Hagoth wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2019 2:08 pm
And if all of this isn't enough, Oliver Cowdery never mentioned this event in his own journal. the last entry for 1836 is March 27 concerning the Kirtland Temple dedication. He talks about seeing a glorious cloud and cloven tongues, and of hearing a rushing wind, but nothing about a visit by Jesus, Moses, Elijah, and Elias a few days later on April 3. Then he skips to the Oct 1839 Nauvoo conference.
And this is some serious misdirection by the Joseph Smith Papers:
JS and Cowdery recounted their visions to some associates shortly after they occurred. In a letter to his wife, Sally Waterman Phelps, written on the same day, William W. Phelps stated that JS and Cowdery experienced “a manifestation of the Lord” in which they learned that “the great & terrible day of the Lord as mentioned by Malichi, was near, even at the doors.”
The only footnote is to the WW Phelps letter... so they mention that JS/Cowdery recounted their visions to "some associates," but as far as I can find not a single mention of that can be found outside of the journal entry.
That said, Phelps does mention the Malachi part so it's not as if no one knew about it. To me the main takeaways would be:
1. Joseph Smith claims a visitation from Moses, Elias, and Elijah... Elias and Elijah are the same person and there's no reason to think Joseph Smith knew that.
2. Joseph Smith never recorded the prophesy from Moroni about Elijah returning until AFTER Joseph claimed the vision, which is a pretty big deal.
3. Joseph Smith continued to talk as if the return of Elijah would happen in the future, although the entry by Warren Cowdery would have to be assumed told to him by Joseph. Not quite sure what to make of that.
4. Oliver Cowdery never told anyone of this vision nor did he ever record it in his journal. Seems a life changing even that one would want to dictate, does it now?
Of course there are a lot of assumptions (cue Jim Bennett) you need to make on either side, but I would say the most obvious, rational conclusion is that Joseph Smith was crafting his theology and used his Biblical understanding to craft this vision for authority, and then solidified it by turning it into a prophesy a few years later (think Anthon sealed book type retrofitting). That said... why did he not talk publicly of this vision since it would give him more authority? It was effectively unknown by anyone until after his death, which is really odd.
But after reading through a few apologetic sources, I can't see any reason to think that Joseph knew that Elias and Elijah were the same person, and given that a year earlier Joseph tossed John the Baptist into the priesthood revelation changes, it's hard to believe that Joseph saw Johnthe Baptist in the temple and was unaware of who he was talking with.