RS/MP Lesson 4, Part 1: “The Book of Mormon: Keystone of Our Religion” (Joseph Smith Manual)

Because I will myself be teaching this lesson, I’m going to do four posts on it, one on each section of the lesson. I apologize for the sheer length of the collected posts, but I do think there is enough here that deserves attention to make it worth the time for others to read, and I know I will be glad to have worked so carefully and at such length through all of these ideas.

The “From the Life of Joseph Smith” section for this lesson is a bit less helpful than some of the others have been (and will be, I hope). It does little more, in the end, than recount the most basic history of the time stretching from the first visit of Moroni to the translation of the lost 116 pages. It concludes with this unfortunate sentence: “This remarkable book, containing the fulness of the gospel, stands as a testimony of the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the prophetic mission of Joseph Smith.” Unfortunate: the statement is certainly true enough, but let us not assume (as we have, as a people, historically done) that the only purpose of the Book of Mormon is to bear witness of other things, that the Book of Mormon is merely or even primarily a sign. (Cf., on this point, my own—hopefully forthcoming—book.) The Book of Mormon, as I think the actual teachings of the Prophet in this lesson make abundantly clear, is far, far more than a sign of the truth of the restoration, is far, far more than the testable fruits of Joseph’s prophethood, is far, far more than a document aimed at establishing doctrinal orthodoxy, is far, far more than an insipid collection of gleanable insights about how I might be a little better at being a decent human being.

Of course, to get a sense for what the Book of Mormon is, it will be necessary to engage what Joseph has to say about it.

The Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God

Three brief retellings of the encounters with Moroni and/or the translation of the Book of Mormon text are followed by an explanation and full quotation of the title page of the Book of Mormon. Quite a bit can be read into the former, and I think that they are especially helpful in establishing the way the latter should be interpreted.

The first retelling is shot through with a kind of startling practicality: Moroni, quite straightforwardly “being dead and raised therefrom,” appears to Joseph, tells him “where they [the plates] were,” and provided “directions how to obtain them.” Without the least ceremony, Joseph follows this immediately with: “I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates; and thus came the Book of Mormon.” This almost too temporal, too practical, even too meaningless history appeals to no emotion, suggests no template for understanding, calls for no particular interpretation of the event. It is, so to speak, presented as a pure event. And this is, as noted in the text, so laid out in response to an unassuming question (one of a series published in the Elder’s Journal).

This contextless simplicity disappears in the second and third retellings. The second is from the famous Wentworth letter: Joseph is writing for an unbelieving audience that has perhaps heard a bit too much about the Church. The third is from a private letter to James Arlington Bennet, one of the more curious characters on the fringes of early Mormon history: Joseph is writing to a remarkably intelligent and equally witty opportunist who recognizes an undeniable appeal in Mormonism and an equally undeniable charisma in Joseph.

In the Wentworth letter, Joseph describes Moroni as first telling Joseph all about the ancient inhabitants of America before mentioning anything about the plates: Joseph receives a history lesson (“Here’s who I, Moroni, am”) and then is told that there is a text that tells the full story. There is a hint here that Joseph understood the plates to be a kind of confirming sign of the truth of the messenger who had come to him: Moroni was providing Joseph with a token, which Joseph confirmed by climbing the hill and uncovering the plates. The almost crassly physical description of the plates that follows only strengthens this reading: it was the reality of the plates that seems to have struck Joseph as so important. What begins to emerge, then, with this second retelling of the whole experience is that the plates mark a relationship between Joseph and Moroni, that they are bound up with their encounter in an important way.

In the letter to Bennet, Joseph presents the event (the “wonderful event” as he says it) of translation as a brave, though lonely, stand against the whole world: “I stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries, with a new revelation.” It would be rich indeed to look carefully at how this unapologetic way of putting things fits into the strange relationship between Joseph and Bennet, but I will mention only this about it for now: Joseph tucks Moroni behind himself here. That is, what was before a full-blown relationship, mediated by the text that passes from angelic to human hands, is now regarded from an entirely earthly perspective: Joseph claims his subjectivity over against the ignorance and wisdom of the world. And yet Moroni is perhaps not so obviously obscured in this third retelling: Joseph stands before the world “with a new revelation,” having been visited, that is, by an angel.

Weaving the three of these together, the manual presents a very interesting story. Joseph’s encounter with Moroni was real enough, and it was confirmed by an equally real and bluntly physical token. Joseph was indeed a newly called prophet, one who had communed with angels, etc., and the book was the evidence of it. Now, lest I be misunderstood here: I am not suggesting that the book can be subtracted from the situation, that it is merely the evidence. There is more to the story here, and that more deserves some thought.

