Mosiah 28

1 Now it came to pass that after the sons of Mosiah had done all these things, they took a small number with them and returned to their father, the king, and desired of him that he would grant unto them that they might, with these whom they had selected, go up to the land of Nephi that they might preach the things which they had heard, and that they might impart the word of God to their brethren, the Lamanites—

As a refresher, “all these things” that the sons of Mosiah have been doing were attempts to rectify the effects of their preaching against the church in the land of Zarahemla. Because of their clearly privileged position as the sons of the king, they had most probably been very instrumental in diverting many away from the church in Zarahemla. It was therefore to those people that they had most directly hurt by their actions that they made their first “mission.”

What we have in this next section is a secondary “mission.” Once the sons of Mosiah (and “a small number with them”) and spend some time in the land of Zarahemla, they had apparently done what they could to correct the effects of their earlier error. What they want to do now is continue to preach the word. They ask to mount a mission to the Lamanites. Why the Lamanites?

In the traditional sense of Book of Mormon interpretation, the Lamanites would have been the only other people around, and if all of Zarahemla were converted, there would be nowhere else to go. Even interpreting “Lamanite” as a term for all non-Nephites as we have done in this commentary, it might still be considered logical to turn to the Lamanites if all of Zarahemla were converted.

It is possible that there is more than this behind the request to preach to the Lamanites. Given the nature of the apostasy of the sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger, it is very likely that they had been converted to the Lamanite religion (at least the type of Lamanite religion that was practiced by Noah and his priests). Assuming that this were true, it would be a very natural thing for the thoughts of the sons of Mosiah to turn to those people who were so recently admired that their religion and philosophy had been adopted by the sons of Mosiah. This becomes even more likely when we remember the number of times that the Lamanites have been described pejoratively by Nephites (such as 2 Nephi 5:21-24, Enos 1: 20, Mosiah 9:12, and Mosiah 10:12). With this apparent cultural preconditioning against anything Lamanite, we might expect that the sons of Mosiah might never consider preaching to them.

Just as did Zeniff (Mosiah 9:1), it would appear that the sons of Mosiah found much that was good in the Lamanites. They appear to have adopted some of it, and now naturally turn to those people to give them the joy they have so recently found.

Mosiah 28:2

2 That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them.

Mosiah 28:3

3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

Mosiah 28:4

4 And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite mercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever.

These verses declare the depth of the change that the sons of Mosiah underwent. They were “the vilest of sinners” (verse 4). The change from vile to redeemed was so great and soul transforming that it altered their entire outlook on life. This type of dramatic change is almost the exclusive province of those who have come so far so fast. While all may feel the transforming power of the spirit, those who have made such a dramatic and drastic change can taste that change more deeply that those for whom their transformation has been more incremental. It is these who can remember the “taste” of both sides of the judgment who are most sensitive to others who are in the state they have most recently left.

After their redemption, they felt so powerfully the joy of God that they desired to share it with the Lamanites. They could see how this new perspective might completely alter the ages-old conflicts between Lamanite and Nephite (verse 2). This was not a change completely founded in a concern for those who might have been sympathetic to their former life, but a desire for any and all to feel the tremendous joy they had felt.

In the modern world, new converts are very likely to feel this exact feeling. The newness and excitement of the gospel makes them desirous to share with all. Unfortunately, this is a feeling that appears to wane, and the longer we live with the benefits of the gospel, the less we understand how precious and exciting it is. The feeling can be recaptured, but not without conscious effort on our parts.

Mosiah 28:5

5 And it came to pass that they did plead with their father many days that they might go up to the land of Nephi.

Mosiah 28:6

6 And king Mosiah went and inquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word.

Mosiah 28:7

7 And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites.

Mosiah 28:8

8 And it came to pass that Mosiah granted that they might go and do according to their request.

Mosiah 28:9

9 And they took their journey into the wilderness to go up to preach the word among the Lamanites; and I shall give an account of their proceedings hereafter.

