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George Arbaugh
(1905-1988) Revelation in Mormonism (University of Chicago, 1932) |
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Arbaugh's 1940 Article: "Evolution of Mormon Doctrine" (under constr.)
Entire web-page contents copyright © 1932 by The University of Chicago.
Contents will be reduced to "fair use" proportions upon proper notification.
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R E V E L A T I O N I N M O R M O N I S M Its Character and Changing Forms By GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW ARBAUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO - ILLINOIS [ iv ] COPYRIGHT 1932 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1932. ____________________ COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A. |
Entire web-page contents copyright © 1932 by The University of Chicago.
Contents will be reduced to "fair use" proportions upon proper notification.
Entire web-page contents copyright © 1932 by The University of Chicago.
Contents will be reduced to "fair use" proportions upon proper notification.
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CONTENTS 001 I INTRODUCTION
PART I
009 II SIDNEY RIGDON AND THE NEW CHURCH 016 III ORIGIN OF THE NEW BIBLE 026 IV BEGINNING OF SMITH PROPHECY 031 V BRINGING FORTH THE BOOK OF MORMON 045 VI CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON
PART II
059 VII PROPHETIC AND INDIVIDUALIST REVELATION 069 VIII BOOK OF MOSES AND TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE 086 IX BOOK OF COMMANDMENTS 102 X BOOK OF ABRAHAM 117 XI JOSEPH'S OTHER VENTURES WITH SCRIPTURES 122 XII SMITH'S FINAL POSITION
PART III
133 XIII INSPIRED FICTIONS 146 XIV REVELATIONS OF KING JAMES J. STRANG 159 XV REVELATIONS OF CHARLES B. THOMPSON 172 XVI MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SPIRIT IN UTAH 183 XVII ORACLES OF JOSEPH MORRIS 195 XVIII PROPHECY IN THE REORGANIZED CHURCH 206 XIX REVELATION AMONG THE HEDRICKITES 217 XX CONCLUSION 225 APPENDIX I PROBLEMS RELATING TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK OF MORMON 227 APPENDIX II PERSONALITY OF JOSEPH SEDRICKITES 230 CHRONOLOGY OF SMITH'S REVELATIONS 235 BIBLIOGRAPHY 245 INDEX ILLUSTRATIONS 112 FACSIMILES FROM THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM 169 TITLE-PAGE OF BLACK AND MIXED RACES 193 THE ROUNDS OF ETERNITY |
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In the origin of Mormonism three factors were united: the origin of the church under the direction of Sidney Rigdon, his acquisition of the Book of Mormon, and his selection of Joseph Smith as prophet. Rigdon, the founder of Mormonism, was born and raised about nine miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As he grew to maturity he spent many idle hours there, particularly in the printing oftice of Patterson and Hopkins in company with J. H. Lambdin who worked there. The postmaster's daughter has told how they often came together to the post-office. "I particularly remember that they would come during the hour on Sabbath aftenioon when the office was required to be open, and I remember feeling sure that Rev. Patterson knew nothing of this, or he would have put a stop to it." 1 Rigdon seems to have had some connection with a tannery in the city. A very curious novel about the Indian was brought to the printing shop by a clergyman named Spaulding. Patterson seemed pleased with it, kept it some time, and finally offered to publish it if Spaulding would make out a title-page and preface. Spaulding moved to Amity, Pennsylvania, due to financial difficulties. When he returned with the title-page and preface he learned that the manuscript was gone and that Rigdon was suspected of taking it. 2 Not long after this Spaulding died, but told his physician that he suspected Rigdon of the theft, also that the title he had worked out was The Manuscript Found in the Wilds of Mormon; or Unearthed Records of the Nephites. 3 At the time, Rigdon was twenty-three or twenty-four years __________ 1 C. A. Shook, The True Origin of the Book of Mormon (1912), p. 118. 2 Ibid., p. 119. Statement of J. Miller, a neighbor. 3 Ibid., p. 120. Written by physician in his Book of Mormon. [note: the MS title Arbaugh cites from Shook came from a disreputable source] 10 REVELATION IN MORMONISM old. The story, which gave the religious history of the Indians, must have aroused his interest in religion. About a year later he joined the Baptist church, on May 31, 1817, and in two years was licensed to preach and then ordained. From 1822 to 1823 he served a church in Pittsburgh and, while there, showed the MS to one of his parishioners. He stated that he had borrowed it as a curiosity, that it had been written by "Spaulding, a Presbyterian preacher whose health had failed him and who had taken it to the printers to see if it would pay to publish it" 4 Obviously Rigdon had not yet planned to make an Indian Bible of it. Within a few months he was put out of the church for heresy and then joined the Campbellite group, probably through the influence of Adamson Bentley whose wife's sister he had married. He traveled far and wide promulgating the new doctrines, and it was apparently thus that he met Joseph Smith. Smith's mother wrote that shortly after the fall of 1824 "a mancommenced laboring in the neighborhood, to effect a union of the different churches; in order that all might be agreed." 5 This was the key doctrine and mission of the Campbellites, and since there were few of them at the time, it is easily possible that this man was Rigdon, made more plausible by the fact that within a couple of years: Smith and Rigdon were co-operating. In 1823-24 Rigdon apparently conceived a practical use for his story. He was preaching a new religion, a restored primitive Christianity, so why not write it into a restored Bible? But to sponsor such a tremendous undertaking was too much for Rigdon, for though brilliant he was lacking in force of personality and bravado. In this difficulty he adopted Smith as a tool. But this venture required considerable literary work. Spaulding had certainly been no Campbellite, and Rigdon's sectarian passion necessitated incorporation in the story of the tenets which he was championing. The work was soon begun but not completed __________ 4 Ibid., p. 120. 5 Lucy Smith, Joseph Smith and His Progenitors (1912), p. 101. Since she wrote that Joseph and the angel had been in communicntion for some time and that Alvin, who died November 19, 1824, was deeply interested in the "record," it may be thatRigdon and Smith met before. But more probably this is a pre-dated fiction glorifying Alvin who could not share the Smith family's fame. SIDNEY RIGDON AND THE NEW CHURCH 11 until almost four years later. Mrs. Rigdon's neice recorded that during her visit to the home in 1826 or 1827 Rigdon got a manuscript out of a locked trunk in his bedroom, sat down by the fireplace, and began reading it. His wife at that moment came into the room and exclaimed: "What, you are studying that thing again? or something to that effect.... "I mean to burn that paper." He said: "No, indeed, you will not; this will be a great thing some day." Whenever he was reading this, he was so completely occupied that he seemed entirely unconscious of anything passing around him. 6 Rigdon became so wrapped up in the project that he foolishly mentioned it to various persons. He told Bentley and Campbell that "there was a book coming out" in New York, translated from "gold plates," telling how the Christian religion was preached to the Indians during the first century, just as they were preaching it "in the Western Reserve." 7 Apparently Rigdon hoped to convert his hearers, but about a year later broke with the Disciples when they rejected communism (on the basis of Acts) which he tried to force on them. He declared bitterly: "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor of it." 8 The significance became clear when he wrote a few years later that the Book of Mormon, "puked the Campbellites effectually; no emetic could have done so half as well." 9 As the work progressed Rigdon became enthusiastic and incautious. A parishioner said: For a few months before his professed conversion to Mormonism. it was noticed that his wild, extravagant propensities had been more marked.... He gave a wonderful description of the mounds and other antiquities found in some parts of America... He said there was a book to be published containing an account of those things. He spoke of these in his eloquent, enthusiastic style, as being a thing most extraordinary.10__________ 6 Shook, op. cit., p. 121. 7 Ibid., p. 122. Campbell dated this 1826, Bentley 1827. 8 Linn, The Story of the Mormons (1902), pp. 61f. Communism which his parishoners at Kirtland practiced was the origin of Mormonism's many communistic tendencies. Cf. also J. A. Geddes, The United Order among the Mormons (1922). 9 June, 1837 (Linn, op. cit., p. 62). 10 Cf. Shook, op. cit, p. 123. Statement of D. Atwater. 12 REVELATION IN MORMONISM About six months before becoming a Mormon, while riding in company with Dr. Rosa, he remarked that "mankind were all rife and ready" for a new religion, that it would soon appear, also that he was thinking of leaving [for] Pensylvania for some months. 11 In working out the organization and doctrine of the new church Rigdon emphasized the ideas with which he had been working, the Campbellite theology. Most of this was put in the Book of Mormon (treated in chap. vi ). One prominent idea which seems to have left no trace of in it, but which was carried into Mormonism, is opposition to creeds. Orson Pratt expressed the Mormon view when he said that any creed written "without the aid of immediate revelation" only stirs up contention. 