1. What kind of disguise is it, when he uses his own name? Maybe it was like Catholic priests in Tudor England -- he traveled around in disguise, but revealed his identity to the faithful. In any case, someone heard his preaching who didn't like it.
2. The furnace reference echoes interestingly in the OT: Sodom & Gomorrah, refining by affliction, and the Exodus. This last is especially interesting in that what follows sounds a lot like the plagues of Egypt.
3. I guess the trap that Noah's priest is laying for Abinadi in vv. 20-24 is that Abinadi's message seems contrary on first reading to Isaiah. Abinadi is not a messenger who brings good tidings. So Abinadi has to distinguish himself from what Isaiah was saying, and the priests will be able to accuse him to denying the truth of the prophets. Abinadi avoids the trap by not answering the question, and blasting the priests instead.
4. One of Abinadi's criticisms of the priests is that they haven't been "wise".
5. I am reminded that the LXX translation of zevach hashelamim ("the sacrifice of peace offerings") in Leviticus 7:11 is thusia soteriou, the "sacrifice of salvation".
Showing posts with label Language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Language. Show all posts
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Mosiah 11
1. In Lehi-Nephi, too, the King is the head of the church.
2. The description of Noah's building projects and his priests reminds me of the great and spacious building and its occupants in 1 Nephi 8. Remember that "fine" in the KJV OT is the adjective par excellence that describes things made for use in the temple -- see it occur here three times in succession in vv. 8-10.
3. Both the various references to building in wood (vv. 8-10 again) and the vineyards in this chapter make a Mesoamerican setting challenging to accept.
4. A "fifty" as a military unit recurs (remember that Laban commanded a fifty).
5. Abinadi arrives, and will occupy center stage for the next six chapters. Unlike Sherem, who "came among" the Nephites, Abinadi "was among" Noah's people. This sounds to me like he was a local boy upon whom the mantle of prophecy fell. The people try to arrest and try Abinadi once and he escapes. Noah hardens his heart against Abinadi, like Pharaoh did against Moses.
2. The description of Noah's building projects and his priests reminds me of the great and spacious building and its occupants in 1 Nephi 8. Remember that "fine" in the KJV OT is the adjective par excellence that describes things made for use in the temple -- see it occur here three times in succession in vv. 8-10.
3. Both the various references to building in wood (vv. 8-10 again) and the vineyards in this chapter make a Mesoamerican setting challenging to accept.
4. A "fifty" as a military unit recurs (remember that Laban commanded a fifty).
5. Abinadi arrives, and will occupy center stage for the next six chapters. Unlike Sherem, who "came among" the Nephites, Abinadi "was among" Noah's people. This sounds to me like he was a local boy upon whom the mantle of prophecy fell. The people try to arrest and try Abinadi once and he escapes. Noah hardens his heart against Abinadi, like Pharaoh did against Moses.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Mosiah 8
1. Post-script to Mosiah 7. Hem is also a name with a royalist echo to it. It's an Egyptian word that means "person", and means "Majesty" in the expression equivalent to "Your Majesty" (hm.k). So Ammon is described as a nobleman, and Hem and Amaleki have royalesque names. And Hem and Ammon both have Egyptian names -- Ammon is a very old name in Egypt, the name of a god, whose position developed into early virtual monotheism. Don't know about Helem.
2. If Limhi knew Benjamin's last words (presumably because Ammon reported them), then he may have deliberately modeled himself on Benjamin in summoning everyone to the temple.
3. Verse 12 is a sort of verbal pin that ties together a lot of what the Book of Mormon is about through the missions of several men. Limhi wants to read the record of the destroyed Jaredites, and needs a translator; Mormon is composing the record of the destroyed Nephites, knowing that there will be a future audience who will read it in translation; and Joseph Smith translated the verse of the dead Nephite historian talking about the record of the dead Jaredites. And why do we want knowledge of these dead people? To "know the cause of their destruction". Mormon must have seen the Jaredites as an analog of his people.
4. At this point, verses 19-20 come like a punch in the eye. "Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates", but men "will not seek wisdom, neither do they suffer that she should rule over them!"
2. If Limhi knew Benjamin's last words (presumably because Ammon reported them), then he may have deliberately modeled himself on Benjamin in summoning everyone to the temple.
3. Verse 12 is a sort of verbal pin that ties together a lot of what the Book of Mormon is about through the missions of several men. Limhi wants to read the record of the destroyed Jaredites, and needs a translator; Mormon is composing the record of the destroyed Nephites, knowing that there will be a future audience who will read it in translation; and Joseph Smith translated the verse of the dead Nephite historian talking about the record of the dead Jaredites. And why do we want knowledge of these dead people? To "know the cause of their destruction". Mormon must have seen the Jaredites as an analog of his people.
4. At this point, verses 19-20 come like a punch in the eye. "Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates", but men "will not seek wisdom, neither do they suffer that she should rule over them!"
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Mosiah 7
1. Interesting that after two generations the Nephites didn't know how to get back to Lehi-Nephi. These are record-keeping people; does their ignorance reflect the nature of their flight, hurried and arduous rather than the orderly exodus of 1 Nephi?
2. Of course, forty is a significant number. It's how long one always spends in the wilderness -- forty years for the Israelites, forty days for Jesus. It's also how long Jesus taught the disciples after the resurrection, and how long King David reigned, and idem Solomon, et cetera.
3. Amaleki is the first appearance of a triliteral root (M-L-K) name variants of which are going to recur throughout Nephite history, and frequently be associated with dissent. Amlici, Amalickiah, Amulek, Mulekites, Amalekites, Amalickiahites and even "king men" all have this root in common, this last because melekh in Hebrew (M-L-K) means "king". Interesting that Amaleki is in the expedition of Ammon, who was a descendant of Zarahemla. I wonder if he and Ammon were kin -- brothers or cousins.
4. The encounter with Limhi in vv. 7ff looks judicial. Verb of motion "surrounded", "taken and bound", brought before an authority, the stakes are capital punishment. It's not identified as a trial, but it's narrated like one.
