Angel Nephi, scratch that, Moroni - ?

[Charlotte]

I could run this down myself, but I'm being lazy and asking if anyone here knows the story. Is it true that Joseph never wrote of the Angel Moroni? That all his references to an angel named Nephi were later changed to Moroni?

If so, it reminds me of a line from Dan Vogel's video about priesthood restoration.

The cavalier manner in which Cowdery and Smith added anachronistic elements to serve later needs and manipulated related documents shows that they were not drawing on memories of real events, which raises the question: If Smith and Cowdery didn't treat angelic ordination stories as real experiences, why should we?"

I'm not saying there's no such thing as priesthood or that the Book of Mormon can't be important and inspiring, just that the Church's cultural requirement that we believe these stories literally is pushing me away.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

[Red Ryder]

This is a good place to start.

http://www.mormonthink.com/nephiweb.htm

[Charlotte]

Thanks. This is their bottom line after giving both sides their due:

Both the critics and defenders of the faith have compelling points to make. The editors of this section give their own opinion:

How significant is this? The simple answer of "it was just a typo" works for one mistake that is corrected soon thereafter. However we see five instances of this same mistake, including in the original edition of the LDS scripture, The Pearl of Great Price. We have to wonder if it was indeed just a typo or perhaps something more. And it wasn't corrected until years later. Also disturbing is that Joseph was an editor of the Times and Seasons so why wouldn't he have noticed this or ever corrected it?

This certainly isn't proof of a deception but yet another rarely-discussed problem in the history of the one, true church.

I'm fine, in theory, with all kinds of tinkering, but not with pretending the story hasn't been changed and finessed.

[Palerider]

Heard something the other day that really resonated with me and applies to so much of the churches sorry apologetics.

The story of the honest waiter (0r Everybody makes mistakes occasionally):

When things get busy in a crowded restaurant there are occasions when a good waiter might give a customer the wrong change. Statistically, during those times of stress, if the waiter is honest, half of the time he will give change in favor of the customer and half the time he will give change in favor of himself.
However, if the mistakes work out to the favor of the waiter 90-100% of the time, then you know you have a dishonest waiter.

The thing I find interesting in the "mistakes" made by Joseph Smith is that according to the apologists they always work to Joseph's favor, 100% of the time. Joseph never, ever comes out smelling like anything but a rose. So tell me.....who's really being dishonest here?

[Charlotte]

The thing I find interesting in the "mistakes" made by Joseph Smith is that according to the apologists they always work to Joseph's favor, 100% of the time. Joseph never, ever comes out smelling like anything but a rose. So tell me.....who's really being dishonest here?

Wow, such a smart example to describe the issue. Thank you.

I don't think the Church gets how crucial the apologetics are. They let anyone and everyone take a run at it. We can't know for sure whether Joseph was honest or dishonest, deluded or anointed, or whatever. But we can sure know when an apologist is honest. And we can sure see ridiculous patterns emerging.

[moksha]

From the article:

The original 1853 edition was then suppressed and gathered in, both in England and Utah and burned or destroyed, according to The Deseret News, 21st June 1865. Young then had the book "revised" and eventually, in 1901 a falsified reprint of the book was published by the Church.

...the actual text was rewritten and then published as if it was the original work with over two thousand words added, deleted or changed without any reference, along with a further 736 words deleted with the proper indication...

Walter L. Whipple, in his thesis written at BYU, stated that Orson Pratt "published The Pearl of Great Price in 1878, and removed the name of Nephi from the text entirely and inserted the name Moroni in its place" (Textual Changes in the Pearl of Great Price, typed copy, p.125).

However, in defense of the Church position, it should be noted that devoted fans of Lord of the Rings writer J.R.R. Tolkien found several internal inconsistencies in those books which were changed in later editions (and Tolkien was a professor of literature at Oxford University). While the LOTR is regarded as the masterpiece of the 20th Century, even those books cannot boast being made into a Broadway musical.