Ether 3:21-5:6
The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 3-5 > Verses 3:21-5:6
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Contents
Outline and brief summary
The relationship of verses 3:21-5:6 to the rest of chapters 3-5 is discussed at Ether 3-5. These verses can be outlined as follows:
• Knowledge and redemption available through Holy Ghost on conditions of faith, repentance, and baptism (3:21-5:6)
- • vision received of all mankind because of faith, instruction to seal it up until Christ's ministry, two stones (3:21-28)
- • vision disclosed to Nephites after Christ's ministry, then again sealed up because of unbelief, two stones (4:1-5)
- • Moroni commanded to say: (4:6-19)
- • vision will again be disclosed only when Gentiles exercise faith and repent (6-12)
- • come unto Christ to receive hidden knowledge, John's revelation is now unfolding (13-19)
- • the Lord will confirm the testimony of Three Witnesses who will see the Book of Mormon plates (5:1-6)
Detailed discussion
Verses 4:1-19
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 4:1
In Verse 1 the brother of Jared is commanded to write the things that he saw down; however, it is forbidden for these things to be revealed until after Christ resurrects and shows himself to his people. There seems to be some connection between the facts that 1) the words the brother of Jared writes down explain how he saw the body of Christ and 2) that it is forbidden for this information to be revealed until after Christ shows his body to his people. But, the verses don't make clear exactly what the connection is between these two points. Why couldn't the brother of Jared's experience be openly known before Christ shows himself to his people? Since no other explanation is given, it seems that answer is what is said in verse 9--that the Lord gives revelation to his people and withholds revelation when he wants.
Verse 4:6
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 4:7
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.
Verses 4:13-14
After the equivalence between the Gentiles and the brother of Jared, as worked out in verses 6-7, the structure of these two verses is somewhat surprising: the Israelites and the Gentiles seem to be equated in their relation to the "veil of unbelief" of verse 15. If the Gentiles and the brother of Jared are equivalent in that they can only come into the presence of God through the visitation of the Holy Ghost or through an incredibly superabundant faith that rends the veil, then it is not exactly clear why the Israelites are paired with the Gentiles here. What is most confusing, in the end, is that both the Gentiles and Israel are given the same three word command: "Come unto me." When spoken to the Gentiles, in verse 13, the command seems quite clearly to have reference to the approach as performed by the brother of Jared: the Gentiles are to come before the Lord in an absolutely humble faith, and just so they will be able to rend the veil and pass into the presence of the Lord to see everything. But when the same phrase is spoken to Israel, it is not clear how one should read it. The unquestionable identity with the invitation to the Gentiles suggests that it be read as a similar invitation: Israel is to come in the same humble faith and rend the veil as did the brother of Jared. At the same time, however, that Israel is here in question suggests otherwise, that the invitation is somehow misguided, misplaced, or worded oddly. Clearly, something more is at work here.
Perhaps a first possibility for unraveling this difficulty can be found by thinking the connection implied between the Gentiles and Israel: this is not the only place in the Book of Mormon where the Israelites and the Gentiles are understood to perform their work together before the Lord. In fact, once this pairing is described this way, a thousand passages in the Book of Mormon suddenly come to mind, all suggesting that the Gentiles and Israel are eventually to be combined, the Gentiles joined to Israel in a joint return to the presence of the Lord (the gathering, etc.). But a difficulty nonetheless remains, or rather, this interweaving of Gentiles and Israel does not quite seem to release the tension of the present passage. Throughout the Book of Mormon, the Gentiles are presented as being joined to Israel, the latter being bound, after all, by covenant to the Lord. In the present passage, however, it appears that the Gentiles are the ones with the faith and ability to approach ("come unto me" can only be the approach of the Gentiles/brother of Jared), and it appears as if Israel were attached to the Gentiles in their odd approach, rather than vice versa. There is, in other words, still an important tension between this passage and other Book of Mormon discussions of the Gentiles and Israel: elsewhere Israel seems privileged (through the covenant), but here the Gentiles seem privileged (through the brother of Jared faith/approach).
At the very least, this tension calls for a more careful reading of all Gentile/Israelite relations as worked out in the Book of Mormon.
Verses 4:16-19
Isaiah foresaw that a portion of the gold plates would be sealed (Isa 29:11-12). The sealed portion contains a recorded history of the world from the beginning to the end thereof (2 Ne 27:7). It contains the "very things that the Brother of Jarod saw" and according to Moroni never were greater things made manifest (Ether 4:4-5). Also in verse 16 Moroni describes that we will find the same general things that were given to us by the book of Revelation in the bible.
Questions for further thought and study
Verses 3:26-28
- When will we receive the full record of the Brother of Jared, including the account of his vision of all things from the beginning to the end?
Verse 4:7
- 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?
Verses 4:11-15
- How is Christ the light, life, and truth of this world?
Verse 4:16
- What does the phrase "when ye see these things" mean? To what does "these things" refer?
Verse 5:1
- What does Moroni mean when he says he is writing according to his memory? What is he remembering? Is he transcribing the record of Ether, or just retelling the story from memory?
Verse 5:2
- Why was it a privilege for Joseph Smith to let others see the plates?
Verse 5:3
- Was the power of God in the showing or the seeing?
Verse 5:4
- How powerful was the testimony of the three witnesses?
Footnotes
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