NOM

I have a good friend who recently purchased this book just because I told him about it, and then he graciously lent it to me to read. While I've read Klaus Hansen's book Quest for Empire (he taught here in Canada, by the way, at Queen's University in Kingston) and D Michael Quinn's stuff on the Council, I love the fact that I can read the original minutes, and come to my own conclusions. And I must say, the editors of this particular volume, and two other volumes that I've looked at with the JS Papers Project, have done a great job because the editing is METICULOUS. Despite my challenges with church history, I am very grateful that for this project at least, the Arrington/Bushman view of history is being realized; that even though I can recognize some of the apologist spin, they are far more concerned about just displaying the true history, than covering it up, which was the case for the last century and a half. So kudos to the editorial team for a job well done. And like the essays, the gold is in the footnotes.

One of the things I kind of knew is that JS called non-members into the Council, and one of the things I did NOT know is that one of them was Uriah Brown. For those interested, Brown "rediscovered" the ancient weapon Greek Fire (you can look it up) during the Civil War. The notes make it clear that Joseph was interested in Brown's discovery in light of the Council of Fifty, and even included the notion in the notes that Joseph intended to sell it to the Russians, to make a profit for the kingdom. Now, this was based on the word of a "notorious apostate" named Jackson, so there is that apologist spin, but such honesty is refreshing, in Mormon history.

I'm not too far in, but I'm interested in other people's opinions about this, if they've had a chance to look at or read about the Council of Fifty. To me, it's fascinating in the early years, because along with polygamy, it was the Council of Fifty's decision to sustain JS as "Prophet, Priest and King" that really decided Joseph's fate. And it really was a "quest for empire" that the CofF was about, and the editorial introduction to the book makes that pretty clear, which is really, really interesting. Having a ball so far, which says a lot about how boring my life is.

I'll post more tidbits as I get into it, I should have the thing read by the end of the month.

Yes the YTFIF (thats how John D Lee wrote it in his journal as a secret code ) history is great stuff. It is chock full of that 19th century world domination bravado that our leaders would just as soon forget, as well as super firey rhetoric around death oaths and crime penalties and just downright funny governance methods. I recall reading a story about the fifty in the first years of the Utah settlement voting on a contest to see who could kill the most predatory animals in the settlement. It's good to hear that the JS papers project did a respectable job. Did you happen to see if they covered the death by decapitation oath of secrecy for council members? This was overtly redacted and blacked out in earlier documents on the JS papers.

I would love to have the book but will have to wait for them to come online next year.

The lectures I attended at education week on this subject made me quite interested to read more.

I also started to wonder whether knowing things like the fact that they called the council of fifty the kingdom of god would change the meaning of any other revelations or well known quotes from the era but have not had a chance to look into that yet.

I have been reading the one about the development of temple worship from 1846 to 2000 which is also fascinating. I so wish we could read those sorts of letters and diaries from 2000 onwards.

LostGirl wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:44 pm
I have been reading the one about the development of temple worship from 1846 to 2000 which is also fascinating. I so wish we could read those sorts of letters and diaries from 2000 onwards.

I am reading a book about the evolution of temple ceremonies as well. The one I am reading is called Mysteries of Godliness.

FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:02 pm Did you happen to see if they covered the death by decapitation oath of secrecy for council members? This was overtly redacted and blacked out in earlier documents on the JS papers.

Indeed, I did come across this, and during one of the early meetings of the council. In fact, the oath included that they wouldn't tell a soul, "including their own wives," and if they did, the punishment was "taking off their cursed head." And the editors included the last line underlined like this, so acknowledging the emphasis. What was even more impressive, is that the footnotes acknowledged that the oath was there largely because most of the council either were Masons, or had received their endowment. So pretty up front with that, I must admit. Like I said, it's cool to read unwashed Mormon history, that they just acknowledge the context and facts without a lot of apologist spin; well, at least very little.

But I have to admit, I'm up to the fifth meeting of the council in April of 1844, and not a lot going on. In fact, it's quite telling that in many of the meetings, members stand up and exclaim "with loud hosannas" how grateful they are to be in the council, how much they're learning about the principles of the "kingdom of God" and how much better it is than the government of the world. Aaaand, then they decide to do absolutely nothing. It reminds me of every ward council meeting, PEC meeting and in fact, ANY meeting of the church I've ever been in. Just a lot of hoopla, and not much productive activity going on. It's actually quite entertaining to read that not much has changed.