Joseph Smith and the Plates, Pt. 4 - The Missing Pages

Post number four in the series about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is about Martin Harris, the missing pages, and how this mistake has been solved.

Martin Harris was the first scribe for Joseph Smith in translating the Nephite records.  This process would work by Joseph reading, translating and then speaking the words on the plates to Martin who would then write the translated record down on paper.

Before I continue on to the missing pages of transcript I will explain something concerning the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon, as you may or may not know, is actually a collection of fourteen books written by many prophets, as well as a small section called Words of Mormon that explains somewhat the make-up of these books.  The last prophet of the Nephites, Mormon, along with his son Moroni, went through all the records kept by the prophets and kings and chose fifteen to include in the abridged set of plates that were given to Joseph Smith.

You may have noticed that I said that Mormon and Moroni included fifteen books and the Book of Mormon is only fourteen.  This missing fifteenth is what is referred to as "the missing 116 pages."
In 1827 Joseph and Martin began work on translating and in the following year they completed the first book, the Book of Lehi, 116 pages long.  Joseph and those that believed in the gospel he taught had been persecuted and ridiculed for that entire year.  Martin was not exempt from this treatment and desired to take these finished pages back to his town to show his wife and friends that they were doing a real work.  He asked Joseph if he would pray to the Lord and ask if the pages could be taken home.  The answer was no.  Mr. Harris, however, asked if Joseph would pray again, and the answer was again no.  Determined to take these pages to show his wife and friends he plead that Joseph would ask again.

Martin eventually took the finished 116 pages with him.  When the time came that Joseph asked for them back they could not be found.  Someone had taken the pages and they could therefore not be returned to the Prophet.  At realizing this Joseph went to the Lord concerning the matter who took away the gift of translation, as well as took back the plates and interpreters, until the young Smith had proved his trust in the Lord.

Eventually the time came that Joseph Smith received the ancient records, interpreters and gift of translation again.  This time Martin Harris was not allowed to work as scribe.  Working in Mr. Harris' place was Oliver Cowdery.  They finished the work of translating the records but did not ever re-translate the Book of Lehi.

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More on Joseph Smith and the Missing Pages:
116 Missing Pages
Revelation Concerning Joseph and Martin Harris Losing the Transcript:
Doctrine and Covenants, Section 3 and Section 10
Translating the Plates

Joseph Smith and the Plates, Pt. 3 - Translation

This is part three in my posts about Joseph Smith and the plates.  The focus of this post will be on the language of the plates as well as the translation process of Joseph Smith.

The Language.
The language on the plates is made known by Moroni, the final prophet to write on the plates.  He writes:

"And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.  And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record." (Mormon 9:32-33)

The first prophet to write on the plates was Lehi, a man that grew up in the great city of Jerusalem.  He left with his family to the Western Hemisphere, teaching the Hebrew and Egyptian language to his children so that they could read the scriptures on the brass plates that they took with them.  Nephi, son of Lehi, writes:  "I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father... Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:1-2).

The family of Joseph Smith did not come from Egypt or Jerusalem or any of the lands round about there.  Joseph Smith was a farm boy in New York that went to school just long enough to learn English.  He could not read or write Egyptian, let alone this reformed Egyptian that the plates were written in.  And so he needed a way to translate the plates.

Interpreters.
In the first post about Joseph Smith I wrote "the angel showed the 17-year old boy the plates, as well as the other things buried with them."  One of the other things buried with them were interpreters, called the Urim and Thummim.  Another prophet in the Book of Mormon, Ammon, teaches about these interpreters:

"I can assuredly tell thee...of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God." (Mosiah 8:13)

Translation.
The translation of the gold plates were done by Joseph Smith and many assistants.  Joseph would, using the Urim and Thummim, read the ancient record and say the English translation to his assistant, who would then write it down on paper.  This is the process that was used until the completion of the translating the 600+ pages.

