Episode 92: Pricey Pearl 10 – History of JS Pt2
This starts off with a big copy/paste from Episode 1, but once we get through that the fun starts. God, the Holy Ghost, and John the Baptist all show up and start handing out priesthoods like candy. Then we get to meet some new characters like Martin, Oliver, the Professor, and Mary Ann (ok fine, not Mary Ann), and they’ve got some tales to tell too.
“Drink” Count – BYOB (technically, no drinks)
![1f37a[1]](https://mybookofmormonpodcast.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/1f37a11-e1405273035787.png)
My Book of Mormon 
August 9, 2015 at 7:22 pm
Funny you should mention the crazy names in New England and the ones in the BoM. There are a lot of similarities between the two.
Actual Place Names | Book of Mormon Place Names
Alma | Alma
Antrim | Antum
Antioch | Ani-Anti
Boaz | Boaz
Hellam | Helam
Jacobsburg | Jacobugath
Jerusalem | Jerusalem (Yes, this is low hanging fruit)
Jordan | Jordan (low hanging again)
Kishkiminetas | Kishkumen
Lehigh | Lehi
Mantua | Manti
Moraviantown | Morianton
Noah Lakes | Noah
Oneida | Onidah
Rama | Hill Ramah
Ripple Lake | Ripliancum
Sodom | Sidom
Shiloh | Shilom
Sherbrooke | Shurr
August 9, 2015 at 10:00 pm
It’s been a while since I felt compelled to give a pronunciation note, but with D&C coming up soon, it seems advisable. Melchizedek sounds like “Mel-KIZ-e-deck”, or maybe “Mel-KIZ-dick” if using a corner-cutting, Utah accent. I’m hoping the “dick” in there makes it easier to remember.
There’s more than one pronunciation of Urim and Thummim, and the way you’ve been saying it is correct. “Yurim” is another acceptable pronunciation of Urim, and that’s how I usually heard it growing up, but I don’t know which way is more common.
You supposed Joseph had his own bedroom, otherwise, why didn’t Moroni’s visit wake anybody else up? Indeed, Joseph Smith did NOT have his own bedroom at the time, and a shload of siblings would have been packed in there with him. Unlike most of us scoffers, however, I don’t consider this a valid criticism to cast doubt on Joseph Smith’s story. Why would Moroni’s incessant chattering, putting on a lightshow, and getting beamed up through a wormhole, or whatever, have been necessarily the least bit perceptible to anyone but Joseph? Does no one else remember how in movie “Ghost”, Demi Moore and Tony Goldwyn were completely oblivious to Patrick Swayze, and only Whoopi Goldberg could hear him? None of us batted an eye about THAT, I’m just sayin’! 🙂
August 11, 2015 at 3:31 am
I’ve always heard and said it more like “Mel-KEZ-ih-dick,” but that might be a Utah accent coming through.
August 11, 2015 at 4:40 am
On further reflection, I think you’re right about that “KEZ” part. That really is the Utah Mormon way of saying it. But I do think that third syllable gets practically cut out. “Mel-KEZ-dick”, maybe? No wonder I could never spell it.
August 10, 2015 at 4:33 am
Smith went to Isaac Hale’s house and took away his daughter in a classic elopement. Isaac Hale gives a counterpoint to Smith, in 1834:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/3e00gw/primary_source_of_isaac_hales_affidavit_in_1834/ctb8qqd
August 10, 2015 at 3:59 pm
The Articles of Faith are going to be finished quickly, and that’s going to put a swift end to the Pricey Pearl, so I recommend with at least some of the remaining time you read the following letter written by Charles Anthon himself about the Martin Harris visit. There is a second letter as well, but this one will do. I give it in its entirety:
Letter from Professor Charles Anthon to Eber D. Howe, dated Feb 17, 1834:
I received this morning your favor of the 9th instant, and lose no time in making a reply.
