The 116 Pages

In June of 1828 Martin Harris took the 116 pages of their translation of the Book of Mormon home from Harmony to show his wife and other close associates.  These contained pages that were scribed by both Emma and Martin himself, and the text “was the book of Lehi taken from Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates of Nephi.”  Our understanding is that it contained material somewhat analogous to what we now have in 1 Nephi through Omni in our Book of Mormon.  It was Mormon’s abridgment of Nephi’s account that he wrote on his “other plates” as mentioned in 1 Nephi 9.  We call that original account started by Nephi and passed down by the prophets the “large plates,” although that term is not itself in the Book of Mormon.  I believe it comes from the fact that Jacob referred to the “small plates” as what he was writing on that we now have, and so we suppose that the other plates must have been larger and they got the name “large plates” (Jacob 1:1).  Since Joseph was instructed by the Lord not to retranslate but to translate those small plates, we know relatively little of what the 116 pages actually contained. 

               There are a few things that are known, though, about what was on the 116 pages.  Nephi gave us this description of his record on the large plates: “Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry; and the other plates are for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions of my people” (1 Nephi 9:4).  Mormon abridged that record and it became the 116 pages.  So there may have been a lot more history as it relates to the wars and leaders of the Nephites that is only alluded to in our current Book of Mormon (see for example Enos 1:24, Jarom 1:7, Omni 1:10).  When the Lord gave Nephi instructions to not retranslate what had been lost He said, “You shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained” (D&C 10:41).  This seems to suggest that Joseph had reached the account of King Benjamin on the large plates, and so the 116 pages covered the time from Nephi down to King Benjamin.  The Lord gave one more brief mention in D&C 10 of what those 116 pages said.  He said to Joseph, “Yea, and you remember it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these things upon the plates of Nephi” (D&C 10:39).  In other words, on what Joseph had already translated, Mormon mentioned in some way the other (small) plates of Nephi.  I think this ties in with what Mormon said in verse 3 of the Words of Mormon.  As Mormon abridged the large plates of Nephi, he included Nephi’s reference to his other plates, but Mormon at that point didn’t know where they were.  But after he finished his abridgement up to King Benjamin, he told us, “I searched among the records which had been delivered into my hands, and I found these plates, which contained this small account of the prophets, from Jacob down to the reign of this king Benjamin, and also many of the words of Nephi.”  Mormon went searching for them because Nephi referred to them, and the fact that he had to look for them shows just how many records he had. 

               As far as I’m aware the first person to scribe for Joseph was Emma.  She was his scribe in early 1828 before Martin Harris arrived in Harmony, and so she would have scribed the first portion of the 116 pages.  She recounted how Joseph “did not even know that Jerusalem was surrounded by walls” when he came to that part in the text.  Our current Book of Mormon mentions the walls of Jerusalem in 1 Nephi 4, but that’s not what Emma scribed for him—she was writing down the translation of Mormon’s abridgement of the large plates that was lost.  So it would seem that Mormon told the story of Nephi getting the plates—in which his brothers waited outside the walls of Jerusalem—in his abridgement of the large plates as well.  That story was significant enough that Nephi recorded it both on his large plates and small plates.  Other than that we have very little info about what the 116 pages contained other than the general knowledge that it covered some of the same material as we have in our current Book of Mormon.  Perhaps the most important message is that God prepared a way for Joseph to have a second chance.  And just as He did for Joseph, He can do for us—when it seems that all is lost after a serious mistake, we may find that He has prepared a way for us if we will repent.