Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 5

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Response to claims made in "Chapter 5: Moroni and 'The Golden Pot'"

Claims made in "Chapter 4: Evangelical Protestantism in the Book of Mormon"

A FAIR Analysis of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, a work by author: Grant Palmer

Claims made in "Chapter 6: Witnesses to the Golden Plates"

Claim Evaluation

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins

Response to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, "Chapter 5: Moroni and 'The Golden Pot'"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 138 - The author claims that the story of "The Golden Pot" involves the copying and translation of ancestral records
• Response to claim: 139-142 - The author claims that Luman Walters likely informed Joseph Smith about the story of "The Golden Pot"
• Response to claim: 157 - Joseph was told to bring Emma to the hill Cumorah on "the next fall equinox"
• Response to claim: 157 - Joseph's father said that Joseph married Emma in order to ensure success in obtaining the plates
• Response to claim: 163 - Joseph regarded the autumnal equinox as a special day
• Response to claim: 172 - The author claims that Joseph's later narratives talk about a more biblical-type angel and that many of the "magical elements" of the Moroni story began disappearing around 1830

Response to claim: 138 - The author claims that the story of "The Golden Pot" involves the copying and translation of ancestral records

The author(s) of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins make(s) the following claim:

The author claims that the story of "The Golden Pot" involves the copying and translation of ancestral records

Author's sources: Author's speculation

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is false

The claim is false, and the author modifies what the source states.

Citation abuse in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins: "Copying" becomes "translation"

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, page 148-149

• The book makes the following claim in an attempt to prove that the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon was derived from The Golden Pot:

Later in the evening, Anselmus receives a second vision. This time he learns that Archivarius Lindhorst, whom he encountered earlier (pp. 5, 19,35), is the archivist of a vast library containing Atlantean books and treasures. He also possesses "a number of manuscripts, partly Arabic, Coptic, and some of them in strange characters, which do not belong to any known tongue. These he [Lindhorst] wishes to have copied [and translated] properly, and for this purpose he requires a man who can draw with the pen, and to transfer these marks to parchment, in Indian ink, with the highest exactness and fidelity. This work is to be carried out in a separate chamber of his house, under his own supervision ... he will pay his copyist a speziesthaler, or specie-dollar daily, and promises a handsome present" (pp. 10-11). (emphasis added)

The References

• The Golden Pot

The Problems

Here's what the author uses as a comparison from Joseph's 1838 account:

The being "said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do ... He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates ... Also that there were two stones ... deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were ... for the purpose of translating the book" (1838, vv. 33-35). (emphasis added)

In his attempt to show a correlation between a passage from The Golden Pot and the story of the translation of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith, the author actually adds the words "and translated" to a phrase about copying manuscripts. The story related in The Golden Pot does not talk about translation at all.

Response to claim: 139-142 - The author claims that Luman Walters likely informed Joseph Smith about the story of "The Golden Pot"

The author(s) of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins make(s) the following claim:

Luman Walters likely informed Joseph Smith about the story of "The Golden Pot"

Author's sources: Author's speculation

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is false

This is pure conjecture on the part of the author—there is no evidence to support this assertion.

Question: Did Joseph Smith develop the story of Moroni's visit based upon information contained in the story The Golden Pot?

This claim has not been found credible by any other historians or authors, including other anti-Mormon writers

Former Church Education System (CES) teacher Grant Palmer argues that Joseph Smith developed his story of visits by Moroni and the translation of a sacred book from The Golden Pot, a book by German author E.T.A. Hoffmann.

To date, Palmer's conclusion has not been found credible by any other historians or authors, including other anti-Mormon writers. His theory is based on a forgery from twenty years before his book's publication, and he remained wedded to his ideas despite this. His inability to jetison his convoluted pet theory once the Salamander forgery became known does not speak highly of his historical skills, or his work's intellectual rigor. Palmer's decision to hide his hostile work until he could retire with a pension paid by the tithing funds of the Church belies his claimed commitment to honesty and 'telling the whole truth.'

Understanding this attack requires that we understand the intellectual history of Palmer's claim. This is not to dismiss Palmer through argumentum ad hominem, but because the context in which ideas are developed can often explain the origin of those ideas.

Therefore, one must realize that Grant Palmer was a teacher in the Church educational system. More than twenty years prior to publication, while still a Church employee, Palmer began work on the manuscript that was later published as "An Insider's View."

