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international journal of mormon studies volume 2 spring 2009

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publication details editor david m morris editorial board zachary r jones kim b Östman the international journal of mormon studies is a european based internationally focused peer-reviewed online and printed scholarly journal which is committed to the promotion of interdisciplinary scholarship by publishing articles and reviews of current work in the field of mormon studies with high quality international contributors the journal explores mormon studies and its related subjects in addition ijms provides those who submit manuscripts for publication with useful timely feedback by making the review process constructive to submit a manuscript or review including book reviews please email them for consideration in the first instance to submissions@ijmsonline.org international journal of mormon studies print issn 1757-5532 international journal of mormon studies online issn 1757-5540 published in the united kingdom ©2009 international journal of mormon studies all rights reserved http www.ijmsonline.org

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international journal of mormon studies volume 2 spring 2009 contents publication details ii editorial david m morris v joseph smith as a creative interpreter of the bible heikki räisänen 1 the holy spirit in mormonism douglas j davies 23 enlarging the memory of mormonism historian andrew jenson s tales from the world tour 1895­1897 reid l neilson 42 william phelps s paracletes an early witness to joseph smith s divine anthropology samuel brown 62 george ramsden the guion line and the mormon immigration connection fred e woods 83 the mormon factor in the romney presidential campaign european perspectives massimo introvigne 98

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19th century missiology of the lds bedfordshire conference and its interrelationship with other christian denominations ronald e bartholomew 108 reactions of lutheran clergy to mormon proselytizing in finland 1875­1889 kim b Östman 128 proclaiming the message a comparison of mormon missionary strategy with other mainstream christian missions johnnie glad 142 the martyrdoms at ammonihah and the foreknowledge of god g st john stott 169 the experience of mormon children in english school-based religious education and collective worship ronan james head 197 justification theosis and grace in early christian lutheran and mormon discourse grant underwood 206 review liberty to the downtrodden thomas l kane romantic reformer jordan watkins 224 contributors 228

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editorial david m morris editor it is with great pleasure that i open another issue of the international journal of mormon studies ijms with its aim of being an internationally focussed journal of mormonism this issue brings together a combination of scholars from different parts of the world and academic disciplines drawn from mormon and non-mormon perspectives the articles herein provide an interesting insight to aspects of international mormonism encouraging further attention and examination following on from the successful european mormon studies association emsa conference in finland 2008 we have published here many of those papers that were presented during that conference as we look forward to the emsa conference in torino italy it is an increasingly exciting time to see the scholarly study of mormonism continue to expand into the international arena not only from established scholars but also up-and-coming scholars of different disciplines and nationalities.

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joseph smith as a creative interpreter of the bible heikki räisänen my involvement in biblical studies has also awakened in me an interest in other holy books early on i had the opportunity to do some work on the qur an a fascinating combination of things familiar and unfamiliar for a biblical scholar i had a vague hunch that in a somewhat similar way the book of mormon might make exciting reading but a contact with that book and its study came to be established quite accidentally during a sabbatical in tübingen in the early eighties i came across a review of the volume reflections on mormonism judeochristian parallels edited by truman g madsen which had appeared in 1978 1 i got hold of the book in the wonderful university library started reading and after a while found myself engaged in a modest investigation of my own of joseph smith s legacy 2 in this talk i shall try to explain what it is that fascinates me in this legacy as a biblical scholar as an outsider both to mormonism and to the study of mormonism reflections on mormonism consists of papers given by top theologians of the mainstream churches at a conference held at brigham young university from an exegetical point of view i found most fascinating the contribution of krister stendahl a leading new testament scholar who passed away just a few months ago in an article that anyone interested in our topic should read he compares jesus sermon on the mount in the gospel of matthew with its counterpart in the book 1 2 provo utah religious studies center brigham young university see h räisänen joseph smith und die bibel die leistung des mormonischen propheten in neuer beleuchtung thlz vol 109 1984 81­92 and idem a bible-believer improves the bible joseph smith s contribution to exegesis in h räisänen marcion muhammad and the mahatma exegetical perspectives on the encounter of cultures and faiths london scm press 1997 153­169.

