By this point in the Book of Mormon, as we begin its second-to-last book, we are certainly accustomed to the idea of multiple authors and records. The idea of a “book within the book” in the Book of Mormon is not new to us. But when we turn the page from Moroni 9 to Ether 1, this phenomenon of a “book within a book” is taken to a whole new level. With the book of Ether, we take a giant leap back in time — a leap of genesis proportions. Ether is the self-contained story of an entirely new group of people (yet at the same time, far older) than the Nephites and Lamanites!
We’ll learn much about this group of people in our reading, who we will refer as the Jaredites. And we’ll learn a great deal from Moroni, as he supplants his father as the editorial voice. At present, however, before we begin our reading of Ether 1, I’d like to take a few moments and look at the significance of this 15 chapter book — its role and position in the Book of Mormon, and its relationship to other scripture.
First, the ancient Jaredite record (again, as presented to us through Moroni’s 15 chapter abridgment called the book of Ether) can show us that the concept of the Lord’s “other sheep” — other covenant people — can exist across space, as the Lord intimated in 3 Nephi 15, when he said:
17 That other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
…but also across time. Just like with Adam, Noah, Enoch, Melcihzedek, Abraham, and many others, the characters in the book of Ether show us that while Jacob and his 12 sons are the archetypal example of covenant Israel, they are not the only instance! In other words, the Lord’s pattern of appointing a covenant people did not begin, chronologically, with Father Israel and his posterity. The pattern predates Jacob; it begins with Adam. This tells us, then, and the book of Ether reinforces the message, that actually, all who descend from Adam are in the privileged position of access to the full Salvation of Jesus Christ.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15)
And Remember, as Moroni just reminded us, in Mormon 9:9:
9 For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
All of these scriptural “flocks” — or all of these branches of the vineyard, to borrow imagery from Zenos, are tied to the Lord with a covenant to “be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing.” And invariably, they are commanded to keep a record.
This also tells us that just as there were biblical covenant keepers that pre-dated Jacob, there were Book of Mormon covenant keepers that pre-dated Lehi. Thus, Lehi’s exile story is not a one-off occurrence! Amazingly, long before Joseph’s “fruitful bow” crossed over the wall in the form of a vessel built by Nephi, there was another group who did the same thing, in barges built by the brother of Jared.
So — as we approach the book of Ether as the penultimate book in the Book of Mormon, we will read an ancient variation upon the same theme we have already read of in Nephi’s small plates, and in Mormon’s abridgment. We will meet a chosen group of people who follow the exile pattern: they are commanded to leave their homeland and journey into the wilderness; being led by the Lord to a land whose fruits, milk, honey, and most importantly liberty — are all conditional upon a promise.
10 For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off.
12 Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ,
These are people who are led by Jehovah. He led Moses with a cloud by day and a pillar by night. He fed them with Manna. He led Lehi with the liahona and inspired his party as to where to hunt for food. And as we will discover, he led the brother of Jared while in a cloud, and with 16 illuminated stones when they crossed the water — and fed his people with “all manner of that which was on the face of the land, seeds of every kind, (and curiously, swarms of bees!). In all these instances of exile, we find a people who are refined by Christ, who enter into covenants with him; followers who enter the strait gate and travel the narrow path that leads back to the tree of life. The Jaredites provide us with one more variation on this theme. We learn what happens when God’s people yield to the adversary and stray. If they give him place to the degree that they allow secret combinations to enter their society, then they are ripe for destruction. All of these patterns are evident, and all of these themes are sounded, in this short, self-contained book. In this way, we can see that the book of Ether is actually a microcosm of the Book of Mormon in which it is embedded. Yet, chronologically speaking, it is a precursor that provides precedent for the story that begins with Lehi and ends with Moroni.
Since the book of Ether does predate the story of Lehi (and Mulek), why is it placed at the end of the Book of Mormon? What wisdom is there in its out-of-order placement? Shouldn’t it be found at the very beginning?
