The first time I saw Smith's handwritten 1832 account of the "First Vision", the first thing that struck me was his excellent penmanship. As the father of six, I know that that level of penmanship only comes after years of practice of actually putting pen to paper.

So... When Emma claims that Smith couldn't "write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter", I'm calling B.S. His level of schooling, whether formal or informal, was much higher than what Emma and other apologists claim. See for yourself @

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-circa-summer-1832?p=1

Joseph made Emma a liar and an accomplice to adultery. She knew what was going on and was simply trapped by circumstances. At first, she was separated from her family. Then she was a young mother separated from her family. No money. No transportation. She was chained to Smith.

A completely honest Emma Smith would most likely have made the statement: "I wish I never met that man."

Like the salesperson you might meet today (nothing against sales professionals either) who did poorly in high school and chose to skip college, but now makes 250K a year because they have the skill to persuade people to buy their product, Joseph Smith was as educated as he needed to be to con people. He didn't do it with correct grammar or super math skills. He did it with persuasion.

Thanks for that. If I hear my Mother say one more time, "How could a poor uneducated farm boy have written such an inspired book?" I will scream.

Joseph's mother said that they never neglected his education. His father was a some time school teacher I believe, and I read Hyrum was on a debate team. The family, including Joseph, was not uneducated as the penmanship you offer shows.

I do think Emma was in on the scam. How could she not have been?

I like to point out that a 14 year old boy didn't write it...a 22 or 23 year old did. He could have been graduated from college by then!

Years ago two missionaries knocked on my door. I told them of
my beliefs regarding the Book of Mormon, one of them (obviously
the greenie) said, "but how could a 14-year-old boy write the
Book of Mormon? I asked him, "How old was Joseph Smith when
the Book of Mormon was published? He hmm'd and haw'd and said,
with doubt in his voice "nineteen?" I corrected him to 24.

Before they left, the senior comp suggested I read chapter 30
of Alma. I thought for a second and said, "ah, Korihor; yes,
I'd be happy to deconstruct chapter 30 of Alma with you." The
greenie kinda blanched and muttered, "he knows it better than
we do."

I think my best line from the encounter was when, in the face
of evidence I gave them, the senior comp. said, "we go by the
Spirit," and I replied, "yes, you have to do that when the
evidence is so solidly against you."

Awesome! Would love to have been a fly on the wall that day!

On the other hand, do we know for certain JS wrote the handwritten account himself?

Stray Mutt Wrote:
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> On the other hand, do we know for certain JS wrote
> the handwritten account himself?

With all those conspiring, educated con-men scribes flitting about, I doubt the scribblings of our drop-out bumpkin puppet are in the mix.

Joe's job was to pontificate verbally on cue.

His handlers took care of manuscripts.

I find no surprise in Smith's penmanship. I am sure it was no different in American schools but even when I was a boy in English schools we had regular lesson time devoted to cursive writing. We were never allowed to write with a pencil, nor ballpoint pens, but only with pen and ink because it required more careful writing. When they said "reading, writing and arithmetic" the writing emphasized penmanship. Whatever education Smith had, I am sure it included good handwriting.

Joseph Smith's father worked as a school teacher in Vermont.

Lucy, in her biography, states that they didn't neglect the
education of their children.

Hyrum was a member of the local school board.

Joshua Seixas, Joseph Smith's Hebrew teacher, said Joseph was
the best student he had.

The only way Emma's claim can be true is if Joseph was a dumb,
uneducated clod-kicker and then, suddenly, after translating
the Book of Mormon, became a well-educated, articulate man. If
you read his sermons, they do not fit the "uneducated farm boy
image at all.

My brother, the institute director, threw Emma's statement at
me. I gave him a letter by Joseph Smith written BEFORE the
Book of Mormon was published showing that Emma was completely
wrong. His only comeback is that just because she was wrong
doesn't mean she was lying . . . she could have been mistaken
yadda yadda.

Apostle Mark E. Peterson, in his silly little book "Those Gold
Plates" points out that Joseph Smith's three years of FORMAL
education probably didn't go past sixth grade. Then he asks,
"Could a sixth-grader have written the Book of Mormon?

Let's compare formal education of Joseph Smith with one of his
contemporaries--Abraham Lincoln. Joseph Smith had three years
of FORMAL education. Abraham Lincoln had nine months fo formal
education. These people lived in a time when most education
was not done in school.

And education back in those days was more concentrated. From what I can find, there was only reading, writing including penmanship, arithmetic and geography. Three years of that only without the gym class, home economics, art classes, shop, and etc. to slow a student down and a young mine could advance pretty fast.

Clearly great literature and creative writing were not being taught or if Joseph Smith had taken those classes the Book of Mormon wouldn't be such a poorly written, unimaginative,repetitive snore of a book.

They spent winter inside a tiny box of a house with no distractions of modern day America.

He most likely spent an entire day once a week doing nothing but learning how to write that beautiful script. Or maybe it was broken down into an hour a day. Whatever the case, he probably spent more time learning to write then the kids of today.

It was a way to keep a bored child busy.

I'm a penmanship buff and have a few old penmanship books. Typically teachers devoted an hour of class time per day for penmamship. Joe's handwriting shows this.

Some of it was written by a scribe.

byuatheist Wrote:
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> Some of it was written by a scribe.


Do you have a source for that? Everything I've ever read, including the lds.org essay, states that the 1832 account was written by Smith.

"1832 Account. The earliest known account of the First Vision, the only account written in Joseph Smith’s own hand, is found in a short, unpublished autobiography Joseph Smith produced in the second half of 1832."
https://www.lds.org/topics/first-vision-accounts?lang=eng&_r=1

If it was partially written by a scribe, which portions would be in the scribe's hand and which would be Smith's writing? To my untrained eye it all looks the same.

Any additional insight would be appreciated.

"The history was inscribed by Frederick G. Williams and JS with quill pen, in ink that is now brown, on the first three leaves of ledger paper. The first five pages of the history were numbered by Williams." -- Joseph Smith Papers, Source Note to "History, circa Summer 1832".

"... perhaps?"

Are you joking? Is that meant to be a source or a joke?


When it comes to making excuses for Joseph Simth, I've noticed that the 3 most common defenses are;

1) It was all Jesus' idea... J.S. didn't want to do "such and such" evil thing, but that s.o.b. Jesus threatened his life, liberty, or property if poor ole' helpless Joe didn't get with the program.

2) What I'll call the "dog ate my homework" defense... ex. "Gosh, if we just had all of the BOA papyrus, then you'd see that Joseph got it right."

3) Someone wrote it down wrong... ex. "Joseph never said any such thing. Clayton, Whitmer, Williams, Cowdery, et al wrote that."

So please forgive me when I get a little suspicious when this sort of thing comes out of left field.

I compared the two samples of handwriting, myself, and noticed that there were some definite differences in style.

I find it ridiculous they think the Book of Mormon is so amazing. Could an uneducated farm boy write this book? YES! It is the dumbest book ever! The story sucks, much of it was clearly copied from the King James Bible, the basic premise appears to be plagiarized from Spalding- not to mention all the "it came to passes". Today's version of the book is bad enough, if you read the original- holy shit! Seriously, who buys this garbage

As said before, one of the trademarks of a cult leader is that-- to the followers--he is at once both a simple, plain spoken man from humble beginnings and an uber intelligent, enlightened world leader.