Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith (23. joulukuuta 1805 Sharon, Vermont – 27. kesäkuuta 1844 Carthage, Illinois) oli yhdysvaltalainen saarnaaja ja uususkonnollisen Myöhempien aikojen pyhien liikkeen perustaja.

Elämä Sharon, Vermont ja Palmyra, New York 1805–1827

Joseph Smith Jr. syntyi 23. joulukuuta 1805 Sharonissa Vermontin osavaltiossa Joseph Smith vanhemman ja Lucy Mack Smithin neljäntenä lapsena.Bushman (2005, pp. 9, 30); Smith (1832, p. 1). Kärsittyään rampauttavan luutulehduksen seitsenvuotiaana hän käytti kainalosauvoja seuraavat kolme vuotta.Bushman (2005, p. 21). Joseph Smith Jr. osallistui liiketoimeen, jossa laivattiin ginseng-juurta Kiinaan. 1816–1817 epäonnistuneesta yritystoiminnasta seuranneen velkaantumisen Bushman (2005, pp. 18–19) (Joseph Smith Sr. had entered a business venture shipping ginseng root to China. His partner informed him that the venture had failed, keeping the profit for himself, leaving Smith Sr. with a mountain of debt) ja kolmen huonon satokauden jälkeenBushman (2005, p. 27) (citing crop failures in 1814, 1815, and 1816, the last as a result of the Year Without a Summer) perhe muutti Palmyraan New Yorkin osavaltiossa ja lopulta päätyi ottamaan lainan 100 eekkerin tilasta läheisestä Manchesterin kylästä.Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism” Richard L. Bushman, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984 s.5Bushman (2005, pp. 32–33). From about 1818 until after the July 1820 purchase, the Smiths lived in a log home adjacent to the property. Id.

Toisen suuren herätyksen aikoihin alueella tapahtui uskonnollista liikehdintää,Shipps (1985, p. 7); Remini (2002, p. 1). ja vuosien 1817 ja 1825 välillä alueella oli muutamia herätyskokouksia.Bushman (2005, pp. 36–37) (noting the great revival of 1816 and 1817); Vogel (2004, pp. 27, 30) (noting Palmyra revivals in 1817 and 1824–5); Quinn (1998, p. 136) (evidence of religious revivals during 1819–20 in Palmyra and surrounding communities). Myös Smithien perheessä tempauduttiin mukaan alueella olleisiin herätyksiin,Brooke (1994, p. 129) ("Long before the 1820s, the Smiths were caught up in the dialectic of spiritual mystery and secular fraud framed in the hostile symbiosis of divining and counterfeiting and in the diffusion of Masonic culture in an era of sectarian fervor and profound millenarian expectation."). joskin perheessä oli erimielisyyttä eri kirkkokuntien välillä.Vogel (2004, p. xx) (Smith family was "marked by religious conflict".); Hill (1989, pp. 10–11) (noting "tension between [Smith's] mother and his father regarding religion"). Joseph kiinnostui uskonnosta ollessaan noin kahdentoista.Bushman (2005, p. 37) (pointing to the aftereffects of the 1817 revival); Vogel (2004, pp. 26–7) (that around 1817 Smith was beginning to feel his own religious stirrings); D. Michael Quinn (December 20, 2006). "Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist "Camp-Meeting" in 1820". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. p. 3. (arguing that a Methodist camp meeting in June 1818 provided a local context for the statement from Smith's "earliest autobiography"). Hän osallistui Presbyteerikirkon pyhäkouluun,Smith is known to have attended Sunday school at the Western Presbyterian Church in Palmyra (Matzko 2007). Smith also attended and spoke at a Methodist probationary class in the early 1820s, but never officially joined (Turner 1852, p. 214; Tucker 1876, p. 18). luki Raamattua sekä osoitti kiinnostusta Metodistikirkkoa kohtaan.Bushman (2005, p. 37) ("His confusion did not prevent him from trying to find a religious home...Joseph himself said he was 'somewhat partial to the Methodist sect.' "); Vogel (2004, pp. 59–63) (arguing that Smith's interest in Methodism came after the first vision during the revival of 1824–25); D. Michael Quinn (December 20, 2006). "Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist "Camp-Meeting" in 1820". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. (arguing that revivals and camp meetings occurred in and around Palmyra during 1819–20) Perheensä kanssa hän myös otti osaa uskonnolliseen kansantaikuuteen,Quinn (1998, p. 30)("Joseph Smith's family was typical of many early Americans who practiced various forms of Christian folk magic."); Bushman (2005, p. 51) ("Magic and religion melded in the Smith family culture."); Shipps (1985, pp. 7–8); Remini (2002, pp. 16, 33). joka oli tuolloin hyvin yleistä.Quinn (1998, p. 31); Hill (1977, p. 53) ("Even the more vivid manifestations of religious experience, such as dreams, visions and revelations, were not uncommon in Joseph's day, neither were they generally viewed with scorn."). Kuten monet aikalaiset,Quinn (1988, pp. 14–16, 137). myös Josephin vanhemmat sekä hänen isoisänsä näkivät unia tai näkyjä, joiden he uskoivat olevan viestejä Jumalalta.Bushman (2005, pp. 26, 36); Brooke (, p. 1994); (Mack 1811, p. 25); Smith (1853, pp. 54–59, 70–74).

