text: SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Mormon church took another step toward transparency Tuesday with the first published pictures of a small sacred stone it believes founder Joseph Smith used to help translate a story that became the basis of the religion. 
   
   The third volume of the Joseph Smith papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon is shown following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, in Salt Lake City. The Mormon church... (Associated Press) 
   
   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historian Steven E. Snow displays the third volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, during a news... (Associated Press) 
   
   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historian Steven E. Snow rests his hand on the third volume of the Joseph Smith papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, during... (Associated Press) 
   
   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historian Steven E. Snow displays the third volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, during a news... (Associated Press) 
   
   People look at pictures of the smooth, brown, egg-sized rock shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of... (Associated Press) 
   
   A picture of a smooth, brown, egg-sized rock is shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... (Associated Press) 
   
   People look at pictures of the smooth, brown, egg-sized rock shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of... (Associated Press) 
   
   Pictures of smooth, brown, egg-sized rocks are shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... (Associated Press) 
   
   Pictures of a smooth, brown, egg-sized rock are shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... (Associated Press) 
   
   Flowers bloom in front of the Salt Lake Temple Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at Temple Square, in Salt Lake City. The Mormon church is taking another step in its push to be more transparent, and is releasing... (Associated Press) 
   
   The new photos peel back another layer of secrecy for a relatively young world religion that has come under scrutiny for some of its beliefs as its numbers swelled in the Internet age. 
   
   The pictures of the smooth, egg-sized rock are part of a new book that also contains photos of the first printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unveiled the photos at a news conference in Salt Lake City. 
   
   The religion's drive in recent years to open its vaults and clarify sensitive tenets is aimed at filling a void on the Internet for accurate information as curiosity increased while church membership tripled to 15 million over the past three decades, Mormon scholars said. 
   
   Church historian Steven E. Snow acknowledged that dynamic, saying: "The Internet brings both challenge and opportunities. We're grateful for the opportunity to share much of collection through the use of the Internet." 
   
   The church's campaign seems aimed at preventing current members from leaving and showing non-Mormons the faith has nothing to hide, said Terryl Givens, professor of literature and religion and the James Bostwick chair of English at the University of Richmond. 
   
   As an American-born religion much younger than most world religions, the origins of Mormonism have come under greater scrutiny and put pressure on the church to prove its stories, Givens said. 
   
   "The other churches' origins are concealed by the mist of history," Givens said. "Mormonism is the first world religion in which the origins were exposed to public view, to documentation, to journalists and newspaper reporting." 
   
   The pictures in the new book show different angles of a stone that is dark brown with lighter brown swirls. The photos also show a weathered leather pouch where the stone was stored that is believed to be made by one of Joseph Smith's wives, Emma Smith. 
   
   The church has always possessed the stone, which was transported across the country during Mormon pioneers' trek from Illinois to Utah in the mid-1800s. But it decided to publish the photos to allow people who prefer visuals to words to better understand the religion's roots, said Richard Turley, assistant church historian. The stone will remain in the vault. 
   
   "The picture brings a kind of tangibility to something that has been previously been talked about just in words," Turley said. "That helps people connect with the past." 
   
   Mormons believe that 185 years ago, Smith found gold plates engraved with writing in ancient Egyptian in upstate New York. They say God helped him translate the text using the stone and other tools, and it became known as the Book of Mormon. 
   
   The manuscript in the new book belongs to the Community of Christ, a faith that was created by early Mormons who stayed behind when most members of the religion moved west to Utah. A Community of Christ leader joined LDS officials at the press event Tuesday in what both said demonstrated the two faiths have moved on from past squabbles. 
   
   The church has been releasing books containing historical documents that shed light on how Smith formed the faith. It also has issued a series of in-depth articles that explain or clarify some of the more sensitive parts of the religion's history that it once sidestepped, such as its past ban on black men in the lay clergy and its early history of polygamy. 
   
   The church paid a price for its past decisions to stay silent on topics or keep key artifacts in the vault, said Richard Bushman, a Mormon historian and emeritus professor at Columbia University. 
   
   "Their faithful members would stumble on information on the Internet. Not having heard about them, they were shocked and disillusioned," Bushman said. 
   
