While making a case for the Book of Mormon, Jacob Hansen makes the case for the critics who wrote Mormonism Unvailed and published SITH before our latter-day scholars latched onto it.
Whether he promotes SITH intentionally or ignorantly, Jacob should study the history of SITH before promoting it on his channel.
Jacob could start here:
https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/the-sith-problem-1829-2024.html
(We could say the same for Royal Skousen, Gerrit Dirkmaat, Jasmine Rappleye, the Interpreters, and other SITH sayers, but they are too firmly attached to SITH to consider the possibility that Joseph and Oliver told the truth.)
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The SITH narrative was spelled out in the 1835 anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed:
Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old "peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o8SxwgK56H4
We can all see that Joseph and Oliver rejected this narrative and explained, repeatedly, that Joseph translated the engravings on the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.
But the SITH sayers prefer the Mormonism Unvailed narrative. As Royal Skousen famously claims,
"Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading."
According to professor Skousen, Joseph only used the Urim and Thummim for the lost 116 pages. Skousen uses a euphemism--"appear to be intentionally misleading"--to soften his assertion that Joseph and Oliver lied.
Which was exactly the point Mormonism Unvailed tried to make.
And now Jacob Hansen has joined the SITH sayers to repudiate what Joseph and Oliver clearly taught.
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Jacob starts his video by saying, "I want him to stick his head in a hat."
Later in the video, Jacob claims Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon "all with his face buried in a hat."
Who needs critics when well-known LDS apologists are undermining the credibility of Joseph and Oliver?
