Saturday, November 23, 2019

Book of Mormon references to Enoch's Vision?

Noel Reynolds points out numerous examples of intertextual connections between the Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses.  I find many of these examples to be very interesting.

Consider this description of the earth's reaction to Christ's death of the cross in Enoch's vision:

55 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Look, and he looked and beheld the Son of Man lifted up on the cross, after the manner of men;
56 And he heard a loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the creations of God mourned; and the earth groaned; and the rocks were rent; and the saints arose, and were crowned at the right hand of the Son of Man, with crowns of glory; (Moses 7)

In Nephi's grand vision, just a few verses after he sees Christ lifted up on the cross (1 Nephi 11:33), we get this description of the earth:

4 And it came to pass that I saw a mist of darkness on the face of the land of promise; and I saw lightnings, and I heard thunderings, and earthquakes, and all manner of tumultuous noises; and I saw the earth and the rocks, that they rent; and I saw mountains tumbling into pieces; and I saw the plains of the earth, that they were broken up; and I saw many cities that they were sunk; and I saw many that they were burned with fire; and I saw many that did tumble to the earth, because of the quaking thereof. (1 Nephi 12)

Nephi later describes the death of the Savior (1 Nephi 19:10), immediately followed by a description of the changes that would take place on the earth at that time:

11 For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up. 12 And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos. And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers. (1 Nephi 19)

Later, at the time of Christ's death, we find this description:

9 And it came to pass that thus did the three days pass away. And it was in the morning, and the darkness dispersed from off the face of the land, and the earth did cease to tremble, and the rocks did cease to rend, and the dreadful groanings did cease, and all the tumultuous noises did pass away. (3 Nephi 10)

What does all of this mean? To me it means that not only is the Book of Mormon internally consistent relating to prophecies of Christ, in many cases it is also consistent with other books of scripture.

Nephi was clearly a student of the brass plates. It is very possibly those plates contained extrabiblical prophecies which were quoted by Nephi. Mormon also under the significance of Nephi's words and made sure to document the events at the time of Christ's visitation in a way that confirmed the fulfillment of prophecies.

From an authenticity standpoint, all of this is interesting to me because of the order of dictation...Joseph translated 3 Nephi 10 prior to 1 Nephi, and the Moses text did not come until late 1830. This means he not only would have needed to remember these 5 unique terms during the translation process, he would also need to retain that on his memory for an additional 18 months or so.

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