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*12. {{note|ej1}} David W. Patten, ''Elder's Journal'' 1:3 (July 1838):42 (see also ''Millennial Star'' 1:126). | *12. {{note|ej1}} David W. Patten, ''Elder's Journal'' 1:3 (July 1838):42 (see also ''Millennial Star'' 1:126). | ||
*13. {{note|ej2}} Joseph Smith, Jr., ''Elders’ Journal'' 1:3 (July 1838): 42–43. | *13. {{note|ej2}} Joseph Smith, Jr., ''Elders’ Journal'' 1:3 (July 1838): 42–43. | ||
− | *14. {{note|wjs.13}} {{Book:Ehat:Words of Joseph Smith|pages=13, cited in Willard Richards' Pocket Companion, prior to 8 August 1839}} | + | *14. {{note|wjs.13}} {{Book:Ehat Cook:Words of Joseph Smith|pages=13, cited in Willard Richards' Pocket Companion, prior to 8 August 1839}} |
*15. {{note|jd3}} {{JDfairwiki|author=George Q. Cannon|title=THE RIGHT AND AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG|date=5 December 1869|vol=13|disc=8|start=47}} | *15. {{note|jd3}} {{JDfairwiki|author=George Q. Cannon|title=THE RIGHT AND AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG|date=5 December 1869|vol=13|disc=8|start=47}} | ||
*16. {{note|jd1}} {{JDfairwiki|author=John Taylor|title=OD'S PURPOSES UNCHANGEABLE—THE TWO POWERS—THE EVERLASTING PRIESTHOOD—ABRAHAM AND MELCHISEDECK—ORGANIZING STAKES OF ZION—TEMPLE BUILDING—THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS THE FRIENDS OF THE WORLD|date=29 July 1877|vol=19|disc=14|start=82}} | *16. {{note|jd1}} {{JDfairwiki|author=John Taylor|title=OD'S PURPOSES UNCHANGEABLE—THE TWO POWERS—THE EVERLASTING PRIESTHOOD—ABRAHAM AND MELCHISEDECK—ORGANIZING STAKES OF ZION—TEMPLE BUILDING—THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS THE FRIENDS OF THE WORLD|date=29 July 1877|vol=19|disc=14|start=82}} |
The Church teaches that Moroni was the heavenly messenger which appeared to Joseph Smith and directed him to the gold plates. Yet, some Church sources give the identity of this messenger as Nephi. Some claim that this shows that Joseph was 'making it up as he went along.' One critic even claims that if the angel spoke about the plates being "engraven by Moroni," then he couldn't have been Moroni himself.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here
"He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni." This wording in the present Pearl of Great Price is modified from the first printing, in which the messenger was identified as "Nephi," a fact that has generated its share of superficial comment. A textual critic or a court of law reserves the right to use common sense in the face of obvious documentary errors. The "Nephi" reading contradicts all that the Prophet published on the subject during his lifetime. In 1835 Joseph Smith identified the messenger in official scripture: "Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon…. ([D&C 50.2 (1835 edition), D&C 27:5 (present edition)]. That year Oliver Cowdery also named this individual in the Messenger and Advocate: "the angel Moroni, whose words I have been rehearsing…. Communicated the knowledge of the record of the Nephites…." [Messenger and Advocate, 1:112 (April 1835).] Without exhausting the evidence, nothing could be clearer than Joseph Smith's statement printed in the same year that the History began to be dictated: "Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the Book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them" [Elder's Journal 1:42–43 (July 1838), cit. Joseph Smith, History of the Church 3:28].[1]
This is not an example of Joseph Smith changing his story over time, but an example of a detail being improperly recorded by someone other than the Prophet, and then reprinted uncritically. Clear contemporary evidence from Joseph and his enemies—who would have seized upon any inconsistency had they known about it—shows that "Moroni" was the name of the heavenly messenger BEFORE the 1838 and 1839 histories were recorded.