   Today the church is taking a new approach by saying, "We can face up to the facts. We don't have to make the picture prettier than it is," he said. ||||| He dictated the narrative to various scribes, including schoolteacher Oliver Cowdery, who took down the LDS leader's words in longhand. Cowdery then painstakingly copied the original manuscript for the printer to set in type. More than 70 percent of that original document suffered water damage. The LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City has most of what's left. 
   
   The "printer's copy," however, remained with Smith's followers who stayed in the Midwest rather than trekking to Utah, and, in 1903, it was purchased by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now the Community of Christ. 
   
   Through the years, tensions simmered between those two wings of Mormonism. But, during the past couple of decades, historians have built scholarly bridges between the Community of Christ and the much-larger, Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
   
   Community of Christ officials have been "careful stewards of the manuscript," Snow said Tuesday. "Both faiths are trying to move forward in sharing their collections." 
   
   Community of Christ minister and Seventy Robin Linkhart, who was at the news conference, praised her Utah colleagues for their part in the joint project. 
   
   The two-volume work, Linkhart said, "truly is an exceptional contribution to the study of LDS history and culture, representing decades of research." 
   
   Begun by Mormon scholar Royal Skousen in 1988, she said, "it's been a long, long journey to the finish line." 
   
   The Community of Christ long ago accepted the notion that "revelation includes a human component," said Lachlan Mackay, coordinator of the denomination's historic sites. 
   
   The Independence, Mo.-based faith published articles about the seer stone as early as the 1960s, he said, but "it might still be news to some people." 
   
   "I'm incredibly excited," Mackay said Tuesday. "These efforts have served to unite us." 
   
   Both he and Richard E. Turley Jr., assistant LDS historian, said physical objects "help us connect to the past, make it more realistic, more tangible." 
   
   In a recent essay, the LDS Church explained how Smith, according to some accounts, used the seer stone. He peered into a hat, to block out exterior light, and "read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument." 
   
   "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," the essay said. "As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture." 
   
   Smith also used two bound stones — known as the Urim and Thummim — as "interpreters." 
   
   "Some accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates," the essay added. "Most of the accounts speak of Joseph's use of the Urim and Thummim (either the interpreters or the seer stone)." ||||| Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was “the most correct of any Book on earth & the keystone of our religion & a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other Book.” 1 The Book of Mormon came into the world through a series of miraculous events. Much can be known about the coming forth of the English text of the Book of Mormon through a careful study of statements made by Joseph Smith, his scribes, and others closely associated with the translation of the Book of Mormon. 
   
   “By the Gift and Power of God” 
   
   Joseph Smith reported that on the evening of September 21, 1823, while he prayed in the upper room of his parents’ small log home in Palmyra, New York, an angel who called himself Moroni appeared and told Joseph that “God had a work for [you] to do.”2 He informed Joseph that “there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.” The book could be found in a hill not far from the Smith family farm. This was no ordinary history, for it contained “the fullness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior.”3 
   
   The angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in which it was written. The young man, however, had very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language, known in the Book of Mormon as “reformed Egyptian.”4 Joseph’s wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.”5 
   
   Joseph received the plates in September 1827 and the following spring, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, began translating them in earnest, with Emma and his friend Martin Harris serving as his main scribes. The resulting English transcription, known as the Book of Lehi and referred to by Joseph Smith as written on 116 pages, was subsequently lost or stolen. As a result, Joseph Smith was rebuked by the Lord and lost the ability to translate for a short time.6 
   
   Joseph began translating again in 1829, and almost all of the present Book of Mormon text was translated during a three-month period between April and June of that year. His chief scribe during these months was Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher from Vermont who learned about the Book of Mormon while boarding with Joseph’s parents in Palmyra. Called by God in a vision, Cowdery traveled to Harmony to meet Joseph Smith and investigate further. Of his experience as scribe, Cowdery wrote, “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven.”7 
   
   The manuscript that Joseph Smith dictated to Oliver Cowdery and others is known today as the original manuscript, about 28 percent of which still survives.8 This manuscript corroborates Joseph Smith’s statements that the manuscript was written within a short time frame and that it was dictated from another language. For example, it includes errors that suggest the scribe heard words incorrectly rather than misread words copied from another manuscript.9 In addition, some grammatical constructions that are more characteristic of Near Eastern languages than English appear in the original manuscript, suggesting that the base language of the translation was not English.10 
   
