TO THOSE INTERESTED IN THE BOOK OF MORMON:

Few of Joseph Smith’s neighbors or friends (outside of his own family) ever associated themselves with Mormonism. Most of the converts were not witnesses of the early events in the actual period during which the plates were supposedly found and translated. Of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, only Martin Harris was a resident of Palmyra and knew the Smith family at the time Joseph claimed to find the plates. Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer claimed to meet Joseph in the spring and summer of 1829. Neither were residents of Palmyra. But there is one person besides Martin Harris who knew the Smith family before Joseph found the plates; who became a convert to Mormonism, and who left a written account of the events which supposedly transpired, his name is Joseph Knight.

Joseph Knight was baptized into the church in June of 1830 and in 1831 he moved with the Colesville saints to Kirtland, Ohio, and a few months later continued with them to Independence, Mo. Joseph Knight was among the first to help Joseph Smith with his necessities while he was translating the Book of Mormon. In fact Joseph Knight was visiting the Smith home the night Joseph claimed to obtain the plates. According to Lucy Smith, Joseph used Knight’s horse and carriage to secure the plates.

Joseph Knight’s handwritten account is in the L.D.S. Church Archives. It was reproduced in the Autumn, 1976 issue of Brigham Young University Studies (Vol. 17, No. 1), pages 29-39. According to Knight’s account the first time Joseph “…found the place…he was told to take the Book and go right away.” Instead he laid down the book to take another look in the box. When “…he turned around to take the Book and it was not there…he was astonished…he opened the Box and Behold the Book was there…” but “Behold he could not stur the Book any more than he could the mountain.” When he asked why he could not have it, he was told because he had disobeyed. He was also told to come back “…the 22nt [sic] Day of September next if you Bring the right person with you. Joseph says, ‘who is the right Person?’ The answer was ‘your oldest Brother.’ But before September Came his oldest Brother Died.” (Alvin died November 19, 1823). “Then he was Disapinted [sic] and did not know what to do. But when the 22nt Day of September Came he went to the place and the personage appeared and told him he Could not have it now. But the 22nt Day ‘of September nex [sic]he mite [sic] have the Book if he Brot with him the right person. Joseph says ‘who is the right Person?’ The answer was you will know. Then he looked in his glass and found it was Emma Hale, Daughter of old Mr. Hail of Pensylvany, [sic] a girl that he had seen Before, for he had, Bin [sic] Down there Before with me…he came to me perhaps in November and worked for me until about the time that he was Married.” In the “forepart of September, I went to Rochester on Business and returned By Palmyra to be there about the 22nt of September, I was there several Days…He had talked with me and told me the Conversation he had with the personage which told him if he would Do right according to the will of God he mite obtain the 22nt of September Next and if not he never would have them…So that night we all went to Bed and in the morning I got up and my Horse and Carriage was gone. But after a while he Came home…Joseph Cald [sic] me into the other Room…’Well’, says he…‘it is ten times Better than I expected.’… But he seamed [sic] to think more of the glasses or the urim and themmem [sic] then he Did of the Plates, for, says he, ‘I can see any thing; they are Marvelus [sic]. Now they are written in Caracters [sic] and I want them translated.’”

Practically this same account is given in a notarized deposition of Willard Chase in 1834. (Mormonism Unvailed byE.D. Howe, pages240-248) This is the same person from whom Martin Harris says Joseph says Joseph obtained a stone. Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason Chase. In this stone he could see many things to my certain knowledge. IT WAS BY MEANS OF THIS STONE HE FIRST DISCOVERED THESE PLATES. (Tiffany Monthly, 1853, pages 163-170). These people are all residents of Joseph’s neighborhood and were witnesses in the actual period that the plates were supposedly found. Neither Joseph Knight nor Martin Harris were against the Book of Mormon, they believed in it. Could the fact that these people knew what really happened be the reason that Joseph Smith said in October, 1831, “…that it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; and also said that it was not expedient for him to relate these things.” (Far West Record, page 13)? Then in 1838 when he starts to write his history, far removed from the place where the events happened, he fixes it up to suit the occasion.

We are warned to “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” (Matt 7:15-16). May God’s Spirit and word help all those connected with the Book of Mormon to discern the truth.