If Mormons only knew. But they don't. Mormons make it seem like a miracle that Joseph Smith came across Oliver Cowdery one day. I first learned here several years ago that Joseph Smith was related to Oliver Cowdery.

"Cowdery was a third cousin of Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother. There is also a geographical connection between the Smiths and the Cowderys. During the 1790s, both Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith, and two of Cowdery's relatives were living in Tunbridge, Vermont."

And what of the whole Book of Mormon premise, and why it mirror's Ethan Smith's "View of the Hebrews?"

"For several years, Cowdery and his family attended the Congregational Church in Poultney, Vermont, when its minister was the Rev. Ethan Smith, author of View of the Hebrews, an 1823 book suggesting that Native Americans were of Hebrew origin, a not uncommon speculation during the colonial and early national periods."

B. H. Roberts, noted Mormon historian and GA, concluded after a lengthy study that Joseph used a good part of "View of the Hebrews" when creating the Book of Mormon. He compiled a long list of parallels between the two books and determined that it could not have happened by accident.

There is some evidence that Cowdery may have visited with the Smith family well before the claimed first meeting when he became the principle scribe for the BoM.

Was B. H. Roberts an active mormon/GA at the time he did that? If so, I'm impressed by his honesty.

B.H. Roberts was very honest in his studies of LDS history, and tried to convince the "Brethren" of his findings, but they didn't care. Roberts became an alcoholic at some point, and I wonder if the inconsistencies in Mormon history helped push him into alcoholism.

TDM Wrote:
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> Was B. H. Roberts an active mormon/GA at the time
> he did that? If so, I'm impressed by his honesty.

Yes, he was and presented his study privately to the GAs who were not impressed. The church managed to keep it hidden for more than fifty years. Brodie discussed it briefly in NMKMH.

It is now available on Amazon for $16 and is well worth it. http://www.amazon.com/Studies-Book-Mormon-B-Roberts/dp/1560850272

He was active and in good standing. He even reported his findings to the Quorum of the 12.

And they were all like, "dude..."

At the time he was also a member of the presidentcy of the 70 making him a GA on his own. In those days the 7 man presidency of the 70 were next in power after the 12.

They did not fill the ranks with hundreds in multiple quorums as they do today.

He fully expected the 12 to present revelation driven answers to his questions. Instead each one simply bore their testimonies.

Always looking for the easy score. I doubt he had much to do with the actual content of the BoM. I think the authors of "Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon" have the most plausible theory that Sidney Rigdon took Solomon Spaulding's manuscript and added the religious content to it which focused on his pet Baptist-centered doctrines of infant baptism, the true organization of Christ's church, etc. In the book they lay out some good circumstantial evidence of how that could have played out logistically.

This theory is also copacetic with the major players' backgrounds and motivations: Rigdon and Spaulding were educated and JS was not. JS had a charismatic personality where Rigdon was dour. JS had already run amok with the law doing typical conman things like treasure-digging, etc.

Most importantly, this theory is superior in dealing with the oft asked question "How could an uneducated boy write such a book?". Well, he didn't! I think this question is just JS's lingering conman's trick: "Watch the right hand very closely, ladies and gentlemen!", and in the meantime the left hand picks your pocket and gropes the women.

What is interesting is the fact that what TSCC is calling the Original Manuscript (of the Book of Mormon) and claims it was the transciption of Joseph Smith's direct dictation is FALSE.

A careful study of the document establishes beyond doubt that the hundreds of corrected words were caused by reading the words wrong and not from incorrectly hearing them. What were they copying? We will probably never know, but it could well have been Spaulding's manuscript which is now lost.

Templar Wrote:
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> A careful study of the document establishes beyond
> doubt that the hundreds of corrected words were
> caused by reading the words wrong and not from
> incorrectly hearing them.

Could you give some examples?

Yes, go here: http://www.mormonthink.com/mormonstudiesscribe.htm

I felt that this was important enough that I purchased a copy of Skousen's typographical facsimile of the Original Manuscript and verified their examples.

Frankly, MormonThink is on to something major here and most individuals know nothing about it. There is no question in my mind that the Original Manuscript is not what they claim it is.

Note the MormonThink conclusion: "It cannot be doubted that there was an extant manuscript that Joseph Smith's scribes copied. The simplest explanation is one that was proposed in the nineteenth century: Joseph Smith obtained the manuscript of a story written by Solomon Spalding, which was revised and printed as the Book of Mormon."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2016 12:47AM by Templar.

one of my favorites: really..Lemuel...Lemuel?.. c'mon any name but Lemuel

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Dec 20th 1825
he Joseph Smith, Sr. family lose the the title to their farm in Manchester. Lemuel Durfee, Sr., the new owner allows the Smiths to remain on the property as tenant farmers.

You can actually get "View of the Hebrews" online now. There's a scan of it on Google Books. Ya think TBMs ever look at it to prove to themselves that it can't possibly be related to the Book of Mormon? Or do they believe Google is in on a conspiracy to derail God's one true cult?

https://books.google.com/books?id=_nAWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=view+of+the+hebrews&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF7NeqnMLMAhUC32MKHYB2BxcQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=view%20of%20the%20hebrews&f=false