Revisiting the Gandalf-Moroni connection: Gandalf as the Angel Nephi

So, less than an hour after publishing my last post on Eowyn's apparent visit to Eru-Place and seeing things in the past, present, and future, I started having a lot of pressing thoughts on the Gandalf-Moroni connection, and these thoughts seemed to suggest that at the very least I hadn't looked at this closely enough (with the implication being that this might not be right).

In analyzing why I started having these thoughts, I think it originally came from the fact that of all the character connections I have made, I have made no effort in these posts to justify that particular connection.  

At the beginning of the last post on Eru-Place, I indicated that I wasn't going to spend too much time on 'what it was' because I would have to completely rely on another's writing and thinking.  This wasn't something I was prepared to do and post it here as if I fully believed it.  I want to have what I write about here be things that I have my own personal experience with, whether thoughts, words, dreams, etc., and see where that takes me.   In the past, I have deleted entire posts after determining that they relied too much on another's story or words without some sort of corroborating thoughts of my own.

The Gandalf-Moroni connection is one that I attribute solely to Doug and those around him in Salt Lake City, and so fits into this category of relying on another's point of view or experience.  It was conveyed to me by one of his group via a phone conversation that my other friend was on also back in the fall of 2019, I believe.  In that conversation, the SLC person relayed how they had had thoughts that Gandalf was Moroni, and had approached Doug about this, who then confirmed that this was so (if I remember the conversation correctly).

I think this is one, if not the only, character connection or even topic left on this blog that falls into that category of something I have not had my own thought about, so now is a good time to address it, I think.

The Gandalf-Moroni connection first appeared on this blog in the post, "Diverse earthquakes:  The Beloved Disciples of Bountiful and the quest for the Sawtooth Stone" back in September.  In that post, I never bring up Gandalf, but I have him in mind as I write about Moroni being there with the 3 disciples and that group taking care of the Angel Moroni's trumpet on the SLC temple.  

It would be the very next post that I just slipped in the "Moroni-Gandalf" name to make it explicit on who I had in mind as Moroni, and that he was there with the 3 Disciples at the Sawtooth Mountains.  This name would be mentioned a few other times, but as I went back I don't think I ever called it out or made and statement about it... I just started writing the name that way, and this was because I didn't have a strong reason for it coming from my own thinking.

As I have thought through this story of the Sawtooth Stone from own words in 2020 and how that has taken shape in my writing on this blog, I 'felt' that Gandalf was involved, for a few reasons, but was unsure of any previous role for him.  Meaning, for all of these other characters, I had Book of Mormon or some kind of Mormon connection bridging them from Tolkien's stories into our world, but for Gandalf I didn't really have a perspective, other than what I had heard from in that earlier conversation.  Thus, when I put together the Sawtooth Stone events, I relied on the memory of that conversation to place him as Moroni.  The earthquake involving the angel Mormons know as Moroni sitting atop the Salt Lake City temple seemed to fit nicely with this, also.

So, to summarize, I felt Gandalf has been involved in this whole thing, the thoughts of the SLC group seemed to fit nicely with the Angel Moroni events in SLC during the Sawtooth Mountains expedition, and so I placed Gandalf as Moroni, and therefore accompanying the 3 disciples on their journey (I also originally had John-Aragorn among them, but removed him after I pieced together his later involvement with the Stone).  Thus, we had Moroni-Gandalf in company with the 3 disciples, who would be later joined by Asenath.  That is how things were left off in my mind until last night.

So, what has changed?  I still view Gandalf as part of the Sawtooth quest, but rather than as a person in the company of the 3 disciples, I now view him as one of these disciples themselves.  Meaning, this whole operation was carried out by the 3 disciples from Bountiful, and Gandalf is numbered as one of them.  Specifically, he would be the Being known as Nephi, who was the primary record keeper at the time of Jesus' visit at Bountiful.  

To summarize my view in a few quick bullets, here is what I think and then I will go into some supporting detail and rationale:

• Gandalf is Nephi of Bountiful
• Nephi is one of the 3 disciples who desired and were granted the ability to stay on 'Earth' as translated Beings (as John-Aragorn was also)
• This Nephi is the same Being who would visit Joseph Smith and inform him of the Gold Plates, which is different than the accepted Mormon tradition that this was Moroni
• Thus, the angels sitting on top of Mormon temples should actually be called the "Angel Nephi", and not the Angel Moroni.

