Outlines of Ecclesiastical History

by B. H. Roberts

Mormon, when abridging these plates of Nephi, gave to each particular division of his abridgment the name of the book from which he had taken his account of the events recorded—hence the Books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman and III and IV Nephi in his abridgment. He also, in some instances, at least, followed the sub-divisions we have alluded to, hence we have the Record of Zeniff within the Book of Mosiah (page 181, N. E.); the account of the church founded by the first Alma (page 213); and the account of the missionary expeditions of the sons of Mosiah to the Lamanites within the Book of Alma (page 283.)

2. Complexity of the Literary Structure of the Book.—Again we caution the student to remember that the Book of Mormon is, for the most part, an abridgment from the "larger plates" of Nephi; but it is quite evident that Mormon frequently came to passages upon the plates of Nephi which pleased him so well that he transcribed them verbatim upon the plates containing his abridgment. An example of this will be found beginning on page 163, in the second line of the ninth paragraph, and ending with page 169—the words of King Benjamin to his people. The words of King Benjamin are also renewed on page 170, in the second line of the fourth paragraph, and continue to the close of the chapter. There are many such passages throughout Mormon's abridgment.

In addition to this, Mormon frequently introduces remarks of his own by way of comment, warning, prophecy or admonition, and since there is nothing in the text, neither quotation marks nor a change of type, to indicate where these comments, or what we might call annotations, begin or end, they are liable to confuse the reader—a difficulty that we hope will be obviated by this caution. So much for Mormon's abridgment. Now to consider the part of the work done by his son, Moroni. This is from page 563 to the end of the volume. He closes up the record of his father, Mormon, and then gives us an abridgment of the twenty-four plates of Ether, which were found in North America by the people of Limhi, in the second century B. C., and then concludes his work with notes on the manner of ordaining priests and teachers, administering the sacrament of the Lord's supper, baptism, spiritual gifts, together with a sermon and some of his father's letters. In his abridgment of the record of the Jaredites, the peculiarity of mixing up his comments, admonitions and prophecies with his narrative, is even more marked than in the abridgment of Mormon, therefore the reader will need to be doubly on his guard.

3. How the "Smaller Plates" of Nephi came to be attached to Mormon's Abridgment.—We have already said that the first 157 pages of the Book of Mormon were not a part of Mormon's abridgment. Those pages are a verbatim translation of the "smaller plates" of Nephi, and became connected with Mormon's abridgment in this manner: Mormon had abridged the "larger plates" of Nephi as far as the reign of King Benjamin, and in searching through the records which had been delivered to him, he found the "smaller plates" of Nephi. They contained a brief history of events connected with the departure of Lehi and his colony from Jerusalem to their landing in America, and thence down to the reign of this King Benjamin—covering a period of about 400 years. These plates were made by Nephi, that upon them might be engraven an account of the ministry of the servants of God, among his people, together with their prophecies and teachings. They contain, in other words, an ecclesiastical history of the Nephites, while the "larger plates" of Nephi contained a political or secular history of the same people. (I Nephi ix; xix: 1-5.)

Mormon was particularly well pleased with the contents of these "smaller plates" of Nephi, because upon them had been engraven so many prophecies concerning the coming and mission of the Messiah; and instead of condensing the history recorded on them into an abridgment, he took the plates themselves and attached them to the abridgment of Nephi's "larger plates." "And I do this for a wise purpose," says Mormon; "for thus it whispereth me according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me." (Words of Mormon, page 159 N. E.) Nephi also, in speaking of these "smaller plates," says, "the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him; which purpose I know not." (I Nephi ix:5.)

4. The Wise Purpose.—By Mormon attaching these "smaller plates" of Nephi to his own abridgment of Nephi's "larger plates," it will be observed there was a double line of history of the Nephites for about 400 years, and the wisdom of this arrangement is seen in the following: When Joseph Smith had translated the first part of Mormon's abridgment—amounting to 116 pages of manuscript, he listened to the importunities of Martin Harris, who was giving him some assistance in the work of translating, and who desired to show that portion of the work to his friends. The result was the manuscript was stolen from Harris; the records were taken from Joseph by the angel, and for a season he lost his power to translate. After a time, however, he was permitted to go on with the work, but the Lord made it known to him that it was the design of those into whose hands the manuscript had fallen to wait until he had translated that part again, and then by changing the manuscript in their possession, would bring it forth and claim that he could not translate the same record twice alike; and thus they would seek to overthrow the work of God.

But the heavenly messenger commanded Joseph Smith not to translate again the part he had already translated, but instead thereof he should translate the "smaller plates" of Nephi, and that account was to take the place of Mormon's abridgment up to the latter days of the reign of King Benjamin. (Doc. and Cov., Sec. 10.) Thus it is that we have the "Words of Mormon," beginning on page 158, explaining how the "smaller plates" of Nephi came into his possession and attached to the plates containing the record he himself was making, and connecting the historical narrative of the "smaller plates" of Nephi with his own abridgment of Nephi's "larger plates." The "Words of Mormon," interrupting as they do the history of the Nephites, have caused no little confusion in the minds of unthoughtful readers; but after it is understood that they are merely the link connecting the ecclesiastical history engraven on the "smaller plates" of Nephi to Mormon's abridgment, and that they take the place of the first part of Mormon's record, the difficulty will disappear.

5. Difference in the Literary Style of the "Smaller Plates" and Mormon's Abridgment.—One thing we cannot forbear to mention, and that is, in the parts of the Book of Mormon translated from the "smaller plates" of Nephi, we find none of those comments or annotations mixed up with the record that we have already spoken of as being peculiar to the abridgment made by Mormon—a circumstance, we take it, which proves the Book of Mormon to be consistent with the account given of the original records from which it was translated. The value of this fact appears if we stop to consider how destructive to the claims of the book it would be if the peculiarity of Mormon's abridgment were found in that part of the book which claims to be a verbatim translation of the "smaller plates" of Nephi. There will be found, however, in this translation direct from the "smaller plates" of Nephi, as also in Mormon's abridgment, extracts from the old Jewish Scriptures—especially from the writings of Isaiah—this is accounted for by the fact that when Lehi's colony left Jerusalem, they took with them copies of the books of Moses and the writings of the prophets, and the record of the Jews down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, all of which were engraven on plates of brass (see I Nephi v: 10-13), and the Nephite historians transcribed passages from these sacred records into their own writings.

6. The Transcribed Passages.—There are a few suggestions about these transcribed passages which may be valuable to the student, as they furnish an indirect evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon. The Nephites having transcribed passages from the brass plates they carried with them from Jerusalem into their records, wherever such passages occur in the Book of Mormon, and corresponding passages are found in our English Bible, it will be seen by the reader that so far we have two translations of the writings of the old Hebrew prophets; and it will be found on comparison that the passages in the Book of Mormon are stronger and more in keeping with the sense sought to be expressed by the prophet than the corresponding passages and chapters in the Bible. As a proof of this I ask the student to compare I Nephi xx and xxi with Isaiah xlvii and xlix.

In some instances there are sentences, in the Book of Mormon version of passages from Isaiah, not to be found in our English version, as witness the following: