Thursday, April 2, 2020

Joseph Receiving the Plates on 22 September 1827 and Jewish Festivals


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.