12 Joseph Smith complained that creeds set up limiting "stakes," 13 but he admitted that he had "immediate revelation" and wrote the "articles of faith," printed on the back of the Mormon elder's calling card. But even today the tendency persists. In spite of having an elaborate creed, a revision of these articles and therefore no longer inspired, the Hedrickites breathe forth the spirit of Campbell. When one wrote, "Behold, the Lord has rejected all creeds," another answered in hot resentment, "Does the Church of Christ have any creeds?" 14 The Disciples' denunciation of denominationalism was perfectly adapted to Mormonism. The Campbells urged that all denominations should disappear in a return to primitive Christianity, but Rigdon could add that his church was not only like the New Testament church but that it was divinely authorized. These ideas were reflected in the Book of Mormon, for instance, in II Ne. 28:3 where it was prophesied that when the new Bible appears one church will say to another, "Behold, I, I am the Lord's," and "they shall contend one with another." 15 __________ 11 Ibid., pp. 123 f. 12 Linn, op. cit., p. 64. 13 E. F. Parry, Joseph Smith's Teachings, p. 26. 14 Zion's Advocate, VII (April 1, 1930), 68. 15 D. S. Margoliouth has noted that in origin Mormonism is like Islam in being influenced by rivalries between sects. But he was wrong in assuming the authenticity of Smith's account of asking God which church was right (Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, 3d ed., p. 76). Cf. below, Appendix II. SIDNEY RIGDON AND THE NEW CHURCH 13 Campbellite theology appeared even in the name of the new church. The Campbellites generously appropriated the name "Christians," but later relinquished it to an associated sect, choosing the name "Disciples of Christ." This was claimed to be more ancient, descriptive, and scriptural. One inclined to overlook this point should examine the tedious defenses of the name. Perhaps no other matter received quite so much emphasis. This had, if not a biblical origin, at least a biblical support in the idea that the name is vital. 16 Accordingly, Rigdon makes the Indians ask Christ how they shall call the church, "for there are disputations... concerning this matter." He answers: "whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the Church in my name." 17 In conformance with this the Mormon church was organized as the Church of Christ. 18 Four years later, again at the direction of Rigdon, the church changed its name to Church of the Latter-Day Saints, 19 thus adding another element of Campbellite theology, that of the approaching millennium, as well as "Saints" from the Perfectionist movement which had been especially active the two preceding years. 20 After all their insistence on using the name of Christ, the Mormons became so obsessed with the idea of being the saints of the pre-millennial days, that they forgot to include the name of Christ in their title. Under this title the Doctrine and Covenants was issued, and congregations were directed to observe the change. But the defect was so obvious that in 1838 the Lord commanded that the church be known as "The Church of Jesus __________ 16 Eccles. 6:10 shows how human achievement is restricted by the name "man," a sort of formula. Names often signified ideas. Thus new experience or theory meant new names: Jacob to Israel ("kept by God" referring to the chosen people), Abram to Abraham ("father of a multitude"), Cephas to Peter ("rock), James and John surnamed Boanerges ("sons of thunder"). Cf. pp. 19-28 of J. F. Burnett's The Origin and Principles of the Christians (Dayton, Ohio: Christian Publishing Association, 1921). 17 III Ne. 27:3. 18 See D.C. 20:1. "Chrisr" is not a name but a title, "anointed one." "Jesus" mistakenly refers to "the name of Christ, which is my name" (III Ne. 27:5). 19 Rigdon made the motion. Cf. conference minutes in Evening and Morning Star of July [sic - May], 1834, or passage on pages 26 f. of Changing of the Revelations (1927) by D. Macgregor (Hedrickite). 20 W. H. Dixon, Spiritual Wives (I-vol. ed.; 1868), p. 237. 14 REVELATION IN MORMONISM Christ of Latter-Day Saints." 21 Still again did Rigdon change the name of the church when, after his expulsion by the Mormons, he named his faction the "Church of Christ." In this he was not concerned about the merit of the name but used this to express his claim that his church was the true one from which the Latter-Day Saints had departed into error. Other factions made similar changes and claims. It is indeed difficult to reconcile the original insistence on the changeless of God 22 with his repeatedly changing the name of the church, still another time -- as some believe -- to "The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." These points of external identity between Mormonism and Discipleism are rooted in a deeper identity. Mormonism is an elaboration of the central proposition of the Disciples, the identity of the church and the kingdom of God. Protestantism rebelled against the demand of obedience to the authorized voice of the church, and few thoughtful Protestants have seriously believed that Jesus aimed to establish a church. Even though often confusing the two, they have generally regarded them as distinct, the one governed by the love of God, the other by human needs. But the Campbellites maintained that the church is a divine institution and that it must therefore be undivided. "In theory they do not claim to be the church of Christ, but simply desire to be Christians only and their churches to be only churches of Christ." 23 The entire system, with its stressing of biblical polity, name of the church, form of baptism, and the ancient gospel, was based on this and on a legalism growing out of it. As soon as the church is regarded as divine, so soon will emphasis change to correct forms and authority. Mormonism completed this by adding the restored priesthood to the restored gospel. Thus it became the antithesis __________ 21 D.C. 115:4. 22 Sec. 3, vs. 15, of Rigdon's Lectures on Faith reads: "Thirdly, that he changes not, neither is there variableness with him.... and that his course is one eternal round, without variation." Reiterated in D.C. 3:2 and Book of Moses 1:3. Cf. below, p. 89, on lectures and p. 135 on Rigdon and name of the church. 23 E. H. Klotsche, Christian Symbolics (1929), p. 347. SIDNEY RIGDON AND THE NEW CHURCH 15 of spiritual Protestantism -- the complete institutionalizing of religion. Bohmer showed that the essence of Catholicism is its identification of the kingdom of God with the church of Rome. 24 But Rigdon outdid Rome. He started a church which so institutionalized religion that its gospel is law, its life a priesthood, its salvation obtained by doing good for God, by even helping Him, that men obtain glory by begetting children eternally, that even the dead must be baptized to be saved, and that its outward manifestation is in the form of big business. It is no wonder that whereas Mormonism first expressed bitter hatred for Catholicism it later acknowledged it to be least incorrect of all churches. Assuming that some church must be "divine" Mormonism tries to force people to this question: "How am I to determine which of all the Christian churches is divine?" 25 Recognizing their similarity, Mormonism and Discipleism clash. Traum, Shook, and others wrote and debated against Mormonism. In reply, J. F. McDowell of the Reorganized church pointed out Campbellite defects -- the lack of a priesthood, that the church is dated from Pentecost instead of from Adam, etc. 26 __________ 24 der junge Luther (1925), p. 251. 25 Nephi Jensen in Loahona The Elders' Journal (Independence, Missouri, October 14, 1930). p. 199. 26 Discipleism, p. 12. Cf. below, pp. 54 f. and 103 f/, for further treatment of Campbellite influence. |
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The new church would probably have come into being without the Book of Mormon, but by its violent break with tradition and by instituting prophecy, this book led to the formation of a new religion, far more independent of the mother-religion in many respects than Islam is from its Jewish-Christian background. Its author, Solomon Spaulding, was born in Ashford, Connecticut, in 1761, graduated from Dartmouth, studied theology, and became a Congregational minister. Losing his faith, 1 he quit preaching and engaged in other enterprises. While living in Conneaut (New Salem), Ohio, his imagination was aroused by nearby mounds. His daughter said: "I vividly remember how excited he became when he heard that they had exhumed some human bones, portions of gigantic skeletons, and various relics."2 About 1812 he began writing "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek." The story claims to have been written by Fabius, secretary to the emperor Constantine. Sailing for England he and his companions were driven by a great storm to America where they were hospitably received by the Indians. The life and travels of the little group and tedious accounts of the religion, culture, and wars of the natives are given. The Ohons (citizens of Ohio) and the Kentucks, separated by the Ohio River, engaged in devastating war in which the "King of Michegan" took part. The natives danced, played cards which were "placed in a pack & dealt." A man proclaimed his desire to marry "by wearing a red feather in his cap." A hymn's "last stanzy" reads: The moon shines forth for our delight. The stars extol our heroes prais And warriors flee before our sight. 1 This and uncertain morals appear in the "Manuscript Story." 2 Shook, True Origin of the Book of Mormon, p. 89. ORIGIN OF THE NEW BIBLE 17 Delawan to chakee poloo Manegengo forwah toloo Chanepant, lawango chapah Quinebogan hamboo gowah. Spaulding never finished the story. His neighbors told how he cast it aside for a new story in which he went farther back with dates and wrote in the "scripture style" to make it appear more ancient.3 This story, "The Manuscript Found," had very little in common with the first. The Latinized style is replaced by the King James biblical English, and instead of merely describing the culture of the Indians it tells their origin. For names Spaulding did not corrupt English and Indian names as before but, as part of the biblicizing scheme, sought out peculiar names from the Bible. 