“They Are Had Upon the Plates”

Alan C. Miner

Moroni tells us there were parts of the twenty-four plates of Ether he didn't abridge. He says, "I do not write those things which transpired from the days of Adam until that time, but they are had upon the plates" (Ether 1:4); emphasis added). According to Jerry Ainsworth, it is interesting that Moroni does not say that the things he left out are written upon the plates of Ether, as, for example, the Book of Mormon says about other plates (see 1 Nephi 19:21; Alma 44:24; Ether 4:4). Instead, Moroni says that they are had upon the plates. That may be a key to understanding how the Creation story, plus the history of humanity from the fall of Adam to the celestialization of this world, as well as the history of the Jaredites could be contained on just twenty-four plates--the plates of Ether. [Jerry L. Ainsworth, The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni, p. 215] [See the commentary on Ether 4:4]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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