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Difference between revisions of "Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./1827 to 1830"
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"The manuscript may have the effect, [Steven C. Harper] said, of resolving a controversy that has arisen over whether the Church was organized at Fayette, N.Y., as has traditionally been understood, or at Manchester, N.Y. It does so by affirming that a revelation given on April 6, 1830, was given at Fayette, not at Manchester. 'The 1833 Book of Commandments, heretofore the earliest source available, located this revelation in Manchester,' he explained. Some authors thus argued that the traditional story of the Church's founding in Fayette lacked foundation in the historical record, 'but we can now see that in this case, tradition and the historical record match up,' he said."<br> (R. Scott Lloyd, "'Major Discovery' Discussed at Mormon History Association Conference," Church News, 22 May 2009.) | "The manuscript may have the effect, [Steven C. Harper] said, of resolving a controversy that has arisen over whether the Church was organized at Fayette, N.Y., as has traditionally been understood, or at Manchester, N.Y. It does so by affirming that a revelation given on April 6, 1830, was given at Fayette, not at Manchester. 'The 1833 Book of Commandments, heretofore the earliest source available, located this revelation in Manchester,' he explained. Some authors thus argued that the traditional story of the Church's founding in Fayette lacked foundation in the historical record, 'but we can now see that in this case, tradition and the historical record match up,' he said."<br> (R. Scott Lloyd, "'Major Discovery' Discussed at Mormon History Association Conference," Church News, 22 May 2009.) | ||
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− | *Orson Pratt: "I well recollect when I was but a boy of nineteen visiting the place where this Church was organized, and visiting the Prophet Joseph, who resided at that time in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, at the house where the Church was organized." ({{ | + | *Orson Pratt: "I well recollect when I was but a boy of nineteen visiting the place where this Church was organized, and visiting the Prophet Joseph, who resided at that time in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, at the house where the Church was organized." ({{JDfairwiki|author=Orson Pratt|disc=45|vol=13|start=356}}) |
*''French’s New York Gazetteer'', published by R. Pearsall Smith, at Syracuse, New York, [since] 1800, also contained some data concerning Mormonism, and states that the first Mormon society was formed in the town of Fayette, Seneca County, in 1830” (Letter, Diedrich Villers, Jr. to Ellen E. Dickinson; published in Ellen E. Dickinson, ''New Light on Mormonism'') | *''French’s New York Gazetteer'', published by R. Pearsall Smith, at Syracuse, New York, [since] 1800, also contained some data concerning Mormonism, and states that the first Mormon society was formed in the town of Fayette, Seneca County, in 1830” (Letter, Diedrich Villers, Jr. to Ellen E. Dickinson; published in Ellen E. Dickinson, ''New Light on Mormonism'') | ||
*See: [[Location of the organization of the Church]] {{nw}} | *See: [[Location of the organization of the Church]] {{nw}} |
Revision as of 20:26, 30 September 2009
Early years | A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr. A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)
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1831 to 1834: Kirtland |
The name Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. Wikipedia content is copied and made available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
1827 to 1830: Organizing the Church
Book of Mormon
- | Wikipedia Main Article: Joseph Smith, Jr.–1827_to_1830:_Organizing_the_Church | Wikipedia Footnotes: Joseph Smith, Jr.–Notes | A FAIR Opinion |
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1A |
Smith and his wife moved to Harmony, Pennsylvania, with the financial assistance of their neighbor Martin Harris. |
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2A |
Initially Smith told a few family members and Joseph Knight that he had retrieved the plates written in unusual characters as well as the Urim and Thummim. |
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3A |
Harris was convinced that the plates were genuine, and he began acting as Smith's scribe while Smith translated them by examining the Urim and Thummim or seer stones in the bottom of his hat. |
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4A |
From April 12 to June 14, 1828, Smith and Harris worked consistently on the translation. A curtain divided the two men, and Smith used Urim and Thummim or seer stones as "interpreters." |
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5A |
The result of their work was 116 pages. After relentless requests by Harris, Smith reluctantly allowed Harris to take the manuscript to Palmyra to assuage the growing skepticism of Harris' wife Lucy. When Harris returned, long overdue, he told Smith that the manuscript had disappeared. About the same time, Smith's wife Emma gave birth to a stillborn son. Smith, understandably distraught over losing both his child and the manuscript, |
