{"id":113879,"date":"2025-12-03T15:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T22:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=113879"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:52:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:52:37","slug":"o-great-mystery-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/12\/o-great-mystery-3.html","title":{"rendered":"“O great mystery”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The experience of the Eight Witnesses as re-created for the documentary \u201cUndaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon,\u201d in a still photograph by James Jordan. I frankly confess that I was disappointed, at first, by the very mundane appearance of this scene. But then I realized that my reaction was irrational. That the experience of the Eight Witnesses with the plates of the Book of Mormon was mundane, prosaic, matter of fact, is precisely the POINT of their experience and what gives their account its remarkable evidentiary power.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:\u00a0Steadfast in Defense of Faith<\/em>: \u201cAn Everlasting Witness: Ancient Writings on Metal,\u201d<\/a> written by Noel B. Reynolds<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Steadfast in Defense of Faith: Essays in Honor of Daniel C. Peterson<\/em>, edited by Shirley Ricks, Stephen D. Ricks, and Louis Midgley. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/steadfast-in-defense-of-faith\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Joseph Smith\u2019s earliest days as a prophet, talk of a record inscribed on metal plates caught the imagination of people on the American frontier, and it has continued to provide fodder for scandal down to the present. Few realized Joseph Smith was really talking about multiple ancient metal records, including not only Mormon\u2019s gold plates but also the brass plates that figure so prominently in the Book of Mormon as well as other metallic records created by or known to the Nephites. But in the twenty-first century it is acknowledged by academics studying the ancient world that a wide variety of materials, including metals, have been used for records at various times in different places.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the sake of some of my readers who seem still to be having difficulty grasping the concept, the article above is a \u201creprint\u201d or, more accurately, a republication of a previously printed article. \u00a0We republish articles from our printed books regularly. \u00a0Each week, in fact. \u00a0We\u2019ve been doing it for quite a while. \u00a0For a long time, this occurred on Thursdays. \u00a0Now it occurs on Wednesdays. \u00a0A few readers, failing to understand the difference between our \u201cbook chapter reprint series\u201d and our weekly new articles, which always appear on Fridays, have become confused and disoriented and, as a result of their mental fog, have angrily accused us of deceptively attempting to palm mere reprints off as new articles. \u00a0(Perhaps they have a hard time distinguishing Thursdays \u2014 or, now, Wednesdays \u2014 from Fridays? \u00a0Perhaps they haven\u2019t yet learned to differentiate between a new article and one that is explicitly identified as \u201c\u2018part of our book chapter reprint series\u201d? \u00a0Who knows? \u00a0The problem remains a mystery to medical science.)<\/p>\n

\"askldlfjhaisga.<\/a>
People lined up in Kansas City, Missouri, to donate via the Giving Machines in December 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rather often, when I\u2019m reading online comments from some of the more embittered, alienated, and angry\u00a0critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, I\u2019m powerfully\u00a0reminded of a passage from near the conclusion of The Last Battle<\/em>, which is, itself, the final volume in C. S. Lewis\u2019s wonderful seven-volume series \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia\u201d:<\/p>\n

Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. \u00a0Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs\u2019 knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. \u00a0But it wasn\u2019t much use. \u00a0They began eating and drinkung greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn\u2019t taste it properly. \u00a0They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of things you might find in a stable. \u00a0One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he got a bit of an old turnip and a third said he\u2019d found a raw cabbage leaf. \u00a0And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said \u201cUgh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey\u2019s been at! \u00a0Never thought we\u2019d come to this.\u201d \u00a0But very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that every other Dwarf had found something nicer than he had, and they started grabbing and snatching, and went on to quarreling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses, they all said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, at any rate there\u2019s no Humbug here. We haven\u2019t let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see,\u201d said Aslan. \u201cThey will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve been reminded of the passage yet again while, in sorrow, reading the surprisingly angry and indignant remarks of certain former Latter-day Saints about the Giving Machines project<\/a>. \u00a0It is, they say, a fraud, a dirty scam, merely cynical, an attempt generate self-serving publicity, probably a greedy plot to covertly channel cash to some unidentified group of Church leaders\u2019 relatives or cronies, and \u2014 quoting one of the critics \u2014 \u201cHell no!\u201d they won\u2019t give a dime to it.<\/p>\n

Which, of course, is their perfect right. \u00a0However, I hope that they\u2019re finding other<\/em> ways to benefit the poor, the needy, and the suffering, and to feel at least a little bit of the spirit of Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"Ossawa<\/a>
Henry Ossawa Tanner, \u201cThe Annunciation\u201d (1898)
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In my judgment, one of the most unearthly, ethereally beautiful pieces of modern classical Christmas music is Morten Lauridsen\u2019s setting of \u00a0O magnum mysterium<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0It seems perfection to me, achingly and piercingly lovely. \u00a0Angelic.<\/p>\n

Here is the Latin text:<\/p>\n

\n

O magnum mysterium,
\net admirabile sacramentum,
\nut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
\njacentem in praesepio!
\nBeata Virgo, cujus viscera
\nmeruerunt portare
\nDominum Christum.
\nAlleluia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

And here is an English translation:<\/p>\n

\n
O great mystery,<\/span><\/dd>\n
and wonderful sacrament,<\/span><\/dd>\n
that animals should see the new-born Lord,<\/span><\/dd>\n
lying in a manger!<\/span><\/dd>\n
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb<\/span><\/dd>\n
was worthy to bear<\/span><\/dd>\n
Christ the Lord.<\/span><\/dd>\n
Alleluia!<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

I\u2019ve been reading Michael Nahm\u2019s fascinating book Wenn die Dunkelheit ein Ende findet: Terminale Geistesklarheit und andere ungew\u00f6hnliche Ph\u00e4nomene in Todesn\u00e4he<\/em>. [\u201cWhen the Darkness Comes to an End: Terminal Lucidity and Other Unusual Near-Death Phenomena\u201d]. \u00a0Dr. Nahm includes in the book (chapter seven, \u201cR\u00e4tselhafte Musik in Todesn\u00e4he\u201d) a brief survey of encounters with seemingly otherworldly music that have sometimes been reported over the past two centuries or so by dying persons or, occasionally, by others (in some cases, by more than one witness at a time) who have been present at a deathbed. \u00a0I wonder, if any such reports are actually valid, what the music is like<\/em>. \u00a0Could it be any more beautiful than O magnum mysterium<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, in the spirit of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122, please reflect upon the grievous harm that the world has suffered because of Lauridsen\u2019s setting of O magnum mysterium<\/em>, and how much better off everybody would be if it \u2014 and, for that matter, the Christmas holiday itself \u2014 could somehow be altogether erased<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:\u00a0Steadfast in Defense of Faith: \u201cAn Everlasting Witness: Ancient Writings on Metal,\u201d written by Noel B. Reynolds: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Steadfast in Defense of Faith: Essays in Honor of Daniel C. Peterson, edited by Shirley Ricks, Stephen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":80928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,2517,26446,2905,20478,788],"class_list":["post-113879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-christmas","tag-giving-machine","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-metal-plates","tag-mormon"],"yoast_head":"\n"O great mystery"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:\u00a0Steadfast in Defense of Faith: "An Everlasting Witness: Ancient Writings on Metal,"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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