The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is a sacred text in the Latter Day Saint tradition, commonly called Mormonism. It was first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr., an American religious leader from upstate New York. The book presents itself as a collection of ancient documents attributed to various authors, spanning several centuries of composition. These documents tell the story of an offshoot group of ancient Israelites who traveled by ship to the Americas in the sixth century BCE. The Book of Mormon also depicts a visit by Jesus Christ to the Americas after the events of his life, death, and resurrection in Roman Judaea. The prophets of the American-Israelite societies are depicted as keeping their historical records and religious teachings on metal plates, which were then buried in the fourth century CE, later to be discovered and translated by Smith in the 19th century. The Book of Mormon is part of the canon of Latter Day Saint scripture, together with the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price (the latter two books being further works that include materials written or compiled by Smith).

This study guide uses the 2013 printing of the standard edition authorized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. References are given in conventional biblical-citation format (designating the book, chapter, and verse of each reference) rather than by page numbers, so readers can use this study guide with any edition of The Book of Mormon published since the standard enumeration of 1879 was introduced.

A note on terminology: the abbreviation LDS is used in this study guide as an adjectival shorthand designating the broad movement descended from Joseph Smith’s ministry, not specifically as a reference to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in Utah (whose name, when specified, will appear in a hyphenated form and with an uncapitalized “d,” as in its preferred usage). Since many LDS churches oppose the use of “Mormon” or “Mormonism” as a term for their religious tradition, this study guide uses LDS as its main referential term. Further, following common LDS conventions, masculine pronouns are occasionally used for God in this study guide.

Summary

The Book of Mormon is composed of 15 texts of widely varying lengths, ranging from a single chapter to 63 chapters. It progresses in roughly chronological fashion, beginning with the exodus of a family of Israelites from Jerusalem before the city’s fall to the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE and ending with the destruction of their descendants in America 1,000 years later. The narrative primarily follows one branch of the family, the Nephites, while another branch, the Lamanites, maintain a continuous presence in the narrative as well. Whereas the Lamanites reject their heritage of religious devotion, the Nephites work (though not always successfully) to maintain a culture focused on faith in Jesus Christ and on keeping God’s commandments.

The first three books, 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, and Jacob, contain the historical narratives and religious teachings of the original family that emigrated from Israel to the Americas, focusing especially on the patriarch Lehi and two of his sons, Nephi and Jacob. Each of these characters exercises the gift of prophecy, having been granted foresight into God’s plan of salvation and the coming of the Messiah in six centuries’ time. This opening section is followed by four short texts—Enos, Jarom, Omni, and the Words of Mormon—which briefly describe the continuing history of the Nephite branch of the family, who have separated from their Lamanite cousins and developed into a separate society. The Nephite branch emigrates to a nearby territory, Zarahemla, and establishes a kingdom under its leader, Mosiah. These four short texts bridge the gap between the patriarchal narratives of the opening books and the grand historical sweep of the next books, which paint a picture of the rise of Nephite society into a burgeoning new civilization.

The Books of Mosiah, Alma, and Helaman make up the core of The Book of Mormon’s historical narrative, all of them substantial texts interweaving stories of the people’s religious and political fortunes. Together, they cover the period leading up to the first century CE, as the Nephites continue to be exhorted to prepare for the imminent coming of Jesus Christ. Politically, these books describe the reigns of kings Benjamin and Mosiah II, as well as the Nephites’ transition to a republic led by judges. These events are tied into the religious life of their society, as the kings and judges very often also serve as prophets and priests. A new movement arises under Alma the priest, who begins exhorting people to put their faith in Christ, baptizing them, and drawing these adherents into a church. This church movement then becomes the established form of religion among the Nephites, though periods of devotion and revival are interspersed with seasons of growing complacency and religious negligence. Missionaries regularly take up the call to go and preach to the Lamanites, meeting both successes and significant resistance along the way.

The next set of books—3 Nephi, 4 Nephi, and Mormon—bring the reader into a new phase of Nephite history, in which Jesus Christ appears in the Americas after the events of his death and resurrection in Roman Judaea in the first century CE. Nephite society had swung back and forth through periods of dissension and political fractures in the early first century, but the arrival of Jesus opens an entirely new period in their story. The prophecies and religious movements that had anticipated Jesus now find their fulfillment, and Jesus adds to that foundation with a series of ethical teachings, doctrines on salvation, and institutional instructions for the life of his church. Much as in his prior ministry, Jesus again designates 12 followers to be his disciples, and after Jesus’s ascension back into heaven, these men undertake ministries to establish the church and spread the gospel message. Unfortunately, this period of vibrant religious life is short-lived, and not long after the disciples’ ministry ends, Nephite society again resumes its swing toward impiety and self-indulgence. This failure to follow God’s ways ultimately leads them into a genocidal war with the Lamanites, in which the Nephites are destroyed. The last Nephite military leader, Mormon, is also a prophet and a guardian of the people’s sacred records, and he buries them in the side of the Hill Cumorah in the late fourth century CE.

Mormon’s son, Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, completes the collection of records with contributions of his own: the Books of Ether and Moroni. The Book of Ether tells the story of another group of people, the Jaredites, who were also a people of Middle Eastern origin who had emigrated to the Americas in ancient times. The Jaredites had come much earlier than the Nephites, and their sacred records told a similar story to that of the Nephite records: a narrative of faith and apostasy, civilization and war, and, ultimately, the destruction of their society. The final text in the collection, the Book of Moroni, brings the Nephite’s sacred records to their end and exhorts the reader to heed the message of the narrative and put their trust in Jesus Christ. Moroni buried these final texts with the other records his father had deposited in the Hill Cumorah, where they would rest until Joseph Smith’s arrival in the 1820s.