Book of Mormon witnesses — verified quotation ledger

Verified quotations from the two 1830 testimonies, the Burnett letter, David Whitmer's own publications, the 1859 Martin Harris interview, and the Kanesville record of Oliver Cowdery.

Rules used

A line goes in this file only if it was copied out of a source actually opened in the session that wrote it. Where a passage was read through optical character recognition of a scan rather than from a clean transcript, that is recorded, because OCR introduces errors that look like archaic spelling. Where two independent scans of the same edition were compared, that is recorded too, because agreement between two OCR passes is much stronger than either alone.

Sections 1 to 16 are the August 2026 ledger.  Section 17 holds every quotation added on 1 October 2026, when the sources the August draft had only named were opened:  the Martin Harris "spiritual eye" reports, the 1878 interview, the deathbed report, the control cases, Lucy Mack Smith, and Richard L. Anderson's book.  The wording and locator of each entry in section 17 are the same as in the article's footnote of the same name.  How each page number was fixed is recorded in research/source-dossier.md.

1. The Testimony of Three Witnesses, 1830 edition

Speaker: text drafted for Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris. Date: published March 1830. Source opened: two independent Internet Archive scans of 1830 copies — bookofmormonacco1830smit and the McGill University Library copy rbsc_book-mormon_OCTAVO-6525 (item McGillLibrary-rbsc_book-mormon_OCTAVO-6525-22415), both read as full-text OCR of the final unnumbered leaf. Cross-check: Eber D. Howe reprints the same testimony in Mormonism Unvailed (1834), pages 94–95, read from the copy in the Berean source library (howe-1834_mormonism-unvailed.txt); Howe's reprint independently confirms the readings "his brethren," "which came from the tower," and "shewn."

Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come, that we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, his brethren, and also of the people of Jared, which came from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety, that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shewn unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an Angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it is marvellous in our eyes: Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things.—And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgement seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen.

Editorial note. Spelling and punctuation are the 1830 printing's own, not modernized. Where the two OCR passes disagreed on a mark of punctuation, the reading common to both was kept. The three scans disagree trivially on whether the closing name is followed by a comma or a period; nothing turns on it.

Differences from the current edition, each confirmed against the current text at churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/three: "his brethren" → "their brethren"; "which came from the tower" → "who came from the tower"; "shewn" → "shown"; "marvellous" → "marvelous"; "judgement seat" → "judgment-seat."

2. The Testimony of Eight Witnesses, 1830 edition

Speakers: text drafted for Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, Samuel H. Smith. Date: published March 1830. Sources opened: the same two 1830 scans. Cross-check: the Joseph Smith Papers transcript of the printer's manuscript, manuscript page 464, read directly from the embedded page data.

Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come, that Joseph Smith, Jr. the Author and Proprietor of this work, has shewn unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated, we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record, with words of soberness, that the said Smith has shewn unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety, that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken. And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that which we have seen: and we lie not, God bearing witness of it.

The load-bearing variant. The 1830 text reads "the Author and Proprietor of this work." Modern editions read "the translator of this work." The heading in 1830 is "AND ALSO THE TESTIMONY OF EIGHT WITNESSES," not "The Testimony of Eight Witnesses."

3. Printer's manuscript, title page — the copyright formula

Date: the copyright deposit is dated 11 June 1829. Source opened: Joseph Smith Papers, Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa August 1829–circa January 1830, image 1, manuscript page [i], transcript read from embedded page data.

By Joseph Smith Juniour Author & proprietor

This matters because it shows "author and proprietor" was the legal formula Joseph Smith used to register the copyright, which is the strongest argument against reading the Eight Witnesses' 1830 wording as a confession of authorship.

4. Doctrine and Covenants 17 — the promise made to the Three before the event

Date: June 1829. Source opened: the current text at churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/17. Caveat recorded: this is the current canonical text, not an 1829 manuscript. The revelation was not in the 1833 Book of Commandments, and the wording should be checked against the earliest manuscript before publication.

Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates …

And it is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them, even by that faith which was had by the prophets of old.

And after that you have obtained faith, and have seen them with your eyes, you shall testify of them, by the power of God;

And ye shall testify that you have seen them, even as my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., has seen them; for it is by my power that he has seen them, and it is because he had faith.

5. Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 — the central document

Writer: Stephen Burnett, a disaffected Latter-day Saint, writing from Orange Township, Geauga County, Ohio. Classification: firsthand for the meeting he attended; secondhand for Martin Harris's words. Source opened: Joseph Smith Papers, Letterbook 2, page 64 (site image 69), transcript read directly from the embedded page data. Provenance point worth keeping: the letter survives because it was copied into Joseph Smith's own letterbook — a hostile report preserved by the Church itself.

… but when I came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver [Cowdery] nor David [Whitmer] & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundations was sapped & the entire superstructure fell a heap of ruins, I therefore three weeks since in the Stone Chapel gave a full history of the church since I became acquainted with it …

… after we were done speaking M Harris arose & said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true, he said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or a handkerchief over them, but he never saw them only as he saw a city through a mountain. And said that he never should have told that the testimony of the eight was false, if it had not been picked out of air but should have let it passed as it was—

Editorial note. The Joseph Smith Papers transcript preserves Burnett's own spelling and his lack of terminal punctuation. Bracketed "[Cowdery]" and "[Whitmer]" are the Papers' editorial supply, not Burnett's. Both paragraphs must be quoted together; quoting either alone misrepresents the meeting.

6. Joseph Smith on the witnesses, 16 December 1838

Writer: Joseph Smith, from the Clay County jail at Liberty, Missouri. Source opened: Joseph Smith Papers, Letter to the Church in Caldwell County, Missouri, 16 December 1838, site image 6, transcript read from embedded page data with footnote and biography spans stripped.

Such characters as [William E.] McLellin, John Whitmer, D. Whitmer, O[liver] Cowdery, Martin Harris, who are too mean to mention and we had liked to have forgotten them.

Editorial note. Re-read on 1 October 2026 through bin/jsptext.py, manuscript page 6.  The two brackets are the Papers' own.  The August entry put all five names inside one bracket;  the names are in the manuscript as shown here, and nothing is omitted between "Harris" and "who."  The commonly circulated form, "are too mean to mention; and we had liked to have forgotten them," derives from the later History of the Church and differs slightly in punctuation from the letter.

7. David Whitmer, A Proclamation, 19 March 1881

Speaker: David Whitmer. Date: dated at Richmond, Missouri, 19 March 1881; printed as a leaflet and in the Richmond Conservator 25 March 1881. Source opened: Whitmer's own verbatim reprint in An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, 1887), pages 8–9, read from the Internet Archive scan addresstoallbeli00whit. Note: no page-image scan of the 1881 Conservator printing could be located anywhere; Whitmer's own 1887 reprint is the best available text and is author-authorized.

That I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part, thereof, which has so long since been published with that Book, as one of the three witnesses. Those who know me best, well know that I have always adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do again affirm the truth of all of my statements, as then made and published.

"He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear;" it was no delusion!

Finally, I do not indorse any of the teachings of the so-called Mormons, of Latter Day Saints, which are in conflict with the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as taught in the Bible and Book of Mormon; for the same gospel is plainly taught in both of these books as I understand the word of God.

The accompanying certificate, printed immediately below the Proclamation and dated the same day, was signed by twenty-two Richmond citizens. Names read directly off the scan include General Alexander W. Doniphan; Hon. George W. Dunn, judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit; Thomas D. Woodson, president of the Ray County Savings Bank; J. T. Child, editor of the Conservator; H. C. Garner, cashier of the Ray County Savings Bank; L. C. Cantwell, postmaster of Richmond; George I. Wasson, mayor; James A. Davis, county collector; C. J. Hughes, probate judge and presiding justice of the Ray County Court; George W. Trigg, county clerk; W. W. Mosby, M.D.; W. A. Holman, county treasurer; and Thomas McGinnis, ex-sheriff of Ray County.

