Alma 12:31-37
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 12
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Questions
Verse 31
- Gods. Why is “Gods” capitalized in this verse? Usually it is capitalized only when it is used as the name of Deity, not when it is used to refer to an office or position. In what ways are we like Gods? Why is that significant?
- Placing themselves vs. being placed. What is the difference? Is Alma correcting himself by using the second phrase?
Verses 31-32
- Wherefore. Both verses 31 and 32 begin in the same way, “wherefore” in one case and “therefore” in the other, but the two mean the same. That suggests that they logically follow from verse 30. How so? What things has the Lord done to make it possible for us to return to him?
Verse 33
- What does it mean to say that God called on men "in the name of his Son?"
Verse 36
- Provocation. What is the first provocation? What is the last provocation?
Verse 37
- Rest of God. What does “the rest of God” mean? How do we enter into it? How does chapter 13 relate to "the rest of God"?
- Ye vs. us. Why does Alma switches from second person plural in verse 36 to first person plural in verse 37.
Lexical notes
Verses 36-37
- "Rest of the Lord" and "rest of God." In these verses, the phrases "rest of the Lord" (v. 36) and "rest of God" (v. 37) seem to be used in parallel. They could also signify the following chiastic arrangement of thoughts:
A: if ye harden your hearts ye will not enter into the rest of the Lord (v. 36) B: your iniquity provoketh God (v. 36) C: let us repent (v. 37) B': that we provoke not the Lord our God (v. 37) A': let us enter into the rest of God (v. 37)
Exegesis
Verse 31
Alma here brings to bear on each other two sets of commandments: the "first commandments" and a second set of commandments imposed because the first set was "transgressed." This doubling of the commandments is of some significance, especially given the flavor of the following verse: God's words had at once to be transgressed and yet never violated, never brought to naught. This doubling of the word through which it is at once annulled and yet maintained deserves careful attention.
Also of interest is the peculiar phrasing in the beginning of this verse. The verse starts with a use of the term "commandments" without any indication as to whether these commandments given were what will later be referred to as the first commandments or the second commandments. If we consider the similar phrasing in the beginning of verse 32, it seems the commandments being referred to are the second commandments—that is, commandments given after the transgression of the first commandments.
Another issue in this verse that deserves careful attention is the way in which the transgression of the first commandments allows "men" to "act according to their wills and pleasures." How could the first commandments have been transgressed if men were not in a "state to act" before the first commandments were given? This question, which seems a rather natural, albeit implicit, question arising from this verse, may help us understand the why "the commandments" described at the beginning of both this verse and verse 32, is not more explicit. That is, perhaps Alma is trying to describe something that does not lend itself to analytic description. If the separation between the first commandments and later/second commandments is not meaningful until after the first commandments have been transgressed, then it would only make sense to refer to such a distinction in retrospect. In this sense, then, the transgression of the first commandments may be something very different from the kind of acting according to one's will that is later described. That is, we might take the transgression of the first commandments as being juxtaposed, even contrasted, to the acting according to one's will that seems to accompany the second commandments.
Verse 36: Provocation
The first provocation seems to refer to the time when the children of Israel hardened their hearts against the Lord after leaving Egypt. See Num 14:23, Ps 106:7, Heb 3:8, 15-19, and D&C 84:23-25.
Alternatively, the first provocation in this context may be referring to the cherubim that God sent to ensure Adam and Eve would experience physical death as a consequence of partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In this case, the second provocation would seem to refer to spiritual death. On this reading, the last part of the verse about "the last death, as well as the first" offers a parallel description of the same events described by the first and second provocation.
Verse 37: Second commandments
If the first commandments were to multiply and replenish the earth and not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then the second commandments are most likely referring to the commandment to repent described in verses 32-33.
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