Category: Book of Mormon Page 6 of 20

Clayton M. Christensen, “Testimony: Clayton M. Christensen” Excerpt from ldsaliveinchrist.com

Clayton M. Christensen is a returned LDS missionary and is currently a Professor at Harvard Business School. This is a portion of an essay he wrote, Why I Belong, and Why I Believe.

I was born into a wonderful Mormon family, and as I grew up I found few reasons to disbelieve the teachings of the church. My parents had deep faith in its precepts, and their example and encouragement were powerful -I believed in my parents, and I knew that they believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was not until I was 24, however, that I came to know these things for myself.

I had been given a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England. After I had lived there for a few weeks, far away from the supportive environment in which I had been raised, it became clear that adhering to Mormonism in that environment was going to be very inconvenient. In fact, doing the sorts of things I described in the first part of this essay within the Mormon congregation in Oxford would preclude my participation in many of the things that had made Oxford such a rich experience for prior recipients of my scholarship. I decided, as a result, that the time had come for me to learn for certain and for myself whether Mormonism was true.

I had read the Book of Mormon before – seven times, to be exact. But in each of those instances I had read it by assignment – from my parents or a teacher – and my objective in reading it was to finish the book. This time, however, my objective was to find out if it was a true book or a fabrication.

Accordingly, I reserved the time from 11:00 until midnight, every night, to read the Book of Mormon next to the fireplace in my chilly room at the Queen’s College. I began each of those sessions by kneeling in verbal prayer. I told God, every night, that I was reading this to know if it was His truth. I told Him that I needed an answer to this question – because if it was not true I did not want to waste my time with this church and would search for something else. But if it was true, then I promised that I would devote my life to following its teachings, and to helping others do the same.

I then would sit in the chair and read a page in the Book of Mormon. I would stop at the bottom of the page and think about it. I would ask myself what the material on that page meant for the way I needed to conduct my life. I would then get on my knees and pray aloud again, asking the Lord to tell me if the book was true. I would then get back in the chair, turn the page, and repeat the process, for the remainder of the hour. I did this every evening.

After I had done this for several weeks, one evening in October, 1975, as I sat in the chair and opened the book following my prayer, I felt a marvelous spirit come into the room and envelop my body. I had never before felt such an intense feeling of peace and love. I started to cry, and did not want to stop. I knew then, from a source of understanding more powerful than anything I had ever felt in my life, that the book I was holding in my hands was true. It was hard to see through the tears. But as I opened it and began again to read, I saw in the words of the book a clarity and magnitude of God’s plan for us that I had never conceived before. The spirit stayed with me for that entire hour. And each night thereafter, as I prayed and then sat in that chair with the Book of Mormon, that same spirit returned. It changed my heart and my life forever.

It was as if I had been looking out as far as I could see toward the horizon, and had been quite satisfied that I could see everything that there was to see. When I undertook to read the Book of Mormon in that manner, however, I discovered that so much more beauty and truth about who we are and what God has in store for us, lies beyond that old horizon. I did not know what I did not know.

I love to go back to Oxford. As the beautiful, historic home of the world’s oldest university, the town is filled with students and tourists. To me, however, it is a sacred place. It is there that I learned that the fundamental message of the Book of Mormon is in fact true – that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is there that I learned that God is indeed my Father in Heaven. I am His son. He loves me, and even knows my name. And I learned that Joseph Smith, the man who translated the Book of Mormon and organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a prophet of God in the same sense that Peter and Moses were prophets. I love to return to Oxford to remember the beautiful, powerful spirit that came to my heart and conveyed these messages to me.

During my adult life I have been blessed to witness or participate in many miracles – events that the scriptures term “gifts of the Spirit.” I have healed the sick by the power of the God. I have spoken with the gift of tongues. I have been blessed to see visions of eternity; and events in my future that have been important for me to foresee, have been revealed to me. These truly have been gifts, and have been great blessings in my life. But when I assess the collective impact that they have had on my faith, my heart, and my motivation to follow Jesus Christ, they pale in significance and power to those evenings I spent with the Book of Mormon in Oxford.

