Moroni¡¯s
title page
1) UPON PLATES TAKEN FROM THE PLATES OF NEPHI.
In this instance the
plates of Nephi referred to are the large plates. The golden plates which Joseph Smith received
from Moroni contained several different sets of plates, including A) the small
plates of Nephi (Nephi's unabridged record which constitutes 1 Ne, 2 Ne, Jacob,
Enos, Jarom, Omni), B) Mormon's abridgment of the large plates of Nephi which
included the history of the people from Lehi to Mormon's day (the 116 pages
contained Mormon's abridged record from the days of Lehi to the days of king
Benjamin), C) Moroni's continuation of Mormon's record (Mormon 8:1) which
includes Moroni's abridgment of the record of the Jaredites and his own history,
and D) the sealed portion which contains the writings of the brother of Jared,
see Ether 3:25-27.
2) Explanation of the
term, ¡°Jew and Gentile.¡±
Some have been confused by
the Book of Mormon's use of the term, "Jew."
In the Book of Mormon and often in colloquial English, the term Jew
refers to one who is of the House of Israel.
It does not mean one who is of the tribe of Judah. By Lehi's day, the ten tribes had already
been taken north by the Assyrians and the Kingdom of Judah consisted mostly of
the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. There
would have been a few Levites among the group and according to 1 Chron 9:3, some
of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Thus Lehi's ancestors were Manassehites which lived in the southern
kingdom and had avoided capture by the Assyrians.
When the Book of Mormon
uses the term, "Gentile," it refers to one who is not of the House of
Israel. Frequently, it refers to the
northern European nations and their descendants, including the early inhabitants
the United States of America. In spite
of the fact that other sources suggest that there is quite a bit of the blood of
Israel scattered among these peoples, they are referred to, in general, as
Gentiles.
3) What about the
Mulekites?
Moroni explains the record
as an abridgment of the records of two peoples, the Nephites/Lamanites and the
Jaredites. The Mulekites were left off
this list because they did not keep any records which could contribute to the
record (Omni 1:15-19) and because they were assimilated into the Nephites
shortly after they were discovered in Zarahemla.
4) If there are faults they are the faults of men
A) Moroni was concerned that the Gentiles
would find fault with the Book of Mormon.
Writing in reformed Egyptian, which was not his native language, he felt
his writings were not powerful like the brother of Jared¡¯s. It should be noted that the brother of Jared
had the advantage of writing in his native language which originated from the
perfect, Adamic language. See Mormon 8:12, Mormon 9:31-33, and Ether
12:23-26.
B) Doctrinally, the Book
of Mormon is ¡°the most correct of any book on earth,¡± but occasionally one can
find problems with syntax, grammar, etc.
In one case, the awkwardness of Mormon's engraving on plates becomes
clear, thus we see that they buried their weapons
of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace. (Alma 24:19) These small imperfections are of no doctrinal
consequence and their occurrence does not detract from the correctness of the
book.
C) Some readers have
difficulty with the language of the Book of Mormon and its wordiness. A famous Mark Twain quote about the Book of
Mormon is taken from his work, Roughing
It, written in 1872, ¡°It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed
this book, the act was a miracle -- keeping awake while he did it was, at any
rate¡¦. Whenever he (Joseph Smith) found his speech growing too modern which was
[p.111] about every sentence or two -- he ladled in a few such scriptural
phrases as 'exceeding sore,' 'and it came to pass,' etc¡¦and made things
satisfactory again. 'And it came to pass,' was his pet. If he had left that out,
his Bible would have been only a pamphlet."
In poking fun of this great work, readers need to remember the reply of
the Lord to Moroni¡¯s concern as recorded in Ether 12:26, Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and in Mormon 8:12, And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it
because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater
things than these.