When you read the Book of Mormon, do you ever notice how common language can connect two distant verses and sometimes add meaning? For example, when you read the angry charges of King Lamoni’s father against Ammon, King Lamoni’s Nephite friend, in Alma 20:13, can you hear the echo of Father Laman in his charges against Nephi in 1 Nephi 16:38? And then in Laman’s words, can you hear the echo of the Book of Moses or something similar on the brass plates that warns us against the vile actions of Satan (see Moses 4:4)? Hearing and understanding these echoes can make scripture study much more interesting and colorful. Sometimes it can bring out hidden meaning that makes sense of puzzling passages. I’ll get into the details of the echoes in the words of King Lamoni’s father in a moment, after a bit of background.
A fascinating journey in my exploration of the scriptures of the Restoration began when I wondered why Nephi told his rebellious brothers to “be strong like unto Moses” (1 Nephi 4:2). The Old Testament didn’t say anything about Moses and strength, so what was Nephi alluding to? While considering this question, I encountered a 1990 publication from Noel Reynolds, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis,” that used textual clues to propose that something like our Book of Moses was on the brass plates. Intrigued, I examined the Book of Moses and quickly found a verse that would make perfect sense of Nephi’s comment if it had been on the brass plates and known to his family. It was the Lord’s words to Moses in Moses 1:25: “Blessed art thou, Moses, for I, the Almighty, have chosen thee, and thou shalt be made stronger than many waters; for they shall obey thy command as if thou wert God.”
That verse, if on the brass plates, would be a perfect fit for Nephi’s encouragement of his brethren. The Lord’s promise to Moses referred to the upcoming Exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea. For Nephi’s family, they would also be crossing many waters in their own exodus and needed the Lord’s help, even miraculous help. But first they needed faith in the Lord, faith to overcome their doubts and be strong like Moses so they could prepare and build a ship. Moses 1:25 provides a meaningful backstory that Nephi was alluding to, thus providing a one-way direction of influence from the Book of Moses to the Book of Mormon. Noticing the similarity in words between 1 Nephi 4:2 and Moses 1:25 adds insight about Nephi’s allusion and intent. There have been many similar discoveries on the connections between the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon, with well over 100 such parallels now identified. Some may be weak and due to coincidence, but many show explanatory power and provide meaningful information. Yet the connections are so unexpected because the Book of Moses translation did not begin until June 1830, a year after the Book of Mormon translation was complete. People have long assumed that Joseph just used his own Book-of-Mormon-laden language in translating the Book of Moses, such that the Book of Mormon was influencing the later Book of Moses text, but in many subtle and important connections, the direction of influence is clearly from the Book of Moses to the Book of Mormon.
One of the most recently noticed connections is a slight expansion on one of the first parallels that Noel Reynolds found in his original paper that listed thirty-three potential parallels. His Parallel #11 noted a connection between the description of Satan’s tactics in Moses 4:4 and Laman’s accusation against Nephi in 1 Nephi 16:38. Moses 4:4 says, “And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.”
Reynolds noted the implicit connection in Laman’s accusation against Nephi:
A remarkable passage in the first part of the Book of Mormon pulls all these Book of Moses themes about Satan together — to describe someone else. The implication is unmistakable when Laman characterizes his brother Nephi as one who lies and who deceives our eyes, thinking to lead us away for the purpose of making himself “a king and a ruler over us, that he may do with us according to his will and pleasure” (1 Nephi 16:38). Laman insinuates that Nephi, who chastises his wayward brothers, is himself like the devil. And resistance against him is not only righteous, but required. This account has the added complexity that it is a speech of Laman, who is quoted here in a record written by the very brother he attacks. If we accept the possibility that this text is dependent on a passage from an ancient source related to the Book of Moses, we then recognize a major new dimension of meaning, not only in Laman’s speech, but in Nephi’s decision to preserve the speech, thus showing his descendants, and any other readers familiar with the Moses text, the full nature of the confrontation between the brothers, as well as the injustice of the attacks he suffered. The full irony is revealed when we reflect on the facts reported in Nephi’s record and realize that Laman’s false accusation against Nephi is an accurate self-description.
— Noel B. Reynolds, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 34 (2020): 63-96.
