I think I may have finally found a reading of 2 Nephi 27 that checks off all the boxes and perhaps satisfies the dream I had where I was to understand that chapter’s significance in order to unlock other information. Time will tell, I suppose, but for now I am feeling pretty good about this post. I am open to being shown wrong, of course, so don’t hold back in the comments if you see issues with my analysis.
To set the stage, I think we have to make some base assumptions about Tolkien. First, we must consider the Red Book. As I have said in my “I am not learned” post, the Red Book is presented as the in-universe source of Tolkien’s tales.
In the first edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien’s foreword claimed he had translated the Red Book from the original Westron into English, and that claim is still implied in later editions of The Lord of the Rings, notably in Appendix F, part II “On Translation”. It therefore must be supposed that copies of the book survived through the Later Ages. Tolkien says nothing about how he gained access to one or more copies of the Red Book and how he learned Westron and other languages of Arda.
-Tolkien Gateway
I have been reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien to get a better sense of the man and how he frames his writing/publishing experience. One thing stands out: if Tolkien did actually have the Red Book, he gives no indication of that in his letters. I have found only one potential hint where he writes:
I shall, if I get a chance, turn back to the matter of the Red Book and allied histories soon.
What is curious about this statement is it is made after The Hobbit and LoTR were published. I suppose he is referring to The Silmarillion which as yet remained unpublished and so we could imagine that this is a wink or nod to the idea of him huddled in a private room, secretly translating from the Red Book. However, the problem with that notion is Tolkien revised his stories many times and sometimes in very significant ways that preclude the idea of him translating word-for-word from an ancient text. If he did that, you’d expect a single and definitive translation rather than competing draft versions.
On the other hand, Tolkien is clear in his letters that he does not consider himself to be the source of his tales. I’m borrowing the following from a private summary written by J. Chase that does a good job showing this:
As for Tolkien, he described the writing process to several different people in letters he wrote to them. Below are several short descriptions of the process he explained to other people in his letters.
- -A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him (letter 66, 1944)
- -All that I had sketched or written before proved of little use, as times, motives, etc., have all changed (letter 70, 1944)
- -Whole thing comes out of the wash quite different to any preliminary sketch! (Letter 71, 1944)
- -The thing seems to write itself once I get going, as if the truth comes out then. (Letter 91, 1944)
- -Always I had the sense of recording what was already ‘there’, somewhere: not of ‘inventing’.(Letter 131, 1951)
- -The Lord of the Rings consists in the vistas of yet more legend and history, to which this work does not contain a full clue. (Letter 151, 1954)
- -It seems to have grown out of hand, so that parts seem (to me) rather revealed through me than by me (Letter 153, 1954)
- -I have long ceased to invent: I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself… I have no recollection of inventing Ents. (Letter 180, 1956)
- -Frodo deserved all honour…Few others, possibly no others of his time, would have got so far. The Other Power then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself). (Letter 192, 1956)
- -I have not in fact any conscious memory of sitting down and deliberately thinking out any episode – as how to order the account of it. (Letter 199, 1957)
You could say these are all just creative ways to refer the the “muse” concept or how some authors “write by the seat of their pants” and let the story discover itself. But Tolkien goes beyond this concept. For example, he shares a story late in life that reflects a view of himself as a “chosen instrument” to bring forth these tales. In Letter 328, only a few years before his death, he reports a strange interaction that gave him clarity behind the source of these tales and their significance:
Letters 328
A few years ago I was visited in Oxford by a man whose name I have forgotten (though I believe he was well-known). He had been much struck by the curious way in which many old pictures seemed to him to have been designed to illustrate The Lord of the Rings long before its time. He brought one or two reproductions. I think he wanted at first simply to discover whether my imagination had fed on pictures, as it clearly had been by certain kinds of literature and languages. When it became obvious that, unless I was a liar, I had never seen the pictures before and was not well acquainted with pictorial An, he fell silent. I became aware that he was looking fixedly at me. Suddenly he said: ‘Of course you don’t suppose, do you, that you wrote all that book yourself?’
