Commenting on Joseph Smith’s receiving the plates on 22 September 1827
and whether it has occult roots, Robert Bowman wrote:
Mormon writer Larry
Morris suggested that the date may be connected to the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah (Larry E. Morris, “‘I
Should Have an Eye Single to the Glory of God’: Joseph Smith’s Account of the
Angel and the Plates,” FARMS Review 17.1
[2005]:34 [11-82]). This proposal is a highly implausible attempt to give the
arranged date for Joseph’s annual meeting with Moroni a biblical rather than a
magical significance. One problem with this suggestion is that there is nothing
in Joseph’s account of the visitations alluding to the Jewish festival, whereas
(as we have seen) there are several points of contact with the magical, occult
lore of Joseph’s world. Furthermore, September 22 coincided with Rosh Hashanah
in 1827 but not in any of the other years of Joseph’s annual meetings with Moroni.
Rosh Hashanah is a two-day festival that begins on different days each year
(just as Passover and Easter do) between September 5 and October 5. From 1823
through 1826 it began on September 6, 23, 13, and October 2 respectively. (Robert
M. Bowman Jr., Jesus’ Resurrection and
Joseph’s Visions: Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism [Tampa,
Fla.: DeWard Publishing Company, 2020], 202)
There are a number of problems with this paragraph, including the
following:
Firstly, no one argues that Joseph Smith knew of the significance of the
purported relationship between events in his prophetic ministry and Jewish
festivals. That there is no
Connection made between such in Joseph’s accounts.
Furthermore, it is true (as Bowman has to concede) that Rosh Hashanah
took place on 22 September in 1827, the very year Joseph was allowed to take
possession of the places. For the previous years (except for 1826), the dates
of Moroni’s visitation coincided with important dates in the Jewish calendar:
21 September 1823 = Feast of Tabernacles
22 September 1824 = eve of the Jewish New Year and the beginning of the
fall festivals
22 September 1825 = Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
(for 1826, as Rosh Hashanah was October 2, none of the Jewish holidays
landed on September 22)
Why is this significant? As
an article on Book of Mormon Central Explains (a resource Bowman knows of,
but decided not to interact with, preferring just to glibly dismiss Morris’
suggestion):
The Why
Though it is hard to be certain whether all of these
themes were part of the New Year celebrations in Old Testament times, they were
all part of long-standing Jewish customs and traditions by the time the Book of
Mormon came forth. When the Book of Mormon’s message and purpose, along with
Moroni’s counsel to Joseph during his September visits, are compared with these
holy festival themes, one can see a number of interesting connections.
For example, Moroni’s visits to young Joseph Smith
included solemn words of admonition and warning to all the world (Joseph
Smith—History 1:42, 46). The coming forth of the Book of Mormon can
also be seen as initiating the final harvest of souls,6 renewing God’s
covenant with Israel,7 offering a new
revelation of truth,8 and as being clearly
tied to the second coming of Jesus the messianic Christ.9
No bolder statement could
be made about God’s involvement in history than that of an angel delivering a
historical record full of interactions with God—including the stunning account
of the divine and risen Lord Jesus Christ ministering personally to the
Nephites (see 3 Nephi 11–27).10 Perhaps
most relevant of all, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon launched a new
beginning—the dawning of a day when the heavens are opened again.
No doubt many likely reasons can be suggested for the
timing of Moroni’s visits to Joseph Smith each year in late September and also
for his particular insistence that Joseph wait four years before recovering the
plates. For example, that waiting period allowed Joseph Smith time to mature a
bit more, to be married, and to be periodically instructed by Moroni.
But perhaps most striking of all, one further reason could
have been so that his instructions would closely coincide with the sacred
Israelite autumn festival season, with him delivering the plates right on Rosh
Hashanah. The number of meaningful ways in which the messages and purposes of
the Book of Mormon coincide with the themes of Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish
high holy days suggest that this timing was no coincidence, but that Moroni had
carefully and deliberately scheduled his meaningful visits. For these reasons,
there was no better day on which to commence the coming forth of the Book of
Mormon than Rosh Hashanah, September 22, 1827.