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then dictated to Emma his first written revelation, which rebuked him for losing the manuscript pages but assigned most of the blame to Harris. |
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7A |
The revelation assured Smith that if he repented, God would restore the interpreters that the angel had taken away. |
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8A |
During this period, Smith also may have briefly joined a Methodist inquirers' class in Harmony. |
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9A |
Lucy Mack Smith said that her son received the interpreters again on September 22, 1828, and he slowly resumed translating with Emma taking the dictation. The pace of the translation greatly increased, however, after April 7, 1829, when Oliver Cowdery arrived in Harmony. Cowdery was a school teacher whose family, like Smith's, had engaged in treasure seeking and other magical practices, |
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and Cowdery had taken an interest in Smith's story while in Palmyra. |
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Smith dictated most of the Book of Mormon to Cowdery between early April and late June. |
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In later years, both men testified that during this period they had been ordained by John the Baptist and then had baptized each other in the Susquehanna River. |
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Early years of the church
- | Wikipedia Main Article: Joseph Smith, Jr.–Early_years_of_the_church | Wikipedia Footnotes: Joseph Smith, Jr.–Notes | A FAIR Opinion |
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1B |
In early June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York to complete the translation, and Smith began to seek converts. As Richard Bushman has written, when people believed, "they did not just subscribe to the book; they were baptized." But as Smith "began to seek converts the question of credibility had to be addressed again. Joseph knew his story was unbelievable." |
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2B |
He finally had a revelation that others, known today as the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses, would bear testimony to the existence of the plates—which they did in early July 1829. |
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3B |
Finally, the Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830 by printer E. B. Grandin. Martin Harris financed the publication by mortgaging his farm. |
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4B |
On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith and his followers formally organized as the Church of Christ, |
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5B |
and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York. There was strong opposition to the church, and in late June, Smith was again brought to court but acquitted. |
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6B |
Perhaps it was to this period that Smith and Cowdery referred when they later said that they had received a visitation from Peter, James, and John, three apostles of Jesus, who appeared to them in order to restore the Melchizedek priesthood, which they said contained the necessary authority to restore Christ's church. |
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7B |
In July 1831, Smith revealed that the church would establish a "City of Zion" in Native American territory near Missouri. |
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8B |
In anticipation, Smith dispatched missionaries, led by Oliver Cowdery, to the area. On their way, they converted a group of Disciples of Christ adherents in Kirtland, Ohio led by Sidney Rigdon. To avoid growing opposition in New York, Smith moved the headquarters of the church to Kirtland. |
References
Wikipedia references for "Joseph Smith, Jr." |
- Abanes, Richard, (2003), One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church Thunder's Mouth Press
- Allen, James B., The Significance of Joseph Smith's "First Vision" in Mormon Thought off-site .
- (1992), The Mormon Experience University of Illinois Press .
- (1980), The Lion and the Lady: Brigham Young and Emma Smith off-site .
- Bergera, Gary James (editor) (1989), Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine Signature Books .
- Bloom, Harold, (1992), The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation Simon & Schuster .
- Booth, Ezra, Mormonism—Nos. VIII–IX (Letters to the editor) off-site .
- Brodie, Fawn M., (1971), No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith Knopf .
- Brooke, , (1994), The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844 Cambridge University Press .
- Bushman, Richard Lyman, (2005), Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling , New York: Knopf .
- Clark, John A., (1842), Gleanings by the Way , Philadelphia: W.J. & J.K Simmon off-site .
- Compton, Todd, (1997), In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith Signature Books .
- Foster, Lawrence, (1981), Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community , New York: Oxford University Press .
- Harris, Martin, (1859), Mormonism—No. II off-site .
- Hill, Donna, (1977), Joseph Smith: The first Mormon , Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co. .