Palmer's Golden Pot theory is based on a known forgery

In 1985 a Hofmann forgery known as the Salamander letter became public. Louis Midgley has shown how this letter affected Palmer's faith. When Palmer became aware of the book The Golden Pot, he saw parallels between the Salamander letter and the fictional story. As his personal doubts grew, Palmer saw a connection between these two fictional stories and a secular explanation for the origins of Book of Mormon.

When the true nature of the Salamander letter as a forgery became known, Palmer had already convinced himself that the Book of Mormon was not a work of God. He therefore was unwilling or unable to reconcile his faith. He took his 20 years worth of letters and began writing a book during this time of which an early draft came into Midgley's possession during 1987. Palmer first used the name Paul Pry, Jr., a pseudonym also used by an early anti-Mormon writer active in the 1800s. Midgley indicated that "[b]y hiding behind the name Paul Pry, Palmer signaled his anti-Mormon agenda in the first draft of his book."

After going through a detailed examination of some of the claims of Palmer relating to the similarities between the two, Midgley makes the observation that "Every claim that Palmer makes concerning parallels between Hoffmann's weird tale and the story of the restoration is just as tenuous and problematic—just as forced or contrived—as is his claim that there is translation of an ancient history being described in that tale."

James Allen points out that the comparisons between The Golden Pot and Joseph's story are forced, "that is, they are presented in such a way that the context in 'The Golden Pot' is distorted and the comparison with Joseph Smith's story is contrived."

A Tortured Tale

To believe Palmer's version of history one must subscribe to the following scenario (or something very similar) with all its assumptions—

Der golden Topf (The Golden Pot) was first published in Europe in German in 1814 and 1819. It was published in French in 1822. It was not available in English until 1827 in London and Edinburgh, and became available in America that same year. According to Palmer, a man by the name of Luman Walters lived in Paris after the story had been first published and when the story would have been available to him. Palmer suggests, although he offers no real evidence, that Mr. Walters had an unusual interest in the occult and things magical and therefore would surely (despite a lack of evidence) have brought Der golden Topf with him from Europe. Mr. Walters moved to Sodus, New York, about 25 miles from Palmyra, and lived there at least during the period of 1820 to 1823 when he likely knew Joseph Smith. Walters and Joseph Smith were part of a group involved in digging for treasure at Miner's Hill, owned by Abner Cole.

According to Palmer, Luman Walters became acquainted with Joseph Smith during this period, and was thought to be the "most likely conduit" for The Golden Pot to be made available to Joseph Smith. Abner Cole and others claimed that it was during this period the "idea of a 'book' [The Book of Mormon?] was doubtless suggested to the Smiths by one Walters, although they make no direct connection with 'The Golden Pot.'"

Even as Palmer points to the relationship between Walters and Joseph Smith as a reason to accept The Golden Pot as the basis for early Mormon history, he fails to mention that Brigham Young noted that Walters "rode over sixty miles three times the same season they [the gold plates] were obtained by Joseph" in an effort to obtain the plates for himself. This hardly sounds like a man who had convinced Joseph to concoct the story of the plates based on some fictional story.

Either Walters believed the plates were real or knew they were not because of his part in formulating the plan of deception. His desire to obtain them certainly suggests the former and argues against the latter. Even this does not establish that Joseph and Walters were acquainted; only that Walters knew about Joseph Smith, had heard about the plates, and presumed they were genuine. This, of course, is fatal to Palmer's theory, but he does not account for it.

Joseph Smith reported his First Vision from God the Father and Jesus Christ as happening in 1820. Yet Palmer claims that Joseph received the idea of this divine visit from conversations with Luman Walters sometime during the period 1820-1823. This means that Joseph Smith was chosen by Mr. Walters from a town 25 miles from his own (a significant distance in the 1820s), and was convinced, apparently rather quickly, by virtue of a story Walters related (from the German or the French version as the English version was not available until 1827) to formulate a lifelong plan of deception. Palmer never claims that Joseph ever read The Golden Pot, only that Walters shared the story with him.

Joseph was 15–18 years old during these years, and yet the reader is to believe that Walters convinced him to adapt and concoct a story that would follow in some crude manner the outline of this fictional book. Somehow, Palmer insists, Walters convinced this young man, whom he had known for a relatively short time, to commit to living a lie for the rest of his life. Furthermore, Walters had Joseph backdate his First Vision to an earlier year and then immediately begin the deception that would become the central focus of his entire life. This plan would be followed in spite of the persecution that immediately came into the Prophet's life because of the very nature of the story.

