Editing Book of Mormon (section)

=== Dictation ===
{{Further information|Mosiah priority}}
As Smith and contemporaries reported, the English manuscript of the Book of Mormon was produced as scribes<ref>Emma Smith, Reuben Hale, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and John and Christian Whitmer all scribed for Joseph Smith to varying extents. Emma Smith likely scribed the majority of the early manuscript pages that were lost and never reproduced; Harris scribed about a third. Cowdery scribed the majority of the manuscript for the Book of Mormon as it was published and exists today. See {{Harvtxt|Easton-Flake|Cope|2020|p=129}}; {{Harvtxt|Welch|2018|pp=17–19}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=66, 71–74}}.</ref> wrote down Smith's dictation in multiple sessions between 1828 and 1829.{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=59–65}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=63–80}} The dictation of the extant Book of Mormon was completed in 1829 in between 53 and 74 working days.<ref name="Welch-2018">{{Cite journal|last=Welch|first=John W.|date=2018|title=Timing the Translation of the Book of Mormon: 'Days [and Hours] Never to Be Forgotten'|url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/57.4WelchBoMTranslate.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/57.4WelchBoMTranslate.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|journal=[[BYU Studies Quarterly]]|volume=57|issue=4|pages=10–50}}</ref>{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=64–65}}

Descriptions of the way in which Smith dictated the Book of Mormon vary. Smith himself called the Book of Mormon a translated work, but in public he generally described the process itself only in vague terms, saying he translated by a miraculous gift from God.{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|p=72}} According to some accounts from his family and friends at the time, early on, Smith copied characters off the plates as part of a process of learning to translate an initial corpus.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=63–64}} For the majority of the process, Smith dictated the text by voicing strings of words which a scribe would write down; after the scribe confirmed they had finished writing, Smith would continue.<ref>Joseph Smith may have developed this dictation process with Emma Smith, who was his first long-term scribe. See {{Harvnb|Easton-Flake|Cope|2020|pp=129–132}}.</ref>

Smith, his first scribe [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] & his wife [[Emma Smith |Emma]] all claimed that Joseph dictated by translating the ancient text through the use of the [[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|Urim and Thummim]] that accompanied the plates, prepared by the Lord for the purpose of translating.<ref name="“Church History,” 1 March 1842">{{cite book |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=1 March 1842 |title=Church History |url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2?highlight=urim |location= |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints |page=707|access-date=Feb 1, 2025}}</ref> This "[[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|Urim and Thummim]]," after the biblical divination stones, also called "Nephite interpreters" were described as two clear seer stones which Smith said he could look through in order to translate, bound together by a metal rim and attached to a breastplate.{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=66, 71–72}}

Other accounts say that Smith used a [[Seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stone]] he already possessed placed inside of a hat to darken the area around the stone.{{Sfn|Howe|2007|p=313}} 

Beginning around 1832, both the interpreters and Smith's own seer stone were at times referred to as the "Urim and Thummim", and Smith sometimes used the term interchangeably with "spectacles".<ref name="Dirkmaat-2015">{{Cite book |last1=Dirkmaat |first1=Gerrit J. |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/book/coming-forth-book-mormon |title=The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder |last2=MacKay |first2=Michael Hubbard |publisher=[[Religious Studies Center]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781629721149 |editor-last=Largey |editor-first=Dennis L. |pages=61–79 |chapter=Firsthand Witness Accounts of the Translation Process |editor-last2=Hedges |editor-first2=Andrew H. |editor-last3=Hilton |editor-first3=John III |editor-last4=Hull |editor-first4=Kerry |chapter-url=https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/firsthand-witness-accounts-translation-process}}</ref> [[Emma Smith]]'s and [[David Whitmer]]'s accounts describe Smith using the interpreters while dictating for [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]'s scribing and switching to only using his seer stone(s) in subsequent translation.{{sfn|Givens|2002|p=34}} Religious studies scholar Grant Hardy summarizes Smith's known dictation process as follows: "Smith looked at a seer stone placed in his hat and then dictated the text of the Book of Mormon to scribes".{{sfn|Hardy|2020|p=209}}<ref>Interpretations of accounts purporting to describe what Smith saw in his seer stone (or in the Urim and Thummim) vary. Many share some basic characteristics centering around reading words which miraculously appear, such as Jesee Knight's account: "Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes then he would take a sentance and it would appear in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on." See {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=72}} for Knight's account and {{Harvtxt|Hardy|2020|pp=209–210}} for an interpretation arguing for this understanding of Smith's experience. Hardy contends understanding Smith reading a text best accounts for the documentary evidence of how he dictated and how his scribes wrote. Nevertheless, scholar Ann Taves points out that although such accounts share major characteristics, they are not fully consistent with each other. She hypothesizes "observers made ''inferences'' about what Smith was experiencing based on what they saw, what they learned from discussion with Smith, what they believed, or some combination thereof" and that accounts of what Smith did or did not see as he dictated do not necessarily describe Smith's experience (emphasis added). See {{Harvtxt|Taves|2020|p=177}} In light of this, other scholars have hypothesized Smith's ecstatic experience as a translator was more like "panoramic visions" than reading, which he then orally described to his scribes. See {{Harvtxt|Brown|2020|p=146}}.</ref> Early on, Smith sometimes separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them, as he did while Martin Harris, a neighbor, scribed his dictation in 1828.{{sfn|Remini|2002|p=62}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=66, 71|ps=. "When Martin Harris had taken dictation from Joseph, they at first hung a blanket between them to prevent Harris from inadvertently catching a glimpse of the plates, which were open on a table in the room."}} At other points in the process, such as when [[Oliver Cowdery]] or Emma Smith scribed, the plates were left covered up but in the open.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=71|ps=. "When Cowdrey took up the job of scribe, he and Joseph translated in the same room where Emma was working. Joseph looked in the seerstone, and the plates lay covered on the table."}} During some dictation sessions the plates were entirely absent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sweat|first=Anthony|date=2015|title=The Role of Art in Teaching Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine|url=https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-16-no-3-2015/role-art-teaching-latter-day-saint-history-doctrine|journal=[[Religious Educator]]|volume=16|pages=40–57}}</ref>{{sfn|Taves|2014|p=5}}[[File:JosephSmithTranslating.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=Smith sitting on a wooden chair with his face in a hat|A depiction of Joseph Smith dictating the Book of Mormon through the use of a seer stone placed in a hat to block out light]]In 1828, while scribing for Smith, Harris, at the prompting of his wife [[Lucy Harris]], repeatedly asked Smith to loan him the manuscript pages of the dictation thus far. Smith reluctantly acceded to Harris's requests. Within weeks, Harris [[Lost 116 pages|lost the manuscript]], which was most likely stolen by a member of his extended family.<ref name="Lucy Harris">Harris's wife Lucy Harris was long popularly thought to have stolen the pages. See {{Harvtxt|Givens|2002|p=33}}. Historian Don Bradley contests that this was a rumor that circulated only in retrospect. See {{Harvtxt|Bradley|2019|pp=58–80}}.</ref> After the loss, Smith recorded that he lost the ability to translate and that Moroni had taken back the plates to be returned only after Smith repented.{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=68}}{{sfn|Givens|2002|p=34}} Smith later stated that God allowed him to resume translation, but directed that he begin where he left off (in what is now called the Book of Mosiah), without retranslating what had been in the lost manuscript.{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=61–62}}