4 Nevertheless, there are striking similarities between the stories. The first was found in a "mound of Earth," under a stone which was raised with "a leaver." In the cave which the stone covered was "an earthen Box." The account taken from the Manuscript Found by Rigdon and Smith is that the book was found in a hill, under a stone which was raised by "a lever," and lying in a "box." In both stories a terrible storm arose as the immigrants crossed the ocean, the sailors lost their directions, became frightened, prayed to be saved from drowning, after which the storm abated. Although horses had died out long before, both stories make the Indians use them. The Manuscript Story tells of mammouths, larger than elephants, which were also called "mammoons." Ether 9:19 speaks of "elephants and cureloms and cummons." The transition was: mammouth, mammoon, cumom, curelom. Both manuscripts falsely credit the Indians with use of iron and with worshipping a Great Spirit. 5 Seer stones (cf. p. 38), high priests, and the idea of the earth's revolution about the sun appear in both. Common to both are writing in "characters," communism, ____________ 3 Ibid., p. 75. Cf. also p. 74. From Howe's statement. 4 Cf. below, p. 47. Onidah (Oneida) is an exception (Alma 32:4). 5 In place of "worship of the Great Spirit" only "worship of mythic animals and nature-gods" actually existed (First Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 69). 18 REVELATION IN MORMONISM sacred records kept separate, and forts of earth with timbers on top. 6 Spaulding read the story to his neighbors with pride and believed its publication would pay his debts and establish him financially. To find a publisher, he went to Pittsburgh where, as already recounted, he was encouraged by Patterson. 7 The manuscript was stolen and he died soon afterward. When the Book of Mormon appeared his friends declared that the two works were the same except that religious matter had been added, particularly scripture passages. 8 The Manuscript Found, they said, told how certain Jews left Jerusalem to escape the judgments to be visited upon it (captivity), and journeyed by land and sea to America, under the command of Nephi and Lehi. There they separated into two nations, Nephites and Lamanites, who fought cruel and bloody wars. Spaulding's brother John wrote that the two stories had nearly the same "historical matter" and names, and that nearly every sentence in the Manuscript Found began "And it came to pass" as in the Book of Mormon. 9 Henry Lake, business partner of Spaulding, stated: "One time, when he was reading to me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed out to him what I considered an inconsistency, which he promised to correct, but by referring to the 'Book of Mormon,' I find that it stands there just as he read it...." 10 The reference seems to be to I Ne. 3:31 where Laman and Lemuel do not trust an angel. Joseph Miller, "a man of standing" of Amity, Pennsylvania, stated that when he heard read the account of the battle of the Amlicites, in which the soldiers placed red marks on their foreheads to distinguish them from their ____________ 6 Cf. The "Manuscript Story" (ed. Reorganized Church), pp. 66, 30, 41 f., 21, 43, 80; and Mos. 26:7; Hel. 12:15; Morm. 9:32; IV Ne. 3; I Ne. 9:2ff.; Alma 50:2. 7 His wife's statement that he refused to make out the title-page and preface is unlikely (Linn, The Story of the Mormons, p. 52). 8 Meyer, Ursprung u. Gesch. der Mormonen, p. 49 [sic - 29], said that if the Spaulding story was not religious the Book of Mormon could not have been based on it, for it is "nothing but religion." But these people did not say Spaulding's story was not religious. In fact, every point they mention is religious in some sense. 9 Shook, op. cit., p. 96. Cf. p. 100 and Linn, op. cit., p. 54. 10 Linn, op. cit., p. 54. ORIGIN OF THE NEW BIBLE 19 enemies, it seemed to reproduce the very words he had read in Spaulding's manuscript. 11 Eleven people gave written statements relating to one or more of these various points of identity. About four years after the Book of Mormon was printed, an ex-Mormon named Hurlbut secured a manuscript from Spaulding's widow and gave it to E. D. Howe who was writing Mormonism Unveiled. It has been thought and is not impossible that he also found a secondary copy of the Manuscript Found and sold it to the Mormons. His statement suggests that he knew what they would give and that he was not above such an act: "Why if it had been the real one, I could have sold it for $3000; but I just gave it to Howe because it was of no account." When interviewed he was nervous, seemed to know more than he would divulge, and was urged by his wife to tell what he knew. The manuscript he gave to Howe was the Manuscript Story. Spaulding's old neighbors recognized it as having been written by him but said, as Howe wrote at the time, "that it bears no resemblance to the 'Manuscript Found.'" 12 The man who bought Howe's printing plant later found it while searching through his effects, brought it from the Sandwich Islands, where he had moved, to the library of Oberlin College. Both large Mormon churches have published careful copies of it. This was heralded as a great discovery by the Mormons. It was not new, having been reviewed by Howe many years before, but in the excitement of rediscovery even many non-Mormons accepted the claim that this was the Manuscript Found. Riley, Meyer, and others, particularly the Mormons, have denied that Spaulding wrote a second story, on the ground that the testimony concerning it was given some years after the witnesses had read the story and that they may therefore have imagined the similarities. 13 Had this actually occurred we would expect to ____________ 11 Ibid., p. 55; Alma 2-3, 12 Cf. ibid., pp. 58, 57. 13 Howe wrote, "We might therefore introduce a great number of witnesses all testifying to the same general facts; but we have not taken the trouble to procure the statements of but few, all of whom are the most respectable men..." (Shook, op. cit., p. 112). Subsequent evidence supported this (ibid., p. 113). 20 REVELATION IN MORMONISM find mentioned those similarities which do exist between the earlier story and the Book of Mormon -- that it dealt with the Indians, their wars, and culture. But all the similarities listed are specifically not those which could characterize the early story, but which could be remembered only from the second. "And it came to pass," a biblical phrase which does not once appear in the first novel, occurred so often in the Manuscript Found "that some called him (Spaulding) 'Old Come-to-pass.'" When the Book of Mormon was read in public at Conneaut, old Esquire Wright heard it and exclaimed, "'Old Come-to-pass' has come to life again."14 A feature so common as to give rise to a nickname should be regarded as "imagined" only upon strong evidence, of which there is none. This applies equally well to other characteristics of the Manuscript Found which these people gave: the narrative, incidents, names, biblical phraseology, and the decision to discard the first story and write a new one. The Manuscript Story could not have been the romance which Spaulding sought to publish, for it was unfinished, broken off in the middle of the plot. Mr. Rice, who rediscovered the Manuscript Story, wrote: "It is unlikely that any one who wrote so elaborate a work as the Mormon Bible, would spend his time in getting up so shallow a story as this."15 But this reverses the historical sequence; the Manuscript Story was a preliminary attempt. A far less excusable argument is that of Meyer, "that the Book of Mormon cannot possibly have been written by a man of Rigdon's (or Spaulding's) education, but of a cultural level far beneath him."16 Actually, although Spaulding was well schooled, his first novel is much inferior to the Book of Mormon. Had Meyer known the books better, he could not have thought this. The reverse of his statement is true. Smith was quite incapable of writing the Book of Mormon. All that he and Rigdon together could do was to insert their own ideas into it, and they muddled it pretty badly doing that. ____________ 14 Cf. Linn, op. cit., p. 55. 15 The "Manuscript Story," p. 8. 16 Meyer, op. cit., p. 48. ORIGIN OF THE NEW BIBLE 21 EDITING OF THE BOOK OF MORMON How much of the Book of Mormon is the work of Spaulding? The problem cannot be solved to entire satisfaction, but there are several rules of analysis which, though limited, are positive: (1) All Disciple theology is by Rigdon. (2) Passages prophetic of Mormonism are by Rigdon, or in a few cases by Smith. (3) Historical passages are by Spaulding. (4) Passages in which "It came to pass" occurs frequently are by Spaulding. (5) Lengthy theological discussions are by Rigdon unless they are integral parts of the narrative. (6) Reflections of the anti-Masonic excitement are by Rigdon, or in a few instances possibly by Smith, since Rigdon got the novel in 1826, several years before this occurred. (7) Long quotations from the Bible were added by Rigdon.Chapters 10-16 of I Nephi were thought by Riley to be visions of the Smith family. This deserves careful treatment because of its importance concerning Smith's personality and the authorship of the Book of Mormon. Lucy Smith, the prophet's mother, tried to make the whole family appear peculiarly blessed in her Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, published in 1853 in Liverpool. In doing so she recounted seven visions which she claimed her husband had received. 17 The first, dated about 1811, is undeniably related to Lehi's vision in I Ne. 8.
