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Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Significance
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Claimed engravings | A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)
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An analysis of the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" Updated 9/21/2011
Reviews of previous revisions of this section
December 2009
Summary: A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia in December 2009.Section review
The significance of the golden plates in the Latter Day Saint tradition
From the Wikipedia article:
The golden plates are significant within the Latter Day Saint movement because they are the reputed source for the Book of Mormon, which Joseph Smith, Jr. called the "most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion."
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Roberts (1908) , p. 461.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
However, the golden plates are just one of many known and reputed metal plates with significance in the Latter Day Saint movement. The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of writing historical records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination. See List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement). In addition, Joseph Smith once believed in the authenticity of a set of engraved metal plates called the Kinderhook Plates,
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Bushman (2005) , p. 490;Brodie (1971) , p. 291: "The whole of Nauvoo soon buzzed with the discovery. The Times and Seasons published full reproductions as further proof of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and the printing office sold facsimiles at one dollar a dozen." The original source is William Clayton's Journal, May 1, 1843 (See also, Trials of Discipleship — The Story of William Clayton, a Mormon, 117): "I have seen 6 brass plates... covered with ancient characters of language containing from 30 to 40 on each side of the plates. Prest J. has translated a portion and says they contain the history of the person with whom they were found and he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth." The information was deemed important enough to be republished in the first person (as if Smith had said it) in the History of The Church: "I insert facsimiles of the six brass plates found near Kinderhook...I have translated a portion of them, and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of heaven and earth." More than six pages of History of the Church, 5:372-79 discuss the Kinderhook plates, and Smith directed Reuben Hedlock to make woodcuts of the plates. Palmer (2002) , p. 31 "Church historians continued to insist on the authenticity of the Kinderhook plates until 1980 when an examination conducted by the Chicago Historical Society, possessor of one plate, proved it was a nineteenth-century creation." Bushman (2005) , p. 490
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
although these plates turned out to be a hoax by non-Mormons who sought to entice Smith to translate them in order to discredit his reputation.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 489-90.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree Plates and the Book of the Law of the Lord, were purportedly translated by James Strang, one of three major contenders to succeed Joseph Smith and the eventual leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite).
Wikipedia footnotes:
- The Voree Plates were alleged to have been written by an ancient inhabitant of what is now Burlington, Wisconsin, while the Book of the Law of the Lord was alleged by Strang to be a translation of the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Neither of these alleged discoveries by Strang is accepted as authentic outside of the Strangite community.
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- W. Grant McMurray, "They "Shall Blossom as the Rose": Native Americans and the Dream of Zion," an address delivered February 17, 2001, accessed on Community of Christ website, September 1, 2006 at http://web.archive.org/web/20070817021355/http://cofchrist.org/docs/NativeAmericanConference/keynote.asp (referring to "long-standing questions about [the Book of Mormon's] historicity" which has provoked "discussion in the 1970s and beyond" about the proper use of the book in the religion); Ostling (1999) , p. 259: "'Were there really gold plates and ministering angels, or was there just Joseph Smith Seated at a table with his face in a hat dictating to a scribe a fictional account of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas?' Resolving that problem haunts loyal Mormons. The blunt questioner quoted is Brigham D. Madsen, a liberal Mormon and onetime history teacher at Brigham Young University."
FAIR's analysis:
From the Wikipedia article:
For most Latter Day Saints, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith. For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins.
Wikipedia footnotes:
- Givens (2003) , p. 37.
FAIR's analysis:
References
Wikipedia references for "Golden Plates" |
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Further reading
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