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Wikipedia Main Article: Three Witnesses–
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Wikipedia Footnotes: Three Witnesses–Notes
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A FAIR Opinion
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- Martin Harris was a respected farmer in the Palmyra area who had changed his religion at least five times before he became a Mormon.Harris had been a Quaker, a Universalist, a Restorationist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, and perhaps a Methodist.
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- Correct, per cited sources
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- A biographer wrote that his "imagination was excitable and fecund." One letter says that Harris thought that a candle sputtering was the work of the devil
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- Walker, 34: "Once while reading scripture, he reportedly mistook a candle's sputtering as a sign that the devil desired to stop him."
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- Correct, per cited sources
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- and that he had met Jesus in the shape of a deer and walked and talked with him for two or three miles.
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- John A. Clark letter, August 31, 1840 in EMD, 2: 271.
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As I have before taken occasion to remark, Harris was ready to be duped by any thing which these jugglers were disposed to tell him. He seemed to think at length that he himself was inspired, and that revelations from heaven were made to him in reference to the most minute affairs in life....No matter where he went, he saw visions and supernatural appearances all around him. He told a gentleman in Palmyra, after one of his excursions to Pennsylvania, while the translation of the Book of Mormon was gong on, that on the way he met the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked along by the side of him in the shape of a deer for two or three miles, talking with him as familiarly as one man talks with another.
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- The local Presbyterian minister called him "a visionary fanatic."
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- Correct, per cited sources
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- A friend, who praised Harris as "universally esteemed as an honest man" but disagreed with his religious affiliation, declared that Harris's mind "was overbalanced by 'marvellousness'" and that his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy.
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- Pomroy Tucker Reminiscence, 1858 in Early Mormon Documents 3: 71.
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- Correct, per cited sources
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- Another friend said, "Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks."
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- Lorenzo Saunders Interview, November 12, 1884, Early Mormon Documents 2: 149.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Neutral Point-of-View off-site— All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.
Why include Saunders' comment about "spooks" without mentioning that Martin was a "good citizen?"
- The quote in context,
Martin was a good citizen. Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks & believed in all these things. I never knew or heard Martin talk infidelity. They claimed that he was an infidel; but I never heard him talk infidelity on matters of Religion or anything of that. He was a hard working man, & if he had staid where he already lived he would have been the richest man in that part of the country. But after Mormonism came up he seemed to talk of that and nothing else & he was running the streets & talking everything. And sometimes he would seem as though he was beside himself. There cant anybody say a word against Martin Harris.
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- During the early years, Harris "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."
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- The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like."
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- Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867), 71 in EMD, 3: 122.
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- Correct, per cited sources
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- John H. Gilbert, the typesetter for most of the book, said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" According to Gilbert, Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye."
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- John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in EMD, 2: 548.
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- Correct, per cited sources
From the cited source,
Martin was in the office when I finished setting up the testimony of the three witnesses,—Harris—Cowdery and Whitmer—) I said to him,—"Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" Martin looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, "No, I saw them with a spir[i]tual eye."
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- Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes."
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- Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in EMD, 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in EMD, 3: 22.
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- In 1838, Harris is said to have told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination."
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- Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in EMD, 2: 291.
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- Correct, per cited sources
From the cited source,
...but when I came to hear Martin Harris state in a public congregation that he never saws the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination...
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- A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen [the plates] with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision."
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- Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in EMD, 2: 385.
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- Correct, per cited sources
From the cited source,
He never claimed to have seen them with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision. He said it was impossible for the prophet Joseph to get up the "Book of Mormon," for he could not spell the word Sarah. He had him repeat the letters of the world. He was a very illiterate man.
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- One account states that in March 1838, Martin Harris publicly denied that either he or the other Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had literally seen the golden plates—although, of course, he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first claimed to have viewed them. This account says that Harris's recantation, made during a period of crisis in early Mormonism, induced five influential members, including three Apostles, to leave the Church.
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- Stephen Burnett to Luke S. Johnson, 15 April 1838, in Joseph Smith's Letterbook, Early Mormon Documents 2: 290-92.
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...but when I came to hear Marin Harris state in a public congregation that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver [Cowdery] nor David [Whitmer] & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it...
- Editor Vogel make the following observation on p. 291 note 7,
Harris evidently denounced the Testimony of Eight Witnesses as false in the sense that it implied a purely natural and physical experience with the plates. Considering his close association with those eight men, it is doubtful that he intended to deny their individual testimonies. Rather Harris had probably said the eight witnesses "also...never saw" the plates with their natural eyes. This interpretation is consistent with Warren Parrish's report quoted in the introduction. Additionally, Harris seemed to regard the visionary experiences of the three witnesses as superior to that of the eight, apparently placing the experiences of the eight witnesses on the level with his seeing the plates through the cloth.
