The Brother of Jared — Faith So Perfect He Pierced the Veil
He asked God to touch 16 stones — and saw the pre-mortal Christ
The Jaredites and the Tower of Babel
The Book of Ether opens at the Tower of Babel — the same moment in Genesis when God confounded the languages of men. But here the story focuses not on the judgment but on a man who prayed that his family be spared from it. The man is not named in the text; he is called the brother of Jared, and Moroni explains that his name was so great it would be too sacred to share lightly. What we know is what he did.
He went to Jared and reported: “I know that thou art a man of God; go therefore and cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us with our brethren, that our language may be preserved.” Jared, rather than praying himself, turned to his brother. He knew where the spiritual authority was. The brother of Jared prayed — and God honored the prayer. Their families' language was preserved. And more: they were led to a promised land.
The migration that followed was one of the most remarkable journeys in scripture — across continents, guided by a cloud, eventually to the sea where God commanded them to build barges to cross the great deep. Eight barges, sealed tight. Which is where the problem arose.
The Problem — No Light in the Barges
The barges had no windows — they would be sealed under water at times. No light. The brother of Jared went to God with the problem directly and honestly:
Ether 2:22–23
“And he cried again unto the Lord saying: O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded me; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and behold there is no light in them. Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?”
God's response is worth noting: He did not solve it for him. He asked a question: “What will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?” He presented two things that wouldn't work — windows would shatter, fire would consume the air — and then asked what the brother of Jared thought they should do.
God was not uninvested. He was developing the faith of the man by requiring him to bring the solution himself. That is the pattern of God with those He is preparing for greater things. He does not do for you what He is trying to teach you to do — or to trust Him to do — yourself.
The Question He Asked
The brother of Jared went to work. He molten sixteen small transparent stones out of rock — smooth, white, clear as glass. He climbed a mountain and offered them to God with one of the most transparent prayers of petition in scripture:
Ether 3:4
“And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea.”
He did not tell God how to touch them. He did not prescribe the mechanism. He stated the problem, stated his confidence in God's power and benevolence, and asked for what he needed. That is the structure of effectual prayer. He had done his part — made the stones, climbed the mountain, presented himself. Now he asked God to do what he could not do himself.
The 16 Stones
God stretched forth His finger and touched the stones one by one. And something happened that God apparently had not intended to happen at that moment: the brother of Jared saw the finger.
Ether 3:6
“And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear.”
The text emphasizes what the finger looked like: like the finger of a man, like flesh and blood. God asked him: “Sawest thou more than this?” The brother of Jared said no. God asked: “Knowest thou that thou hast seen my finger?” He said yes. God asked: “Believest thou the words which I shall speak unto thee?” He said yes. And then God showed him everything.
Christ Reached Through the Veil
The being who appeared to the brother of Jared revealed who He was — and the revelation has profound doctrinal importance:
Ether 3:14–16
“Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. And never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image.”
This is the pre-mortal Jesus Christ — speaking before His birth, showing His spirit body to the brother of Jared, and explaining that He had never shown Himself to anyone else this way because no one had ever believed with such complete faith.
The LDS doctrine of the pre-mortal existence of Christ — that He was Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, who had a spirit body before He was born into mortality — is taught explicitly here. The God who appeared to Moses, who spoke with Abraham, who directed the prophets — was the pre-mortal Christ. The brother of Jared is the one human being who was allowed to see Him in that form because of the perfection of his faith.
He Saw Because His Faith Was Perfect
Moroni explains the theological principle at work in Ether 12:19–20:
Ether 12:19–20
“And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had seen with an eye of faith, and they were glad. And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his faith in God.”
God could not hide it from him. That is the statement. The veil exists not because God is hiding but because mortals cannot normally perceive what is on the other side. The brother of Jared had developed faith so complete that the veil became transparent. He had first seen with an eye of faith — then he saw with his actual eyes. The experience matched the faith because the faith had become sufficient to receive it.
What the Veil Is — And What Removes It
LDS theology teaches that the veil between mortality and the spirit world — between the natural and the divine — is not primarily a physical barrier. It is a condition of unbelief. Moroni says so explicitly: “the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong.”