Vuonna 1832, Smith kirjoitti kuinka noin 1820,Bushman (2005, p. 39) (dating the vision to about 1820); Brodie (1971, p. 21) (when he was fourteen years old); Vogel (2004, p. 30) (dating the vision to 1820–21 and rejecting the suggestion that the story was invented later); Quinn (1998, p. 136) (dating the first vision to 1820) ollessaan "Jumalaa kutsuvassa mielentilassa",Bushman (2005, pp. 38–9) (Saying that Smith had two questions on his mind: which church was right, and how to be saved); Vogel (2004, p. 30) ("Joseph's first vision is preceded by Bible reading and a sudden awareness of his sins"); Quinn (1998, p. 136) (saying that Joseph was concerned with obtaining a forgiveness of sins); Brodie (1971, p. 21) (Smith wrote that he was troubled by religious revivals and went into the woods to seek guidance of the Lord); Remini (2002, p. 37). saaneensa näyn Jumalalta, jossa Jumala sanoi antavansa hänen syntinsä anteeksi ja kuinka maailma oli hylännyt evankeliumin.Bushman (2005, p. 39) (When Smith first described the vision twelve years after the event, "[h]e explained the vision as he must have first understood it, as a personal conversion"); Brodie (1971, p. 21) (that all the churches were wrong); Vogel (2004, p. 30) (confirmed to Joseph that the world was spiritually dead). Vaikka tapahtuma oli tuntematon alkuaikojen uskoville,Brodie (1971, pp. 23, 25)(Noting that there is no evidence that Smith told anyone of his vision. Though Smith reported feeling persecuted by clergy over his vision, Palmyra newspapers took no notice of Joseph's vision at the time it was supposed to have occurred); Bushman (2005, p. 41) (Saying that at first Joseph was reluctant to talk of his vision, though he did tell a preacher, who reacted quickly and negatively, widening the gulf between Joseph and the evangelical ministry); Remini (2002, p. 40) ("The clergyman, Joseph later reported, was aghast at what he was told and treated the story with contempt. He said that there were no such things as visions or revelations...that they ended with the Apostles); Quinn (1998, p. 137) ("As a young man, he confided the experience to a few"); Vogel (2004, p. 30); Roberts (1902, vol. 1, ch. 1, p. 5) (Smith said he told his mother he had learned that Presbyterianism was not true). myöhempi versio tapahtuman kuvauksesta on tullut tunnetuksi ensimmäisenä näkynä, jonka merkityksellisyyttä alettiin painottaa 1800-luvun parin viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana.Bushman (2005, p. 39) Douglas J. Davies, An Introduction to Mormonism (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 136; Kurt Widner, Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1833-1915 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2000), 92-107; Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1985), 30-32. Mormon historian James B. Allen also argues that the First Vision "did not figure prominently in any evangelistic endeavors by the Church until the 1880s." Allen, 43-69, summarized in Kurt Widner, Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1833-1915 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2000), 103.

