None of [the traditional] explanations seems to fully fit
the details as we have them. Most scholars place the Exodus 1250 B.C., and I am
using 1100 B.C. as the date for the Jaredite exodus. Thus, not does Adam’s experience
of walking with God in the garden precede the brother of Jared’s vision, but so
did Moses’s vision. As Jackson
notes, this verse cannot mean that no one earlier had seen God, since such
views appear in the scriptural record. I believe that the answer lies in the
very phrase that causes the concern. Yahweh explains himself: “And never have I
showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as
thou hast.” Yahweh’s statement about showing himself is directly related to the
brother of Jared’s faith. In the context of this story, when Yahweh remarks on
and approves that faith, it leads to a particular revelation, not of person,
but of mission. There are two aspects of the brother of Jared’s vision that
differ from other record descriptions of the vision of God. The first is that
there is an emphasis on the appearance of humanness (“as the finger of man”)
and on the meaning of that humanness: “I show myself unto you. Behold, I
am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold,
I am [Messiah]” (vv. 14-15).
What faith revealed was not the presence or that form. Other
prophets had received both of those revelations before. It was the clear
indication of God’s condescension, which would achieve its fullest measure with
Yahweh’s incarnation as the Atoning Messiah. It is that explicit revelation of
God’s literal condescension that had not been clearly revealed before this
time. In this reading, I agree with Jackson:
The uniqueness of this situation lies in the fact that Jehovah
appeared to Mahonri Moriancumer in his role as Jesus Christ—rather than as the
Father. Never before, as far as we can tell from the scriptures, had Jesus
Christ shown himself unto man (and, interestingly, nowhere else in the
scriptures do we have a clear example of Jehovah appearing as Jesus until his
coming in the flesh). As Moroni reported, “Having this perfect knowledge of
God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore he saw Jesus.”
(Ether 3:20). To the brother of Jared, Christ revealed his complete nature:
God who would become Man—Jehovah, the Father who would become Jesus, the Son.
Perhaps the unprecedented nature of this appearance is a
reason why the Lord commanded that the account be made known in the world and
after his mortal ministry (Ether 3:21). (Jackson, “Never
Have I Showed Myself unto Man,” 75, emphasis added)
This experience should not be read as a difference
between appearances of God the Father (identified as Elohim in LDS literature)
and Yahweh. It is not that Yahweh appeared where other manifestations were
Elohim. Yahweh was the God of Israel and the one with whom they interacted.
This revelation was, again, not of form, but of mission. The new element in
this experience was the explicit revelation of Yahweh’s coming incarnation as
the mortal Messiah—hence, the emphasis in his body. (Brant A. Gardner, Second
Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 6
vols. [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 6:206-7, comment in square
brackets added for clarification)
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