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|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
|H=Response to "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins"
|T=An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
|A=Grant Palmer
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{{AuthorsDisclaimer}}


==About this work==
{{To learn more box:responses to: Grant Palmer}}
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
|H=Response to claims made in ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'' by Grant Palmer
|S=In Insider's View of Mormon Origins was developed during a period of time that its author worked as a teacher in the Church Educational System (CES), and was published after the author's retirement from Church employment. The book attempts to explain many otherwise clearly described events of the restoration by reinterpreting them as spiritual rather than physical events.
|L1=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 1: Joseph Smith as Translator/Revelator"
|L2=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 2: Authorship of the Book of Mormon"
|L3=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 3: The Bible in the Book of Mormon"
|L4=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 4: Evangelical Protestantism in the Book of Mormon"
|L5=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 5: Moroni and 'The Golden Pot'"
|L6=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 6: Witnesses to the Golden Plates"
|L7=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 7: Priesthood Restoration"
|L8=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 8: The First Vision"
|L9=Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Conclusion"
}}
</onlyinclude>
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 1}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 2}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 3}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 4}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Index/Chapter 5}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Index/Chapter 6}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 7}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Index/Chapter 8}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Index/Conclusion}}
{{SummaryItem
|link=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Use of sources
|subject=Use of sources
|summary=An examination and response to how the author of ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'' interprets the sources used to support this work, indexed by page number.
}}


Author: [[Grant Palmer]]


:Lest there be any question, let me say that my intent is to increase faith, not to diminish it.
==About this work==
 
: &mdash; <small>Grant Palmer, ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. ix.</small>
 
:Palmer's readers may well wonder what kind of faith he is trying to increase, for nothing in the book generates confidence in Joseph Smith or modern scripture.
 
: &mdash; <small>{{FR-16-1-13}}</small>


==Claims made in this work==
{{Epigraph|Lest there be any question, let me say that my intent is to increase faith, not to diminish it.<br>&mdash; Grant Palmer, ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. ix.}}
[[An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Index|An index of claims made by ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'']] with links to the corresponding responses in the FAIRwiki.


==Quote mining, selective quotation and distortion==
{{Epigraph|Palmer's readers may well wonder what kind of faith he is trying to increase, for nothing in the book generates confidence in Joseph Smith or modern scripture.<br>&mdash; {{FR-16-1-13}}}}
{{QuoteDisclaimer}}


===Chapter 2: Authorship of the Book of Mormon===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|-
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Joseph said the Book of Mormon was translated "by the gift and power of God," coming '''"forth out of the treasure of the heart ... thus bringing forth out of the heart, things new and old."''' The evidence indicates that the Book of Mormon is in fact an amalgamation of ideas that were inspired by Joseph's own environment (new) and themes from the Bible (old). ||
For the work of this example, see the book of Mormon, '''coming forth out of the treasure of the heart'''; also the covenants given to the Latter Day Saints: also the translation of the bible: '''thus bringing forth out of the heart, things new and old''': thus answering to three measures of meal, undergoing the purifying touch by a revelation of Jesus Christ, and the ministering of angels...
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 49.
||
* ''Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate'', Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 229.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* Palmer neglects to note Joseph's inclusion of covenants and the Bible in his statement in order to strengthen his own conclusion that the ''Book of Mormon'' came from Joseph's own heart. It is a stretch to interpret this phrase as some sort of admission by the Prophet that he actually created the ''Book of Mormon'' from his own mind and experience.
{{parabreak}}
{{parabreak}}


===Chapter 3: The Bible in the Book of Mormon===
{{Epigraph|The bishop asked the stake president outright, “What does Grant need to remain a member of the Church. You know, not to get a temple recommend, not to hold a position…just to be on the records of the Church?” And that’s when he said, “He’s got to repudiate, essentially, every chapter in my book ''An Insider’s View'', and ‘regain his testimony’ (and regain my testimony). And so I thought : well, that would simply emasculate me as a person, and no one’s ever come forward and says I’m wrong. They’ve attacked me, but they haven’t really gone into it. And I’ve always been…if I were wrong I would correct things. I’ve never had that offer, or anyone take me up on that offer.<br>&mdash;Grant Palmer, "324-326: Grant Palmer Returns to Discuss Sexual Allegations Against Joseph Smith, William and Jane Law, and His Resignation," ''Mormon Stories'' podcast, February 26, 2012.}}
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|-
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Oliver was Joseph's main scribe day after day and '''perhaps the only one who really knew if a Bible was consulted. Oliver is silent on the matter.''' In fact, a Bible would have been needed only when quoting long passages; so again, '''Cowdery may be the only witness who knew about this, and he neglected to mention it.'''
||These were days never to be forgotten; to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! '''Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim,''' or, as the Nephites would have said, "interpreters," the history or record called "The Book of Mormon."
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 83.
||
* Letter from Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps (Letter I), (September 7, 1834). Published in Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Vol. I. No. 1. Kirtland, Ohio, October, 1834. Published in Letters by Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps on the Rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Liverpool, 1844.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* In his zeal to provide supporting evidence for his theory that Joseph Smith consulted a King James Bible during the translation of the Book of Mormon, Palmer attempts to make Oliver Cowdery a "silent witness" for the prosecution by implying that he ''neglected to mention it!'' Oliver was far from silent regarding the Book of Mormon translation, and his enthusiasm at being a witness and participant in the translation process is clearly evident. Furthermore, Oliver ''clearly'' indicated that the translation was performed using the Urim and Thummin.
'''Resources'''
*[[Book_of_Mormon_plagiarized_from_the_Bible|Book of Mormon plagiarized from Bible?]]
*[[Book_of_Mormon_anachronisms:Translation_Errors_from_the_KJV|Book of Mormon "translation errors" from KJV?]]{{nw}}
*[[Book of Mormon translation method]]{{nw}}
{{parabreak}}