For context, here’s all of 1 Nephi 16:38 with highlighting of some words from Laman:
Now, he says that the Lord has talked with him, and also that angels have ministered unto him. But behold, we know that he lies unto us; and he tells us these things, and he worketh many things by his cunning arts, that he may deceive our eyes, thinking, perhaps, that he may lead us away into some strange wilderness; and after he has led us away, he has thought to make himself a king and a ruler over us, that he may do with us according to his will and pleasure. And after this manner did my brother Laman stir up their hearts to anger.
Laman, a founding father of the Lamanite people, thus makes an implicit accusation that Nephi is following the description of Satan in Moses 4:4, for Nephi is a liar like the father of lies, a deceiver who implicitly blinds the eyes of his victims as he seeks to lead victims away into captivity where he will rule over them. Numerous elements of Moses 4:4 are present in his charge, as if he is the righteous defender of truth trying to stop Satan and his forces, including the wicked Nephi. Further, Nephi’s alleged miracles are Satanic works according to Nephi’s “cunning arts,” again to deceive others.
Laman’s anger and accusations against Nephi seem to have persisted for centuries in Lamanite culture, with further embellishments. We can see this in Zeniff’s summary around 180 B.C. of the litany of accusations the adjacent Lamanites have against the Nephites, according to the traditions they have inherited from their fathers:
They were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the tradition of their fathers, which is this — Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea;
And again, that they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance, after they had crossed the sea, and all this because that Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord — therefore he was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of their journey in the wilderness.
And his brethren were wroth with him because they understood not the dealings of the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened their hearts against the Lord.
And again, they were wroth with him when they had arrived in the promised land, because they said that he had taken the ruling of the people out of their hands; and they sought to kill him.
And again, they were wroth with him because he departed into the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, and took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, for they said that he robbed them.
And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi. (Mosiah 10: 12-17)
On point after point, Laman and Lemuel claimed to have been wronged by Nephi, including taking away their right to rule and being robbed of valuable artifacts and records. Adding to the irony, their ancient victimhood is used to justify the very crimes against the Nephites that they cited in their accusations against Nephi, plus much worse crimes.
With this background involving Laman’s accusation against Nephi and its apparent connection to the brass plates, let’s now turn to the story of Ammon and King Lamoni after King Lamoni’s moving conversion. This occurs around 90 BC, roughly a century after Zeniff’s report and about five centuries after Laman’s accusations in 1 Nephi 16:38. Two new friends from different nations, Ammon and King Lamoni, now brothers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are on the road to bring aid to Ammon’s imprisoned brethren when they meet King Lamoni’s father. The father is fuming, for King Lamoni had failed to come to a great feast his father had called, and now he is consorting with a Nephite, “one of the children of a liar” (Alma 20:10). King Lamoni tries to explain his delay and recent happenings, but the father shocks the son with his outrage:
And now when Lamoni had rehearsed unto him all these things, behold, to his astonishment, his father was angry with him, and said: Lamoni, thou art going to deliver these Nephites, who are sons of a liar. Behold, he robbed our fathers; and now his children are also come amongst us that they may, by their cunning and their lyings, deceive us, that they again may rob us of our property. (Alma 20:13)
This echoes the charges of robbery and other Lamanite complaints listed by Zeniff in Mosiah 10, but does much more. With these words, King Lamoni’s father is not just reciting general charges of Nephite oppression, but is also regurgitating a specific ancient charge of his forefathers. His words call our attention to Laman’s condemnation of his brother involving lying and deceiving, which in turn alludes to the Book of Moses. Plus the reference to “their cunning” echoes Laman’s concern over Nephi’s “cunning arts” aimed at further deceiving the forefathers of the Lamanites.
Just as Laman alluded to Moses 4:4 to suggest that Nephi was following the father of all lies, lying to his brethren to deceive them and blind them, to lead them away as captives with his cunning (subtle) arts, so King Lamoni’s father describes Ammon the Nephite as the son of a liar, whose alleged miracles are due to his Satanic cunning arts, again trying to deceive the Lamanites in order to exploit them. The ancient words of Father Laman still reverberate strongly in the mind of the great Lamanite king, words that must be understood as a meaningful and ironic allusion to Moses 4:4, though King Lamoni’s father may have had no knowledge of that verse, just the ancient accusation. Words like lyings, liar, deceive, and cunning help establish the echo of Laman’s charge in 1 Nephi 16:38 and its connection to Moses 4:4.
This scene in Alma 20 has unexpected resonance with a much older allusion to the brass plates version of Genesis apparently made by Laman centuries earlier. Such finds, minor as they may be, point to the richness of the intertextuality of the Book of Mormon and the blessing to us that was provided by the careful wording of the English translations of both the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon that help us learn from these features.
