Social: There are very few hints about the nature of the continuance of the Mosaic law among the Nephites, but we may see one in verse 23. Moroni cites what must be a scripture, but one where the origin is not declared, and is not in any of our available scriptures. Moroni notes that: “God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also.” Certainly Moroni is using this citation in its metaphorical sense, but metaphors tend to be linked to real situations so that they may evoke meaning. In this case, it is possible that we are seeing Moroni’s metaphorical use of a purity law that was familiar to the Nephites.
The Law of Moses is highly concerned with purity, or cleanliness. The concept of cleanliness is different from the concept of sin in that it does not require repentance or a change of ways. It was similar to sin, however, because it still created a barrier between God and man. [i] The concept of sin was an uncleanliness of the spirit, where the purity laws dealt with physical things that were temporarily (and sometimes permanently) in a state of uncleanness that barred them from God and from a Godly society.
There are several laws in the Bible that deal with the cleanliness of vessels. Even though they are not the one that Moroni is citing, there are instructive for the type of verse to which he is likely referring:
Leviticus 11:32
32 And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; so it shall be cleansed.
Leviticus 15:12
12 And the vessel of earth, that he toucheth which hath the issue, shall be broken: and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
Leviticus 6:28
28 But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brasen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water.
In each of these verses, there is a concern for the cleanliness of a vessel. Clearly the particular type of “clean” is ritual, and not physical. While none of these deal with the nature of the inside verses outside of the vessel, perhaps we can understand more of the context of Moroni’s statement by understanding the ritual problems that might occur with liquids moving between two vessels.
One of the controversies that was current during Christ’s time was the issue of whether or not a liquid poured from a clean vessel into an unclean vessel made the clean vessel unclean. The issue was the ability of liquids to conduct “uncleanness,” and in particular if that “uncleanness” could travel upstream through the liquid connecting to two vessels. Differing resolutions of this question came from the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and from the Pharisees (Schiffman, Lawrence H. Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. Doubleday, 1995, p. 87).
Moroni’s metaphor appears to indicate a question about the restoration of cleanliness to a vessel. In this case, the rule was to wash the inside first, and then the outside, probably under the assumption that it was whatever had been contained in the vessel that had created the state of uncleanness, and that had to be purified first so as not to contaminate the outside with some of the unclean liquid. Of course we cannot be certain that this is the meaning, but this is the context in which Moroni’s reference makes the greatest sense.