SITH interlude

We'll continue the popular discussion of Cumorah next week after Thanksgiving. I'm introducing a new acronym - JTDS - and we'll go through Scripture Central's videos, etc.

[For those who don't know, SITH = stone-in-the-hat narrative.]

Let's start today's SITH interlude by asking, Do you believe the following statement?

Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading.

It's a serious question because this is the inevitable and obvious outcome of the SITH narrative. 

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To be clear, my answer to that question is no, I don't believe that statement. 

I, along with many Latter-day Saints, still believe what Joseph and Oliver said. 

But our friends at Scripture Central, the Interpreter, FAIRLDS, etc., along with their followers who believe SITH, do believe that statement. They actually think Joseph and Oliver misled everyone about the translations of the Book of Mormon.

The statement is a quotation from Royal Skousen's latest book.

Some time ago I uploaded a paper on Academia.org titled "Agenda-driven editorial content in the Joseph Smith Papers."

https://www.academia.edu/67756647/Agenda_driven_editorial_content_in_the_Joseph_Smith_Papers

On page 4 I made this statement:

Skousen has explained that he not only rejects the claim that Joseph used the Urim  and Thummim to produce the text we have today [i.e., he may have used that instrument for the lost 116 pages but stopped after those pages were lost], but he believes Joseph and Oliver intentionally misled the world about the translation. “Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading.” 7 

At a minimum, the editors of Volume 5 should alert readers to their biases in favor of M2C and SITH. Ideally, they would do so while acknowledging alternative interpretations of the same historical facts, including interpretations that corroborate instead of repudiate what Joseph and Oliver claimed.

Footnote 7 went to this link.

https://interpreterfoundation.org/blog-update-of-the-pre-print-of-a-discussion-of-the-book-of-mormon-witnesses-by-royal-skousen/

Yesterday I bought the recently released Part 7: The Early Transmission of the Text by Royal Skousen, with the collaboration of Stanford Carmack, so now I can update that footnote to page 62.

Royal Skousen's claim that Joseph and Oliver
"misled" everyone about the translation
(click to enlarge)

Brother Skousen is an amazing, awesome scholar whose detailed work is invaluable. On January 25, 2022, in the Church Administration Building on Temple Square, President Russell M. Nelson thanked those who helped make the volume of the Joseph Smith Papers that contains the Original Manuscript possible, including Brother Skousen.

(click to enlarge)

But despite his meticulous, professional research, Brother Skousen inexplicably makes questionable assumptions about source material and draws inferences that lead him to theories and hypotheses that strike many people as unreasonable.

In Part Seven, for example, he carefully itemizes the statements from the various witnesses, which is great. But he seems to simply take them at face value--except for the statements from Joseph and Oliver, which he rejects as misleading or only partially true.

This is the same approach taken by the currently dominant LDS historians and other scholars, as we'll see when I publish my paper(s) about Part Seven and other current developments in this area.

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So, what do you think? 

Do you agree with Brother Skousen and the other SITH sayers that Joseph and Oliver deliberately misled everyone about the translation of the Book of Mormon?

Or do you not know enough about Church history to say?

Stay tuned to this blog for more updates.