Who was the "angel" who appeared to Laman and Lemuel?

Shortly after leaving Jerusalem, Lehi sends his sons back to acquire the plates of brass from Laban. First they apparently just try asking him, not even offering any payment until their second attempt! I can’t even hazard a guess as to why they thought he would just give them this precious (and apparently secret) record for free, but I assume there’s some better explanation than "they were stupid."

Laman doesn’t even want to try a second time, since Laban has just threatened to kill him, but Nephi manages to persuade him. After the second attempt to get the plates ends with the brothers fleeing for their lives as Laban keeps his plates and helps himself to their property, Laman is understandably annoyed:

And it came to pass that Laman was angry with me, and also with my father; and also was Lemuel, for he hearkened unto the words of Laman. Wherefore Laman and Lemuel did speak many hard words unto us, their younger brothers, and they did smite us even with a rod. And it came to pass as they smote us with a rod, behold, an angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them, saying:

Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities? Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.

And after the angel had spoken unto us, he departed. And after the angel had departed, Laman and Lemuel again began to murmur, saying:

How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us? (1 Ne. 3:28-31).

The standard Mormon reading of this is basically that Laman and Lemuel were idiots. They immediately resume complaining and saying their mission is impossible, even though an angel has just appeared to them and promised divine assistance. The story is sometimes cited as demonstrating the futility of showing signs to unbelievers, since they will perversely refuse to believe no matter how in-your-face the proof.

Maybe. But as I've said, I tend to prefer explanations other than "they were stupid."

Looking back at the account of the angel's visit, you can see that there is no mention of anything overtly supernatural. We are not told that the angel came down from heaven, that he radiated light, that his voice shook the earth, or anything of that nature. Nor are we told that Laman and Lemuel were terrified or astonished. The whole thing is remarkably matter-of-fact: "An angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them . . . . And after the angel had spoken unto us, he departed." If you replaced angel (of the Lord) with soothsayer or stranger or even just man, no other changes would be necessitated.

Well, sometimes angelic visitations are like that. Pace Rilke, not every angel is terrible; some, we are told, have even “entertained angels unawares" (Heb. 13:2). I propose that Laman and Lemuel’s visitant appeared as an ordinary man, and that the only thing observably “angelic” about him was the content of his message, which suggested supernatural knowledge of them and their mission — but only suggested, for might not an ordinary mortal have overheard enough of their quarrel to be able to say what this angel said?

I think that’s just about the right amount of miraculousness to make the reactions of both Nephi and his brothers understandable. For one who already accepted the reality of angels, it would be natural to assume the visitor was an angel, but this understanding would not force itself on a skeptic.

After the angel departs and Laman and Lemuel resume their murmuring, Nephi tries to inspire them with a story about the Exodus and concludes:

Now behold ye know that this [story about Moses] is true; and ye also know that an angel hath spoken unto you; wherefore can ye doubt? (1 Ne. 4:3).

The language here is telling: “ye also know,” just as you know what happened in Egypt hundreds of years ago. This isn’t the way he would speak if the angelic visitation were just an obvious fact. He’s appealing to their faith. He’s saying, in effect, “Come on, you have to admit that guy was an angel, right?”

How successful was Nephi’s attempt at persuasion?

Now when I had spoken these words, they were yet wroth, and did still continue to murmur (1 Ne. 4:4).

They weren’t convinced. Nephi wasn’t pointing out the obvious; he was arguing for a particular interpretation of what had just happened.

I’ve just been reading in 3 Nephi 28 about the disciples commonly known as the Three Nephites (although the Book of Mormon never actually specifies their ethnicity). They were transformed into such beings “as the angels of God” (3 Ne. 28:30) but not changed to the same degree as those who are resurrected, and they apparently still looked like ordinary people, since one would scarcely try to put an obvious angel in prison.

My first thought was that Laman and Lemuel's "angel" might have been the same sort of person -- what Mormons call a "translated being," who is made quasi-immortal without dying. But who, exactly? The only figures we know of before the time in question who may not have died are Enoch, Moses, and Elijah. Moses is an interesting possibility, because after the "angel" leaves, Nephi immediately begins talking about Moses -- but on balance I think it was probably not Moses for that very reason. Nephi talks about Moses and then about the angel; if he suspected that the angel was Moses, he would surely have said something to that effect. And if he had no such suspicions, then his talking about Moses was just a massive coincidence. To be clear, I do accept the reality of massive coincidences, but all in all Moses just doesn't fit. Why would that particular person have been sent to encourage them on their quest for the brass plates?

There's someone who fits much better -- not a translated being after all.

In my September 23 post "Who were the 13 luminous beings Lehi saw in his Jerusalem vision?" (which you should read now if you haven't yet), I propose that the book Lehi reads in his vision represents Laban's brass plates, the record of the descendants of Joseph, and that the being who gives it to him is Joseph himself. In explaining why I thought this, I referred to Joseph's dreams as recorded in Genesis 37. Here's how his brothers reacted to the first of these:

And his [elder] brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words (Gen. 37:8).

Compare this to what the angel says to Nephi's brothers:

Why do ye smite your younger brother with a rod? Know ye not that the Lord hath chosen him to be a ruler over you, and this because of your iniquities? (1 Ne. 3:29).

This fits perfectly, I think. Lehi and Nephi were righteous descendants of Joseph, but the Josephite record -- the brass book -- was currently in the hands of the wicked Laban. This ancestral spirit, as a post-mortal "angel," first appears to Lehi and allows him to read some of the brass book and then intervenes to help Nephi secure it. And just as Joseph told his elder brothers that he would rule over them, making them so angry that they plotted his death, so he came to deliver a similar message to Nephi's elder brothers.

One other little supporting detail is that the angel promises that "the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands" (1 Ne. 3:29). This is the first time deliver and hands occur together in the Book of Mormon, and the next several occurrences are all in this story of getting the brass plates from Laban. The first two times deliver and hands occur together in the King James Bible are both in, of all places, Genesis 37:

And Reuben heard it [the plot to kill Joseph], and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again (Gen. 37:21-22).

Under the subconscious biblical contamination theory, the choice of words suggests a link between Joseph and the events of 1 Nephi 3-4, as if Joseph Smith subconsciously understood who the "angel" was.