Angel Moroni

This article is about a prominent angel within the Latter Day Saint church. For the mortal person described in the Book of Mormon who adherents generally believe was the same person as the angel Moroni, see Moroni (prophet). For other people and things with the same name, see Moroni.

Bern Switzerland Temple Statue of Angel Moroni

The Angel Moroni (Template:Pron-en) is an angel that Joseph Smith, Jr. claimed visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. The angel was the guardian of the golden plates, which Smith said were buried in a hill near his home in western New York, and which he said were the source material for the Book of Mormon. Moroni is an important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, and is featured prominently in Mormon architecture and art. Three Witnesses besides Joseph Smith said they saw Moroni in 1829 visions, as did several other witnesses who each said they had their own vision.

Moroni is said to be the same person as a Book of Mormon prophet-warrior named Moroni, who was the last to write in the golden plates. The book says that Moroni buried them before he died after a great battle between two pre-Columbian civilizations. After he died, he was resurrected, became an angel, and was tasked with guarding the golden plates, and with eventually directing Joseph Smith to their location in the 1820s. According to Latter Day Saint movement theology, Moroni still has the plates and several other Book of Mormon artifacts in his possession.

Angel's name and identity

There have been two conflicting identifications for the angel who appeared to Smith in 1823 and directed him to the golden plates. The first name Smith provided for this angel was Moroni. In 1835, while preparing the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, he made additions to an earlier revelation regarding sacramental wine, and indicated a number of angels that would come to the earth after the Second Coming and drink wine with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (Smith et al. 1835, p. 180). Among those angels, the revelation listed "Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel; to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim" (id.). Around this time, Oliver Cowdery was writing a history of Joseph Smith in which he identified the angel as the prophet Moroni from the Book of Mormon (Cowdery 1835, p. 112). In July 1838, Smith wrote an article for the church periodical Elders' Journal, in the form of questions and answers, that stated the following:

"Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?

"Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, as a resurected being, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them." (Smith 1838b, pp. 42–43).

However, on May 2, 1838, a few months before Smith's statement in Elders' Journal, Smith began dictating a church history that included a detailed account of his visits from the angel (Smith 1838a, p. 7). Smith seems to have identified the angel as "Nephi", which is the name of the Book of Mormon's first narrator (Smith 1838a, p. 5). Smith's apparent 1838 identification as "Nephi" was left unchanged when the 1838 history was published in 1842 in Times and Seasons, which Smith edited himself (Smith 1842, p. 753), and in Millennial Star (Pratt 1842, p. 53). In the latter, an editorial referred to the 1823 vision and praised "the glorious ministry and message of the angel Nephi" (1842, p. 71). After Smith's death, the identification as "Nephi" was repeated when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published its first edition of the Pearl of Great Price (Richards 1851, p. 41). It was also repeated in 1853 when Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith published a history of her son (Smith 1853, p. 79).

As a further complication, Mary Whitmer, mother to one of the Three Witnesses and four of the Eight Witnesses, said she had a vision of the golden plates, shown to her by an angel whom she always called "Brother Nephi" (Whitmer 1888, p. 621), who may or may not have been the same angel to which Smith referred.

Nevertheless, based on Smith's statement that the angel was "Moroni," and based on both prior and later publications, most Latter Day Saints view Smith's 1838 identification of the angel as Nephi as a mistake, perhaps on the part of the transcriber or a later editor. In the version of Smith's 1838 history published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as well as the portion canonized by that denomination as the Pearl of Great Price, the name "Nephi" has been changed by editors to read "Moroni". The Community of Christ publishes the original story, including the identification of "Nephi", but indicates "Moroni" in a footnote.

Description

Descriptions of the angel Moroni vary. In one of Joseph Smith's histories, he said "He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen.… His hands were naked and his arms also a little above the wrists.… Not only was his robe exceedingly white but his whole person was glorious beyond description" (Smith 1838). According to Smith's sister Katharine, the angel "was dressed in white raiment, of whiteness beyond anything Joseph had ever seen in his life, and had a girdle about his waist. He saw his hands and wrists, and they were pure and white. (Salisbury 1895, p. 11).

