tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78091188694030745002024-02-19T07:52:00.254-08:00Cultural Mormon CafeteriaMike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-32004988670536233822011-08-09T18:53:00.000-07:002011-08-09T19:02:00.818-07:00THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE GOLD PLATES (Seminar's Preliminary Program--Pass the invite along!)<a href="http://www.mendonutah.net/images/gold_plates.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 167px;" src="http://www.mendonutah.net/images/gold_plates.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<br />The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and the Mormon Scholars Foundation
<br />
<br />Invite you to the Annual Summer Symposium on Mormon Culture
<br />
<br />Thursday, August 18, 2011
<br />Room B037 Joseph F. Smith Building
<br />9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
<br />
<br />The program will feature the following papers:
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<br />Morning Session:
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<br />Stephen Taysom, “Worlds of Discourse, Plates of Gold: Joseph Smith’s Plates as Cultural Catalysts”
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<br />Ben Bascom, “Guard the Gold: Didactic Fiction and the Mainstreaming of Moroni”
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<br />Jared Halverson, “Fictionalizing Faith: Popular Polemics and the Golden Plates”
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<br />Julie Fredericks, “Artistic Depictions of the Gold Plates and the Material Cultural Inheritance"
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<br />Tyler Gardner, “Possessing the Plates: The Presence and Absence of the Gold Plates”
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<br />Rachael Givens, “’Wagonloads’: The Disappearance of the Book of Mormon's Sealed Portion”
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<br />Afternoon Session:
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<br />Sarah Reed, “Fantasy, Fraud and Freud: The Uncanny Gold Plates in 19th Century Newspaper Accounts”
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<br />Elizabeth Mott, “The Forbidden Gaze: The Veiling of the Gold Plates and Joseph Smith’s Redefintion of Sacred Space”
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<br />Michael Reed, “The Notion of Ancient Metal Records in Joseph Smith’s Day”
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<br />Caroline Sorensen, “The Metallurgical Plausibility of the Gold Plates”
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<br />Christopher Smith, “Rediscovering Joseph Smith’s ‘Discovery Narrative’ in Southern Utah”
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<br />Rachel Gostenhofer, "In Consequence of Their Wickedness: The Decline and Fall of Mormon Seership, 1838-1900"
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<br />Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-62784424431539248062011-07-25T08:55:00.001-07:002011-08-02T13:02:56.508-07:00Captain Kidd's Golden Bible?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9e2rv1iGmnlMmfcp8TTuvUheF8RrXL2zvcz5ekrifypbBAOpGPE5RfvYeXrysDCHkn9wQI-iL28e67txFm1M7DybHCgN4h6C55dzKxgeflBEHSQW7-chZsoXyqiK6H32Sqaog_C-OsbJ/s1600/Kidd.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 132px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 189px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633320861114567314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9e2rv1iGmnlMmfcp8TTuvUheF8RrXL2zvcz5ekrifypbBAOpGPE5RfvYeXrysDCHkn9wQI-iL28e67txFm1M7DybHCgN4h6C55dzKxgeflBEHSQW7-chZsoXyqiK6H32Sqaog_C-OsbJ/s320/Kidd.jpg" /></a>Ron Huggins wrote an interesting <a href="http://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V36N04_37.pdf">paper</a> several years ago arguing that the Gold Plates/Moroni story evolved from Joseph Smith's activities searching for Captain Kidd's treasure. Although I reserve judgement over the persuasiveness of this argument (I have my own thesis that I am working on), I found a couple things that strengthen Huggins' position. As you may remember, I found a <a href="http://culturalmormoncafeteria.blogspot.com/2010/10/comore-meroni.html">map</a> of the Cumoros Islands with the names of <em>Comore</em> and <em>Meroni</em> *predating* the publication of the Book of Mormon.<br /><br />Another discovery comes from treasure lore of Captain Kidd burying not merely treasure, but a Bible. In Washington Irving’s short story “Kidd The Pirate,” published in <em>Tales of a Traveler</em> (New York, 1825) we read the following “old song”:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><em>My name is Captain Kidd,<br />As I sailed, as I sailed—<br />I had the Bible in my hand,<br />As I sailed, as I sailed,<br />And I buried it in the sand<br />As I sailed.—</em> </blockquote>Irving writes, “[Kidd] gained the Devil’s good graces by burying the Bible.” (<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=zuxJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA214">214</a>)<br /><br />According to Ellen E. Dickinson, Joseph Smith was reported to have memorized a song very similar to this:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>It is said that Joseph at an early age could read, but not write; and when quite young committed these lines to memory from the story of Captain Kidd, the notorious pirate, which seemed to give him great pleasure,<br /><br /><em>My name was Robert Kidd<br />As I sailed, as I sailed;<br />And most wickedly I did<br />As I sailed, as I sailed.</em></blockquote>Although Huggins cites Dickinson's report (p. 37), he does not mention the stanza Washington Irving quotes. It seems probable that young Joseph's song included a stanza of Kidd's buried Bible.<br /><br />Found this rendition of the song online:<br /><br /><iframe height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P3AD6FaZISM?fs=1" frameborder="0" width="425" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-1788049235967010022011-04-19T20:46:00.000-07:002011-04-20T09:28:03.359-07:00Turning PointTo this day, it is still amazing to me how a single experience or event can dramatically influence the path of an entire life. While living in northern California for most of my life, it was always a challenge to do well in school. High School in particular was a very difficult time—so much so that my grade point average was well below a 2.0. My parents seemed resigned to my failures but held out hope that I might (by some miracle) still graduate by the skin of my teeth. However, by my junior year, I had failed so many courses that their hope for my graduation seemed futile. One more lost unit/credit and I would not graduate with my class.<br /><br />A turning point came in my life when, in the second semester of my High School junior year, I wrote an essay for an English class. The assignment asked students to explain where they envisioned themselves ten years later. In this paper I expressed my personal insecurities, explaining that I would have to settle for being a magician since I had done so poorly in school and would therefore not be able to attend college. A couple days later the essays were graded and returned, and I was surprised to see my teacher’s response was nearly as long as the essay I had written. She wrote the following in her response,<br /><br /><blockquote>Dear Michael, It is past midnight now and I should be going to bed, but after reading your essay I feel that I should stay up a little longer and tell you something I think is very important. I understand that you don’t believe you will be able to attend college, but whoever told you that was wrong. You may feel insecure and ‘stupid,’ but I see you as a distracted young man who just does not realize his great potential. Believe in yourself, Michael, and work hard in school from this time forward, and I promise you that you will be able to attend college. Be a magician if that is what you want to do, but don’t for a second believe that you have no other options. </blockquote>This response moved me to tears and made such an impact on me that I still have that graded essay with my teacher’s motivational response. Her words inspired and encouraged me to buckle down and graduate high school, and eventually enroll in community college. Since then, after each major stage of my academic career—from associate’s, to bachelor’s, to master’s degree—I have been reassured that my teacher was correct. I have gained confidence, raised the bar for my performance and achieved successes beyond what I had imagined. Looking back at how far I have come, it is difficult to imagine the struggles I endured in high school. I would have never dreamed 20 years ago that I would be in the position I am today, having earned my master’s degree, and found a publisher for my master’s thesis. Moreover, just last week I accepted GTU/UC Berkeley’s offer of enrollment into their History of Christianity PhD program.<br /><br />The most exciting thing for me is that the journey is not over. Learning and researching is no longer an obstacle but a discovered passion that will lead me ever further down the path of my dream career—to teach religious studies at the university level. It will then be my hope to someday write a response on a student’s essay that might change <em>their</em> life forever.Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-12284968507844267642011-02-24T09:09:00.000-08:002011-03-02T16:55:02.466-08:00Speaking EngagementsThe preliminary programs for the <a href="https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/2011-West-Program21-PDF-version-of-prelim.pdf">Sunstone West</a> symposium and the <a href="http://www.mhahome.org/conferences/StGeorge/2011-Preliminary-Program.pdf">Mormon History Association</a> conference are out. I will be speaking at both. At Sunstone I will present a paper titled "Ancient Metal Records--A Notion Preposterous in Joseph Smith's Day?" and at MHA a paper titled "The Mormon Endowment and the 'Christianization of Freemasonry.'" My session at MHA will be shared jointly with Clair Barrus (who will speak on "Oliver Cowdery's Rod of Nature") and Clinton Bartholomew (on "Cipher in the Kirtland Show: The Royal Arch Cipher and Joseph Smith's Conception of Ancient Languages").<br /><br />Other presentations at these conferences that I am especially looking forward to:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Joe Geisner, "Very Careless in His Utterances: Editing, Correcting, and Censuring Conference Addresses," Sunstone.<br /><br />Paul Crabtree and Laura Compton, "The Spin of Art: How Art Influences the Message of History," Sunstone.<br /><br />Christopher Smith, "'Right of the Firstborn': Lineage and Heredity in the Theology of Joseph Smith," Sunstone.<br /><br />Newell Bringhurst, "Campaign: Prospects for Success versus Potential for Failure," Sunstone.<br /><br />Grant Underwood, "Transformations in Mormon Soteriology: A Historical Overview," MHA.<br /><br />Stephen J. Fleming, "'The Welfare of Our Souls': The Smiths' Folk Rites and the False Dichotomy between Religion and Magic," MHA.<br /><br />Joseph Probert, "The Influence of Elite Design on Temple Worship in the 1890s," MHA.<br /><br />Don Bradley, "'Angel with a Drawn Sword': Kirtland Roots of Nauvoo Polygamy," MHA.<br /><br />Ugo Alessandro Perego, "'Poisoned Springs'? Scientific Testing of the More Recent Anthrax Theory," MHA.<br /><br />Michael Harold Paulos, "'Horrib[le] Caricature[s]' and 'Hideous... Cartoons': Political Cartooning and the Reed Smoot Hearings," MHA.<br /><br />Connie Lamb, "Symbols of the LDS Relief Society," MHA.<br /><br />Stephen C. Tayson, "Rites of Affliction in Mormon History: The Case of Mormon Exorcisms," MHA.</blockquote><br />______<br /><br /><br />Oh... perhaps here is a good plate to also mention that I've been given a date for my book to finally be out: by <em><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">April 15th! </span></strong></em>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-62112155648930762032011-02-11T10:07:00.000-08:002011-02-14T15:06:22.997-08:00Gay Marriage and "Religious" FreedomLDS church owned <em>Deseret News*</em> reports: "Religious groups should unite to protect the religious freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, said Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a speech Friday [Feb. 4th 2011] at Chapman University law school."<br /><br />In this speech Elder Oaks said, "Along with many others, I see a serious threat to the freedom of religion in the current assertion of a 'civil right' of homosexuals to be free from religious preaching against their relationships. Religious leaders of various denominations affirm and preach that sexual relations should only occur between a man and a woman joined together in marriage. One would think that the preaching of such a doctrinal belief would be protected by the constitutional guarantee of the free exercise of religion, to say nothing of the guarantee of free speech. However, we are beginning to see worldwide indications that this may not be so."<br /><br />Although I agree with Elder Oaks that free speech is (and should be) a protected civil right, when reading this remark, I wondered to myself, If homosexuals sincerely identify marriage as a religious experience, what then? Would the Brethren then unite the Church and community to defend these religious rights?<br /><br />The answer should be obvious. Of course not, but why? As I see it, the fight against gay marriage is less about religious freedom and more about the complete opposite: the desire to impose religious standards upon others.<br /><br />"There's a real irony," said <a href="http://www.ffrf.org/about/getting-acquainted/annie-laurie-gaylor">Annie Laurie Gaylor, </a>co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, "because he [Oaks] doesn't understand the meaning of religious freedom.… What they want to do is to curtail freedom for gays. They're not for freedom. They're for theocracy in matters of marriage."**<br /><br /><br />*Scott Taylor, "<a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700107164/Elder-Dallin-Oaks-calls-for-unity-in-protecting-religious-freedom.html?s_cid=rss-44">Elder Dallin Oaks calls for unity in protecting religious freedom</a>," <em>Deseret News</em> (5 Feb. 2011).<br />**Mitchell Landsberg, "<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs-mormon-20110205,0,4075901.story">Religious freedom under siege, Mormon leader says</a>," <em>LA Times</em> (5 Feb. 2011).Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-6333423943759426042010-10-05T17:51:00.000-07:002010-10-05T18:24:39.854-07:00Comore, Meroni<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmcdqdlejmYfo4hpJZEgIHudX1MpHNXdzzEcz42ZXY_ieEwRXuip5RthiFQ4wqfnk-vAGCD0C75-3OC9Y9V2ViBCjJyUgXGKQ7ce43j9Gqj_nzVm2Lg2YOpRJypDbgNRdMV929JUWGkzp/s1600/Meroni,+Comore.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 301px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524737728213402738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmcdqdlejmYfo4hpJZEgIHudX1MpHNXdzzEcz42ZXY_ieEwRXuip5RthiFQ4wqfnk-vAGCD0C75-3OC9Y9V2ViBCjJyUgXGKQ7ce43j9Gqj_nzVm2Lg2YOpRJypDbgNRdMV929JUWGkzp/s400/Meroni,+Comore.jpg" /></a><br /><div><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Bellin, Jacques Nicholas<br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Carte De L'Isle D' Anjouan (<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Comoros</st1:place></st1:country-region>)</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Paris: Chez Didot, 1784; from A.F. Prevost's <em>Histoire Generale Des Voyages</em>, Tome V, No. 13.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-: EN-USfont-family:'Times New Roman';" ><a href="http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/africa/central-south.html"><span style="color:#0000ff;">http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/africa/central-south.html</span></a></span></p></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Thought I'd share what I found today. I will add some commentary soon. </div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-86947658074476162132010-10-02T20:56:00.001-07:002010-10-03T10:48:50.360-07:00Joe Smidt [sic] the Glass-Looker<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:#660000;">Here is story that was published in 1843, about treasure digging quest that the prophet Joseph Smith (or rather, "Joe Smidt") was said to have been involved in. The historical accuracy of the story will no doubt be disputed (and understandably so), but since I am unaware of it being cited before, I decided to post a transcription here. Enjoy!</span><span style="color:#660000;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">—Mike<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:14;"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span></b></p><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-element: para-border-div"><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-ALIGN: center; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:14;"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span></b></p></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:14;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">­­­­­­­­­­<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:14;"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span></b></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:14;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">THE GLASS-LOOKERS<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Near the waters of Unadilla, in the state of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>, there lived, some years since, a lean shoemaker and his sturdy, well-to-do wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No lousy cobbler was Samuel Fish; and no slatternly, good-for-nothing body was Ruth; but, somehow or another, mouths increased upon them faster than they could well fill them; their heap of children, as aunt Eunice said, was dreadful; and indeed, the good man and his family, all told, numbered a dozen and one to spare; and could they have been seen marching in a row, from a very respectable front, made up of himself and wife, they would have run down nearly to a point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No wonder, though he industriously plied the awl, and made the waxed ends glisten and twang, morning, noon and night, while she, with equal ardor, made music with her constant step around him, that anxious care with them was a frequent guest, and want, with difficulty, barred the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In this dilemma, the good woman took it upon her, one night, to dream a dream; and awoke therefrom in a very agreeable frame of mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Her first impulse, was to arouse her husband, who was sleeping like a log at her side; but she bethought herself that he had had a hard day’s work, and after all, it was but a dream; and so with commendable self-control, she again composed herself to rest.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Half an hour after, she awoke in a state of joyous trepidation, which would admit of no further delay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The self-same dream, complete in all its parts, had presented itself to her fancy again, giving an importance to the subject matter thereof, not to be attached to the ordinary vagaries of the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She shook Samuel by the shoulders, and proceeded to recount it to him.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">She had dreamed that a little old man, in a tarpaulin hat and sugar-paper small-clothes, stood before her; and after complimenting her and her husband, as very worthy, well-disposed people, if they only had the wherewithall to live, proceeded to inform her, that near at hand, under a certain tree on the banks of the Unadilla, was buried a rich treasure; which might be theirs for the taking, and would do them and their little ones much good.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“’Twas the ghost of Captain Kidd,” said Samuel.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“O no, not a ghost!” said Ruth, starting.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Well, well, ghost or no ghost,” said Samuel, “it is a singular dream—a very singular dream—an extraordinary dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Twice you have dreamed it, Ruth?”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Twice.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Well, good Ruth, go to sleep again, and remember, if you dream it over the thirrd time, it will come true to a certainty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Go to sleep, go to sleep!”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In obedience to the wishes of her spouse, the dame composed herself on her pillow; and Samuel, after fidgeting an hour or more in uneasy expectancy, becoming too nervous for repose, carefully got up and lighted a candle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With it in his hand, his face flushed with hopes, new and exciting, he approached the bed; and leaned over to see if he could get any clue to the success of his wife, in the expression of her features.