We, the undersigned citizens of Richmond, Ray County, Mo., where David Whitmer, has resided since the year A. D. 1838, certify that we have been long and intimately acquainted with him and know him to be a man of the highest integrity, and of undoubted truth and veracity.

8. David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, 1887

Speaker: David Whitmer, aged eighty-two, fifty-eight years after the event. Source opened: Internet Archive scan addresstoallbeli00whit, OCR of the full pamphlet. Classification: later firsthand, self-published, by a man then hostile to both the Salt Lake church and the Reorganization.

Page 8, on the three witnesses and the alleged denials:

It is recorded in the American Cyclopaedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, that I, David Whitmer, have denied my testimony as one of the three witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon; and that the other two witnesses, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, denied their testimony to that Book. I will say once more to all mankind, that I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof. I also testify to the world, that neither Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris ever at any time denied their testimony. They both died reaffirming the truth of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. I was present at the death bed of Oliver Cowdery, and his last words were, "Brother David, be true to your testimony to the Book of Mormon." He died here in Richmond, Mo., on March 3d, 1850.

Page 27, on the second voice from heaven:

If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon; if you believe that God spake to us three witnesses by his own voice, then I tell you that in June, 1838, God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to "separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints, for as they sought to do unto me, so should it be done unto them."

Page 28, on his excommunication and on the other witnesses leaving:

They were put in jail in November, after I had left them. Now you see why I left, the Latter Day Saints. After I left them they say they gave me a trial and cut me off. About the same time that I came out, the Spirit of God moved upon quite a number of the brethren who came out, with their families. All of the eight witnesses who were then living (except the three Smiths) came out; Peter and Christian Whitmer were dead. Oliver Cowdery came out also. Martin Harris was then in Ohio.

Page 4, on Joseph Smith's later errors — included because it shows Whitmer was not protecting Joseph's reputation when he refused to retract:

Joseph Smith drifting into errors after translating the Book of Mormon, is a stumbling-block to many, but only those of very weak faith would stumble on this account. Greater abominations are recorded of David in the Bible, than is recorded to-day of Joseph Smith; but do you reject the Psalms on this account?

OCR caveat. This pamphlet's OCR is generally clean but renders some capitals oddly ("Eichmond" for "Richmond," "Eay" for "Ray," "Avhat" for "what"). Those artifacts have been silently corrected in the quotations above where the intended word is unambiguous; no other change was made. A publication pass should re-check these against the page images.

9. Eber D. Howe on Martin Harris, Mormonism Unvailed (1834)

Writer: Eber D. Howe, hostile editor, Painesville, Ohio. Source opened: the Berean source library copy, sources/books/howe-1834_mormonism-unvailed.txt, pages 13–15 and 94–96 of the printed book.

On the financing — valuable because a hostile source agrees with the Church's own documentary project:

The whole expense of publishing an edition of 5000 copies, was borne by Martin, to secure the payment of which, he mortgaged his farm for $3000.

On Harris's reputation:

Martin is generally believed, by intelligent people, to be laboring under a partial derangement; and that any respectable jury would receive his testimony, in any case, of ever so trifling a nature, we do not believe; yet, the subjects of the delusion think him a competent witness to establish miracles of the most unreasonable kind.

Howe's own legal framing of the testimony, which is the earliest published version of the interest objection:

Nor can any person be a witness who is interested in the event of a suit, that is, when he may gain or lose by the verdict.

Reliability note recorded against Howe. On the same pages Howe calls Oliver Cowdery "a blacksmith by trade." Cowdery was a clerk, schoolteacher, and later a lawyer. Howe also describes the testimonies as sworn "under a most solemn oath," which they were not. Both errors are useful calibration on how carefully Howe checked his facts.

10. Joseph Smith Papers biographical directory — the eleven men

Source opened: josephsmithpapers.org/person/<name> for Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel Harrison Smith. These are not quotations for the article but the source of every date in its table. Facts taken directly: Cowdery married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer 18 December 1832; Hiram Page married Catherine Whitmer 10 November 1825; the five Whitmer brothers are sons of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman; Harris was excommunicated December 1837, rebaptized 1842, joined Strang's high council 7 August 1846 and McLellin's movement 1847, migrated to Utah and was rebaptized 1870; John Whitmer was excommunicated 10 March 1838; David Whitmer was excommunicated 13 April 1838 and was elected mayor of Richmond 1867–1868; Hiram Page "Claimed to receive revelations for church, 1830; later denounced them in response to JS revelation."

11. Joseph Smith Papers editorial matter on the printer's manuscript

Source opened: josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-august-1829-circa-january-1830/1, historical introduction and source note.

Facts taken directly, in the Papers' own words where the phrasing matters:

  • "Harris mortgaged his farm on 25 August 1829 to pay the $3,000 Grandin required to publish five thousand copies."
  • "Cowdery inscribed 84 percent of the manuscript, while scribe 2 copied about 15 percent, and Hyrum Smith wrote less than 1 percent."
  • Abner Cole "reprinted portions of the Book of Mormon's book of Alma in the 22 January 1830 issue of the Reflector" without authorization, using type already set for the book.
  • Cowdery kept the manuscript, and before his death in 1850 passed it to David Whitmer, "his fellow Book of Mormon witness and brother-in-law."
  • The Papers state that Whitmer "mistakenly told visitors that it was the original manuscript."

12. Millennial Star, 9 December 1878

Source opened: Internet Archive item per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1878-12-09_40_49.  The item's OCR is unusable.  On 1 October 2026 pages 771 and 772 (PDF pages 5 and 6) were rendered at 400 dpi, each column was cropped at the true gutter, and the sentences below were read from the images and checked against Dan Vogel's transcription in Early Mormon Documents 5:50–51.  Speaker:  David Whitmer, aged seventy-three, to the apostles Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith, Richmond, 7–8 September 1878.

It was in June, 1829—the latter part of the month, and the eight witnesses saw them, I think, the next day or the day after. (i. e. one or two days after).  Joseph showed them the plates himself, but the angel showed us (the three witnesses) the plates, as I suppose to fulfil the words of the book itself.  Martin Harris was not with us at this time; he obtained a view of them afterwards, (the same day).  (p. 771)

The fact is, it was just as though Joseph, Oliver and I were sitting just here on a log, when we were overshadowed by a light.  It was not like the light of the sun nor like that of a fire, but more glorious and beautiful.  (p. 772)

there appeared as it were, a table with many records or plates upon it, besides the plates of the Book of Mormon, also the Sword of Laban, the directors—i. e., the ball which Lehi had, and the Interpreters.  I saw them just as plain as I see this bed (striking the bed beside him with his hand), and I heard the voice of the Lord, as distinctly as I ever heard anything in my life  (p. 772)

Yes; he stood before us.  Our testimony as recorded in the Book of Mormon is strictly and absolutely true, just as it is there written.  (p. 772)

13. Martin Harris interviewed by Joel Tiffany, August 1859 — added 8 August 2026

Speaker: Martin Harris, aged about seventy-six, thirty years after the events. Interviewer: Joel Tiffany, a spiritualist editor in New York, neither a Latter-day Saint nor a Palmyra partisan. Source opened: "Mormonism—No. II," Tiffany's Monthly 5 (Aug. 1859), 163–170, read on 8 August 2026 from Dale Broadhurst's transcription at http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/1850s/1859Tiff.htm. Reproduction, not a scan of the magazine. The 4 August ledger listed Tiffany among the sources not opened; that is now corrected.

Harris on who saw the plates — a list that leaves out all eight of the Eight Witnesses:

These plates were usually kept in a cherry box made for that purpose, in the possession of Joseph and myself. The plates were kept from the sight of the world, and no one, save Oliver Cowdrey, myself, Joseph Smith, jr., and David Whitmer, ever saw them.

