Mareveli, the Lord took the Urim and Thummim back with everything else that Moroni deposited. The single seer stone was independent and separate from all of that. As for why it was given, the Lord has not explained. The Urim and Thummim was the tool specifically given for translating the plates.
MareveliJuly 27, 2017
What was the point of providing the urim and thumim if Joseph could just use the seer stone? And why did the Lord take the interpreters back but leave the seer stone?
Paul HaywardJuly 26, 2017
This is the wrong question. The correct question to ask is "Is the Book of Mormon true?" If one receives a witness from God that it is true, the mechanics of exactly how it was translated fades into being less important. The artists show Joseph sitting at a table thumbing through the plates because that is what an ordinary person would expect happened. The fact there was more than one method employed shows the maturing of the Prophet in receiving revelation. In the D&C the Lord declares the book to be true. that is what matters.
Wayne LarsenJuly 26, 2017
You need to reference the work done by Royal Skouson. He has spent over two decades looking into the translation process.
Roger ThompsonJuly 26, 2017
Another clue as to the "translation" process as viewed by JS is the inspired translation of the bible. It began with the vision given to Moses of the creation of the earth that is now the book of Moses in the PofGP. The rest of the inspired translation of the bible was also done without reference to other languages.
It is also interesting to look at Joseph's comments as he learned how the world does translation when he learned German in the school of the prophets in Kirkland and studied the Luther translation of the bible, which if I remember correctly, he said more closely followed what God had revealed to him than the King James version we use. I think that the evolution of how the unlearned Joseph discovered the difference between God's and the world's way of translating would be an interesting study and give insight into the Book of Abraham.
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MarkJanuary 7, 2020
Mareveli, the Lord took the Urim and Thummim back with everything else that Moroni deposited. The single seer stone was independent and separate from all of that. As for why it was given, the Lord has not explained. The Urim and Thummim was the tool specifically given for translating the plates.
MareveliJuly 27, 2017
What was the point of providing the urim and thumim if Joseph could just use the seer stone? And why did the Lord take the interpreters back but leave the seer stone?
Paul HaywardJuly 26, 2017
This is the wrong question. The correct question to ask is "Is the Book of Mormon true?" If one receives a witness from God that it is true, the mechanics of exactly how it was translated fades into being less important. The artists show Joseph sitting at a table thumbing through the plates because that is what an ordinary person would expect happened. The fact there was more than one method employed shows the maturing of the Prophet in receiving revelation. In the D&C the Lord declares the book to be true. that is what matters.
Wayne LarsenJuly 26, 2017
You need to reference the work done by Royal Skouson. He has spent over two decades looking into the translation process.
Roger ThompsonJuly 26, 2017
Another clue as to the "translation" process as viewed by JS is the inspired translation of the bible. It began with the vision given to Moses of the creation of the earth that is now the book of Moses in the PofGP. The rest of the inspired translation of the bible was also done without reference to other languages. It is also interesting to look at Joseph's comments as he learned how the world does translation when he learned German in the school of the prophets in Kirkland and studied the Luther translation of the bible, which if I remember correctly, he said more closely followed what God had revealed to him than the King James version we use. I think that the evolution of how the unlearned Joseph discovered the difference between God's and the world's way of translating would be an interesting study and give insight into the Book of Abraham.
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