Smith recommenced some Book of Mormon dictation between September 1828 and April 1829 with his wife Emma Smith scribing with occasional help from his brother Samuel Smith, though transcription accomplished was limited. In April 1829, Oliver Cowdery met Smith and, believing Smith's account of the plates, began scribing for Smith in what became a "burst of rapid-fire translation".{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=70–71}} In May, Joseph and Emma Smith along with Cowdery moved in with the Whitmer family, sympathetic neighbors, in an effort to avoid interruptions as they proceeded with producing the manuscript.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=76|ps=. During this time, John Whitmer did some transcription, though Cowdery still performed the majority.}}

While living with the Whitmers, Smith said he received permission to allow eleven specific others to see the uncovered golden plates and, in some cases, handle them.{{Sfn|Bushman|2007|pp=77–79}} Their written testimonies are known as the Testimony of [[Three Witnesses]], who described seeing the plates in a visionary encounter with an angel, and the Testimony of [[Eight Witnesses]], who described handling the plates as displayed by Smith. Statements signed by them have been published in most editions of the Book of Mormon.{{sfn|Hardy|2003|p=631}} In addition to Smith and these eleven, several others described encountering the plates by holding or moving them wrapped in cloth, although without seeing the plates themselves.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sweat |first=Anthony |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/book/coming-forth-book-mormon |title=The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder |publisher=[[Religious Studies Center]], [[Deseret Book]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781629721149 |editor-last=Largey |editor-first=Dennis L. |pages=43–59 |language=English |chapter=Hefted and Handled: Tangible Interactions with Book of Mormon Objects |editor-last2=Hedges |editor-first2=Andrew H. |editor-last3=Hilton |editor-first3=John III |editor-last4=Hull |editor-first4=Kerry |chapter-url=https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/hefted-handled-tangible-interactions-book-mormon-objects |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205034935/https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/hefted-handled-tangible-interactions-book-mormon-objects |archive-date=December 5, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{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> Their accounts of the plates' appearance tend to describe a golden-colored compilation of thin metal sheets (the "plates") bound together by wires in the shape of a book.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Bushman |first=Richard |subject-link=Richard Bushman |interviewer=Kurt Manwaring |title=Richard Bushman on the Gold Plates |url=https://www.fromthedesk.org/richard-bushman-gold-plates/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102121352/https://www.fromthedesk.org/richard-bushman-gold-plates/ |archive-date=November 2, 2021 |url-status=live |work=From the Desk |date=August 22, 2020}}</ref>

The manuscript was completed in June 1829.<ref name="Welch-2018" /> [[E. B. Grandin]] published the Book of Mormon in Palmyra, New York, and it went on sale in his bookstore on March 26, 1830.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Kunz |first= Ryan |date= March 2010 |title= 180 Years Later, Book of Mormon Nears 150 Million Copies |journal= [[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]] |pages= 74–76 |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2010/03/180-years-later-book-of-mormon-nears-150-million-copies |access-date= 2011-03-24 }}</ref> Smith said he returned the plates to Moroni upon the publication of the book.{{sfn|Remini|2002|p=68}}