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The golden plates, also called the gold plates or the golden bible (an antiquated reference), are described as a set of engraved plates, bound into a book, that Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source material for the Book of Mormon, a scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement. Smith, the founder of that movement, said he obtained the plates on September 22, 1827 on Cumorah hill in Manchester, New York, where they were hidden in a buried box and protected by an angel named Moroni. After dictating a translation and obtaining signed statements by eleven other witnesses, he said he returned the plates to the angel in 1829.

According to the Book of Mormon, the golden plates were engraved by a pre-Columbian prophet-historian, from an early American civilization, named Mormon and his son Moroni (who after death protected the buried plates as the angel Moroni) in about the year 400 AD. These men said they had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates in a language they called "reformed Egyptian". Part of the plates were said to have been sealed, and thus could not be translated. The golden plates are the most significant of a number of metallic plates important to Latter Day Saint history and theology.

Background

As a youth Joseph Smith, Jr. lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York, a place and time noted for its participation in the Second Great Awakening and a "craze for treasure hunting". Beginning in the early 1820s he was paid to act as a "seer", to use seer stones in (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure. Some contemporaries state that he would put the stone in a white stovepipe hat, put his face over the hat to block the light, and then "see" the information in the reflections of the stone. Some say that his favored stone, chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg, was found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors.

Obtaining the plates

Smith said that he first learned about the golden plates on the eve of September 22 in 1823 (or possibly 1822), when, in his bedroom late at night thinking about his First Vision, an angel named Moroni appeared to him three times. Moroni told him that the plates could be found buried in a prominent hill near his home later referred to as Cumorah (a name from the Book of Mormon).

According to Smith and contemporaries who heard his account, the angel said he would not allow Smith to take the plates until he was able to obey certain "commandments". Smith and his believing followers said the angel's requirements included the following: that Smith tell his father about the vision, that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, that he take the plates and go directly away without looking back, that the plates never directly touch the ground until safe at home in a locked chest, and that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person. The last three of the angel's requirements were corroborated by non-believers who heard the story from Smith or his father, and who also add that Smith said the angel required him to wear "black clothes" to the site of the plates, to ride a "black horse with a switchtail", to call for the plates by a certain name, and to "give thanks to God".

In the morning, Smith began to work as usual and did not tell his father about the vision because he did not think his father would believe him. When he fainted because he had been awake all night, he said the angel appeared a fourth time and chastised him for failing to tell his father. Smith's father believed the vision and encouraged his son to obey the angel's commandments. Smith then set off to visit the hill. To locate the place where the plates were buried, both believing and non-believing witnesses say he used his seer stone and, according to one hearer of the account, he used the seer stone to follow a sequence of landmarks by horse and on foot until he arrived at the place the plates were buried. Smith said he "knew the place the instant that I arrived there" because the angel had shown him the location during the previous night's visions.

At the proper location, he saw a large stone covering a stone (or possibly iron) box. After using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover and prying it up with a lever, he said he saw the plates inside, together with other artifacts. According to Smith's 1835 biography and other accounts, he "supposed his success certain" in obtaining the plates. According to Smith's trusted followers, Smith said he picked up the plates, but then put them on the ground while he covered the box with the stone to protect other valuable treasures in the box from being taken later by passers-by. Nevertheless, when Smith looked back at the plates on the ground after closing the box, the plates had once again disappeared into the box. According to two non-believing Palmyra residents, when Smith once again raised the stone and attempted to retrieve the plates, Smith saw in the box something like a toad that grew larger and struck him to the ground. Although Smith's contemporary followers do not mention a toad-like creature, they agree with several non-believers that Smith said he was stricken by a supernatural force that hurled him to the ground as many as three times.

Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" . Concluding that it was not, he prayed asking why he had been barred from taking the plates. In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary (sic) and saught (sic) the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have". According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands", and according to a non-believer, Smith said "I had forgotten to give thanks to God" as required by the angel.

Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22 1824, with the "right person", who the angel said was his older brother Alvin. Alvin died in November 1823, so Smith returned to the hill in 1824 and asked what he should do, but to his family's disappointment, he did not return with the plates. Smith said he was told to return the next year with the "right person", but the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be. For the visit on September 22 1825, Smith may have attempted unsuccessfully to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T. Lawrence, but eventually, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale, his future wife.

Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823, but there is no specific record of him being in the Palmyra vicinity between January 1826 and January 1827 when he returned to Palmyra from Pennsylvania with his new wife. After his arrival in Palmyra in January 1827, Smith visited the hill and returned to tell his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord". The next annual visit on September 22 1827 would be his last chance to receive the plates.

According to Brigham Young, as the scheduled date to obtain the plates approached, several Palmyra residents expressed concern "that they were going to lose that treasure" and sent for a skilled necromancer from 60 miles away, encouraging him to make three separate trips to Palmyra to find the plates. During one of these trips, the unnamed necromancer is said to have discovered the location, but was unable to determine the value of the plates. A few days prior to the September 22 1827 visit to the hill, Smith's loyal treasure-hunting friends Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight, Sr. traveled to Palmyra, in part, to be there during Smith's scheduled visit to the hill.

Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T. Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned he might cause trouble. Therefore, on the eve of September 22 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark. If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Joseph would have informed him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill, but Lawrence never left his home. Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah with his wife Emma. While Emma stayed in the wagon kneeling in prayer, Joseph walked to what he said was the site of the Golden Plates. Some time in the early morning hours, he said he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah. At the same time, Joseph said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the "Urim and Thummim" or "Interpreters", with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother when he returned in the morning.

Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon to obtain money to buy a solid lockable chest in which he said he would put the plates. By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith was successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their cut of the profits from what they saw as part of their joint venture. Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith, Sr. determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly-talented seer from sixty miles away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination. When Emma heard of this, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith, Jr., who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim that the plates were safe, but nevertheless he hurriedly rode home with Emma. Once home in Manchester, he walked to Cumorah and said he removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked back home through the woods, away from the road, with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm.. On the way, he said he suffered a "heavy blow with a gun" by a man who had been hiding behind a log, and blows from two other attackers. His family said he returned home with a dislocated thumb, an injured arm, and an injury to his side and he sent his father, Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found nobody. Smith then put the plates in a locked chest and hid it in his parent's home in Manchester.

Smith refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or other artifacts directly. Some people, however, were allowed to heft them or feel them through a cloth. A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates, let his mother feel it through a thin cloth, then placed it in the locked chest with the plates and the Urim and Thummim.

The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the plates on their property. After word that a group of people would be attempting to enter the home by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth, but the family was able to scare away the approaching intruders. Fearing it might be discovered, however, Smith hid the chest under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby, then used as a cooper shop. Later, Smith said he took the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floor boards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax, not long before the location of the empty box was discovered and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates, who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find that location by looking in her seer stone.