____________ 17 Cf. I.W. Riley, The Founder of Mormonism, a Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1902), pp. 26-29, 114-17. 22 REVELATION IN MORMONISM There is evidence which shows that Smith's vision was fabricated by Lucy on the pattern of Lehi's. The two small children in Smith's vision have no possible meaning but the two sons in Lehi's vision are there of necessity. Their rebellion and sin is fundamental in the Nephite story and had to be pictured by their refusal to come to the tree of life. Lucy changes the reason for adsence from sin to immaturity and instead of leaving them unsaved happily brings her whole brood to the tree. Second, the use of Babylon is due to later Mormon influence. The doctrine of Catholic apostasy and the use of these passages from Revelation condemning "Babylon" became popular after 1820 rather than before 1811. Through Rigdon it crept into the Book of Mormon, and, after had Mormon usage, was naturally inserted by Lucy for sake of invective. Third, Mormon wording appears in use of "Saints" in place of those who eat of the fruit. In 1834 "Saints" was inserted in the name of the church, borrowed from the Perfectionist movement. This came to be used by Mormons as their peculiar designation. It was natural for Lucy to use it when she wrote this vision, but it would have been strange indeed for her husband to have used it twenty years before the founding of the church. A fourth evidence is that the whole last part, condemnatory of those who oppose the saints, could scarcely have been a part of the supposed vision. The opening quarter of the century was marked by interdenominational friendship and unity. This damning of enemies is not a fruit of that time but of the later sectarian age which gave birth to Discipleism, Mormonism, and a hundred other "isms," and of the subsequent bitter opposition between Mormons and "Gentiles." There is then no basis for Riley's assumption that these are Smith visions and that the Book of Mormon is "nothing but a thinly veiled autobiography." 18 Their intimacy point to Rigdon or Spaulding as author and their being so integral a part of the narrative makes Spaulding the more probable. It is clear that Smith did meddle with the manuscript in places, 19 but this does ____________ 18 Ibid., p. 113. 19 In connection with Parchment of John. Cf. below, p. 66. ORIGIN OF THE NEW BIBLE 23 not appear to have been at all extensive. Chapters 20-22 of I Nephi, containing Isaiah, chapters 48-49, and prophecies of the rise of Mormonism are the work of Rigdon. The rest of the book seems to be largely by Spaulding. II Nephi is almost entirely by Rigdon, with a few elements by Spaulding. It gives prophecies of Christ, of democratic America, of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in a day of Masonic abominations, and Isaiah, chapters 2-14, 19, are inserted as predictions of Mormonism. Jacob is largely by Rigdon, containing a lengthy discussion of Jews and Gentiles which is based on Rom. 11:16-24. Three of the next four books, all very short, are apparently by Spaulding. Enos, son of Jacob of the preceding book, continues the record in his generation, and his son Jarom and grandson Omni likewise write books which are known by their names. The next, "The Words of Mormon," has been thought to be the first book of the Manuscript Found, but this is incorrect. It contains Mormon's account of his abridgement of the whole Book of Mormon shortly before it was buried, and was written by Rigdon to explain that there was another set of plates containing the same material up to this point. During the process of translation this opening part was stolen, and by inserting this book Rigdon explained how he could produce an account similar to what was stolen and yet not identical with it (cf. below, pp. 39 f.). Mosiah and Alma, almost half of the entire work, are to all appearances little changed. The sinlessness of little children was inserted in Mos. 3, and it is likely that there was some other editing, e.g., in inserting passages from Exodus and Isaiah in Mos. 12-14. In Alma anti-Masonic ideas appear in chapter 37, and the passages on the priesthood in chapter 13 are probably insertions. Editing comes out prominently again with Helaman. In most of its chapters a large amount of anti-Masonic material was added. There may have been other changes but the basis of the book seems to be by Spaulding. It is possible but doubtful that the Manuscript Found made Christ appear to the Nephites. In either case, most of III Nephi, which relates this, was written by Rigdon. Even in the 24 REVELATION IN MORMONISM first seven chapters, which seem to be from the Manuscript Found, there is a considerable amount of editing. In the subsequent chapters there is so much clearly from Rigdon that it is unlikely that Spaulding wrote any of it. IV Nephi and The Book of Mormon give the late narrative of the Manuscript Found. They contain a little anti-Masonic alteration but are practically unchanged except for the conclusion which Rigdon tacked on. Mormon apparently ended with 8:13, "Behold, I make an end of speaking concerning this people. I am the son of Mormon, and my father was a descendant of Nephi." The chapter and a half which Rigdon added blesses him who shall dig the records up "out of the earth," and warns those who oppose, telling them that "if there be faults [in the book] they be faults of a man." After arguing heatedly against anti-Mormons, Rigdon realized that he had been incautious in prophesying in such detail so said: "I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But.... Christ hath shown you unto me." Some have thought that Ether, which contains the story of the ancient Jaredites, was an earlier novel by Spaulding, but the way it is interwoven with the account in Mosiah makes this unlikely. All but chapters 1, 2, 3, and 15 have alterations and 4, 5, and 13 are entirely, or in great part, additions. It was probably the last book in the Manuscript Found. Moroni (Rigdon) wrote that he "had supposed not to have written any more" but added the Book of Moroni since its instructions "may be of worth.... in some future day." It gives directions for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost, ordination of priests, administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and rules of discipline. A discpurse on "faith, hope, and charity" appears, which though it cannot honestly have known Paul, contains I Cor. 13:4-13 in slightly condensed form. In D.C. 18:19 this is boiled down to what might be called the verse of love, "And if you have not faith, hope, and charity, you can do nothing." Since those who were acquainted with the Manuscript Found stated that its content was essentially historical and that the religious portions of the Book of Mormon had been added, it ORIGIN OF THE NEW BIBLE 25 is likely that much of the reasoning and sermonizing with which the book is filled is likewise from Rigdon, but the extent of this is uncertain. We know that about a third of the book was added in the process of editing and this may be true of another third or even more. Shook estimated that the narrative, with Rigdon's "overdress" removed. would not be more than one-eighth of the Book of Mormon, but Rigdon may not be responsible for so much, since Spaulding's widow stated that the Manuscript Found was about a third as large as the Book of Mormon. 20 ____________ 20 Shook, op. cit., pp. 170 f. Cf. Appendix I. |
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Joseph Smith, who played the central part in giving the Book of Mormon to a credulous public, was born at Sharon, Vermont, December 23, 1805. Due to poverty the family moved to Palmyra, New York, where the Smiths became known as shiftless, scheming people. The mother was deceptive and rather clever. Her father had tried to make a living in his old age by selling a little autobiography in which he attempted to make a common-place life appear interesting. At Palmyra the Smiths sold such things as gingerbread, pies, boiled eggs, and root beer and did odd jobs or went hunting and fishing when that failed. Later they took possession of a piece of land a few miles from there, the owners living elsewhere. The elder Smith has been accused of being a "hunter for Captain Kidd's treasure" back in Vermont and of being implicated in counterfeiting. Also he claimed to be able to locate underground streams, as well sites, by means of a hazel switch. The boy Joseph seems to have been the most adept at living by his wits, and was regarded as the "genus of the family." He had a fertile imagination and could utter the most "marvellous absurdity with the utmost gravity." 