Praise to the Man
BOM 8 2 NEPHI 3-8
THE PROPHET JOSEPH
What did Lehi teach his son
Joseph about Joseph Smith
600 years before Christ? (2
Nephi 3:6-15, 18, 24)
Where did he learn that
information? (2 Nephi 4:1-2)
Was he the only O.T. prophet
that knew about Joseph?
-JS-H 1:40
-Isaiah 11 (2 Nephi 21:1, 1012)
-D&C 113
“TO HIM WILL I GIVE POWER TO BRING FORTH
MY WORD…” (2 NEPHI 3:11)
The four standard works are actually a collection of hundreds of scriptural records and revelations written
by dozens of inspired people. Some of these scriptural writers contributed book-length works, and some contributed
only a page or two. One writer contributed just a single verse (see Omni 1:9).
Although it is not always clearly established who produced a given scriptural text, we can compare the total
number of pages that are attributed to different scriptural producers. I use the term producers rather than authors
deliberately, to more accurately describe the roles of those who have brought forth scripture. I refer not only to the
writing of text but also to the overlapping efforts of translating, transcribing, and abridging it. Applying this definition and
judging by page counts in the current Latter-day Saint edition of the scriptures, I’ve listed the most prolific scriptural
producers besides Joseph Smith:
Mormon 338 pages
Moses 308 pages
Jeremiah 170 pages
Paul 122 pages
Nephi 117 pages
Luke 103 pages
Unknown writer of Chronicles 86 pages
Isaiah 81 pages
Unknown writer of 1 and 2 Samuel 81 pages
John 74 pages
Now consider Joseph Smith’s accomplishments in bringing forth scripture:
Book of Mormon 531 pages
Doctrine and Covenants 1–134 280 pages
Pearl of Great Price 58 pages
Joseph Smith Translation 30 pages
These 10 most prolific scriptural producers authored a total of 1,480 pages. Joseph Smith alone was
responsible for 900. His total pages equal nearly 61 percent of the total pages of the other top 10 producers, and he is
responsible for nearly three times as many pages as either of the two next highest scriptural producers, Mormon and
Moses. Before Joseph Smith, the world had only the 1,590 pages of the Bible; through this one man, the Lord
increased our scriptural library by more than half. (Gerald N. Lund, “A Prophet for the Fulness of Times,” Ensign, Jan
1997, 50)
MESSIAH BEN JOSEPH
“…the apocryphal Hebrew Book of Enoch, also called Third Enoch,
mentions a latter-day prophet who is to be involved in all these events. He is
even named. As one would anticipate, his name is Joseph. He is referred to as
the Messiah ben Joseph, Messiah meaning "anointed one" and ben meaning
"son of." So what we have here in our first introduction to this tradition is a
prophet son of Joseph of Egypt coming on the scene to play a dominant role in
these latter-day events. In this work Enoch, seeing in vision the end of time,
says: "I saw Messiah, son of Joseph, and his generation and their works and
their doings that they will do against the nations of the world" (Hebrew Book of
3 Enoch 45:5). Hugo Odeberg, who translated this work, observes that "the end
of the course of the present world is marked by the appearance of Messiah ben
Joseph and Messiah ben David, in whose times there will be wars between
Israel and 'Gog and Magog'; the final consummation will then, so it seems, be
brought about by the Holy One Himself." (Joseph F. McConkie, “Joseph Smith as
Found in Ancient Manuscripts”, in Monte S. Nyman, Isaiah and the Prophets:
Inspired Voices from the Old Testament)
MESSIAH BEN JOSEPH (CONTINUED)
…A well-established Jewish dogma of a second messiah is
cited—one destined to be a suffering messiah, a martyr messiah, but
not to be confused with their triumphant king. "The doctrine of two
Messiahs holds an important place in Jewish theology," writes a Yale
theologian, Charles Torrey, "more important and more widely attested
than is now generally recognized. It is not a theory imperfectly
formulated or only temporarily held, but a standard article of faith, early
and firmly established and universally accepted.” Briefly stated, the
doctrine is this: "According to a Talmudic statement the Jews believed in
two Messiahs, one of the tribe of Joseph, or rather who was an
Ephraimite, and the other a scion of David.” The Messiah ben Joseph,
according to this tradition, is to be killed, following which the Messiah
ben David is to make his triumphant appearance. (Joseph F. McConkie,
“Joseph Smith as Found in Ancient Manuscripts”, in Monte S. Nyman,
Isaiah and the Prophets: Inspired Voices from the Old Testament)
THE LORD HAD HIS EYE UPON HIM…
President Brigham Young thus observed concerning Joseph
Smith: “It was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before
the foundations of the earth were laid, that he, Joseph Smith,
should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to
bring forth the word of God to the people, and receive the
fulness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of
God. The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and
upon his father’s father, and upon their progenitors clear back
to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to
Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family
and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth
of that man. He was foreordained in eternity to preside over this
last dispensation” (in Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A.
Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1954, p. 108;
emphasis added).
2 NEPHI 4—NEPHI’S PSALM
Find a phrase that you can identify with in 2
Nephi 4:16-35. Take 2-3 minutes and write
about it in your journal.
2 NEPHI 5
A temple 5:16?