Dr. Garrett Dirkmont (20:25)
So when you read that, in fact, whenever you read teas from the 19th century, it doesn't mean that they're making fun of, you know, the size of Joseph's nose or something. It means that they aren't just so solicitous. Means you're certainly asking, hey, is there any way that. And Joseph uses solicitous and Then he changes to the word tease, I think to help explain how much they are asking. This is not casual. Now, if you're Joseph Smith, bad things have happened. Every time a group of these people start asking you to ask God something, you know, I'm like, no, take, take the pages, let's let me see the plates. So, but they keep going and Joseph writes at length. So they teased me so much that at length I complied. And through the Urim and Thummim I obtained of the Lord for them the following revelation. So there's the background of it. My guess is that Joseph has just Translated Ether, Chapter 5. So that would place it relatively soon after they get there. I mean, he, he will of course already translated Mormon. And I mean, he probably translated Fourth Nephi, like while he was eating a bagel in the morning, he was like a bagel. And then Fourth Nephi, you know. But I, it's probably that very express comment that says there's going to be witnesses. Now it's possible, though highly, highly unlikely, that in fact where this came from was from Second Nephi. It could have been from Second Nephi. It just seems unlikely because in Second Nephi, while it talks about it, it's less expressed than Ether and it's much, much, much later. Second Nephi, chapter 11, verse 3 says that and my brother Jacob also has seen him. He's talking about the fact that they've seen Jesus as I have seen him. Wherefore I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true. Wherefore by the words of three, God has said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses and he proveth always works. So that's this idea of three. So I doubt that's what it is. But two Nephi 27, this is like the chapters where Nephi sees our day in vision more clearly than any seer's ever seen anything. Part of the converting power of the Book of Mormon. To me, when I was a young person was reading Second Nephi, reading what Nephi knew about who we were and how we lived, and being absolutely spot on with everything we think, say and do. And frankly, in ways that weren't even as common in Joseph Smith's time. I mean, for instance, those verses say things like that he's going to convince people that the devil doesn't exist. Well, if there's one thing that everybody in Joseph Smith's time believes, it's that the devil exists. So why in the world would Joseph write into there in the midst of the second great awakening where everyone certain that the devil exists. Why would he write into his fake made up book that he's borrowing from view of the Hebrews and Solomon Spalding's fake manuscript? Why would he write in there something that not one person reading would believe? And I think it's because, I don't think, I mean, I know it's because it's a translation. So it's a revelation translation of Nephi's Revelation. But there, there are aspects to that that spoke so directly to my soul that Nephi saw our day. Well, if you go to second Nephi 2712, he says, wherefore at the day that the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world. Yeah, Joseph knows that. Joseph's. He's lived the whole first half of that verse. That the eyes of none shall behold it, save it be, that three witnesses shall behold it by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered. And they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein. So even though Second Nephi is near the front of the book, remember they translate after the loss of the pages from Mosiah to the end, and then they come back around, around the horn to first and Second Nephi, which means Second Nephi is one of the last things they translate. Now maybe again you always have to caveat. It's possible that Nephi wrote something similar in his record that became the book of Lehi that was lost. So maybe Joseph early, early on saw that there was going to be, that God was going to have other people see the plates. But it doesn't seem like it. You know, at least the way he responds to Martin Harris isn't. Don't worry, you'll eventually see them. You don't need to see them right now. So the Book of Mormon has again motivated the question that causes the revelation. Many of these early revelations are direct, direct results of them having translated the Book of Mormon. So this revelation is to these witnesses, not to Joseph. So it's different. Right, so this is not a revelation that Joseph receives telling the witnesses, it's actually to the witnesses that it's received again from the stones. He's using the Urim and Thummim, or the seer stones. Behold, I say unto you that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban. And the Urim and Thummim which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount when he talked with the Lord face to face. And the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness on the borders of the Red Sea. So they're told that they're going to see the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the plates. The term that's written into D and C17 is URIM and Thummim. And that has actually caused some people to say, well, see, the word Urim and Thummim is being used by them to describe the seer stones as early as June of 1829. The problem is we don't have the early manuscript version of Doctrine and Covenant, section 17. The earliest manuscript we have could not have been written earlier than November of 1834 because of the handwriting that it's in, and it wasn't published in the Book of Commandments. So therefore you don't know what would have been earlier. And so historians believe that the term Urim and Thummim was likely added later, probably added when Joseph revised the revelations for publication of the Doctrine and Covenants 1835. Why do we say this? Well, because we already know of another revelation where the same thing happens, or doctrine covenants section 10. We know that one because we have an early version. It doesn't say Urim and