Harris asked directly about the mode of seeing:

Here we inquired of Mr. Harris — How did the Lord show you these things! He replied, "I am forbidden to say anything how the Lord showed them to me, except that by the power of God I have seen them."

Harris on the physical object:

These were seven inches wide by eight inches in length, and were of the thickness of plates of tin; and when piled one above the other, they were altogether about four inches thick; and they were put together on the back by three silver rings, so that they would open like a book.

I hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds.

While at Mr. Smith's I hefted the plates, and I knew from the heft that they were lead or gold.

Harris on the interpreters:

The two stones set in a bow of silver were about two inches in diameter, perfectly round, and about five-eighths of an inch thick at the centre; but not so thick at the edges where they came into the bow. They were joined by a round bar of silver, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and about four inches long, which, with the two stones, would make eight inches.

The stones were white, like polished marble, with a few gray streaks. I never dared to look into them by placing them in the hat, because Moses said that 'no man could see God and live,' and we could see anything we wished by looking into them; and I could not keep the desire to see God out of my mind.

14. Oliver Cowdery at Kanesville, 21 October 1848 — added 8 August 2026

Speaker: Oliver Cowdery, at the Kanesville conference session of 21 October 1848, two years before his death. Recorder: Reuben Miller, in his journal. Source opened: Richard L. Anderson, "Reuben Miller, Recorder of Oliver Cowdery's Reaffirmations," BYU Studies 8:3 (1968), page 278, article PDF from byustudies.byu.edu, page images read directly on 8 August 2026 because the OCR layer lowercases proper names. The Reuben Miller journal itself was not opened; this is Anderson's transcription of it. Anderson is a believing Latter-day Saint writing to defend the record's reliability.

I wrote with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet. . . I beheld with my eyes, and handled with my hands, the gold plates from which it was translated. I also beheld the Interpreters. . . .

I was present with Joseph when an holy angel from God came down from heaven and conferred, or restored, the Aaronic Priesthood and said at the same time that it should remain upon the earth while the earth stands.

I was also present with Joseph when the Melchisedek Priesthood was conferred by the holy angels of God, which we then confirmed on each other, by the will and commandment of God.

Anderson's own defence of the record, page 278:

An occasional anti-Mormon writer has denied the accuracy of this discourse on the ground that it was not printed until a decade after the event, but it appears in Miller's journal, a contemporaneous document. In printing this journal account later, Miller insisted that he made notes at the time and consequently had a "verbatim report." Whether that is believed obviously depends upon whether one trusts Miller.

Anderson's note 3 cites the "Reuben Miller Journal, LDS Church Historian's Office" and the printing in the Deseret News of 13 April 1859, page 48.

15. Emma Smith, 1879 — added 8 August 2026

Speaker: Emma Hale Smith, February 1879, weeks before her death that April. Interviewer: her son Joseph Smith III, president of the Reorganized Church. Published: "Last Testimony of Sister Emma," Saints' Herald 26:19 (1 October 1879), 289–290. Source opened: Dan Vogel's documentary transcription of the published article and of Joseph Smith III's manuscript interview notes, Early Mormon Documents, PDF at https://mormonpolygamydocuments.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/JSIII-Inteview-with-Emma-Smith-1879-from-EMD-Vogel.pdf, read on 8 August 2026. Documentary edition, not a scan of the periodical. The 4 August ledger listed Emma Smith among the sources not opened; that is now corrected.

The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth, which I had given him to fold them in. I once felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metalic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book.

Q. I should suppose that you would have uncovered the plates and examined them?

A. I did not attempt to handle the plates, other than I have told you, nor uncover them to look at them. I was satisfied that it was the work of God, and therefore did not feel it to be necessary to do so.

I moved them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work.

16. Eber D. Howe's partnership argument — added 8 August 2026

Source opened: sources/books/howe-1834_mormonism-unvailed.txt, page 96, read on 8 August 2026. OCR of an 1834 scan. This is the earliest printed form of the financial-interest objection to Martin Harris.

nor will any one disagree with us, when we shall have proven that the Book of Mormon was a joint speculation between the "author and proprietor" and the witnesses. … Then, was he not a partner? would not the law consider him connected with Smith and make him jointly liable?

Page 13, on Harris's motive and losses:

He engaged in the new Bible business with a view of making a handsome sum of money from the sale of the books, as he was frequently heard to say.

Having failed in his anticipations about the sale of the books … Since that time, the frequent demands upon Martin's purse have reduced it.

Sources still not opened

No words attributed to these appear in quotation marks in the article except through the work named:  the Richmond Conservator of 1881 and 1888 (through Whitmer's own reprint and through Vogel);  the Hamiltonian of 21 January 1881 (through Vogel);  the Evangelist of 1 October 1838 (through Vogel);  Anthony Metcalf's 1888 pamphlet (through Vogel);  William Clayton's manuscript journal (through the Joseph Smith Papers editors);  Charles Nordhoff (through Stein);  the Reuben Miller journal (through Anderson);  Strang's 1851 printing (through the 1991 reprint).  Nothing is quoted for Josiah Stowell.

What the 8 August 2026 pass found about this ledger

The 4 August ledger was honest. Every entry it marked as opened held up on re-inspection, and its list of unopened sources was accurate rather than aspirational. Two Burnett passages and the December 1838 "too mean to mention" line were re-read directly from the Joseph Smith Papers on 8 August and match this file word for word. No quotation recorded here had to be corrected, and none had to be cut. That is the opposite of what the companion translation article's ledger required.

What the 1 October 2026 pass found about this ledger

Every August entry was checked again against its source.  Three things changed.  The December 1838 line in section 6 had its names wrongly bracketed and is corrected above.  Howe's "partial derangement" sentence is on page 15 of Mormonism Unvailed, not page 14.  The Tiffany quotations now have the magazine's page numbers (165, 166 and 169).  One thing did not change:  the Proclamation is on pages 8–9 of Whitmer's 1887 pamphlet and its certificate on pages 9–10, as this ledger had it.  An audit of 9 August called those a page late because it read the pamphlet's page numbers, which are printed at the foot of the page, as headers.

17. Quotations added on 1 October 2026

Each entry is the article's footnote of the same name.

jsp-journal-1836

  • jsp-journal-1836:a. Manuscript page 136, entry for 21 January 1836: "The heavens were opened upon us and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell".
  • jsp-journal-1836:b. Manuscript page 138, entry for 21 January 1836: "Many of my brethren who received this ordinance with me, saw glorious visions also,— angels ministered unto them, as well as my self, and the power of the highest rested upon, us the house was filled with the glory of God".
  • jsp-journal-1836:c. Manuscript page 184, entry for 27 March 1836: "I then bore testimony of the administering of angels." Manuscript page 185: "Presdt David Whitmer also saw angels in the house". Frederick G. Williams's angel is reported in the sentence between those two, across the page break; that sentence carries a cancellation and an insertion in the manuscript, so it is paraphrased in the article and not quoted.
  • jsp-journal-1836:d. Manuscript page 187, night of 29 March 1836: "pres. Hyrum Smith washed president David Whitmer's feet and president Oliver Cowdery's, then pres D. Whitmer washed pres. W[illiam] W. Phelps feet and in turn pres Phelps washed pres John Whitmers feet", and "we continued in the Lords house all night prophesying and giving glory to God". The nine presidents named on pages 185–187 are Joseph Smith Jr., Frederick G. Williams, Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith Sr., David Whitmer, W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer. Manuscript page 187, 30 March: the official members "amounting to about 300 met in the temple of the Lord". Manuscript page 189: "I left the meeting in the charge of the 12 and retired at about 9 o clock in the evening; the brethren continued exhorting, prophesying and speaking in tongues until 5 o clock in the morning— the Saviour made his appearance to some, while angels minestered unto others, and it was a penticost and enduement indeed".
  • jsp-journal-1836:e. Manuscript page 192, entry for 3 April 1836: "The vail was taken from their minds and the eyes of their understandings were opened. They saw the Lord standing upon the breast work of the pulpit before them." The Papers' editorial note ahead of the 2 April entry: "This account of the vision was later recast in first person as part of the history JS began in 1838, and in that form it was incorporated into the published Latter-day Saint canon (D&C 110) in 1876."

