Authoritative Factual Corrections Emanating From The Joseph Smith Papers

[Scott Lloyd]

This thread is just what the name implies, a place to identify factual corrections in Church history that have been authoritatively made very recently by virtue of new research, principally from the Joseph Smith Papers project.

 

It is not a place to bellyache and gripe over the Church having whitewashed this or covered up that or Church leaders having made this or that error in the past. Nor is it a platform for pushing one's pet hobby or controversy. If it turns into that sort of thing, I will close it.

 

I'll get things started by listing three items.

 

Item: For generations it was the common understanding that John the Baptist visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and gave them the priesthood on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Harmony, Pa. It is now known that the visitation occurred in the "sugar bush," or a grove of maple trees adjacent to the log home where Joseph and Emma were living. Afterward, in accordance with the angel's instructions, Joseph and Oliver went down to the river and baptized each other. In the latest edition of the scriptures, the header to D&C 13 has been altered to accord with the new understanding.

 

Item: It has long been supposed that John Taylor, an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, wrote the words to the report of the martyrdom that we have today as Doctrine and Covenants 135. I learned this week in doing background for an editorial that it is not known who wrote that section. It is likely based on the reports of Elder Taylor and Willard Richards, the two eyewitnesses, but others may have been involved in the writing. Accordingly, that attribution to John Taylor has been removed from the header to the section in the latest edition of the scriptures.

 

Item: Thanks to research by my friend Alex Baugh, a scholar and expert on the Missouri period of Church history, it is now known that the owner of Hawn's Mill, Jacob Hawn, spelled his name H-A-W-N, not H-A-U-N. A map in the latest edition of the scriptures reflects the corrected spelling. Another interesting thing I learned from Alex: Jacob Hawn, who never joined the Church, is a direct ancestor of Beverly Cleary, the author of the Ramona series of children's books. She is from the Oregon area, where Hawn took his family to settle after the Hawn's Mill Massacre. Alex has identified his gravesite there.

 

Your contributions are invited.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Scott Lloyd

[Duncan]

Wasn't there something about James Covill being a Methodist minister and not a baptist or Episcopalian or something, sections... um... late... 40's???

[ksfisher]

 

Item: It has long been supposed that John Taylor, an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, wrote the words to the report of the martyrdom that we have today as Doctrine and Covenants 135. I learned this week in doing background for an editorial that it is not known who wrote that section. It is likely based on the reports of Elder Taylor and Willard Richards, the two eyewitnesses, but others may have been involved in the writing. Accordingly, that attribution to John Taylor has been removed from the header to the section in the latest edition of the scriptures.

 

 

It must have been written by one of those rouge church PR people.

[rockpond]

This thread is just what the name implies, a place to identify factual corrections in Church history that have been authoritatively made very recently by virtue of new research, principally from the Joseph Smith Papers project.

 

It is not a place to bellyache and gripe over the Church having whitewashed this or covered up that or Church leaders having made this or that error in the past. Nor is it a platform for pushing one's pet hobby or controversy. If it turns into that sort of thing, I will close it.

 

I'll get things started by listing three items.

 

Item: For generations it was the common understanding that John the Baptist visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and gave them the priesthood on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Harmony, Pa. It is now known that the visitation occurred in the "sugar bush," or a grove of maple trees adjacent to the log home where Joseph and Emma were living. Afterward, in accordance with the angel's instructions, Joseph and Oliver went down to the river and baptized each other. In the latest edition of the scriptures, the header to D&C 13 has been altered to accord with the new understanding.

 

Item: It has long been supposed that John Taylor, an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, wrote the words to the report of the martyrdom that we have today as Doctrine and Covenants 135. I learned this week in doing background for an editorial that it is not known who wrote that section. It is likely based on the reports of Elder Taylor and Willard Richards, the two eyewitnesses, but others may have been involved in the writing. Accordingly, that attribution to John Taylor has been removed from the header to the section in the latest edition of the scriptures.

 

Item: Thanks to research by my friend Alex Baugh, a scholar and expert on the Missouri period of Church history, it is now known that the owner of Hawn's Mill, Jacob Hawn, spelled his name H-A-W-N, not H-A-U-N. A map in the latest edition of the scriptures reflects the corrected spelling. Another interesting thing I learned from Alex: Jacob Hawn, who never joined the Church, is a direct ancestor of Beverly Cleary, the author of the Ramona series of children's books. She is from the Oregon area, where Hawn took his family to settle after the Hawn's Mill Massacre. Alex has identified his gravesite there.