It is not clear what Walters would have gained from encouraging Joseph in such a course, and there is no evidence that Walters turned up later to try to profit from Joseph's position of prominence in Kirtland or Nauvoo.

Not only did the young Joseph need to commit to this path, it also had to be enthusiastically accepted and followed by his trusting family. According to Palmer's strained scenario, Joseph's family must have seen some virtue in doing so, although no evidence is given as to what they hoped to gain. During this period the Smiths were under extreme financial hardship, and they would scarcely had seen any economic advantage to the tale. (Any delusions which the Smiths might have entertained about Joseph's story making them rich and popular would have been quickly dispelled by events.

Walters would have had to persuade Joseph, or the future prophet was able to immediately take the story verbally related to him (as he was unable to read it in German or French), make the personal commitment needed, and then quickly convince his family that it was true and that God had, indeed, visited him a few years ago and that he had just forgot to mention it.

It is no wonder that Palmer's theory has not been embraced by others who share his disbelief in the Restoration, since this reconstruction is at least as incredible as talk of angels and gold plates. </blockquote>

Response to claim: 157 - Joseph was told to bring Emma to the hill Cumorah on "the next fall equinox"

The author(s) of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins make(s) the following claim:

According to the author, Joseph Knight, Sr. said that Joseph was told to bring Emma to the hill Cumorah on "the next fall equinox."

Author's sources: Joseph Knight Sr.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Joseph Knight says nothing about "the next fall equinox": That is the author's addition. Here is what Knight said:

But before September Came his oldest Brother Died. Then he was Disapinted and did not [k]now what to do. But when the 22nt Day of September Came he went to the place and the personage appeard and told him he Could not have it now. But the 22nt Day of September nex he mite have the Book if he Brot with him the right person. Joseph says, "who is the right Person?" The answer was you will know. Then he looked in his glass and found it was Emma Hale, Daughter of old Mr Hail of Pensylvany, a girl that he had seen Before, for he had Bin Down there Before with me.

FAIR Answers—back to home page

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1. REDIRECTJoseph Smith and folk magic or the occult

Response to claim: 157 - Joseph's father said that Joseph married Emma in order to ensure success in obtaining the plates

The author(s) of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins make(s) the following claim:

Joseph's father said that Joseph married Emma in order to ensure success in obtaining the plates.

Author's sources: Fayette Lapham

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

The claim that Joseph's father said that Joseph married Emma in order to successfully obtain the plates came from Henry Harris. However, Harris does not appear to be a very reliable source when one examines all of the claims that he made about the Smith family.

FAIR Answers—back to home page

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1. REDIRECTThe Hurlbut affidavits

Response to claim: 163 - Joseph regarded the autumnal equinox as a special day

The author(s) of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins make(s) the following claim:

Joseph regarded the autumnal equinox as a special day.

Author's sources:

• 1838, vv. 29, 48-54, 59
• L. Smith, 133-34

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is false

Joseph makes no mention of the "autumnal equinox," and there is no indication that the 22nd of September was special to him for any other reason than his scheduled meeting with the angel Moroni.

Question: Was Joseph Smith aware that the date of the autumnal equinox was somehow significant?

Joseph and other members made no claims about 21-22 September being significant for any reason

Joseph and other members made no claims about 21-22 September being significant for any reason. He may not have known its significance, in either an astrological or religious context. Critics often assume that Joseph was fabricating his story, and so they must ascribe a significance to this date which Joseph was likely to know—they seize, therefore, on the astrological connection while severing it from its deep religious roots. This is again question begging, since it presumes at the outset that Joseph's tale was fraudulent, and that the Book of Mormon had nothing to do with ancient Judaism.

Response to claim: 172 - The author claims that Joseph's later narratives talk about a more biblical-type angel and that many of the "magical elements" of the Moroni story began disappearing around 1830

The author(s) of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins make(s) the following claim:

• It is claimed that variants of the Moroni story were told and then standardized after 1830.
• The author claims that Joseph's later narratives talk about a more biblical-type angel and that many of the "magical elements" of the Moroni story began disappearing around 1830.

  Author's sources: Author's opinion.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

There is no record of Joseph Smith himself calling the visit of the angel Moroni anything other than a divine manifestation. How does one describe a less "biblical-type angel"?

Question: Did the story of Moroni's visit to Joseph Smith evolve from that of a magical spiritual treasure guardian to an "angel"?