- Hill, Marvin S., (1976), Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties off-site .
- Hill, Marvin S., (1989), Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism Signature Books off-site .
- Howe, Eber Dudley, (1834), Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of that Singular Imposition and Delusion, from its Rise to the Present Time , Painesville, Ohio: Telegraph Press off-site .
- Hullinger, Robert N., (1992), Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism Signature Books off-site .
- Jessee, Dean, (1976), Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History off-site .
- Lapham, [La]Fayette, (1870), Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Forty Years Ago. His Account of the Finding of the Sacred Plates off-site .
- Larson, Stan, (1978), The King Follett Discourse: A Newly Amalgamated Text off-site .
- Mormon History off-site .
- Mack, Solomon, (1811), A Narraitve [sic] of the Life of Solomon Mack Windsor: Solomon Mack off-site .
- (1994), Inventing Mormonism Signature Books .
- Marquardt, H. Michael, (1999), The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary Signature Books .
- Marquardt, H. Michael, (2005), The Rise of Mormonism: 1816–1844 Xulon Press .
- Matzko, John, (2007), The Encounter of the Young Joseph Smith with Presbyterianism off-site .
- Morgan, Dale, Walker, John Phillip (editor) (1986), Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence and a New History Signature Books off-site .
- (2008), Joseph Smith Jr.: reappraisals after two centuries Oxford University Press .
- Newell, Linda King, (1994), Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith University of Illinois Press .
- (1999), Mormon America: The Power and the Promise HarperSanFrancisco .
- Persuitte, David, (2000), Joseph Smith and the origins of the Book of Mormon McFarland & Co. .
- Phelps, W.W. (editor) (1833), A Book of Commandments, for the Government of the Church of Christ , Zion: William Wines Phelps & Co. off-site .
- Prince, Gregory A, (1995), Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood Signature Books .
- Quinn, D. Michael, (1994), The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power Signature Books .
- Quinn, D. Michael, (1998), Early Mormonism and the Magic World View Signature Books .
- Remini, , (2002), Joseph Smith: A Penguin Life Penguin Group .
- Roberts, B. H. (editor) (1902), History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Salt Lake City: Deseret News off-site .
- Roberts, B. H. (editor) (1904), History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Salt Lake City: Deseret News off-site .
- Roberts, B. H. (editor) (1905), History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Salt Lake City: Deseret News off-site .
- Roberts, B. H. (editor) (1909), History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Salt Lake City: Deseret News off-site .
- Shipps, Jan, (1985), Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition University of Illinois Press .
- Smith, George D., (1994), Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report off-site .
- Smith, George D, (2008), Nauvoo Polygamy: "...but we called it celestial marriage" Signature Books .
- Smith, Joseph, Jr., (1830), The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, Upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi , Palmyra, New York: E. B. Grandin off-site . See Book of Mormon.
- Smith, Joseph, Jr., Jessee, Dean C (editor) (1832), Personal Writings of Joseph Smith , Salt Lake City: Deseret Book .
- Jessee, Dean C (editor) (1839–1843), Personal Writings of Joseph Smith Deseret Book .
- (1835), Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God , Kirtland, Ohio: F. G. Williams & Co off-site . See Doctrine and Covenants.
- Smith, Joseph, Jr., Church History [Wentworth Letter] off-site . See Wentworth letter.
- Smith, Lucy Mack, (1853), Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations , Liverpool: S.W. Richards off-site . See The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
- Tucker, Pomeroy, (1867), Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism , New York: D. Appleton off-site .
- Turner, Orsamus, (1852), History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, and Morris' Reserve , Rochester, New York: William Alling off-site .
- Joseph Smith: The Gift of Seeing off-site .
- Van Wagoner, Richard S., (1992), Mormon Polygamy: A History Signature Books .
- Vogel, Dan, (1994), The Locations of Joseph Smith's Early Treasure Quests off-site .
- Vogel, Dan, (2004), Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet Signature Books .
- Widmer, Kurt, (2000), Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1830–1915 McFarland .