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More on Joseph Smith and Translation:
Joseph Smith Papers
Translating the Plates
Urim and Thummim

Joseph Smith and the Plates, Pt. 2 - Plates

Welcome to part two of my posts about Joseph Smith and the Plates.  Now that I have given a brief summary of how the gold plates were received, it is time to explain what the gold plates actually are.

Making the Plates.
These particular plates were gold plates, meaning they were made of gold.  To make them a large amount of gold needed to be collected.  This gold was then pounded down into flat sheets, much like a piece of paper.  After many of these flat sheets were created this way they would be bound together creating a gold metal book.

When the amount of gold needed to make these plates could not be found the people made plates out of different metals.  The Book of Mormon writes that they also had plates made of brass and ore.  So long as the plates were metal they served the purpose.

Why not Papyrus?
Not everything ancient people wrote on were metal plates.  More commonly used for paper was papyrus, or some similar plant.  Metal took much more effort to write upon because it required engraving the words into the plates, as apposed to simply writing on papyrus with ink.  Jacob, a prophet in the Book of Mormon, wrote the following considering this:

"I cannot write but little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates... We labor diligently to engraven these words upon the plates." (Jacob 4:1-3)

And so why did they write on these plates instead of using a simpler option?  Again the prophet Jacob has the answer:

"We know that the things which we write upon plates must remain; but whatsoever things we write upon anything save it be plates must perish and vanish away;" (Jacob 4:1-3)

They knew that these records must last thousands of years and papyrus or any other plant or paper would deteriorate after laying the ground for so long.  Only metal had the ability to withstand that long in the ground.

Understanding the plates - where they come from and what they are - I will now move on to the language of the plates in the next post.

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More about gold plates:
Sacred Writing on Metal Plates
Gold Plates Used Anciently

Joseph Smith and the Plates, Pt. 1 - Moroni

Joseph Smith is visited by Moroni.

After the many religious posts I have made, I have failed to write about Joseph Smith and his role with the Book of Mormon, a huge part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As this is a big topic to write about, it will be broken up into multiple posts.  This first post will be on his receiving the plates from Moroni, the angel.

Moroni Is Introduced.
The Book of Mormon contains a summary of the records kept by a group of people that lived in the Western Hemisphere beginning in 600B.C.  This group of people eventually split into two groups - Nephites and Lamanites.  The record kept on the gold plates were written by the Nephites.  These Nephite civilization, when they rejected the teachings of the prophets, began to dwindle to extinction around 400A.D.  The last living prophet of the Nephites was named Moroni.  He is the one that finished the summary of all the Nephite records, and he buried them before he died so that the Lamanites would not find them to destroy them.  It is this same Moroni that visited Joseph Smith in the 1800's, this time as an angelic being.

Joseph Smith was first informed about the gold plates, containing the record we now call the Book of Mormon, the same night that he was visited by Moroni.  Indeed, it was during Moroni's first visit during a night in 1823 that Joseph was told of these things.  He, Joseph, writes the following concerning this night:

"He [Moroni] said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.  He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;" (Joseph Smith History 1:34).

Receiving the Plates.
Also in the vision in the night Joseph was shown the place where these plates were buried, which was on a hill named Cumorah near the Smith family farm.  Joseph went to the place where these plates were buried and there he met the angel Moroni again.  The angel showed the 17-year old boy the plates, as well as the other things buried with them, but he was told that he could not take them home at that time.

On that very day, for four years, these two met at this spot.  The angel taught the boy the things he would need to learn before he was allowed to obtain the plates.  It was during the year of 1827, when Joseph was 21, that the angel Moroni finally gave the plates to him.

And now the long and tedious task of translating these plates was to begin.

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More about Joseph Smith:
Joseph Smith Papers
The Life of Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith History
Joseph Smith and Moroni the Nephite

LDS General Conference

Tomorrow, October 6th, is the second day of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' 183nd Semiannual General Conference.  The first day was the Relief Society session last weekend.

So what is the LDS general conference?  The answer, as described by LDS.org, is that "General conference is a semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  During general conference weekend, Church members and others gather worldwide in a series of two-hour sessions to receive inspiration and instruction from Church leaders."

