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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith/Index
Back to Main Article: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith
Index to claims made in No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith
This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIRwiki.
Chapter 2: Treasure in the Earth
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Joseph's reputation was that of a "likeable ne'er-do-well" | |
| 16 | Joseph was notorious for telling tall tales, necromantic arts and treasure digging | Joseph Smith and money digging |
| 16 | Joseph was charged with being "a disorderly person and an impostor" at his 1826 trial | |
| 17 | The Hurlbut affidavits corroborated and supplemented the court record | |
| 18 | Fifty-one of Joseph's neighbors signed affidavits accusing him of being "destitute of moral character" and "addicted to vicious habits" | |
| 18 | Joseph dreamed of an "illustrious and affluent" future | |
| 18 | Joseph "detested the plow" and despaired about the family's debts | |
| 19 | A "vagabond fortune-teller" named Walters became popular in the area | |
| 19 | When Walters left the area, "his mantle fell upon" Joseph Smith | |
| 20 | William Stafford told a story about Joseph could find money using a bleeding black sheep | |
| 20 | Joseph could see "ghosts, infernal spirits" and "mountains of gold" in his seer stone | |
| 23 | Palmyra newspapers took no notice of Joseph's vision at the time it was supposed to have occurred | |
| 24 | The story of Joseph first vision evolved greatly between his 1832 and 1838 accounts | |
| 24 | Oliver Cowdery described Joseph's first vision as having occurred in 1823 | Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35 |
| 24 | Some of Joseph's close relatives confused the first vision with Moroni's visit | |
| 25 | Joseph's own family did not know of his first vision at the time that it happened | |
| 25 | Joseph's vision may have been an invention to cancel out stories of his fortune telling and money digging | |
| 26 | Joseph liked preaching because it gave him an audience, and this was as "essential to Joseph as food." | |
| 27 | Joseph stared into his crystal and saw gold in every odd-shaped hill | Joseph Smith and money digging |
| 30 | In March 1826 Joseph got into serious trouble because of his "magic arts" | Joseph Smith's 1826 glasslooking trial |
| 30 | The court pronounced Joseph "guilty" at the 1826 trial | Joseph Smith's 1826 glasslooking trial |
| 31 | Joseph's mentor was "the conjurer Walters." |
Chapter 3: Red Sons of Israel
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Joseph's mother reported that he was "spinning theories" about the moundbuilders before he was twenty years old | Moundbuilders [needs work] |
| 35 | Between 1820 and 1827 Joseph decided to write a history of the moundbuilders | Moundbuilders [needs work] |
| 37 | Peter Ingersoll claimed that Joseph told him that no one could see the golden Bible and live | |
| 39 | The "magic" Urim and Thumminn was found with the plates | Joseph Smith and seer stones |
| 40 | The four year period during which Joseph waited to get the plates corresponded with his most intensive money-digging activities | Joseph Smith and money digging |
| 40 | Lucy Smith described the Urim and Thummin as "two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass and the glasses set in silver bows." | Joseph Smith and seer stones |
| 40 | Martin Harris described the Urim and Thummin as "white, like polished marble, with a few grey streaks." | Joseph Smith and seer stones |
| 40 | David Whitmer described the Urim and Thummin as "two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg shape, and perfectly smooth, but not transparent." | Joseph Smith and seer stones |
| 41 | Joseph warned his family that it meant instant death to look at the plates | |
| 43 | Joseph was able to translate the plates without unwrapping them by using his stone | Book of Mormon translation method |
| 43 | Emma said that Joseph used the Urim and Thummin for the first 116 pages and then the seer stone for the remainder of the translation | Joseph Smith and seer stones |
| 43 | God cursed the Lamanites and all their descendents with a "red skin" | |
| 43 | A neighbor, Lemuel Durfee. Signed an affidavit in 1833 charging Joseph with vicious habits and an immoral character | |
| 44 | After each battle in the Book of Mormon, the dead were "heaped upon the face of the earth, and they were covered with a shallow covering" - a reference to the Indian mounds | Moundbuilders [needs work] |
| 46 | Joseph's familiarity with the idea that the Indians descended from the Hebrews seems to have come primarily from Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews | Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews |
| 49 | Joseph Smith took the whole Western Hemisphere as the setting for the Book of Mormon | Book of Mormon geography:New World:HGT |
Chapter 4: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 53 | Joseph warned Martin Harris that God's wrath would strike him down if he examined the plates or looked at him while he was translating | |
| 53 | Harris once tried to trick Joseph by substituting an ordinary stone for the seer stone | |
| 54 | Lucy Harris stole the manuscripte and "neither pleas nor blows could make her divulge its hiding place." | |
| 54 | Joseph realized that he could not duplicate the 116 pages exactly. | |
| 55 | Joseph's family was counting on sales of the Book of Mormon to prevent foreclosure on their farm | |
| 55 | Once Joseph had translated the small plates of Nephi, he could go back to the old plates and carry on. | |
| 58 | Joseph was careful to to modify the italicized interpolation in the King James text. | |