   Unlike most dictated drafts, the original manuscript was considered by Joseph Smith to be, in substance, a final product. To assist in the publication of the book, Oliver Cowdery made a handwritten copy of the original manuscript. This copy is known today as the printer’s manuscript. Because Joseph Smith did not call for punctuation, such as periods, commas, or question marks as he dictated, such marks are not in the original manuscript. The typesetter later inserted punctuation marks when he prepared the text for the printer.11 With the exceptions of punctuation, formatting, other elements of typesetting, and minor adjustments required to correct copying and scribal errors, the dictation copy became the text of the first printed edition of the book.12 
   
   Translation Instruments 
   
   Many accounts in the Bible show that God transmitted revelations to His prophets in a variety of ways. Elijah learned that God spoke not to him through the wind or fire or earthquake but through a “still small voice.”13 Paul and other early apostles sometimes communicated with angels and, on occasion, with the Lord Jesus Christ.14 At other times, revelation came in the form of dreams or visions, such as the revelation to Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, or through sacred objects like the Urim and Thummim.15 
   
   Joseph Smith stands out among God’s prophets, because he was called to render into his own language an entire volume of scripture amounting to more than 500 printed pages, containing doctrine that would deepen and expand the theological understanding of millions of people. For this monumental task, God prepared additional, practical help in the form of physical instruments. 
   
   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.16 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.”17 
   
   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.”18 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.19 As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.20 
   
   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.21 In ancient times, Israelite priests used the Urim and Thummim to assist in receiving divine communications. Although commentators differ on the nature of the instrument, several ancient sources state that the instrument involved stones that lit up or were divinely illumined.22 Latter-day Saints later understood the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer exclusively to the interpreters. Joseph Smith and others, however, seem to have understood the term more as a descriptive category of instruments for obtaining divine revelations and less as the name of a specific instrument. 
   
   Some people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. In addition to the Urim and Thummim, the Bible mentions other physical instruments used to access God’s power: the rod of Aaron, a brass serpent, holy anointing oils, the Ark of the Covenant, and even dirt from the ground mixed with saliva to heal the eyes of a blind man.23 
   
   The Mechanics of Translation 
   
   In the preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith wrote: “I would inform you that I translated [the book], by the gift and power of God.” When pressed for specifics about the process of translation, Joseph repeated on several occasions that it had been done “by the gift and power of God”24 and once added, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon.”25 
   
   Nevertheless, the scribes and others who observed the translation left numerous accounts that give insight into the process. Some accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates. Most of the accounts speak of Joseph’s use of the Urim and Thummim (either the interpreters or the seer stone), and many accounts refer to his use of a single stone. According to these accounts, 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.26 The process as described brings to mind a passage from the Book of Mormon that speaks of God preparing “a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.”27 
   
   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.”28 According to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.” When asked if Joseph had dictated from the Bible or from a manuscript he had prepared earlier, Emma flatly denied those possibilities: “He had neither manuscript nor book to read from.” Emma told her son Joseph Smith III, “The Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity—I have not the slightest doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me for 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.”29 
   
   Another scribe, Martin Harris sat across the table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences appeared. Joseph read those sentences aloud, and after penning the words, Harris would say, “Written.” An associate who interviewed Harris recorded him saying that 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.”30 
   
   The principal scribe, Oliver Cowdery, testified under oath in 1831 that Joseph Smith “found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates.”31 In the fall of 1830, Cowdery visited Union Village, Ohio, and spoke about the translation of the Book of Mormon. Soon thereafter, a village resident reported that the translation was accomplished by means of “two transparent stones in the form of spectacles thro which the translator looked on the engraving.”32 
   
   Conclusion 
   
   Joseph Smith consistently testified that he translated the Book of Mormon by the “gift and power of God.” His scribes shared that testimony. The angel who brought news of an ancient record on metal plates buried in a hillside and the divine instruments prepared especially for Joseph Smith to translate were all part of what Joseph and his scribes viewed as the miracle of translation. When he sat down in 1832 to write his own history for the first time, he began by promising to include “an account of his marvelous experience.”33 The translation of the Book of Mormon was truly marvelous. 
   