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She, good woman, with a start of terror, opened her eyes, and met his inquiring gaze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The candle fell from his hand; and she bounded out of bed to extinguish it, and as she did so, exclaimed:</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Why, Samuel, what on earth is the matter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Are you going to burn me up alive?”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“What luck? what luck?” shouted Samuel.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Dear me!” returned his spouse, “I have not been asleep.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Crest-fallen and discomfitted, the shoemaker crawled back into bed; and there he lay quietly until daylight, but he lay awake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Whether his wife slept, he knew not; and though he would have given half the contents of his shop to know, he dared not disturb her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At length, as gray morning had fairly got over the hills, he was electrified by a sudden spring on her part, as she came bolt upright in bed, exclaiming, “I have it, Samuel!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have dreamed it again!”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“The Lord be thanked,” said Samuel: “and now, wife, dress thee, and speed the breakfast; while I myself will attend to the children; and then we will go and consult shaker Brown respecting this most singular visitation.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Shaker Brown was a tall, venerable man, of near three score and ten, who lived hard by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His long locks were faded nearly to a white, but his limbs retained a goodly portion of their vigor, and his pure, clear, blue eye, was still delightful to look upon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He had passed most of his life as one of a community of shakers; indeed, for many years, had been the principal of one of the most respectable societies of that singular sect; whence having emerged, and taken to him a young wife, in his old age, a child to the world, but deeply imbued with a knowledge of hidden things, and a love for the mystical, he was peculiarly qualified to act as counsellor on an occasion like the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hither went Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Fish, for advice; and the result of the visit was satisfactory in a high degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Shaker Brown recommended that Joe Smidt, an itinerant vagabond glass-looker, who has since made quite a figure in the world, and was then in that region, but few miles away, should be sent for, to take the command of the important affair in hand; and for him, a messenger was accordingly despatched.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Joe Smidt, at that time, a sturdy, ruddy, square-built young fellow; in manner half way between clown and a sheep thief, had already begun to lord it in a small way, in matters mysterious and occult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When he arrived, he listened very respectfully to the narration of dame Fish, but did not condescend to ask any questions or to gape, or wonder over her dream; but treated the subject, in all respects, as though it were a matter of course, that coffers of gold should be buried, that she should dream about them, and he be called upon to bring them again to the light of day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He told some marvelous stories of his success in this way; and finally, having secured to himself a certain compensation, to be paid in hand, by Samuel and shaker Brown; beside an equal share in the venture, he proceeded to arrange a plan of operations for disemboweling the particular treasure which the little tarpaulin man had mentioned to Ruth in her dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He exhibited a flat opaque glass, or stone, about the size of his palm; which, he said, was found in the grave of an Indian magician, lying upon the bones of the skeleton, over the heart; and which possessed the property of revealing to him the hidden things of earth.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Armed with this invaluable talisman, the dusk of evening was scarcely suffered to approach, when Samuel, shaker Brown and Smidt sallied forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The tree, a spreading beach, indicated in Ruth’s dream, was easily found; for there was a bridge across the Unadilla, near by it, hid by an intervening clump of alders; and indeed, both Samuel and his wife, had been to the very spot a hundred times, hunting for their cow, or their pigs, or their children; and knew the tree as well as they did the butternut close by their own door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Arrived thereat, Smidt very gravely put the magical glass into his hat, and that to his face, in such a manner as to shut out all the light; while Samuel and Brown placed themselves on either side of him, and awaited in a very trying suspense his expected revelations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Soon Joe brought down the hat, and with an exclamation of delight, informed them that he had discovered the box of gold, buried but a few feet below the surface of the ground; but that it was enchanted, and he should have to break the spell which held it there, before it could be got at.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Satisfied with this, as a precurser, the party returned to Samuel’s house, where Ruth and Mrs. Brown anxiously awaited them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And there, Smidt showed a strong inclination to remain for the night; but the ardor of the others was too much aroused to permit of inactivity: they insisted, with much show of reason, that a delay of even one night was full of danger; and that the only safe course was to make sure of the treasure while it was within their reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Joe was obliged to give way: and as soon as the necessary shovels and other implements could be got together, the party, enlarged by the addition of Ruth and Mrs. Brown, returned to the spot; where, by this time, many hopes and fears had become centered.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Joe now disposed himself to play his part with effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Assuming all the dignity of bearing which he could command, he proceeded to describe a circle around the tree; and stepping within it, he pronounced some cabalistic words, or words, at least, of unknown sound and import to his auditors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Having, by his ceremony, taken possession of the ground, as he termed it, he charged his associates, that, while the work was in the progress, they must not, on peril of their lives, or, what with them was of equal moment, the loss of the treasure now so nearly within their grasp, utter a single word: and, stationing Ruth and Mrs. Brown a little away, as an outpost, to guard against surprise, he seized a bar, and the three men fell most lustily to digging.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Near by the scene of these events, was a little village; and indeed, the housel of Samuel Fish and shaker Brown might be said to for its extreme suburb of the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The moving spirit of this place, was Colonel Spreeaway; a drinking, gambling, roistering merchant: and on the night in question, the business of the day having been brought to a close, he sat in his store, with several of his boon companions, to a late hour; and they made themselves merry with story telling and brandy and sugar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At length some one of the company said: </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“What can have brought Joe Smidt here?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I saw him pass by my shop to-day.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Yes, and he stopped at Fish’s,” said another.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“My wife was by there after dark,” remarked a third, “and saw shaker Brown through the window, and another man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ll wager it was Joe.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“That puts me in mind,” said the colonel, “that I saw three men going across the fields toward the river, as I was coming home to-night, over the bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One of them, I knew was Brown, for he cannot be easily mistaken; but it was so dark that I could not make out the others.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“Some new money-digging humbug, I’ll warrant,” said another.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">“And if so,” continued the colonel, “they are at it now: and I move, boys, we have a little sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Come, I’ll lock up, and we’ll take a turn down by the bridge.”</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">This proposition met with universal favor; and the company, to the number of half a dozen, set forth, and soon arrived in the neighborhood of the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dividing off into little scouting parties, it was not long before the money-diggers were discovered, who, by this time, by dint of sweat and vigorous blows, had succeeded in excavating the hole of considerable size in the loose, gravelly earth. Having maintained a scrupulous silence, and cut through the matted roots of the beech, with a chisel, they had got on with little noise and the more speed; until the shoulders of tall shaker Brown, as he slowly erected himself in discharging his shovel’s burden, hardly exceeded in attitude the level of the turf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Carefully approaching close enough to ascertain the position of affairs, which they succeeded in doing without disturbing the sentinels of the night, Ruth and Mrs. Brown, who, like two deserted river nymphs, stood alone at a little distance from their friends, but eyes and soul absorbed in what was going on in the pit, the colonel and his followers re-assembled near the bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was a large bright moon, but an occasional cloud passed over it; and selecting a moment when it was obscured, they betook themselves to the bridge; and, presently, the diggers were interrupted by a noise, as of a thousand cattle upon it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mrs. Brown screamed and fled toward the pit; but Ruth, with masculine courage, stood her ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Joe Smidt dropped his shovel, and cautiously peered around; and then motioned shaker Brown to help himself out upon the level of the earth to reconnoitre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This old gentleman did with some difficulty; but by the time he came in sight of the bridge, all was still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The moon was shining brightly again; the bridge was bare and cold, and not a living thing to be seen in any direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After waiting a little time, he returned, and expressed to his companions, by mute looks and gestures, his inability to explain the strange occurrence: and so, after wondering in silence a minute or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>two, the trio proceeded in their labor.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Soon, however, they were startled and alarmed by a most vigorous caterwauling, set up on all sides of them, and in their immediate neighborhood: and screams and screeches, as of a score of panthers, succeeded; and every variety of noise which mortal organs may be supposed capable of producing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The sounds were enough to curdle one’s blood in his veins. The woman shrieked; and the men, not expecting the king conjurer, Joe, turned pale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And now, to add to their affright, amidst the din, were seen strange beings, on all fours, leaping like frogs from bush to bush; and turning with threatening, and to the excited imaginations of the money diggers, hellish aspect, toward the pit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was too much for human strength to bear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Joe Smidt, Samuel Fish, and shaker Brown, bold men though they were, as they subsequently proved themselves, when matched with flesh and blood, clambered upon terra firma, as best they might, and taking their women between them, broke from the magical spot, beset, as they believed it, with a host of devils from the infernal regions, and fled toward home.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Up to this time, it is probable, that Smidt, although well aware he was deceiving others, was not deceived himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But now he appears to have been caught in one of his own snares.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unable to account for the singular interruptions they had experienced, he came to the sage conclusion, that, in the practice of his conjurations, he had indeed called up the spirits of the invisible world; and spirits, it would seem, that it might be no very easy matter to quell.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Colonel Spreeaway and his friends, as soon as the coast was clear, gathered around the pit, and enjoyed a hearty laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There lay the shovels, and bars, and picks, as they had been dropped, in the alarm which seized upon those who had them in use: and the lights by which they had worked, were left burning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dispatching one of his fellows in pursuit of the diggers, to make sure against a surprise in return, the colonel sent another to his store after an old box and some nails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These presently arrived, when the box was filled with stones, nailed down, and lowered into the pit; and the party now in possession, commenced digging in turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They sunk a hole some two or three feet below the depth previously attained; and placing the box therein, piled stones upon it, and finished by smoothing the surface, as nearly as possible, to the shape in which they found it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This done, they retired to their several homes.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The money-diggers, meanwhile, were brooding over their discomfiture at shaker Brown’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their appearance was draggled and woe-begone in the extreme; and to add to their despondency, Joe had made the astounding disclosure, that he had felt the box of gold once that night, with his shovel, just as Mrs. Brown screamed; when it moved away from his touch, grating as it went; and very likely had gone to the other side of the tree, if not farther.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This sad effect of the unfortunate scream made Mrs. Brown, for the time being, a sort of scape-goat, on which the rest were disposed to lay, not only their sins, but their misfortunes; and occasionally delights to exhibit to another, added a variety of taunting expressions; so that the pale, but round-face and handsome Mrs. Brown kept aloof in a corner and pouted by herself.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">By and by, Smidt and Samuel gathered composure and courage enough to revisit the scene of their unaccountable adventures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They found everything quiet, and to appearance, as they had left it; except that the candles had burned low.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These they extinguished, and pilling some loose brushwood over the pit, to conceal it as much as possible from chance of observation, they finally adjourned for the night.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The day following was devoted by the male part of the money-diggers to rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Samuel slept; but Ruth, as usual, was astir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Her faith in the truth of her dream was by no means shaken; on the contrary, it seemed to have gathered strength from the very obstacles which had presented themselves in the way of its fulfilment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, she was in a sort of bewilderment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Visions of wealth and the pleasures attendant thereon, floated through her brain; and as she dismissed her husband’s customers from the door, she could not well refrain from assuming some unaccustomed airs, and treating them with an indifference very foreign from her usual affable deportment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>some, she informed, that her husband was sick, and could not be disturbed—others, that he had given up his shop, and they must go elsewhere; and others still, that he was about to move away to the city and establish a wholesale boot and shoe store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No wonder those who listened, came to the conclusion that the poor woman was demented.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">At shaker Brown’s the scene was somewhat similar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mrs. Brown was rather frail, and found herself flurried from her last night’s exertions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Her head was bound round with a white handkercheif, for she had the tooth-ach; and she would gladly have obtained some rest, but as often as she lay down, or threw herself back in her rocking-chair, on her pillows, with her feet upon a stool, and her tea-pot on a stand at her elbow, she was sure to be interrupted by some one’s calling to examine the little articles of wooden ware which her husband was in the habit of manufacturing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>Indeed, Joe Smidt was the only one of the number whom worldly matters that day had no power to disturb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He, the shrewdest of conjurers, having eaten his fill, stretched himself at his length, in Mrs. Brown’s best bed, and snored like a prince, at his leisure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Night having again arrived, and the moon and stars taken their places aloft, the party, as before, with the exception that Mrs. Brown was left behind, like so many sheep thieves, stole in a circuit round the hills to the river; and after an anxious survey of the placid water, and the still shore and upland, resumed their labor in the pit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Joe was evidently ill at ease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was an air of perplexity and doubt upon his countenance; and as he was the central luminary, to whom the others looked for light, it is not be wondered at that every movement betrayed uncertainty and apprehension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The shovels were operated by spiritless wills, and an hour or more wore away before they reached the stones, or any evidence of the handiwork of Colonel Spreeaway and his friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then, indeed, there was an increased movement among them; and when finally the box itself was laid bare, the haggard, clutching joy of the money-diggers was beyond bounds; and the greater, as pictured on their faces, that they dared not give it tongue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No word was uttered—no, not even by Ruth, who stood staring at the top of the pit, like one transfixed and dumb.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">With much difficulty, for it was found very heavy, the mysterious chest was raised to the surface, and placed upon the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then, while the hands of the silent operators trembled, as with the palsy, it was attached to two poles by a rope; and Ruth readily lending her aid, it was slowly raised between the four, and borne in toilsome triumph toward the village.