The earliest letter and newspaper accounts describe Joseph's claims in religious terms

Some are anxious to paint Joseph's early experiences as linked to "magick" or treasure seeking. They thus argue that Joseph Smith described his first angelic visitor as "a dream" in which "a spirit" visited him three times in one night.

However, the earliest letters and newspapers accounts describe Joseph's claims in religious terms. Gradually, over time, hostile versions of Joseph's claims appear, which introduce "magic" or treasure-seeking elements to the tale. Modern critics have simply followed where Joseph's early critics led them—while ignoring the earliest documents and witness of both friendly and hostile sources.

Newspapers were hostile sources, and tended to focus on polemics and sensationalism

Critics generally gloss over the fact that these newspapers were unremittingly hostile to Joseph and his claims. They were not disinterested, neutral reporters of "both sides of the story." They tended to polemics and sensationalism. Thus, the Palmyra Freeman would write a few weeks earlier that the Book of Mormon was "the greatest piece of superstition that has ever come within our knowledge," and "It is certainly a "new thing" in the history of superstition, bigotry, inconsistency, and foolishness.—It should, and it doubtless will, be treated with the neglect it merits." It was, continued the Freeman (reprinted in the Rochester Advertiser and Telegraph) "almost invariably treated as it should have been—with contempt".

Other papers followed in this vein, describing the Book of Mormon as "an evidence of fraud, blasphemy and credulity," cooked up by Joseph Smith, "who, by some hocus pocus, acquired such an influence over a wealthy farmer of Wayne county, that the latter mortgaged his farm for $3000, which he paid for printing and binding 5000 copies of the blasphemous work."

Critics wish to invoke the term "spirit" to associate the Book of Mormon predominantly with treasure magic

Critics wish to invoke the term "spirit" to associate the Book of Mormon predominantly with treasure magic. However, a consideration of the complete statements makes it clear that the evidence does not support this interpretation—the religious elements predominate.

For example, a second-hand account from Martin Harris reads, in part:

In the autumn of 1827...Joseph Smith...said that he had been visited by the spirit of the Almighty in a dream...[regarding a hill] containing an ancient record of divine origin....He states that after a third visit from the same spirit in a dream, he proceeded to the spot, removed earth, and there found the bible, together with a large pair of spectacles....

The author obviously does not believe Joseph's story, and so characterizes his experience as "a dream," rather than a vision. But, we note that even at this very early date (1827, reported in 1829), the visit is divine: "the spirit of the Almighty," and Joseph is directed to a "bible" that is "of divine origin."

Other early accounts

The Palmyra (NY) Wayne Sentinel (26 June 1829):

...much speculation has existed, concerning a pretended discovery, through superhuman means, of an ancient record, of a religious and a divine nature and origin, written in ancient characters, impossible to be interpreted by any to whom the special gift has not been imparted by inspiration. It is generally known and spoken of as the "Golden Bible."(emphasis added)

Here again, the religious character of the Book of Mormon is emphasized (even labeled a Bible), with the need for divine inspiration.

A letter from a skeptical member of Joseph's extended family shows a similar pattern—Jesse Smith to Hyrum Smith, 17 June 1829:

Once as I thot my promising Nephew, You wrote to my Father long ago, that after struggling thro various scenes of adversity, you and your family, you had at last taught the very solutary lesson that the God that made the heavens and the earth w[o]uld at onc[e] give success to your endeavours, this if true, is very well, exactly as it should be—but alas what is man when left to his own way, he makes his own gods, if a golden calf, he falls down and worships before it, and says this is my god which brought me out of the land of Vermont—if it be a gold book discovered by the necromancy of infidelity, & dug from the mines of atheism, he writes that the angel of the Lord has revealed to him the hidden treasures of wisdom & knowledge, even divine revelation, which has lain in the bowels of the earth for thousands of years [and] is at last made known to him, he says he has eyes to see things that art not, and then has the audacity to say they are; and the angel of the Lord (Devil it should be) has put me in possession of great wealth, gold & silver and precious stones so that I shall have the dominion in all the land of Palmyra.(emphasis added)

Here, Jesse Smith is obviously scornful of the claims being made by Joseph. But, he clearly sees the Book of Mormon in making religious claims: even in hostility, it sees it springing from atheism and infidelity. Treasures are mentioned, but they are "hidden treasures of wisdom & knowledge." Moroni is clearly seen as an "angel of the Lord," and that the finding of the plates was "revealed" by "divine revelation."

Notes