===Chapter 4: Evangelical Protestantism in The Book of Mormon===
''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'' was developed during a period of time that its author worked as a teacher in the Church Educational System (CES), and was published after the author's retirement from Church employment. Palmer was disfellowshipped and eventually resigned from the Church.
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|-
| As his successor, Brigham Young, stated in 1862: '''"If the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation." Young may have had in mind the book's uncomplimentary view of man.''' Less than a month before making this statement, he announced that human beings "naturally love and admire righteousness, justice and truth more than they do evil. ... The natural man is of God." [53]
||Brigham Young said on 13 July 1862, "'''When God speaks to the people, he does it in a manner to suit their circumstances and capacities.''' He spoke to the children of Jacob through Moses, as a blind, stiff-necked people, and when Jesus and his Apostles came they talked with the Jews as a benighted, wicked, selfish people. They would not receive the Gospel, though presented to them by the Son of God in all its righteousness, beauty and glory. '''Should the Lord Almighty send an angel to re-write the Bible, it would in many places be very different from what it now is. And I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation. According as people are willing to receive the things of God, so the heavens send forth their blessings. If the people are stiff-necked, the Lord can tell them but little."
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 124.
||
* [53] Brigham Young, 13 July 1862, Journal of Discourses, 9:311; Brigham Young, 15 June 1862, Journal of Discourses, 9:305.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* Brigham Young talked about how the scriptures were written based upon people's readiness to receive and accept them, and he includes the Bible in his statement. Palmer implies with his statement that Brigham disagreed with the way the Book of Mormon was written with regard to "the book's uncomplimentary view of man." The author's conclusion is not supported by the quote, and he has to bring in a second quote from a different discourse in order to shore up his assumption.
{{parabreak}}


===Chapter 5: Moroni and "The Golden Pot"===
The book attempts to explain many otherwise clearly described events of the restoration by reinterpreting them as spiritual rather than physical events. The author was originally inspired by [[Mark Hofmann|Mark Hofmann]]'s [[Mark Hofmann/Church reaction to forgeries|Salamander Letter]] prior to the time that the letter was exposed as a forgery, and its influence was present in early drafts of this work. The Salamander Letter inspired the author to postulate that Joseph Smith plagiarized a book called [[Book of Mormon and the Golden Pot|''The Golden Pot'']] during the production of the ''Book of Mormon''. The book heavily promotes and emphasizes the role of magic and treasure hunting in Joseph Smith, Jr.'s early life, and it concludes that Joseph deliberately enhanced and added fabricated detail to his later accounts of events such as the [[First Vision accounts|First Vision]], the [[Priesthood restoration]], the [[Book of Mormon witnesses|Three and Eight Witnesses]], and the visit of the angel Moroni. Although the stated purpose of the book is to "increase faith," it is clearly intended to demonstrate the Joseph Smith employed dishonesty in order to secure his position as head of the church. The book's criticisms are not new, and its sole new contribution is the attempt to link "The Golden Pot" to the Book of Mormon, a theory based on the Hofmann forgeries.
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|-
| Later in the evening, Anselmus receives a second vision. This time he learns that Archivarius Lindhorst, whom he encountered earlier (pp. 5, 19,35), is the archivist of a vast library containing Atlantean books and treasures. He also possesses "a number of manuscripts, partly Arabic, Coptic, and some of them in strange characters, which do not belong to any known tongue. These he [Lindhorst] wishes to have copied '''[and translated]''' properly, and for this purpose he requires a man who can draw with the pen, and to transfer these marks
to parchment, in Indian ink, with the highest exactness and fidelity. This work is to be carried out in a separate chamber of his house, under his own supervision ... he will pay his copyist a speziesthaler, or specie-dollar daily, and promises a handsome present" (pp. 10-11).
||The being "said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do ... He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates ... Also that there were two stones ... deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were ... for the purpose of '''translating''' the book"
(1838, vv. 33-35).
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 148-149.
||
* Joseph Smith's 1838 account.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* In his attempt to show a correlation between a passage from ''The Golden Pot'' and the story of the translation of the ''Book of Mormon'' by Joseph Smith, Palmer actually ''adds'' the words "and translated" to a phrase about copying manuscripts. The story related in ''The Golden Pot'' does not talk about ''translation'' at all.{{ref|midgley1}}
'''Resources'''
* [[Book of Mormon and the Golden Pot]]
{{parabreak}}


