It has been generally accepted that the LDS endowment ceremonies are based on Masonic ceremonies Joseph learned in the 1840s. However, historian Don Bradley says there are clues to masonry in the Book of Mormon’s lost pages that are also related to the LDS temple endowment ceremonies.
Don: This [non-Mormon] Fayette Lapham guy, he’s not just confabulating. He’s remembering what Joseph, Sr. told him and the narrative that he gives has everything to do with temples. It’s Nauvoo endowment stuff. The thing is, Lapham was never a Mormon, was never a Latter-day Saint. He wouldn’t come through the temple. At this time, neither would Joseph, Sr. Joseph, Sr. never goes through the Nauvoo Temple. He dies before the endowment is instituted. So why is there Nauvoo endowment material in the lost pages of the Book of Mormon narrative translated in 1828? Joseph Smith doesn’t become a Freemason until 1842. That’s 14 years later. I had been absolutely convinced that Joseph didn’t know anything about the Nauvoo endowment until he becomes a Freemason in March 1842.
GT: Yeah, that’s the traditional story.
Don: I thought, “[Joseph became] Freemason in mid-March 1842. In early May like five weeks later, [we have the] endowment.” You sort of connect the dots. Sure, that’s causation. This is what I was thinking. I’m not saying they’re unrelated, but Joseph has much of the structure and content of the Nauvoo endowment in his mind, as he’s bringing forth the Book of Mormon in 1828, because so much of it’s already there. In my mind, this was interweaving with the different narratives about the First Vision that I had, different pieces of evidence about what was in it. I was looking at parallel narratives in Latter-day Saints scripture. Abraham, Enoch, Moses, how did they become seers? The brother of Jared is the big one. So the brother of Jared, I’d never read this narrative this way. We don’t read it this way. But think about this. I just told the narrative from Joseph Smith, Sr. of how the Nephites got the interpreters. How did the Jaredites get the interpreters? Ether 3 says, “The Brother of Jared,” whose name, by the way is withheld from us, right? It’s secret. It’s esoteric. There’s sort of like an idea of secret, sacred names.
GT: Mahonri Moriancumer.
Don: Later that’s revealed, but it’s deliberately withheld. So we call this guy “the brother of Jared” in the narrative. The brother of Jared goes up on a mountaintop while he’s on an exodus, kind of like Sinai, right? Joseph Smith in Nauvoo says anciently mountaintops were temples. When God’s people didn’t have the means to build the temple, like in the days of Moses and the Exodus, he says, God accepted mountaintops as the place to give people keys, to give the endowment. Joseph says this explicitly in a Nauvoo sermon and I quote the exact sermon in my book, in chapter 14 about Mosiah the First. So the brother of Jared is on a mountaintop. That should cue temple. He talks with the Lord through the veil. It doesn’t mean a cloth veil, of course, like in the temple, it means the veil that that cloth veil represents. But he hasn’t dialogue with the Lord through what it calls the veil. I don’t know that sounds kind of familiar to me.
Historian Don Bradley says that masonic implements were found with the golden plates. What were these implements, and how are they related to modern LDS temple ceremonies?
Don: Joseph, Sr. tells this guy [non-Mormon named Fayette Lapham] about the plates. He tells him that on the top plate there were the implements of masonry, as used by Masons of the present day. So I found this really interesting. Wow, Masonic stuff way back at the beginning of Mormonism.
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In every single masonic lodge in the world, one of the things that they have in common is that there’s an altar. On that altar, there’s a sacred book, usually the Bible, and in Muslim countries/Islamic countries, it can be the Quran, and so on. There’s a sacred book. Do you know what’s on top of that book? A compass and square. You set a compass and the square on top of that sacred book.
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Joseph, Sr. was very steeped in, at the very least, Masonic lore, but he is apparently also a member of a Masonic Lodge, apparently a Mason. He’s saying, based on Joseph, Jr.’s descriptions of the plates, and by this time he would have seen them himself, actually, as one of the eight witnesses, he’s saying, the basic Masonic implements, which at minimum, are going to be compass and square, were on the top of the Sacred Book. That’s how it is in masonic lodges. So, the specific Masonic implements that are on top of sacred books in the lodge are compass and square. So of course these are significant symbols for more than just Freemasons. They’re already showing up. Joseph Smith first goes to the hill, first sees the plates, first describes the plates to his father in 1823. Joseph Smith becomes a Freemason in 1842, when he’s 36. Almost 20 years before Joseph becomes a Freemason, he’s already describing the sacred relics of the Nephites in Masonic terms that have extra-Masonic/more than Masonic relevance for Latter-day Saints of sacred symbols. So again, why is it that it seems that Latter-day Saints would, post-Nauvoo, really recognize as part of our faith? He’s already there in the 1820s. Everything that I’ve talked about, where these Masonic or Nauvoo temple elements are popping up: First Vision, Joseph Smith’s first encounter with the plates in 1823, Joseph Smith’s translation of the lost pages in 1828, Joseph Smith’s translation of the extant Book of Mormon text–book of Ether, 1829. That’s all 1829, so far, before he, himself, becomes a Freemason, and already you’ve got loads of symbolic and structural content elements of the Nauvoo endowment. There’s something going on. Nauvoo endowment isn’t just Nauvoo. In fact, Nauvoo Mormonism is not really just Nauvoo. It’s already there, since you have Nauvoo elements in the stories of the brother of Jared, and Mosiah. [With] the Nauvoo temple, what Joseph is about is trying to bring people into the presence of God. This is what he says in his sermons. So you’re trying to give them keys. You can go talk to God yourself. You can stand in God’s presence.