inter-ocean-1886

  • inter-ocean-1886:a. In the reporter's voice: "The great heavenly 'visitation,' which was alleged to have taken place in the temple at Nauvoo [sic - Kirtland?], was a grand fizzle." The bracket is the transcriber's. The reporter goes on: "The elders were assembled on the appointed day, which it was promised would be a veritable day of Pentecost, but there was no visitation. No Peter, James and John, no Moses and Elias, put in an appearance." Then, in quotation marks as Whitmer's words: "I was in my seat on that occasion ... and I know that the story sensationally calculated, and which is now on the records of the Utah Mormons as an actual happening, was nothing but a trumped-up yarn."

stewart-1843

  • stewart-1843:a. Page 303, Testimony of Emily Babcock, who gives her birth as 9 April 1823: "I heard the sound of a mighty trumpet, which caused me to raise my eyes to see from whence the sound proceeded; when I beheld an Angel standing on the top of the center dwelling, holding in his right hand a trumpet, and in his left, a Roll or Book."
  • stewart-1843:b. Page 304: "We, the undersigned, hereby testify, that we saw the holy Angel, standing upon the house-top, as mentioned in the foregoing declaration, holding the Roll and Book." Signed Betsey Boothe, Louisa Chamberlain, Caty De Witt, Laura Ann Jacobs, Sarah Maria Lewis, Sarah Ann Spencer, Lucinda McDoniels and Maria Hedrick.
  • stewart-1843:c. The count is this article's own, made from the book. The "Contents to Part II" lists 67 entries beginning "Testimony of", from John Allen at page 291 to "Daniel Moseley and others" at page 387. A search of the body text for headings beginning "TESTIMONY" finds the same 67. Two are group statements: "Susan H. Whitcher and others" at pages 370–371 has six names, and "Daniel Moseley and others" at pages 387–390 has eleven. So 65 + 6 + 11 = 82, and the eight on page 304 are none of those, which gives 90. No name appears in two lists. Philemon Stewart himself, and the two women who wrote down the angels' own "testimonies" at pages 267 and 283, are not counted. The count of those who say they saw an angel is a floor: each of the 67 testimonies was searched for a first-person "I saw" or "I beheld" followed by "Angel", every hit was read, and nineteen testimonies have one. A testimony that words the claim another way is missed. An independent recount the same day confirmed the 90 and, searching with a wider pattern, found three more testimonies with such a sentence (Sally Maria Stewart, Enos Leonard and Timothy Randlett), so nineteen is a floor. Not all of the nineteen say the angel they saw was carrying the book; some saw companies of angels at the time it was read. The working is in research/source-dossier.md.
  • stewart-1843:d. Page 322, Testimony of Eliza L. Chapin: "while engaged in the worship of God, my eyes were opened to spiritual discernment; and I beheld a very mighty, holy and powerful Angel". Page 292, Testimony of John Allen: "I beheld them for some length of time, and knew not but I saw them with my natural eyes; for I beheld them as plain as ever I beheld mortals".

stein-1996

  • stein-1996:a. Page 360, on how Stewart said the book was received: "It was a 'word for word' transcription, done through the 'view and hearing of the spirit' rather than by natural eyes." Page 362: "Many of the testimonies in Part II are simply signed and dated statements commending the Sacred Roll."
  • stein-1996:b. Page 363, on the closing angel's warning that a signer's later fall would not undo his testimony: "(This proved to be a convenient caveat, because later a group of prominent instruments did apostatize, to the great embarrassment of the society.)" "Instruments" is the Shaker word for members who received visions.
  • stein-1996:c. Page 375: "But Stewart's revelation proved to be a short-lived bible." And: "(When Charles Nordhoff visited the western Shaker communities in the early 1870s and saw copies of the Sacred Roll, he was told by one elder 'that their best use was to burn them.')" Stein's note 60 gives Nordhoff, The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875), page 250, which was not opened.

strang-1851

  • strang-1851:a. The page headed "Testimony" at the front of the reprint: "Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, to whom this Book of the Law of the Lord shall come, that James J. Strang has the plates of the ancient Book of the Law of the Lord given to Moses, from which he translated this law, and has shown them to us. We examined them with our eyes, and handled them with our hands. The engravings are beautiful antique workmanship, bearing a striking resemblance to the ancient oriental languages". Signed Samuel Graham, Samuel P. Bacon, Warren Post, Phineas Wright, Albert N. Hosmer, Ebenezer Page and Jehiel Savage.

times-seasons-1843

  • times-seasons-1843:a. Page 185, left column: "Circumstances are daily transpiring which give additional testimony to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon."
  • times-seasons-1843:b. Page 186, left column: "Mr. Smith has had those plates, what his opinion concerning them is, we have not yet ascertained." And: "We have no doubt however, but Mr. Smith will be able to translate them."
  • times-seasons-1843:c. Page 186, right column: "We the citizens of Kinderhook, whose names are annexed do certify and declare that on the 23d April, 1843, while excavating a large mound, in this vicinity, Mr. R. Wiley took from said mound, six brass plates of a bell shape, covered with ancient characters." Signed Rob't Wiley, W. P. Harris, G. W. F. Ward, W. Longnecker, Fayette Grubb, Ira S. Curtis, Geo. Deckenson, W. Fugate and J. R. Sharp.

wyl-1886

  • wyl-1886:a. Page 207, W. Fugate to James T. Cobb, Mound Station, Illinois, 30 June 1879: "I received your letter in regard to those plates, and will say in answer that they are a HUMBUG, gotten up by Robert Wiley, Bridge Whitton and myself. Whitton is dead. I do not know whether Wiley is or not. None of the nine persons who signed the certificate knew the secret, except Wiley and I." And: "Bridge Whitton cut them (the plates) out of some pieces of copper; Wiley and I made the hieroglyphics by making impressions on beeswax and filling them with acid and putting it on the plates." Page 208, the certificate: "Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of June, 1879. Jay Brown, J. P."

kimball-1981

  • kimball-1981:a. Second paragraph: "Joseph Smith did not make the hoped-for translation." Last paragraph: "Joseph Smith needs no defense—he simply did not fall for the scheme."
  • kimball-1981:b. Section reporting the tests: "The X-ray fluorescence test indicated that the plate was made of a true brass alloy of approximately 73 percent copper, 24 percent zinc, and lesser amounts of other metals." And: "we concluded that the plate owned by the Chicago Historical Society is not of ancient origin. We concluded that the plate was etched with acid".

jsp-journal-1843

  • jsp-journal-1843:a. Entry for 7 May 1843: "forenoon visited by several gentlemen concerning the plates which were dug out of a mound near quncy [Quincy] sent by Wm Smith to the office for Hebrew Bible & Lexicon".
  • jsp-journal-1843:b. The editors' note on that entry: "On 1 May 1843, William Clayton wrote that JS had 'translated a portion and says they contain the history of the person with whom they were found & he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven & earth.'" And: "No further mention of the plates is made in JS's journal after this 7 May entry, and no translation endorsed by JS has been located, suggesting that whatever JS initially thought about the plates, he soon lost interest in them. Later statements by W. P. Harris and William Fugate, as well as tests performed on one of the plates at Northwestern University in 1980, indicate that the plates were a hoax." Clayton's manuscript journal was not opened; his sentence is quoted through the Papers, and the 1981 Ensign article prints the same words.

