Bookshelf: Deuteronomy

We've talked in class about the theory that Deuteronomy is a document created late in the Monarchy by assembling earlier sources and writing new material in the (fictitious) name of Moses, in order to define and propagandize a revolutionary movement that centralized religious authority and changed the nature of official Israelite religion, writing over the stories of the patriarchs and claiming that the things they did (building their own altars, performing their own sacrifices, worshipping at high places and sacred trees, entering into sacred places, and above all, seeing God) were pagan Canaanite acts.

This theory (in multiple variants) is at the bedrock bottom of modern biblical criticism.  That doesn't mean it's right, but it's also consistent with Nephi's horrible account of the rewriting of the Israelite record (the revisionists remove plain and precious things from the record; the tree that is the city Jerusalem and also the Virgin mother is the most precious thing), so we should take it seriously.

To date, this understanding has had approximately zero impact on Mormon Sunday Schools.  If you want to explore it, your on your own; so here are some books to start with:

• Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School.  This is a classic -- out of print, but still available secondhand.
• Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11 (The Anchor Yale Bible).  Weinfeld's commentary on Deuteronomy is being republished posthumously.  The 85-page introductory essay alone is worth the price of admission.
• Bernard Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation.  Should win some kind of prize for its title, but this is a terrific book about the way Deuteronomy rewrites earlier legal sources for its centralizing ends.

Again, there are many more books on this key topic.  These are just the ones I own.  A good introduction to the Old Testament (by "good" I really mean not tied to any church, but especially not Evangelical) will also give you some background.

Sherem v. Jacob

Here's the outline for today's lesson, for those who can't make it.  It further develops some observations I made in prior posts on this blog.

1)    Who is Sherem? (Jacob 7:1-4, 24)

a)     Come from somewhere else

b)    Learned

c)     Preaches and works hard, has success

d)    Counter-missions?

e)     Content of preaching is Law of Moses and no-Christ

2)    What is the controversy?  Sherem attacks temple doctrines and the visionary men.

a)     What is the doctrine of the Christ?

i)      Angels sing before the Lord in the temple

(1)  2 Nephi 16:1-3

(2)  1 Nephi 1:8

(3)  Luke 2:8-14

ii)    Nephi’s doctrine of the Christ in 2 Nephi 31:2, 13-14, 17-18, is:

(1)  Repentance

(2)  Baptism

(3)  Gift of the Holy Ghost

(4)  Speak/sing with the tongues of angels (13-14) = enter in at the strait gate (17-18)

b)    Sherem sought to “overthrow the doctrine of Christ” (7:2).

i)      There should “be no Christ” (7:2).

ii)    The “right way of God” is the “law of Moses” (7:7).

iii)   Worship of a being to come is “blasphemy” (7:7).

iv)   You “cannot tell of things to come” (7:7).

v)     He hates the things of the temple—prophecy and the worship of the Messiah to come—and wants people to just obey the law of Moses.

c)     After Sherem’s defeat, “peace” and “the love of God” were restored. (7:23)

i)      “peace” is a hot-button temple word

(1)  Christ’s coming is “peace on earth”; Luke 2:13-14, “to men of good will”

(2)  But 1 Nephi 20:22 (Isaiah 48), there is no “peace” for the wicked

(3)  Peace offerings

(a)   Leviticus 7:11-36

(i)    zevach hashelamim; “shalem” is “peaceable” or “complete” (cf. Matthew 5:48, teleioi), so this is the “worship of the initiates”;

(ii)  cf. “shalem”, initiate, and “Sherem”, a close but incorrect substitute;

(iii) LXX is thusias soteriou, sacrifices of salvation

(iv) Peace offerings are a feast in the temple, including an eating of bread.