Joseph Smith described Moroni as an angel of light. Until 1979, the introduction page of the Doctrine and Covenants stated that "Joseph Smith received visitations from Moroni, an angel of light". Some Christians view this description as an evidence that Moroni is in fact Lucifer or one of his fallen angels, since Paul states in 2 Corinthians 11:14–11:15 that Satan masquerades himself as an angel of light. Latter-day Saint apologists point to the apostle John's instructions on how to test spirits to know "whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1-3), and Moroni's revelations to Joseph Smith pass the test of "[confessing] that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh."

Appearances to Joseph Smith and others

Joseph Smith, Jr. (who would later become the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement) said that on the night of September 21, 1823, Moroni appeared to Smith and told him about the Golden Plates that were buried (in a stone box) a few miles from Smith's home; visited Smith various times over the course of the next six years; and after Smith translated a portion of the writing on the plates (either one-third or two-thirds; accounts vary) as the Book of Mormon, Smith turned the plates back over to Moroni.

In addition to Joseph Smith, several other early Mormons said they had visions where they saw the angel Moroni. Three Witnesses said they saw the angel in 1829: Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. Other early Mormons who said they saw Moroni include Emma Hale Smith, Hyrum Smith, Luke S. Johnson, Zera Pulsipher, W. W. Phelps, John P. Greene and his wife Rhoda, John Taylor, Oliver Granger, Heber C. Kimball, Lucy Harris, and Harrison Burgess. Mary Whitmer may also have seen Moroni, although she referred to the angel she saw as "Brother Nephi."

Mortal life of Moroni the prophet

Main article: Moroni (prophet)

According to the Book of Mormon, Moroni was the son of Mormon, the prophet for whom the Book of Mormon is ostensibly named. He may have been named after Captain Moroni, a much earlier Book of Mormon figure. Before Mormon's death in battle, he passed the golden plates to Moroni. Moroni then finished writing on the plates and concluded his record, presumably burying them in the hill Cumorah in western New York.

Theological significance

Angel Moroni USVA headstone symbol

Because of his instrumentality in the restoration of the gospel, Moroni is commonly identified by Latter-day Saints as the angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6, "having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

The image of the angel Moroni blowing a trumpet is commonly used as an unofficial symbol of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Moroni appears on the cover of some editions of the Book of Mormon, and statues of the angel stand atop many LDS temples, most statues facing eastward.

In 2007, the LDS Church claimed that an image of the angel Moroni in an advertisement violated one of the church's registered trademarks.

Theorized origin of the name

Some scholars have theorized that Smith became familiar with the name "Moroni" through his study of the treasure-hunting stories of Captain William Kidd. Because Kidd was said to have buried treasure in the Comoros islands, and Moroni is the name of the capital city and largest settlement in the Comoros, it has been suggested that Smith borrowed the name of the settlement and applied it to the angel who led him to buried treasure—the golden plates. Complementing this proposal is the theory that Smith borrowed the names of the Comoros islands and applied them to the hill where he found the golden plates, which he named Cumorah.

Latter-day Saint apologists have reasoned that this line of argument commits the logical error of appeal to probability; they also point out that it is unlikely that Smith had access to material which would have referred to the then-small settlement of Moroni. LDS Apologists have also made note that Moroni did not become the capital of the Comoros islands until 1876, 32 years after Smith's death, whilst studies of several editions of the "Brookes Gazateer" guides which were available in Smith's lifetime, show only two mentions of Comora and none whatsoever of Moroni.

Sculptors

The Nauvoo Temple was the first Latter Day Saint temple to be crowned with a figure of an angel. This angel, not identified with Moroni, was a gilded wooden weathervane sculpted by an unknown artist in 1846. This figure was positioned in a flying horizontal position holding an open book in one hand and a trumpet in the other.

