Praise to the Man

What did Lehi teach his son Joseph about Joseph Smith 600 years before Christ? (2 Nephi 3:6-15, 18, 24) Where did he learn that information? (2 Nephi 4:1-2) Was he the only O.T. prophet that knew about Joseph? -JS-H 1:40 -Isaiah 11 (2 Nephi 21:1, ) -D&C 113

The four standard works are actually a collection of hundreds of scriptural records and revelations written by dozens of inspired people. Some of these scriptural writers contributed book-length works, and some contributed only a page or two. One writer contributed just a single verse (see Omni 1:9). Although it is not always clearly established who produced a given scriptural text, we can compare the total number of pages that are attributed to different scriptural producers. I use the term producers rather than authors deliberately, to more accurately describe the roles of those who have brought forth scripture. I refer not only to the writing of text but also to the overlapping efforts of translating, transcribing, and abridging it. Applying this definition and judging by page counts in the current Latter-day Saint edition of the scriptures, I’ve listed the most prolific scriptural producers besides Joseph Smith: Mormon 338 pagesMoses 308 pages Jeremiah 170 pagesPaul 122 pages Nephi 117 pagesLuke 103 pages Unknown writer of Chronicles 86 pagesIsaiah 81 pages Unknown writer of 1 and 2 Samuel 81 pagesJohn 74 pages Now consider Joseph Smith’s accomplishments in bringing forth scripture: Book of Mormon 531 pages Doctrine and Covenants 1– pages Pearl of Great Price 58 pages Joseph Smith Translation 30 pages These 10 most prolific scriptural producers authored a total of 1,480 pages. Joseph Smith alone was responsible for 900. His total pages equal nearly 61 percent of the total pages of the other top 10 producers, and he is responsible for nearly three times as many pages as either of the two next highest scriptural producers, Mormon and Moses. Before Joseph Smith, the world had only the 1,590 pages of the Bible; through this one man, the Lord increased our scriptural library by more than half. (Gerald N. Lund, “A Prophet for the Fulness of Times,” Ensign, Jan 1997, 50)

“…the apocryphal Hebrew Book of Enoch, also called Third Enoch, mentions a latter-day prophet who is to be involved in all these events. He is even named. As one would anticipate, his name is Joseph. He is referred to as the Messiah ben Joseph, Messiah meaning "anointed one" and ben meaning "son of." So what we have here in our first introduction to this tradition is a prophet son of Joseph of Egypt coming on the scene to play a dominant role in these latter-day events. In this work Enoch, seeing in vision the end of time, says: "I saw Messiah, son of Joseph, and his generation and their works and their doings that they will do against the nations of the world" (Hebrew Book of 3 Enoch 45:5). Hugo Odeberg, who translated this work, observes that "the end of the course of the present world is marked by the appearance of Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David, in whose times there will be wars between Israel and 'Gog and Magog'; the final consummation will then, so it seems, be brought about by the Holy One Himself." (Joseph F. McConkie, “Joseph Smith as Found in Ancient Manuscripts”, in Monte S. Nyman, Isaiah and the Prophets: Inspired Voices from the Old Testament)

…A well-established Jewish dogma of a second messiah is cited—one destined to be a suffering messiah, a martyr messiah, but not to be confused with their triumphant king. "The doctrine of two Messiahs holds an important place in Jewish theology," writes a Yale theologian, Charles Torrey, "more important and more widely attested than is now generally recognized. It is not a theory imperfectly formulated or only temporarily held, but a standard article of faith, early and firmly established and universally accepted.” Briefly stated, the doctrine is this: "According to a Talmudic statement the Jews believed in two Messiahs, one of the tribe of Joseph, or rather who was an Ephraimite, and the other a scion of David.” The Messiah ben Joseph, according to this tradition, is to be killed, following which the Messiah ben David is to make his triumphant appearance. (Joseph F. McConkie, “Joseph Smith as Found in Ancient Manuscripts”, in Monte S. Nyman, Isaiah and the Prophets: Inspired Voices from the Old Testament)

President Brigham Young thus observed concerning Joseph Smith: “It was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid, that he, Joseph Smith, should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people, and receive the fulness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God. The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father’s father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man. He was foreordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation” (in Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1954, p. 108; emphasis added).

Find a phrase that you can identify with in 2 Nephi 4: Take 2-3 minutes and write about it in your journal.

A temple 5:16?