Book of Mormon Translation

Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God — using instruments provided for that purpose, dictating the text to scribes who recorded every word. The translation was completed in roughly 65 working days. The result was a complex, internally consistent ancient record that continues to reward scholarly study nearly two centuries later.

Joseph Smith: God’s Translator

Joseph Smith did not translate the Book of Mormon the way a linguist translates an ancient language. He was not trained in Egyptian, Hebrew, or any ancient tongue. He was a farmer’s son with limited formal education. The translation was a miraculous work — accomplished through instruments prepared by God and the gift of revelation granted to a chosen translator.

The title page of the Book of Mormon, written by the ancient prophet Moroni, declares that the record was “to come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof” — identifying the translation as a divine act, not a scholarly one. Joseph’s role was to act as a channel: receiving the inspired rendering of the ancient text and dictating it to a scribe word by word.

The Instruments of Translation

Two instruments are documented in Church history as having been used during the translation.

The Urim and Thummim (Nephite Interpreters)

Buried with the gold plates were two transparent stones set in silver bows and fastened to a breastplate — instruments the ancient Nephites called “interpreters.” These are referred to in scripture and Church history as the Urim and Thummim, the same type of instrument used by seers in ancient Israel. The Book of Mormon itself describes them:

Mosiah 28:13–14

“And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow… And whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times.”

Joseph Smith used the Urim and Thummim during the early period of the translation, particularly while working with Martin Harris as scribe. After the loss of the 116 pages, the plates and Urim and Thummim were temporarily taken from Joseph as a consequence. He later received them back, but accounts suggest the seer stone became his primary instrument for the bulk of the translation.

The Seer Stone

Joseph Smith had possessed a brown, chocolate-colored seer stone since his youth, having found it while digging a well. This was not unusual in early 19th-century New England, where the practice of using “peep stones” to find lost objects or buried treasure was common. What was extraordinary was that God sanctified this instrument for prophetic use.

Multiple witnesses described Joseph placing the seer stone in a hat, then burying his face in the hat to block out light. Words or characters would appear in the stone, and Joseph would dictate them to his scribe. The Church published a photograph of this seer stone in 2015 — it is preserved in Church archives.

The use of the seer stone does not diminish the miraculous nature of the translation. God used a familiar instrument — one Joseph already knew and trusted — to accomplish a divine purpose. What mattered was not the stone itself but the gift and power of God that operated through it.

The Translation Process: Witness Accounts

Several individuals served as scribes or were present during the translation. Their accounts are consistent and detailed.

Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife and first scribe, described the process: “He could not pronounce the word Sariah, which is the name of Lehi’s wife, and had to spell it… He 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.” She added that the plates lay on the table covered with a cloth during much of the translation.

Martin Harris, who served as scribe for 116 pages of the translation, stated: “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, truly and faithfully.”

Oliver Cowdery served as the primary scribe for the bulk of the Book of Mormon — from 1 Nephi through Moroni. He later testified: “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.”

The Lost 116 Pages

In the summer of 1828, Martin Harris prevailed upon Joseph to let him show the manuscript to his wife and family in Palmyra. Joseph twice asked the Lord and was told no; on the third request the Lord permitted it with conditions. The 116 manuscript pages were lost — likely stolen or destroyed by adversaries who planned to produce an altered version to discredit Joseph.

The Lord’s response revealed in D&C 10 is one of the most remarkable evidences of prophetic foresight in scripture. God told Joseph not to re-translate the same material, because enemies “have altered the words” and would use the discrepancy to “destroy my work.” Instead, Joseph was directed to translate the Small Plates of Nephi — a separate, parallel record that Nephi had been commanded to make centuries earlier, covering much of the same period:

D&C 10:45

“Behold, I say unto you, that you shall not translate again those words which have gone forth out of your hands; for, behold, they shall not accomplish their evil designs in lying against those words.”

The Speed and Complexity of Translation

The bulk of the Book of Mormon — roughly 500 pages of printed text — was dictated by Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery in approximately 65 working days during the spring and summer of 1829. This is an extraordinary rate of production for any kind of dictated composition.

The text itself is deeply complex. It contains:

Textual Features Consistent with Ancient Authorship

• Chiasmus — a complex Hebrew literary structure unknown to 19th-century Americans, found extensively throughout the text
• Stylometry — statistical analysis identifies multiple distinct authorship voices within the text, consistent with the claimed multiple ancient authors
• Consistent geography — an internally coherent physical setting maintained without contradiction across hundreds of pages
• Names — many Book of Mormon names (Alma, Nephi, Sariah, Pahoran) have since been found in ancient Near Eastern records unavailable to Joseph Smith
• Arabian journey — Lehi’s route down the Arabian Peninsula, including the place “Nahom” and a place called “Bountiful,” has been corroborated by archaeological discovery

A 23-year-old farmer with minimal education, dictating from memory without notes, correcting himself mid-sentence only rarely, producing a text of this complexity in under three months — the translation story is either miraculous or impossible to explain. Joseph Smith himself said it simply: “I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages.”

What the Translation Establishes

The Book of Mormon translation is significant for what it reveals about Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling. He did not produce the text by his own learning or imagination. He was a conduit for an ancient record, guided by revelation at each step. His limitations — in education, in knowledge of ancient cultures, in literary training — are precisely what make the resulting text so remarkable.

Oliver Cowdery, who sat across the table from Joseph for those 65 days and wrote every word, never denied his testimony of the translation. He was excommunicated from the Church in 1838, would have had every reason to recant if the translation had been a fraud, and yet returned to the Church before his death in 1850 with his testimony unchanged. He said to those who urged him to save himself by denying it:

Oliver Cowdery

“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.”

The translation of the Book of Mormon stands as one of the foundational evidences of the Restoration. It was not produced by scholarship or deception — it was brought forth, as Moroni promised, “by the gift and power of God.”