Translation and Plates

Q. Why did Joseph need the plates if he just translated using his seer stone?

A. It is very clear not only from Joseph Smith’s own testimony, but from that of others, that he had the plates in his possession (Emma Smith states that the plates often lay on the table covered with a cloth). You are correct in noting (popular artistic representations notwithstanding) that Joseph apparently did not have to use the plates themselves as he dictated the translation from the seer stone. One obvious reason for this is that he was unlearned and the translation did not come about through his study of ancient languages, but through the gift and power of God by means of the Holy Ghost as he read it from the seer stone. If that is the case, and this is what those who witnessed the dictation reported, why did he need to have the plates at all? One obvious reason is that the prophecies said that he would be entrusted with the book (2 Nephi 27:19-20). So this was necessary to fulfill prophecy, but a more important reason, I think, was so that it would be more difficult for others to rationalize away the reality of the Book of Mormon and its account. If the Book of Mormon had merely been words from a dream or a vision, it would be more easy for doubters to dismiss the story as a mere product of imagination or illusion. The doubter might even grant that the prophet was sincere and experienced something, but that it was all in his mind and the events in the Book of Mormon were fiction. On the other hand, if there were real plates, there was a real Moroni and a real Mormon, a real Alma or Nephi. The resurrected Savior really did visit the multitude at the temple at a real place called Bountiful described in 3 Nephi. So while it was not necessary for the Prophet to use the plates themselves during the translation, it was necessary for them to be entrusted to him and for other chosen witnesses to see, feel and bear testimony of their reality, so that it would be impossible to dismiss the Book of Mormon as merely the result of Joseph Smith’s imagination. One is forced to choose whether the account and the testimony of its witnesses is true or not true. The Apostles testified that Jesus appeared to them and visited them after his resurrection from the dead. Jesus did not appear to everybody, but to chosen witnesses. They saw him. They touched his body. He spoke with them and they even ate with him. They were subsequently able to testify, “for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). John spoke of that “which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). Like the resurrection of Jesus, the existence of the plates forces people to make a choice as to whether it is true or not. Of course there may have been other reasons for this as well, but that would be my take.

 

Incidentally, there are many issues associated with the translation of the Book of Mormon which I think are very significant. Let me recommend you take some time to read a short summary of some of these things by a friend of mine. See Daniel C. Peterson, “Not so easily dismissed: Some facts for which counter explanations of the Book of Mormon will need to account,” FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): xi-xxxii which you can access here

 

 http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=17&num=2&id=582

 

Again, there is some very good and solid scholarship that has been done on the historical background of the translation, if you are interested in exploring it further. If so, just let me know and I will get you what you need.