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Going by the fields to avoid observation, they were about to descend a little hill, which had cost them some trouble to climb, when they were suddenly brought to a stand, by a company of men, whose faces were muffled in handkershiefs; and a furious assault commenced upon them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But the money-diggers were in no mood to be trifled with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Forming a hollow square around their treasure, they gave back taunt for taunt, and buffet for buffet; and grappled with their foes as for life or for death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The exact order of the battle, however, was soon broken; for Ruth, with a quick instinct, perceiving it was likely to go hard with her friends, threw herself upon the box, and grasped it in her arms: and soon thereafter, all its brave defenders were down and lying prostrate upon the turf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While they were there held, each by a strength superior to his own, one of the assailants undertook to disengage Ruth from her hold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This he found no easy task; and losing his own footing in the struggle, cavalier and box, and the courageous spouse of Samuel Fish, together rolled down to the bottom of the hill.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The reader will readily come to the conclusion that the attacking party were no other than Colonel Spreeaway and his friends, who had taken this rough method of closing up the trickery commenced by them the night before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, Ruth’s antagonist was no other than the gallant colonel himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>at the foot of the hill, the two combatants gained their legs at the same instant; and disdaining all parley or maneuvering as unworthy of the occasion, Ruth, rather flew, than ran, upon her foe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The black muffler which concealed his features, vanished in a moment; and then it was that furrows, long and deep, which time in its ravages, had as yet spared him, were ploughed upon his face in a twinkling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To save himself he was obliged to throw her upon the ground, and there hold her.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">While the colonel was engaged in this awkward passage of arms, the others of his party came up, and seizing them mysterious box, quickly bore it away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Giving them a little time to secure their retreat, he then shook himself clear of Ruth; and those who had the rest of the vanquished party in charge, on the top of the hill, doing the same, they all took to their heels and disapeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But they did not go without carrying with them substantial evidence of the fray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Beside the colonel’s smeared and smarting visage, one of his followers had received a cut in the throat; which threatened him with a lockjaw for a month: and another, whose fortune it had been to join in mortal strife with Samuel Fish, received a wound from an awl, or some similar instrument of war, in the region below the back; which compelled him, for a time, to dispense with the luxury of a chair.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Left to themselves, the money-diggers gathered together, and sent up toward the sky, a most woeful howl of despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Slowly they turned toward home, crying as they went; and making the desolate night more desolate with their moans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As they came near the village, the noise they made alarmed their neighbors; and soon, although at a very unusual hour, a half dressed company collected together to listen to the incoherent accounts they gave of the treasure which they fancied had been even in their very hands, and cruelly wrested from them and their poverty, and turned to the sustenance and enjoyment of others.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">By daylight, Joe Smidt and shaker Brown had become comparatively collected, and talked loudly of the law; but by this time the other side of the story got wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Soon thereafter Joe quietly decamped; but no explanations then or afterward, were found to have any effect upon Samuel and his wife, or indeed, upon shaker Brown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They all believed most firmly, to the day of their deaths, that they had been robbed of countless treasures; and although they came to the conclusion that Colonel Spreeaway had a hand in the robbery, they entirely discarded that potion of the current belief which referred to his agency, the depositing of the mysterious box, where they had found it.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">In short, their imaginary losses and disappointments so preyed upon their minds as to unfit them for the business of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They became dispirited—indeed, broken-hearted; and ere many years rolled away, Samuel and Ruth, (their children having scattered over the world a thriftless, uncombed set,) and shaker Brown and his wife dragged out and at length finished a miserable existence at the public charge.</span></p><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.25in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-element: para-border-div; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt"><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Binghampton</st1:city>, <st1:state st="on">N.Y.</st1:state></st1:place>, June, 1843.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-ALIGN: center; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">­­­</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-ALIGN: center; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">_______</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">FACTION is a combination of a few to oppress the liberties of the many: the love of freedom is the impulse of an enlightened and presiding spirit, ever intent upon the welfare of the community, or body to which it belongs, and ready to give alarm, when it beholds an unlawful conspiracy formed, whether it be of rulers or subjects, with a design to oppress it.</span></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in .25in 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p></div><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-element: para-border-div; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt"><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p><p style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:maroon;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">J. R. Orton, “The Glass-Lookers,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Rover: A Weekly Magazine of Tales, Poetry, and Engravings, Original and Selected</i>, vol. 1 (New York, 1843), 264-66, </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=-rsRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA264"><span style="color:maroon;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">http://books.google.com/books?id=-rsRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA264</span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> (accessed 2 October 2010).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-48707008515547315382010-08-17T10:13:00.000-07:002010-08-17T22:49:53.107-07:00Seer Stones Looking "Small Unto the Understanding of Men"<span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><a href="http://mrm.org/files/images/pbs-seer-stone-300.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 168px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://mrm.org/files/images/pbs-seer-stone-300.png" /></a>I was reading the book of Mormon today—yes, I know, I am so righteous—and came across a passage that caught my attention. The Brother of Jared asks God to touch some stones, that they may be used to light the barges he built; two of which were later used as seer stones. The "Brother of Jared" then makes a parapraxis (a Freudian slip of sorts), breaking character, revealing the personal insecurities of Joseph Smith regarding his own use of seer stones.</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="color:#666666;"> <blockquote><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="color:#333333;"><em>Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. We know that thou art able to show forth greater power, <u>which looks small unto the understanding of men</u>.</em> (Ether 3:5)</span></span></blockquote></span></span></span><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;color:#666666;"></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;color:#666666;"></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"></span></p><span style="color:black;"></span><span style="color:black;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class="MsoNormal">Surely this wouldn't be the voice of the Brother of Jared. Jared's praise to God in this way would have been a blatant back-handed complement, and therefore out of character. On the other hand, the person of Joseph Smith, who was mocked and even legally prosecuted for the use of seer stones... saying this would have been perfectly understandable and <em>within </em>character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"></span></p><span style="color:black;"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">I have the bad habit of reinventing the wheel, so forgive me if someone else has made this observation before. Frankly, I’d be surprised if nobody has, since it seems so obvious to me now. Your thoughts?</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">---------------</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal">Edit to add: Similar language was expressed about the Liahona—another divining <a href="http://culturalmormoncafeteria.blogspot.com/2010/07/liahona-mineral-compass.html">instrument likely inspired by Joseph Smith's treasure seeking activities</a>. After describing its workings, Nephi remarks, "And thus we see that by <u>small means</u> the Lord can bring about great things." (1 Nephi 16:29) Coincidence?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal">------</p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal">Photo from <a href="http://mrm.org/mormons-on-pbs">http://mrm.org/mormons-on-pbs</a></p></span></span>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-79899165497522269112010-08-02T18:13:00.000-07:002010-08-02T18:38:05.379-07:00C†R<a href="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-sf2p/hs175.ash2/41802_139664362722301_629_n.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 208px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-sf2p/hs175.ash2/41802_139664362722301_629_n.jpg" /></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:Tahoma;" lang="EN" ><span style="color:#009900;">Here is an interesting exchange that I did not include in my book. From the <em>Viking Scroll</em> (BYU Idaho's student newspaper), 16 May 1963, p. 2.</span><span style="color:#009900;"><br /></span><br />_______________________</span><br /><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:Tahoma;" lang="EN" ><br /><br />A Letter to the Editor<br /><br />Dear Editor:<br /><br />Your issue that came out the week before Easter shocked us. We want to know what right you had to put the symbol of the cross in the masthead of our newspaper. Don’t you know that we don’t worship the cross? Do you think we are Catholics? Why didn’t you use an Easter lily or even Easter rabbits? A group of about 25 of us have discussed this and we are really put out by it.<br /><br />Signed,<br />Incensed Students<br /><br />________<br /><br /><br />Editor’s Note: Since Dr. Jacob, our adviser, was the one who chose the symbol for the masthead, we turned this letter over to him for his answer.)<br />Dear Incensed:<br /><br />Thank you for your letter. You are right; we do not worship the cross, but we do not worship the Easter lily or the Easter bunny either. And just because we used the symbol of the cross and the scriptures in the masthead does not mean that we worship them.<br /><br />Also, just because the Catholics use the cross for a symbol and probably overdo it, this does not mean that we, who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, cannot use on occasion that symbol that has had so much significance for Christians throughout the ages. Do you know that a good number of years before there was ever a Roman Catholic church, the cross had meaning for the early Christians? Even the custom of crossing our fingers may date back to the time when members of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Early-day</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place> made the sign of the cross behind their backs when they were facing death before the Romans.<br /><br />Speaking of the Lord Jesus, Paul said this: “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be the things in earth, or things in heaven.” (Col. 1:19, 20.) To the Corinthians he wrote, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to us which are saved it is the power of God.” (I Cor. 1:18). In his epistle to the Philippians he warned of this kind of people: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction....”<br /><br />So, Incensed, let us not be enemies of the cross, when the very “God of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the God of the whole earth” was “slain for the sins of the world.” This is why we chose to use the symbol of the cross and the scriptures in the masthead of your paper. I hope this explanation will help your incense to burn itself out with a deeper realization of what Easter really means.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />C.H. Jacob<br />Adviser, Viking Scroll<br /><br />_______________<br /><br /><span style="color:#009900;">Logo above comes from the "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mormons-Who-Glory-in-the-Cross-of-Christ-Gal-614/139664362722301">Mormons Who Glory in the Cross of Christ</a>" facebook community.</span></span>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-84099685633671165192010-07-13T12:29:00.000-07:002010-07-13T23:09:50.925-07:00Liahona, a Mineral Compass?<a href="http://www.veryicon.com/icon/png/Nature/Globe/Globe%20compass%20silver.png"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 128px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 128px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://www.veryicon.com/icon/png/Nature/Globe/Globe%20compass%20silver.png" /></a> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">While considering the Smith family involvement in money-digging, and the treasure lore imbedded in the Book of Mormon (Helaman 13:33-36; Mormon 1:18), it has always seemed rather curious to me that Lehi found outside his tent the Liahona (compass), rather than a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">divining rod</i> (Alma 37: 38-40).</span><br /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Granted, the Book of Mormon says nothing about the Liahona being used for treasure seeking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Though this be the case, i</span>t is also true that some treasure seekers believed the divining rod (like the Liahona) could not only direct the practitioner to desired locations, but the rod could also communicate the will of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><br /><br /></div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Some scholars have associated the Liahona with the Masonic globes of Enoch, quoting the following from Thomas Smith Web’s <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=IrQ2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA50"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Freemason’s Montor</i> </a>(1818):</span> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">They are the noblest instruments for improving the mind, and giving it the most distinct idea of any problem or proposition, as well as enabling it to solve the same. Contemplating these bodies, we are inspired with a due reverence for the Deity and his works, and are induced to encourage the studies of astronomy, geography, navigation, and the arts dependent on them. </span></span></blockquote><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"></span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">With all due respect to these scholars, I am of the opinion that this connection quickly unravels when the quote’s entire context is considered. Unlike the Book of Mormon narrative’s description of the Liahona, there is nothing in Web’s description to suggest that the globes had mechanical “spindles” to “point the way.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>Web instead describes the globes in this way:<br /><br /></p><div><p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';">These globes are two artificial spherical bodies, on the convex surfaces of which are represented the countries, seas, and various parts of the earth, the face of the heavens, the planetary revolutions, and other important particulars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The sphere with the parts of the earth delineated on its surface is called the terrestrial globe, and that with the constellations and other heavenly bodies, the celestial globe.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Now, considering these two quotes together... <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">of course</i> the terrestrial and celestial globes would “encourage the studies” of “geography [and] navigation,” but this is because the globes were maps, not compasses that could communicate the will of God.</span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The terrestrial globe, a map of the earth.</span> </div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The celestial globe, a constellation map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Is there a better connection to be made elsewhere—perhaps from a 19<sup>th</sup> century source—that could have been known by a family involved in treasure digging?</span> </div><div> </div><div></div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">While researching 19<sup>th</sup> century treasure lore yesterday, I stumbled upon the following advertisement in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Plattsburgh Republican</i>, 18 July 1874:</span> </div><div><br /> </div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEehvDBc2wB_eZSsxRIU6TLAMfEczWIok_jPLfZU_zPpV-IZiLNaHROrHwWRlokKRIEd0l7_Muk91Cky9E4Ele4k6dbjwMIElPbm8vTwHqHgDlLYy4Lm7hCn0hhsSydQbot7IArMkN_2T8/s1600/Mineral+Compass.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 282px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 314px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493480272318835426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEehvDBc2wB_eZSsxRIU6TLAMfEczWIok_jPLfZU_zPpV-IZiLNaHROrHwWRlokKRIEd0l7_Muk91Cky9E4Ele4k6dbjwMIElPbm8vTwHqHgDlLYy4Lm7hCn0hhsSydQbot7IArMkN_2T8/s320/Mineral+Compass.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">A compass used for treasure digging!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is this the answer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Could it be that the Smith family assumed mineral compasses could communicate the will of God, like divining rods could?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Had they even heard of mineral compasses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unfortunately, the advertisement was dated fifty years too late, so I then looked for earlier sources and finally ended my search (of all places!) at an Encyclopedia Britannica (1824) entry under <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bletonism</i>—“a faculty of perceiving and indicating subterraneous springs and currents by sensation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Under this entry the following is found:</span> </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8YZxhbdWN_uZRG47L5Gto-Ei5ag9Q7pLqk5HbVmxnQy2oUAC4pnBb3H1apiTcGndWX1ipwCzha1KAwEIcKQzrs85BCPZ9Nixbw_cn3kl2oIeoudhPbYb97TXKeBQlF9BtZpE2akbdMfj5/s1600/electric+compass.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 175px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493480523295645474" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8YZxhbdWN_uZRG47L5Gto-Ei5ag9Q7pLqk5HbVmxnQy2oUAC4pnBb3H1apiTcGndWX1ipwCzha1KAwEIcKQzrs85BCPZ9Nixbw_cn3kl2oIeoudhPbYb97TXKeBQlF9BtZpE2akbdMfj5/s320/electric+compass.jpg" /></a></span></div><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-21299692804085360062010-05-07T17:02:00.000-07:002010-07-14T00:43:27.235-07:00Ezra Taft Benson, Anti-Catholicism, and Church/State Separation<a href="http://tothewire.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/churchstateseparation.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 124px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://tothewire.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/churchstateseparation.jpg" /></a> <div><div></div><div>Having recently given an example of how Ezra Taft Benson's politics influenced his church service, perhaps it would be fitting for me to now give an example of how the LDS Church influenced his political service. Benson served both church and state government simultaneously, as LDS Apostle and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.