Helaman 12

Helaman 12 (Wisdom Literature):

Hugh Nibley notes that Helaman 12 is wisdom literature. This is a unique and very striking chapter, a typical chapter of ancient literature. It’s called the “lamentation or wisdom literature.” The most reliable sources we have from Egypt and Babylonia are the lamentation literature. Lambert collected the Babylonian lamentation literature. The literature of the Egyptians is more famous. It goes right back to the beginning, to the earliest times. It’s always a man lamenting that the people have no wisdom at all. It’s that the people are just damn fools is the point. . . . Incidentally, where this lamentation and wisdom literature reaches its peak in Hebrew is in the book of Ecclesiastes. The wisdom literature of the Hebrews is very close to the Egyptian. They quote from each other as a matter of fact. The Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Amenemhet overlap each other. The latter is a thousand years older. They say the same thing. The human race is just this way, and it’s always going to be this way. . . . See this is wisdom literature. This should be capitalized, I suppose. . . . They always capitalize Wisdom in the Hebrew writings, as if it were a person. And that’s so in the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of great Price, too. It’s Wisdom and her children.¹

Helaman 12 (The Cycle of Prosperity / Iniquity):

Thomas Mackay notes that as expressed in Helaman 12, Mormon’s view of history is one of a cycle or repeated pattern that is characterized progressively by repentance, righteousness, prosperity, pride, and greed. That severe condition is followed by a degeneration into such serious manifestations of wickedness as immorality, war, and secret combinations. Then some give heed to prophets and repent, while others are either destroyed or cut off from the true and righteous people who, by following the prophetic tradition, are greatly blessed—until they once more degenerate into evil ways. This perspective taken by Mormon, and his incessant concern for underlying motivation, whether righteous or iniquitous, singles him out as operating within the framework of the prophetic, not the uninspired natural man. Interestingly, the spiritual indicators, the very indicators of civilization that are of greatest value to the prophet-historian, are disregarded by modern historians, who instead pay attention to the scientifically measurable, tangibly perceptible aspects of a people. But this produces the very time-lag effect I mentioned, whereby to a prophet a particular people is already in a moral decline before its “zenith”–as interpreted by an uninspired secular historian. ²

Helaman 12:1 And Thus We Can Behold:

For some seven or eight years the people served the Lord, but it was not long until they were once again engrossed in doing evil. At this point [Helaman 12] Mormon paused in the historical narrative to insert one of his most powerful prophetic insights into the nature of man and history.

It is important for students of the Book of Mormon to remember that Mormon’s work is an abridgment from numerous records he had at his disposal. Mormon was exceedingly selective in what he gave us, as is evidenced by the statement that he did not record “a hundredth part” of all he had access to (see Helaman 3:14). It appears that Mormon selected certain materials because of the particular lessons they conveyed. Lest we miss the impact of the lesson conveyed in the preceding chapters, Mormon drew our attention to it with great care in Helaman 12 by means of phrases such as “thus we can behold” (Helaman 12:1), “yea, and we may see” (v. 2), and “thus we see” (v. 3). Clearly Mormon intended that we should not miss his message. Helaman 12 contains one of the greatest summaries of a basic human tendency found anywhere in the scriptures. Some examples follow:

Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods; wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. (Judges 10:13-14)

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15)

Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall cry unto me I will be slow to hear their cries; yea, and I will suffer them that they be smitten by their enemies. (Mosiah 11:24 ³

Helaman 12:13-21 If . . . [and] . . .:

According to Royal Skousen, one of the interesting complexities of the original English-language text of the Book of Mormon is that it contains expressions that appear to be uncharacteristic of English in all of its dialects and historical stages. These structures also support the notion that Joseph Smith’s translation is a literal one and not simply a reflection of either his own dialect or the style of early modern English found in the King James Version of the Bible.

