10 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many
waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren.
11 And it came to pass that the angel said unto me:
Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren.
12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who
was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the
Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth
upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the
promised land.
13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God,
that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon
the many waters.
14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of
the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it
was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles
and were smitten.
15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon
the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance;
and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like
unto my people before they were slain.
16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the
Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the
Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.
17 And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered
together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.
18 And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and
also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together
against them to battle.
19 And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone
out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all
other nations.
Nephi next saw the oceans that separated the gentiles from
the Lamanites. The angel said to Nephi, “Behold
the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren” (1 Nephi 13:11).
Nephi saw a gentile cross the ocean and come to the
Lamanites in the promised land. Since at
least 1879, when Orson Pratt’s references in the Book of Mormon identified this
gentile as Columbus.[1] Today, there are scholars who question this
interpretation. For example, Stephen
Smoot writes:
“I urge caution with … identification of Columbus as the
Gentile spoken of in 1 Nephi 13:12. Although this idea has most certainly been
a prevalent interpretation among Latter-day Saints, it is speculative and
cannot be classed as evidence for the Book of Mormon. Ash [author of the book
being reviewed] does give some intriguing details about Columbus’s own
conviction that he was being led by divine forces in his explorations, and he
mentions the famous mariner’s Libro de las profecías (p. 95). There
are, however, risks in constructing an argument based on a fundamental
uncertainty.”[2]
Nephi also saw other gentiles, escaping captivity, and
coming to the new world. Lehi taught his
family that the Lord “will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto
them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and
he will cause them to be scattered and smitten” (2 Nephi 1:11). John Tvedtnes makes this observation about
these verses.
“[M]ost Latter-day Saints likely see the fulfillment of
prophecies by Lehi and Nephi in the arrival of European explorers and settlers
to the territory covered by the United States of America. Therefore,
Columbus, the Pilgrim fathers, and others are often understood to be the
subjects of those ancient prophecies, despite the fact that Columbus never set
foot in North America and that the Massachusetts Pilgrims were but a fraction
of the many people from different parts of Europe who settled North, Central,
and South America. Even those passages often thought to refer to the oppression
of Native Americans by the U.S. government and its people could refer to other
parts of the New World (see, for example, 1 Nephi 13:14, 30-31; 22:7-8; 2 Nephi
1:11). Native Americans were persecuted and driven out of their lands
throughout the Americas, and persecution continued into the twentieth century
in places such as Mexico, Brazil, and Chile. The United States of America was
neither the only nation that confined these natives to reservations nor the
only New World nation that broke its ties to its European rulers. So while some
of those prophecies may include the United States, this is not the only
possible meaning.”[3]
The “Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and
they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance” (1 Nephi
13:15). Mormon would write much the same
sentiment. “And behold, the Lord hath
reserved their blessings, which they might have received in the land, for the
Gentiles who shall possess the land” (Mormon 5:19).
Nephi saw that the gentiles “were white, and exceedingly
fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain” (1 Nephi
13:15). We can contrast this to the
description Nephi gave of the Lamanites after the separation. “And he had caused the cursing to come upon
them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts
against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were
white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing
unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them” (2
Nephi 5:21).
Mormon would write that, after Christ’s visit to the
Nephites, they “did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and became
an exceedingly fair and delightsome people” (4 Nephi 1:10). Moroni2 would add, “O then ye
unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of
Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having
been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day” (Mormon
9:6).
These scriptures have been used to show the Book of Mormon
is racist, which is clearly not true.
John E. Clark responds to this charge.
“True, the Book of Mormon describes the Gentiles as ‘white,
and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain’
(1 Nephi 13:15). Use of this language is not offensive, but to attribute these
attributes solely to the immigrants of England, France, Holland, Germany,
Sweden, and Ireland is another matter. One gets the distinct impression that
Curtis has never seen a Spaniard nor looked up any pictures. They are fairer
than he or I. But surely the term ‘gentile’ goes beyond relative evaluations of
the whiteness of one’s skin or the beauty of one’s visage.”[4]
The gentiles who came to this land did so to flee their
captivity.
Nephi then saw war between the gentiles and “their mother
Gentiles.” “[T]he the power of God was
with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered
together against them to battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that
had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands
of all other nations” (1 Nephi 13:18-19).
This scripture has traditionally been interpreted to refer
to the American revolution. Richard
Bushman gives an alternate interpretation.
By American standards, this is a strangely distorted
account. There is no indictment of the king or parliament, no talk of American
rights or liberty, nothing of the corruptions of the ministry, and most
significant, no description of despots or heroes. In fact, there is no
reference to American resistance. The “mother Gentiles” are the only warriors.
God, not General Washington or the American army, delivers the colonies.
The meaning of the narrative opens itself to the reader only
after he lays aside his American preconceptions about the Revolution and
recognizes that the dramatic structure in Nephi’s account is fundamentally
different from the familiar one in Independence Day orations. The point of the
narrative is that Americans escaped from captivity. They did not resist, they
fled. The British were defeated because the wrath of God was upon them. The virtue
of the Americans was that they “did humble themselves before the Lord” (1 Nephi
13:16). The moral is that “the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were
delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations.” The theme
is deliverance, not resistance.[5]
[5] The Book of Mormon and the American
Revolution, Richard L. Bushman, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute.
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