FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 2
< Criticism of Mormonism | Books | One Nation Under Gods
Revision as of 11:27, 2 November 2014 by RogerNicholson (talk | contribs) (→25 - Was the angel that appeared to Joseph originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni?")
- REDIRECTTemplate:Test3
Contents
- 1 Response to claims made in "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"
- 1.3 Claim
- Did Moroni claim that the golden plates were "buried in the hill Cumorah, just outside the village of Manchester?"
- 1.3.1 25 - Was the angel that appeared to Joseph originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni?"
- 1.3.2 The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following claim:
- Author's quote: "Obviously, if the angel in Smith's room spoke about Moroni, then he certainly could not have been Moroni.
- Did Oliver Cowdery say that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year?
- Does Joseph's brother William associate Moroni's visit with a revival?
- Did George A. Smith merge the First Vision and Moroni's visit?
- Did Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, say that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823?
- Did Joseph engage in "ritual magic and divination?"
- Was Joseph Smith a "money digger?"
- Did Joseph use a "peep stone" to search for buried treasure?
- Was Joseph's father a "firm believer" in witchcraft and the supernatural?
- Did Martin Harris say that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers?
- Did Joshua Stafford say that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and verious other mysterious matters."
- Did "most of the residents" of Palmyra and Manchester consider the Smith family a "close-knit clan of occultists?"
- Did William Stafford state that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress?"
- Did Joseph Capron state that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth?
- Did William Stafford state that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures?
- Did Joseph Smith make animal sacrifices to "appease whatever spirits might be guarding the buried treasure?"
- Did Hiel Lewis claim that dogs, cats and other animals were sacrificed?
- Did Joshua Stafford say that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill?"
- Why did LDS historian Reed C. Durham state that the Freemasonry legend of Enoch "seem transformed into the history of Joseph Smith, so much that even it appears to be a kind of symbolic acting out of Masonic lore?"
- Did Joseph Smith adapt Masonic rituals for the temple endowment?
- Does the Book of Mormon denounce Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths?"
Response to claims made in "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"
| Claims made in "Chapter 1: Vagabond Visionaries" | A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods A work by author: Richard Abanes
|
Claims made in "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet" |
23 (HB)
Claim
- Why are "LDS documents...strangely silent" about Joseph Smith's activities between 1820 and 1823?
Author's source(s) - Author's opinion.
- Just how much documentation does the author think exists on the activities of a 14 to 17-year-old farm boy living on the frontier during this period? The Church didn't even exist during this time, therefore there would be no "LDS documents."
- Absurd claims
25
Claim
- Did Moroni claim that the golden plates were "buried in the hill Cumorah, just outside the village of Manchester?"
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
- The hill near Joseph's home was not called Cumorah by the angel Moroni, nor was it named Cumorah at the time that Joseph received the plates. The name Cumorah was applied later, as a result of Joseph finding the plates there.
25 - Was the angel that appeared to Joseph originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni?"
The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following claim:
Was the angel that appeared to Joseph originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni?"Author's sources: *Oliver Cowdery, Times and Seasons, April 15, 1842, vol. 3, no. 12, 753.
- 1851 edition of the Pearl of Great Price, p. 41.
- Joseph Smith 1832 History cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents vol. 1, 29-30.
FAIR's Response
This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 55
Question: Did Joseph Smith originally identify the angel that visited him as "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"?
The text in question
The text in question reads as follows:
- While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in the room which continued to increase untill the room was lighter than at noonday and <when> immediately a personage <appeared> at my bedside standing in the air for his feet did not touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond any <thing> earthly I had ever seen, nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceeding[g]ly white and brilliant, His hands were naked and his arms also a little above the wrists. So also were his feet naked as were his legs a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open so that I could see into his bosom. Not only was his robe exceedingly white but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name was Nephi....(emphasis added)[1]
Orson Pratt would later observe:
- The discrepency in the history … may have occurred through the ignorance or carelessness of the historian or transcriber. It is true, that the history reads as though the Prophet himself recorded [it, that he] was [doing the] writing: but … many events recorded were written by his scribes who undoubtedly trusted too much to their memories, and the items probably were not sufficiently scanned by Bro. Joseph, before they got into print.[2]
The identity of the angel that appeared to Joseph Smith in his room in 1823 was published as "Moroni" for many years prior to the erroneous identification of the angel as "Nephi"
The Church teaches that Moroni was the heavenly messenger which appeared to Joseph Smith and directed him to the gold plates. Yet, some Church sources give the identity of this messenger as Nephi. Some claim that this shows that Joseph was 'making it up as he went along.' One critic even claims that if the angel spoke about the plates being "engraven by Moroni," then he couldn't have been Moroni himself.