The veil is not removed by theological sophistication, by years of church service, or by good behavior alone. It is removed by faith — specifically, by the kind of faith that acts on what it believes before the confirmation comes. The brother of Jared made the stones before God touched them. He climbed the mountain before he knew what would happen. He asked believing. And when he had demonstrated complete trust, God revealed Himself.
This is the promise embedded in the story: the veil can be pierced. Not by everyone at every moment — but by anyone whose faith becomes sufficient. The brother of Jared is not presented as a special case beyond emulation. He is presented as the highest example of something possible — the thing faith is ultimately pointing toward, which is not just belief but knowledge that comes through belief perfected into action.
The Full Vision of Christ
After the brother of Jared saw Christ's spirit body, Christ showed him all the inhabitants of the earth — from the beginning to the end. The full vision is sealed in the record that Moroni buried with the plates. The world has not yet received it. Moroni tells us it will be revealed when the world has sufficient faith to receive it — which is to say, when the world has the faith of the brother of Jared.
The sealed portion of the plates is still sealed. What is contained in the account we have is already extraordinary: a man who brought sixteen hand-cut stones to God and received in return the clearest pre-mortal vision of Jesus Christ in all of scripture. The rest is still coming. The invitation to develop the faith to receive it is open to everyone who reads the account.
What This Teaches About Faith
The story of the brother of Jared is the Book of Mormon's fullest teaching on the nature of faith. Three elements are present that anyone who wants to pierce the veil must also bring:
Three Elements of the Brother of Jared's Faith
- He did his part first — He made the stones before asking God to touch them. Faith acts before confirmation arrives.
- He asked specifically and confidently — He told God what he needed, stated his confidence in God's power, and made a direct request. Vague prayers receive vague answers.
- He did not limit what God could do — He asked for God's finger to touch stones. He received the full vision of Christ and all of human history. When you approach God with real faith, He often gives more than you asked.
The brother of Jared crossed the great deep in barges filled with light — stones glowing in sealed ships under the waves. For nearly a year on the ocean, they had light because one man had believed enough to ask, and to do the work required before asking. His name has not been casually shared. His example has been preserved so that others might learn what faith can accomplish when it is brought to its fullness.
The Sixteen Stones — Light Without the Sun
It is worth dwelling on what the brother of Jared actually did with the problem of the dark barges, because the manner of the solution is itself a doctrine. He faced an impossible crossing: eight vessels sealed tight against the great deep, “tight like unto the ark of Noah,” without windows that the waves would not shatter and without fire that the closed air would not consume. The deep would swallow them; at times they would be wholly under the water. There was no natural light to be had — no sun, no lamp, no window. And yet the brother of Jared did not merely lay the problem at the Lord's feet and wait. He prepared the means himself.
He went up into the mount — the place the record calls Shelem because of its exceeding height — and there he labored. Out of solid rock he molten sixteen small stones, white and clear as glass, working them with his own hands until each was transparent. He could make the stones clear; that much was within his power. What he could not do was make them shine. Clear glass in the belly of a sealed barge under the sea is still only darkness. So he carried the sixteen stones up the mountain and brought them to the Lord, asking not for a different solution but for the one thing he could not supply himself — the light.
“And it came to pass that the brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass; and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount … therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea.”
Notice the structure of the petition. He did not ask the Lord to make stones, nor to invent light from nothing. He had already done all that mortal effort could do — he had quarried, molten, and shaped sixteen clear stones — and he asked God only to add the one power he lacked: to touch them, that they might shine. This is the heart of the account: man does all he can, and God supplies what man cannot. The light did not come because the stones were special, but because the finger of the Lord touched them.
And that touch — given in answer to a request about lighting barges — became the occasion of the greatest recorded vision of faith in all scripture. The same finger that was reaching out to kindle sixteen stones could not be hidden from a man whose faith was perfect. The veil parted at the very moment the stones were touched:
“And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. And the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord.”
The stones, once touched, did exactly what he had asked. They were placed in the vessels, one set in each end, and they burned without fuel and shone without the sun for the entire passage across the great deep. When the Lord later drove the barges out into the sea, the record is plain about how the Jaredites endured a year on the open ocean in sealed ships:
“For the Lord God caused that there should be a light, which was endless, that they could not have light except it were light; therefore he did bring forth other stones, that he might give light unto them, and also unto their women and their children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness. … And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness.”