Translating the plates

Most of the translation of the golden plates took place in Harmony, Pennsylvania (now located in Oakland Township), where Smith and Emma moved in October 1827 with the financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris. Harmony was Emma's home town. The work of translation took place in two phases: the first was a period from December 1827 to June 1828 in which Smith transcribed some of the characters and then dictated a translation to Martin Harris. The 116 manuscript pages from this period, however, were lost. The second phase of translation began sporadically in early 1829, and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher willing to work full-time as his scribe. In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York and finished the translation around the beginning of July 1829.

Location of the plates during translation

When Joseph and Emma traveled to Pennsylvania in October 1827, the golden plates were said to be transported in a glass box hidden in a barrel of beans. In Harmony, the couple stayed for a time in the home of Emma's father Isaac Hale, but when Smith refused to show Hale the plates, only allowing him to heft the containing box, Hale banished the concealed object from his house. Afterwards, the plates were said to be hidden for much of the time in the woods nearby, although Emma said that for at least part of the time, Joseph kept the plates in the house, on a table, wrapped in a linen tablecloth, which she moved from time to time when it got in the way of her chores. In one instance, the plates were said to be in a trunk on Emma's bureau. Smith did not require the physical presence of the plates in order to translate.

In April 1828, Harris' wife Lucy visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates. When Smith refused, she searched the Smith house and grounds for the plates but they had been hidden in the nearby woods, and were protected by a large black snake that frightened her and reportedly prevented her from digging them up. Lucy was soon allegedly involved in the loss of 116 pages of translation manuscript in July 1828, which had been loaned to Martin so that he could prove to his friends and family that the plates were real.

Because of the lost 116 pages, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back possession of the plates and the Urim and Thummim as a penalty for "delivering the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man". The angel is said to have returned them to Smith in Harmony again on September 22, 1828, the autumn equinox and the anniversary of the day he first received the plates.

In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates firsthand. Smith did not show him the plates directly, but told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself"; after following these directions, however, Harris could not find the plates.

In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of Harmony locals necessitated a move to Fayette, New York, to the home of David Whitmer and his parents. As they traveled, the golden plates were reportedly transported by the angel Moroni, who received the plates in Harmony and then placed them in the garden of the Whitmer house in Fayette, where Smith found them.

After translation was completed, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, although the angel periodically brought them, as needed, to show several witnesses. Many Latter Day Saints, including Brigham Young, have believed the plates were returned to Hill Cumorah and that other ancient records lie buried there, including the Sword of Laban and the special spectacles given to aid the translation process.

Translation process

Smith said he copied characters from the golden plates and translated them through the use of "Urim and Thummim" found with the plates. Emma Smith later recalled that when she took dictation from her husband, she "frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.... The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth, which I had given him to fold them in. I once felt of the plates as they thus lay on the table tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book."

Usually, however, the golden plates were not even in the same room. Michael Morse, Smith's brother-in-law, said that he watched Smith on several occasions: "The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face." David Whitmer said that "the plates were not before Joseph while he translated, but seem to have been removed by the custodian angel". Isaac Hale said that while Joseph was translating, the plates were "hid in the woods". Joseph Smith, Sr. said they were "hid in the mountains." During the translation process a curtain or blanket was placed between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked. Sometimes Smith dictated to Martin Harris from upstairs or from a different room.

Smith used a number of assistants during the process of translating the Book of Mormon, including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and most notably, Oliver Cowdery. Nevertheless, Smith's translation process did not involve his understanding of an ancient script. As he looked into the seer stone, the words of the text appeared to him in English. When in mid-1828, Smith loaned the manuscript pages to Martin Harris, and Harris lost them, Smith said that opponents would try to see if he could "bring forth the same words again". Smith did not explain why he believed different translations of a text should not be different or why a fraudulent version with different handwriting would not be obvious.

Plates returned to Moroni

Once the translation was complete, about July 1829, Smith said that he returned the plates to the angel. Many Latter Day Saints, including Brigham Young, have believed the plates were returned to Hill Cumorah and that other ancient records lie buried there, including the Sword of Laban and the Urim and Thummim given to aid the translation process.

Witnesses to the plates

As Smith finished the translation of the plates, he revealed that witnesses would be asked to testify to their existence. In June 1829, two sets of witnesses, the Three Witnesses and a separate group of Eight Witnesses, signed joint statements, written by Smith, which were subsequently published with the text of the Book of Mormon. The Three Witnesses — Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris — affirmed that an angel had descended from heaven and presented the plates, which they saw but did not touch. Then they heard a voice from heaven declaring that the book was translated by the power of God and that they should bear record of it. The Eight Witnesses were members of the Joseph Smith and David Whitmer families. Like the Three Witnesses, the Eight signed a joint statement that they had seen and, in their case, hefted the plates.

In March 1838, church members said that Martin Harris, who had given many specific descriptions of the plates, had now publicly denied having seen them at all. Near the end of his long life, Harris also said that he had seen the plates only in "a state of entrancement". Nevertheless, in 1871 Harris testified that no one had "ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon the administration of the angel that showed me the plates". Yet even after Smith had returned the plates to the angel, other early LDS Church members testified that an angel had also showed them the plates.

Physical description of the plates

Format, binding, and dimensions

The plates were said to be in the format of a book, bound at one edge by a set of rings. Martin Harris, one of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s early scribes, is reported to have said in 1828 that he understood the plates were "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires". After saying that he saw the plates in 1829, Harris said in 1859 that the plates "were seven inches wide by eight inches in length, and were of the thickness of plates of tin; and when piled one above the other, they were altogether about four inches thick; and they were put together on the back by three silver rings, so that they would open like a book". David Whitmer, another 1829 witness, was quoted in an 1831 Palmyra newspaper as saying the plates were "the thickness of tin plate; the back was secured with three small rings...passing through each leaf in succession". Anomalously, Smith's father is quoted as saying the plates were only half an inch thick Smith's mother, who said she had "seen and handled" the plates, is quoted as saying they were "eight inches long, and six wide,... all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate".

Hyrum Smith and John Whitmer, also witnesses in 1829, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book". Joseph Smith's wife Emma, and his younger brother William said they examined the plates while they were wrapped in fabric. Emma said she "felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book". William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book.

Joseph Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were...bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness".

Composition and weight

The plates were first described as "gold". Beginning about 1827, the plates were widely called the "gold bible". When the book was published in 1830, eight witnesses described the plates as having "the appearance of gold". The Book of Mormon itself describes the plates as being made of "ore". In 1831, a Palmyra newspaper quoted David Whitmer, another witness to the plates, as saying the plates were a "whitish yellow color", with "three small rings of the same metal".

