{"id":77364,"date":"2019-08-23T12:15:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T18:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=77364"},"modified":"2019-08-23T12:20:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T18:20:42","slug":"john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html","title":{"rendered":"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Whitmer<\/a>
The reconstructed Peter Whitmer home, near Fayette, New York, where much of the Book of Mormon was translated.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em> is John Gee, \u201cThe Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project Stumbles\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Review of\u00a0The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts<\/em>, eds. Robin Scott Jensen and Brian M. Hauglid (Salt Lake City: Church Historian\u2019s Press, 2018), 381 pages.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abstract: Volume 4 of the Revelations and Translations series of the Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers does not live up to the standards set in previous volumes. While the production values are still top notch, the actual content is substandard. Errors fill the volume, including upside-down photographs and numerous transcription errors beyond the more than two hundred places where the editors admitted they could not read the documents. For this particular volume, producing it incorrectly is arguably worse than not producing it at all.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is, by my calculation, the 370th consecutive Friday, out of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 381.5 weeks of existence, on which we\u2019ve published at least one article in our journal. \u00a0Grateful thanks to Allen Wyatt and the others who have made that possible!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sigh. \u00a0The ever more wearisome Mr. Jonathan Neville, one of the most vocal proponents of the so-called \u201cHeartland model\u201d of Book of Mormon geography, has me in his crosshairs again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t follow his writing. \u00a0But some people do, and not all of them are favorably impressed. \u00a0One of those has alerted me to Mr. Neville\u2019s latest attack, which appeared this morning as an entry in a new Neville blog \u2014 he apparently maintains a number<\/em> of active blogs \u2014 that is expressly dedicated to criticizing the work of the Interpreter Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In it, Mr. Neville criticizes my presentation at the 2019 FairMormon Conference.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

During that presentation, I briefly discussed Mary Musselman Whitmer\u2019s experience with the plates of the Book of Mormon and identified her as an unofficial witness of those plates. \u00a0So far as I can tell from my written notes for FairMormon, I myself never identified the messenger who showed the plates to her. \u00a0(It\u2019s possible that I did so while ad libbing, but my notes for that portion of the talk are pretty much in continuous prose, so I likely read them as they stand. \u00a0We\u2019ll see when the video appears.) \u00a0However, I did quote a passage from a someone else that implicitly identifies the messenger as Moroni.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s a big deal for Mr. Neville whether that messenger was Moroni or was not<\/em> Moroni. \u00a0I\u2019m not quite sure why it matters so much to him. \u00a0I\u2019m not sufficiently a student of Mr. Neville\u2019s thinking to know that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter to me at all<\/em> whether it was Moroni or some other person. \u00a0Not at all<\/em>. \u00a0I take no stand on the question, and I freely acknowledge both that Mary Whitmer appears to have called him \u201cBrother Nephi\u201d and that her description of him contrasts somewhat with Joseph Smith\u2019s description of the angel. \u00a0However, her account has only arrived to us via three separate informants at second hand, so I\u2019m prepared to be agnostic on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Mr. Neville claims that I\u2019m ideologically driven (by my membership in the conspiracy or cartel that, according to him, seeks to mislead the Church and its leaders regarding the geography of the Book of Mormon) to claim that the messenger in the Whitmer barn was Moroni, and he now declares that the message of my 2019 FairMormon talk was that we should not believe women<\/em>. \u00a0Which, as any reasonable person who was listening to me at the FairMormon Conference will readily see, is not only directly contrary to what I was saying but would utterly destroy my appeal in that talk to the experiences of Mary Whitmer, Emma Smith, Katharine Smith Salisbury, and Lucy Mack Smith as evidence for the Book of Mormon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr. Neville should stop doing this sort of thing. \u00a0He should simply stop.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

See this entry on the excellent \u2014 and, I increasingly think, the urgently needed \u2014\u00a0Neville-Neville Land<\/em><\/a> blog:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to work together, and not to\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 Today\u2019s new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, \u201cThe Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project Stumbles\u201d: \u00a0 Review of\u00a0The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts, eds. Robin Scott Jensen and Brian M. Hauglid (Salt Lake City: Church Historian\u2019s Press, 2018), 381 […]<\/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-77364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Today's new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, "The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Today's new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, "The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-23T18:15:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-23T18:20:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/04\/800px-Peter_whitmer_log_home.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html\",\"name\":\"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-23T18:15:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-23T18:20:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    Today's new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, \\\"The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME","description":"    Today's new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, \"The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME","og_description":"    Today's new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, \"The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2019-08-23T18:15:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-08-23T18:20:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/04\/800px-Peter_whitmer_log_home.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html","name":"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-23T18:15:57+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-23T18:20:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    Today's new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is John Gee, \"The Joseph\u00a0Smith Papers Project","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/john-gee-on-the-recent-joseph-smith-papers-volume-and-jonathan-neville-on-well-me.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"John Gee on the recent Joseph Smith Papers volume, and Jonathan Neville on . . . well, ME"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}