5. Who built this temple? It's hard to miss the parallel between Benjamin summoning everyone to the temple in Zarahemla to invite his people to take upon them the name of Christ, and Limhi inviting his people to the temple in Lehi-Nephi to invite them to make a break for it. Freeing the slaves is one of Isaiah's metaphors for the atonement.
6. Limhi reports Abinadi's prophesy in temple language. As the Lord created Adam in his image (Genesis), he would take that image on himself. It's also reminiscent of Lehi's vision (going forth upon the face of the earth).
2. Of course, forty is a significant number. It's how long one always spends in the wilderness -- forty years for the Israelites, forty days for Jesus. It's also how long Jesus taught the disciples after the resurrection, and how long King David reigned, and idem Solomon, et cetera.
3. Amaleki is the first appearance of a triliteral root (M-L-K) name variants of which are going to recur throughout Nephite history, and frequently be associated with dissent. Amlici, Amalickiah, Amulek, Mulekites, Amalekites, Amalickiahites and even "king men" all have this root in common, this last because melekh in Hebrew (M-L-K) means "king". Interesting that Amaleki is in the expedition of Ammon, who was a descendant of Zarahemla. I wonder if he and Ammon were kin -- brothers or cousins.
4. The encounter with Limhi in vv. 7ff looks judicial. Verb of motion "surrounded", "taken and bound", brought before an authority, the stakes are capital punishment. It's not identified as a trial, but it's narrated like one.
5. Who built this temple? It's hard to miss the parallel between Benjamin summoning everyone to the temple in Zarahemla to invite his people to take upon them the name of Christ, and Limhi inviting his people to the temple in Lehi-Nephi to invite them to make a break for it. Freeing the slaves is one of Isaiah's metaphors for the atonement.
6. Limhi reports Abinadi's prophesy in temple language. As the Lord created Adam in his image (Genesis), he would take that image on himself. It's also reminiscent of Lehi's vision (going forth upon the face of the earth).
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Mosiah 4
1. In 4:1-2 everyone falls to the ground and asks for the atoning blood to be applied to them. This is clear Day of Atonement behavior.
2. 4:11-12 is more temple imagery. Glory is what fills the temple. Tasting "of" the "love" of God is eating the fruit of the tree, the peace offering. I like the promise that you can grow in your knowledge of the glory.
3. 4:13 and of course, you will leave "peaceably", "peaceable" being "shalem", also meaning completed, reminding us of Leviticus 7:11 and Matthew 5:48.
4. 4:21 reminds us of the Sermon on the Mount, the triple petition before entering into the strait gate.
2. 4:11-12 is more temple imagery. Glory is what fills the temple. Tasting "of" the "love" of God is eating the fruit of the tree, the peace offering. I like the promise that you can grow in your knowledge of the glory.
3. 4:13 and of course, you will leave "peaceably", "peaceable" being "shalem", also meaning completed, reminding us of Leviticus 7:11 and Matthew 5:48.
4. 4:21 reminds us of the Sermon on the Mount, the triple petition before entering into the strait gate.
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.)
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.)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Words of Mormon
1. Mormon transitions from Amaron's death farewell (O 30), which lacks the glorious and prophetic quality of Nephi's and Moroni's parallel farewells, nicely into the destruction of the Nephites in his own day. Then, since the small plates are full of teaching and prophesying about Christ, he notes that in the meantime, Christ has come, and he hopes his son Moroni will be able to write something about him.
2. This is a stark change out of the constant temple imagery of the small plates, other than the sly hint in v. 7 (a "wise purpose"). It's administrative, behind the scenes, explaining what Mormon has been up to.
3. WM 10 here again, it looks like Mosiah took with him the Nephite royal records (and in v. 13, we have the sword of Laban) (cf. 2 Nephi 5:12-14). So one guesses he was of the royal class or party of the Nephites before he fled, maybe a (more or less distant) cousin of the record-keeping branch of Nephi's descendants.
4. Interesting that plates get "delivered up" (vv. 1, 10) and "handed down" (v. 11).
5. WM 15 it seems that in Benjamin's day, whatsoever a man believed could indeed be a crime.
6. WM 16 the Lamanites might have been barbarians in tents, but there was still something attractive enough about them that they continued to attract Nephite defectors... "many dissensions". What was it? A different doctrinal preference? Maybe not everyone liked Benjamin's reforms and consolidation of power.
2. This is a stark change out of the constant temple imagery of the small plates, other than the sly hint in v. 7 (a "wise purpose"). It's administrative, behind the scenes, explaining what Mormon has been up to.
3. WM 10 here again, it looks like Mosiah took with him the Nephite royal records (and in v. 13, we have the sword of Laban) (cf. 2 Nephi 5:12-14). So one guesses he was of the royal class or party of the Nephites before he fled, maybe a (more or less distant) cousin of the record-keeping branch of Nephi's descendants.
4. Interesting that plates get "delivered up" (vv. 1, 10) and "handed down" (v. 11).
5. WM 15 it seems that in Benjamin's day, whatsoever a man believed could indeed be a crime.
6. WM 16 the Lamanites might have been barbarians in tents, but there was still something attractive enough about them that they continued to attract Nephite defectors... "many dissensions". What was it? A different doctrinal preference? Maybe not everyone liked Benjamin's reforms and consolidation of power.
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).
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Jacob 6-7
1. 6:3 "their own place" reminds me of the line from Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."
2. It seems like all this section (Jacob 4-6) is written and not spoken, and Jacob keeps addressing his "beloved brethren". Who is talking to? In light of 4:17, it feels to me like he's addressing "the Jews" in 6:4ff -- God is merciful to all of Israel, root and branch; God is patent (Jacob 5), so repent; will you reject the prophecies you had of Christ?
3. 6:11-13 is a quick dash of temple imagery. Strait gate; be wise; Day of the Lord.