1 Not long after 1818 he was working in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and there picked up the "seer stone" idea. A man named Belcher bought a green "seeing stone," and when his boy looked in it he claimed to see where his lost hatchet was. Neighbors came to have the boy locate lost objects, and when Smith saw its possibilities he bought the stone. With it he hunted for buried treasure, but when those with him broke the rule of silence, "the enchantment __________ 1 Cf. Linn, The Story of the Mormons, pp. 8 ff., and I. W. Riley, The Founder of Mormonism, pp. 11 ff. BEGINNING OF SMITH PROPHECY 27 removed the deposits." 2 In 1822 he learned from an Indian than that there was buried treasure at this same place, so induced a man named Harper to pay for the search. Under Joseph's direction fourteen men dug a great hole on the farm of Joseph McKune, which fifty years later was used as a swimming pool. To stop the removal of the treasure by enchantment a white dog was to be sacrificed. When none could be found, a white sheep was used, and when the treasure still eluded the diggers, Smith declared that God was displeased on account of the change. It seems that he superintended many similar diggings. 3 Back at home in 1822 Joseph and his brother were helping Willard Chase dig a well. Chase found a peculiar stone. Joseph it put it in his hat, and then his face into the top of the hat." The next day he returned and borrowed the stone, claiming that he could see things in it. He then "made so much disturbance among the credulous" that Chase ordered him to return it. After two years he did finally take it back, only to procure it again through his brother Hyrum, after which Chase never saw it. 4 With the stone Joseph would locate fabulous sums of buried money as well as treasure in the form of bars, images, and candlesticks. Frequently he was called on to locate lost articles. Treasure was usually hunted at midnight, especially at time of full moon. Good Friday was the luckiest date. In silence the men would dig, Smith directing with a wand. There was always a ready explanation of failure, usually that someone had broken the silence or that the devil had moved the treasure. Once a black sheep was sacrificed to the evil spirit guarding the treasure, and when this too failed, the Smiths went home and ate the sheep. 5 __________ 2 Cf. I. W. Riley, op. cit., pp. 187 f. Joseph's father once told that when the boy was about fourteen he had seen a seer stone and by looking in it located the one he later used. It may be that he had thus previously met with this practice. Cf. Linn, op. cit., pp. 19 f. 3 Linn, op. cit., pp. 18 f., and C. R. Marks, "Monona County Mormons," Proceedings Academy Science and Letters of Sioux City, Iowa, I, 85 ff. 4 Cf. Chase's affidavit in Linn, op. cit., p. 20. 5 Ibid., p. 21. Cf. also affidavits in Shook, True Origin of the Book of Mormon. 28 REVELATION IN MORMONISM Joseph's fame so spread that he was hired by Josiah Stowell of Chenango County, New York, to dig for money. His father and others were employed with him. About five months later Stowell had him arrested as an impostor. At the trial, March 26, 1826) he said that he did locate gold mines and hidden treasure, as well as lost property, by looking in his stone, that he had done this for three years but never solicited business and had of late pretty much given it up because it made his eyes sore. He was held guilty. Later, Smith claimed that he had persuaded Stowell to give up digging for the "silver mine," admitted that he was tried as a disorderly person, but declared that he had been acquitted. 6 At the trial he showed his seer stone. "It was about the size of a small hen's egg, in the shape of a high instepped shoe. It was composed of layers of different colors passing diagonally through it." This was clearly not the Belcher stone; it must have been the Chase stone, since it resembled "a child's foot in shape" and was opaque. 7 At this stage Rigdon enters the story to convert these random supernatural activities into a precise prophetic role. How Smith happened to be chosen cannot be known, but a rule formulated by Bernard Shaw applies here: "The saints and prophets, though they may be accidentally in this or that official position or rank, are always self-selected, like Joan." 8 Rigdon wanted a tool, but even a figurehead prophet must be a figure of power. In Smith's account of his conversion his personality is hidden under a veil of modest reticence. Only a thorough study of his short and violent life reveals his character. His life was not one of circumstance. Rather he was the author of the amazing circumstances of which his life consisted, even though he often erred in judgment. He was dynamic, self-confident, ambitious, and had a striking personality. Josiah Quincy, __________ 6 The court record is quoted on page 1576 of Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Cf. J. Smith and H. C. Smith, History of the Church, I, 17, and S. W. Traum, Mormonism Against Itself (1910), p. 43. 7 Cf. Riley, op. cit., pp. 188 f.; and Linn, op. cit., p. 21. 8 Saint Joan, Preface, "The Law of Change Is the Law of God." BEGINNING OF SMITH PROPHECY 29 a keen observer, compared him to Elisha R. Potter and wrote: "Of all the men I have met, these two seemed best endowed with that kingly faculty which directs, as if by intrinsic right, the feeble or confused souls who are looking for guidance." 9 Joseph had already achieved prestige as a seer, had proved himself fit to be a prophet, and his ignorance made him appear a pliable tool. But the very characteristics which led to his selection made him rebel against Rigdon's rule. Rigdon tried to safeguard his position. While he made Smith prophet, he formed the office of spokesman for himself. Smith was to receive revelation, Rigdon was to lead the church. The following statement made by Rigdon in old age shows what he hoped to be as spokesman: "For the existence of that church there had to be a revelator, one who received the word of the Lord; a spokesman, one inspired of God to expound all revelation, so that the church might all be of one faith." 10 A striking parallel is in the German Pietist (Mucker) movement of which Schonherr was to be prophet and Ebel witness 11 To make the matter sure, Rigdon prophesied his work as spokesman in II Ne. 3:18. This division of labor was suggested by that of Moses and Aaron, and Smith is promised as "a Moses" in this same passage. In Mormon history this comparison of Smith and Moses occurs repeatedly. Once Joseph said: "Moses was a stammering sort of boy like me.... God said (to him). 'Thou shalt be a God unto Aaron, and he shall be thy spokesman.'" [HC 6:478] Smith was no stammerer, but by office he was a Moses, slow of speech, while Rigdon was an oratorical Aaron. 12 For a year or so after the founding of the church, this division of office was acceptable ____________ 9 Figures of the Past (3rd ed.; 1883), p. 381. 10 Linn, op. cit., p. 320. 11 W. H. Dixon, Soiritual Wives, p. 93. 12 Cf. E. F. Parry, Joseph Smith's Teachings, p. 61, and Exod. 4:16. Another development of Exod. 4:10 appears in E. Fleg, The Life of Moses, p. 13. Baalam, thinking that the clever baby Moses would not burn himself, evilly proposed that if he reached for a burning coal he should live, if for gold, he should die. To save his life the angel Gabriel made him put a lighted coal to his mouth. "Wherefore, say our Rabbis, he was slow of speech." Cf. below, p. 73. 30 REVELATION IN MORMONISM God confirmed it in further revelation. But Rigdon had failed to reckon with his prophet. Joseph got in the habit of announcing from the pulpit: "The truth is good enough without dressing it up, but brother Rigdon will now proceed to dress it up." 13 ____________ 13 Cf. D.C. 100:11, 124:104; Linn, op. cit., p. 153. |
