I have written a few blog posts against the common Latter-day Saint (mis)interpretation of Ezekiel 37:
REVELATION SAYS RECORD
The Lord in a
revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith (Doc. & Cov. 27:5) says that the one
whom He had sent to reveal the Book of Mormon was the angel Moroni, “to whom I
have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim.”
Do we differentiate
between the “record of the stick” and the “stick” itself?
A “record of the
stick” is not the “stick;” it is not the thing of which it is merely a “record.”
This fact one will note on a moment’s reflection.
The Book of Mormon
itself says it is a “record of the people of Nephi,” etc. (Preface to the Book
of Mormon, taken from the last leaf of the record itself.) It is not “the
people of Nephi,” etc., but a “record” of that people.
The Prophet Joseph
Smith says “The Book of Mormon is a record” (History of the Church, vol. 6, p.
57), and that the plates “contained the record which has been translated”
(History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 71); also quoted in “Joseph Smith’s Teachings”
(pp. 17, 18.
The Prophet Moroni
had the mission to reveal the Book of Mormon, he holding the “keys” of the record
spoken of.
The Prophet Ezekiel
(37:16) says the Lord told him to take one stick and write upon it “For Judah,
and for the house of Israel, his companions; then take another stick and write
upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of
Israel his companions.” These two sticks are called the stick of Judah and the
stick of Joseph, or of Ephraim. These two “sticks” were the symbols of two
nations that in time were to be made “one in the land upon the mountains of
Israel” (37:22); not symbols of two records which are to “grow together the
confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions,” such as the Book
of Mormon says of itself that it is one of two such records (2 Nephi 3:12).
This harmonizing result is to be attained through the uniting or “growing
together” of the two divine records of Judah and Ephraim, and not of the union
of the two nations. The uniting of the two records is to achieve the purpose of
“uniting the entire Israelitish family” upon true doctrines, confounding the
false. On the other hand, the two nations symbolized by the two sticks placed
together as one in the hand of the Prophet Ezekiel (37:17) were to become “one
nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to
them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided
into two kingdoms any more at all” (37:22). That is the plain, distinct,
specific statement made in the book of Ezekiel, as a reading of Ezekiel 37:15-28
definitively portrays.
The word “stick” is
an English translation of the Hebrew word “ets.” It can be and is translated
stick, wood, or tree, in different parts of the Bible, It cannot be translated “roll”
or “book,” or a record. The word “roll,” an instrument in writing, in Ezekiel,
is translated from the Hebrew word “megillah,” and the word “book,” or “writing,”
in Ezekiel is translated from the Hebrew word “sepher.” Neither of the last two
Hebrew words can be translated “stick.” Thijs, one may see from any
Hebrew-English lexicon, apart from suppositions.
THE TWO NATIONS SYMBOLIZED
About four hundred
years before Ezekiel’s day, united Israel had been divided into two nations,
one afterwards known n the Bible as Judah, the other as Ephraim, Joseph,
Israel, etc. These are the two nations referred to in Ezekiel, that in the
latter days were to become one nation, and in the Book of Mormon when their
testimony nationally is referred to (2 Nephi 29:7, 8). One of the sticks of
pieces of wood in Ezekiel’s hand symbolized the nation Judah and not the book the
Bible or record of that nation. The other sick symbolized the nation Ephraim.
The symbolization of the joining of the two sticks was of the union of the two nations
into one nation, and not the union of two books or of the records of those two
nations. It is a national reunion of Israel. That is the plain, indisputable
Bible record.
The Bible is not the
symbol of the Judah nation. It is a record of that nation, of which the stick
in Ezekiel’s hand was a symbol—“Judah, and the children of Israel his companions,”
the “stick of Judah,” for that nation.
Does the record of
the “stick of Judah” consist exclusively of a record of Judah’s descendants
tribally, or does the nation Judah or Jews comprise only the Judah tribe? By no
means. In the division of the united Israel kingdom as it was under Solomon, as
recorded in 1 Kings 11:30-32, 35, 36 and 2 Chron. 10:15, of which the Lord said
“this thing is from me” (1 Kings 12:24), the tribe of Benjamin was made one of
the two tribes composing the nationally known Judah kingdom in southern
Palestine (after the name of the leading tribe); while the subsequently nationally
known Israel, or Joseph, or Ephraim nation (after the name of its leading
tribe) as variously referred to in the Bible, occupying northern Palestine,
comprised ten tribes namely: Ephraim, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphthali, Simeon,
Zebulon, Issachar, Manasseh, and Dan; Levi being then omitted in designating
twelve tribes. Thus Manasseh (or other of the ten), being assigned to the
Israel, or Joseph, or Ephraim nation or kingdom, record of his tribal
descendants as such comes clearly within the designation “For Joseph, the stick
of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions.” (Ezekiel
37:16). (James H. Anderson, The Present Time and Prophecy: Being a Selection
of Addresses Made by Elder James H. Anderson Uniting this Subject with the
Divine Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith [Salt Lake City: The Deseret
News Press, 1933], 150-53, emphasis in original)
