful event I stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries, with a new revelation.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 60.)

The Prophet Joseph Smith, Translator of The Book of Mormon, Ensign, October 2011, Pages 6-9
https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/ensign-october-2011/2011-10-00-ensign-eng.pdf

The issue includes on the first page, the same Simon Dewey image as in 2001, of Joseph Smith reading the Gold Plates using his finger as a representation of translating the Book of Mormon. With the caption:

The Book of Mormon, brought forth by the Prophet Joseph Smith, is a translation of ancient plates “written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation—Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof— … Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ” (title page of the Book of Mormon).

Church Website

Even today, the church website details a full webpage in the Church History section about translating the gold plates. The page does not mention a seer stone and barely mentioned the Urim and Thummim, only doing so in a quote from Oliver Cowdery. The website omits the seer stone translation method completely. They state that the Urim and Thummim were used and that the work was done by the power of God.

“These were the days never to be forgotten,” Oliver Cowdery said of his time as Joseph Smith’s scribe “under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration₁ of heaven.” The translation of the ancient “record called ‘The Book of Mormon’” further enlarged Joseph’s understanding of how to receive revelation and established that “God does inspire men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as well as in generations of old.”

God gave Joseph Smith the gift and power to translate writings recorded centuries ago in a language of which Joseph had no knowledge. Recalled Joseph’s wife Emma, “No man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired.” Joseph translated the gold plates in less than three months.

“Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations,” Joseph taught, “and where is our religion? We have none.” In the Book of Mormon, the Lord said, “are all things written concerning the foundation of my church, my gospel, and my rock.”

“I translated the Book of Mormon from hieroglyphics, the knowledge of which was lost to the world, in which wonderful event I stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries, with a new revelation, which (if they would receive the everlasting Gospel,) would open the eyes of more than eight hundred millions of people, and make ‘plain the old paths,’ wherein if a man walk in all the ordinances of God blameless, he shall inherit eternal life” (History of the Church, 6:74).

Church Website, Church History: Joseph Smith Translates the Gold Plates
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates?lang=eng

“I wrote, with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages,) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by that book, ‘holy Interpreters.’ I beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated. I also saw with my eyes and handled with my hands the ‘holy interpreters.’ That book is true. … It contains … the everlasting gospel and came in fulfillment of the revelations of John where he says [that] he saw an angel come with the everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” (Testimonies of Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, Millennial Star, Aug. 20, 1859, 544).

Church Website, Church History: Joseph Smith Translates the Gold Plates
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates?lang=eng

Calling Out The False Narrative

Historians of the church point out that the church narrative is not true according to historical facts. Many of these facts were fairly recently dismissed as anti-mormon lies, but are now embraced even by church apologists and all historians.

Curiously, in illustrating various instruction manuals, the LDS Church does not depict Smith using either the Urim and Thummim or the seer stone. He is almost always shown sitting at a desk and simply looking at the plates, as though he were doing a regular translation.

Sandra Tanner, “Too Mean To Mention” The Book of Mormon Witnesses, Salt Lake City Messenger, November 2011, No. 117
https://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no117.htm

“We still have pictures on our ward bulletin boards of Joseph Smith with the Gold Plates in front of him. That has become an irksome point and I think it is something the church should pay attention to. Because anyone who studies the history knows that is not what happened. There is no church historian who says that is what happened and yet it is being propagated by the church and it feeds into the notion that the church is trying to cover up embarrassing episodes and is sort of prettifying its own history.”

Richard Bushman, LDS Church Historian

Studies have even been conducted at BYU that show all the church art depicting the translation work is inconsistent with history. This misleading art still hangs in church buildings, is used in teachings about the translation, and appears on the covers of church publications!

Each of the Ensign images from 1974 to 2014 is inconsistent with some aspects of documented Church history of the translation process of the Book of Mormon. For example, only one painting in the past forty-three years depicts Joseph Smith using the Urim and Thummim.