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- Later in life, Harris strongly denied that he ever made this statement.
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- Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, in EMD, 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Neutral Point-of-View off-site— All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.
Notice how every one of Harris' statements regarding seeing the plates in a vision is quoted, yet the wiki editor chooses not to quote Harris's strong denial that he ever denied the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon until the end of the section.
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- Nevertheless, some years later, even Brigham Young referred to "witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God, [but who] were afterward left to doubt and to disbelieve that they had ever seen an angel."
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- Journal of Discourses (1860), 7:164
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- In 1837, Harris joined dissenters, led by Warren Parrish, in an attempt to reform the Mormon church. But Parrish rejected the Book of Mormon, and Harris continued to believe in it. By 1840, Harris had returned to Smith's church. Following Smith's assassination, Harris accepted James J. Strang as a new prophet, and Strang also claimed to have been divinely led to an ancient record engraved upon metal plates. By 1847, Harris had broken with Strang and had accepted the leadership of fellow Book of Mormon witness, David Whitmer. Harris then left Whitmer for another Mormon factional leader, Gladden Bishop. In 1855, Harris joined with the last surviving brother of Joseph Smith Jr., William Smith, and declared that William was Joseph's true successor.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
Much of the main text is not supported by the cited source. There is no mention in the source of Harris' associations with Warren Parrish, David Whitmer or Gladden Bishop.
- From the cited source,
For a time he affiliated with James Strang and even served a mission for that group in England in 1846. In 1847 he joined William E. McLellin in organizing a new church, and in 1858 was briefly affiliated with William Smith.
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- In 1856 Harris's second wife left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah. Harris remained in Kirtland, Ohio and, as caretaker of the temple there, gave tours to interested visitors.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
Vogel's words are used almost verbatim (with the exception of the word "there") without being properly quoted. (John "Foxe" is a real-life historian—he knows better than to do this.)
- From the cited source,
In 1856 Harris's wife left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah. Harris remained in Kirtland and, as caretaker of the temple, gave tours to interested visitors.
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- Despite his earlier statements regarding the spiritual nature of his experience, in 1853, Harris told one David Dille that he had held the forty- to sixty-pound plates on his knee for "an hour-and-a-half" and handled them "plate after plate."
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- Martin Harris interview with David B. Dille, 15 September 1853 in EMD 2: 296-97.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
The wiki editor has abused the cited source by conflating Harris's experience with the angel as a witness to the plates with a different occasion upon which he helped Joseph hide the plates. The source being quoted makes this clear.
- It should also be noted that the source says nothing about the weight of the plates.
- Here is Martin's 1853 statement from his interview with David B. Dille in context,
Mr. Harris replied and said—"I was the right-hand man of Joseph Smith, and I know that he was a Prophet of God. I know the Book of Mormon is true." Then smiting his fist on the table, he said—"And you know that I know that it is true. I know that the plates have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice declared it unto us; therefore I know of a surety that the work is true. For," continued Mr. Harris, "did I not at one time hold the plates on my knee an hour-and-a-half, whilst in conversation with Joseph, when we went to bury them in the woods, that the enemy might not obtain them? Yes, I did. And as many of the plates as Joseph Smith translated I handled with my hands, plate after plate.["]
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- Even later, Harris affirmed that he had seen the plates and the angel with his natural eyes: "Gentlemen," holding out his hand, "do you see that hand? Are you sure you see it? Or are your eyes playing you a trick or something? No. Well, as sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the Angel and the plates."
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- Martin Harris interview with Robert Barter, c. 1870 in EMD, 2: 390.
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- Correct, per cited sources
- Violates Wikipedia: Neutral Point-of-View off-site— All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.
While the wiki editors took care to include multiple statements in which Martin talks of seeing the plates with his "spiritual" eyes, they fail to include multiple references from the same source (cited here) in which Martin claimed to know exactly what he saw.
- For example, from the cited source,
...and there heard the testimony first hand, the Mr. [Martin] Harris actually saw the Angel Moroni with the gold recored from which was translate dthe Book of Mormon" (Deseret News, 22 August 1934, 16). Harris stated: "It is not a mere belief, but is a matter of knowledge. I saw the plates and the inscriptions thereon. I saw the angel, and he showed them unto me" (Deseret News, 2 April 1927)
Martin Harris Statement ot Robert Aveson, 10 July 1874.