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When the Rigdon-Smith partnership was effected cannot be definitely settled but it was probably shortly after November, 1824, when Lucy Smith reports a preacher of Rigdon's theological make-up to have been in their neighborhood. 1 But at that time Rigdon had only begun to convert the Manuscript Found into a Bible. This meant a long period of expectant inactivity for Smith, during which he used his power over credulous people in such questionable ways as to nearly lose his job as prophet. In November, 1825, when he and his father were working for Stowell, digging for money, Joseph fell in love with the daughter of Isaac Hale with whom they boarded. Hale forbade marriage because of Joseph's contemptible occupation. About a year later, having returned home, he decided to woo Emma Hale again. He told Samuel Lawrence that if he would take him to her home he would let him share the profits of a rich silver mine he had discovered. When they had arrived in the East no mine could be found. Taking advantage of Hale's absence Joseph eloped with Emma. To get to his parents' home he told a man that he had found a bar of gold as big as his leg and 3 or 4 feet long in a cave and that in return for transportation to Palmyra he would share it. When they got there in January, 1827, Smith refused to go for the gold because of leaving his wife among strangers. 2 It seems that by 1826 plans were being made for Mormonism. A brother of Martin Harris wrote: "Joseph Smith, Jr., Martin Harris and others, used to meet together in private, a while before the gold plates were found, and were familiarly known by __________ 1 Cf. above, p. 10. Linn, The Story of the Mormons, p. 22, suggested that they may have met when Smith was "gazing" in Pennsylvania, but it is not known that they were ever in the same region. 2 Shook, True Origin of the Book of Mormon, pp. 25 f. 32 REVELATION IN MORMONISM the name of the 'Gold Bible Company.'" 3 Exhaustive study convinced Shook that this group was larger than ordinarily thought and that each had his part to play. "Rigdon was the theologian, Smith the prophet, Cowdery the scribe, Harris the financier.... The underlying motives were two: first, to make money out of the fraud, and secondly, to gratify lust." 4 Perhaps many others, as the Smiths and Pratts, were involved. The conversions of many of these people were too hasty and unnatural to be genuine. A couple of months after Smith returned with his wife, he was away from home a whole day and when he came to the house reported that he had received a terrible chastisement. The father became angry, thinking it to have been received from the neighbors, but Joseph told him that it was the angel of the Lord and that the rebuke was for failing to be sufficiently engaged in the work of God. 5 The angel was, of course, Rigdon. Smith's marriage and escapades must have caused Rigdon some anxiety and he came to stabilize matters. Again about the middle of March, 1827, Rigdon was with Smith, making plans. Seeing a better-dressed man, Lorenzo Saunders asked who be was. Harrison Smith replied that it was Sidney Rigdon, a friend of Joseph's from Pennsylvania. 6 The Mormons have tried to prove that Rigdon could not have been in New York then, or at any other time, but the attempt turned out to be the strongest substantiation of the reported visit. At just the period mentioned there is a gap of about a month in the record of his activities at home. 7 Again, in May, Rigdon seems to have gone to Palmyra for a conference, for he is reported to have been there "early in the summer," and at that time there is no record of his having been at home. He could make the trip to Palmyra and back in ten days. 8 The story of finding the book must have been pretty well worked out, for __________ 3 Ibid., p. 48. 4 Ibid., p. 126. 5 Ibid., pp. 149 f. 6 Ibid., p. 134. Saunders' very important letter was here published for the first time (1912). 7 See Shook's careful analysis (ibid., pp. 145 ff.). 8 Statement of Mrs. H. Eaton, Palmyra resident (ibid., p. 130). On time for trip, cf. ibid., p. 147. BRINGING FORTH THE BOOK OF MORMON 33 the next month Joseph's father told that a spirit had told the boy, some years before, of a record on gold plates. "On the 22nd of September, he must repair to the place where was deposited this manuscript, dressed in black clothes, and riding on a black horse with a switch tail, and demand the book in a certain name." He went as directed but was told to return a year later with his eldest brother. When he went alone the next year, this brother having died, he was told to return in a year with a man whom he would recognize. 9 In August Smith and his wife went after her property. When her father saw them he burst into tears and said: "You have stolen my daughter and married her. I had much rather have followed her to her grave." Smith, too, wept and promised to give up the seer stone and money-digging. Hale offered to help him if he would move there and work for a living. He agreed, but on the way back to Manchester confided: "it will be hard for me, for they will all oppose." Perhaps he conscientiously aimed to break with his dishonest past, but, if so, soon abandoned the resolution. He seemed perplexed for a few days, 10 but perplexity immediately disappeared when Rigdon came for another visit. Saunders saw them together in the fall of 1827. 11 It was in September that Smith claimed to have received the golden Bible and at just that time appears another long gap in Rigdon's ministerial activities, from August 23 to October 9. Early in September Joseph asked Willard Chase to make a chest in which he could lock up the plates which he expected to get soon. Chase refused to do so. On the twenty-second of the month Joseph claimed that he had received the book, so Rigdon probably turned over the manuscript to him at that time. The next day he told Lorenzo Saunders what a difficult time he had getting the gold plates home from the hill where he dug them up. Two men tackled him but he knocked both down and escaped. As proof of the fight he exhibited a bruised thumb. When he left, Saunders' mother remarked: "What a liar Joseph Smith __________ 9 Ibid., pp. 23 f. 10 Ibid., pp. 18 ff. Affidavit of Peter Ingersoll. 11 Ibid., p. 134. 34 REVELATION IN MORMONISM is.... I know he lies because he looks so guilty; he can't see out of his eyes." The next Sunday Saunders and five or six others searched the hill but found no hole except where the money-diggers had worked a year or two before. 12 Peter Ingersoll claimed that Joseph told him he had taken home some beautiful white sand in his coat and, having heard of a golden Bible found in Canada, told his family that was what he had. Whatever it was that he had, he kept it secure in a rough board box. A pillow case was slipped over the box and people were then allowed to feel and lift it. 13 It is reported that a friend was not dissuaded by the assertion that no one could see it and live and, jerking off the cover, found a large brick. 14 Stories about the book grew. The Smiths let their imaginations run freely. Once "they said the plates Joe then had in possession were but an introduction to the Gold Bible; that all of them upon which the Bible was written were so heavy that it would take four stout men to load them into a cart; that Joseph had also discerned by looking through his stone the vessel in which the gold was melted from which the plates were made The old lady said also that after the book was translated, the plates were to be publicly exhibited, admission 25 cts. 15 Joseph himself gave quite divergent accounts at different times. One striking variation was that when he got the plates "he saw a man standing over the spot who, to him, appeared like a Spaniard, having a long beard with his throat cut from ear to ear and the blood streaming down, who told him that he could not get it alone.” 16 How different was the official account worked out at Nauvoo, __________ 12 Ibid., pp. 134 f. 13 Ibid., p. 21. That the golden Bible idea came from Rigdon is corroborated by Linn's failure to find any trace of such a story in Canada (op. cit., p. 25). Linn's idea that Smith thought of a buried book and that "Rigdon was attracted to Smith by the rumor" (ibid., p. 23) is most improbable, since Smith made no such claims until after working with Rigdon. 14 Linn, op. cit., pp. 26 f. 15 Ibid., p. 25. Statement of Martin Harris' sister-in-law. 16 Ibid., p. 28. Similarly his father told F. Lapham, "A very large, tall man appeared to him dressed in an ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody" (ibid., p. 29). BRINGING FORTH THE BOOK OF MORMON 35 containing artificial visions and pious platitudes and generous Scripture quotations! Riley amazingly assumed the historicity of the official story. Meyer recognized that the vision in which Father and Son appear to Smith is borrowed from the transfiguration of Christ, but he mistakenly supposed that Riley's interpretation was, in general, sound. 17 Indirectly this vision is based on the transfiguration but directly on Christ's appearance to the Nephites where the source (Matt. 17:5) is even more obvious. 