Was the angel who visited Joseph Smith named Moroni or Nephi? Ep. 147

Joseph Smith claimed that he was visited multiple times by an angel named Moroni. But there are some early documents in Latter-day Saint history that call the angel Nephi. In this episode, Dave takes a closer look at this bit of history to see what the deal is.

Transcript & notes: https://bit.ly/3tqNzm7

— “Angel Moroni” from the Church’s website: https://bit.ly/3ByAdFL
— “Introduction to History, 1838–1856 (Manuscript History of the Church)” via Joseph Smith Papers Project: https://bit.ly/3AwD2G3
— “Introduction to History Drafts, 1838 — 1842” via JSPP: https://bit.ly/3FKVUoE
— Drafts of this history project:
— Draft [0] (1838 draft): Non-extant.
— DRAFT 1 (1839): This draft is believed to have picked up where the non-extant 1838 draft left off. Thus, the record of the angelic visit is not recorded in DRAFT 1: https://bit.ly/2XebMP6
— DRAFT 2 (1839): https://bit.ly/3DupIUy
— DRAFT 3 (Howard Coray rough draft, about 1841): https://bit.ly/3DIPYe5
— DRAFT 4 (Howard Coray Fair Copy, about 1841): https://bit.ly/3iUvdUA

— “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834]” via JSPP (note the Historical Introduction): https://bit.ly/3BEyj6I
— “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834]” via JSPP (PAGE 5): https://bit.ly/3AwKJvX (notice this volume includes DRAFT 2)
— “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834]” via JSPP (PAGE 52): https://bit.ly/3FBKjZ2
— Some info on this from FairMormon: https://bit.ly/3v7AH3f
— “Historical or Hysterical: Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources” by Matthew Brown (2004, and slightly dated, I think): https://bit.ly/3aATRF7
— Perspectives of some additional Latter-day Saint scholars can be found here: https://bit.ly/3mOXKMC
— For links to individual examples of “Moroni” and “Nephi” examples, please see the resources section underneath the transcript of this episode on our website. I don’t have room in the YouTube description to include them here.

Notes/Additional questions:

— If Joseph Smith was the editor of the Times and Seasons, why didn’t he catch the error? I don’t know. Maybe when he saw what was being published (a project he’d already overseen) he didn’t feel the need to re-check it. Joseph was also the editor of the Elders’ Journal, which published that the angel’s name was Moroni. Additionally, consider the following:

“…a quick check of the History of the Church reveals that the Prophet probably didn’t have sufficient time to scrutinize this portion of his history before it went to press. On the day before publication he was occupied with the legalities of a bankruptcy proceeding … plus he had to write a lengthy article on Baptism for the Dead for the very same edition of the paper…” Source: https://bit.ly/3aATRF7

— Why didn’t Joseph ever issue a retraction or public correction of the error? Again, I don’t know. Perhaps the error was simply never brought to his attention. Perhaps he intended to address it but never got around to it. Perhaps he simply didn’t think the issue was important enough to worry about. That said, consider the following quote:

“A popular English dictionary from 1828 defines the word retraction as ‘The act of withdrawing something advanced, or changing something done.’ Based upon this definition I contend that Joseph Smith did indeed publish a retraction. The Nephi designation went out in the 15 April 1842 edition of the Times and Seasons and then in the 1 October 1842 edition of the same paper the Prophet (still acting as the editor) published a letter … wherein he identified the angel as Moroni. This…qualifies, in the strict dictionary sense, as a retraction.” Source: https://bit.ly/3aATRF7

— From the Church’s website: “Evidence suggests Mulholland did not take dictation from Joseph Smith but rather worked from sources available to him that have not survived. Mulholland could easily have been confused about the identity of the angel since many of Joseph’s earlier accounts before Mulholland’s draft did not mention the angel’s name.” Source: https://bit.ly/3ByAdFL

— After the 1839 draft, Howard Coray was asked to write a new draft. But it’s clear that the “angel” story in Coray’s draft was dependent on the 1839 draft. It’s simply copied over, with a few minor wording changes. Coray then made another cleaner draft, where again, this passage was just copied over (see links in resources section to view drafts and historians’ notes). Joseph Smith oversaw these projects to some degree (he may have even dictated to Coray from the 1839 draft for a time. More here: https://bit.ly/3v7YH6k ) but it’s impossible to tell to what extent (and with which portions) he was involved.

Additional notes on our website.

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