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- In 1870, at the age of 87, Harris accepted an invitation to live in Utah, where he was rebaptized and spent his remaining years with relatives in Cache County. As an old man, Harris bore fervent testimony to the authenticity of the plates, although a contemporary critic of the Church speculated that his sympathy for the Utah church may have been tenuous.
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- In an interview with ex-Mormon Anthony Metcalf, Metcalf asked him why, if he did not believe that polygamy, baptism for the dead, or temple endowments were part of Mormonism, he had taken the endowment when he arrived in Salt Lake City. Harris replied "to see what was going on in there." Martin Harris interview with Anthony Metcalf, c. 1873-74 in EMD, 2: 348.
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- Correct, per cited sources
The interviewer, Anthony Metcalf, begins by stating: "Following is the history as related to me, including all [Martin Harris'] connections with Joseph Smith, the pretended prophet and the founder of the Mormon Church."
- From the cited source,
He also claimed that polygamy, baptism for the dead, and such endowments as were given [in] Nauvoo and Salt Lake City, were no part of Mormonism. I asked him why he had taken his endowments when he arrived in Salt Lake City. He answered that "his only motive was to see what was going on in there."
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- In a letter of 1870, Harris swore, "[N]o man ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates, nor the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints under the administration of Joseph Smith, Jun., the prophet whom the Lord raised up for that purpose in these the latter days, that he may show forth his power and glory."
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- Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, in EMD, 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118.
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- Correct, per cited sources
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Wikipedia Main Article: Three Witnesses–
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Wikipedia Footnotes: Three Witnesses–Notes
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A FAIR Opinion
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- David Whitmer first became involved with Joseph Smith and the Golden Plates through his friend Oliver Cowdery; and because of his longevity, Whitmer became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses. Whitmer gave various versions of his experience in viewing the Golden Plates. Although less credulous than Harris, Whitmer had his own visionary predilections and owned a seer stone.
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- A wiki editor's opinion is presented as fact— The wiki editor has placed his own opinion in the article as if it were fact.
Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
The cited source states nothing about Whitmer giving "various versions of his experience in viewing the Golden Plates," nor does it say anything about Whitmer being "less credulous than Harris."
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- In 1829, before testifying to the truth of the Golden Plates, Whitmer reported that when traveling with Smith to his father's farm in Fayette, New York, they had seen a Nephite on the road who suddenly disappeared. Then when they arrived at his father's house, they were "impressed" that the same Nephite was under the shed.
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- EMD, 5: 10-11, Whitmer interview with Edward Stevenson, December 1877, EMD 5: 30-31.
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- From Early Mormon Documents 5:30-31,
Soon after they passed the felt Strangely & Stop[p]ed, but could See nothing of him all arround was clear & they asked the Lord about it[.] he Said that the Prophet Looked as White as a Sheet & Said that it was one of the Nephites & that he had the Plates. on arriveing at home they were impressed that the Same Person was under the Shed & again they were informed that it was So. they Saw whare <he> had been & the next Morning Davids Mother [Mary Musselman Whitment] Saw the Person at the Shed and he took the Plates form A Box & Showed them to her[.] (5:30-31)
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- Recounting the vision to Orson Pratt in 1878, Whitmer claimed to have seen not only the Golden Plates but the "Brass Plates, the plates containing the record of the wickedness of the people of the world....the sword of Laban, the Directors (i.e. the ball which Lehi had) and the Interpreters. I saw them just as plain as I see this bed...."
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- David Whitmer interview with Orson Pratt, September 1878, in EMD, 5: 43.
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It was in June 1829, the very last part of the month, and the eight witnesses, I think the next day. Joseph showed them the plates himself. We (the Three Witnesses) not only saw the plates of the Book of Mormon, but the Brass Plates, the plates containing the record of the wickedness of the people of the world, and many other plates. The fact is, it was just as though Joseph, Oliver and i were sitting right here on a log, when we were overshadowed by a light. It was not like the light of the sun, nor like that of a fire, but more glorious and beautiful. It extended away round us, I cannot tell how far, bu in the midst of this light, immediately before us, about as far off as he sits (pointing to John C. Whitmer who was sitting 2 or 3 feet from him)
there appeared, as it were, a table, with many records on it, besides the plates of the Book of Mormon; also the sword of Laban, the Directors (i.e. the ball which Lehi had) and the Interpreters. I saw them just as plain as I see this bed (striking his hand upon the bed beside him). . . .
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- On other occasions, Whitmer's vision of the plates seemed far less corporeal. When asked in 1880 for a description of the angel who showed him the plates, Whitmer replied that the angel "had no appearance or shape." Asked by the interviewer how he then could bear testimony that he had seen and heard an angel, Whitmer replied, "Have you never had impressions?" To which the interviewer responded, "Then you had impressions as the Quaker when the spirit moves, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience, a feeling?" "Just so," replied Whitmer.
