From my understanding, Joseph Smith did not really retranslate anything, especially the Book of Mormon, but rather received revelation of how the text was originally written. This is not translation but a process of revelation God made available to him through various processes, including the the Urim and Thummin and seer stones. He could not translate reformed Egyptian even after finishing the process of having the text revealed to him. If there was translation involved, the Spirit was the one doing the translating. Joseph Smith was narrating the revealed text to a scribe. Articles in this very magazine have said exactly that.
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Neil DevereauxFebruary 13, 2019
From my understanding, Joseph Smith did not really retranslate anything, especially the Book of Mormon, but rather received revelation of how the text was originally written. This is not translation but a process of revelation God made available to him through various processes, including the the Urim and Thummin and seer stones. He could not translate reformed Egyptian even after finishing the process of having the text revealed to him. If there was translation involved, the Spirit was the one doing the translating. Joseph Smith was narrating the revealed text to a scribe. Articles in this very magazine have said exactly that.
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