There are representatives from all the L. D. S. Missions of Europe.

IMPROVEMENT ERA.

VOL. IX.

APRIL, 1906.

No. 6.

TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RESPECTING THE THEORY IN THE SENIOR MANUAL, 1905-6.

BY B. H. ROBERTS.

I.

A number of questions, from their correspondents, have been submitted to the writer, by the editors of the ERA, respecting the Senior Manual for 1905-6.

One of the correspondents calls attention to the fact that on page 464 of the Manual, Solomon Spaulding is said to be a man of-to quote the words of the correspondent-"considerable learning and experience; he was even a graduate of Dartmouth College, and had the honor of carrying with him the degree, A. B." While on page 476, of the Manual, his Manuscript Found is described as full of errors of grammar, orthography, etc.

The correspondent should read the Manual more carefully. He would then see that the author himself does not say that Spaulding was a graduate of Dartmouth, but merely remarks that

it was reported that Spaulding was a graduate from that institution. The author of the Manual does not believe that Spaulding was a graduate of Dartmouth, or any other college, the best evidence being furnished by Manuscript Found that he was not an educated man; but it was claimed by his surviving relatives and friends, when connecting him with the origin of the Book of Mormon, that he was a graduate of Dartmouth, and their reputation of him is merely recorded.

The other questions relate to the manner of translating the Nephite record. In one communication, a president of an association, an aid in a M. I. A. Stake Board, and a bishop's counselor, join in saying:

We are not able to harmonize the theory of translation presented in our Manual with the testimony of the Three Witnesses, especially Harris and Whitmer. We are not able either to harmonize the theory of the Manual with the following passages of scripture regarding the interpreters: Ether 3: 22-25; Mosiah 8: 13-18; Mosiah 28: 11-15; Doctrine and Covenants, Section 130: 8-10.

To answer the matter set forth in the above quotation, it is necessary to ask: What is the Manual theory of translating the Nephite record? It is a theory based upon the only statement made by the Prophet Joseph Smith on the subject; viz., "Through the medium of Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God;"* and the Lord's own description of the manner of translating in general by means of Urim and Thummim, contained in his revelation to Oliver Cowdery in the Doctrine and Covenants, sections viii and ix.

That is the only theory the Manual has upon the subject. The foregoing quotation from the prophet is all he has said with reference to the manner of the translation, and we could wish that all other persons, necessarily less informed upon the subject than the prophet himself, had been content to leave the matter where he left it. In this, however, they did not follow his wise example; but must needs undertake to describe the manner of the translation; and from such description has arisen the idea that the Urim and Thummim did all, in the work of the translation, the prophet,

* Wentworth's letter, Millennial Star, vol. 9, page 118.

nothing; execept to read to his amanuensis what he saw reflected in the seer-stone or Urim and Thummim, which the instruments, and not the prophet, had translated. The men responsible for those statements, on which said theory rests, are David Whitmer and Martin Harris. The former says:

A piece of something resembling parchment did appear, (i. e., in Urim and Thummim), and on that appeared the writing, one character at a time would appear, and under it was the translation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Brother Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and then it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct; then it would disappear and another character with the translation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.*

We have no statement at first hand from Martin Harris at all, only the statement of another, Edward Stevenson, as to what he heard Martin Harris say was the manner of translation. This was as follows:

By 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 so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates precisely in the language then used. †

These statements have led to the assumption of the theory, I repeat, that the Urim and Thummim did the translating, not Joseph the Seer. Accordingly, it is held that the translation was a mechanical, arbitrary, transliteration; a word for word bringing over from the Nephite language into the English language, a literal interpretation of the record. The prophet, therefore, it is urged, was in no way responsible for the language of the translation, it was not his, but the divine instrument's, and if there are errors of grammar, or faults of diction, (modern words for which in the nature of things there could be no exact equivalents in an ancient language) New England localisms, modern phrases from the English translation of Hebrew scripture, and other sources-all these must have been in the original Nephite record, say the advocates

* Address to all Believers in Christ, by David Whitmer, page 12.

† Millennial Star, vol. 24, page 86-87.