Pure Gandalf! I was too well acquainted with G. to expose myself rashly, or to ask what he meant. I think I said: ‘No, I don’t suppose so any longer.’ I have never since been able to suppose so. An alarming conclusion for an old philologist to draw concerning his private amusement. But not one that should puff any one up who considers the imperfections of ‘chosen instruments’, and indeed what sometimes seems their lamentable unfitness for the purpose.
Here Tolkien reveals a scenario where I say he was tried by an angel, Gandalf specifically, to teach him that despite being a “chosen instrument” Tolkien did not do this work by himself.
Tolkien also describes his writing process as visionary in nature. Chase continues:
…Tolkien wrote
“I visualize with great clarity and detail scenery and ‘natural’ objects, (letter 211).
A demonstration of the clarity he experienced is illustrated when he writes:
“I met a lot of things on the way (of writing Lord of the Rings) that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there… Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure…. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf’s failure to appear on September 22. I knew nothing of the Palantíri, though the moment the Orthanc-stone was cast from the window, I recognized it.
I find these statements by Tolkien genuine and I think it tells us a few things. First, he may have possessed the Red Book but he did not do a word-for-word translation. If true, we have to assume he is merely play acting or being coy when he says things like “as far as I know [the tales are] merely an imaginative invention” so as to avoid arousing curiosity about the Red Book. To say “as far as I know” is certainly an odd way to put it. He is leaving room for other possibilities at the very least.
Second, these tales flowed to him visually and he was able to interpret/translate them in some fashion into English. I think that is similar to how Joseph Smith accomplished his own translation. I do not believe his was a word-for-word translation and the easiest way I see to disprove that idea is the existence of figures of speech and local colloquialisms. Or perhaps Jacob ending his record with the word “adieu” rather than the english “farewell”. Such a creative flourish suggests an interpretive translation rather than a direct word for word affair. Or Joseph’s apparent overuse and potential misuse of “it came to pass“.
Skousen does a good job of showing that the BoM is likely a cultural translation wherein JS attempted to make a true story sound Biblical/religious so that it would be taken seriously. I imagine a Gandalf or Moroni figure could have just as easily asked JS “of course you don’t suppose, do you, that you translated all that book yourself?” I likewise see JS interpreting from visionary experiences, some blend of images and words and ideas from which he drew the account and dictated to scribes. I don’t think that is too far off from the picture Tolkien paints of his own writing process.
Granted, in this case we have to wonder, what is the purpose of gold plates or a Red Book? I suggest it’s because the ancient record is there as proof that the person translating is in fact the “chosen instrument” (by virtue of their possession) and therefore authorized to do so without incurring heavenly wrath. Or that the ancient record is there to assist the spiritual co-author/co-translator.
And we also have to reconcile that JS did not produce multiple versions, but only one singular translation. But then, I think that explains why the book of Lehi was not re-translated — because JS would not have produced the same translation twice. No one would, so I’m not sure the absence of BoM drafts disproves this theory of mine. Joseph also had a direct path to publication whereas Tolkien was denied and had time to consider alternate paths to get the story told.
Third, Tolkien was not the source of the tales. This explains how he discovered these tales as he went and how he didn’t even know they were all connected until much later.
And lastly, although the tales flowed to and through him, he had a hand in crafting them, or interpreting them into what we could consider a cultural translation. That is why we know the name Samwise Gamgee instead of Banazîr Galbasi, which was his true name in Westron. Meaning, the translation of these tales was a joint effort with some other Source. I think 2 Nephi 27 backs up this idea that the words of the book are not given through some direct translation from book to pen. Nephi tells us:
the Lord God hath said that the words of the Faithful should speak as if it were from the dead.
Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book
The dead speak mind to mind, as far as I can tell, and not lips to ear or by written translation. As such, I see Tolkien’s translation occurring through his own mind and his co-Author’s. Same with JS.
So in summary, I say Tolkien had possession of the Red Book but that he did not produce a scholarly translation from it. And now the stage is set so we can see what Nephi has to say about all of this.
I’m going to quote liberally from 2 Nephi 27 but I will also liberally apply ellipses and add interpretive text (in bold) as I go so that it is hopefully easier to follow my argument.
…the Lord God shall bring forth unto [All the nations of the gentiles and the Jews]
The words of a book, and [the words] shall be the words
Of them which have slumbered. And behold the book shall be sealed. [Notice the words of the book are given to all the nations, NOT the book itself.]