Joseph Smith, Jr.'s first published description of the plates agreed that the plates "had the appearance of gold". but gave no further information about their composition. Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds", "were lead or gold". Joseph's brother William Smith, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper...much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood".

Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently. According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between forty and sixty pounds, most likely the latter. Smith's father Joseph Smith, Sr., who was one of the Eight Witnesses, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds". Joseph Smith's brother, William, said that he lifted them in a pillowcase and thought they "weighed about sixty pounds according to the best of my judgment". Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about sixty pounds. Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds". Joseph Smith's wife Emma never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work". Had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds.

The plates might have been made from tin or various gold alloys. They might have been made of a gold and copper Mesoamerican alloy, called tumbaga by the Spanish, which would have weighed between 50 and 70 pounds. Plates of roughly similar dimensions and weight might also have been made of tin, which was readily available in the Palmyra area.

"Sealed" portion

According to Joseph Smith and others, the book of Golden Plates contained a "sealed" portion containing "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof." Although Smith never personally described the nature or extent of the seal, witnesses have offered several descriptions. The language of the Book of Mormon is interpreted by many to describe a sealing of the plates that was spiritual, metaphorical, physical, or any combination of these elements.

The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates being "sealed" by being buried to come forth at some future time. For example, the Book of Mormon says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord", and that a separate record of John the Apostle was "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times. One set of plates referred to in the Book of Mormon was "sealed up" in the sense that "no one can interpret them", because they were written "in a language that they cannot be read".

Smith may also have understood the sealing as a supernatural or spiritual sealing of the plates "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10). This idea is supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" (Urim and Thummim) with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed". Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith".

A physical "sealing" placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni has been described by several witnesses. David Whitmer said that an angel showed him the plates in 1829, and that "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them". He also said that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass that was "stationary and immovable", it "appeared as solid to my view as wood", and it had "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed". Whitmer also stated that the leaves "were so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them". Lucy Mack Smith said in 1842 that "some of are sealed together and are not to be opened, and some of them are loose". The testimony of the Eight Witnesses states that they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as Smith has translated", implying that they did not examine un-translated parts of the book such as the sealed portion.

David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was sealed in one interview, and in 1881 said that "about one-third" of the book was un-sealed, and the remainder sealed. Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself, but who said he had spoken with the witnesses. According to Pratt, "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up".

The sealed portion of the plates is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof". The Book of Mormon states that this vision was originally given to the Brother of Jared, recorded by Ether on a set of 24 plates later found by Limhi and then "sealed up". According to this account, Moroni copied the plates of Limhi onto the sealed portion of the Golden Plates.

Engravings

The Golden Plates were said to contain engravings in an ancient language that the Book of Mormon describes as Reformed Egyptian. Smith later described them as "Egyptian characters...small, and beautifully engraved", exhibiting "much skill in the art of engraving".

According to John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses who said he saw the plates in 1829, the plates had "fine engravings on both sides". Orson Pratt, who did not see the plates himself, who had spoken with the witnesses, understood that there were engravings on both sides of the plates, "stained with a black, hard stain, so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read".

Metal plates in Latter Day Saint theology and history

Other metal plates mentioned in the Book of Mormon

In addition to the Golden Plates, the Book of Mormon refers to several other sets of books written on metal plates:

• The brass plates originally in the custody of Laban, containing the writings of Old Testament prophets before the Babylonian Exile, as well as the otherwise unknown prophets Zenos and Zenoch, and possibly others.
• The large plates of Nephi, the source of the text abridged by Mormon and engraved on the Golden Plates.
• The small plates of Nephi, the source of the first and second books of Nephi, and the books of Jacob, Enos, Jarom and Omni, which replaced the lost 116 pages.
• A set of twenty-four plates found by the people of Limhi containing the record of the Jaredites, translated by King Mosiah, and abridged by Moroni as the Book of Ether.

Other metal plates in the Latter Day Saint Tradition

• In 1843, Smith acquired a set of six small bell-shaped plates, known as the Kinderhook Plates, found in Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois. Smith said that they contained information about a descendant of Ham "through the loins of Pharaoh," but he never produced a translation. After Smith's assassination, the Kinderhook Plates were presumed lost, but for decades The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published facsimiles of them in its official History of the Church as evidence that ancient Americans wrote on metal plates. In 1980 the Kinderhook Plates were proved to have been manufactured in the nineteenth century, probably in an attempt to catch Smith in a fraud. Today the LDS Church acknowledges the plates as a hoax and makes no attempt to defend their authenticity.

• James J. Strang, one of many rival claimants to succeed Smith, in the Succession Crisis, allegedly discovered and translated a set of plates known as the Voree Plates or "Voree Record". Like Joseph Smith, Strang produced witnesses to his plates' authenticity. Although Strang's attempt to supplant Brigham Young proved abortive, Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, and all living witnesses to the Book of Mormon, including the three Whitmers and Martin Harris (although perhaps excluding Oliver Cowdery), accepted "Strang's leadership, angelic call, metal plates, and his translation of these plates as authentic". Strang equally claimed to have discovered and translated the Plates of Laban spoken of in the Book of Mormon. As with the Voree Plates, Strang produced witnesses who authenticated his claim to possess them. Strang's purported translation of these plates was published in 1850 as the Book of the Law of the Lord. This book, together with the Voree Record, is still accepted as Scripture by members of Strang's diminutive church.

Other metal plates

Many Mormon apologetic scholars find significance the numerous inscribed metal plates that are unrelated to the Latter Day Saint movement, but which they believe provide circumstantial evidence that the golden plates could have been real historical artifacts. The apologetic studies focus on at least two main arguments: (1) the idea that recently-discovered metal plates have similar characteristics to the golden plates and other plates referenced in the Book of Mormon; and (2) the idea that Joseph Smith could not have known that inscription of metal plates was, in their view, a common practice in the ancient past;

The idea that inscribed metal plates were common in the ancient past is a reversal of previous dynamics between apologists and critics of Mormon theology; the golden plates' asserted uniqueness was once an argument wielded in favor of the critical view. In recent decades, scholars have discovered many examples of inscribed metal plates and scrolls throughout the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions. One inscribed gold plate was issued by Darius the Great of Persia dating to 500 BCE, and was stored in a stone box in the temple at Persepolis.

As to the apologetic idea that Joseph Smith could not have known about the practice of engraving metal plates in ancient times, this has been disputed by at least one critic who cites a book on Biblical archeology published in 1823, when Smith said he first saw the golden plates, describing writing by Hebrew scribes on "tables of brass", and describing plates joined "by rings at the back, through which a rod was placed to carry them by." The critical implication is that Joseph Smith either was aware of this work or had heard of the idea second-hand, or as part of New England religious culture.

