So it's been a long time since I wrote anything on my blog. I'd like to continue my Comparable to the Bible series. Right after the Book of Mormon's discussion of Duelism, how the Fall was a good thing, and how God actually lengthened human lifespans after the Fall (2 Nephi 2:21)--in contrast to the Bible's strict monotheism, consistent stance that the Fall was a bad thing, and repeated shortening of human lifespans (Genesis 6:3)--Lehi continues his sermon. Ostensibly, he's blessing his youngest son, Joseph, but he gets sidetracked into a lengthy discussion of the prophecies of Joseph (the son of Jacob, of Genesis fame) about the coming of Moses and about the later coming of one super important prophet: Joseph Smith, Jr.
Trying to argue that this whole chapter isn't blatant self-promotion fabricated by Joseph Smith, Jr, himself runs into a host of problems. The most immediately apparent of these is the fact that the Joseph of the Bible never made any such prophesies. Oh, he did make a number of prophecies which came true during his lifetime, and he did actually prophesy about the coming of Moses. But this is what he said:
That's literally the only prophesy Joseph ever made that wasn't fulfilled in his lifetime, the only one touching on Moses (whom God would use to do the aforementioned visiting and bringing), and that's enough for the Bible. But it's not enough for Joseph Smith. Smith wants to build himself up with an impressive prophetic pedigree. He wants to be foretold by someone famous, someone he feels a connection toward, and he wants them to build him up as a super-important figure. And so in the Book of Mormon, he has Lehi quote the following prophesies as coming from Joseph, in Genesis.
• The seer will be a descendent of Joseph the son of Jacob
o His name and his father's name will be Joseph
o He will be really awesome
o He will convert and bring peace to the descendants of Joseph (the Native Americans)
o His writings (the Book of Mormon) will combine with the writings of Judah (the Bible) confound false doctrines and end contentions
o His enemies who seek to destroy him will be confounded
• God will deliver Israel from Egypt via Moses
o Moses will have a powerful rod
o Moses will be given God's law, written by His own finger
o Moses won't be good at speaking and will have a spokesman
• Also the author really likes the phrase "fruit of thy loins" and keeps forgetting necessary words (in the "most correct" book)
Contrast to what the Bible says:
• God will bring the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan
This problem wasn't lost on Smith, who produced the following revised passage from Genesis 50 to resolve the crisis later in his life:
• The seer will be a descendent of Joseph the son of Jacob
o His name and his father's name will be Joseph
o He will be really awesome
o He will convert and bring peace to the descendants of Joseph (the Native Americans)
o His writings (the Book of Mormon) will combine with the writings of Judah (the Bible) confound false doctrines and end contentions
o His enemies who seek to destroy him will be confounded
• God will deliver Israel from Egypt via Moses
o Moses will have a powerful rod
o Moses will divide the Red Sea
o Moses will know his heritage because of his name
o Moses will be raised as a son of the daughter of a king
o Moses will be given God's law, written by His own finger
o Moses won't be good at speaking and will have a spokesman
o Moses' spokesman will be named Aaron
• Also the author really likes the phrase "fruit of thy loins" and keeps forgetting necessary words (in the "most correct" book)
• The Messiah is coming and will be named Shilo
On the essential points of the coming Seer (Joseph Smith Jr) the prophecy agrees, but with regards to Moses and other figures, the prophecy is different. Some parts are left out and others are added in. Why would this be? Taking the Book of Mormon at its word, both Lehi and Nephi had access to the full text of Joseph's original prophecy, and Joseph Smith claimed to have "translated" the above Genesis quotation himself under divine inspiration...but how can both of this quotes be right when they are not the same?
