1 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
2 And he shall plant in the hearts ...
Who is the antecedent to "he" in verse 2? Is it Elijah or the Lord who is mentioned at the end of verse 1?Wanting to get the blog up and going as a better way to discuss these type of things, I posted the scripture and question as is and added a comment to give my answer.
In the course of 10 minutes I went from "obviously it's the Lord", to "obviously it's Elijah" and back to "obviously it's the Lord".
Rather than just change my comment to my final answer, I thought it would be fun to list all three "obvious" conclusions as they came to me. This will be a good reminder for me to not jump to conclusions, the answer may not be obvious and it may take some time to study it out. Context is important and the complete record is important or one's understanding may be incomplete. Or in my case, non-existent.
So here it goes...
Obviously it's the Lord (take 1)
The "he" in verse 2 refers to the Lord. When you are in the middle of the sentence and you see the pronoun "he", you simply moon walk until you find the preceding proper pronoun which is the Lord. Simple. I've known how to do this since 1st grade.
Obviously it's Elijah
Now wait a minute, don't be hasty ... Let's not jump in with both feet.
As I look at how the Lord is used in vs. 1, I can make a pretty good case for that use to be just a description of the "day".
"Can I get an Amen?"
In my best preachers voice (which is spot on if you could hear me) ... "Now-uh say it with me-uh ... What kind of day-uh is it? ... GREAT AND DREADFUL-UH! ... And whose-uh great and dreadful day is it-uh? ... THE LORDS_UH!!
So if the proper pronoun Lord is just describing that day then maybe I should keep on moonwalking and look for another suspect.
Come to think of it, sometimes those numbers separating sentences of a single paragraph get in the way, so let's forget about the "versicular delineation" (just made that up as I'm typing). I've been confused by "versicular delineation" before ... to the point where I think some scripture has Stage IV Versicular Cancer (now trademarked, to be used only by my permission or by one to whom I have given the keys).
Look's Who's talking
Okay, let's just read it all the way through and figure out who's talking?
Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts ...
Ummm .... Who is I?
Alright, I got it now, that "I" at the beginning is pretty significant. So ... Who is I? Well the I is the Lord of course. It ain't like Joseph is the one sending Elijah ... duhhh! The Lord is sending Elijah.
So since this is a revelation given to Joseph Smith and it is the voice of the Lord speaking ...
- I will send you Elijah
- And he will plant in the hearts
It's as simple as that. And don't get caught up in the whole "Why is the Lord referring to himself in the 3rd person at the end of verse 1?".
He starts with first person "I" and then calls the day the "day of the Lord" - third person. That's just like how I'm referring to this weekend's activity as the Rhino Fun Run. My name is Rhino but I'm going to invite you to Rhino's Fun Run because that's the title. Just like the Lord is going to invite you to His activity, The Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord. I think my activity will be more fun, just sayin'.
Everybody with me? It's pretty clear that the "he" in verse 2 is talking about Elijah.
Obviously it's the Lord (Take 2)
The only problem at this point is that I made a huge assumption and you know what happens when we assume. The assumption was that the person talking was the Lord, that first "I" that starts verse 1.
Context, Context, Context
So let's get the whole picture here and drop the assumptions. To understand this section of the Doctrine and Covenants you need to keep the chapter heading in place (I always knew those were the most important parts of the scriptures ;)
Here is the complete section:
Doctrine and Covenants - Section 2
An extract from Joseph Smith’s history relating the words of the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith the Prophet, while in the house of the Prophet’s father at Manchester, New York, on the evening of September 21, 1823. Moroni was the last of a long line of historians who had made the record that is now before the world as the Book of Mormon.
1 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
2 And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.
3 If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.
Look Who's Talking 2
With the section heading, the person talking is identified as Moroni. The assumption that the "I" in verse 1 was the Lord was wrong and now it makes it clear that the "he" in verse 2 is the Lord. If it's not clear, then throw in verse 3 as well, there's another pronoun "his" that is certainly referring to the Lord.
So my final answer is .... <drum roll>
1. Behold, I, Moroni, will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
2. And the Lord shall plant in the heart of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.
3. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at the Lord's coming.
But wait ...
I thought that when "he" and "his" is referring to the Lord, they are capitalized. So since they are not, it must be ....