And in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof. [The BOOK has the full revelation from beginning to end but the WORDS we get from the book do not. The Words give us a partial telling because part of the book is sealed. If I had to guess which part of the book is sealed, I’d guess its the “ending thereof” rather than the “beginning of the world”. Or said another way, the unsealed words cover just the first eras of the world, the beginning. That is, by the way, what is covered in the Silmarillion. That would mean the sealed book spoken of is the Thain’s copy of the Red Book and what Tolkien got published are the unsealed words of that book.]
… the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the [Red] book shall be kept from [the wicked].
But the [Red] book shall be delivered unto a man [Tolkien], and he shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust,
And he shall deliver these words unto another [to be revealed further down]
But the words which are sealed he shall not deliver.
Neither shall he deliver the [Red] book. …
at that day when the [Red] book shall be delivered unto the man
… the [Red] book shall be hid from the eyes of the world,
…none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God … and they shall testify to the truth of the [Red] book and the things therein. … none other which shall view it, save it be a few … to bear testimony of his word [I am unaware of any witnesses corroborating Tolkien’s claim that his stories came from the Red Book. BUT, it could be that these witnesses are silent until the book itself comes forth, which Nephi tells us will not happen in the day of wickedness. These witnesses, after all, are said to be witnesses of the BOOK so to me it makes sense that their testimony would come forth when the book comes forth and not necessarily when the words of the unsealed portion are made known.]
This next part of chapter 27 is where things do get a little messy so let me explain. We will see some people called “the learned” and then a single man called “the not learned”. Tolkien named himself as the “not learned” in what is to me a smoking gun letter that was included in the Preface to The Silmarillion:
“I am not ‘learned’ in the matters of myth and fairy-story, however, for in such things (as far as known to me) I have always been seeking material, things of a certain tone and air, and not simple knowledge.”
But he also names the “learned” in his letters. In the following letter he again puts the word “learned” in quotes in describing debts he owes professionally, meaning, work that is required of him by his fellow academics.
Letter 124
Dear Unwin [his publisher],
I am, I fear, a most unsatisfactory person. I am at present ‘on leave’, and away off and on; though the effort to cope with a mass of literary and ‘learned’ debts, that my leave was supposed to assist, has proved too much for me, especially as I have been troubled with my throat and have felt often far from well.
In a later letter he does it again and explains that he puts “learned” in quotes because he is referring to the tone of his colleagues, i.e. fellow academics who consider his other work as “unprofessional trifles”.
Letter 211
I have only just returned from a year’s leave, one object of which was to enable me to
complete some of the ‘learned‘ works neglected during my preoccupation with unprofessional trifles (such as The Lord of the Rings): I record the tone of many of my colleagues.
So in all 3 instances, he uses the quotation marks around “learned” to seemingly indicate he is different from his colleagues in that he does not view myth and fairy-story as “unprofessional” or something meant for “simple knowledge”. Because of that, he is “not learned” when compared to those who reject his works on their academic value. Those who do are “learned” because they think they know better. Calling them “learned” is tongue in cheek by God and Tolkien.
Here’s what Nephi says happens next:
But behold, it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall say unto him to whom he shall deliver the book:
Take these words which are not sealed and deliver them to another, that he may show them unto the learned, saying: Read this, I pray thee. And the learned shall say:
Bring hither the book, and I will read them.
And now, because of the glory of the world and to get gain will they say this, and not for the glory of God.
And the man shall say: I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed.
Then shall the learned say: I cannot read it.
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that the Lord God will deliver again the book and the words thereof to him that is not learned;
And the man that is not learned shall say: I am not learned.
Now let’s see if we can find a story that follows the outline of what Nephi says happens between these two groups. In Letter 19 of The Letters of JRR Tolkien we are told that in the wake of the success behind The Hobbit:
“Tolkien lunched with Unwin in London on 15 November, and told him about a number of his writings which already existed in manuscript: the series of Father Christmas Letters, which he had addressed to his children each Christmas since 1920; various short tales and poems; and The Silmarillion. Following this meeting, he handed to Allen & Unwin the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’, a prose formulation of the latter book, together with the long unfinished poem “The Gest of Beren and Lúthien’. These were shown to one of the firm’s outside readers, Edward Crankshaw, who reported unfavourably on the poem, but praised the prose narrative for its ‘brevity and dignity’, though he said he disliked its ‘eye-splitting Celtic names’. His report continued: ‘It has something of that mad, bright-eyed beauty that perplexes all Anglo-Saxons in face of Celtic art.'”