18 The use of this idea in III Ne. 11:7 so impressed itself on Rigdon's mind that he added "Hear ye him" to Matt. 3:17 when translating the Bible. After this repeated use it was natural to use this idea when working out the fictitious visions. Riley regarded the visions of Moses as dimly reproducing Joseph's "abnormal experiences," whereas the biography, written eight years after the Book of Moses, contains the elaboration of ideas in that book. 19 Joseph's official visions have no basis in mysticism whatever. Mormon tradition added many strange elements to the story. Joseph's father told that when he went to get the book "a host of devils began to screech" and that one struck him a blow on the side where a black-and-blue spot remained three or four days. 20 At another time lie told that when the box was opened "something like a toad which soon assumed the appearance of a man" struck Joseph on the side of the head. Joseph himself said that on his way home with the book two men attacked him but that he escaped. 21 The final development is: "Three times, on the short journey to his home, he was attacked by unknown men who endeavored to strike him and rob him of his charge. Once he was hit with a bludgeon." 22 This "persecution" has not __________ 17 Meyer, Ursprung und Gesch. der Mormonen, p. 17. 18 This pseudo-vision appears in verse 17 of Smith's autobiography as printed in the Pearl of Great Price. 19 The Founder of Mormonism, pp. 88, 68 ff. As Moses calls on God to deliver him from the devil (1:20) so Smith (vs. 16). The transfiguration had also previously suggested Moses 1:11. 20 Linn, op. cit., pp. 19 f. 21 Shook, op. cit., pp. 24, 27. 22 F. H. Anderson, A Brief History of the Church (1926), p. 21. 36 REVELATION IN MORMONISM the slightest basis in fact. Actually, Smith would sit on a store box and describe the size, weight, and beauty of the plates so vividly that "he made some of the smartest men in Palmyra rub their eyes in wonder." No one tried to hinder him, for they apprehended no danger from a book "originating with individuals who had neither influence, honesty or honor." 23 Not long after the announcement of the Gold Bible, in the fall of 1827, Alva Hale came to help Joseph and Emma move to the home of her parents. Smith tried to borrow money for the trip from Peter Ingersoll but later told him that he had met Martin Harris and informed him that he had a divine command to ask the first honest man he met for $50. "I saw at once that it took his notion, for he promptly gave me the fifty." 24 With this money Smith started for Pennsylvania but had a little trouble with a constable who was sent after him by a man to whom he owed some money. This was converted by tradition into another attempt at stealing the Gold Bible which is said to have been saved by being hidden in a barrel of beans. 25 When they got to Harmony the father-in-law learned that instead of having given up "glass-looking," as Joseph called it, he now claimed to have a "Book of Plates" in a box similar to those in which window glass was crated. Hale objected to having it around, so Joseph hid it in the woods. In February, 1828, Martin Harris came to serve as scribe. 26 But he found that Smith had abandoned the translation of the plates due to Mr. Hale's opposition. "I have not come down here for nothing, and we’ll go on with it," said Harris, to which Joseph agreed. 27 Harris' __________ 23 Linn, op. cit., p. 27, and Shook, op. cit., p. 30. Contrast the fully developed myth: "Conjurors, diviners with peepstones and other means were employed (to steal the plates). Mobs gathered and searched the premises...." (J. F. Smith, Essentials in Church History (1928), p. 61). Another legend says that when he first saw the plates the angel showed him the devil and his angels as a warning. Cf. Riley, op. cit., p. 71. 24 Shook, op. cit., p. 22. The idealized version is: "he was approached by Martin Harris, who said to him: 'How do you do, Mr. Smith? Here are fifty dollars. I give this to you to do the Lord's work with. '" (J. F. Smith, op. cit., p. 61). 25 Linn, op. cit., p. 36. 26 Cf. Hale's affidavit (Shook, op. cit., p. 32). Saunders also said a "glass box" was used (ibid., p. 135). 27 Linn, op. cit., p. 36. Told by Harris to Ezra Booth. BRINGING FORTH THE BOOK OF MORMON 37 wife said that his "whole object was to make money" out of the book. Once when she asked him to give it up he answered: "If you would let me alone, I could make money by it." 28 A clever means of fulfilling prophecy had been discovered, probably by Rigdon, and Harris became the willing tool in carrying it out. Harris was given a paper with a "singular medley of Greek, Hebrew and all sorts of letters, more or less distorted.... and intermingled with sundry delineations of half-moons, stars and other natural objects and the whole ending in a rude representation of the Mexican Zodiac, evidently copied from Humboldt. 29 This masterpiece was undoubtedly the work of Rigdon, but the word "Caractors" written over it may indeed be a contribution of Smith. In February, 1828, Harris took the paper to Professor Anthon of New York City. He told Harris what the figures were and that he was being swindled. The Mormons, however, claimed that Anthon said the letter's were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic and that Smith's translation was correct, but that when he learned an angel had revealed the plates he destroyed his certificate of correct translation. He offered to translate the plates if Harris would bring them, according to the Mormons, and when Harris said he could not bring all, because some were scaled, said: "I cannot read a sealed book." 30 In Isa. 29:11-12 when "one that is learned" is asked to read a book he replies: "I cannot, for it is sealed." Then it is given to one "that is not learned" and he says simply: "I am not learned." In II Nephi 27, Rigdon expanded this into a page of prophecy. The sealed book is part of the Book of Mormon. And the learned (Anthon) shall say: Bring hither the book, and I will read And the man (Harris) shall say: I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed. Then shall the learned (Anthon) say: I cannot read it. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that the Lord God will deliver the book.... to him that is not learned (Smith).... and say unto him: The learned shall not read__________ 28 Shook, op. cit., p. 47. Harris' sister-in-law heard the conversation and reports him as saying: "What if it is a lie; if you will let me alone I will make money out of it" (ibid., p. 48). 29 Professor Anthon. Cf. J. Smith and H. C. Smith, History of the Church, I, 22. 30 Ibid., I, 19. 38 REVELATION IN MORMONISM them, for they have rejected them, and I am able to do mine own work (without any scholars); wherefore thou shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee (with a seer stone). Undoubtedly the Mormons hoped that Anthon would not live to too ripe an old age, for they refrained from publishing their version of the interview until 1842. But Anthon lived until 1867 and vigorously denied having fulfilled Hebrew prophecy. In more recent years, since Mormonism's "caractors" have been devastatingly compared with actual Indian hieroglyphics, 31 Mormons probably wish that the prophet had given only a translation of the Reformed Egyptian. 32 But in the early days this story of the sealed book was an effective defense of the translation of the Book of Mormon by unlearned Joseph Smith. It was used for years before it was published. But if God needed no scholars, at least he had to provide a means by which the unlearned could translate. In Spaulding's first novel he provided the Indian prophets with a stone in which they could see hidden treasures, future events, and "the galant & his mistress in their bedchamber." 33 In the Book of Mormon similar "interpreters" are used. They were probably in the Manuscript Found though they may have undergone Rigdonian development. The two stone interpreters were fastened in “two rims of a bow" and were of special value in translating "all records." A seer, who uses them, is greater than a prophet. By divine direction they were buried with the plates. 34 Since gospel ordinances are held to be the same in all ages, the interpreters had to be given historical sanction, and so were identified with the Urim and Thummim. 