I'm not sure what a figurative creation of the man and woman would mean, and I don't know why you bring it up. Did someone address that earlier?
I digressed.
When you say the Endowment is "closer to the source, do you mean closer than the other LDS writings, or closer than Genesis?
I mean that, as I understand it, the ordinance of the Endowment was dictated word-for-word by the Lord. None of the other accounts of the creation--Genesis, Moses, and Abraham, are of the "Thus saith the Lord" sort of nature. Not that they aren't heavily inspired writings. Also, the provenance of Genesis and Abraham is rather iffy--we don't know where they've been. And while the Book of Moses is a revealed restoration of a text written by Moses, I don't claim to know what that
means--is it the English that Moses
would have written if he were an Oxford PhD in science, or is it, "here are the places where the King James translation is really, really off base?" I think it's somewhere between those two extremes, but probably closer to the latter.
I suppose that it's unfair of me, really, to argue from an ordinance that is not available outside the temple. I brought it up simply to state that the Mormon position on the origin of life is that it was "placed" here, as it has been on other worlds. That's probably a lot more than most people would say outside the temple about a temple ordinance, and I have to say that I'm a bit uncomfortable about discussing this outside the temple.
The "deliberate changes...intended to destroy part of the message," I've never heard of. I'm aware there have been slight copying errors and well-intentioned edits that have been corrected by comparison with other manuscripts.
OK, here's one take on the subject, by Margaret Barker, a Methodist scholar with no connection to the Mormon position:
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/barker.htm The Reader's Digest version: The Old Testament was edited by the Jews during the rise of Christianity to remove references to Christ. She has also written about major changes in the scriptures in the sixth or seventh century B.C.
Apparently, Joseph Smith felt he could do some well-intentioned editing, but whence his authority to do so?
In the Spring of 1820, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph and called him to the work that he was to do. Part of that calling was the responsibility to restore ancient scripture.
On May 15, 1829, a resurrected John the Baptist ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the Priesthood of Aaron, by the laying on of hands, with the words: "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness."
A couple months later the resurrected apostles Peter and James, and the apostle John, ordained Joseph Smith to the Melchizedek Priesthood.
Joseph was subseqently commanded by the Lord to organize His church on April 6, 1830.
Some time later, the Church was commanded to build a temple in Kirtkand, Ohio.
On April 3, 1836, an open vision in the Kirtland Temple appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Jesus Christ appeard, and accepted the temple. After him came the following:
Moses appeared, and committed unto them "the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north."
Elias appeared, and committed unto them "the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham, saying that in us and our seed all generations after us should be blessed."
Elijah then appeared and said, "Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi--testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come--To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse--Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors." (For any Jews who may be reading this, I note that April 3, 1836 happened to be Passover.
)
(You may note that the events and the cast of characters here were very much like the Mount of Transfiguration. We believe that these events had the same purpose--to commit unto Christ in his time, and Joseph in our time, the keys of their dispensations of the Gospel. (In reading this, it reads like I'm making a parallel between Christ and Joseph Smith--I'm not, except that both were heads of a dispensation of the Gospel, along with Moses, Adam, and I believe one or two others.))
I donno, perhaps Joseph needed a bit more authority for the job.
In a very real sense, all translations of any non-trivial text are mistranslations.
Why should that be?
That's another hour of typing, and I'm tired. I'll call it a night, and see if I get back to that question, or we drift off in other interesting directions.