The
following is a discussion from Michael Hubbard Mackay on the importance of
Joseph possessing the gold plates:
. . .the gold plates themselves demonstrated Smith’s
authoritative claims. The translation process legitimized the gold plates, even
though they remained a hidden object; they were rarely used or even kept in the
same room with Smith when he translated them through the seer stones. Because
the translated words presumably appeared on the seer stones, translation could
occur via the seer stones while the plates remained apart. But the mere fact of
the gold plates themselves instilled confidence in Smith and his scribes that
the text appearing on the stones was truly from an ancient record. As Ann Taves
argues, even if they were not ancient, they still became sacred and represented
something deeply important to Mormonism. Without the translation, the plates
were a lump of metal, lifted and hefted by others, yet in context the plates
became the object of inspiration—the prof of prophet-hood—that prompted a
belief in the historical reality of the Book of Mormon text. Without the
plates, the text of the Book of Mormon was nothing more than modern revelation,
but the combination of the translated text, the plates, and the seer stones
elevated all three, placing them in a complex relationship that knit the sacred
word with an earthly physical reality. (Michael Hubbard Mackay, Prophetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy
and the Mormon Priesthood [Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press,
2020], 15-16)
The best Mormon apologists have been able to say in response to this point is that Joseph needed to have contact with the gold plates as physical assurance that the Book of Mormon was based on something real (E.g., Neal Rappleye, “Why Did Joseph Smith Need the Gold Plates” Studio et Quoque Fide (blog), June 21, 2010. Rappleye cites BYU scholar Daniel C. Peterson as having offered the same explanation.) There are two objections to this explanation. The first is that if the point of having the plates was to be assured that the Book of Mormon was an ancient text, then Joseph should have used the transparent stone spectacles he claimed had been provided. Doing so would have produced a much more direct, tangible demonstration to Joseph—and anyone else permitted to watch-that the Book of Mormon was really translated from ancient scriptures. Second, the explanation is out of sync with the constant refrain of Mormon leaders, scholars, and apologists that knowledge of the truth of the Book of Mormon must be gained by a witness of the Holy Ghost and not by physical evidence (cf. Moroni 10:4-5). (Robert M. Bowman Jr., Jesus’ Resurrection and Joseph’s Visions: Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism [Tampa, Fla.: DeWard Publishing Company, 2020], 282)