There have been fifty-five times the Ensign has depicted the translation of the Book of Mormon over the past forty-three years, repeatedly using seventeen different images. The most oft-used image is Del Parson’s Joseph Smith Translating the Book of Mormon (also printed in the Gospel Art Kit and Preach My Gospel), used a total of fourteen times since January of 1997. All of the Ensign images are inconsistent with aspects of documented Church history of the translation process of the Book of Mormon. For example, in each of the seventeen Ensign images, Joseph Smith is shown looking into open plates (not closed or wrapped or absent plates). In eleven of the images Joseph Smith has his finger on the open plates, usually in a studious pose, as though he is translating individual characters through intellectual interpretive effort and not through revelatory means through the Urim and Thummim. Only one painting in the past forty-three years depicts Joseph Smith using Urim and Thummim; this image was used only twice (once in November of 1988 and once in February of 1989). Most tellingly, none of the images ever printed in the history of the Ensign (or recent Church videos, such as Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration) depict the translation process of the Book of Mormon as having taken place by placing a seer stone or the Nephite interpreters in a hat. Is there any wonder, then, that there is confusion in the minds and hearts of believing persons when they learn through repeated scholarly sources that the Book of Mormon was apparently translated through seer stones placed in a hat to obscure light and that the plates were often concealed under a cloth or not in the room, and not by opening the plates with his finger on them and studying it out?

Anthony Sweat, Assistant Professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU. The Role of Art in Teaching Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine, 2015.
https://rsc.byu.edu/sites/default/files/pub_content/pdf/The_Role_of_Art_in_Teaching_Latter-day%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8B_Saint_History_and_Doctrine.pdf

Again, it’s no surprise that many faithful members feel unsettled when they encounter well-documented scholarly accounts describing the Book of Mormon translation process, which involved Joseph Smith using seer stones placed in a hat to block out light. This narrative stands in stark contrast to earlier teachings about the translation process.

Coming Clean – History Matters

However, historical records and firsthand accounts from Joseph Smith’s contemporaries present a different methodology that has been increasingly recognized and represented more accurately in recent years. Eyewitnesses like David Whitmer and Emma Smith described the process as involving a seer stone that Joseph placed in a hat. This method allowed him to block out light so that he could look at the stone in darkness, where he reported seeing words and symbols that he then dictated to his scribes. The seer stone itself was described as chocolate-colored, a detail that diverges from the more mystically framed, gold-plated image often suggested in earlier church narratives.

The more historically grounded depictions of the translation process began to gain traction in church-published materials around the 2010s. The LDS Church has acknowledged these accounts in official essays, such as the “Book of Mormon Translation” Gospel Topics essay, which details Joseph’s use of the seer stone and the hat.

The earliest artwork showing Joseph Smith with his face buried in his hat to translate the gold plates was published by South Park, in a parody episode about Joseph Smith and the Mormons which first aired in 2003. This is a full 10 years before the church honestly admitted that Joseph used a rock in a hat to translate the Book of Mormon. At the time, this episode was dismissed by members as being “anti-Mormon,” when in reality, it is at the forefront of correcting the narrative of the church. We can see, yesterdays anti-mormon lies are admitted in today’s Gospel Topic Essays.

Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.

Book of Mormon Translation, Gospel Topic Essay
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng&id=p15#p15

The church’s Gospel Topic Essay on the translation of the Book of Mormon comes clean about the translation method. It still conflates the seer stone with the Urim and Thummim though, and is sure to point out that the early saints considered them to be the same thing, or at least they “apparently” called the seer stone a Urim and Thummim. The church does admit that the seer stone is the same that Joseph used in his treasure-digging escapades.

Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English. One instrument, called in the Book of Mormon the “interpreters,” is better known to Latter-day Saints today as the “Urim and Thummim.” Joseph found the interpreters buried in the hill with the plates. Those who saw the interpreters described them as a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim. The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument, together with its breastplate, as a device “kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord” and “handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages.”

The other instrument, which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or “seer stone.” As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure. As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.

Apparently for convenience, Joseph often translated with the single seer stone rather than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. These two instruments—the interpreters and the seer stone—were apparently interchangeable and worked in much the same way such that, in the course of time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters.

The scribes who assisted with the translation unquestionably believed that Joseph translated by divine power. Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she “frequently wrote day after day” at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.”

Book of Mormon Translation, Gospel Topic Essay
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng&id=p15#p15

This article published by church historians clarifies that “historical evidence shows” the seer stone was used “often placing it into a hat in order to block out light,” and that this seer stone was also referred to as a Urim and Thummim. The article blames this “imprecise terminology” on the complications in reconstructing the exact method Joseph translated. Telling that the story is difficult to make clear when there are multiple accounts about how Joseph translated which contradict one another. It’s almost like the stories were made up.

In fact, historical evidence shows that in addition to the two seer stones known as “interpreters,” Joseph Smith used at least one other seer stone in translating the Book of Mormon, often placing it into a hat in order to block out light. According to Joseph’s contemporaries, he did this in order to better view the words on the stone.

