Saints Review

An article titled "Questions and Answers, 8 May 1838" from the Elders' Journal: includes a couple of key points that Saints, volume 1, skews.

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Question 20th. What are the fundamental principles of your religion.

Answer. The fundamental principles of our religion is the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ, “that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended up into heaven;” and all other things are only appendages to these, which pertain to our religion.

But in connection with these, we believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost, the power of faith, the enjoyment of the spiritual gifts according to the will of God, the restoration of the house of Israel, and the final triumph of truth.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/questions-and-answers-8-may-1838/3

Although the resurrection is the fundamental principle of our religion, and although the resurrection is clearly explained in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, Saints teaches that we aren't really restored our bodies in the resurrection. 

Instead of what Alma 40:23 teaches, we receive a body that we can transform to look like whatever we want. Thus, Moroni, a resurrected being, could change his shape and appearance from a glorious personage taller than average into an short, stout old man to fool David Whitmer and his mother.

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https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/questions-and-answers-8-may-1838/1

Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?

Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon.5

That is consistent with every other statement by Joseph and Oliver; i.e., that Joseph Smith translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.

However, look at note 5 in the Joseph Smith Papers, which Saints follows. They change what Joseph said so that it was W.W. Phelps who coined the term, not Moroni, and that Joseph himself used "seer stones" he found in a well to translate the plates. Except the scholars now tell us that Joseph didn't really translate anything; he merely read the English words off the seer stones and didn't even use the plates, after all.

By now, we've all see that it wasn't Phelps who first used the term, but they don't update these notes because it's important for the scholars to claim it wasn't Moroni (or even Joseph) who first referred to the Nephite interpreters as the Urim and Thummim. 

According to the scholars, this is another example of Joseph passively adopting a misleading (a euphemism for false) tradition started by others, in this case Phelps. That's their explanation of why Joseph adopted the false tradition of the New York Cumorah as well, which is why the censored Cumorah from Saints, volume 1.

Note 5. The Book of Mormon describes revelatory stones, or “interpreters,” that could be used to “translate all records that are of ancient date.”a JS recounted finding such instruments with the plates and using them to translate the record on the plates into English.b Extant documents suggest that the biblical term Urim and Thummim was first applied to the interpreters by William W. Phelps in 1833 and that JS adopted the term thereafter.c JS also used other seer stones to translate the plates.d After 1833, JS at times referred to seer stones as Urim and Thummim.e   

(aBook of Mormon, 1830 ed., 172–173 [Mosiah 8:13].

b“Urim and Thummim,” in the glossary.

c“The Book of Mormon,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1833, [2]; Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 27:21; “Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon;”; JS, Journal, 9–11 Nov. 1835.

dSee “Urim and Thummim,” in the glossary.

eWoodruff, Journal, 27 Dec. 1841; Historian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 60.)

The end