Freemasonry and the Book of Mormon

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Criticism

Critics claim that the Gadianton robbers are thinly disguised references to the anti-Masonic panic of Joseph Smith's era.

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History (New York, A. A. Knopf, 1945), 63–66.
• John L. Brooke, The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 168–171, 174–177, 226, 230, 233.
• Ed Decker, Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism (Eugene: Harvest House, 1995), 210–211, 280.
• Robert N. Hullinger, Mormon Answer to Skepticism: Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon (St. Louis, Mo.: Clayton, 1980), 100–119; republished as Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 99–120.
• Thomas F. O'Dea, The Mormons (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 23, 35, 57.
• David Persuitte, Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1985), 173–180.
• Walter F. Prince, "Psychological Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon," American Journal of Psychology 28 (July 1917): 373–389.
• Latayne Colvett Scott, The Mormon mirage : a former Mormon tells why she left the church (Grand Rapids : Zondervan Pub. House, 1979), 75.
• Dan Vogel, "Mormonism's 'Anti-Masonick Bible,'" John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 9 (1989): 17–30.
• Dan Vogel, "Echoes of Anti-Masonry: A Rejoinder to the Critics of the Anti-Masonic Thesis," in American Apocrypha, ed. Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 275–320.

Response

Many have speculated that the use of anti-masonic language in the Book of Mormon is 'proof' of 19th century authorship. The authors of these speculations fail to take into account three critical issues which discredit the association between the Gadiantion robbers of the Book of Mormon and the anti-Masonry of the opening decades of the 19th century [1826 through 1845].

1. Joseph Smith grew up with and was surrouned by Freemasons in his home. Both his father, Joseph Smith, Sr., and hihs elder brother Hyrum Smith were Masons in New York. It would seem unlikely that Joseph would be using anti-masonic language and terms, given his family's close connection and association with the institution of Freemasonry.

2. The Book of Mormon is a translation. As such it will sometimes reflect the time and place in which it was translated. Any similarity between the language of the anti-masonic movement and Joseph's translation can better be expained by Joseph using the language of his time and place rather than by a deliberate connection to anti-masonry. See: Paul Mouritsen, "Secret Combinations and Flaxen Cords: Anti-Masonic Rhetoric and the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12/1 (2003): 64–77.

Some have claimed that the phrase "secret combination" was used exclusively in a Masonic context in Joseph Smith's day.

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3. In 1842, Joseph Smith, Jr., became a Mason. Had Joseph intended to tie the Gadianton robbers to the Freemasons, it seems most unlikely that less than 15 years later he would then join the very group which the critics' theories require that he oppose so vehemently in the Book of Mormon.

Conclusion

Given Joseph Smith long family ties to the institution of Freemasonry and the fact that he would, in 1842 become a Masonr himself it seems unlikely that anti-masonry was the source of the Gadianton robbers found in the Book of Mormon.

Any similarities which do exist are better explaind by Joseph using the language form of his time and place in the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Freemasonry and the Book of Mormon

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide:

External links

• Matthew B. Brown, "Girded about with a Lambskin," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2/2 (1997): 124–151.*
• William J. Hamblin, "An Apologist for the Critics: Brent Lee Metcalfe's Assumptions and Methodologies," FARMS Review of Books 6/1 (1994): 499–500.*
• Nathan Oman, "Secret Combinations: A Legal Analysis," FARMS Review of Books 16/1 (2004): 49–73.*
• Paul Mouritsen, "Secret Combinations and Flaxen Cords: Anti-Masonic Rhetoric and the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12/1 (2003): 64–77.*
• Daniel C. Peterson, "'Secret Combinations' Revisited," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 1/1 (1992): 184–188. *

Printed material

• Daniel C. Peterson, " Notes on 'Gadianton Masonry'" in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 174-224 ISBN 0875793002.GospeLink