4. 7:1 Sherem seems to have come from somewhere else. Is he from the Lamanite / Lemuelite group, bringing their Deuteronomist ideas to the erring Nephites? If so, his people might have seen him as a missionary (7:3) and a martyr.
5. 7:10-11 tie us back into the previous chapter, 6:8 -- if you read the scriptures and don't see Christ in them, you're missing the point. Maybe 4-7 is all together one unit, and that's the point. So maybe Jacob's "beloved brethren" include presumed or actual Lamanite / Lemuelite readers.
6. 7:12 ties together the two great visions of 1 Nephi: if there is no atonement (chapters 11-14), then all men are lost (chapter 8).
7. Remember that on the Day of Atonement, as the Name is pronounced, everyone falls down. In 7:21, at Sherem's confession, the power of God is made manifest, and it knocks everyone down.
8. 7:23 "peace" and "the love of God" are restored. Remember that the "love of God" is an image from 1 Nephi 11, and is associated with the tree and the plain and precious things.
"Peace," "shalom" in Hebrew, is an interesting word. Its three-letter root is SH-L-M, which gives us various words, expressing coming to an end, staying healthy, making amends, repaying or rewarding, and completing or becoming complete. When Matthew 5:48 urges us to be "perfect", it uses the Greek word "teleioi" for "perfect", a word that embodies many of the same meanings and can specifically refer to someone who is initiated, someone who has been through the mysteries, learned the secret doctrines and is a temple insider (in LDS parlance, "endowed"). "Peaceful" would be a Hebrew-English equivalent, and "peace" would be a word that means something equivalent to "mysteries" or "temple blessings". In this context, Isaiah 48:22 (there is no "peace" unto the wicked) is interesting, and, in fact, has already been quoted by Nephi (1 Nephi 20) in his temple-rich writings.
So, to recap: Sherem comes seeking to overthrow the "doctrine of Christ", which we've learned from Nephi includes various stages that lead one to speaking with the tongues of angels (2 Nephi 31:2, 13-14), which we know from Isaiah means being in the holy of holies (2 Nephi 16:2-4). Sherem works hard and has some success (7:3). After he's defeated and dies, "peace" and "the love of God" return. Yeah, Joseph Smith stuck his face into a hat and made that up. Ha!
9. With Sherem's mission having been foiled, Jacob immediately talks about the countermissions he sent back to the Lamanites (7:24).
2. It seems like all this section (Jacob 4-6) is written and not spoken, and Jacob keeps addressing his "beloved brethren". Who is talking to? In light of 4:17, it feels to me like he's addressing "the Jews" in 6:4ff -- God is merciful to all of Israel, root and branch; God is patent (Jacob 5), so repent; will you reject the prophecies you had of Christ?
3. 6:11-13 is a quick dash of temple imagery. Strait gate; be wise; Day of the Lord.
4. 7:1 Sherem seems to have come from somewhere else. Is he from the Lamanite / Lemuelite group, bringing their Deuteronomist ideas to the erring Nephites? If so, his people might have seen him as a missionary (7:3) and a martyr.
5. 7:10-11 tie us back into the previous chapter, 6:8 -- if you read the scriptures and don't see Christ in them, you're missing the point. Maybe 4-7 is all together one unit, and that's the point. So maybe Jacob's "beloved brethren" include presumed or actual Lamanite / Lemuelite readers.
6. 7:12 ties together the two great visions of 1 Nephi: if there is no atonement (chapters 11-14), then all men are lost (chapter 8).
7. Remember that on the Day of Atonement, as the Name is pronounced, everyone falls down. In 7:21, at Sherem's confession, the power of God is made manifest, and it knocks everyone down.
8. 7:23 "peace" and "the love of God" are restored. Remember that the "love of God" is an image from 1 Nephi 11, and is associated with the tree and the plain and precious things.
"Peace," "shalom" in Hebrew, is an interesting word. Its three-letter root is SH-L-M, which gives us various words, expressing coming to an end, staying healthy, making amends, repaying or rewarding, and completing or becoming complete. When Matthew 5:48 urges us to be "perfect", it uses the Greek word "teleioi" for "perfect", a word that embodies many of the same meanings and can specifically refer to someone who is initiated, someone who has been through the mysteries, learned the secret doctrines and is a temple insider (in LDS parlance, "endowed"). "Peaceful" would be a Hebrew-English equivalent, and "peace" would be a word that means something equivalent to "mysteries" or "temple blessings". In this context, Isaiah 48:22 (there is no "peace" unto the wicked) is interesting, and, in fact, has already been quoted by Nephi (1 Nephi 20) in his temple-rich writings.
So, to recap: Sherem comes seeking to overthrow the "doctrine of Christ", which we've learned from Nephi includes various stages that lead one to speaking with the tongues of angels (2 Nephi 31:2, 13-14), which we know from Isaiah means being in the holy of holies (2 Nephi 16:2-4). Sherem works hard and has some success (7:3). After he's defeated and dies, "peace" and "the love of God" return. Yeah, Joseph Smith stuck his face into a hat and made that up. Ha!
9. With Sherem's mission having been foiled, Jacob immediately talks about the countermissions he sent back to the Lamanites (7:24).
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Jacob 4-5
1. If "minister" and "ministry" reflect an underlying "'avad" and "'avodah", referring to Temple service, then 4:1 gains a really interesting nuance -- Jacob had performed priestly temple service "in word".
2. Lots of temple hints through chapter 4: the power of the name (v. 6), "mysteries" (v. 8), creation of the earth and man (v. 9), taking counsel ("sod"?) and "wisdom" (v. 10), "glory" (throughout), "atonement" (v. 12), the stone that is the foundation (the eben shetiyyah, like in Matthew 7 / 3 Nephi 14, vv. 15-16). Jacob is writing on the small plates, and riffing on the small plates' themes.