Notes

1. Use of the terms golden bible and gold bible by both believers and non-believers dates from the late 1820s. See, for instance, Harris 1859, p. 167 (use of the term Gold Bible by Martin Harris in 1827); Smith 1853, pp. 102, 109, 113, 145 (use of the term gold Bible in 1827–29 by believing Palmyra neighbors); Grandin 1829 (stating that by 1829 the plates were "generally known and spoken of as the 'Golden Bible'"). Use of these terms has been rare, especially by believers, since the 1830s.
2. Smith & 1830 538 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1830538 (help).
3. Bennett 1893. See also Quinn 1998, pp. 25–26 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFQuinn1998 (help) (describing widespread treasure-seeking in early 19th century New England).
4. Smith 1838, pp. 42–43 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1838 (help) (stating that he was what he called a "money digger", but saying that it "was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it").
5. Harris 1833, p. 253-54 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHarris1833 (help); Hale 1834, p. 265; Clark 1842, p. 225; Turner 1851, p. 216; Harris 1859, p. 164; Tucker 1867, pp. 20–21; Lapham 1870, p. 305; Lewis & Lewis 1879, p. 1; Mather 1880, p. 199; Bushman 2005, pp. 50–51, 54–55 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBushman2005 (help).
6. Roberts 1930, p. 129 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRoberts1930 (help).
7. Harris 1859, p. 163; Lapham 1870, pp. 305–306. The stone was found in either 1819 (Tucker 1867, pp. 19–20 Bennett 1893) or 1822 (Chase 1833, p. 240).
8. September 22 was listed in a local almanac as the autumnal equinox, which has led to the suggestion that the date had astrological significance according to Smith's worldview (Quinn 1998, p. 144 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFQuinn1998 (help); Owens 1995 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFOwens1995 (help)). A Palmyra minister said that Martin Harris told him in 1827 that Smith had been on a treasure-hunting excursion earlier the night of the angel's first visit.(Clark 1842, p. 225).
9. Smith's first mention of the angel in later histories is an appearance on the eve of September 22 1823 (Smith 1839–1843, p. 4) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help); however, other accounts say or infer that the angel may have appeared a year earlier in 1822. Smith's first history in 1832 said the angel's first visit was on September 22 1822, although he also said he was "seventeen years of age" (Smith 1832, p. 3), which would have made the year 1823 (he turned 17 in December 1822). In 1835, after Oliver Cowdery initially dated the angel's visit to the "15th year of our brother J. Smith Jr's, age", he corrected the statement to read the 17th year of his age (16 years old, or 1822) —but he said this visit in Smith's "17th year" occurred in 1823 (Cowdery 1835a, p. 78). Smith's father is quoted by an inquirer who visited his house in 1830 as saying that the first visit by the angel took place in 1822 but that he did not learn about it until 1823 (Lapham 1870, p. 305). A Smith neighbor who said Smith told him the story in 1823 said the angel appeared "a year or two before" the death of Joseph's brother Alvin in November 1823.
10. Salisbury 1895, p. 11.
11. Smith referred to the visitor as an "angel of the Lord" at least as early as 1832 (Smith 1832, p. 4). Some early accounts related by non-Mormons described this angel as a "spirit" (Hadley 1829; Harris 1833, p. 253 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHarris1833 (help); Chase 1833, p. 242) or a "ghost" (Burnett 1831; see also a later-published account using the "ghost" terminology: Lewis & Lewis 1879, p. 1). In 1838, however, Smith later said that the "angel" was a man who had been "dead, and raised again therefrom" (Smith 1838, pp. 42–43) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1838 (help).
12. Smith, Cowdery & Rigdon 1835, p. 180 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmithCowderyRigdon1835 (help); Smith 1838, pp. 42–43 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1838 (help). Contrary to his other statements, Smith's 1838 autobiography said that the angel was Nephi (Smith 1839–1843, p. 4) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help); nevertheless, modern historians and Latter Day Saints generally refer to the angel as Moroni.
13. Smith 1839–1843, p. 4 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help) (identifying the hill, but not referring to it by a name); Cowdery 1835b, p. 196 (referring to the hill as Cumorah).
14. Smith 1839–1843, p. 6 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help) (saying the angel told him to obey his charge concerning the plates, "otherwise I could not get them"); Clark 1842, p. 225–26 (the angel "told him that he must follow implicitly the divine direction, or he would draw down upon him the wrath of heaven"); Smith 1853, p. 83 (characterizing the angel's requirements as "commandments of God", and saying Smith could receive the plates "not only until he was willing, but able" to keep those commandments).
15. Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith said he was commanded to tell his father during the third vision (Smith 1853, p. 81), but he disobeyed because he didn't think his father would believe him, and the angel appeared a fourth time to rebuke him and reiterate the commandment (p. 82). Joseph Smith and his sister Katharine said the angel gave him the commandment in his fourth visit, but did not say whether he had received the commandment earlier that night ((Smith 1839–1843, p. 7) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help); Salisbury 1895, p. 12). Smith's father is quoted by a skeptical interviewer to say that in 1830, Smith delayed telling his father about the vision for about a year (Lapham 1870, p. 305). Smith's brother William, who was 11 at the time, said the angel commanded him to tell his entire family (Smith:1883, p. 9) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith:1883 (help), although he may have been remembering Smith tell the story that night after he visited the hill, according to their mother's recollection (Smith 1853, p. 83).
16. Smith 1832, p. 5 (saying he was commanded to "have an eye single to the glory of God"); Smith 1839–1843, p. 6 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help) (saying the angel commanded him to "have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God".)
17. This commandment is described in the account of Joseph Knight, Sr., a loyal Latter Day Saint friend of Smith's (Knight 1833, p. 2), and Willard Chase, an associate of Smith's in Palmyra during the 1820s (Chase 1833, p. 242). Both Knight and Chase were treasure seekers, but while Knight remained a loyal to his death, Chase was a critic of Smith's by the early 1830s.
18. There is agreement on this commandment by Smith's mother (Smith 1853, pp. 85–86) and sister (Salisbury 1895, p. 14) and by two non-Mormons (Chase 1833, p. 242; Lapham 1870, p. 305).
19. Hadley 1829; Smith 1839–1843, p. 6 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help).
20. Chase 1833, p. 242 (an affidavit of Willard Chase, a non-Latter Day Saint treasure seeker who believed Smith wrongly appropriated his seer stone). Chase said he heard the story from Smith's father in 1827. Fayette Lapham, who traveled to Palmyra in 1830 to inquire about the Latter Day Saint movement and heard the story from Joseph Smith, Sr., said Smith was told to wear an "old-fashioned suit of clothes, of the same color" as those worn by the angel", but Lapham did not specify what color of clothing the angel was wearing (Lapham 1870, p. 305).
21. Chase 1833, p. 242 (affidavit of Willard Chase, relating story heard from Smith's father in 1827). A friendly but non-believing Palmyra neighbor, Lorenzo Saunders, heard the story in 1823 from Joseph Smith, Jr., and also said Smith was to required to ride a black horse to the hill (Saunders 1884b).
22. Chase 1833, p. 242 (affidavit of the skeptical Willard Chase).
23. Saunders 1893 (statement of Orson Saunders of Palmyra, who heard the story from Benjamin Saunders, who heard the story from Joseph Smith).
24. Smith 1839–1843, p. 7 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help).
25. Smith 1853, p. 82; Salisbury 1895, p. 12 (stating that Smith told the angel during the fourth visit that he was afraid his Father would believe him).
26. Smith 1853, p. 82; Smith 1839–1843, p. 6 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help).
