In these two chapters, as Moroni finishes the record of his slain father, his emotions are intense and palpable. You may want to read these as if you were Moroni writing his final words of prophecy, declaration, questioning, judging, challenging, commanding, attesting, and petitioning in this, his “first farewell.” He will bid farewell and sign off again at the end of the book of Ether, and finally at the end of his book of Moroni.
In finishing the record of his father, Moroni did not stay around the location of the final battle. If he had, he would have been killed, so he left. The final battle took place in AD 385, and Moroni finally buried these records in AD 421, thirty-six years later. He apparently spent those thirty-six years in exile, probably, for the most part, alone. Think of being alone for that long. Loneliness is terrible, especially when you are being pursued, but look at what he left for us in spite of his solitary circumstances. Moroni’s integrity and personality shine through in these words he has written. They are not just casual words. They are words that were deeply important to Moroni, and I am very grateful to him for writing and preserving them.
As a master scribe, Moroni paid attention to his audiences. Four times, he declares specifically to whom he is speaking: “I speak unto you as if you were present” (8:35); “I speak concerning those who do not believe in Christ” (9:1); “I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God” (9:7); and “I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead” (9:30).
He adapted to these audiences. For example, in chapter 8, he was speaking to those who believed in Christ. To them he spoke in certain modes, for example, a questioning mode. In chapter 9, he switched to another one of his audiences—the non-believers. He spoke to them in other modes, such as by challenging them. The Gentiles are part of his audiences, but they are not his only audience. He also spoke, as did his father Mormon, to the Lamanites, and to his own people, who were already all dead.
Clearly, he had several audiences and many things to say to them. But it seems that he was hard-pressed to find more sources of metal, as he mentions running out of plates. If only he had found more, we may have been blessed with much more that he could have said.
Moroni would never have had an opportunity to speak face-to-face to the people to whom he so yearned to deliver this message, but he used exceptionally effective rhetorical techniques to make his message clear to a broad audience that was widely spread in distance and over time. The several modes of writing, or rhetorical registers, that Moroni used in Moroni 8 and 9 are very impressive. They are noticeable to us because they involve several sequences of repetitive form. Moroni was a prophet trying to communicate across a span of 2,000 years. He enumerated and gave specificity to details to provide relevance. Not many authors would need to say, “I am writing to you,” but Moroni’s audience was not immediate. He felt an urgency to reach them, and he reiterated his phrases, wondering if we are hearing him.
When we read these chapters, we must pull out the different rhetorical modes and series which Moroni uses. They sometimes overlap, but they are usually distinct. I find ten modes in Mormon 8–9. At first, Moroni will use (1) a blessing and cursing mode, then (2) a warning mode, (3) a forecasting mode, (4) a declaring mode, (5) a questioning mode, (6) a judging mode, (7) a challenging mode, (8) a commanding mode (9) an attesting mode, and finally (10) a petitioning mode. The reader must focus to notice these patterns, and one may have to read this chapter many times before observing how these rhetorical modes work in individual blocks of text as well as together and as a whole.
As will be seen below, Moroni uses these forms masterfully. Books have been written describing the techniques used by the greatest rhetoricians, artists, and musicians, helping us appreciate what made them so masterful. A great master is able to use forms so perfectly that the form does not draw attention to itself. When you listen to a Beethoven symphony, you are not conscious of how it is organized thematically, progressively, even mathematically. When you listen to a Bach fugue, it is structured with repetitions and patterns, yet overall, it simply sounds clear, interesting, perfect and beautiful because everything flows through the form and meshes so well. That is what Moroni has done as he deliberately employs these various rhetorical registers through engraving his words onto plates.
Moroni produced three conclusions to the Book of Mormon. One is here in Mormon 8–9, another is found in the Ether 12, and his final farewell can be found at the conclusion of his writings in Moroni 10. These three conclusions were written at different times, and they are very different from each other. There are many lessons to be learned from each of them, not the least of which is that it is hard to know how to conclude a major work like the Book of Mormon.
I think what Moroni was doing here in chapters 8 and 9 can be best described as “dutiful.” He was doing his duty. He was warning us. He was commanding us. He was closing the record as his father had charged him to do. He issued challenges and asked questions. This was his duty, and he was doing things dutifully for his father who had told him to do so.
Then, when Moroni was abridging the book of Ether, he inserted his second farewell as an extended commentary on the fact that the people of Ether would “not believe” the great and marvelous things which he prophesied “because they saw them not” (Ether 12:5). He then discourses, teaches, worries about the Gentiles mocking, prays that the Gentiles will have charity, and bids farewell for the next thirty-six verses (12:6–41), and in the end he lets Ether have the last word in the book of Ether (15:34).
But when he wrote in Moroni 10, he was not doing it because he had been told to do it, and he was not worried about what his readers might think of his work. In the end, Moroni simply pours out his heart to us. That is where we will eventually find his series of seven pleading exhortations to us, as we will later see.
Book of Mormon Central, “Why Did Moroni Write So Many Farewells? (Mormon 8:1), KnoWhy 233 (November 17, 2016). “When readers recognize that Moroni’s three farewells were written at different stages of his life and in the context of different record-keeping projects, they can better understand the purpose and meaning of each one. In the first, he spoke with the voice of justice. In the second, he found himself moved by sympathy. … In the third, Moroni turned the matter over to the will and grace of God.”