Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Returning the plates

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An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Returning the plates

Reputed location of the plates during translation

A FAIR Analysis of: Wikipedia article "Golden plates", a work by author: Various

Witness accounts

Section review

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

After translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, although he did not elaborate about this experience.

Author's sources: *Van Horn (1881) ; Smith (1853) , p. 141.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

According to accounts by several early Mormons, a group of Mormon leaders including Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and possibly others

Author's sources: *Young (1877) , p. 38 (mentioning only Smith and Cowdery); Packer (2004) , pp. 52, 55 (including David Whitmer in the list and describing Whitmer's account of the event, and citing William Horne Dame Diary, 14 January 1855, stating that Hyrum Smith was also in the group).

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah.

Author's sources: *Packer (2004) , p. 52.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall.

Author's sources: *Young (1877) , p. 38 (Young said he heard this from Oliver Cowdery).

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

According to Brigham Young's understanding, which he said he gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates, and inscribed with the words "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ."

Author's sources: *Young (1877) , p. 38.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed".

Author's sources: *Smith (1842) , p. 707.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

This "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof".

Author's sources: *Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:7.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time when the sealed part will be translated

Author's sources: *Packer (2004) , p. 55.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples.

Author's sources: *Packer (2004) , p. 55 (quoting a statement by Orson Pratt).

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

David Whitmer is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate).

Author's sources: *Packer (2004) , p. 55 (citing reporter Edward Stevenson's 1877 interview with Whitmer).

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Golden plates" make(s) the following claim:

Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which he said "testify that they are there".

Author's sources: *Packer (2004) , p. 55. At least one Mormon scholar doubts the existence of a Cumorah cave and instead argues that early Mormons saw a vision of a cave in another location.Tvedtnes (1990)

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