John A. Tvedtnes, “The Book of Mormon Helps Us Understand the Bible” Excerpt from bookofmormonresearch.org

One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to lend support to the Bible. About four centuries after the coming of Jesus Christ to visit the Nephites in the New World, Mormon wrote, “this [the Book of Mormon] is written for the intent that ye may believe that [the Bible]; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also” (Mormon 7:9).

In this article, we shall examine some of the ways in which the Book of Mormon helps us to understand the Bible.

Jesus is the Son of God

The first way in which the Book of Mormon supports the Bible is in testifying that the Bible is correct in declaring that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Nephi, who had come from Jerusalem to the Americas six centuries before Christ, wrote that “according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (2 Nephi 25:19). More than four centuries later, one of Nephi’s descendants, a king named Benjamin, prophesied of the coming of the Savior: “And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary” (Mosiah 3:8). Alma, a prophet of the next generation, also declared that “the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God” (Alma 7:9-10). Four centuries after Christ came to teach the Nephites, Mormon, wrote, “Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God” (Mormon 7:5).

The Book of Mormon makes it clear that the prophecy of the servant of God in Isaiah 53 refers to Jesus Christ (see Mosiah 14-15). It also tells us that when Abraham was “obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac,” this was “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5).

Prophets Not mentioned in the Bible

The Book of Mormon prophet Helaman wrote that “all the holy prophets” of ancient times had testified of Christ to come (Helaman 8:16). He mentions the biblical prophets Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and mentions other prophets named Zenos, Zenock, Neum (Helaman 8:17-20). Several Bible passages mention prophets whose writings were lost in antiquity (1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22; 20:34; 26:22; 33:18-19). From the Book of Mormon, we learn that there were other prophets whose writings are no longer extant. This agrees with statements by some of the early Church Fathers of the first centuries after Christ, such as Eusebius, Augustine, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Justin Martyr, who sometimes quoted prophetic books that are no longer in our modern Bible.

Jesus’ “Other Sheep”

While at Jerusalem, Jesus told his disciples, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14). But, he declared, “other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). The Book of Mormon tells us that these other sheep were the Nephites, whose ancestors had come from Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ. When he appeared to the Nephites after his resurrection, Jesus told them, “ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (3 Nephi 15:21).

The Sermon on the Mount

One of Christ’s most well-known sermons, the sermon on the mount, is recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. According to the Book of Mormon, he delivered this same message to the Nephites in the New World, but with a few changes (see 3 Nephi chapters 12-14). These changes give us insights into the meaning of his teaching. One of these changes is found in the beatitudes. Matthew 5:6 has Christ telling his disciples, “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” The Book of Mormon version says “for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.”

After warnings about sexual temptation in Matthew 5:27-28, verses 29-30 contain enigmatic statements about cutting off one’s right eye or right hand if it offends. This may have been an idiomatic or symbolic expression that meant something to Jesus’ audience, but which we no longer understand. These expressions would probably have meant nothing to the Nephites, who lived across the ocean. So the Book of Mormon has Christ telling them, “Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things [temptations] to enter into your heart; for it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell” (3 Nephi 12:29-30). Thus, we learn that Christ was saying that we should resist sinful temptations.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Christ says not to concern oneself with food, clothing and shelter. This is strange counsel for mothers and fathers who have to care for not only themselves, but for their children. Was the Savior really saying that we should not go get a job and buy the necessities of life? Again, the Book of Mormon clarifies this situation by explaining that Jesus addressed these specific words to a select group of twelve disciples, whom he was sending out to preach the gospel (see 3 Nephi 13:25-34). Viewed in this light, it is likely that the words in the sixth chapter of Matthew were addressed only to the twelve apostles, not to all of Christ’s followers. It was while traveling in the service of God that the twelve were not to concern themselves about mundane matters, but to work to build up the kingdom of God.

Isaiah Texts

The Book of Mormon contains nearly 500 verses that are quoted from the biblical prophet Isaiah. About 70 of these are paraphrases. Of the remainder, half agree with the Bible reading and the other half vary from the Bible text. While some of these differences are insignificant, 234 of them improve our understanding of the Bible. Many of these are supported by different Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible (including the Dead Sea Scrolls) or by very early Bible translations, such as the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament produced in the second century B.C.

