- Described.
- Lehi receives a vision and is commanded to send his sons back to Jerusalem to retrieve the brass plates.
- Brass plates described as a record of the Jews and a genealogy of Lehi's forefathers.
- Laban has the record.
- 10) And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel.
- 22) Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, did teach my brethren these things; and it came to pass that I did read many things to them, which were engraven upon the plates of brass, that they might know concerning the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old.
- 23) And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.
- Prophecy of Isaiah, sourced from the brass plates.
- Prophecy of Isaiah, sourced from the brass plates.
- And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had read these things which were engraven upon the plates of brass, my brethren came unto me and said unto me: What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold, are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh?
- Wherefore, my brethren, I would that ye should consider that the things which have been written upon the plates of brass are true; and they testify that a man must be obedient to the commandments of God.
- 3) And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.
- 4) For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.
- 5) I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.
- 6) O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.
- And king Benjamin lived three years and he died.
- 11) 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;
- 20) 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, and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem.
- Brass plates conferred upon Helaman by Alma, and he is taught about their importance.
- And Nephi, the son of Helaman, had departed out of the land of Zarahemla, giving charge unto his son Nephi, who was his eldest son, concerning the plates of brass, and all the records which had been kept, and all those things which had been kept sacred from the departure of Lehi out of Jerusalem.
- Behold, our father Jacob also testified concerning a remnant of the seed of Joseph. And behold, are not we a remnant of the seed of Joseph? And these things which testify of us, are they not written upon the plates of brass which our father Lehi brought out of Jerusalem?
- It is proposed and argued that the brass plates were original records of Joseph, son of Jacob; maintained and expanded by Joseph's descendants.
- Discusses internal evidence suggesting that vocabulary and phrasing by some writers in the Book of Mormon was influenced by the Book of Moses.
Notes
Under King Josiah, the laws governing temple worship had been lost some time prior, and were found again during Josiah's temple renovations. How did Laban come to have these records, that, apparently, the King didn't have? Presumably Laban was so ignorant of their importance that he didn't realize how valuable the would be to Josiah. Somehow Lehi knew that Laban had these records, but the king did not.
The plates contained the normal books of Moses, and a genealogy of Lehi's forefathers. It also contains prophecies of Zenock, Zenos, Neum, and Isaiah.
The language of the Brass Plates is described as Egyptian.
What Was On the Brass Plates
I think the many apparent quotes, allusions, and cultural reworking from the Book of Moses in the Book of Mormon clearly evince that a version of Genesis which included this narrative was included in the text.[1]
Clearly, they also had an Exodus narrative more or less related to our current Exodus.
While David and Solomon are only referred to negatively by Jacob (Jacob 2:23-24), it is also true, that this negative reference implies that they were being used as plausibly positive examples, to justify copying one of their negative behaviors.
In 1 Nephi 4, when Nephi kills Laban, I think that it should not be terribly controversial to point out that this story is told in a way that we should be able to recognize as alluding to the story of David and Goliath. That said, David nor Goliath are named in any clear way, while allusions to Jacob, son of Isaac include the name of his uncle, Laban, and Moses is directly identified along with Pharaoh. (There is even allusion to the fall of Adam, and it's plausible that Adam's name is used in a bit of wordplay to buttress the allusion.) The story of David and Goliath is somewhat controversial, and for good reason. 2 Samuel 21:19 says that Goliath was slain by "Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite". It would seem that there has been some textual corruption somewhere, and it is not hard to imagine that a propagandistic motive might have led to giving David credit for something he did not do. Many attribute a late date to the authorship of the story, but considering how much was altered before Nephi's time, this could be an altered text. The Book of Mormon, by avoiding talk of David and Goliath in a more direct fashion, does not appear to shed any light on the controversy. This leads me to wonder; Was Nephi really alluding to David and Goliath? could he have been referring to a story we don't have about Elhanan and Goliath? Could he have been alluding to an older story? One thing that is worth considering is that, as an allusion to David and Goliath, the story would act to buttress the legitimacy of the kingdom Nephi will have established by the time he writes the account we have now. (Though we don't know a story of Elhanan and Goliath, and I'm not familiar with an older tale he might have been referring to. Perhaps such a story would also serve the same purpose.) It may be that, like the use of Adam's name, David, Elhanan, Goliath, or another may be alluded to through wordplay. That may be worth some investigation. Regardless, it's clear that the Nephites have some kind of history regarding David.
The books of Samuel get some support for having been included in the brass plates due to the uncannily ironic parallels at the beginning of the Book of Alma, where King Mosiah's children, and Alma, son of the prophet Alma, are both rebelling and setting a bad example for the church much like Samuel's sons did, along with the sons of Eli. In the Bible, the sons go uncorrected, leading to the Lord being rejected, and the people subjugating themselves to a king. In the Book of Mormon's ironic parallel, the sons are corrected, leading the sons of Mosiah to reject the throne, leading to Mosiah proposing, and the people accepting, doing away with kings and adopting judges, along with individual accountability before the Lord.
I believe the further allusion to the books of Samuel is made in the telling of the story of Samuel, the Lamanite. Both he and the biblical Samuel, herald in the crowning of kings. Biblically, he anoints Saul and David, who is anointed king by Samuel. In the Book of Mormon, this is the anointed one (the Messiah in Hebrew; the Christ in Greek), the king of kings. Both prophets are called during a time of spiritual decay and are rejected by the people.
I'm inclined to say that the Brass Plates had an account of the prophet Samuel. (This would overlap with an account of David.)
Cross-References