Nephi-ception

[Limnor]

I see it as Joseph exposing Seantum (who I think is Oliver) to the inner circle, records that, and uses the recorded story as a threat to expose further to outside authorities.

“And there were others who said: Behold, he is a god.”

He gains two advantages from the episode. Internal acknowledgment of his position and usurpation through threat of further exposure.

The episode is in Helaman 8/9 and the real world comparison is the William Morgan incident.

[Gadianton]

I am very weak on church history so I apologize this doesn't immediately make sense to me.

I see it as Joseph exposing Seantum (who I think is Oliver) to the inner circle, records that, and uses the recorded story as a threat to expose further to outside authorities.

Let's bring this back to the model, if you don't mind.

participant is told to record it, and then I see that experience as being backwards cast as ancient history

a) experience happens, b) experience is recorded privately, c) experience ends up as Book of Mormon history.

The experience a), is Joseph exposing Oliver to the inner circle? If that's correct, what was he exposing and who was the inner circle?

[Limnor]

I am very weak on church history so I apologize this doesn't immediately make sense to me.

I see it as Joseph exposing Seantum (who I think is Oliver) to the inner circle, records that, and uses the recorded story as a threat to expose further to outside authorities.

Let's bring this back to the model, if you don't mind.

participant is told to record it, and then I see that experience as being backwards cast as ancient history

a) experience happens, b) experience is recorded privately, c) experience ends up as Book of Mormon history.

The experience a), is Joseph exposing Oliver to the inner circle? If that's correct, what was he exposing and who was the inner circle?

Five witnesses=Whitmer brothers. Other Nephites=Members of Joseph’s family, Masonic connections, and money digging associates.

Maybe this will help. Nephi (Joseph) and his brothers go get the plates—these are the printing plates William Morgan is using to expose freemasonry. Nephi beheads the keeper of those plates. No mention of blood, though clearly there would be blood. Morgan’s printers assistant is Zoram, who is really Oliver. Nephi uses the bloody clothes to later frame Seantum, who is really Oliver, to reveal to the five witnesses, the Whitmer brothers, that he is a prophet, and maybe even a god. Joseph has now usurped Oliver/Omer/Alma.

Ok I’ve worked to provide an example of how I think it works, using Helaman 8–9. It’s hard to isolate Helaman 9 from 1 Nephi, Alma and Ether, because I think what we are seeing in Helaman 9 is the moment when Joseph overthrows Oliver.

I’m not claiming this proves identification or character alignment, but I’ll try to show you the mechanism I think may be operating.

First, just look at the story without any historical overlay. Nephi publicly attacks judges who belong to a secret organization and condemns their “secret works of darkness.” He then announces that the chief judge has just been murdered by his own brother and that both the victim and murderer belong to that secret band.

Five skeptical men run to investigate. Their reasoning is direct: if Nephi really knows about this murder, then they will believe he is a prophet. They find the judge dead, eventually become witnesses of what happened, and other people believe Nephi partly because of the testimony of the five.

Then something I find stunning happens. Nephi’s opponents propose the obvious explanation for his knowledge, namely that Nephi knew about the murder because he helped arrange it. In other words, the text itself raises the possibility that his apparently prophetic knowledge is actually inside knowledge. Of which I agree.

But Nephi sets someone else up. He tells them exactly where to find Seantum, exactly how he will behave when questioned, and that they will find blood on his clothing. Seantum confesses. The result is that Nephi is recognized as a prophet, and some people actually think he must be a god. None of which follows from what I see as the more likely explanation that they were in fact confederated and Nephi sold out Seantum to save himself.

Now put the William Morgan affair beside that. Morgan was a Mason exposing Masonic secrets. Fellow Masons attempted to suppress publication, he was abducted in 1826 and disappeared, and he was widely believed to have been murdered. So even before assigning characters, both stories contain an internal conflict involving a secret fraternity, disclosure of forbidden secrets, a concealed killing, and a public problem of determining who actually knows what happened.

So the speculation is that Nephi may, again, be Joseph’s public role.

