View source for Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Witness accounts

{{Main Page}} 
{{H1
|L=Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Witness accounts
|H=An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Witness accounts
|T=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|A=Various
|<=[[../Returning the plates|Returning the plates]]
|>=[[../Format|Described format, binding, and dimensions]]
}}
<!-- INSERT CHART HERE -->
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Witness accounts
|H=An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Witness accounts
|S=
|L1=
}}
</onlyinclude>
=={{WikipediaUpdate|9/21/2011}}==

==Section review==
===Descriptions of the plates===

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
Smith said the [[angel Moroni]] had commanded him not to show the plates to any unauthorized person.
|authorsources=<br>
#Hadley (1829); Smith (1838a, p. 6).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}


===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
However, Smith eventually obtained the written statement of [[Book of Mormon witnesses|several witnesses]]. It is unclear whether the witnesses believed they saw the plates with their physical eyes, or they "saw" the plates in a vision. For instance, although Martin Harris continued to testify to the truth of the [[Book of Mormon]] even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."  
|authorsources=<br>
#Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', 2: 255. The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like." [[Pomeroy Tucker]], ''Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism'' (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867), 71 in ''EMD'', 3: 122. John H. Gilbert, the typesetter for most of the book, said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" According to Gilbert, Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye." John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in ''EMD'', 2: 548. Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes." Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in ''EMD'', 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in ''EMD'', 3: 22. In 1838, Harris is said to have told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination." Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in ''EMD'', 2: 291. A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen [the plates] with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision." Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in ''EMD'', 2: 385.
|authorsources=<br>
#|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris}}
}}