But there is an alternate explanation. Remember the first quote from Genesis in this post and how it didn't have anything like this huge prophetic passage at all? That's because no such passage appears in any of the ancient manuscripts. It was never a part of Genesis at all. Then where did Joseph Smith find it? Simple, he made it up. The "JST" following that last quote stands for the "Joseph Smith Translation" which he liked to call, the "Inspired Version" of Scripture (the man had an ego). The problem with it is the same as the problem with Joseph Smith's quotations from Isaiah in the previous book (1Nephi): it's basically a rehash of the KJV with extra archaic words thrown in to make it harder to read and numerous alterations thrown in to change the meaning of the original text. This is one of those changes, and it's nowhere to be found in any ancient text. Joseph Smith simply made it up. Even the LDS Church itself admits it and refuses to recognize the Joseph Smith Translation as canon. Instead they hold it as "Bible commentary" by their prophet. In other words, even they believe that none of the additions in the Joseph Smith Translation, including this one, actually belong there--all of them were made up by Joseph Smith himself.
Some have tried to defend Smith's flagrant additions by quoting 1 Nephi 13 and its claim that parts of the Bible have been removed. However that claim doesn't work here because the Book of Mormon promises that the Bible will remain untarnished until after the death of the Apostles, but the oldest copies of Genesis we have predate the Apostles by hundreds of years and don't contain any prophecies about Joseph Smith: they match the original text we have today. So, if the Book of Mormon is true, Smith could not have simply been restoring missing passages to the Bible. There is, in the end, no other explanation but that he made these prophecies up himself.
And of course if Smith did make these up himself and if he is a false prophet, then we would expect some of these prophecies to be untrue. And that is exactly what we find in returning to the outline.
• The seer will be a descendent of Joseph the son of Jacob
There is absolutely no evidence that Joseph Smith Jr was of Jewish descent, much less of the family of Joseph.
o His name and his father's name will be Joseph
This is true, but also true of every other kid named Joseph Jr in the history of the world
o He will be really awesome
This claim needs to be broken down some. Specifically, the prophesies claim he will be "highly esteemed" among the offspring of Joseph, meaning the Native Americans. That definitely isn't true, as we'll see later. They also claim he will "do no other work" but what God commands him. Taken to its logical conclusion, this would mean that Smith was sinless, which he certainly never was.
o He will convert and bring peace to the descendants of Joseph (the Native Americans)
This prophecy is a huge bust! As I've mentioned before, the Mormons and the Indians don't have a great history. Joseph Smith himself never really interacted with them to start with. Later on the LDS Church tried to convert the Indians and live in peace with them, but this plan fell apart when the Ute tribes weren't interested in a white people claiming they were a degenerate race (who would be?) and the Mormons and Indians came to blows over scarce resources, with the Indians ending up trapped on reservations in poverty. Needless to say, they do not think to kindly of Mormonism or Joseph Smith.
o His writings (the Book of Mormon) will combine with the writings of Judah (the Bible) confound false doctrines and end contentions
The Book of Mormon spawned numerous false doctrines, including some the Mormon church itself doesn't believe (like eternal hell and other things right in the Book of Mormon but not in the Mormon Church). It caused quite a lot of contention by starting a cult, which itself split into several smaller sects. So if anything, the opposite of this is true.
o His enemies who seek to destroy him will be confounded
Far from being confounded, the vigilantes who killed Smith were very successful in destroying him and ending his martial law over the area and his bid for presidency.
• God will deliver Israel from Egypt via Moses
True, but easily faked by Smith.
o Moses will have a powerful rod
True.
o Moses will divide the Red Sea
False in that the prophecy says he will part it by hitting it with his staff. He actual held his staff and hand above it.
o Moses will know his heritage because of his name
Absolutely false, as Moses' name was given to him by his adoptive mother, the Pharaoh's daughter, and had nothing to do with his Hebrew heritage.
o Moses will be raised as a son of the daughter of a king
True.
o Moses will be given God's law, written by His own finger
True.
o Moses won't be good at speaking and will have a spokesman
Moses claimed this as an excuse, but it's doubtful that he really needed a spokesman that badly. After all, he had no trouble speaking against Aaron when he got out of line during the golden calf incident.
o Moses' spokesman will be named Aaron
True.
• Also the author really likes the phrase "fruit of thy loins" and keeps forgetting necessary words (in the "most correct" book)
The overuse of there words and the appearance of grammatical errors leads one to conclude this is not of God.
