Read and find out.
If one could write a history of all sacred texts, then one would notice several patterns. Not only would sacred texts have a history of being ignored by the people for whom they were written, but those sacred texts also would have a history of getting LOST. No doubt the two patterns are related – but NOT completely. Ancient prophets were known to hide records to protect them from enemies and to preserve them for the ages. In doing so, they were obeying the will of God as they understood it.
It is fun to think of the many examples of lost scripture:
The book of Deuteronomy apparently was lost due to neglect and poor housecleaning. In about 623 BCE Josiah cleansed the temple of idols and Canaanite practices. In the process a "book of the covenant" was discovered (2 Kings 23:2). Scholars now recognize this book as that of Deuteronomy. For better, or perhaps worse (according to Margaret Barker) Josiah changed the course of Judaic religion.
Another famous case of lost scripture comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls. These scrolls represent hundreds of ancient documents, some containing our oldest versions of the Bible. They were discovered between 1946 and 1956. While many of the documents cannot be said to be "scripture," all of the documents are of extraordinary value. Ancient editors hid the records in clay jars embedded within desert caves. The records stayed relatively preserved for the next two thousand years.
In Book of Mormon history, scriptures always were getting lost. Let's take the examples in rough order:
The Plates of Brass can be considered lost, at least to us humans. 1 Nephi chapters 4 and 5 describe how Nephi slayed Laban in Jerusalem in order to obtain the Plates of Brass. These plates played an important role in Nephite culture. They contained the five Books of Moses, and the lost writings of many other prophets, such as Zenos, Zenock, Neum, and Ezias. Some of the writings of the Plates of Brass influenced the Book of Mormon, but most of the contents were lost to us, perhaps to be restored someday.
The Plates of Ether are another famous "lost" but "re-found" record: King Limhi sent 43 people on an expedition into the wilderness in search for the land of Zarahemla, which they did not find. However, the expedition did find 24 gold plates, known as the plates of Ether, with engravings about the history of the Jaredites (Mosiah 8: 8-9; Ether 1:2).
Certainly, the Book of Mormon plates can be considered as lost. Moroni buried the plates about the year 421. Joseph Smith attempted to retrieve those plates in September of 1823. His annual attempts every September to obtain the plates failed until 1827. Finally, he retrieved the plates hidden in the earth in a stone case. The plates contained a record written in a reformed Egyptian.
Joseph Smith dictated a translation of those plates, but then 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Lehi, the beginning of the Book of Mormon, was lost. Between April 12th and June 14th of 1828, Martin Harris took dictation from Joseph Smith. Martin Harris "borrowed" the resultant manuscript to show to others, especially his wife, but promptly lost the entire manuscript. The Book of Lehi was never found. Such was the lost beginning of the Book of Mormon.
Eventually, in 1830 the Book of Mormon was published with the help of Oliver Cowdery as scribe. But, the original manuscript dictated to Oliver Cowdery by Joseph Smith was lost. In 1841 Joseph Smith placed the original manuscript in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House. Over 40 years later Louis Bidamon retrieved the highly damaged pages that remained. Currently, we have less than 30% of those original pages, but they testify that the Book of Mormon was produced word for word with little change. This finding presents an enigma that the scholarly world must someday reconcile.
Latter-day Saints have a broad view of scripture. God talks to people, and people make records. Of course, the Bible is considered canonical, but it is not as unique as many non-LDS churches claim. The Book of Mormon teaches that in the "last days" additional books (perhaps like the Dead Sea Scrolls) will come forth:
1 Nephi 13:39
39 … I beheld other books, which came forth by the power of the Lamb, from the Gentiles unto them, unto the convincing of the Gentiles and the remnant of the seed of my brethren [of the lineage of Joseph], and also the Jews who were scattered upon all the face of the earth, that the records of the prophets and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are true.
There are many lost books yet to come forth (1 Ne. 13: 39-40; 2 Ne. 29: 8, 11-12; Alma 29:8).
Why am I interested in the topic of lost scriptures? The reason is simple. My oldest son (whom I designate as Son#1) loves the scriptures and systematically studies and marks them. A couple days ago his scriptures were lost due to an act of thievery upon his car. The side window was broken and the thief or thieves took his scriptures and a computer. The markings and comments in his scriptures represented hundreds and hundreds of hours of scripture study.
The thieves not only stole a Bible and a Triple Combination (which they probably will never read), but they stole part of my son's life.
But, life goes on.
If the Lord allows original plates and manuscripts of scripture to be lost, then he certainly will allow the scriptures owned by a single individual to be lost. Sometimes our pains have to be placed in a larger perspective.
My son immediately bought a new set of scriptures and started marking them up with his trusty Millennium pen (see the link on the sidebar). Like many tragedies, one can make lemonade out of lemons. He now had a good excuse to re-read, re-study, and re-mark the scriptures.
Devotion to scripture is one of the great blessings of life. One cannot study them too much.
Copyright © 2010 S.Faux (Email: foxgoku54 [at] gmail [d0t] c0m; URL: http://mormoninsights.blogspot.com). Readers may distribute this post for noncommercial purposes provided such distributing is of the entire post, including author's copyright and contact information. All other rights reserved.
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2 comments:
I'm sorry about your son's scriptures. I haven't lost mine, but I did get a new set recently...it has been strange to be without all of my old markings. However, as you point out, it is kind of fun to start all over.
Starting over is often a good thing, especially when one has used pen to mark one's scriptures, and life experiences have significantly changed one's perspective.
Not that losing the old ones is a good thing - they are like a journal, a record of a spiritual journey. It's just that I have enjoyed starting over and noting the things that are important to me now, without the distraction of things that were important to me then.
Hope that makes sense.
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