Thummim in it, but Joseph revises it for the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants and inserts the term Urim and Thummim into it. So that's why historians are like, okay, if it was original to Doctrine and Covenant Section 17, it would have been the only place it was ever used by anyone, ever, in 1829. The fact that Joseph is clearly adding those words to at least one other revelation that we can prove he did probably means he did the same thing here. And I think it's all part and parcel of Joseph trying to highlight that those stones are sacred. And maybe the word here originally was the interpreters, but by 1834, the church wasn't calling them the Interpreters anymore. They were using the biblical phrase to connotate how holy these stones were. They were calling them Urim and Thummim, and Joseph was calling every seer stone Urim and Thummim by the Nauvoo time period. Every time he wants to say the word seer Stone, he says urim and Thummim. That's why the place God resides is a great Urim and Thummim. This World in its glorified and sanctified state is going to be a giant Urim and Thumma. That every person who goes to the celestial kingdom is going to receive their own Urim and Thummim. And they're not all the same ones that were found in the box of the plates. It's a generic term that Joseph is using to describe seer stones, although the assumption is the ones they see are likely the ones in the box. But it doesn't actually say that because it actually says these are the ones that were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount. Maybe they're the same ones that were in the box. It's the assumption that they are. But we at least have to say that it's an assumption. Why I say that is everything else here is being shown miraculously to them. So it's not. It's not the hardest thing in the world for the same angel that's going to be bringing all these things, you know, to pack one extra knapsack and to bring these special stones that the brother of Jared had upon the mount. Also the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness. So that, of course, a reference to the Liahona. So they aren't just seeing the plates. They're going to see a lot of things. It's interesting that they're told that they're going to do this so that Joseph will not be destroyed, so that I may bring about my righteous purposes unto the children of men in this work. And ye shall testify that you have seen them even as my servant Joseph has seen them. For it is by my power that he has seen them. And it is because he had faith and he has translated the book. Even that part that I have commanded him as your Lord your God, and as your Lord and your God liveth, it is true. So here they have the Lord declaring to them by Revelation. Whatever you think about the translation, I'm telling you it is the word of God. It's interesting that they are told that, you know, if they do this, the gates of hell will not prevail against them. But they're told that they are going to see these things through the power of God. Verse 3. After you've obtained faith and have seen them with your eyes, you shall testify of them by the power of God. So they. They. It's not express. It doesn't say in here. And an angel is going to come and show these to you. It. One might think that it's going to be a miraculous thing. But really it doesn't ever state the way you're going to see them is going to be miraculous. If we go to back to Joseph Smith's history that he writes, he says, not many days after that commandment was given, we four Martin Harris, David Whitman, Oliver Cowdery and myself agreed to retire to the woods and try to obtain by fervent and humble prayer the fulfillment of the promises in this revelation that they should have a view of the place. We accordingly made the choice of a piece of woods convenient to Mr. Whitmer's house, to which we retired. Having knelt down, we began to pray in much faith to Almighty God to bestow on us a realization of those promises according to previous arrangement. I commenced by vocal prayer to our Heavenly Father and was followed by each of the rest in succession. So that Joseph prays, then David Whitmer prays, Oliver Cowdery prays. We did not yet, however, obtain any answer or manifestation of the divine favor in our behalf. We again observe the same order of prayer, calling on and fervently praying to God in rotation, but with the same result as before. Upon this, our second failure, Martin Harris proposed that he would withdraw himself, believing as he expressed himself, that his presence was the cause of our not obtaining what we wished for. He accordingly withdrew from us and we knelt down again and had not been, had not been many minutes engaged in prayer, when presently we beheld a light above us in the air exceeding of exceeding brightness, and behold, an angel stood before us. His hand in his hands he held the plates which we have been praying for to have a view of. He turned these leaves one by one so that we could see them and to discern the engravings thereon. He addressed himself to David Whitmer and said, david, blessed is the Lord and he that keeps his commandments. When immediately afterwards we heard a voice out of the bright light above us saying, these plates have been revealed by the power of God. They have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear. One of the aspects of the three witness experience that we rarely talk about. I mean, I guess I might have heard it. I don't know that I ever really hear it that often is that they don't just see an angel. They don't just see the plates, they don't just see Liahona, they don't just see the. They have the voice of the Lord speak to them in the midst of the angel speaking to Them and the voice of the Lord to tells them this translation is true. So let's just say you're someone who claims. Well, I'm sure Joseph showed them something and they just thought that they were plates. And really what Joseph found was a yellow rock that these guys were just so stupid they couldn't figure out that it was really a rock. I mean, I know that my antagonistic voice sounds pretty stupid. I intend for my antagonistic voice to sound pretty stupid.