27. Smith 1853, p. 82; Smith 1839–1843, p. 7 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help). Smith's brother William, who was 11 at the time, said he also told the rest of his family that day prior to visiting the hill (Smith:1883, pp. 9–10) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith:1883 (help)}}, although he may have been remembering Smith tell the story the night after he visited the hill, according to their mother's recollection (Smith 1853, p. 83). Smith's sister Katharine said that Joseph told his father and the two oldest brothers Alvin and Hyrum the morning prior to visiting the hill, but Katharine was too young (10 years old) to understand what they were talking about (Salisbury 1895, p. 13).
28. Harris 1833, p. 252 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHarris1833 (help) (statement were by Henry Harris, a non-Mormon Palmyra resident); Harris 1859, p. 163 (statement by Martin Harris, a Latter Day Saint who became one of the Three Witnesses of the Golden Plates).
29. Lapham 1870, p. 305).
30. Smith 1839–1843, pp. 6–7 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help)
31. Most accounts, including those written by Smith, say the plates were found in a stone box (Cowdery 1835b, p. 196; Smith 1839–1843, pp. 15–16 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help)); according to two non-believing witnesses, however, Smith said they were buried in an iron box (Bennett 1831, p. 7; Lewis & Lewis 1879, p. 1).
32. Salisbury 1895, p. 13
33. Smith 1839–1843, pp. 15–16 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help). According to various accounts, these artifacts may have included a breastplate (Cowdery 1835b, p. 196; Smith 1839–1843, p. 16 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help); Salisbury 1895, p. 13, saying it was the "breast-plate of ]"), a set of large spectacles made of seer stones (Chase 1833, p. 243; Smith 1839–1843, p. 16 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help); Salisbury 1895, p. 13), the Liahona, the sword of Laban ((Lapham 1870, pp. 306, 308); Salisbury 1895, p. 13), the brass plates of Laban (Salisbury 1895, p. 13), the vessel in which the gold was melted, a rolling machine for gold plates, and three balls of gold as large as a fist (Harris 1833, p. 253) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHarris1833 (help).
34. Cowdery 1835b, p. 197; Smith 1853, pp. 83–83, 85–86 (saying that Smith, after failing to obey the commandment to tell his father about the visions, would not be allowed to receive the plates until he was "not only willing, but able" to keep the commandments, but that he and his family "fully expected" that he would carry them home on September 22 1824). In Smith's 1838 autobiography, he said the angel told him the previous night that retrieving the plates would require four yearly visits, and therefore he already knew his first three visits would not result in him obtaining the plates (Smith 1839–1843, p. 7) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help).
35. Knight 1833, p. 2 (account by Joseph Knight, Sr., a loyal life-long follower who had worked with Smith in treasure expeditions); Smith 1853, p. 85 (account by Smith's mother, saying this occurred on Smith's second visit to the hill); Salisbury 1895, p. 14 (account of Smith's sister, saying this occurred on Smith's third visit to the hill, but that it happened prior to their brother Alvin's death, which was in November 1823); Cowdery 1835b, p. 197 (account by Smith's second-in-command Oliver Cowdery, stating that when Smith was looking in the box for other artifacts, he hadn't yet removed the plates).
36. Smith 1853, p. 85 (account by Smith's mother); Knight 1833, p. 2 (account by Smith's life-long friend Joseph Knight, Sr.); Salisbury 1895, p. 14 (account of Smith's sister).
37. Chase 1833, p. 242 (account of Palmyra resident Willard Chase, who heard the story from Smith's father in 1827 and was a non-believer); Saunders 1884a (account of Benjamin Saunders, a sympathetic non-believer who heard the story from Joseph Smith in 1827); Saunders 1893 (account of Orson Saunders, a non-believer who heard it from Benjamin Saunders).
38. Oliver Cowdery, writing for a church periodical with Smith's assistance, said Smith was stricken three times with an ever increasing force, persisting after the second time because he thought the plates were held by the power of an "enchantment" (like hidden-treasure stories he had heard) that could be overcome by physical exertion (Cowdery 1835b, pp. 197–98). Smith's mother said he was stricken by a force but did not say how many times (Smith 1853, p. 86). Willard Chase said Smith was stricken at least twice (Chase 1833, p. 242). Fayette Lapham, who said he heard the story in about 1830 from Smith's father, said Smith was stricken three times with ever-increasing force Lapham 1870, p. 306. Two neighbors who heard the story from Smith in Harmony in the late 1820s said Smith was knocked down three times (Lewis & Lewis 1879, p. 1). Smith himself said he made three unsuccessful attempts that day but did not mention being stricken (Smith 1832, p. 3). Smith's sister Katharine stated that three times, "he felt a pressure pushing hom away" Salisbury 1895, p. 14.
39. Smith 1832, p. 3.
40. Smith 1832, p. 3; Knight 1833, p. 2 (saying Smith exclaimed, "why Cant I stur this Book?"); Cowdery 1835b, p. 198 (saying that Smith exclaimed, without premeditation, "Why can I not obtain this book?"); Salisbury 1895, p. 14 (saying Smith asked, "Lord, what have I done, that I can not get these records?").
41. Smith 1832, p. 3; Knight 1833, p. 2 (saying the angel said "you cant have it now", to which Smith responded, "when can I have it?" and the angel said "the 22nt Day of September next if you Bring the right person with you".); Cowdery 1835b, pp. 197–98 (stating that although Smith "supposed his success certain", his failure to keep the "commandments" led to his inability to obtain them). In Smith's 1838 account he said the angel had already told him he would not receive the plates for another four years (Smith 1839–1843, p. 7) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help). Smith's brother, who was 11 at the time, said "upon his return told us that in consequence of his not obeying strictly the commandments which the angel had given him, he could not obtain the record until four years from that time" (Smith 1883, p. 10). Smith's sister Katharine (who was 10 at the time) said that Moroni told him, "You have not obeyed the commandments as you were commanded to; you must obey His commandments in every particular. You were not to lay them out of your hands until you had them in safe keeping" Salisbury 1895, p. 14.
42. Smith 1853, p. 85; Knight 1833, p. 2.
43. Saunders 1893 (statement of Orson Saunders, who heard the account from his uncle Benjamin Saunders, who heard it from Smith in 1827).
44. Knight 1833, p. 2 (account of Joseph Knight, Sr., a life-long follower of Smith); Lapham 1870, p. 307 (account of Fayette Lapham, who became a skeptic after hearing the story from Smith's father in 1830); Salisbury 1895, p. 14 (account of Smith's sister Katharine).
45. Salisbury 1895, p. 14.
46. Smith 1853, p. 85 (account of Smith's mother). About the time of the scheduled September 22, 1824 meeting with the angel that Alvin was to attend, there were rumors in Palmyra that Alvin's body had been dug up and dissected. To quell these rumors, Joseph's father brought witnesses to exhume the body three days after Joseph's reported meeting with the angel (September 25) and then ran a notice in a local newspaper stating that the body remained undisturbed—except, of course, by Smith, Sr. and the witnesses. (Smith 1824).
47. Knight 1833, p. 2; Salisbury 1895, p. 14 (saying the angel said, "You will know her when you see her.").
48. Chase 1833, p. 243; Knight 1833, p. 3 (saying Lawrence was a seer and had been to the hill and knew what was there); Harris 1859, p. 164 (identifying Samuel T. Lawrence as a practitioner of crystal gazing).
49. Knight 1833, p. 2; Salisbury 1895, p. 15 (saying that Smith "knew when he saw her that she was the one to go with him to get the records").
50. Smith 1839–1843, p. 7 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1839–1843 (help).
51. Smith 1853, pp. 99–100
52. Smith 1853, p. 99. Smith's father is cited as stating Smith was late one year and missed the date for visiting the hill, and therefore was chastised by the angel (Lapham 1870, p. 307).
53. Knight 1833, p. 3.
54. Young 1855, p. 180.
55. Young 1855, pp. 180–81.
