The Book of the Brother of Jared · Book One
Being the words of the brother of Jared concerning the foundation of the world, the creation of man, and the estate of the spirits of men before they came into mortality.
1 I, Mahonri, who am called by my brethren the brother of Jared, do write these things which the Lord hath shown unto me upon the mount, that those who shall come after, even in the latter day appointed of the Lord, may read them and know that the works of God have been from everlasting, and that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
2 And it came to pass that as I stood upon the mount, having beheld the finger of the Lord touching the stones which I had prepared, the veil was taken from off mine eyes, and I saw things which are not lawful to be uttered, save unto those whom the Lord shall command.
3 But certain things he hath commanded me to write, and these I write according to the commandment, and the rest I keep within mine own heart until the day of their making known.
4 And I beheld the foundation of the earth, even before it was, when the worlds without number rolled in the courses appointed of God, and there was no man upon them.
5 And I beheld the spirits of all men which should ever come upon this earth, and they were as the stars of heaven for multitude, and they had not yet taken upon them flesh, but were spirits in the presence of God.
6 And I marvelled, for I had not known that man had a being before his coming into mortality.
7 And the Lord spake unto me, saying: Mahonri, behold all the spirits which thou seest are my children, and they were begotten of me in a former estate, and they have lived in my presence from a time which is beyond thy comprehension.
8 And I have prepared for them a way that they might come into mortality, and there receive a body of flesh, and be proven in all things, that they might learn to choose the good and refuse the evil, and become as their Father.
9 And it came to pass that I beheld a great council in the heavens, and the spirits of men were gathered together, and there was one who stood among them who was as the morning star for brightness, and the Lord said unto me: this is my Beloved Son, who shall be the Redeemer.
10 And he that should be the Redeemer offered himself, saying: Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.
11 And there was another who stood up, and his countenance was darkened with pride, and he said: send me, and I will save them all, and not one soul shall be lost, and I will do it by compulsion, but the honor will be mine.
12 And the Father said: I will send the first.
13 And it came to pass that the second was wroth, and he led away a third part of the hosts of heaven in rebellion, and they were cast down to the earth and became the adversaries of the children of God in the time of their mortality.
14 And I, Mahonri, beheld these things and was grieved, for I understood that the fall of those spirits was their own choosing, and that the agency of man was so precious that even the spirits before mortality were permitted to use it unto their own destruction.
15 And the Lord said unto me: write this thing, that those who shall read in the latter day may know that the agency of man is the foundation of my plan, and that no man shall be saved against his will, and no man shall be damned against his will, and the judgment of every soul shall be according to that which they themselves have chosen.
16 For behold, I am not the God of compulsion. I am the God of invitation. And every soul that cometh unto me cometh of his own desire, and every soul that turneth from me turneth of his own desire, and I weep for those that turn from me, but I will not violate that which I have given them.
1 And it came to pass that I beheld the creation of this earth, and the manner in which it was prepared for the habitation of man.
2 And the earth was without form and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and the elements were organized after the manner which the Lord had appointed.
3 And I saw that the earth was prepared not in a single day, nor in seven days as some have supposed, but in seven seasons, each of which was a long age in the reckoning of men, and the Lord spake unto me concerning this, saying:
4 The days of the creation as they are written in the records of the Hebrews are figures, and the meaning of them is not what unlearned men have taken them to be. The earth was formed in seven ages, and in each age I did a work, and the work of one age was the foundation of the work of the next.
5 And in the first age I commanded that there should be light, and in the second I divided the firmament from the waters, and in the third I caused the dry land to appear and the seas to be gathered into their places, and the plants to grow upon the earth.
6 And in the fourth age I set the lights of the heavens in their courses, and ordered the times and the seasons.
7 And in the fifth age the waters brought forth living creatures, and the birds of the air, and the great beasts of the sea, and they multiplied upon the earth according to their kinds.
8 And in the sixth age I created the beasts of the field and every creeping thing, and at the last I formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul.
