Joseph Smith Quotes

“A curious aspect of the Lamanite curse is that no matter how wicked the Nephites become, even if they exceed the wickedness of the Lamanites, their skin remains white. To many of Smith’s pre-Darwinian contemporaries, racism blunted the discomfort people felt when they were confronted with human diversity and what they considered to be a challenge to the Adam and Eve story.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“the illusion of a group hallucination is achieved through the following mechanisms: expectation, anticipation, suggestion, and cross-infection that can begin prior to the hallucination, operate during the experience, and continue to modify the memories of the participants long afterward.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Sounding very much like the apostle Paul, Nephi exhorts both the Lamanites and Nephites to be “reconciled to God” (25:23; cf. Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:20), for “it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do” (v. 23; emphasis added; cf. Eph. 2:5, 8). By strip quoting Paul’s statement to the Ephesians about salvation by grace, Smith added words that reversed the ancient apostle’s meaning, showing that the author is neither Calvinist nor Antinomian but an Arminian.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“The anti-Semitism of the New Testament is reflected in the Book of Mormon when Jacob states that Christ will come among the Jews—“who are the more wicked part of the world … [for] there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God” (10:3; cf. Acts 3:12-18). It was to the advantage of early Christians to blame the Jews and not the Romans for Jesus’ crucifixion—a peculiarly Roman form of capital punishment—and in other ways to disassociate themselves from the Jewish nation. Nevertheless, Jacob declares that because of priestcraft and iniquity, the Jews will harden their hearts against Jesus and crucify him (v. 5). For this evil deed, Jerusalem will again be destroyed and the Jews scattered among all nations (v. 6).”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“I believe that Smith probably had in mind a number of shifting geographic models:”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“suggested a “compensating fantasy” here that builds on Smith’s arrest and trial in South Bainbridge”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Smith’s procedure is similar to that of ancient pseudepigraphists who, in the words of one scholar, “created something new, an imaginary Sacred Past, the way it should have been.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Alma’s dependence on Hebrews 7 is not a matter of plagiarism but one of interpretive and conceptual borrowing.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet