The 35 Million Dollar Book

So what is the Book of Mormon worth? I guess we know now: $35 million.  It was announced today that the LDS Church bought the printer’s manuscript from the Community of Christ, originally the RLDS Church, and the price paid was apparently the most ever paid for a manuscript.  The printer’s manuscript is the copy of the original manuscript that Oliver Cowdery made and then gave to the printer to typeset the Book of Mormon.  Oliver Cowdery kept it and eventually gave it to David Whitmer.  It remained in his family until they sold it to the RLDS Church who has owned it ever since.  The original manuscript has been damaged and only about 28 percent of it has survived, but miraculously the printer’s manuscript is nearly completely intact, apparently only missing three lines of text.  At one point it was even preserved in David Whitmer’s house during a tornado when all other rooms were severely damaged.  The money was given by donors, and while some might argue spending such a huge amount of money, surely it will be put to good use by this Christian church.  I see it more like a donation to the Community of Christ in exchange for the manuscript.  The purchase to me is a symbol of the LDS Church’s commitment to the Book of Mormon and to the statement we have been repeating for 176 years since Joseph Smith first said it: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion.”  

             In light of this sale, it is interesting to consider Moroni’s exhortation to Joseph Smith about the plates he would receive: “The plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth; and whoso shall bring it to light, him will the Lord bless” (Mormon 8:14).  In other words, Joseph was not to try to sue them for their monetary value—the gold they were written on was of far lesser value than the record itself.  It’s therefore quite fitting that the price paid for this manuscript far exceeding the price one would buy for the gold upon which the book was written.  (While I don’t know what the weight was, it would have had to weigh 26,662 pounds to be worth 35 million in today’s money.)  Moroni essentially repeated his counsel to Joseph when he received the plates.  Joseph recorded that Mormon “added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father’s family), to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God” (JSH 1:46).  The message to me from this purchase by the LDS Church is that the book is more important than money and the things of the world.  As Nephi put it, the words of the book “shall be of great worth unto the children of men” (2 Nephi 28:2).  Of course, no matter what the Church paid for the manuscript, the book ultimately is only of so far as we read and study it.