The request is directed to the King. There are several reasons why this was appropriate. On one level, it was appropriate because they were asking their father. It is also more than appropriate, but even required, for another reason. Note that at this time there is a separation between the political and the religious aspects of life in Zarahemla. Alma is the religious leader, but this request to perform a religious labor does not go to Alma, but rather to Mosiah. While Mosiah was a religious man, and righteous enough to be able to use the interpreters (Mosiah 8:13), he is not the head of the church. One might expect that a request of a religious nature should be directed through the head of the church.

The request comes to Mosiah as king precisely because it involves the Lamanites. The preaching to the Lamanites could have any number of consequences. Should there be an unfavorable reception, the sons of Mosiah could be captured and held for ransom, or at least sacrificed. The preaching to the Lamanites might be seen by the Lamanites as a spying mission, and the tentative relationships between Zarahemla and the Lamanites might be thrown into disarray. In other words, the very actions proposed by the sons of Mosiah had numerous potential political ramifications, including the positive possibility of improving relationships. It is for this important reason that it was most appropriate to bring the issue to Mosiah as king.

While Mosiah was certainly the king, and was certainly more concerned with the political than the religious, that made him no less a righteous leader, as witnessed by his action. Rather than make the decision on his own, Mosiah consults the Lord, and the Lord tells him that the mission will be beneficial. This is the true role of a political leader, to counsel with the Lord for the good of his people, and to be sufficiently righteous to be worthy of receiving an answer.

Mosiah 28:10

10 Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom upon, for there was not any of his sons who would accept of the kingdom.

Our listing of the sons of Mosiah numbers only four. Mosiah might have had other sons, but if he did this passage would be a little harder to explain. It is a simple thing to pass over this declaration that his sons declined to accept the kingdom, but why would they do that? Certainly they would have all been trained from birth in their responsibilities to the kingdom. The one intervening circumstance is the spiritual transformation that the named four underwent. That experience does appear to have so transformative as to lead to the situation in which the four sons would abandon their inheritance for the opportunity to preach the gospel. This would therefore presume that these four were the only sons of Mosiah, as any remaining son would have been hard pressed to find a reason to decline the opportunity to be a king. It is quite clear from the dynastic histories of virtually all known kingships that competence would be a rare deciding factor in accepting the position. It is most likely that Mosiah had only the four sons, and that their decision to decline the kingship was a direct outcome of their complete change of heart.

Nevertheless, something else is going on that Mormon does not tell us. Even if none of his sons would accept, lines of kingship are seldom so narrowly defined. In Mesoamerica such occasions were faced not infrequently in the king-lines among the later Aztecs, and the kingship would pass to a son of a brother, or perhaps to a son of a son. Not only must his sons have declined, but there must not have been any other possible heir for this coming change in government to occur because of a rupture in succession. While it is possible that there were no other possible heirs, it is equally possible that Mormon is skipping over some of the details and simply going to the heart of the issue, which is the transition from kings to judges among the Nephites.

Mosiah 28:11

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;

Mosiah 28:12

12 And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people who had been destroyed.

Mormon appears to indicate that Mosiah accumulates the records of the people in anticipation of the coming change in government. Why does Mormon choose to edit his records in such a way that the translation of the plates found by Limhi’s people should follow the denial of the sons of Mosiah to follow Mosiah in kingship? The only indication that Mormon gives is that the people were anxious to know what was on the plates. While this is certainly true, it is not a complete answer.

One of the problems we have is that Mormon gives us no time frame for any of these events. We have no firm dating until Mosiah 29:45-6 where we learn of the death of both Alma the Elder and Mosiah II 509 years after the departure from Jerusalem under the Nephite accounting of years. To recount just a few important dates, the deaths of Alma and Mosiah II would correlate to 92 BC. Mosiah was enthroned as king in 124 BC, 462 Nephite years from the departure from Jerusalem. The reunification of the people of Alma and Limhi with the people of Zarahemla had to occur after Mosiah was made king, and therefore somewhere between these two dates of 124 BC and 92BC.

