False Witnesses?
Another
common claim made against the Transfiguration is that there were two
individuals who claimed to witness it but were not present for the August 8,
1844 conference: Orson Hyde and John D. Lee who both gave accounts of seeing
Brigham Young transfigured to look like Joseph Smith, yet neither were in Nauvoo
at the time of the conference. Orson Hyde did not return to Nauvoo until August
13th, and John D. Lee did not return to Nauvoo until August 20th
(Richard S. van Wagoner, “The Making of a Mormon Myth: The 1844 Transfiguration
of Brigham Young,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 28, no. 4
[Winter 1995]: 17-18).
Yet
John D. Lee was sincere in his belief even after apostatizing and in
writing his autobiography recalled that he witnessed a “resemblance” of Brigham
to Joseph in Nauvoo:
“Time
passed on until the whole twelve got in from their missions and a conference
was held, and the several claimants came forward with their claims. Sidney
Rigdon was the first who appeared upon the stand. He had been considered rather
in the background for sometime previous to the death of the Prophet. He made
but a weak claim, Strang did not file any. Just then Brigham Young arose and
roared like a young lion, imitating the style and voice of Joseph the Prophet.
Many of the brethren declared that they saw the mantle of Joseph fall upon him.
I myself, at that time, imagined that I saw and heard a strong resemblance to
the Prophet in him, and felt that he was the man to lead us until Joseph’s
legal successor should grow up to manhood, when he should surrender the
Presidency to the man who held the birthright” (Mormonism Unveiled: Or the
Life and Confessions of John D. Lee [1877], 155).
Was
John D. Lee just an incompetent liar? IT seems improbable that if he had
adopted this as a cultural myth in Utah that his blinders wouldn’t have fallen
off by the time he knew he was going to be executed for the Mountain Meadows
Massacre. John D. Lee at this time was extremely bitter against Brigham Young,
believing himself to be a scapegoat for a crime committed by many others and
not just himself.
Orson
Hyde is another individual accused of bearing a false testimony to being a
witness to the Transfiguration. One of Orson Hyde’s accounts of the
Transfiguration was in 1869:
“We
went among the congregation and President [Brigham] Young went on the stand.
Well, he spoke, and his words went through me like electricity. ‘Am I
mistaken?’ said I, ‘or is it really the voice of Joseph Smith?’ This is my
testimony; and it was not only the voice of Joseph, but there were the
features, the gestures and even the stature of Joseph before us in the person
of Brigham. And though it may be said that President Young is a complete mimic,
and can mimic anybody, I would like to see the man who can mimic another in
stature, who was about four or five inches higher than himself. Everyone in the
congregation—everyone who was inspired by the Spirit of the Lord—felt it. They
knew it. They realized it” (Journal of Discourses 13:181 [October 6,
1869]).
The
solution to these problematic accounts lies in the earliest accounts of
the Transfiguration of Brigham Young. Many of the early accounts of the
Transfiguration clearly did not speak of it as a one-time event but a
continuous experience. If the Transfiguration miracle occurred on later
occasions after August 8, 1844, then neither John D. Lee or Orson Hyde
necessarily were lying and could have been sincere in their testimonies. (Jacob
Vidrine, “Succession to Brigham Young,” One Eternal Round: A Magazine
Dedicated to Mormon History and Theology 2, no. 19 [December 15, 2020]:27-29)
