The Know

In September 1830, Joseph Smith received a revelation that discussed some of the signs that will occur before the Savior returned to the earth. Many of these events would be familiar to readers of the Bible. However, one was mentioned that is not made explicitly clear in biblical writings. Specifically, the Lord attributed to Ezekiel the prophecy that “the great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall be cast down by devouring fire” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:21).

Nowhere in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel is this language found, nor is it found in Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of the Bible.1 This might naturally lead many readers to ask where such a prophecy can be found in the book of Ezekiel. John A. Tvedtnes has identified three possibilities to explain this apparently missing prophecy.

First, it is possible that the Lord is referring to a prophecy that was once found in the book of Ezekiel but was among the “plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God” (1 Nephi 13:28). This possibility is especially noteworthy because early Christian and Jewish sources provide evidence that the book of Ezekiel may have gone through significant revision.

“Several of the Church Fathers of the first centuries of the Christian era quoted items from Ezekiel that are not found in the biblical book of that name,” Tvedtnes observed.2 This included various stories that have been preserved elsewhere but are attributed to Ezekiel by Epiphanus, Tertullian, Gregory of Nyassa, and Clement of Alexandria.3

In other instances, early Christians cited from passages reminiscent of other passages in Ezekiel but materially different than any extant version of the book we have today. For instance, after Clement of Rome cited Ezekiel 33:11, he said the Lord “also added to this merciful declaration: ‘Repent, O house of Israel, of your iniquity; say to the children of my people: Though your sins reach from the earth to heaven, and though they be redder than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, yet if you turn to me with your whole heart and say “Father,” I will listen to you as a holy people.’”4 Thus, Clement was familiar with some passage attributed to Ezekiel that is not found elsewhere in the Bible.

This passage was also included in the Exegesis on the Soul found among the Nag Hammadi codices, but it attributes this passage to an unidentified prophet. Moreover, the passage is thematically related to other passages in Ezekiel, which could strengthen its association with that prophet, per Clement of Rome’s letter.5

A similar phenomenon is found with Clement of Alexandria, who wrote: “He [the Lord] says therefore by Ezekiel, directing His discourse to the elders, and setting before them a salutary description of His wise solicitude: ‘And that which is lame I will bind up, and that which is sick I will heal, and that which has wandered I will turn back; and I will feed them on my holy mountain.’”6 This passage thematically parallels Ezekiel 34:14–16 and is often considered to be a variant reading, but it is also possible that it could have been another passage removed by later scribes. Tvedtnes has also observed traditions regarding some rabbis’ struggle to understand and accept portions of Ezekiel as canon in the early centuries AD that may have spurred some edits to the text.7

Second, Tvedtnes notes it is possible that the prophecy included in Doctrine and Covenants 29:21 “was included in another of Ezekiel’s books that is no longer extant.”8 A similar approach is occasionally taken by scholars of early Christianity when dealing with 1 Clement’s passage as well. Michael W. Holmes hypothesized that it is possible Clement may have quoted from “an apocryphal work attributed to Ezekiel.”9 This is also a possibility that has been noted in antiquity. Josephus records that “Ezekiel . . . left behind him in writing two books” concerning calamities that would befall the wicked.10

Tvedtnes has also observed that fragmentary copies of an Ezekiel-like book are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. According to Tvedtnes, this text “has been termed ‘Pseudo-Ezekiel’ because it contains passages from the biblical Ezekiel that vary from what is found in the standard Masoretic Text and some material not found in Ezekiel at all. It is unclear whether these represent a variant form of the book of Ezekiel or a separate book.”11 Some scholars have even referred to this text as Second Ezekiel.12 Thus, a lost book by Ezekiel is not out of the question.

A third option that Tvedtnes believes may explain this passage in the Doctrine and Covenants could simply be that the Lord paraphrased an extant prophecy of Ezekiel using language from the Book of Mormon. Specifically, the prophecy of the battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38–39 could fit the description of the great and abominable church being destroyed.

As Tvedtnes notes, “The Gog and Magog prophecy of Ezekiel 38–39 is paralleled by John’s vision in Revelation 17–20, part of which speaks about the great ‘whore,’ the ‘mother of harlots’ which falls.”13 Indeed, several textual similarities between the two visions led Tvedtnes to conclude that “Ezekiel and John both saw the results of this great battle.”14 Similarly, Nephi saw this same vision and employed the terms “great and abominable church,” “mother of abominations,” and “whore of all the earth” (1 Nephi 13:6; 14:10). The Doctrine and Covenants does not appear to present an exact quotation from Ezekiel; thus, it is possible that the Lord offered a brief summary of these chapters while appealing to other visions of the same event recorded in the Bible and Book of Mormon.15

The Why

In any of the three cases presented above, the Book of Mormon and other modern revelations offer reasons why this prophecy may not appear in the Bible exactly as it is presented in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Book of Mormon itself describes how “there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God” (1 Nephi 13:28). The Book of Mormon also quotes from other prophets that are not mentioned in the Bible, including Zenos, Zenoch, and Neum, and other books are mentioned in the Bible that may have been understood to be scripture. Thus, Latter-day Saints have no problem accepting this prophecy as a lost scripture. Indeed, similar approaches to other passages attributed to Ezekiel have been used by some scholars of early Christianity, as mentioned above.

If the Doctrine and Covenants passage is referring to the prophecy of Gog and Magog, however, the Book of Mormon again can help clarify this prophetic fragment since Nephi’s vision compares closely to Ezekiel’s prophecy. In this way, the Book of Mormon helps readers better understand this biblical prophecy. By connecting Ezekiel 38–39 with the Book of Mormon, modern readers can find a significant key for interpreting these chapters.

Ultimately, based on early attributions of texts to Ezekiel not now found in the Bible and based on similarities between Ezekiel’s extant prophecies and comparable passages in the Bible and Book of Mormon, each of the three scenarios is “entirely plausible.”16 Tvedtnes concluded, “I cannot state with certainty which, if any, of the three suggested scenarios is correct. I can, however, state unequivocally that the attribution of the prophecy to Ezekiel in Doctrine and Covenants 29:21 is perfectly reasonable.”17