We have 32 of our calendar years in which all of the events of the creation of the church and the conversion of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah must have taken place. When would they have occurred? It is certain that the establishment of the church would have occurred within a year or so after the reunification, which would certainly have been a minimum of a year after the departure of Aaron. Adding a couple of years for safety, we might guess that perhaps 120 BC would be a reasonable date for the establishment of the church.

It does not appear from Mormon’s account that Alma and Mosiah die immediately after this event with the records. Certainly Mosiah doesn’t appear to think that Alma is near death, as he gives the records over to Alma without a discussion of Alma’s succession. Nevertheless, these events had to occur somewhere near the end of his reign or he would not be considering the possibility of transferring kingship. Placing the conversion of the sons of Alma and Mosiah near the end of this timeframe gives them enough time to have a church established, to have made a decision to fight against it, and to have had some time to be successful at this endeavor.

This situation adds another wrinkle to the request of the sons of Mosiah to preach to the Lamanites. The journey would take some time, and no matter how successful or unsuccessful, Mosiah could not be sure that his sons would return speedily. It is perhaps very directly related to the departure of all of his sons for the mission to the Lamanites that begins turning Mosiah’s thoughts to the transferal of rule.

With all of his sons declining to become king, a fact that would have been decided prior to their departure, Mosiah would know that he had to prepare for a transfer of power that might not be without controversy and contention. Indeed, he specifically notes that he fears the possibility of contentions over the transfer of power (Mosiah 29:7). With this frame of mind, it would appear that Mosiah is preparing for the worst. In case of a very dangerous upheaval, he takes care first of what he considers most important – the sacred records. He prepares to turn the records over to Alma for safekeeping, probably hoping thereby to keep them from danger in a possible war for power among the people of Zarahemla. This worry would not be totally unfounded considering both the normal nature of mankind and the known religious divisions that existed in Zarahemla society. There were ready-made fault lines along which his people could divide given a contentious transfer of power.

It would appear that one of the tasks that he gives himself is the translation of the record on the gold plates that were found by the people of Limhi (Mosiah 8:9). These plates would have been given to Mosiah soon after Limhi’s people had arrived, since Limhi and his people were quite interested in having them translated (see Mosiah 8:11-12). Clearly they had not been translated until this date, perhaps (as a rough guess) twenty years after Mosiah had received them. Why Mosiah had delayed so long is not explained, but perhaps he understood that the change in leadership might not yield one who would have the power to use the two stones (the Urim and Thummin and never so named in the Book of Mormon) that would allow for their translation. As part of Mosiah’s preparation for the transfer or the records to Alma the Elder for safekeeping, he apparently decides that he may no longer delay the translation of this record.

Mosiah 28:13

13 And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.

Mosiah 28:14

14 Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages;

Mosiah 28:15

15 And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people;

Mosiah 28:16

16 And whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times.

During Ammon’s discussion with Limhi in Mosiah 8 we learn more of how these stone and the man who could use them were conceived:

Mosiah 8:13

13 Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer….

Mosiah 8:17

17 But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.

In this verse we add to the current chapter’s rather limited explanation of the power of the stones. In the current chapter we are most concerned with the ability of the stones to be the interpreters for records that cannot otherwise be read. In Mosiah 8:17 we have the additional information that the seer (who is a seer due to his possession and use of the stones) may reveal things of the past and future, and make secret things known.

Thus for Ammon, the stones were more than just a means of reading records. They were a means of seeing the hidden. They were a way that the knowledge of God was manifest among men, through the medium of the seer who possessed the gift of God to use those interpreters.

In the Old Testament, there were stones called the Urim and Thummim, which appear to function similarly to these interpreters of Mosiah. This similarity of function might lead one to assume that they are the same as the Old World stones, but that is not required by the text nor the circumstances. It is entirely possible that a second set would be created for the New World Nephites, and similarly work to divine the will of God.

