NOM

I have been working off and on on a Joseph Smith history project, and I can find no place where Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, or anyone else close to the BOM translation process says that it was completed by the end of June. Joseph Smith Papers:History, v.1, p. 324-5 says: "After this (the 3 & 8 witnesses events) we continued to translate when not attending to the numerous inquiries. . . ." All three drafts suggest translation of the BOM continued into July, possibly longer. I think historians presume too much when they frame the 'translation' of the BOM in a April-June time frame. Joseph says that Emma and Samuel his brother both wrote for him before Oliver came to Harmony, so we know that some it (part or all of Mosiah) was written before Oliver started writing. There is an Oliver quote that says "I wrote ..... the entire BOM" and historians usually add "save a few pages" to that.

I found this from a David Welch/Ensign article: "By around 20 June, they had reached 2 Nephi 27:12, [2 Ne. 27:12] which provided the basis upon which the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses were shown the plates around that time, in June 1829.(9) By the end of June, the translation was completed, and inquiries to publishers."

So Welch says we can assume that 2nd Nephi was done by late June, or can we?

They could have been putting the thing together up and until it was published in March, 1830. I've never found anything that shows there weren't any changes after the rock and hat show ended. The original manuscript is all but destroyed, having been buried in the Nauvoo Temple corner stone. Joseph Smith changed the bofm several times and changed his D&C revelations as well. So, why not continue to modify it during the fall/winter of 1829 and winter of 1830?

I would consider the translation ongoing. Since the introduction page was changed somewhere between 2005 and 2007 when the Laminiates were demoted from the "principle ancestors" to "among the ancestors" of the Native Americans. Even today they are refining the translation of this thing.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 5:39 am I would consider the translation ongoing. Since the introduction page was changed somewhere between 2005 and 2007 when the Laminiates were demoted from the "principle ancestors" to "among the ancestors" of the Native Americans. Even today they are refining the translation of this thing.

Not to mention the thousands of changes since JS's day. I am curious to see if the church will somehow deal with the "white and delightsome" problem by claiming that a more accurate translation is needed.