Hide in Plain Sight

So often people, including historians and theorists, read a passage in the scriptural record and immediately place a meaning on the word or words, often creating an unbending opinion as to its meaning based on their own interpretation. Mormon recalled the time when Ammaron spoke to him as a ten-year-old boy, “The time that Ammaron hid up the records unto the Lord, he came unto me…and Ammaron said unto me: I perceive that thou art a sober child, and art quick to observe; Therefore, when ye are about twenty and four years…go to the land Antum, unto a hill which shall be called Shim; and there have I deposited unto the Lord all the sacred engravings (Mormon 1:2-3). Later, Mormon tells us that the records he obtained were the ones that “Ammaron had deposited unto the Lord (Mormon 4:23).

What was the case of Ammaron hiding the records. It does not say “buried” if that was the case, for he was talking to a ten-year-old and would have made his conversation clear, precise, and understandable. He said “hid up the records unto the Lord.”

The word “deposit” in 1828 meant “To lay up; to lay in a place for preservation; Anything entrusted to the care of another; A place where things are deposited; a depository,” thus it might be said that Ammaron placed the records in trust with the Lord until such time as Mormon was to obtain them. There is no suggestion here that the records had been buried in the Hill Shim.

Another case in point is Moroni’s comment about what was to become of the plates upon which he was writing:

“I will write and hide up the records in the earth” (Mormon 8:4). Many, especially theorists, have interpreted this statement to say: “He buried the record in the Hill Cumorah.” This is borne out by Sidney Walker, writing in the Church News of 16 September 2020, under an article heading: New Book of Mormon Videos episode depicts Moroni finishing and burying the plates, Joseph Smith finding them. Beneath that is a depiction of Moroni writing his record. Beneath this photo is the statement 

Moroni finishing the record of his father and his own writing

 

“The prophet Moroni in the ancient Americas, as depicted in a new episode of the Book of Mormon Videos series, struggles to protect and add to the record of his people before depositing the record in the Hill Cumorah for safekeeping.”

The article then begins with “About 420 years after the Savior’s birth, the prophet Moroni finished the record of his people in the ancient Americas on gold plates and buried them in the Hill Cumorah for safekeeping. In his final words, he invited all to read the record and ask God if it was not true.”

Note the two references to the plates in Moroni’s possession were “buried in the hill Cumorah.” However, and quite plainly, the scriptural record does not state that Moroni buried the plates in the hill Cumorah. In fact, it does not even say that he buried them. Nor could he have stated either point in the record at the time he made the statement since at that point it was no later than 400 AD (15 years after the destruction of the Nephites) and 21 years before his last written entry. After all, what he intended to do (“Hide the records in the ground”) and what he actually did after running and hiding from the Lamanites for at least 36 years, could be a different matter.

Perhaps it would be helpful for us to take another look at these two words—“hid,” which is the  past tense of hide; and the word “bury.”

Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language:

• Hide: To conceal; to withhold or withdraw from sight; to place in any state or position in which the view is intercepted from the object

• Today: Keep secret or unknown; keep out of sight; conceal from the view or notice of others; prevent (someone or something) from being seen:

Camouflage, obscure, conceal, mask, withhold, disguise

Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language:

• Bury: To entomb; inhume, to cover with earth, to deposit in the ocean; as dead bodies buried in the deep; to deposit a deceased person in the grave

• Today: Put or hide underground; covering up so as to hide completely; put in the ground and cover with earth: inter, entomb, inhume.

It should be noted then, that these two words mean different things. It should also be noted that these words are used several time in the Book of Mormon, and always with the same meanings. That is, “hid” or “hide” is to cover up something or obstruct its view. As an example: “he fled from before them and hid himself that they found him not (Mosiah 17:4) “ “and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them” (Mosiah 8:17), and “retreat back into the mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, hiding themselves that they could not be discovered (Helaman 11:25).

Left: Hide, Hid, Hidden; Right: Bury

 

In each of these cases 28 instances, the word “hid,” “hide,” or “hidden” all refer to the same concept, that is, of objects, people or things that are hidden, but not buried in the ground. This is clearly shown in “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment” (3 Nephi 22:8), “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid” (3 Nephi 12:14), and “retreat back into the mountains, and into the wilderness and secret places, hiding themselves that they could not be discovered” (Helaman 11:25).

As for the word “bury,” there is again only one concept for the use of this word in the scriptural record:

• “with mine own hands, did help to bury their dead” (Mosiah 9:19)

• “Alma took another, and went forth a second time into the water, and baptized him according to the first, only he did not bury himself again in the water” (Mosiah 18:15)

•  “after they had finished burying their dead” (Alma 3:1)

• “there was none left to bury the dead” (Alma 14:22)

• “He is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the morrow he shall rise again; therefore bury him not” (Alma 19:8)

• “we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth“ (Alma 24:16)

• “and they did bury them in the earth” (Alma 24:17)

• “And they did also bury their weapons of war, according as their brethren had” (Alma 25:14)

• “they did set guards over the prisoners of the Lamanites, and did compel them to go forth and bury their dead” (Alma 53:1)

• “after the Lamanites had finished burying their dead and also the dead of the Nephites, they were marched back into the land Bountiful” (Alma 53:2)

Therefore, it should be noted that Moroni said, “I will write and hide up the records in the earth (Mormon 8:4)—he did not say he would “bury the records in the earth.” He certainly did not say the “earth” was the “hill Cumorah.”

And finally, it should be noted that the only time in the scriptural record that the hill Cumorah is mentioned in connection with records is when Mormon said, “I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni (Mormon 6:6). These are the same plates that Moroni later said, “And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord (Mormon 8:14).