| 58 | Joseph incorporated one of his father's dreams into the Book of Mormon | Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision |
| 59 | Early in the writing Joseph vigorously attacked the Catholic Church as the "great and abominable church" and the "whore of all the earth" | Great and abominable church |
| 60 | Lucy Smith's stories about the Golden Bible had converted Oliver Cowdery | |
| 62 | Joseph Smith's lack of education is "a favorite thesis designed to prove the authenticity" of the Book of Mormon | |
| 62-63 | Joseph Smith borrowed many stories from the Bible | |
| 63 | Joseph's sentence structure in the Book of Mormon was "loose-jointed, like an earthworm hacked into segments that crawl away alive and whole" | |
| 65 | The story of the Gadianton band reflects the anti-Masonic feelings in New York at the time that the Book of Mormon was produced | Book of Mormon anachronisms:Gadianton masons |
Chapter 5: Witnesses for God
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 68 | The Church has "exaggerated the ignorance" of Joseph Smith in order to bolster the divinity of the Book of Mormon | |
| 70 | The Book of Mormon claims that Jesus was born in Jerusalem (quoting Alexander Campbell) | Book of Mormon anachronisms:Jerusalem vs Bethlehem |
| 70-71 | Joseph added the story of the Jaredites in order to explain how animals had come to America | Book of Mormon anachronisms:Animals |
| 72 | Joseph had the Jaredites bring horses, swine, sheep, cattle, and asses, yet these animals were not found in the Americas at the time of Columbus | Book of Mormon anachronisms:Animals |
| 73 | Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery were caught in Joseph's "spell" | Book of Mormon witnesses:Spiritual or literal |
| 74 | Joseph had a talent for making men see visions | Book of Mormon witnesses:Hypnotism |
| 77 | The Three Witnesses all told different versions of their experience | Book of Mormon witnesses |
| 77 | The Three Witnesses were hypnotized by Joseph Smith | Book of Mormon witnesses:Hypnotism |
| 78 | Martin Harris stated that he viewed the plates through "the eye of faith" | "Eye of Faith"/"Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris |
| 78 | Years after the event, David Whitmer embellished his story of seeing the gold plates | |
| 78 | The Three Witnesses never denied their vision even after the all left the Church because Joseph had "conjured up a vision they would never forget" | Book of Mormon witnesses:Spiritual or literal |
| 79-80 | Joseph convinced the Eight Witnesses by showing them an empty box and claiming that they did not have sufficient faith to see them | Book of Mormon witnesses:Eight witnesses |
| 80 | Joseph may have built some kind of "makeshift deception" to account for those witnesses who described the size, weight and metallic texture of the plates | Descriptions of the size, weight and texture of the plates |
| 81 | Hyrum suggested to Joseph that they attempt to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in order to obtain enough money to get it published | Did Joseph Smith attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright? |
| 82 | Martin Harris sold his farm to pay for the publication of the Book of Mormon only after Joseph frightened him with the revelation found in the Book of Commandments Chapter xvi, pp. 40-41 |
Chapter 6: The Prophet of Palmyra
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 83 | The Book of Mormon was conceived as a money-making history of the Indians | |
| 84 | A story circulated that Joseph Smith boasted he would walk upon the water, and secretly built a plank bridge underneath the surface of the pond | |
| 84-85 | Joseph began to sincerely believe what he was teaching | |
| 86 | Joseph Smith performed "miracles," but was unaware that they were common occurrences | Joseph Smith healings and miracles |
| 89 | Joseph detested tedious and solitary field labor | |
| 92 | Oliver Cowdery demanded that Joseph amend some of his own revelations | |
| 92 | Oliver Cowdery secretly encouraged Hiram Page to receive revelations through his seer stone | |
| 96 | Joseph experimented with the idea of "revealing" a lost books of the Bible |
Chapter 7: The Perfect Society and the Promised Land
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 101 | Joseph promised Lyman E. Johnson that he would see the Savior come and stand upon the Earth | |
| 101-102 | William Smith and Orson Hyde were told that they would stand on earth until Christ comes | |
| 102 | Joseph suggested that the Second Coming would occur within fifty-six years. | |
| 103 | Joseph began "translating" the New Testament at Sidney Rigdon's suggestion | |
| 108 | The United Order was Sidney Rigdon's idea | |
| 111 | Ezra Booth claimed that Joseph promised that "not three days should pass away before some should see the Saviour face to face" | |
| 111 | Joseph said that the lost ten tribes were living in a land near the North Pole | |
| 112 | Joseph attempted to perform miracles and failed during a conference in Kirtland, Ohio | |
| 113 | Stories claimed that miracles could not be performed in Ohio because it was not "consecrated ground" |
Chapter 8: Temple Builder
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 116 | Joseph inserted into Genesis a prophecy of his own coming | |
| 117 | Joseph elaborated on Isaiah's prophecy regarding the learned man and the sealed book to match details of Martin Harris' visit to Charles Anthon | |
| 117 | Joseph modified Isaiah's prophecy to include references to the Book of Mormon witnesses and return of the gold plates to the Lord | |
| 118 | Joseph's description of the three degrees of glory contrasted Book of Mormon descriptions of a "lake of fire and brimstone" | |
| 120 | The Missouri Mormons never forgave Joseph for returning to Ohio | |