Joseph seems, especially in the Wentworth letter, to have taken the existence of the plates as evidence of the truth of the messenger encountered. But there is a world of difference between the plates as evidence of Moroni’s being a true messenger and the Book of Mormon as evidence of Joseph’s prophetic calling: the plates were evidence not because Moroni could tell Joseph something about the physical world that turned out to be true (like a spirit letting someone know where a treasure is), but because the actual content of the text on the plates explores, explains, and details the meaning of what Moroni had come to Joseph to explain. That is, the Wentworth letter’s ordering of things should not be passed over too quickly: Moroni came to Joseph on behalf of his own people, came to go about starting the work of restoring the Nephites and Lamanites according to the promises that were made. Latter-day Saints are of course familiar with the list of scriptures Moroni quoted to Joseph from the Old Testament: Moroni came to call Joseph to the work of bringing about the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, and he came as a personal messenger on behalf of a very particular remnant of the Abrahamic peoples. The encounter was primarily a call, and the text—physical; yes, physical—is what articulates and explains the meaning of that call: the Book of Mormon fleshes out the meaning of this encounter (which is precisely what 1 Nephi prophesies: it is “the covenants” of the Lord that are taken from the “book of the Lamb of God,” not doctrines or ideas).

The full quotation of the title page, which closes this first section of the lesson, bears this out marvelously, especially since it follows specific testimony from Joseph that the title page was written as the last page of the Book of Mormon, and is an actual part of the ancient document. Two aspects of the title page in particular deserve attention.

First, it is worth noticing how much of a focus there is there on the Abrahamic covenant. From the very first line, the Book of Mormon is written primarily to “the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel.” Later on, when the author (presumably Moroni) gets down to dealing with the actual “purposes” of the text, he makes it as clear as can be that the primary purpose of the text is wrapped up in the Abrahamic covenant: “Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever….” This is the first and apparently primary purpose of the Book of Mormon. It is significant that Moroni (?) only then adds with the insertion of a careful “and also”: “And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ….” Though we tend to move immediately to this second(ary) purpose of the Book of Mormon, the explicit intention of the text is to fulfill the work of the Abrahamic covenant. (Now, of course that can only be done through Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon teaches that more clearly than anything else, but it is too easy for us, if we begin with the Christological theme to ignore the absolutely vital theme of the covenant. In other words, don’t get me wrong: I know that Christ is central to the Book of Mormon. But I do nonetheless think that we have entirely misunderstood the Book of Mormon if we don’t see how Christ’s revelatory and atoning work is understood in the Book of Mormon to be a kind of means to the covenant end: there is far, far more to the restored gospel than a merely personal influence of Christ’s love. And that absolutely must not be missed.)

Second, it is interesting to see how Moroni (who, I am assuming, wrote the title page) treated his own relationship to the Book of Mormon in the title page. It is interesting that he does not, for instance, attribute any of the text to himself: it is “An account written by the hand of Mormon,” with no mention, so far as authorship is concerned, of Moroni. This is significant, moreover, because Mormon himself universally refers to his project as the “book of Nephi” or an abridgement of the “plates of Nephi.” It seems to be Moroni who gave the whole project the title: “The Book of Mormon.” Of course, Moroni does work himself into the two paragraphs that follow, but the way he does so is very interesting. It should first be noticed that he comes into the story only when there is mention of the latter-day emergence of the book: “To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof—Sealed by the hand of Moroni….” Moroni seems to see his relationship to the book as primarily one of the last days, not of his own time. Morover, the passage in which he mentions himself can be read as a brief chiasm:

To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof
Sealed by the hand of Moroni
and hid up unto the Lord
to come forth in due time
by way of the Gentile
The interpretation thereof by the gift of God

This chiasm sets nicely in parallel: Moroni and “the Gentile,” clearly a reference to Joseph Smith (per the theme that runs throughout the Book of Mormon). Wrapped up in the center of this summary introduction to the Book of Mormon is a curious relationship between Moroni and Joseph, one that would unfold only in the last days, between the one who hides up and the one who brings forth. This confirms, interestingly, the relationship Joseph highlights between himself and Moroni: the plates and their transfer/translation are entirely intertwined with Moroni’s coming as a messenger from his people to ensure the fulfillment of the covenants made to his people.

Perhaps we should be reading Joseph’s reference to Moroni’s “keys” in D&C 27:5 a bit more seriously? What does it mean to hold the keys of a text? And what do texts have to do with the priesthood? Etc., etc., etc.