3. Jacob then copies out of Zenos. That an Israelite prophet would prophesy using plant imagery is strictly traditional (Isaiah 5:1-7, 6:13, 11:1, 60:21, 61:1-3; Jeremiah 1:10, 2:21, Psalms 80:9-19, 1 Enoch 10:3, 10:16-21, 84:6, 93:2, 5, 8 and 10, 4 Ezra 5:23, 2 Baruch 36-37, and various NT passages). I especially like Isaiah 61:3, whose those who mourn are given oil and garments and become "trees of righteousness", but many of these passages have temple connections. I am reminded also of the plants in the first chapters of genesis. I wonder what physical analog in the temple might underly all the plant talk? There's the candle, of course, which is a tree (Exodus 25:31-37). What else?
4. Remember that the purpose of the parable is to show how the Jews, having rejected Christ, can still build on him (4:17). So this parable is all about mercy and second chances and the Lord's patience.
2. Lots of temple hints through chapter 4: the power of the name (v. 6), "mysteries" (v. 8), creation of the earth and man (v. 9), taking counsel ("sod"?) and "wisdom" (v. 10), "glory" (throughout), "atonement" (v. 12), the stone that is the foundation (the eben shetiyyah, like in Matthew 7 / 3 Nephi 14, vv. 15-16). Jacob is writing on the small plates, and riffing on the small plates' themes.
3. Jacob then copies out of Zenos. That an Israelite prophet would prophesy using plant imagery is strictly traditional (Isaiah 5:1-7, 6:13, 11:1, 60:21, 61:1-3; Jeremiah 1:10, 2:21, Psalms 80:9-19, 1 Enoch 10:3, 10:16-21, 84:6, 93:2, 5, 8 and 10, 4 Ezra 5:23, 2 Baruch 36-37, and various NT passages). I especially like Isaiah 61:3, whose those who mourn are given oil and garments and become "trees of righteousness", but many of these passages have temple connections. I am reminded also of the plants in the first chapters of genesis. I wonder what physical analog in the temple might underly all the plant talk? There's the candle, of course, which is a tree (Exodus 25:31-37). What else?
4. Remember that the purpose of the parable is to show how the Jews, having rejected Christ, can still build on him (4:17). So this parable is all about mercy and second chances and the Lord's patience.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Jacob 1-3
1. Jacob definitely wants to establish a continuity with Nephi's work. He's going to write the "precious" things (1:2, reminds us of 1 Nephi 11); we have talk of plates and seed (1:3); he'll only write sacred things, great revelations and prophesying, which Nephi did -- when Nephi wrote such things, they all had temple connections or themes, and, sure enough, Jacob immediately gives us a temple discourse (1:17 and 2:1); like Nephi, Jacob sees his people in terms of the Exodus (1:7); not rebelling and bearing the shame of the world (1:8) remind us of Lehi's vision.
2. 1:11 and 1:13 on the Nephite kingship and the division of the people into tribes effectively remind me how small a slice of Nephite history we have -- especially in the small plates.
3. In 2:8, 11 we see that, at least in Jacob's day, the Nephites continued the Israelite linguistic usage of describing all movement towards the temple as "going up". (Remember we see this something like 17 times in 1 Nephi, always accurately.)
4. 2:18-19 the kingdom of God = hope in Christ. This is interesting; I think that "hope" is the most misunderstood and most neglected of the three great spiritual gifts (faith, hope, charity).
5. 2:23-30 Jacob delivers the prohibition against polygamy like it's an original commandment in the name of the Lord. Interestingly, he then indicates that Lehi has already given his sons this commandment (2:34 and 3:5). What happened out there in the family's desert sojourn? Does this have anything to do with the disappearance of Sariah from the record before Lehi's youngest sons were born?
6. 2:32 "fair" daughters in Egyptian would be daughters who are nfrt, from the same root as Nephi and Nephites.
7. 3:2 Feasting on the "love of God" ties us back into 1 Nephi 11:21-22 -- the love of God is the tree who is the virgin who is Jerusalem.
2. 1:11 and 1:13 on the Nephite kingship and the division of the people into tribes effectively remind me how small a slice of Nephite history we have -- especially in the small plates.
3. In 2:8, 11 we see that, at least in Jacob's day, the Nephites continued the Israelite linguistic usage of describing all movement towards the temple as "going up". (Remember we see this something like 17 times in 1 Nephi, always accurately.)
4. 2:18-19 the kingdom of God = hope in Christ. This is interesting; I think that "hope" is the most misunderstood and most neglected of the three great spiritual gifts (faith, hope, charity).
5. 2:23-30 Jacob delivers the prohibition against polygamy like it's an original commandment in the name of the Lord. Interestingly, he then indicates that Lehi has already given his sons this commandment (2:34 and 3:5). What happened out there in the family's desert sojourn? Does this have anything to do with the disappearance of Sariah from the record before Lehi's youngest sons were born?
6. 2:32 "fair" daughters in Egyptian would be daughters who are nfrt, from the same root as Nephi and Nephites.
7. 3:2 Feasting on the "love of God" ties us back into 1 Nephi 11:21-22 -- the love of God is the tree who is the virgin who is Jerusalem.
Monday, November 28, 2011
2 Nephi 29-33
1. Chapters 29 and 30 both start on "seed".
2. 29:12 "I shall speak unto all nations [goyim?] of the earth, and they shall write it". 29:14 does "fight against my word" here mean "Word" as in John 1?
3. 30:6 after "scales of darkness" "fall" from the the eyes of the Lamanites, they become "pure and delightsome". Again, I don't think that when Nephi talks about his relatives having "skins of blackness", he means that they turned from Semites to Amerindians. We're talking about something that is more figurative here, unless we believe that the Lamanites were both black and lizards.
4. 31:3 God gives light to the understanding -- that's the mind, not feelings. It's funny to see Nephi say he delights in plainness after all the visionary, almost encrypted stuff he's written, but of course he had to. Let he who has ears hear, the evangelists would say. So now, at the end of his writings, Nephi gets to the heart of the matter as directly as he can, without connecting it to or explaining the visions that have gone before.