democrat-1888

  • democrat-1888:a. Page 3 of the 26 January issue and page 1 of the 2 February issue, the same text in both: "On Sunday evening at 5:30, January 22, 1888, Mr. Whitmer called his family and some friends to his bedside, and addressing himself to the attending physician, said: 'Dr. Buchanan I want you to say whether or not I am in my right mind, before I give my dying testimony.' The doctor answered: 'Yes you are in your right mind for I have just had a conversation with you.' He then addressed himself to all around his bedside in these words: 'Now you must all be faithful in Christ. I want to say to you all the Bible and the record of the Nephites, (Book of Mormon) is true, so you can say that you have heard me bear my testimony, on my death bed. All be faithful in Christ and your reward will be according to your works. God bless you all. My trust is in Christ forever, world without end.—Amen.'"

jenson-1888

  • jenson-1888:a. Page 622: "David Whitmer, the last of all the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, died at his residence in Richmond, Ray County, Missouri, Jan. 25, 1888, aged 83 years and 18 days. From the Richmond Democrat of Feb. 2, 1888, a weekly paper published at Richmond, we cull the following".
  • jenson-1888:b. Page 624, left column: "On Sunday evening, at 5:30 (January 22, 1888), Mr. Whitmer called his family and some friends to his bedside, and addressing himself to the attending physician, said: 'Dr. Buchanan, I want you to say whether or not I am in my right mind, before I give my dying testimony.' The doctor answered: 'Yes, you are in your right mind, for I have just had a conversation with you.' He then addressed himself to all around his bedside in these words: 'Now you must all be faithful in Christ. I want to say to you all, the Bible and the record of the Nephites (Book of Mormon) is true, so you can say that you have heard me bear my testimony on my death-bed.'"
  • jenson-1888:c. Page 621, in the article "The Eight Witnesses," John C. Whitmer as Jenson took him down at Richmond in 1888: "I have heard my grandmother (Mary M. Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by an holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi. ... One evening, when (after having done her usual day's work in the house) she went to the barn to milk the cows, she met a stranger carrying something on his back that looked like a knapsack. ... This strange person turned the leaves of the book of plates over, leaf after leaf, and also showed her the engravings upon them ... The personage then suddenly vanished with the plates, and where he went, she could not tell." The page number was read off the page image. Jenson gives Mary Whitmer's death as January 1856 on page 622.

vogel-2003

  • vogel-2003:a. Page 211, source note to "David Whitmer Interview with Richmond (MO) Democrat, January 1888": "'The Last Witness Dead! David Whitmer, the aged Patria[r]ch, Gone to His Rest. ...' Richmond (MO) Democrat, 26 January 1888; reprinted 2 February 1888." The bedside scene is at pages 214–215. Vogel's transcription reads "Now you must be faithful in Christ"; the scans of both printings of the Democrat, and Jenson's reprint, read "Now you must all be faithful in Christ".
  • vogel-2003:b. Pages 225–226, "David Whitmer Dying Testimony, 22 & 23 January 1888", from the Richmond Conservator of 26 January 1888: "On Sunday evening before his death he called the family and his attending physician, Dr. George W. Buchanan, to his bedside, and said 'Doctor do you consider that I am in my right mind?' to which the Doctor replied, 'Yes, you are in your right mind, I have just had a conversation with you.'"
  • vogel-2003:c. Pages 62–63, "David Whitmer Interview with John Murphy, June 1880." Vogel's source note, page 62: "John Murphy to the Editor, undated, Hamiltonian, 21 January 1881; reprinted in the Kingston (Missouri) Times, 16 December 1887." The exchange, page 63: "'It had no appearance or shape.' 'Then you saw nothing nor heard nothing?' 'Nothing, in the way you understand it.' 'How, then, could you have borne testimony that you saw and heard an angel?' 'Have you never had impressions?' 'Then you had impressions as the quaker when the spirit moves, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience, a feeling?' 'Just so.'" Vogel's headnote, page 62: "Whitmer disputed the implication that he had denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon and not any specific statement attributed to him. As the editor of the Kingston Times subsequently noted, 'the studious reader will fail to see wherein Mr. Murphy alleges that Elder Whitmer denies being a witness'".
  • vogel-2003:d. Page 193, David Whitmer to Anthony Metcalf, 2 April 1887, as Metcalf printed it in Ten Years Before the Mast (1888), pages 73–74: "In regards to my testimony to the visitation of the angel, who declared to us three witnesses that the Book of Mormon is true, I have this to say: Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time." And: "there in a vision or in the spirit, we saw and heard just as it is stated in my testimony in the Book of Mormon. I am now passed eighty-two years old, and I have a brother, J. J. Snyder, to do my writing for me, at my dictation."
  • vogel-2003:e. Pages 123–124, from the memoirs of Joseph Smith III. Vogel's headnote says this part was "dictated by Joseph Smith III to his son, Israel A., on 13 October 1913" and dates the meeting to 9 July 1884. Page 124: the officer "asked the question if it had not been possible that Elder Whitmer had been mistaken and had been moved by some kind of mental disturbance or hallucination in which he was deceived", and Whitmer, "rising to his full height, a little over six feet, said solemnly and impressively, 'No sir, I was not under any hallucination nor was I deceived. I saw with these eyes, I heard with these ears, I know whereof I speak.'"
  • vogel-2003:f. Page 239, John Whitmer's 1836 "Address," transcribed with the page break of the original marked: "that I have most assuredly seen the plates from whence the book of [p. 286] Mormon is translated, and that I have handled these plates".
  • vogel-2003:g. Pages 240–241, Theodore Turley's "Memorandums" of a meeting at Far West on 4 April 1839, written up in 1845. Page 241, with Vogel's editorial brackets dropped: "I now say I handled those plates. there was fine engravings on both sides. I handled them. and he described how they were hung and they were shown to me by a supernatural power. he acknowledged all." In Vogel's text the memorandum's own quotation marks close after "I handled them." The quotation marks around "and they were shown to me by a supernatural power" are Vogel's, printed in editorial brackets, so the manuscript runs that clause on from Turley's narration without marking it as speech. The words "to me" are what make it read as Whitmer's. The page number was read off the foot of the page image. Then, asked why the translation was not true: "I cannot read it and I do not know whether it is true or not." Vogel's headnote, page 240: "What Anderson neglected to consider was Whitmer's qualification (not quoted by Anderson) that he saw the plates by 'a supernatural power,' which would suggest something other than a normal, physical experience."
  • vogel-2003:h. Page 41, source note to "David Whitmer Interview with Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith, 7-8 September 1878": "'Report of Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith,' Deseret News, 16 November 1878; reprinted in the Millennial Star 40 (9 December 1878): 771-74." Vogel prints the published report's account of the vision at pages 50–51, and his transcription agrees with the page images on every sentence quoted in this article. The Deseret News printing was not opened.

