Deliver Us from the Little Narrow Prison of Paper, Pen, and Ink
Book of Mormon Notes - Friday, April 19, 2024, Mormon 9, Part 2
In the previous chapter we learned that the Book of Mormon has come forth during a time of great wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy. The Book of Mormon was translated and published by 1830, almost two hundred years ago. That’s about two hundred years of wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy. Are there comparable periods of wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy in the Book of Mormon?
The Book of Mormon begins in a period of wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy among the Jews in Jerusalem. When Jerusalem was on the verge of destruction, the Lord warned Lehi to flee from Jerusalem, take his family into the wilderness, and seek the new Promised Land. After Lehi and his family reached the Promised Land, after Nephi and his people separated from the Lamanites, and after both Lehi and Nephi died, another period of apostasy began during the time of Jacob, Nephi’s brother. Jacob, Enos, and other prophets kept the Nephites in check, continually pricking their hearts with the word of God, and then there was a major and widespread spiritual rebirth of the Nephite civilization during the reign of King Benjamin,
It wasn’t long however until the rising generation rebelled, and the Nephites began again to apostatize. More prophets came, as well as great missionaries and military leaders, preserving and protecting an otherwise decaying civilization. As the time of the birth and ministry of Jesus Christ approached, there was widespread wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy. A great calamity and destruction preceded Christ’s appearance to the more righteous part of the Nephites, and the Lord established His Zion among His people. Then, after only a couple of centuries, because of pride, the Nephite civilization began to degenerate again. During a period of about two hundred years the Nephite civilization descended rapidly from the heights of a blessed Zion community to the evil and barbarism of a bloodthirsty and even cannibalistic group of savages.
It is all the more striking to me, therefore, that both Mormon and Moroni prophesy that the Book of Mormon shall come forth during a time of great wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy. As we moderns read about the great wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy of the Nephites and the Lamanites about four hundred years after Jesus Christ, we may be tempted to congratulate ourselves for doing so much better than they did. But this is not what Mormon and Moroni do. Far from it. In fact, even in the midst of their own benighted and savage culture, Mormon and Moroni warn that the Book of Mormon shall come forth in a time that is just as bad, and perhaps even worse than the time in which Mormon and Moroni lived.
What could possibly be wrong with modern American society? Aren’t we the most powerful and sophisticated nation on earth? Don’t we enjoy unprecedented freedom, prosperity, and wealth? Who are Mormon and Moroni to come along and in the popular expression “throw shade” on us? Well, they were prophets. They saw things that we don’t see as clearly: the blood of saints crying from the ground, secret combinations, works of darkness, atheism, pride, envy, natural disasters, wars, rumors of wars, pollutions, murder, theft, lying, deceit, whoredoms, rebellion, and so forth. If two prophets who lived among savage people who constantly raped, tortured, murdered, sacrificed, and even devoured human beings looked upon the modern world with horror and disgust, what does that tell us? Read Mormon 8:33-41 again.
The sense I get from Moroni is that the Lord is not going to put up with the wickedness, degeneracy, and apostasy for much longer. The sword of vengeance hangs over us. Moroni saw it, even if we don’t:
Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the ablood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer. (Mormon 8:41)
Remember when the Lord visited the Nephites and the Lamanites with near total destruction before His first coming? While the survivors of the calamities were crying and bemoaning their fate, they heard the voice of the Lord. The Lord’s most oft repeated refrain explained the purpose of the destruction:
that the cblood of the prophets and the saints shall dnot come up any more unto me against them (3 Nephi 9:5, 7, 8, 9)
and
that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me cfrom the ground against them. (3 Nephi 9:11)
Whose blood cried from the ground? The blood of Abinadi, the Christian martyrs who perished in the flames, and those who were killed by secret combinations, just to name a few. Whose blood now cries from the ground? The blood of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his valiant brother Hyrum, the blood of many soldiers who have perished in many wars, the blood of the innocent who have been aborted, and the blood of so many other innocent people who have been killed. In fact, I would venture to guess that there is a lot more innocent blood that cries from the ground today than there was among the Nephites and the Lamanites. The surprising and miraculous thing is how patient and long-suffering the Lord has been with us up to this point.
But Moroni warns us, as if we were present, that the sword of vengeance hangs over us, and that the time is at hand when the Lord will avenge the blood of His saints upon us because He will not suffer their cries any longer.
Therefore what? I repeat Moroni’s final invitation at the end of his father’s book:
O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. aDoubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and bcome unto the Lord with all your cheart, and dwork out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. (Mormon 9:27)
Moroni speaks to us as though he spoke from the dead. He exhorts us to be wise, clean, to be firm, to resist temptation, and to serve the True and Living God. He exhorts us to do all things in worthiness, in the name of Jesus Christ, and endure to the end. In short, he invites us to repent.
Moroni’s conclusion to his father’s book is fascinating. Why was Moroni so concerned about how his words would be received? Why was he so concerned about his perceived weakness? I don’t know, but I believe that he foresaw that many of the Gentiles would reject his words. Listen to Moroni’s concern in three different sections of his writing:
And if there be faults they be the faults of a man. But behold, we know no fault; nevertheless God knoweth all things; therefore, he that condemneth, let him be aware lest he shall be in danger of hell fire. (Mormon 8:17)
and
Condemn me not because of mine aimperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been. (Mormon 9:31)
and
And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;
And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.
Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. (Ether 12:23-25)
Moroni’s concerns echo those of his distant ancestor Nephi:
Nevertheless, I do not write anything upon plates save it be that I think it be sacred. And now, if I do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse myself because of other men, but because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would excuse myself. (1 Nephi 19:6)
Whenever I read and ponder Moroni’s concerns about his weakness in writing, I am amazed to think how much more powerful the spoken word was among the Nephites, and how much more there was to tell, because the words that we have already received in the Book of Mormon are powerful and true. That which Moroni and all the preceding Nephite prophets wrote is powerful in the same way that the testimony of the Apostle Paul is powerful:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
The spoken and the written word in mortal language is simply insufficient to convey the power and wisdom of God. All this reminds me of Joseph Smith’s plea:
Oh Lord when will the time come when Brothe[r] William thy servent and myself behold the day that we may stand together and gase upon Eternal wisdom engraven upon the hevens while the magesty of our God holdeth up the dark curtain <until> we may read the round of Eternity to the fullness and satisfaction of our immortal souls Oh Lord God deliver us in thy due time from the little narrow prison almost as it were totel darkness of paper pen and ink and a crooked broken scattered and imperfect language
Richard L. Bushman made a similar observation about Joseph Smith’s plea:
The words suggest that Joseph envisioned more than he could express and wanted language that was straight and whole rather than crooked and broken. He seemed to feel the same constraints as Moroni who said the Nephites stumbled “because of the placing of our words” (Ether 12:25, see also vv. 23–24). The revelation to the elders at the November 1831 conference when the question of Joseph’s language was raised said “his language you have known, and his imperfections you have known,” not denying Joseph’s imperfections in writing, but only rebuking the elders for looking upon them (D&C 67:5).
Because Moroni’s words, which were written in weakness, are so powerful, I am awestruck when Moroni compares his own weak but powerful words to those of the Brother of Jared:
thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. (Ether 12:24)
I am awestruck because it seems as though Moroni - who was awestruck, and overpowered, by the words of the Brother of Jared that he read in the record of Ether upon the golden plates of the Jaredites - stands in relation to the Brother of Jared, or Ether, as we now stand in relation to Moroni. Moroni studied and understood the rise and fall of the Jaredite civilization that preceded his own and marveled at the power of the written word upon the golden plates, and now we who study and understand the rise and fall of the Nephite civilization that preceded our own marvel at the written word upon another set of gold plates, Mormon’s gold plates. Therefore, if we already marvel at what Moroni considered weakness and awkwardness, how much more will we marvel at what Moroni described as “mighty,” even as mighty as the Lord? For this and many other reasons, I’m excited to begin a study of Moroni’s abridgment of the Jaredite record.
Moroni concludes his portion on his father’s record by describing in interesting detail the languages of the Nephites, how the record will be transmitted to future generations, why the Nephite prophets wrote, and a final prayer:
And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the areformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.
And if our plates had been asufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no bimperfection in our record.
But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared ameans for the interpretation thereof.
And these things are written that we may rid our garments of the blood of our abrethren, who have dwindled in unbelief.
And behold, these things which we have adesired concerning our brethren, yea, even their restoration to the knowledge of Christ, are according to the prayers of all the saints who have dwelt in the land.
And may the Lord Jesus Christ grant that their prayers may be answered according to their faith; and may God the Father remember the covenant which he hath made with the house of Israel; and may he bless them forever, through faith on the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. (Mormon 9:32-37)
As far as I understand, the weakness and imperfection in language that concerned Moroni pertained to the use of the reformed Egyptian characters that the Nephites had handed down and altered to adapt to the way that they spoke. Lehi brought with him this language and the language of the brass plates:
Yea, I make a record in the alanguage of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians. (1 Nephi 1:2)
If I understand correctly, there were Nephites who spoke and wrote both in Hebrew and reformed Egyptian, and both Hebrew and reformed Egyptian were altered according to the Nephite’s manner of speech. Thus there were standard Hebrew and Egyptian languages from which the Nephites drew for their verbal and written communication. If I understand correctly, the Nephites spoke an altered form of Hebrew, but they wrote in an altered form of reformed Egyptian, a language that, as Moroni lamented, had imperfections in it. Why wouldn’t there be imperfections in the Hebrew as well, especially if the Hebrew had also been altered by the Nephites? Could it be that Moroni wrote in this way because his people spoke in Hebrew, but then the prophet-historian-scribes wrote in reformed Egyptian, thus being forced to translate already from one language to another? Anyone who has translated anything from one language to another understands that so many things can get lost in translation. Could this also mean that the Brother of Jared (who prayed that his language would not be confounded) and his people spoke and wrote in a language that was purer and closer to the original Adamic tongue, and therefore mighty and powerful like the Lord Himself?
Whatever the case, the Lord provided the necessary ameans for the interpretation of the Jaredite and the Nephite records to the Prophet Joseph Smith, in order to restore the latter-day Lamanites, as well as the Jews and the Gentiles, to the knowledge of Christ, according to the prayers of all the saints. Heavenly Father is in the process of answering all the prayers of the ancient saints, according to their faith, and He remembers His covenant to the House of Israel. Finally, Moroni prayed that Heavenly Father would bless the House of Israel forever, through faith on the name of Jesus Christ, and I am certain that Heavenly Father heard and is now answering Moroni’s great prayer.