The missing 116 pages of manuscript

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In 1828, Martin Harris, acting as scribe for Joseph Smith, recorded the first 116 pages of The Book of Mormon. He asked permission of Joseph Smith to let him borrow these pages to take home with him so he could show them to his wife. Martin’s wife was very skeptical and feared that her wealthy husband was being conned out of his money in order to get the Book of Mormon published for Joseph. Joseph inquired of the Lord to know if he might do as Martin Harris had requested, but was refused. Joseph inquired again, but received a second refusal. Still, Martin Harris persisted as before, and Joseph applied again, but the last answer was not like the two former ones. In this the Lord permitted Martin Harris to take the manuscript home with him. Three weeks later Mr. Harris returned to Joseph and told him that he had lost the 116 pages.

Joseph was very distraught over this, exclaiming "Oh, my God! All is lost! All is lost! What shall I do? I have sinned." It is widely believed that Martin Harris’ wife had taken the pages. The reasoning was that if Joseph was indeed a prophet he could retranslate those same pages exactly as before and that would prove he was actually translating instead of just making up the Book of Mormon story as he dictated to Martin. Finally, Joseph inquired of the Lord as to what he should do; in response, he received a revelation, which is recorded in section 10 of the Doctrine & Covenants. He was told that he should not retranslate those lost pages because Satan’s cunning plan was to have evil men alter the words in the original translation and wait until Joseph retranslated those pages. The evil men would then produce the original lost 116 pages with the alterations to prove that Joseph was a fraud.

God, of course, knew of Satan’s eventual plan and had Nephi make two sets of plates that cover essentially the same material but written a little differently. Joseph was instructed to now translate from the large plates of Nephi, instead of the smaller, abridged plates of Nephi that he had translated from earlier. This way the same basic information that should be included in the Book of Mormon was there, but it would not be expected to match exactly the original lost 116 pages that were first translated by Joseph.

Significant details & problems that most Latter-day Saints are not aware of.

The official story taught and recorded by the church is non-sensical for the following reasons:

1)The evil men that were conspiring to alter the original documents could not have done so without it being very obvious that the original document was altered. When Martin Harris was scribing for Joseph, he didn’t use a pencil and paper. Martin wrote with ink on foolscap. Any alteration would be very noticeable and not convincing to anyone.

In addition to the rubbing out of old words and rewriting of new words, the handwriting would have been different. Any rudimentary handwriting inspection would have determined that it had been altered, especially easy to determine given that the new handwriting would have occurred in the same spot as the rubbed out and re-written words.

2)If the evil men that were planning on changing the stolen 116 pages thought their plan of changing some words from these pages would work to discredit Joseph they would not have been completely foiled by Joseph translating from different plates to tell the first part of the Book of Mormon story. If they thought their alterations would have gone unnoticed then they would have still tried to alter the 116 pages to discredit his work.

For example, they could have changed some names of people or places or altered events that are central to the beginning of the Book of Mormon and thereby prove that Joseph’s new translation was in error. If they really thought their alterations would have gone unnoticed they could have changed the names of Nephi’s brothers or the cities they came from or many other items that would have been included in both sets of plates. But they never did this – why? If opponents of the Church really had the lost 116 pages as Joseph claimed they would have resurfaced in some form to at least attempt to discredit Joseph, even if they would not have been successful.

3)The general belief at the time was that Martin Harris’s wife burned the 116 pages. If she destroyed them, then this entire story is simply made up by Joseph Smith. But the prophet Joseph evidently was afraid she had not, but had secretly hidden them, for the purpose of entrapping him, should he ever attempt to reproduce the pages. If the work was really of God, the manuscript could be reproduced word for word without a mistake. If, however, Joseph created it himself, his memory would hardly be adequate to such a task, without numberless changes or verbal differences—and thus "give himself away," since he loudly professed to be all the time aided "by the gift and power of God." Since the lost pages never surfaced in any form, it is likely that they were destroyed immediately by Martin Harris’s wife. Therefore, the entire story about someone altering pages is impossible and just made up by Joseph because he knew he could not reproduce those same pages as he was not really translating the Book of Mormon story.

4)It is convenient that the prophets of old just happened to make an extra set of plates 1500 years ago to cover this contingency, isn’t it?

