FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Difference between revisions of "Joseph Smith's First Vision/Paul's accounts/Do Greek scholars solve the discrepancies in Paul's vision accounts"
m (New page: {{FirstVisionPortal}} {{summary}} ==Criticism== Joseph Smith left several accounts of his First Vision. None of these accounts is identical with any other. As the main page discusses, ...) |
m |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{FirstVisionPortal}} | {{FirstVisionPortal}} | ||
| − | {{ | + | {{draft}} |
==Criticism== | ==Criticism== | ||
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
==Response== | ==Response== | ||
| + | |||
| + | The work cited by Abanes is not a recent work of Greek scholarship—it was first published in 1940.{{ref|vine.1}} | ||
| + | |||
| Line 27: | Line 30: | ||
#{{note|abanes.1}} {{CriticalWork:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=42, 43 (sidebar)}} | #{{note|abanes.1}} {{CriticalWork:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=42, 43 (sidebar)}} | ||
| + | #{{note|vine.1}} W.E. Vine's M.A., ''Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words'' (1940). {{link|url=http://www2.mf.no/bibel/vines.html}} | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
Revision as of 00:26, 3 January 2009
Template:FirstVisionPortal
This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.
Contents
Criticism
Joseph Smith left several accounts of his First Vision. None of these accounts is identical with any other. As the main page discusses, some critics wish to argue that Joseph's vision accounts are mutually contradictory, and thus that there was no vision.
Latter-day Saints often point out that the Bible's accounts of Paul's vision on the road to Damascus appear to be contradictory. Yet, the Church's sectarian critics accept Paul's account as true despite the Bible containing apparently frank contradictions in its accounts. While accepting or explaining away these discrepancies, the critics nevertheless refuse to give Joseph Smith the same latitude. Members of the Church have long pointed out that this is a clear double standard, designed to bias the audience against Joseph from the beginning.
Perhaps because of the force of this argument, some critics have begun to argue that no contradiction exists between the versions of Paul's vision. For example, Richard Abanes wrote that contradictions in the stories of Paul's vision were
- "long ago resolved by scholars analyzing the Greek texts. The discrepancies in Paul's account involve modern ignorance of the Greek wording used."[1]
In support of this claim, Abanes cites W.E. Vine, Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 544.
Source(s) of the Criticism
- Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 42, 43 (sidebar). ( Index of claims )
Response
The work cited by Abanes is not a recent work of Greek scholarship—it was first published in 1940.[2]
Conclusion
Endnotes
- [note] Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 42, 43 (sidebar). ( Index of claims )
- [note] W.E. Vine's M.A., Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (1940). off-site