Sunday, April 5, 2020

On Mary Whitmer and other Female Witnesses to the Plates and/or the Angel


Robert Bowman, a long-standing anti-Mormon, tried to call into question the reliability of the Three and Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon due to the lack of any females being formal witnesses to the angel and/or the plates. His words will be in red, followed by comments in black.

Genders of witnesses. Mary Magdalene is recognized in the Gospels and in Christian belief as the first witness to the risen Chris. In addition, a group of five or possibly more women—Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, Salome, and at least one unnamed woman—were the first witnesses to the empty tomb (Matt. 27;56, 61; 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10). Mary Magdalene is the only mortal mentioned in all four of the Gospel narratives as a witness to the empty tomb. (Robert M. Bowman Jr., Jesus’ Resurrection and Joseph’s Visions: Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism [Tampa, Fla.: DeWard Publishing Company, 2020], 300-1)

Yes, but were any of these female witnesses medical experts trained in ancient crucifixion techniques and anatomy to know that (1) Jesus truly died from crucifixion and (2) did they run medical tests to ensure it was [a] Jesus and not an imposter/look-alike and [b] was resurrected? I mean, according to Bowman, as none of the “[Book of Mormon] witnesses could have had any way to know or verify that the plates were many hundreds of years old" (p. 220), so what is good for the (Mormon) goose is good for the (New Testament and/or Protestant and inerrantist) gander.

By contrast, only men are formally recognized in the LDS religion as witnesses to the gold plates . . . A few stories of women seeing the plates, most notably the story of Mary Whitmer (mother of David, one of the Three Witnesses) arose half a century or more later in the form of secondhand accounts . . . the story is that sometime while Joseph was living at the Whitmers’ farm and translating the Book of Mormon, Mary encountered an old man at the barn who showed her the gold plates. A number of question may be asked about this account . . . Why is the angel represented as an old man rather than as the luminous being that Joseph reported Moroni to be? (p. 300)

Talking donkeys, a rib women conversing with a talking, walking snake, and Aaron’s rod transforming itself into a serpent are not questionable. But hey, an angelic being appearing as an old man? Gottcha.

Anyway, in the Bible, angelic beings have the ability to transform their appearance. Satan (an angelic being) has the ability to transform himself and his followers (2 Co 11:14). The verb used is μετασχηματίζω, which is rare. It is used in the Testament of Job to describe how Satan can disguise/transform himself into a beggar (6:4); king of the Persians (17:1-2) and a breadseller (23:1). It is also used of the Watchers transforming themselves into men (Testament of Reuben 5:6). Paul elsewhere used it in Phil 3:21 about the transformation of our resurrected bodies. I am sure angels of God have such abilities, too. I know Bowman likes to think (mistakenly) that he has the metaphysical abilities of angels (in both LDS and Protestant theologies) nailed down, but I won't pretend to.

Furthermore, the angelic being who appeared to Mary Whitmer may not have been Moroni; she did refer to him as “Brother Nephi,” and as discussed in a previous response to Bowman, early LDS leaders (e.g., Brigham Young; John Taylor; George Q. Cannon) believed Nephi (and other Book of Mormon figures) also appeared to Joseph Smith (see Royal Skousen, Another Account of Mary Whitmer’s Viewing of the Golden Plates [an article referenced by Bowman on p. 300 n. 15]; cf. Daniel C. Peterson, “Idle Tales”? The Witness of Women).

As for secondhand accounts, Grant Palmer, Dan Vogel, and others are reliant upon secondhand and hearsay accounts to disparage the reliability of the Three and Eight Witnesses, and many of these narratives are fanciful and coloured by anti-Mormon bias. Can Bowman admit that he uses one set of standards for himself and another for Latter-day Saints?

The women who obviously should have seen the plates (if not also introduced to the angel), in particular Joseph’s wife Emma and his other Lucy, were never allowed to see them. (p. 300)

I will note that if Emma and Lucy wrote a statement affirming they say the angel and/or the plates, Bowman and others would dismiss them as they were too close to Joseph (wife and mother, respectively) and use such as evidence “they were in the know” with Joseph, etc.

Furthermore, in the blog post, 5 Women Who Are Witnesses of the Physical Golden Plates on the Book of Mormon Central Website, we read the following about Lucy and Emma:

1. Lucy Mack Smith
Most members know of Mother Smith’s in-depth biography of Joseph Smith. What they may not know is that she dictated it mere months after the deaths of Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel. She found comfort in her grief by finally putting these events on paper. Regarding the project, she wrote, “I have told over many things pertaining to these matters to different persons . . . [and] indeed have almost destroyed my lungs.”[14] Now that’s commitment and dedication!
In her history, Lucy Mack Smith testified repeatedly of her physical proximity to the golden plates and other artifacts recovered at Cumorah.[15] She could hardly have avoided the plates, even covered in cloth, sitting in the open on her front room table, as she describes. She may have also viewed them uncovered, as reported by a British clergyman who’d lost many parishioners to Mormon missionaries. This pastor’s book, documenting his visit to Nauvoo in 1842, is otherwise a premeditated “hit job” against the Church, but one face-to-face quote from Lucy Mack Smith is noteworthy:
I have seen and handled the golden plates. They are about eight inches long, and six wide; some of them are sealed together and not to be opened, and some of them are loose. They are all connected by a hole which passes through a ring at the end of each plate, and are covered with letters beautifully engraved.[16]
This book is replete with laughable efforts to disseminate “fake news,” but this statement, if remotely accurate, is a testament of the extraordinary trust Lucy Mack Smith had earned from her son, and the Lord.
Mother Smith was no delicate flower when it came to bearing testimony either. From a ship’s deck she shouted to an anti-Mormon heckler on the bank:
[It] was brought forth by the power of God and translated by the same power, and if I could make my voice sound as loud as the trumpet of Michael, the archangel, I would declare the truth from land to land and from sea to sea and echo it from isle to isle, until everyone in the whole family of man was left without excuse—for all should hear the truth of the gospel of the Son of God![17]
For more information about this singular figure in LDS history, go here.
. . .

3. Emma Smith
The essential—even phenomenal—role Emma played in bringing forth the Book of Mormon has been re-examined on many fronts. Moroni first instructed Joseph to enlist his oldest brother, Alvin, to help him recover the plates. After Alvin’s untimely death, Joseph was told his replacement would be revealed by revelation.[20] That person was Emma Hale.
At midnight on the appointed date, Joseph and his new bride arrived by wagon at the base of the hill. Joseph climbed alone in the dark, returning hours later with the plates under his coat. Whatever his efforts to conceal them, Emma wasn’t so dull or distracted that she failed to notice he carried something substantial.[21]
After the plates were removed to the Hale home in Harmony, PA, Emma acted as the volume’s first scribe.[22] An experienced school teacher, she said that at this time her husband “…could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter; let alone dictating a book like the Book of Mormon.”[23] Her insights are considered invaluable in helping to understanding the translation process.[24]
Emma felt obliged at times to “lift and move [the covered plates] when she swept and dusted . . .”[25] though she would not “uncover them to look . . .”.
I once felt of the plates,” she admitted, “as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book. [26]
Emma Smith, the “Elect lady,”[27] stands as a compelling witness of the plates’ physicality. Also of the Nephite Interpreters and other instruments of translation.[28] To read more about her contribution, go here.

Notes for the Above

[14] Lucy Mack Smith, Letter to William Smith, Nauvoo, Ill, 23 Jan. 1845, CHL.
[15] Daniel C. Peterson, “Not Joseph’s, and Not Modern,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002), 209–210. Regarding other artifacts recovered from Cumorah, Lucy Mack Smith wrote of the Nephite Interpreters, or Urim and Thummim, as follows: “I . . . took the article in my hands and, examining it with no covering but a silk handkerchief, found that it consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows connected with each other in much the same way that old-fashioned spectacles are made.” Regarding the Nephite breastplate, she wrote: “he [Joseph] handed me the breastplate spoken of in his history. It was wrapped in a thin muslin handkerchief; so thin that I could see the glistening metal, and ascertain <feel> its proportions without any difficulty: It was concave on one side and convex on the other; and extended from the neck downwards as far as the centre of the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It had four straps of the same material for the purpose of fastening it to the breast: two of which ran back to go over the shoulders, and the other two were designed to fasten to the hips. These straps [p. 114] were just the width of two of my fingers; (for I measured them); and they had holes in the end of them for convenience in fastening . . . were just the width of two of my fingers; (for I measured them); and they had holes in the end of them for convenience in fastening [stricken text is from the original manuscript written at Mother Smith’s dictation. Her mention of ‘glistening metal’ was retained for the sake of interest]” Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool, UK: S. W. Richards, 1853), 99–147.
[16] Henry Caswall, The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842, 2nd ed., revised and enlarged, (London, UK: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1843), 27.
[17] Gracia N. Jones, Emma and Lucy (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2005), 75–84.
. . .
[20] Dean Jesse, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies17, no. 1 (1976): 2. This story was reaffirmed in the recollections of his sister, Katherine Smith Salisbury, with Moroni explaining, “You will know her when you see her.” Kyle R. Walker, “Katherine Smith Salisbury’s Recollections of Joseph’s Meetings with Moroni,” BYU Studies Quarterly 41, no. 3 (2002): 14.
[21] Gracia N. Jones, Emma and Lucy 
[22] Amy Easton-Flake and Rachel Cope, “A Multiplicity of Witnesses: Women and the Translation Process,” in The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, ed. Dennis L. Largey, Andrew H. Hedges, John Hilton III, and Kerry Hull (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2015), 144.
[23] “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, p. 290
[24] Edmund C. Briggs, “A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856,” Journal of History, Jan. 1916, p. 454.
[25] John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2017), 145, doc. 43.
[27] Doctrine and Covenants 25:5.

[28] “Emma Smith Bidamon to Emma Pilgrim, 27 March 1870,” in Early Mormon Documents, 1:532; “Lucy Smith History, 1845,” 370–71; Roger Nicholson, “The Spectacles, The Stone, The Hat, and The Book: A Twenty-First Century Believer’s View of the Book of Mormon Translation,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 5 (2013): 121–190