For instance, in the original text of the Book of Mormon we find a number of occurrences of a Hebrew-like conditional clause. In English, we have conditional clauses like “if you come, then I will come,” with then being optional. In Hebrew this same clause is expressed as “if you come and I will come.” In the original text of the Book of Mormon, there were at least fourteen occurrences of this non-English expression. One occurrence was removed in 1 Nephi 17:50 as Oliver Cowdery was producing the Printer’s Manuscript by copying from the Original Manuscript . . .

The remaining thirteen occurrences were all removed by Joseph Smith in his editing for the second edition of the Book of Mormon, published in 1837 in Kirtland, Ohio. One example comes from Moroni 10:4: “and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart with real intent having faith in Christ, and he will manifest the truth of it. . . .

This use of “and” is not due to scribal error, especially since this if-and expression occurs seven times in one brief passage (Helaman 12:13,14,16,17,19,20,21).

The following are examples:

     yea and if he sayeth unto the earth move and it is moved (Helaman 12:13)

     yea if he say unto the earth thou shalt go back . . . and it is done (Helaman 12:14)

     also if he sayeth unto the waters . . . be thou dried up . . . and it is done (Helaman 12:16)

     Behold, if he say unto this mountain–Be thou raised up . . . and behold it is done (Helaman 12:17)

     if the Lord shall say . . . no man shall find thee . . . and behold no man getteth it (Helaman 12:19)

     and behold, if the Lord shall say . . . be accursed forever and it shall be done (Helaman 12:20)

     and if the Lord shall say . . . be cut off from my presence and . . . it shall be so (Helaman 12:21)

These examples of the if-and construction in the original text suggest that Joseph Smith did not simply get the idea of a conditional construction in his mind. If that had been the case, he should have translated that idea using the English if-then construction, possibly without the “then,” but in any event, without the connective “and.” The multiple occurrence of the non-English if-and construction suggests that even the word “and” was controlled for.

This and other evidence [discussed previously by Skousen] from the Original Manuscript supports the traditional belief that Joseph Smith received a revealed text through the interpreters. This idea of a controlled text originates with statements made by the witnesses of the translation. The evidence from the Original Manuscript, when joined with internal evidence from the text itself, suggests that this control was tight, but not iron-clad. The text could be “ungrammatical” from a prescriptive point of view, but the use of nonstandard English is not evidence that the text was not being tightly controlled, or that it did not come from the Lord, who apparently does not share our insistence on “proper English” (see D&C 1:24). In fact, the occurrence of non-English Hebraisms such as the if-and construction strongly suggest that the text was tightly controlled, down to the level of the word at least. And the spelling of names such as Coriantumr [written in after “Coriantumer” was crossed out–Helaman 1:15] suggests that control could be imposed down to the very letter.

All of this evidence (from the Original Manuscript, witnesses’ statements, and from the text itself) is thus consistent with the hypothesis that Joseph Smith could actually see (whether in the interpreters themselves or in his mind’s eye) the translated English text–word for word and letter for letter–and that he read off this revealed text to his scribe. Despite Joseph’s reading off of the text, one should not assume that this process was automatic or easily done. Joseph had to prepare himself spiritually for this work. Yet the evidence suggests that Joseph Smith was not the author of the Book of Mormon, not even its English language translation, although it was revealed spiritually through him and in his own language.⁴

Helaman 12:13 Yea, If He Say unto the Earth–Move–It Is Moved:

According to Cleon Skousen, sometimes we think that the heavenly bodies are trapped in the perpetual laws of physics or astronomical laws of gravitation. The scriptures plainly teach, however, that these basic principles are not immutable. Mormon declares that if God wants to move the earth into a different orbit or a different place in the galaxy he can “say unto the earth–move–[and] it is moved” (Helaman 12:13).

