What the Three Witnesses Saw

 In Come Follow Me this week we read about the calling of the three and eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon. When we think of these special witnesses we think about them seeing the Gold Plates, but if you read Section 17 carefully you see that they saw more than that.  The three witnesses saw

1. the gold plates, 

2. the breast plate, 

3. the sword of Laban,

4. the Jaredite Urim and Thummim, 

5.  the Liahona.  

Bryce Dunford from Talking Scripture, who is a bit obsessed with finding temple imagery in every scripture text, put forth the idea that the things they saw were probably the holy temple relics from the Nephite nation. The original Hebrew temple contained certain relics in the alter in the Holy of Holies. Those included 

1. The tablets Moses made with the Law written by the finger of God

2. Aaron's rod which budded.

3. a gold jar of manna. (Hebrews 9:4)

Bryce tried to show that the items in the stone box that Joseph Smith found corresponded to the items in the temple arc. 

The stone tablets = the Gold Plates because both contained the religious law of the culture. 

Aaron's rod that budded = the Urim and Thummim, because both provided revelation, and the sword of Laban because that was a symbol of political supremacy. i.e. As the priests of Aaron were the religious leaders, the one possessing the sword of Laban was the political leader. 

The Jar of manna=the Liahona, since the Liahona lead the Nephites through the more fertile parts of land where they could find food.  i.e. both represented temporal salvation. 

The one to one symbolism is a little sketchy, but I think he could be correct on the more general point. The ark of the covenant held the most sacred relics of the old world church.  Lehi and his family didn't bring those items with them, and they were lost soon after Lehi left Jerusalem. When the Nephites built their own temple in the new world they naturally would have put in to its altar the most holy relics of their own culture--things that represented the power of their God and his willingness to save and protect them. Mike even suggested that stone box in which the relics were found may have actually been the buried altar of the temple.  I think that is a stretch because I couldn't see Mormon, on the run and in constant danger, hauling around a large stone box everywhere he went.  Still, it doesn't seem strange to me that at some point, when Mormon saw that the temple was going to fall into the hands of sinful men, he might have taken the temple relics, or that maybe the temple relics were already with the religious records he was given when he was a young man, and that he cared for and protected them the rest of his life. 

This brings up an obvious question:  Does the church have holy relics in its modern temples, or perhaps just in a single central temple?  If it does, what might they be? I think (and this is pure speculation) that is wouldn't be ridiculous to suppose that the items seen by the special witnesses may still exist on this earth, and that the Church keeps them somewhere in the Salt Lake Temple. They are kept secret for fear of theft or defilement. Another idea is that the church may have other relics from the modern church, like the seer stone, Joseph Smith's temple robes or something of the like, that they keep in the temple. Of course, the most likely thing is that there are not "sacred relics" that the church keeps in the temples, because temples don't need relics to be holy. 

I am sure I will never know, but I think the idea that the 11 witness saw temple relics supports my earlier idea that the restoration of the gospel was primarily the restoration of the temple and temple blessings and that the church that Joseph Smith restored was primarily an Old Testament based church rather than a New Testament style church.   

The Lost Manuscript

 This week in Come Follow Me we read D&C 10 which explains why Joseph Smith shouldn't retranslate the lost Book of Mormon manuscript. I have had several thoughts about the lost manuscript and the philosophical implications of that whole episode in Church History.

During Sunday School today there was a discussion about how great God's grace is that he could foresee the loss of the 116 pages and so he provided a replacement 1,500 years before it was needed.  They also pointed out that the replacement was, in a way, better than the lost part because it "throw(s) greater views upon my gospel." (v. 45).  I agree what they were saying, mostly, but I did bring up the point that if Martin Harris hadn't lost the manuscript, we would still have had the books of Nephi. They were there, already, on the plates.  So, presuming the original lost text had valuable information on it, we did lose valuable information when the manuscript was lost.  I would personally love it if the manuscript was discovered and we got to see what was in it.   

Of course, this begs the question:  If the manuscript wasn't going to be lost, would Heavenly Father inspired Nephi and Mormon to write/include that other record? Was Martin Harris destined to lose the manuscript, or just very likely to. In other words, this incident does bring up the age old question "does God's foreknowledge of what we will do mean that we are predestined to do it?"  Scott Woodward and Casey Griffiths deal with this question in their podcast. I don't think there is a satisfying answer.  I think you need to just pick which option you like best and stick to it.  As for me, I think Martin could have chosen to obey the Lord and not to lose the manuscript and we could have had both versions of the first books of the Book of Mormon, kind of like the different versions of the four gospels. In other words, I think foreknowledge does not mean predestination.  

I like this view because it affirms something I experience in my life.  Decisions do have permanent consequences. God's grace can ameliorate those consequences, and turn them for our good, but they are still there. The day I made a bad choice and damaged my hearing had permanent consequences. I have received blessing from having hearing aids.  It makes it easier to listen to recorded books and podcasts, but if I could go back, I wouldn't have tried to listen to a recorded book while mowing the lawn. 