5. 31:13-14 the tongue of angels shouting praises to the Holy One of Israel is temple imagery -- it's the Levites, singing in the temple. (In apocalyptic visions, angels = priests). So even Nephi, in his plain doctrine of Christ, talks (subtly) about entry into the temple. Then when he repeats the repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost sequence in verse 17, he doesn't talk about the tongue of angels anymore, but instead talks about the strait and narrow path... for which, see below -- we are again in temple imagery. And once you're in the strait and narrow path, you just press forward to get eternal life (= life with God = entry into the Holy of Holies).
6. 32:7 Don't make Nephi mourn -- search knowledge! Understand great knowledge! How? vv.8-9, prayerfully!
7. 33:1 It's absolutely hilarious that Nephi says he isn't powerful in writing. Either he's super-modest, or he has a little bit of mischief in his heart and a wink in his eye when he scratches this out on the plates. Ha!
8. Temple and Day of Atonement images in 33:9.
2. 29:12 "I shall speak unto all nations [goyim?] of the earth, and they shall write it". 29:14 does "fight against my word" here mean "Word" as in John 1?
3. 30:6 after "scales of darkness" "fall" from the the eyes of the Lamanites, they become "pure and delightsome". Again, I don't think that when Nephi talks about his relatives having "skins of blackness", he means that they turned from Semites to Amerindians. We're talking about something that is more figurative here, unless we believe that the Lamanites were both black and lizards.
4. 31:3 God gives light to the understanding -- that's the mind, not feelings. It's funny to see Nephi say he delights in plainness after all the visionary, almost encrypted stuff he's written, but of course he had to. Let he who has ears hear, the evangelists would say. So now, at the end of his writings, Nephi gets to the heart of the matter as directly as he can, without connecting it to or explaining the visions that have gone before.
5. 31:13-14 the tongue of angels shouting praises to the Holy One of Israel is temple imagery -- it's the Levites, singing in the temple. (In apocalyptic visions, angels = priests). So even Nephi, in his plain doctrine of Christ, talks (subtly) about entry into the temple. Then when he repeats the repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost sequence in verse 17, he doesn't talk about the tongue of angels anymore, but instead talks about the strait and narrow path... for which, see below -- we are again in temple imagery. And once you're in the strait and narrow path, you just press forward to get eternal life (= life with God = entry into the Holy of Holies).
6. 32:7 Don't make Nephi mourn -- search knowledge! Understand great knowledge! How? vv.8-9, prayerfully!
7. 33:1 It's absolutely hilarious that Nephi says he isn't powerful in writing. Either he's super-modest, or he has a little bit of mischief in his heart and a wink in his eye when he scratches this out on the plates. Ha!
8. Temple and Day of Atonement images in 33:9.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
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. 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.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
2 Nephi 17-18
So, re-reading these chapters was shocking to me. If what I write about them shocks you, it means you're paying attention.
1. 2 Nephi 17. Ahaz's situation is like that of the Judahites at the end of the monarchy (Zedekiah, etc.), trapped between foreign powers. Ahaz is told to ask a sign of the Lord (DSS Isaiah: a sign of the Lord's mother, remember?). The sign is the Virgin ("the" Virgin, in Hebrew and Greek, not "a" virgin) who shall bear a child, like 1 Nephi 11. Desolation will come on Ahaz and his people.
2. Incidentally, "virgin" in Hebrew is "'almah". This is interesting, because it occurs to me that THREE of the Book of Mormon names might be references to the Virgin. 1) Alma. 2) Nephi, because nfr in Egyptian is fair, nfr was pronounced "something like nafi" by Lehi's time, and the Virgin in 1 Nephi 11:13 is described as "fair". 3) Best of all, Laban is a Hebrew word meaning "white". So actually, "Laban" and "Nephi" are the same name, in Hebrew and Egyptian, "the white one". This is not really surprising, since they're family, and it makes me wonder if Nephi's family had a particular devotion to the Virgin.
(And of course, the entire people of the "Nephites" have a name that calls out devotion to or memory of the Virgin.)
3. 2 Nephi 18. Let me parse this carefully.
A) Note the classic sexual symbols in 18:1. The "man's pen" should be obvious, but a "great roll" is a spiral, a classic symbol of the female generative matrix. This chapter is going to be earthy.
B) This chapter follows right on the prophecy of "the Virgin" bearing a son and is about "the prophetess" bearing a son. I do not think this is an accident. I think this is the second half of the same story.
C) I do not think "the prophetess" was Mrs. Isaiah. The OT refers to various prophetesses (Miriam in Exodus 15:20, Deborah in Judges 4:4, Huldah in 2 Kings 22:14 (and Chronicles), etc.), and none of them is Mrs. Prophet -- they are prophetesses in their own rights. The woman in Isaiah 8 is definitely THE prophetess, in both Greek and Hebrew, in the same way Isaiah 7 talks about THE virgin. It's difficult, reading them back to back, to think they aren't connected. Since 17:14 says "the Virgin shall conceive" and 18:3 says "I went into the Prophetess and she conceived", it's very difficult for me think they aren't, in fact, the same person. Or rather, it seems to me that the Prophetess must have been a figure in Jerusalem something like the High Priest, and just as the High Priest was / represented Yahweh on the Day of Atonement, the Prophetess was / represented the Virgin on certain occasions.
D) The occasion in particular is not an ordinary conjugal encounter. In addition to the fact that it's the object of prophesy and tied to the giving of signs to a king making crucial foreign policy decisions (you think YOU feel pressure, lads? ha!), there are WITNESSES (18:2). This is a formal act, and I think a ritual one. It looks like a hieros gamos, straight out of Anthropology 101 (hieros gamos is fancy Greek for "sacred marriage"), in other words, human priests and priestesses acting out a heavenly marriage (complete, yes, with child-conceiving acts) on behalf of or standing in for the gods. (The Da Vinci Code had an amusing, but not totally false, hieros gamos as one of its plot components.)
