“I Shall Not Write the Things of My Prophesying, nor of My Revelations”

Brant Gardner

History: Jarom gives us little personal information aside from affirming, though without explication, that he has prophecies and revelations. It is reasonable to assume that Jarom is a righteous man attempting to follow Yahweh’s way. John S. Tanner extracts some historical information about Jarom:

Jarom may not have done any public teaching or preaching at all. Although he referred to “my prophesying” and “my revelations,” he spoke in the third person of “the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers [who] labor diligently, exhorting… the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses” (Jarom 1:11)—as if he were not one of them. Also he wrote, “Our kings and our leaders were mighty men in the faith of the Lord; and they taught the people the ways of the Lord” (1:7), sounding like a bystander outside the loop of government power and official church responsibility.
On the other hand, Jarom referred to Nephite warfare and trade in the first person: “We withstood the Lamanites.… And we… became exceedingly rich in gold… in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war” (Jarom 1:7–8). Jarom sounds as if he was a soldier and artisan.

Text: Jarom’s reason for his scanty record is not that he lacks revelations, but rather that “these plates are small” and that his prophecies confirm those already written. The fact that earlier prophets have spoken and written on the same themes as a contemporary prophet does not lessen the value of the contemporary prophets, so we may take his concern about the size of the plates at face value. Supporting evidence is Amaleki’s final statement that the “plates are full” (Omni 1:30).

As discussed in the commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 6:1–3 (see also Behind the Text: Chapter 6, “The Physical Plates”), Nephi probably made the plates, including many more leaves than he personally used. All of the other writers on the small plates wrote on the appended blank leaves, not creating new ones. Indeed, given the increasing marginalization of Jacob’s lineage from that of the rulers and Jacob’s polemics against the rich, it seems probable that Jacob’s descendants lacked resources to create new plates. By the time of Jarom there are few sheets left. Amaleki fills the last blank (described in Omni 1:30).

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3

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