2 Nephi 27

(February 7, 2015)

                Verse 15 is fascinating for a number of reasons.  In fact, the whole story of Charles Anthon is fascinating – that Anthon changed his story so many times, that nothing Anthon later wrote is consistent with Martin Harris selling his farm, and so forth.  But seeing as how this was translated after the events in question, I can see of no way in which Joseph Smith (if he were an author rather than a translator) would have written that the Lord told Joseph to take the words not sealed.

                There would have been, if Joseph had written this verse, some reference to the distinct set of circumstances that arose prior to the Lord instructing Joseph – some reference that Joseph asked multiple times, and some mention of the condemnation of the Lord for losing the manuscript.  In fact, this section contains nothing about the missing pages!  If Joseph were writing this, he would have necessarily written it differently.  Instead, there are countless tiny indications that Joseph was a translator rather than an author.