For example, Isaiah 2:16 contains the words “and upon all the ships of Tarshish,” while the Book of Mormon, when quoting this passage, reads, “and upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish” (2 Nephi 12:16). The additional line is not found in the Hebrew text of Isaiah. But the Septuagint reads, “and upon every ship of the sea” in place of “and upon all the ships of Tarshish.” The Book of Mormon preserves the reading of both the Hebrew and the Greek texts, which suggests that the Hebrew could have dropped one line while the Greek dropped a different line. The two lines together form a parallelism, which is a poetic feature found throughout the Bible and which is especially prominent in the writings of the prophet Isaiah.

When 2 Nephi 23:22 cites Isaiah 13:22, it adds the following phrase to the end of the verse: “For I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish.” Different versions give partial support to the Book of Mormon addition. The Septuagint adds, “quickly shall it be done, and shall not be delayed,” while one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsa) adds “more (still, yet).” It is possible that the standard Hebrew text dropped this verse ending by a process known as haplography. The portion added in the Book of Mormon passage would begin with the Hebrew word KY, “for,” which happens to be the initial word in the next verse (Isaiah 14:1 = 2 Nephi 24:1). An early Hebrew scribe evidently let his eye skip from the first occurrence of this word to the second and left out the entire passage, which was kept in the Book of Mormon version. Moreover, Isaiah 14:1 is not a logical successor to Isaiah 13:22 without the Book of Mormon addition, which introduces the subject of the Lord’s mercy toward Israel.

There are many other examples of such variants in the Isaiah text that are clarified by the quotes from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, but these will suffice to demonstrate that one ancient scriptural text can sometimes be used to help understand another.

Higher and Lesser Laws

To the Galatians, the apostle Paul wrote, “Wherefore then serveth the law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed [Christ] should come to whom the promise was made” (Galatians 3:19). This suggests that the law of Moses was superimposed atop something else the Israelites had received from God–presumably something that was part of a higher law. Because the ten commandments are authoritatively cited as the word of God in the Old and New Testaments, as well as the Book of Mormon, they must be part of the higher law that remained even under the covenant made at Sinai. They would therefore not be part of the lesser “handwriting of ordinances” of which Paul said that Christ “took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14).

Christ told the Nephites, “in me is the law of Moses fulfilled” (3 Nephi 9:17; see also 3 Nephi 12:18-19, 46; 15:4-5, 8). But he seems to have suggested that only the lesser portion of that law had been fulfilled when he said, “Behold, ye have the commandments before you, and the law is fulfilled” (3 Nephi 12:19). The Book of Mormon prophet Abinadi, while noting that salvation does not come by the law of Moses, indicated that it was, nonetheless, important to keep the commandments that were part of that law (Mosiah 12:31-33; 13:27-30; see also Alma 25:16).

In order to understand this subject, we must note that the law of Moses was comprised of three divisions, the commandments (sometimes called “law” or “testimonies”), the statutes (sometimes called “ordinances”), and the judgments. These same three divisions of the law are listed in the Book of Mormon, where the word “performances” sometimes is substituted for “judgments.” From some of the Book of Mormon passages (Alma 30:3; 2 Nephi 25:24-25, 30; 4 Nephi 1:12), we learn that it was the statutes and judgments (or ordinances and performances) that would be done away in Christ, while the commandments would remain as part of the higher law that Christ revealed during his ministry. Thus, the Book of Mormon explains which part of the law of Moses was added, as Paul says, because the Israelites sinned.

Conclusions

From the things we have discussed here, it can be seen that the Book of Mormon lends support to the Bible and helps us to understand some difficult passages in the Bible. We have looked at only a few of those passages in this brief article.

The Book of Mormon also makes the point that the Bible is not the only volume of scripture inspired by God. Through the prophet Nephi, the Lord spoke to us in these latter days: “Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written” (2 Nephi 29:10). The Book of Mormon is one of the other books that God has given us to help us understand his will.

Notes:

. For a thorough study of Jesus’ sermons in the Old and New Worlds, see John W. Welch, The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount (Salt Lake City: Deseret and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1990).

