The Jerusalem from Whence Lehi Should Come

Continuing from what I wrote yesterday, there is one more thing from Ether 13 that I’m trying to understand.  Yesterday I quoted the student manual which suggests that the end of the Jaredites came sometime between 500 to 250 BC, and I suggested that it probably came closer to the end of that range.  Given that, this verse has been puzzling me a bit: “And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built unto the house of Israel” (Ether 13:5).   Ether was of course the last prophet among the Jaredites, and so he would have lived sometime in the date range above, all of which was after the time of Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem and the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity.  Why does the verse seem to suggest that these events, which took place before 500 BC, are in the future from Ether’s perspective?    

               As I consider more thoroughly the wording, “and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come,” it seems to me that Moroni is actually interjecting here to help us distinguish which Jerusalem (the new or old) Ether was referring to.  Ether could have only known about Lehi through revelation, and since his people would know nothing about Lehi, there would have been no need to distinguish the Jerusalem of old from the new Jerusalem he was prophesying about by using a reference to Lehi.  But Moroni knew that we, his readers, would know about Lehi, and so he likely added in “from whence Lehi should come” to the description of what Ether had been talking about so we would understand which location was being referred to.  Although our careful study of the Book of Mormon suggests that Lehi came before Ether (and so we would phrase is, “the Jerusalem from whence Lehi had come”), Moroni may not have realized this and hence used phrasing to suggest that Lehi had come after Ether (“the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come).  Either way, Moroni’s purpose in the short phrase was fulfilled—we are very clear on which Jerusalem Ether was talking about.  

               As I think about the phrase “after it should be destroyed it should be built up again,” I’m guessing that this actually was not referring to the destruction and rebuilding of Jerusalem in the 6^th century BC, but rather the terrible destruction came after the time of Christ in 70 AD (which indeed was in the future for Ether) and that we still await the time when it will be a “holy city unto the Lord.”  This prophecy is I believe the same as that which the Savior gave when He was among the Nephites which also uses the phrase holy city: “And I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people; and I have covenanted with them that I would gather them together in mine own due time, that I would give unto them again the land of their fathers for their inheritance, which is the land of Jerusalem….  And they shall believe in me, that I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and shall pray unto the Father in my name….  And then shall be brought to pass that which is written: Awake, awake again, and put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city” (3 Nephi 20:29-36).  While certainly some of Israel has been gathered again to Jerusalem, the time when it will be a “holy city” and the inhabitants will believe in Christ, the Son of God, is still yet in the future.  That Ether would have known about this as well as the coming forth of the New Jerusalem on his own continent shows just how extensive the revelations of the Lord were to him, even as he lived among a people of such intense wickedness.