Just as the good tidings to Mary concerned the advent of the Savior, so for Benjamin the glad tidings have to do with Christ’s coming. Of course there is a significant difference in timing. For Mary, the event was imminent. For Benjamin, it is over 100 years in the future. With such a difference in the timeframe, we are justified in asking why this particular glad tidings is coming to Benjamin. Once again the wheels within wheels of Benjamin’s discourse disclose a greater complexity that we might otherwise suppose.
Mosiah 3:5-11 is a catalog of the earthy ministry of Jesus, capped by the eternal saving mission he accomplishes during that mission. With the announcement of good tidings of great joy to Mary she received information she did not know. Did this happen to Benjamin? Not entirely. There are some details of Jesus’ ministry that appear in the Book of Mormon for the first time with Benjamin’s speech. However, much of the substantive content of this revelation was already known, and available at least through the small plates of Nephi.
The differences in the material indicate that Benjamin received a vision of Jesus’ ministry, and that he is reporting his own experience rather than citing scripture for the small (and probably large) plates of Nephi. Even where there is thematic overlap, Benjamin is giving the information in a fresh way. Certainly the prophetic vision Benjamin received would be most prominent in his recollection, even though he is certain to have read similar experiences from earlier prophets.
Still, the fact of the vision to Benjamin and the particular citation of that experience in this very public speech require more investigation. When Nephi had a similar vision, he received it as a response to his personal question. Benjamin receives this information as a result of his personal righteousness, but “that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy” (Mosiah 3:4). Where Nephi’s experience was personal, Benjamin’s is explicitly public.
It is hard to imagine that the revelation of Jesus Christ would be new to Benjamin’s people. Certainly the teaching of Christ was prominent among the Nephites before they left the city of Nephi, and because it was the believers to left, they would surely have continued that teaching. The Zarahemlaites explicitly had lost the knowledge of their creator (see Omni 1:17) and would likely never have known of the specific and detailed revelations the Nephites received concerning the Christ. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that these things were not taught, and believed, by at least those who elected to remain with Benjamin. They are gathered on this occasion because they observe the law of Moses (Mosiah 2:3) and the Nephite version of the law of Moses had been tempered with the hope of Christ since the days of Nephi (2 Nephi 25:24). If the “glad tidings” of Christ are not entirely new to this people, why does it figure so prominently in Benjamin’s discourse (other than, of course the supreme importance of the subject)?
I submit that the answer lies in the phrasing of verse 17 – that salvation comes through the name of Jesus Christ. When we combine this theological point with Benjamin’s desire to give a new name to his people – and that the name they will adopt is that of the Christ – herein lies the message. Benjamin is setting up his covenant with a powerful reminder of the importance of the name that they will bear.
Internal Reference: While the evidence will suggest that Benjamin is citing his personal revelation, nevertheless many of the themes are available in the small plates of Nephi. For the healing of the sick Nephi noted:
“1 Nephi 11:31 And he spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men. And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and the angel spake and showed all these things unto me. And they were healed by the power of the Lamb of God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out.”
The similarity is apparent, but so are the differences. Benjamin specifically mentions raising the dead, and the blind and deaf. Those specifics are not available from what Nephi wrote (though they were certainly part of what Nephi saw).
External Reference
“A fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q251), from about 100 B.C., contains the following similar messianic expectations: ”And when the Messiah comes then he will heal the sick [make the blind see], raise [or resurrect] the dead, and to the poor announce glad tidings“…For a text to speak more than a hundred years before the time of Christ so explicitly about the miracles to be performed by the Messiah is news to most of the world; but to those who see continuity between the Old Testament and the New, this text, which named three of the four points also found in Mosiah 3:5, sounds quite familiar” (“Complete Text of Benjamin’s Speech with Notes and Comments.” In: King Benjamin’s Speech. FARMS 1998, p. 546-7).