D&C 77 and the World's Week

The Church has released a new Doctrine and Covenants and Church History manual for seminary. The FairMormon blog has a rundown of some items of interest, mostly how the manual deals with sensitive historical topics. What caught my attention was item number seven:

Finally, in discussing section 77 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the manual straightforwardly says, “The 7,000 years [in vv. 6–7] refers to the time since the Fall of Adam and Eve. It is not referring to the actual age of the earth including the periods of creation” (p. 280).

The document that became D&C 77 was produced in March 1832 while Joseph Smith was studying the New Testament's Book of Revelation. It was added to the cannon in 1876, long after his death. The reference in the manual is to the following passage:

6 Q. What are we to understand by the book which John saw, which was sealed on the back with seven seals?
A. We are to understand that it contains the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence.
7 Q. What are we to understand by the seven seals with which it was sealed?
A. We are to understand that the first seal contains the things of the first thousand years, and the second also of the second thousand years, and so on until the seventh.

This is reinforced a few verses later:

12 Q. What are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpets, mentioned in the 8th chapter of Revelation?
A. We are to understand that as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it, and also formed man out of the dust of the earth, even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation of man, and judge all things, and shall redeem all things, except that which he hath not put into his power, when he shall have sealed all things, unto the end of all things; and the sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels are the preparing and finishing of his work, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years—the preparing of the way before the time of his coming.

This all reminded me of something I discovered a while ago. Commenting on these passages, President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:

This revelation confirms the fact that the days of creation were celestial days, and this earth is passing through one week of temporal (mortal) existence, after which it will die and receive its resurrection [1]. [italics in original]

Interestingly, the manual appears to adopt President Smith's interpretation of the length of mortal existence, while rejecting his view on the days of creation. But of greater interest to me is that the belief that the earth is passing through a week of existence has a long history. You can find references to the world-week in the religious literature in Joseph's day and earlier. For example, Scottish preacher Thomas Boston (d. 1732) wrote,

Time has run from the beginning, and is running on in an uninterrupted course of addition of moments, hours, days, months, and years. About four thousand years of it passed before the birth of Christ; and now is begun the one thousand seven hundred and thirty-second year from that happy period. So there want not three hundred years now to complete the world's week of six thousand years; after which many have thought the eternal Sabbath would come.

But it turns out that we can go back much farther to the early Christian era. The Epistle of Barnabas, thought to be written by 135 A.D., contains the same interpretation.

15:3 ...And God made in six days the works of his hands, and finished them on the seventh day, and rested in it and sanctified it.

15:4 Consider, my children, what signify the words, He finished them in six days. They mean this: that in
six thousand years the Lord will make an end of all things, for a day is with him as a thousand years. And he himself beareth witness unto me, saying: Behold this day a day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, my children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, shall all things be brought to an end.

15:5 And the words, He rested on the seventh day, signify this: After that his Son hath come, and hath caused to cease the time of the wicked one, and hath judged the ungodly, and changed the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall he rest well on the seventh day.

It is possible that in asserting that the seven seals cover the earth's temporal history, one thousand years each, Joseph was tapping into ideas current in his culture. But it's also clear that the world-week concept is ancient, and it's worth noting that the Epistle of Barnabas and the Book of Revelation are probably only separated by 50-80 years, at most. Inasmuch as D&C 77 is about the Book of Revelation, Joseph's interpretation seems on the mark, at least in that it accords with ideas about the earth's history and future that were present just after the New Testament period.

However, we're still left with an enormous conflict with science if we take this scripture to mean that mortality began 6,000 years ago. Now I am a fan of understanding scripture within its cultural context, so I have no reason to doubt that was Joseph's intent. However, there may be other options for us. Personally, I like an interpretation that was advanced by Sterling Talmage, geologist and son of Elder James E. Talmage (himself a defender of the geological record):

...D&C 77:6 very clearly means that the Book of the Seven Seals represented the totality of scripture, to be revealed in successive dispensations; that it contained the previously unknown things regarding the plan of salvation ("the hidden things of his economy"), which were to be shown during the current seven thousand years of earth time ("its continuance") with special reference to humankind in the affairs of the present life ("its temporal existence"). This passage, then, would seem to have no reference whatever to the earth as a physical entity but refer only to the hand-dealings of God with its inhabitants [2].

On this reading, a scripture in direct conflict with science essentially becomes a summary of revealed religion as we have it in our scriptures. What it means for the future remains to be seen.

Notes:
1. Joseph Fielding Smith, Man, His Origin and Destiny, p.465. See also Doctrines of Salvation vol. 1, p. 80.
2. Sterling Talmage, Can Science Be Faith-Promoting, p.176.

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The Church Teaches Evolution via the Book of Mormon

In what may be the most scientifically detailed explanation on LDS.org, the Church recently added a page that explains some of the basic principles of population genetics, and a few of the processes that result in changes in gene frequencies in a population (i.e. evolution). Book of Mormon and DNA Studies is another new addition to the Gospel Topics section that is meant to give a more detailed (and, ahem, accurate) answer on a controversial topic. (See also Race and the Priesthood, First Vision Accounts, and Book of Mormon Translation.)

Of course, the focus of this article is on the controversy over what lack of DNA support means for the Book of Mormon. Those familiar with the work of Michael Whiting and Ugo Perego (to which the LDS.org page provides links) will see their fingerprints in the new article. Personally, I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially coming from the Church website. As to the substance of the argument, I'm undecided whether the caveats in interpreting the state of the DNA evidence can really do the work required to make the Nephites/Lamanites genetically disappear. (I lean toward skepticism there unless it's paired with extensive intermixing from the beginning. But then we leave science and move into textual interpretation.) For now I think it's the only legitimate scientific way to argue for Book of Mormon historicity, or rather that historicity cannot be dis-proven.

But if we set the Book of Mormon aside for a moment, this article is essentially a primer on how evolution works: the creation of new alleles and their spread, as well as the loss of alleles from a population. Selection was left out of the discussion, (which is unfortunate because it might be relevant--a sensitive issue perhaps? [1]), but in a way it's just as well because natural selection usually gets all of the attention. Genetic drift, founder effect, etc, are random processes that can also play an important role.

So go study Book of Mormon and DNA Studies. As you begin to comprehend its message, you'll begin to understand how Neanderthal DNA is hanging around in many of us, and you'll begin to understand how two separate populations can begin to genetically diverge. And you'll be able to imagine how enough time and change can result in reproductive isolation, with gradual differences in form and behavior. You'll be on your way to understanding how evolution works. Thanks, LDS.org!

Notes:

1. Here's another subtle tip-toe: "Scientists theorize that in an era that predated Book of Mormon accounts, a relatively small group of people migrated from northeast Asia to the Americas by way of a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska." Yes, predating the Book of Mormon by about 10-15 thousand years. Some people might have difficulty squaring that with the Bible Chronology.

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