Where Did Moroni Hide the Records?

From time to time, we receive questions about matter within the scriptural record of the Book of Mormon. Some are simple and deal with scriptural information, others and a little more complex, and deal with both scriptural references of other statements, such as those by Joseph Smith. Recently we received two questions from the same Reader, which were:
1. “How do you explain the statement in the Book of Mormon introduction, ‘After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, who added a few words of his own and hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah.’”
2. “In Ether 15:11 it states “And it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord, which were sacred.” My question is “how did Moroni know that this was the same hill (Cumorah) that his father, Mormon, concealed the records.”

In regard to the first question. First of all, there was no “Introduction” in Joseph Smith’s original writing and published in the 1830 edition. What was included was a title page (left), which was written by Moroni, and read: “Written, and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed; to come forth by the gift and power of God, unto the interpretation thereof; sealed by the hand of Moroni and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by the way of Gentile.”
    The title page in the 1920 Book of Mormon is: “Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—to come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof—sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time  by way of the Gentile.”
    In addition, the “Brief Analysis” following the title page in the 1920 addition (not found in the original 1830 edition), states in paragraph 9: “The period covered by the Book of Mormon annals extends from B.C. 600 to A.D. 421. In or about the latter year, Moroni, the last of the Nephite historians, sealed the sacred record and hid it up unto the Lord, to be brought forth in the latter days as predicted by the voice of God through his ancient prophets. In A.D. 1827 this same Moroni, then a resurrected personage, delivered the engraved plates to Joseph Smith.”
    In the 1981 edition (and also the 1984 edition), in addition to this title page (which remains the same), a lengthy “Introduction” was added, evidently by the Scriptures Committee, and states in part "After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, who added a few words of his own and hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah."

Without proper punctuation, even a simple comma, sentences can take on a life of their own never intended

It is possible that the person(s) who wrote this meant to, or should have, included a comma between “own,” and “hid,” to offset an inclusion or parenthetical insertion, making the sentence read: “After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, and hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah, (“who added a few words of his own” being the parenthetical insertion about Moroni, not about Mormon hiding up the records in the hill). However, we have no way of knowing if this was the intent, or simply the belief or opinion of the person(s) who wrote it that Moroni hid up the records in the hill—however, the latter is not so stated in Moroni’s account: “Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth” (Mormon 8:4).
    It should be noted that the official Church statement governing the changes to the “Introduction,” which appeared in 1981, were stated as: “The current Introduction page in the Book of Mormon was not part of the original text translated by Joseph Smith Jr. The Introduction was written and published at the same time additional materials including footnotes and cross references were added in 1981.”

Another example of changes to the “Introduction” page occurred in 2006 where the previous statement “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians,” was changed to “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.” As can be seen, these were not revelatory changes, nor even grammatical changes, such as punctuation, which was not included in the original Joseph Smith translation, but additions of non-doctrinal information inserted to aid the reader in better understanding the overall picture of the Book of Mormon.
    Consequently, there is no doctrinal, i.e., scriptural, reference to where Moroni hid up the records, only that he said it would be in the ground, which would have been at least 36 years after the final battle at Cumorah, and no doubt Moroni was far from the area of Cumorah when he was finished.
    In regard to the second question. First of all, we need to keep in mind that both Mormon and Moroni, in their abridgements of other people’s writings, knew they were doing so for a future people to read. Both of these prophets, living at the end of their nation’s existence, having read, heard, and been informed of many things that took place before their time, were in a position to make their writing to a future people more understandable by relating to earlier events, peoples, or places, and in further explaining what they were abridging.
    As an example, Mormon inserted the famed 8 verses in Alma 22:27-34 to help his future reader better understand the layout of the Land of Promise. And Moroni, attempting to tie together the earlier Jaredite record, that even in his day was ancient, to the current lay of the land, equated the existence of the hill he knew so well as “Cumorah,” around which the Nephite Nation had so recently perished, with the hill “Ramah” of the Jaredites, of whom he was writing and describing the location of Coriantumr’s march past the hill Ramah, which was the same hill where the sacred records had been buried, which we know from earlier writing was the hill Cumorah.
    Whether or not Mormon told his son, Moroni, of the fact that the hill they had gathered about with 230,000 Nephites to fight a final battle with the Lamanites was the same hill the Jaredites called “Ramah,” or whether it was Moroni that was informed of this fact from another source, such as a vision when writing about it, is not the point of his writing. It was an insertion of explanation. How he knew was not the point, merely a side issue he did not delve into.

Visions have occurred throughout historical events surrounding God’s dealings with man in which they are often used as a means of teaching

On the other hand, perhaps the best answer as to how either of them knew about the two names being of the same hill, might well be found in Joseph Smith’s personal record, printed under “Origin of the Book of Mormon” in the 1920 edition. In paragraph 8, he states “While he [Moroni] was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it.” He adds in paragraph 16, “I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there.”
    The Lord, of course, operates on a far different level than mortal man, and is not limited to the limitations of mortality—he can, has, and does show “visions,” that is, when speaking to man, often shows through visual means that to which he is referring for better and more complete understanding. How Mormon and Moroni knew the hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon was the same hill as that which the Jaredites called Ramah, is not explained, but of a type we have answers that are quite clear to us when we consider them.
    The point is, all seemingly questionable matters pertaining to the Book of Mormon and spiritual events can be explained if one understands the nature of the people and things involved.