 

Your contributions are invited.

 

Fascinating stuff!  Thanks for posting.

 

As an aside:  Alex Baugh was the HC assigned to my BYU ward some 20 years ago when I was exec sec.  I remember really enjoying listening to him speak.

[SeekingUnderstanding]

Fascinating stuff!  Thanks for posting.

 

As an aside:  Alex Baugh was the HC assigned to my BYU ward some 20 years ago when I was exec sec.  I remember really enjoying listening to him speak.

I took a class from him and he was great. 

[Scott Lloyd]

Fascinating stuff!  Thanks for posting.

 

As an aside:  Alex Baugh was the HC assigned to my BYU ward some 20 years ago when I was exec sec.  I remember really enjoying listening to him speak.

Alex was my wife's seminary teacher before he hired on at BYU. Because of that, I think he tends to regard me as being younger than I am, forgetting that I am much closer in age to him than to her.

 

He is a very conversational and engaging lecturer. I joke with him whenever I see him that I manage to get his name and/or picture in the paper at least once or twice a year. It's because he says and does such interesting things.

[De Groote]

This is from an article I wrote for the Deseret News back in 2010. I don't know if it rises to "authoritative" or not:

 

D&C 20 begins with this introductory verse: "The rise of The Church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it (the church) being regularly organized and established agreeable to the laws of our country, by the will and commandments of God, in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April."

Steven C. Harper, a BYU assistant professor of church history and a volume editor of the Joseph Smith Papers, said in a phone interview that some people, including Elder Talmage, have read this verse as if it is the Lord speaking and revealing precisely that Christ was born 1,830 years before that day and that the revelation was given on April 6, 1830.

The recent discovery of the Book of Commandments and Revelations manuscript of D&C 20, however, showed that the verse was actually an introductory head note written by early church historian and scribe John Whitmer — something he did for many of the revelations, Harper said. "So those are separate from the texts that Joseph produces by revelation."

The manuscript, published as part of the Joseph Smith Papers, also shows that the revelation was given on April 10 — not April 6. So although it references the organization of the church a few days earlier, the revelation — which topically has nothing to do with the birth date of Christ — and its introductory verses "shouldn't be read as if it is a revelation of the birth date of Jesus Christ," Harper said. "The interpretation that has been most popular over time is very much subject to question; that's all I'm saying."

And this wasn't the only time that John Whitmer would identify a date with similar language. Another time he wrote, "It is now June the twelfth, one thousand eight hundred and thirty one years, since the coming of our Lord and Savior in the flesh."

In other words, this type of language was merely a fancy 19th-century way of saying the date.

Edited June 18, 2015 by De Groote

[JLHPROF]

See, these are the kinds of corrections to history I can get behind.

Just factual correction with no implication of deceit, falsehood, or usage to fight true doctrines.

 

I think we've all seen historical corrections (like the ones in the essays on Race and Polygamy) be used to imply that the Church was being led astray or intentionally teaching evil, when neither is the case.

[De Groote]

Here is another one for you, Scott:

The Canadian Copyright revelation was a big correction. Whitmer called it a "bad revelation" etc. etc.

Nobody could contradict the claims until they actually found a copy of the revelation itself.

Here are some quotes from a story* I wrote on it:

 

Nobody could prove them wrong.

They said that Joseph Smith had a faulty revelation in 1830. They said the revelation proclaimed that the copyright to the Book of Mormon would be sold in Canada. They said the revelation was a failure and that Joseph was a fallen prophet. And, best of all, there was no copy of the revelation for anybody to check against their story.

This all changed on Sept. 22 with the publication of the latest volume of the Joseph Smith Papers: "Revelations and Translations: Manuscript Revelation Books." For more than 160 years, there was only one side of the story. Now, with the full text of the revelation available, people can read it and decide for themselves.

And

 

"We anticipated a bombshell," Harper said of the revelation's text. Instead, Harper said it was like Joseph's other revelations. "By which I mean it [contains] terms and conditions upon which certain blessings are predicated."

In the revelation, the Lord said, "And I grant unto my servant a privilege that he may sell a copyright through you — speaking after the manner of men — for the four provinces, if the people harden not their hearts against the enticings of my spirit and my word; for behold, it lieth in themselves to their condemnation or to their salvation."

In other places the revelation predicated blessings "according to your faith and diligence and uprightness before me." The travelers to Canada were told to do their work "with an eye single to my glory." They were also told "if ye do this ye shall have my spirit to go with you and ye shall have an addition of all things which is expedient in me."

