Sunday, January 19, 2025

Reframing traditional historical narratives

New information often leads to new insights, interpretations, understandings, etc., which we can call "reframes."

For Come Follow Me 2025, which focuses on Church history and the Doctrine and Covenants, there are several reframes of traditional narratives for people to consider.

Some important examples follow.
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1. When did the Restoration begin?

The Restoration started with Joseph's leg surgery, which made him an intense religious seeker starting from a young age (around 6). When he wrote in 1832 that he had "an intimate acquaintance with those of different denominations," he expressed his familiarity with Christian literature generally, as well as the Bible. The Lord used the leg surgery and years of recuperation to prepare Joseph for his future role as translator and prophet. Although Joseph was "unlearned" in the sense of having spent a lot of time in formal school, he was far from ignorant or illiterate.

2. What influences did God use to prepare Joseph?

Influences such as James Hervey and Jonathan Edwards are evident in the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and Joseph's personal writings, just as we would expect because the Lord explained that "these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding."
(Doctrine and Covenants 1:24)
See sample annotations at https://www.mobom.org/jonathan-edwards

3. What did Joseph learn from Moroni?

The first time Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, he "gave a general account of the promises made to the fathers, and also gave a history of the aborigenes of this country, and said they were literal descendants of Abraham..... He said this history was written and deposited not far from" Joseph's home near Palmyra, New York, and that it was Joseph's "privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record."


Also that first night, Moroni told Joseph that "the record is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place remove the Grass and moss and you will find a large flat stone pry that up and you will find the record under it laying on 4 pillars <​of cement​>"


4. How did Joseph translate the plates?

Joseph and Oliver always explained that Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. Neither of them ever said or implied that Joseph produced the text by reading words off a stone he put in a hat (the "stone-in-the-hat" theory, aka SITH). John Whitmer corroborated their testimony. Others contradicted what Joseph and Oliver said, some even saying Joseph didn't even have the Urim and Thummim and/or that Joseph didn't even look at the plates. 

The discrepancy has been explained in various ways. Some modern LDS scholars, such as Royal Skousen and others who promote SITH, claim that Joseph and Oliver intentionally misled everyone about the translation. Some try to persuade people that when Joseph and Oliver used the term "Urim and Thummim" they actually meant the seer stone, contrary to their explicit claims and the historical record. Others suggest that Joseph used the seer stone only to "satisfy the awful curiosity" of Joseph's followers, to whom he was forbidden to show the plates or Urim and Thummim, such as by doing a demonstration to explain the process, which they later described as an apologetic response to the Spalding theory.

Many Latter-day Saints still believe what Joseph and Oliver claimed; i.e., that, pursuant to Moroni's instructions, Joseph translated the engravings on the plates through the means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.


5. Why does the Title Page refer only to abridged records?

Joseph Smith explained that the Title Page was the last leaf of the plates, but everyone can see that the Title Page refers only to abridged records (plus Moroni's final writings to "seal" the record). We can also see that in D&C 9, the Lord promised Oliver that there were "other records" he could assist Joseph to translate, and that in D&C 10, the Lord commanded Joseph to translate the engravings on the plates of Nephi. 

Except Joseph didn't have the plates of Nephi in Harmony, PA. He did not receive those until after he arrived in Fayette, NY. 

David Whitmer explained that after he picked up Joseph and Oliver in Harmony to take them to his father's home in Fayette, he encountered an old man on the side of the road and offered him a ride. The man declined, saying he was "going to Cumorah." Joseph explained that the man was the messenger who had the plates, and he was one of the Three Nephites. Apparently the messenger took the abridged plates back to the repository in Cumorah, picked up the "small plates of Nephi" and took them to Fayette, which is why Joseph translated them there. 


(click to enlarge)




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