Introduction
The translation of the Book of Mormon, completed by Joseph Smith in June 1829, was an amazing feat. By any standard, this 588-page holy book is extraordinary. Isaiah’s words, “a marvelous work and a wonder” (Isa. 29:14), which can be translated from the Hebrew more literally as “a miraculous work and a miracle,” readily describe the coming forth of this key restoration text.
Divine manifestations of several kinds directed the rapid course of the translation. Through angelic ministrations, the gift of powers to translate, the guidance of visions, and in many other ways, the hand of God was evident in the truly astounding work of bringing forth the ancient Nephite record. Through the Book of Mormon came many crucial revelations opening the heavens for all to receive: vital testimonies of the divinity of Jesus Christ, abundant declarations of God’s plan of salvation, heavenly dispensations of ethical teachings, and prophetic patterns for religious rites and ordinances. It is impossible to imagine Mormonism without the Book of Mormon. Its translation was a key event that unlocked a treasury of God’s dealings with mankind in the past and, in so doing, opened the way for his work to go forward in the present and on into the future.
While the embedding had occurred centuries earlier, the unfolding process commenced in September 1823, when Joseph Smith Jr. was visited several times by the angel Moroni, who informed him that God “had a work for [him] to do” (JS–H 1:33). The angel went on to state that a book written upon gold plates containing the fullness of the gospel was deposited in a stone box in a nearby hill, and that in due time he, Joseph Smith, would be given stewardship over that book. This extensive record had been compiled mainly by the final Nephite leader, Mormon, who lived in the fourth century ad. Painstakingly, he had engraved onto the final set of plates carefully quoted, purposefully abridged, and paraphrased materials that he drew from a much larger collection of historical and religious records that had been written by his predecessors over the previous centuries. Most prominently, Mormon’s account featured numerous instances of angelic and divine manifestations, including appearances of Jesus Christ during the year after his resurrection. In about AD 385, Mormon, after adding his own concluding narrative, gave the plates to his son Moroni (who died about AD 421). After appending his abridgement of the Jaredite records, a few ecclesiastical documents, and his own farewell, Moroni finally deposited the plates in the Hill Cumorah in modern-day western New York. On September 22, 1827, Moroni released those plates to Joseph, thus inaugurating one of the most important stages in the Restoration of the gospel.
Numerous approaches can and should be taken in approaching the Book of Mormon. This complex book has been read and scrutinized in many ways: textually, doctrinally, historically, comparatively, literarily, legally, statistically, geographically, philosophically, practically, biographically, intellectually, prayerfully, and spiritually—to name some of the most obvious. The richness of this book inevitably invites several questions: How was this book written? Where did it come from? Joseph Smith testified that he translated the Book of Mormon miraculously, by the gift and power of God. Is that testimony credible?
The following set of over two hundred documents assembles data pertinent to that ultimate question. In particular, from these contemporaneous historical records, this study focuses on determining, as precisely as possible, when the Book of Mormon was translated, how long it took to complete this impressive task, and where to place the translation into the few known surrounding events of Joseph Smith’s life. The overwhelming accumulation of the consistent historical details provided by eyewitness participants and local observers leads to the solid conclusion that the Book of Mormon was translated in a very short period of time. Inside of three astonishingly compressed months, Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon. Its text simply emerged as it fell from his lips, line after line, recorded by his attentive scribe. The rapidity of the translation left no time for steps normally taken in producing translations.
The historical records corroborating the translation of the Book of Mormon are indeed copious and quite detailed. In addition to several contemporaneous references in the Doctrine and Covenants to the translation as it was under way (documents 1–9 below), accounts were left by many of the participants, eyewitnesses, or observant people who were closely associated with the unfolding translation. These people include Joseph Smith (documents 10–37) and Emma Smith (documents 38–43). Next come the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon—Martin Harris (documents 44–68), Oliver Cowdery (documents 69–78), David Whitmer (documents 79–100). The thirty-seven accounts given by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, who were most directly involved in the translation process, are notably specific and powerfully consistent. Next comes John Whitmer (documents 101–4), who was another of Joseph’s scribes. Further statements by members of the Joseph Smith Sr. family come from Joseph Smith Sr., Lucy Mack Smith, William Smith, and Katharine Smith Salisbury (documents 105–13), and additional testimonies were left by other people who were close to those involved with the translation: Sarah Conrad, Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, Alva Hale, Isaac Hale, Joseph Knight Sr., and Joseph Knight Jr. (documents 114–19).1
Many other accounts listed chronologically by publication date (documents 120–206) have survived from people who were not personally involved with or close to the work of translating the Book of Mormon but who may have had contact with some who were; some of these contemporaneous reports or rumors were circulated by people who were farther removed from these events. Even though their words are patently less useful in reconstructing the historical sequence of events regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon, all such identifiable accounts, including the hostile statements, are interesting to compare and analyze.
