Where we are
Ether 3 is the cornerstone of the book of Ether and one of the most extraordinary chapters in the entire Book of Mormon. It is the answer to the question the Lord left hanging at the end of chapter 2 — what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light? — and the answer turns out to be the occasion for the unveiling of Jesus Christ to a mortal man centuries before his birth. The chapter records the brother of Jared's solution to the problem of light (sixteen stones to be touched by the Lord), and then it records what that solution unexpectedly produced: a theophany so complete that the brother of Jared sees not merely the finger of the Lord but the whole premortal, spirit body of Christ, and hears Christ declare his own identity and mission. The chapter is the Book of Mormon's master text on the relationship between faith and knowledge, on the premortal Christ, and on the tearing of the veil. It teaches that there is a degree of faith so perfect that it becomes knowledge, and a knowledge of God so complete that the veil itself cannot keep the believer out.
The chapter moves in three movements. First, the proposal and the touch (vv. 1–6): the brother of Jared molts sixteen clear stones from a rock, carries them up the mount Shelem, and asks the Lord to touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, that they may shine; the Lord stretches forth his hand and touches them one by one, and the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he sees the finger of the Lord, like unto flesh and blood, and falls in fear. Second, the unveiling of Christ (vv. 7–20): the Lord asks why he fell; the brother of Jared confesses he did not know the Lord had flesh and blood; and the Lord, because of his unequaled faith, shows himself fully — Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son (v. 14) — and explains that man is created in the image of this spirit body. Third, the sealed vision and the commission (vv. 21–28): the Lord shows the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be, and commands him to write these things and seal them up, with two stones (the interpreters) to magnify them in the Lord's due time.
The verses that carry the chapter are these. Verse 4 is the proposal of perfect faith — touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger. Verse 6 is the tearing of the veil — the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord. Verse 9 names the unequaled faith — never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast. Verse 14 is the great self-revelation — Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. And verses 19–20 give the doctrine the whole chapter exists to teach — he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting... having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil. The chapter exists to show, at the summit of the Book of Mormon's teaching on faith, what happens when faith becomes perfect: it passes into knowledge, the veil grows transparent, and the believer beholds the Christ whom faith was always reaching toward.
The proposal and the touch (verses 1–6)
And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness. — Ether 3:4
This is the proposal that perfect faith produced, and it is worth seeing how much faith it contains. The Lord had withheld the solution and asked the brother of Jared to bring his own. The brother of Jared does the human part as far as it can go — he climbs the mountain, he molts the stones, he prepares everything within his power — and then he brings the stones to the limit of his ability and asks God to do what only God can do: touch these stones... with thy finger... that they may shine. The proposal is a perfect partnership of effort and faith. He does not ask God to make light from nothing while he sits idle; he labors to the edge of his capacity and then trusts God for the rest. And the faith is staggering: he genuinely believes that the touch of the Lord's finger will make stone shine. He even acknowledges, with beautiful humility, that this is great power, which looks small unto the understanding of men (v. 5) — he knows the request will seem absurd, and he makes it anyway, because he knows the Lord hast all power. This is faith that has done everything it can and then asks God, with total confidence, for the impossible.
And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear. — Ether 3:6
Here is the hinge of the whole chapter, and it turns on a thing the brother of Jared did not expect. He asked for light in the barges; he received the tearing of the veil. The Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones, and in that moment the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared. The faith that asked God to touch the stones was so great that it brought the man through the veil — he sees the finger of the Lord, and it is like unto flesh and blood. And his response is fear: he fell down, struck with fear, exactly as Alma fell, as Moses fell, as every mortal falls before the holy. There is profound doctrine compressed into this single verse. The brother of Jared did not set out to pierce the veil; he set out to solve a practical problem with faith. But faith exercised that fully cannot help but bring the believer into God's presence — the veil is not torn by trying to tear it but by a faith so complete that it makes the veil irrelevant. The man asked for shining stones and got the finger of God, because the faith required for the one was the faith that obtains the other.
The unveiling of Christ (verses 7–20)
And the Lord said unto him: Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood; and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast; for were it not so ye could not have seen my finger. — Ether 3:9
The Lord interprets what has just happened, and the interpretation is the chapter's central doctrine: because of thy faith thou hast seen. The seeing was the fruit of the faith. And the Lord makes a superlative claim — never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast. This places the brother of Jared at the very summit of human faith in all of scripture; no one before him had believed with such totality. And the Lord ties the vision strictly to that faith: were it not so ye could not have seen my finger. The veil is calibrated to faith. It is not that God arbitrarily decided to appear; it is that faith of a certain magnitude renders the veil transparent, and the brother of Jared reached that magnitude. The Lord also reveals what the finger of flesh and blood meant — thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood. The premortal Christ, still a spirit, shows a finger like flesh because he is testifying of the incarnation to come. The brother of Jared has, in effect, been shown the future Christ in the present, the Lord who shall take upon mortal flesh appearing to a man centuries before he does so.
And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. — Ether 3:13–14
This is the doctrinal summit, and it is one of the clearest and fullest self-revelations of Christ in all of scripture. The Lord showed himself — the full unveiling, beyond the finger — and declares his identity in a cascade of titles. I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people — the premortal, foreordained Redeemer. I am Jesus Christ — the name he will bear in mortality, spoken centuries before the birth. I am the Father and the Son — the great Book of Mormon Christology, the title that names Christ as both the Father (by divine investiture, as Creator and as the one in whose name we are reborn) and the Son. And the logic of why the brother of Jared could see him: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence. To be redeemed from the fall is to be brought back into God's presence — and the brother of Jared's faith-become-knowledge had already, in this life, accomplished that bringing-back. He sees Christ because his faith had already redeemed him into the presence from which the fall exiles us. The vision is not a reward arbitrarily given; it is the natural consequence of a man whose knowledge of God had become so perfect that the fall's exile no longer held him.