. For a book-length report, see John A. Tvedtnes, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon” (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies report No. TV?81, 1983). For a brief article on the subject, see John A. Tvedtnes, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon,” in Monte S. Nyman (ed.), Isaiah and the Prophets (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young Univ., in cooperation with Bookcraft, Inc., Salt Lake City, 1984), 164-177.

. In the Bible, see Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 13-14; 5:28; 6:20; 26:17; 28:45; 2 Kings 17:34, 37; 2 Chronicles 19:10; 29:19; 33:8; 34:31; Nehemiah 9:13-14; 10:30; Jeremiah 32:11.

.1 Nephi 17:22; 2 Nephi 5:10; 25:25, 30; Mosiah 6:6; Alma 8:17; 25:14-15; 31:9-10; 58:40; Helaman 3:20; 15:5; 4 Nephi 1:12.

John A. Tvedtnes, “The Fullness of the Gospel” Excerpt from bookofmormonresearch.org

John A. Tvedtnes

Has the fact that we have had the Book of Mormon with us for over a century and a half made it seem less significant to us today? Do we remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon? In the Bible we have the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word testament is the English rendering of a Greek word that can also be translated as “covenant.” Is this what the Lord meant when He called the Book of Mormon the “new covenant”? It is indeed another testament or witness of Jesus. This is one of the reasons why we have recently added the words “Another Testament of Jesus Christ” to the title of the Book of Mormon. – President Ezra Taft Benson, “The Book of Mormon-Keystone of Our Religion,” Ensign 16 (November 1986): 4

During the night of 21-22 September 1823, the Lord sent the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith to reveal the location of the ancient record known as the Book of Mormon. He told the young prophet that “the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it” (Joseph Smith History 1:34). Subsequent revelations and declarations confirmed that the Nephite record contained “the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ” or “the fulness of the everlasting gospel” (D&C 20:9; 27:5; 135:3).

Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been quick to point out that the Book of Mormon does not mention such key Mormon doctrines as baptism for the dead, eternal marriage, and exaltation, so it can’t contain the “fulness of the gospel.” If the term “gospel” meant all truth from God, as both Latter-day Saints and other Christians most often use it, that criticism would be valid. But the restored Church teaches that we do not possess all truth, which only God possesses. Were it otherwise, we would have no need of living prophets and no need to declare that “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” (Article of Faith 9).

Since it is impossible for us to possess all of God’s truth in mortality, we must look for another meaning for “fulness of the gospel” based not on how the term “gospel” is commonly used, but on how the Lord uses the term. In the scriptures restored or revealed to Joseph Smith, the term “gospel,” an old English word meaning “good news,” specifically refers to the atonement of Christ. This is the definition given in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 10:14; 15:13-14; 3 Nephi 27:13-21; Ether 4:18), the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 3:20; 13:1; 20:9; 27:5; 33:11-12; 39:5-6; 76:40-42; 84:26-27; 107:20; 135:3; 138:2-4, 57), and the Pearl of Great Price (Joseph Smith History 1:34; Articles of Faith 3-4).

D&C 93:51 uses the term “the gospel of salvation,” while Abraham 2:11 speaks of “the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal” (cf. D&C 128:5, 17). In Jacob 7:6, the gospel is defined as “the doctrine of Christ,” referring to the doctrine concerning Christ, rather than the totality of Christ’s teachings, since he had not yet been born when these words were uttered (cf. Mormon 3:21; D&C 76:82). Elsewhere, the Book of Mormon equates the “fulness of the gospel” with coming “to the knowledge of the true Messiah” (1 Nephi 10:14; 15:13-14; cf. 3 Nephi 20:30-31; D&C 19:27).

The Book of Mormon contains the most lucid and complete explanation of the atonement of Christ and therefore clearly qualifies as containing the fulness of the gospel. Of particular importance in explaining the atonement are chapters 2 and 9 of 2 Nephi, Mosiah 15, and chapters 34 and 42 of Alma.

According to 1 Nephi 13:24, the Bible in its pristine state also contained the fulness of the gospel. Cf. D&C 42:12.