vogel-1998

  • vogel-1998:a. Page 289, in the headnote to Stephen Burnett's letter, quoting Warren Parrish's letter of 11 August 1838 from the Evangelist (Carthage, Ohio) 6 (1 October 1838), page 226: "Martin Harris, one of the subscribing witnesses, has come out at last, and says he never saw the plates, from which the book purports to have been translated, except in vision, and he further says that any man who says he has seen them in any other way is a liar, Joseph not excepted". The Evangelist itself was not opened.
  • vogel-1998:b. Page 289, same headnote, quoting George A. Smith to Josiah Fleming, 30 March 1838, from the Church's manuscript "Journal History": "Last Sabbath a division arose among the Parrish party about the Book of Mormon; John F. Boyington, Warren Parrish, Luke S. Johnson, and others said it was nonsense. Martin Harris then bore testimony of its truth and said all would be damned if they rejected it." Vogel writes that Smith "was evidently also present."
  • vogel-1998:c. Pages 346–347, from Anthony Metcalf, Ten Years Before the Mast (Malad City, Idaho, 1888), pages 70–73: "He said: 'I never saw the golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state.'" Vogel's headnote on page 346: "Anthony Metcalf believed he interviewed Harris in 'the winter of 1875-6,' but Harris had died on 10 July 1875. Since Metcalf visited Harris at Smithfield, Cache Valley, Utah, the interview took place before Harris's move to Clarkston in October 1874, perhaps therefore in the winter of 1873-74." Metcalf's pamphlet itself was not opened.
  • vogel-1998:d. Pages 374–375, Ole A. Jensen's statement of a visit in July 1875. Vogel's headnote says the text is "apparently an original in Jensen's hand" and that the statement was first published in the Star Valley Independent on 13 December 1918. The manuscript, as transcribed, reads that the four men "went into a little grove to pray to obtain a promise that we should behold it with our eyes natural eyes"; the doubled word is in the transcription and is why the article quotes only the last two words.
  • vogel-1998:e. Page 385, Reuben P. Harmon, statement to Arthur B. Deming, about 1885, from Naked Truths About Mormonism 1 (April 1888), page 1: "I was well acquainted with Martin Harris, who was often at my house for days at a time. I have questioned him much about the plates from which the 'Book of Mormon' purports to have been translated. He never claimed to have seen them with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision."
  • vogel-1998:f. Page 526, John H. Gilbert to James T. Cobb, 16 March 1879, from the manuscript in the New York Public Library: "I asked Harris once if he had really seen the plates with his naked eyes?—his reply was. No, but with spiritual eyes."
  • vogel-1998:g. Page 548, John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, a typescript in the Palmyra King's Daughters Free Library: "Martin was in the office when I finished setting up the testimony of the three witnesses,—(Harris—Cowdery and Whitmer—) I said to him,—'Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?' Martin looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spir[i]tual eye.'" The 1879 letter on page 526 and the 1893 interview on page 551 tell the same story.
  • vogel-1998:h. Page 551, Gilbert as quoted by a New York Herald reporter, 25 June 1893, page 12: "I knew that Harris was an honest man, and one day I asked him to tell me truly if he had ever seen those golden plates. Yes, he'd seen them, he said. 'Do you mean that you actually saw the plates with your naked eye?' Harris' face fell and he was downcast for a moment. Then he said, 'I saw them with a spiritual eye.'"
  • vogel-1998:i. Page 256, Vogel's introduction to the Martin Harris collection: "Mormons began to introduce physical elements into their accounts of Harris's vision. Ole A. Jensen in about 1923 reported Harris saying he had seen the plates with his 'natural eyes'". Page 255 gives his summary of the other side: "Harris seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."
  • vogel-1998:j. Page 336, Martin Harris to Hanna B. Emerson, Smithfield, Utah, 23 November 1870, as printed in the True Latter Day Saints' Herald in 1875: "In reply I will say concerning the plates, I do say that the angel did show to me the plates containing the Book of Mormon."
  • vogel-1998:k. Page 290, Sally Parker to John Kempton, 26 August 1838, in its original spelling: "he had but too [two] hands and too [two] eyes[.] he said he had seene the plates with his eyes and handeled them with his hands". The brackets are Vogel's and are dropped in the article. (Anderson's note names the addressee as Francis Tufts.) Vogel cites it from Anderson's 1981 book, page 159.
  • vogel-1998:l. Page 349, the end of Metcalf's account: "Harris never believed that the Brighamite branch of the Mormon church, nor the Josephite church, was right, because, in his opinion, God had rejected them; but he did believe that Mormonism was the pure gospel of Christ when it was first revealed, and I believe he died in that faith."

clark-1842

  • clark-1842:a. Pages 256–257, the passage running across the page break: "A gentleman in Palmyra, bred to the law, a professor of religion, and of undoubted veracity, told me that on one occassion, he appealed to Harris and asked him directly,—'Did you see those plates?' Harris replied, he did. 'Did you see the plates, and the engravings on them with your bodily eyes?' Harris replied, 'Yes, I saw them with my eyes,—they were shown unto me by the power of God and not of man.' 'But did you see them with your natural,—your bodily eyes, just as you see this pencil-case in my hand? Now say no or yes to this.' Harris replied,—'Why I did not see them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see any thing around me,—though at the time they were covered over with a cloth.'" The spelling "occassion" is the book's.

tucker-1867

  • tucker-1867:a. Page 71: "In reply to uncharitable suggestions of his neighbors, he used to practise a good deal of his characteristic jargon about 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like."
  • tucker-1867:b. Page 290, in the letter of the Rev. Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, dated Palmyra, 24 December 1833, which Tucker prints at pages 288–291 and says he had in manuscript from Townsend's daughter: "Poor Martin's faith was apparently strengthened by this pretension, but afterward the 'command' was modified, and he claimed to have seen the plates with 'spiritual eyes.'"

