Jacob 1 All

The Book of Mormon > Jacob > Chapter 1

Questions

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• What does anxiety mean in the context of v. 5?

• Is a similar anxiety found in other scriptural accounts where revelation is received?

• In v.4, Jacob says that he has been instructed to record the dominant and important parts (heads) of any sacred revelation, preaching, prophecy, etc...He states at the end of the verse that he should do this for the sake of his people (Nephites, I assume) and for Christ's sake. Why does he say that this should be done for Christ's sake, when the Nephites would be the principle beneficiaries of the recorded prophecies?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > Jacob > Chapter 1

Questions

Verse 8

• Jacob says that he and his people would to God that all would view Christ's death, suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world. How do we do this?

Verse 9

• Why doesn't Jacob give us the name of the man who is anointed king? Why don't we know the name of any of the kings until the time of the first Mosiah?

Verse 10

• Who has Nephi had to fight off by wielding the sword of Laban?
• As far as we can tell, metal weapons were very rare in the Americas during the early Book of Mormon period. How might the sword of Laban, and perhaps other swords fashioned after it, have changed the power dynamics in an area where obsidian and bone weapons may have been prevalent?
• What is the significance of the sword of Laban in Nephite history?
• Could this sword of Laban have been "double-edged," both protecting the early Nephites, while legitimizing military conflict in a society that would ultimately both live and die by the sword?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 7

The text "that they might enter into his rest, lest be any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness" is an allusion to Ps 95:8-11:

Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

The meaning suggested by this use of the Old Testament seems to reflect the way that Jacob views the current condition of the Nephites. Shortly after arriving in the New World, the Nephites were forced into the wilderness (2_Ne_5:1-5). This use of the notion of the "rest" of God is also found in Deut 25:19:

Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

The implication of this and the following narrative suggests that Jacob in his sermon which he is about to deliver is telling the people that they will not be able to return to the land of their inheritance under the present course of their behavior. And even while it talks of the Messianic Christ figure, the implication doesn't seem to move beyond a temporal salvation into the rest of God as a future state of the righteous (as it does in the New Testament).

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The Book of Mormon > Jacob > Chapter 1

Questions

Verse 11

• Jacob tells us that the kings are named Nephi, but we never hear about another King Nephi. The next king that we hear anything about is not named Nephi, but Mosiah. Why is that? What happened to this practice of naming the kings Nephi? Why does Jacob tell us this bit of information, if it never comes up again in the narrative?

Verse 15

• Was the sin of the Nephites that they had many wives and concubines, or just that they wanted many wives and concubines?
• Does this verse suggest that it was wrong for David to either desire or have many wives and concubines? If so, how do we reconcile that with D&C 132:38. (It doesn't seem like Jacob is referring specifically to Bathseba when he says "wicked practices, such as like unto David ... desiring many wives and concubines.")

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 11

This practice is also described in the Book of Jasher 24:20-21, when Benmalich, son of Abimelech, becomes known as Abimelech himself.

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The Book of Mormon > Jacob > Chapter 1

Questions

Verse 17

• What does it mean that Jacob obtained an errand from the Lord? How does one obtain such an errand?
• Why does Jacob tell us that he taught these things at the temple? What does the location of his teaching add to our understanding of his sermon on chastity and consecration of wealth for the poor?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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