I think Martin Harris was a brainwashed true believer, else why would he put up the equivalent of $73K to publish the BOM? But he may have needed some verification. The quote about Prof. Anthon validating the translation is on page 36, but notice it's from Joseph Smith's autobiography. So Smith made the claim, Harris may never have done so, and certainly Anthon never did.ginof wrote:i'm really confounded by martin harris. If it was all a hoax, and he was in on it, why would he take the document to professor Anton? He would have known that the professor would not have vouched for his document.
But if he was not in on it, why would he have said that professor Anton said such great things about the writing on the plates?
The only reason I can think of are: if he was in on it, he wanted to see professor Anton knowing that he would make up a response favorable to his position. But negative feedback from his wife, etc makes me think he was not in on it.
If was not in on it, he must have "brainwashed" himself into believing that professor Anton would say great things about it and selectively listened to the feedback, hearing only things that supported his idea that Smith was telling him the truth.
Also note Smith misspells Anthon's name......(at least, Smith said Harris said)...