===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son;
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Chase|1834}} (citing Martin Harris as stating in 1829 that Smith’s unborn son would translate the plates at the age of two (this son was stillborn), and thereafter, "you will see Joseph Smith, Jr. walking through the streets of Palmyra, with the Gold Bible under his arm, and having a gold breast-plate on, and a gold sword hanging by his side."); {{Harvtxt|Hale|1834|p=264}} (stating that the first witness would be "a young child”).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaOR|editor=COgden|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_plates&diff=199971912&oldid=199971269}} The wiki editors have conflated two sources to conclude that Joseph's firstborn son would be "an authorized witness." The sources state no such thing. These two statements have been conflated by the wiki editor to draw the conclusion given in the main text. 
*The first hostile source, Willard Chase, says the following:
<blockquote>
He said that would not do, as he was commanded to keep it two years, without letting it come to the eye of any one but himself. This commandment, however, he did not keep, for in less than two years, twelve men said they had seen it.<br><br>
...<br><br>
Harris went to Pennsylvania, and on his return to Palmyra, reported that the Prophet's wife, in the month of June following would be delivered of a male child that would be able when two years old to translate the Gold Bible. Then, said he, you will see Joseph Smith, Jr. walking through the streets of Palmyra, with a Gold Bible under his arm, and having a gold breast-plate on, and a gold sword hanging by his side. This, however, by the by, proved false.
</blockquote>
*The second source, also hostile, is Isaac Hale, who states:
<blockquote>
I inquired of Joseph Smith Jr., who was to be the first who would be allowed to see the Book of Plates? He said it was a young child." 
</blockquote>
*{{Detail_old|Specific works/The Hurlbut affidavits#Willard Chase|l1=The Hurlbut affidavits: Willard Chase}}
*{{Detail_old|Specific works/The Hurlbut affidavits#Isaac Hale|l1=The Hurlbut affidavits: Isaac Hale}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
but this child was stillborn in 1828.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Howe|1834|p=269}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1853|p=118}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV|editor=COgden|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_plates&diff=199971912&oldid=199971269}} Note that this statement is in deliberate contrast to the preceding statement. The wiki editor wishes to subtly demonstrate Joseph's lack of prophetic ability by synthesizing the previous conclusion&mdash;Joseph's firstborn would be a witness&mdash;with the fact that the firstborn child was stillborn.
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
In March 1829, [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found.
|authorsources=<br>
#In March 1829, Martin Harris returned to Harmony and wanted to see the plates firsthand. Smith reportedly told Harris that Smith "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself"; after following these directions, however, Harris could not find the plates {{Harv|Hale|1834|pp=264–265}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV}} Note that this is the ''second'' time that this statement from Isaac Hale about Martin attempting to find the plates in the woods has been employed. There is no objective reason for doing so. The real reason, of course, is that the wiki editor wishes to demonstrate for a ''second'' time that Joseph told Martin something that did not come to pass.
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
The next day,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harv|Hale|1834|p=265}}.
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himself
|authorsources=<br>
#To qualify as a witness, Harris had to “humble himself in mighty prayer and faith” {{Harv|Phelps|1833|pp=10–12}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view [the plates] as they are".
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harv|Phelps|1833|pp=11–12}}. Smith’s dictated text of the [[Book of Ether]] (chapter 2) also made reference to three witnesses, stating that the plates would be shown to them "by the power of God" {{Harv|Smith|1830|p=548}}.
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith.
|authorsources=<br>
#In June 1829, around the time these eleven additional witnesses were selected, Smith dictated a revelation commanding [[Oliver Cowdery]] and [[David Whitmer]] (two of the eventual [[Three Witnesses]]) to seek out twelve "disciples", who desired to serve, and who would "go into all the world to preach my gospel unto every creature", and who would be ordained to baptize and to ordain priests and teachers {{Harv|Phelps|1833|p=37}}. According to [[D. Michael Quinn]], this was a reference to selecting the [[witnesses of the Book of Mormon]], who would be a leading body of Smith's [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}. Mormon religious and apologetic commentators understand this revelation as referring to the eventual (in 1835, six years later) formation of the first [[Quorum of the Twelve]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
During the second half of June 1829,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Van Horn|1881}}.
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
Smith took Harris, [[Oliver Cowdery]] and [[David Whitmer]] (known collectively as the [[Three Witnesses]]),
|authorsources=<br>
#According to Smith's mother, upon hearing news in June 1929 that Smith had completed the translation of the plates {{Harv|Smith|1853|p=138}}, [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] accompanied the Smith parents to the Whitmer home in [[Fayette, New York]], where Smith was staying {{Harv|Smith|1853|p=138}}, to inquire about the translation {{Harv|Roberts|1902|p=51}}. When Harris arrived, he joined with [[Oliver Cowdery]] and [[David Whitmer]] to request that the three be named as the [[Three Witnesses]], and Smith's dictated revelation designating the three of them as the witnesses {{Harv|Smith|Cowdery|Rigdon|Williams|1835|p=171}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Roberts|1902|pp=54–55}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1830b|loc=appendix}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Roberts|1902|pp=54–55}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1830b|loc=appendix}}. [[David Whitmer]] later stated that the angel showed them "the breast plates, the [[Liahona|Ball or Directors]], the [[Sword of Laban]] and other plates". ({{Harvtxt|Van Horn|1881}}; {{Harvtxt|Kelley|Blakeslee|1882}}; see also {{Harvtxt|Smith|1835|p=171}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
A few days later, Smith took a different group of [[Eight Witnesses]]
|authorsources=<br>