However Joseph was able to translate the gold plates and the Book of Moses, the translation process was revelatory and has given us English texts with meaningful ancient connections. These include an apparent influence on Book of Mormon figures by a proposed brass plates version of Genesis akin to our Book of Moses. Some of the parallels could be due to chance and others might not have been intended by an early Book of Mormon writer but may have been provided or amplified either by later editorial work by Mormon or in translation work by whomever crafted the English translation, whether that was a heavenly being or a young Joseph Smith acting under inspiration. In any case, the diverse results seem to require divine aid rather than the human work of a clever composer named Joseph Smith.
The Surprising Chronology
The meaning conveyed by clues in the language that connect one text to another can be a fascinating topic of study, but in the case considered here, it gets even more fascinating when the chronology of the translation work is considered. With respect to newly enhanced Parallel #11, in the case of the words of King Lamoni’s father in Alma 20:13, that verse was dictated early after the Book of Mosiah, but long before the dictation turned to the small plates. Having the recrimination against “the son of a liar” allude to Laman’s ancient accusation – before that story was even composed – is a remarkable thing for a text dictated on the fly without notes at a high rate of speed and without major revisions. If the Book of Mormon were a modern composition, how does the author of Alma 20 subtly allude to a backstory that hadn’t been written yet, with the precisely worded backstory to be filled in weeks later near the end of the translation process when 1 Nephi 16:38 is reached? And then how does one craft that verse to then allude to yet another backstory, the characterization of Satan in Moses 4:4—a verse the would not be written until over a year later? Implicit in Alma 20:13 are references to two backstories not yet written at that point in the translation process: Laman’s Satanic charges against Nephi, and the description of Satan in the Book of Moses that brings life and irony to Laman’s accusation, and that still resonates with the charges made against Ammon by King Lamoni’s father. Two layers of backstories that have not been written yet, or linked verses dictated in the “wrong order” with the main backstory in the Book of Moses coming long after the Book of Mormon has been completed, and the additional backstory in 1 Nephi 16:38 coming weeks after the words of King Lamoni’s father have already been recorded without revision: does anybody write like that? The chronological sequence in the writing makes no sense for Joseph Smith as the author, but is perfectly compatible with Joseph as the translator of ancient texts already rich in allusions, backstories, and intertextuality. That these echoes were so well preserved in the translation process is one of the many miracles of the Restoration,
Such questions abound in the utterly unexpected connections between the Book of Mormon and the later-translated text of the Book of Moses, which improbably seems to provide the backstory to and key terminology for many aspects of the earlier Book of Mormon. This all makes no sense unless one can entertain the possibility of real ancient texts with real ancient authors, where one ancient text could influence the other, and where both were produced “in the wrong order” in modern times by a prophet translating with the power of God. It’s a surprising story backed by surprising and unexpected data. Alternate hypotheses and new questions are absolutely welcome as we explore the implications of the data, but for now, the connections between the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon strike me as important evidence for the divinity, authenticity, and antiquity of both texts, and for their miraculous translation into English.
Related Resources:
- Noel B. Reynolds, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis,” in By Study and Also by Faith: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, 27 March 1990, edited by John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS]; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 2:136–73. This was republished as Noel B. Reynolds, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 34 (2020): 63–96, https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-brass-plates-version-of-genesis/.
- Jeff Lindsay and Noel B. Reynolds, “‘Strong Like unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 44 (2021): 1–92, https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/strong-like-unto-moses-the-case-for-ancient-roots-in-the-book-of-moses-based-on-book-of-mormon-usage-of-related-content-apparently-from-the-brass-plates/. Also see the earlier work, Jeff Lindsay, “‘Arise from the Dust’: Insights from Dust-Related Themes in the Book of Mormon (Part 1: Tracks from the Book of Moses),” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 22 (2016): 179–232, https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/arise-from-the-dust-insights-from-dust-related-themes-in-the-book-of-mormon-part-1-tracks-from-the-book-of-moses/.
- Jeff Lindsay, “Further Evidence from the Book of Mormon for a Book of Moses-Like Text on the Brass Plates,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 61 (2024): 415-494, https://interpreterfoundation.org/further-evidence-from-the-book-of-mormon-for-a-book-of-moses-like-text-on-the-brass-plates/.
- Jeff Lindsay, “Parallels Between the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon: Details of Distribution, Relationships to the JST, and Further New Findings,” forthcoming (currently under peer review).