"So, those guys will be successful in selling the copyright IF they'll do it with an eye single to the glory of God AND if the people up there harden not their hearts," Harper said. "In Joseph's revelations you find a God who uses his omniscience to preserve individual agency. It's a remarkable theological feature."

So unlike the critics version, the actual revelation was very conditional upon whether people would harden their hearts or not to "their condemnation or to their salvation." 

 

*As I write this post, the original article in the Deseret News has the formatting messed up with paragraphing gone and random "/"s appearing throughout. I have requested that they fix the article formatting.

[Scott Lloyd]

Here is another one for you, Scott:

The Canadian Copyright revelation was a big correction. Whitmer called it a "bad revelation" etc. etc.

Nobody could contradict the claims until they actually found a copy of the revelation itself.

Here are some quotes from a story* I wrote on it:

And

So unlike the critics version, the actual revelation was very conditional upon whether people would harden their hearts or not to "their condemnation or to their salvation." 

 

*As I write this post, the original article in the Deseret News has the formatting messed up with paragraphing gone and random "/"s appearing throughout. I have requested that they fix the article formatting.

Some people (I include myself) have thought it a bit weird that the early Brethren would want to sell the copyright in the first place. Understanding a bit more about it, I have since concluded that it is more comparable to selling limited (national) publishing rights in Canada, not unlike what the Church did several years ago in striking a deal to have Doubleday publish a commercial edition of the Book of Mormon.

 

Viewed in that light, it doesn't seem so strange.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Scott Lloyd

[Nevo]

A factual correction that recently emanated from the Joseph Smith Papers project—brought to their attention by Brent Metcalfe—is that a Mathew Brady portrait said to be of Charles Anthon (and published as such by JSP editors)

 

 

was actually Anthon's brother, Henry.  Charles himself wasn't quite as regal looking.

 

Edited June 19, 2015 by Nevo

[theplains]

I think we've all seen historical corrections (like the ones in the essays on Race and Polygamy) be used to imply that the Church was being led astray or intentionally teaching evil, when neither is the case.

 

The Joseph Smith papers said the angel Nephi, nor Moroni, visited Joseph Smith.  When

will the LDS Church make a correction in subsequent teachings?

 

Thanks,

Jim

[Duncan]

It must have been written by one of those rouge church PR people.

 

 

I think you mean Rogue!! Rouge is French for Red

[Russell C McGregor]

The Joseph Smith papers said the angel Nephi, nor Moroni, visited Joseph Smith.  When

will the LDS Church make a correction in subsequent teachings?

 

Thanks,

Jim

Two things about that document:

• It is not in Joseph's handwriting; and
• It is not a dictated document.

Meaning, that it was written by someone else, undoubtedly from information Joseph provided; but the "Nephi" was the scribe's own error.

 

When will your anti-Mormon (heh heh) "ministry" make a correction in subsequent propaganda?

 

Poster removed for name calling.

[tonie]

Two things about that document:

• It is not in Joseph's handwriting; and
• It is not a dictated document.

Meaning, that it was written by someone else, undoubtedly from information Joseph provided;

could the same be said of Scott claims?

[Russell C McGregor]

could the same be said of Scott claims?

What specifically?

I've looked again at the items he mentioned. His remarks about authorship seem to follow much the same line of argument I am using.

[tonie]

Russell, I will just quote Scott using edits to boil down his main points.

 

This thread is just what the name implies, a place to identify factual corrections in Church history that have been authoritatively made very recently by virtue of new research, principally from the Joseph Smith Papers project.

 

It is not a place to bellyache and gripe over the Church having whitewashed this or covered up that or Church leaders having made this or that error in the past. Nor is it a platform for pushing one's pet hobby or controversy. If it turns into that sort of thing, I will close it.

 

I'll get things started by listing three items.

 

Item:  It is now known that the visitation occurred in the "sugar bush,"

 

Item: It has long been supposed that John Taylor, an eyewitness to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, wrote the words to the report of the martyrdom that we have today as Doctrine and Covenants 135. I learned this week in doing background for an editorial that it is not known who wrote that section. It is likely based on the reports of Elder Taylor and Willard Richards, the two eyewitnesses, but others may have been involved in the writing. Accordingly, that attribution to John Taylor has been removed from the header to the section in the latest edition of the scriptures.

 

Item:  it is now known that the owner of Hawn's Mill, Jacob Hawn, spelled his name H-A-W-N, not H-A-U-N.

