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The Angel Moroni

“If the angel of God has not appeared to Joseph Smith, and if these things are not true of which we speak, then the whole thing is an imposture from beginning to end.”

— John Taylor

Third Mormon prophet
"How a Knowledge of God is Obtained, etc.", Salt Lake City
Journal of Discourses, Vol. 21, p. 165

TIMELINE

421 AD	1823, Sept.	1827, Sept.	1830, March	1835	1838, May
Book of Mormon: Moroni seals up record.	Official version: Moroni, now an angel, tells Joseph about plates.	Joseph given plates to translate.	Translation published as Book of Mormon,	Joseph’s first mention of the angel Moroni.	Joseph says it was the angel Nephi who gave him the plates.

In the Book of Mormon narrative, Moroni is its last narrator. After he finished engraving his record on plates, he buried it in the Hill Cumorah, around 421 AD.

In the official story promoted by the church, Joseph Smith was visited by Moroni three years after his First Vision. Moroni appeared to Joseph as an angel and told him about the buried plates. Moroni continued to appear, once a year for five years, before Joseph was allowed to obtain and translate them.
Like the First Vision, this story did not materialize until well after the events allegedly took place.

Historical Record

1831, January 6

In a *letter to her siblings, Lucy Smith (Joseph’s mother) mentions that the buried record “was placed there by Moroni one of the Nephites”. And later mentions that Joseph was visited by an unnamed “holy Angel... that he should translate this book”.

“Lucy Mack Smith letter, Waterloo, New York to Solomon Mack, Gilsum, New Hampshire”, catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org

1832, Summer

In his 1832 handwritten history, Joseph Smith mentions an unnamed angel and also Maroni [Moroni] but doesn’t equate the two.

An angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins and he revealed unto me that in the Town of Manchester Ontario County N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was engraven by Maroni & his fathers.

— Joseph Smith

Mormonism founder
"History, circa Summer 1832", p. 5
josephsmithpapers.org

1835
Moroni

The earliest account naming Moroni as the person who informed Joseph about the Book of Mormon plates. It is found in the altered version of Doctrine and Covenants 27, recorded 12 years after the alleged event.

Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the book of Mormon.

— Doctrine and Covenants 27:5

Note: the original revelation given on September 4, 1830, recorded as Chapter XXVIII in the 1833 Book of Commandments, was significantly altered in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, Section L, to include language about Moroni, priesthood, and church organization. See Doctrine and Covenants, Section 27

1838, April-May
Nephi

In his 1838 history that Joseph Smith dictated and personally edited (the source for Joseph Smith—History), he names the angel ‘Nephi’.

He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name was Nephi. That God had a work for me to do.... He said there was a book deposited written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent and the source from whence they sprang.

— Joseph Smith

Mormonism founder
"History, 1838-1856, Vol. A-1", p. 4
josephsmithpapers.org

1838, July
Moroni

Just a couple months later, Joseph refers to the angel as Moroni again.

Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon? Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated.

— Joseph Smith

Mormonism founder

Elders’ Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 42-43

1842, April 15
Nephi

Joseph published and edited his 1838 history in the Times and Seasons, of which he became its *editor just the month prior.

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi.

— Joseph Smith

Mormonism founder

Times and Seasons, Vol. 3, No. 12, p. 753

March 2, 1842 entry, “Journal, December 1841-December 1842”, josephsmithpapers.org

1842, August
Nephi

The April 15 Times and Season article was republished in the Millennial Star with its editorial reaffirming the angel’s name as Nephi.

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi.

— Millennial Star

Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 53

Again, when we read the history of our beloved brother, Joseph Smith, and of the glorious ministry and message of the angel Nephi.

— Editorial Remarks

Millennial Star, Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 71

1851
Nephi

The angel was Nephi in the first edition of the Pearl of Great Price.

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi.

— Joseph Smith

"Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith",
Pearl of Great Price, p. 41

1853
Nephi

The angel was Nephi in Lucy Smith’s biography of her son Joseph.

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi.

— Lucy Mack Smith

Joseph Smith’s mother
Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, p. 79

1888, October
Nephi

Mary M. Whitmer, the mother of David Whitmer (President of the Missouri church and Book of Mormon witness), is regarded by the LDS church as the only woman to have ever seen the gold plates. Her grandson said of Mary:

I have heard my grandmother (Mary M. Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by an holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi.

— John C. Whitmer

Mary M. Whitmer’s Grandson
The Historical Record, Vol. 7, No. 8-10, p. 621

Conclusion

Like the First Vision, Joseph Smith’s earliest account of the angel Moroni visiting him does not occur until 12 years later, and he does this by altering a revelation given in 1830 (Doctrine and Covenants 27) to make it appear that the Moroni story was always there.
Like the First Vision, this story seems to have developed over time, with the name of the angel changing between Nephi and Moroni.
The LDS church presents the 1838 account dictated by Joseph, in which he originally named the angel Nephi, as the authoritative record, albeit with the named changed to Moroni.