This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
” When approaching Exodus, Joseph Smith changed every instance where the text says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and switched it to say that Pharaoh hardened his heart.”
carm.org
Few issues have been written about so extensively as God “hardening Pharaoh’s heart” in the Bible. Why would God harden someone’s heart and cause them to sin? Since early Christian times, this has led to questions of free will and destiny, leading some to conclude that Pharaoh had no choice in the matter and was destined to oppress the Hebrews. They ignore the extensive biblical explanations of free agency and twist this tiny example to deny that free choice exists. It due to the apostate narrative that Joseph Smith altered the text in his comments on the bible, in his typically bold way. Pharaoh hardened his heart in the way we think of it today.
Hardened Heart Is A Natural Result Of Pride
Original Text – Pretty much every version of the bible out there says the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Even the ancient Dead Sea Scroll texts read it this way. So it is likely that the original text indeed read “Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Why change it? I don’t think it was to fix a textual error. There were six categories of changes Joseph Smith made in his JST bible: lengthy additions, common sense fixes, clarification of confusion, harmonizing conflicts, commentary on meanings, and grammar. This was a simple clarification. The passage was confusing due to many centuries of apostates misconstruing what happened and important historical context being lost.
Today’s dictionary defines hard-hearted as “lacking in sympathetic understanding.” Pharaoh wasn’t very sympathetic to the Hebrews, but that wasn’t what these verses are talking about. The problem was “he hath done evil to this people.” His evil behavior was the result of him choosing to lack sympathy. Origen Adamantius in the 3rd century A.D.–an expert of Hebrew language and culture–said that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but he agreed that “hardening” the heart was the result of Pharaoh’s choices. A prideful heart naturally hardens when plain miracles are manifest while a humble heart softens. Citing Paul, Adamantius compares it to the prior state of soil which determines whether rain will turn the ground hard or soft: “Let us therefore view those signs and miracles which were done by God, as the showers furnished by Him from above; and the purpose and desires of men, as the cultivated and uncultivated soil, which is of one and the same nature indeed, as is every soil compared with another, but not in one and the same state of cultivation. From which it follows that every one’s will, if untrained, and fierce, and barbarous, is either hardened by the miracles and wonders of God, growing more savage and thorny than ever, or it becomes more pliant, and yields itself up with the whole mind to obedience, if it be cleared from vice and subjected to training.
But, to establish the point more clearly, it will not be superfluous to employ another illustration, as if, e.g., one were to say that it is the sun which hardens and liquefies, although liquefying and hardening are things of an opposite nature. Now it is not incorrect to say that the sun, by one and the same power of its heat, melts wax indeed, but dries up and hardens mud: not that its power operates one way upon mud, and in another way upon wax; but that the qualities of mud and wax are different, although according to nature they are one thing, both being from the earth.” (De Principiis (Book III))
This sounds correct to me, and it aligns with ancient Hebrew sensibility of what it a “hardened heart” meant. It is not the initial act of closing the heart to someone, lacking sympathetic understanding, or closing the door and refusing to listen, but how that choice leads to more obstinate close-mindedness. It’s like a rebellious kid who makes a mistake, and rather than admit the mistake doubles down and goes on to more serious mistakes. The Lord’s display of miracles led to a situation where Pharaoh had to either admit the initial mistake or make much more grievous errors. When soil is struck, it either breaks or compacts. The Lord was striking the soil.
This is something we see all the time with people who fall away from the church, and that’s why it is such an important issue. When someone is offended at church or tempted by Antimormon rhetoric they read on the internet, the condition of the soil becomes unsuitable for sustaining faith. Not only do they dismiss miracles in their lives, but they twist the miracles as justification for their apostasy. They keep asking over and over for “proof” that God exists, but the more undeniable the proof becomes the less likely they are to accept it. Is this the result of God hardening their heart? No, it was their choice from the start, but it is up to God what miracles He chooses to display which will either make their apostasy more obstinate or soften their heart.
We see this happen in the Book of Mormon. In 3 Nephi 1:22, the people had undergone many cycles of apostasy and repentance in stunningly rapid succession, and they were pretty well settled in their faith or non-belief. Helaman tells us: “there began to be lyings sent forth among the people, by Satan, to harden their hearts, to the intent that they might not believe in those signs and wonders which they had seen.” Over and over, the Book of Mormon speaks of being “hardened in iniquity” in terms that align with Hebrew sensibility and biblical context.
Necessary To Bring About Passover?
“God says that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let the people go. God explains that He is doing so for the purpose of ultimately bringing about the Passover, an event that will define God’s people for generations to come… The untouchable supremacy of human autonomy even over divine purpose is a hallmark of Mormon theology, but it has no place in biblical revelation.”
carm.org
Did God force Pharaoh to lack sympathetic understanding in order to bring above the Passover? This goes back to an age-old question that we all ask at some point. What if Lucifer hadn’t tempted Adam and Eve? What if Judas had not betrayed Jesus? What if Pharoah hadn’t opposed Moses? How would the purposes of God be fulfilled if the villains didn’t act out their part? The omniscience of God indeed must allow Him to prepare His plans based on how we are likely to act, but does this mean we are destined to act that way? I think it’s all a matter of perspective, but the issue at hand here is whether God forced Pharaoh to act the way he did, and the answer is clearly no. The way God directed events, Pharaoh grew up as Moses’ brother, so he should have by all means have possessed sympathetic understanding for him. I see nothing in the story to indicate God preventing Pharaoh from having sympathetic understanding. It was purely Pharaoh’s choice.