(b)  Exodus 24:9-11

(c)   Psalm 23 (cf. 1 Nephi 8)

(d)  Luke 14 (esp. 14:15); Matthew 22

(4)  Christ and bread / peace

(a)   Christ identifies himself as the “bread” of “heaven” (John 6:30-35)

(b)  Christ identifies himself with the Shewbread offering (Leviticus 24:7, “memorial”; Luke 22:19, “remembrance”)

(c)   Christ says the spirit gives “remembrance”, Christ brings “peace” (John 14:26-27)

(d)  Plays on disciples’ knowledge of him and peace in Matthew 10:34 (Luke 12:51) – not peace, but a sword

(e)   Paul knows this connection: Romans 5:1, Galatians 5:22, Ephesians 2:13-14; also Hebrews 12:11; also James 3:17-18

(5)  “peace” is the fruit

ii)    “love of God” is the tree in the temple (1 Nephi 11:21-22)

d)    Reminiscent of prior conflicts

i)      Josiah’s reformers:

(1)  Margaret Barker: “One way to reconstruct the religion of Jerusalem before Josiah’s changes is to note how many of the practices forbidden by Deuteronomy are permitted elsewhere in the Old Testament.”  What Did King Josiah Reform? in John W. Welch et al. eds., Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, Provo: FARMS, 2004.

(2)  Deuteronomy 4:12, you cannot see God; cf. 1 Nephi 1:8

(3)  Deut 4:19, deprecates “stars” and “host of heaven”; cf. 1 Nephi 1:8-10

(4)  Deut 4:5-6, Torah is Wisdom; cf. Mosiah 2:17, wisdom = temple insight

(5)  Deut 29:24-29, stick to the law, no secret things; cf. 1 Nephi 1:1, “mysteries”

(6)  What do the reformers hate?  Not random things, but the plain and precious things of the temple.  The way Nephi front-loads his account with exactly these things, it’s almost like he’s nailing his flag to the mast, proudly shouting from the rooftops all the things the reformers in Jerusalem hated.

ii)    Laman and Lemuel grumble against visions, are pro-Law of Moses and Jerusalemites (1 Nephi 17:19-22)

3)    How does the confrontation go?

a)     Juridical (cf. Jacob v. Laban in Genesis 31)

b)    Process

i)      Sherem “comes unto” Jacob (7:6).

ii)    Sherem presents his case (7:6-7).

iii)   Jacob responds, calling two witnesses (7:8-12).

iv)   Resolution by ordeal/miracle (7:13-15).

v)    Prompt remedy (7:16-20).

Enos - Jarom

1. E 1 what are the nurture and admonition of the Lord?  If the Lord = the fruit of the tree in 1 Nephi 8 and 11 = the shewbread, isn’t the Lord’s nurture the eating of the fruit?  Admonition is warning… is “nurture” the endowment, the eating of the fruit, and “admonition” the Day of Atonement, the great warning of the Lord’s coming?

2. E 2 the famous Biblical character who wrestled before God was Jacob (Genesis 32); he met an angel and was given a new name, which are temple images.  Genesis Jacob’s first encounter with angels is told in Genesis 28, an episode that is also rife with temple imagery: a dream, a ladder with angels ascending and descending it, the Lord above the ladder, a covenant promise about seed, and look what Genesis Jacob says in verse 17 – the “house of God” and the “gate of heaven”.  Enos is the new Genesis Jacob, the third patriarch in the line (Abraham-Isaac-Genesis Jacob, Nephi-Nephite Jacob-Enos), and here in Enos we similarly have the voice of the Lord making promises about Enos’s seed.

3. E 14  Interesting that the Lamanites want to destroy the Nephite records.  Why?  Because they contained or supported Nephi’s claim to legitimacy as a ruler and teacher?  Because they contained the teachings and writings of the visionary men, whom the Lamanites disliked, and against whom they had sent their missionary Sherem?

4. E 20  Interesting that “dwelling in tents”, which was repeated so often of Lehi, has now become the mark of the Lamanites’ savagery.  Is this a sign they haven’t progressed?  Is it irony – they hate the temple (God’s tent) and stick to their own tents instead?