John A. Tvedtnes, “The Book of Mormon and Other Ancient Documents” Excerpt from bookofmormonresearch.org

When the Book of Mormon was first published in English in 1830, it seemed rather an anomaly, despite its biblical tone.  No one had ever heard of ancient books being written on metallic plates and hidden in stone boxes.  Moreover, it claimed to have been originally written in a “reformed Egyptian” script by ancient Israelites.  Critics were quick to ridicule these ideas.  But all that changed in the mid-twentieth century.

Hidden Books

In 1945, several leather-bound volumes of Christian writings from the fifth century A.D. were found at Chenoboskion, Egypt, also known as Nag Hammadi.  Their contents included books purported composed by some of the early apostles.  Like the Book of Mormon, these books had been hidden away in the ground, buried in a large pottery jar.

Two years later, in 1947, a similar though larger set of ancient documents was found concealed in caves in the cliffs along the western shore of the Dead Sea.  Most were in rather fragmentary condition, but the ones that had been placed inside fired clay pots were relatively well-preserved.  In all, fragments of approximately 800 separate scrolls were found.  These Dead Sea Scrolls included multiple copies of all of the books of the Old Testament except Esther, along with many other religious texts that were venerated anciently by the Jews but had not been included in the Bible.  Most of the scrolls were written in the first century A.D., but some are from the first few centuries before Christ.

One of the largest of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a nearly complete copy of the biblical book of the prophet Isaiah.  Another long, though damaged, copy of this book was also found.  Both of these scrolls have minor differences from the Hebrew version of Isaiah from which our modern Bibles have been translated.  This is significant because the Book of Mormon, which quotes from at least 22 of the 66 chapters in Isaiah, also has some minor differences from the biblical Isaiah.  In some cases, one or more of the Dead Sea Scrolls versions of Isaiah agrees with the Book of Mormon version.

Gold Plates and Stone Boxes

One of the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a document inscribed on a copper plate that had been rolled up and hidden away.  But this is just one of many examples of ancient texts that, like the Book of Mormon, had been written on sheets of metal.

Since the 1930s, nearly a hundred ancient and medieval documents written on metal plates or leaves have been found in various parts of the world.  But the ones that interest us most are the metallic records from the ancient Near East, the original homeland of the Book of Mormon’s peoples.

Three copper tablets containing a temple inscription from ancient Adab and dating 2900-2425 B.C., were found in Iraq.  A copper plate with Sumerian writing from the same time period has also been found.  A small gold plate with an Akkadian inscription from the twenty-fifth century B.C. was found at Djokha Umma, Iraq, in 1894 and is in the Louvre in Paris, where several other inscribed metal plates are housed.  A bronze tablet with a fourteenth-century B.C. Ugaritic inscription was found in Lower Galilee.  Silver and lead plates with Hittite inscriptions were found in 1950 in the Beritz valley of Lebanon.  Six bronze tablets written in pseudo-hieroglyphic and dating to 2000-1800 B.C. were found by Maurice Dunand in the 1930s at the ancient Phoenician site of Byblos, in Lebanon.

Egyptian examples are also not lacking the treaty between Ramses II, king of Egypt, and the Hittite king Hatusilis, drafted in 1287 B.C., was written on silver plates.  A decree of king Ramses III (1198-1167 B.C.) was found written on silver and gold tablets.  Thin gold plates that appear to have remnants of hieroglyphic writing were found in Egypt in the tomb of king Menkhure, builder of the third pyramid at Giza (ca. 2800 B.C.).  A gold leaf with hieroglyphic writing from 2000-1788 B.C. was found at Lisht.  A set of thirteen metal plates from after the fourth century B.C. contain a chronicle written in Egyptian Demotic script, a type of reformed Egyptian.

The ancient Assyrians wrote on metallic plates, often used as dedicatory plaques for temples and palaces.  The Assyrian king Sargon II (722-705 B.C.) repeats throughout his annals that he kept records on plates of gold, silver, bronze, and lead.  In 1854, during excavations of his palace at Khorsabad, six small inscribed plates (gold, silver, bronze, tin, and lead, with one alabaster) were found in a stone box buried beneath the palace foundation.  Two of the plates and the box were lost during the sinking of a ship on the Tigris River in Iraq on May 23, 1855.  The four surviving plates, of gold, silver, bronze, and tin, were taken to France and are housed in the Louvre in Paris.

