Why Faith in Christ Is More Important than Unlocking the Sealed Portion of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon Notes - Friday, May 10, 2024, Ether 4 (Part 2)
Valentin Arts’ article “A Third Jaredite Record: The Sealed Portion of the Gold Plates” is very thoughtful and good. It corrects some of my ideas about the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon, things that I missed, and there are other things with which I disagree or that are debatable. His article can help us to read the Book of Ether more carefully and to understand it better.
One of the most important insights that I gathered from Arts’ article is that the record of Ether on the twenty-four gold plates contained some of the story of the brother of Jared, but the history of how the twenty-four plates were found is much different from the history of the record of the brother of Jared and the interpreters that were sealed up with it. Furthermore, the it seems that the brother of Jared wrote on at least two separate occasions regarding two separate (but related) things, one of which was to remain sealed, and the other of which was public. Arts’ insight springs from the same source that I considered earlier pertaining to the way in which the Lord’s ministry among the Nephites related to the Lord’s ministry to the brother of Jared. There is much yet to be revealed about the Lord’s ministry on both occasions:
Moroni informs us that the Lord ministered to the brother of Jared as he ministered to the Nephites (see Ether 3:18). The verb to minister means “to serve or to supply with” and seems to connote more than just conversing or preaching. Moroni does not spell out the exact manner in which the Lord ministered to the brother of Jared, but he does provide us with some clues. Moroni draws a parallel with the ministering of the Lord among the Nephites. We know from the book of 3 Nephi that Jesus taught the people, healed them, and administered ordinances to them such as the sacrament and ordination. Thus we may infer that the Lord also administered ordinances to the brother of Jared, some of which were sacred and not to be revealed.
One thing that Arts noticed that escaped my attention at first pertains to when the brother of Jared was commanded to write what he wrote:
The brother of Jared was not to divulge the things he had “seen and heard.” He was further commanded to treasure up the things that he had learned. Then he was once more commanded to “show” his knowledge to no one. The word show in this verse deserves our attention because it must refer to a particular kind of knowledge, namely the kind that can be shown or demonstrated visually. This commandment might refer to the record of the Lord’s ministering to the brother of Jared, which was to remain hidden or sealed; but we are also informed in the next verse that he was not allowed to write “these things” until he would come unto the Lord, or, in other words, at the end of his life. During his lifetime, the brother of Jared was therefore not able to show in written form the things he had seen and heard. He had to remember it all. Hence, the Lord stresses that he treasure up the things that he had heard and seen. If the knowledge that the Savior was referring to consisted of sacred ordinances, it was indeed important for him to remember it, since he could not be reminded of any sacred words or signs by anyone else. Such ordinances were to be performed only after the resurrection of Christ, including those for departed spirits. This view makes sense of the Lord’s commandment to the brother of Jared not to show the things he had both heard and seen and to delay making a record of them.
Arts further explains his reasoning in a footnote:
That the expression “when ye shall come to me” can be interpreted as “at the end of your life” is supported by other students of the Book of Mormon. See, for example, Joseph Fielding McConkie, Robert L. Millet, and Brent L. Top, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987–92), 4:279. 2.
There is a pattern of prophets who write very important and sacred things at the end of their lives, and the greatest of all these records, that of the brother of Jared, remains sealed for a time because of iniquity and lack of faith.
But the Lord also commanded the brother of Jared to write immediately after his experience. We need to look more closely and compare and contrast the Lord’s commandments to the brother of Jared to write:
And it came to pass that the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt not suffer these things which ye have seen and heard to go forth unto the world, until the atime cometh that I shall glorify my name in the flesh; wherefore, ye shall btreasure up the things which ye have seen and heard, and show it to no man.
And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a alanguage that they cannot be read.
And behold, these atwo stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write.
