Joseph's Transparency

I listened to a podcast on the Prophet Joseph Smith with commentary from Richard Bushman, a biographer of the Prophet.  He made an interesting comment about the books of scripture that we have from the Prophet Joseph.  He spoke of how they are “transparent” in the sense that Joseph does not get in the way of the voice of the Lord and the voice of the ancient prophets.  When we read the Book of Mormon or the books of Moses and Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, we do not hear the voice of Joseph or his commentary or anything of that sort—we get the words of the ancient prophets directly.  The same is true of the Doctrine and Covenants.  With the exception of the sections that were letters or teachings of Joseph canonized later by his successors, we hear the voice of the Lord directly in the revelations.  While it was through Joseph that we obtained these books of scripture, we don’t hear his voice at all in the writings.  The Lord told us, “But this generation shall have my word through you,” and that’s exactly what we get from Joseph: the words of the holy writ without any middle man (D&C 5:10).  They are indeed perfectly transparent.

               This reminds me of a phrase from my mission president that I have been pondering for many years.  He asked me once in an interview something to the effect of, “How does a submarine operate?”  He answered his own question this way: “It runs silent and it runs deep.”  He then encouraged me to do the same, “Run silent; run deep.”  In other words, make a significant difference and do it without bringing any attention to yourself.  That is exactly how Joseph operated it seems to me.  He left us more pages of scripture with words of other prophets and the words of the Lord than anyone else, and yet for most of those pages if we read them we don’t see him present at all.  We bring a lot of attention to him as members of the Church in honoring the incredible work he accomplished, the valiant testimony of Jesus that he bore, and the way that he did “bring [the] people unto salvation” (2 Nephi 3:15).  But he did not seek that attention or honor for himself.  He did not think himself the only person through which God could work but instead taught that all could commune with God just as he did: “God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what he will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them.”  Perhaps the clearest evidence of his own humility and transparency is in what we might say was the crowning achievement of his ministry—restoring the temple ordinances.  The temple is absolutely silent on the subject of Joseph Smith.  The ordinances were revealed through him, but for those who go to the temple, he is nowhere to be found.  Joseph ran silent and deep, and we all benefit still today because of the incredible mission he accomplished.