Their Old World function may be inferred:

“When Joshua is solemnly appointed to succeeded the great hero-lawgiver, he is bidden to stand before Eleazar, the priest, “who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim,” and this counsel is to determine the movements of the host of Israel (Numbers 27:21. In the blessings of Moses they appear as the crowning glory of the tribe of Levi: “They Thummim and they Urim are with they Holy One” (Deut 33:8,9).” (“Urim and Thummim”. Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Fleming H. Revell Company. 1970, p. 719).

As with the New World Interpreters, they are not limited in their functions, but rather serve as means of communicating the will of God. Walther Eichrodt takes a view more typical of modern social sciences, but nevertheless captures some of the essential meaning of the stones:

“The interpretation of the stones as memorials of Yahweh’s self-manifestations was able to subsist side by side with the popular conception that they were receptacles of holy power and signs of God’s abiding presence.” (Eichrodt, Walther. Theology of the Old Testament. The Westminster Press. 1961, p. 116).

One of the functions of the stones as presented in the Book of Mormon is to be translaters for ancient records, a function they continued to perform as part of the restoration as Joseph began to use them to translate the plates he was given by Moroni. While this particular function is not mentioned in the Old Testament, we must remember that it is not the exclusive use of these interpreters. They also appear in the Book of Mormon with the familiar functions known from the Old World.

Once again, it is not necessary that these stones be the precise Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Old Testament, as they could easily be stones created or set apart anew as replacements for the Old World stones. The priesthood functions had to follow a new tradition in the New World because Lehi was not a Levite. The re-creation of the priesthood could easily have incorporated the re-creation of these interpreters in the hands of a righteous man.

Mosiah 28:17

17 Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam.

Mosiah 28:18

18 Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice.

Mosiah 28:19

19 And this account shall be written hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account.

These three verses close the section concerning the translation of the records from the people of Limhi. As a conclusion they are quite disappointing. Verse 17 is the only information given at this point that describes the contents of that record. While Mormon clearly thinks that the content was important, because he will include it later (verse 19: these plates serve as the text for the Book of Ether added much later) at this point he gives only the tersest of synopses. When Moroni does write about the contents of these records we learn that there was a section of the translation of these plates that was commanded to be withheld until after Christ had been born (Ether 4:5-6). Mormon apparently honored that wish chronologically, even though Mormon was clearly writing after Christ's birth.

What is also missing from our current edition of the Book of Mormon is the complete finality of these short verses. These verses end a chapter in the 1830 edition. Thus for the original reader of the Book of Mormon, there is a great build up to Mosiah as the possessor of these interpreters, and the fact of his translation, and then a very rapid close to the chapter, with only the promise that the text would come later. While it is true that it does come later, it comes only after Mormon has finished with absolutely everything he had to say, and gave the plates over to his son Moroni, who finally includes the text (Ether 1:1). Thus Mormon himself might have been content to leave this text out entirely, even though he makes a big deal of their translation.

Mosiah 28:20

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.

As indicated previously, Mosiah appears to be preparing for a potential political upheaval among his people. He would certainly hope for better, but appears to be preparing for the worst. In this case, he transfers items that had been part of his care into the hands of Alma. These items include the records and the interpreters. They do not include the Liahona nor the Sword of Laban. It appears that those items were much more tightly associated with the political rule.

It is fascinating that the records were turned over to Alma, as this returns the records to a patently religious line of transmission. The separate plate traditions begun by Nephi have been united under Benjamin (Amaleki gave the small plates to Benjamin; Omni 1:25) but now shift their transmission again, if only slightly.

Textual: In the 1830 edition the chapter ends with our verse 19. This verse is the beginning of a new chapter, and a new idea for Mormon the editor. Even this verse does not retain all of the impact of the original in that the 1830 edition has this as a single paragraph that continues to our current 29:1. In other words, this verse ends in the middle of a paragraph of the 1830 edition.

Paragraphs are much more modern markers than are chapter divisions. It is not clear at all that Mormon would have used paragraphs to tell his story, and likely did not. Unlike the chapter breaks that do appear to have some correlation to the plates, paragraphs may have been more at the whim of the translator and scribe. Thus there should not be too great of weight laid to the splitting of this paragraph.