Endless light, in the place where there could be no light. The brother of Jared and his people crossed three hundred and forty-four days upon the deep, “swallowed up in the depths of the sea” and tossed by the mountain waves, yet never once in darkness — because sixteen clear stones, lit by the touch of the Lord's own finger, shone in the prow and the stern of every barge. The light that carried them was not the sun and was not fire; it was light the Lord Himself had given.
Here is the type, and it is exact. The vessels are sealed against a deep that would otherwise swallow them — as we are sealed within mortality, crossing a darkness no natural light can pierce. Man prepares what man can: the brother of Jared could quarry and shape and polish the stones until they were clear as glass, but he could not make a single one of them shine. The shining is always the Lord's part. He touches what we have prepared in faith, and what was merely clear becomes a vessel of light. The stones did not generate the light; they received it from His finger and passed it on into the darkness around them.
This is the doctrine the sixteen stones were given to teach: God gives light through humble means prepared by faith. He does not bypass our effort, and He does not abandon us to it. The brother of Jared brought the clear stones; the Lord brought the light. And the One whose finger lit those stones told the brother of Jared, in that same hour, exactly who He was — “Behold, I am Jesus Christ … I am the light and the life of the world.” The Light of the World is the One who illuminates the vessels that carry us through the deep. The clear stone in the barge is the disciple touched by Christ; the endless light is His life shining out of what we yielded to Him.
So the account of the barges is not finally about stones at all. It is about the Lord. The same Christ who touched sixteen stones to light eight barges across an ancient sea is the Light that carries His people through every dark crossing still — through grief, through doubt, through the long passages of mortality where no natural light reaches. Prepare the stones with all the faith you have, and bring them to Him. The shining is His to give, and He has never yet let His people cross the great waters in darkness.
The Day When the Sun Will Not Be Needed
There is one more reach to this type, and it is the longest of all. The light in the barges — light without the sun, light that came straight from the hand of the Lord — was a foreshadowing of the days of the Millennium, when Christ will return to reign upon the earth in person, and the light of His presence will be such that His people will no longer depend upon the sun as they now do. Zechariah saw that day, and described its strange, unfailing light:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.”
The Lord revealed that at His coming the glory of His presence will outshine the sun itself — “and so great shall be the glory of his presence that the sun shall hide his face in shame” (D&C 133:49). And Isaiah promised Zion that in that day the Lord Himself would be her light: “The sun shall be no more thy light by day… but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory… for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isaiah 60:19–20). The people who live in the day of His reign will walk, as the Jaredites did in their barges, by a light the natural order cannot give and the darkness cannot reach — the light of the Lord dwelling in their midst.
And the millennial day deepens, at the last, into something that has no end. John was shown the holy city of the eternal state, and testified that there the sun is not merely outshone but needed no longer at all, for there is no more night:
“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof… And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.”
And here is the deepest layer of all. The reason His people will not need the sun — whether in the day of His reign or in the eternal city — is that they will have its Source. Christ is not merely a substitute for the sun; He is, even now, the light that is in the sun. The light that streamed straight from His finger into sixteen stones is the very same light that fills the whole creation by way of the sun:
“Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made… which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space— The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed.”
So the sixteen stones were never an exception to how God lights the world — they were a glimpse of the rule laid bare. Ordinarily the light of Christ reaches us through the sun, mediated and softened so mortal eyes can bear it. In the barges, for one family in one dark crossing, the intermediary was set aside and the light came straight from His hand. In the day of His millennial reign, His presence among His people will be the light of the earth. And in the eternal city that follows, the intermediary is set aside forever: “the Lamb is the light thereof,” and there is no more night.
From a few stones glowing in a sealed ship, to a millennial earth and an eternal city lit by the presence of the Lord — it is one light, and one Lord, from the beginning to the end. The same finger that kindled sixteen stones to carry one family across one sea is the light by which His people will live when He reigns among them, and forever after. He has never yet let His people cross the great waters in darkness; and in the day of His coming, He Himself will be the light in their midst, world without end.