Eight witnesses

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Samuel H. Smith.jpg
Samuel H. Smith
Jacob Whitmer.jpg
Jacob Whitmer
John Whitmer.jpg
John Whitmer
not shown are Hiram Page, Christian Whitmer, and Peter Whitmer, Jr.

The Eight Witnesses are one of two groups of Witnesses in Mormonism who made a statement that they saw the gold plates that Joseph Smith said was the source for the Book of Mormon . The other group are the three Witnesses named Oliver Cowdery , Martin Harris, and David Whitmer .

testimony

Photograph of the signatures of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon.

The Testimony of the Eight Witnesses was first published at the end of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon and was then carried over to all later editions, although the statement was later moved to the beginning of the book and grammatically corrected.

In contrast to the three witnesses, the eight are said to have seen the plates and held them in their hands.

circumstances

According to Mormon teaching, Joseph Smith completed his translation of the Book of Mormon (with Oliver Cowdery as his scribe) in late June 1829 and received a revelation in the Book of Mormon that "three" and "some others" will see the gold plates. Then the three witnesses had their experience and later the eight witnesses.

About the witnesses

The eight witnesses were all members of the Smith or Whitmer families. Joseph Smith, Sr., was his father, and Hyrum and Samuel were his brothers. Christian, Jacob, Peter Jr. and John were David Whitmer's brothers and Hiriam Page was his stepbrother.

Separation from Smith

In 1838 there was a power struggle in the Church; all members of the Whitmer family were excommunicated and given an ultimatum from the Danites . After Smith's death, none of the Whitmer families followed Brigham Young and the group that would later become The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .

Although the Whitmer family separated from Smith, there is no evidence that any Witness revoked their testimony of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the gold plates.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to Terryl Givens, Joseph invited the Eight "to a family prayer spot in the woods" and "matter-of-factly displayed to them the golden plates," whereas the Three were shown the plates "by an angel of God [who ] came down from heaven. " Terryl Givens, By the Hand of Mormon (Oxford University Press, 2002), 40.
  2. ^ A b Gale Yancey Anderson: Eleven Witnesses Behold the Plates . In: Journal of Mormon History . 38, No. 2, Spring 2012.
  3. ^ Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) p. 79: "Critics pointed out how many of the witnesses were members of the Smith and Whitmer families, implying that they signed out of loyalty or from a self-serving motive .... The witnesses were no substitute for making the plates accessible to anyone for examination, but the testimonies showed Joseph — and God — answering doubters with concrete evidence, a concession to the needs of post-Enlightenment Christians. "
  4. ↑ Bushman, 337, 339, 350-51. On June 17, Sidney Rigdon "preached a vitriolic sermon based on the theme of salt losing its savor and being cast out and trodden underfoot .... Soon after the sermon, eighty-three prominent members in Far West, many of them probably Danites by then, signed an ultimatum demanding the departure of the offenders .... Fearing for their property and perhaps their lives, the dissenters fled. " (355–51) In 1847, David, John, and Jacob Whitmer and Hiram Page were baptized into the newly formed Church of Christ (Whitmerite) founded by William E. M'Lellin. In 1831, Joseph Smith received a revelation from God that John Whitmer should "write and keep a regular history" of the church (D&C 47). Whitmer did eventually write such a history, but one which concluded with a detailed description of what Whitmer considered the mistreatment that he and his family had received in Caldwell County. See Bruce N. Westerngren, From Historian to Dissident: The Book of John Whitmer (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995).
  5. ^ Terryl Givens: The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction . Oxford University Press, 2009, p 99. ;. One third-hand source, the former Mormon leader Stephen Burnett, said in 1838 that Martin Harris had told him that "the eight witnesses never saw [the plates] & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it. " Stephen Burnett letter to Lyman E. Johnson dated April 15, 1838. Typed transcript from Joseph Smith Papers, Letter book, April 20, 1837 - February 9, 1843, microfilm reel 2, pp. 64-66, LDS Church archives

Further literature

Web links