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Episode Description
Did Joseph Smith try to translate a known hoax? In 1843, forged brass plates dug from a burial mound near Kinderhook, Illinois were rushed to Nauvoo, and critics have used the story ever since as proof that Joseph Smith was a fraud. But the documented history tells a very different story — one most members (and most critics) have never heard.
In this episode, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot break down what really happened when the Kinderhook Plates came to town: who forged them and why, how the "discovery" was staged, and what Joseph Smith actually did when he examined them. Drawing on research by Mark Ashurst-McGee and Don Bradley, they show how the famous William Clayton journal entry ("President Joseph has translated a portion...") traces back to a single character compared against the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar — a scholarly exercise using the study tools available to him, not a revelation. No seer stone. No Urim and Thummim. No Book of Kinderhook. The trap never sprang shut, and what Joseph Smith didn't do may be the most compelling evidence of his sincerity as a prophet and translator.
In this episode:
- What were the Kinderhook Plates, and who made them?
- The forgers' real motive (it wasn't what you think)
- Why the Saints — and the national press — took the plates seriously
- What Joseph Smith asked for when he first saw them
- The single character behind William Clayton's "translation" entry
- Does any of this implicate the Book of Abraham? (No — here's why)
- Why no revelation ever came, and what Mosiah 8 says about translating records "of ancient date"
- How the Church itself helped expose the hoax in 1981
- Kinderhook's staged witnesses vs. the Book of Mormon witnesses
===Informed Saints Credits===
Produced by The Ancient America Foundation
Producer: Spencer Clark
Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
Further reading:
- Mark Ashurst-McGee and Don Bradley, "President Joseph Has Translated a Portion: Solving the Mystery of the Kinderhook Plates," in Producing Ancient Scripture (University of Utah Press, 2020)
- Don Bradley and Mark Ashurst-McGee, "Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates," in A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History (BYU Religious Studies Center, 2016)
- Stanley B. Kimball, "Kinderhook Plates Brought to Joseph Smith Appear to Be a Nineteenth-Century Hoax," Ensign, August 1981
- Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (2005)
https://rsc.byu.edu/reason-faith/kinderhook-plates
https://mormonr.org/qnas/a9l1T/the_kinderhook_plates
https://archive.org/details/EnsignAugust1981/page/n67/mode/2up
https://bhroberts.org/records/0yAxfr-08AjsB/wilburn_fugates_confession_letter
https://bhroberts.org/records/0yAxfr-0ECbgq/quincy_whig_report_on_kinderhook_plates_discovery
https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/8508
https://bhroberts.org/records/0yAxfr-QiqJGb/in_wwps_hand_gael_gives_definition_of_boat_hieroglyph
https://archive.org/details/EnsignAugust1981/page/n67/mode/2up
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===Content Disclaimer===
The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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