• The Messiah is coming and will be named Shilo
False. The Messiah was Jesus. Shiloh appears once in the Bible and could refer to a person or place...and it's spelled with an h!
With so many of these being false and the whole passage being a blatant addition to scripture, it's pretty plain that Joseph Smith the false prophet made this one up to promote himself.
Trying to argue that this whole chapter isn't blatant self-promotion fabricated by Joseph Smith, Jr, himself runs into a host of problems. The most immediately apparent of these is the fact that the Joseph of the Bible never made any such prophesies. Oh, he did make a number of prophecies which came true during his lifetime, and he did actually prophesy about the coming of Moses. But this is what he said:
And Joseph said unto his brethren, "I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he swear to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from hence." Genesis 50:24-25 (KJV)
That's literally the only prophesy Joseph ever made that wasn't fulfilled in his lifetime, the only one touching on Moses (whom God would use to do the aforementioned visiting and bringing), and that's enough for the Bible. But it's not enough for Joseph Smith. Smith wants to build himself up with an impressive prophetic pedigree. He wants to be foretold by someone famous, someone he feels a connection toward, and he wants them to build him up as a super-important figure. And so in the Book of Mormon, he has Lehi quote the following prophesies as coming from Joseph, in Genesis.
For Joseph truly testified, saying: "A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer into the fruit of my loins." Yea, Joseph truly said: "Thus saith the Lord into me: 'A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth into them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers. And I will give into him a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work. And he shall be great like Moses, whom I have said I would raise up into you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel. And Moses will I raise up, to deliver thy people out of the land of Egypt. But a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins--and not to the bringing forth [sic, missing word, "of"] word only,' saith the Lord, 'but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them. Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants,' saith the Lord. 'And out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring [sic, "of"] thee, O house of Israel,' saith the Lord."
And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: "Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise; and his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation."
Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: "I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, 'I will preserve your seed forever.' And the Lord hath said: 'I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write into him my law by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him.' And the Lord said to me also: 'I will raise up [sic, missing word "him"] unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it. And the words which he shall write shall be the words which are expedient in my wisdom [sic, missing word] should go forth into the fruit of thy loins. And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust; for I know their faith. And they shall cry from the dust; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even after many generations have gone by them. And it shall come to pass that their cry shall go, even according to the simpleness of their words. Because of their faith their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren who are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenant which I made unto thy fathers.'" 2 Nephi 3:6-21Obviously that's a whole lot more than Joseph ever actually said in the Bible. It's nearly a chapter of prophecies! To help organize things, I made the following outline:
• The seer will be a descendent of Joseph the son of Jacob
o His name and his father's name will be Joseph
o He will be really awesome
o He will convert and bring peace to the descendants of Joseph (the Native Americans)
o His writings (the Book of Mormon) will combine with the writings of Judah (the Bible) confound false doctrines and end contentions
o His enemies who seek to destroy him will be confounded
• God will deliver Israel from Egypt via Moses
o Moses will have a powerful rod
o Moses will be given God's law, written by His own finger
o Moses won't be good at speaking and will have a spokesman
• Also the author really likes the phrase "fruit of thy loins" and keeps forgetting necessary words (in the "most correct" book)
Contrast to what the Bible says:
• God will bring the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan
This problem wasn't lost on Smith, who produced the following revised passage from Genesis 50 to resolve the crisis later in his life:
And Joseph said unto his brethren, "I die, and go unto my fathers; and I go down to my grave with joy. The God of my father Jacob be with you, to deliver you out of affliction in the days of your bondage; for the Lord hath visited me, and I have obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of my loins, the Lord God will raise up a righteous branch out of my loins; and unto thee, whom my father Jacob hath named Israel, a prophet; (not the Messiah who is called Shilo;) and this prophet shall deliver my people out of Egypt in the days of thy bondage. And it shall come to pass that they shall be scattered again; and a branch shall be broken off, and shall be carried into a far country; nevertheless they shall be remembered in the covenants of the Lord, when the Messiah cometh; for he shall be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the Spirit of power; and shall bring them out of darkness into light; out of hidden darkness, and out of captivity unto freedom. A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins.
