Moroni is in the north when he makes his record, the same region in which Ether’s ancient inhabitants dwelt. Moroni has implied that his father was among those who had gone south, hoping (futilely, as it turned out), to escape from the Lamanite/ Gadiantons (Morm. 8:2–3). It would be surprising if Moroni had not gone with his father, so I therefore assume that, after his father was killed, Moroni moved to the north where he is currently making this record.
Redaction: This introductory statement is unusual. As a general rule, chapter beginnings in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon do not have a different form than structural breaks within chapters. Most chapter breaks begin with “And now it came to pass” or simply “And now.” (See commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 1:19–20.) An exception is a subcategory: “Behold” or “Now behold.”
The first “behold” appears in the 1830 edition’s 2 Nephi 4 (current 2 Ne. 5:1), where it marks a transition between a quoted discourse by Lehi and the beginning of Nephi’s personal narrative about the brothers’ separation into two groups. The next two appearances of “Behold” are Enos 1:1 and Omni 1:1. Jarom 1:1 has a slight variant: “Now behold.” In each case, “Behold” marks a major shift in the topic and, in the last three cases, a change of authors. Furthermore, in the first case, although the author (Nephi) remains the same, the speaker is different; Nephi has been quoting Lehi, then resumes his own narrative.
Zeniff’s holographic record does not begin with “behold,” but rather with “I, Zeniff” (Mosiah 9:1), a parallel to Nephi’s “I, Nephi” (1 Ne. 1:1). “Behold” begins several chapters in Alma, but not the beginning of the book of Alma itself. In the 1830 edition of chapter 5 (our Alma 7:1), “behold” marks the beginning of a quoted sermon. In chapter 14 of the 1830 edition (our Alma 23:1), “behold” marks the beginning of a new story line after an inserted explanation by Mormon. The ending of the previous chapter highlights the change of story line: “And now I, after having said this, return again to the account of Ammon, and Aaron, Omner and Himni, and their brethren.” In chapter 16 of the 1830 edition (our Alma 30:1), “behold” transitions from the Ammonites to a new story about Korihor.
Chapter 21 of the 1830 edition (our Alma 45) begins the portion that Helaman wrote in Alma’s book after Alma’s contributions closed (Alma 44:24). Helaman’s writings begin with “Behold, now it came to pass… ” (Alma 45:1). As a new writer in the same book, Mormon notes the transition with the “behold” beginning.
Other “behold” beginnings that serve as transitions within the text are in the 1830 edition at Alma 28 (our Alma 61:1), Helaman 3 (our Hel. 7:1), and 3 Nephi 8 (our 3 Ne. 17:1). Interestingly, however, Mormon does not begin new books with “Behold.” I hypothesize that Mormon sees his writing as a continuous unit; therefore, his beginning to the books he is abridging are more typically “And now” or “and now it came to pass.” Extrapolating from the available data, I see “behold” as making a distinct type of transition from one chapter or book to the next, typically either because of quoted texts where “behold” is associated with identifying the original author or else to introduce new authors on the source plates. When Mormon is simply moving through his narrative, he uses the same transitions (“and now,” “now,” “and now and it came to pass… ”) that appear within chapters as well.
But Moroni is a new author. Thus, he appropriately begins with “behold” when he continues his own portion in his father’s record (Morm. 4 in the 1830 edition; our Morm. 8:1). This “behold” parallels Helaman’s introduction when he begins writing his section of Alma’s record. Moroni thus behaves in a way that matches earlier precedents.
His next writing is his condensation of Ether. Although Ether is placed after Moroni’s conclusion to his father’s text, there is no indication of the sequence comparable to Moroni 1:1, where Moroni explicitly states: “… after having made an end of abridging the account of the people of Jared.… ” Still, textual clues indicate that Moroni wrote Ether after concluding his father’s record.
The first clue is the lack of “behold’ at the beginning of Ether. This is a completely new record written from a different source document, and completely outside of his father’s intended narrative—but without the predictable signal that a new text is beginning.
Furthermore, Moroni writes: “I, Moroni, proceed to give an account.… ” This phrase has appeared earlier when the writer returns to an interrupted narrative. It first occurs in 1 Nephi 10:1, when Nephi returned to his original theme after interrupting his narrative to explain the plates (1 Ne. 9). In 1 Nephi 19:2–5, he again interrupts his narrative to explain the historical setting of the command to create the plates (1 Ne. 19:1). He resumes: “And an account of my making these plates shall be given hereafter; and then, behold, I proceed according to that which I have spoken… ” (1 Ne. 19:5). Mormon uses this same method as a transition after an interruption: “And now I make an end of my saying, which is of myself, and proceed to give my account of the things which have been before me” (3 Ne. 5:19).
In Ether 1:1, however, the narrative is just beginning; there has been nothing to interrupt. It is a completely new source, topic, and book. The interruption that occurred was in Moroni’s perspective, not in text. Moroni records that Mormon had commanded him to “finish the record of my father” and then to write a “few things… which I have been commanded by my father” (Morm. 8:1). Obviously, completing Mormon’s message to future generations was Moroni’s first task. Next came the book of Ether. Moroni’s use of a transition that has, up to this point, been used only to resume an interrupted narrative, suggests that the interruption occurred in Moroni’s life. I deduce that Mormon’s commands included abridging Ether, that events in Moroni’s life prevented him from completing this second task immediately after the first task, and that he therefore begins Ether with a transition revealing that he was resuming an interrupted task.
Text: While it is hardly of great significance, there is some misunderstanding about the name of “The Book of Ether.” Daniel H. Ludlow comments:
The present title of the book of Ether and the superscription to the book were apparently not included by Moroni on the plates of Mormon. Both of these were first included in the Book of Mormon in the edition of 1879, as is indicated in the following statement by Sidney B. Sperry:
The title of the book is now ‘The Book of Ether’; in the early editions of the Book of Mormon the title was simply “Book of Ether.” The article seems to have been first added by Elder Orson Pratt in the 1879 edition. Immediately beneath the title of the book there now occurs an explanatory note in italics which reads: The record of the Jaredites, taken from the twenty-four plates found by the people of Limhi in the days of king Mosiah. This is wanting in all but the current [when Ludlow wrote this, the 1920 edition was the current one] editions of the Book of Mormon and is not to be regarded as part of the original text. The note seems to have been inserted by the committee appointed to edit the text now in common use.
The original manuscript (the Oliver Cowdery holograph) for the first part of the book of Ether is no longer extant, but the printer’s manuscript includes “[T]he Book of {E}t {h}e{r/r} Chapter{r} –1” as the title. (The braces, {} indicate overwriting of the text.) This form of the title does not necessarily mean that the title was “The Book of Ether” on the plates, but it certainly establishes that “The” was added earlier than 1879.