   The truth of the Book of Mormon and its divine source can be known today. God invites each of us to read the book, remember the mercies of the Lord and ponder them in our hearts, “and ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true.” God promises that “if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”34 
   
   Resources 
   
   Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 28, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. On the identity of the angel, see Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, vol. 1 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 223 n 56. Davidson et al., Joseph Smith Histories, 223; punctuation regularized; Joseph Smith, “Church History,” Times and Seasons 3 (March 1, 1842): 706–7. See also Joseph Smith—History 1:33–34. Mormon 9:32. See also 1 Nephi 1:2. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 290. Joseph Smith History, 1838–ca. 1841, 8–11 (draft 2), in Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, vol. 1 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 252–3; available at josephsmithpapers.org; Doctrine and Covenants 3:5–15. Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16; Oliver Cowdery to William W. Phelps, Sept. 7, 1834, in Messenger and Advocate 1 (Oct. 1834): 14; italics in original. Most of the manuscript disintegrated or became otherwise unreadable due to water damage between 1841 and 1882, as a result of being placed in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House in Nauvoo, Illinois. Most of the surviving pages were later archived in the historian’s office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The extant original manuscript has been published in The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text, ed. Royal Skousen (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001). A complete copy of this original, known as the printer’s manuscript, was made by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes between August 1829 and early 1830. It was used to set the type for most of the printing in Palmyra. The printer’s manuscript is published in The Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typological Facsimile of the Entire Text in Two Parts, ed. Royal Skousen (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001). Both the printer’s manuscript and the original manuscript will be published in future volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers. (Dean C. Jessee, “The Original Book of Mormon Manuscript,” BYU Studies 10, no. 3 [Spring 1970]: 261–72; Royal Skousen, “Piecing Together the Original Manuscript,” BYU Today 46, no. 3 [May 1992]: 18–24.) For example, when Joseph translated the text that is now in 1 Nephi 13:29, the scribe wrote “&” in one place where he should have written “an.” At 1 Nephi 17:48, the scribe wrote “weed” where he should have written “reed.” (See Royal Skousen, “Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript,” in Noel B. Reynolds, ed., Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins [Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997], 67; see also Grant Hardy, “Introduction,” in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, ed. Royal Skousen [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009], xv–xix.) John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon” and “Names of People: Book of Mormon,” in Geoffrey Kahn, ed., Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (Brill Online, 2013); M. Deloy Pack, “Hebraisms,” in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 321–25; John A. Tvedtnes, “The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon,” in John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne, eds., Rediscovering the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 77–91; Donald W. Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities in the Book of Mormon,” in Donald W. Parry and others, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 155–89. You are about to access: http://www.encquran.brill.nl You are now leaving a website maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We provide the link to this third party's website solely as a convenience to you. The linked site has its own terms of use, privacy policies, and security practices that differ from those on our website. By referring or linking you to this website, we do not endorse or guarantee the content, products, or services offered. On the role of the typesetter John Gilbert, see Royal Skousen, “John Gilbert’s 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon,” in Stephen D. Ricks and others, eds., The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 383–405. Some grammatical constructions that sound odd to English speakers were edited out of later editions of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith or others in order to render the translation into more standard current English. See Richard E. Turley Jr. and William W. Slaughter, How We Got the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 44–45. Approximately five-sixth of the 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon was typeset from the printer’s manuscript. The other one-sixth was typeset from the original manuscript. (Royal Skousen, “Editor’s Preface,” in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, xxx.) 1 Kings 19:11–12. Acts 9:1–8; 12:7–9. Acts 11:4–17; 16:9–10; Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 21:9. Michael Hubbard MacKay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, Grand Underwood, Robert J. Woodford, and William G. Hartley, eds., Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, vol. 1 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2013), xxix. Mosiah 28:14–15, 20; see also Mosiah 8:13, 19; and Ether 4:5. Joseph Smith seems to have used the terms “interpreters” and “spectacles” interchangeably during the early years of the Church. Nancy Towle, an