How I arrived at the Oliver/Seantum correspondence is through several unique readings of other parts of the book. I cannot establish this historically. There are disputes over whether Oliver was connected to Morgan as a printer’s assistant and would have access to printing plates that would have curious workmanship engraved on them.

The bloody clothing is interesting as well. Morgan’s body was never recovered, so the historical case never had that kind of decisive physical evidence. Helaman supplies exactly what the real event lacked, the killer, the blood, the interrogation and the confession.

And then there are the five men. Peter Whitmer Sr. had five sons who became official Book of Mormon witnesses. David, Christian, Jacob, Peter Jr. and John. In Helaman there are specifically five men who go to test Nephi’s extraordinary claim, obtain confirming knowledge, become witnesses, and cause others to believe him.

This may all be coincidence. But it also could represent the sort of patterns seen throughout the book. I’m not necessarily defining a clean one person/one character correspondence, because as you read 1 Nephi, the story of Zoram becomes interesting, the garments that would have been bloody following a decapitation. Layered on top of that is the story of Jared in Ether, who wants to regain the kingdom from Omer and conspires to do so. I think I’ve talked correlation between Oliver and Alma as well, and about scenes in a play that others may not have seen, but have scene others. I think we could say Alma is scene 2, Omer in Ether is scene 3, Zoram in 1 Nephi is scene 4, and Helaman 8/9 is scene 5.

[Gadianton]

Five witnesses=Whitmer brothers. Other Nephites=Members of Joseph’s family, Masonic connections, and money digging associates.

Maybe this will help. Nephi (Joseph) and his brothers go get the plates—these are the printing plates William Morgan is using to expose freemasonry. Nephi beheads the keeper of those plates. No mention of blood, though clearly there would be blood. Morgan’s printers assistant is Zoram, who is really Oliver. Nephi uses the bloody clothes to later frame Seantum, who is really Oliver, to reveal to the five witnesses, the Whitmer brothers, that he is a prophet, and maybe even a god. Joseph has now usurped Oliver/Omer/Alma.

Joseph and his brothers (and Oliver?) pay Morgan a visit and take his printing plates, and leave Morgan to feed the flora around the shop. Then Oliver becomes Joseph's scribe, and then Joseph reveals Oliver did it to the 5. Then the story of Seantum makes it into the Book of Mormon. Then later, the story of Laban makes it into the Book of Mormon.

Is that correct as far as order of events?

[Limnor]

Five witnesses=Whitmer brothers. Other Nephites=Members of Joseph’s family, Masonic connections, and money digging associates.

Maybe this will help. Nephi (Joseph) and his brothers go get the plates—these are the printing plates William Morgan is using to expose freemasonry. Nephi beheads the keeper of those plates. No mention of blood, though clearly there would be blood. Morgan’s printers assistant is Zoram, who is really Oliver. Nephi uses the bloody clothes to later frame Seantum, who is really Oliver, to reveal to the five witnesses, the Whitmer brothers, that he is a prophet, and maybe even a god. Joseph has now usurped Oliver/Omer/Alma.

Joseph and his brothers (and Oliver?) pay Morgan a visit and take his printing plates, and leave Morgan to feed the flora around the shop. Then Oliver becomes Joseph's scribe, and then Joseph reveals Oliver did it to the 5. Then the story of Seantum makes it into the Book of Mormon. Then later, the story of Laban makes it into the Book of Mormon.

Is that correct as far as order of events?

Not quite. It started with the brother of Jared/Alvin/Abinadi. Oliver/Alma inherited that mantle after Alvin/Abinadi died.

Oliver/Alma fled, joined with Morgan eventually, then Joseph and his brothers went to get the printing plates that would expose freemasonry secrets, kill Laban/Morgan, and take the plates, and pin the murder on Oliver/Seantum.

Joseph usurped Oliver through this episode and it wasn’t until after Seantum was overthrown that Oliver became Joseph’s scribe.

The timeline I think about may be interesting to you as well. Roughly:

-unredacted, unedited parts of Ether, 1824
-Zeniff, 1824
-Mosiah through Alma, 1824–1826
-Helaman onward, 1826 and after
-1–2 Nephi, later still, as a retrospective rewrite of the opening

Alvin’s death sits near the beginning of the project and helps generate the brother of Jared/Zeniff/Abinadi material. Oliver/Alma then becomes the important successor figure in 1825–26.

