Ether 3 All

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

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Ether 3:1-5

The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapter 3

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Questions

In addition to calling upon the Lord, what else must we do to "receive according to our desires"(Verse 2)?

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Lexical notes

It is hypothesized that the Brother of Jared got the idea of the stones from Noah. In Genesis 6:16 the lord tells Noah to make a window. In Hebrew the word is tsohar which means a dual or double light. Signifying one for each end, just as the brother of Jared needed for the barges.

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Exegesis

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Questions

In this section, the Brother of Jared goes to a sacred mountain, prays to the Lord, and enters the Lord's presense after the Lord parts the veil with his hand. What does this teach us about how to enter the presence of the Lord? Where can modern LDS worshppers obtain a similar experience?

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Verses 6-8

Why is the Brother of Jared's afraid after seeing the Lord's finger?
The Brother of Jared seems shocked to learn that the Lord had a body like ours. As a prophet, why didn't he know that before?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Verse 9

Relating the Brother of Jared's experience to Alma 32, we could say that he is experiencing the fruits of faith described in Alma 32:37. And when he sees the Lord, his faith could be described as becoming dormant (in the sense of Alma 32:34) regarding the existense of God.

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Questions

In verse 15 the Lord has shown himself unto the brother of Jared and he says that this is the first time he has shown himself because in the past "never has man believed in me as thou hast." What does this mean? Hadn't previous prophets seen the Lord?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Verse 13

"Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall." The wording here suggests that some knowledge on the brother of Jared's part is, at least in some sense, the cause (not a result) of the Lord manifesting himself to the brother of Jared (cf. "because of the knowledge of this man" in v. 19). The knowledge being referred to here seems to be given in verse 12 where the brother of Jared declares that he knows the Lords speaks (only) truth. It is this knowledge that seems to be what causes the brother of Jared to be redeemed from the fall. Logically, this seems to be an incomplete explanation, there is an assumption that seems to be missing or at least implicit, an assumption that the Lord has told or is telling the brother of Jared that he will be redeemed. This gap in the logic of the account is particularly striking in the context of another curiousity starting in verse 11, namely that the Lord promises to speak, but then shows himself before speaking. That this manifestation of the Lord occurs before the speaking that was promised in a way that effectively interrupts the logic of the Lord's promise to speak seems to double the Lord's speaking itself: the declaration of the brother of Jared's redeemed state is declared before a full explanation of that state is offered. This pattern may also be followed by Moroni himself: he interrupts the narrative in verse 17 before he has finished giving it.

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Questions

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Verse 18

"Body of my Spirit"? What does it mean to say that the Pre-Mortal Christ has a body? What is the "body of my Spirit" that the Lord shows the Brother of Jared?

How is the Lord's visit to the Brother of Jared similar to his visit to the Nephites? What is it about His manner of visiting that allows them to know that He is God?

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Verse 19

"Because of the knowledge." Verse 9 seems to indicate that Christ manifests himself unto the Brother of Jared because of his faith, whereas here in verse 19 the reason given is knowledge. How are we to understand the relationship between faith and knowledge in these verses? How does this view compare to Alma's use of the terms in Alma 32?

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Verse 20

"Having this perfect knowledge." Is this verse saying that the Brother of Jared have perfect knowledge before Christ showed himself? What does "perfect knowledge" mean here?

Knowledge vs. perfect knowledge. What is the difference between the "knowledge" mentioned in verse 19 and the "perfect knowledge" mentioned in verse 20? (One difference seems to be that "knowledge" in v. 19 is being used in a causal sense whereas "perfect knowledge" in v. 20 seems to be the result of the more preliminary type of knowledge in v. 19....)

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