“The Author of All Sin”

Brant Gardner

Narrative: Mormon now emphasizes the generational aspect. He has linked the secret combinations to Satan at the beginning of time, and then to the Tower. From the Tower the secret combinations come with the Jaredites, and proliferate among them. Even when temporarily absent, they are still: “hand[ed] down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation.” Mormon ties this transmission of information to generations because it is in his purpose to make the connection between the current Gadiantons and the Jaredites, just as he will tie the Gadiantons of his own time to both this earlier form and to the Jaredites. Mormon is establishing the bona fides of the link from the Jaredites through the Nephites to the Gadiantons that will cause the destruction of his own people.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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