Cyrus Dallin sculpted the first angel which was identified as Moroni. This angel was placed on the Salt Lake Temple during the capstone ceremony on 6 April 1892, one year to the day before the temple was dedicated. Dallin's design is a dignified, neoclassical angel in robe and cap, standing upright with a trumpet in hand. It stands 3.8 meters high, was molded in hammered copper from the plaster original, and covered with 22-karat gold leaf.

Torlief Knaphus fashioned a replica of the Cyrus Dallin angel in the 1930s, but the casting of his angel was never placed on a temple until many years later. In 1983, castings of this angel were placed on the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple (8th operating temple), and the Atlanta Georgia Temple (21st operating temple).

Millard F. Malin's angel, which was placed on the Los Angeles California Temple in 1953 (dedicated 1956) is known as he second Angel Moroni statue. His angel was cast in aluminum, stands 4.7 meters high and weighs 953 kilograms. It has Native American features, wears a Mayan style cloak and holds the gold plates in his left hand.

Avard Fairbanks sculpted the third Angel Moroni statue which was placed on the Washington D.C. Temple, dedicated in 1974. This angel was created as a one-meter model which was sent to Italy where it was enlarged, cast in bronze, and gilded. The finished statue is 5.5 meters high and weighs over 4,000 pounds (1814 kg). The Seattle Washington, Jordan River Utah, and Mexico City Mexico Temples each have a 4.6 meter casting of this statue.

Karl Quilter sculpted his first Angel Moroni in 1978. Two sizes were made, one 3 meters high, the other just over 2 meters. These statues were designed to reduce the cost and weight of the previous Angel Moroni statues, in order to become a standard part of the temple architecture. These angels are made of fiberglass and covered with gold leaf. In 1998 with the construction of many new smaller temples, Quilter was commissioned to create a new angel. This angel was similar in design to his previous angels, but he gave Moroni a slightly more massive build, his left hand is opened, and his body is turned slightly showing more action. The image of the Bern Switzerland Temple's Angel Moroni is from Quilter's 1998 design. Quilter's Angel Moroni is on over one hundred temples around the world.

References

1. Cowdery, Oliver (1835), "Letter VI to W.W. Phelps, Esq.", Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, 1 (7): 108–112
2. Pratt, P.P.; Ward, Thomas (August 1842), "History of Joseph Smith; Editorial Remarks", Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 53–54, 70–72.
3. Richards, Franklin D., ed. (1851), The Pearl of Great Price: Being a Choice Selection from the Revelations, Translations, and Narrations of Joseph Smith, First Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Liverpool: Richards.
4. Salisbury, Katharine Smith (April 10, 1895), Walker, Kyle R. (ed.), "Katharine Smith Salisbury's Recollections of Joseph's Meetings with Moroni" (PDF), BYU Studies, 41 (3) (published 2002): 4–17 {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
5. Smith, Joseph, Jr. (1832), "History of the Life of Joseph Smith", in Jessee, Dean C (ed.), Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, ISBN 1-57345-787-6 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |publication-year= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
6. Smith, Joseph, Jr.; Cowdery, Oliver; Rigdon, Sidney; Williams, Frederick G. (1835), [[Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God]], Kirtland, Ohio: F. G. Williams & Co {{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
7. Smith, Joseph, Jr. (July 1838), "Editor's note", Elders' Journal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1 (3){{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
8. Smith, Joseph, Jr.; et al. (May 2, 1838–1842), "[[History of the Church]], Ms. A–1 (LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City)", in Jessee, Dean C (ed.), Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, ISBN 1-57345-787-6 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |first= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help); Unknown parameter |publication-year= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
9. Smith, Joseph, Jr. (20 March 1842), "History of Joseph Smith", Times and Seasons, 3 (12): 753–54{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
10. Smith, Lucy Mack (1853), [[Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations]] ( – ^{Scholar search}), Liverpool: S.W. Richards {{citation}}: External link in |format= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help).
11. Whitmer, John C. (October 1888), "The Eight Witnesses", The Historical Record, Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson, p. 621.

External links

• The text of Moroni at Wikisource.
• Moroni, the Son of Mormon in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
• Angel Moroni in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
• References to Moroni² in the index to the LDS edition of the Book of Mormon.