| 124 | The "Civil War" prophecy was abandoned and excluded from early collections of Joseph's revelations because they thought it had failed. | Joseph Smith prophesies |
| 126 | It was noted that "Joseph could build more rods of good fence in one day than most men could in two," and that his "yard was clean and orderly" | |
| 127 | Joseph couldn't initially called the Kirtland Temple a "temple," since there was already land dedicated for a temple in Missouri |
Chapter 9: Expulsion from Eden
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 141 | It was easy for Joseph to revise his revelation on the United Order since most copies of the Book of Commandments had been burned. | |
| 141 | Joseph wanted to "destroy the notion" that the United Order had been similar to communism. |
Chapter 10: The Army of the Lord
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 143 | Under Hurlbut's "excited prodding," neighbors of Solomon Spalding recalled that the Spalding manuscript that matched "an astonishing number of details" from the Book of Mormon twenty years after they had heard the manuscript read aloud. | Book of Mormon and Spaulding manuscript |
| 144 | The Spalding manuscript bore no resemblance to the Book of Mormon. | Book of Mormon and Spaulding manuscript |
| 144 | Martin Harris was brought to trial before the High Council because he claimed the Joseph Smith had "drunk too much liquor" while translating the Book of Mormon. | |
| 145 | Joseph read the Hurlbut affidavits aloud to his followers and said that they were fabrications of the devil. | |
| 145 | Hurlbut's affidavits were published by E.D. Howe in Mormonism Unvailed. | |
| 154 | Brigham Young stated, before he even met Joseph Smith, that he would follow Joseph even if he were to get "drunk every day of his life, sleep with his neighbor's wife every night," and run horses and gamble. | |
| 146-147 | "Zion's Camp" was the idea of Lyman Wight and Parley Pratt | |
| 147-148 | It was Sidney Rigdon's suggestion to change the name of the Church from the Church of Christ to the Church of Latter-day Saints in order to avoid the names "Mormon" and "Mormonite". | |
| 149 | Joseph found a skeleton of a Lamanite warrior named "Zelf" | Zelph |
| 150 | Joseph threatened Sylvester Smith with his bulldog. |
Chapter 11: Patronage and Punishment
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 159 | Zion's Camp was a "major failure" for Joseph Smith. | |
| 159 | Men and women had died in Missouri Joseph Smith's name. | |
| 159 | Joseph decided that he could no longer give out "incidental" revelations after the Missouri trials. | |
| 162 | The Kirtland High Council complained that the Apostles had too much power. | |
| 162 | Henry Green was cut off from the church simply because of a remark made that Joseph was "extorting" the cost of a book. | |
| 164 | Apostle William Smith called his brother Joseph a "tyrant" and attempted to beat him. | |
| 165 | Joseph was "vain" regarding his "wrestling prowess." | |
| 166 | The Word of Wisdom was not given by "commandment or constraint" because Joseph was "too fond of earthly pleasures." | Word of Wisdom |
| 167 | Joseph did not take the Word of Wisdom seriously. | Word of Wisdom |
| 167 | Joseph replaced wine with water in the Sacrament because Sidney Rigdon forced a vote for total abstinence through the Church. |
Chapter 12: Master of Languages
| Page | Claim | Response |
|---|---|---|
| 170 | Joseph did not originally intend to translate the papri "by inspiration as in the past," and instead attempted to formulate an Egyptian alphabet and grammer. | Kirtland Egyptian Papers |
| 171 | Joseph picked up the idea that there were plural gods when he learned in Hebrew class that Elohim was plural. | |
| 171 | Joseph developed the concept in the Book of Abraham that the earth was organized out of existing matter from Thomas Dick's Philosophy of a Future State. | Was Joseph Smith's theology influenced by the writings of Thomas Dick? |
| 171 | Joseph developed the idea that matter was "eternal and indestructible" from Thomas Dick's work. | Was Joseph Smith's theology influenced by the writings of Thomas Dick? |
| 172 | Joseph's concept of Kolob being "near the throne of God" and its control of the reckoning of time came from Thomas Dick. | Was Joseph Smith's theology influenced by the writings of Thomas Dick? |
| 173 | Joseph wrote the Book of Abraham in order to justify denying the priesthood to Blacks. | Blacks and the priesthood:Origin of the priesthood ban? |
| 173 | Joseph criticized the abolitionist movement. | |
| 174 | Joseph taught that "one third of the spirits had been neutral" in Heaven. | |
| 174 | Joseph taught that his family was directly descended from Ephraim. | |
| 175 | The Book of Abraham facsimiles are ordinary funeral documents. | Book of Abraham papyri |
| 179 | It was reported that some of the men were drunk during the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. | |
| 179 | Oliver Cowder had "long hungered and fought" for the "rank" of Second Elder in the Church. |
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 |
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| {{To learn more box:responses to: D. Michael Quinn}} | To learn more about responses to: D. Michael Quinn | edit |
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| {{To learn more box:responses to: David John Buerger}} | To learn more about responses to: David John Buerger | edit |
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| {{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 |
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| {{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 |
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| {{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 |
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