The storing of metallic records in stone boxes, first attested when Joseph Smith uncovered the plates of the Book of Mormon, is also known from ancient Persia, where a number of examples have been found.  In 1923 at Hamadan, Persia (now Iran), two small tablets, one silver and the other gold, were discovered.  They bore inscriptions from king Darius I (521-485 B.C.) telling about the erection of palaces in the city.  In 1938, two pairs of plates (one silver and one gold in each pair) were found in stone boxes placed in the foundation corners of Darius’s palace at Persepolis.  The plates are in the National Archaeological Museum, Tehran, Iran.

Some metallic records have also been discovered in Israel.  A small silver scroll written in Greek and Coptic and dating to about A.D. 400 was discovered in Bethany in 1968.  In 1980, archaeologists opened a seventh-century B.C. tomb adjacent to the Scottish Presbyterian church of St. Andrew in Jerusalem and discovered two small rolled-up strips of silver with a Hebrew inscription from the Bible (Numbers 6:24-26).

Reformed Egyptian

In 1829, as Joseph Smith was finishing his translation of the Book of Mormon, a French scholar named Jean-François Champollion was busy preparing the first dictionary and grammar of the Egyptian language, which were published after his death in 1832.  Until Champollion, no one had been able to translate ancient Egyptian texts since they fell into disuse in the fourth century A.D.  But the Book of Mormon, according to one of its writers, Moroni, was written using “reformed Egyptian” characters, though the Nephites also knew Hebrew (Mormon 9:32-34).  Another of its writers, Nephi, said he employed the “language of the Egyptians” to write his record (1 Nephi 1:2).

Egyptian hieroglyphs (Greek meaning “sacred symbols”) were designed to be carved into stone–a slow and tedious process that involved the use of more than 700 characters that were very accurate depictions of things found in real life, such as people, animals, geographical features, heavenly bodies, clothing, and everyday utensils.  A cursive script called hieratic (Greek for “sacred” or “priestly”) was devised to make it possible to write faster and became extensively used on papyrus.  Then, around 900 B.C., the Egyptians developed an even more cursive script we call demotic (Greek for “popular”), which, while based on the hieratic, bore little resemblance to the hieroglyphs.  So the Egyptians had already reformed their writing system twice before the earliest parts of the Book of Mormon were written around 600 B.C.

It may seem strange that the ancient Israelites who wrote the Book of Mormon should use an Egyptian writing system.  But there are precedents for this practice and we now know that several writing systems of the ancient Near East were borrowed from Egyptian.  Perhaps the most notable is the adoption, by the second century B.C., of some Egyptian hieroglyphs to form the alphabetic system used for the Meroitic language spoken anciently in Nubia (now in Sudan).  Meroitic also developed a “cursive” writing system that resembles Egyptian demotic.  Modified Egyptian hieroglyphic characters comprised the syllabic system used in writings (some of them on bronze plates) found during archaeological excavations of the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos.

Hebrew Texts Written in Egyptian Script

When Moroni wrote that his record was being written in reformed Egyptian, he also noted that they still used the Hebrew language (Mormon 9:32-34).  Similarly, his ancestor Nephi had made “a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians” (1 Nephi 1:2).  This suggests that the Book of Mormon may have been written in Hebrew but using Egyptian script.  Evidence for this kind of writing has been discovered in recent years.

For example, a number of northwest Semitic texts (related to Hebrew) are included in three Egyptian magical papyri from the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C., the London Magical Papyrus, the Harris Magical Papyrus, and Papyrus Anastasi I.  Another Egyptian document, Ostracon 25759, from the early eleventh century B.C., also has a Semitic text that reads like Hebrew but is written in Egyptian characters.

Papyrus Amherst 63, a document written in Egyptian demotic and dating to the second century B.C., was found in an earthen jar at Thebes, Egypt, during the second half of the nineteenth century.  Though the script is Egyptian, the underlying language is Aramaic, which is closely related to Hebrew.  Among the writings included in the religious text is a paganized version of Psalms 20:2-6.  Here, then, we have a Bible passage, in its Aramaic translation, written in late Egyptian characters.

