I had always been under the impression (from church literature and art) that Joseph read the plates and dictated to his scribe what to write. There was sometimes mention of the urim and thummim being used, like a pair of glasses, but for the most part it was assumed to be like any modern translation. Surprisingly, it was an episode of South Park that first introduced me to how the translation actually took place. As I watched I thought, "these silly people don't even know what they are talking about," only to find out later that it was in fact me who was clueless in Mormon history.
Russell Nelson, in the only church publication I have found acknowledging the non-traditional translation process, explains:
The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights. David Whitmer wrote:
“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.” (David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Mo.: n.p., 1887, p. 12.)
Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign, Jul 1993, 61
Joseph Smith placed a seer or "peep" stone in a hat, put his face in the hat, and the characters and translation from the gold plates appeared to him. This stone was the same one he used to search (unsuccessfully) for buried treasure in the New York hills. This appears to be more a revelation process than translation, given that the plates weren't used during the process.I think this hit me especially hard because I remembered back to our lesson in seminary on Hiram Page. I remember literally laughing out loud when we heard the story of this guy talking to a rock and receiving revelations for other people through his rock. Little did I know this was just a copycat of Joseph Smith's technique at the time. There has been increasing commentary by church historians on the method of translation, with Rough Stone Rolling and the recent PBS documentary. However, the church itself remains remarkably quiet on this magical translation.
The following is a more comprehensive review of the translation and underlying facts (with much better documentation) see: MormonThink
For a pro-mormon response to the criticisms of the translation process, please see: FAIR Wiki
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