#The [[Eight Witnesses]] consisted of two groups: (1) the males of the Whitmer home, including [[David Whitmer]]'s father Peter, his brothers Christian, Jacob, and John, and his brother-in-law [[Hiram Page]]; and (2) the older males of the Smith family, including is father [[Joseph Smith, Sr.]] and his brothers [[Hyrum Smith|Hyrum]] and [[Samuel Harrison Smith|Samuel]].
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
to a location near Smith's parents' home in [[Palmyra (town), New York|Palmyra]]
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|1853}}. Because of a foreclosure on their [[Manchester (town), New York|Manchester]] property, the Smith family was then living in a log cabin technically in [[Palmyra (town), New York|Palmyra]] ({{Harvnb|Smith|1883|p=14}}; {{Harvnb|Berge|1985}})
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{SeeAlso|First Vision/Smith family place of residence in 1820}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
where they said Smith showed them the golden plates.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Roberts|1902|p=57}}. Though the Eight Witnesses did not refer, like the Three, to an angel or the voice of God, they said that they had hefted the plates and seen the engravings on them: “The translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship" {{Harv|Smith|1830b|appendix}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Joseph Smith,
|authorsources=<br>
#This is the conclusion of {{Harvtxt|Palmer|2002|pp=195–96}}, who compared "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" to part of the Doctrine and Covenants written in 1829 (first published at {{Harvtxt|Smith|Cowdery|Rigdon|Williams|1835|p=171}}), and concluding that they show "the marks of common authorship". Palmer also compares a letter from Oliver Cowdery to Hyrum Smith dated June 14, 1829, quoting the language of this revelation (Joseph Smith letterbook (22 November 1835 to 4 August 1835), 5-6). Commentators generally agree that this letter refers to the revelation. See Larry C. Porter, "Dating the Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood", ''Ensign'' (June 1979), 5.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_plates&diff=77773427&oldid=77759631}} Grant Palmer was a former Church Educational System instructor. He is not a linguist, and is certainly not a qualified source, as required per Wikipedia rules, to serve as an authority on the authorship of the witness statements.
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
were published in 1830 as an appendix to the [[Book of Mormon]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|1830b|appendix}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
According to later statements ascribed to [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]], the witnesses viewed the plates in a vision and not with their "natural eyes."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Gilbert|1892}} (during the printing of the Book of Mormon, when asked whether Harris had seen the plates with his bodily eyes, he replied, "No, I saw them with a spiritual eye."); {{Harvtxt|Burnett|1838}} (Burnett "came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave away"); {{Harvtxt|Parrish|1838}} ("Martin Harris, one of the subscribing witnesses, has come out at last, and says he never saw the plates, from which the book purports to have been translated, except in vision, and he further says that any man who says he has seen them in any other way is a liar, Joseph not excepted."; Metcalf in ''EMD'', 2: 347 (quoting Harris, near the end of his long life, as saying he had seen the plates in "a state of entrancement").  Harris was resolute, however, as to his position that he had seen the plates in a vision.  See Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, ''[[Saints' Herald]]'' 22 (15 October 1875):630, in ''EMD'' 2: 338 ("No man heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates; nor the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the administration of Joseph Smith, Jr."). See also [[Richard Lloyd Anderson]], ''Investigating the ''Book of Mormon'' Witnesses'' (Salt Lake City: [[Deseret Book Company]], 1981), 118
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaNPOV}}Note that this is the ''second'' time the "spiritual eye" statements and Gilbert's statement have been included in the wiki article.
*{{WikipediaMissingRef}} The wiki article omits Harris' many statements in which he confirms the physical reality of the plates. For example, at his death, Harris reported:
<blockquote>
The Book of Mormon is no fake. I know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written. An angel appeared to me and others and testified to the truthfulness of the record, and had I been willing to have perjured myself and sworn falsely to the testimony I now bear I could have been a rich man, but I could not have testified other than I have done and am now doing for these things are true. (George Godfrey, “Testimony of Martin Harris,” from an unpublished manuscript copy in the possession of his daughter, Florence (Godfrey) Munson of Fielding, Utah; quoted in Eldin Ricks, The Case of the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1971), 65–66.)
</blockquote>
*{{Detail_old|Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris|Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Spiritual or literal}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates.  For instance, Smith's mother [[Lucy Mack Smith]] said she had "seen and handled" the plates.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|1842b|p=27}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
Smith's wife [[Emma Hale Smith|Emma]] and his younger brother [[William Smith (Mormonism)|William]] also said they had examined the plates while they were wrapped in fabric.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|1879}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1884}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}

===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Wikipedia article "Golden plates"
|claim=
Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates.
|authorsources=<br>
#For instances of people testifying to having seen the Golden Plates ''after'' Smith returned them to the angel, see the affirmations of John Young and Harrison Burgess in {{Harvtxt|Palmer|2002|p=201}}. In 1859, Brigham Young referred to one of these "post-return" testimonies: "Some of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God, were afterwards left to doubt and to disbelieve that they had ever seen an angel. One of the Quorum of the Twelve, a young man full of faith and good works, prayed, and the vision of his mind was opened, and the angel of God came and laid the plates before him, and he saw and handled them, and saw the angel." ''Journal of Discourses'', June 5, 1859, 7: 164.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*({{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|vol=7|disc=26|start=164}}) {{ea}}
}}

==References==
{{WikipediaRefList:Golden Plates}}

=={{Further reading label}}==
{{MormonismAndWikipedia}}

{{suggestions}}