Many modern LDS scholars (particularly those at Scripture Central and the Interpreter) have rejected and repudiated (and in some cases ridiculed) what Oliver Cowdery reported in the essays on Church history he wrote in 1834-5.
You might wonder, Why do they reject what he wrote?
The answer is easy.
Because Oliver's essays, including several statements of fact, refute the basic premises of M2C and SITH.
Overall, it's fun to see modern scholars assume they know more about these events than Oliver Cowdery did.
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From time to time it is useful to review what Oliver wrote in the introduction.
That our narrative may be correct, and particularly the introduction, it is proper to inform our patrons, that our brother J. Smith Jr. has offered to assist us. Indeed, there are many items connected with the fore part of this subject that render his labor indispensible.
With his labor and with authentic documents now in our possession, we hope to render this a pleasing and agreeable narrative, well worth the examination and perusal of the Saints.—
To do <Justice to> this subject will require time and space: we therefore ask the forbearance of our readears, assuring them that it shall be founded upon facts.
Note 28:
One of the “authentic documents” Cowdery relied on may have been JS’s circa summer 1832 history. The volume that includes the 1832 history also includes letters copied in by Cowdery—meaning Cowdery had access to JS’s history—and passages of Cowdery’s letters appear to have been informed by the contents and even wording of JS’s earlier work. (See JS Letterbook 1, pp. 62–65, 89; see also Anderson, “Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision,” 394–398.)
Comprehensive Works CitedJS Letterbook 1 / Smith, Joseph. “Letter Book A,” 1832–1835. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 1.Anderson, Richard Lloyd. “Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision through Reminiscences.” BYU Studies 9 (Spring 1969): 373–404.
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Other "authentic documents" Oliver may have used could include original copies of revelations that are no longer extant, Oliver's own notebook of what Joseph told him during their time together in Harmony and Fayette, letters to and from David Whitmer when Oliver lived in Harmony, other correspondence, etc.
Overall, it's fun to see modern scholars assume they know more about these events than Oliver Cowdery did.
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