Forbidden to write -- Part 1

We see it several times in the Book of Mormon. The prophet who is writing is about to write something, but is then forbidden. I thought I should identify all those passages and make an overview of what they were about to write when they were stopped. I'm only going to include those that say they were forbidden. There are many others where they use expressions like "cannot write" without giving the reason. For instance

And now it came to pass that Samuel, the Lamanite, did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written. (Helaman 14:1)

We are left to wonder why it could not be written. Was Mormon forbidden, was there was too much to include in an abridged record, or another unknown reason? So we will stick to the examples of Book of Mormon prophets being explicitly forbidden to write. I hope I found all of them, but if not, please feel free to give me a hint in the comment field.

1 Nephi 14:25-28

25 But the things which thou shalt see hereafter thou shalt not write; for the Lord God hath ordained the apostle of the Lamb of God that he should write them.

26 And also others who have been, to them hath he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel.

27 And I, Nephi, heard and bear record, that the name of the apostle of the Lamb was John, according to the word of the angel.

28 And behold, I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard

Nephi sees a vision that connects both to his father's dream but also to the Book of Revelation. However, at this point he is not allowed to continue, because the apostle John has been assigned to do so. What would be written if Nephi were allowed to continue? My guess is that we would see a plainer version of what we have in the Book of Revelation. Less symolism and more direct speech. In 2 Nephi 25, when Nephi has just finished quoting Isaiah, he rejoices in plainness and starts writing about the things he read from Isaiah but in much clearer terms. It would definitely be interesting to see Nephi continue to write here but he was forbidden for a reason I guess.

2 Nephi 32:6-7

6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.

7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be.

Considering the quote shared in this post, it makes a lot of sense for Nephi to stop here. He has explained the way back to God and, considering the temple symbolism, brought the reader to the veil by the Holy of Holies. Just before "the Spirit stoppeth [his] utterance", he mentioned a manifestation of the Lord himself. Who knows what Nephi would have written if he was not stopped there? I bet it would be interesting indeed. Unfortunately, we are not ready for that yet as a collective unit. Nephi is left to mourn because of unbelief and wickedness instead, he says. But he leaves it open to the individual reader to "ask" and "knock" and be "brought into the light" (2 Nephi 32:4).

3 Nephi 26:10-11

10 And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation.

11 Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people.

The backdrop is found a few verses earlier

3 And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory—yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the heavens and the earth should pass away;

4 And even unto the great and last day, when all people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall stand before God, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil...

6 And now there cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people;

7 But behold the plates of Nephi do contain the more part of the things which he taught the people.

Mormon was about to write "the more part" of what Jesus taught the people and copy directly from the plates of Nephi rather than making an abridgment. But the Lord forbade it because he wanted to try our faith. I have wondered before why God commanded Mormon to make an abridgment at all. Why not just leave the plates of Nephi to Moroni to bury them? The abridgment is just a lot of extra work and contain less information. At least one of the answers seem to be found here. The plates of Nephi contained too much for us to handle. God gives us this abridgment first to try our faith and see if we are ready for "the more part" at some later point. This also seems to be a common reason why we have all these examples of being forbidden to write.

Being only half way through I think I need to break this down. The rest of the examples will be found in part 2 in tomorrow's post.