The Lost 116 Pages - What We Think Was On There And What People Said Was On There!

There are loads of interesting aspects to Church history. For example, did anyone else use seer stones? You could ponder that all day - or the times Church members used priesthood to cease storms - that doesn't get talked about enough. And then, of course, there is the persistent wondering of whether or not LDS prophets still see Christ (most have!). Again, these are just a few random Church-related points worth rabbit-holing.

Without a doubt, the lost 116 pages from the Book of Mormon deserves a place on that list. What was on them? Do they still exist? Could charred but legible chunks of them still be lining a 19^th century fire pit?

For those who don’t know, these 116 pages were the first portion of the Book of Mormon - translated with Martin Harris acting as scribe. Harris really wanted to show his wife what he was working on. He asked to borrow the 116, was divinely told no twice - but then a third time he was finally granted permission with severe restrictions on to whom he could show the pages. Martin, overjoyed, took the huge sheets of paper, probably skipped out to his wagon while whistling a tune and hiyah-ed his horses a loooonnnngggg way home.

Those 116 pages disappeared. Nobody is sure where they went or who took them. Thought of their content can be captivating.

There are two ways to ‘know’ what was on those pages. The first is to find passages in the Book of Mormon that seem to reference an earlier known event – like in Alma10:2: 

2 I am Amulek; I am the son of Giddonah, who was the son of Ishmael, who was a descendant of Aminadi; and it was that same Aminadi who interpreted the writing which was upon the wall of the temple, which was written by the finger of God.

Aminadi interpreted what now? You get it though. That story was probably fleshed out in the lost 116. Mormon wouldn’t leave us hanging like that. This type of 116 guessing is easy, abundant, and a little disappointing when reading a list of what was on those pages because it’s not the second way.

The second way to know what was on there is a little more exciting. It is people telling us what was on those pages because they remembered some of the stories. This is what makes a more fulfilling 116 lost-list. We have both types for you today – four of each. We’ll start with the first type:

Type 1 – the logical conclusions:

Nephi paraphrased from his father’s record. Those segments can tell us what was in Lehi’s own book:

1)    Nephi borrowed straight from the Book of Lehi. A lot:

“…the following segments of 1 Nephi paraphrase Lehi’s record: Lehi’s two visions at the time of his call (see 1 Nephi 1:4–15), his departure into the desert (see 1 Nephi 2:1–10, 14–15), parts of Lehi’s vision of the tree of life (see 1 Nephi 8:30–33; 8:35–9:1), his prophecies concerning Israel and the Messiah (see 1 Nephi 10:1–16), and the desert itinerary (see 1 Nephi 16:11–17, 33; 17:1–6). There are others shorter in length which almost all appear in 1 Nephi: Lehi’s prophecies and subsequent rejection in Jerusalem (see 1 Nephi 1:18–20), his prophecies regarding the brass plates (see 1 Nephi 5:17–19), Lehi sending for Ishmael and his family (see 1 Nephi 7:1–2), Nephi’s interpretation of Lehi’s words concerning Israel’s destiny (see 1 Nephi 15:17–18), the Lord’s command to Lehi to move on and the accompanying discovery of the compass (see 1 Nephi 16:9– 10), and the revelation to Lehi by means of the compass (see 1 Nephi 16:25–27). (https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/book-mormon-treasury/recovering-missing-record-lehi)

This next one tells us, pretty precisely, specific chapters that were on those pages:

2)    The first two chapters of Mosiah are missing:

“Royal Skousen, a BYU professor of linguistics and the editor of the monumental Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, said in a phone interview that our current Mosiah chapter 1 is really just the beginning of Mosiah chapter 3. Most, if not all of the original first two chapters were stolen along with "The Book of Lehi."

“"That 116 pages that they had went a little bit further. It already started into Mosiah. So that was also (stolen)," Skousen said.