===Chapter 6: Witnesses to the Golden Plates===
==Reviews of this work==
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|link=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol16/iss1/14/
|-
|title=Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant H. Palmer
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Oliver Cowdery came from a similar background. '''He was a treasure hunter and "rodsman" before he met Joseph Smith in 1829. William Cowdery, his father, was associated with a treasure-seeking group in Vermont''', and it is from them, one assumes, that Oliver learned the art of working with a divining rod.
|author=James B. Allen
||Because Joseph Smith, Sr., and '''William Cowdery cannot be linked unequivocally to the Vermont money diggers''', Frisbie's late account must be approached cautiously. (p.600)...Quinn states, "From 1800 to 1802, Nathaniel Wood's 'use of the rod was mostly as a medium of revelation.'...Thus, a connection between William Cowdery and the Wood Scrape would help to explain why his son Oliver had a rod through which he received revelations" before he met Joseph Smith in April 1829" (1987, 32).  '''Yet, there is no evidence which directly attributes Cowdery's rod to his father.''' (p. 604)
|publication=The FARMS Review
|-
|vol=16
|valign="top"|
|num=1
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 179. Palmer claims as his source: Barnes Frisbie, The History of Middletown, Vermont (Rutland, VT:Tuttle and Co., 1867),43-64; rptd. in Abby Maria Hemenway, ed., Vermont Historical Gazetteer (Claremont, NH: Claremont Manufacturing Co., 1877),3:810-19; qtd. in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:599-621.
|date=2004
||
|summary=An Insider's View of Mormon Origins portrays Joseph Smith as a brilliant, though not formally educated, young man who made up the Book of Mormon, as well as other LDS scriptures, by drawing from various threads in his cultural environment. His early religious experiences (the first vision, the visits of Moroni, and priesthood restoration) were not real or physical, but only "spiritual." The stories evolved over time from "relatively simple experiences into more impressive spiritual manifestations, from metaphysical to physical events" and were "rewritten by Joseph and Oliver and other early church officials so that the church could survive and grow" (pp. 260-61). Even the witnesses of the gold plates never really saw them. They had only a spiritual experience. (Why Deity or gold plates seen with "spiritual eyes" could not also be physical realities is never satisfactorily explained.)
* Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:600, 604.
}}
|-
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
|}
|link=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol15/iss2/14/
'''Commentary'''
|title=The Charge of a Man with a Broken Lance (But Look What He Doesn't Tell Us)
* Palmer states that Oliver Cowdery was a "treasure hunter and 'rodsman'" and that his father was associated with the treasure-seeking group as if these were established facts, and uses the Barnes Frisbie account to support this. Yet, Dan Vogel, the editor of the source being used by Palmer, clearly states 1) that "William Cowdery cannot be linked unequivocally to the Vermont money diggers," 2) that the Barnes Frisbee account "must be approached cautiously" and 3) that "there is no evidence which directly attributes Cowdery's rod to his father." Palmer presents ''his conclusions'' based upon circumstantial evidence as fact, with the result being the quotation of Palmer's "facts" in other articles. (see the Wikipedia articles "Three Witnesses" and "Oliver Cowdery" for examples of how Palmer's conclusions are considered "facts").
|author=Davis Bitton
'''Resources'''
|publication=The FARMS Review
* [[Joseph Smith and money digging]]
|vol=15
{{parabreak}}
|num=2
 
