The Garden of Eden’s Location in Jackson County, Missouri

[All-American]

Here it is, a rough draft. As I mention in the paper, the 5 page limit that the instructor insisted upon prevents this from being a very worthwhile study, and there's a lot of material that I simply had to leave out that I would have liked to have included which argued both for and against the thesis. It is still a rough draft, though, so if there are any thoughts, feel free to pass them on. If you would like footnotes and references, I can email you the paper in its entirety-- send me a boardmail with your address.



There was nothing ordinary about a divine manifestation to a fourteen year-old boy, new scriptures on sheets of gold buried in a nearby hill, or frequent visitations of angels. From the beginning, Latter-day Saints have had to defend a host of claims deemed to be quite unusual to the world. It comes as little surprise, then, that the Saints should tend to be somewhat defensive if it appears that their doctrine is being called into question; indeed, the tenacity that allows members of the church to stand firm in the face of intense scrutiny is both remarkable and admirable. That’s not to say that such resilience does not have its price. At times, the saints so eagerly defend the teachings of the prophets that they may not stop to fully inquire whether the prophets actually taught the doctrines they are defending, with little distinction between hearsay and the voice of the Lord.

One particular belief draws an especially large amount of raised eyebrows: the idea that the Garden of Eden was originally located in Jackson County, Missouri, and that the American continent was the home of the first of Adam’s descendents. This teaching, along with the claim that this was taught by revelation to Joseph Smith, has been authoritatively perpetuated in relatively recent times by the highest authorities of the church. A close examination, however, shows that the ground traversed in order to reach this conclusion is very shaky. Indeed, the scarcity of evidence showing that Joseph Smith actually taught this idea renders the suggestion highly questionable.

Particularly troubling to historians is the fact that of the statements attributing the location of the Garden in Missouri to Joseph Smith via divine revelation, none come from Joseph Smith himself. What’s more, the best second-hand accounts that have arisen are barely within ten years of his death, or twenty years after he is said to have made the claim. This complete lack of primary documents is a giant red flag to any serious historian. Compare this with story of Zelph; though several contemporaneous second-hand accounts tell the story (making for a much stronger case than Eden in Missouri), because no record shows that Joseph made a direct mention of Zelph’s identity, the entire issue is viewed with great uncertainty and suspicion. With no primary sources or even contemporaneous secondary sources affirming the fact, the idea of Joseph’s placement of Eden in Missouri is off to a rough start.

The teaching may not have arisen at all, were it not for Brigham Young. The first mention of the Garden of Eden’s location in Missouri by Joseph comes from a speech given by President Young on March 15, 1857, nearly ten years after Joseph’s martyrdom. Though he is a late secondary source, what weight he lacks in historical credibility, he attempts to make up in certainty:

"It is a pleasant thing to think of and to know where the Garden of Eden was. Did you ever think of it? I do not think many do, for in Jackson County was the Garden of Eden. Joseph has declared this and I am as much bound to believe that as to believe that Joseph was a prophet of God."

By 1860, others began to concur with Brigham’s statement, among them Heber C. Kimball:

"I will say more, the spot chosen for the Garden of Eden was Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, where Independence now stands; it was occupied in the morn of creation by Adam and his associates."

There are other examples of President Young and others reaffirming this belief, with no wavering of fervency to be seen. If Brigham Young claimed with such certainty an event that has no basis in primary documents, three possibilities exist as to the veracity of the claim. The first of these is that he is telling the truth; yet, notwithstanding his certainty, the problematic nature of the lack of primary evidence compels historians to consider the other options. The second possibility he is bold-faced lying; yet even those who would call the character of President Young into question would find that he had little to gain by fabricating such a relatively unimportant claim. The third possibility is the most compelling to this writer: by perpetuating an ever-growing myth that had originated from a gospel truth, as was originally taught by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and others made a good-faith error. In fact, a closer look will show that Joseph’s original statements regarding Adam-Ondi-Ahman eventually expanded beyond its first identification, protected by a sacrosanct status due to its connection with the prophet, and changed over the years, finally culminating with Brigham Young’s identification of Jackson County as the Garden’s location.

On Saturday, May 19th, 1838, Joseph Smith renamed what had been called “Spring Hill” in Daviess County, Missouri “Adam-Ondi-Ahman,” “because, said [the Lord], it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. This is not the first time this name had been used. The earliest mention of Adam-Ondi-Ahman in the Doctrine and Covenants is found in D&C 78:15, which was revealed to the Prophet in 1832 at Hiram, Ohio. In 1835, the name Adam-Ondi-Ahman is definitively linked with the place where Adam blessed his children before he died in D&C 107:53, given in March of 1835. Perhaps the most famous reference to Adam-Ondi-Ahman is the hymn “Adam-Ondi-Ahman,” by W.W. Phelps, which was published as part of the first LDS hymn book in 1835. All of these references antedate the christening of the Missouri valley in 1838, and none of these earlier references mention the future meeting with Adam. At the same time, the prophet never referenced the valley in Missouri with the meeting where Adam blessed his children before his death—in fact, an 1839 history of the church written by John Corrill, who had since apostatized, seems to distinguish the two: “Smith gave it the name of Adamondiaman, which he said was formerly given to a certain valley, where Adam, previous to his death, called his children together and blessed them.” An altar found in the Missouri valley is often referred to as Adam’s altar; yet Joseph spoke of it not as Adam’s altar, but as a Nephite altar. It does not appear that the name itself identifies the place of Adam’s future meeting as being identical to the place of his last meeting, unless you believe the Savior appeared to the Nephites just north of Salt Lake City, or that the Biblical Ruth lived in Southern Utah.

Nevertheless, the identical names made association of the two locations all too easy for Latter-day Saints. To link the Garden of Eden with nearby Jackson County, all that was necessary for Brigham Young or others to do was follow basic logic and one of the most common tendencies for any religious society to link sacred sites, especially those pertaining to the creation. Each Egyptian temple, for example, was also considered “a representation of the island where life was thought to have started, and each religious locality in Egypt later claimed to be the actual island of creation.” Ezekiel 28:13–14 links “Eden” with the temple, “the holy mountain of God,” and the stone that the Ark of the Covenant rested upon was considered the “foundation stone” upon which the world was based. It appears that the inclination to link the site of the principle temple with the site of the first creation was no more resisted by Brigham Young than it was for the ancient Israelites.

But even this argument is of necessity made in the absence of more solid evidence. Even if it is possible to fully determine whether or not Joseph Smith ever taught that the Garden of Eden was located in Jackson County, it certainly cannot be done in five pages or less. Indeed, the relatively narrow scope of this particular project dictated that a good deal of evidence for and against its thesis be necessarily excluded because of space limitations. Thankfully, it is not necessary to argue that Joseph did not teach that the Garden was in Missouri. It is only necessary to show, as has been done here, that the claim that he did is based on a disturbingly flimsy historical case. Those who would put the reputation of the church, of the prophets, or of themselves on the line for the sake of this particular teaching would do well to note that its veracity is tenuous at best.

[All-American]

Frankly, I had hoped it would have been better.

[ChinoCoug]

this is just 3 pp. But good job, now I have ammo.

[All-American]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

this is just 3 pp. But good job, now I have ammo.

Double spaced, 12 pt. font.

Yeah, some real academic heavyweight material here, eh?

[creekster]

Interesting paper but doesn't this take you back to the question of when BY spoke as a prophet?

[BlueHair]

Good job. It was a good read.