Notes for the Above
·
6.In the Book of Mormon, the allegory of the
olive tree ends with the Lord instructing his servant to call labors together
for the “last time” to prune and nourish the vineyard, in preparation for the
final harvest (Jacob
5:61–77). President Ezra Taft Benson taught that the Book of Mormon
is “the instrument which God has designed” for gathering this final harvest of
souls. (Ezra Taft Benson, “A
New Witness for Christ,” Ensign, November 1984, 7,
online at lds.org.) Read concluded, “it is significant that the golden plates
were received on 22 September 1827, coinciding with the beginning of Israel’s
fall garnering and symbolizing the onset of its final harvest of souls.” (Lenet
Hadley Read, “The Golden Plates and the Feast of Trumpets,” Ensign,
January 2000, online at lds.org.)
·
7.The
Book of Mormon was brought forth for the express purpose “to show unto the
remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their
fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not
cast off forever” (Title Page). Read aptly summarized, “On 22 September 1827,
Israel’s trumpets sounded throughout the world; it was the day the Prophet
Joseph Smith received the golden plates, which would help fulfill God’s promise
to remember Israel in the latter days.” (Read, “The
Golden Plates and the Feast of Trumpets.”)
·
8.As
Read rightly pointed out, “much of the fullness of the Lord’s truth began with
the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.” Since that time, much new revelation
has come forth. Significantly, “one of the most common symbols of the restored
gospel is that of the angel Moroni”—the very messenger who delivered the
plates—“portrayed in the act of blowing the trumpet.” Truth he proclaimed
through “the golden plates is still causing a gathering, is still offering its
warnings, and is still acting as harbinger of great things to come.” (Read, “Joseph
Smith’s Receipt of the Plates,” 117.)
·
9.In
his initial visit, Moroni warned that many of the prophecies of judgment in the
final days are near at hand (Joseph
Smith—History 1:27–42, 45). The introduction to LDS editions of the
Book of Mormon, hails the Nephite record as a sign “that The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the
earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah” (Introduction).
·
10.See
Roy A. Prete, “God
in History? Nephi’s Answer,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14,
no. 2 (2005): 26–37, 71.
This is not the only instance of a correspondence between a significant
event in Joseph Smith's prophetic career and the Jewish calendar. Elijah, in
coming April 3, 1836, appeared to Joseph Smith during the Passover week. As
Stephen D. Ricks noted:
. .. it has been a tradition
among Jews outside of the land of Israel to celebrate the Passover Seder two evenings in succession, on the
fifteenth and sixteenth of Nisan. Therefore, on the very day, according to
Hebrew time reckoning (which goes from nightfall to nightfall), that the Jews
had for the second time opened their doors for Elijah to enter, he entered the
House of the Lord at Kirtland. (Stephen D. Ricks, “The
Appearance of Elijah and Moses in the Kirtland Temple and the Jewish Passover,”
BYU Studies 23/4(1983):483-86,
here, p. 485)
Bowman then makes this “argument”:
Prearranged meetings
with an angel or other heavenly being on any date are virtually unprecedented .
. .(Ibid., 202)
To call this argument “silly” is being polite. For Bowman, if something
is a novelty, it is problematic. Firstly, everything is “unprecedented” when it
takes place for the first time (it was “virtually unprecedented” when the first
book of the Old Testament was written; it was “virtually unprecedented” when
God first promised Gentiles would be part of the then-future New Covenant in
the Old Testament, etc; one could on and on just using the Bible alone).
Moreover, one cannot help but think that Bowman’s misguided adherence to Sola
Scriptura colours his “novelty [read: something not explicit in the Bible or
with precedence in the Bible] is bad” approach to things (on this, see Not
By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura). It is rather clear the target audience of Bowman's target audience does not include informed Latter-day Saints.