And now one may ask who the Church leaders are that we will hear from.  We will be hearing from the First Presidency of the Church.  The First Presidency is composed of the President and living prophet of the church.  That man is President Thomas S. Monson.  Also in the First Presidency are the two counselors to the president.  These two counselors are Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

Also speaking in these conference sessions will be the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  These twelve men also serve as prophets, seers and revelators.  The twelve that make up this quorum are:  Body K. Packer, L. Tom Perry, Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Richard G. Scott, Robert D. Hales, Jeffrey R. Holland, David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, and Neil L. Andersen.

In addition to these fifteen men we will have the opportunity to hear from many other leaders in the church, both men and women.

These sessions of conference can be attended live at the Conference Center in Downtown, Salt Lake City, Utah.  For those that do not get that opportunity can listen to these conferences through the radio, or watch them on TV or streaming live on the internet.  Now there are millions of members of the church that will be watching and listening, and many more that are not members of the church that want to hear what is taught by the leaders of the church.

Tomorrow I have the opportunity of taking my little sister to watch one of these sessions live.  She has never had the opportunity before to see a prophet other than on a TV or computer screen.  This is a wonderful blessing and opportunity that we will love and cherish.

For those that are not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I will provide some links below where you can learn more.

Links

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (official website):
https://www.lds.org/
Watch/Listen to this year's general conference:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/october-2012-landing-page?lang=eng
Mormon Beliefs:
http://mormon.org/
The Current Prophet - President Thomas S. Monson:
http://www.lds.org/church/leader/thomas-s-monson?lang=eng

A Song for the Missionaries

McConkie on Life's Purpose

While reading Andrew C. Skinner's "Third Nephi - The Fifth Gospel," I came across the following quote by Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

"Viewed from our mortal position, the gospel is all that is required to take us back to the Eternal Presence, there to be crowned with glory and honor, immortality and eternal life.  To gain these greatest of all rewards, two things are required.  The first is the atonement by which all men are raised in immortality, with those who believe and obey ascending also unto eternal life.  This atoning sacrifice was the work of our Blessed Lord, and he has done his work.  The second requisite is obedience on our part to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.  Thus the gospel is, in effect, the atonement."

What I believe he is saying is that the entire purpose of life is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which can be toned down to two parts:  The atonement and our obedience.  The atonement was Christ's role to play, and he did so,  In Gethsemane he atoned for our sins, on Golgotha he died, and in the sepulcher he was resurrected.

That leaves the second part, for us to obey the commandments of God.  In order to obey them though, we must know what they are.  Often I think when we hear the word "commandments" we think of the ten commandments as set forth by the Law of Moses:

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3; Mosiah 12:35)

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. (Exodus 20:4; Mosiah 12:36)

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7; Mosiah 13:15)

4.Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8; Mosiah 13:16)

5. Honour thy father and thy mother. (Exodus 20:12; Mosiah 13:20; Matthew 19:19)

6. Thou shalt not kill. (Exodus 20:13; Mosiah 13:21; Matthew 19:18)

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14; Mosiah 13:22; Matthew 19:18)

8. Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15; Mosiah 13:22; Matthew 19:18)

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness. (Exodus 20:16; Mosiah 13:23; Matthew 19:18)

10. Thou shalt not covet. (Exodus 20:17; Mosiah 13:24)

When Christ came to live out his mortal ministry on earth he brought with him the higher law, one to replace the fulfilled Law of Moses.  This higher law was given during the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon includes the Be-attitudes, and greater commandments.  This sermon can be found in the New Testament's book of Matthew chapter 5.  It is by following these commandments set forth here by the Savior that we may inherit the rewards of immortality and eternal life talked about by Elder McConkie.

Learn More:
Click the link below to read more about the Atonement:
https://ourpurposeinlife.wordpress.com/why-were-here/atonement/
Click the link below to read what more people have to say on the purpose of life:
http://mormon.org/faq/purpose-of-life/