So Tolkien delivers the words of a book to “another” (Stanley Unwin) who then delivers those words to one of his professional readers, a man named Edward Crankshaw. Crankshaw’s job is to critique and screen manuscripts. In other words, Unwin says to Crankshaw “read this, I pray thee”. Crankshaw’s professional, learned, opinion was the basis for the publisher rejecting the Silmarillion. Crankshaw, I think, is the textbook definition of the kind of person Tolkien calls “learned”. Just look at his list of authored works on Wikipedia to get a sense for where this guy’s head is at. Lofty stuff!
Tolkien later writes in a letter to Unwin:
“Of course, my only real desire is to publish ‘The Silmarillion’: which your reader, you may possibly remember, allowed to have a certain beauty, but of a ‘Celtic’ kind irritating to Anglo-Saxons.”
Crankshaw is essentially saying “I cannot read it”. He finds it too “irritating”. In another letter, Tolkien says:
Letter 124
You may, perhaps, remember about that work, a long legendary of imaginary times in a ‘high
style’, and full of Elves (of a sort). It was rejected on the advice of your reader many years ago. As
far as my memory goes he allowed to it a kind of Celtic beauty intolerable to Anglo-Saxons in large
doses. He was probably perfectly right and just. And you commented that it was a work to be drawn
upon rather than published.
Allen & Unwin rejected the Silmarillion because they believed there was no money to be made from it and that was due in large part to Crankshaw’s assessment. They instead wanted a sequel to The Hobbit. I of course must get a little creative here (but not much!), because I see no demands for Tolkien to bring forth the Red Book per se, and that is at first glance the book Nephi suggests that the learned will demand. But in reality, the learned just demand “the book”, which from their point of view does not have to be the Red Book from which Tolkien received his words. And I think the real point is, the learned reject the words and demand something else instead, which is exactly what happened with the Silmarillion. Regardless, I now read Nephi’s full dialogue like this:
… the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the [Red] book;
…the Lord God shall say unto him [Tolkien] to whom he shall deliver the [Red] book:
“Take these words [the Silmarillion text] which are not sealed and deliver them to another [Stanley Unwin], that he [Unwin] may show them unto the learned [Crankshaw], saying: ‘Read this, I pray thee.’ And the learned [Crankshaw] shall say:
‘Bring hither the book [from their perspective, the book is the unwritten sequel to The Hobbit], and I will read them [the words Tolkien gave them].‘
And now, because of the glory of the world and to get gain will they say this [Unwin saw no profit in the Silmarillion], and not for the glory of God.
And the man [Tolkien] shall say: ‘I cannot bring the book [again, here we are speaking in the context of what the learned are demanding, which is the Hobbit sequel], for it [the Red Book] is sealed. [as a result, Tolkien believes that there is no sequel to The Hobbit]‘
Then shall the learned say: ‘I cannot read it [the Hobbit sequel cannot be read b/c Tolkien doesn’t have it to give at this time.].‘
In this reading, we have the demand for another book and Tolkien being unable to deliver it. In fact, over the years, A&U repeatedly ask Tolkien to bring forth a different book than the one Tolkien gave them, and they did so “to get gain”. Tolkien isn’t holding out on them, he simply doesn’t have a sequel to the Hobbit and he had not even sketched a concept for the LoTR. His chief goal had always been to get The Silmarillion published. The Hobbit appears to have been a means to that end.
But A&U are not interested and instead demand something else. Tolkien can’t produce it because he did not know that the source material for LoTR existed. I think this is similar to Joseph Smith being unaware that a second summary of early Nephite history existed until after the original translation was lost by Harris. This also lends credence to the idea that JS did not do a direct translation or else in examining the plates he could have known ahead of time that there was another summary. In like fashion, while possessing the Red Book, Tolkien had as yet no visions of the LoTR story and therefore assumes there is no Hobbit sequel.