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2 international journal of mormon studies of mormon 3 in 3 nephi the risen jesus preaches to the nephites in america a sermon which is largely similar to matthew 5­7 stendahl applies to the 3 nephi sermon the redaction-critical method developed in biblical studies he compares it with the sermon on the mount in the king james version kjv the translation of the bible known to joseph smith and his environment and points out new emphases found in the book of mormon account matthew and 3 nephi the sermon on the mount opens with a series of `beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are they that mourn etc the 3 nephi sermon does so too but it starts with `extra beatitudes not found in matthew in them the significance of faith and baptism is stressed `blessed are ye if ye shall believe in me and be baptised more blessed are they who believe in your words 3 nephi 12:1­2 in matthew s sermon there is no talk about faith in jesus and in his words another characteristic enlargement is the addition to matt 5:6 3 nephi 12:6 the gospel of matthew in the kjv here reads blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled 3 nephi adds they shall be filled with the holy ghost stendahl points out that amplifications of this kind are well known from the early history of the bible they are formally similar to changes made to the biblical texts in the targums the aramaic translations of the hebrew bible they are also comparable to the recasting of biblical material in what is called pseudepigrahic literature works later written in the name of biblical characters which did not become part of the bible itself e.g the books of enoch stendahl writes `the targumic tendencies are those of clarifying and actualizing translations usually by expansion and more specific application to the need and situation of the community the pseudepigraphic tend to fill out the the sermon on the mount and third nephi in madsen ed reflections on mormonism 139­154 reprinted in k stendahl meanings the bible as document and as guide philadelphia fortress 1984 99­113 3

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joseph smith as a creative interpreter of the bible 3 gaps in our knowledge the book of mormon stands within both of these traditions if considered as a phenomenon of religious texts 4 in terms of content the additions to the sermon on the mount in 3 nephi could be labelled christianising or spiritualising to be more precise the 3 nephi sermon with its tendency to centre upon faith in jesus gives matthew s sermon a johannine stamp on the whole in matthew jesus presents a religio-ethical message about the kingdom of heaven which includes a reinterpretation of the jewish torah whereas in the gospel of john he himself stands in the centre of his own message elsewhere in 3 nephi too the image of jesus `is that of a revealer stressing faith in me rather than what is right according to god s will 5 indeed the sermon in question is followed in 3 nephi by speeches which take up themes known from the gospel of john 3 nephi 15­16 6 a redaction-critical analysis of the book of mormon thus produces a major surprise to a conventional mainstream-christian mind it reveals that 3 nephi is at central points more christian than is the sermon in matthew more christian that is if conventional doctrinal theology of the mainstream churches is taken as a criterion of what is christian both in standard christian proclamation and in the 3 nephi sermon the person of jesus acquires a salvific significance which it lacks in matthew s sermon and largely in the gospel of matthew as a whole where the main function of jesus seems to be `to make possible a life in obedience to god 7 from a mainstream christian point of view there is nothing peculiar in the fact that the sermon on the mount is viewed through johannine spectacles on the contrary the book of mormon is quite conventional at this point for it has been typical of doctrinal christian thought at large to interpret the synoptic gospels stendahl sermon 152 stendahl sermon 151 6 cf d.j davies an introduction to mormonism cambridge cambridge university press 2003 47 7 luomanen entering the kingdom of heaven a study on the structure of matthew s view of salvation wunt/2 101 tübingen mohr siebeck 1998 285 5 4

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4 international journal of mormon studies matthew mark and luke from a johannine or pauline point of view but whereas others have been content to explain the sermon on the mount from an christological view-point extraneous to the sermon itself the book of mormon includes the explanations within the sermon as was already mentioned precedents for this way of handling biblical texts are found in the targums and in the pseudepigrapha not just there however we should go further and note that the alteration of earlier texts often for theological reasons is a common phenomenon even in the processes which led to the birth of biblical books themselves stendahl referred in passing to the retelling of the historical accounts of the books of samuel and kings in the books of chronicles as `a kind of parallel to what is going on in the book of mormon 8 the stories are retold in what may be called in a more pious key one could also point to the astonishing freedom with which paul interferes with the wording of his bible our `old testament when he quotes it in more than half of the cases he makes changes that make the text better suit his argument 9 the spiritualising of matthew 5:6 in the book of mormon actually continues a development which started within the new testament itself for it seems that the gospel of luke has preserved an earlier form of the saying presumably from a lost collection of jesus sayings which scholars call the sayings source or q luke writes in his sermon on the plain which is his counterpart to matthew s sermon on the mount blessed are ye that hunger now for ye shall be filled luke 6:21 according to the kjv a saying which here speaks of actual hunger of the stomach is given a religious-ethical content by matthew when he lets jesus here speak of hunger and thirst after righteousness in matthew righteousness is a term which refers to humans doing of god s will the book of mormon continues this development moving fur8 9 stendahl sermon 145 d-a koch die schrift als zeuge des evangeliums untersuchungen zur verwendung und zum verständnis der schrift bei paulus bht 69 tübingen mohr siebeck 1986 186­90.