By 1833, Joseph Smith and his associates began using the biblical term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to any stones used to receive divine revelations, including both the Nephite interpreters and the single seer stone. This imprecise terminology has complicated attempts to reconstruct the exact method by which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. In addition to using the interpreters, according to Martin Harris, Joseph also used one of his seer stones for convenience during the Book of Mormon translation. Other sources corroborate Joseph’s changing translation instruments. …

Over the years, artists have sought to portray the Book of Mormon translation, showing the participants in many settings and poses with different material objects. Each artistic interpretation is based upon its artist’s own views, research, and imagination, sometimes aided by input and direction from others.

Liahona, October 2015: Joseph the Seer, Richard E. Turley Jr., Assistant Church Historian and Recorder, Robin S. Jensen and Mark Ashurst-McGee, Church History Department. The historical record clarifies how Joseph Smith fulfilled his role as a seer and translated the Book of Mormon.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2015/10/joseph-the-seer?lang=eng

The article also points out that artists have portrayed the translation process in different ways, and each “based upon its artist’s own view, research, and imagination.” The article does add that the commissioned artwork was “aided by input and direction from others,” but fail to define who these “others” are giving input and direction. We can only deduce that it was church leaders wanting to minimize the occult oddity of Joseph’s translation process.

Ensign 2020

In January of 2020 the Ensign finally publishes an image of Joseph with a hat, though it still doesn’t show him with his face buried in it or any representation of his seer stone, or even the Urim and Thummim. It shows Joseph with the gold plates covered under a cloth, with a white hat hiding behind them and his hand upon the hat. The scene is familiar to all these other depictions but adds a hat and covers the plates, making it more accurate, but still misleading.

The Process of Translation

Joseph himself did not elaborate about the process of translation, but Oliver, David, and Emma provided some additional information. Oliver said: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from [Joseph’s] mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon’” (Joseph Smith—History 1:71, note).

The “interpreters” used by Joseph during the translation process included the “two stones in silver bows” that were deposited by Moroni with the plates (see Joseph Smith—History 1:35.) In addition to these two seer stones, Joseph used at least one other seer stone that the Lord had provided.

David Whitmer, whose family provided a place for Joseph and Oliver to complete the work of translation, provided this additional information: “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.”

All of us who have tried to read illuminated words on a screen can understand why Joseph would have used a hat or something else to screen out extraneous light when he was reading the words on the seer stone.

Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr., General Authority Seventy and Church Historian and Recorder, The Translation of the Book of Mormon: A Marvel and a Wonder, Ensign, January 2020
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2020/01/the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon-a-marvel-and-a-wonder
https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/ensign-january-2020/2020-01-0000-ensign-eng.pdf

Other Eyewitness Statements

Joseph Smith had five scribes who participated in various portions of the Book of Mormon translation: Emma Smith, Martin Harris, Samuel Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and John Whitmer.

In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.

“Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saint’s Herald, Vol. 26, No 19. p. 289. (1 October 1879).

Now the first that my husband translated, was translated by the use of the Urim, and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly, black, but was rather a dark color.

“Emma Smith Bidamon to Emma Pilgrim, 27 March 1870,” in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 5 vols. (Salt Lake City: Signature Press, 1996-2003) 1:532.

[Joseph] possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.

Martin Harris. Joel Tiffany, “Mormonism,” Tiffany’s Monthly, June 1859, 165–66; Deseret Evening News, December 13, 1881, 4; W. Wyl, Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and His Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Print and Publishing, 1886), 276, footnote; Henry G. Tinsley, “Origin of Mormonism,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 1893, 12.

aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by [Martin], and when finished he would say, ‘Written,’ and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected.

Martin Harris. Edward Stevenson, “One of the Three Witnesses: Incidents in the Life of Martin Harris,” Millennial Star 44, nos. 5–6 (January 30 and February 6, 1882): 78–79, 86–87. See Welch, Opening the Heavens, 132–41.

put his face into a hat & the interpretation then flowed into his mind.

Oliver Cowdery. Christian Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar: The Earliest Book of Mormon Reviewer,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 2 (Spring 2001): 143.

Apologetics

The apologetic view is that the manner of translation shifted over time as Joseph learned how to do it. He started with the interpreters, but “for convenience”, he switched to using a rock in his hat (maybe because it was familiar to him). How does this fit the claims that the translation only took 60-ish “working days” to complete? Is that enough time? The church will compress the amount of time the translation took when it fits the miraculous narrative, but when his process needs to evolve, we need to give him time to learn and take into account the calendar years the translation took to complete.

