Where did the Nephites get the words of the sacrament prayers? They were “according to the commandments of Christ; wherefore we know the manner to be true” (Moroni 4:1). The followers of Christ continued in righteousness to use the words the Savior taught in 3 Nephi 18, when the people were ready to enter into a covenant to remember him and obey his commandments that he had just given them. The following table compares the words that Moroni recorded with the words in 3 Nephi 18, on which the sacrament prayers were based. In 3 Nephi 18, Jesus of course spoke in the first and second person (“I, my” and “you, your”). Notice how, with necessary and appropriate adjustments, the words of Jesus have been carefully preserved and reformulated so that they can be spoken by the priests (“we ask,” etc.) with references to the people (“they,” “them”) and to Jesus (“he, his, him”) as follows:
Moroni 4–5 | 3 Nephi 18 |
|---|---|
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, | ask the Father inmy name (3 Nephi 18:20) |
to bless and sanctify this bread | he took of the bread and break and blessedit (3 Nephi 18:3) |
to the souls of all those who partake of it; that | unto all those whoshall believe (3 Nephi 18:5) |
they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son | this shall ye do in remembrance of my bodywhich I have shown unto you (3 Nephi 18:7) |
and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father | it shall be a testimony unto the Father(3 Nephi 18:7) |
that they are willing to take upon them | that ye are willing todo (3 Nephi 18:10) |
the name of thy Son, and always remember him, | that ye do always remember me (3 Nephi 18:7) |
and keep his commandments which he hath given them, | that which I have commanded you (3 Nephi 18:10) |
that they may always have his Spirit to be with them, Amen. | ye shall have my Spirit to be with you (3 Nephi 18:7) |
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, | ask the Father inmy name (3 Nephi 18:20) |
to bless and sanctify this wine to the souls of | take of the wine(3 Nephi 18:8) |
all those who | all those who (3 Nephi 18:5) |
drink of it, that they | they did drink (3 Nephi 18:9) |
may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, | do it in remembrance ofmy blood (3 Nephi 18:11) |
which was shed for them; | which I have shed foryou (3 Nephi 18:11) |
that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, | that ye may witness unto the Father (3 Nephi 18:11) |
that they do always remember him, | thatye do always remember me (3 Nephi 18:11) |
that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen | ye shall have my Spirit to be with you (3 Nephi 18:11). |
On the left-hand column, we have the words from Moroni 4 and 5—the bread and the wine prayers. On the right-hand column we have the words that Christ spoke when he administered the Sacrament as recorded in 3 Nephi 18. The difference arises from the fact that Jesus himself spoke the Sacrament prayers in 3 Nephi, while for the Nephites, and for us, ordained priesthood holders do it on his behalf. Thus, we get Jesus saying, “ask the Father in my name,” but in our prayer, the officiator says, “we ask thee in the name of thy Son.” Jesus’ words are all in 1st and 2nd person, “I—you” language, or more formally “I—thou.” In addition, as Jesus was no longer present, the prayers are directed to the Father.
We do not know when the sacrament prayer was taken from Jesus’ 1st and 2nd person pronoun formulation and recast into the 3rd person as we see it in Moroni. It probably happened very early, because the very next day in 3 Nephi 19, Jesus came back. Each of the twelve disciples presided over one large group and administered the sacrament to them. What prayer were they using there? Jesus was not speaking the words that he used in 3 Nephi 18, but the prayer must have been revoiced so that it made sense for a priest to say these words. But the content remained the same until Moroni’s day, and the Restoration brought these sacred words into our lives today.
One particularly noteworthy phrase appears in the prayers as found in Moroni 4–5 that was not included in the recorded words of Christ in 3 Nephi 18: “that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son” (Moroni 4:3) That phrase parallels King Benjamin’s words as he put his people under covenant to take upon themselves the name of Christ (Mosiah 5:8) about 150 years before the appearance of Christ at the temple in Bountiful. It seems that Nephite texts and traditions have combined and coalesced beautifully into the final sacrament prayers in Moroni 4–5. Elder Dallin H. Oaks emphasized the word willingness, pointing to a future consummation. Elder Oaks said: “[B]y partaking of the sacrament we witness our willingness to participate in the sacred ordinances of the temple and to receive the highest blessings available through the name and by the authority of the Savior when he chooses to confer them upon us.” Dallin H. Oaks, “Taking upon Us the Name of Jesus Christ,” Ensign (May 1985): 81.
Book of Mormon Central, “Where did Moroni Get the Sacramental Prayers from? (Moroni 4:1), KnoWhy 250 (December 12, 2016).
John W. Welch, “Benjamin’s Covenant as a Precursor to the Sacrament Prayers,” chapter 10 in John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, editors, King Benjamin’s Speech: That Ye May Learn Wisdom (Provo, UT, F.A.R.M.S., 1998), 295-314.
John W. Welch, “From Presence to Practice: Jesus, the Sacrament Prayers, the Priesthood, and Church Discipline in 3 Nephi 18 and Moroni 2–6,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5, no. 1 (1996): 119–139.
John W. Welch, “Our Nephite Sacrament Prayers,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 286–289.