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Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/For my Wife and Children (Letter to my Wife)/Chapter 3
Response to "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife"): Chapter 3 - The Witnesses
| Chapter 2 - The Translation (Book of Mormon) | A FAIR Analysis of: For my Wife and Children (Letter to my Wife), a work by author: Anonymous
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Chapter 4 - The Kinderhook Plates |
Response to claims made in "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife"): Chapter 3 - The Witnesses
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- Response to claim: "Josephsmithpapers.org states that both statements and all signatures are in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery"
- Response to claim: "Reportedly this source document is printer’s manuscript and the original was partially destroyed; however no remains can be found"
Response to claim: "Josephsmithpapers.org states that both statements and all signatures are in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery"
The author(s) of "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife") make(s) the following claim:
Josephsmithpapers.org states that both statements and all signatures are in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery. The official statements printed in the Book of Mormon are not dated, signed with original signatures, or given a specific location where the events occurred.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event
The "remains" of the original manuscript are in the possession of the Community of Christ, and they have been photographed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The document referred to by the author is indeed the Printer's Manuscript. It is entirely in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery because he copied the original and then the copied sheets were taken to the printer so that the originals sheets would not be lost. The original manuscript was buried in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House. When it was removed years later, water had destroyed the sheets on the bottom. This included the sheets containing the witness signatures, since in the first edition of the Book of Mormon, the witness statements appeared at the back of the book, not at the front like they do today. Moreover, when David Whitmer was directly asked if the witnesses had signed their statements, he said, "Yes, we each signed his own name."
Question: Did the Three Witnesses each add their own signature to the original Book of Mormon manuscript?
David Whitmer (1878): "Yes, we each signed his own name"
According to David Whitmer, each of the Three Witnesses added their signatures to the original Book of Mormon manuscript:
In September, 1878, in company with Apostle Orson Pratt, the writer visited David Whitmer, at Richmond, Ray County, Missouri. In the presence of David. C. Whitmer, the son of Jacob, Philander Page, David J. Whitmer, son of David Whitmer, George Scheweich, Col. James W. Black, J. R. B. Van Cleave and some others, Father David Whitmer was asked if the three witnesses signed their own names to their testimony to the Book of Mormon? Father Whitmer unhesitatingly replied with emphasis:
"Yes, we each signed his own name."
"Then," said the questioner, "how is it that the names of all the witnesses are found here, (in D. W's manuscript) written in the same hand writing?"
This question seemed to startle Father Whitmer, and, after examining the signatures he replied:
"Oliver must have copied them."
"Then, where are the original documents?" was asked.
He replied, "I don't know."[1]
David Whitmer (1885): they "were present and ordered Oliver Cowdry [sic] to sign for them"
By 1885, in an interview with James Henry Moyle, Whitmer seems to have been clearer on how his copy of the manuscript came to be:
- "The witnesses did
Davnot sign the original manuscript though [they] were present and ordered Oliver Cowdry to sign for them."[2]
A footnote which accompanies this section reads:
Moyle himself noted in his diary, "The statement that the three witnesses did not sign the manuscript but that Oliver Cowdery signed for them and at their request is doubtless true as to the copy which David Whitmer had. The writing itself indicates that. Joseph Fielding Smith, church historian, says his father said that in his interview and that of Orson Pratt, David Whitmer admitted that the three witnesses signed the original manuscript." Whitmer was unaware that two manuscript copies of the Book of Mormon had been made and that the manuscript in his possession was the second copy that Cowdery had prepared for the printer.[3]
Question: What happened to the original Book of Mormon manuscript?
The original manuscript was placed in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House
Frederick Kessler stated that he observed Joseph Smith placing the manuscript in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House:
Further facts in relation to the manuscript of the Book of Mormon. I saw the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., hide up the above manuscript unto the Lord in the south-east corner of the Nauvoo House, Illinois. I stood within eight or ten feet of him, heard and saw what he said and did, on that important occasion, which I freely testify to all the world.
