Friday, November 22, 2019

Matthew B. Brown on JS-H 1:28


In JS-H 1:28, we read:

During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament.

Commenting on this and various issues raised by critics, Matthew B. Brown in Historical or Hysterical: Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources wrote:




Next, there is the anti-Mormon accusation that Joseph Smith’s behavior was so scandalous during his youth that Church leaders changed his official history after he died in order to cover up his misdeeds and ‘purify’ his character. The evidence offered in support of this claim is the history that is now published in the Pearl of Great Price, which can be seen on the left-hand portion of this slide. It is claimed that the words highlighted in red were fraudulently added to the text. These words, as the critics are eager to point out, were not in the 1842 version of the Church history as printed in the Times and Seasons.[9] But what they fail to mention is that the portion in red was written on 2 December 1842 (while Joseph Smith was still alive and kicking and just months after his official history had been printed). In addition, they fail to acknowledge that these words are in the handwriting of Willard Richards, who served as the Prophet’s private clerk and scribe. It should also be noted that this material is written in the first person, which means that Joseph Smith is most likely the source of these words.

But critics take the charge of tampering with this text even further. They point out that the word “foibles” was inserted into the original manuscript as a replacement for the word “corruption” and the phrase “to the gratification of many appetites”–though present in the original manuscript–has been completely deleted in the Pearl of Great Price. I would respond that if these editorial adjustments were really meant to cover up embarrassing facts about the Prophet’s youth then the perpetrators did a very poor job of it since the original manuscript version was, in fact, published before the world in 1842 (both in the United States and in England) and reprinted in various pro-Mormon publications in 1878, 1882, 1883, and 1909.[10] Tampering? Not hardly. Cover-up? The evidence refutes such an idea.



Some anti-Mormons have gone so far as to interpret some wording that is found in the 1842 published history to mean that when Joseph Smith was between ten and twenty-one years of age he “abandoned himself freely to a variety of youthful vices.”[11] But this view is directly challenged by a letter that was published by Joseph Smith in December 1834. In this document–which is reproduced here on this slide–the Prophet acknowledges that between the ages of ten and twenty-one he “fell into many vices and follies.” But he refutes accusations of engaging in “gross and outrageous violations of the peace and good order of the community.” He also denies charges of “wrongdoing” and declares himself innocent of “injuring any man or society of men.” So what exactly were his “vices and follies”? He states quite clearly in this letter that he had a “light and too often vain mind,” an “uncircumspect walk,” and participated in “foolish and trifling conversation.”[12] This doesn’t exactly sound like young Joseph was the appalling reprobate that anti-Mormons make him out to be. It sounds much more like a typical teenage boy who doesn’t take heed to the consequences of his actions or to the appropriateness of some of his verbal expressions.

Notes for the Above

9 Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), chapter 7.
10 See Times and Seasons, vol. 3, no. 11, 1 April 1842, 749; Millennial Star, vol. 3, no. 2, June 1842, 22-23; Edward W. Tullidge, Life of Joseph the Prophet (New York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1878), 7-8; Juvenile Instructor, vol. 17, no. 19, 1 October 1882, 300 (by George Reynolds); George Reynolds, The Myth of the Manuscript Found (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883), 55-56; Brigham H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1909), 1:181.
11 Frazer’s Magazine, February 1873.
12 Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1, no. 3, December 1834, 40.