1 Nephi 12:18 Textual Variants

This passage contains the first occurrence of the name Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon text (excluding the title page, which was written by Moroni about a thousand years later). This entire passage from verses 16–18 in 1 Nephi 12 is a direct quote of the angel’s words to Nephi (verse 16 begins “and the angel spake unto me saying”, and verse 19 follows the quote with “and while the angel spake these words”). The next time the text uses the name Jesus Christ is much later, after Nephi has finished quoting Isaiah 2–14 in 2 Nephi 12–24:

• 2 Nephi 25:19
  • for according to the words of the prophets the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem and according to the words of the prophets and also the word of the angel of God his name should be Jesus Christ the son of God

Here Nephi specifically refers to the fact that the angel of God revealed the name of the Messiah and that his name would be “Jesus Christ the Son of God”. And Jesus Christ is precisely what the angel in 1 Nephi 12:18 gives as the name of the Lamb of God. Also later on in the text, Nephi’s brother Jacob indicated that an angel had told him that the name of the Savior would be Christ:

• 2 Nephi 10:3
  • wherefore as I said unto you it must needs be expedient that Christ —for in the last night the angel spake unto me that this should be his name— that he should come among the Jews

We note here that Jacob did not get the name from Nephi himself—Jacob had not yet even been born when Nephi had his vision of the tree of life. Apparently Nephi hadn’t told the name to Jacob. Like Nephi, Jacob got the name Christ (the Greek form of Messiah) from an angel. Note, however, that Jacob does not mention Christ’s personal name, Jesus.

These distinctions are important in evaluating Joseph Smith’s editing of 1 Nephi 12:18 for the 1837 edition. When he got to this passage in the printer’s manuscript, Joseph crossed out Jesus Christ and supralinearly inserted Mosiah, his spelling for Messiah. The s in the name Mosiah can be pronounced as an /s/ or a /z/. (Both pronunciations are listed, for instance, in the pronouncing guide at the end of the 1981 LDS edition; in the 1920 LDS edition, only the /s/ pronunciation is given.) Joseph Smith apparently pronounced Mosiah with the /s/, along with a reduced schwa vowel /ß/ for the first vowel; thus for him Mosiah and Messiah were homophonous (both pronounced as /mßsai.ß/. In any event, Joseph intended Messiah, which is what was set in the 1837 edition (plus the addition of the expected definite article the).

But this editing causes a real difficulty—namely, the first reference to the full name Jesus Christ (that is, with the personal name Jesus) is now in 2 Nephi 25:19! The only other possible source for his name must now come from when the angel told Jacob that the Messiah’s name would be Christ, which is not the same as Jesus Christ. Thus we see that the original use of Jesus Christ in 1 Nephi 12:18 is crucial to understanding the later reference in 2 Nephi 25:19. The critical text will, of course, restore the name Jesus Christ in 1 Nephi 12:18, not only because it is the earliest reading but also because it is necessary.

One possible reason behind Joseph Smith’s editing in 1 Nephi 12:18 is that prior to that point Messiah was the name the text had used to refer to Christ (besides descriptive expressions like the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Redeemer, and the Savior). The designation Messiah was used right at the beginning of 1 Nephi by Lehi (in 1 Nephi 1:19) and then eight times in 1 Nephi 10). Perhaps the sudden appearance of the complete name Jesus Christ in 1 Nephi 12:18 seemed odd, so Joseph replaced it with Messiah.

The same basic points, although from a different viewpoint, are discussed by Brent Metcalfe on pages 427–433 of his article “The Priority of Mosiah”, New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, edited by Brent Lee Metcalfe (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1993), pages 395–444.