I've read a good deal about Mormon history over the past 60+ years and consider myself quite knowledgeable. However, I have never found any explanation for the four year "wait" imposed on Joseph Smith after the so-called Nephi/Moroni visit. The church version was that he was just "not yet pure enough", but that doesn't make sense after having received a claimed personal visit from God and Jesus.
What I am wondering is that he may have been "stalling for time" since once he had possession of the golden plates, his family and friends would be expecting at least a partial translation soon afterward. Or perhaps Rigdon (or other ghost writers) needed more time to complete their portions of the book.
Of course, there may never have been a four-year wait after all since the whole Nephi/Moroni visit was never described until many years after it supposedly happened.
Any thoughts?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2016 10:08AM by Templar.
I think it's the last of your thoughts, personally. There wasn't any "four year wait." That was put in the story post-hoc. I think it helped, in the minds of early mormon fabricators of history, to explain some of JS's behavior during that period (like trying to join the Methodist church, getting busted for fraud, etc.).
You may have a point. As I recall, Brodie says that this period of Josephs life which we know the least about was when he was most into "treasure hunting". Perhaps, the whole idea was to establish that he was spending the four years "getting closer to the Lord" rather than hiring out doing his "rock in the hat trick".
BTW The primary reason others were trying to get their hands on the golden plates had nothing to do with the opposition of the devil as the church claims. The truth is that Joseph had much earlier signed a mutual sharing agreement with his fellow treasure hunters and they rightfully felt they were owed their share of his find (golden plates). The actual facts always seem to be much different than the mythical history proclaimed by the Mormons.
22 Sept 1827 – claims to get the plates Feb 1828 – Martin Harris takes "caractors" to Charles Anthon 12 April to 14 June 1828 – writes Book of Lehi June 1828 – Harris loses 116 pages June 1828 – JS applies to join Methodists but is rejected
Smith tried to hook up with the Methodist Church nine months AFTER he supposedly received the plates, and in the same month that Harris lost all their work to date. I don't think that's coincidence.
Good call. And of course nothing much happened after June, 1828 until Oliver Cowdery arrived on the scene. Perhaps that's when Rigdon and his worked-over Spaulding "Manuscript Found" came to the rescue. Joseph had pretty well determined that "all was lost" until then.
We now know that the so-called dictated "Original Manuscript" of the BoM was copied from something else since the recording mistakes were clearly copying errors and did not result from mishearing which often occurs in dictation.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2016 12:01PM by Templar.
The First Vision never happened. It was fabricated post hoc, too, So we're talking about a four year gap between something that never happened and something else that never happened.
Because he was spanking it was my initial thought. But how would that explain his worthiness to see Moroni, Nephi or who ever the hell it was? He had a wicked head rush after he retired to his bed early and ..... (A cool September breeze blows into the darkened room of a young Joseph all alone and in need of stress relief....)
Joseph's story was the angel told him to bring back his brother, Alvin. Alvin died and it took four years (and an affidavit from Father Smith that Alvins's body had not been dug up, although he exhumed Alvin's body to show it was not dug up), to work out a new story.
I think Joseph's name, and that of several of his siblings, was identified on the local Methodist church rolls as having joined. Is that incorrect info?
Very Little Evidence that he tried to join the Methodists is a tiny bit better than the No Evidence that the father and son visited him in a grove of trees.
there's a simple explanation that Sarony mentioned and it's the fact that the old spirit wanted Alvin to have the plates. Alvin had good character, was guileless, and was the one the salamander trusted. When Joe came he wanted the plates for money and so he was struck by the creature and fell backwards. The plates disappeared and he was told he had to wait.
See Mormonism Unveiled. (by Howe 1834) See Mormon Murders 1989
I think he stalled for time because he didn't have any plates. He told the story without realizing that he'd have to follow up on it. So each year he came back with another excuse why he couldn't get the plates this time, etc.
Finally he made some fake plates. This explains all the descriptions of the plates by his family members but always covered by a cloth so they couldn't be inspected. It also explains all the voodoo about about looking at them will kill you, etc. This also explains why the "witnesses" saw the plates only under limited conditions imposed by Joseph (and only witnesses hand-picked by Joseph).
This also explains why the plates were never there when Joseph was "translating" them. The text had nothing to do with the plates and he didn't want the plates being examined too closely.
Love the four year timeline chicken...it might need further revelation...joe by year four had discovered fannys alger was way more fun than bacon grease or chickens...haha take that SWK...naw guess im wrong...that wouldnt be for a couple more years till celestial cuvkolding was revealed...your right..he was yanking his doodle...but the greatmantle did finally fall...as did every foster daughters knickers he could flutter...see how i easy that is to admit your wrong...yet Hoax just cant bring himself to do it...but i agree...it takes four years to work the wrinkles out of the long con...or a few wannabe GAS amending the story to fit the narrative when the details dont quite correlate
Ole conniving Joey didn't "wait around" much at all for anything which helps add credence to the ad hoc theory of the vision and plates in my thinking. I believe that during these years he was making bucks fooling the gullible with his magic tricks, which did make him a nice sum opposed to what some say. I believe Sidney Rigdon approached him with the idea for the two of them to join forces, and in this way Rigdon could get the kind of church he wanted and Joey could help ring people into the plan. Rigdon soon found Joey to be more conniving and forceful than he ever planned on as Joey pushed his way to the forefront as the prophet of the day.