For behold, the alanguage which ye shall write I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write. (Ether 3:21-24)
and
And the Lord said unto him: Write these things and aseal them up; and I will show them in mine own due time unto the children of men. (Ether 3:27)
and
And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the amount from the presence of the Lord, and bwrite the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men cuntil after that he should be lifted up upon the cross; and for this cause did king Mosiah keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people. (Ether 4:1)
What did the Lord command the brother of Jared to treasure up until the end of his life, and what did the Lord command the brother of Jared to write immediately? If I follow Arts’ argument correctly, he considers that the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to treasure up sacred ordinances and covenants that the Lord revealed as He ministered to the brother of Jared. These sacred ordinances and covenants may be among the things that the Lord also revealed to the Nephites as He ministered to them at the Temple. After ministering to the brother of Jared and revealing things to treasure up until the end of his life, the Lord then revealed a great, panoramic vision to the brother of Jared:
And when the Lord had said these words, he ashowed unto the brother of Jared ball the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he cwithheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth.
For he had said unto him in times before, that aif he would bbelieve in him that he could show unto him call things—it should be shown unto him; therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things. (Ether 3:25-26)
The Lord also commanded the brother of Jared to write the things of this vision and seal them up. However, it appears that the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to write the things of his great, panoramic vision immediately after descending from the mountain while everything was still fresh in his memory. Therefore, as I understand the sequence of events, the brother of Jared scaled Mount Shelem with the sixteen small, white and clear as glass stones that he melted out of a rock, prayed, saw the finger of the Lord touch the stones one by one, saw the Lord’s Spirit body, received the ministering and the ordinances and covenants of the Lord, received a great, panoramic vision of all people and all things, descended from the mountain, recorded the great, panoramic vision of all people and things and sealed them up with the interpreters, voyaged to the Promised Land, raised up the greatest nation on earth, and then at the end of his life, recorded the things that he had treasured up - the ordinances and covenants and ministering of the Lord and sealed them up with the other things that he had already written before voyaging to the Promised Land.
Why would the Lord command the brother of Jared to write some things immediately, and to treasure up other things until the end of his life? It makes sense that the Lord kept some things sealed until after He had completed His earthly mission and until after He had shown Himself to His people, both in the Old World and in the New World. There are certain things that the Lord revealed only after having revealed Himself in His Spirit Body to the brother of Jared, and therefore it makes sense that such things should be kept until after the Lord manifested Himself to His people. As I understand it, both the ministering of the Lord and the great, panoramic vision that followed the Lord’s ministry to the brother of Jared were written and sealed up at different times, but then they were kept and revealed to the Nephites after the Lord manifested Himself unto them. Arts observes:
From Ether 4:1–2 it is apparent that the sealed record was translated after Christ showed himself to the Nephites. In all probability it was the disciple Nephi, the presiding high priest, who translated this extensive record with the aid of the Urim and Thummim. Nephi already held the sealed record and the interpreters, but he could not start the translation until after Christ explicitly commanded him to do so. Nephi probably did not begin to translate the vision until after Jesus left the Nephites, because it would have taken quite some time to translate such a long record. In any event, during his ministry among the Nephites, the Lord revealed many things that were contained in the sealed record. For at one point
he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory—yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the heavens and the earth should pass away; And even unto the great and last day, when all people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall stand before God, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. (3 Nephi 26:3–4)
These verses have much in common with the report of Jesus’ ministry to the brother of Jared, who was also shown all things (see Ether 3:26; 12:21) “even unto the ends of the earth” (Ether 3:25; see 2 Nephi 27:10).
Such language clarifies in part Moroni’s declaration that “he [Christ] ministered unto him [the brother of Jared] even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man might know that he was God” (Ether 3:18). Thus the Lord not only administered ordinances to both the brother of Jared and the Nephites, but he also prophesied to both concerning the history of mankind to the end of the earth.
In this light, after Nephi had recorded the teachings of the resurrected Savior and had translated the sealed record, the Savior’s teachings in their virtual entirety were in written form among the Nephites. Knowing this throws more light on the awful fate of the Nephites. In the decades leading up to their annihilation, it seems evident that many had sinned against the greater light that had come from the Lord.