 

Your contributions are invited.

 

 

 

Two things about that document:

• It is not in Joseph's handwriting; and
• It is not a dictated document.

Meaning, that it was written by someone else, undoubtedly from information Joseph provided; but the "Nephi" was the scribe's own error.
 

 

Scott points to the Joseph Smith Papers as "authoritative factual corrections" to commonly held beliefs in LDS history.  No one question Scott and there are no claims he is anti-mormon propagandist.

 

theplains points out that the Joseph Smith Papers dispute a commonly held LDS belief, you then claim theplains is a anti-mormon propagandist because of it.

 

 

I'll grab some popcorn while you explain the difference.

Edited June 19, 2015 by tonie

[Calm]

you then claim theplains is a anti-mormon propagandist because of it.

 

I suspect it is theplains' whole posting history that causes RM to use the label, not just the one post.

[Kaleb Webb]

 

Item: For generations it was the common understanding that John the Baptist visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and gave them the priesthood on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Harmony, Pa. It is now known that the visitation occurred in the "sugar bush," or a grove of maple trees adjacent to the log home where Joseph and Emma were living. Afterward, in accordance with the angel's instructions, Joseph and Oliver went down to the river and baptized each other. In the latest edition of the scriptures, the header to D&C 13 has been altered to accord with the new understanding.

 

 

That's really interesting. Do you have a link to the site with this, so I can look at it? I don't dispute what you say, I'm just interested in the source.

[Russell C McGregor]

I suspect it is theplains' whole posting history that causes RM to use the label, not just the one post.

You would be right, of course.

Tonie doesn't need an exercise program. She gets all the exercise she needs just leaping to conclusions...

 

poster removed

[strappinglad]

Now if we could fill in the gapping hole of missing details surrounding the appearance of Peter James and John. I'm sure I missed any updates to said appearance as found in the JS papers. Any links ? Anyone ? Beuler?

[HappyJackWagon]

I suspect it is theplains' whole posting history that causes RM to use the label, not just the one post.

I don't care why he may think he is justified in calling someone anti-mormon on this board, but he's out of line and it's an ad hominem attack designed at poisoning the well against ThePlains. It's bad form

[Scott Lloyd]

The Joseph Smith papers said the angel Nephi, nor Moroni, visited Joseph Smith.  When

will the LDS Church make a correction in subsequent teachings?

 

Thanks,

Jim

 

 

could the same be said of Scott claims?

 

 

Russell, I will just quote Scott using edits to boil down his main points.

 

 

 

 

 

Scott points to the Joseph Smith Papers as "authoritative factual corrections" to commonly held beliefs in LDS history.  No one question Scott and there are no claims he is anti-mormon propagandist.

 

theplains points out that the Joseph Smith Papers dispute a commonly held LDS belief, you then claim theplains is a anti-mormon propagandist because of it.

 

 

I'll grab some popcorn while you explain the difference.

This is precisely the sort of thing I said at the outset would be unwelcome on this thread: pet hobbies and controversies, and, I will add, spiteful pot-stirring. If need be, I will make good on my pledge to close the thread, but not before requesting thread bans of offending individuals.

 

If clarification is needed, I refer to the opening post where the parameters are clearly explained. The items I provided there can serve as models. In each case:

 

1.  The factual correction came about through scholarly research and study, either facilitated through the Joseph Smith Papers project or carried out in some other venue.

 

2.  The factual correction was authoritatively recognized by the Church with a revision in the study aids of the latest edition of the scriptures.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Scott Lloyd

[Buckeye]

...

 

Item: Thanks to research by my friend Alex Baugh, a scholar and expert on the Missouri period of Church history, it is now known that the owner of Hawn's Mill, Jacob Hawn, spelled his name H-A-W-N, not H-A-U-N. A map in the latest edition of the scriptures reflects the corrected spelling. Another interesting thing I learned from Alex: Jacob Hawn, who never joined the Church, is a direct ancestor of Beverly Cleary, the author of the Ramona series of children's books. She is from the Oregon area, where Hawn took his family to settle after the Hawn's Mill Massacre. Alex has identified his gravesite there.

 

Your contributions are invited.

 

I'm going to Haun's Hawn's Mill in a few weeks. I'll bring along some "W's" to make corrections to the historical markers.

[HappyJackWagon]

I'm going to Haun's Hawn's Mill in a few weeks. I'll bring along some "W's" to make corrections to the historical markers.

They're already making corrections to the markers

 

Scott- Good thread!