Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Mosiah 2

1. 2:1, they're still "going up" to the temple.

2. Does 2:2 mean that on this occasion (a coronation, the farewell of an old King, the Sukkot / Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur feast complex) a census was customary and expected, but they just didn't have the resources?  The record says they "did not" number them, not they "could not".

3. The phrase "established peace" in 2:4 now rings differently for me.  Peace on earth, to men of good will.  A quick search shows that "established peace" is a stock phrase in the BoM but not elsewhere in the scriptures.  Here it's paired with "love towards God".

4. The tents in 2:5 are big tents -- these are not nuclear families, they are extended families.

5. Look at 2:9 -- you have to open your "ears to hear", and hearts and mind, to understand the mysteries.  Remember this verse next time you read one of the evangelists saying "let he who has ears, hear"... they're talking about the mysteries, too.

6. Echoes of Isaiah 6:1-3 (et cetera) in 2:19-20 -- praising the heavenly king.

7. 2:25-26 dust, from which Laman and Lemuel did not arise, and in which the serpent crawls, and to which God compared Abraham's promised seed.

8. 2:32 this sounds like a reference to some famous or important discourse that we don't have.  Yet.

9. 2:36-38 echoes 2 Nephi 31:14, and shows us that both verses are references to the temple.  Once you can "speak with the tongue of angels" or are "in wisdom's paths" (think 1 Nephi 8, wisdom = the tree), best not to turn aside.  (I notice with interest that "wisdom's paths" are also referred to in Helaman 12:5 -- can't wait til I get that far in my reading.)

(The hypertext links, by the way, are the result of Ryan Hunt's D&C 121-style leadership, setting a righteous example for me.)

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