</div><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>The following entry is found in the David O. McKay Diaries, 1 October 1957:</div><blockquote><p align="left"></p><p align="left">"Note:<br />Telephone conversation with Ezra Taft Benson from Washington, D.C. regarding world tour to include Hawaii, Japan, the Far East, and Near East, and finally Rome, Italy where about November 11 to 15, he will be the representative of the government of the United States at an international meeting. He will be one of the scheduled speakers. </p><p align="left">The American Ambassador has suggested to him that a meeting with the Pope be arranged. </p><p align="left">Later, the Presidency decided that if he could avoid such a meeting without embarrassment, 'we would prefer that he do so.' </p><p align="left">(see telephone conversation with Bro. Benson following)<br /><br /><br />Wednesday, October 2, 1957 </p><p align="left">Last evening, October, 1957, Elder Ezra Taft Benson called me by telephone at my home and asked whether or not he should accept a government appointment to go to Rome, Italy. The American Ambassador to Italy there would like to arrange a conference for him with the Pope. I told Brother Benson that I would talk with my counselors this morning and then let him know. </p><p align="left">___________________ </p><p align="left">Telephone conversation with Elder Ezra Taft Benson, Wednesday, October 2, 1957. </p><p align="left">(Brother Benson was contacted in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.) </p><p align="left">President McKay: Can you hear me, Brother Benson? </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: Yes. I am in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. </p><p align="left">President McKay: Regarding the matter we were discussing yesterday, we are all united in the feeling that if you can in honor, and without embarrassment, avoid that conference it would be well for you to do it. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: All right. I think I can. </p><p align="left">President McKay: Was it the Ambassador? </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: The American Ambassador to Italy. </p><p align="left">President McKay: Yes. I see. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: He is the one who has proposed it. But I think I can avoid it, President McKay, because I am going to be in Rome for a very short time. I have to make an important address for a World Agricultural Congress, and I think the shortness of my stay can probably be used as a reason for not doing so. </p><p align="left">President McKay: We have in mind particularly the effect upon our own people. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: Yes. That is the thing that concerned me too. </p><p align="left">President McKay: And the dignity that you would have to give to such a conference. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: Yes, that is right. </p><p align="left">President McKay: And really they have everything to gain and nothing to lose, and we have everything to lose and nothing to gain. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: I am in full harmony with that feeling. </p><p align="left">President McKay: Well that is good. We are glad of that. We all feel that it would be pretty embarrassing to you, and we are helping you out of what might prove to be a conference that will reflect upon our Church. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: Well, I think it could be embarrassing both to me and to the Church.</p><p align="left">President McKay: All right. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: I shall do my best, and I think I can work it out. </p><p align="left">President McKay: The brethren all send their love to you. </p><p align="left">Brother Benson: Thank you and my love to them, and thank you for calling. </p><p align="left">President McKay: Thank you, and good-bye."</p></blockquote></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-31095192046372704892010-04-02T12:20:00.000-07:002010-04-24T15:23:07.833-07:00Mormons and the Cross--Sunstone West/Claremont Graduate UniversityDuring the Sunstone West Symposium at Claremont Graduate University last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion (with Newell Bringhurst, Robert Rees, and D. Michael Quinn) featuring my forthcoming book <em>Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo</em>. Pleased that the presentation was well received (the room was so full that we didn't have enough chairs), I was especially relieved that each of the accomplished scholars on my panel spoke positively about my research.<br /><br />I already knew that Bringhurst and Rees would speak favorably of the book, since I had worked closely with them both for some time, but what Quinn would say was entirely unknown to me. And the fact that I had directly contradicted/challenged Quinn's interpretation of Joseph Smith's cane in my thesis and <a href="http://culturalmormoncafeteria.blogspot.com/2009/09/joseph-smiths-cane-thing-of-nature.html">blog</a>, this gave me all the more reason to be concerned.<br /><br />But contrary to the nightmares I had the night before, Mike Quinn's remarks turned out to be quite flattering:<br /><br /><blockquote>I find the evidence and analysis to be persuasive in Michael G. Reed's forthcoming book.... I appreciate something that he didn't include in his brief presentation today. While his book acknowledges that Joseph Smith's serpent-cane "was either inspired by Freemasonry, folk-magic, or both," he discovered a symbol in it that I did not recognize in my book about Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. In what I regarded as simply carved compartments on the cane, Reed perceives an inverted cross. Now I see it, too. Pointing out the previously unperceived is the role of ongoing historical analysis. I am very impressed with his detailed examination of the transition in official and unofficial LDS attitudes toward the Christian Cross.... Michael G. Reed has written a book that deftly examines one aspect of Mormonism's inconsistent overlaps with traditional Christianity and inconsistent departures therefrom.</blockquote>In the coming week I am off again, this time traveling to Independence Missouri to present at the <a href="http://www.jwha.info/meetings/scheduleRSS10.asp">Restoration Studies Symposium</a>. It would be nice to see some of you there. If you do attend, please introduce yourself. I'd love to meet you.<br /><br />To those who may be interested, Sunstone now has the MP3 of my 2009 SLC presentation available to purchase for $3. You can order/download it <a href="https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/shop/products/symposium-sessions-4/sl09264-cross-at-the-cross-lds-contempt-for-the-christian-symbol/">here</a>.Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-71282961826405612972010-03-12T09:52:00.000-08:002010-03-13T13:54:00.682-08:00Ezra Taft Benson, the John Birch Society, and the Peace Symbol<a href="http://www.dailyartfixx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/peace_symbol_3.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 283px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.dailyartfixx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/peace_symbol_3.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>It is no secret that the 13th President of the LDS Church, Ezra Taft Benson, thought highly of (and had close associations with) the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society">John Birch Society</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw4KDd-C4yAp8vZw1m_IUv6dcgCaGMSEM4CyDcv5V0piSoRg7ZENdLttWDNW8lou4qNxjMpmRbb5bvNCnpuaA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Since Benson had such high regard for the JBS<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>, and since he served in Church and State government simultaneously--as both Apostle and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture--questions have been raised over whether (or to what degree) Benson's politics affected his religious ministry, and vice versa.<br /><br />On October 2, 1970, Apostle Benson declared in a talk given at General Conference:</div><div><br /><blockquote>Have we... "polluted the holy church of God?".... The auxiliaries of the Church are to be a help, not a hindrance, to parents and the priesthood as they strive to lead their families back to God. Do any of us wear or display the broken cross, anti-Christ sign, that is the adversary's symbol of the so-called "peace movement"?<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[2]</a> </blockquote></div><p>Having received this information over the pulpit during General Conference, some Latter-day Saints assume that Benson's claim about the peace symbol is official doctrine and based on revelation. But where did he actually get such an idea? Benson was evidently parroting over the pulpit the political fear-mongering propaganda that had been published by the John Birch Society (in their official publication <em>American Opinion</em>) only four months before. </p><p>Titled "Peace Symbols: The Truth About Those Strange Designs," the article lambasted the peace movement by associating their symbol with a <em>broken cross</em>, <em>Communism</em>, <em>anti-Christ, </em>and a <em>Satanism.</em> </p><blockquote><p>It was the upside-down broken cross. Such anti-Christian and anti-Jewish symbolism is common to Satanists...</p><p>The revolutionaries are pushing this business [of Satanism and black magic] like there's no tomorrow. And those 'peace symbols' are a part of it. They are symbols of the anti-Christ!... </p><p>[T]he actual origin of this Satanic symbol can be pinpointed.... </p><p>[I]n America, as thousands of radicalized youths parade that same symbol, the heretics of the Christian have all but adopted the 'sign of the anti-Christ' as their own. And you can be absolutely certain that the Communists planned it that way.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[3]</a> </p></blockquote><div></div><div></div><p>One is left to wonder why any Latter-day Saint would find this article authoritative, since it likewise associates the <em>inverted pentagram</em> and <em>hand clasp</em> with communism and Satanism--both of which are symbols that have been used by the Church. Inverted pentagrams were depicted on the Nauvoo temple (and other buildings). The hand clasp is found on the Salt Lake temple (and other buildings) and is a central part to the temple endowment ritual. </p><p>Says the same article quoted above:</p><blockquote><p>Another esoteric symbol of the international socialist movement is the "joined" or "clasped" hands--the ancient sign of the god Fides. <em>Mackey's Symbolism</em> says this design has been used historically to denote fidelity. It is now used by the Freemasons, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Labor">A.F.L.-C.I.O.</a>, and is frequently reproduced in the Communist <em>Daily World</em> to indicate union between Comrades. The insignia is the official symbol of the Communist-controlled Student "Nonviolent" Coordinating Committee, and serves as the logo for the Trotskyite Communists' <em>Workers World</em>....<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[4]</a> </p><p>Bernard Koerner cites the inverted cross as the symbol of "<em>Drudenfuss</em>," or Druid's foot. Standard German dictionaries describe this as a five-pointed star with one point up and two down. That star-shaped figure, which corresponds to the forked-shape runic figure [previously associated with the peace symbol in the article], is known in ancient symbolism as a pentalpha. In his <em>Symbolism Of the Three Degrees</em>, Oliver Day Street comments that "The Pentalpha with one of its points elevated, was a symbol of the pure and the virtuous and a harbinger of good, but with two of its points elevated it became the accursed <em>Goat of Mendes</em> which typifies Satan and foreboded evil and misfortune." One point (or finger) up, symbolized the monogram of Christ, while the inverse of the Pentalpha, or two points (two spread fingers [implying a condemnation of the Peace Sign typically made with the hand]) up, was the sign of Satan.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[5]</a> </p></blockquote><p><a href="http://www.halesstonecarver.com/Images/stone%20carved%20hands.gif"><img style="WIDTH: 207px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 119px" alt="" src="http://www.halesstonecarver.com/Images/stone%20carved%20hands.gif" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5_kKYgXfY-BmFJ0cB6xQosZpkbxGnJCB6b_iuRe9IszCR6CRZM_X-MPG8FQn-OIHcEKZUdOGpcSWvfRVxKGyIT0vnoiK6AGsVGkaFmGmvdqqyFSnpt6cCcOhK8fvlZvXmbM0rS2QXcoN5/s1600-h/Peggy,+Nauvoo+Temple+wondow.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448010565337877362" style="WIDTH: 149px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 119px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5_kKYgXfY-BmFJ0cB6xQosZpkbxGnJCB6b_iuRe9IszCR6CRZM_X-MPG8FQn-OIHcEKZUdOGpcSWvfRVxKGyIT0vnoiK6AGsVGkaFmGmvdqqyFSnpt6cCcOhK8fvlZvXmbM0rS2QXcoN5/s320/Peggy,+Nauvoo+Temple+wondow.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /></p><div>__________________________</div><br /><div></div><div><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> “I am enclosing [a] copy of the Review of the News (a weekly magazine published by the John Birch Society]. I assume you get it. I believe you should. This has more pertinent information and timely information on the situation today than most any little, inexpensive magazines.” “If you want to get something good, solid, more-detailed articles on various subjects, I recommend American Opinion [the John Birch Society’s monthly magazine]. You should be acquainted with Scott Stanley, the managing editor of these two magazines and one of the most brilliant young editors I know.” Ezra Taft Benson, "Grandfather Benson," signed by his secretary Betty MacDonald, to Steve Benson, 11 February 1982, <a href="http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon419.htm">http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon419.htm</a><a href="http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon419.htm">mon.org/mormon/mormon419.htm</a> (accessed 12 March 2010).</div><div><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[2]</a><span style="color:#000000;"> Friday Mormon Session of General Conference, 2 October 1970.</span></div><div><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[3]</a> David E. Gumaer, "Peace Symbols: The Truth About Those Strange Designs," <em>American Opinion</em> (June 1970), 54, 55, 56.</div><div><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[4]</a> Ibid., 43.</div><div><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7809118869403074500&postID=7128296182640561297#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[5]</a> Ibid., 51.</div><br /><div>Images:</div><div>Clasped hands on Salt Lake City Temple, <a href="http://www.halesstonecarver.com/">http://www.halesstonecarver.com/</a> (accessed 12 March 2010.</div><div>Nauvoo Temple Pentagram Window, photo taken by author.</div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-38859208304778989892010-02-18T18:14:00.000-08:002010-02-18T18:18:17.089-08:00Shane Koyczan, "Atlantis," Words Aloud 2007, Canada<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4PIQLTYida4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4PIQLTYida4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-91119992441063259732010-02-03T10:21:00.000-08:002010-07-26T23:49:33.050-07:00By the laying on of WHAT???<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZAKhvgbtHkcq0e9mhOlgQEnb3YT7946xGfj9P11uVoxVId1D-rydufXqY1tfhG-leIUZxd0xZATpJzTCJNJlHAXXqVidV1UD8aGp5Vo2_OtgpUOxhWe1lxscihT6O1pUosAPfmG45eqO/s1600-h/Laying+on+of+anus2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 253px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434084520858869282" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZAKhvgbtHkcq0e9mhOlgQEnb3YT7946xGfj9P11uVoxVId1D-rydufXqY1tfhG-leIUZxd0xZATpJzTCJNJlHAXXqVidV1UD8aGp5Vo2_OtgpUOxhWe1lxscihT6O1pUosAPfmG45eqO/s400/Laying+on+of+anus2.jpg" /></a>When the 1992 Spanish edition of the Book of Mormon was first printed, a rather embarrassing typo was found on page 626. The chapter heading read "la imposicion de anos" instead of "manos"—"by the laying on of <strong>anuses</strong>". Upon realizing this error, the Church immediately recalled the Book of Mormons printed, but was unable to prevent a few of the volumes from circulating. The edition (nicknamed the “Freudian Slip edition”) has since become quite the collector's item.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikDJH-xYunW_v9NPwgtknYZ2rEWq7j89ITpMNHif4gX32UN74fvvRQSJ2AJrwNATtiBBuYPI9m9Yu8PNvQTz4ziixWz6UyIcQYPCLMZFBr0u53YrJkfCiq8N72GCCiazQ5aediiF6nuQi2/s1600-h/anus2.jpg"></a><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 282px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434087383451033586" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6na0e6Ovc-DswCruwXyHZ07BLRnYDrg64ko0_aYoKDBwl3hH4J7c9lhbooAom7p6IxtOyWXQBEgni-ghYzBR7Nx6UQi8fUPQxAtx8zw9Tc35H15ycwDiFCAWc7ayfDK-iHQf1tYqsbJV/s320/anus2.jpg" /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MJBleNhzN13EhkCWG6Mgvoox6ESuwbBTUR7a3Bw2P3qnOMtbCkvEBiTDYZcWBJyX3R04qhR7b41pN17jJxvsAcC3v-IfSJkT2vPEXPc1XkqJpCYfpdSQh47WrbbYg-_iNwCi_7sqTMvY/s1600-h/anus2.jpg"></a>This got me thinking about how LDS priesthood quorums so often argue over church policy and doctrinal interpretations. It is not uncommon, for example, to hear disagreements expressed over whether the <em>child</em> should be addressed or <em>Heavenly Father</em> during a baby's blessing. Can you imagine the arguments that could have resulted from this passage? "What are you doing elder? That is disgusting!" "No. This is what we are supposed to do. Look, it says right here, 'Laying on of Anuses!'"<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2SKMryqJWZlo3wj4_F1TvQvHkdBbB08pqFX7WWQM4IS-Y8A4DWvfs34JB8SgQqMLyqBJwJyK374SVJUpMZDhDgg0krjk_r8hvnV_36c3eQM0dJGu4OXkjK8oVIRb_-VmeM9GAfYX1gkY/s1600-h/anus2.jpg"></a>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-68018035124099829662010-01-25T10:35:00.000-08:002010-01-25T21:30:05.145-08:002009 Niblets Awards--Vote Now!The 2009 Niblets Awards (hosted by Mormon Matters) nominated this blog for "Best New Blog" and "Best Historical Post". If this blog is to win, your help is needed. Voting should only take a couple minutes. Vote for <a href="http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/25/vote-here-2009-niblets-awards/">Cultural Mormon Cafeteria</a> and all of your wildest dreams will come true!<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430749200956819874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 275px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 275px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsImH0AMW6tiP19N7rUMYk5J_argy1sc2mdyjDK4QwVKcTiTfIB0aMnq8TQBAHdQFRNd8d7ZCowp712KdV5pzCjQNAaScruxeOpqu9MtQ48uRSGnEr5accICQqrOEUmspKkTe9f4wvveFJ/s400/pedro.jpg" border="0" />Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-47459256765168169752010-01-23T01:10:00.000-08:002010-08-20T17:11:10.745-07:00Alma Matter--Does the Name Verify or Disprove the Book of Mormon's Authenticity?In my previous post on the topic of "Virginal Conception", readers may have noticed that the Hebrew word "alma" pertains to a young <em>woman</em> of marriageable age. Some critics have taken issue with this feminine word being used as a masculine name in the Book of Mormon, insisting that this discredits the scripture's historical claims. Many Mormon apologists/scholars have rebutted this accusation, even asserting that this name actually validates the Book of Mormon's authenticity. Says one apologist:<br /><blockquote>The name “Alma” must be the most amusing evidence on Book of Mormon names that we have. As Hugh Nibley has pointed out, “Roman priests have found in this obviously Latin and obviously feminine name--(who does not know that Alma Mater means "fostering mother"?)