itinerant Methodist preacher, recounted Joseph Smith telling her about “a pair of ‘interpreters,’ (as he called them,) that resembled spectacles, by looking into which, he could read a writing engraven upon the plates, though to himself, in a tongue unknown” (Nancy Towle, Vicissitudes Illustrated in the Experience of Nancy Towle, in Europe and America [Charleston: James L. Burges, 1832], 138–39.) Joseph’s 1832 history referred to “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16.) In January 1833, the Latter-day Saint newspaper The Evening and the Morning Star, edited by William W. Phelps, equated “spectacles” and “interpreters” with the term “Urim and Thummim”: the Book of Mormon “was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles— (known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim).” (“The Book of Mormon,” The Evening and the Morning Star, January 1833, [2].) By 1835 Joseph Smith most often used the term “Urim and Thummim” when speaking of translation and rarely, if ever, used the terms “interpreters” or “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith, Journal, Nov. 9–11, 1835, in Journals: Volume 1: 1832–1839, 89; Joseph Smith, History, 1834–1836, in Davidson et al., Histories, Volume 1, 116; John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in John W. Welch, ed., with Erick B. Carlson, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 [Provo, UT, and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2005], 123–28.) Joseph Smith probably possessed more than one seer stone; he appears to have found one of the stones while digging for a well around 1822. (Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984], 69–70.) According to Martin Harris, an angel commanded Joseph Smith to stop these activities, which he did by 1826. (See Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, 64–76; and Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” BYU Studies 24, no. 4 [Fall 1984]: 489–560.) Joseph did not hide his well-known early involvement in treasure seeking. In 1838, he published responses to questions frequently asked of him. “Was not Jo Smith a money digger,” one question read. “Yes,” Joseph answered, “but it was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.” (Selections from Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 43, available at josephsmithpapers.org.) For the broader cultural context, see Alan Taylor, “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830,” American Quarterly 38, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 6–33. Mark Ashurst-McGee, “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet” (Master's Thesis, Utah State University, 2000). For example, when Joseph Smith showed a seer stone to Wilford Woodruff in late 1841, Woodruff recorded in his journal: “I had the privilege of seeing for the first time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM.” (Wilford Woodruff journal, Dec. 27, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.) See also Doctrine and Covenants 130:10. Cornelius Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 9–26. Exodus 7:9–12; 30:25; 40:9; Leviticus 8:10–12; Numbers 21:9; Joshua 3:6–8; John 9:6. Preface to the Book of Mormon, 1830 edition. Minutes, Church conference, Orange, OH, Oct. 25–26, 1831, in Minute Book 2, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, available at josephsmithpapers.org; Welch, “Miraculous Translation,”,121–9. Virtually all of the accounts of the translation process are reproduced in Welch, “Miraculous Translation.” Two accounts of the translation process, including the use of a seer stone, have been written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and published in Church magazines. Historians have also written about the seer stone in Church publications, both in the Ensign and in The Joseph Smith Papers. (See Neal A. Maxwell, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Jan. 1997, 36–41; Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign, July 1993, 61–63; Richard Lloyd Anderson, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Sept. 1977, 78–85; and Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, xxix–xxxii.) Alma 37:23–24. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 289–90. Some outside reports describe the spectacles being placed in the hat during the translation process. A Palmyra newspaper published the earliest known account of the translation in August 1829: Jonathan Hadley, a Palmyra printer who may have spoken with Joseph Smith about translation, claimed that the plates were found with a “huge pair of Spectacles,” and that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.” (“Golden Bible,” Palmyra Freeman, Aug. 11, 1829, [2].) In the winter of 1831, a Shaker in Union Village, Ohio, spoke of “two transparent stones in the form of spectacles” through which the translator “looked on the engraving & afterwards put his face into a hat & the interpretation then flowed into his mind.” (Christian Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar: The Earliest Book of Mormon Reviewer,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 2 [Spring 2011]: 143.) “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289–90. “One of the Three Witnesses,” Deseret Evening News, Dec. 13, 1881, 4. Here Martin Harris uses the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the interpreters found with the plates. A. W. B., “Mormonites,” Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate 2 (Apr. 19, 1831): 120. Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar,” 143. For additional accounts of translation by one of the Three Witnesses, see David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness, ed. Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1991). Joseph Smith History, ca. Summer 1832, 1, in Histories, Volume 1, 1832–1844, 10; available at josephsmithpapers.org. Spelling modernized. Moroni 10:3–5. 
   
