The Records of Abraham

In his own record Abraham wrote this about the sacred writings he had in his day: “I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate the chronology running back from myself to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come into my hands, which I hold unto this present time….  The records of the fathers, even the patriarchs, concerning the right of Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in mine own hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers, have I kept even unto this day” (Abraham 1:28, 31).  It’s not clear exactly what records he had, but likely they came down from Adam and through the patriarchs to him.  They most likely had the words of Adam, Enoch, Noah, and others.  They of course would have had to pass through the hands of Noah and have been on the arc during the flood.  And what happened to these records of Abraham?  Undoubtedly, he passed them on to Isaac, who would have passed them on to Jacob and then to Joseph.  They may have even ended up in the hands of Moses after many years in Israelite bondage, for there are a lot of similarities between the account of Moses and that of Abraham, particularly in the story of the Creation. 

            The Jaredites seem to have also had a similar record—perhaps containing much of the save things as these records that Abraham had.  The Jaredites left the tower of Babel even before Abraham came on the scene, and they still had some kind of sacred writing on it that taught them of their ancestors.  The daughter of Jared referred to it when she said, “Hath he not read the record which our fathers brought across the great deep? Behold, is there not an account concerning them of old” (Ether 8:9).  We know very little about these sacred writings that the Jaredites had, but surely they were a guiding force among the righteous Jaredites.  It’s likely that these ancient records started with Adam’s writings and were inspired by God from the beginning: “And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration” (Moses 6:5).  It appears that from the very beginning the Lord made sure that records were kept and passed on to preserve His word.  In particular whenever He sent His people on the move He provided them with the scriptures to guide them: we see this in the story of the Jaredites, Abraham, the Nephites, and even the modern-day pioneers were equipped with the words of God in our dispensation as they crossed the plains.  And each of these groups that took the scriptures to be their guide also wrote scriptures and sacred writings of their own for their own posterity and us today.  Perhaps the lesson for us is that we must look to the sacred writings the Lord has already given us while at the same time recorded our own experiences with the Lord.