As mentioned in a previous post, the problem with
overstating a speaker’s position can create a distortion of the truth. For
example, claiming a man is speaking by revelation, when in fact, the man
himself is not even making such a claim.
Doing so, not only over magnifies the intentions of the individual, it
also warps the message into something that was never meant by the original
speaker. Here is an example:
Joseph made a statement that sounded boastful, and unbecoming a prophet.
However, Joseph's quote is taken out of context
Joseph Smith is
reported as saying:
I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has
ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam...
Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did
such work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day
Saints never ran away from me yet.” (History of the Church, 6:408–409. Volume 6 link
Question: Is the quote of Joseph Smith's
"boasting" of keeping the Church intact accurate?
The entries in History of the Church were made by scribes after Joseph's death
Even in the History of the Church (where the speech is recreated in 6:408-409), it is described as resting upon a "synopsis" by Thomas Bullock. Is it, therefore, a primary source? Arguably not.[6]
But there are further questions. The date of the sermon is 26 May 1844. A month later, the Prophet was dead. Did he supervise this entry? No. The last years of his entries in the History of the Church were actually made by others after his death.[7] It was common at the time for other authors to write as if someone else was speaking. So, these are not Joseph's words--they are the words which others (who admired him enormously after his murder) put in his mouth. The basic content is more likely to be accurate than the subtle details of tone and style.
This point is vitally important to keep in mind when trying to assess the character of Joseph Smith, his moral and spiritual quality, through the so-called "Documentary History." Even when it seems to have Joseph Smith speaking in the first person, the History of the Church may or may not actually be representing Joseph Smith's actual voice. (Dean Jessee's "Preface" to his collection of The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith specifically addresses the issue of the seeming egotism that entered into Joseph's later statements which was quite foreign to the man himself--this came not because Joseph suddenly became egotistical, but because the voice we hear is no longer Joseph's: it is the work of scribes following his death. They felt comfortable "praising" Joseph in ways which he would probably not have used.)
The entries in History of the Church were made by scribes after Joseph's death
Even in the History of the Church (where the speech is recreated in 6:408-409), it is described as resting upon a "synopsis" by Thomas Bullock. Is it, therefore, a primary source? Arguably not.[6]
But there are further questions. The date of the sermon is 26 May 1844. A month later, the Prophet was dead. Did he supervise this entry? No. The last years of his entries in the History of the Church were actually made by others after his death.[7] It was common at the time for other authors to write as if someone else was speaking. So, these are not Joseph's words--they are the words which others (who admired him enormously after his murder) put in his mouth. The basic content is more likely to be accurate than the subtle details of tone and style.
This point is vitally important to keep in mind when trying to assess the character of Joseph Smith, his moral and spiritual quality, through the so-called "Documentary History." Even when it seems to have Joseph Smith speaking in the first person, the History of the Church may or may not actually be representing Joseph Smith's actual voice. (Dean Jessee's "Preface" to his collection of The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith specifically addresses the issue of the seeming egotism that entered into Joseph's later statements which was quite foreign to the man himself--this came not because Joseph suddenly became egotistical, but because the voice we hear is no longer Joseph's: it is the work of scribes following his death. They felt comfortable "praising" Joseph in ways which he would probably not have used.)
·
The above came from
the following link...
http://en.fairmormon.org/.../Did_Joseph_Smith_'boast'_of...
http://en.fairmormon.org/.../Did_Joseph_Smith_'boast'_of...
Some of things attributed to Joseph Smith that were
included in the History of the Church came from publications written by John C.
Bennett after he was forced out of Nauvoo. John C. Bennett wrote his expose in
retaliation. When William Clayton under the direction of Brigham Young in Utah
compiled the History of the Church they would pull from many sources and occasionally
would borrow from Bennett’s Expose to fill in the gaps to support their current
teachings within the Utah church. These quotes were cited as "source
unknown" but still attributed to Joseph. How reliable was Bennett’s
expose? If you spend a little time
reading it, you discover he was grossly exaggerating.
The above quote of Joseph boasting is thought to be traced
to Thomas Bullock. This would have been
a faithful follower, but as he wrote his notes he filtered it through the lens
of his own perceptions. This would have
been what he thought Joseph was saying, not a word for word transcript. The trouble is that we don’t even know for
certain if it was Thomas Bullock as the source.
That is just the best source trail we can determine. So what we really have here is William
Clayton’s interpretation on Thomas Bullock’s interpretation on Joseph Smith’s
words. By the time the History of the
Church was being prepared for print in Utah, Joseph was long since gone. He was martyred, which made him epic hero
status among all those who remained as followers. They took his words and magnified them to
reflect a character that really did not exist.
But we can observe one thing about this quote as we read by the spirit
of Christ, since it clearly portrays pride and vanity, we know that whoever was
saying it was not speaking by the direction of Christ. Even if it was an exact transcript of his
words and accurately portrays the intentions of his message, we know that this
is not a message delivered by the revelation of God. However, I think it is a message that more
accurately portrays the concept of Joseph that the Utah Saints had built up of
the man after he had been murdered.
The more accurate and reliable statements would be first
person journal accounts. Documents
personally written and published during someone’s lifetime have more
reliability. When books are acknowledged
by personal ownership then we have words from the individual which we can know
they took ownership of.
Understanding that changes like this were done to the
records is important if we are to have an accurate understanding of what has
been left to us as an inheritance of our traditions both in religion and in scripture.
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