“There are several clues that support this theory, Skousen said. Every other book in the Book of Mormon is named after the first person that is writing in it. The current Mosiah chapter 1 begins with King Benjamin. But the book is not called "Benjamin." The "Mosiah" it is named after is likely Benjamin's father.

“Another indication that the first few chapters of Mosiah are missing is that, unlike the other books in Mormon's abridgement, there is no explanatory introduction. "It begins in the middle of things," Skousen said.

“The clincher is that the printer's manuscript identified the first page of Mosiah as "Chapter III" before it was corrected to read "Chapter I."” (https://www.deseretnews.com/article/705384845/Scholars-Corner-The-stolen-chapters-of-Mosiah.html)

And here, kind of the opposite of what we just read, is a bit that was translated and ready to go at the same time as the 116, but it trailed onto a new page and wasn’t taken with the rest:

3)    We Still Have Some of the Martin Harris Scribe Sessions:

“[A] revelation given to Joseph after he lost the 116 pages suggests that some of the original translation may yet be preserved in our current Book of Mormon. Some scholars, like Jack M. Lyon and Kent R. Minson, believe they have identified what that retained portion was: Words of Mormon 1:12–18.1

“The idea behind this theory is that our current version of Mosiah starts in chapter 3 and Martin Harris lost most of the first two chapters of Mosiah with the rest of the 116 pages. But part of the original Mosiah 2 may have survived and mislabeled as part of Words of Mormon.

“This proposal is based on a careful reading of Words of Mormon, combined with evidence from the printer’s manuscript. One of the most confusing things about the Words of Mormon is that it seems to end in the middle: verse 11 reads, “And I know that [the plates] will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.”

“This would be a perfectly good ending to Words of Mormon, yet it continues with something seemingly unrelated, “And now, concerning this king Benjamin—he had somewhat of contentions among his own people.” It then continues to talk about King Benjamin for the next six verses without coming to a conclusion.” (https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/what-if-martin-harris-didnt-lose-all-of-the-116-pages)

This is another example of a logical conclusion of lost-content. When did the Nephites turn out the lights and lock up for the last time in the Land of Nephi?

4)    The BOM contains Lots of partial stories that were probably better explained in the 116 pages – like the move to Zarahemla:

 “…the Nephites are suddenly headquartered in Zarahemla, and the Book of Mormon never really tells us how they got displaced from the land of Nephi. These events, it’s strongly believed, were chronicled in the 116 manuscript pages lost by Martin Harris.” (https://foreverlds.com/podcast/2019/2/the-other-ammon)

Type 2 - What people remembered was on the lost 116:

Remember how Nephi & co were like “Hey Ishamael, how’d about moving to the desert with us and our renegade-prophet father?” and Ishamael was like “You know what? That actually sounds pretty great. We’re in!” Well there is a good reason for Ishmael’s quick acceptance:

1)    Lehi’s daughters were already married to Ishamael’s sons before all the return trips to Jerusalem:

“In fact, we know from one source that the families were not only acquainted but also related. Elder Erastus Snow explained in a sermon delivered in May 1882: “The Prophet Joseph informed us that the record of Lehi was contained on the 116 pages that were first translated and subsequently stolen, and of which an abridgement is given us in the first Book of Nephi, which is the record of Nephi individually, he himself being of the lineage of Manasseh; but that Ishamael was of the lineage of Ephraim, and that his sons married into Lehi’s family, and Lehi’s sons married Ishamael’s daughters.”

“That is to say, it appears that Ishmael’s sons were already married to Lehi’s daughters before the journey began.” (Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, McConkie & Millet, P. 53-54)

How exactly did the Liahona work? We know it required faith, but is that all the Lehites recorded?