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- Whitmer interview with John Murphy, June 1880, in EMD 5: 63.
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Murphy: "First of all, I heard you saw an angel. I never saw one. I want your description of [the]shape, voice, brogue and the construction of his language. I mean as to his style of speaking. You know that that we can often determine the class a man belongs to by his language."
Whitmer: "It had no appearance or shape."
Murphy: "Then you saw nothing nor heard nothing?"
Whitmer: "Nothing, in the way you understand it."
Murphy: "How, then, could you have borne testimony that you saw and heard an angel?"
Whitmer: "Have you never had impressions?"
Murphy: "Then you had impressions as the quaker when the spirit moves, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience, a feeling?"
Whitmer: "Just so."
- It should be noted that the person describing the interview sets all of the tone and color of the interview, and in this case we get snippets of responses from Whitmer. The other responses from Whitmer regarding his experience with the plates show a much more communicative man. This particular interview, therefore, is an anomaly among all of the statements Whitmer made regarding his experience.
- For a detailed response, see: David Whitmer/Statements
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- A young Mormon lawyer, James Henry Moyle, who interviewed Whitmer in 1885, asked if there was any possibility that Whitmer had been deceived. "His answer was unequivocal....that he saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness." But Moyle went away "not fully satisfied....It was more spiritual than I anticipated."
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- Moyle diary, June 28, 1885 in EMD 5: 141.
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Mr. D[avid]. Withmer Sen did not handel the plates. Only seen <saw> them, says Martin Haris and Cowdry did so they say!
Says he did see them and the angel and heard him speak. But that was indiscribable that it was through the power of God (and was possibly [in the spirit] at least) he then spoke of Paul hearing and seeing Christ but his associates did not [Acts 9:7; 22:9]. Because it is only seen in the Spirit.
I was not fully satisfied with the ex=planation. It was more spiritual than I anticipated.
- Note that, like the previous interview, this is also a second hand report. It seems to accurately report the aspect of the experience that Whitmer tried to convey—that while very real, it was also a spiritual experience. The idea that Moyle went away "not fully satisfied" tells us more about Moyle's expectations that what Whitmer was trying to convey.
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- In 1831, Whitmer moved with early Mormon believers to Kirtland, Ohio where he briefly supported a woman named Hubble, who professed to be prophetess and used a seer stone. In 1832 he followed the church to Jackson County, Missouri, and was named Smith's successor even though he had criticized Smith's more recent innovations. By December 1837, a movement led by Warren Parrish plotted to overthrow Smith and replace him with Whitmer. After the Kirtland Bank fiasco, confrontation grew between the dissenters and those loyal to Joseph Smith. Whitmer, his brother John, Oliver Cowdery, and others were harassed by the Danites, a secret group of Mormon vigilantes, and were warned to leave the county. Whitmer was formally excommunicated on April 13, 1838 and never rejoined the church.
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- Violates Wikipedia: Neutral Point-of-View off-site— All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.
Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
The use of the word "fiasco" for the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society if pejorative.
- The wiki editors have linked to a source that requires a subscription.
- For a detailed response, see: Kirtland Safety Society and Danites
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- Whitmer then moved to Richmond, Missouri, where he ran a livery stable and became a civic leader. After Smith's assassination, Whitmer, like Martin Harris, briefly followed James Strang, who had his own set of supernatural metal plates. Later Whitmer organized his own splinter group based on his authority as one of the Three Witnesses and even later supported another group headed by his brother John. In his pamphlet, "An Address to All Believers in Christ" (1887), Whitmer reaffirmed his witness to the Golden Plates,
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- "I wish now, standing as it were, in the very sunset of life, and in the fear of God, once for all to make this public statement: 'That I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof, which has so long since been published with that Book, as one of the three witnesses. Those who know me best, will know that I have always adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do again affirm the truth of all of my statements, as then made and published." ThreeWitness.org website.
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- but he also criticized what he viewed as the errors of Joseph Smith, including his introduction of plural marriage. "If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon, if you believe that God spake to us three witnesses by his own voice," wrote Whitmer,"then I tell you that in June, 1838, God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to 'separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints....'"
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- "An Address," 27, in EMD, 5: 194.
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- Nevertheless, Whitmer is regarded by Mormons as an "enduring witness to the genuineness of the prophet Joseph Smith and his message.
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- The wiki editors have linked to a source that requires a subscription.
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