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Notes
1 This had been true of other American religionists, including Hicksite Quakers and Shakers (Holland Citation2011, 48–49, 133–136, 177–178).
2 While we trace similar developments, Brown and I offer distinct appraisals of different contexts. Brown heavily relies on Charles Taylor in tracking the emergence of secular ideas of linear time in the United States. In contrast, I primarily rely on the work of historians, especially those who examine antebellum Americans’ engagement with biblical criticism. While Brown and I agree that Smith’s historical approach uniquely collapsed time, I depart from his suggestion that secular ideas of time had taken deep roots in Protestant America and that Smith understood and responded to those developments.
3 Scholars who have outlined the origins of unbelief and skepticism in the United States demonstrate that a traditional biblicism persisted throughout the Civil War period. See, for example, Turner (Citation1985), Grasso (Citation2018), and Byrd (Citation2021).
4 Early Mormon accounts describe angelic appearances to Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris and indicate that Moroni showed them the plates. A reminiscent account by David Whitmer related that a man showed his mother, Mary Whitmer, the plates and seems to suggest that the individual may have been Moroni. See, for example, MacKay et al. (Citation2013c, 382); Davidson et al. (Citation2012b, 38–89); Davidson et al. (Citation2012c, 292–296); Godfrey et al. (Citation2016); and Morris (Citation2019).
5 For more on the idea of contemporaneity in Smith’s theology, see Hatem (Citation2015, 45–51).
6 For an introduction to the contents and structure of the Book of Mormon, see Hardy (Citation2010).
7 On the specificity of Nephi’s prophecies, see Spencer (Citation2020, 29, 53).
8 This and subsequent citations to the Book of Mormon correspond to the first edition of the Book of Mormon, published in 1830. I also include the relevant book, chapter, and verse(s) of the current edition of the Book of Mormon in brackets.
9 On the development of early Mormon views of American Indians in relationship to the Book of Mormon, see Walker (Citation1993).
10 Elizabeth Fenton comments on the temporal transgressive features of these passages, noting that Lehi’s descent from Joseph of Egypt “retroactively builds the Nephites into the genealogy of Abraham and Jacob, and it invites readers to extrapolate forward and link the Nephites to Jesus” (Citation2013, 346).
11 Compare with MacKay et al. (Citation2013d, 50–55).
12 On the efforts among Christian scholars to establish and maintain meaning across the testaments, and on developments in European biblical criticism in general, see Frei (Citation1974).
13 For the first reference to Jesus Christ in the first edition of the Book of Mormon, see Smith (Citation1830, 28). In the second edition of the Book of Mormon, published in 1837, Joseph Smith replaced “Jesus Christ” with “the Messiah” (Smith Citation1837, 30 [1 Nephi 12:18]). On the first reference to “Jesus Christ,” see Spencer (Citation2020, 50–55). The name “Jesus Christ” appears throughout the text in the first and all subsequent editions. As Nicholas Frederick explains, the Book of Mormon contains a “realized messialogy”: Book of Mormon authors “teach and preach as if the coming of Jesus has already occurred and the requirements for becoming a ‘Christian’ have already been established, concepts that would have been familiar to a nineteenth-century audience but stand out somewhat anachronistically in the pages of the Book of Mormon” (Citation2016, 8). On this point, see also Fenton (Citation2013, 354).
14 This anticipates the effect of Smith’s revision of the Bible, which “fully Christianized the Old Testament” (Bushman Citation2005, 134).
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Notes on contributors
Jordan T. Watkins
Jordan T. Watkins is Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD in American history from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is an American intellectual, religious, and legal historian. His recent book, Slavery and Sacred Texts: The Bible, the Constitution, and Historical Consciousness in Antebellum America (Cambridge University Press, 2021), examines the ways in which antebellum biblical and constitutional debates over slavery awoke Americans to the historical distances separating them from their hallowed biblical and Revolutionary pasts. He envisions this article as part of a larger project that explores early Latter-day Saint historical consciousness.