D&C 68:25 · Moroni 8:10

Textual Paraphrase

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Doctrine and Covenants D&C 68:25

"inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents."

Book of Mormon Moroni 8:10

"Behold I say unto you that this thing shall ye teach—repentance and baptism unto those who are accountable and capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children."

Both verses are commandments about teaching, both name the parents in the verse text, and both give repentance and baptism as the content. The inversion is the whole of the difference and is reported rather than smoothed: the letter commands that the parents be taught ('teach parents that they must repent and be baptized'), while the revelation commands that the parents teach, and places the sin on them if they do not. The letter attaches no age and defines the class by capacity ('accountable and capable of committing sin'); the revelation attaches an age and defines the class by it. Neither text cites the other. Why this endpoint: the stem accountab* stands at nine distinct frozen verses in the corpus - D&C 18:42, 20:71, 29:47, 42:32, 101:78, 104:13, 134:1, 137:10, and Moroni 8:10 - and Moroni 8:10 is the only one outside the Doctrine and Covenants, so within the record it is the sole verse in the accountability vocabulary and also the record's only teaching-commandment naming parents; no tie arises. 'eight years old' stands at six distinct frozen verses in the corpus, only these two attaching it to baptism; three of the remainder are regnal ages (2 Kings 22:1, 2 Chronicles 34:1, 2 Chronicles 36:9), and the sixth, 1 Samuel 4:15, is a substring of 'ninety and eight years old' rather than an instance of the number.

Discussed on

Little Children and Accountability