Concerning the Brass Plates (11 August 1921)

CONCERNING THE BRASS PLATES.

By Thomas W. Brookbank.

(Continued from page 484.)

If ONE is disposed to question as correct and true the interpreta­tion which Dr. Clarke gives of the original for the “great roll” heretofore spoken of particularly as consisting of polished brass tablets, how are objectors of this class going to explain away the fact that the Chaldee paraphrasts speak of that same roll as consisting of a plate or plates, thereby showing that it could not possibly have been made of the leaves of a plant or of tanned sheep or goat skins? and further, that the rabbins understood what Isaiah was to make use of was a polished plate of metal so much in appearance like the commonly used ancient mirrors that they gave the name mirror to it? However, if none of these represen­tations are acceptable as true to objectors, let them tell us what has become of the table or tablet which is spoken of in the eighth verse of the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah’s book which the Lord said was to endure forever. Let them also tell us what has become of the tablet upon which Habakkuk was commanded by the Lord to write his vision. Are we to understand that the use of metal tablets for sacred recording purposes was a common thing with the ancient prophets of God in Palestine, and that several of them had each his own collection of tablets with his individual part of Scripture inscribed in them? or shall we con­clude that Isaiah in chapter 30:8 and Habakkuk in chapter 2:2 have made reference to the same roll, or book of plates, that the former speaks of in chapter 8:1? If there were various small collections of the sacred tablets, how does it transpire that all of them have passed from mortal sight as if borne away on mysteri­ous wings? Let us be told what has become of just one of these small collections—or just one single plate out of the whole number, and that information will doubtless give us the key by which we can solve the problem of how every one of the tablets disappeared from the sight of the people, high and low, in a land where rolls of books made of metal plates were quite widely known, in later times at least, to have had an existence; for as soon as the involved prophecies of Isaiah and Habakkuk were published among the people, they knew, if they did not know it before, that metal plates were used for sacred recording pur­poses. The prophecies carried that information right on their face in the command that they should be so written. On the other hand, if the several tablets were all assembled together in one large roll or collection after the usual manner of gathering together all sacred writings recorded on papyrus, parchment or linen cloth, the whole must have made a book of considerable size, and our opponents will meet with many difficulties when they attempt to account satisfactorily for the disappearance of a number of plates held together by some means as a single roll, or book, and their difficulties will increase if we suppose that other prophecies besides those specifically mentioned by the Lord were also written on metal plates and were part of the “great roll” of which Isaiah speaks. The use of the word great in this connection should receive due attention. Reader, can you tell what became of those sacred, metal plates?

Before turning attention directly to the answer to this question, it is observed that the Lord himself called the plate or plates upon which Isaiah was directed to do some certain writing “a roll.” Divine sanction is thus given to call that particular record, though written on metal, by the same name that the Jews some­times gave to sections of Scripture written on parchment. This point should be kept in mind to meet a possible objection that a collection of metal plates could not rightly be called a roll, and also to get a better understanding of the remarks that are soon to follow.

An introduction to them is found in the first four verses of the fifth chapter of Zechariah’s book which reads thus: “Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. And he (the Lord) said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll: the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it: and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as to that side according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely in my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof.”

The symbolism which the prophet employs in these passages can doubtless be understood so readily by the reader that pro­longed remarks respecting their meaning and application are not considered necessary, still that something should be said as an aid to the reader's study of them is not out of place.

The writer not long ago asked a young mail of about average intelligence and learning what he understood the words “llying roll” to mean or refer to. His answer was that whatever was meant by the word roll he did not know, but that there was no question in his mind that the qualifying term flying showed that the roll was moving or had moved from one place to another. Without comment from the writer this point is allowed to stand as the young man stated it. He expressed the obvious sense of the word flying. Now, further, Zechariah gives us certain keys by which we may understand clearly what the roll symbolizes or stands for. He says that according to the roll: i. e. according to what was written in it, thieves and false swearers the world over are to suffer the curse of God for their sins, or in other words, that transgressors and wicked people are to be penalized for their crimes according to it, and hence there can be no question but that the roll symbolizes the whole law and commandments of God as he delivered them anciently to the human family by his appointed representatives, together with the curses and penal­ties for the violation thereof written in the roll also. The given length and breadth of the flying roll are manifestly to be under­stood as having a symbolic meaning likewise, since the word of God has never been written by man in a book or roll of such large dimensions. The extraordinary size of the roll seems to imply that there was a great volume of God’s word contained in it, or that the law written therein was sometime to be in force the world over. The latter interpretation is favored by what is said in verse three, namely, that the curse or penalties of the broken law were to be enforced over the whole earth, of course meaning at some time in the then future. That the roll docs stand for the Divine law and word is manifest also from the fact that the Jews called sacred books written on parchment “rolls,” and that the Lord called a certain metal plate or a collection of them on which his word was to be written a “great roll.”

