{"id":69088,"date":"2019-01-10T10:35:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69088"},"modified":"2019-01-10T10:35:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:35:36","slug":"oliver-cowdery-the-second-elder-of-the-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/oliver-cowdery-the-second-elder-of-the-restoration.html","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Cowdery, the “Second Elder” of the Restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"Bryce's<\/a>
Oliver Cowdery
For the background of this daguerreotype, colorized by Bryce Haymond, see http:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com\/oliver-cowdery-daguerreotype-restored-in-full-color\/
(The Interpreter Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This article of mine appeared in the Deseret News for 8 April 2010:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oliver Cowdery can plausibly be considered the co-founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. Commonly called the church\u2019s \u201csecond elder\u201d and, at one time, its \u201cassistant president,\u201d he wrote most of the Book of Mormon out by hand from dictation as Joseph Smith\u2019s principal scribe, recopied the entire manuscript for the printer, and, as one of the Three Witnesses, beheld the angel Moroni, saw the plates and heard the voice of God testify that the translation was correct.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Joseph Smith, he was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist and to the Melchizedek Priesthood by Peter, James and John. He was at Joseph Smith\u2019s side in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, when Moses, Elias, Elijah and the Savior himself appeared there, to accept the newly dedicated building and to confer priesthood keys.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Oliver Cowdery was excommunicated from the church in April 1838 and lived as a non-Mormon for the next decade. In 1848, he was rebaptized, and, two years later, he died.<\/span><\/p>\n

For obvious reasons, Latter-day Saint historians have found Cowdery extraordinarily interesting, and they have written numerous articles about his life and career. Several of the very best of these have been gathered in John W. Welch and Larry E. Morris, eds., \u201cOliver Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness\u201d (Provo: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2006) \u2014 a book well worth the attention of anyone interested in the truth-claims of Mormonism and in its early history.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cover of the book itself is important, as it features a recently discovered daguerreotype image of Oliver Cowdery that is discussed in an essay by Patrick Bishop. Other treasures include a brief biography of Cowdery by the premier expert on the Witnesses, Richard Lloyd Anderson, who also contributed pieces on \u201cThe Impact of the First Preaching in Ohio\u201d and on the reliability of the scribe who recorded Cowdery\u2019s testimony upon his return to the church; John W. Welch\u2019s valuable essay on \u201cThe Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon\u201d; Steven Harper\u2019s \u201cOliver Cowdery and the Kirtland Temple Experience\u201d; and Royal Skousen\u2019s \u201cTranslating and Printing the Book of Mormon.\u201d There are 17 articles in the volume, written by 13 named authors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOliver Cowdery and the Restoration of the Priesthood,\u201d compiled by Brian Q. Cannon and the BYU Studies staff, gathers and analyzes several statements from Cowdery on that important subject.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew Roper\u2019s \u201cOliver Cowdery and the Mythical \u2018Manuscript Found\u2019\u2009\u201d scrutinizes the zombielike \u201cSpalding Theory\u201d of Book of Mormon authorship and finds it wanting (yet again).<\/span><\/p>\n

Scott H. Faulring\u2019s \u201cThe Return of Oliver Cowdery,\u201d which won the T. Edgar Lyon Award of Excellence from the Mormon History<\/a> Association when it was first published in 2000, provides fascinating and even moving background to that 1848 event, which demonstrated Oliver Cowdery\u2019s continuing testimony of Mormonism at a time when the Saints were headed westward and when casting one\u2019s lot with them was anything but an easy road to prosperity or social status.<\/span><\/p>\n

Larry Morris\u2019 article on \u201cOliver Cowdery\u2019s Vermont Years and the Origins of Mormonism\u201d dismantles persistent attempts to link Joseph Smith Sr. with Oliver Cowdery\u2019s father in a divining-rod incident that, so the theory goes, helps to explain (away) the founding of the church 25 years later. It also demolishes equally persistent efforts to tie Oliver Cowdery to the Rev. Ethan Smith and, thereby, to portray the Book of Mormon as plagiarized from the Rev. Smith\u2019s \u201cView of the Hebrews.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As if that weren\u2019t contribution enough, Morris\u2019 \u201c\u2009\u2019The Private Character of the Man Who Bore that Testimony\u2019: Oliver Cowdery and His Critics\u201d defends Cowdery\u2019s reputation, intelligence and honesty against writers who, in their ardent desire to negate his testimony, have attempted to besmirch his name. Morris, who is emerging as a treasure in his own right, demonstrates that the critics rely upon weak evidence, questionable sources and circular reasoning to make their fatally flawed case.<\/span><\/p>\n

The founding events of the Restoration took place in the literal material world. They were not metaphorical. They were not merely symbolic. Accordingly, they are of immense significance to all of humanity. Oliver Cowdery\u2019s unwavering eyewitness testimony of them, through persecution, suffering, illness, disappointment, anger and even excommunication, is powerful evidence of their reality. This book, \u201cOliver Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness,\u201d provides powerful scholarly evidence that his testimony can be trusted.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 This article of mine appeared in the Deseret News for 8 April 2010: \u00a0 Oliver Cowdery can plausibly be considered the co-founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Commonly called the church\u2019s \u201csecond elder\u201d and, at one time, its \u201cassistant president,\u201d he wrote most of the Book of Mormon out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOliver Cowdery, the "Second Elder" of the Restoration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    This article of mine appeared in the Deseret News for 8 April 2010:   Oliver Cowdery can plausibly be considered the co-founder of The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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