Smith remained silent and elusive because had he opened his mouth it would have quicky shown him to be the fraud that he is.
The translation process was reported by the scribes themselves - Emma, David Whitmer and Martin Harris - thus making it 'first hand' in that respect. Oliver Cowdery was Joseph's principal scribe for the Book of Mormon is silent on the matter, however, he is also linked to Rigdon and others and is probably duplicit in procuring the outside materials plagerized into the bom.
According to this position, the English translation represents a fairly literal-translation from the Nephite text. It's important to note that such a translation would only have been "fairly literal" for at least three reasons:
Here Ash is misrepresenting (building a strawman) of the "tight control" method. He is claiming essentially that Smith had control over the wording. However, if you review the testimonies of Emma, David Whitmer and Martin Harris (upon which this 'theory' is based), it was the stone itself that projected the wording - not Smith's 'translating' abilities. Ash tries to foist this onto Smith to avoid the reality that the method clearly took smith out of the loop and directly to the seer stone (under the power of god).
The second position held by many LDS scholars is a "loose control" view of the Book of Mormon translation. According to this view, Joseph was more than a mere fax machine for the English translation. Instead of seeing God-revealed English words, Joseph would have received God-given impressions that conveyed ideas, images, or concepts to Joseph's mind. Joseph then would have formulated -- in his own language -- words that expressed and conveyed those impressions.
This answer fails on a couple of points - using EITHER the seer stone OR the "Urim and Thummin" IF smith had been given the POWER to translate the writings, he would not have needed these props. IF smith had not used these props, then this could have been a "reasonable" theory. But the fact is that he DID use them and relied upon THEM to translate the material FOR HIM. Ash defeats his own arguement here:
When English words were formed, that "fairly" accurately expressed those impressions, Joseph could have seen the result of such formulations as English text in the Urim and Thummim -- which he then dictated to his scribe.
Once again, it is the 'prop' doing the translating - not smith - and any error in the 'translation' would be due to "god" and not smith.
Yeppers there actually was no “translating” to it...
A recipe for a charlatan’s Tale
Take One conman, one stove pipe hat, one rock from a fraudalent “treasure” dig...
Mix well...
Put the rock in the hat,
Put the conmans devious head in the hat,
Pretend that words in the English language appear in the rock, one at a time,
pretend to “read” each separate word and just say a word out loud to a “Scribe”, always your own wife or gullible friend, and never someone who might have questions...
dont let anyone else look in the hat or at the rock...
Make up a fairy tale that you dont realize will be proven a lie by enfolding time...
Make lots of money and seduce lots of women and get yourself lots of power over other people while you can...
Stole this from a post over on FLAK. I guess the church is just banking on members not reading anything in the Joseph Smith papers collection. I am guessing that, at most, TBM's will buy them to sit neatly on a bookshelf but never open them. Reading garbage like this really makes me wonder how people back then believed a word he said. Anyone else have any excerpts from the versions released so far?
The Document (As transcribed in Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations Volume 1: Facsimile Revelation Books, page 265, with some of the transcription simplified)
A SAMPLE of pure language given by Joseph the Seer as copied by Br Johnson
[There is one continuous vertical line which crosses out the Q’s and A’s below]
Question What is the name of God in pure Language
Answer Awman.
Q The meaning of the pure word Aman
A It is the being which made all things in all its parts.
Q What is the name of the Son of God.
A The Son Awman.
Q What is the Son Awman.
A It is the greatest of all the parts of Awman which is the godhead the first born.
Q What is man.
A This signifies Sons Awman. the human family the children of men the greatest parts of Awman Sons the Son Awman
Q What are Angels called in pure language.
A Awman Angls men
Q What are the meaning of these words.
A Awman’s Ministering servants Sanctified who are sent forth from heaven to minister for or to Sons Awmen the greatest part of Awman Son. Sons Awmen Son Awmen Awman [End page and end of “Sample of Pure Language”] Sampling from the Joseph Smith Papers
Now could you imagine a Mormon Christmas play where they decide to use the "pure language" for angels & referenced them as Joseph Smith did -- "Awman Angls men?"
Or why when this "Son" is referenced there's a Q&A that references Him as a "what" (not a Who) and starts off in the answering referencing Him as an "it"?
(Somebody else at the source cited referenced how the word "Ahman" is used in D&C 78:20 & 95:17)