56. Knight 1833, p. 3 (Saying Knight went to Rochester on business, and then passed back through Palmyra so that he could be there on September 22); Smith 1853, p. 99 (Smith's mother, stating Knight and Stowell arrived there September 20 1827 to inquire on business matters, but stayed at the Smith home until September 22).
57. Knight 1833, p. 3 (saying Lawrence was a seer, had been to the hill, and knew what was there).
58. Knight 1833, p. 3
59. Smith 1853, p. 100; Salisbury 1895, p. 15 (Emma "didn't see the records, but she went with him").
60. (Harris 1853, p. 164) harv error: no target: CITEREFHarris1853 (help).
61. Chase 1833, p. 246; Smith 1850, p. 104 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1850 (help) (Smith had cut away the bark of a decaying log, placed the plates inside, then covered the log with debris); Harris 1859, p. 165; Salisbury 1895, p. 15 (saying Smith "brought them part way home and hid them in a hollow log").
62. Smith 1853, p. 101. Smith's friend Joseph Knight said Smith was even more fascinated by the Interpreters than the plates (Knight 1833, p. 3).
63. Smith 1853, p. 101.
64. Harris 1859, p. 167.
65. Smith 1853, p. 102; Salisbury 1895, p. 15 (saying that Smith's father "heard that they had got a conjurer, who they said would come and find the plates".
66. Smith 1853, p. 103; Salisbury 1895, p. 15.
67. Smith 1853, pp. 103–104.
68. Smith 1853, pp. 104–06.
69. Salisbury 1895, p. 15; Howe 1834, p. 246; Smith 1853, pp. 104–06; Harris 1859, p. 166.
70. Smith 1853, pp. 104–06 (mentioning only the dislocated thumb); Harris 1859, p. 166 (mentioning the injury to his side); Salisbury 1895, p. 15 (mentioning the dislocated thumb and the injury to his arm).
71. Smith 1853, pp. 105–06; Salisbury 1895, p. 15.
72. Smith 1853, p. 106; Salisbury 1895, p. 15.
73. Howe 1834, p. 264; Harris, 1859 & 169–70 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHarris1859169–70 (help); Smith 1884.
74. Smith 1853, p. 107 (saying she saw the glistening metal, and estimating the breastplate's value at over 500 dollars).
75. (Salisbury 1895, p. 15).
76. Smith 1853, p. 108; Harris 1859, pp. 166–67.
77. Smith 1853, p. 108.
78. Harris 1859, p. 167.
79. Smith 1853, pp. 107–09; Harris 1859, p. 167.
80. Smith 1853, p. 109 (the seer was the sister of Willard Chase, and she had "found a green glass, through which she could see many very wonderful things").
81. The local Presbyterian minister, Jesse Townsend, described Harris as a "visionary fanatic". A acquaintance, Lorenzo Saunders, said, "There can't anybody say word against Martin Harris...a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But he was a great man for seeing spooks." Quoted in Ronald W. Walker, "Martin Harris: Mormonism's Early Convert", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 19 (Winter 1986): 34-35.
82. Smith 1853, p. 113; Harris 1859, p. 170.
83. Hale 1834, p. 264; Knight 1833, p. 3.
84. Hale 1834, p. 264; Knight 1833, p. 3; Smith 1853, p. 115.
85. Smith 1879.
86. Smith 1853, p. 124.
87. Stevenson 1882; Hale 1834, pp. 264–65; Van Horn 1881 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVan_Horn1881 (help).
88. Smith 1853, pp. 115–116.
89. Smith 1853, p. 125 (stating that the angel took back the Urim and Thummim, but referring to the revelation that stated the plates were taken too); Smith 1832, p. 5 (referring only to the plates); Phelps 1833, 9:1, p. 22 (a revelation referring only to the plates and to Smith's "gift" to translate).
90. Smith 1853, p. 126.
91. Hale 1834, pp. 264–265.
92. Smith 1853, p. 137; Salisbury 1895, p. 16.
93. Van Horn 1881 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVan_Horn1881 (help);Smith 1853, p. 141..
94. Journal of Discourses 19: 38, July 17, 1877. According to Oliver Cowdery's account, when the angel instructed Smith to return the plates to the hill Cumorah, Oliver Cowdery accompanied him. The hill opened and they walked into a cave where there was a spacious room with wagon loads of metallic plates and the Sword of Laban, unsheathed on a large table. Joseph and Oliver placed the plates on this table.
95. Joseph Smith-History 1:62. Early followers of Smith seem to have called both the Urim and Thummim and the seer stone "interpreters". Smith's father-in-law, Isaac Hale, said that the "manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods!" See "Mormonism", Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian 9 (1 May 1834), 1 in EMD, 4: 287.Joseph Smith-History 1:62.
96. D&C 25:4; Joseph Smith III, Notes of Interview with Emma Smith Bidamon, February 1879, Miscellany, RLDS Church Library-Archives, Independence, Missouri, in EMD, 1: 536-40.
97. Grant H. Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 2-5. In March 1829, Martin Harris returned to Harmony and asked to see the plates. Smith reportedly told Harris that Smith "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself"; after following these directions, however, Harris could not find the plates (Hale 1834, pp. 264–65).
98. Lyndon W. Cook, David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem, UT: Grandin, 1991), 173.
99. (Howe 1834, p. 14)
100. "Although in the same room, a thick curtain or blanket was suspended between them, and Smith concealed behind the blanket, pretended to look through his spectacles, or transparent stones, and would then write down or repeat what he saw, which when repeated aloud, was written down by Harris." Martin Harris Interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828, in EMD 2: 268. "Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the book, testified under oath, that said Smith....translated his book two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates." Abram W. Benton Reminiscence, March 1831, in EMD 4: 97.
101. D&C 10: 17-18, 31. Smith seems to have assumed that a second transcription of the lost 116 pages should be identical to the first rather than be filled with the natural variants that would occur if one was translating, and not merely transcribing, a text from one language into another. Palmer, 7.
102. (Van Horn 1881) harv error: no target: CITEREFVan_Horn1881 (help);(Smith 1853, p. 141.)
103. Journal of Discourses 19: 38, July 17, 1877. According to Oliver Cowdery's account, when the angel instructed Smith to return the plates to the hill Cumorah, Oliver Cowdery accompanied him. The hill opened and they walked into a cave where there was a spacious room with wagon loads of metallic plates and the Sword of Laban, unsheathed on a large table. Joseph and Oliver placed the plates on this table.
104. The Three Witnesses were selected soon after a visit by Martin Harris to the Whitmer home in Fayette, accompanied by Smith's parents (Smith 1853, p. 138), to inquire about the translation (Roberts 1902, p. 51). According to Smith's mother, this trip was prompted by news that Smith had completed the translation of the plates(Smith 1853, p. 138). When Harris he arrived, he joined with Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to request that the three be named as the Three Witnesses referred to in the much earlier revelation directed to Harris, and also referred to in a recently-translated portion of the plates called the Book of Ether (2:2–4) (Roberts 1902, p. 51). In response, Smith dictated a revelation that the three of them would see the Golden Plates (Roberts 1902, pp. 51–53). Thus, Smith took the three of them to the woods near the Whitmer home and they had a shared vision in which they all claimed to see (with their "spiritual eyes", Harris reportedly said (Gilbert 1892) harv error: no target: CITEREFGilbert1892 (help)) an angel holding the Golden Plates and turning its leaves (Roberts 1902, pp. 54–55; Smith 1830b, appendix harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1830b (help)). The four of them also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard (Roberts 1902, pp. 54–55; Smith 1830b, appendix harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1830b (help)).David Whitmer later stated that the angel showed them "the breast plates, the Ball or Directors, the Sword of Laban and other plates" (Van Horn 1881 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVan_Horn1881 (help); Kelley & Blakeslee 1882 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKelleyBlakeslee1882 (help); see also Smith 1835, p. 171 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSmith1835 (help)).