Morgan’s disappearance in 1826 is a major event line. The Helaman material could begin incorporating the Morgan/Seantum episode much closer to the event itself, while 1–2 Nephi comes later and retells some of the same underlying history in a much more polished way, with Joseph now appearing as Nephi, with the Morgan episode recast as Laban and the plates.

I don’t think the Book of Mormon should be read as one continuous chronology, and I think it frequently reaches backward and rewrites earlier events from different points of view.

Ever wonder why Alma and Amulek just sort of disappeared from the story?

[Gadianton]

Maybe we need some backstory:

Not quite. It started with the brother of Jared/Alvin/Abinadi. Oliver/Alma inherited that mantle after Alvin/Abinadi died.

Oliver/Alma fled, joined with Morgan eventually, then Joseph and his brothers went to get the printing plates that would expose freemasonry secrets, kill Laban/Morgan, and take the plates, and pin the murder on Oliver/Seantum.

Joseph usurped Oliver through this episode and it wasn’t until after Seantum was overthrown that Oliver became Joseph’s scribe.

What was "the mantle" and why did Alvin have it? Why did Oliver inherit it? Why did Oliver join Morgan? Why did Joseph care about getting the plates that would expose freemasonry? Was he protecting the masons? How was Oliver usurped?

[Limnor]

By “mantle” I mean something pretty specific, and I think Ether 4 describes it. The brother of Jared is given the stones, shown hidden things, and commanded to write what he sees until it is time for it to be revealed. So the mantle includes having control of a record, the authority to write. The brother of Jared is Alvin in my reconstruction, and I see that record passing from Alvin to Oliver in another scene.

One of the thing Alvin writes is Ether 3:19. The brother of Jared sees the Lord’s finger, and we’re told his faith was so great that he “could not be kept from within the veil.” The Lord then asks whether he saw more, and then we are told he sees the Lord’s entire body. Later, in Ether 4, the record of that vision is sealed up and is not to come forth until people again exercise sufficient faith. Moroni says the Gentiles must “rend that veil of unbelief” before the greater things can be revealed.

This all sounds like Masonic imagery, because Masonry also uses a veil to guard knowledge. The link between the brother of Jared and Abinadi is therefore found in Mosiah 15, which echoes the idea of God becoming embodied. Both Alvin characters are connected to an esoteric disclosure about God being a man.

Part of why the brother of Jared = Alvin feels so obvious to me is Alvin’s actual place in the Smith family. He wasn’t just an older sibling. He seems to have been the family’s leader during the move to New York. Historically, he had travelled ahead with Joseph Sr. from Vermont to New York and helped to establish their new home and farm. He has even been described as something like his father’s protege. So when Ether presents an early chosen figure who receives the stones and is commanded things down, I see Alvin immediately.

Peter Ingersoll’s 1833 affidavit is a relevant source. According to Ingersoll, he said he saw both Joseph Smith Sr. and Alvin Smith place a stone in a hat and demonstrate its use while discussing buried treasure near the Smith property.

Scene 2 begins with Alvin writing down the book of Zeniff. Oliver/Alma is the one who hears what Alvin/Abinadi is saying and flees upon the death of Alvin/Abinadi. Alma/Oliver departs to build a new church around the teaching, and I think he traveled to the reservation near Angola, though I haven’t seen clear evidence of that, other than he had family near there and in the Palmyra area by the mid-to-late 1820s. Oliver’s brother Lyman was elected a constable on an anti-Masonic ticket, and while I haven’t found specific evidence that Oliver worked with Morgan in the expose, I infer from the text that this is what happened.

Going back to scene 1 to further explain the backstory, Sidney Rigdon, sometime in the late-1810s to mid-1829s had the idea, with fellow Cambellite Walter Scott, to produce new scripture, with one example being the Second Epistle of Peter. My theory has Rigdon expanding that model in an effort to restore primitive Christianity and provide a prophecy that would foretell himself as the prophet who could translate this ancient scripture. At this stage, what is handed to Joseph St and Alvin is not yet “the Book of Mormon” in its final form. It is the Book of Lehi, and includes more about Mulek, Zenos, and Zenock.