It is sometimes said that God discovered all the natural laws and then exploited them to his advantage. The scripture seems to suggest the very opposite. By the word of His power, God sets up certain patterns which we call “natural law.” What we observe is actually God’s pattern or particular elements and not a “natural” or primal law at all. As the Lord has said, “And unto every kingdom (atoms, galaxies and the universe) is given a law, and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions” (D&C 88:38).⁵

Helaman 12:15 According to His Word, the Earth Goeth Back:

Mormon makes the statement that by the power of the word of the Lord, “the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still . . . ” (Helaman 12:15). According to Cleon Skousen, if the Lord commands the earth to turn back on its axis so that it lengthens the day many hours, it is done. This is precisely what the Bible says occurred in the days of Joshua:

Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel [and apparently by instruction from the Lord], Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastened not to go down about a whole day (twelve hours).” (Joshua 10:12-13).

The same thing appears to have happened in the days of Isaiah. The good king Hezekiah was about to die around 711 B.C. when Israel was threatened with attack by the Assyrians and the king felt he should be allowed to live. Isaiah was told to tell him that his life would be extended another fifteen years and that his enemies would be overcome. Then the scripture says: “And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken: Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.” (Isaiah 38:7-8; see also 2 Kings 20:8-11) ⁶

Helaman 12:15 For Surely It is the Earth That Moveth and Not the Sun:

According to Cleon Skousen, the true principles of scientific astronomy were well known to the ancients (see, for example, Abraham 1:31; 3:2-10), therefore Mormon wants us to appreciate that all of this talk about the sun “turning back” and the phrase, “for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun” (Helaman 12:15) and so forth is merely referring to the earth-view illusion of the sun’s course across the heavens. Mormon says that in reality, it is the earth which goes back rather than the sun, for it is the earth that rotates on its axis and creates this illusion and not the movement of the sun.

It is often stated that clear up to the time of Columbus it was generally thought that the earth was flat rather than a rotating globe, but this is a myth which Washington Irving put in our history books and it has been there ever since. Research by Dr. Samuel Eliot Morison of Harvard led him to say concerning Columbus that “Every educated man in his day [1492] believed the world to be a sphere, every European university so taught geography. . . . “⁷ The Greeks had even estimated the circumference of the earth in their day! In some of the early texts of Mark 16:3 we have this from the Christian era: “In the third hour of the day there came darkness throughout all the globe of the earth.” ⁸

Helaman 12:15 Surely It is the Earth That Moveth and Not the Sun:

Helaman 12:15 states, “for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun.” Also, in Alma 30:44 we find that in his words to Korihor, Alma declared, ” . . . all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”

According to Michael Griffith, Book of Mormon critics believe these statements refer to the earth rotating around the sun and thus are anachronisms:

The knowledge that the planets revolve about the sun rather than the earth was not popularized until 1543 A.D. There is no historical evidence that either the ancient Romans or the ancient Jews understood this Copernican astronomy . . . ⁹

In actuality, the Book of Mormon does not speak of the orbits of other planets; it refers only to the earth’s revolving around the sun. While the Nephites may very well have known that the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun, this is not explicitly stated in the Nephite text.

In any event, contrary to Holley’s assertion, there is evidence that at least some ancient Jews knew that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun. (Sidney B. Sperry, Answers to Book of Mormon Questions, 1967:172-174; Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 1981:13-14; Milton R. Hunter, Pearl of Great Price Commentary, 1951:91-96; R. Grant Athay, “Worlds Without Number: The Astronomy of Enoch, Abraham, and Moses,” in B.Y.U. Studies, 8/3 Spring 1968:255-269). Furthermore, in the New World, some experts in ancient Mesoamerica knew that the earth rotates around the sun. They also knew with great precision how long it takes the earth to complete its orbit¹⁰

Helaman 12:15 It Appeareth unto Man That the Sun Standeth Still:

In Helaman 12:15, Mormon comments that by the power of the word of the Lord, “the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still . . . ” According to the Works of Ixtlilxochitl, in the year 8 Tochtli, which was 1,347 years after the second calamity, and 4,779 since the creation of the world, they have in their history that the sun stood [still] for a natural day without moving from one spot (place).¹¹