James Hervey and "Every pore"

While this blog focuses on Jonathan Edwards, I've noted in Infinite Goodness and other places that James Hervey's works were also influential for Joseph Smith. Hervey's works were on sale in the Palmyra bookstore Joseph visited weekly. 

Emma once complained that all their books were lost in the Missouri expulsion, but Joseph donated Hervey's works to the Nauvoo library in 1844. We don't know when or how he acquired the books he donated (apart from the Stephens and Catherwood books he received from Wilford Woodruff, which he probably never read). While there's no evidence that Joseph actually had the time to read any of the books he donated, Hervey's works are the only evident link between the books Joseph had access to in both Nauvoo and Palmyra.

This comes to mind because some critics complain that Mosiah 3:7 is anachronistic because scientists didn't discover "pores" until the modern era.

7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

(Mosiah 3:7)

They note similar language in D&C 19:18

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

(Doctrine and Covenants 19:18)

Hervey wrote:

Whereas, the divine Redeemer expired in tedious and protracted torments. His pangs were as lingering, as they were exquisite. Even in the prelude to his last suffering, what a load of sorrows overwhelmed his sacred humanity! Till the intolerable pressure wrung blood, instead of sweat, from every pore; till the crimson flood stained all his raiment, and tinged the very stones.

Thus, Joseph was likely familiar with the concept that Christ bled at every pore. When he translated the engravings on the plates, he naturally would have rendered the text using language familiar to him, in this case "blood... from every pore."

LDS apologists don't think about this because they no longer accept what Joseph said; i.e., that he translated the ancient records. Instead, they teach that Joseph merely read words that appeared on the stone in the hat (SITH).

But while they teach SITH, they don't explain why the actual translator (the MIST, or mysterious incognito supernatural translator) would have used terminology from the sources readily available to Joseph Smith. 

SITH is a mass of confusion, and this is just another example of that.

Check out these apologetic explanations and see for yourself.

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/did-jesus-bleed-from-every-pore

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_When_were_skin_pores_discovered%3F