Notes on the Title Page of the Book of Mormon

by Peter K Bellville

Our current 2013 edition of the Book of Mormon has a modern title page that wasn’t in the 1830 edition. It includes a subtitle added in 1982 that reads ‘Another Testament of Jesus Christ’. Many editions have been generated over the years and thousands of changes have been made. A good source for reviewing those changes is found in Royal Skousen’s book, The Earliest Text. Errors still exist and further editions will undoubtedly be forthcoming to correct errors, add enhancements, change formatting etc. Also, these new editions allow the church to refresh copy write and maintain control. Previous editions have fallen into public domain, but not the 1981 edition.

The second title page is the 1830 title page. This includes two paragraphs of explanatory text. The words at the bottom of the page originally said ‘By Joseph Smith, Junior, Author and Proprietor. Palmyra: printed by E.B. Grandin, for the author, 1830.’ Laws in 1830 required that a book have an author even though Joseph Smith never said he he was the author, but the translator.

Other than those final words at the bottom, the rest of the page is a translation from the plates and not a modern composition. Many changes were made to the title page and those are referred in Skousen’s book. The most significant change is where the break occurs between the two paragraphs. In the 1830 edition the break came after the words “...Book of Ether.” In our current edition the break comes after the words “...gift of God.” The sentences were formatted differently to accommodate the change.

When the Book of Mormon was first set to paper by hand the punctuation and formatting was nearly non-existent. The typesetter at printing punctuated the whole text. The Book of Mormon was written nearly as one long sentence. This suggests that that was how the material was dictated to the scribes, not as sentences or even as phrases but as single words. Lots has been written about how the translation process ensued mechanically. The translation process has been the subject of many books and papers which I will not explore. I will, however, contribute a few of my own thoughts on that topic later.

The writing on the plates and the handwritten pages were not presented in a title page format as we see it. The words were simply set out as continuous text to be read as such. The way it is now forces our minds to read it in chunks.

Immediately, we encounter Hebraisms when we read the title. A Hebraism is characteristic of Hebrew. The title doesn’t say Mormon’s Book, but Book of Mormon. Many types of Hebraism can be found in the Book of Mormon and this is just one example. Three of these occur in quick succession: Book of Mormon, hand of Mormon, and plates of Nephi. More follow: Book of Ether, people of Jared. The Book of Mormon is full of these and other Hebraisms. Some are complex and very lengthy such as extensive chiasms. This suggests a tight translation from one language to another. If the translation was loose then the passages would sound like modern English and the Hebraisms would be lost. A loose translation might read like this:

“This is Mormon’s book, written by his own hand. It is an abridgement of the record of the Nephites and Lamanites, written to the Lamanites, a remnant of Israel, and also to to the Jews and Gentiles. Written by commandment, by prophecy and revelation, sealed and hid to the Lord that this record might not be destroyed, but be interpreted by God’s power. It was sealed by Moroni’s hand, and hid to be revealed in due time by the Gentiles... The interpretation is by God’s gift...” etc. To me this loose interpretation sounds flat. It lacks interest and power.

The title page was written by Moroni as evidenced by the following points:

1) ‘sealed by the hand of Moroni’. Moroni’s father, Mormon, had died and Moroni sealed the book when he finished it.

2) ‘hid up unto the Lord’. Moroni was the one who hid the book then directed Joseph Smith to it. (Mormon 8:14)

3) ‘an abridgement taken from the Book of Ether’. Moroni wrote the abridgement after his father’s death.

4) ‘if there are faults they are the mistakes of men’. This sentiment was also expressed in Mormon 8:17, written by Moroni. Some previous editions of the Book of Mormon concluded the title page with the name ‘Moroni’.

The text of the title page is straight forward. Moroni stated the purpose of the book clearly. He said the book was to testify of Christ. His audience was divided up into mainly two groups; the house of Israel including Jews and Lamanites, and the Gentiles. Those two groups can be divided again into those that believe Christ and those that don’t. Moroni and Mormon’s intent is to convince non-believers of both groups to believe in Christ.

Joseph Smith said the title page was the very last leaf of the plates. This seems a curious place to find a title page. Perhaps Moroni did not intend for it to be a title page but a summary page. Or perhaps that is just where Moroni found space for it and Joseph Smith moved it to the front when he translated it.

In our culture, we open books from right to left and we read books from left to right. Not all cultures do this. If Moroni intended the book to be opened from left to right then the title page would have been the first page not the last. If that was the case then Joseph Smith was holding the plates upside down. He would be holding the plates as he would normally hold any book , opening it from right to left. But, if the title page was meant to be on top, then the book is upside down. Take any book you have and hold it as you normally would with the title page just inside the front cover. Now close the book and flip it top to bottom. The book is now upside down and the title page is the last page in the book. Note also, that the text is upside down. Now if the book is rotated such that it opens from left to right the text is right side up and the title page is still the last page. Was Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon upside down and backwards? This is silly speculation. But, Joseph Smith copied down some of the characters from the plates. Noble and valiant efforts have been made to translate the characters as written down by Joseph Smith. Did he copy the characters in their correct orientation? I hope those attempting to make sense of the characters take this into consideration.

Much has been said about the translation process by others. So very little information is available that conclusions are tentative. I am not sure Joseph Smith himself could adequately explain the process. We want to think of it as mechanical, but we know it was not. Joseph Smith himself was an intervening factor. Sources suggest he used the Urim and Thummim, transparent stones, mounted on a breastplate. Some sources say he also used an opaque stone in a hat. Maybe the translation process happened that way and maybe it didn’t. Joseph’s mother said Joseph removed the Urim and Thummim stones from the breastplate to facilitate use. She also said Joseph’s eyes would tire and he would look into a hat to rest them. Perhaps this is where the stone in the hat story came from.

I want to add two considerations to the discussion. First, the Urim and Thummim were either transparent or translucent and translating required looking through them at the plates. Joseph couldn’t look through the stone in the hat at the plates. Of course, since the process was revelatory perhaps the plates were not even required. But, I suspect the two items, plates and stones, were kept together to be used together. At one point after the loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, both the plates and the Urim and Thummim were removed from Joseph Smith by Moroni. After some contrition, both the plates and stones were returned to Joseph. My feeling from this is that the two were paired together and were used together.

Second, the Urim and Thummim were mounted on a breastplate so they could be used as one would use eyeglasses. The stones would have been too heavy to be supported on the bridge of the nose. But I believe the real purpose of the breastplate was to free the hands for handling the plates and turning pages. This suggests that Joseph Smith had to look at the plates during the translation process. This leaves the question of how to prevent the scribe from seeing the plates. Oliver Cowdery said he never saw the plates until he was selected as a witness. We know a sheet was hung as a divider between the plates and the scribe. References also refer to a cloth covering the plates.

Because of all the above, it is hard to draw any conclusions. But perhaps I need not create a false dichotomy. Both methods may have been used, not just one or the other. Because the nature of the stones were different then the process must have been different. But it was Joseph Smith that was the medium God used for translating. Not the stones.