The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be “reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics” is perfectly false. Some years ago, a plain, and apparently simple-hearted farmer, called upon me with a note from Dr. Mitchell of our city, now deceased, requesting me to decypher, if possible, a paper, which the farmer would hand me, and which Dr. M. confessed he had been unable to understand. Upon examining the paper in question, I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick, perhaps a hoax. When I asked the person, who brought it, how he obtained the writing, he gave me, as far as I can now recollect, the following account:
A “gold book,” consisting of a number of plates of gold, fastened together in the shape of a book by wires of the same metal, had been dug up in the northern part of the state of New York, and along with the book an enormous pair of “gold spectacles”! These spectacles were so large, that, if a person attempted to look through them, his two eyes would have to be turned towards one of the glasses merely, the spectacles in question being altogether too large for the breadth of the human face. Whoever examined the plates through the spectacles, was enabled not only to read them, but fully to understand their meaning.
All this knowledge, however, was confined at that time to a young man, who had the trunk containing the book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young man was placed behind a curtain, in the garret of a farm house, and, being thus concealed from view, put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through one of the glasses, decyphered the characters in the book, and, having committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain, to those who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about the plates having been decyphered “by the gift of God.” Every thing, in this way, was effected by the large pair of spectacles.
The farmer added, that he had been requested to contribute a sum of money towards the publication of the “golden book,” the contents of which would, as he had been assured, produce an entire change in the world and save it from ruin. So urgent had been these solicitations, that he intended selling his farm and handing over the amount received to those who wished to publish the plates. As a last precautionary step, however, he had resolved to come to New York, and obtain the opinion of the learned about the meaning of the paper which he brought with him, and which had been given him as a part of the contents of the book, although no translation had been furnished at the time by the young man with the spectacles.
On hearing this odd story, I changed my opinion about the paper, and, instead of viewing it any longer as a hoax upon the learned, I began to regard it as part of a scheme to cheat the farmer of his money, and I communicated my suspicions to him, warning him to beware of rogues. He requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined giving, and he then took his leave carrying the paper with him.
This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calender given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject, since the Mormonite excitement began, and well remember that the paper contained any thing else but “Egyptian Hieroglyphics.”
Some time after, the same farmer paid me a second visit. He brought with him the golden book in print, and offered it to me for sale. I declined purchasing. He then asked permission to leave the book with me for examination. I declined receiving it, although his manner was strangely urgent. I adverted once more to the roguery which had been in my opinion practised upon him, and asked him what had become of the gold plates. He informed me that they were in a trunk with the large pair of spectacles. I advised him to go to a magistrate and have the trunk examined. He said the “curse of God” would come upon him should he do this. On my pressing him, however, to pursue the course which I had recommended, he told me that he would open the trunk, if I would take the “curse of God” upon myself. I replied that I would do so with the greatest willingness, and would incur every risk of that nature, provided I could only extricate him from the grasp of rogues. He then left me.
I have thus given you a full statement of all that I know respecting the origin of Mormonism, and must beg you, as a personal favor, to publish this letter immediately, should you find my name mentioned again by these wretched fanatics.
-Mormonism Unvailed, E.D. Howe, pgs 270-72
August 11, 2015 at 9:13 pm
More Evidence builds to verify the Restoration.
Recent disclosure of the Seer Stone builds credibility to the faith.
Mormon Seer Stone or gastrolith, Urim thummim or coprolite?
Seems addition forensic inquiry will disclose the source of this divining tool. With additional inspection the Mormon magic stone will disclose this magic stone to be fossilized feces form some ancient tribals living in the Burned Over District. My father found similar gastroliths in the same region twenty years ago. My father, Gus O. Kahan dated the human coprolite to be between 11 thousand to 14 thousand years old predating the book of Mormon and Joseph smith. This unique specimen needs additional certification.
http://www.rationalskepticism.org/general-faith/revealed-the-stone-that-translated-the-book-of-mormon-t50241.html
With addition research this magic tool can reveal the source of mormon faith.
Caca Divination is not new, dating back to the earning stirrings of Human Myth Making.
To be sorted out in the end.
Ephima Morphew
August 12, 2015 at 9:16 pm
I can’t believe you called me a TBM 😀 SHAME ON YOU DAVID! I was disappointed that you didn’t find JS-history as exciting since it’s such a pot of crazyness. I’m a MYMO PRIEST, not a TBM! That is all.