35 In Exodus these lots are __________ 31 Cf. M. T. Lamb, The Golden Bible (1886), pp. 262 ff. 32 Mormons denied that Anthon repudiated their version of the interview but were afraid to write him. Nor have they presented the "caractors" to other scholars. Riley's desire to see automatic writing in them is almost as far-fetched. They contain too much minutely planned detail and their use precludes such a view. Riley's JOE and SOJ are eisegesis (op. cit., pp. 84 ff.). 33 The "Manuscript Story," p. 107. [see p. 98 RLDS ed.] 34 Cf. Mos. 28:13, 8:13 ff.; Ether 3:23, 4:5. 35 "The common means of giving the oracle was the ephod, a wrap or bag concealing the sacred lots; these bore the name urim and thummim and consisted of two sticks or stones which replied with Yes or No. (R. Kittel, The Religion of the People of Israel [1925], p. 60). BRINGING FORTH THE BOOK OF MORMON 39 put in Aaron's breastplate of judgment, but when Mormonism changed them into stones resembling "two large white diamonds set in a bow like a pair of spectacles," 36 they could not be put in the breastplate, instead were fastened to it as a sort of helmet. Thus provided Smith was ready to translate the book. To give the translation an appearance of reality he had to dictate Rigdon's Bible to some scribe, he being incapable of the literary task. Accordingly, after going home to settle up business interests, Harris returned to Harmony, Pennsylvania, and began writing. This continued from April 12, 1828, to June 14, during which time 116 pages were written. Harris declared that he believed Joseph was really translating because lie could not spell "February" except while translating. 37 Harris teased to be allowed to take the MS home to show to his family, but when he did so in July his wife nearly ruined the dispensation of the fulness of times by stealing it. She refused to give it back, probably destroyed it. When Harris did not return Smith became worried and went to Palmyra. When told what happened he said, "O my God all is lost! all is lost!" Apparently he had not preserved the original. As punishment, the Urim and Thummim and plates were taken from him but soon were restored. 38 Translating stopped for about ten months, while Rigdon re-wrote the lost part. During this time Joseph is said to have been visited by "the stranger" (Rigdon), and he was away from home for some time, very likely in conference with Rigdon. 39 Joseph was directed by revelation not to retranslate the stolen portion lest wicked men produce the original in altered form and claim that he could not reproduce it correctly. It was further revealed that on the plates of Nephi "a more particular account” of the identical matter was recorded and that this should be translated in place of the stolen part. 40 Also, in "The Words of Mormon, inserted at the point the stolen part left off, Mormon is made to explain that after he had made an __________ 36 Lucy Smith. Cf. Caswall, The City of the Mormons (1843), p. 27. Later she said they were three-cornered diamonds, in silver bows. 37 Cf. Linn, op. cit., p. 48. 38 Ibid., pp. 41-44. 39 Ibid., pp. 41 ff.; D.C. 3. 40 D.C. 10. 40 REVELATION IN MORMONISM abridgment of the record down to the reign of King Benjamin he discovered a set of plates which covered exactly the same period of history. He continued the abridgment on the new-found plates, but the Spirit had him preserve his own plates, a duplication he could not understand, "for a wise purpose." The Spirit had foreknowledge of Mrs. Harris. 41 When the MS was ready Harris was replaced as scribe by Oliver Cowdery who had been a go-between for Rigdon and Smith. According to Saunders, Cowdery came from Kirtland, Rigdon's home, in the summer of 1827, to Palmyra. He taught near the Smith home, was gone during the next summer, took the school again in the fall of 1828. So that his advent would not appear suspicious he boarded with Joseph's parents and was "converted" by them. He had the school board release him, went to Pennsylvania, and began writing for Joseph two days after his arrival. 42 With the coming of Cowdery the fictitious Urim and Thummim was given up and the entire book was translated by the professed aid of the seer stone, a change explained by some on the basis of Smith's sin in giving the 116 pages to Harris. 43 Mormon accounts of how the translating was done disagree so radically and are manifestly so deceptive that little can be learned from them. It is certain that Joseph did not look through the stone at the supposed plates, for in some instances the plates were distant. He was hid from the view of the scribe by a curtain, so what he did cannot be known. Since his method of peeking was well known, it was frequently asserted that he translated in the same way, putting the stone in his hat, burying his face in it, and reading off what appeared on the stone. Indeed, his wife who wrote a little for him said: "I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat with the stone in it.” 44 Smith must have thought that the seer stone too should be sanctioned by the Book of Mormon, for in Alma 37:23 __________ 41 Cf. Lamb, op. cit., pp. 118 ff. 42 Shook, op. cit., pp. 134 f. Also J. Smith and H. C. Smith, op. cit., I, 29 ff. 43 David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers (1926), p. 5. 44 Cf. Traum, Mormonism against Itself, pp. 62-64; Linn, op. cit., p. 48. BRINGING FORTH THE BOOK OF MORMON 41 "Gazelem" is promised "a stone" whereby to bring forth the Nephite records. From April 7, 1829, to June the translating progressed rapidly, but Smith's father-in-law became so disgusted that Joseph and Oliver had to leave. Cowdery wrote to his friend David Whitmer of Fayette, New York, asking him to come for them. According to Joseph's mother this, too, was directed by revelation. Angels helped Whitmer with the farm work, so he could go sooner. 45 Translating was only momentarily stopped by the move and was finally concluded that same month, June, 1829. To be able to answer the charge of fraud it was decided to have witnesses verify the existence of the plates. Rigdon wrote in the Book of Mormon that three witnesses should view them. 46 Martin Harris asked to be one. God granted the request but, knowing Martin's talkativeness, informed him that he must never say more than: "I have seen them, and they have been shown unto me by the power of God." 47 Cowdery and Whitmer were the other two selected. The three signed a statement declaring that an angel showed them the plates. Wanting to share their glory, eight others were later allowed to sign a similar testimony. But no angel appeared to them. Joseph passed the plates around. Three of the eight were Smiths. Even Mormons recognize that this second testimony does not mean much. 48 Not to be outdone, Joseph's mother once told how she too viewed the sacred articles. She described them in detail but could not look the visitor in the eye. 49 All of the three witnesses left the church, and Mormons are very grateful that they never very openly repudiated their testimony. To account for this testimony Riley uses the rather preposterous theory of hypnosis. 50 Others have suggested that Rigdon dressed up as an angel and fitted up an exhibit in the woods. Or it is possible that the objects were seen with the spiritual __________ 45 Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, p. 160. 46 II Ne. 27:12, 11:3; Ether 5:3-4. 47 D.C. 5:26. 48 Perhaps the MS had to be changed to allow for them (II Ne. 27:14, etc.) or possibly Rigdon had allowed for such an event. 49 Caswall, op. cit., p. 27. 50 Op. cit., pp. 218 ff. 42 REVELATION IN MORMONISM eye -- were said to be seen because they were supposed to be seen. But the most probable explanation is deception. These men have been charged by Mormons themselves with gravest crimes, 51 and while Cowdery avoided open repudiation of Mormonism, yet he later joined another church, thereby admitting his error (cf. Shook). In time he again professed the Mormon faith and urged Whitmer to be true to his testimony. Of the three, indeed of the eleven, the only person whose life might warrant a judgment of sincerity is Whitmer, and he expressed faith in the Book of Mormon until his death. 52 Nevertheless, even he was guilty of the most serious imposture, attempting to succeed Smith by means of revelation. 53 In later years, when he had been making money by charging admission to a little religious museum, Smith realized how foolish he had been in not making some real plates. When J. C. Bennett joined forces with him in 1840 Smith promised to let him "go to New York and get some plates engraved.... so that he could exhibit them.... at twenty-five cents a sight." 54 With the translation finished and the book properly witnessed, 55 |