In 1967, Israeli archaeologists discovered at the ancient site of Arad an ostracon from shortly before 600 B.C., the time of Lehi.  The text on the ostracon is written in a combination of Egyptian hieratic and Hebrew characters, but can be read entirely as Egyptian. Of the seventeen words in the text, ten are written in hieratic and seven in Hebrew.  This discovery suggests that when Lehi’s son Nephi spoke of writing in a language consisting of “the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians,” he may have used such a combination script.  Two more examples of combination Egyptian-Hebrew scripts from the same time period were discovered in the northern Sinai peninsula during the late 1970s.

Conclusions

Though ridiculed for his claims about the nature of the original record from which he translated the Book of Mormon (that most recognizeable of Mormon books), Joseph Smith’s story has found support during the last half of the twentieth century.  Not only did the Israelites and other ancient peoples bury sacred records, they sometimes placed them in protective containers such as clay pots or stone boxes.  And those records were sometimes written on metallic plates, and some of the Hebrew and other Semitic texts were written using Egyptian characters, just as the Book of Mormon.

Notes:

A book-length preliminary report, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon,” by John A. Tvedtnes, was published in 1983 by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS).  A briefer article by the same author, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon,” was published in in 1984 in Monte S. Nyman  (ed.), Isaiah and the Prophets (Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University and Bookcraft, 1984).  The English version of this article is available as a reprint from FARMS.  A Spanish translation appeared as “Variantes de Isaias en el Libro de Mormón,” in Josué Sánchez, El Libro de Mormon Ante la Critica (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1992).

Inscribed plates of gold, silver, copper, and lead have been found in such diverse places as Java (an Indonesian island), Thailand, India, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Morocco, and Korea.  A list of 62 such discoveries was compiled in the 1940s by Franklin S. Harris Jr. and published in several articles and books.

Robert K. Dellenbach, “The Translation Miracle of the Book of Mormon” Ensign, May 1995, 9

My dear brothers and sisters, do we realize the profound miracle that is the translation of the Book of Mormon? A miracle is “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “miracle”). Consistent with that definition, the translation of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith is indeed a modern-day miracle.

The Book of Mormon is presently in print in over eighty languages and is now being translated or prepared for publication in many, many more. Consider the Church’s current process of translating the Book of Mormon from English into another language. The Church contracts capable, experienced member translators who are fluent in English as well as their native tongue who possess integrity and high moral character so that the spirit of inspiration will guide their work. Just as in Joseph Smith’s day, the ability to translate holy writ today is a spiritual gift from God.

Unlike Joseph’s day, however, many of our modern translators utilize computers and word processors, lexicons and encyclopedias to help and guide them in their sacred assignment. The modern work is extensive, and each step must be critically analyzed by Church translation experts. Yet, even with the most competent member translators and advanced technology available, the entire process, from beginning to publication, requires approximately four years.

Now contrast the translation of the Book of Mormon by young Joseph Smith. Joseph was raised on a farm in upstate New York and was only twenty-four years of age at the time he completed his translation of this sacred record from reformed Egyptian to English.

He had little financially and was busy supporting his wife and family. Of necessity, he planted and harvested crops, chopped wood, hauled water, and cared for animals.

The conditions under which Joseph translated were less than ideal. His life was threatened and mobs tried to rob him of the plates, requiring him to hide the ancient records and often move them from place to place (see JS—H 1:60). Joseph had no telephone, no dictating equipment, fax, word processor, or copy machine—not even electric light.

Joseph had little formal education, perhaps no more than three years of elementary school. Prior to his translation Joseph had not enrolled in a university. There were no literary magazines or academic periodicals delivered to his doorstep. He never visited South America or the Middle East. He belonged to no professional societies, had performed no extensive research projects, nor did he have learned colleagues with whom to discuss the ancient text of the plates. He may have studied basic reading, writing, and arithmetic and perhaps a little American history. We know he read the Bible in English, but by the standards of the world, Joseph was neither a scholar nor a theologian, much less a professional translator of holy scriptures.