This shift from the traditional portrayal to one that reflects historical accounts marks a broader effort by the LDS Church to address scholarly critiques and align its teaching with documented evidence. It also represents an effort to be more transparent with church history, acknowledging that early depictions were simplified or sanitized for faith-promoting purposes but have since been updated for greater historical accuracy. These are good trends and good progress to see the church making towards honestly teaching its own history. But is it enough?

Many feel it is still too little, too late. They have clearly been forced into this situation by their own misleading presentation of the narrative and it being untrue and unsustainable. It begs the question, if it was true, why would the story need to be cleaned up to be more faith-promoting Joseph translated the Book of Mormon, with his face in a white stovepipe hat, with a seer stone. He would look into the bottom of his upended hat at his seer stone rock, and claimed he would see the translated words and recite them.

This is the same way Joseph would use this same seer stone during his infamous treasure-digging escapades. The church has also tried to remove those from the narrative, but have been forced to address them as well. He was tried in court for defrauding others with his “glass-looking” folk magic and stopped leading treasure digs. Many believe that he rethought his life trajectory and realized that in religion (and the freedom guaranteed) he could continue his con but be exempt from getting in trouble with the law since it would be a religion rather than claimed magic.

The Gold Plates or the caractors of Reformed Egyptian were not even used in this translation. The plates themselves were either covered by a cloth or not even present in the room, rather than being physically handled and read as if from an open book. Possibly Joseph was reading prepared notes hidden in his hat, or from memory some of his carefully constructed stories and borrowed content.

The church’s teachings on the Book of Mormon translation process have certainly shifted over time. Historically and emphatically, the church described Joseph Smith translating the text directly from gold plates using the Urim and Thummim (the sacred interpreters Joseph received with the gold plates). However, recent admissions clarify that Smith primarily used a seer stone he already owned and which he previously used for treasure hunting. During translation, he reportedly placed this stone in his hat, pressing his face into it to block out light, claiming the text appeared on the stone. This change addresses evidence that became so widely known, that it was too hard for the church to deny any longer.

We went from definitive statements that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim to translate, to acknowledging that he also used his own rock in his hat to translate, but the church insists the manner of translation is not as important as the miraculous translation was performed with the power of God, and they continuously point to the text of the Book of Mormon as the real miracle. The text, Moroni makes clear, includes a promise (and a lesson in confirmation bias), that if you truly desire it to be true, and ask in faith, you can feel is true – unless you don’t.

Did you always know about Joseph’s seer stone in his hat translation? Where did you find out about this and how did it feel to learn than Joseph hadn’t used the gold plates or the urim and thummim as you’d been taught? Does it matter to you where the Book of Mormon comes from or if Joseph translated it? What does it say of the church and the church history department that they have only now just begun to be truthful on the matter? Did they know the whole time or are they just finding out as well? Did all this compound on your shelf? Consider sharing your faith deconstruction story and contributing your thoughts to the collection at wasmormon.org.

• Joseph Fielding Smith Taught The Seer Stone Was Not Used for Book of Mormon Translation
• Joseph Smith’s Peep Stone Translation Method Renders The Gold Plates Useless
• Church Historians Attempt Normalizing Strange Seer Stone In Hat Translation Method
• The Problems with Joseph Smith and Peep Stone Translations
• Joseph Smith was a Glass Looking Treasure Digger
• New Scripture Translated From Sealed Portion – Jesus visits Macaroni and Condemns Viper Church Leaders of Last Days
• Elder Uchtdorf Compares Peep Stone to His Smartphone
• Defiant Apologists Challenge the New Seer Stone Narrative
• https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/firsthand-witness-accounts-translation-process
• https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol7/iss1/4/
• https://lecturesondoubt.com/2016/12/12/learning-about-the-seer-stone/
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/32502_eng.pdf
• https://rsc.byu.edu/sites/default/files/pub_content/pdf/The_Role_of_Art_in_Teaching_Latter-day%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8B_Saint_History_and_Doctrine.pdf
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2015/10/joseph-the-seer?lang=eng
• https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates?lang=eng
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng
• https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/ensign-october-2011/2011-10-00-ensign-eng.pdf
• https://ldsanswers.org/did-the-prophet-joseph-smith-describe-the-book-of-mormon-translation-process/
• https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/site/the-gold-plates-and-the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/31122_eng.pdf
• https://www.fromthedesk.org/lets-talk-about-the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon/#translation
• https://globalevangelism.online/lds-urim-and-thummim-rich-kelsey/
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2006-05-0001-joseph-smith-prophet-of-the-restoration-2002-version?lang=eng