What are your thoughts on Don’s research?
Wheat & Tares 
I have missed why Fayette Lapham’s account should be taken as an accurate record of an 1830 interview, but it seems to have been published in 1870. Is there an 1830 record of that interview? What did I miss?
I would be curious to see in more detail the evidence for a connection between Masonic ritual and early Mormonism. If there strong evidence for a connection. As for the temple ceremony, there are pieces of the early endowment and initiatory ceremonies that are taken verbatim from the Masonic rituals. Joseph Smith could have been influenced by Masonic culture, however, before he became a Mason, and this culture could have very well influenced his revelations. I find that plausible. However, if Bradley is angling at the idea that Joseph Smith couldn’t have possibly known about x, y, and z except through miraculous revelations, I’m unconvinced and would look to see if he is overstretching before accepting his argument.
John W: “Joseph Smith could have been influenced by Masonic culture, however, before he became a Mason, and this culture could have very well influenced his revelations.”
One thing that stood out to me in the video is the claim that Joseph Smith rose to Master Mason the day after joining. I have no familiarity with Masonry (other than what comes out of discussions like this), so I don’t know if there is anything remarkable about such a rapid rise through levels, but it would seem unusual for an initiate to rise that quickly through 3 levels. Suggesting that Joseph Smith was informally following and learning Masonry for some time before officially joining would seem consistent with his rapid rise to Master Mason after joining.
I am not familiar with Fayette Lapham’s account enough to make any comments. For those like Wondering, I suggest buying or checking out the book from the library to see how Don references and footnotes it.
I have 2 upcoming interviews with Cheryl Bruno and Clair Barrus who both discuss the masonic connections and treasure digging culture in the 1820s when the golden plates were found. They both agree with Don that there are quite a few masonic connections from this early time period. This pushes back on the standard narrative that it wasn’t until the 1840s when Joseph was exposed to Masonry. I do think that Joseph’s initiation in the 1840s was profound and greatly influenced the endowment ceremony, but Don is making the case that these connections were much earlier than has been recognized by historians previously. (I know Cheryl quibbles with some of Don’s interpretations–including Fayette Lapham–but she also sees these early masonic connections.)
Another point: believing members are at a disadvantage when addressing the topic of the influence of Masonry on the temple ceremonies. For it is taboo for them to just say out loud, let alone publish, the details of what goes on in the temple. If they do, other believers, who comprise their main body of readership, will more than likely take offense and tell them that they are breaking a covenant to reveal details of the ceremonies. This puts believing scholars in a position where they cannot defend or make a case about the temple ceremony. Of course, this isn’t the only area where believing scholars are at a disadvantage in publishing/talking about Mormonism. There are many taboo areas guarded and defended by Mormon culture that they cannot traverse without facing massive backlash. They have large social constraints placed on them in exploring topics such as the origins of the Book of Mormon that are not ancient, logical fallacies and inconsistencies in the leaders’ narratives, and a wide array of other topics.
Towards the end of my mission in Japan many years ago, we tracted out a fellow who was into oriental mysticism of sorts (never could figure out what exactly). However, he did one thing that really caught my attention. In the course of our conversation he brought up out of nowhere that when Christ heals people, he does this with his hands (he then peforms the 2nd sign of the Melchizedek Priesthood). Then he mentions when Buddha heals people, he does this with his hands (he then peforms the 1st sign of the Melchizedek Priesthood).
Now, I’m pretty sure this guy knew nothing about Masonry etc. He certainly didn’t know anything about our church. So, it was very interesting when he performed these signs and how he associated them. Also, if you look at statues of Buddha, the statues always have interesting hand positions that are either identical or very similar to what is learned in the temple.
Partially based on that experience, I can easily make the jump into believing that their were masonic implements/symbols associated with the gold plates and the interpreters.
“As for the temple ceremony, there are pieces of the early endowment and initiatory ceremonies that are taken verbatim from the Masonic rituals. ”
Do you have a citation of that?
Or are do you mean Nauvoo instead of early?
I would like to learn about Masonic influence on Kirtland era ritual.
There are really no masonic connections in Kirtland era. Most masonic connections are in Nauvoo.