- 21) And it came to pass that the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt not suffer these things which ye have seen and heard to go forth unto the world, until the time cometh that I shall glorify my name in the flesh; wherefore, ye shall treasure up the things which ye have seen and heard, and show it to no man.
- 22) And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read.
- 23) And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write.
- 24) For behold, the language which ye shall write I have confounded; wherefore I will cause in my own due time that these stones shall magnify to the eyes of men these things which ye shall write.
- 25) And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth.
- 27) And the Lord said unto him: Write these things and seal them up; and I will show them in mine own due time unto the children of men.
- 1) And the Lord commanded the brother of Jared to go down out of the mount from the presence of the Lord, and write the things which he had seen; and they were forbidden to come unto the children of men until after that he should be lifted up upon the cross; and for this cause did king
MosiahBenjamin keep them, that they should not come unto the world until after Christ should show himself unto his people.
- 2) And after Christ truly had showed himself unto his people he commanded that they should be made manifest.
- 3) And now, after that, they have all dwindled in unbelief; and there is none save it be the Lamanites, and they have rejected the gospel of Christ; therefore I am commanded that I should hide them up again in the earth.
- 4) Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared.
- 5) Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord.
- 6) For the Lord said unto me: They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord.
- 7) And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are.
- And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory; and I have told you the things which I have sealed up; therefore touch them not in order that ye may translate; for that thing is forbidden you, except by and by it shall be wisdom in God.
- Reasons that the record of the Brother of Jared was not on the Plates of Ether.
Notes
This is a record of things the Brother of Jared saw at the time the Lord revealed himself to him on Mount Shelem. The Urim and Thummim were originally created to facilitate translating this record. It was had by the Nephites some time after Christ appeared to them, and appears to be the sealed portion of the Gold Plates.
Given that the Urim and Thummim was supposed to have been sealed up with this record to facilitate translation, Mosiah, son of Benjamin must have had this record before he obtained the Plates of Ether. Considering that Ether 4:1 original cites King Benjamin as having kept the text back, the Urim and Thummim, as well as the text, must have been in Nephite possession at least that far back. However, considering that Joseph Smith, Sr. is cited as having described that the Urim and Thummim were found during an Exodus, (this would have been described in more detail in the Lost 116 Pages) it seems most likely that the original king Mosiah found them both together during the events briefly summarized in the Book of Omni.
Cross-References