--gratifying evidence of the ignorance and naiveté of the youthful Joseph Smith--how could he have been simple enough to let such a thing get by?” Surprisingly enough, for some of us, Alma has been attested to as a male Hebrew name in a number of ancient inscriptions. In the now infamous Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical scholar Yigael Yadin discovered an inscription that he translated as Alma ben Yehuda, or “Alma son of Judah.” In another find, on clay tablets from Tell Mardikh (in northwestern Syria) we find eight different references to the personal name al6-ma on six tablets, referring to merchants who by and large were male in that period of time. The Semitic nature of this name, a variation of Akkadian, gives us great evidence of the presence of the Hebrew, male name of Alma both predating and postdating Lehi’s journey from Jerusalem. <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/az3/LDC/amww.htm#_Toc531697936">http://www.angelfire.com/az3/LDC/amww.htm#_Toc531697936</a></blockquote><br />Although I concur that the findings noted above effectively rebut the assertion challenging the Book of Mormon's authenticity... I disagree that the findings should count as evidence confirming the Book of Mormon's historical claims. Why? Because Alma was also used as a masculine name in late 18th to early 19th century America, before the Book of Mormon was published. Having spent a mere hour plugging in various surnames into the genealogical database at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/familysearch.org">familysearch.org</a>, I gathered the following forty-seven examples:<br /><br />1. Alma SMITH - Ancestral FileGender: <strong>M</strong> Birth; Married to Sarah Gates, 8 Jan 1789. Presbyterian Chk, Ballston Center, Saratoga, N Y<br />2. Alma A. Smith - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1823 , Tuscaloosa, Alabama<br />3. Alma Smith - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: About 1811 Of, Providence, Rhode Island<br />4. Alma Smith - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 30 NOV 1800 Shoreham, Addison, Vermont<br />5. Alma C. SMITH - 1880 United States Census / MinnesotaSelf Gender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1814 VT<br />6. Alma E. L. SMITH - 1880 United States Census / IndianaSelf Gender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1820 IN<br />7. Alma [chase] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: About 1793 Stephenstown, , Sullivan, New York<br />8. ALMA F. CHASE - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 10 OCT 1822 Standish, Cumberland, Maine<br />9. Alma RICHARDS - Ancestral FileGender: <strong>M </strong>Birth/Christening: Sep 1780 Of, Hartford, Hartford, Conn.<br />10. ALMA CAPRON - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 18 JAN 1793 East Greenwich, Kent, Rhode Island<br />11. Alma Harris - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male </strong>Birth: About 1803 Of, Albion, Orleans, New York<br />12. Alma L. HANSON - 1880 United States Census / MaineSelf Gender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: [1819] ME<br />13. Alma [cowdery] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 12 AUG 1805 Hartland, Hartford, Connecticut<br />14. Alma Spalding - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1790 Sheffield, Massachusetts<br />15. Alma Spalding - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 20 FEB 1796 , Connecticut<br />16. Alma Spalding - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 27 FEB 1796 New Marlboro, Berkshire, Massachusetts<br />17. Alma Otis Johnson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Other: About 1787 Of, Leyden Twp, Lewis, New York<br />18. Alma Johnson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: About 1792 Of Middletown, Connecticut<br />19. Alma Scott - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 25 APR 1792, Northampton, North Carolina<br />20. Alma R. SCOTT - Ancestral FileGender: <strong>M</strong> Birth/Christening: 4 Sep 1822 Fairfax, Franklin, Vermont<br />21. ALMA SCOTT - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 09 AUG 1786 Cornwall, Addison, Vermont<br />22. Alma Phelps - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 21 JUN 1814 Smithfield, Fayette, Pennsylvania<br />23. Almus ANDERSON - 1880 United States Census / MassachusettsSelf Gender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: [1824] MA<br />24. Alma White - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 18 JUL 1797 Upper, Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut<br />25. Alma [wait] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: About 1816 Of, Massachusetts<br />26. Alma Lee - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 19 SEP 1810 Of, Washington Twp, Dutchess, New York<br />27. Alma Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1795 Lee, Berkshire, Massachusetts<br />28. Alma Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 03 OCT 1797 Lebanon, New London, Connecticut<br />29. Alma Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 18 APR 1824 Of, Dunkirk, Chautauqua, New York<br />30. Alma J. Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1825 , Missouri<br />31. Alma STARK - 1880 United States Census / OhioFatherL Gender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: [1798] PA<br />32. ALMA LYON - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 07 JUL 1794 Of, Weston, Fairfield, Connecticut<br />33. Alma Ann [lane] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 05 MAY 1820 Billerica, Maine<br />34. Alma Roberts - Pedigree Resource FileGender: <strong>M</strong> Birth/Christening: abt 1817 Pittsford, Rutland, Vermont<br />35. Alma Young - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male </strong>Birth: Jackson, Alabama<br />36. ALMA CROSS - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 10 JAN 1790 Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts<br />37. Alma Taylor - Pedigree Resource FileGender: <strong>M</strong> Birth/Christening: 13 May 1769 York, SC<br />38. Alma Tyler - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 16 MAR 1812 Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts<br />39. Alma Ticknor Pease - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 28 JUL 1802 Of, Canaan, Columbia, New York<br />40. Alma Coe Lyman - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 26 MAR 1786 Of, Middlefield, Middlesex, Connecticut<br />41. Alma Browne - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: About 1796 Of, Greene, New York<br />42. ALMA BROWN - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1821 Peacham, Caledonia, Vermont<br />43. Alma <grant>- International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 08 SEP 1780 Fitzwilliam, Cheshire, New Hampshire<br />44. Alma Grant - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 1812 Lake Geneva, Walworth, Wisconsin<br />45. Alma [thompson] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: 27 MAY 1802 Of, Charlton, Worcester, Massachusetts<br />46. Alma Thompson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male</strong> Birth: About 1807 Of, , Caledonia, Vermont<br />47. Alma Thompson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: <strong>Male </strong>Birth: 1822 Grantsville, , Washington, New York<br /><br /><br />Does the name Alma disprove the Book of Mormon's authenticity? No. But the name doesn't <em>verify</em> its authenticity either.Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-83135413651098607042010-01-09T01:39:00.000-08:002010-01-10T23:23:38.619-08:00Announcement<a href="http://www.johnwhitmerbooks.com/">John Whitmer Books</a> and I have negotiated a contract for a book deal. If you haven't already, subscribe to this blog, and you will be among the first to know when the book is available.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 333px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 500px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4264292708_cb917c5112.jpg" border="0" /><br />John Hamer's (President of the John Whitmer Historical Association) commentary: "I can tell you, we're very excited about this book. Mike's solid, original research overturns a lot of conventional wisdom about a topic that is absolutely fascinating.... I think this is a book a lot of folks will be interested in reading."Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-81676567729559842152009-12-25T21:00:00.000-08:002016-12-08T16:52:10.913-08:00Hieros Gamos<span style="color: black; font-size: 180%;">The Problem of Virginal Conception</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><em>In reaction to dogmatic online <a href="http://www.mrm.org/virgin-birth">criticisms</a> I've read against the LDS Church this week, I decided to post this short paper (with revisions) that I wrote several years ago.</em></span><br />
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<em>[S]ince Celsus has introduced the Jew disputing with Jesus, and tearing in pieces, as he imagines, the fiction of His birth from a virgin, comparing the Greek fables about Danae, and Melanippe, and Auge, and Antiope, our answer is, that such language becomes a buffoon, and not one who is writing in serious tone.</em><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title="">[2]</a></div>
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Many early Christians rejected the parallels non-believers drew between the Christian Nativity and paganism. While defending the event as unique and true, believers (like Origen quoted above) at times attacked the critics personally, declaring them unintelligent or insincere. Other Christians admitted that parallels indeed existed, but then asserted that the pagan similarities were the mere work of the devil. Justin the Martyr wrote, “when I hear… that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title="">[3]</a><br />
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Although today’s Christian scholars may not assert that pagan similarities came by way of demonic influence, most (it would seem) maintain that their Gospel is unique and distinct from paganism. Biblical scholar Raymond Brown argues that one should not draw parallels between the virginal conception and pagan myths (whether Egyptian, Greek, or Roman), since unlike the conception of Jesus, sexual intercourse is presupposed in pagan mythology. “These ‘parallels’ consistently involve a type of hieros gamos where a divine male, in human or other form, impregnates a woman, either through normal sexual intercourse or through some substitute form of penetration,” says Brown. “[T]here is no clear example of virginal conception in the world of pagan religions that plausibly could have given first-century Jewish Christians the idea of the virginal conception of Jesus.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title="">[4]</a> Thomas Boslooper likewise insists that the “The Christian formula is unique. The idea which it contains—divine conception and human birth without anthropomorphism, sensuality, or suggestion of any moral irregularity—is to be found nowhere in the literature in the world outside the canonical biblical narratives.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title="">[5]</a> “The story is not depicted as pagan stories,” agrees Ben Witherington III, “where a god mates with a human woman, for there is no mating involved. Jesus is a gift given to Mary through a miracle [virginal conception].”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title="">[6]</a><br />
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The apologetic that Christian scholars like Brown, Boslooper, and Witherington make to disassociate Christianity from paganism, is grounded upon the same un-established premise. At risk of being called insincere, a buffoon, or an agent of Satan, I argue that it is not an established fact that the New Testament teaches virginal conception.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title="">[7]</a><br />
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Of the four gospels, only Matthew and Luke give an account of the conception and birth of Jesus. Matthew begins with angel Gabriel appearing to Joseph in a dream, after he had discovered that Mary (to whom he was betrothed) was pregnant. The angel tells Joseph, “[D]o not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title="">[8]</a> The author of Matthew then explains, quoting LXX (Greek Septuagint) Isaiah 7:14, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us.’”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title="">[9]</a><br />
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Some scholars have argued that the idea of virginal conception came about due to this Septuagint [mis]translation of Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew word almah, which simply refers to a “young woman of marriageable age,” is translated into the Greek as parthenos. And since (so it is assumed) parthenos, unlike the Hebrew almah, specifically refers to virginity, it is concluded that Greek-speaking Christians must’ve derived the concept of virginal conception from this inaccurate translation. This assertion, however, is problematic for two reasons. 1) If the Greek rendering of Isaiah 7:14 indeed spoke of virginity, then we should expect to find the interpretation among Greek-speaking Jews. Such an interpretation of this passage, however, cannot be found. Raymond Brown makes this point forcefully:<br />
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Many scholars, although they know that Isaiah did not speak of a virginal conception, think that his prophecy was thus interpreted by Greek-speaking Jews (LXX of Isa 7:14) and that this explains why Hellenistic Jewish Christians phrased their ideas about the origins of God’s Son in terms of a virginal conception. But… there is no reason to believe that the LXX of Isa 7:14 either referred to a virginal conception or was so interpreted by Jews.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title="">[10]</a> </blockquote>
2) Parthenos does not exclusively refer to virgins, but rather is a term even applied to rape victims. We read in LXX Genesis 34:1-4 of Shechem raping Dinah, who later told his father that he wanted the parthenos for his wife. Biblical scholar Charles D. Isbell explains, “there is simply no single word [whether almah, bethulah, neanis, or parthenos] in the language of the ancient Near East which carries in and of itself the idea of virgo intacta.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title="">[11]</a> There is, however, a phrase that can carry the idea. This leads us to considering the Nativity as portrayed in the Gospel of Luke.<br />
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The young woman (parthenos) Mary is informed by the angel Gabriel, “[T]hou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title="">[12]</a> Mary, seemingly confused by the news, responds, “How can this be, seeing I know not a man?”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title="">[13]</a> This phrase indicates virginity, since “know” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title="">[14]</a> Mary’s response, “I know not a man,” therefore is “the exact semantic equivalent to our English word ‘virgin.’”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title="">[15]</a> Charles Isbell believes that Luke uses this phrase specifically to present virginal conception. “Luke is at pains to present a virgin birth doctrine,” says Isbell. “Luke relies upon specific, technical legal terminology which no one could misunderstand and which writers in the ancient world had been using in the same way for hundreds of years before this time.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title="">[16]</a><br />
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Here is where Isbell and I may slightly disagree. Although I concur that Luke intends to present Mary as a virgin prior to the conception, the narrative does not say whether she remained one during and after the conception. Mary’s virginal declaration (that she had not known a man) was made prior to the event ever taking place.<br />
<br />
There is an alternative way for translating this passage, which may shed further light on Mary’s question. Biblical scholar Jane Schaberg has translated it as, “How will [estai] this be, since I have not had sexual relations with my husband [andra]?”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title="">[17]</a> Shcaberg prefers this translation because “it does not prejudice the reader to think immediately of an event that is considered physically impossible.” She further translates andra to “husband” (instead of “any man”) to alert the reader “to the possibility that the conception will be by someone other than Mary’s husband.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title="">[18]</a> Although Schaberg contends that the conception occurred through rape or seduction by another (mortal) man, the translation she gives could likewise be used to substantiate the possible scenario of Mary being impregnated sexually by deity (hieros gamos).<br />
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The angel responds to Mary’s question, saying, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title="">[19]</a> Raymond Brown believes this passage—and others like it in Matthew—compellingly present virginal conception. “[T]he human difficulty of the virginity of Mary must be overcome by divine power in the conception of Jesus. It was creatively overcome without loss of virginity through the intervention of the Holy Spirit.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title="">[20]</a> “The Holy Spirit,” he says, “is the agency of God’s creative power, not a male partner in a marriage between a deity and a woman (hieros gamos).”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title="">[21]</a> Brown remarks again, “[T]he begetting is not quasi-sexual as if God takes the place of a male principle in mating with Mary.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title="">[22]</a><br />
<br />
With these statements Brown undermines a minority view held by some, that the angel’s declaration (the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and that she’d be overshadowed by the power of the Most High<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title="">[23]</a>) carries sexual connotation.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title="">[24]</a> Such a view was promoted by the Spanish Post-Reformation Cardinal Toletus, and the modern scholar D. Daube, who believed the phrases allude to “a rabbinic debate over Ruth 3:9 where Ruth presents herself at night to Boaz as his handmaid (cf. Luke 1:38) and asks him to spread (periballein) his mantle over her.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title="">[25]</a> But even if Brown is indeed correct in his judgment for rejecting this minority view (which I am convinced remains unsettled),<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title="">[26]</a> his contention that the mere involvement of the Holy Spirit indicates non-sexual conception is weak. David T. Landry explains:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
The angel’s response to Mary’s objection does not provide clear guidance in this matter [of virginity], since it contains its own ambiguity…. Thus the angel’s words mention divine agency, but certainly they do not rule out the possibility that Mary will subsequently conceive a child in the normal human fashion (i.e. with a male partner [or even God himself]) with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. The combination of the oddity of Mary’s words and ambiguity of the angel’s response seem to place the virginal conception in some jeopardy.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title="">[27]</a></blockquote>
