Kinderhook Plates - Smith's Response

Smith's Response

Smith's private secretary, William Clayton, recorded that upon receiving the plates, Smith sent for his "Hebrew Bible & Lexicon", suggesting that he was going to attempt to translate the plates by conventional means, rather than by use of a seer stone or direct revelation. On 1 May, Clayton wrote in his journal:

I have seen 6 brass plates...covered with ancient characters of language containing from 30 to 40 on each side of the plates. Prest J. has translated a portion and says they contain the history of the person with whom they were found and he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth.

The History of the Church also states Smith said the following:

I have translated a portion of and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth.

Some claim the statement found in History of the Church was only an altered version of William Clayton's statement, placing Smith in the first person. Diane Wirth, writing in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon (4:210), states: "A first-person narrative was apparently a common practice of this time period when a biographical work was being compiled. Since such words were never penned by the Prophet, they cannot be uncritically accepted as his words or his opinion".

Smith cited the Kinderhook plates in a map he drew of Moroni's journey to the hill Cumorah.