105. The Eight Witnesses were selected a few days later when Smith traveled to Palmyra with the males of the Whitmer home, including David Whitmer's father Peter, his brothers Christian, Jacob, and John, and his brother-in-law Hiram Page. Smith took this group, along with his father Joseph Smith, Sr. and his brothers Hyrum and Samuel to a location near Smith's parent's home in Palmyra (Smith 1853). Because of a foreclosure on their Manchester property, the Smith family was then living in a log cabin technically in Palmyra (Smith 1883, p. 14; Berge 1985 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBerge1985 (help)) where Smith said he showed them the Golden Plates (Roberts 1902, p. 57). Like the Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses later signed an affidavit for inclusion at the end of the Book of Mormon (Smith, 1830b & appendix) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1830bappendix (help). Though the Eight Witnesses did not refer, like the Three, to an angel or the voice of God, they said that they had hefted the plates and seen the engravings on them (Smith, 1830b & appendix) harv error: no target: CITEREFSmith1830bappendix (help).
106. Bushman, 76-79. A comparison of "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" to Doctrine and Covenants 17, written in 1829, shows "the marks of common authorship". Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 195-96.See Oliver Cowdery to Hyrum Smith dated June 14 1829, quoting the language of this revelation. Joseph Smith letterbook (22 November 1835 to 4 August 1835), 5-6. Commentators generally agree that this letter refers to the revelation. See Larry C. Porter, "Dating the Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood", Ensign (June 1979), 5. A revelation by Smith commanded Cowdery and Whitmer to seek out twelve "disciples", who desired to serve, and who would "go into all the world to preach my gospel unto every creature", and who would be ordained to baptize and to ordain priests and teachers (Phelps 1833, p. 37). Soon thereafter in the second half of June 1829 (Van Horn 1881) harv error: no target: CITEREFVan_Horn1881 (help), a group of Three Witnesses and a separate group of Eight Witnesses were selected, in addition to Smith himself, to testify that Smith had the Golden Plates.
107. "The translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship."
108. Their accounts state that Harris publicly denied that either he or the other Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had ever seen or handled the golden plates—although he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first claimed to have viewed them. Harris's recantation, made during a period of crisis in early Mormonism, induced five influential members, including three Apostles, to leave the Church. (Stephen Burnett to Luke S. Johnson, 15 April 1838, in Joseph Smith's Letterbook, Early Mormon Documents 2: 290-92. Warren Parrish also wrote in August 11, 1838: "Martin Harris, one of the subscribing witnesses, has come out at last, and says he never saw the plates, from which the book purports to have been translated, except in vision, and he further says that any man who says he has seen them in any other way is a liar, Joseph not excepted." EMD, 2: 289.)
109. Metcalf in EMD, 2: 347.
110. "No man heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates; nor the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the administration of Joseph Smith, Jr." Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, Saints' Herald 22 (15 October 1875):630, in EMD 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118
111. For instances of people testifying to having seen the Golden Plates after Smith returned them to the angel, see the affirmations of John Young and Harrison Burgess in Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 201. In 1859, Brigham Young referred to one of these "post-return" testimonies: "Some of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God, were afterwards left to doubt....One of the Quorum of the Tweleve, a young man full of faith and good works, prayed, and the vision of his mind was opened, and the angel of God came and laid the plates before him, and he saw and handled them, and saw the angel." Journal of Discourses, June 5, 1859, 7: 164.
112. Anthon 1834, p. 270.
113. Harris 1859, p. 165.
114. Cole 1831.
115. Lapham 1870, p. 307.
116. Smith 1842b, p. 27.
117. Statement by Hyrum Smith as reported by William E. McLellin in the Huron Reflector, October 31, 1831. See also Poulson 1878.
118. Smith 1879.
119. Smith 1884.
120. Smith 1842.
121. Harris 1859, p. 167; Smith 1853, pp. 102, 109, 113, 145; Grandin 1829.
122. Smith 1830, appx.
123. Smith 1830, Mormon 8:5.
124. Cole 1831.
125. Smith 1842.
126. Harris 1859, p. 165.
127. Harris 1859, p. 166
128. Harris 1859, p. 169.
129. Smith 1884
130. Chase 1833, p. 246.
131. Lapham 1870.
132. Smith 1883.
133. Harris 1859, pp. 166, 169.
134. Smith 1879.
135. Vogel 2004, p. 600, n. 65 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVogel2004 (help).
136. Tumbaga was the name given by the Spanish to an Mesoamerican alloy of Gold and Copper.Putnam 1966.
137. Vogel 2004, p. 600, n. 65 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVogel2004 (help); Vogel 2004, p. 98 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVogel2004 (help).
138. Smith 1842, p. 707.
139. Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:7. The "sealing" of apocalyptic revelations in a book has precedents in the Bible. See, for example, Isaiah 29:11, Daniel 12:4, and Revelation 5:1–5.
140. i.e. that the book was "sealed" in the sense that its contents were hidden or kept from public knowledge
141. (Smith 1830, title page)
142. Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14:26
143. Book of Mormon, Ether 3: 22.
144. Quinn 1998, p. 195–196 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFQuinn1998 (help).
145. Book of Mormon, Ether 4:5. According to Martin Harris, anyone who looked into the "interpreters" "except by the command of God" would "perish" (Harris 1859, p. 166).
146. Cowdery 1835b, p. 198.
147. David Whitmer interview, Chicago Tribune, 24 January 1888, in David Whitmer Interviews, ed. Cook, 221. Near the end of his life, Whitmer said that one section of the book was "loose, in plates, the other solid". Storey 1881.
148. Cole 1831
149. Poulson 1878.
150. Storey 1881
151. Whitmer 1888. Orson Pratt, who said he had spoken with many witnesses of the plates,(Pratt 1859, p. 30), assumed that Joseph Smith could "break the seal" if only he had been "permitted" (Pratt 1877, pp. 211–12).
152. Smith 1842b, p. 27.
153. Smith 1830, appx.
154. Cole 1831; Poulson 1878.
155. Storey 1881
156. Pratt 1859, p. 30.
157. Pratt 1856, p. 347.
158. Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:7.
159. Book of Mormon, Ether 1:2.
160. Book of Mormon, Ether 4:4. In the 1980s, Christopher Marc Nemelka claimed to have received the gold plates from Joseph Smith and translated some of the sealed portion. Salt Lake City Weekly, December 27, 2001 .
161. (Smith 1830, Mormon 9:32).
162. Smith 1842.
163. (Roberts 1906, p. 307).
164. Pratt 1859, p. 30-31.
165. Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 489-90.
166. The Voree Plates - Mormon scriptures - brass plates
167. In a letter of 11 May 1846 Lucy Mack Smith wrote: "I am satisfied that Joseph appointed J. J. Strang." The same day William Smith said, "James J. Strang has the appointment and we have evidence of it. The whole Smith family excepting Hyrum's widow uphold Strang." Palmer, 211. Earlier Lucy Mack Smith said at the October 1844 General Conference that she hoped all her children would accompany the saints to the West, and if they did she would go.
168. Palmer, 208-13. Cowdery's father converted to Strang's movement in the summer of 1846, and a year later Oliver Cowdery was living in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, twelve miles from Strang's headquarters and may have been associated in some way with his church. Stanley R. Gunn, Oliver Cowdery: Second Elder and Scribe (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1962), 189. Lucy Mack Smith's acceptance of Strang's leadership was short-lived; until her death, she made her home in Nauvoo with her daughter-in-law Emma and Emma's non-Mormon husband. (Bushman, 554-55).
169. Book of the Law of the Lord
170. Hamblin 2007, pp. 37–38 & footnote 10.
171. Hamblin 2007, pp. 37–39.
172. Hamblin 2007, pp. 37–38, 52–53; Metcalf 1993, p. 156 & footnote 12 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMetcalf1993 (help).
173. Hamblin 2007, pp. 37–38.
174. Hamblin 2007, pp. 52–53.
175. Hamblin 2007, p. 45 & footnote 38.
176. Hamblin 2007, pp. 37–38, 52–53; Metcalf 1993, p. 156 & footnote 12 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMetcalf1993 (help).
177. Metcalfe 1993, p. 157 (citing Johanne Jahn, Jahn's Biblical Archeology, trans. Thomas C. Upham (Andover: Flagg & Could, 1823), 93–94.)
178. Metcalfe 1993, p. 157.

