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.
Question: Why was the name "Michael" deleted from Joseph Smith's vision of the Celestial Kingdom?
Question: Why was the name "Michael" deleted from Joseph Smith's vision of the Celestial Kingdom?
The name "Michael" was deleted from the original text of Joseph Smith's vision of the Celestial Kingdom in which both Adam and Michael were mentioned
The name "Michael" was deleted from Joseph Smith's vision of the Celestial Kingdom. Critics of the Church claim that this was done because Adam is Michael, and it would not be possible to have both Adam and Michael in the same vision. It is claimed that the Church was trying to hide a "slip up" by Joseph Smith, who had identified Adam as Michael on multiple occasions in the past.
Joseph tended to dictate his writings and even personal letters. Despite being in his "journal," the text is not something he produced himself, but something that a new scribe and member recorded.
Warren Parrish, Joseph's scribe, appears to have recorded a dittography based upon what he heard Joseph say
Dittography is the accidental, erroneous act of repeating a letter, word, phrase or combination of letters by a scribe or copyist
Matthew Brown noted that the original text of this revelation may help explain what happened:
“[Warren] Parrish’s transcription of [Joseph Smith’s] vision [in Joseph Smith’s journal dated 21 January 1836] seems to differentiate Adam and the archangel Michael as two separate individuals. Yet [Joseph Smith] identified Michael as Adam at least a year earlier and made the same identification four years later (Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, [Liberty, MO], 1 January 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 15; Revelation, ca. August 1830, in Doctrine and Covenants 50:2, 1835 ed. [D&C 27:11]; Richards, “Pocket Companion,” 74–75; Robert B. Thompson, sermon notes, 5 October 1840, [Joseph Smith] Collection, [Church History Library])” (Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839 [Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2008], 167–68, n. 319). The text recorded by Warren Parrish may provide a clue about its incorrect content. It reads: “I saw father Adam, and Abraham and Michael and my father and mother, my brother Alvin” (ibid., 167–68). The “Mi” of “Michael” and the word “my” that follows almost immediately after it have the exact same sound. The structures within the sentence are also identical (“and Mi . . . and my”). It seems, therefore, that Warren Parrish (a relatively recent convert [20 May 1833] and newly-assigned scribe for the Prophet [29 October 1835]) may have recorded a modified dittography based upon what he heard Joseph Smith say.
The dittography in this case would be the repeated vocal phrase "and my...and my"
When spoken to a scribe, the phrase "and my...and my" may have resulted in the first instance being interpreted by the scribe as "and Michael".
Notes