5. E 22  The heirs to the “prophets” and “visionary men” continue to have “many prophets” among them.  (See also Jarom 4, 10-12.)

6. E 27 is temple imagery.  Enos plans to “put on immortality” (like a garment) and see God’s face.

7. J 1 Jarom is clearly not keeping their “genealogy” in any ordinary sense.  Where are the lateral branches, not to mention the women?  Instead, he’s making a record of who was in the line of keepers of the small plates.

8. J 2 Nephi wrote a book all about the temple, for the benefit of his brothers who rejected the temple.  Jarom finds that Nephi’s explanation is thorough, and has nothing significant to add.

9. J 5 This sounds like a defense to me, like the Lamanites in their grudge against the Nephites are at this point still saying that the Nephites had forsaken the law of Moses.  Since the shewbread was eaten on the Sabbath (Leviticus 24:8), and the Nephite endowment appears to contemplate the eating of the shewbread (1 Nephi 8, the bread = the fruit of the tree; remember that Christ is the “bread of heaven”), I wonder if Jarom’s statement in this verse that the Nephites kept the Sabbath day holy is a statement that the Nephites faithfully kept BOTH the law of Moses AND the visionary temple worship (see also verse 11, “the law of Moses and the intent for which it was given”).  Also, did the Lamanites accuse the Nephites of “profanity” or “blasphemy” in their temple rites?

10. J 10-12 are poignant, since they tell us how it might have gone for Jerusalem, if the Jerusalemites had repented.  I think Jarom includes the historical stuff on the temple plates because it’s specifically an account of how many of the temple prophecies about “seed” have been fulfilled.  We still see absolutely nothing of the kings and other secular actors.

2 Nephi 27-28

1. 27:7 this is a very good description of a book built upon temple rites, including an endowment rite that included the creation narrative and a Day of Atonement ceremony, which Nephi's two books are.  Makes me wonder about the sealed portion.

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.

2 Nephi 5-8

1. 5:5 Nephi repeats the Lehi maneuver in all respects.  They even take "tents" (v. 7) and "seed" (v. 11).  One really gets the impression that Nephi's (and Lehi's?) background must have been in metallurgy (2:14-15).

2. 5:6 Those who flee are again those who believe in "revelations" (the "visionary men" and "prophets") (v. 6).  Does this mean the Laman-Lemuel group is dominated by the Deuteronomists?  Is that where Sherem and his doctrine might have come from?  Does Nephi hasten to tell us that his people keep the law of Moses because the Laman-Lemuel group accuse him otherwise (v. 10)?

3. After all the temple imagery so far, it should now be no surprise at all that Nephi is quick to tell us he built a temple (5:16).

4. Nephi tells us that Laman and Lemuel were cut off from the Lord's presence in 5:20, right after he tells us that he built a temple (5:16) and he acted as king (5:18).  This makes PERFECT sense in terms of ancient Israelite ideas -- the presence of YHWH was in the temple, and king and high priests were both "anointed", i.e., "Messiahs", because they were / represented YHWH.  Check out Psalm 2:7, in which the King is the Lord's begotten.

5. A discussion of the fate of the Lamanites' culture follows.  We talked in class about the Egyptian pun built into the Lamanites becoming "black" as opposed to the "Nephites" (nfrw?) being "fair"... now we see that fate being tied into covenants and explicitly to the possession or non-possession of a temple.  Those having a temple are fair, washed white in the blood of the Lamb, encircled in the robe of the Lord's righteousness -- those not having a temple and having rejected revelation have "skins of blackness".  I think it's unwarranted to infer that this is a record of people in the Americas actually physically changing color.

