russ@dadlab.UUCP (05/19/84)
Now for more background and information on the objective test of
the revelation knowledge of Joseph Smith.
As early as 1823 when the angel Moroni appeared to him, Joseph learned
that some of the scriptures were translated incorrectly, at least they
were not quoted the same by Moroni as they appear in our Bibles.
Later when Joseph and Oliver were baptized Joseph records:
"Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the
scriptures laid open to our understanding, and the true
meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages
revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain
to previously, nore ever before thought of." (DHC 1:41)
The Book of Moses that we presently have in the Pearl of Great Price is
connected with the Translation (Inspired Revision) of the Bible. We
don't know exactly when Joseph started this "Translation", but the
Bible that was used in the work was purchased from E. B. Grandin in
Palmyra during the month of October 1829. In June of 1830 the Prophet
records the following:
"I will say . . . that amid all the trials and tribulations we
had to wade through, the Lord who well knew our infantile and
delicate situation, vouchsafed for us a supply of strength and
granted us line upon line of knowledge--here a little and there
a little, of which the following was a precious morsel:"
(DHC 1:98)
The Prophet then recorded the visions of Moses which comprises
chapter one of the Book of Moses. In December of the same year
he recorded the following:
"It will be well to observe here, that the Lord greatly
encouraged and strengthened the faith of His little flock,
which had embraced the fullness of the everlasting Gospel,
as revealed to them in the Book of Mormon, by giving some
more extended information upon the Scriptures, A TRANSLATION
OF WHICH HAD ALREADY COMMENCED. Much conjecture and conversation
frequently occurred among the Saints, concerning the books
mentioned, and referred to, in various places in the Old
and New Testaments, which are now nowhere to be found. The
common remark was: `They are lost books;' but it seems the
Apostolic Church has some of these writings, as Jude mentions
or quotes the Prophecy of Enoch, the seventh from Adam.
To the joy of the little flock, which in all, from Colesville
to Canandaigua, New York, numbered about seventy members, did
the Lord reveal the following doings of olden times, from the
prophecy of Enoch." (DHC 1:131-133)
This prophecy of Enoch corresponds to chapters 7 in the Book of Moses.
This information was later compiled into our present Book of Moses
which includes a significant portion of the writings of Enoch. It
is this "Book of Enoch" that we will examine in light of recent
discoveries. Although there were no copies of the Book of Enoch
in Joseph Smith's time, several versions have been found and
published. The most recent is the Enoch fragments from the Dead
Sea Scrolls which were translated in 1976. Hugh Nibley gives us
information comparing these versions with the material in the
Book of Moses.
Speaking of the translation of the Aramaic fragments from the
Dead Sea Scrolls: "(J. T. Milik and M. Black, eds., The Book of
Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4, Oxford: Clarenden
Press, 1976.) Father J. T. Milik, one of the first scholars on
the scene when the scrolls were discovered, was assigned thirty-
two fragments of the books of Enoch from Qumran Cave IV; and all
scholars working on Enoch have eagerly waited during the last
quarter century to see what new information would be added,
what theories might be toppled, what hypotheses confirmed by
these documents in Aramaic, the earliest of all known Enoch
text."
"These documents, dating from the third to the first centuries
B. C., corroborate the other Enoch literature that we have. There
WAS a real book of Enoch, which was once written in five parts.
This seriously challenges those critics who have claimed for
years that ancient sec[re]taries threw everything into Enoch
that they wanted to pass off as scripture."
"It is an added delight for Latter-day Saints to read that Professor
Milik finds the Greek texts to be much superior to the Ethiopian
texts--the Joseph Smith account in the Pearl of Great Price is
closer to the Greek than to the Ethiopian. Latter-day Saints will
also note with interest Professor Milik's deduction that one text,
the Gizeh text, was undoubtedly prepared to be buried with the
deceased--a parallel with the usage intended for the Abraham text."