Here are a couple possible answers to that question: First, the book of Ether seems to be a way of making sure that we got the message that was so carefully laid out by Mormon (in his abridgment of the large plates of Nephi), and by Nephi before him (in the small plates of Nephi) Has the message of the Book of Mormon settled upon our minds by this point, now that we have read everything from 1 Nephi 1 to Mormon 9? Have we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is mighty to save as we turn to him? Have we come to see that those who keep the commandments of God do prosper, both individually and collectively, and those who do not are cut off? Have we developed a disdainful respect for the power of the adversary, and his ability to drag his unwitting adherents down to hell with a flaxen cord? Have we become familiar with the rhetoric of the enemies of Christ? Have we come to see that the day of destruction really does come for the wicked, and that the day of judgement really will come for all? The book of Ether provides us with another opportunity to revisit all of these themes in condensed form. This way, when we complete Ether 15 and return to Moroni’s world (where he will bring the entire record to an end), we will have received a second witness of the messages of the Book of Mormon. This confirms the Lord’s pattern of witnesses in a very unique way;
“In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established,” [as he told the apostle Paul] 2 Cor 13:1
And second, before we move into the book of Ether, with it entirely new cast of characters, Let’s consider another reason that why the earliest book of the Book of Mormon appears at its end — and really, why it appears in the Book of Mormon narrative at all. Not only is Ether a self-contained second witness of the messages described above, but it does something else. A short thought experiment might reveal this secondary purpose: Imagine that through a printing error unbeknownst to you, in your personal copy of the Book of Mormon, the 15 chapter book of Ether had been accidentally expunged! If this were the case, how would it feel to move directly from Mormon 9 to Moroni 1? Well, actually, this might seem very natural; we might never even realize that we had missed the book of Ether! However, if the Book of Mormon really did end in this way, if there really was no book of Ether, then there would be several narrative loose ends that were never addressed; cues and clues embedded in the record by Mormon that need resolving. If Ether were omitted, we might still finish the Book of Mormon with a great sense of satisfaction, but in time we might wonder: “hold on — what about the 24 plates that Limhi’s expedition discovered and that King Mosiah translated?” “What about Coriantumr, who was discovered by the Mulekites? What about the land “among many waters… which was covered with the bones of men… and … with ruins of buildings of every kind… a land… which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel?” (Mosiah 8:8) And, what about Alma’s words to Helaman in Alma 37, when he told him about the 24 plates of a mysterious people, a people who were plagued with “works of darkness” (v. 21), who “if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth”? (Alma 37:22)
As we move into Ether 1 we will learn the answer to these questions. As Ogden and Skinner have written:
The Book of Ether is, as its subtitle indicates, “the record of the Jaredites, taken from the twenty-four plates found by the people of Limhi in the days of King Mosiah” (see also Ether 1:2). King Mosiah made a translation of the record in the Nephite language. A promise was made back in the book of Mosiah that this record would be included in the compilation to come forth (Mosiah 28:19). The book of Ether is a greatly abridged history (it contains only a hundredth part of all that happened; Ether 15:33) of a people that came from the Tower of Babel in the Old World and occupied part of the ancient Americas from approximately 2200 to at least the 500s B.C. The summary by Elder James E. Talmage is helpful: “Of the two nations whose histories constitute the Book of Mormon, the first in order of time consisted of the people of Jared, who followed their leader from the Tower of Babel at the time of the confusion of tongues [Genesis 11:6–9]. Their history was written on twenty-four plates of gold by Ether, the last of their prophets, who, foreseeing the destruction of his people because of their wickedness, hid away the historic plates. They were afterward found, about B.C. 122, by an expedition sent out by King Limhi, a Nephite ruler. The record engraved on these plates was subsequently abridged by Moroni, and the condensed account was attached by him to the Book of Mormon record; it appears in the modern translation under the name of the Book of Ether.”1 Note ^1. Talmage, Articles of Faith,260–61.
So — since the book of Ether is included, since it has not been omitted from the Book of Mormon, we are able to see the tying of Mormon’s loose narrative ends. And again, we are provided with a unique and powerful second witness of the message of the Book of Mormon.
This also serves to reveal — yet one more time before the Book of Mormon ends — the staggering literary complexity of the Book of Mormon. As Noel B. Reynolds has written:
a large number of complex relationships are developed in the book and consistently maintained from beginning to end. Many of these relationships have taken scholars longer to sort out than it took Joseph Smith to translate the entire book.39 For example, the Book of Mormon employs at least three independent dating systems with remarkable accuracy. It also contains a complex system of religious teachings that is enriched as new sermons are added but is never confused or contradicted. The book’s authors refer to a huge and complex set of sources—including official records, sermons, letters, monument inscriptions, and church records—that always maintain a consistent relationship in the final text. A large number of ancient literary forms, typical of ancient texts but virtually unknown in English in most cases, are woven into the narrative. Subtle and complex political traditions evolve early in the text and surface in a variety of forms in later sections, always plausibly and consistently. The book describes various ebbs and flows of ethnic interaction without once losing track of even the most minor groups. Hundreds of individual characters are successfully introduced and coherently tracked. The geographical data in the text is diverse and complex, yet when carefully analyzed, it is perfectly consistent and matches an identifiable portion of Mesoamerica as well. This list of examples could go on at great length.
And now, with the Ether’s role within the Book of Mormon established, we can turn inward and begin to appreciate its structure and substantial internal complexities. A stunning example of this is the genealogy that we are about to read in Ether 1. It is a listing of 30 unique names that connect Ether to Jared. These names and an associated history (albeit very terse) is subsequently recorded in Ether 6-11, in revere order. So — in the book of Ether we will move back in time, but we will cover a great deal of ground chronologically. We will deal with many new names and genealogies. We will read of complex narrative schemes, and transcendent doctrines. And on top of this, just like with Mormon’s abridgment, most of what we read will be filtered through the lens of an abridger and editor — Moroni. He will provide us with key editorial interjections that add to his own body of work. All of these complexities will come to the fore during our reading of the text. Truly, the Book of Ether — this little book that vastly predates the story of Lehi’s migration, is also a precious and prescient book for our time.
