Skip to main content

Letter to Editor, circa 20 May 1843

  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

Letter to Editor, circa 20 May 1843

Source Note

JS, Letter, [, Hancock Co., IL], to the editor of Times and Seasons [], [, Hancock Co., IL, ca. 20 May 1843]. Featured version published [ca. 20 May 1843] in Times and Seasons, 15 May 1843, vol. 4, no. 13, 194. For more complete source information, see the Source Note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.

Historical Introduction

Around 20 May 1843, a letter attributed to JS explaining the meaning of the word Mormon appeared in the newspaper Times and Seasons. Beginning with ’s 1834 publication of Mormonism Unvailed, critics of the church held that the word Mormon carried negative, even sinister connotations. Howe claimed that the word Mormon meant “bug-bear, hob-goblin, raw head, and bloody bones.” Other publications asserted that the word Mormon derived from the Greek word Mormo, which meant “a hideous female spectre; a phantom; something used to frighten children.” In Greek mythology, a woman named Mormo ate her own children, and when Greek mothers wanted to frighten their children, they would “invoke Mormo” to conjure an image of a terrible or fearsome entity. As JS and the Latter-day Saints believed strongly in the Book of Mormon and were commonly referred to as “Mormons,” JS sought to counter these speculative etymologies. The letter featured here declared that the etymology for the word was a combination of the English word more (contracted to mor) and the Egyptian word mon (meaning “good”), with the resulting definition “more good.”
JS’s journal, kept by , notes that on 19 May, JS “told a dream. that the history must go ahead. before any thing.” It is possible that on that day JS also assigned Phelps to pen the letter featured here, because JS’s journal entry for the next day notes that JS “heard Br [William W.] Phelps read a deffenitin [definition] of the word Mormon” and that JS then corrected what Phelps wrote and sent it to press. The letter appeared in the issue of the Times and Seasons dated 15 May 1843, though it is unclear exactly when the issue was published. Another letter in that issue bears the date 19 May 1843, indicating that the issue appeared after its stated publication date and supporting the circa 20 May dating of the featured letter. Despite the alternative etymology offered in the letter featured here, the claim that the word Mormon derived from Greek continued to circulate widely in American newspapers.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 21, italics in original.

    Howe, Eber D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, from Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in Which the Famous Golden Bible Was Brought before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries into the Probability That the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written by One Solomon Spalding, More Than Twenty Years Ago, and by Him Intended to Have Been Published as a Romance. Painesville, OH: By the author, 1834.

  2. [2]

    Donnegan, New Greek and English Lexicon, 858. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defined Mormo as “a bugbear; false terror.” In late 1838, several papers reprinted an article (or in some cases, part of an article) from the “London papers” about the church and its history. This article claimed that the word Mormon was from the Greek word for “mischievous fool or idiot.” Daniel Kidder’s book Mormonism and the Mormons, published in 1842, simultaneously defined the word as a “hideous female spectre; a phantom—something used to frighten children, &c” and as a “Bug-bear, hobgoblin, bloody bones, &c.” “What more fitting term,” Kidder exclaimed, “could have been chosen, either for the book, or for the measures by which the system was promulgated!” (“Mormo,” in American Dictionary [1828]; “Another Mormon Battle” and “The Mormon Religion,” Sentinel of Freedom [Newark, NJ], 20 Nov. 1838, [2], italics in original; “Mormonism,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 3 Dec. 1838, [2]; “Mormonism,” Daily Herald and Gazette [Cleveland], 29 Nov. 1838, [2]; “Mormonism,” Columbian Centinel [Boston], 24 Nov. 1838, [1]; “Mormonism,” Florida Herald and Southern Democrat [St. Augustine], 27 Dec. 1838, [1]; “The Mormon Religion,” Newark [NJ] Daily Advertiser, 19 Nov. 1838, [2]; Kidder, Mormonism and the Mormons, 82.)

    Donnegan, James. A New Greek and English Lexicon; Principally on the Plan of the Greek and German Lexicon of Schneider: The Words Alphabetically Arranged; Distinguishing Such as are Poetical, of Dialectic Variety. . . . 1st American ed. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, 1840.

    An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.

    Sentinel of Freedom. Newark, NJ. 1838–1841.

    Cincinnati Daily Gazette. Cincinnati. 1827–1883.

    Daily Herald and Gazette. Cleveland. 1837–1839.

    Columbian Centinel. Boston. 1804–1840.

    Florida Herald and Southern Democrat. St. Augustine, FL. 1838–1849.

    Newark Daily Advertiser. Newark, NJ. 1832–1904.

    Kidder, Daniel P. Mormonism and the Mormons: A Historical View of the Rise and Progress of the Sect Self-Styled Latter-Day Saints. New York: G. Lane and P. P. Sandford, 1842.

