A deeper look into the Words of Mormon -- Part 2

The main takeaway from part 1 is this: Martin Harris did not lose all the translated pages. A small part was not brought to Palmyra. It is the part leading up to and perhaps also consisting of some of our current Book of Mosiah. The part leading up to our current Book of Mosiah is currently found in the second half of the Words of Mormon, at least according to the theory I presented in part 1. Consequently, the first part of the Words of Mormon are Mormon's addendum to the small plates of Nephi to explain why he included them, while the second part was Mormon's abridgment of the large plates of Nephi, the hypothetical 117th page, if you will (even though we now know there were probably many more than 116 lost pages, we will refer to a hypothetical 117th page for simplicity).

It would be unlikely that this 117th page started with a new chapter. At least Oliver Cowdery did not usually write chapter headings on the next page when there was still space on the current page. It is in fact likely that the 117th page started in the middle of a sentence. But this would cause a strange disruption in the transition from the small to the large plates that, according to the discussed theory, would be found in the middle of our current Words of Mormon. This is not something that we see. Wherever this transition is, it all seems quite smooth. Lyon and Minson, in their article, believe that the transition point is found between verses 11 and 12. Let's have a look. 

11 And they were handed down from king Benjamin, from generation to generation until they have fallen into my hands. And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.

12 And now, concerning this king Benjamin—he had somewhat of contentions among his own people.

13 And it came to pass also that the armies of the Lamanites came down out of the land of Nephi, to battle against his people. But behold, king Benjamin gathered together his armies, and he did stand against them; and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of Laban.

The theory is that the Words of Mormon, his added commentary to the small plates actually ends with verse 11. It does seem like a natural ending. Both Mormon and Moroni typically finished their writings with references to the judgement. (The Book of Mormon title page, Mormon's final words in Mormon 7:10 and Moroni's final words in the last verse of the Book of Mormon all have references to judgement day).

According to the article by Lyon and Minson, the 117th page started with what is now found in verse 12 quoted above, meaning that it started with a new sentence. This is entirely possible, but it does not fit with the impression that "this Benjamin" in verse 12 refers to verse 11. If these two verses originally were completely disjointed, the reference in verse 12 must have been to something at the end of the lost pages. But it would be a strange coincidence that Benjamin in fact was mentioned in verse 11 when verse 12 makes such a reference. Personally, I see that as the biggest weakness of the whole theory.

Brant Gardner responded to the Lyon and Minson article here, not to criticize it, but to also point out that the interpretation of the data is influenced by our view of the Book of Mormon translation process. He believes that the latter half of the Words of Mormon is an inspired commentary by Joseph Smith, not found on any plates. Believing in a more "tight" translation model myself, I personally don't favor that, but I do believe there is a middle ground here. Perhaps some of it is an added commentary by Joseph or Oliver to make the transition work.

In the comment section of Gardner's article there is a bit of discussion between himself and Lyon. Reading that has led me to believe that there is a little bit of commentary by Joseph Smith (or Oliver Cowdery) to make a smooth transition. As mentioned, it is likely that the 117th page would start mid-sentence somewhere. It was probably about King Benjamin, since King Benjamin is the main character in the first part of Mormon's abridgment that we have. Perhaps this 117th page started in the middle of a passage about internal conflict among King Benjamin's people. To make a smooth transition, Joseph or Oliver summed up that part in what we now read as verse 12 and perhaps 13, before going back to the previously written part by Martin Harris. There would probably have been space on the paper after Words of Mormon 1:11 before the next page that was in the middle of Mosiah.

Royal Skousen also comments on the uniqueness of verse 12. "Somewhat of contentions" in our current version was "somewhat contentions" in the printer's manuscript. This is the only time in the Book of Mormon that "somewhat" is followed by a noun. I don't know if this is something that was typical for Joseph Smith's language, I have not been able to check for examples of this construction in any of his writings. But for now, I believe that at least verse 12 could be an insert replacing a half sentence or more that could not be used, all to make a smooth transition back to the 117th page and the rest of the translation of Mormon's abridgment from there.

There is a lot of speculation here, of course, but this is a scenario that at least does not seem unlikely. One question remains: Why did this part end up in the Words of Mormon? Why not write "Book of Mosiah" as a new heading before WoM 1:12? Since this was in the middle of a chapter, Joseph and Oliver probably didn't want to add a new heading. After all, Oliver would usually just write "chapter" whenever Joseph said so during the dictation, consistent with the original chapter division on the plates. The crossing out of the chapter number and insertion of "the Book of Mosiah" in the printer's manuscript shows that there must at least have been some confusion in the original manuscript about how to structure this.

I have been spending the most time on the theory that I find the most plausible. But there is another one written in a more recent paper. Here, the theory is that all of our current Words of Mormon are from Mormon's abridgment of the large plates of Nephi and a part of the original Mosiah chapter 2. Mormon basically is just making a commentary in the middle of his abridgment similar to 3 Nephi 5:12 and on. Personally, I find 3 problems with this theory

1. WoM 1:1 states that Mormon is about to deliver the records to his son, leading to the idea that he is about to finish his abridgment, not that he is in Mosiah, about half-way through Nephite history. The paper tries to make a case for an archaic meaning of "about to" but I am not fully convinced
2. In the first part of WoM, Mormon refers to the small plates of Nephi as "these plates" several times as if he is currently writing on them.
3. In 3 Nephi 5, Mormon introduces himself by name. That would not be necessary if he already had used, "I, Mormon" on the abridgment like we see in WoM 1:1, 9 and 11.

The theory discussed for the main part in these two posts, is the one I find the most plausible. But there might be other possibilities that nobody has thought about. The Words of Mormon is still a bit of a mystery. I have spent two posts discussing this from the perspective of the translation of the plates. I will spend the next post discussing the initial proceedings by Mormon.