anderson-1981

  • anderson-1981:a. Page 152: "In short, accurate evidence from a Book of Mormon witness must come from the witness—not from garbled reports through intermediaries." Page 153: "If a supposed statement of a witness is not in his hand or printed by his authorization, the question becomes whether he was interviewed by a known individual attempting to report him accurately. Since we know some 200 specific individuals who fit these requirements, statements of indefinite origin from anonymous informants have no place."
  • anderson-1981:b. Page 155: "This kind of reporting occurs in a version of Martin Harris's speech by Stephen Burnett, writing at the height of his angry disillusionment with Joseph Smith. His letter is contemporary, though heavily interpretive. Burnett stresses what he heard, but undoubtedly bends words to his theory".
  • anderson-1981:c. Page 156: "If 'only in vision,' then Burnett (not Harris) says it was really just 'imagination.'" And: "But Martin Harris felt misrepresented, or he would not have stood up in the Kirtland Temple to challenge the explanations of Burnett and his disaffected associates."
  • anderson-1981:d. Page 157: "Martin Harris never applied 'only' to that experience." And, after quoting John H. Gilbert's 1879 letter: "But the devout witness was confidently claiming something more, not something less than normal sight."
  • anderson-1981:e. Page 74: "Relatively few people in Richmond could wholly accept such testimony, but none doubted his intelligence or complete honesty." Page 86, on John Murphy: "Murphy had written a tongue-in-cheek report totally emphasizing the spiritual nature of the vision. This undoubtedly distorted what David actually said, since Murphy's materialistic philosophy was not equipped to explain the miraculous." Pages 86–87: "The point of misunderstanding was the choice between a vision of material plus spiritual perception or a vision of spiritual instead of material perception. The latter alternative was too quickly picked by some who talked to both Martin Harris and David Whitmer."
  • anderson-1981:f. Page 88, Anderson's printing of Joseph Smith III's recollection: "'No sir! I was not under any hallucination, nor was I deceived! I saw with these eyes, and I heard with these ears! I know whereof I speak!'"
  • anderson-1981:g. Page 158: "And what was the source of Harris's information anyway? No one claims he was quoting one of the Eight Witnesses." And: "Beyond Martin Harris, Burnett gives multiple hearsay from an unidentified source, and it has no value when the Eight Witnesses themselves contradict it consistently and clearly."
  • anderson-1981:h. Page 159, from Sally Parker's letter of 26 August 1838, in Anderson's modernized spelling: "We was talking about the Book of Mormon, which he is one of the witnesses. He said he had but two hands and two eyes. He said he had seen the plates with his eyes and handled them with his hands." Anderson adds: "There is no responsible report from any of the Eight Witnesses to the contrary." His note 18, page 176, dates Hyrum Smith's arrival at Far West to 29 May 1838 and quotes a companion's recollection that the party set out in March. The sermon in Ohio therefore fell between March and May, three to five months before Sally Parker wrote, and it cannot be placed before or after Burnett's letter of 15 April.
  • anderson-1981:i. Page 131: "First, he admitted, 'I now say, I handled those plates; there were fine engravings on both sides. I handled them.'" And: "From the strict point of view of evidence, this report is most impressive. With social pressure to deny and personal motivation to explain away his experience, John Whitmer insisted that he had in fact handled the plates." His note 27, page 134, cites the "Memoranda of Theodore Turley, Apr. 4, 1839".
  • anderson-1981:j. Page 147: "The supernatural power of the angel's visit to the Three Witnesses finds its physical foundation in the fact that eight ordinary men insisted all of their lives that they had carefully examined and handled the ancient plates of the Book of Mormon."
  • anderson-1981:k. Page 164: "He only mentioned the undefined voice at Far West once, in this last writing to fellow believers—but he had repeatedly testified of an audible voice authenticating the Book of Mormon. Those with him in 1830 in the New York grove certified that they had also heard God's voice then, but neither Oliver Cowdery nor John Whitmer, both of whom left Far West with David at this time, say anything about the heavenly command of 1838." And: "David Whitmer could have received true spiritual comfort because of the unjust methods that his former associates were using against him; or he may have only felt that God spoke to him because of the powerful indignation that swelled up in his soul; or if he gave way to the spirit of anger and retaliation, he invited Satan to inspire him and deceive him." ("1830" is Anderson's; the event was in 1829.)
  • anderson-1981:l. Page 181: "but at no known time did any Book of Mormon witness retract his printed testimony." Page 183: "Since these facts are clear, the only serious question about the Book of Mormon witnesses is not what their testimony was, but how to evaluate it." And: "In short, no one who knows their lives well has claimed a conspiracy. They spoke too spontaneously of a moving experience when questioned by hundreds." And: "After history has done its job of portraying what the witnesses really were, the job of evaluating their testimony must be a matter of conscience."
  • anderson-1981:m. Pages 164–165, quoting a letter of Phineas Young and others to the Twelve, Kirtland, 31 December 1844 (his note 37, page 177): "Martin Harris is a firm believer in Shakerism, says his testimony is greater than it was of the Book of Mormon." Anderson's comment, page 165: "This word to the Twelve from Phineas Young and others is vague, for we do not know whether these Kirtland Mormons heard Martin Harris say this, or whether they heard it secondhand."
  • anderson-1981:n. Page 166: "Indeed, the Shaker movement later tended to slough off the 'Divine Roll' as produced by an excess of enthusiasm. We do not know whether Martin ever accepted this book as true, but he showed one like it to a visitor." The visitor's journal for 1850, as Anderson prints it: "I went to see Martin Harris. He was one of the 3 Witnesses to the Book of Mormon and said he knew it was true, for he saw the plates and knew for himself. ... I read some in what they called the Holy Roll, but no God." Page 168: "except for Shakerism, 'every affiliation of Martin Harris was with some Mormon group.'"
  • anderson-1981:o. Page 188: "Those hypnotized are normally aware of entering such a process, and there were enough years apart from Joseph and from each other to reflect well on what had really happened. It may take more imagination to believe such theories about the witnesses than to accept their testimony." The theory answered is Fawn Brodie's, which Anderson quotes at pages 187–188 as "Joseph's unconscious but positive talent at hypnosis."
  • anderson-1981:p. Page 176, note 12: "Since Harris had physical experience with the covered plates in addition to the vision, one of the early and most quoted Harris interviews apparently merges the two experiences and claims a contradiction. ... This is not a direct Harris interview, but instead is John A. Clark's version of the version of 'a gentleman in Palmyra' who talked to Harris."
  • anderson-1981:q. Page 24, William Smith as reported by the interviewer J. W. Peterson: "I did not see them uncovered, but I handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a tow frock and judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds. I could tell they were plates of some kind and that they were fastened together by rings running through the back."
  • anderson-1981:r. Page 129, Hiram Page to William E. McLellin, 30 May 1847, which Anderson's note 24 cites from the Ensign of Liberty 1 (1848), page 63: "As to the Book of Mormon, it would be doing injustice to myself, and to the work of God of the last days, to say that I could know a thing to be true in 1830, and know the same thing to be false in 1847." Anderson introduces the sentence by saying Page "mentioned early spiritual experiences and reaffirmed his practical knowledge of the plates." The Ensign of Liberty itself was opened on Oct 1, 2026 and is cited in its own footnote.
  • anderson-1981:s. Page 162: "For instance, Harrison Burgess wrote of an answer to prayer in 1833: 'Suddenly a glorious personage clothed in white stood before me and exhibited to my view the plates from which the Book of Mormon was taken.' Martin Harris's wife had the same spectacular experience, though she violently rejected the restored gospel afterwards. Other documented cases parallel these two."

anderson-2005

  • anderson-2005:a. Page 23: "Many are brief and general, but when details are given, they speak of seeing and/or handling as a normal event, except for Turley's phrase 'supernatural power'". And: "On the other hand, the phrasing 'supernatural power' corresponds with Turley's preconception, not the written testimony that John was supporting. Thus the idea of a supernormal event evidently came from the interviewer". And, on John Whitmer's own history: "He then named himself and seven others 'to whom Joseph Smith Jr showed the plates.'"

whitmer-1836

  • whitmer-1836:a. Pages 286–287: "Therefore I desire to testify to all that will come to the knowledge of this address; that I have most assuredly seen the plates from whence the book of Mormon is translated, and that I have handled these plates, and know of a surety that Joseph Smith, jr. has translated the book of Mormon by the gift and power of God".

lucy-1845

  • lucy-1845:a. Manuscript page 154: "On coming in Joseph threw himself down bedside me, and exclaimed; 'Father, mother; you do not know happy I am; the Lord has now caused the plates to be shown to three more besides myself.— they have seen an angel, who has testified to them; and they will have to bear witness to the truth of what I have said; for now they know for themselves, that I do not go about to deceive the people.'"
  • lucy-1845:b. Manuscript pages 155–156: "all of the male part of the company, together with my husband, Samuel, and Hyrum, retired to a place where the family were in the habit of offering up their secret devotions to God. They went to this place because it had been revealed to Joseph that the plates would be carried thither by one of the ancient Nephites: Here it was that those eight witnesses, whose names are recorded in the Book of Mormon, looked upon them and handled them." Manuscript pages 156–157, the sentence running over the page break after "to Joseph; at": "After these witnesses returned to the house, the angel again made his appearance to Joseph; at which time Joseph delivered up the plates into his hands." One cancelled word ("with") is omitted, and the editors' bracketed surnames are dropped.

tribune-1875

  • tribune-1875:a. Under the subheading "Their Subsequent History," in the correspondent's own voice: "When visited by any of the Saints, or a stranger, he invariably asserted the truth of his 'testimony;' but among his friends privately he admitted that it was 'all a bottle of smoke.'" The next paragraph, on David Whitmer: "Privately he informs his friends that his statement is true, but he means Mr. John Angell, a neighbor of the Smiths!" Earlier in the same letter William E. McLellin is spoken of in the third person: "My first call was on Dr. William E. McLellin".

shook-1914

  • shook-1914:a. Pages 58–59, affidavit of G. J. Keen: "Rev. John Souder and myself were appointed a committee to wait on Mr. Cowdery and confer with him respecting his connection with Mormonism and the Book of Mormon." And: "We accordingly waited on Mr. Cowdery at his residence in Tiffin, and there learned his connection, from him, with that order, and his full and final renunciation thereof." (The 1907 printing lacks the words "with that order.") And, Cowdery as Keen reports him: "nevertheless, if the church require it, I will submit to it, but I authorize and desire you and the church to publish and make known my recantation." And: "At that time he arose and addressed the audience present, admitted his error and implored forgiveness, and said he was sorry and ashamed of his connection with Mormonism." Page 59: "I am now in my eighty-third year, and well remember the facts above related. (Signed) G. J. Keen. Sworn to before me and subscribed in my presence, this 14th day of April, A. D. 1885. Frank L. Emich, Notary Public in Seneca, O."