OK, so as you can see, we are taking on quite a bit here.  In (finally) putting together my own perspective on Gandalf and placing him as Nephi, I must also change the accepted belief or tradition in Mormonism of who the Being was that visited Joseph Smith.

So, let's get started then.

First off, I want to reiterate this is the Nephi from Bountiful, and not the Nephi, son of Lehi, at the beginning of the Book of Mormon who has also come up in these writings (and who I have identified with both Merry and Hyrum).

Second, I should be clear that I am far from the first person to suggest or explore the idea that it was Nephi and not Moroni that was the Being to visit Joseph (though I think I will be the first to suggest that this Being was also Gandalf!).  I actually had forgotten about this, but I had written a blog entry on this topic back in 2019 on my first blog, A Good Seed.  Back then, Gandalf or the Sawtooth Stone wasn't yet part of the scene, obviously, but I spent some time exploring the Nephi vs. Moroni question, and ended up coming to the same conclusion I am arriving at now:  that it was Nephi, as a translated being, that visited Joseph.

That post is unfortunately deleted, and I won't try to recreate it here, but it was helpful to remember that I had gone down this path before, and that now it even made more sense with the addition of Gandalf.

In any case, in writing that first blog post, I became familiar with the evidence and mystery surrounding this question of Moroni or Nephi.  For non-Mormons, or Mormons who aren't aware, there are conflicting accounts as to the name of the Being that first visited Joseph in the night.  The official account of it, as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price as part of "Joseph Smith - History" clearly says it was Moroni.

But, there is quite a lot more to the story, including that Pearl of Great Price account.  The story takes us again to Brigham Young's Mormonism and changes that were made under his watch (of course!), which also change the story, and as I will also mention, make no logical, internally consistent sense, which is kind of how Brigham operated (and operates) so that shouldn't be a surprise.

In 1842, two years before Joseph's death, there are at least two separate publications that are printed that have Joseph's angel as "Nephi".  The 'Times and Seasons' (a Nauvoo paper), 'The Millenial Star' (a British paper).  The 'Times and Seasons' is particularly important because Joseph Smith was listed as the editor, and in theory would have been aware of and approved this account before published (or would have redacted and corrected if it was a mistake).  This is also the version and language that would make its way into the official History of the Church documents, from what I understand, under Brigham Young (with the name changed, however, which I will get to in a second).  In any case, that version goes:

When I first looked upon him [the messenger] I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi. That God has a work for me to do.

 

Just as importantly, the original handwritten manuscript of the Pearl of Great Price account, as dictated by Joseph, originally was written as 'Nephi'.  At some later date, that name was crossed out, and replaced by 'Moroni' (these types of changes were fairly common in Brigham Young's revision of history).

Further, in later recollections, Lucy Smith, Joseph's mother, wrote a biography of Joseph titled Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, which would be published in 1853 in England, 9 years after Joseph's murder, and I believe in 1855 in Utah.  Orson Pratt would be the one who first published the book.

Brigham Young fairly quickly denounced the book, citing gross errors, and then did what Brigham likes to do (or imagines himself doing) with any record that he doesn't like:  he ordered it destroyed and had someone work on writing a completely new version of Lucy's story.  By 'ordered it destroyed', I mean he banned the book and ordered all copies to be collected and burned.  And by 'new version' I mean he commissioned a new book to be written as if it was the original Lucy Mack book, just now changed to fix any 'errors' or things that he didn't agree with.  It would actually take until well after Brigham's death for a reprint to come out (1901), positioned as if it was the original work.

Just let that sink in for a second when we are considering the type of Being we are dealing with in Brigham and the structure that he put in place.

Anyways, in that original biography written by Lucy, she very clearly writes Nephi was the angel.  In the 1901 reprint, this was obviously changed to Moroni.