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joseph smith as a creative interpreter of the bible 5 ther in a spiritual direction ye shall be filled with the holy ghost stendahl commented that `there is nothing wrong in that it is our common christian tradition and experience to widen and deepen the meaning of holy words 10 joseph s starting-point conventional christian theology has blamed joseph smith for falsifying jesus words to fit his own theology this criticism is patently biased for biblical writers themselves proceed in just the same way when using each other s works even in reinterpreting jesus words this happens in the synoptic gospels we saw how matthew spiritualises a saying which is found in a different form in luke it happens on a much larger scale in the gospel of john where jesus speaks in a manner quite different from the synoptics both in terms of form and of content but the reinterpretation of sacred tradition in new situations by biblical authors took place at a stage when the texts had not yet been canonised the new testament authors did not know that they were writing books or letters which would one day be part of a holy scripture comparable to and even superior to their bible our old testament in authority when the writings of matthew luke or paul had reached that kind of position they could in principle no longer be altered the adjustment to new situations and sensibilities had to take place by way of interpreting the texts in many cases by twisting their `natural meaning i say in principle for before the inventing of the printing press when the texts were manually copied by scribes the practice was different it often happened that `where the scribe found the sacred text saying something unworthy of deity he knew it was wrong and proceeded to correct it as well as he could 11 a mediating position as it were between preserving the text and changing it is taken by an stendahl sermon 154 e.c colwell the study of the bible rev ed chicago the university of chicago press 1964 55 11 10

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6 international journal of mormon studies notated bibles such as the geneva bible 12 from the sixteenth century or the scofield reference bible 13 from the early twentieth century these translations are provided with a wealth of marginal notes that guide the reader and easily come to share the authority of the text proper in his or her mind joseph smith stands in this tradition but he treats the sacred texts in a more radical manner in his fascinating book mormons and the bible philip barlow describes the bible-impregnated atmosphere in which mormonism was born as follows `joseph smith grew up in a bible-drenched society and he showed it he shared his era s assumptions about the literality historicity and inspiration of the bible but `he differed from his evangelical contemporaries in that he found the unaided bible an inadequate religious compass instead of turning to scholarly or ecclesiastical authority to address this lack he `produced more scripture scripture that at once challenged yet reinforced biblical authority and that echoed biblical themes interpreted biblical passages shared biblical content corrected biblical errors filled biblical gaps 14 one may call him a bible-believer who wanted to improve the bible 15 the bible had been praised in the protestant churches as the sole norm for christian faith and life in practice this did not work too well many a reader could not help noting that the bible was sometimes self-contradictory and could lend support to mutually exclusive practices and doctrines and indeed the protestant decision to give the bible into the hands of lay readers in their own language soon caused split after see chr hill the english bible and the seventeenth-century revolution london penguin books 1994 56­63 13 j barr fundamentalism london scm press 1977 191 14 l barlow mormons and the bible the place of latter-day saints in american religion new york oxford oxford university press 1991 11­12 see further r l bushman joseph smith rough stone rolling new york vintage books 2007 84­108 a new bible 15 cf t.l givens by the hand of mormon the american scripture that launched a new world religion oxford oxford university press 2002 191 `apparently joseph was not speaking entirely tongue in cheek when he wrote in response to the question wherein do you differ from other sects that we believe the bible 12