gates-1912

  • gates-1912:a. Pages 418–419, Cowdery as Gates's father reported him: "I am a dying man, and what would it profit me to tell you a lie? I know ... that this Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God. My eyes saw, my ears heard, and my understanding was touched, and I know that whereof I testified is true. It was no dream, no vain imagination of the mind—it was real." Page 419, the oath: Jacob F. Gates "is the son of Jacob Gates, who, prior to his death, related to affiant a conversation which he had with Oliver Cowdery, at the town of Richmond, State of Missouri ... Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of January, 1912." The father's visit is dated in the text to 1849.

reflector-1829

  • reflector-1829:a. Number 1, 2 September 1829: "The Golden Bible, by Joseph Smith Junior, author and proprietor, is now in press and will shortly appear. Priestcraft is short lived!" Number 4, 23 September 1829: "The number of Gold Bible Apostles is said to be complete. Jo Smith, Jr. is about to assign to each, a mission to the heathen."

whitmer-1887

  • whitmer-1887:f. Page 4: "the people of the church put too much trust in him—in the man—and believed his words as if they were from God's own mouth. They have trusted in an arm of flesh."

18. What the independent verification pass of 1 October 2026 changed

A second agent re-read the day's new material against the sources and then sampled the August entries.  Its working notes are in /home/eric/scratch/book-of-mormon-witnesses/verifier-notes.md.  Corrections to entries above:

  • Section 5, Burnett. The Papers' transcript reads "nor David [Whitmer]"; the surname is editorial, like "[Cowdery]". Corrected above.
  • Section 12, Millennial Star. The report introduces the exchange with the words "the following, in substance, as noticed in Brother Joseph F. Smith's journal, is the account of the interview" (page 771, read on the page image). The answers are Whitmer's as Smith noted them, not a stenographic record.
  • Section 15, Emma Smith. The three passages are on page 290 of the Saints' Herald, not 289. Vogel's "[p. 289]" marks the end of that page and stands before them, and in the Internet Archive scan of the 1879 volume the running head "290 THE SAINTS' HERALD" stands at the same place.
  • clark-1842:a. The earlier entry cut Harris's first answer out with an ellipsis. Asked whether he saw the plates "with your bodily eyes," Harris "replied, 'Yes, I saw them with my eyes,—they were shown unto me by the power of God and not of man.'" The "eye of faith" answer came only when he was pressed again. Restored.
  • vogel-2003:g, Turley. The page image reads "I handled those plates. there was fine engravings" with a full stop, and the quotation marks around "and they were shown to me by a supernatural power" are Vogel's bracketed insertion.
  • lucy-1845:b. The second sentence runs from manuscript page 156 onto 157.
  • inter-ocean-1886:a. The reporter's next sentence, "No Peter, James and John, no Moses and Elias, put in an appearance," shows the visitation Whitmer called a yarn was the vision of 3 April 1836, not the dedication of 27 March.
  • jsp-journal-1836. The manuscript page numbers cited are right; the gap between manuscript page and site image is one in January and three by late March.
  • stewart-1843:c. The count of 90 signers was recounted from the contents list and the headings and stands. A wider search found 22 testimonies with a first-person sighting of an angel, so the article's "at least nineteen" is a floor.

New quotations opened by the verification pass:

  • anderson-1981:t. Page 156: "Note that there are two distinct experiences of Harris: (1) 'he said that he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or handkerchief over them, but he never saw them, only as he saw a city through a mountain'; (2) 'he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision.'" And: "In other words, Burnett heard Martin say that he had seen the plates in vision, and when Burnett uses 'only' four times to ridicule the experience, that shows his disbelief, not Martin's speech." Anderson italicizes the two "only"s and says so. The search text runs "a city through a" together as "acity througha"; the spacing is restored here.
  • anderson-1981:u. Page 159: "As discussed, both Hyrum Smith and John Whitmer published direct personal statements that they had 'handled' the plates. That should settle Burnett's barb at the Eight Witnesses, for evidence is obviously better firsthand than thirdhand." He prints Hyrum Smith's sentence at page 148, and his note 39, page 149, gives its source: "General letter of Hyrum Smith, Dec., 1839, Commerce, Ill., Times and Seasons 1 (1839):20, 23."
  • smith-1839:a. Page 23, right column, under the running head "TIMES AND SEASONS. 23": "that I had been abused and thrust into a dungeon, and confined for months on account of my faith, and the 'testimony of Jesus Christ.' However I thank God that I felt a determination to die, rather than deny the things which my eyes had seen, which my hands had handled, and which I had borne testimony to, wherever my lot had been cast; and I can assure my beloved brethren that I was enabled to bear as strong a testimony, when nothing but death presented itself, as ever I did in my life." The sentence does not name the plates.
  • ensign-liberty-1848:a. Page 63: "As to the book of Mormon, it would be doing injustice to myself, and to the work of God of the last days, to say that I could know a thing to be true in 1830, and know the same thing to be false in 1847. To say my mind was so treacherous that I had forgotten what I saw. To say that a man of Joseph's ability, who at that time did not know how to pronounce the word Nephi, could write a book of six hundred pages, as correct as the book of Mormon, without supernatural power. And to say that those holy Angels who came and showed themselves to me as I was walking through the field, to confirm me in the work of the Lord of the last days—three of whom came to me afterwards and sang an hymn in their own pure language; yea, it would be"
  • vogel-1998:m. Pages 296–297, David B. Dille's statement dated 15 September 1853, which Vogel prints from the Millennial Star 21 (20 August 1859), page 545 and following, where it appeared as "Additional Testimony of Martin Harris." Page 297: "did I not at one time hold the plates on my knee an hour-and-a-half, whilst in conversation with Joseph, when we went to bury them in the woods, that the enemy might not obtain them? Yes, I did. And as many of the plates as Joseph Smith translated I handled with my hands, plate after plate." Vogel's note 2 on the same page: "The impression that in addition to seeing the plates in vision Harris had also seen and physically handled them on another occasion is probably incorrect." The contents list of the volume numbers the Harris documents 1 to 27. The Millennial Star printing was not opened.
  • smith-1842:a. Page 707: "These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance of gold, each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long and not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings, in Egyptian characters and bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed."
  • putnam-1966:a. Page 829: "Joseph Smith said the plates were 6" x 8" x 6", in which case they were 288 cubic inches in volume." And: "A solid block of gold totaling 288 cubic inches would weigh a little over 200 pounds." Page 830: "The unevenness left by the hammering and air spaces between the separate plates would reduce the weight to probably less than 50 percent of the solid block. As already noted, though, the plates were not made of pure, or 24-carat, gold." Page 831: "The plates of the Book of Mormon, we allege, were of this alloy and were probably of between 8- and 12-carat gold. They thus appear to have weighed between 53 and 86 pounds."
  • anderson-1981:v. Page 115, in the chapter on Martin Harris, which was read by phrase search only: "A half-dozen interviews report the same response. Thomas Godfrey remembered that Martin Harris insisted that 'knowledge supersedes belief,' because 'I saw the angel and saw the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated and heard the voice of God declare it was translated correctly.' Alma L. Jensen, present on the same occasion, gave an independent recollection of the same language but remembered the additional detail that Martin Harris physically pointed to his eyes and ears while talking to emphasize the personal knowledge of his senses." Vogel prints both men's statements as numbers 22 and 25 of the Harris collection and dates them to 1875.