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Book of Mormon Commentary
Ether Chapter 1
This caused him to fall down with fear. The Lord asked him to arise. "Why hast thou fallen?" He
answered, "I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me; for I knew not that
the Lord had flesh and blood” (7). Doubtless his fear grew out of such strictures upon human
vision as were later given to Moses, “For there shall be no man among them see me at this time
and live, for they are exceeding sinful” (Exod. 33:20; John 1:19; I Tim. 6:16).
The Lord said, “Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood [the
incarnation]; and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast” (E. 1:72).
Then the brother of Jared said, "Show thyself unto me" (73).
Ether 1:76 And when he had said these words, behold the Lord shewed himself unto him, and said,
Because thou knowest these things, ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my
presence; therefore I shew myself unto you.
I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am
Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son" (77). This identification was treated in a marvelous
revelation to the church May 6, 1833: "The Father and I are one; the Father because he gave me of
his fullness; and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt
among the sons of men" (D. and C. 90:1 b). (See further comments on Mos. 8:13.)
"And 1, John, saw that he received not of the fullness at the first, but received grace for grace ...
until he received a fullness" (D. and C. 90:2 a).
"Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the
beginning, after mine own image" 1:80). "This body, which ye now behold, is the body of my
spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in
the spirit, will I appear unto my people in the flesh" (81).
Remember this was given over two thousand years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. It is
difficult for us to comprehend that a spirit has a bodily form, yet Moroni assures us that it was "in
the likeness of the same body, even as he showed himself unto the Nephites" (82). "And because
of the knowledge of this man [brother of Jared], he could not be kept from beholding within the
vail. . . . And he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting" (84, 85). But he was told that
he should not permit this knowledge to go out unto the world "until the time cometh that I shall
glorify my name in the flesh" (86). Write these things and seal them up, that no one can interpret
them, for you shall write them in a language that cannot be read. "And behold, these two stones
will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also, with the things which ye shall write" (87, 88).
Doubtless they were "interpreters" or Urim and Thummim and would be needed to "magnify to
the eyes of men, these things which ye shall write" (89, 93; Mos. 5:72, 73).
THE BROTHER OF JARED SHOWN THINGS TO COME, VER. 90-117
Ether 1:90 And when the Lord had said these words, he shewed unto the Brother of Jared all the
inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and the Lord withheld them not from
his sight, even unto the ends of the earth;
Since the Lord had promised that "if he would believe in him, that he could show unto him all
things ... ; therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him" (91).