Perhe hankki vaatimattomalle maatilalleen lisätuloja aarteiden etsinnällä. Joseph väitti hänelle olleen kyvyn käyttää näkykiviä piilotettujen aarteiden löytämiseksi.Quinn (1987, p. 173); Bushman (2005, pp. 49–51); Persuitte (2000, pp. 33–53). Näin tehdessään hän laittoi kiven valkoiseen hattuun ja väitti näkevänsä tiedot kivessä näkyvistä heijastuksista.Brooke (1994, pp. 152–53); Quinn (1998, pp. 43–44); Bushman (2005, pp. 45–52). See also the following primary sources: Harris (1833, pp. 253–54); Hale (1834, p. 265); Clark (1842, p. 225); Turner (1851, p. 216); Harris (1859, p. 164); Tucker (1867, pp. 20–21); Lapham (1870, p. 305); Lewis & Lewis (1879, p. 1); Mather (1880, p. 199).

Joseph Smith kertoi, että 1823 hänen luonaan olisi käynyt Moroni-niminen enkeli yönä, jona hän on rukoillut saadakseen syntinsä anteeksi. Josephin kertoman mukaan Moroni paljasti hänelle haudattujen kultalevyjen sekä muutamien muiden esineiden, kuten näkykivien ja hopeisten silmälasien, joiden linssit oli tehty näkykivistä, sijainnin läheiseltä kukkulalta.Smith et al. (Richards, p. 4). Smith kertoo myös yrittäneensä hakea levyt itselleen seuraavana aamuna, mutta sanoi enkelin estäneen hänen aikeensa.Mormon historian Richard Bushman argues that "the visit of the angel and the discovery of the gold plates would have confirmed the belief in supernatural powers. For people in a magical frame of mind, Moroni sounded like one of the spirits who stood guard over treasure in the tales of treasure-seeking." Bushman (2005, p. 50). Smith kertoi, kuinka seuraavien neljän vuoden aikana hän kävi kukkulalla vuosittain palaten joka kerta kotiin tyhjin käsin.Quinn (1998, pp. 163–64); Bushman (2005, p. 54) Stories circulated about Smith not bringing the "right person" required by the angel. Presumably the "right person" was originally Smith's brother Alvin, then when he died, someone else. "Other stories have the angel warning Joseph about greed, and the evildoings of the money-diggers, as if the messenger was moving him away from his treasure-hunting ways. The danger of treating the plates as treasure was underscored time after time." Samaan aikaan Joseph jatkoi aarteenetsintämatkojaan New Yorkin ja Pennsylvanian osavaltioissa sekä työskenteli apulaisena maatiloilla.Bushman (2005, pp. 47–53); Newell & Avery (1994, pp. 17); Quinn (1998, pp. 54–57) 1826 hän joutui oikeuteen Chenangon piirikunnassa New Yorkissa syytettynä teeskennellystä taidosta löytää aarteita näkykiven avulla.Hill (1977, pp. 1–2); Bushman (2005, pp. 51–52); (state), New York; Butler, Benjamin Franklin; Spencer, John Canfield (1829), Revised Statutes of the State of New York, 1, Albany, NY: Packard and Van Benthuysen, p. 638: part I, title 5, § 1 ("[A]ll persons pretending to tell fortunes, or where lost or stolen goods may be found, … shall be deemed disorderly persons.")The result of the proceeding remains unclear. For a survey of the primary sources see Dan Vogel, "Rethinking the 1826 Judicial Decision", Mormon Scripture Studies.

Vieraillessaan Halen perheen luona Joseph tapasi ja alkoi seurustella perheen tyttären Emma Halen kanssa.Bushman (2005, p. 53). Josephin pyytäessä Emman kättä tämän isä, Isaac Hale, kieltäytyi toteamalla kuinka Joseph oli "vieras" ja kuinka hänellä näytti hädin tuskin olevan riittäviä resursseja edes itsensä elättämiseen aarteenetsijänä.Bushman (2005, p. 53); Vogel (2004, p. 89) (Hale disapproved of Smith's moneydigging); Quinn (1998, p. 164) (Hale had formerly been an enthusiastic supporter of the treasure hunting quest, and his refusal undoubtedly perplexed Smith) Tammikuun 18. 1827 Emma ja Joseph karkasivat avioituakseen ja muuttivat Josephin vanhempien luokse asumaan.

Syyskuun 22. 1827 Joseph Smith sanoi tehneensä viimeisen vuotuisen käyntinsä läheiselle kukkulalle Emman kanssa.Quinn (1998, pp. 163–64) Smith had presumably learned from his stone that Emma was the key to obtaining the plates; Bushman (2005, p. 54) (noting accounts stating that Emma was the key).