1 Ne 13:16-20
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13
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Contents |
Questions
Verse 16
- Were the Europeans more humble than the indigenous peoples they encountered?
Verse 17
- Did Nephi use the image of mother Gentiles because he believed that ethnicity was transmitted from mother to child?
Verse 18
- Does this history apply only to the Indigenous Peoples of North and South America, or does it include what happened to Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders as well?
Verse 19
- Are the Gentiles in this vision primarily British or does the term also include the French and the Spanish?
Verse 20
- Was Nephi accustomed to equating plates, records, and books at this point (see 1 Ne 10:15)?
Lexical notes
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Exegesis
Verses 20-29: On the Bible
In verse 20 Nephi sees a book carried among the Gentiles. Verse 23 tells us that this book is a record of the Jews which contains "the covenants of the Lord ... made unto the house of Israel" and "many of the prophecies of the holy prophets."
It is curious that the angels speaking to Nephi talks about this book coming from "the mouth of a Jew" (vv 23, 24; emphasis added) in the singular.
Verse 24 tells us that at the point it proceeded from the mouth of a Jew "it contained the fulness of the gospel. Verse 25 tells us that it goes from the Jews "in purity unto the Gentiles." It isn't clear from the text whether this Bible (if it is proper to call it that at this point in history) still contained the fulness of the gospel. But it is clear that it didn't have anything false in it. This seems to be the point of the phrase "in purity" (v 25).
In any case, the blameworthy party for the missing parts of the Bible is identified in verse 26: the great and abominable church. The same point is then reiterated in verse 28. Verse 29 tells us that the things that were removed were "plain unto the understanding of the children of men, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God" and that because these things were removed "many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them." 2 Ne 25:4, 7 makes a distinction between Nephi's plainness--in which no man can err--and Isaiah's--not plain to his people but plain to those filled with the spirit of prophecy. Here "plain unto the understanding of the children of men" seems closer to the former.
One thing that is interesting about this passage is the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. We get a picture of the Jews protecting the plain and precious pure word of God over a long period of time, then turning it over to the Gentiles and in a relatively short period of time the great and abominable church is formed and precious parts of the scriptures are lost.
Related links
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