6. Jacob's speech in 2 Nephi 6:2-4 starts out all temply, too.  He refers to the order of his priesthood, Nephi's kingship and all the things he's taught, "from the creation of the world", things which are to come, the great temple-prophet Isaiah, "learning" God's name (which can only be spoken in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement) and "glorifying" it ("glory" being a phenomenon of the Holy of Holies).  What is the context of this talk?  Much of the speech is reminiscent of Nephi's Day of Atonement vision and preaching in 1 Nephi 11-15 -- is this a Day of Atonement address?

7. We probably read 6:6-7 as verses being fulfilled in modern days, or yet to be fulfilled.  I wonder if Jacob read them to encourage his people with respect to their relationships with the (unnamed to us) populations around them?  Maybe the Nephi party received help from an indigenous population (remember "corn"?  doesn't exist in the wild, so someone taught the Nephites to cultivate it...), and Jacob taught them to read Isaiah as a prophecy of the help they received, and to welcome them into the church (vv. 12-13)?

8. Again, I am trying to read the Isaiah passages (2 Nephi 7-8) as Nephite self-image.  I think they fit very, very well.  Chapter 7: God has not set the Nephites aside, despite the persecutions they have suffered.  Chapter 8: take comfort from Abraham and God's covenants with you, God will comfort and rescue, etc.  I wonder if the Nephites had any thoughts about who the two sons were (8:19-20)?  Nephi and Jacob, maybe?

9. 2 Nephi 8 has lots of temple imagery, appropriately for a Day of Atonement address.  Covenants, cosmic structure, creation, putting on garments, arising from the dust.

1 Nephi 19-20

1. The book motif is back.

2. 19:13 interesting that the apostates in Jerusalem don't ask for signs -- they reject signs and wonders.  Reminds me of Isaiah 7, where Ahaz is told to ask for a sign, refuses, and is given one anyway (and remember that the DSS copy of Isaiah has "ask a sign of the mother of the Lord", in response to which "the" Virgin shall conceive, etc...

3. Trying to read the Isaiah passages strictly for how they might sound to Laman and Lemuel.  20:6 really resonates differently for me now -- about showing us "new" and "hidden things".  And of course the end of the chapter sounds themes of fleeing the wickedness of civilization, and the Exodus.

1 Nephi 16-18

1. "Father's tent" references here in chapter 16 bracket some marriages and God's commandment to move on.  Don't know if this is significant or not, it's not as obvious to me.

2. It's nice to see Paleo eating endorsed (17:2) (ha!).

3. I note vv. 17:12-14... when did the Lord say this?  Was it on the Liahona?  Is this a revelation Lehi received?  Hmmn.

4. Sam (or someone else) helps build the ship ("ye" in 17:19).

5. Laman and Lemuel (and Ishmael's sons?) are Deuteronomists (17:22).  Someone in Lehi's party has to be, for this strain to show up again in Sherem (as we'll discuss in December).  Nephi takes up the cudgels for the visionary men and the prophets (vv. 23-26), arguing that the law is not the important thing about Moses, his revelations were.  This is the position of the Enoch people, who thought that the Babylonian captivity was the result of the forsaking of "Wisdom" (revelation, etc.), and who were so underwhelmed by the Law of Moses that they couldn't even bring themselves to mention it in their entire corpus.  Righteousness is not obeying the Law, it is accepting Revelation (vv. 34-35).

6. Temple and temple vision imagery in vv. 39-47: the heavenly throne, covenants, the rod (1 Ne 8), the serpent (Genesis, Numbers 21 -- 2 Kgs 18:4), angel.

7. In 2:14, Lehi "confounded" and made Laman's and Lemuel's "frames" "shake" with the "power" of his exhortation.  Now in 17:52-55, Nephi does the same, with all the same words used to describe the action, so we see that Nephi has grown in stature, and is destined to assume Lehi's mantle.

8.  18:7 says that Lehi begat Jacob and Joseph, but doesn't specify that Sariah was the mother.  "Their mother" is mentioned but not named in verse 19.  Is there a verse elsewhere that clarifies that, or might Lehi have had other wives or concubines?