"Furthermore, Professor Milik works with the fascinating hypothesis
that Enoch had prepared an account of the creation and the law of
God that naturally predates Moses' account in Genesis and sees
Genesis 6:1-4, long a puzzling passage to the biblical scholar, as
a quotation from that earlier Enoch source. This is exactly what
happens in the Joseph Smith source: Moses quotes Enoch on events
shortly after the creation." That is why the Book of Enoch is in
the Book of Moses (in the Pearl of Great Price).
"Even though Professor Milik does not seem to recognize the full
importance of the `Enoch figure,' he provides some evidence that
undercuts yet another scholarly supposition: that Enoch was
invented out of the hopes and warnings of Messianic Jews in the
second century B.C.; in fact, however, these very people were
shunning the Enoch material at that very time. . . "
"In all of these ways, the Qumran IV Enoch fragments reinforce
rather than reinterpret what we as Latter-day Saints already
knew about Enoch. But these newly translated pieces add one
genuinely new bit of information to our store--something that
is probably the most objective test yet of Joseph Smith's
prophetic powers."
"What always impressed me as the oddest detail of the Joseph
Smith account of Enoch was the appearance out of the blue of the
name of the only nonbiblical individual named in the whole
book--Mahijah (Moses 6:40.) [Nibley is not saying that this name is
not found in the Bible, but that this individual is not connected with
Enoch in the Bible. A form of this name is in the Bible.]
Mahijah is the one who asks Enoch
searching questions . . . I was therefor with a distinct shock of
recognition that, after having looked through all but the last
of the Aramaic Enoch fragments without finding anything particularly
new, and coming to those very last little fragments, I found the
name Mahujah leaping out of the pages again and again (Pp. 300,
302-5, 311, 314) Could this be our Mahujah or Mahijah? As a
matter of fact it could be either . . . "
"So what? A coincidence--a giant or a Watcher called Mahujah or
Mahijah. But far more than a coincidence when taken in its context.
The only thing the Mahijah is the Book of Moses is remarkable for
is his putting of bold direct questions to Enoch, thus giving the
patriarch an opening for calling upon the people to repent, referring
them to the book of remembrance, and telling them of the plan of
salvation. And this is exactly the role, and the only role, that the
Aramaic Mahujah plays in the story. The name is found in none of the
other Enoch texts and neither is the story: it is peculiar to the
version Joseph Smith gave us and the oldest known Enoch manuscripts.
The following translation is from Milik and Black, lest the writer
[Nibley] be charged with forcing the text." (including the []'s)
(Moses 6:39) When they heard him . . . fear came on all them that heard
him.
4QEnGiants 1:20 [Thereupon] all the giants [and the nephilim]
took fright
(6:40) And there came a man unto him, whose name was Mahijah, and said
to him: Tell us plainly who thou art and from whence thou comest?
and they summoned MHWY and he came to them. And the giants
asked him and sent him to Enoch * * saying to him:"Go then * *
and under pain of death you must * * * and listen to his voice;
and tell him that he is to explain to you and to interpret the
dreams * *
6Q8 1. * * Ohya and he said to MHWY: "* * and (I?) do not
tremble. Who showed you all (that), tell [us(?)]**" And MHWY
said: "**Baraq'el, my father, was with me."
(6:41) And he said to them: I came out from . . . the land of my
fathers, a land of righteousness unto this day
4QEnGiants [Ohyah, following MHWY's report]: "* * . . . my
accusers * * they dwell in [heaven]s for they live in holy
abodes . . . they are more powerful than I.
(6:42) And . . . as I journeyed . . . by the sea East, I beheld a
vision: and lo, the heavens I saw . . .
(7:2-3) As I was journeying . . . I . . . went up on the mount . . .
I beheld the heavens open . . .
4QEnGiants [MHWY . . . rose up into the air] like the whirlwind,
and he flew . . . and crossed Solitude, the great desert * *
And he caught sight of Enoch and he called to him and said to
him: "An oracle * * *"
(6:45-46) And death hath come upon our fathers; nevertheless we know
them, and cannot deny, and even the first of all we know, even Adam.