   The Church acknowledges the contribution of scholars to the historical content presented in this article; their work is used with permission. 
   
   Originally published December 2013. ||||| A "series of miraculous events" led to the Book of Mormon first being made available for the public to purchase on March 26, 1830. 
   
   It takes an average of five years to translate and produce the Book of Mormon in another language, according to LDS Church Public Affairs. 
   
   Yet as the Book of Mormon Translation topic page on lds.org states, Joseph Smith translated “almost all of the present Book of Mormon text” from the gold plates in just three months, from April to June of 1829 — long before computers, electronic encyclopedias and the Internet. 
   
   That “series of miraculous events,” as the topic page refers to it, involved in the translation of the text came to a climax 185 years ago today on March 26, 1830, when the Book of Mormon was first made available for the public to purchase. 
   
   Although all the details of exactly how Joseph translated the Book of Mormon are not known, Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles pointed out in a 1997 Ensign article (“By the Gift and Power of God”) that this might have been intentional. 
   
   “Perhaps the Lord wanted to leave the Book of Mormon in the realm of faith, though it is drenched with intrinsic evidence,” he wrote. 
   
   Elder Maxwell indicated, however, that there is value in learning more about the Prophet Joseph, the translation process and those who assisted. 
   
   “Our primary focus in studying the Book of Mormon should be on the principles of the gospel anyway, not on the process by which the book came forth,” Elder Maxwell wrote. “Yet because its coming so amply fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of a ‘marvellous work and a wonder,’ we may find strengthened faith in considering how marvelous and wondrous the translation really was.” 
   
   'By the gift and power of God' 
   
   Among those who have wondered about the specific details of the Book of Mormon's translation was Hyrum Smith, an older brother of the Prophet Joseph. 
   
   According to “History of the Church,” Joseph responded to his brother's curiosity by saying that “it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon” and “it was not expedient for him to relate these things.” 
   
   “Thus what we do know about the actual coming forth of the Book of Mormon is adequate, but it is not comprehensive,” Elder Maxwell wrote. 
   
   Robin Jensen, associate managing historian and project archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers, said in an interview with the Deseret News that because the Prophet Joseph didn’t leave a detailed account of the translation process, historians and members of the church must rely on the reminiscences of scribes and those who witnessed the translation in order to understand the mechanics. 
   
   Jensen said that in his studying of the process, he has come to see the translation as a “development” with multiple “different phases” in which Joseph “grew and developed and better understood his role.” 
   
   It was a “monumental task” as Joseph was asked to “render into his own language an entire volume of scripture amounting to more than 500 printed pages,” the lds.org topic page states. So “God prepared additional, practical help in the form of physical instruments” to aid in the different phases of the translation process. 
   
   “The Book of Mormon tells us the way is prepared for this record to be translated, and that’s a very physical, very mechanical process, much more so than we perhaps might envision that,” Jensen said. 
   
   The topic page refers specifically to two types of instruments. The first, known as the Urim and Thummim, was “a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim” that was found in the Hill Cumorah with the gold plates. 
   
   “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 topic page states. 
   
   The second, known as a seer stone, was a “small oval stone” that Joseph “discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates,” according to the lds.org topic page, that he later learned could be used in the translation process. Jensen said the idea of seer stones was common during Joseph’s time. They were seen as “a way to confront the spiritual, supernatural world.” 
   
   Witnesses of the translation process recorded that “when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English,” according to the topic page. 
   
   Joseph was in his early 20s at the time and had “very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language,” according to the topic page. 
   
   Joseph repeatedly testified that it was “by the gift and power of God” that he was able to complete the translation, a fact his wife, Emma, affirmed. 
   
   “The Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity — I have not the slightest doubt of it,” Emma told their son Joseph III on one occasion. “I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me for 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.” 
   
   The topic page also asserts the idea that the original Book of Mormon manuscript, 28 percent of which has survived through the years, also supports statements that Joseph dictated the text from another language in a short period of time. 
   
   “For example, it includes errors that suggest the scribe heard words incorrectly rather than misread words copied from another manuscript,” the topic page states. “In addition, some grammatical constructions that are more characteristic of Near Eastern languages than English appear in the original manuscript, suggesting that the base language of the translation was not English.” 
   
   ‘Days never to be forgotten’ 
   
   Joseph may have been the one called to translate the Book of Mormon, but Jensen emphasized that he was not completely alone in the process. 
   
   “We have a lot of faithful individuals who believed in the Book of Mormon, believed in the power of the Book of Mormon and who were willing to put up with a lot of drudgery, and then of course later in church history, a lot of trial, a lot of hardship,” Jensen said. 
   
   Jensen highlighted Joseph's scribes as examples of others who performed “time-intensive” work during the process. 
   