The identity of the angel that appeared to Joseph Smith in his room in 1823 and over the next four years was known and published as "Moroni" for many years prior to the publication of the first identification of the angel as "Nephi" in the Times and Seasons in 1842. Even an anti-Mormon publication, Mormonism Unvailed, identified the angel's name as "Moroni" in 1834—a full eight years earlier. All identifications of the angel as "Nephi" subsequent to the 1842 Times and Seasons article were using the T&S article as a source. These facts have not been hidden; they are readily acknowledged in the History of the Church:
In the original publication of the history in the Times and Seasons at Nauvoo, this name appears as "Nephi," and the Millennial Star perpetuated the error in its republication of the History. That it is an error is evident, and it is so noted in the manuscripts to which access has been had in the preparation of this work. [3]
Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt understood the problem more than a century ago, when they wrote in 1877 to John Taylor:
"The contradictions in regard to the name of the angelic messenger who appeared to Joseph Smith occurred probably through the mistakes of clerks in making or copying documents and we think should be corrected. . . . From careful research we are fully convinced that Moroni is the correct name. This also was the decision of the former historian, George A. Smith." [4]
The following time-line illustrates various sources that refer to the angel, and whether the name "Moroni" or "Nephi" was given to them.
As can be readily seen, the "Nephi" sources all derive from a single manuscript and subsequent copies. On the other hand, a variety of earlier sources (including one hostile source) use the name "Moroni," and these are from a variety of sources.
Details about each source are available below the graphic. Readers aware of other source(s) are encouraged to contact FairMormon so they can be included here.
This is not an example of Joseph Smith changing his story over time, but an example of a detail being improperly recorded by someone other than the Prophet, and then reprinted uncritically. Clear contemporary evidence from Joseph and his enemies—who would have seized upon any inconsistency had they known about it—shows that "Moroni" was the name of the heavenly messenger BEFORE the 1838 and 1839 histories were recorded.
25, 492n17 (HB) 490n17 (PB)
Claim
- Author's quote: "Obviously, if the angel in Smith's room spoke about Moroni, then he certainly could not have been Moroni.
Author's source(s) - Jessee, vol. 1, 393.
- The book is referring to Joseph's 1832 account, in which he states:
"an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins and he revealed unto me that in the Town of Manchester Ontario County N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was engraven by Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days and deposited by the commandments of God and kept by the power thereof and that I should go and get them."
- Note that Joseph is not citing Moroni's words—he is describing a summary of the event that happened. In other words, this passage does not indicate that Moroni referred to himself in the third person.
- The endnote states that Orson Pratt simply called Moroni "an Angel of God" in 1840, and that this somehow proves that the name "Moroni" was not known. However, the name "Moroni" was published in a number of sources prior to 1840, including the anti-Mormon work Mormonism Unvailed in 1834.
26, 492n19-20 (HB)
Claim
- Did Oliver Cowdery say that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year?
Author's source(s) - Oliver Cowdery, "Letter III," Messenger and Advocate, December 1834, vol. 1, no. 3, 41-43.
- Oliver Cowdery, "Letter IV," Messenger and Advocate, February 1835, vol. 1, no. 5, 77-80.
- First Vision/Accounts/Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35
- This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 34
26, 492n21 (HB)
Claim
- Does Joseph's brother William associate Moroni's visit with a revival?
Author's source(s) - William Smith, William Smith on Mormonism cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1, 494.
- First Vision/Accounts/William Smith said First Vision was an "angel"
- This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 35
27, 493n23 (HB)
Claim
- Did George A. Smith merge the First Vision and Moroni's visit?
Author's source(s) - George A. Smith, Journal of Discourses, vol. 12, 334. (November 15, 1863)
- First Vision/Accounts/George A. Smith said First Vision was an "angel"
- This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 35
27, 493n24 (HB)
Claim
- Did Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, say that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823?
Author's source(s) - Lucy Mack Smith, "Preliminary Manuscript" of Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for many Generations, cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1, 289-291.
- Lucy and the angel
- First Vision/Accounts/Prophet's mother said First Vision was of an "angel"
- This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 35
27 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joseph engage in "ritual magic and divination?"
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
- Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic
- Presentism
- This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 45, 351n144
28 (HB)
Claim
- Was Joseph Smith a "money digger?"
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
- Joseph Smith/Money digging
- Presentism
- This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 24
28 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joseph use a "peep stone" to search for buried treasure?
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
29, 494n30 (HB)
Claim
- Was Joseph's father a "firm believer" in witchcraft and the supernatural?
Author's source(s) - Fayette Lapham, "Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Forty Years Ago. His Account of the Finding of the Sacred Plates," Historical Magazine (May 1870) cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1 458.
29, 494-5n33-34 (HB)
Claim
- Did Martin Harris say that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers?
Author's source(s) - Brooke, 362, endnote #2
- Martin Harris, "Mormonism-No. II", Tiffany's Monthly, August 1859, vol. 5, 164.
