1 Ne 11:26-30

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 11

Previous (1 Ne 11:21-25)

Next (1 Ne 11:31-36)

Contents 1 Questions 1.1 Verse 26 1.2 Verse 27 1.3 Verses 28-29 1.4 Verse 30 2 Lexical notes 2.1 Verses 26-27 2.2 Verse 27 2.3 Verse 28 2.4 Verse 29 2.5 Verse 30 3 Exegesis 4 Related links

Questions

Verse 26

• Why are the vision of Christ's birth (verses 17-23) and the vision of his life (verses 27-34) both preceded by the angel describing them to Nephi as "the condescension of God"? In other words, why does verse 26 repeat verse 16?

Verse 27

• Is there any particular reason that the name "Lamb of God" is used in this context?

Verses 28-29

• Notice that the chronological order of the elements of the vision doesn't correspond to the historical order. What does that tell us about visions? About historical order?
• Why might there be a break in the vision at this point, with a kind of end to the vision, followed by a new beginning in verse 30?

Verse 30

• When did the event of this verse occur?

Lexical notes

• Click the edit link above and to the right to add lexical notes

Verses 26-27

• "And" is used nine times in these two verses, as the organizing word:

     And the angel said . . . behold the condescension of God!
     And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world . . .
     and I also beheld the prophet . . .
     And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him;
     and after he was baptized, I beheld the heavens open,
         and the Holy Ghost come down out of heaven
         and abide upon him in the form of a dove.

Verse 27

• "Way" means "road" or "path."
• "Abide" means "dwell." Here it indicates that the Holy Ghost not only came on him, but stayed with him.

Verse 28

• "To minister" = "to attend to," "to wait on," "to serve."
• "In power and great glory" is probably a hendiadys.

Verse 29

• Here "face" stands for the whole person.

Verse 30

• This verse, like verses 26-27, is organized by the word "and":

1 And . . . the angel spake unto me again, saying:  Look!
2 And I looked,
3 and I beheld the heavens open again,
4 and I saw angels descending upon the children of men;
5 and they did minister unto them. 

Notice that lines 2, 3, and 4 are parallel to each other; each depends on a different, but synonymous verb for seeing. Each succeeding line of these three lines expands what the previous line tells us. The first line simply says "I looked." The second line expands that to say what Nephi saw when he looked. The third line expands that even further, giving us the details of what he saw: "I saw angels, etc."

Exegesis

Click the edit link above and to the right to add exegesis

Related links

• Click the edit link above and to the right to add related links

---

Previous (1 Ne 11:21-25)

Next (1 Ne 11:31-36)