An Alternative Theory About the Words of Mormon

Continuing with the theme from yesterday, here is a second possible explanation for why verses 12-18 are so different from the first 11 verses of the Words of Mormon.  It may be that the verses actually were a part of the book of Mosiah and not part of Mormon’s explanatory text written on the small plates.  In other words, verses 12-18 may have actually been part of Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates.  Perhaps the main support for this hypothesis is that the text of those verses flows right into the first verse of Mosiah 1 as I mentioned yesterday.  A second reason that seems to support this idea is the finality with which verse 11 is written: “And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.”  That sounds very much like a final statement that Mormon would have concluded with.  In fact, if this hypothesis is correct then it would likely make verse 11 the very last thing that Mormon wrote in the whole book.  It certainly would be fitting for Mormon to be praying to God in his final writing that the Book of Mormon would be preserved and warning us that we will judged by the very words of the book. 

               As I searched I found that there is an article published by scholars in the BYU Studies magazine which lays out a theory that suggests that these final verses of the Words of Mormon were in fact part of Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates.  The basic argument is that the translation of the small plates was put next to the translation of the large plates, but that the latter started in the middle of the original book of Mosiah because the first 116 pages were lost.  We know that the translation of the “book of Lehi” was lost because it was part of the 116 pages, but it may be Joseph and Martin had in fact made it into the first part of the book of Mosiah (which apparently came after the book of Lehi on the abridgement of the large plates) and so this first section would have been lost as well.  It does seem that the book of Mosiah starts in the middle of things.  The rest of the books from Mormon’s abridgment (Alma – 4 Nephi) all have the colophon beginning with the introduction to the book, but Mosiah as we have it does not.  At any rate, the idea is that the Words of Mormon may have ended at verse 11 and that the first part of translation from Mormon’s abridgement of the large plates that we have (i.e. what came right after the 116 pages) starts at verse 12.  Joseph Smith translated the small plates last but put that part of the translation first for printing, and so there obviously is some point where that translation ends and the translation of Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates start.  The way the current text is printed suggests that this break is between the Words of Mormon and the Book of Mosiah, and this alternative hypothesis simply asserts that the break is 7 verses before that instead. 

                I think the argument is indeed compelling as the above-mentioned article lays it out, but I don’t think it explains everything.  A response paper was published by another scholar outlining why he doesn’t think that the hypothesis is convincing.  His suggestion is that verses 12-18 may have been an inspired summary by Joseph Smith that wasn’t originally on either the small plates or Mormon’s abridgment of the large.  I struggle with the language of verse 5 and 9 in which Mormon speaks of finishing out his record with the help of the plates of Nephi (presumably the large plates), which to me would make more sense if he had indeed written verses 12-18 on the small plates (i.e. he used the material on the large plates to finish out his record on the small plates with a brief summary of King Benjamin’s life).  None of the theories are completely convincing, and without the original manuscript we likely will never know for sure.  Gratefully it doesn’t really make a difference for the reader—no matter who wrote verses 12-18 or on which of the plates they originally existed (if any), we accept them as inspired and they provide an important background to the great sermon from King Benjamin that follows in the first part of Mosiah.