The doctrine of virginal conception remains an open question in the New Testament. Since the narratives do not rule out the possibility for sexual conception, there is little (or no) scriptural basis for distinguishing the Nativity from pagan mythology.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title="">[28]</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a> Virgin birth is a phrase that is often used by Catholics and Protestants in different ways. While most Protestants use it in reference to Mary’s virginal status from the conception of Jesus to his birth, Catholics additionally use it to include their belief of Mary’s perpetual virginity after birth. I am instead using the phrase virginal conception to only refer to the common Christian view that Jesus was conceived through non-sexual and entirely supernatural means.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title="">[2]</a> Origen Against Celsus, Ch 37; as found in software The Complete Christian Collection (Packard Technologies, 1999).<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title="">[3]</a> Dialogue of Justin, ch. 70; as found in software The Complete Christian Collection.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title="">[4]</a> Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1979), 523 fn 17.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title="">[5]</a> Thomas Boslooper, “Jesus’ Virgin Birth and Non-Christian ‘Parallels,’” Religion and Life (Winter, 1956-57) Vol. XXVI:1, p. 96.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title="">[6]</a> Ben Witherington III, The New Testament Story (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004), 189.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title="">[7]</a> Much like Origen’s insult to Celsus, Boslooper gives the jabbing remark: “None of these ideas are at all comparable to the biblical formula. No one who is interested in scientific objectivity would call them similar.” Thomas Boslooper, 95.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title="">[8]</a> Matt 1:21.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title="">[9]</a> v. 22-23.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title="">[10]</a> Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of The Messiah, 523-24; See also 145-49. Justin the Martyr makes note of the seemingly common Jewish interpretation of the passage, “But you [Jews] and our teachers venture to claim that in the prophecy of Isaiah it is not said, ‘Behold, the virgin will conceive,’ but, ‘Behold, the young woman will conceive, and bear a son.’” Ireneas similarly records, “The Lord Himself did save us, giving us the token of the virgin. But this was not as some allege—who presume to expound the Scripture as: ‘Behold, a young woman will conceive, and bring forth a son.’ For this as Theodotion the Ephesian has translated it, and Aquila of Pontus—both of whom are Jewish proselytes.” Tertullian notes the same: “You [the Jews] have the audacity to lie, as if the Scriptures actually said ‘a young female’ was to conceive and bring forth, rather than ‘a virgin.’”<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title="">[11]</a> Charles D. Isbell, “Does the Gospel of Matthew Proclaim Mary’s Virginity?” Biblical Archeological Review (1977), 3:2.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title="">[12]</a> Luke 1:31-32.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title="">[13]</a> Luke 1:34.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title="">[14]</a> We likewise read in Matt 1:25 that Joseph “knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.” Such a statement, however, is not a denial that deity “knew her.”<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title="">[15]</a> Charles Isbell, 30:2.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title="">[16]</a> Ibid.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title="">[17]</a> David T. Landry, Narrative Logic in the Annunciation of Mary (Luke 1:26-38), http://personal1.stthomas.edu/dtlandry/mary.html (accessed 25 December 2009).<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title="">[18]</a> Ibid.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title="">[19]</a> Luke 1:35.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title="">[20]</a> Raymond Brown, 301.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title="">[21]</a> Ibid., 137.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title="">[22]</a> Ibid, 314.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title="">[23]</a> As well as Mary’s statement that the Lord had “done great things unto [her].” Luke 1:49.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title="">[24]</a> Barbara G. Walker writes, “Mary’s impregnation was similar to Persephone’s. In her Virgin guise, Persephone sat in a holy cave and began to weave the great tapestry of the universe, when Zeus appeared as a phallic serpent, to beget the savior Dionsus on her. Mary sat in the temple and began to spin a blood-red thread, representing Life in the tapestry of fate, when the angel Gabriel ‘came in unto her’ (Luke 1:28), the biblical phrase for sexual intercourse. Gabriel’s name means literally ‘divine husband.’” Barbara G. Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983), 1049.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title="">[25]</a> Raymond Brown, 290 fn 35.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title="">[26]</a> Joseph Fitzmyer uses rather strong language, supporting the view that both he and Brown share: “There is not the slightest evidence that either of the verbs involved has ever been used in relation to sexual activity or even more broadly in connection with the conception of a child.” As quoted by David T. Landry.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title="">[27]</a> Ibid. Bracketed words added by me.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title="">[28]</a> Bart D. Ehrman wrote, “It may be that he [Luke in particular] has modeled his portrayal of Jesus for these converts from other Greco-Roman religions. He presents the story of Jesus’ birth in a way that would make sense to a pagan reader who was conversant with tales of other divine beings who walked the face of the earth, other heroes and demigods who were born of the union of a mortal with a god.” A Brief Introduction to the New Testament (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 104.Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-53473106462879555512009-12-23T12:24:00.000-08:002010-01-31T22:39:11.176-08:00Merry Xmas--'Tis the season to take offence?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDsMnlI60145Uy0zdHMcyNZKoMhOVaT17Q-4blI78_pXLl5lSkEpzfM4H7y7DLjOR-RV5weUH37IWNVVWFOPL8hjz_cnN7ULFOjC-xzAZtRzkIghbGL6OiEihHu_FoIjn5GYzxU-LOfk2/s1600-h/davidomckaymerryxmaslb7.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418531702368323234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 189px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDsMnlI60145Uy0zdHMcyNZKoMhOVaT17Q-4blI78_pXLl5lSkEpzfM4H7y7DLjOR-RV5weUH37IWNVVWFOPL8hjz_cnN7ULFOjC-xzAZtRzkIghbGL6OiEihHu_FoIjn5GYzxU-LOfk2/s400/davidomckaymerryxmaslb7.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Christmas card from David O. McKay to President Joseph F. Smith’s family, wishing them a “Merry <strong>Xmas</strong>.”</span></em></div><br /><div></div><div></div><div>Among the several responses my recent blog post received (most of which appeared on message boards) was the following remark coming from an active Latter-day Saint: “The one thing that bugs me is people writing Xmas instead of Christmas. To me that takes Christ out of Christmas."<br /><br />Sadly, the assertion echoes an attitude not all that uncommon in the LDS Church; thanks in part to the influence of Apostle Boyd K. Packer, who had expressed the same offense in a speech delivered to Brigham Young University students: “I shudder when I see the sign that says 'Merry Xmas.' It is symbolic, I suppose, of what has been done in an effort to cross Christ out of Christmas.” BYU Speeches of the Year, 1962 (delivered 19 December 1962), p. 4.<br /><br />Although such claims have been <a href="http://www.cresourcei.org/symbols/xmasorigin.html">debunked</a> time and time again, every year the controversy still manages to rear its ignoramus head. </div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-36462529436380750972009-12-12T12:34:00.000-08:002009-12-12T19:59:25.988-08:00Happy Holy Days--‘Tis the season to take offence?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilpv3xXWZXOolo4UAYPxAAZt2b4AaACRGaHFFTk7NjC8QfSI3vUnMtextjgQq8CHKPwma1238oRjaMyfCt9-dMmsOv7_qgzcECSR9iIGP8LEuADE-B4aFC8D7R65bGYOvpTr7GpNHEmPs_/s1600-h/Holy+Day.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414451254752729442" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 117px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 151px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilpv3xXWZXOolo4UAYPxAAZt2b4AaACRGaHFFTk7NjC8QfSI3vUnMtextjgQq8CHKPwma1238oRjaMyfCt9-dMmsOv7_qgzcECSR9iIGP8LEuADE-B4aFC8D7R65bGYOvpTr7GpNHEmPs_/s400/Holy+Day.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Last week I made the “mistake” of telling an elderly woman leaving my place of employment, “Thanks for coming in. Happy Holidays.”<br /><br />She quickly shot back, “No, it is <em>Merry Christmas!</em>”<br /><br />“Yes mam. Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year,” I replied, hoping she would understand that I wasn’t excluding Christmas with the phrase, but rather was including other holidays along with it.<br /><br />She reacted more frustrated than ever, shaking her head and finger (in unison, in fact), “This is about religious freedom... This is about freedom of speech... your employer has no right to tell you what to say,” yadda, yadda, yadda.<br /><br />I thought, “Religion? I am agnostic. Freedom of speech? That’s ironic. Isn’t it YOU who is telling me what to say?”<br /><br />But I bit my tongue.<br /><br />“I’m sorry, mam. No... They didn’t tell me what to say. Merry Christmas.”<br /><br />The woman’s friend (obviously embarrassed by the scene she was making) gave a disapproving nudge, and they finally made their way to the door. Just before their exit, the lady (who had previously taken offence) turned around, smiled and said, “Thank you for saying ‘Merry Christmas.’”<br /><br />She left satisfied--at the expense of me feeling bullied and anything but the Christmas spirit.<br /><br />Later I realized that my company’s policy <em>actually is</em> for their employees to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”<br /><br />Sigh...<br /><br />To avoid future confrontation at my place of work, I will therefore opt to say neither. For the rest of the year I will instead be telling people, “Have a great day/good night” or “Enjoy the rest of your weekend.”<br /><br />Are we all happy now?</div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-513251663477716712009-11-13T13:53:00.000-08:002009-11-19T03:07:55.294-08:00Brigham Young's Masonic Cipher<span style="color:#333333;">The following[1] entry is given in Brigham Young's diary, dated January 6th, 1842: </span><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><span style="color:#333333;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403718150083113170" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 360px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDFZCZanGMhhpyZzhebW2YgCSd6UFL6E54i_z5O-BO4rgKpN1KlA3AzJLPTfTyxAxE8OdlBt5D6hWpl0mCbyWWGuhKAmmZJXec75VERlueMjBLBVY85oOUW3CtOr6Ga55TLGCffzCzT2Z/s400/BY_Cipher.gif" border="0" /></span> <div><div><div><div><div><div><span style="color:#333333;">The characters Brigham Young used in his encrypted text are similar to this[2] Royal Arch cipher recorded in Oliver Huntington’s journal two years later, January 21, 1844: </span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="color:#333333;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403718429478938370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 164px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUKFgoGamBqdgy3aX0G-I7tRZLTVJXyMfuUd9QOvkAwDDG0LYXiSRZ0kFoceNJhZVocVPg4fNJbFb5QLFY1msHzLRf243jayFzr1IB0J3wrUxAVEo68bOelNvx5aEaLYtx8v0TRP7nWhb/s400/RAcipher_OBH_1844.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><div><span style="color:#333333;">Ciphers like this were published and circulated widely in anti-Masonic exposes in Joseph Smith and Brigham Young’s day. The possible relationship between Brigham Young’s cipher and Royal Arch freemasonry is of particular interest, as it provides additional evidence to confirm that the Saints indeed had access to secrets of Royal Arch freemasonry before Joseph Smith was formally initiated (on March 15, 1842), and before the Nauvoo endowment was introduced shortly thereafter (May 4, 1842).[3] </span></div><div><br /><span style="color:#333333;">I mentioned Brigham Young’s encrypted journal entry online recently, identifying the cipher with Royal Arch freemasonry. But to my surprise, one LDS apologist (writing under an anonymous pseudonym and claiming to be Mason) denied that the cipher Young employed was even a Royal Arch cipher at all: </span></div><br /><blockquote><span style="color:#333333;">Folks, this is NOT the Royal Arch cipher--no matter who says it is. There are no closed triangles in the Royal Arch cipher used all over America and most of England (only one Chapter in England of which I am aware ever used closed triangles, and that was Friendship Chapter, R.A.M., in 1769, but even these differed from what is in the above scan of the journal), nor are there intersected characters such as like a ┴ symbol therein in the Royal Arch cipher. It may be based upon a Royal Arch cipher but it is more likely based upon a similar form of cipher upon which Royal Arch cipher is derived, having a common but divergent source. Even the Royal Arch cipher is said to be based upon a previously existing cipher scheme. [4] </span></blockquote></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">I asked the apologist to substantiate his claim that the cipher was “more likely based upon a similar form of cipher upon which Royal Arch cipher is derived, having a common but divergent source.” He then quoted historian Arturo de Hoyos:</span></div><div><br /><blockquote><span style="color:#333333;">The Royal Arch cipher used in the United States is actually a variation of a Hebrew Qabalistic cipher known as aiq beker or "the Qabalah of Nine Chambers." {24}<br /><br />*****<br /><br />{fn. 24} Compare Francis Barrett, The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer (London: Lackington, Allen and Co., 1801), 2:65 (illus. fac. p. 66); E.A.W. Budge, Amulets and Superstitions (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), pp. 402-405; S.L. MacGregor Mathers, The Kabbalah Unvailed (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1926), p. 10. As an amusing side-note, I add that while writing the first version of this paper (1992) my then nine-year-old son presented me a message in the R.A. cipher which he hoped would confound me. When I asked him for the source he retrieved A Big Color Activity Book: Nintendo Super Mario Bros. (Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Co., 1989), p. 42. So much for Masonic secrecy! [5]<br /><br /></span></blockquote><div><span style="color:#333333;">As will later be seen, the apologist’s use of Arturo de Hoyos as an authority on the matter ended up biting him in the end.<br /><br />He additionally posted an image of a source that Arturo de Hoyos had cited—a page found in </span><a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/magus/"><span style="color:#333333;">Francis Barrett’s The Magus</span></a><span style="color:#333333;"> (1801): </span></div><span style="color:#333333;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403721106026943042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 314px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox1D2rGXtFR2hoXU7XlOhfivIIBUnzfUHEFUTiK_6w-SIUapZ5nLq1p7NF0HwEl4n4GmYOnBTdDIcqGkJ5BSFnS2pwM9IfWHlJ18LNXJjXtDYP9y0lQX4npjs5VOdUXj7GUAeE-4KVJMS/s400/magus.jpg" border="0" />He neglected to explain, however, exactly <em>how</em> Arturo de Hoyos’s commentary (which said nothing about Brigham Young, or his journal entry) confirmed that the cipher Young employed was “more likely based upon a similar form of cipher upon which Royal Arch cipher is derived, having a common but divergent source.” He remained convinced that the ┴ illustrated on Barrett’s page was beyond coincidence (although triangles were entirely missing in the illustration). “The ┴ character most certainly came from the Qabalistic cipher,” insisted the apologist.<br /><br />Being intreagued by this apologetic, I decided to further research Brigham Young’s cipher. As luck would have it, Arturo de Hoyos was the first scholar to have translated Young’s journal entry. De Hoyos decoded the entry as follows:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><p align="center"><span style="color:#333333;">I WAS TAKEN INTO THE LODGE </span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#333333;">J SMITH W[eded]A[nd]S[ealed] AGNESS[6]</span></p></blockquote><span style="color:#333333;">I spent about an hour, toying around with the entry and translation. My hypotheses being: 1) the inverted "T" figures were just that—<em>inverted T's</em>; 2) the triangles were actually the V-shaped characters (having the third line drawn to make them complete triangles). I then drew the template for the Royal Arch cipher key, and compared Arturo de Hoyos' translation to the characters in Brigham Young's journal entry, to see where they fell (plugging in my results, later filling in missing letters not found in the journal entry). My hoped for result: that the letters would appear on the grid in an alphabetical order, and therefore show (at least) a dependence on the Royal Arch cipher.<br /><br />The results[7] of my experiment:<br /><br /></span><div></div><span style="color:#333333;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403722538621184242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 216px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsitLUEHnWcVUk72LqLmGcyCEErwPMjiiDy22nd5_Q9rtUMUuJxz0K4T5I_1jrcrCLmkpMK3xGfx_zCxbcc5TVImF3hWT7zZHIg3OhStVJfuYF7uc8wkBegnFCHrCXkBqzGuzKJkKDseli/s400/Young's+cipher+key.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403722943825772674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQiPuo3t_2IMWAfwe7yrOfsEAkU-hwxl9dg49qM05xuDYlH7grjcNDXC3WX4Dej_GmPNaBRBopskRsPvqohkQo4Nq1rxuTswhdtfepZoJHlK5REutN4oufhjJwj4LkCqpwfU8iDW7ohHE/s400/Young's+cipher+key2.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /></span><div><span style="color:#333333;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403723080190450898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 429px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 324px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgREQGc8BvGOusP9MACdP5egAdD2gq5tBL5bjoKE1NJ1PYgS4_E5PcPnJCA9U_wSQnnJWxt9Um-xEXO7lFO_h0Q6l71KBP2fNLPNzsAOQu8p811GV70FNFdnh11BjQSV409_Vp5H_YZf4z9/s400/Young's+cypher3.jpg" border="0" />As one can see, the cipher characters for letters A-R are identical to the Royal Arch cipher transcribed by Oliver Huntington two years later<br /><br />The S-Z portion of the key:<br /><br />1) letter "T" was removed from the sequence and simply inverted<br />2) the V-shaped characters are completed as triangles<br />3) the triangles were reversed (pointing in opposite directions)<br /><br />It is also notable that Brigham Young made a few careless errors while encrypting his journal entry: He correctly encrypted the "H" when writing "SMITH", but messed up when writing "THE". He correctly encrypted the "S" when writing "SMITH", "WAS", and "WAS" (a second time as an acronym for "WEDDED AND SEALED"), but then messed up when writing "AGNESS". He messed up both of the times that he encrypted "O"; when writing "INTO" and "LODGE".<br /><br />The journal entry had five errors out of thirty-six characters—92.8% correct. This percentage is comparable to an encrypted text found on this[8] Royal Arch medal:<br /></span></div><span style="color:#333333;"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 457px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 795px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3779/royalarchcipherhistoryo.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><div><span style="color:#333333;">Five errors out of forty-one characters—only 91.8% correct. Adding or omitting dots in the characters, or reversing the their orientation, were very common errors to make. Brigham Young was of no exception.<br /><br />One can see that this Royal Arch cipher key above is slightly different than the one Oliver Huntington recorded in his diary. As it turns out, several (if not countless) versions of the Royal Arch cipher exist—a fact that severely undermines the apologist’s argument, which assumed that Brigham Young’s cipher wasn’t a “Royal Arch” cipher at all, simply because it was different from the one he (the apologist) was most familiar with.<br /><br />Although other forms of the Royal Arch cipher can be listed here, I will instead share an email[9] that I received from Arturo de Hoyos, the historian that the apologist relied upon to challenge my initial claim (posted with permission): </span></div><blockquote><p><span style="color:#333333;">Mike,<br /><br />Yes, I am the person who first decoded Brigham Young's January 6, 1842 journal entry. <u>It was indeed written in a form of the Royal Arch cipher</u>. However, there are many permutations of this substitution cipher. The letters may be placed in almost order in order to make it more secure. I believe that Brigham rearranged the letters for this very reason. </span></p><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;">The Masonic exposures of the Morgan episode merely revealed the *simplest* and *most common* forms. You note that you have been unable to find a form with all the symbols used. Subsequent to decoding the diary entry I have seen manuscripts which employ all the symbols Brigham used. It is, in essence, quite unsophisticated.<br /><br />I'm happy that you've enjoyed "</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Committed-Flames-History-Rituals-Masonic/dp/0853182930"><span style="color:#333333;">Committed to the Flames</span></a><span style="color:#333333;">." It was a fun project.<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br />Arturo de Hoyos, 33°, Grand Cross, KYCH<br />Grand Archivist and Grand Historian<br />Supreme Council, 33°, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.</span></p></blockquote><div><span style="color:#333333;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">Oddly enough... even after I presented this information, the apologist continues to insist that he is right. Go figure.</span></div><div><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#333333;">___________________<br /><br />[1] Image from </span><a href="http://www.masonicmoroni.com/Images3.htm"><span style="color:#333333;">http://www.masonicmoroni.com/Images3.htm</span></a></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[2] <em>Ibid</em>.</span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[3] Royal Arch freemasonry contains important masonic parallels to the LDS temple endowment, and therefore appears to be a probable source from which Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (who, with the help of Wilford Woodruff and others, revised the endowment after Smith’s death) drew their inspiration.<br /></span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[4] </span><a href="http://www.mormonapologetics.org/topic/45897-mormons-masons-temple/page__view__findpost__p__1208742878"><span style="color:#333333;">http://www.mormonapologetics.org/topic/45897-mormons-masons-temple/page__view__findpost__p__1208742878</span></a></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[5] </span><a href="http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/royal_arch_word.html"><span style="color:#333333;">Arturo de Hoyos, "The Mistery of the Royal Arch Word," Heredom vol. 2 (1993), 11 and fn 24</span></a><span style="color:#333333;">.