Ether 4:6-10
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapter 4
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Contents |
Questions
- Verse 7 seems to offer a challenge to modern readers, promising that we can obtain the same vision that the Brother of Jared saw, if we will exercise the same faith that he did. How can we exercise faith like the Brother of Jared?
Lexical notes
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Exegesis
Chapter overview
This chapter is a map for obtaining knowledge from heaven. Several keys are provided, along with specific prophesies, warnings and promises. In verse 6, Moroni is informed that the plates will go forth unto the Gentiles at some future day (when the gentiles have repented). The importance of the plates appears to stem not only from their intrinsic value, but we are later told in verse 17 that they are a sign that the work of the Father in the last days will have commenced, which work involves at its core the dispensing of almost unlimited revelation (see verses 13, 14, 16).
Verse 9 reminds us that the heavens are opened and shut at the word of the Lord. In other words, revelation comes and goes at the command of the Lord. When revelation is given, individually we can accept or reject it (verses 10 & 11). If we believe the revelation, the Lord promises manifestations of the spirit that will grant knowledge that what is said is true. A key for identifying manifestations from God is given in verse 12: "whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me." An additional key is given for obtaining knowledge. Verse 15 instructs us to "rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind. . ." If we do so, we are promised to receive "great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world" (verse 14). Among these great things is knowledge of the Father's covenant with the house of Israel (verse 15). We are also to have unfolded to us the revelations of John, which will be manifest "in very deed."
The revelations of the restoration are obvious evidence of the fulfillment of these promises, as are arguably the staggering advances in science and technology that have largely come during the same time period.
Note: Chapter 4 refers specifically to the sealed portion of the gold plates and not to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.
Verse 6
If verse 1 confirms that what the brother of Jared saw could not be had among Israel "until after Christ should show himself unto his people," and if verse 2 suggests that once Christ had come among the Nephites these things were commonly had, then the commandment of verse 3 to "hide [the plates] up again in the earth" must be understood as a consequence of the disappearance of the Nephites ("there is none save it be the Lamanites" Moroni explains in verse 3). However, Moroni states explicitly in verse 5 that he does more than "hide them up again in the earth," and it is only in the present verse that some ground is offered for this further action. If Moroni was further commanded to seal up a portion of the plates, and then to seal up the possibility of interpreting that portion, then, as this verse explains, it was because this portion of the plates was not for the eyes of the Gentiles. That the exclusion at work here is a question of nations and covenants deserves further attention.
A phrase from verse 2 emphasizes that this exclusion is a question of nations and covenants: the experience of the brother of Jared was to be released commonly "after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people." There is a subtle hint here that the experience was only to be shared with the covenant people of the Christ, and then only after He Himself had been in their midst (confirming them His people as King enthroned?). This verse offers a couple of stipulations that must be fulfilled before the Gentiles can have any access to what is recorded in the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon, but the next verse proceeds to offer further stipulations, and the situation becomes rather complex rather quickly. In the end, there seems to be some connection between this situation and what Christ tells the Nephites in 3 Ne 15:23: Jesus explains that "the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice," that, in fact, He "should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost." Without the very real visitation of the Son, one is not to have access to the sealed portion of the record. But this presents a very real difficulty for the Gentiles, who will "not at any time" have that experience: they can only receive these things by entering into the presence of the Lord by the same commanding faith as the brother of Jared. This realization grounds all the discussion that follows in this chapter.
Verse 7
Gentiles, Jaredites and the Brother of Jared. This verse, in the end, sets up a sort of equivalence between the "Gentiles" of verse 6 and the brother of Jared. This pairing is of some significance for the projected history of the Book of Mormon, since the Gentiles will have, according to the pairing, to do what the brother of Jared did to learn of the incredible revelations recorded in the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon (that is, they will also have to part the veil uninvited). As it turns out, the pairing is not exactly innovative, just good reading on Moroni's part. Perhaps one of the difficulties of reading the Book of Mormon is the task of trying to sort out where the Jaredites fit into the covenant history of Israel (the awkward phrasing and paragraphing of the title page of the Book of Mormon forces this question). Since the Jaredites left the Near East at the very time Abraham was wandering around in working out his covenant with God, they were not a part of the foundational covenant of Israel. Fascinating as their story is, they are not part of the covenantal history, as far as one can tell. But this pairing of the brother of Jared with the Gentiles makes quite clear that the Jaredites do have a place in the history of the covenant: they are Gentiles. The Hebrew term translated as "Gentile," gwy, first appears in the Hebrew Bible in the genealogical register that founds the story of the tower of Babel. The "Gentiles" are the many nations, specifically, that scatter as the project of the tower comes to an end, and the Jaredites are one of those nations. In the end, the Jaredites--the brother of Jared and his people--are Gentiles.
Hence, the pairing here is rather significant simply because it draws out a point all too easily missed in the course of the Book of Ether and in the stories told here and there of the Nephite encounters with Jaredites and Jaredite traditions (Nibley's two books on the Jaredites shed quite a lot of light on these Nephite encounters). But the most important thing to be learned in the pairing is perhaps the standing of the Gentiles before God: if "they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw," which is clarified as "the unfolding unto them of all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ." If the Gentiles are elsewhere in the Book of Mormon kept at some distance from the Lord (to be taught and included only by the Holy Ghost), then there is opened here the very real possibility of the Gentiles' full acceptance in the actual presence of God. And it comes down to having the same faith as the brother of Jared.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Up to this point in the chapter, the term Lord seems to refer to the Brother of Jared's vision and the commands that Moroni receives. In this verse, however, the later phrase "saith Jesus Christ" parallels the earlier phrase "saith the Lord." This is made more explicit in verse 8 where the phrase "Jesus Christ" is further clarified "for I am he who speaketh." The further description of Jesus Christ as "the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and of the earth" is picked up again in verses 9-12 where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are elaborated upon. The Godhead seems to be an important theme here for Moroni in describing the manifestation of Christ and the sealed aspect of the vision of the Brother of Jared. There may be a significant similarity here with Nephi's writing when he is discussing the the Godhead in relationship to baptism at the end of 2 Ne 31, but then is constrained from speaking more in 2 Ne 32:7.
Individual vs. community manifestation. In contrast to the Jews and the Nephites, Christ did not appear to the Jaredites as a people. The tete a tete nature of the Brother of Jared's vision may be part of what Moroni is referring to here in his admonition to "exercise faith . . . eve as the Brother of Jared did." That is, rather than waiting for a communal manifestation, Moroni may be advocating the Gentiles as individuals to exercise faith in Christ like the Brother of Jared did.
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