Posted by:
greensmythe
(
)
Date: February 10, 2014 03:38PM
Peepstones, faces in hats, seer goggles, bows... the translation process can get quite confusing. But there is in the D&C a scripture, not a tale, that tells how the BOM was translated. Joe was letting Oliver try his hand at translating, giving him pointers along the way. Oliver kind of failed miserably, according to Joe, and the Lord let Oliver know why. The scripture follows...
“But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.”
this scripture is known to all Mormons, and is established as the barometer of truth. Just apply it to yourself and you will find out the truth, they say. Well, how about we not apply it to ourselves? How about we apply it to the situation at hand. So according to Joseph (the Lord), Oliver was supposed to look at something (a text presumably), study it out in his mind, and then develop a translation. He was then supposed to ask the Lord if what he had translated was right, and if it was right, he would FEEL it was right. If not, it would just FEEL wrong and he would forget the whole thing.
So what was this text Oliver was reading. If Oliver were reading something illegible, like heiroglyphics from Gold plates, lets say, studying it out in your mind would yield nothing. If you have no knowledge of Chinese characters, it doesn't matter how long you stare at the characters, you won't figure anything out, not in 10, 20, 30 years. You might start to see somethings, but nothing approaching what the text actually says, and certainly not anything that would remotely be called a translation.
So what was Oliver studying out in his mind? An English text. something he could understand. If you want to understand more, look up the Spalding-Rigdon theory, which is well explained on Mormon Leaks. In short, the text Oliver was looking at, or “translating” was the Spalding manuscript, modified by Rigdon. As he read this, he would “translate” or insert religious material as the spirit inspired him. Rigdon believed, possibly based on a text from a British author on how scripture was created, that this was the same way in which the inspired text of the bible was created. The steps were.
-The author would immerse themselves in source material. (Spalding manuscript BOM, Bible for JST, Payrii for BofA)
-The author would ask for divine guidance, and write an “inspired version” If it felt good, it was right. If it was wrong, the author would get writers block. (I think this is how most writers feel as they write "inspired" works)
-This was scripture.