</span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[6] Arturo De Hoyos decoded this entry on May 21, 1991; as cited in Tim Rathbone's article, <em><a href="http://www.masonicmoroni.com/Documents/bymcpap1210.htm#N_33_"><span style="color:#333333;">Brigham Young's Masonic Connection and Nauvoo Plural Marriages</span></a></em>, fn 32.</span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[7] Three images created by author.</span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[8] </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4CdEDWgzIFcC&pg=PA1366#v=onepage&q=&f=false"><span style="color:#333333;">Everett R. Turnbull and Ray V. Denslow, <em>A History of Royal Arch Masonry</em> (1956) vol. 3, p. 1366-67</span></a><span style="color:#333333;">.</span></div><div><span style="color:#333333;">[9] Arturo de Hoyos, email to author, 30 October 2009.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-34395436120001577712009-10-29T19:34:00.000-07:002009-10-29T19:38:52.155-07:00Brigham Young's Masonic Cipher KeyMy next blog post will be about this masonic cypher key. Stay tuned...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaq-dkAgro-sCPx6TiDihKy39Bzcs5rTjlT6HWIdLUK6KONlmTkqZkKMtODIbheeCrG2J5HMh1t5T2D6gMzM913Y_vntufv63b0t3Kg1hRr-WqHvW8B8yEU6cy2U5y1kwlqeDYx3abchIq/s1600-h/Young's+cipher+key.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398216482253100482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 216px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaq-dkAgro-sCPx6TiDihKy39Bzcs5rTjlT6HWIdLUK6KONlmTkqZkKMtODIbheeCrG2J5HMh1t5T2D6gMzM913Y_vntufv63b0t3Kg1hRr-WqHvW8B8yEU6cy2U5y1kwlqeDYx3abchIq/s400/Young's+cipher+key.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-65040621869467598012009-10-12T00:17:00.000-07:002009-10-12T16:59:31.026-07:00From the Finger of Jehovah to Consecrated Enemas<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cqig-KXUgz4b_4-DwH8qlYGmp2_7okqPCa77ulHhdJS3a4w1wydz9mixeh70_qn11e65ZGPq7imDZPYwENyIkTBHmZuA_TTkozKV_ERvsmphXohFLa56JUk1Mye-f2b3erLY0bTBY7P9/s1600-h/consecrated+oil.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391616680943324562" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 55px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 126px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cqig-KXUgz4b_4-DwH8qlYGmp2_7okqPCa77ulHhdJS3a4w1wydz9mixeh70_qn11e65ZGPq7imDZPYwENyIkTBHmZuA_TTkozKV_ERvsmphXohFLa56JUk1Mye-f2b3erLY0bTBY7P9/s400/consecrated+oil.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div align="left"><strong>Healing Canes<br /></strong><br />Since my last blog post on Joseph Smith’s cane and folk-magic, the following statement from Brigham Young’s 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency, Apostle Heber C. Kimball (1857), was brought to my attention: </div><div align="left"><br /><blockquote><p>How much would you give for even a cane that Father Abraham had used? or a coat or ring that the Saviour had worn? The rough oak boxes in which the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought from Carthage, were made into canes and other articles. I have a cane made from the plank of one of those boxes, so as brother Brigham and a great many others, and we prize them highly, and esteem them a great blessing. I want to carefully preserve my cane, and when I am done with it here, I shall hand it down to my heir, with instructions to him to do the same. And the day will come when there will be multitudes who will be healed and blessed through the instrumentality of those canes, and the devil cannot overcome those who have them, in consequence of their faith and confidence in the virtues connected with them.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a><br /></p></blockquote></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong>Quinn’s Commentary<br /></strong><br />Historian D. Michael Quinn astutely observes a relationship between healing objects (such as the canes mentioned above) and the LDS practice of anointing the sick that has continued into the 21st century:</div><blockquote><div align="left">Healing objects such as handkerchiefs, canes, and cloaks probably had limited use among Mormons. Compared to the many accounts of seer-stone divination, there are relatively few references to LDS healing relics. Nevertheless, Mormons throughout the world still use consecrated olive oil to heal in connection with the priesthood ordinance of administering to the sick. If asked about this now, most Mormons would answer that applying special oil to the head during a religious ordinance is purely symbolic.<br /><br />That definition falters in view of the nineteenth-century Mormon practice of applying the oil directly to the part of the body to be healed. Until the twentieth-century, even LDS apostles drank consecrated oil for internal maladies.<br /><br />Modern church authorities have specifically instructed that “taking consecrated oil internally, or using it for anointing or rubbing afflicted parts of the body, is not part of the ordinance of administering to the sick.” This seems to recognize the folk-magic dimensions in early Mormon use of consecrated oil.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a></div></blockquote><div align="left">Rather than challenge one of Quinn’s claims, as I did in my last post, this blog entry will instead support and substantiate Quinn’s comments pertaining to the perception of consecrated oil in early Mormon culture.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Finger of Jehovah</strong><br /><br />Orson Pratt (1879) explained that Latter-day Saints understood the consecrated oil to have been touched by the finger of God, and that this contact was the means by which the oil became charged with supernatural power. Pratt compared the Brother of Jared story (found in the Book of Mormon) to the LDS ritual of consecrating olive oil: </div><div align="left"><br /><blockquote>The brother of Jared had gone up into the mountain, and had moulten out of a rock sixteen small stones, which he carried up into the top of the mount. He went there with an object in view; the object was to get the Lord to touch the stones that they might shine forth in darkness in the eight vessels, (which had been built to convey him and his brother across the great waters) one to be placed at each end of each of the vessels. It would naturally increase the faith of the brother of Jared, to believe it possible that he might see the finger of the Lord. He was going to pray that God would touch the stones, the same as we pray for the Lord to put forth his finger and touch the particles of oil, when we dedicate it, for sacred purposes. If we pray in faith, we must suppose that the finger touches the oil. And Jared prayed in faith, He did not know but what it might be his privilege to see his finger. He did see it; it appeared to him like he finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a></blockquote></div><div align="left">Latter-day Saints previously reported seeing the finger of God touching the oil as they had consecrated it. “[W]hile consecrating a bottle of oil,” wrote Zebede Coltrin in his diary (1870), “we saw visibly the finger of God enter the mouth of the bottle.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a><br /><br /><br /><strong>Application of Consecrated Oil<br /></strong><br />Believing that consecrated oil was charged with supernatural healing powers, Latter-day Saints (as explained by Quinn) applied the oil to various parts of the body, even taking the oil internally by drinking it, in hopes to cure an unlimited number of ailments. Elder Abel Evans (1813-1866) applied consecrated oil to the face of a Welch woman allegedly afflicted by cancer,<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5">[5]</a> and for a cold remedy, both Caroline Crosby and Louisa Pratt applied consecrated oil to Johnny Tait’s “throat and stomach, and more of the same taken internally with a dose of molasses.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6">[6]</a> William Clayton recorded in his journal (January 18, 1840) how he, Hiram Clark, Wilford Woodruff, and Theodore Turley had administered to a sister that they had found to be “quite insensible.” As these brethren administered to her, they “anointed her head and gave her some oil inwardly.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7">[7]</a> Benjamin Brown recounted a story (pre-1845) about a poisoned woman who had become blind and nearly dead. According to Brown, she regained her strength after taking the oil internally, but remained blind. Brown then anointed her eyes that “she should see the light of day.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8">[8]</a> Hezekiah Mitchell reported (1847) that he had administered consecrated oil “internally” to a girl allegedly suffering from typhus fever.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9">[9]</a> Eliza Jane Merrick asserted (1849) that she had administered to her sister by anointing “her chest with the oil” and “gave her some inwardly.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10">[10]</a> The consecrated oil was also used to heal the Saints from spiritual ailments. Brigham Young, for example, instructed (1860) those who were struggling to discern the will of God, saying, “A great many do not discern this, because they have not eyes to see, nor ears to hear.” His solution: “Anoint your eyes and pour oil in your ears, and pray that your hearts may be softened and your minds quickened to understand.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11">[11]</a> While still residing in Nauvoo, Brigham Young administered to himself, taking the consecrated oil internally. Not only did he drink consecrated olive oil, but he also injected himself with consecrated enemas.</div><div align="left"><blockquote>Bro[ther] Howard Egan called upon me in relation to Bro[ther] H. S. Sherman discontinuing his services on the western line with him. I told him Bro[ther] Shermans state of health required him to discontinue traveling that he might bestow more attention upon himself and use remedies to entirely cure himself of the piles and tumor he was afflicted with. Howard then left. I told Bro[ther] S. & S. Sherman yesterday that I had been obliged to use a syringe since my sickness in Nauvoo, and now I could not live months without using it; I believe the the [sic] frequent use of it has considerably benefitted my health as I am much better now than I have been for years. I enjoy my food much better that [sic] I used years ago. The use of the syringe strengthens my bowels I am persuaded that in nine cases out of ten the bowels become deranged before the stomach does, and the bowels being deranged soon affect the stomach. I charge the syringe frequently with composition sometimes I mix consecrated oil with it.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12">[12]</a> </blockquote></div><div align="left">By the 1890s, there arose a disagreement among the saints over “using consecrated oil for such common purposes as burns, warts, or for enemas in cases of pinworms or other internal disorders.” Some saints believed the head was the only appropriate place on the body to be anointed during the administration. To this assertion, one LDS author replied, </div><div align="left"><blockquote>Well, if the oil is meant only to be used on the head I have never found it out. If a wart is not a sickness it certainly is an evidence of unhealthy secretions in the blood, and what is sickness but a departure from health? If we could only put the faith in the oil that we do in the worm lozenges or in the rabbit’s foot, the cure would be on quite as natural principles and would moreover be in accordance with our revealed religion.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13">[13]</a></blockquote></div><div align="left">Olive oil continued to be “the most used medicine of my community,” said a Mormon woman about her upbringing in Clarkston Utah during the first half of the 20th century. </div><div align="left"><blockquote><p>It was consecrated by the elders of the church for the healing of the sick and was found in every home. People used it in spiritual therapy. The patient was anointed with it and then administered to by the elders. It was taken as a cure for appendicitis. Mixed with grains of sugar, it was given for coughs and croup. Combined with a few drops of camphor, it followed the stinging mustard plaster. It relieved sunburn and scratches, was applied to the scalp for dandruff, and was mixed with soda into paste for severe burns. </p><p>Bishop Ravsten said at the bedside of one sick patient, “I feel prompted to oil the bowels.” An olive oil enema was given. The one result I remember was that the syringe was ruined.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14">[14]</a> </p></blockquote></div><div align="left">Second counselor in the First Presidency (and soon to be president) argued in favor of taking the oil internally, and anointing various parts of the body.</div><div align="left"><blockquote>Pres J.[oseph] F.[ielding] Smith [senior] spoke to us on the principles of Faith and Prayer. Said it was absurd for men to pour a drop of oil on the top of the head and pray that it might permeate the whole being. We should annoint the sick all over and give them oil inwardly. Pres. Cannon also spoke on the same subject.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15">[15]</a></blockquote></div><div align="left">By the 1950s, however, church authorities restricted the administration of oil to the head only. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles compiled and published statements from John A. Widtsoe that they believed (as the compilation’s title indicates) provided propper guidelines for the Priesthood and Church Government in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of those statements compiled prohibited internal anointings, “Giving consecrated oil internally is not a part of the administration and should not be done.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16">[16]</a><br /><br />Propper protocol for administering to the sick was further defined by apostle (and later Prophet) Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. (son of Joseph F. Smith senior previously cited), discouraging internal anointings, and restricting the "crown of the head" as the only appropriate area to apply the oil: </div><div align="left"><blockquote>“It it proper to anoint the afflicted parts of the body?”<br /><br />No. The anointing should be on the crown of the head. (It could be a matter of impropriety to anoint afflicted parts of the body.)<br /><br />“Is it permissible to administer the oil internally?”<br /><br />No. Taking the oil internally is not part of the administration. If persons who are ill wish to take oil internally, they are not forbidden, but many sicknesses will not be improved by oil in the stomach.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17">[17]</a> </blockquote></div><div align="left">Bruce R. McConkie (of the quorum of the Seventy, and later Apostle) reaffirmed this protocol: “Taking consecrated oil internally, or using it for anointing or rubbing afflicted parts of the body, is not part of the ordinance of administering to the sick.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18">[18]</a><br /><br />The policy is now stated explicitly in the Church Handbook of Instructions: “Members should not take consecrated oil internally or apply it on afflicted parts of the body.”<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19">[19]</a><br /></div><br /><br /><div align="left">__________________________</div><br /><br /><div align="left"><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> <em>Journal of Discourses</em>, 4:294.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> D. Michael Quinn, <em>Early Mormonism and the Magic World View</em> (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1988), 317.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> <em>Journal of Discourses</em>, 21:198-99<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> <em>Remarks of Zebedee Coltrin on Kirtland, Ohio History of the Church</em> (source: Minutes of High Priest Meeting, Spanish Fork, Utah, February 5, 1870), http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/ZebC.html (accessed 11 October 2009).<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> George Q. Cannon, <em>Early Scenes in Church History: Eighth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series </em>(Salt Lake City, 1882), 38, In New Mormon Studies: A Comprehensive Library. CD-ROM. Smith Research Associates, 1998.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6">[6]</a> Edward Leo Lyman, <em>San Bernardino: The Rise and Fall of a California Community</em> (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), 309, In New Mormon Studies: A Comprehensive Library.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7">[7]</a> George D. Smith, <em>An Intimate Chronicle; The Journals of William Clayton</em> (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 6.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8">[8]</a> George Q. Cannon, <em>Gems for the Young Folks: Fourth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series</em> (Salt Lake City, 1881), 71, In New Mormon Studies: A Comprehensive Library.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9">[9]</a> Orson Pratt, <em>Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon</em> (Liverpool, England, 1850-51), 75, In New Mormon Studies: A Comprehensive Library.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10">[10]</a> Merrick 1849, 205; as cited in Linda King Newell, “LDS Women and Priesthood: The Historical Relationship of Mormon Women and Priesthood,” <em>Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought</em>, vol. 18, no. 3 (Fall 1985): 23.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11">[11]</a> <em>Journal of Discourses</em> 8:31.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12">[12]</a> <em>Brigham Young Office Journals—Exceprts</em> (1853-62), In New Mormon Studies: A Comprehensive Library.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13">[13]</a> <em>The Deseret Weekly</em> (11 March 1893) vol. 46 p. 370, http://books.google.com/books?id=k2PUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA370# (accessed 11 October 2009).<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14">[14]</a> Ann Hansen, “Utah State University Folklore Collection: Folk Medicine from Clarkston, Utah,” <em>Western Folklore</em>, vol. 18, no. 2 (April 1959): 111.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15">[15]</a> Ruth May Fox, Diary 1894-1939, typescript, MS 5469, June 3, 1900, LDS Church Archives; as cited by J. Stapley, “Consecrated Oil as Medical Therapy,” <em>By Common Consent</em> (blog, 17 April 2007), http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/04/17/consecrated-oil-as-medical-therapy/ (accessed 11 October 2009).<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16">[16]</a> John A. Widstoe (“compiled under the direction of the Council of the Twelve”), <em>Priesthood and Church Government in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</em> (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1950), 356-57, http://books.google.com/books?id=c5PPdYbWFUMC&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133# (accessed 11 October 2009).<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17">[17]</a> Joseph Fielding Smith, <em>Answers to Gospel Questions</em> (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book co., 1957), 1:148.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18">[18]</a> Bruce R. McConkie, <em>Mormon Doctrine</em> (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 22.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19">[19]</a> <em>Church Handbook of Instructions</em> (1999 edition), 30.</div></div>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7809118869403074500.post-17277019327302505782009-09-27T10:42:00.000-07:002010-07-02T22:56:36.338-07:00Joseph Smith Jr’s Cane: A “Thing of Nature”?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDaACgScEs_dlt2lFw3LeuWQwr7MO-ctkXg1y1_Vkgd2BX4bXq7fTKs5CSiaS_qFvHihmrVg4fa_DzbDZ53PecoskkeqmwNe2HstTWHADKyC4BB31ByjvXtbz7xrUNzWgAN0DNpLHt0G_g/s1600-h/smith+cane.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 144px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386216420014668722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDaACgScEs_dlt2lFw3LeuWQwr7MO-ctkXg1y1_Vkgd2BX4bXq7fTKs5CSiaS_qFvHihmrVg4fa_DzbDZ53PecoskkeqmwNe2HstTWHADKyC4BB31ByjvXtbz7xrUNzWgAN0DNpLHt0G_g/s320/smith+cane.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="color:#666666;">To begin this post, perhaps a quick note is appropriate: It is my position that no clear cut line between <em>magic</em> and <em>religion</em> exists. The two categories overlap in many ways. A minority group of scholars argue that this overlap, coupled with the fact that the word has been tinged by polemic use, is justification enough to abandon the word <em>magic</em> altogether. I, however, side with the majority of scholars who remain convinced that both terms can be useful in academic discourse. The word <em>magic</em> should not be thrown away any more than the word <em>religion</em> should be. But with that being said, I do share the concern that the word has been tinged by a polemic past. For this reason, I have favored the more nuanced appellation <em>folk-magic</em> when discussing the magical practices of early Mormons.