Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
On the Translation Process for the Book of Mormon

On the Translation Process for the Book of Mormon

Last updated on: November 23, 2024 at 9:30 am by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

On the Translation Process for the Book of Mormon 2024-11-23T09:30:36-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For whatever it may be worth, today is the sixty-first anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. And of the death of Aldous Huxley. And of the passing of C. S. Lewis. My life has been affected by all three of these men. The Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft wrote a book inspired by the coincidence of their deaths within hours of each other: Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley

This may be the very seer stone used by the Prophet Joseph Smith for the translation of the Book of Mormon. Photograph by Welden C. Andersen and Richard E. Turley Jr., found on LDS.org.

Two new book reviews appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. They are:

“Through a Glass Darkly: Restoring Translation to the Restoration?” written by Jeff Lindsay

Review of James W. Lucas and Jonathan E. Neville, By Means of the Urim & Thummim: Restoring Translation to the Restoration (Cottonwood Heights, UT: Digital Legend Press & Publishing, 2023). 288 pages. $19.95.

Abstract: In By Means of the Urim & Thummim*, James Lucas and Jonathan Neville valiantly seek to defend Joseph Smith’s role as the divinely inspired translator, a role that they argue is incompatible with using any tool other than the Nephite “intepreters,” later called the Urim and Thummim. They offer a unique theory to account for the statements of witnesses about Joseph using a seer stone in a hat, arguing that it was a fake demonstration using memorized passages to satisfy onlooker curiosity about the translation process. They propose a translation model in which Joseph did more than just get impressions, but saw an incomplete or literal translation in the Urim and Thummim that left plenty of room for heavy mental effort to turn what he saw into acceptable English. While the authors seek to defend Joseph from what they view as the questionable theories of modern Church scholars, their misunderstanding and misinterpretation of both the historical record and scripture result in some errant assumptions and logical gaps that undermine their well-intentioned work.*

“Trust Us, We’re Lawyers: Lucas and Neville on the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” written by Brant A. Gardner

Review of James W. Lucas and Jonathan E. Neville, By Means of the Urim & Thummim: Restoring Translation to the Restoration (Cottonwood Heights, UT: Digital Legend Press & Publishing, 2023). 288 pages. $19.95.

Abstract: In their book, James Lucas and Jonathan Neville present two major theses relative to translation of the Book of Mormon. The first is that the translation was always done by means of the interpreters that were delivered with the plates. The second is that Joseph Smith was an active participant in the translation process. A theory is laid out for how that might happen. Although this reviewer can agree that Joseph was an active participant in the translation, neither the first thesis nor their explanation of the second thesis can be accepted by those familiar with the historical record.

“Pinocchio.” by Enrico Mazzanti (1852-1910), the original illustrator of Carlo Collodi’s “Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino” (1883)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image

Lately, it seems that the busy little beavers over at the Peterson Obsession Board have been rolling out at least one new falsehood every single day about me and my comically evil works. (Perhaps, heading into the holiday season, they’ve set new production goals, new quotas, for themselves.) If I were to choose to respond to even a substantial portion of those falsehoods, I could pretty well devote myself to the task twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

One of the more amusing of the recent claims involves my friend Jack Welch. According to the good folks on the Obsession Board, Jack holds me in disdain and has been distancing himself from me for well over a decade. I confess that this comes as complete news to me. Jack and I are both busy, but we run into each other fairly frequently and, when we do, we always have a nice visit. (He attended the premiere for Six Days in August, and we often chat during intermissions at the Hale Center Theater in Orem.) There may even be a collaborative project in the future.

But there is a larger claim in this connection over at the Obsession Board. Jack and Scripture Central have long been Interpreter’s rivals, so the line on the Obsession Board goes, and they’ve now absolutely defeated us. But we at Interpreter were too stupid — in particular, I was too stupid — to recognize that they were leaving us in the dust, so we spent our time foolishly combating Rod Meldrum and Jonathan Neville and the “Heartlanders” while Scripture Central was rising to insuperable dominance. And that is why we’ve lost.

Their weird notion — it’s always essentially impossible to tell whether they’re sincere about these things or are merely engaged in disingenuous gaslighting and provocation — appears to be that we were quarreling with the Heartlanders over “market share.” But that was never a principal concern of ours, nor even a secondary or tertiary one. The folks at the Obsession Board overstate our focus on Heartlander claims, which has been at most sporadic, although obviously — as with today’s two Interpreter book reviews — we have indeed paid attention to them. Why? Not as part of a campaign to maximize “market share” but because we think they’re mistaken. (The two reviews that have just appeared provide reasoned argument for their disagreement, as everything that we’ve ever published about “Heartlander” claims has always done.)

And we were, I confess, not altogether happy with the tendency of certain writers in the “Heartlander” community to question the faith and loyalty of scholars who don’t share their views on the geography of the Book of Mormon, and to attack those scholars. (That was, as I understand it, the principal motivation of the Neville-Neville Land blog, which was an entirely private undertaking that was never affiliated with Interpreter nor, so far as I know, with any other organization; it was only late in its history that I even learned the identity of its proprietor,)

We at the Interpreter Foundation don’t view Scripture Central as a “rival.” We collaborate with each other. Their people — e.g., in just the Interpreter journal alone, to say nothing of our books, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, Matt Roper, Jared Riddick, and Jack Welch himself — publish with us and speak at our conferences. They draw on our publications for their publications. We participate in their projects and attend their events. We regularly meet, each and every month, to share calendars, exchange news, and coordinate projects. We all participate together in yet another monthly meeting. We aren’t competing with each other. We’re on the same side. We get along just fine. We’re friends.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 21, 2024

Bonhoeffer, the Movie

Next Post

November 23, 2024 Things that really matter

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Provo High may have some nostalgic value for some folks here--but I have to say ..."

Jack

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"I have cpnsidered in my mond if the 4 volume Saints could be made into ..."

John Pack Lambert

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"DP: “But Mr. Sutherland worries about the fact that our time, when we can communicate ..."

Theodore Brandley

Learning more about a region of ..."

"Another class of memories are of individuals who previously lived. Some of these remembered individuals ..."

PlasmaMiasma

Accounts of Premortality?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus do at the Last Supper?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Built an altar Broke bread and shared wine Washed the floor Wrote in the sand