  3. [3]

    Johnston, Restless Dead, 174.

    Johnston, Sarah Iles. Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 19 May 1843.

  5. [5]

    JS, Journal, 20 May 1843.

  6. [6]

    George Dykes, Nauvoo, IL, 19 May 1843, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 May 1843, 4:195.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  7. [7]

    “Mormon,” Christian Intelligencer, 16 Sept. 1843, 35; News Item, Christian Witness and Church Advocate, 8 Sept. 1843, 115; News Item, Congregational Journal, 24 Aug. 1843, [3]; News Item, Radical (Bowling Green, MO), 7 Oct. 1843, [2]; News Item, State Banner (Bennington, VT), 26 Sept. 1843, [2]; “Mormonism,” Edgefield (SC) Advertiser, 27 Sept. 1843, [2]; News Item, New-York Evangelist, 17 Aug. 1843, 131; News Item, Newark (NJ) Daily Advertiser, 12 Aug. 1843, [2]; News Item, Sunbury (PA) American and Shamokin Journal, 9 Sept. 1843, [1]; “Mormon,” Baltimore Saturday Visiter, 4 Nov. 1843, [2].

    Christian Intelligencer. New York City. 1833–1848.

    Christian Witness and Church Advocate. Boston. 1841–1872.

    Congregational Journal. Concord, NH, 1841–1862.

    Radical. Bowling Green, MO. 1841–1845.

    State Banner. Bennington, VT. 1841–1849.

    Edgefield Advertiser. Edgefield, SC. 1851–1863.

    New-York Evangelist. New York City. 1830–1850.

    Newark Daily Advertiser. Newark, NJ. 1832–1904.

    Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal. Sunbury, PA. 1840–1848.

    Baltimore Saturday Visiter. Baltimore. 1841–1847.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter to Editor, circa 20 May 1843
History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 194

To the of the TIMES & SEASONS.
Sir;—Through the medium of your paper, I wish to correct an error among men that profess to be learned, liberal and wise; and I do it the more cheerfully, because I hope sober-thinking and sound-reasoning people will sooner listen to the voice of truth, than be led astray by the vain pretentions of the self-wise. The error I speak of, is the definition of the word “mormon.” It has been stated that this word was derived from the Greek word mormo. This is not the case. There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of Mormon. Let the language of that book speak for itself. On the 523d page, of the fourth edition, it reads:
“And now behold we have written this record according to our knowledge in the characters, which are called among us the Reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech; and if our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have written in Hebrew: but the Hebrew hath been altered by us, also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold ye would have had no imperfection in our record, but the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also, that none other people knoweth our language; therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.”
Here then the subject is put to silence, for “none other people knoweth our language,” therefore the Lord, and not man, had to interpret, after the people were all dead. And, as Paul said, “the world by wisdom know not God,” so the world by speculation are destitute of revelation; and as God in his superior wisdom, has always given his saints, wherever he had any on the earth, the same spirit, and that spirit, as John says, is the true spirit of prophesy, which is the testimony of Jesus, I may safely say that the word Mormon stands independent of the learning and wisdom of this generation.— Before I give a definition, however, to the word, let me say that the Bible in its widest sense, means good; for the Savior says according to the gospel of John, “I am the good shepherd;” and it will not be beyond the common use of terms, to say that good is among the most important in use, and though known by various names in different languages, still its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say from the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, goda; the German, gut; the Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; and the Egyptian, mon. Hence, with the addition of more, or the contraction, mor, we have the word mormon; which means, literally, more good.
Yours,
JOSEPH SMITH. [p. 194]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 194

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to Editor, circa 20 May 1843
ID #
2261
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:316–319
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    The 1842 reprinting of the third edition (1840) from stereotype plates. (Book of Mormon, 1842 ed., title page; see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:131–132.)

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  2. [2]

    The 1842 edition does not italicize this phrase. Additionally, the word “reformed” is not capitalized in the 1842 edition.

  3. [3]

    The 1842 edition includes a period here rather than a semicolon. The following word “and” is capitalized.

  4. [4]

    The 1842 edition includes a period here, and the word “but” is capitalized.

  5. [5]

    Book of Mormon, 1842 ed., 523 [Mormon 9:32–34].

  6. [6]

    See 1 Corinthians 1:21. In the King James Version of the Bible, this passage reads, “the world by wisdom knew not God.”

  7. [7]

    See Book of Mormon, 1842 ed., 513 [Mormon 5:13].

  8. [8]

    See 1 Corinthians 12:4, 8–9; and Book of Mormon, 1842 ed., 569 [Moroni 10:10–11].

  9. [9]

    See Revelation 19:10.

  10. [10]

    See John 10:11, 14.