Oliver Cowdery never once said Joseph used a hat. Only Emma, Martin, and David Whitmer. Emma's quote is given to us by an interview close to her death. Martin Harris's quote comes from a newspaper reporter interview close to his death. David Whitmer is the only first-hand source we have of someone testifying that Joseph used a hat and seer stone. That quote comes from a book David wrote later in life. But Oliver never talks about Joseph using hat and seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon.!!! He was the main scribe of Joseph. That's the controversy. Oliver, the main scribe, never mentions a hat!
It is hard to reconcile the almost incomprehensible effort and sacrifice that went into producing, preserving, protecting, and physically transmitting from generation to generation, the metal plates over a period of 1,000 years (“And after this manner we keep the records, for it is according to the commandments of our fathers.”), the subsequent burial by the last author and retrieval by the translator, along with the “interpretors” (“Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men.”), the superhuman effort required of Joseph to protect and possess the plates while in his custody--nay, not hard to reconcile--impossible to reconcile these facts with a narrative that then dismisses the necessity of the physical plates to bring forth the record because all that was really needed was a peep-stone from a well, and the content would be transmitted mystically to the glowing stone. If only Nephi and Mormon and Moroni had known! I can imagine them when they realized that their precious record to which their lives were devoted (along with an unknowable number of record-keepers reviewed by Mormon in his compilation duties) was really only a prop with the sole purpose of being shown as testimony to the BofM witnesses! Why were the record and interpreters returned to Joseph after the loss of the manuscript if all he needed was a peep- stone? I believe Joseph used the word “translate” correctly. I believe Oliver used the word “translate” correctly. I believe the record-keepers toiled and sacrificed and scratched engravings on real metal plates to preserve a record because it was always intended to be, and became in actual fact, the source of the “translation” we now have as the Book if Mormon.
It hurts my heart that people in academia are discounting the fact that Joseph Smith used the Plates to TRANSLATE the plates! Those plates were painstakingly written on and protected for thousands of years so that they could be put in a box and ignored while Joseph Smith buries his face in a hat? The Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God by the Urim and Thummim. If Joseph didn't need the plates Moroni would have taken them back long before he did! Joseph NEEDED those plates to translate them into the Book of Mormon! I do not have a doctorate in all of this stuff...though I am an historian and have spent 34 years studying Joseph Smith's life and work. The Progressive slant on all of this is so sad and is confusing an entire generation of people in the Church. By the whispering of the Spirit I KNOW that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from the plates and the Urim and Thummim! All this other stuff is just learned men giving their opinion! Again this hurts my heart!
With all due respect to Professor Mackay, in this video he is completely inaccurate with respect to the translation of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith and his primary scribe Oliver Cowdery repeatedly and consistently testified that the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates using the Nephite interpreter device (sometimes called the Urim and Thummim) which was deposited in the Hill Cumorah with the plates. Critical examination in their full historical context of the accounts of Joseph using a seer stone in a hat to translate shows these accounts to be late, secondhand or otherwise completely unreliable. Unfortunately, he and others who promote the seer stone narrative over the scriptural narrative in effect are saying Joseph and Oliver were lying. Joseph and Oliver were not liars.
Oliver Cowdery never once said Joseph used a hat. Only Emma, Martin, and David Whitmer. Emma's quote is given to us by an interview close to her death. Martin Harris's quote comes from a newspaper reporter interview close to his death. David Whitmer is the only first-hand source we have of someone testifying that Joseph used a hat and seer stone. That quote comes from a book David wrote later in life. But Oliver never talks about Joseph using hat and seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon.!!! He was the main scribe of Joseph. That's the controversy. Oliver, the main scribe, never mentions a hat!
It is hard to reconcile the almost incomprehensible effort and sacrifice that went into producing, preserving, protecting, and physically transmitting from generation to generation, the metal plates over a period of 1,000 years (“And after this manner we keep the records, for it is according to the commandments of our fathers.”), the subsequent burial by the last author and retrieval by the translator, along with the “interpretors” (“Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men.”), the superhuman effort required of Joseph to protect and possess the plates while in his custody--nay, not hard to reconcile--impossible to reconcile these facts with a narrative that then dismisses the necessity of the physical plates to bring forth the record because all that was really needed was a peep-stone from a well, and the content would be transmitted mystically to the glowing stone. If only Nephi and Mormon and Moroni had known! I can imagine them when they realized that their precious record to which their lives were devoted (along with an unknowable number of record-keepers reviewed by Mormon in his compilation duties) was really only a prop with the sole purpose of being shown as testimony to the BofM witnesses! Why were the record and interpreters returned to Joseph after the loss of the manuscript if all he needed was a peep- stone? I believe Joseph used the word “translate” correctly. I believe Oliver used the word “translate” correctly. I believe the record-keepers toiled and sacrificed and scratched engravings on real metal plates to preserve a record because it was always intended to be, and became in actual fact, the source of the “translation” we now have as the Book if Mormon.
Imagine accepting two seer stones but one seer stone is a bridge too far.
It hurts my heart that people in academia are discounting the fact that Joseph Smith used the Plates to TRANSLATE the plates! Those plates were painstakingly written on and protected for thousands of years so that they could be put in a box and ignored while Joseph Smith buries his face in a hat? The Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God by the Urim and Thummim. If Joseph didn't need the plates Moroni would have taken them back long before he did! Joseph NEEDED those plates to translate them into the Book of Mormon! I do not have a doctorate in all of this stuff...though I am an historian and have spent 34 years studying Joseph Smith's life and work. The Progressive slant on all of this is so sad and is confusing an entire generation of people in the Church. By the whispering of the Spirit I KNOW that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from the plates and the Urim and Thummim! All this other stuff is just learned men giving their opinion! Again this hurts my heart!
With all due respect to Professor Mackay, in this video he is completely inaccurate with respect to the translation of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith and his primary scribe Oliver Cowdery repeatedly and consistently testified that the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates using the Nephite interpreter device (sometimes called the Urim and Thummim) which was deposited in the Hill Cumorah with the plates. Critical examination in their full historical context of the accounts of Joseph using a seer stone in a hat to translate shows these accounts to be late, secondhand or otherwise completely unreliable. Unfortunately, he and others who promote the seer stone narrative over the scriptural narrative in effect are saying Joseph and Oliver were lying. Joseph and Oliver were not liars.
I have never heard this story presented this way my whole life. Way to Taylor the story to the current complaints of the Book of Morman.
His last name is *MacKay, not McKay