Repentance Tablet of Seth

Pronunciation: reh-PEN-tunss TAB-lit uv SETH

Also Known As

The Tablet of Seth.

Its Origin

The Repentance Tablet is the very first human writing of all time. Seth grieved for his brother Cain and his children, and he feared that people would forget the doings of the Lamb of God with his parents. One day, as he sat fasting and praying after bathing in a river, his wife Azura came to him with a mossy stone and said, “Seth my husband this stone tells the story of the first sin of our mother and it is an account of their journey away from the Garden.” The moss had grown in the shape of a tree, with their mother in it partaking of the fruit (I Achee 2:35–37).

They showed the stone to Eve. She was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, “The stones and rocks of the earth shall be our witnesses before God,” and she commanded Seth to carve the stone like the growing of the moss, so that a record of remembrance could be kept (I Achee 2:38–39). Melchizedek records that the tablet “was originally written by Ebedel with the help of the waters and the moss,” and that Seth was obedient to his mother and marked it upon stone so it would not be lost (Little Book 1:16).

Foretold at Seth’s Birth

When Yaatsekawd blessed his baby son Seth, he said the words of forgiveness of Anokeesed would go forth to all the world “written upon a stone,” and he prayed, “May all who behold the stone of this little son come to know that they are loved and forgiven for their sins.” A note on the passage reads, “This is the Repentance Tablet” (Moses 2:59, n. 23).

Enoch and the Tablet

Enoch brought forward the long forgotten tablet of Seth using the stones of the Urim, “and it was the first scripture upon the earth.” He taught repentance with it, and the people came to understand repentance and forgiveness from the Lord, and that forgiveness applied to all their fellows. With this tablet formal learning began, and language was developed to express the deep feelings of what the Spirit was saying (Melchizedek 6:63–64). Enoch refined and perfected the tablet and used it to teach purity to all who dwelt in Zion (I Achee 2:91), inscribing it so it could be better understood (Little Book 1:16).

The first half of the Book of Remembrance of Enoch is titled “The Tablet of Seth.” Its first chapter is “a record written upon stone tablets, by Seth, son of Yaatsekawd, by way of instruction from his mother, Cavah” (Enoch, Seth 1). In his twenty-fourth year, Enoch wrote all that he beheld concerning what was written on the tablet of Seth as he viewed our first parents (Enoch, Bedal 8:1). Later, the tablet of Seth was a great comfort to the aged Abiathar (Enoch, Bedal 11:54).

What It Teaches

The tablet tells how Yaatsekawd and Cavah left Eden and how they could return — it is called the Repentance Tablet because it records the human family learning about repentance for the very first time. It shows the grief they felt when they sinned and the joy they found in repentance and forgiveness, marked by mourning paint (yellow) and happy paint (red) on Yaatsekawd’s face. Being the first tablet ever, it’s the simplest in layout — divided only between spiritual and temporal glyphs, with no separate power and glory sides.

Its tree bears twelve tabs, the twelve waymarks of Jeshurun, also seen on the Covenant Tablet and the Protection Tablet (Moses 2:59, n. 23; Moses, Tablet of Gabriel caption, p. 190). Jeshurun represents the twelve gifts Christ gave His Father, which is what makes the number twelve sacred in holy writings (Handbook, p. 433).

Stolen and Restored

During Achee’s voyage, two of the Tablets of Seth were stolen: the Family Tablet and the Repentance Tablet, “the very two Tipharah and Shema had so diligently taught to all the children of the people.” They comforted Achee and said they knew them by heart, and the women helped him restore the tablets and make more in their place (I Achee 11:81–82).

A Real Physical Object

Scholars know this tablet as the Wright Tablet, photographed courtesy of the William S. Webb Museum, University of Kentucky. It may originally have come from the Middle East and been brought here in ancient times.

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