Ether 3

Reading Assignment for Wed. May 2: Ether 3

Learning Activities:

1) What can this chapter teach us about prayer and solving our problems?
2) What can we learn about faith from the Brother of Jared?
3) Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:



“Redemptive faith must often be exercised toward experiences in the future—the unknown, which provides an opportunity for the miraculous. Exacting faith, mountain-moving faith, faith like that of the brother of Jared, precedes the miracle and the knowledge. … Faith is to agree unconditionally—and in advance—to whatever conditions God may require in both the near and distant future” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 18–19).

4) Look for and mark these truths in Ether 3

  1. Jesus Christ was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem us (see Ether 3:14).
  2. God created us in His own image (see Ether 3:15).
  3. Jesus Christ showed Himself in the spirit before He was born in the flesh (see Ether 3:16).
  4. Jesus Christ’s physical body is in the likeness of His spirit body (see Ether 3:16–17).
  5. Jesus Christ ministers to people to help them know that He is God (see Ether 3:18).

Want More?

Ether 3:7, 9. The Lord asks questions of the brother of Jared

The Lord asked questions of the brother of Jared: “Arise, why hast thou fallen?” (Ether 3:7). “Sawest thou more than this?” (Ether 3:9). The scriptures include many examples of the Lord asking questions even though He already knows the answers. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught why the Lord asks such questions:


“It is a basic premise of Latter-day Saint theology that God ‘knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it’ [2 Nephi 9:20; see also D&C 38:1–2]. The scriptures, both ancient and modern, are replete with this assertion of omniscience. Nevertheless, God has frequently asked questions of mortals, usually as a way to test their faith, measure their honesty, or develop their knowledge” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 19–20).

Ether 3:15. “Never have I showed myself unto man”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presented a possible explanation for Jesus’s statement that He had never shown Himself to man prior to showing Himself to the brother of Jared:


“Christ was saying to the brother of Jared, ‘Never have I showed myself unto man in this manner, without my volition, driven solely by the faith of the beholder.’ As a rule, prophets are invited into the presence of the Lord, are bidden to enter his presence by him and only with his sanction. The brother of Jared, on the other hand, seems to have thrust himself through the veil, not as an unwelcome guest but perhaps technically as an uninvited one. … Obviously the Lord himself was linking unprecedented faith with this unprecedented vision. If the vision itself was not unique, then it had to be the faith and how the vision was obtained that was so unparalleled. The only way that faith could be so remarkable was its ability to take the prophet, uninvited, where others had been able to go only with God’s bidding” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 23).

Ether 3:16. “This body … is the body of my spirit”

While serving as a member of the Seventy, Elder Cecil O. Samuelson Jr. emphasized that through the account of the brother of Jared, we learn about the Savior’s premortal body and godhood:


“Nowhere in the scriptures is a clearer account given of the nature of the spirit body of the Lord Jesus Christ and, indeed, of the characteristics of our own spirits. The brother of Jared not only saw the finger of the antemortal Jesus Christ but indeed perceived His entire spirit body (see Ether 3:6, 13). Understanding the premortal godhood of Jesus Christ together with our own spiritual identities prior to our births in the flesh is a great blessing and advantage” (Cecil O. Samuelson Jr., “The Brother of Jared,” in Heroes from the Book of Mormon [1995], 185).

Ether 3:23–24. “These two stones”

The two stones that the Lord gave to the brother of Jared were part of what is called a Urim and Thummim. “There is more than one Urim and Thummim, but we are informed that Joseph Smith had the one used by the brother of Jared (Ether 3:22–28; D&C 10:1; 17:1). … A partial description is given in [Joseph Smith—History 1:35]. Joseph Smith used it in translating the Book of Mormon and in obtaining other revelations” (Bible Dictionary, “Urim and Thummim”).

Why Did Moroni Use Temple Imagery While Telling the Brother of Jared Story?