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joseph smith as a creative interpreter of the bible 7 split even within protestantism itself moreover the bible contained some features that were theologically or ethically problematic joseph smith stood up to defend the biblical message and the biblical god perhaps against deist critics like tom paine but probably just as much to silence the doubts arising in the minds of devout bible-readers like himself in a good protestant fashion joseph smith thought that in the bible god had provided humans with his infallible word since however there are undoubtedly mistakes and shortcomings in our bible joseph inferred that at some point the book must have been corrupted in the hands of its transmitters in its original form the bible must have been blameless in a similar way muslims have claimed that jews and christians have corrupted the text of the books which they had received through their prophets and messengers with the result that the bible no longer fully conforms to the original message now restored by the qur an some early christians had blamed jewish scribes for cutting out prophecies about jesus from their bible interestingly a related idea occasionally surfaces even in modern evangelical fundamentalism when no other way to eliminate a problem seems to exist it is reluctantly admitted that the extant copies of the bible do contain an error but then the original manuscript which is of course no longer available must have been different 16 some scholars insist that discussion of the original `autographs was commonplace in religious literature in smith s time 17 but joseph smith made the necessary textual changes openly what the bible ought to look like according to him is shown by the book of mormon which repeats more or less freely large parts of the bible as well as smith s subsequent translation of the bible sometimes called the inspired version 18 see barr fundamentalism 279­84 barlow mormons and the bible 54 n 29 18 the work was so named in 1936 by the reorganized church of jesus christ of latter day saints who had first published it in 1867 see r.j matthews `a 17 16

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8 international journal of mormon studies joseph smith s `translation of the bible the `inspired version the little known inspired version iv is a most interesting document from the point of view of a biblical scholar smith was probably aware that others were trying to improve the bible by way of modernising its language paraphrasing it and paying attention to alternative readings in ancient manuscripts 19 he set out to do the same ­ yet not by way of meticulous study but through revelation or prophetic insight in this project he worked closely together with sidney rigdon a former baptist minister who was far more versed in the bible and is assumed to have influenced him a great deal 20 although the iv has not functioned as scripture in the mormon church it is an important and interesting source for someone who wants to get a picture of joseph smith as a `biblical critic his changes show how much there was in the bible that caused difficulties for a simple believer his point of departure is the inerrancy of god s word revelation cannot be contradictory not even in small details thus when joseph smith notes contradictions he eliminates them many of his actual devices are familiar from the arsenal of today s evangelicalism 21 the difference is that where evangelical commentators resort to harmonizing exegesis or other kinds of expository acrobatics the iv alters the text itself i should perhaps mention at this point that my way of speaking of the iv as a work reflecting the thought of joseph smith conforms to the language used by philip barlow a mormon scholar his approach differs strikingly from that of some earlier studies which try to describe resorting to rather complicated hermeneutics the iv as a real transla plainer translation joseph smith s translation of the bible a history and a commentary 3rd ed provo brigham young university press 1980 esp 168­70 19 barlow mormons and the bible 47 20 davies introduction 43 21 i have not investigated the matter but can imagine that many of them may also have been known to and used by american preachers of the early nineteenth century had joseph heard preachers explain away contradictions between the gospels in the way he was to do in the iv did sidney rigdon perhaps call his attention to such problems and their current solutions?

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joseph smith as a creative interpreter of the bible 9 tion 22 by contrast barlow interprets the iv in redaction-critical terms as a product of smith s creative interpretation based on his prophetic consciousness barlow rightly finds a close analogy to smith s `prophetic license in the work of biblical writers 23 examples a wealth of examples of joseph smith s innovations is presented by robert matthews in his magisterial study of the iv 24 i repeat some of his observations but discuss them from a somewhat different perspective i also add examples not adduced by matthews how did judas iscariot die the statement `he hanged himself of the kjv matt 27:5 iv matt 27:6 is expanded in the iv `on a tree and straightway he fell down and his bowels gushed out and he died thus the account is brought more or less into harmony with acts 1:18 which says nothing about a suicide through hanging himself but states that judas `purchased a field and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out the same explanation is found in evangelical commentaries even today for instance as follows `if he hanged himself from a tree located on a high cliff above a valley and if then the rope broke and the traitor fell on rocky ground the result could very well have been as pictured in the book of acts 25 notably matthews a plainer translation 233­53 barlow mormons and the bible 57­61 esp 60f the reader will have noticed that i deal with the book of mormon in similar terms i thereby side with those `particularly liberal latter day saints referred to by davies introduction 64 cf givens by the hand of mormon 174­84 who is critical of such `innovative attempts see further räisänen marcion 167­69 24 matthews plainer translation 285­389 an invaluable tool for purposes of comparison is joseph smith s new translation of the bible with introduction by f h edwards independence missouri herald publishing house 1970 which offers `a complete parallel column comparison of the inspired version of the holy scriptures and the king james authorized version 25 w hendriksen new testament commentary exposition of the gospel according to matthew grand rapids zondervan 1982 949­50 cf matthews a plainer translation 304 23 22

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