The identity of the angel that appeared to Joseph Smith in his room in 1823 and over the next four years was known and published as "Moroni" for many years prior to the publication of the first identification of the angel as "Nephi" in the Times and Seasons in 1842. Even an anti-Mormon publication, Mormonism Unvailed, identified the angel's name as "Moroni" in 1834—a full eight years earlier. All identifications of the angel as "Nephi" subsequent to the 1842 Times and Seasons article were using the T&S article as a source. These facts have not been hidden; they are readily acknowledged in the History of the Church:
Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt understood the problem more than a century ago, when they wrote in 1877 to John Taylor:
The following time-line illustrates various sources that refer to the angel, and whether the name "Moroni" or "Nephi" was given to them.
As can be readily seen, the "Nephi" sources all derive from a single manuscript and subsequent copies. On the other hand, a variety of earlier sources (including one hostile source) use the name "Moroni," and these are from a variety of sources.
Details about each source are available below the graphic. Readers aware of other source(s) are encouraged to contact FairMormon so they can be included here.
Critics cite a variety of sources that repeat the 'Nephi' identification. The key point to understand is that there is really only one source that claims the heavenly messenger was Nephi; the other sources which mention Nephi are merely citing this one source, thus perpetuating the error. The problematic document is the June 1839 Manuscript History of the Church Book A-1 (which was a copy of an April 1838 document -- James Mulholland copied George W. Robinson's earlier text. The 1838 document is no longer extant).
However, on the bottom of page 79 of this autobiography (where the above quotation occurs) there is a note about the name "Nephi" and it says, "Moroni, see Doc & Cov. sec. L., par. 2; Elders' Journal, vol. i., pp. 28 and 129; History of Joseph Smith under year 1838; Deseret News, no. 10, vol. iii. O.P." The initials at the end probably stand for Orson Pratt -- who had the autobiography published in 1853.
Thus, a single error in the Manuscript History had a ripple effect through several published accounts of the vision. These accounts are not independent 'proof' that Joseph was changing the story; they all depend upon a single initial error (which may have been caused by the 1838 or 1839 scribes). Most of these occurred in England. Click here to see a list of the later perpetuation of the same errors which refer to the works above.
In contrast to the single source error mentioned above, there are multiple independent sources (originating with Joseph Smith and both friendly and hostile individuals) which demonstrate that the identification of the angel as "Moroni" was well-known and pre-dated the 1838/39 error.
Several of Joseph's associates believed that Joseph had visits from both Moroni and Nephi during the process of the Restoration.
George Q. Cannon in 1869,
If you will read the history of the Church from the beginning, you will find that Joseph was visited by various angelic beings, but not one of them professed to give him the keys until John the Baptist came to him. Moroni, who held the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim, visited Joseph; he had doubtless, also, visits from Nephi and it may be from Alma and others.”[15]
John Taylor notes in 1877,
Who was it that administered to Joseph Smith? Moroni and Nephi, men who had lived upon this continent.[16]
President Taylor repeats this assertion in 1879,
Afterwards the angel Moroni came to him and revealed to him the Book of Mormon, with the history of which you are generally familiar, and also with the statements that I am now making pertaining to these things. And then came Nephi, one of the ancient prophets, that had lived upon this continent, who had an interest in the welfare of the people that he had lived amongst in those days.[17]
Recording mistakes, for example, have sometimes been seized on as evidence of misrepresentations or bumbling by the Prophet. For example, the Book of Commandments initially referred to Joseph Smith as “an elder” and Oliver Cowdery the same, rather than “First Elder” and “Second Elder” as found in the text of Doctrine and Covenants Section 20. The 1833 Book of Commandments suggested that the Church was organized in Manchester rather than Fayette, New York. The June 1839 Manuscript History of the Church says it was Nephi who appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823 rather than Moroni. Now, however, with original manuscripts contained in the Book of Commandments and Revelations, published as part of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, and other early sources we can “peel back the onion” a little further. And we find that the supposed problems are nothing more sinister than clerical errors sometimes repeated by others.
Notes
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