I wonder, however, if Nephi was the first to translate the sealed record of the brother of Jared. We know that King Mosiah translated the engravings upon the large stone and the twenty-four gold plates that were found after that, each of which gave the Nephites knowledge of the Jaredites. We also know that the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to seal up the record until after He, the Lord, had manifested Himself to His people. But did King Mosiah, his son King Benjamin, and his son, King Mosiah II know of the Lord’s commandment that the sealed record of the brother of Jared must remain sealed until after the Lord’s coming? Probably. But I wonder because of the way that this verse is worded:
And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the amount from the presence of the Lord, and bwrite the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men cuntil after that he should be lifted up upon the cross; and for this cause did king Mosiah keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people. (Ether 4:1)
Arts explains how king Mosiah may have received the sealed record of the brother of Jared and the interpreters before translating the inscriptions on the large stone or the twenty-four gold plates. In his old age, Ether may have even delivered the sealed record and the interpreters to King Mosiah. If so, Ether may have taught King Mosiah about the sealed record. If King Mosiah received the sealed recored and the interpreters in another way, from an angel or perhaps by following the Liahona to a sacred depository, he may have also translated the record by means of the interpreters and kept that translation sacred until the Lord appeared to the Nephites. I don’t know. Whatever the case, Arts clarifies who first received the sealed record of the brother of Jared and the interpreters after Ether (I’m also assuming that Ether received them as they were handed down from the brother of Jared from prophet to prophet and from generation to generation):
The printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon reads “Benjamin” instead of “Mosiah” in Ether 4:1: “for this cause did king Mosiah keep them.” Critics have assumed that the change from the original name Benjamin to the current name Mosiah provides evidence that Joseph Smith wrote the book himself, since it is an obvious anachronism to refer to King Benjamin when we are also told that the 24 plates were not brought to Zarahemla until the days of his son Mosiah. Although most Latter-day Saints attach little weight to the change, it is generally accepted that it would indeed be an anachronism if we were still to read “Benjamin” in this verse. This change from the original translation is one of the very few of a few thousand changes that really can affect the meaning of what is said. If the Mosiah of Ether 4:1 was Mosiah the younger, the original reference to Benjamin would be an anachronism and thus be a “mistake of man,” as Moroni calls such an error on the title page. In fact, this change has actually led to serious misunderstanding because we almost automatically assume that Mosiah the younger is meant. However, the change appears to be an improvement rather than a correction, for it seems that not Mosiah the younger but his grandfather Mosiah the elder is meant, which leaves the original reading of “Benjamin” perfectly correct. This is because, if King Benjamin did keep back the records of the vision, “that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people” (Ether 4:1), the record could not possibly have been written on the 24 plates, which were only later handed over to his son Mosiah.
I thought that Joseph Smith originally recorded “Mosiah” referring to Mosiah I, and then someone else changed the name to “Benjamin” because he thought it referred to Mosiah II, and then it was changed back to Mosiah. I don’t know. Maybe someone else can explain what happened. The important thing is that King Mosiah obtained the sealed record of the brother of Jared and the interpreters, and that his son Benjamin, and Benjamin’s son Mosiah also had them and kept them that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show Himself unto His people. I thought that King Mosiah, either the first or the second, might have translated the Book of the Brother of Jared and kept the translation sacred and hidden because we know that King Mosiah II used the interpreters to translate the inscriptions on the large stone as well as the record on the twenty-four plates of gold. But it also seems more likely that, as Arts argues, the Lord prohibited the translation of the sealed record until after His appearance to the Nephites, and that the Prophet Nephi translated the record after the Lord’s appearance to the Nephites.
I agree with Arts that the Nephites received the translation of the brother of Jared’s record because of the next verse in the Book of Ether:
And after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should be made manifest. (Ether 4:2)
But I still wonder if Moroni used that translation for the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon, or if Moroni translated the record of the brother of Jared himself using the interpreters. I wonder about this because it seems clear that Moroni interacted directly with the Jaredite language and not just with the translations of previous prophets.
It seems possible to me that prophets from the time of King Mosiah I knew of the contents of the record of the brother of Jared without revealing them unto the world until after Christ came. But it is probably more likely that the record was kept sealed just as the Lord had commanded.
