Marcus wrote: ↑Wed Nov 05, 2025 10:19 pm
As I've been slowly reading and investigating the ideas behind your posts and theories, I've seen more and more evidence supporting it. This thread points out one piece that's been drifting around for a while.
Rigdon clearly was much more involved in the restoration movements long before Smith was, and you clearly think this is yet another case of him appropriating a popular idea to his own benefit. I have to agre, at the moment. This may support the rationale for the late writing up of the first vision, Smith needed to retroactively provide support.
I'm reading more on it now, but your assessment of the lost 116 pages incident is very interesting. If this was Smith pushing out Ridgon, he was incredibly devious in his methodology.
That’s really thoughtful, Marcus, and I appreciate that you’ve been taking time to read through the material rather than just reacting to it.
You’re right—Rigdon’s long pre-Smith involvement with restorationist and primitivist movements makes the “appropriation” pattern hard to miss.
In trying to make sense of the internal chronology, I’ve found it clearer to read the book backward through its likely composition layers—starting with Ether—the earliest fragment, around 1823—followed by the record of Zeniff in 1824, which expands the original story. I’ve introduced Alvin, the brother of Jared, as the author of these portions.
Following Alvin’s death, the Alma section grows out of a brief Amulon interlude in 1825, when the focus turns to dissent over leadership and order. By 1826, Helaman captures the collapse of order and the onset of secret combinations. I’ve offered Oliver as Alma the Elder, and will continue through the rest of the book over time here. Moroni, in this reading, represents Rigdon, as the Moroni section directly reflects his theological inventions.
From there the structure bifurcates into two Mosiahs: a “Joseph” Mosiah I, translating “plates,” and a later “Rigdon” Mosiah II, translating “records.”
The Ammon episode act as connective tissue—a messenger who bridges the divided narratives, much as the historical Ammon figure, who I’ve offered represented Parley P Pratt, linked scattered collaborators, one of whom I’ve identified as Limhi/Martin Harris.
Finally, Words of Mormon and 1–2 Nephi serve as retrofits—editorial redactions that attempt (poorly) to present the story as a continuous history.
Read in that order, the text reads like a series of historical entries between 1823 and 1829, built upon until Joseph consolidated control and redacted the work into a single record.
It’s an interpretive lens that seems to bring the production story into better focus.
I’d be interested in your take if you try tracing it that way.
- didn't you? And you do understand what it means?