|date=2003
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
|summary=Palmer wants us to see the Book of Mormon witnesses as living in a very different world from our own. But this gap can be overdrawn. After all, do we and they have nothing in common? Are the witnesses to be discredited on everything they ever said on any subject throughout their whole lives? And what about the sources Palmer uses to put the witnesses under an unflattering cloud? Is there any principle by which one can weigh such information? Determined to portray the witnesses as confused simpletons living in a daze and unable to tell the difference between what they saw and what they imagined, Palmer shows no ability to negotiate such pathways, or even to recognize them. Richard Anderson addresses some of these questions in his chapter "The Case against the Witnesses."20 Not using Palmer's jaundiced eyes, Anderson, who earned a law degree at Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in ancient history at the University of California, Berkeley, sees the witnesses, even with their foibles, as having credibility on the key question. Palmer's snub of Anderson in a one-sentence dismissive footnote is shameful.
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
}}
|-
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Brigham Young '''heard from the Smiths''' and believed all his life that '''"these treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched; they can be removed from place to place"''' by the angels.
||This chain of mountains has been followed from the north to the south, and its various spurs have been prospected, and what do they find? Just enough to allure them, and to finally lead them from the faith, and at last to make them miserable and poor. Ask the brethren why they do this, and the ready reply will be, "Is it not my privilege to find a gold mine, or a silver mine, as well as others?" As far as I am concerned I would say, "Yes, certainly it is your privilege, if you can find one." But do you know how to find such a mine? No, you do not. '''These treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched, they can be removed from place to place''' according to the good pleasure of Him who made them and owns them. He has his messengers at his service, and it is just as easy for an angel to remove the minerals from any part of one of these mountains to another, as it is for you and me to walk up and down this hall. This, however, is not understood by the Christian world, nor by us as a people. There are certain circumstances that a number of my brethren and sisters have heard me relate, that will demonstrate this so positively, that none need doubt the truth of what I say.
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 186.
||
* Brigham Young, 17 June 1877, ''Journal of Discourses'' 19:36-37.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* Palmer takes a quote spoken by Brigham Young in 1877 in which he discourages prospecting for minerals in Utah, and implies that his belief regarding "moving treasure" originated with "the Smiths." Brigham goes on to talk about the difficulty in obtaining treasures from the earth, and relates a story involving Porter Rockwell as well as a story he heard from Oliver Cowdery about how the plates were returned to the angel Moroni. Nowhere in his discourse does Brigham mention "the Smiths."
{{parabreak}}
 
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|-
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Far removed from our own modern empiricism, the world view of '''the witnesses''' is difficult for us to grasp. The gold plates '''they saw and handled disappeared when placed on Cumorah's ground'''.[54] '''The witnesses''' believed that a toad hiding in the stone box became an apparition that struck Joseph on the head.[55]
||
Fayette Lapham recalled an interview with Joseph Smith, Sr. ''forty years'' before, and noted that something "struck" Joseph on the breast, "always with increasing force." Willard Chase and Benjamin Saunders told the story of the "toad" hiding in the stone box. ''None of these men actually saw or handled the gold plates'', and in all cases were relating second or third-hand information, sometimes many years after the events occurred.
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 195.
||
* [54] Dean C. Jessee, ed., "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon
History," BYU Studies 17 (Autumn 1976): 30-31; Lucy Smith, History of Joseph Smith, 83-88; Affidavit of Willard Chase, in Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 242; qtd. in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:67.
[55] Benjamin Saunders, interview by William H. Kelley (an RLDS apostle), 1884, in William H. Kelley Collection, "Miscellany 1795-1948," P19/2:44, RLDS Library-Archives; qtd. in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:137; Affidavit of Willard Chase, 11 Dec. 1833, in Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 242; qtd. in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:67; Joseph Smith Jr., interview by Joseph and Hiel Lewis, 1828, "Mormon History, A New Chapter about to be Published," Amboy {ILl Journal, 30 Apr. 1879, 1; Joseph Smith Sr., interview by Fayette Lapham, ca. 1830, in "The Mormons," Historical Magazine 7 (May 1870): 305-6; qtd. in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents,
1:458-59.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* In order to convince the reader that the Three and Eight witnesses had a "magical world view," Palmer promotes individuals who never actually saw or handled the plates to the status of "witnesses," and conflates various second and third-hand accounts of Joseph's attempts to obtain the plates. According to Palmer, ''anyone'' who had a story to tell regarding the plates was a "witness." ''None'' of the Three or Eight witnesses ever told a story of a toad as "treasure guardian" of the plates, yet, according to Palmer, "'''The witnesses''' believed that a toad hiding in the stone box became an apparition that struck Joseph on the head." {{ref|harper1}}
'''Resources'''
* [[Joseph Smith and money digging]]
{{BoMWitnessesWiki}}
{{parabreak}}
 
===Chapter 7: Priesthood Restoration===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
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|-
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Finally, on 12 February 1834, Joseph mentioned in public for the first time that his priesthood "office" had "been conferred upon me by the ministering of the Angel of God, by his own will and by the voice of this Church."[25] '''This is still not an unequivocal assertion of authority by angelic ordination.'''
||
Bro. Joseph then rose and said: '''I shall now endeavor to set forth before this council, the dignity of the office which has been conferred upon me by the ministring of the Angel of God, by his own will and by the voice of this Church.'''
|-
|valign="top"|
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 226.
||
* [25] Kirtland Council Minutes, (12 Feb. 1834),27, LDS archives; qtd. in
Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:32.
|-
|}
'''Commentary'''
* It is difficult to imagine how much more unequivocal Joseph needed to be in his statement in order to satisfy the author. The prophet clearly states that the office was "conferred" on him by "the ministering Angel of God." The author wishes to make every source quote fit his notion that there was no need for a physical "laying on of hands" to transfer authority.
{{parabreak}}


