Joseph Smith's Book of Moses: The Other Smoking Gun
OK
I dug up a number of books and started looking into the Pearl of Great Price and its origins. Two months after the church was organized Joseph Smith was commanded by God to make a new rendition of the Bible. Through inspiration he would be able to correct erors and restore lost doctrines and covenants. Naturally he began with Genesis.
Genesis 1:2 - 2:4 gives a creation account that was undoubtably an account passed down from Adam, matching very closely the accounts given in Moses 2 and Abraham 4. After this introduction to creation as a whole, chapter two gives us a detailed acount of the sixth day. Did Joseph understand this? I believe he understood it as I just said, but it really doesent matter if Tal is correct or I am correct. The purpose of Joseph reviewing the Bible and translating it through the gift of the spirit was to unlock the spirit of prophecy and allow Joseph to receive insights into lost doctrine and covenants.
With regards to the Fall, Moses in the PofGP is only one source of the account. A great deal of what we know comes to us through Father Lehi in 2 Nephi chp.2. In regards to "contradictory commandments": One - being to be fruitful and multiply, which could only be fullfiled if they were mortal since before the Fall (for whatever reason) they were incapable of having children. (Moses 5:11, 2 Nephi 2:23). They were also commanded not to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was the only way they could become mortal. This commandment is qualified with the statement "nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself" (Moses 3:17) This is unique. For example, God does not say "Thou shalt not commit adultery, nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself."
Although the eternal plam of salvation and exaltation of God's children required a mortal existence in a situation where there was opposition (both good and evil to choose from (2 Nephi 2:11); that is, a place where agency could be fully excercised), God being perfect, could not place Adam and Eve into such an imperfect, fallen world. They had to make that choice for themselves. By means of this qualifying statement, "Thou mayest choose for thyself," God is making it clear to Adam and Eve that this is a necessary step they must take for themselves, and He explains the consequences of this choice - death. After the Fall, Eve showed that she then understood the purpose of this seemingly contradictory set of commandments.
Joseph Fielding Smith stated it this way. God said that they could freely eat of any tree in the Garden without consequence, but that eating of the forbidden tree came with a consequence. They were free to choose if they desired the consequence.
We gain as much insight into this situation through the Book of Mormon as we do the Book of Moses. Tal is incorrect to say that our views are skewed incorrectly if Joseph was unaware of multiple authors or rather the 1st chapter of Genesis standing alone as a seperate book. His statement is based on a theory of dual beginnings to the Book of Genesis. Even if this was the case, it would be incorrect to assume that the view the LDS church takes in regards to the Fall is based solely on the Book of Genesis.
Joseph was asked to begin a work on the Bible in an effort to increase his knowledge and understanding of heavenly things after the same pattern folowed by previous prophets. Exemplified in the First Vision account as Joseph was compelled by the spirit to pray after reading James. This has nothing to do with his gainign a full understandign of how every chapter was transported and carried on to each of the translators, but instead has everything to do with obtaining the spirit that inspires scripture in the first place. An example we are all invited to follow as individuals.
I dug up a number of books and started looking into the Pearl of Great Price and its origins. Two months after the church was organized Joseph Smith was commanded by God to make a new rendition of the Bible. Through inspiration he would be able to correct erors and restore lost doctrines and covenants. Naturally he began with Genesis.
Genesis 1:2 - 2:4 gives a creation account that was undoubtably an account passed down from Adam, matching very closely the accounts given in Moses 2 and Abraham 4. After this introduction to creation as a whole, chapter two gives us a detailed acount of the sixth day. Did Joseph understand this? I believe he understood it as I just said, but it really doesent matter if Tal is correct or I am correct. The purpose of Joseph reviewing the Bible and translating it through the gift of the spirit was to unlock the spirit of prophecy and allow Joseph to receive insights into lost doctrine and covenants.
With regards to the Fall, Moses in the PofGP is only one source of the account. A great deal of what we know comes to us through Father Lehi in 2 Nephi chp.2. In regards to "contradictory commandments": One - being to be fruitful and multiply, which could only be fullfiled if they were mortal since before the Fall (for whatever reason) they were incapable of having children. (Moses 5:11, 2 Nephi 2:23). They were also commanded not to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was the only way they could become mortal. This commandment is qualified with the statement "nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself" (Moses 3:17) This is unique. For example, God does not say "Thou shalt not commit adultery, nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself."
Although the eternal plam of salvation and exaltation of God's children required a mortal existence in a situation where there was opposition (both good and evil to choose from (2 Nephi 2:11); that is, a place where agency could be fully excercised), God being perfect, could not place Adam and Eve into such an imperfect, fallen world. They had to make that choice for themselves. By means of this qualifying statement, "Thou mayest choose for thyself," God is making it clear to Adam and Eve that this is a necessary step they must take for themselves, and He explains the consequences of this choice - death. After the Fall, Eve showed that she then understood the purpose of this seemingly contradictory set of commandments.
Joseph Fielding Smith stated it this way. God said that they could freely eat of any tree in the Garden without consequence, but that eating of the forbidden tree came with a consequence. They were free to choose if they desired the consequence.
We gain as much insight into this situation through the Book of Mormon as we do the Book of Moses. Tal is incorrect to say that our views are skewed incorrectly if Joseph was unaware of multiple authors or rather the 1st chapter of Genesis standing alone as a seperate book. His statement is based on a theory of dual beginnings to the Book of Genesis. Even if this was the case, it would be incorrect to assume that the view the LDS church takes in regards to the Fall is based solely on the Book of Genesis.
Joseph was asked to begin a work on the Bible in an effort to increase his knowledge and understanding of heavenly things after the same pattern folowed by previous prophets. Exemplified in the First Vision account as Joseph was compelled by the spirit to pray after reading James. This has nothing to do with his gainign a full understandign of how every chapter was transported and carried on to each of the translators, but instead has everything to do with obtaining the spirit that inspires scripture in the first place. An example we are all invited to follow as individuals.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato
Gazelam wrote:OK
I dug up a number of books and started looking into the Pearl of Great Price and its origins. Two months after the church was organized Joseph Smith was commanded by God to make a new rendition of the Bible. Through inspiration he would be able to correct erors and restore lost doctrines and covenants. Naturally he began with Genesis.
You know, I've always thought it strange how he could correct errors without having the original manuscripts in front of him.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew (if it's some kind of variant, OK, sue me, I'm not an ancient languages scholar - the point is still valid). Now it seems to me that if there were "errors" as is claimed, then to know what those "errors" were in the translation he was reading, he would need to know ancient Hebrew, as well as have the original documents in which he could compare the new translation to the original words.
Not having this makes the claim of correcting errors a bit far-fetched, don't you think?
As far as I know, no one has ever discovered the original writings of the Old Testament. They are probably lost to time. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered long after Joseph left this earth, and they only go back to around the 2nd century, I think.
"What does God need with a starship?" - Captain James T. Kirk
Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. - Robert Orben
Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. - Robert Orben