Mosiah 26 All

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

Verse 1

• Why wouldn't the rising generation be able to understand the words of king Benjamin? What was it about the words that were so difficult to understand?
• Why would their being little children when Benjamin gave his speech make it hard for them to understand his words later, when the speech could be read to them? Was there something about the context of the speech--the temple festival, perhaps--that the children couldn't get from the written account of his words?
• Why wouldn't the young people believe the tradition of their fathers? What other influences or belief systems were present to provide an alternative?
• Why is it so important for the young people to understand King Benjamin’s words? Is there something about that specific sermon that is essential to them?
• Tradition. What does the word “tradition” mean? What tradition could their parents have given them that would have taught them what Benjamin meant? Can we teach our children the meaning of Benjamin’s sermon by our tradition? How?

Verse 2

• Why wouldn't the young people believe in the resurrection of the dead? Did they not believe in the resurrection at all, or was it something specific about Benjamin's teachings that didn't resonate with them?
• Why wouldn't the young people "believe concerning the coming of Christ"? What was it exactly about the Christ narrative that they didn't believe?

Verse 3

• What is the relation between unbelief and understanding the word of God? Does this passage imply that it is impossible to understand ("they could not") the word of God "because of...unbelief"?
• What does it mean to have a hardened heart? What is the difference between simply not believing and having a heard heart?
• What is the relationship between unbelief and having a hardened heart?

Verse 4

• What was it that led these people to eschew baptism?
• What did it mean to "join the church" at this period of time?
• What is this "separate" faith mentioned here? Are these the Nehors?
• How does not being baptized or joining the church leave these people in a "carnal and sinful state"? What is the relationship between calling upon the Lord and remaining in a carnal and sinful state?
• How is Christ "the Lord their God" if the people don't "call upon" Him?

Verse 5

• If "not half" of the people "became more numerous", does that mean that they became a majority? Are we being told that most of the people now are not members of the Church?
• If all of the people (accept the little children) had accepted king Benjamin's covenant, and Alma and Limhi's people had all joined the newly organized church, what happened to make perhaps a majority of the people dissent away from the church?
• Dissensions. What are dissensions?

Lexical notes

• Hardened hearts. In the King James Version of the Old Testament, heardened hearts can refer to either a) hearts that are made strong or firm, as in stiffening the will (Heb chazaq), or hearts that may be made heavy (Heb kabad--the same word used for honor or glory). In Joseph Smith's time, Webster's 1828 dictionary defines hardened, in part, as "made unfeeling; made obstinate; confirmed in error or vice."

Exegesis

• Belief and understanding: Notice in v.3 that in order to understand the scriptures we must believe.

Related links

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• vv. 10-12: Why do Alma and Mosiah each seem to shirk from judging the people who have been brought before them?

Lexical notes

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

Exegesis

While the Book of Mormon calls Mosiah a king, in current anthropological terminology, early Nephite kings such as Mosiah may have functioned more as a "Big Man" who rules more by power of personal influence than by the ability to marshall enforcement of laws or edicts. Besides a hesitancy to judge harshly, other evidence for this may be Mosiah and Benjamin's growing of their own food--something that doesn't usually happen in a more hierarchically organized chiefdom or kingdom.

Related links

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• Click the edit link above and to the right to add questions

Lexical notes

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

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• v. 17: What does it mean that Alma’s people shall be the Lord’s people? How does this tie in with King Benjamin’s sermon? Does it help explain why that sermon was so important? How is it important to us?

• v. 20: Three things occur in this verse: the Lord calls Alma his servant; the Lord covenants that Alma will have eternal life; and the Lord says that Alma will serve him. (This rhetorical pattern, a cousin of chiasmus, is called inclusion.) How are these things connected to one another? Why is the covenant “sandwiched” between the descriptions of Alma as a servant—what does the arrangement tell us? What is a covenant? (It is more than a contract or mutual promise.) What does this covenant mean? What does it mean to have eternal life?

Lexical notes

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

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• Click the edit link above and to the right to add questions

Lexical notes

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

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• v. 29: Alma asked what to do about the transgressors in vv. 13-14. Not until v. 29 does he receive an answer. Before giving Alma the answer to his prayer, the Lord blesses Alma, reaffirms the covenant relation with him, and tells Alma about the Atonement and the final judgment. Why that long interlude between Alma’s question and the Lord’s answer?

Lexical notes

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

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• v. 31: This verse suggests that we are to take the word of the person who tells us that he or she has repented. Why?

Lexical notes

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

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

The Book of Mormon > Mosiah > Chapter 26

Questions

• v. 3: Not only are the non-members forbidden to persecute the members, but the members are forbidden to persecute one another. How might members do that? How might we persecute each other today?

• v.3: The members are told that there should be equality among all men. What does “equality: mean in this instance? In what or in what way are people supposed to be equal? Equality is grammatically parallel to the absence of persecution. Does that tell us something about what each means?

• v. 4: Does this verse explain at least some of what it means not to persecute and to be equal?

Lexical notes

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

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