</span><br /><br />_________________________________________________<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDaACgScEs_dlt2lFw3LeuWQwr7MO-ctkXg1y1_Vkgd2BX4bXq7fTKs5CSiaS_qFvHihmrVg4fa_DzbDZ53PecoskkeqmwNe2HstTWHADKyC4BB31ByjvXtbz7xrUNzWgAN0DNpLHt0G_g/s1600-h/smith+cane.jpg"></a><br /><span style="color:#000000;">A walking cane that Joseph Smith Jr. used when attending formal occasions in Nauvoo, has been an object of controversy in Mormon scholarship over the past two decades. The cane is carved in the shape of a serpent, having (among other things) a shield with Joseph Smith’s initials (“J S”) engraved into it.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDaACgScEs_dlt2lFw3LeuWQwr7MO-ctkXg1y1_Vkgd2BX4bXq7fTKs5CSiaS_qFvHihmrVg4fa_DzbDZ53PecoskkeqmwNe2HstTWHADKyC4BB31ByjvXtbz7xrUNzWgAN0DNpLHt0G_g/s1600-h/smith+cane.jpg"></a><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Historian D. Michael Quinn, in his ground breaking book <em>Early Mormonism and the Magic World View</em>, argues that this symbolism on the cane reveals Joseph Smith’s belief and involvement in astrology and talismanic magic. Quinn brings his reader’s attention to an “x” on the crown found directly above the shield, and says that although some may think this is Saint Andrew’s cross, there are no other Christian symbols on the cane—unless you interpret the serpent as a symbol of the devil (which he thinks unlikely)—and so it is more probable that the “x” is instead the magic sigil of Jupiter.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><span style="color:#000000;">[1]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span><br /><br /><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Although I agree with Quinn that Smith’s cane was probably (at least partially) related to his involvement in folk-magic, I respectfully disagree with his interpretation of the symbolism illustrated thereon. Contrary to what he implies, the serpent is not exclusively a motif for Satan in Christianity. The serpent has also been a symbol for Christ, at times alluding to the bronze serpent Moses lifted, which had the power to heal those who had been bitten by the poisonous vipers, if only they would look to it and live.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><span style="color:#000000;">[2]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> The <em>New Testament</em> comments on this symbolism, saying, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3"><span style="color:#000000;">[3]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> The <em>Book of Mormon</em> remarks further:</span></div><blockquote><p align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">[A]s he [Moses] lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come. And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4"><span style="color:#000000;">[4]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span></p></blockquote><div align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0Mp0_LTb_5v8CSjSrGlytswpTAPYqXoEZG7ViFGabcHTiDyGD_qUBVUEqDVOYpDm-1-rttBp7rwJ6b3p9uxjcU6HWNiLWTyNssso9IwdZrWbjaA98OTPDuIiM0uKE8QVVqOMFtXZAH6Q/s1600-h/masonic+jewel.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 223px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 229px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386212469347307426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0Mp0_LTb_5v8CSjSrGlytswpTAPYqXoEZG7ViFGabcHTiDyGD_qUBVUEqDVOYpDm-1-rttBp7rwJ6b3p9uxjcU6HWNiLWTyNssso9IwdZrWbjaA98OTPDuIiM0uKE8QVVqOMFtXZAH6Q/s320/masonic+jewel.jpg" /></span></a></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Several Masons promoted this imagery, illustrating in their artwork the serpent on the staff (or cross). But perhaps most significantly and most relevant to Smith’s cane, Freemasons additionally used the imagery of the “rod of Aaron” in their rituals, which, according to the <em>Old Testament</em>, had turned into a serpent to devour the serpent-rods owned by the Pharaoh’s magicians.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5"><span style="color:#000000;">[5]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Historian Mark C. Carnes explains that Royal Arch Masons lowered initiates through a secret passageway, into a vault where they would find “a chest ‘having on its top several mysterious characters.’ Inside were a pot of manna, Aaron’s rod, and the ‘long lost book of the law.’”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6"><span style="color:#000000;">[6]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> Since the Old Testament says the rod “was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds,” Royal Arch Freemasons therefore designed their Masonic prop with artificial (or real) buds. </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Interestingly, this description of the rod (bringing forth buds) seemed a possible explanation for the curious circular protrusion shown on the cane in one of Quinn’s photos, just below the shield. But Quinn’s photos, as helpful as they may have been, did not allow me to view the rest of the object. Had more of these protrusions existed on Smith’s cane, I might be on to something. During my trip to SLC this summer, I finally had the chance to view the entire cane for myself at the <em>Museum of Church History and Art</em>. As can be seen in this photograph that I took during my tour of the museum, the cane (from the shield down) is absolutely covered with these “buds”. </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386215828768391938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijeGIoCuLVwTAS87rnF_Jas18M_WApBfAXOdO1K_i_-t-nzcj7H4-Dv6R8rQ0JBCtK8plmTOrcW8ZVO5YqBwnVmjAjoMnvf5Gn4HL_e0ieoAiOmESrhxlWnUw4tOui9TDBv7Hst9-swH2H/s320/DSC01355.JPG" /> </span><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Now back to the “x” on the crown: Would this symbol be appropriate for a cane representing the rod of Aaron? And if the answer is “yes,” would such symbolism be of particular interest to Masons and Joseph Smith Jr? Masons believed that when Aaron was appointed High Priest, Moses marked his forehead with either a + or x shaped cross. “[I]n the ancient Hebrew,” wrote Freemason Albert Mackey, the figure of the tau “x, or +, was that of the cross.”<br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><blockquote><p align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">This tau, tau cross, or tau mark, was of very universal use as a sacred symbol among the ancients… [I]t is a sign of salvation; according to Talmudists, the symbol was much older than the time of Ezekiel, for they say that when Moses anointed Aaron as the high priest, he marked his forehead with this sign.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7"><span style="color:#000000;">[7]</span></a></p></blockquote><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">When a Mason was initiated into “the order of High Priesthood as practiced in America,” explains Mackey, “oil was poured on the head in the form of a crown, that is, in a circle around the head; while in the ointment of the priest it was poured in the form of the Greek letter X, that is, on the top of the head, in the shape of a St. Andrew’s cross.”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8"><span style="color:#000000;">[8]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Another cross—one which seems to have been overlooked by all scholars thus far—is also found on Smith’s serpent cane: a large inverted cross fills the shield. </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiX8yp-zrAhE2ZLAZ2otMd4aV42cgLxaT_igyOSUIrIkYoRCWZ2CpNPVNnpFZffqVbtgWj_kpbOId2T9GEfwMJdRilunQcmKKqhAcmRLKpcy1pEGeQV1tEg6wxCqlos5hy60axIrqXSNJ/s1600-h/JS+Shield.jpg"><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 221px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386220010061411586" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghiX8yp-zrAhE2ZLAZ2otMd4aV42cgLxaT_igyOSUIrIkYoRCWZ2CpNPVNnpFZffqVbtgWj_kpbOId2T9GEfwMJdRilunQcmKKqhAcmRLKpcy1pEGeQV1tEg6wxCqlos5hy60axIrqXSNJ/s320/JS+Shield.jpg" /></span></a></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">This almost certainly is the cross of Peter; an intriguing addition to the symbolic context of the cane, testifying further (it seems) of Joseph Smith’s ecclesiastical authority. The serpent-rod of Aaron and the “x” on the crown speak to the idea that Smith was a great high priest after the order of Aaron, and the inverted cross, a testimonial that Smith had also received priesthood keys from Peter in order to properly preside over Christ’s Church.</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Granted, this interpretation hardly negates Quinn’s suggestion that Smith’s cane was designed with aspects of folk-magic in mind. Historians know that some Masons in Joseph Smith’s day were very willing to incorporate folk-magic into their orders. “One [Masonic] official observed,” reports Mark C. Carnes, that younger Masons “were ‘so in love with mysteries’ that they did not care where they came from.”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9"><span style="color:#000000;">[9]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> And it is quite telling that Ebenezer Sibley even dedicated his occult manual to "the Ancient and Honourable fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons."</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10"><span style="color:#000000;">[10]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> </span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Scholar Clyde R. Frosberg Jr. argues in favor of an interpretation that views Smith’s cane through the bifocal-lens of freemasonry and folk-magic. Not only does the cane depict what appears to be a Masonic insignia on it, he says, but the it also “resembles a Masonic divining rod, or ‘pedum.’”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11"><span style="color:#000000;">[11]</span></a></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Also worth noting is how common it was for practitioners of American folk-magic to identify their divining rods with the “rod of Aaron.” As explained in an article (1850) entitled, “A History of the Divining Rod; With the Adventures of an Old Rodsman”:</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></div><blockquote><p align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">With a large portion of the simple-hearted people in the agricultural districts of the country, from the earliest ages there has been an implicit belief in the powers and virtues of the Divining Rod—either for the discovery of water, mines, or hidden treasures. This belief, it would seem, has originated from the wonderful powers of the miraculous rod in the hands of Moses and Aaron, imparted to it by the Almighty. Their rod was made from a simply twig of the almond tree; with this, water was discovered and brought forth from the flinty rock.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12"><span style="color:#000000;">[12]</span></a></p></blockquote><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">The <em>Book of Commandments</em> (1833) reported that Oliver Cowdery had the ability to use the magic rod: “Now this is not all, for you [Oliver Cowdery] have another gift, which is the gift of working with the rod: behold it has told you things: behold there is no other power save God, that can cause this rod of nature, to work in your hands, for it is the work of God.”</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14"><span style="color:#000000;">[13]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> The passage was later modified in <em>Doctrine and Covenants</em>, changing the phrase “rod of nature” to “gift of Aaron”:<br /></span></div><blockquote><p align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">Now this is not all thy gift; for you have another gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold, it has told you many things; Behold, there is no other power, save the power of God, that can cause this gift of Aaron to be with you. Therefore, doubt not, for it is the gift of God; and you shall hold it in your hands, and do marvelous works; and no power shall be able to take it away out of your hands, for it is the work of God.</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15"><span style="color:#000000;">[14]</span></a></p></blockquote><div align="left"><span style="color:#000000;">The recent publication of the <em>Joseph Smith Papers</em> volume (<em>Revelations and Translations—Manuscript Revelation Books</em>)</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16"><span style="color:#000000;">[15]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> has renewed interest in this specific passage. Scholars discovered that an early transcription of the verse initially identified the divining instrument as a “sprout” and a “thing of Nature”.<br /><br /><br /></span></div><p><span style="color:#000000;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 123px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386221762069226466" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyEeP8HZi6ILWU_eGeXqP8s7OgMJzWo09-YBIXbzbJSOc48Awu2cWPA_G1J_tNTZyEdr26TYlywrwO1YyxOO3VZ_8Y6sNEVC8BOpivFAWUkyVgsYCQNvHsEwVcdAeaXCtyLYuX0wRLrmA/s400/thing+of+nature.jpg" /><br />The passage evolves in the following sequence:</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000000;">“which is the gift of working with the sprout” --> “which<br />is the gift of working with the rod” --> “which is the gift of Aaron”</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000000;">“thing of nature” --> “rod of nature” --> “gift of Aaron” </span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">The editing of this passage removed wording that would have otherwise helped readers to understand that Oliver Cowdery was actually using a divining-rod during the translation process. Consequently many Mormons now assume that the “gift” was merely the Aaronic Priesthood, and nothing more—an interpretation that would (although inaccurate) certainly be more consistent with currant Mormon orthopraxy. Needless to say, the editing of this passage was likely motivated by an increased desire to disassociate Mormonism from its past involvement in folk-magic. </span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">What a fascinating example this is, showing the evolution of Mormon thought and culture!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />______________________________<br /><br /><br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><span style="color:#000000;">[1]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. See Quinn, <em>Early Mormonism and the Magic World View</em> (Salt Lake City: Signature, 1998), 90-91.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2"><span style="color:#000000;">[2]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Numbers 21:6-9, KJV. An article (on the duality of serpent symbolism in scripture) that may be of interest to readers (particularly to those who are believing Latter-day Saints), would be Andrew C. Skinner’s “Savior, Satan, and Serpent: The Duality of a Symbol in the Scriptures,” The Disciple as Scholar: Essays on Scripture and the Ancient World, in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson (Provo: FARMS, 2000), 359-384.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3"><span style="color:#000000;">[3]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. John 3:14-15, KJV.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4"><span style="color:#000000;">[4]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Helaman 8:15.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5"><span style="color:#000000;">[5]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Exodus 7:9-12, KJV.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6"><span style="color:#000000;">[6]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Mark C. Carnes, <em>Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America</em> (Yale University Press, 1989), 44.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7"><span style="color:#000000;">[7]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Albert G. Mackey, <em>Encyclopedia of Freemasonry</em>, 791 (Philadelphia: Moss & Company, 1879), http://books.google.com/books?id=fAgIAAAAQAAJ&pg= (accessed November 7, 2008).<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8"><span style="color:#000000;">[8]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Ibid., 72.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9"><span style="color:#000000;">[9]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Carnes, <em>Secret Ritual and Manhood</em>, 6. This eclecticism fits the prophet Joseph Smith like a glove. The prophet taught, “One of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism’ is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.” Joseph Smith (July 9, 1843), <em>History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</em>, 5: 499.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10"><span style="color:#000000;">[10]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Allen G. Debus, “Scientific Truth and Occult Tradition: The Medical World of Ebenezer Sibley (1751-1799),” <em>Medical History</em> 26 (1982): 261. A French anti-Mason reports, “To captivate their [Ginii’s/angels] favor, the Cabalistic Mason is to study what we should call the Conjuring-book. He must be well versed in the names and signs of the planets and constellations; he must also know whether it be a good or evil Genius which presides over it, and which are the numbers that represent them… [T]he Cabalistic Mason will be favoured by these good and evil Gennii, in proportion to the confidence he has in their power; they will appear to him, and they will explain more to him in the magic table, than the human understanding can conceive.” Abbe Baurrl, Memoirs, <em>Illustrating the History of Jacobinism: A Translation from the French of The Abbe Barruel 2</em> (New York, 1799): 182-83, http://books.google.com/books?id=v-wvAAAAMAAJ (accessed November 16, 2008).<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11"><span style="color:#000000;">[11]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Clyde R. Frosberg Jr., <em>Equal Rights: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture</em> (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 47. Frosberg also overlooks the inverted cross.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12"><span style="color:#000000;">[12]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. “A History of the Divining Rod; With the Adventures of an Old Rodsman,” <em>The United States Democratic Review</em> 26, no. 141 (March 1850): 218, http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=AGD1642-0026-66 (accessed March 27, 2009); as also quoted in Seth L. Bryant, “Latter-Day Anguish and the Epic of greater Mormonism,” (master’s thesis, University of Florida, December 2008), 91. For more information on divining rods and Joseph Smith’s activities in treasure hunting, see Ronald W. Walker, “The Persisting Idea of American Treasure Hunting,” <em>BYU Studies</em> 24, no. 3 (Fall 1984): 429-59.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14"><span style="color:#000000;">[13]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. <em>Book of Commandments</em> 7:3.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15"><span style="color:#000000;">[14]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. <em>Doctrine and Covenants</em> 8:6-8.<br /></span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16" title="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7809118869403074500#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16"><span style="color:#000000;">[15]</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. <em>The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Manuscript Revelation Books</em> (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2009), 16-17.<br /><br />______________________________<br /><br />Images (in order as presented in this post):<br /><br />Joseph Smith’s serpent walking cane, from Clyde R. Forsberg Jr.’s <em>Equal Rights: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture</em>, 48. Photograph taken by D. Michael Quinn.<br /><br />Masonic Mark Jewel (1812), from <em>Masonic Symbols in American Decorative Arts</em>, fig 27.<br /><br />Photo taken by author of Joseph Smith's serpent walking cane, on display at the <em>Museum of Church History and Art</em>.<br /><br />Close up photo taken by author of the shield on Joseph Smith's cane.<br /><br />Scan of an image provided in <em>Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Manuscript Revelation Books</em> (Facsimile Edition), 16.</span></p><p> </p><p>2 July 2010 Edit--Removed Misinterpreted BoM Quote.</p>Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04535343648602443321noreply@blogger.com11