It is not difficult now for us to determine from what place the roll started when it set out on its flight. Since the roll contained the Law of God there was but one place on this earth from which it could make a beginning of its flying journey and that place was Jerusalem,, for in that Holy City the law of the Lord had been preserved in purity by means of the autograph copy of it written by the hand of Moses, and such additions as the Lord saw fit to make to it were prepared on incorruptible plates of brass that they might be preserved in purity also. And now, since the flying roll must have commenced its flight from Jerusalem, what ground has anyone to claim that the carrying away from Jerusalem by Lehi of the law of God and other Divine words, precepts, warn­ings, etc., is not symbolized by the “flying roll?” Creatures that fly have wings, which are natural means by the use of which they move from place to place, and so to make a consistent explana­tion of the power of flight which was given symbolically to the roll, natural, not celestial, agencies must be looked for, and these are found in Lehi and his faithful helpers who carried the law of God and many of the prophecies of his servants from Jerusalem to their “land of promise,” now called America.

But the flying roll was not to continue in ceaseless flight, for when the Lord said that he would bring it forth again an implied ending of the roll's flying journey is apparent, and when it should come forth to the world at last Omnipotent power, and that alone, should accomplish the work necessary to be done; and he should set it in the midst of the house of thieves and false swearers the world over—thieves because they rob him of what is his just due, thieves because they arrogate to themselves rights and glory that justly belong to Him alone—false swearers because they avow themselves to be the saints of the Most High while their hands are reeking with the blood of innocence, and the cries and wails of millions of his children are ascending to heaven on account of man’s oppression of his fellows—these are they who swear falsely by the Omnipotent God whose word was pledged to his prophet that he would bring that “flying roll ” forth and set it in the midst of the house of trangressors there to remain till that house of evil shall be utterly consumed.

Zechariah was in Babylonish captivity—born under it, or carried into it, when he received the remarkable vision of the flying roll, and Daniel, another highly favored servant of the Lord, was also a captive in Babylon when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s great vision of the metallic image, the latter part of which corresponds in some important respects with what Zechariah shows is to occur in the history of this world before the kingdoms of men shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that there can be but little if any doubt but these two prophets—Daniel and Zechariah—refer by different symbols to the same great events which should occur in the latter days. Daniel speaks of a “stone” which should be brought forth by the power of God alone, while Zechariah calls attention to the pledge of the Lord that by his Divine power the “flying roll,” or book of the law of God, should be brought forth and set up in the house of evil doers. The “stone” was to roll forth till all op­position to its sway should be crushed, while the flying roll, when established in the earth at last by power Divine, should utterly destroy the house of thieves and false swearers even to the timbers and stones thereof. There is, however, this difference in the representations to be taken in one’s study of the respective  visions, which is, that Nebuchadnezzar’s vision is almost wholly concerned with the civil governments which have existed among men from the days of that king, or shall hereafter exist till the work of the “stone” is fully accomplished, while the vision of Zechariah deals in particular with false church institutions among mankind, and their complete overthrow after the “flying roll” is brought forth by the Lord. This view of the application of the meaning of the retentive visions does not cause a conflict between them in any respect—the one is thus merely the complement of the other, and the two together show that when the “stone,” or the “flying roll,” for they evidently symbolize the same thing, come forth the law of God is to continue its march of conquest till both civil and religious institutions the world over are to be made strictly conformable to the beneficent laws of the Lord; and who in view of the widespread turmoil and distress that are so prevalent in the world at present can fail to pray from the bottom of his heart for the Lord to speed that blessed day.

It is certainly remarkable that these two prophets while in captivity, and doubtless weighed down with sorrow on account of the destruction of Jerusalem, and by their knowledge that some of the sacred things of the temple were defiled by the wicked and bloody hands of their enimies, were shown in heavenly visions that the holy volume of God’s laws and ordinances had not been defiled and carried to Babylon and destroyed. Had not even been touched by unhallowed hands; but faithfully preserved and was finally to come forth by Divine power and should later become the law to the whole world.