[Gadianton]

The problem I'm having is there are so many tiny little details all floating around in space, like puzzle pieces, and nothing connecting so far. I feel like once three or four puzzle pieces find each other, then from there it could start making sense.

for instance, Rigdon as having his own fake scripture that Alvin will somehow take on starts to make sense because it's a prototype of the Book of Mormon. But then you have Morgan with the "printer plates" for an anti-masonic publication which also somehow represents the smith family obtaining "plates" or scripture, but what use would they have for it?

[Limnor]

I see the “plates” as the “golden thread,” so to speak. In the book, there is a distinct shift between “records” and “plates” in Mosiah.

Rigdon had provided to Alvin a set of “records” that Alvin was supposed to “find” and add to, and I think Alvin was supposed to bring these to Rigdon for translation, during which Rigdon would “discover” himself as the foretold prophet.

Following the death of Alvin, Joseph gains control of the record, parts of Ether and Zeniff. Meanwhile, Oliver has fled and has written his experiences as Alma and Amulon, eventually becoming assistant to Morgan.

Separately, Joseph has exposure, through Orasmus Turner, to the Morgan affair. The timing is interesting, as Joseph had been given “leg bail” following the 1826 trial. This makes him vulnerable to manipulation and useful to the Masonic world. Joseph can then use Morgan affair as material through which he recasts himself as the intended prophet.

That means the Laban/Morgan story doesn’t originate with Rigdon. In fact, it explains why the Book of Mormon feels like it contains different literary motifs and styles. Some passages reflect Rigdonian theological and restorationist material, while others look more like events Joseph knew or personally experienced.

So the plates themselves are the integrating thread. Joseph has several source documents at his disposal, and he turns those into multiple sets of plates inside the story. Then he can add autobiographical or historical episodes onto those records without requiring the original source author, or authors, Rigdon and Oliver, to know anything about them.

[Limnor]

Random thought, posted here because I don’t see the need to start a whole new thread about this topic. Relevance?: I think Alma is Oliver Cowdery and Kumenonhi is Parley P Pratt.

I was wondering why Mathonihah or Kumenonhi weren’t the ones to restore the Melchizedek priesthood in the meridian of time. Or why Alma wasn’t the one to restore the Aaronic priesthood. Did the American prophets not know about these priesthoods?

The Book of Mormon speaks to priestly authority, though it doesn’t appear to be the same as that which was restored. Or it least it isn’t particularly descriptive about such a seemingly important bit of the restoration.

You’d think Alma would be uniquely qualified to restore the Aaronic priesthood, given Alma’s baptism of Helam, where it is said that Alma had “authority from the Almighty God.” Alma ordains priests, too, though nowhere does it say, “Alma held the Aaronic Priesthood.” Later, Jesus appears and grants authority to baptize, including to our boys Mathonihah and Kumenonhi. There really is no reason why I’ve selected these two as who I’d prefer to have restored the Aaronic priesthood, other than I like their names.

We do read about the “high priesthood” and “the holy order of God,” with Melchizedek as the example, which I suppose was the Melchizedek priesthood. But we aren’t told that M and K held this priesthood.

So, my thought question is: if these American prophets had the same priesthood system later claimed by Joseph Smith to be restored, why are the restorers John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John rather than Alma, Mathonihah, or Kumenonhi? I mean, Moroni appears and talks about the plates, why wouldn’t others from the new world appear to restore lost keys?

And the follow-on is the awkwardness of Alma. If baptism belongs to the Aaronic Priesthood in the restored system, what did Alma hold? And where did he get it?

The other follow-on was asked by Alexander Campbell not long after the book came out, and has to do with the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh holding a priesthood that under the Mosaic system was genealogically tied to Aaron and Levi. The book doesn’t really explain how that unfolded, but a long time ago I followed a similar online argument down the rabbit hole about how Samuel was able to perform priestly functions in spite of not being a Levite. Too long to rehash here, unless someone wants to take that trek, but it was an interesting study for me.