29, 495n36 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joshua Stafford say that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and verious other mysterious matters."
Author's source(s) - Joshua Stafford cited in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 258. (Affidavits examined).
29-30, 495n37 (HB)
Claim
- Did "most of the residents" of Palmyra and Manchester consider the Smith family a "close-knit clan of occultists?"
Author's source(s) - "Gold Bible, No. 3," Palmyra Reflector, February 1, 1831, cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 2, 242.
30, 495n38 (HB)
Claim
- Did William Stafford state that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress?"
Author's source(s) - William Stafford cited in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 238. (Affidavits examined).
30, 495n40 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joseph Capron state that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth?
Author's source(s) - Joseph Capron cited in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 259. (Affidavits examined).
31, 495n42 (HB)
Claim
- Did William Stafford state that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures?
Author's source(s) - William Stafford, cited in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 238. (Affidavits examined).
- NOTE: Stafford's testimony was given on Dec. 8th, 1833—three years after the publication of the Book of Mormon.
- The Hurlbut affidavits—William Stafford
31, 495n43 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joseph Smith make animal sacrifices to "appease whatever spirits might be guarding the buried treasure?"
Author's source(s) - Emily M. Austin, Mormonism; or, Life among the Mormons, 32ff quoted in Wesley P. Walters, "Joseph Smith's Bainbridge, N.Y., Court Trials," Westminster Theological Journal (Winder 1974), vol. 36, 125.
- Even most early hostile accounts about Joseph say nothing about "animal sacrifices."
- William J. Hamblin, "That Old Black Magic (Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 12/2 (2000): 225–394. [{{{url}}} off-site]
- See esp. Table 16a]
31, 496n44 (HB)
Claim
- Did Hiel Lewis claim that dogs, cats and other animals were sacrificed?
Author's source(s) - Hiel Lewis, Amboy Journal, June 4, 1879 quote in Tanner and Tanner, Mormonism, Magic and Masonry, p. 33.
- Hiel Lewis' account was fifty years after the fact.
- Even most early hostile accounts about Joseph say nothing about "animal sacrifices."
- William J. Hamblin, "That Old Black Magic (Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 12/2 (2000): 225–394. [{{{url}}} off-site]
- See esp. Table 16a]
33, 495n48 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joshua Stafford say that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill?"
Author's source(s) - Joshua Stafford, cited in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 258. (Affidavits examined).
- NOTE: Stafford's testimony was given Nov. 15, 1833—three years after the publication of the Book of Mormon.
- The Hurlbut affidavits—Joshua Stafford
36, 497n63 (HB)
Claim
- Why did LDS historian Reed C. Durham state that the Freemasonry legend of Enoch "seem transformed into the history of Joseph Smith, so much that even it appears to be a kind of symbolic acting out of Masonic lore?"
Author's source(s) - Reed C. Durham, "Is There no Help for the Widow's Son," Presidential Address, Mormon History Association Conference, April 20, 1974.
36 (HB)
Claim
- Did Joseph Smith adapt Masonic rituals for the temple endowment?
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
Internal contradiction: If Joseph adapted Masonry for temple ritual, then why (as claimed below) did he fill the Book of Mormon with anti-Masonic views, as claimed below? Are we to believe he was both pro- and -anti-Masonic?
40 (HB)
Claim
- Does the Book of Mormon denounce Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths?"
Author's source(s) Response
- Internal contradiction: If the Book of Mormon is so anti-Masonic, why did Joseph (as claimed above) then adapt Masonry for temple ritual? Are we to believe he was both pro- and -anti-Masonic?
- Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Gadianton masons
Further reading
| Template code | Inserts this reference | Click to edit |
|---|---|---|
| {{To learn more box:responses to: 8: The Mormon Proposition}} | To learn more box:responses to: 8: The Mormon Proposition | edit |
| {{To learn more box:''Under the Banner of Heaven''}} | To learn more about responses to: Under the Banner of Heaven | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Robert Price}} | To learn more about responses to: Robert Price | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Ankerberg and Weldon}} | To learn more about responses to: Ankerberg and Weldon | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Ashamed of Joseph}} | To learn more about responses to: Ashamed of Joseph | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Beckwith and Moser}} | To learn more about responses to: Beckwith and Moser | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Beckwith and Parrish}} | To learn more about responses to: Beckwith and Parrish | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Benjamin Park}} | To learn more about responses to: Benjamin Park | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Bible versus Joseph Smith}} | To learn more about responses to: Bible versus Joseph Smith | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Bible versus Book of Mormon}} | To learn more about responses to: Bible versus Book of Mormon | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: ''Big Love''}} | To learn more about responses to: Big Love | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Brett Metcalfe}} | To learn more about responses to: Brett Metcalfe | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Bill Maher}} | To learn more about responses to: Bill Maher | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Bruce H. Porter}} | To learn more about responses to: Bruce H. Porter | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Carol Wang Shutter}} | To learn more about responses to: Carol Wang Shutter | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: CES Letter}} | To learn more about responses to: CES Letter | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Charles Larson}} | To learn more about responses to: Charles Larson | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Christopher Nemelka}} | To learn more about responses to: Christopher Nemelka | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Colby Townshed}} | To learn more about responses to: Colby Townshed | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Contender Ministries}} | To learn more about responses to: Contender Ministries | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Crane and Crane}} | To learn more about responses to: Crane and Crane | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: D. Michael Quinn}} | To learn more about responses to: D. Michael Quinn | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Dan Vogel}} | To learn more about responses to: Dan Vogel | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: David John Buerger}} | To learn more about responses to: David John Buerger | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: David Persuitte}} | To learn more about responses to: David Persuitte | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Denver Snuffer}} | To learn more about responses to: Denver Snuffer | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Dick Bauer}} | To learn more about responses to: Dick Bauer | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Duwayne R Anderson}} | To learn more about responses to: Duwayne R Anderson | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Earl Wunderli}} | To learn more about responses to: Earl Wunderli | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Ed Decker}} | To learn more about responses to: Ed Decker | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Erikson and Giesler}} | To learn more about responses to: Erikson and Giesler | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Ernest Taves}} | To learn more about responses to: Ernest Taves | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Fawn Brodie}} | To learn more about responses to: Fawn Brodie | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: George D Smith}} | To learn more about responses to: George D Smith | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Grant Palmer}} | To learn more about responses to: Grant Palmer | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Hank Hanegraaff}} | To learn more about responses to: Hank Hanegraaff | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Hurlbut-Howe}} | To learn more about responses to: Hurlbut-Howe | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: James Brooke}} | To learn more about responses to: James Brooke | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: James Spencer}} | To learn more about responses to: James Spencer | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: James White}} | To learn more about responses to: James White | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner}} | To learn more about responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD}} | To learn more about responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: John Dehlin}} | To learn more about responses to: John Dehlin | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Jonathan Neville}} | To learn more about responses to: Jonathan Neville | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Kurt Van Gorden}} | To learn more about responses to: Kurt Van Gorden | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Laura King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery}} | To learn more about responses to: Laura King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Loftes Tryk aka Lofte Payne}} | To learn more about responses to: Loftes Tryk aka Lofte Payne | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Luke WIlson}} | To learn more about responses to: Luke WIlson | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Marquardt and Walters}} | To learn more about responses to: Marquardt and Walters | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Martha Beck}} | To learn more about responses to: Martha Beck | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Mcgregor Ministries}} | To learn more about responses to: Mcgregor Ministries | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: McKeever and Johnson}} | To learn more about responses to: McKeever and Johnson | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: New Approaches}} | To learn more about responses to: New Approaches to the Book of Mormon | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Richard Abanes}} | To learn more about responses to: Richard Abanes | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Richard Van Wagoner}} | To learn more about responses to: Richard Van Wagoner | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Richard and Joan Ostling}} | To learn more about responses to: Richard and Joan Ostling | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Rick Grunger}} | To learn more about responses to: Rick Grunger | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Robert Ritner}} | To learn more about responses to: Robert Ritner | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Rod Meldrum}} | To learn more about responses to: Rod Meldrum | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Roger I Anderson}} | To learn more about responses to: Roger I Anderson | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Ronald V. Huggins}} | To learn more about responses to: Ronald V. Huggins | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Sally Denton}} | To learn more about responses to: Sally Denton | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Simon Southerton}} | To learn more about responses to: Simon Southerton | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Thomas Murphy}} | To learn more about responses to: Thomas Murphy | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Todd Compton}} | To learn more about responses to: Todd Compton | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Vernal Holley}} | To learn more about responses to: Vernal Holley | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Walter Martin}} | To learn more about responses to: Walter Martin | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Wesley Walters}} | To learn more about responses to: Wesley Walters | edit |
| {{To learn more box:responses to: Will Bagley}} | To learn more about responses to: Will Bagley | edit |
- ↑ JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, created 11 June 1839–24 Aug. 1843; handwriting of James Mulholland, Robert B. Thompson, William W. Phelps, and Willard Richards; 553 pages, plus 16 pages of addenda; CHL, p. 5; also reproduced in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:62.
- ↑ Orson Pratt to John Christensen, 11 March 1876, Orson Pratt Letterbook, Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah; cited in Dean C. Jessee (editor), The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Vol. 1 of 2) (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1989), 277n1. ISBN 0875791999 and Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:62n28.
- ↑ Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:11–12, footnote 2. Volume 1 link
- ↑ Letter, Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith to John Taylor, 18 December 1877; cited in Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 1:277, nt. 1.