Revision as of 12:48, 6 September 2013

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Did Joseph pretend to walk on water?

Answers portal
Joseph Smith, Jr.
RESOURCES
Martyrdom Healings and miracles Priesthood restore date Alleged false prophecies
Legal trials 1826 trial Kirtland Safety Society Nauvoo city charter Nauvoo Expositor The Council of Fifty The Hurlbut affidavits Politics
"Amusing recitals"/Tall Tales? Occultism and magic Jupiter talisman Masonic distress cry Treasure seeking Seer stones
As Holy Ghost? Personal failings Boastful about the Church? Role in LDS belief
PERSPECTIVES
Joseph Smith’s Visions: His Style and his Record
MEDIA
OTHER PORTALS
First Vision Book of Mormon Plural marriage Temples

Questions

== Critics claim that Joseph attempted to prove he was a prophet by walking on water; he sought to do so by hiding planks of wood under the water's surface.

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here

Answer

==

The story about Joseph walking on water is recognized even by the Church's antagonists as a fake. It never happened. Fawn Brodie included it in her biography of the Prophet and wrote: "Baseless though this story may be, it is none the less symbolic."^[1] So, this story is baseless, worthless, without truth. But it fit well with what Brodie thought about the prophet, and so she passed it on.

The application of this folk tale to Joseph is one example of a broader pattern of using such a tale to discredit unpopular religious claims:

• Stanley J. Thayne, "Walking on Water: Nineteenth Century Prophets and a Legend of Religious Imposture," Journal of Mormon History 36:2 (Spring 2010): 160.

== Notes ==

1. [note]  Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 84. ( Index of claims )