Editing Book of Mormon (section)

=== Conceptual emergence ===
According to Joseph Smith, in 1823, when he was seventeen <!-- do not edit age, JS was 17 at time of Moroni visit, see refs for clarification -->years old, an angel of God named [[Angel Moroni|Moroni]] appeared to him and said that a collection of ancient writings was buried in a [[Cumorah|nearby hill]] in present-day [[Wayne County, New York]], engraved on [[golden plates]] by ancient prophets.{{sfn|Taves|2014|p=4}}{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=43–45}} The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before [[Jesus]]'s birth.{{sfn|Hardy|2010|p=6}} Smith said this vision occurred on the evening of September 21, 1823, and that on the following day, via divine guidance, he located the burial location of the plates on this hill and was instructed by Moroni to meet him at the same hill on September 22 of the following year to receive further instructions, which repeated annually until 1827.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=43–46}}{{sfn|Remini|2002|p=47}} Smith told his entire immediate family about this angelic encounter by the next night, and his brother William reported that the family "believed all he [Joseph Smith] said" about the angel and plates.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=45–46}}[[File:The Hill Cumorah by C.C.A. Christensen.jpeg|left|thumb|A depiction of [[Joseph Smith]]'s description of receiving the golden plates from the [[angel Moroni]].|225x225px]]

Smith and his family reminisced that as part of what Smith believed was angelic instruction, Moroni provided Smith with a "brief sketch" of the "origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments{{nbsp}}... righteousness and iniquity" of the "aboriginal inhabitants of the country" (referring to the Nephites and Lamanites who figure in the Book of Mormon's primary narrative). Smith sometimes shared what he said he had learned through such angelic encounters with his family as well.{{sfn|Davis|2020|pp=165–168}}

In Smith's account, Moroni allowed him, accompanied by his wife [[Emma Smith|Emma Hale Smith]], to take the plates on September 22, 1827, four years after his initial visit to the hill, and directed him to translate them into English.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=59, 62–63}}<ref>The materiality of the plates Smith said he translated from has long been a matter of controversy in historical studies of Smith and the Book of Mormon. Those who for religious reasons accept Smith's account of the book as having miraculous and ancient origins by corollary also have tended to believe there were authentic, ancient plates. Meanwhile, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, naturalistic interpretations of Smith's history and the Book of Mormon generally took for granted the plates had no material existence and were fictitious due to either delusion or deception, or otherwise existed only in the religious imaginary. However, "believing historians" have argued that the documentary evidence points to Smith and eyewitnesses to him consistently behaving as though he did possess material plates. Religious studies scholar Ann Taves summarizes, "that there were no actual golden plates... is so obvious to some historians that they are taken aback when they discover that many Mormon intellectuals believe there were", while "Many believing historians... in turn wonder how well-trained, non-believing historians can dismiss so much evidence" (2). In the twenty-first century, naturalistic interpretations have posited that the plates ''were'' materially real, but that Smith crafted them himself (possibly out of tin or copper), either to match his vision of the plates or after being inspired by seeing copper stereotyped printing plates (perhaps at a printing shop or, by happenstance, literally buried in the ground). Taves argues Smith nevertheless believed the plates constituted an authentic, ancient record and that crafting plates himself "can be understood as representing or even co-creating the reality of the plates... the way Eucharistic wafers are thought to be transformed into the literal body of Christ" (9). For this historiography and an argument that Smith crafted the plates in a process of materialization, see {{Harvtxt|Taves|2014|pp=1–11}}. For another view on this historiography and an argument that an encounter with printing plates inspired or shaped Smith's concept of the Book of Mormon plates, see {{Cite journal |last=Hazard |first=Sonia |date=Summer 2021 |title=How Joseph Smith Encountered Printing Plates and Founded Mormonism |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/rac.2021.11 |journal=Religion & American Culture |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=137–192|doi=10.1017/rac.2021.11 |s2cid=237394042 }}</ref> Smith said the angel Moroni strictly instructed him to not let anyone else see the plates without divine permission.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=44}} Neighbors, some of whom had collaborated with Smith in earlier treasure-hunting enterprises, tried several times to steal the plates from Smith while he and his family guarded them.{{Sfn|Howe|2007|p=316|ps=. "Many people shared [a supernatural] culture, among them some jealous neighbors who tried to steal Smith's golden plates."}}{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=60–61}}