===Chapter 8: The First Vision===
{{PerspectivesBar
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
|link=https://www.fairmormon.org/archive/publications/a-summary-of-five-reviews-of-grant-palmers-an-insiders-view-of-mormon-origins
!Quote used...!!The rest of the story...
|title=A Summary of Five Reviews of Grant Palmer’s “An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins” (with a Few Comments of My Own)
|-
|author=George E. Cobabe
| style="width:50%" valign="top"| Oliver Cowdery said the revival that impacted Joseph and his family came in about '''"the year 1823."''' He explained: "Mr. Lane, a presiding Elder of the Methodist church, visited Palmyra and vicinity ... Large additions were made to the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches ... [F]rom his discourses on the scriptures, and in common with others, '''our brother's mind became awakened'''."[15]
|authorlink=http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/authors/cobabe-george
||
|publication=FairMormon Papers
Oliver begins describing the First Vision in Letter III:
|summary=No, Grant, that’s not history–and it was certainly not written with “…balanced scholarship and academic integrity.”
<br>
This pretty well sums up the central theme of five different scholarly reviews of Grant H. Palmer’s book, ''An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins''. The purpose of this article is not to duplicate the existing reviews and answer the many objections to Palmer’s book, but to summarize and point to the five reviews as a source for the answers.
}}


... this history would necessarily embrace the life and character of our esteemed friend and brother, J. Smith JR.... till I come to '''the 15th year of his life'''. It is necessary to premise this account by relating the situation of the public mind relative to religion, at this time: One Mr. Lane, a presiding Elder of the Methodist church, visited Palmyra, and vicinity. ... Large additions were made to the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches.... from his discourses on the scriptures, and in common with others, '''our brother's mind became awakened'''....In this general strife for followers, his mother, one sister, and two of his natural brothers, were persuaded to unite with the Presbyterians. ...In this situation where could he go? If he went to one he was told they were right, and all others were wrong—If to another, the same was heard from those: All professed to be the true church; and if not they were certainly hypocritical, because, if I am presented with a system of religion, and enquire of my teacher whether it is correct, and he informs me that he is not certain, he acknowledges at once that he is teaching without authority, and acting without a commission!
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
|link=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol15/iss2/13/
|title=Statement regarding Grant Palmer’s Book An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins
|author=Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History
|publication=The FARMS Review
|vol=15
|num=2
|date=2003
|summary=In the preface to his book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer speaks approvingly of historical work done by the faculty of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History (pp. vii-viii). To some readers, this has suggested that Smith Institute faculty are among Palmer's category of "historians and religion teachers like myself" who share his views of Latter-day Saint origins (p. x). In subsequent remarks to audiences Palmer has encouraged this view.
<br>
Smith Institute scholars are unified in rejecting Palmer's argument that Mormon foundational stories are largely inaccurate myths and fictional accounts.
<br>
Palmer writes of a "near-consensus on many of the details" (p. ix) regarding early Church origins, as if most scholars see them in much the same way that he does. We and many other historians take issue with a substantial portion of Palmer's treatment of such details. We encourage and participate in rigorous scholarly investigation and discussion of the historical record, and from our perspective acceptance of Joseph Smith's foundational religious claims remains compatible with such investigation. Our publications, past and present, which are readily available to the public, speak for themselves on these matters.
}}


In Letter IV, Oliver, claiming an "error in the type," switches the date to 1823 and then relates to story of ''Moroni's'' visit:
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
|link=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol15/iss2/15/
|title=Trustworthy History?
|author=Steven C. Harper
|publication=The FARMS Review
|vol=15
|num=2
|date=2003
|summary=To support my claim that Palmer's book is polemical pseudohistory presented as a synthesis of "New Mormon History," I will examine his chapters on what he considers to be evidences of evangelical Protestantism identifying the Book of Mormon as a nineteenth-century text, on the testimonies of the Book of Mormon witnesses, on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery's assertion (or, in his opinion, their conspiratorial claim) that ministering angels restored the priesthood, and on Joseph Smith's 1838 history of his first vision. In each case Palmer can be shown to present a partisan polemical argument. In addition, he is guilty of censorship, and he repeatedly privileges late hearsay over early eyewitness accounts. As will be shown, the relevant texts support interpretations more affirming of Joseph Smith's integrity than Palmer claims.
}}