Consisting of 206 documents, the entire collection is presented in the document section following this article. Underlining is reproduced from the original document. Editorial marks include angle brackets < > to indicate insertions made by the author of the document. Strikeouts are shown by strikeouts. Brackets [ ] indicate editorial comments.
By way of introducing these documents, an annotated chronology is first given, detailing the main events and heavenly manifestations that transpired during the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon from 1827 through 1830. Despite a few minor uncertainties in this historical data, most of the information falls clearly into a single logical sequence of events. The historical record abundantly sustains the basic narrative concerning the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. The sheer number of witnesses, friendly or otherwise, who were aware of this work as it progressed and who sensed its importance enough to speak or write to others about it renders alternative accounts of fabrication or deception unlikely. At least, perpetrating such a ruse would have necessarily involved the willing collusion of many others who do not appear likely to have been willing coconspirators.
In sum, it is shown that nearly all the 590 pages printed in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon were translated, dictated, and written within an extremely short and intensely busy period of time, almost entirely from April 7 to the last week of June 1829. Virtually no excess time existed during those three months for Joseph Smith to plan, to ponder about, to research, to hunt for sources, to organize data, to draft, to revise, or to polish the pages of the original manuscript of this book. Although Joseph became aware of and began contemplating this assignment in September 1823, and while he translated the 116 pages containing the book of Lehi from April 12, 1828, to June 14, 1828, which were sadly lost that summer, once Joseph and Oliver set to work on April 7, 1829, the pages of the Book of Mormon flowed forth in rapid succession. The text of the Book of Mormon was dictated one time through, essentially in final form. This was done despite significant interruptions and distractions. Such a feat, in and of itself, constitutes a considerable achievement, given the length, quality, and complexity of the Book of Mormon alone.
Further details concerning the description of the plates, complex structure of the Book of Mormon, and what can be gathered concerning Joseph Smith’s means and methods of translating the Book of Mormon can be found conveniently at the beginning of published editions of the book, in standard histories of the Church,2 in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism,3 or in other surveys of scholarship about the Book of Mormon.4 More than this brief mention of these additional topics, however, goes beyond the limited purpose of this documentary presentation.
I am grateful to several people who have assisted over the years in gathering and editing these documents and processing this information for this publication, in particular Erick Carlson, Heather Seferovich, and Jed Woodworth. While everyone involved has attempted to be as thorough as possible, I recognize that further research may yet discover additional information to clarify various individual points. If there are faults, they are ours alone. Dates listed in the chronology are, for the most part, historically verifiable, but some have been approximated. Taken together these details coalesce into a clear picture of the miraculous time of translation of the Book of Mormon.
About the Author
John W. Welch is a co-founder of Book of Mormon Central and serves as the Chair of its Board of Directors. He is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at Brigham Young University and was for 27 years editor-in-chief of BYU Studies, the premier Latter-day Saint scholarly journal. Welch practiced law in Los Angeles with O’Melveny & Myers, at which time he founded the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). From 1988-1991, Welch served as one of the editors for Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of Mormonism. He also has served as the General Editor of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley for 25 years. He organized the bicentennial conference for Joseph Smith at the Library of Congress in 2005 and has served on the executive committee of the Biblical Law Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Welch is among the most prominent pupils of Hugh Nibley, having made several important discoveries and advances regarding biblical studies, LDS scholarship, history, culture, and thought. His publications cover a wide range of topics, including Roman and Jewish laws in the trial of Jesus, the use of biblical laws in colonial America, chiasmus in antiquity, and commentaries on the Sermon on the Mount and King Benjamin’s Speech.