False Dilemma – “Christian apologists” are lying when they say “Mormons” believe mankind is totally free from external control for any divine purpose. Where did they get that? Totally untrue. Obviously mankind doesn’t have supreme autonomy above God’s divine purposes. Were Pharaoh’s armies free from being drowned in the Red Sea? Is anyone free from dying of old age? We are all subject to the laws of nature and the circumstances that are determined by God. The apologists create a false dilemma where either God forces someone to sin or God’s divine purposes have zero control.
As far as the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ teaches, the issue is that we need to choose things for ourselves without external pressure in order to produce faith. The Doctrine and Covenants explains, “the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves… But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” A person who must be directed through miracles and obvious commandments is destined for damnation, and we can see this principle with Pharaoh. The Lord had to present progressively undeniable miracles to the point where Pharaoh basically had no choice but to follow the commandment. The hardening of the heart is the thus process of losing self-agency. In other words, the more “external control for divine purposes,” the more hardened the heart becomes. This is something we see all the time in the Bible.
Jesus explained this principle in the Bible: “But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esais, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:37-43)
God did not force the people to love the praise of men more than the praise of God. That was their own choice. But because they made that choice, and because Jesus displayed progressively more undeniable miracles, this hardened their hearts to damnation.
The 1599 A.D. Geneva Bible adds a footnote to Exodus 4:21 next to to the word “harden”: “By receiving my spirit and delivering him unto Satan to increase his malice.” Pharaoh was being forced to accept God’s spirit and that was increasing his malice, delivering him to Satan. This context is lost on the popular modern concept of “hardening the heart,” and frequent interpretations of these passages from Exodus. This is why Joseph Smith added this clarification.
‘And I Will Prosper Thee’
Something interesting I noticed is that the Joseph Smith Translation also adds an extra phrase:
| JST Exodus 4:21 | Exodus 4:21 |
| “And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: and I will prosper thee; but Pharaoh will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.” | “And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.” |
Why did Joseph Smith add this phrase about prospering him? It is important to remember that adding waw to the beginning of a word in Hebrew can make it either a vav conjunctive or a vav consecutive. The vav conjunctive translates as “and” or “but,” while the vav consecutive changes the tense of the verb following it. So, the waw letter on the word that gets translated as “thou do” is speaking in a future tense. This separates the sentence into two separate phrases “When thou goest to return into Egypt see” and then “that thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh.” “The two verb forms in this section are the imperative (?????, ré’eh) followed by the perfect with the vav (???????????, va’asitam). The second could be coordinated and function as a second command: “see…and [then] do”; or it could be subordinated logically: ‘see…so that you do.'” (yhwh-qra.com)
Because this second phrase is on its own, separate from the first phrase about “seeing,” this could make the word that gets translated as “harden” apply to it. Hebrew does not have punctuation makes, and if we put just the words it comes out something like this: “when go back to Egypt see and will do face Pharaoh all miracles which I put in hand and I strengthen [ahazzeq] his heart and will not people out.” The word “strengthen” [ahazzeq] could apply to the miracles which God put in the hand of Moses, so it would read: “Will do before the face of Pharaoh all the miracles which I put in your hand and strengthen.” Or it could apply to Pharaoh’s heart, as the Bible translates it: “and I will harden his heart and/that he will not let the people out.” Joseph Smith apparently applied it to both. “‘strengthen’ (in the sense of making stubborn or obstinate). The text has the expression ??????? ???????? ?????????? (va’ani ’akhazzeq ’et-libbo), ‘I will make strong his will,’ or ‘I will strengthen his resolve,’ recognizing the ‘heart’ as the location of decision making (see Prov 16:1-9LEB).” (yhwh-qra.com)
Did Joseph Smith correct a mistranslation here? I don’t know. Maybe the original text applied “strengthen” to both Moses and Pharaoh and maybe not, but in any case Joseph Smith’s addition clarifies the message, that while the miracles harden Pharaoh’s heart because of his behavior, the miracles will also strenthen Moses. This further clarifies that Pharaoh was not destined to sin.
In Paul’s discussion of the election of some over others for offices of the priesthood, he points to Pharaoh’s hard heart as an example: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” (Romans 9:14-18)
Bible commentators point out that it should really be translated: “I made thee to stand.” It is saying “Pharaoh had been kept alive instead of being at once cut off, that God’s power might be displayed in him.” We don’t see anywhere in Exodus saying God raised Pharaoh up, but we do read in Exodus that God allowed Pharaoh to make the choices he did and be empowered to commit evil. Why didn’t God get rid of evil Pharaoh and make a nice person king instead? Paul is explaining that God allows evil people to rise to prominent positions of power yet ultimately God’s plan works out in the end.
Blaming God For Persecution – The Calvinists are chiefly responsible for twisting this example of Pharaoh to make it look like God has two competing will-powers, or that God makes evil come to pass. But Paul says it right here, there is no unrighteousness with God. The Book of Exodus is the fundamental example of persecution, and so it is significant when a sect claims God was motivating the persecutors. That means disbelievers and persecutors today are forced by God to do what they do, right? It makes you dehumanize a person when you start to think their behavior is forced. In the Church of Jesus Christ, we recognize that a person is responsible for their choices. We recognize that it is a mistake to push great miracles on a person whose faith isn’t ready because it will likely make them harden their heart; faith must precede the miracle. But we recognize that it is up to God to display miracles to whomever He will, in His wisdom.