You will recollect that I mentioned the time of a religious excitement, in Palmyra and vicinity to have been in the 15th year of our brother J. Smith Jr's, age—that was an error in the type—it should have been in the 17th.—You will please remember this correction, as it will be necessary for the full understanding of what will follow in time. This would bring the date down to the year 1823...On the evening of the 21st of September, 1823, previous to retiring to rest, our brother's mind was unusually wrought up on the subject which had so long agitated his mind—his heart was drawn out in fervent prayer, and his whole soul was so lost to every thing of a temporal nature, that earth, to him, had lost its claims, and all he desired was to be prepared in heart to commune with some kind messenger who could communicate to him the desired information of his acceptance with God...on a sudden a light like that of day, only of a purer and far more glorious appearance and brightness, burst into the room...
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
|-
|link=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol15/iss2/16/
|valign="top"|
|title=A One-sided View of Mormon Origins
* ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'', p. 242.
|author=Mark Ashurst-McGee
||
|publication=The FARMS Review
* [15]. Oliver Cowdery, "Letter III," Messenger and Advocate 1 (Dec. 1834): 42; Oliver Cowdery, "Letter IV," 1 (Feb. 1835): 78; qtd. in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:424, 427.
|vol=15
|-
|num=2
|}
|date=2003
'''Commentary'''
|summary=A straightforward statement of my position is likewise called for. As a historian, I find that the book fails to follow the basic standards of historical methodology. As a believing Latter-day Saint scholar, I perceive alternative interpretations of the founding events that Palmer neglects to consider or even acknowledge. Reviewing the entire book, chapter by chapter, an open-minded reader may find that, in most cases, interpretations favorable to the integrity of Joseph Smith and his revelations are as reasonable as or even more reasonable than those presented by Palmer. In this overview, I will not cover every single point of controversy but will address the central thesis of each chapter. I will also highlight some of the new ideas that Palmer has worked into this generally secondary study.
* In ''Letter III'', Oliver was clearly preparing to tell the story of Joseph Smith's First Vision. Oliver had access to Joseph's 1832 First Vision account, and the story that he began to tell in ''Letter III'' closely follows it, starting in Joseph's "15th year" (1820). Two months later, in ''Letter IV'', Oliver inexplicably changes the date to 1823 and claims that the original date was in error. He then proceeded to tell the story of Moroni's visit. Oliver was also publicly on record in ''1830'' as having taught that the Joseph Smith had seen God "personally."{{ref|cowdery1}}
}}
'''Resources'''
*[[Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35]]
{{parabreak}}
 
==Endnotes==
#{{note|midgley1}}{{FR-15-2-16}} <!-- Midgley-->
#{{note|harper1}}{{FR-15-2-14}} <!--Harper-->
#{{note|cowdery1}} ''The Reflector'', 2/13 (14 February 1831).
 
==Reviews of this work==
* {{FR-16-1-13}} <!-- Allen-->
* {{FR-15-2-13}} <!-- Bitton-->
* George E. Cobabe, "A Summary of Five Reviews of Grant Palmer's "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins" (with a Few Comments of My Own)," (FAIR). {{fairlink|url=http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/Summary_of_Five_Reviews_of_Grant_Palmer.html}}
* {{FR-15-2-12}} <!--Group-->
* {{FR-15-2-14}} <!--Harper-->
* {{FR-15-2-15}} <!--McGee-->
* {{FR-15-2-16}} <!-- Midgley-->


==Further reading==
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
{{SpecificAuthorsAndWorks}}
|link=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol15/iss2/17/
|title=''Prying'' into Palmer
|author=Louis Midgley
|publication=The FARMS Review
|vol=15
|num=2
|date=2003
|summary=Sometime prior to August 1987, I acquired a copy of a rough manuscript entitled "New York Mormonism" that was circulating in what was then known as the "Mormon Underground." The author of this anti-Mormon propaganda identified himself merely as "Paul Pry Jr."2 Though not now a household label, the name Paul Pry once had considerable allusive power. By calling himself Paul Pry, the secretive author of "New York Mormonism" emphatically signaled his bias, at least for aficionados of anti-Mormon literature. Who or what was Paul Pry? And what might an enigmatic Paul Pry Jr. have to do with Grant H. Palmer's Insider's View of Mormon Origins? I believe that the answers to these questions are essential to a proper understanding of Palmer's book and are thus worthy of careful consideration.
}}

Latest revision as of 04:15, 12 May 2024

Response to "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins"



A FAIR Analysis of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, a work by author: Grant Palmer


