Men Who Knew

“I beheld with my eyes. And handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated. I also beheld the Interpreters.”  (Oliver Cowdery)

Quoted in Reuben Miller, Diary (October 21, 1848), quoted in Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling: A Cultural Biography of Mormonism’s Founder (New York City: Vintage, 2007), 78.

“I personally heard him [David Whitmer] state in Jan. 1876 in his own house . . . in most positive language, that he did truly see in broad day light, a bright, and most beautiful being, an ‘Angel from Heaven,’ who did hold in his hands the golden plates, which he turned over leaf by leaf, explaining the contents, here and there. He also described the size and general appearance of the plates.”

David Whitmer, reported by Thomas Wood Smith to the Editor, Fall River (MA) Herald, 28 March 1879; reprinted in the Saints’ Herald 26 (15 April 1879): 128; cited in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 5:26.

“A few hours before his death and when he was so weak and enfeebled that he was unable to recognize me or anyone, and knew not to whom he was speaking, I asked him if he did not feel that there was an element at least, of fraudulence and deception in the things that were written and told of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and he replied as he had always done so many, many times in my hearing the same spirit he always manifested when enjoying health and vigor and said: ‘The Book of Mormon is no fake. I know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written. An angel appeared to me and others and testified to the truthfulness of the record, and had I been willing to have perjured myself and sworn falsely to the testimony I now bear I could have been a rich man, but I could not have testified other than I have done and am now doing for these things are true.'”

George Godfrey, “Testimony of Martin Harris,” from an unpublished manuscript copy in the possession of his daughter, Florence (Godfrey) Munson of Fielding, Utah; quoted in Eldin Ricks, The Case of the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1971), 65–66. Also cited in Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 117.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry here regarding an ambitious project that we’ve embarked upon under the auspices of the Interpreter Foundation to create a docudrama (and several accompanying subprojects) about the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — not just the Three and the Eight but the several unofficial corroborating witnesses, as well:

“Creating a Witness to the Witnesses”

The film crew has recorded two more interviews since then — with Matthew Roper and Don Bradley — for which I was unable to be present.  I’m told that they went very well.

This morning — Tuesday morning — we filmed an interview with Professor Richard L. Bushman for about 2.5 hours, in an apartment overlooking Central Park that was generously made available to us for that purpose.  I was extremely pleased with the material that we recorded.

I’m grateful to all of those who have contributed to this effort thus far, most definitely including several donors, the interviewees, and those who have permitted us to use their homes for the filmed interviews.

However, it will take considerably more money to finish the project.

I would be happy to speak to anybody who is interested in supporting it.  Please feel free to contact me at [email protected].  And, of course, financial contributions to the Interpreter Foundation more generally are always welcome (and always needed):

Donating to the Interpreter Foundation

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You might enjoy this still relatively new KnoWhy from Book of Mormon Central, which draws on the work of, among others, Don Bradley, whom our film crew interviewed last Friday:

“What Was on the Lost 116 Pages?”

Posted from Fairfax, Virginia