I find it significant that even though the Nephites obtained the full revelation of the brother of Jared after the Lord’s ministry among them, they still dwindled in unbelief and were destroyed. Thus faith in Jesus Christ is paramount and even more important than the miracles that are manifested through faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord revealed great things to the brother of Jared because of his faith and integrity. The brother of Jared grew strong in his faith after his faith had been thoroughly tested and proven. The brother of Jared’s faith was durable, even permanent, and it only became perfect knowledge after the Lord knew how permanent and durable it was. The Nephites were not so lucky because their faith was strong for a while, but then dwindled even after receiving the great revelations from the record of the brother of Jared. Thus it is clear that it is more important for us to build strong, durable, and permanent faith in Jesus Christ than it is for us to receive the translation of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon, even though the latter will inevitably follow the former in the due time of the Lord.
Moroni had both. Moroni’s faith in Christ was strong, and he also obtained knowledge of the Lord through direct ministry and the revelations to the brother of Jared:
Behold, I have written upon these plates the avery things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were bgreater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared. (Ether 4:4)
To what do “these plates” refer in this verse? As I read this verse, it seems that Moroni refers to the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon. It also seems to me that Moroni translated directly from the brother of Jared’s record using the interpreters before he, Moroni, abridged the Book of Ether that we are now studying. And I’m supposed to believe that an uneducated farm boy in his early twenties came up with all of this in a matter of a few months? Right.
If Moroni translated the brother of Jared’s record before he abridged the twenty-four gold plates of Ether, or even if Moroni used a translation of the brother of Jared’s record (Nephi’s or Mosiah’s or that of another prophet) for his own record before his work of abridgment, then Moroni’s abridgment of the twenty-four gold plates of Ether is saturated with knowledge of the Jaredites beyond what was contained in the twenty-four gold plates of Ether. Moroni probably had the translation of Coriantumr’s inscriptions upon the large stone as well, or even the large stone itself.
Before dwindling in unbelief, the Nephites had great knowledge of the Jaredite civilization that preceded their own. There was also considerable overlap between the end of the Jaredite civilization and the beginning of the Nephite civilization. One lesson that we can glean from this is that even with the warnings from the record of the Jaredites, the Nephites dwindled in unbelief and were destroyed. Therefore, our possession of the Book of Mormon is similar to the Nephites possession of the Jaredite records. As great as it is, the Book of Mormon is no guarantee against dwindling in unbelief and being destroyed. If the Nephites knew of even greater things from the record of the brother of Jared, and they still dwindled in unbelief and were destroyed, then even after the record of the brother of Jared is revealed again to us it is no guarantee against dwindling in unbelief and destruction. In other words, it matters more what we do with the understanding that we are given - through the Book of Mormon and through the record of the brother of Jared when it is revealed - than what we know:
And your aminds in times past have been bdarkened because of cunbelief, and because you have treated dlightly the things you have received—
Which avanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.
And this condemnation resteth upon the children of aZion, even all.
And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new acovenant, even the bBook of Mormon and the cformer commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to ddo according to that which I have written—
That they may bring forth afruit meet for their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a bscourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion. (D&C 84:54-58)
Moroni wrote the very things that the brother of Jared saw and he sealed them up with the interpreters. Moroni also wrote this abridgment of the Book of Ether, revealing only a small portion of what he knew from that book and about the Jaredites. When will the greater knowledge come forth?
For the Lord said unto me: They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord.
And in that day that they shall exercise afaith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become bsanctified in me, then will I cmanifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my drevelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eFather of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are. (Ether 4:6-7)
If we want to know what Moroni, Ether, and the Brother of Jared knew, then the path to that knowledge is clear:
repentance
becoming clean before the Lord
exercising faith in Christ
becoming sanctified in Christ
Now this aMoses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to bsanctify his people that they might cbehold the face of God; (D&C 84:23)
Sadly, there are many Gentiles who reject or refuse to sincerely read and study the Book of Mormon. There are even too many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have treated dlightly the things they have received. Such avanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation and make it impossible for the Lord to reveal more. This is the Lord’s warning:
And he that will acontend against the word of the Lord, let him be accursed; and he that shall bdeny these things, let him be accursed; for unto them will I show cno greater things, saith Jesus Christ; for I am he who speaketh.
And at my command the heavens are opened and are ashut; and at my word the bearth shall shake; and at my command the inhabitants thereof shall pass away, even so as by fire.
And he that believeth not my words believeth not my disciples; and if it so be that I do not speak, judge ye; for ye shall know that it is I that speaketh, at the alast day. (Ether 4:8-10)