See also this link

Excerpt from The Golden Bible
by Rev. M. T. Lamb,
1887, p. 118-126

Strangely enough we find inserted in the middle of the Book of Mormon, pages 141-143 [BOM p. 143-45, 1981 ed.] a little book entitled the "Book of Mormon," or "Words of Mormon." It is by the supposed author or compiler of the entire work, the prophet Mormon. He has a book of his own, in its proper place, near the close of the work, recording his own life, and his connection with Nephite history. And this little affair of only two pages, having nothing whatever to do with the thread of the history that is being recorded, is to an ordinary reader of the Book of Mormon, wholly inexplicable. It becomes, intelligible, however, when read in connection with a certain untoward event that occurred in connection with the translation of the book by Joseph Smith. This event, as related by Mr. Smith's friends, is something like this:

Mr. Martin Harris, who was employed as Mr. Smith's scribe at the beginning of the translation, had written out with his own hand 116 pages of manuscript. By long and persistent coaxing, and the most faithful promises of secrecy, he secured Mr. Smith's permission to carry said manuscript to his own house for his wife's inspection—a woman who is accredited with a very irascible temper. Before the precious treasure was returned to its owner, a sad domestic quarrel so thoroughly provoked Mrs. Harris, that in an evil hour she put said manuscript forever out of the way. The general belief was that she burned it. But the prophet Joseph evidently was afraid she had not, but had secretly hid it, for the purpose of entrapping him, should he ever attempt to reproduce the pages. [Why not put the powers of discernment into use here, if he was a prophet of God?] If the work was really of God, the manuscript could be reproduced word for word without a mistake. If, however, Joseph inspired it himself, his memory would hardly be adequate to such a task, without numberless changes or verbal differences—and thus "give himself away," since he loudly professed to be all the time aided "by the gift and power of God."

The result was, that, in due course of time, there appeared a lengthy revelation purporting to come from God, the substance of which (see Doctrines and Covenants, p. 178-183—Liverpool Edition [D&C Section 10]) is that Satan has put it into the hearts of the enemies of the truth to alter the words of that stolen manuscript so that should Mr. Smith reproduce them, they would lie about it, and say the two did not agree together. Therefore, to circumvent said enemies of the truth, the Lord gave Mr. Smith a bit of very precious information.
And now, verily I say unto you, that an account of those things that you have written, which have gone out of your hands, is engraven upon the plates of Nephi;

Yea, and you remember it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these things upon the plates of Nephi.

And now, because the account which is engraven upon the plates of Nephi is more particular concerning the things which, in my wisdom, I would bring to the knowledge of the people in this account—

Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained;

And behold, you shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words.

I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil.

It may be necessary to explain that Nephi is supposed to have recorded his history upon two sets of plates, the one was a short abridged record containing the "more part of the ministry," the other set of plates contained a fuller unabridged account of the reigns of the kings, the wars, etc. The first set contained the religious history mainly, the second, the secular.

The old prophet Mormon had taken this second set of plates, the fuller or more secular account, and had condensed it to a very small compass, making it about one hundred times briefer than the original. And it was this abridged record of the secular history of the Nephites that Joseph Smith had laboriously translated with Martin Harris as his scribe. The record was so brief that the 116 pages of the manuscript written by hand brought the Nephite history quite down to King Benjamin's time, whereas the history as now found in the Book of Mormon requires 141 pages of closely printed matter to bring the record down to the same period, King Benjamin's time. But now that these 116 pages containing Mormon's abridgement of Nephi's secular history have been stolen and put out of reach, Joseph is informed in this precious revelation that there is another record he may use, abridged not by Mormon but by Nephi, and that is after all a great deal better and more desirable than the stolen record:

Behold, they have only got a part, or an abridgment of the account of Nephi.

Behold, there are many things engraven upon the plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel; therefore, it is wisdom in me that you should translate this first part of the engravings of Nephi, and send forth in this work.

And, behold, all the remainder of this work does contain all those parts of my gospel which my holy prophets, yea, and also my disciples, desired in their prayers should come forth unto this people.

Now several queries naturally suggest themselves:

1. How could Satan so easily circumvent the Lord? The golden plates from which these 116 pages were translated had been preserved for 1400 years by the special providence of God—been carefully translated by the gift and power of God. But now, after all this trouble and pains, the Lord is beaten by a wrathful woman, and all this trouble, labor and watchcare proves "love's labor lost" !

2. HOW does it happen that neither God himself nor his angel found out Mr. Smith was translating the wrong plates until Martin Harris (lost) those 116 pages?

3. If Joseph Smith was making a sad blunder in translating a second-rate, discarded set of plates, why should the Lord so terribly scold him and punish him for letting Mr. Harris take that manuscript home—since it was the best thing that could have happened for the cause of truth?

4. Does the Lord Himself come out of this affair entirely unscathed? Either He made a mistake in the first instance, and had to back out and do His work over again—or he perpetrated a fraud in the second case, a trick, a silly trick that has not even the merit of being a sharp one, so "thin," in fact, that no special acuteness is required to see through it.

But now, dear reader, after learning all these facts, would you suppose Mr. Smith so far lacking in common sense and good judgment as to give himself completely away in the Book of Mormon itself, by making the old prophet Mormon a party to the fraud? This is precisely what he does by inserting after page 141 [BOM p. 143-145, 1981 ed.] two pages, entitled the "Words of Mormon," at the precise point in the translation where he had arrived when Martin Harris carried away those one hundred and sixteen pages of manuscript! Hear what Mormon says:

And now, I speak somewhat concerning that which I have written; for after I had made an abridgment from the plates of Nephi, down to the reign of this king Benjamin, of whom Amaleki spake, I searched among the records which had been delivered into my hands, and I found these plates, which contained this small account of the prophets, from Jacob down to the reign of this king Benjamin, and also many of the words of Nephi.