One other question, that is actually not super important, but is interesting, is what happened to the lost manuscript. Bryce Dunford on Talking Scripture mentioned that the Martin Harris pageant in Clarkston portrays Lucy Harris throwing the manuscript into the fire.  That is the tradition in the Harris family. Section 11 of the D&C seems to contest that.  Section 11 seems to have been received months after the manuscript was lost (though the section heading suggests that the actual date it was received it not clear).  Would the Lord warn Joseph Smith of the plan of evil men to use the manuscript to discredit Joseph Smith if the manuscript had already been destroyed?  If it still existed in 1829, when, exactly, would have Lucy destroyed it?  I guess she could have destroyed it later, maybe after the Book of Mormon was published without it. Lucy, herself, died in 1836. 

Here are some possibilities

1. Lucy did burn the manuscript some time after the revelation in 1829.  This seems a little unlikely because she would have had to do a good job of hiding it from her husband who was very motivated to find it. It is possible, however.

2. Someone else destroyed it after 1829.  Maybe they were holding on to it to use it just as the Lord said to discredit Joseph Smith and when their scheme didn't work, they destroyed it to cover their culpability. I think this is a distinct possibility, but not very fun.

3. The manuscript was kept somewhere, and then perished by accident.  Maybe someone found it among their great grandparents things, didn't know what it was, and threw it away. This is also a good possibility, but also not very fun.

4. The manuscript still exists somewhere and someday someone will find it and sell it to the church for a tremendous amount of money.  Then BYU scholars will have a grand time studying and analyzing it.  This is a much more fun and exciting prospect because it could happen at any time, maybe in my lifetime.

5. The Lord took up the manuscript and keeps it in the same place as the plates and the Urim and Thummim. When the time is right it and other lost books will be restored to the church.  This is also a nice idea, but probably wouldn't happen in my life time, so therefore not so exciting, at least to me.

Of course, this is all silly speculation, with no chance of verifying any of the options. Still, it is an interesting thing to think about.

Oliver Cowdery's Attempt at Translation

 In D&C 8 we first meet Oliver Cowdery who helps Joseph Smith finish the translation of the Book of Mormon by acting as his scribe.  Oliver was a young school teacher who learned about Joseph's work while he was boarding with Joseph's parents in New York. Oliver gets very excited about the prospect of being part of such an exciting undertaking, so he travels to Pennsylvania where Joseph and Emma are living and offers to help with the work. Within a day or two of his arrival, he starts acting as a scribe and within three months the whole translation is finished. 

Soon after the work of translation resumes, Oliver has a desire to be able to translate himself, so he asks Joseph to ask of the Lord if he can translate.  In Section 6:25 the Lord gives Oliver permission and the gift to translate like Joseph.  Then in Section 9 we learn that Oliver's attempt to translate didn't go well, and the Lord tells him that "it is not expedient that you should translate at the present time."  This is one of the instances I mentioned when we started the Doctrine & Covenants at the beginning of January that bother me about the D&C.  The Lord says one thing and then soon after seems to retract his promise, and says, "Just kidding, you don't get to do that after all." 

As I was reading it again this week, I saw some things I hadn't noticed before.  For one thing, it sounds to me like Oliver wasn't promised to translate the Book of Mormon text, but some other text, "records... that have been kept back because of the wickedness of the people."  The Lord says, "if you have good desire...then you shall assist in bringing to light, with your gift, those parts of scriptures which have been hidden because of iniquity." (6: 26-27)

I find it very interesting that the very next section in the D&C is a seemingly random translation of a parchment made by John the Baptist that explains whether he died or tarried on the earth. None of the podcasts I listened to asked the obvious question: what if this is the "hidden scripture" that Oliver was given to try to translate?  The heading says it is a revelation given to Joseph Smith (Section 7 heading) but those headings were added in 1876 by Orson Pratt, years after Joseph's death. Maybe Oliver did start to translate, but something about the experience overwhelmed him and he had to back away from it. I am thinking about Peter walking on the water, and then when he starts to doubt he sinks. Maybe a similar thing happened to Oliver.  

The reason I think this, is the way the Lord talks about the incident of Oliver's failed attempt in Section 9.  "Behold...because you did not translate according to that which you desired of me, and did commence again to write for my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun, even so I would that ye should continue until you have finished this record, which I have entrusted unto him." (v. 1).  It sounds like Oliver tried to translate, and then said, "wait, this is too hard, why don't you do it, Joseph, and I will just be the scribe." The rest of the chapter seems to be the Lord consoling and encouraging Oliver instead of condemning him.  He says in vs 2 that Oliver will have another chance, and later he basically says, it's ok because "I have given unto my servant Joseph sufficient strength whereby it is made up? And neither of you have I condemned." (v. 12).  The Lord does take time to tell Oliver how he might do better next time (v. 7-11) and assures him that what he is doing now, helping as the scribe, is important (v.13)

This helps me feel better about the whole incident.  Granted, there must have been a little murmuring going on because the Lord tells Oliver not to murmur (v. 6).  In the end, however, it seems that Oliver didn't feel too hurt by it because he does continue to act as scribe, receives the priesthood with Joseph at the hands of angels, and becomes the second elder of the church when the church is organized in 1830.