Saturday, August 9, 2014

Matthew Brown on Brigham Young and Adam-God

The late Matthew Brown presented a paper at the FAIR Conference in 2009 entitled, "Brigham Young's Teachings on Adam-God." The paper, with end notes, can be found at:

http://www.fairmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2009_Brigham_Youngs_Teachings_On_Adam.pdf

I highly recommend it, as it is a carefully-researched paper on this controversial issue.

Note 54 (p.22) has an interesting comment to a vision Joseph Smith had in the Kirtland Temple in 1836:

54. “[Warren] Parrish’s transcription of [Joseph Smith’s] vision [in Joseph Smith’s
journal dated 21 January 1836] seems to differentiate Adam and the archangel Michael as two
separate individuals. Yet [Joseph Smith] identified Michael as Adam at least a year earlier and
made the same identification four years later (Oliver Cowdery, Kirtland, OH, to John Whitmer, [Liberty, MO], 1 January 1834, in Cowdery, Letterbook, 15; Revelation, ca. August 1830, in Doctrine and Covenants 50:2, 1835 ed. [D&C 27:11]; Richards, “Pocket Companion,” 74–75; Robert B. Thompson, sermon notes, 5 October 1840, [Joseph Smith] Collection, [Church History  Library])” (Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839 [Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2008], 167–68, n. 319). The text recorded by Warren Parrish may provide a clue about its incorrect content. It reads: “I saw father Adam, and Abraham and Michael and my father and mother, my brother Alvin” (ibid., 167–68). The “Mi” of “Michael” and the word “my” that follows almost immediately after it have the exact same sound. The structures within the sentence are also identical (“and Mi . . . and my”). It seems, therefore, that Warren Parrish (a relatively recent convert [20 May 1833] and newly assigned scribe for the Prophet [29 October 1835]) may have recorded a modified dittography based upon what he heard Joseph Smith say.