No, it is not!:

2)    A more complete description of the Liahona:

“A close associate of Martin Harris actually gave a description of the Liahona that explains the function of the second spindle. He says if you were to look at the surface of the Liahona, around the edges you had characters or pictures or something that indicated different things such as food, water, other types of provisions, and so on. According to him, the function of the second spindle was that the second spindle showed you what the first spindle was pointing you to…

 “…If the Liahona was now pointing you not to the promised land, but where to go for wild game, so you can eat – and you don’t want to take the whole clan, the whole family, and have them go up in the mountains to look for game – the Liahona actually tells you it’s not pointing the way to the promised land. It’s pointing to food so that the hunters can go and get food.” (http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/3/0/b3049518f56e4eb3/LDSP_Don_Bradley_Lost_116_Pages.pdf?c_id=18784262&cs_id=18784262&expiration=1562733425&hwt=84699f5c2af611f8bfc845e07206887e)

Here is a bit that may be the best known of all 116 lost-content. It’s well known because of the work of Don Bradley (see the link after the excerpt). It contains the most previously unknown and exciting details - like wilderness adventures and ancient temples:

3)    The Discovery of the Interpreters and the end of the Liahona

“Early in 1830 a young man named Fayette Lapham, visited Joseph Smith, Sr. to learn more about the much rumored but still unpublished Book of Mormon. Lapham would years later publish an account of their interview that, while occasionally garbled, relates enough inside information about the finding of the plates to verify that the interview occurred. After recounting to Lapham the Book of Mormon’s coming forth, Joseph, Sr. then described Lehi’s journey to the New World and related several of the book’s other narratives. Lapham’s account details one of these in particular, a narrative that beautifully embodies the Book of Mormon’s complex use of Exodus typology and other threads of the Hebrew Bible—namely, the narrative of the Nephites finding the Jaredite interpreters…”

“… In the story as Lapham recounts it from Joseph Smith, Sr. is that sometime after the people have arrived in the New World, they’re traveling and they’re being led by the Liahona. And the Liahona leads them to this strange object, and the guy who finds it doesn’t know what it is. So they have a tabernacle, which shows you that they’re in between temples, which would’ve only been the case either when they first arrived in the New World and had not yet built a temple or during the exodus Mosiah led from the Land of Nephi, where they had a temple, to Zarahemla where they would build a temple. He brings this object into the tabernacle and immediately the voice of the Lord asks him a question, presumably from behind the veil covering the Holy of Holies where the Lord’s presence was understood to dwell. And the voice asks him, “What is that in your hand?” And Lapham says the man responded that “he did not know but that he had come to inquire” – those are Lapham’s exact words. So the Lord tells the man to take this object and put it on his face, and then to cover his face with animal skins. And when he does, he’s able to see anything supernaturally, it’s the interpreters. At that point the Liahona actually stops working; the Liahona, which led him to the interpreters, is actually now replaced by the interpreters. This would explain not only how the Nephites get the interpreters, but also why the military expeditions in the book of Alma never uses the Liahona for guidance.” (https://www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2012/piercing-the-veil-temple-worship-in-the-lost-116-pages)

This one is the newest to me. According to this story, Lucy Harris definitely stole the pages. She gave them to a local doctor for safe keeping. That doctor would read them to patients while he was blood letting, carefully measuring skull-circumference or whatever doctors did back then. One man recorded a bit of what he remembered from his doctor visits:

4)    A description of the mounds…

“William Hine of Colesville, New York, stated in 1885 that Lucy Harris gave the manuscript to one of his neighbors, a Dr. Seymour. Hine then remembered that Dr. Seymour “read most of it [the lost manuscript] to me when my daughter Irene was born; he read them to his patients about the country. It was a description of the mounds about the country and similar to the ‘Book of Mormon.’”” (https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/coming-forth-book-mormon/lost-116-pages-story-what-we-do-know-what-we-don-t-know-and-what)

That’s about it. I haven’t seen other memories of what was on those pages – but there are definitely others out there. The aforementioned Don Bradley has promised a book about what was on the 116. It keeps getting pushed back, as I understand it, because people keep sending him new content.

Do you know anything else lost from the 116? If so, put it out there! Put it on here! In the comments! I’d love to see it!

Actually, there are at least 16 million people that would love to see it!

Please feed our curiosity!