E) What would be the point of such a hieros gamos in Jerusalem? I believe that ancient Israel knew a trinity of father-mother-son, which shows pretty clearly in 1 Nephi 11. I think the point of a hieros gamos for ancient Israel would be the sign and miracle of the Virgin, in the person of her servant the Prophetess, conceiving and bearing a child. Who is this child? Nephi tells us, in 1 Nephi 11... the baby, the fruit of the tree, is the Lord Yahweh, the son in the ancient Israelite trinity.
F) Isaiah and the prophetess conceive a son who isn't actually the Lord, but is given a prophetic name to indicate that, despite Yahweh's still-delayed appearance, he's coming soon, with judgment, on the Day of the Lord (reminds me of 2 Nephi 6:13, which defines Yahweh's people as those who wait for him).
G) The prophet, prophetess and the child are "signs and wonders" (18:18). Remember 1 Nephi 19:13, that caught my eye the other day. Maybe what the Judahite leaders in Jerusalem rejected specifically was this "sign and wonder", the Virgin and her child, the Lord.
(H) And of course, the Second Temple Israelites who would become the first Christians remembered the prophecy of the Virgin and her son, and applied it (correctly, per Nephi) to Mary and Jesus. Only later Christians, having lost the plot, concluded that Mary magically and physically remained a virgin her entire life, despite having various children.)
Wow.
I'm thankful for a lot of things today. Let me mention four, quickly: my wife, Emily; my family; my country; and the Book of Mormon, which cuts right through the snarl of the re-writing and deception and age that tangles up the Bible and shines a spotlight on the ancient history of Israel.
Happy Thanksgiving, all.
1. 2 Nephi 17. Ahaz's situation is like that of the Judahites at the end of the monarchy (Zedekiah, etc.), trapped between foreign powers. Ahaz is told to ask a sign of the Lord (DSS Isaiah: a sign of the Lord's mother, remember?). The sign is the Virgin ("the" Virgin, in Hebrew and Greek, not "a" virgin) who shall bear a child, like 1 Nephi 11. Desolation will come on Ahaz and his people.
2. Incidentally, "virgin" in Hebrew is "'almah". This is interesting, because it occurs to me that THREE of the Book of Mormon names might be references to the Virgin. 1) Alma. 2) Nephi, because nfr in Egyptian is fair, nfr was pronounced "something like nafi" by Lehi's time, and the Virgin in 1 Nephi 11:13 is described as "fair". 3) Best of all, Laban is a Hebrew word meaning "white". So actually, "Laban" and "Nephi" are the same name, in Hebrew and Egyptian, "the white one". This is not really surprising, since they're family, and it makes me wonder if Nephi's family had a particular devotion to the Virgin.
(And of course, the entire people of the "Nephites" have a name that calls out devotion to or memory of the Virgin.)
3. 2 Nephi 18. Let me parse this carefully.
A) Note the classic sexual symbols in 18:1. The "man's pen" should be obvious, but a "great roll" is a spiral, a classic symbol of the female generative matrix. This chapter is going to be earthy.
B) This chapter follows right on the prophecy of "the Virgin" bearing a son and is about "the prophetess" bearing a son. I do not think this is an accident. I think this is the second half of the same story.
C) I do not think "the prophetess" was Mrs. Isaiah. The OT refers to various prophetesses (Miriam in Exodus 15:20, Deborah in Judges 4:4, Huldah in 2 Kings 22:14 (and Chronicles), etc.), and none of them is Mrs. Prophet -- they are prophetesses in their own rights. The woman in Isaiah 8 is definitely THE prophetess, in both Greek and Hebrew, in the same way Isaiah 7 talks about THE virgin. It's difficult, reading them back to back, to think they aren't connected. Since 17:14 says "the Virgin shall conceive" and 18:3 says "I went into the Prophetess and she conceived", it's very difficult for me think they aren't, in fact, the same person. Or rather, it seems to me that the Prophetess must have been a figure in Jerusalem something like the High Priest, and just as the High Priest was / represented Yahweh on the Day of Atonement, the Prophetess was / represented the Virgin on certain occasions.
D) The occasion in particular is not an ordinary conjugal encounter. In addition to the fact that it's the object of prophesy and tied to the giving of signs to a king making crucial foreign policy decisions (you think YOU feel pressure, lads? ha!), there are WITNESSES (18:2). This is a formal act, and I think a ritual one. It looks like a hieros gamos, straight out of Anthropology 101 (hieros gamos is fancy Greek for "sacred marriage"), in other words, human priests and priestesses acting out a heavenly marriage (complete, yes, with child-conceiving acts) on behalf of or standing in for the gods. (The Da Vinci Code had an amusing, but not totally false, hieros gamos as one of its plot components.)
E) What would be the point of such a hieros gamos in Jerusalem? I believe that ancient Israel knew a trinity of father-mother-son, which shows pretty clearly in 1 Nephi 11. I think the point of a hieros gamos for ancient Israel would be the sign and miracle of the Virgin, in the person of her servant the Prophetess, conceiving and bearing a child. Who is this child? Nephi tells us, in 1 Nephi 11... the baby, the fruit of the tree, is the Lord Yahweh, the son in the ancient Israelite trinity.
F) Isaiah and the prophetess conceive a son who isn't actually the Lord, but is given a prophetic name to indicate that, despite Yahweh's still-delayed appearance, he's coming soon, with judgment, on the Day of the Lord (reminds me of 2 Nephi 6:13, which defines Yahweh's people as those who wait for him).
G) The prophet, prophetess and the child are "signs and wonders" (18:18). Remember 1 Nephi 19:13, that caught my eye the other day. Maybe what the Judahite leaders in Jerusalem rejected specifically was this "sign and wonder", the Virgin and her child, the Lord.
(H) And of course, the Second Temple Israelites who would become the first Christians remembered the prophecy of the Virgin and her son, and applied it (correctly, per Nephi) to Mary and Jesus. Only later Christians, having lost the plot, concluded that Mary magically and physically remained a virgin her entire life, despite having various children.)
Wow.
