Have you ever noticed that sometimes those who know the very most say the very least?

This seems to be true not only at family parties, but also maybe true when it comes to some

of Joseph Smith's translation projects, including the marvelous translation of the Book

of Mormon.

How did Joseph translate that book?

Joseph's simple and very brief answer was, quote, by the gift and power of God into

a quote, sometimes he would add the line that it was done by the medium of Yerim and

Thumam.

Others, however, attempted to give a little bit more detail.

Near the end of her life, Emma Smith, Joseph's wife, recalled the translation with Joseph

quote, sitting with his face buried in his hat with a stone in it, and dictating hour

after hour with nothing between us.

Joseph would dictate to me hour after hour, and when returning after meals or after interruptions,

he could at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or

having any portion of it read to him end of quote.

Sometime before 1847, Joseph Knight Senior, who witnessed the translation, recalled, quote,

now the way Joseph Smith translated was he put the Yerim and Thumam into his hat and

darkened his eyes.

Then he would take a sentence, and it would appear in bright Roman letters.

Then he would tell the writer and he would write it.

Then that would go away, the next sentence would come, and so on.

But if it was not spelled right, it would not go away until it was right.

...