And the things which are upon these plates pleasing me, because of the prophecies of the coming of Christ; and my fathers knowing that many of them have been fulfilled; yea, and I also know that as many things as have been prophesied concerning us down to this day have been fulfilled, and as many as go beyond this day must surely come to pass—

Wherefore, I chose these things, to finish my record upon them, which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi; and I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people.

But behold, I shall take these plates, which contain these prophesyings and revelations, and put them with the remainder of my record, for they are choice unto me; and I know they will be choice unto my brethren.

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.

And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people.

And now I, Mormon, proceed to finish out my record, which I take from the plates of Nephi; and I make it according to the knowledge and the understanding which God has given me.

From all this we learn that Mormon himself, a prophet of the Lord, and led all the time and inspired by the spirit of God, helped too, by an angel from heaven, makes the same mistake that Joseph Smith made. He wearily plods on with his engraving tool, through the larger set of Nephi's plates, abridging them until he reaches the period of King Benjamin's reign, when he discovers, what he had not before known, the existence of other and briefer plates of Nephi, more religious in their character, and notably fuller in their statement of Christian doctrine and prophecies relating to Christ. And so laying aside all his previous work, he adopts this newly discovered treasure as part first of his great book. But very strangely, from this point forward down to his own time there are no double sets of plates to select from; and therefore, as he tells us, he has to go back to his first plan, the laborious work of abridging the fuller but more secular history. Singular, isn't it, reader, that this old prophet Mormon, fifteen hundred years ago should happen to discover these other plates of Nephi, and thus change the entire first part of his book, at the precise spot in King Benjamin's history where Martin Harris (lost) the 116 pages of manuscript? And quite as singular is another fact, that from the beginning of the Book of Mormon, in a large number of places, these two sets of plates are carefully distinguished from each other, and very much said about them up to the very same period, the point in the history of King Benjamin where Mr. Harris (lost) those 116 pages, and from that point onward nothing more is said of a double set of plates, so that Nephi himself, his brother Jacob, and all the writers down to King Benjamin were, as it were, preparing the way for this same great change made necessary by Mr. Harris' (loss)! But although these double sets of plates are so often mentioned in part first of the Book of Mormon, and the specific character of each clearly stated, yet strangely enough the prophet Mormon did not know of the existence of the one set containing "the more part of the ministry" until he happened to reach that same dangerous point in the history of his nation where where (the missing) 116 pages ended!

See the South Park version of this story here

*My Thoughts*

First, I would like to point out that the common member doesn't know that Joseph Smith put a seer stone in a hat and translated with "spiritual light" without the plates physically present. This is very shocking to some members to learn, and when it is collaborated with first hand accounts written by early members and witnesses of the translation process, it instantly becomes subject to the Mormon mental gymnastics, in order to make it conform with what they had previously believed. Some members who had previously vehemently denied such a possibility are left scrambling to come up with possible explanations for it, all the while having to realize that their own church is to blame for leaving them unprepared for this kind of confrontation. If the church could have been honest with its members in the first place, this kind of cognitive dissonance wouldn't have to happen.

Second, I have a really difficult time believing that an angel of light appeared to Joseph Smith, told him about golden plates, allowed him to find them but refused to let him remove them for four whole years, (which in my opinion would be long enough to fabricate something similar to pass off as gold plates bound with rings and engraved with strange markings) [See Kinderhoook Plates ], and then after finally allowing Joseph to take them and "translate" them, when it seems that he didn't even need the plates to be present in order to use his peep stone in a hat, this same angel came back and 'took' the plates away, (to where, heaven I suppose? And how was this done, magic?) What if we still had the gold plates? What would be the harm in having them if they weren't made of pure gold after all?

And finally, the whole story of how Joseph came to obtain the plates is remarkably similar to a story written by E.T.A. Hoffman called The Golden Pot:

Archivarius (meaning archivist) Lindhorst is the principle guardian of the treasures at his "ancient residence," just as Moroni is the primary guardian of Cumorah's treasures. Young Anselmus has a working relationship with Lindhorst that centers around his house. Joseph Smith has a recurring relationship with Moroni at the latter's cave headquarters. Anselmus and Joseph Smith can conveniently walk to their nearby house and cave in a short time. The house and cave both open upon their approach. Anselmus is greeted by Lindhorst and Smith is greeted by Moroni. Both of these beings are the last archivists of their respective civilizations. They are in charge of vast treasures including numerous "rolls of parchment" and from the destroyed civilization of Atlantis on one hand and plates of precious metal from the Jaredites and Nephites on the other hand.

There are many more similarities that are mentioned in Grant Palmer's book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins.


Just add this to the shelf, and try to turn away from it. Pretty soon, though, that shelf is not going to hold all of the evidence that is piled upon it...