I'm thankful for a lot of things today. Let me mention four, quickly: my wife, Emily; my family; my country; and the Book of Mormon, which cuts right through the snarl of the re-writing and deception and age that tangles up the Bible and shines a spotlight on the ancient history of Israel.
Happy Thanksgiving, all.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
2 Nephi 9-10
1. Same speech continues, and we are still on temple themes. The exit of the high priest from the temple before Israel, on the Day of Atonement, fully garbed in ritual clothing, is/represents the bodily appearance of the Lord (vv.4-5), as the death of the YHWH goat is the Lord's death (v. 5). I think this speech would be most effective if Joseph gave it as the officiating high priest, exiting the temple on the Day of Atonement -- that would make phrases like being "cut off from the presence of the Lord" (v.6) very vivid. The atonement, v.7. The fallen angel = Azazel = the scapegoat, v.8-9.
2. Remember that the Day of Atonement is 10 days after the New Year, and that those ten days are a probationary period during which people scramble to try to repent, because their names will be written either in the Book of Life or in the Book of Death at the end of the ten days -- compare that to vv. 11-15, about spirits coming forth to resurrection and final judgment. this whole two ways (two books) theme dominates the middle section of the chapter, goes away, and then comes back at the end. very Day of Atonement-y.
3. Strait gate, knocking and entering, garments clean of blood, shaking off chains, the waters = all temple images we've seen before. And this chapter ends on "remember how great the covenants of the Lord, and how great his condescensions", reminding me of 1 Nephi 11:16ff, where the "condescension of God" is explained visually as the tree who is the Virgin, and the child who is the Son of God, the Son of God going forth being of course a Day of Atonement vision, per below.
4. 10:3 is a bit mysterious... did the angel tell Jacob the syllable "Christ", or did he tell him that the Lord in flesh would be known as the Messiah? dunno.
5. 10:3ff again. remember that Jacob grew up in the wilderness raised by a father who had been persecuted and driven from his homeland by the Jews (Judahites) who ruled Jerusalem. I think this is who Jacob is thinking about, and the context in which he knows them, and we don't need to imagine that the Book of Mormon teaches that the Jews are or were actually the most wicked people in the world.
6. 10:10-14... this is the sort of stuff that makes me scratch my head about the "Limited Geography" which situates all the BoM action in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. I mean, maybe, but this doesn't really seem to describe Guatemala to me. so I hold out a secret suspicion that the Nephites might have been in the Ohio Valley somewhere... Cahokia, etc. again, I wonder how much this imagery might have resonated with the experience the Nephites were having at the time with the indigenous people they encountered.
2. Remember that the Day of Atonement is 10 days after the New Year, and that those ten days are a probationary period during which people scramble to try to repent, because their names will be written either in the Book of Life or in the Book of Death at the end of the ten days -- compare that to vv. 11-15, about spirits coming forth to resurrection and final judgment. this whole two ways (two books) theme dominates the middle section of the chapter, goes away, and then comes back at the end. very Day of Atonement-y.
3. Strait gate, knocking and entering, garments clean of blood, shaking off chains, the waters = all temple images we've seen before. And this chapter ends on "remember how great the covenants of the Lord, and how great his condescensions", reminding me of 1 Nephi 11:16ff, where the "condescension of God" is explained visually as the tree who is the Virgin, and the child who is the Son of God, the Son of God going forth being of course a Day of Atonement vision, per below.
4. 10:3 is a bit mysterious... did the angel tell Jacob the syllable "Christ", or did he tell him that the Lord in flesh would be known as the Messiah? dunno.
5. 10:3ff again. remember that Jacob grew up in the wilderness raised by a father who had been persecuted and driven from his homeland by the Jews (Judahites) who ruled Jerusalem. I think this is who Jacob is thinking about, and the context in which he knows them, and we don't need to imagine that the Book of Mormon teaches that the Jews are or were actually the most wicked people in the world.
6. 10:10-14... this is the sort of stuff that makes me scratch my head about the "Limited Geography" which situates all the BoM action in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. I mean, maybe, but this doesn't really seem to describe Guatemala to me. so I hold out a secret suspicion that the Nephites might have been in the Ohio Valley somewhere... Cahokia, etc. again, I wonder how much this imagery might have resonated with the experience the Nephites were having at the time with the indigenous people they encountered.
Monday, November 21, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
1 Nephi 21-22
1. I've always sort of read the Isaiah passages by thinking "okay, here's Isaiah," and trying to think back to 8th century Jerusalem -- this time, I want to focus on what Nephi is seeing in the texts he copies. It's really easy to see Nephi's selt-image in chapter 21. So much so, I wonder who he thinks of as the prisoners, and those in darkness (v. 9). His righteous family? Laman and Lemuel and theirs? The people "who are in the east" in verse 13 might be all of the above. The verses about children (19-26) are really poignant.
2. The whole arc 19:22 to 22:1 is another recurrence of the book motif in 1 Nephi.
3. The word "nations" (22:3) appears a lot in the KJV OT. It almost always translates "goyim", meaning "gentiles". Makes me wonder about the wonder about the words underlying the "mighty nation among the Gentiles" in verse 7. "goy mehagoyim", maybe? "A mighty and most gentilic nation"? I dunno, but interesting.
4. (The word "wonders" stuck in my head after yesterday's reading. I looked it up this morning -- it occurs a fair amount in the OT, but the earliest appearances, and many of the later ones, refer specifically to the plagues in Egypt. See, e.g., Exodus 3:20, 4:21, 7:3, 11:9, 11:10. This makes 19:13 a terrifically compact verse implicitly comparing the leaders of Lehi's Jerusalem both to the doubting Ahaz who needed a sign from the Virgin and also to the Pharaoh of Egypt from whom Israel fled. Wow, subtle and spot on.)
5. I wonder what "saith the prophet" means in 22:15? I don't think this quote exists in the scriptures as we have them -- maybe Nephi's paraphrasing Isaiah, or quoting Zenos or someone. Idem for verse 17.
