Gazelem and Joseph Smith

This evening I read a really interesting article about the word Gazelem in the Book of Mormon.  The name is mentioned in only one passage as Alma was in the middle of teaching his son Helaman.  Speaking about the wickedness and secret combinations of the Jaredites, Alma quoted some passage from the 24 plates: “And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations” (Alma 37:23).  I’ve never really focused on the details of this passage because I’ve assumed that Gazelem was referring to Joseph Smith.  The reason for this assumption is because Joseph Smith was known as Gazelam in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants in some places where his name was swapped out for Gazelam to protect his identity.  This and other comments that I’ve heard over the years has worked to convince me that this passage is simply a reference to Joseph Smith.

               This article points out, though, that it is very unlikely that the Gazelem mentioned in Alma 37:23 is actually Joseph Smith.  Instead he suggested, “Gazelem was a servant of the Lord, whose revelations were recorded on the Jaredite plates.  Alma was speaking to Helaman about history — prophecies already fulfilled. The Jaredite secrets had been revealed. Gazelem was a seer in their past, not the future.”  As I look closely at the passage itself I can’t help but agree with the conclusions of the article.  The key point is that Alma was not talking about the future; he was summarizing the wickedness and secret combinations of the Jaredites when he quoted the Lord who mentioned Gazelem.  That said, we certainly see a parallel between this person Gazelem (assuming it really was a Jaredite prophet) and the prophet Joseph.  Gazelem apparently was called as a prophet at a time of great wickedness among the Jaredites and was prepared by the Lord with some kind of seer stone to reveal the works of darkness among his people.  Similarly Joseph Smith was called by the Lord, given a seer stone (in addition to the Urim and Thummin), and he too brought forth knowledge of these secret combinations to us in the Book of Mormon.  So perhaps the reason the Joseph was called Gazelam was not to suggest that he was the person mentioned in the Book of Mormon but rather that he was like him in the same way he was like the other prophets of the past.  At any rate, the important part of it all is that we have the knowledge of the wickedness of the Jaredites and their ultimate destruction, and that is the path the we are headed down in this nation if we don’t repent and turn from our ways.  And we can thank the Lord for the prophet Joseph for bringing us the dealings of God with His people on this land.