The Book of Mormon Secret I Missed My Whole Life with Jonah Barnes

Inside the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon there's a secret I read past over and over again… for my entire life. Then last year one book shined a light on it, and it changed how I read the whole thing. Lehi's family had already left Jerusalem when God sent his sons all the way back for one record. This episode is about why.

In this episode I walk through the brass plates: what they were, what Lehi found on them (1 Nephi 5), and why Nephi's vision in 1 Nephi 13 says "plain and precious things" went missing from the Bible after they were gone. Then I pass it to Jonah Barnes, author of The Key to the Keystone, who's spent years lining up the Book of Mormon against ancient texts that came out of the ground long after 1830.

A note on the history: the dating in this episode (when the Old and New Testaments were compiled, the Dead Sea Scrolls) and the "key to the keystone" idea follow Jonah's book. That's his research, and "pure" and "proof" are our words, not the Church's – the Church's witness of the Book of Mormon is Moroni 10:3–5.

This show is for everyone. If you're a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I hope you finish this saying "yes, that's what we believe." If you're Catholic, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, or you left the Church years ago, I'm not trying to convert you. I just want you to know what this book is – and I promise, if you read it, it will bring you closer to Jesus Christ.

Tell me in the comments where you're from and what you believe. If you disagree with me, say so. I read them all.

BOOKS MENTIONED

• The Key to the Keystone: How Apocryphal Texts Unlock the Book of Mormon's Brass Plates – Jonah R. Barnes
• The Lost Gems of Genesis – Jonah R. Barnes
• The Lost 116 Pages – Don Bradley

NOTE: Jonah's historical readings are his own and are not official teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

SCRIPTURES IN THIS EPISODE

1 Nephi 2:1–4 · 1 Nephi 3:2–7 · 1 Nephi 3:11–31 · 1 Nephi 4:6–18 · 1 Nephi 5:10–14 · 1 Nephi 7:14 · 1 Nephi 10:4 · 1 Nephi 13:23–29 · 1 Nephi 19:8 · 2 Nephi 25:19 · 2 Nephi 29:4–8 · Mosiah 3:8 · Alma 37:3–5 · Moroni 10:1–5 · Job 1–2 · Genesis 44:18–34 · Matthew 4:1–11 · Luke 24:49 · Acts 1:1–9 · Moses 4:1–6 · Moses 6:51–68 · D&C 10 · D&C 20:8–11 · D&C 91 · Joseph Smith—History 1:34Russell M. Nelson, "The Creation," General Conference, April 2000: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2000/04/the-creation

CHAPTERS

0:00 - The secret I missed my entire life

0:34 - Welcome to Episode

21:10 - Jonah Barnes and "the key to the keystone"

2:12 - The Hawaiian first edition

3:55 - Back to the globe: Lehi leaves Jerusalem

4:40 - "Go back for the brass plates"

5:28 - 1 Nephi 3:7 – "I will go and do"

6:18 - Laban says no (twice)

8:04 - Nephi goes back alone

8:48 - The sword of Laban (1 Nephi 4)

10:38 - What was on the plates? (1 Nephi 5)

11:56 - Pickup: Jonah's timeline chart

13:54 - Where did Satan go?

16:10 - 1 Nephi 13 – plain and precious things

18:30 - What the Nephites knew about Christ

20:08 - The Dead Sea Scrolls

21:21 - Jurassic Park and amber

23:43 - Interview: Jonah Barnes

25:30 - How Jonah found the apocrypha

31:32 - What is "the key to the keystone"?

35:01 - 600 years – a very specific prophecy

38:49 - When was the Old Testament compiled?

47:01 - Repentance and the brass tradition

51:34 - "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled"

54:12 - The lost 116 pages and the Book of