The truth is, Tolkien’s primary goal was always to get The Silmarillion published, which is strange considering he sometimes referred to it as something of a pet passion project. For reasons unexplained he seems to have felt a great need to see it published. Why? Most authors would simply follow the money, so to speak, and let the rest lie. Not Tolkien.
But regardless, in Dec 1937 the demand from the learned is nevertheless to produce something other than the Silmarillion.
I also want to point out that Tolkien did not much like his publishers. When they rejected the Silmarillion, he looked for others to take on the project and found one who was willing to publish the Silmarillion if they could also publish his Hobbit sequel. In the end, that publisher got cold feet due to the size of both works. Tolkien then went back to A&U with the same two-for-one offer but they again rejected the Silmarillion. In one of his letters to the competing publisher, Tolkien says this about A&U:
Letter 123
I believe myself to have no legal obligation to Allen and Unwin, since the clause in The Hobbit contract with regard to offering the next book seems to have been satisfied either (a) by their rejection of The Silmarillion or (b) by their eventual acceptance and publication of Farmer Giles. I should (as you note) be glad to leave them, as I have found them in various ways unsatisfactory. But I have friendly personal relations with Stanley (whom all the same I do not much like) and with his second son Rayner (whom I do like very much). It has always been supposed that I am writing a sequel to The Hobbit. Rayner has read most of The Lord of the Rings and likes it – as a small boy he read the MS. of The Hobbit. Sir Stanley [Unwin] has long been aware that The Lord of the Rings has outgrown its function, and is not pleased since he sees no money in it for anyone (so he said); but he is anxious to see the final result all the same.
This validates what Nephi said, that the learned would reject the words of the book “because of the glory of the world and to get gain”.
Bear in mind, Tolkien delivered the Silmarillion manuscript in 1937. It took A&U just one month to reject it and return the words to Tolkien, asking instead for a sequel to The Hobbit. LoTR was not published until 1954, which is quite a gap! In his Letters, Tolkien presents problems with pursuing a sequel. For one, he says more than once that The Hobbit “was not meant to have a sequel” and that he only had “vague notions” about how to continue any tale with hobbits. For another:
Letter 19
But I am sure you will sympathize when I say that the construction of elaborate and consistent mythology (and two languages) rather occupies the mind, and the Silmarils are in my heart.
Why can’t Tolkien let it go? Within a matter of months, Tolkien has a few draft chapters of LoTR but it would take 16 years to get it done and published. Tolkien slowly grinds it out, but always with an eye toward getting the Silmarillion published.
Once the deal fell through with the other publisher, Tolkien decides to play hardball with A&U, dangling the now-completed LoTR as the carrot and telling them if they want the LoTR, they must publish it with The Silmarillion. If not, he is content to publish nothing! Here’s his gamble:
Letter 124
…though shelved (until a year ago), the Silmarillion and all that has refused to be suppressed. It has bubbled up, infiltrated, and probably spoiled everything (that even remotely approached ‘Faery’) which I have tried to write since. It was kept out of Farmer Giles with an effort, but stopped the continuation. Its shadow was deep on the later pans of The Hobbit. It has captured The Lord of the Rings, so that that has become simply its continuation and completion, requiring the Silmarillion to be fully intelligible – without a lot of references and explanations that clutter it in one or two places.
Ridiculous and tiresome as you may think me, I want to publish them both – The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings – in conjunction or in connexion. ‘I want to’ – it would be wiser to say ‘I should like to’, since a little packet of, say, a million words, of matter set out in extenso that Anglo- Saxons (or the English-speaking public) can only endure in moderation, is not very likely to see the light, even if paper were available at will.
All the same that is what I should like. Or I will let it all be.
I respect the game, JRR! But A&U know how to get paid and they again refuse him. I do find it odd how persistent he was about The Silmarillion. He must have felt some pressing need about it. Despite his take-it-or-leave-it stance, two years later, Tolkien relents, citing the reality of an unfunded retirement staring him in the face (Letter 133). It still took a couple more years to get LoTR published. Reading through the Letters, I was amazed at how often Tolkien would cite poor health (his wife’s, particularly, but his own and his kids as well) as the reason for not being more timely in responding to letters or for missing publishing deadlines over the years. He would also cite the rigors of academia that at times demanded 7-day schedules for long stretches. For some reason that just strikes me as unbelievable. I’ve never known academics to tolerate such a heavy workload but perhaps things were different back then.
