Mosiah Had Finished Translating These Records

After the people of King Limhi miraculously escaped, with the help of Ammon and his brethren, they traveled back to the land of Zarahemla and joined the people of King Mosiah. We read, “And it came to pass that Mosiah received them with joy; and he also received their records, and also the records which had been found by the people of Limhi” (Mosiah 22:14). So in addition to their own records, they brought with them the Jaredite record that they had found, and these were all given to Mosiah. The people of King Limhi had previously asked Ammon about translating these records in an unknown language, and he had told them, “I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God.” This was referring to Mosiah, and the people of Limhi were anxious for the king to translate them as they had said to Ammon, “Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men” (Mosiah 8:13, 19). They arrived in Zarahemla with the records around 121-120 B.C. according to the chapter heading, and soon thereafter the people of Alma similarly arrived in Zarahemla. Soon thereafter, around 120 B.C., Mosiah caused the people to be gathered together to read the records from the people of Limhi and the account of Alma and his people (see Mosiah 25:5-6), but these Jaredite records were not mentioned. When did King Mosiah translate them?  

               It was nearly 30 years later that the sons of Mosiah departed for their mission that Mormon mentioned again these Jaredite records. He wrote, “Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom upon, for there was not any of his sons who would accept of the kingdom. Therefore he took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi; And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people who had been destroyed. And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.” The language is somewhat vague as to when he did this translation, but I believe it suggests that Mosiah finished it near the time he was delivering up the records to Alma (i.e. nearly 30 years after he got the records): “Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam…. And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of brass, and all the things which he had kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the interpreters, and conferred them upon him” (Mosiah 28:10-20).

               If that is the case, why did Mosiah wait that long to translate them? I believe that, actually, he didn’t wait 30 years to translate them. Rather, my guess is that he was working on the translation for that whole 30-year period and finally finished it near the end of his life. In fact, it is interesting that we know so little about what Mosiah did during his reign. We have a fair amount of text about the beginning of his reign when the two main groups returned to Zarahemla, and we have a lot at the end when his sons repented and departed on their mission to the Lamanites. At this time he also set up the system of judges before he died. From the chapter headings we have:

·       Mosiah 25: 120 BC. This recounts the assembly of the people under Mosiah right after the groups returned, one of which had the Jaredite records.

·       Mosiah 26: 120-100 BC. This was mostly about Alma and how the Lord wanted him to handle serious sin in the Church.

·       Mosiah 27: 100-92 BC. This was mostly about the conversion of Alma the Younger.

·       Mosiah 28: 92 BC. This recounts how Mosiah translated the Jaredite record and passed on all the records to Alma. 

So there is very little there about the nearly 30 years in the middle when King Mosiah reigned. I believe that a major project throughout the whole reign of King Mosiah was to translate the Jaredite record. In our current Book of Mormon, the book of Ether is about 30 pages. This didn’t come from Mosiah but rather from Moroni’s abridgement of Mosiah’s translation. At the very end of that record, Moroni made this interesting comment, “And he went forth, and beheld that the words of the Lord had all been fulfilled; and he finished his record; (and the hundredth part I have not written) and he hid them in a manner that the people of Limhi did find them” (Ether 15:33). If we take that literally it would mean that Mosiah translated the equivalent of 3000 pages (as measured by our Book of Mormon page size). That is a lot! And if that is indeed the case, it would make sense that it took him decades to complete alongside his regular duties as a king. And it highlights the importance of the abridgement of the Jaredite record that we have, especially in the story of the brother of Jared, which testifies boldly of Jesus Christ and warns us of the terrible consequences of a society turning fully wicked.