9 And in the seventh age I rested, not because I was weary, for I do not grow weary, but as a sign unto man that the work was completed, and as a pattern for man to follow, that he should set apart a portion of his time to rest from his labors and to remember his God.
10 And I, Mahonri, asked of the Lord, saying: O Lord, what of the beasts which were before man, even those great creatures whose bones I have seen in the earth, whose like is no longer found among living things?
11 For I had seen, in my journeyings, the bones of beasts that were not the bones of any creature now living, and they were greater than the beasts now upon the earth.
12 And the Lord said unto me: those beasts lived in the ages before the foundation of this present order, and they were taken away when their time was finished, for the earth hath had many orders before the order in which thou now livest, and the bones thou hast seen are the witnesses of those former times.
13 And I marvelled at this, but I wrote it as the Lord commanded.
14 And the Lord spake unto me also concerning the first man, saying: Adam was not the first being upon the earth, for there were others before him after their kind, but Adam was the first man unto whom I gave the breath of my Spirit, and the agency of choice, and the law of righteousness. Wherefore he is called the first of men, though there were creatures of flesh before him.
15 And these things are mysteries which the world is not yet prepared to hear, but in the day appointed they shall be made known, and the wise shall not be confounded, but shall rejoice that the works of God are greater than the traditions of men.
1 And it came to pass that I beheld the man Adam and the woman Eve in the garden which the Lord had prepared for them, and they walked with God in the cool of the day, and they knew not sorrow nor death.
2 And I saw that they were innocent in their first estate, but that they knew not joy as God knoweth joy, for they had no knowledge of the opposite of joy, which is sorrow.
3 And the Lord said unto me: it was not possible for man to remain in the garden and grow into the measure of his full inheritance, for in the garden he was as a child in his father's house, and a child cannot become the master of his own house until he leaves the house of his father.
4 Wherefore I placed before Adam and Eve a choice. I gave them a commandment, and I gave them also a counter to the commandment, and I gave them agency to choose between them, and I did not compel them in either direction.
5 And they chose, and by their choice they fell from the garden into the world of opposition, where they knew both joy and sorrow, both life and death, both good and evil.
6 And the fall was not a tragedy as men have supposed. It was the next step in the plan. For without the fall, man could not have come into his full inheritance, neither could he have come unto Christ, for there would have been no need of a Redeemer.
7 Wherefore the fall of Adam was a fall upward, in the eternal reckoning, though it brought sorrow and death into the world.
8 And I, Mahonri, write these things that those in the latter day may know that the Lord is wise in all his doings, and that what appears to be loss in one season is gain in another, when the whole counsel of God is understood.
9 And the children of Adam and Eve multiplied upon the earth, and the generations went forth, and there were righteous and there were wicked, and the agency of man was preserved throughout all the ages.
10 And I beheld a great flood which came upon the earth in the days of Noah, when the wickedness of men had grown so great that the Lord would not suffer the line of righteous men to be lost, and he preserved Noah and his household, and the seed of the earth, in an ark prepared by his hand.
11 And the waters covered the earth, and the wicked perished, and a new beginning was made.
12 And from the sons of Noah came the nations, and the tongues, and the divisions of the peoples, and the tower of Babel was built in the pride of men, and the languages were confounded, and the people were scattered upon the face of the earth.
13 And it came to pass that in the day of the tower, my brother Jared came unto me and said: brother, cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound our language, that we may yet understand one another and pray together.
14 And I cried unto the Lord, and the Lord was merciful unto us and our friends and their families, and our language was not confounded.
15 And the Lord directed us to a land of promise, even the land which the Lord had prepared for us beyond the great waters, and we journeyed, and at length we came to the sea, and we built barges by the commandment of the Lord, and we crossed over.
16 And these things are written in part by the prophet Moroni in the book which beareth the name of Ether, and I will not repeat what is there written. But the things which I beheld upon the mount Shelem, after my faith had grown to that measure that the veil could be parted, those things were not written until now.
17 And I now turn from the foundation of the world and the journey of my people to those things which I beheld concerning the latter days, and the gathering of Israel, and the day of the coming of the Son of Man in his glory.