2. Obviously the book motif has returned with a vengeance. I think 1 and 2 Nephi should be read as a single work, and as we started on writing we are now finishing on writing, too.
3. 27:27 reminds me of Psalms 2:2, in which the wicked kings take counsel (nosdu, sod being a secret learned in council) against the Lord, in vain, to be told that they should seek wisdom instead. (Remember that Psalms 1 and 2 are one document in many ancient copies, and are full of the same temple images that are in 1 Nephi 8).
4. I haven't been tracking the word "seed" through Nephi's writing, but someone should. It appears a ton, including in covenant / temple contexts. His is a book about books, seeds and the temple.
5. The Deuteronomists have left their mark on Chapter 28, and how Nephi talks about the churchmen of the future. Learned, denying miracles and revelation and the spirit. We'll see this in Sherem.
6. 28:11-12 recalls 1 Nephi 8, the people lost in strange paths because of the mockery of those in the strange great and spacious building.
7. 28:28 Of course there is famously a large rock on the temple mount, supposedly the altar on which Abraham sacrificed Isaac, etc. (the mosque there today is called the Dome of the Rock). I wonder if that is the source of Nephi's imagery and, later, Jesus's. I note that the rock and sand parable appears at the very end of Matthew 7 (24-27), after knocking three times, asking for bread and fish, entering in at the strait gate, seeing the good tree and being seen and accepted by the Lord.
Check out this Wikipedia article on the rock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_Stone. Note that some traditions identify this stone with the Holy of Holies. I don't know how I missed this before.
8. 28:30 is hot-button words again: if you listen to counsel (sod, perhaps), you will learn wisdom (hokhmah). Following close on the reference to being built on the rock and learning line upon line, getting more when you receive, this is temple talk.
4.Books are seeds.
ReplyDeleteSo true.
ReplyDelete