Evolving Understanding of the Role of Oliver Cowdery

I'm delving a little into speculation here, so I thought I would call that out in the beginning as a disclaimer. Having watched Craig Criddle's presentation on Book of Mormon authorship, and also having just finished Who Wrote the Book of Mormon, by Cowdrey, Davis, and Vanick, my view of Cowdery's role in the founding of the church is evolving. I can almost feel the burning in my bosom.... I guess that means my evolving view MUST be true. Isn't that the way it supposed to work?

Here is the summary of my evolving view, supported by a bit of information, some very new and fresh. Cowdery's role is much more than scribe and Second Elder. From the Jockers, Witten, and Criddle, we see word print patterns that suggest Cowdery had a strong role in the writing of certain parts of the Book of Mormon. His writing signal is particularly strong in the beginning sections that correspond to the "lost pages," and in the Third Nephi section corresponding to the visitation of Christ. Initially, I wondered if their picking up Cowdery's signal was an typical, random statistical error, but it appears to not be the case. While this point was interesting to me, alone, it was uncompelling. Perhaps that is because I retain a degree of skepticism about any authorship theory.

Jockers just finished (about 10 days ago) a similar wordprint study of the Book of Commandments. Interestingly, the study finds a strong Rigdon signal, followed by a strong Cowdery signal. Cowdery's signal was again strong in certain parts from a chronological perspective. The linkage that Criddle presented is that Cowdrey's signal was especially strong in the time frame during which the 116 page fiasco was happening. In Book of Commandments, chapters 2-9, Rigdon was attributed with one Chapter, another was a toss-up, and Cowdery was attributed with the remaining chapters. If you read through those chapters, you can see that it appears that Cowdery and Rigdon are "receiving revelations" that were guiding Joseph in the "translation"process. When I looked at Book of Commandments, chapter 4, verse 2 in this light, it "opened up the eyes of my understanding and pure intelligence flowed into my mind," or something like that. Let's take a look at this. Read the following with the idea in mind that in this case, Cowdery was dictating a revelation in guiding Joseph.
Quote:

BOC 4:2 and he has a gift to translate the book [of Mormon], and I have commanded him that he shall pretend to no other gift, for I will grant him no other gift.

Now step back and see the power that Joseph gains, usurped, or whatever, when the D&C was published.  There were many, many changes in the revelations as directed by Joseph.  See what we see now in D&C 5:4.
Quote:

D&C 5:4 And you have a gift to translate the plates; and this is the first gift that I bestowed upon you; and I have commanded that you should pretend to no other gift until my purpose is fulfilled in this; for I will grant unto you no other gift until it is finished.

I suspect most of you are aware of this particular change, but if not, it is a new tidbit. You can see a couple of things from this. In the BOC, Joseph is being directed. In the D&C, Joseph is receiving a revelation. In the first, his role is being strictly limited. In the second, the door is opened to unlimited power.

This ties in with a few other things of interest. I'm not going to go looking for it right now, but I recall reading in several places where Rigdon was purported to say something like, "This isn't the way it was supposed to be. I was supposed to be the leader." Don't read too much into that, because I am just recalling that off the top of my head and could very well be wrong. But interestingly, this line of thinking sheds new light, at least to me, on Cowdery's response to his excommunication in 1838.
Quote:

With regard to this I think I am warranted in saying, the judgement is also passed, as on the matter of the fifth charge, consequently, I have no disposition to contend with the Council; this charge covers simply the doctrine of the fifth, and if I were to be controlled by other than my own judgement, in a compulsory manner, in my temporal interests, of course, could not buy or sell without the consent of some real or supposed authority. Whether that clause contains the precise words, I am not certain - I think however they were these: 'I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgement.'

Looking at this in the light of Oliver's being fully involved with the receiving of these "pretended revelations," he is really calling a spade a spade. Perhaps he thinks all of the revelations are pretended in some fashion or another. Or at least maybe he thinks Joseph's revelations are pretended.

This also sheds light on the claim of Cowdery's law partner in which he effectively said that Cowdery was the primary author/compiler of the Book of Mormon and that it was a hoax.
Quote:

Stephen Van Eck, in his article, "The Book of Mormon: One Too Many M's," writes that Oliver Cowdery admitted to his law firm colleague, Judge W. Lang, that the Book of Mormon was a hoax, manufactured from Solomon Spalding's unpublished novel, "Manuscript Found": [note this is not referring to the novel called "Manuscript Story" which was found and published by the LDS and RLDS Church under the name "Manuscript Found". This refers to another undiscovered novel originally called "Manuscript Found"].
" ... W. Lang, whose law firm the excommunicated Oliver Cowdery joined, ... wrote, 'The plates were never translated and could not be, and were never intended to be.' (This suggests that Cowdery still believed that there were actually plates.)
"'What is claimed to be a translation is "The Manuscript Found" worked over by C.' (Cowdery) 'He was the best scholar among them.'...
"'Rigdon got the original at the job printing office in Pittsburgh ... Without going into detail or disclosing a confidential word, I can say to you that I do know, as well as can now be known, that C. revised the manuscript and that Smith and Rigdon approved of it before it became the Book of Mormon.'
Eck concludes from Lang's confession the following:
"Apparently Cowdery had admitted the hoax to Lang, but took all the credit for it.
"This is not consistent with Cowdery being the servile follower of Smith that he had been. Had Cowdery given Smith the completed manuscript, furthermore, losing the first 116 pages of the dictated 'translation' would have scarcely been a problem. Cowdery, despite his apparent boasting to Lang, can be considered a collaborator at best, but a conspirator at least."

Additionally, former apostle William McLellin said that Oliver said it was a hoax as well.
Quote:

Former apostle William McLellin, who left the church and later wrote against it, once remarked that Oliver Cowdery would bear strong testimony of the BOM when amongst the saints, but when he was half-drunk, he would admit that it was all "a bottle of smoke."

Even as a NOM, I have thought that Oliver was a dupe or a pawn used by Joseph and perhaps Rigdon. Some of this new information paints him as initially in a stronger position than Joseph. Somehow Joseph gained the power and pushed Oliver out of the way, excommunicating him when Oliver pushed back against him and would not relent on his condemnation of his adultery with Fannie Alger, and perhaps others.