6. It's really interesting to me that Nephi (22:20-21) interprets Moses' prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15 differently from Jesus (according to John 1:21). Nephi applies it to Jesus, but Jesus denies that it applies to him. This bothered someone so much that though they footnoted Deuteronomy in 1 Nephi, they left out John, and in John, they waived footnotes entirely. It doesn't bother me, though. A) I've never been an inerrantist, that's a fool's doctrine and one Joseph Smith never taught. B) One thing we learn from Nephi is that different prophets apply the same scriptural passages different ways.
7. I don't read verses like 22:23 triumphally. I think those are a warning to us.
8. End on the book motif.
2. The whole arc 19:22 to 22:1 is another recurrence of the book motif in 1 Nephi.
3. The word "nations" (22:3) appears a lot in the KJV OT. It almost always translates "goyim", meaning "gentiles". Makes me wonder about the wonder about the words underlying the "mighty nation among the Gentiles" in verse 7. "goy mehagoyim", maybe? "A mighty and most gentilic nation"? I dunno, but interesting.
4. (The word "wonders" stuck in my head after yesterday's reading. I looked it up this morning -- it occurs a fair amount in the OT, but the earliest appearances, and many of the later ones, refer specifically to the plagues in Egypt. See, e.g., Exodus 3:20, 4:21, 7:3, 11:9, 11:10. This makes 19:13 a terrifically compact verse implicitly comparing the leaders of Lehi's Jerusalem both to the doubting Ahaz who needed a sign from the Virgin and also to the Pharaoh of Egypt from whom Israel fled. Wow, subtle and spot on.)
5. I wonder what "saith the prophet" means in 22:15? I don't think this quote exists in the scriptures as we have them -- maybe Nephi's paraphrasing Isaiah, or quoting Zenos or someone. Idem for verse 17.
6. It's really interesting to me that Nephi (22:20-21) interprets Moses' prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15 differently from Jesus (according to John 1:21). Nephi applies it to Jesus, but Jesus denies that it applies to him. This bothered someone so much that though they footnoted Deuteronomy in 1 Nephi, they left out John, and in John, they waived footnotes entirely. It doesn't bother me, though. A) I've never been an inerrantist, that's a fool's doctrine and one Joseph Smith never taught. B) One thing we learn from Nephi is that different prophets apply the same scriptural passages different ways.
7. I don't read verses like 22:23 triumphally. I think those are a warning to us.
8. End on the book motif.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
1 Nephi 9-12
1. 1 Nephi 9 reminds me that 1 Nephi is also a book about books. 1:1-2 introduces the record, Lehi's first vision centers around a book, Nephi and the lads go back for a book, Lehi has a vision one of the centers of which is the iron rod, the word of God (remember that this is an Egyptian pun for writing and a reference to the brass plates), now Nephi tees up his dual set of records.
2. 1 Nephi 9 twice uses an interesting word, "ministry". This word appears a lot in the KJV NT, where it stands in for "diakonia", which, you remember, is one Greek translation of the Hebrew "'avodah", and of the 4 OT appearances, one of them is "'avodah" (Num 4:47). Remember that "'avodah" is "service" and is the work of the priests in the Temple. coming between two temple visions, this is an interesting piece of vocabulary (Nephi says his book is about the "ministry of his people", twice). Also, verses 3-5 here, at least, are a chiasm. I wonder if this bit is a deliberate chiastic connection between Lehi's temple vision and Nephi's? Oh, look how 9:1 starts on tent goes to things which can't be written, and then 10:15-16 goes things not written to tent... who wants to try to diagram out 9:1 to 10:16?
3. 10:13 is interesting, I don't think I've noticed this before. Does this mean Lehi is teaching that all of scattered Israel will come to a single promised land, along with his party? Or what does "with one accord" mean?
4. 11:1 -- interesting that he's caught away "into" a mountain... Cf. Matt. 5:1.
5. The temple imagery in this vision is just rife. For those of you who missed it two years ago, I'm sorry, I won't recap, but see, for instance, verse 7: the image here is the eating of the shewbread before the menorah and the descent of the ritually-clothed high priest through the veil of the temple, down from the Holy of Holies. In verse 30, the veil opens again, and priests (angels) come out to minister. Those who say that 2 Nephi is a spiritual barrier preventing the unprepared from getting to the spiritual meat of the BoM are talking nonsense. The meat is right up front. Joseph Smith didn't mess around.
2. 1 Nephi 9 twice uses an interesting word, "ministry". This word appears a lot in the KJV NT, where it stands in for "diakonia", which, you remember, is one Greek translation of the Hebrew "'avodah", and of the 4 OT appearances, one of them is "'avodah" (Num 4:47). Remember that "'avodah" is "service" and is the work of the priests in the Temple. coming between two temple visions, this is an interesting piece of vocabulary (Nephi says his book is about the "ministry of his people", twice). Also, verses 3-5 here, at least, are a chiasm. I wonder if this bit is a deliberate chiastic connection between Lehi's temple vision and Nephi's? Oh, look how 9:1 starts on tent goes to things which can't be written, and then 10:15-16 goes things not written to tent... who wants to try to diagram out 9:1 to 10:16?
3. 10:13 is interesting, I don't think I've noticed this before. Does this mean Lehi is teaching that all of scattered Israel will come to a single promised land, along with his party? Or what does "with one accord" mean?
4. 11:1 -- interesting that he's caught away "into" a mountain... Cf. Matt. 5:1.
5. The temple imagery in this vision is just rife. For those of you who missed it two years ago, I'm sorry, I won't recap, but see, for instance, verse 7: the image here is the eating of the shewbread before the menorah and the descent of the ritually-clothed high priest through the veil of the temple, down from the Holy of Holies. In verse 30, the veil opens again, and priests (angels) come out to minister. Those who say that 2 Nephi is a spiritual barrier preventing the unprepared from getting to the spiritual meat of the BoM are talking nonsense. The meat is right up front. Joseph Smith didn't mess around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)