"Thus saith the Lord God of my fathers unto me, 'A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins, and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren. And he shall bring them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers; and he shall do whatsoever work I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes, for he shall do my work; and he shall be great like unto him whom I have said I would raise up unto you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel, out of the land of Egypt; for a seer will I raise up to deliver my people out of the land of Egypt; and he shall be called Moses. And by this name he shall know that he is of thy house; for he shall be nursed by the king’s daughter, and shall be called her son.
"'And again, a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins, and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins; and not to the bringing forth of my word only,' saith the Lord, 'but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them in the last days; Wherefore the fruit of thy loins shall write, and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together unto the confounding of false doctrines, and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to a knowledge of their fathers in the latter days; and also to the knowledge of my covenants,' saith the Lord. 'And out of weakness shall he be made strong, in that day when my work shall go forth among all my people, which shall restore them, who are of the house of Israel, in the last days. And that seer will I bless, and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise I give unto you; for I will remember you from generation to generation; and his name shall be called Joseph, and it shall be after the name of his father; and he shall be like unto you; for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand shall bring my people unto salvation.'"
And the Lord sware unto Joseph that he would preserve his seed forever, saying, "I will raise up Moses, and a rod shall be in his hand, and he shall gather together my people, and he shall lead them as a flock, and he shall smite the waters of the Red Sea with his rod. And he shall have judgment, and shall write the word of the Lord. And he shall not speak many words, for I will write unto him my law by the finger of mine own hand. And I will make a spokesman for him, and his name shall be called Aaron. And it shall be done unto thee in the last days also, even as I have sworn.
Therefore, Joseph said unto his brethren, "God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land which he sware unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and to Jacob." Genesis 50:24-36 (JST)There are some problems with this though. First off, this quote doesn't match the quote given by Lehi in the Book of Mormon. A few of the words and phrases are the same, but many are different and the passage here is visibly shorter. More importantly, the content of the prophecy is different. Let me break it down with the same outline from before. Additions have been marked in italics, subtractions with strikethroughs.
• The seer will be a descendent of Joseph the son of Jacob
o His name and his father's name will be Joseph
o He will be really awesome
o He will convert and bring peace to the descendants of Joseph (the Native Americans)
o His writings (the Book of Mormon) will combine with the writings of Judah (the Bible) confound false doctrines and end contentions
o His enemies who seek to destroy him will be confounded
• God will deliver Israel from Egypt via Moses
o Moses will divide the Red Sea
o Moses will know his heritage because of his name
o Moses will be raised as a son of the daughter of a king
o Moses will be given God's law, written by His own finger
o Moses won't be good at speaking and will have a spokesman
o Moses' spokesman will be named Aaron
• Also the author really likes the phrase "fruit of thy loins"
• The Messiah is coming and will be named Shilo
On the essential points of the coming Seer (Joseph Smith Jr) the prophecy agrees, but with regards to Moses and other figures, the prophecy is different. Some parts are left out and others are added in. Why would this be? Taking the Book of Mormon at its word, both Lehi and Nephi had access to the full text of Joseph's original prophecy, and Joseph Smith claimed to have "translated" the above Genesis quotation himself under divine inspiration...but how can both of this quotes be right when they are not the same?
But there is an alternate explanation. Remember the first quote from Genesis in this post and how it didn't have anything like this huge prophetic passage at all? That's because no such passage appears in any of the ancient manuscripts. It was never a part of Genesis at all. Then where did Joseph Smith find it? Simple, he made it up. The "JST" following that last quote stands for the "Joseph Smith Translation" which he liked to call, the "Inspired Version" of Scripture (the man had an ego). The problem with it is the same as the problem with Joseph Smith's quotations from Isaiah in the previous book (1Nephi): it's basically a rehash of the KJV with extra archaic words thrown in to make it harder to read and numerous alterations thrown in to change the meaning of the original text. This is one of those changes, and it's nowhere to be found in any ancient text. Joseph Smith simply made it up. Even the LDS Church itself admits it and refuses to recognize the Joseph Smith Translation as canon. Instead they hold it as "Bible commentary" by their prophet. In other words, even they believe that none of the additions in the Joseph Smith Translation, including this one, actually belong there--all of them were made up by Joseph Smith himself.