[Signed] FREDERICK KESSLER, SEN., Bishop of the Sixteenth Ward, Salt Lake City, Utah. October 12, 1878. [4]
The contents of the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House were the following:
The corner stone of the Nauvoo House was laid by President Joseph Smith on the 2nd of October, 1841, and the following articles were deposited therein by the President, to-wit:
A Book of Mormon; a revelation given January 19, 1841; The Times and Seasons, containing the charter of the Nauvoo House; Journal of Heber C. Kimball; the memorial of Lyman Wight to the United States Senate; a book of Doctrine and Covenants, the first edition; No. 35 of the Times and Seasons; The original manuscript of the Book of Mormon; The Persecutions of the Church in the State of Missouri, published in the Times and Seasons; the Holy Bible. Silver coins as follows: one half-dollar, one quarter-dollar, two dimes, two half-dimes, and one copper coin.[5]
Only 28 percent of the original manuscript survived
Additional photos of the fragments of the original manuscript that survived may be viewed in Dr. Royal Skousen's presentation "Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon" (5 August 2010).
Royal Skousen describes what happened to the original manuscript,
28 percent of the original manuscript is extant. (In calculating this percentage, I exclude the 116 pages that were lost by Martin Harris in 1828.) In 1841 Joseph Smith placed the original manuscript in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, a hotel being built in Nauvoo. And the manuscript lay there in the cornerstone for the next 41 years until in 1882 Lewis Bidamon, the second husband of Emma Smith’s, after her death, retrieved the manuscript. Most of it was severely damaged by water that had seeped in as well as by mold that ate away a lot of the manuscript. Bidamon gave most of the larger manuscript portions to LDS people, and so 25 of that 28 percent has ended up in the archives of the LDS Church. There is half a leaf at the University of Utah. And the equivalent of a leaf in fragments is held privately. Most important for this project has been the discovery of two percent of the text that Wilford Wood bought from Charles Bidamon, the son of Lewis Bidamon, in 1937....[Showing photos of the original manuscript] This is one of the fragments from 2 Nephi 7-8, all rolled up. First, it was unraveled, and you can see on the edges where the mold had eaten away parts of the leaf. You can also see the large water stain in the center, from water that had originally gotten into the cornerstone. After the fragment was leveled and photographed, you can see basically what it is. The text is in the hand of Oliver Cowdery; the ink was originally black and has turned brown over time. [6]
Question: What is the Book of Mormon "printer's manuscript" and why is it entirely in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery?
- VIDEO: The Story of the Book of Mormon Printer's Manuscript, Robin Jensen, LDS.org.
- VIDEO: The Two Book of Mormon Manuscripts, Royal Skousen, LDS.org.
The printer's manuscript was copied from the original manuscript by Oliver Cowdery, including the witness statements
The printer's manuscript was created by Oliver Cowdery to carry to the printer so that the original manuscript would not be lost. This second manuscript is entirely in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery.
Most critics who make the claim that none of the witnesses signed their testimonies fail to note that one of the witnesses signatures on the printer's manuscript is genuine: that of Oliver Cowdery himself.
Critics of the Church also fail to note that David Whitmer, in fact, made a point of affirming that his testimony was true just as it was printed in the Book of Mormon.
Response to claim: "Reportedly this source document is printer’s manuscript and the original was partially destroyed; however no remains can be found"
The author(s) of "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife") make(s) the following claim:
Reportedly this source document is printer’s manuscript and the original was partially destroyed; however no remains can be found.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources
The "remains" of the original manuscript are in the possession of the Community of Christ, and they have been thoroughly examined and photographed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.- ↑ "The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon," Improvement Era, vol. 3, no. 1, (Nov. 1899), 61-65.
- ↑ James Henry Moyle, diary, 28 June 1885, Vogel, EMD 5:141
- ↑ Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 5:141-142, footnote 8.
- ↑ "The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon," Improvement Era, vol. 3, no. 1, (Nov. 1899), 61-65.
- ↑ Statement "from the early records of the Church, which were kept by his private secretary under the immediate direction and supervision of the Prophet Joseph Smith himself," cited in "The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon," Improvement Era, vol. 3, no. 1, (Nov. 1899), 61-65.
- ↑ Royal Skousen, "Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon," 2010 FAIR Conference (August 2010).