What skills did Joseph possess to aid in his translation? Oliver Cowdery, who was the principal scribe for the Book of Mormon, said of Joseph’s source of translating power that “the Prophet Joseph Smith … translated [the Book of Mormon] by the gift and power of God, by the [assistance or] means of the Urim and Thummim” (“Last Days of Oliver Cowdery,” Deseret News, 13 Apr. 1859, p. 48).

Typically a literary work undergoes extensive revisions and editions before a final, finely tuned draft is completed. For example, Abraham Lincoln rewrote his Gettysburg Address five different times, each version varying slightly from the other (see World Book Encyclopedia, 1992 ed., s.v. “Gettysburg Address”).

In preparing for this conference address, I had the glorious experience of quietly examining several pages of Joseph’s original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, which is safely protected in the Church archive. I was overwhelmed at the purity of the transcription, which had only a very few insignificant corrections, such as a misspelled word. Joseph’s original manuscript is so perfect it could only have come from one source—divine revelation.

On Joseph’s shoulders rested not only the translation of the Book of Mormon but also the restoration and reestablishment of the Church of Jesus Christ. Even as Joseph translated, he received many revelations and visitations from heavenly messengers who gave him additional important assignments, such as the restoration of the priesthood and the revelation on baptism (see JS—H 1:68–75). Joseph’s many responsibilities often interrupted the translation process, sometimes for several months. Yet, once Joseph was free to dedicate his entire effort to translation, the work surged forward and he translated eight to ten pages a day, completing the preponderance of the Book of Mormon translation in approximately sixty-three working days (see John W. Welch and Tim Rathbone, “The Translation of the Book of Mormon: Basic Historical Information,” Provo, Utah: F.A.R.M.S., 1986, p. 14).

Oliver, reflecting on this miraculous event, testified, “Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated … the history, or record, called ‘The book of Mormon’ ” (Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1834, pp. 14–16).

Joseph was the first person in over fourteen hundred years to read the words of the Savior as written by Nephi, Alma, Mormon, Moroni, and the other prophets of the Book of Mormon. His ability to translate was nothing short of a “marvelous work and a wonder” (2 Ne. 25:17).

Joseph’s original English translation, except for a few minor grammatical and textual emendations, remains the text that we use today and is the standard for all other language translations of the Book of Mormon throughout the world (see Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols., New York: Macmillan, 1992, s.v. “Book of Mormon manuscripts”). As Nephi of old prophesied, his “words shall [whisper] forth unto the ends of the earth, for a standard unto [his] people” (2 Ne. 29:2).

Could any one of us today produce such a work? Could a thousand of the world’s best theologians and scholars of ancient languages or antiquities write a similar book of such supernal, transcendent value?

No other person with such limited education and facility as Joseph has single-handedly translated in such a short period of time from ancient writings over five hundred pages of scriptural text. That translation now has seventy-three million books in distribution.

Joseph’s translation of this ancient, sacred scripture has withstood the scrutiny of many skeptics. The Book of Mormon stands as a miraculous work for the world to examine. This divine spark from heaven, over 165 years ago, has ignited a flame that is dawning a new day. No wonder “the Spirit of God like a fire is burning!” (Hymns, 1985, no. 2). All over the world people are seeking the witness of Jesus Christ as found in the Book of Mormon. They come from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. As was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, “The ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name” (D&C 122:1). And why are they seeking after the name of Joseph Smith? Because the Book of Mormon testifies of the divinity and atonement of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Because Joseph is the prophet of the Restoration.

With deep appreciation for the miracle that transpired through the translation of the Book of Mormon, we sing:

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!
Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.
Blessed to open the last dispensation. …
Millions shall know “Brother Joseph” again.
(Hymns, 1985, no. 27)

I testify that the translation miracle of the Book of Mormon clearly evidences that Joseph is a prophet of God, called to “lay the foundation of [Christ’s] church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30). The Book of Mormon is the “keystone of our religion” and will bring us “nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194). May we appreciate this miraculous translation, and may it be our desire to come to know and follow the Savior through his teachings in the Book of Mormon, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.