Some have tried to defend Smith's flagrant additions by quoting 1 Nephi 13 and its claim that parts of the Bible have been removed. However that claim doesn't work here because the Book of Mormon promises that the Bible will remain untarnished until after the death of the Apostles, but the oldest copies of Genesis we have predate the Apostles by hundreds of years and don't contain any prophecies about Joseph Smith: they match the original text we have today. So, if the Book of Mormon is true, Smith could not have simply been restoring missing passages to the Bible. There is, in the end, no other explanation but that he made these prophecies up himself.
And of course if Smith did make these up himself and if he is a false prophet, then we would expect some of these prophecies to be untrue. And that is exactly what we find in returning to the outline.
• The seer will be a descendent of Joseph the son of Jacob
There is absolutely no evidence that Joseph Smith Jr was of Jewish descent, much less of the family of Joseph.
o His name and his father's name will be Joseph
This is true, but also true of every other kid named Joseph Jr in the history of the world
o He will be really awesome
This claim needs to be broken down some. Specifically, the prophesies claim he will be "highly esteemed" among the offspring of Joseph, meaning the Native Americans. That definitely isn't true, as we'll see later. They also claim he will "do no other work" but what God commands him. Taken to its logical conclusion, this would mean that Smith was sinless, which he certainly never was.
o He will convert and bring peace to the descendants of Joseph (the Native Americans)
This prophecy is a huge bust! As I've mentioned before, the Mormons and the Indians don't have a great history. Joseph Smith himself never really interacted with them to start with. Later on the LDS Church tried to convert the Indians and live in peace with them, but this plan fell apart when the Ute tribes weren't interested in a white people claiming they were a degenerate race (who would be?) and the Mormons and Indians came to blows over scarce resources, with the Indians ending up trapped on reservations in poverty. Needless to say, they do not think to kindly of Mormonism or Joseph Smith.
o His writings (the Book of Mormon) will combine with the writings of Judah (the Bible) confound false doctrines and end contentions
The Book of Mormon spawned numerous false doctrines, including some the Mormon church itself doesn't believe (like eternal hell and other things right in the Book of Mormon but not in the Mormon Church). It caused quite a lot of contention by starting a cult, which itself split into several smaller sects. So if anything, the opposite of this is true.
o His enemies who seek to destroy him will be confounded
Far from being confounded, the vigilantes who killed Smith were very successful in destroying him and ending his martial law over the area and his bid for presidency.
• God will deliver Israel from Egypt via Moses
True, but easily faked by Smith.
o Moses will have a powerful rod
True.
o Moses will divide the Red Sea
False in that the prophecy says he will part it by hitting it with his staff. He actual held his staff and hand above it.
o Moses will know his heritage because of his name
Absolutely false, as Moses' name was given to him by his adoptive mother, the Pharaoh's daughter, and had nothing to do with his Hebrew heritage.
o Moses will be raised as a son of the daughter of a king
True.
o Moses will be given God's law, written by His own finger
True.
o Moses won't be good at speaking and will have a spokesman
Moses claimed this as an excuse, but it's doubtful that he really needed a spokesman that badly. After all, he had no trouble speaking against Aaron when he got out of line during the golden calf incident.
o Moses' spokesman will be named Aaron
True.
• Also the author really likes the phrase "fruit of thy loins" and keeps forgetting necessary words (in the "most correct" book)
The overuse of there words and the appearance of grammatical errors leads one to conclude this is not of God.
• The Messiah is coming and will be named Shilo
False. The Messiah was Jesus. Shiloh appears once in the Bible and could refer to a person or place...and it's spelled with an h!
With so many of these being false and the whole passage being a blatant addition to scripture, it's pretty plain that Joseph Smith the false prophet made this one up to promote himself.