   Oliver Cowdery is known as the primary scribe for the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, but many others took up a quill to assist Joseph during the translation, according to Jensen. They include Martin Harris, a friend of Joseph’s who later was one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon and who financed the printing; Emma Smith; Samuel Smith, one of Joseph’s younger brothers; Reuben Hale, Joseph’s brother-in-law; and Christian Whitmer, one of the sons of the Whitmer family who allowed Joseph to finish translating in their home in Fayette, New York. Christian’s brother John Whitmer also may have served as scribe for a time, and there is handwriting of an additional unidentified scribe found in the original manuscript. 
   
   After completing the first manuscript, Joseph also asked Cowdery to take charge on creating a second copy of the text to provide to E.B. Grandin’s printing office in Palmyra, New York. Although Hyrum Smith and another unidentified scribe assisted, Cowdery wrote the bulk of the scripture by hand twice, according to Jensen. 
   
   “Think of the hand cramps that Oliver Cowdery had to endure,” Jensen said. 
   
   But for Cowdery, the opportunity to assist with the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon was a treasured one. 
   
   “These were days never to be forgotten — to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven,” Cowdery said, according to the translation topic page. 
   
   The “drudgery” that set the stage for the coming forth of the Book of Mormon extended into the realm of housework and farm chores. One person known for providing assistance with the everyday matters was Mary Whitmer, the mother of the Whitmer family. 
   
   Jensen said Mary Whitmer’s grandson John C. Whitmer told of her being “bogged down” with the additional cooking, cleaning and other house chores that came as a result of Joseph and other visitors staying in her home during the translation process. One day while she was milking the cows, Mary Whitmer saw an angel who acknowledged her hard work and proceeded to show her the gold plates. 
   
   “From that moment, my grandmother was enabled to perform her household duties with comparative ease, and she felt no more inclination to murmur because her lot was hard,” said John C. Whitmer, as cited in an article Jensen wrote titled “A Bit of Old String” on history.lds.org. 
   
   Jensen also pointed out that contributions were even made by some who didn’t believe in the Book of Mormon as a book of divine origin, including John H. Gilbert, who was the principal typesetter at Grandin’s printing office. As Joseph dictated the translation to the scribes, he “did not call for punctuation.” Therefore, both the original manuscript and the printer’s manuscript were devoid of it, according to the topic page. The task of punctuating the Book of Mormon and setting the type, letter by letter, was left to Gilbert, a job he “took pride” in later in life, Jensen said. 
   
   The Book of Mormon today 
   
   The Book of Mormon has gone a long way since it first hit the shelves of Grandin’s bookshop in the small town of Palmyra, New York. More than 168 million copies have been distributed since March 1830, according to LDS Church Public Affairs, and an average of 4.5 million physical copies are distributed each year. With 110 different language translations of the book and digital translations available in 40 different languages on scriptures.lds.org and the Gospel Library app, the Book of Mormon continues to expand the church’s reach. 
   
   “You could very much make the case that the LDS Church was founded on the publication of a book,” Jensen said. “Word of mouth only has a limited radius. It really was the publication of this book, and therefore this dissemination of this information through missionaries and others, that people began to hear about and then believe in Joseph Smith, his prophetic calling and the Restoration.” 
   
   Email: wbutters@deseretnews.com, Twitter: WhitneyButters
target: – To most people, it just looks like a smooth, egg-sized rock, but it was part of the founding of the Mormon church and photos of it have now been published for the first time. The images of the "seer stone" that Mormons believe founder Joseph Smith used to translate buried gold plates he said he found in upstate New York 185 years ago were released as part of what the church says is an effort to be more transparent about its past, the AP reports. The photos have been published in a book that also includes pictures of the "printer's manuscript" of the Book of Mormon—a handwritten copy of the original manuscript that was produced by one of Smith's scribes. The book, which Smith said he translated from "reformed Egyptian" with the stone, recounts a visit from Jesus Christ to North America, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. As for the translation, the church has this to say: "Joseph placed ... 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." It says the translation occurred over three months in 1829 as part of a "a series of miraculous events." Indeed: In March, the Deseret News reported that the church says it takes roughly five years to translate and then produce the Book of Mormon in another language. The church says it is trying to make its history more "tangible" with the release, but Terryl Givens, professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, tells the AP that the church is also trying to show skeptics it has nothing to hide. "Other churches' origins are concealed by the mist of history. Mormonism is the first world religion in which the origins were exposed to public view, to documentation, to journalists, and newspaper reporting." (Last year, the church admitted that Smith had up to 40 wives.)