Learn more about responses to: Grant Palmer
Wiki links
Online
  • James B. Allen, "Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant Palmer (Review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004). [235–286] link
  • Mark Ashurst-McGee, "Mark Ashurst-A One-sided View of Mormon Origins (Review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2004). [309–364] link
  • Davis Bitton, "The Charge of a Man with a Broken Lance (But Look What He Doesn't Tell Us) (Review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2004). [257–272] link
  • Group, "Statement from the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History (Review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003). [255–256] link
  • Steven C. Harper, "Trustworthy History? (Review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2004). [273–308] link
  • Louis C. Midgley, "Careless Accounts and Tawdry Novelties," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 16/3 (10 July 2015). [63–74] link
  • Louis Midgley, "Prying into Palmer (Review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2004). [365–410] link
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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins by Grant Palmer

Summary: In Insider's View of Mormon Origins was developed during a period of time that its author worked as a teacher in the Church Educational System (CES), and was published after the author's retirement from Church employment. The book attempts to explain many otherwise clearly described events of the restoration by reinterpreting them as spiritual rather than physical events.


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 1: Joseph Smith as Translator/Revelator"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 2: Authorship of the Book of Mormon"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 3: The Bible in the Book of Mormon"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 4: Evangelical Protestantism in the Book of Mormon"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 5: Moroni and 'The Golden Pot'"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 6: Witnesses to the Golden Plates"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 7: Priesthood Restoration"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 8: The First Vision"


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Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Conclusion"


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Use of sources

Summary: An examination and response to how the author of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins interprets the sources used to support this work, indexed by page number.


About this work

Lest there be any question, let me say that my intent is to increase faith, not to diminish it.
— Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, p. ix.

Palmer's readers may well wonder what kind of faith he is trying to increase, for nothing in the book generates confidence in Joseph Smith or modern scripture.
— James B. Allen, "Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant Palmer (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 235–286. off-site

∗       ∗       ∗

The bishop asked the stake president outright, “What does Grant need to remain a member of the Church. You know, not to get a temple recommend, not to hold a position…just to be on the records of the Church?” And that’s when he said, “He’s got to repudiate, essentially, every chapter in my book An Insider’s View, and ‘regain his testimony’ (and regain my testimony). And so I thought : well, that would simply emasculate me as a person, and no one’s ever come forward and says I’m wrong. They’ve attacked me, but they haven’t really gone into it. And I’ve always been…if I were wrong I would correct things. I’ve never had that offer, or anyone take me up on that offer.
—Grant Palmer, "324-326: Grant Palmer Returns to Discuss Sexual Allegations Against Joseph Smith, William and Jane Law, and His Resignation," Mormon Stories podcast, February 26, 2012.

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins was developed during a period of time that its author worked as a teacher in the Church Educational System (CES), and was published after the author's retirement from Church employment. Palmer was disfellowshipped and eventually resigned from the Church.

The book attempts to explain many otherwise clearly described events of the restoration by reinterpreting them as spiritual rather than physical events. The author was originally inspired by Mark Hofmann's Salamander Letter prior to the time that the letter was exposed as a forgery, and its influence was present in early drafts of this work. The Salamander Letter inspired the author to postulate that Joseph Smith plagiarized a book called The Golden Pot during the production of the Book of Mormon. The book heavily promotes and emphasizes the role of magic and treasure hunting in Joseph Smith, Jr.'s early life, and it concludes that Joseph deliberately enhanced and added fabricated detail to his later accounts of events such as the First Vision, the Priesthood restoration, the Three and Eight Witnesses, and the visit of the angel Moroni. Although the stated purpose of the book is to "increase faith," it is clearly intended to demonstrate the Joseph Smith employed dishonesty in order to secure his position as head of the church. The book's criticisms are not new, and its sole new contribution is the attempt to link "The Golden Pot" to the Book of Mormon, a theory based on the Hofmann forgeries.

Reviews of this work

James B. Allen, "Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant H. Palmer"

James B. Allen,  The FARMS Review, (2004)

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins portrays Joseph Smith as a brilliant, though not formally educated, young man who made up the Book of Mormon, as well as other LDS scriptures, by drawing from various threads in his cultural environment. His early religious experiences (the first vision, the visits of Moroni, and priesthood restoration) were not real or physical, but only "spiritual." The stories evolved over time from "relatively simple experiences into more impressive spiritual manifestations, from metaphysical to physical events" and were "rewritten by Joseph and Oliver and other early church officials so that the church could survive and grow" (pp. 260-61). Even the witnesses of the gold plates never really saw them. They had only a spiritual experience. (Why Deity or gold plates seen with "spiritual eyes" could not also be physical realities is never satisfactorily explained.)