It is true, however, and should be noted in fair disclosure, that there are conflicting accounts during Joseph's own lifetime as to the identity of the Being in question.  But the latest accounts we have 'from' him (at least the ones I am aware of) have the Being as Nephi, which were subsequently changed and brought into harmony with the official church position that this Being was Moroni.

OK, so this doesn't prove anything, necessarily, but I bring up the above to illustrate that it is entirely within the realm of possibility for this Being to have been Nephi based on early documents relating the event.

So, if Nephi, than why Nephi?  Why would it be him, and why does this make sense for our story?

To answer that, we then have to turn our attention to the identity of the 3 disciples and what their purpose was.  As stated earlier, it is my belief that Nephi was one of these disciples, and this would then have allowed him or given him the capacity to have been the one to visit Joseph, based on Mormon's own words on what these disciples were called and given permission to do from Jesus.

Mormon did not give us the identity of the disciples who were allowed to hang around in his summary of what happened at Bountiful.  He was about to, but then was instructed by Jesus not to.  He knew who they were, though, and I don't, so I feel free putting my own guesses down and seeing where they go.  My guess on the 3 are:

• Nephi
• Timothy (Nephi's brother, who was raised from the dead)
• Jonas (Nephi's son)

Just logging those here... we will see how close I am at some point, perhaps!

As you can see, I am making this a family affair.  It will be Nephi, his brother, and one of his sons who are the 3.  As for reason, I have Nephi staying because he is the primary witness to what Jesus did and taught at Bountiful, and the primary record keeper.  Mormon himself, in compiling the book we have today, says that he pretty much owes much of his account in general, and specifically the account around Jesus' visit, to this Nephi:

And now it came to pass that according to our record, and we know our record to be true, for behold, it was a just man who did keep the record—for he truly did many miracles in the name of Jesus; and there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity

This is Nephi that Mormon is referring to, and this sounds very much the description of what the disciples did and were called to do.

Anyway, it seems sometime prior to Jesus' visit, Nephi raised his brother Timothy from the dead.  We don't have any other detail besides that, but I am assuming him being raised from the dead was for a reason, and I think that reason was to be allowed and granted the desire to remain on Earth and do various works (including going after the Sawtooth Stone!).  So, Timothy is our second Being.

Rounding it out, we have Jonas, and my strongest reason for him is that he wanted to stay with his father and uncle.  Family is important.

Nephi has at least one other son who was not one of the 12 disciples.  His name was also Nephi, and the report of his death has led to considerable confusion as to the fate of Nephi the disciple, and whether he could have been one of the Three.

After Jesus departs and the people begin living in a state of bliss that will last for over 200 years, we have accounts of the death of the all of the disciples except for the three in 4 Nephi:

And it came to pass that the seventy and first year passed away, and also the seventy and second year, yea, and in fine, till the seventy and ninth year had passed away; yea, even an hundred years had passed away, and the disciples of Jesus, whom he had chosen, had all gone to the paradise of God, save it were the three who should tarry; and there were other disciples ordained in their stead; and also many of that generation had passed away.

A few verses later, we read of the death of a 'Nephi' that had been keeping the record:

And it came to pass that Nephi, he that kept this last record, (and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi) died, and his son Amos kept it in his stead; and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi also.

 

It is tempting to think that this Nephi, because of the mention of record keeping, is the same as the disciple Nephi.  I fell into this trap when I had first started exploring this topic back in 2019.  However, both the earlier verse I mentioned, as well as the introduction to "4 Nephi" convincingly demonstrate (to me) that this isn't so.

First, in the earlier verse, we learn that all of the disciples had passed away who were going to - only the Three are left.  So, this Nephi that then dies afterward cannot be Disciple Nephi.  Further, in the intro (written in the original record by the record keeper) to 4 Nephi, we learn the identity of this 'new' Nephi:

FOURTH NEPHI

THE BOOK OF NEPHIWHO IS THE SON OF NEPHI—ONE OF THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST

An account of the people of Nephi, according to his record.

