This week in Come Follow Me we study D&C 10-11. D&C 10 explains what those "other records" were; i.e., the plates of Nephi, which Joseph didn't have in Harmony.
Although the lesson manual doesn't discuss them, D&C 10 makes two important points.
D&C 10:
(i) establishes the need for physical plates that Joseph translated and
(ii) refutes the claims that Joseph read words off the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) without even looking at the plates.
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The reading for D&C 10:34-52 bears this heading:
The Lord’s “wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil.”
The commentary makes some assumptions that have somehow become facts in the minds of many Latter-day Saints.
"Nephi didn’t know why he was inspired to make two sets of records of his people. And Mormon didn’t know why he was inspired to include the second set with the gold plates. But both prophets trusted that God had “a wise purpose” (1 Nephi 9:5; Words of Mormon 1:7). Today we know at least part of that purpose: to replace the 116 lost pages of the Book of Mormon."
The first and last sentence make sense, but the second sentence does not. Mormon never said he included the second set (of Nephi's plates) with the gold plates. That's merely an assumption, built on the underlying assumption that the only plates Joseph translated were the ones Moroni put in the stone box.
But we can all see that this assumption contradicts the Title Page, which was the last leaf of the plates and lists only abridged plates as contents (plus Moroni sealing the plates with his own writings). The Title Page never mentions any original plates, as it would have had they been included in the collection of plates.
The historical record also establishes that Joseph Smith took the abridged plates to Harmony, translated all of them (except the sealed portion of the abridged plates), and then gave the abridged plates to the divine messenger (whom Joseph identified as one of the Three Nephites). This messenger then took the abridged plates to Cumorah before bringing the plates of Nephi to Fayette, NY, where Joseph translated them.
https://www.mobom.org/trip-to-fayette-references
Questions raised by the historical record include (i) why did the messenger take the abridged plates to Cumorah and (ii) where did the messenger get the plates of Nephi?
The answer is simple. The messenger took the abridged plates to the repository in Cumorah because Joseph was finished with them, and the safest place for them was the repository. That's why Joseph explained that "they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him." (Joseph Smith—History 1:60)
For a diagram, see https://www.mobom.org/two-sets-of-plates
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Now, back to these points, that D&C 10
(i) establishes the need for physical plates that Joseph translated and
(ii) refutes the claims that Joseph read words off the stone-in-the-hat (SITH) without even looking at the plates.
There is a narrative popular among some modern LDS scholars that the 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed was more accurate than what Joseph and Oliver taught. The following excerpt from Mormonism Unvailed is almost word-for-word what we read in the writings of some modern LDS scholars/historians.
The plates, therefore, which had been so much talked of, were found to be of no manner of use. After all, the Lord showed and communicated to him every word and letter of the Book. Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old "peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book.
https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18/mode/2up
This is why the LDS scholar Royal Skousen and his followers claim that:
Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading.
Fortunately, though, D&C 10 tells a different story.
No one has to accept, or defer to, the opinions of scholars, not matter how many worldly credentials they have.
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When Joseph and Oliver reached the end of the abridged plates, they considered going back to the beginning and re-translating the Book of Lehi.
In D&C 10, the Lord told them not to do that the people who had the lost 116 pages of manuscript "have altered the words [so] they read contrary from that which you translated and caused to be written..." (Doctrine and Covenants 10:11)
being commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over again, for Satan had put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words, that they did read contrary from that which I translated and caused to be written; and if I should bring forth the same words again, or, in other words, if I should translate the same over again, they would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive this work...
D&C 10 also explains that the evil persons who had the stolen manuscript would "say that... you have pretended to translate."
And yet, we have LDS scholars today who claim that very thing; i.e., that Joseph merely "pretended to translate" when he was (according to them) simply reading words off the stone-in-the-hat (SITH).
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Instead of re-translating the first part of the abridged plates, Joseph was instructed to translate different plates.
From the Preface:
but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing: therefore thou shalt translate from the plates of Nephi, until ye come to that which ye have translated, which ye have retained
Obviously, the "plates of Nephi" were not Mormon's abridged plates. Instead, they were the original plates that Nephi engraved.
The explanation in D&C 10 is more specific, telling Joseph to "translate the engravings."
38 And now, verily I say unto you, that an account of those things that you have written, which have gone out of your hands, is engraven upon the plates of Nephi;
39 Yea, and you remember it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these things upon the plates of Nephi.
40 And now, because the account which is engraven upon the plates of Nephi is more particular concerning the things which, in my wisdom, I would bring to the knowledge of the people in this account—
41 Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained;
42 And behold, you shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words.
(Doctrine and Covenants 10:38–42)
(i) Joseph needed the specific plates he was instructed to translate, in this case the plates of Nephi instead of the abridged plates; and(ii) Joseph had to look at the plates to translate the engravings upon them.
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