Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 13

Response to claims made in "Chapter 13: Changes in Joseph Smith's History"


Chapter 12
A FAIR Analysis of:
Criticism of Mormonism/Books
A work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner
 Chapter 14

398

Claim
  • Mormon leaders claim that "Joseph Smith's" 'History of the Church' is the "most accurate history in all the world."

Author's source(s)
  • Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, p.199
Response

400-401

Claim
  • The History of the Church was not written by Joseph Smith himself. Many instances in original documents which referred to Joseph in the third person were changed to first person to make it appear as if Joseph wrote them.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Presentism or anachronism: This technique of historical writing was standard for the time period. There was no secret that this is how it was done. The Tanners count on their audience not knowing this, and do not disclose it even though they cite an article which discusses it in detail (see BYU Studies (1971) on p. 405 below.
  • History of the Church/Authorship

403-404

Claim
  • Much of the History of the Church was completed after Joseph Smith's death. This means that Joseph Smith's history is not "authentic."

Author's source(s)
  • Brigham Young University Studies, Summer 1971, pp.466, 469, 470, 472
  • Letter from George A. Smith to Woodruff, April 21, 1856, as cited in Brigham Young University Studies, Summer 1971, pp.470-72"
Response
  •  Presentism or anachronism: This technique of historical writing was standard for the time period. There was no secret that this is how it was done. The Tanners count on their audience not knowing this, and do not disclose it even though they cite an article which discusses it in detail (see BYU Studies (1971) on p. 405 below.
  • History of the Church/Authorship

405

Claim
  • The "Rocky Mountain prophecy" was added to the history of the Church sometime after the original was written.

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church 5:85
  • Joseph Smith's Manuscript History, Book D-1, page 1362
  • Brigham Young University Studies, Summer 1971, p.469
  • Davis Bitton, Joseph Smith in the Mormon Folk Memory, The John Whitmer address, delivered at the Second Annual Meeting of the John Whitmer Historical Association, Lamoni, Iowa, September 28, 1974, unpublished manuscript, p.16" [This article is now available in "Joseph Smith in the Mormon Folk Memory," in Restoration Studies, ed. Maurice L. Draper, vol. 1, (Independence, Missouri, 1980).]
Response

408

Claim
  • The angel that gave Joseph Smith the plates was originally identified as "Nephi" rather than "Moroni." History of the Church changed it to "Moroni."

Author's source(s)
  • Times and Seasons, vol. 3, p.753
  • History of the Church, vol. 1, p.11
  • Millennial Star, vol. 3, p.53
  • 1851 edition of the Pearl of Great Price
Response

415

Claim
  • Most of Joseph Smith's history was written by his scribes and modified to read as if it were written in the first person, therefore this history must be a forgery.

Author's source(s)
  • Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 1972, p.76
  • Paul R. Cheesman, An Analysis Of The Kinderhook Plates, March, 1970, Brigham Young University Library.
Response
  •  Presentism or anachronism: This technique of historical writing was standard for the time period. There was no secret that this is how it was done. The Tanners count on their audience not knowing this, and do not disclose it even though they cite an article which discusses it in detail (BYU Studies (1971).
  •  Misrepresentation of source: The Dialogue (1972) article is a critical review of Fawn Brodie by Davis Bitton. Davis nowhere says that the History must be a forgery. By contrast, he writes:
There are in the Church archives hundreds of manuscripts by or about Joseph Smith which Brodie did not see and which are now generally available to scholars. In none that I have examined is there a hint that Smith thought of himself in any other terms except those manifest in his published writings--that he was a man called of God to lead a movement and start a church. When one has read through and noted carefully this vast miscellany of material, it becomes impossible to believe Brodie's original thesis. Joseph Smith played out his role not only before his wife and all his friends every minute of every day, of which we have record, beginning in 1829, but also in the few personal diaries which he wrote himself....
One reason that Brodie concluded that Joseph had veiled his personality behind a "perpetual flow of words" in his history may be that she assumed he had actually dictated most of it. We now know that large portions of that history were not dictated but were written by scribes and later transferred into the first person to read as though the words were Joseph's. That fact makes what few things Joseph Smith wrote himself of great significance. These confirm that during his most intimate personal moments he thought about the same things he spoke of publicly--his relationship to God and his calling as the religious leader of his people.
== Notes == None
Retrieved from "http://104.237.154.152/answers/index.php?title=Criticism_of_Mormonism/Books/The_Changing_World_of_Mormonism/Chapter_13&oldid=105493"