This interpretation of this can somewhat depend on which of the Nephi's you ascribe "one of the disciples of Jesus Christ" to.  We have a Nephi, who is the son of Nephi, that is clear.  Which one of these was the disciple?  Again, it's easy to maybe assume the first, because Nephi the disciple did indeed have a father named Nephi.  But, I think in light of the other verse as well as the placement of the phrase, it is actually easier to interpret this as saying the Nephi was the son of Nephi, who was one of the Disciples, the dash acting as a descriptor for Nephi the father.  This is also consistent with the timeline later on with this other Nephi dying after it was mentioned that all of the disciple who were going to leave had already done so.

Furthermore, it is isn't even mentioned that the other Nine who didn't stay 'died' in the same manner we would say people die.  Mormon simply says that they went to the Paradise of God, consistent with Jesus' own words on the matter, and so even if Nephi weren't one of the Three, I don't think he would have been mentioned as 'dying'.  They 'speedily' went to be with Jesus-Eru in his Kingdom.

Ok, so that is all to say, I place Nephi as *definitely* one of the Three (along with my best guess as to his brother and one of his sons as the other two).  

Conveniently for my own story and experiences around Gandalf, it then makes the most sense for me to also place Gandalf in this role.  In reading and thinking of Nephi's relationship with and call from Jesus (Eru), and Nephi's own inherent gifts and attributes, this isn't a stretch to my imagination at all, and makes more sense to me than Moroni.

One other point on why I don't think it could have been Moroni is simply this:  it completely invalidates the need or event of translating the Three in the first place.  If Beings can simply just be resurrected and then show up wherever needed, helping mortals, giving them Gold Plates, etc., why make such a big deal about translating Three individuals who desired to hang around to do just that?  It seems like it would have just been easier to go back 'home' for a bit and come back whenever needed.  But that wasn't the way - in order to help, they had to be willing to stick it out for the long haul here.  To have Moroni be able to appear and take on what was defined as the Disciples' responsibility makes the sacrifice and desire of the Three completely superfluous to the story.  It didn't need to happen, and it makes for a bad, inconsistent story.

They had to hang around for the express purpose of doing works here, that no spirit or resurrected Being would be allowed or able to perform.  As Mormon wrote of part of the Disciples responsibilities and powers  (from 3 Nephi 28):

And they are as the angels of God, and if they shall pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus they can show themselves unto whatsoever man it seemeth them good.

Therefore, great and marvelous works shall be wrought by them, before the great and coming day when all people must surely stand before the judgment-seat of Christ;

So, I think they used that power to show themselves to Joseph, or at least Nephi did.

To summarize this whole thing, finally, I have Nephi of Bountiful as one of the three disciples allowed to tarry.  This Being was also Gandalf, and would have been the one to show himself to Joseph Smith.  He, along with the other two disciples (who were perhaps his brother and son), would have been the group that conducted the journey to the Sawtooth Mountains in search of the Stone, on their way passing Salt Lake City and taking the horn out of the Angel Nephi's hands by means of an earthquake.  It will also be him, I believe, who will be involved in Eowne-Faramir taking possession of the Stone in the future.

So, we covered a lot of ground, and this turned out longer than I thought it was going to, and yet I feel I probably could have done a more thorough job on some of the Moroni-Nephi history (and potential cover up!).  There is plenty of information out there to look at.  I will hit publish on this, and then maybe go back and add some documentation or sources for people to go to in looking that up if interested.

In any case, I really like this thought of Nephi-Gandalf so much more than the Moroni link.  It just makes more sense, and it just has the feeling of another puzzle piece falling into place.  So, I am going to roll with it.  When I get the chance, I am going to update my previous posts to note the change in my thinking (or rather and more accurately, that I finally thought about it, and this is where I arrived).

One last thought:

It is a bit of a mystery about Nephi-Gandalf visiting Joseph 3 times during that first night, and basically repeating the same information each time (with some additions and changes).  What to make of this?  Is there religious significance?  Some order of Heaven illustrated here?

My guess, kind of tongue in cheek, is based on the players involved.  We have Gandalf, and Joseph who I have also identified as Pippin.  One can potentially imagine Gandalf, after conducting his initial visit with Pippin, deciding that perhaps he needs to go back one or two more times and repeat himself because it is Pippin we are dealing with here, and we know how that goes with planning, details, etc.  

Merry might have only needed the one visit...