References

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17. Hamblin, William J. (2007), "Sacred Writing on Metal Plates in the Ancient Mediterranean", The FARMS Review, 19 (1): 37–54.
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21. Howe, Eber Dudley (1834), Mormonism Unvailed, Painesville, Ohio: Telegraph Press.
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29. Pratt, Orson (1856), "The Faith and Visions of the Ancient Saints—The Same Great Blessing to be Enjoyed by the Latter-day Saints", Journal of Discourses, III: 344–353.
30. Pratt, Orson (1859), "Evidences of the Bible and Book of Mormon Compared", Journal of Discourses, VII: 22–38.
31. Pratt, Orson (1877), "King Limhi's Enquiry, from the Book of Mormon", Journal of Discourses, XIX: 204–19.
32. Putnam, Read H. (September 1966), "Were the Golden Plates Made of Tumbaga?", Improvement Era, 69 (9): 788–89, 828–31{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
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35. Salisbury, Katharine Smith (April 10 1895), Walker, Kyle R. (ed.), "Katharine Smith Salisbury's Recollections of Joseph's Meetings with Moroni" (PDF), BYU Studies, 41 (3) (published 2002): 4–17 {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
36. Saunders, Benjamin (September 1884), "Interview by William H. Kelley", in Vogel, Dan (ed.), Early Mormon Documents, vol. 2, Salt Lake City: Signature Books (published 1998){{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
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External links

• Utah Lighthouse Ministry: skeptical comments about the Golden Plates and their history.
• jefflindsay.com: LDS apologetic discussion of other ancient metal records.
• LDS magazine Ensign: apologetics regarding the gold plates.

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• History of the Latter Day Saint movement
• Joseph Smith, Jr.
• Book of Mormon artifacts