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Freemasonry and the Book of Mormon
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Contents
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
While many have speculated on the use of anti-masonic language in the Book of Mormon text as proof of Joseph Smith authorship of the same. The authors of these speculations fail to take into account three critical issues which would tend to 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 in and was surrouned by Freemasons in his home. Both his father, Joseph Smith, Sr. and elder brother Hyrum Smith were Masons in New York. It would seem unlikely that Joseph would be using anti-masonic language and terms, and meaning it as such, given his family's close connection and association with the institution of Freemasonry.
2. The Book of Mormon is a translation. As such it refelct the time and place that it was translated in. 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.
3. In 1842 Joseph Smith himself became a Mason. It would seem unlikey that had Joseph intened to tie the Gadianton robber of the Book of Mormon to the Freemasons that with in a span of less than 15 years he would be found joining that very group. This is even more the case when you condier that it has been reported that one of Joseph's plural wives was none other than Lucinda Morgan, the widow of William Morgan who's mystrious death in upstate New York in 1826 was the spark of the anti-masonry political movement.
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