Unique Phrases
Tabernacles of Clay
Book of Mormon
Mosiah 3:5:
... the Lord Omnipotent ... shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay
Moroni 9:6:
... we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.
The seemingly uniquely-Mormon phrase “tabernacles of clay” (above) is a strange beast. The three-word phrase is not found in the King James Version (KJV) of the English translation of the Bible. The phrase mixes the Old Testament concept of the “tabernacle” (the Jewish predecessor to the temple of Solomon which the children of Israel carried with them in the wilderness to worship the Lord) and especially Paul's reference to the mortal body as “our earthly house of this tabernacle” in 2 Cor. 5:1—with Old and New Testament phraseology about people metaphorically being or dwelling in earthen vessels, jars of clay, potter's vessels, etc. to express metaphorically that the human spirit dwells in a very temporary and flawed and breakable, mortal house of clay, especially in comparison to The Maker, The Potter, e.g. God. (This “tabernacle = temple” concept also reminds us also of the phrase “the body is a temple.”)
2 Cor. 5:1:
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Old Testament
Jeremiah 18:4:
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Isa. 45:9:
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it (other translations, say to the potter), What makest thou? or thy work (say to the potter, e.g. God), He hath no hands?
Job 4:19:
How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
Job 13:12:
Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
New Testament
Romans 9:21 (reference Isa. above):
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
2 Corinthians 4:7–11:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (also alternately translated jars of clay), ... Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
2 Cor. 5:1 (again):
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
1 Thess. 4:4:
That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel (translated body in NIV, ESV, etc.) in sanctification and honour.
2 Timothy 2:20:
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
Rev. 2:27
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers (dashed to pieces like a potter's vessels, NKJV).
18th- & 19th-Century Preachers
The exact phrase, rendered into English in those three words, can be found in various sermons from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, showing that the phrase was in the religious zeitgeist at and around the time of the publication of the Book of Mormon:
The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, Tobias Smollett, 1763, p.427:
Relate their peculiar gifts and graces, while dwelling in tabernacles of clay, they passed their mortal pilgrimage, in sacred love and pious ardour; imitating the bright example of their Saviour.
The Whole Works of the Late Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, 1798, p. 347:
Sirs, think upon it now; no sooner hath death dislodged you from these tabernacles of clay, and the eyes of your bodies shut, but that very moment you will find your souls sifted (“fifted” using obsolete typeset long s) before the awful tribunal of an infinite God, in order to have your eternal state determined.
The Whole Works of the Rev. William Bates, Vol 2, 1815, p. 297:
It is promised, “that God will dwell in us, and walk in us;” whose gracious presence is heaven upon earth. Strange condescension! that the God of glory should dwell in tabernacles of clay; far greater than if a king should dwell in a cottage with one of his poort subjects.
Joseph Hall, 1837, p.78, referencing 2 Cor. 5:1:
Let it not overgrieve us, to leave these tabernacles of stone, since we must shortly lay down these tabernacles of clay, and enter into tabernacles not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Till then, farewell, my Dear Brethren, farewell in the Lord.
This should suffice to begin a reasonable discussion on the origin of this unique phrase in Joseph Smith's earliest scriptural production, in Mosiah 3:5 and Moroni 9:6, mentioned at the top.