And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, which, when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting. — Ether 3:19
Here Moroni states the doctrine that has made this chapter a touchstone for understanding faith itself: he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting. This is the great teaching on the relationship between faith and knowledge, and it is the same principle Alma taught with the seed (Alma 32:34) — when the experiment is complete and the thing is known, faith is dormant in that thing, because faith is not a perfect knowledge, and where perfect knowledge arrives, faith in that particular has done its work. The brother of Jared's faith was so exercised that in this matter it passed entirely into knowledge — he knew, nothing doubting. And the consequence is stated in the next verse as a kind of spiritual law: having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil (v. 20). The veil does not exclude perfect knowledge. A man who knows God this completely cannot be kept out of God's presence, because the veil exists to be the boundary of faith, and this man has passed through faith into knowledge. The phrase could not be kept from within the veil is one of the most remarkable in scripture: it describes a faith so total that the veil becomes powerless to exclude, a knowledge so perfect that the presence of God can no longer be withheld.
The sealed vision and the commission (verses 21–28)
And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth. — Ether 3:25
The vision expands beyond Christ to encompass all of human history — all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be. The Lord withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth. This is one of the most comprehensive visions ever granted a mortal, comparable to the visions of Moses (Moses 1) and Nephi (1 Nephi 11–14) and John the Revelator. And the reason it could be given is stated in the next verse with the same logic that has governed the whole chapter: the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things (v. 26). The brother of Jared's faith had reached the point where God could not withhold — the same impossibility as could not be kept from within the veil. When faith and knowledge reach this magnitude, the limits that ordinarily constrain revelation simply dissolve. The man who could not be kept from the veil also could not be kept from the full vision of history. His perfect faith made him, in effect, unwithholdable — there was nothing God could keep back from a man who believed that God could show him all things.
And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read. — Ether 3:22
The chapter ends with a commission that ties the brother of Jared's vision to the latter days and to the Book of Mormon itself. He is to write what he has seen and seal it up in an unreadable language, with two stones (the interpreters, the Urim and Thummim) provided to magnify the writing in mine own due time (vv. 23–24, 28). This sealed portion is the great vision of all things — and it remains sealed; it is the sealed part of the plates that Joseph Smith was not permitted to translate. The chapter thus reaches forward across the entire Book of Mormon and into our own day: the brother of Jared's vision was sealed up to come forth in God's time, and its appearance awaits a future when the faith of the latter-day reader is sufficient to receive it (as Moroni will explain in Ether 4). The commission also establishes the pattern of sacred things treasured up and revealed in their season — the same pattern as the interpreters Alma gave Helaman (Alma 37). The greatest vision granted to the man of greatest faith was sealed away, not lost but reserved, waiting for a people prepared to receive what the brother of Jared saw on the mount Shelem.
How the chapter is built
Ether 3 is built as an ascent through three veils, each thinner than the last, until there is no veil at all. The first movement (vv. 1–6) brings the brother of Jared up the literal mountain and to the touching of the stones, and at its climax the veil was taken from off the eyes — the first unveiling, the finger seen. The second movement (vv. 7–20) goes further: not just the finger but the whole form of Christ, and the great self-revelation, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. The third movement (vv. 21–28) goes furthest of all: not just Christ but all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be. The architecture is a progressive unveiling — finger, then face, then all history — each stage made possible by the faith-become-knowledge that could not be kept from within the veil. The chapter climbs, and as it climbs the veil thins, until a mortal man on a mountain sees the premortal Christ and the whole of human time. It is the steepest single ascent in the Book of Mormon, from a practical problem about light to the unveiling of God himself.
The chapter is also built as the answer to the seed of Alma 32, demonstrated at its furthest extreme. Alma taught that faith is not a perfect knowledge (Alma 32:21), that the seed grows by experiment until, in that thing, your knowledge is perfect... and your faith is dormant (Alma 32:34). Ether 3 shows a man in whom this process reached its absolute completion: he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting (v. 19). The brother of Jared is the living proof of Alma's doctrine — the seed nourished to the point where faith passes wholly into knowledge. And the chapter draws out the consequence Alma did not name: that such perfect knowledge of God could not be kept from within the veil (v. 20). The two chapters are the two ends of one teaching. Alma 32 describes how faith begins, as a bare desire to believe; Ether 3 describes where faith ends, as a knowledge so perfect it tears the veil. Read together, they map the whole journey of faith from the smallest particle to the fullest sight, and Ether 3 is the destination Alma's seed was always growing toward.
And the chapter is built to seal what it reveals, which is the final paradox of its architecture. The greatest vision granted to the greatest faith is, at the very moment of its granting, sealed up — written in an unreadable language, locked with two stones, reserved for the Lord's own due time (vv. 21–28). The chapter unveils everything and then immediately re-veils it for us. This is not a contradiction but a deeper teaching about the economy of revelation. What the brother of Jared saw is real, recorded, and waiting — the sealed portion of the plates, the vision of all things — but it remains sealed because its reception requires the same faith that obtained it. Moroni will make this explicit in chapter 4: the sealed things come forth only when the latter-day reader exercises faith like the brother of Jared's. So the chapter's architecture leaves the reader exactly where it leaves the sealed plates — on the near side of a veil that perfect faith, and only perfect faith, can pass. The man who could not be kept from within the veil shows us that the veil is real, that it can be passed, and that the way through it is the way he went: faith exercised until it becomes knowledge, and a man who simply will not doubt that God can show him all things.