The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

The Books of Ether and Moroni constitute a discrete group of texts, set apart from other works in The Book of Mormon for reasons of both narrative structure and purported authorship. In terms of narrative structure, both texts serve as a sort of appendix for the prior books, in which the broad historical arc of Nephite society had already been told in full. Ether is an appendix referring back to the account of the discovery of a Jaredite text (as mentioned in the Book of Omni), and Moroni as an epilogue to the overall corpus. These two books are also distinct because of their authorship, which is attributed to Moroni’s work as a writer and redactor. They are thus the latest of The Book of Mormon’s texts, coming to their final forms in the early fifth century CE.

The Book of Ether stands apart from the rest of The Book of Mormon in that it concerns itself with the history of another people group, not the Nephites. All of the other books are primarily focused on Nephite history, but Ether examines Jaredite history—a narrative that receives only a single oblique mention in the rest of the collection. Even so, the Jaredite story told in Ether is not entirely disconnected from Nephite history; rather, it appears to be a version of the same story told in miniature form. Both the Nephite histories of The Book of Mormon and the Jaredite history of the Book of Ether tell the story of an ancient people group from the Middle East who, following the commands of God, build a ship and emigrate to the Americas, where they set up a new civilization. Their societies both experience similar patterns of rising and falling political fortunes, wars with neighboring groups, and repeated exhortations from prophets calling them back to God’s way, only to culminate in a final period of dissension and impiety that ends in their wholesale destruction. As such, the Book of Ether’s narrative reflects the overall scope of the entire Book of Mormon, even though it is primarily concerned with a different group of people.

Since the Book of Ether is thematically identical to the overall collection of books, the same major themes that feature in other books also loom large here. Most prominent of all, perhaps, is the theme of The Necessity of Obedience to God’s Commandments. Since Ether presents the scope of the entire narrative history of rise and fall in a single, shortened format, the contrast is heightened between the two possibilities of blessing or judgment. The story of the Jaredites is, quite simply, a story of a group who rejected God’s call to obedience and, as a result, ultimately suffered and died away.

The same theme is also operative in the Book of Moroni, as the eponymous prophet reflects on the devastation and judgment that emerged from the Nephites’ continued flouting of God’s commandments and from their pursuit of violence, greed, and depravity. Even with a bleak conclusion hanging over the text, however, hope remains: Moroni closes with an impassioned plea for any readers—including, possibly, the very Lamanites who had killed his people—to put their faith in Jesus. This ties back into the themes of missionary service, exemplified in Moroni’s desire for the Lamanites’ salvation, and of faith in Jesus as the means of salvation. Thus, the book ends on a surprising note of hope, as Moroni expresses trust in God’s providential plan for history and for the divine purpose to be accomplished.