Or perhaps he was trying to wait them out in hopes of seeing their desperation grow enough that they would publish what he wanted.
Regardless, the LoTR eventually gets published while the Silmarillion remains a rejected text until after his death.
Alright, now that I have fumbled my way through that history, let’s get back to Nephi:
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that the Lord God will deliver again the [Red] book and the words thereof to him that is not learned; [This would imply the Red Book was taken away from Tolkien, probably for safe keeping, after he received the words for the Silmarillion. If so, we have the Red Book coming back to Tolkien AND the words thereof in the form of The Silmarillion manuscript after A&U reject it.]
And the man that is not learned shall say: “I am not learned.” [Tolkien’s letter where he says “I am not learned” happens well after The Silmarillion is rejected in 1937, so this fits the timeline nicely.]
Then shall the Lord God say unto him [Tolkien]:
“The learned shall not read them, for they have rejected them, [of note, in several of his letters, Tolkien refers to the Silmarillion as “rejected”. God is not saying here that the learned will never gain access to these words, he’s just restating facts. The learned are not willing to read the words and have rejected them.] and I am able to do mine own work. [Meaning, God can work around their demands to accomplish His purposes.]
Wherefore thou [Tolkien] shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee. [the LoTR and other tales]
Touch not the things which are sealed!
…
Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, …” [so like JS, Tolkien must deliver up the ancient record once the job is done because what it contains is not fully told yet. There is a sealed portion that must come forth, but as Nephi says, not “in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people.”
Remember this about the Red Book:
In Minas Tirith it received much annotation, and many corrections, especially of names, words, and quotations in the Elvish languages; and there was added to it an abbreviated version of those parts of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen which lie outside the account of the War. The full tale is stated to have been written by Barahir, grandson of the Steward Faramir, some time after the passing of the King. But the chief importance of Findegil’s copy is that it alone contains the whole of Bilbo’s ‘Translations from the Elvish’.
I’m slowly working my way through Don Bradley’s The Lost 116 Pages and I found his discussion of what a “sealed” book means pretty compelling. Basically the idea is that there is a seal placed around a certain section of the book or plates, somewhat like a wax seal on an important letter as proof that the contents had not been yet revealed and are from a genuine source. Bradley posits that the seal was in place as proof that part of the record had not been seen or translated since it was “sealed up” by Moroni. In that case, I think it’s easy to imagine part of Bilbo’s translations from the Elvish also being sealed, perhaps containing some prophecy or record about the end of the world that is not meant to be known yet.
If I’m right, then the sealed portion of the Red Book will eventually come forth. The “words” that the “not learned” bring forth, are said by Nephi to go forth in the day of wickedness to “all the nations of the gentiles and the jews”. It also must contain tales of either the beginning of the world, the end of the world, or some combination thereof since that is what Nephi says the book contains. And it must come forth from one man to whom the words were delivered. All of that fits the Silmarillion.
Most Mormons think Nephi is referring to the Gold Plates that Joseph Smith translated since that record had a sealed portion of plates. But I think that is hard to make fit since the BoM tells no tales of the beginning or end of the world, at least not in any meaningful way. The sealed portion of the Gold Plates is said by the Mormon church to contain a history of the world from beginning to end, but from what I can tell, that is only based on an assumption that 2 Nephi 27 refers to the sealed portion of the plates.
In Ether, we are told the BoJ saw:
… 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. For he had said unto him in times before, that if he would believe in him, that he could show unto him all things, it should be shown unto him. Therefore the Lord could not withhold anything from him, for he knew that the Lord could show him all things.
Granted, it could be that “all things” means the entire history of the world from beginning to end but the central focus of the vision seems to be on the “inhabitants of the earth” rather than its timeline.
We can also rule out the Bible, having an origin story nowhere close to what Nephi describes. For me, that leaves the Silmarillion as the words prophesied by Nephi to come forth.
Poke holes where you see them.
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