Click here to view the complete article

Davis Bitton, "The Charge of a Man with a Broken Lance (But Look What He Doesn't Tell Us)"

Davis Bitton,  The FARMS Review, (2003)

Palmer wants us to see the Book of Mormon witnesses as living in a very different world from our own. But this gap can be overdrawn. After all, do we and they have nothing in common? Are the witnesses to be discredited on everything they ever said on any subject throughout their whole lives? And what about the sources Palmer uses to put the witnesses under an unflattering cloud? Is there any principle by which one can weigh such information? Determined to portray the witnesses as confused simpletons living in a daze and unable to tell the difference between what they saw and what they imagined, Palmer shows no ability to negotiate such pathways, or even to recognize them. Richard Anderson addresses some of these questions in his chapter "The Case against the Witnesses."20 Not using Palmer's jaundiced eyes, Anderson, who earned a law degree at Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in ancient history at the University of California, Berkeley, sees the witnesses, even with their foibles, as having credibility on the key question. Palmer's snub of Anderson in a one-sentence dismissive footnote is shameful.

Click here to view the complete article

George E. Cobabe, "A Summary of Five Reviews of Grant Palmer’s “An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins” (with a Few Comments of My Own)"

George E. Cobabe,  FairMormon Papers

No, Grant, that’s not history–and it was certainly not written with “…balanced scholarship and academic integrity.”


This pretty well sums up the central theme of five different scholarly reviews of Grant H. Palmer’s book, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins. The purpose of this article is not to duplicate the existing reviews and answer the many objections to Palmer’s book, but to summarize and point to the five reviews as a source for the answers.

Click here to view the complete article

Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, "Statement regarding Grant Palmer’s Book An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins"

Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History,  The FARMS Review, (2003)

In the preface to his book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer speaks approvingly of historical work done by the faculty of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History (pp. vii-viii). To some readers, this has suggested that Smith Institute faculty are among Palmer's category of "historians and religion teachers like myself" who share his views of Latter-day Saint origins (p. x). In subsequent remarks to audiences Palmer has encouraged this view.


Smith Institute scholars are unified in rejecting Palmer's argument that Mormon foundational stories are largely inaccurate myths and fictional accounts.

Palmer writes of a "near-consensus on many of the details" (p. ix) regarding early Church origins, as if most scholars see them in much the same way that he does. We and many other historians take issue with a substantial portion of Palmer's treatment of such details. We encourage and participate in rigorous scholarly investigation and discussion of the historical record, and from our perspective acceptance of Joseph Smith's foundational religious claims remains compatible with such investigation. Our publications, past and present, which are readily available to the public, speak for themselves on these matters.

Click here to view the complete article

Steven C. Harper, "Trustworthy History?"

Steven C. Harper,  The FARMS Review, (2003)

To support my claim that Palmer's book is polemical pseudohistory presented as a synthesis of "New Mormon History," I will examine his chapters on what he considers to be evidences of evangelical Protestantism identifying the Book of Mormon as a nineteenth-century text, on the testimonies of the Book of Mormon witnesses, on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery's assertion (or, in his opinion, their conspiratorial claim) that ministering angels restored the priesthood, and on Joseph Smith's 1838 history of his first vision. In each case Palmer can be shown to present a partisan polemical argument. In addition, he is guilty of censorship, and he repeatedly privileges late hearsay over early eyewitness accounts. As will be shown, the relevant texts support interpretations more affirming of Joseph Smith's integrity than Palmer claims.

Click here to view the complete article

Mark Ashurst-McGee, "A One-sided View of Mormon Origins"

Mark Ashurst-McGee,  The FARMS Review, (2003)

A straightforward statement of my position is likewise called for. As a historian, I find that the book fails to follow the basic standards of historical methodology. As a believing Latter-day Saint scholar, I perceive alternative interpretations of the founding events that Palmer neglects to consider or even acknowledge. Reviewing the entire book, chapter by chapter, an open-minded reader may find that, in most cases, interpretations favorable to the integrity of Joseph Smith and his revelations are as reasonable as or even more reasonable than those presented by Palmer. In this overview, I will not cover every single point of controversy but will address the central thesis of each chapter. I will also highlight some of the new ideas that Palmer has worked into this generally secondary study.

Click here to view the complete article

Louis Midgley, "Prying into Palmer"

Louis Midgley,  The FARMS Review, (2003)

Sometime prior to August 1987, I acquired a copy of a rough manuscript entitled "New York Mormonism" that was circulating in what was then known as the "Mormon Underground." The author of this anti-Mormon propaganda identified himself merely as "Paul Pry Jr."2 Though not now a household label, the name Paul Pry once had considerable allusive power. By calling himself Paul Pry, the secretive author of "New York Mormonism" emphatically signaled his bias, at least for aficionados of anti-Mormon literature. Who or what was Paul Pry? And what might an enigmatic Paul Pry Jr. have to do with Grant H. Palmer's Insider's View of Mormon Origins? I believe that the answers to these questions are essential to a proper understanding of Palmer's book and are thus worthy of careful consideration.

Click here to view the complete article

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