For a book of remembrance we have written among us, according to the
pattern given by the finger of God; and it is given in our own language.
4QEnGiants 7. * * to you, MH[wy* *] the two tablets * * and the
second has not been read up till now. 8. The boo[k of * * The
copy of the second tablet of the Epistle * * written] by Enoch
the distinguished scribe's OWN HAND * * and the HOLY ONE, to
Shemihazah and all [his] com[panions]
(6:47) And as Enoch spake forth the words of God, the people trembled,
and could not stand in his presence.
4QEnGiants Frg. 4. * * Ohyah said to Hahyah, his brother * * *
they prostrated themselves and began to weep before [Enoch(?)* *]
(6:48) And he said to them: Because that Adam fell, we are and by his
fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe.
(6:49) Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth
them to worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish,
and are shut out from the presence of God.
4QEnGiants Frg. 8. The longest fragment: The depravity and
misery of the people described. Their petition is rejected:
God has cast them out. All is "for the worst."
(6:52) If thou wilt turn unto me [Christ] . . . and repent . . . asking
all thing in his name, . . . it shall be given you.
(Closing line) And yet, loosen your bonds (of sin) which tie
[you] up * * and begin to pray.
(7:13) And . . . he [Enoch] led the people of God, and their enemies
came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the
earth trembled . . .
4QEnGiants (Ohyah the enemy of Enoch) " . . . by the strength of
my power, [I had attacked] all flesh and I have made war with
them . . . they live in holy abodes, and . . . they are more
powerful than I."
and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all
nations feared greatly.
[Thereupon * *] the roaring of the wild beasts came and the
multitude of wild animals began to cry out * * And Ohyah spoke
. . . "My dream has overwhelmed? [me][*** and the s]leep of my
eyes [has fled] . . .
(7:37) . . . these shall suffer. 38. . . . these . . . shall perish in
the floods, and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared
for them.
4QEnGiants Frg.7. Then Ohyah [said] to Hahyah, his brother * *
Then he (sc. God) punished . . . the [sons] of the Watchers,
the giants, and all [their] beloved ones will not be spared * *
* he has imprisoned us and you he has subdued (lit. TQAF,
seized, confined).
[Nibley again] "Bearing in mind that the Aramaic fragments are few and
very small and arranged in whatever order the editors think best, it is
still possible to see that the themes of the Joseph Smith account emerge
clearly amidst all the very obvious changes and vicissitudes that have
occurred to the ancient texts." (Ensign, August 1977; p.64-65)
So here we have it. Joseph Smith giving us a new and unique story
about Enoch; And as we locate older documents we find that they also
are in agreement with Joseph Smith. By the way, this same type of
thing happens with the book of Abraham. Joseph introduces some new
information about Abraham that the Dead Sea scrolls also agree with.
It would not even be sufficient to say, "Well Joseph did what he did
by the power of the Devil." And for what purpose? Why would the
devil want Scripture to be restored? The facts of the matter are
that regardless of how we want to credit it, Joseph restored information
that had been lost. What is such a person called? A prophet or Seer.
We might not think that he fits our conception of what a prophet is
but nevertheless He did do a "marvelous work and a wonder."
To believe that Joseph was a charlatan really stretches the limits
of credulity. If Joseph has to be a superior Genius far beyond his
time and yet come across as a farm boy, why is that easier to believe
than to believe that he was simply what he said he was: a Prophet
and Seer?
Now you may reject the case I have presented on the Book of Moses as
not strong enough, but the information still has to be explained.
To leave it to chance is completely out of the question, because that
would mean that he was guessing and we should then see more wrong
guesses along with the correct guesses. Even if you say the guess is
not right on, it is significant that it would even be close. Guessing
just will not fit. Any fraud would be easily proved false as additional
information is learned and documents are found, but for Joseph just the
opposite has been occurring.
Russell Anderson
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