Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 9: "Motley Fool"
Chapter Summary:
"Nephi makes two sets of records—Each is called the plates of Nephi—The larger plates contain a secular history; the smaller ones deal primarily with sacred things. About 600–592 B.C."
This chapter is another short parenthetical. But don't let its brevity fool you. This chapter has a hidden prophecy that only those familiar with early Mormon history will pick up on. You see, one of Joseph Smith's early associates and "scribes" for translating the Book of Mormon, Martin Harris, had a lot of money. Joseph insisted that god wanted Mr. Harris to cover the publishing costs of the Book of Mormon. Martin was super eager to help Joseph because he believed Joseph's story of receiving the gold plates (which Mr. Harris had yet to see) from an angel.
Knowing Martin to be a bit of a sucker for mystical woo, his wife, Lucy, was skeptical that Joseph might be taking advantage of her gullible husband. So she devised a plan to verify that Joseph really could translate ancient texts such as the gold plates. She convinced Martin to ask Joseph (repeatedly) for the transcript of what had been translated thus far; 116 pages in total. Once Martin had obtained the transcript, Lucy hid it and announced the rest of her plan: if Joseph is the real deal then he should be able to reproduce the transcript in its entirety, which can then be cross examined with the original; if the second transcript varies from the original, then he is likely a fraud.
Initially, Joseph was very upset and claimed that he feared god's wrath, damnation etc. Perhaps he really was scared if god. Or maybe he was just scared of being exposed by Martin's wife. At any rate, Joseph presented a solution which would sidestep the trap.
The "lost 116 pages", as they are known in Mormon lore, contained the same story as the chapters in 1 Nephi. However, instead of written in Nephi's point of view, they were written in the perspective of Nephi's father, Lehi. After all, Lehi was the patriarch and prophet and he supposedly taught Nephi how to make a book using metal plates, so it only makes sense that he would have his own book. In this chapter Nephi says that he wrote 2 books (which for some reason he decided should both be called "Nephi"). The first book would cover spiritual things and the second book would deal with the reign of kings and wars and the like.
This is rather odd though because the flow of both books seems to just be a continuous narrative--not two books focusing on different aspects of the same story, as described here. Nephi even says that he does not know why he has to make two separate books, but that god told him to do it for a "wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not." Could it be that god knew in advance that Joseph would lose the book of Lehi? Or could it be a clever way on the part of Joseph to avoid being caught in a scam?
I have not yet mentioned that in several chapters Nephi and other "writers" in the Book of Mormon talk about their limited writing space. In fact, the reason they use a completely different (and non-existent) language than their native Hebrew, namely "reformed Egyptian", is to save room on the gold plates. So why would god have them write the same 116 pages twice? Was there no other way to stop Mrs. Harris' evil scheme than to double-up on the very first book despite such limited space?