Editing Book of Ether (section)

==Provenance==
{{See also|Historicity of the Book of Mormon}}
As the story is told in the Book of Mormon, what later was named the Book of Ether was taken from a set of twenty-four plates written by Ether and discovered by the people of [[Limhi]] during the time of King [[King Mosiah II|Mosiah]] (son of [[King Benjamin]]).<ref>{{Mormonverse|Mosiah|8:9}}</ref><ref>{{Mormonverse|Ether|1:2}}</ref> [[Joseph Smith]] claimed the book was abridged by [[Moroni (Book of Mormon prophet)|Moroni]] onto the [[golden plates]],<ref>{{Mormonverse|Ether|1:2}}</ref><ref>{{Mormonverse|Moroni|1:1}}</ref> which Joseph Smith claimed to translate into English.

However, according to [[Daniel H. Ludlow]], it is not clarified in the Book of Mormon whether Moroni made his abridgment of the record of Ether from Mosiah's earlier translation<ref>{{Mormonverse|Mosiah|28:1-20}}</ref> or whether Moroni took his account directly from the plates of Ether—in which case Joseph Smith would have needed to translate the record as well as abridge it.<ref>[[Daniel H. Ludlow]], ''A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon'', p. 178</ref>