Friday, December 27, 2019

"Jesus Christ" in 1 Nephi 12:18 in the 1830 Book of Mormon


Scripture often uses terms and names in a proleptic manner. For instance, note Jer 46:2:

Concerning Egypt, about the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was at the river Euphrates near Carchemish, and which was defeated by King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah. (1985 JPS Tanakh)

Nebuchadrezzar was not king at the battle at Carchemish; instead, the author of this verse is projecting the title back.

This may be what is going on in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 12:18. The 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon reads differently than the 1837 and subsequent editions:

And the angel spake unto me, saying, Behold . . .  Jesus Christ, which is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever. And while the angel spoke these words, I beheld and saw that the seed of my brethren did contend against my seed, according to the word of the angel; and because of the pride of my seed, and the temptations of the devil, I beheld that the seed of my brethren did overpower the people of my seed.

Some believe this is a contradiction in the Book of Mormon, based on the belief that the name/title “Jesus Christ” was first revealed to Jacob, per 2 Nephi 10:3. While I do not believe 2 Nephi 10:3 necessitates this being the first time that Nephi et al were made aware of the name of the then-future Messiah (all Jacob states is that an angel told him the future name/title of the Messiah), even taking this to be the case, what we have in 1 Nephi 12:18 (in the earliest printings of the Book of Mormon) is Nephi adding the name “Jesus Christ” to the words of the angel in a proleptic and editorial manner, something we find in Jer 46:2 as well as various editorial changes to the text of the Torah itself (see Biblical Prophets Changing their Words and the Words of Previous Prophets).

On the topic of changes in the Book of Mormon itself, be sure to check out Royal Skousen’s 6-part Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, all 4,000+ (!) pages of text are readily available for free on the Interpreter Website here.