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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 12

Questions

Verse 1

• Was Nephi prevented from seeing these people up close and determining their exact identities?

Verse 2

• Why will there be so much destruction in the last days?

Verse 3

• Why doesn't Nephi say "because of wars and contentions"?

Verse 4

• Why doesn't Nephi pair valleys with mountains, like Ezekiel and Isaiah do?

Verse 5

• Why did the mist turn into a vapor?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 12

Questions

Verse 6

• What does it mean to see "the heavens open"?
• How does the LORD descend from heaven? Who else has ever descended from heaven?

Verse 7

• Were they chosen after they were ordained?

Verse 8

• Why is this the only place in the scriptures where "Twelve Disciples" is capitalized?

Verse 9

• An angel tells Nephi that the Twelve Apostles will judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Is this a reference to what will happen at the judgement day or does this judgement happen at some other time?

Verse 10

• What does it mean to say that these individuals are righteous forever?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

An angel tells Nephi that the Twelve Apostles will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 12

Questions

Verse 11

• We know that wickedness returned to Nephite society between 194 and 245 AD (see 4 Ne 1:20 and 4 Ne 1:40). The same chapter tells us that the first generation passed away between 71 and 110 AD (see 4 Ne 1:14 and 4 Ne 1:18) and that the second generation was almost gone by 200 AD (see 4 Ne 1:22). Thus it seems that in 4 Nephi each generation lasted about 100 years. So why is Nephi saying that Nephite society did not become wicked until the third generation had passed and the fourth or fifth had started?

Verse 12

• Why did Nephi see his people's faith dwindle in later generations?

Verse 13

• Why did Nephi write about "multitudes of the earth" when other Old Testament prophets talked about "a multitude of people" (Gen 48:4), "a multitude of nations" (Gen 48:19), the "multitude of Israel" (2 Sam 6:19), and "the multitude of all the nations" (Isa 29:7)?

Verse 14

• How was it possible to distinguish between these two groups if they had just spent two centuries intermarrying with one another?

Verse 15

• If Lamanites emerged around 194 AD (see 4 Ne 1:20), then why is Nephi led to believe in this vision that the split between his seed and his brother's seed occurred during the fourth or fifth generation from the time Christ appeared?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

In these verses Nephi is seeing the future of his decendants. After the visit of Christ to the Americas the people live in righteousness for 3 generations. However, after that they begin to become wicked and are eventually destroyed.

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 12

Questions

Verse 16

• Is the angel trying to compare the river of filthy water to the era of Nephite apostasy that has started unfolding in Nephi's vision?

Verse 17

• How do temptations "blindeth the eyes" and "hardeneth the hearts" of people?
• How can people be "led" by temptations?
• What are "broad roads"? How might a broad road lead someone to perish?

Verse 18

• What does the "terrible gulf" divide? Is it the righteous from the wicked? If so, how is this brought about by divine "word of justice"?
• What is the "word of justice" mentioned here?

Verse 19

• Is Nephi making a distinction here between "my seed" and "the people of my seed"?
• What does it mean that these people were able to "overpower" others? Does that mean they were destroyed or killed, or just subjugated in some way?

Verse 20

• Who are "the people of the seed of my brethren"? Are these literal descendants of Laman and Lemuel, or other people associated with or possibly ruled by the literal descendants?
• What does it mean that the people were "overcome"? Is this similar or different from being overpowered (cf. vs. 19).

Lexical notes

Verse 18

"word of the justice" originally "sword of the justice" but mis-transcribed into the printers manuscript (see e.g. Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 7:1 "Joseph Smith's Translation of the Book of Mormon: Evidence for Tight Control of the Text")

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 12

Questions

Verse 21

• How was this verse influenced by the talk of "rumours of wars" in the New Testament?

Verse 22

• It their population, their faith, or both that will dwindle?

Verse 23

• Why is it important that we know of how the loss of faith destroyed the people of Nephi and made them a "dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people"?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 1

• What visual representation did Nephi see of these massive geopolitical entities?

Verse 2

• Why is this the only place where a Book of Mormon prophet talks about nations and kingdoms?

Verse 3

• To whom does "Gentiles" refer?

Verse 4

• How was Nephi able to see that the religious organizations had been transformed into a new church?

Verse 5

• By "church" does this mean what we would call a religious movement vs a single church?
• What does it mean for the church to be abominable?
• How does this great and abominable church bring the "saints of God...down into captivity"?
• What does it mean to bind down and "yoketh...with a yoke of iron"?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 6

• How does the devil found a church? Don't other people have to do it for him?

Verse 7

• How was this passage influenced by Ezek 16 (see especially verses 13 and 15)?
• What do harlots have to do with the great and abominable church?

Verse 8

• What should we make of the fact that the description of the abominable church's desires focuses much more on material wealth than on sexual sin? Is it significant that the material wealth is mentioned first, and that the harlots are mentioned in what seems to be the same breath?(Cf. Jacob 2:22)

Verse 9

• What does it mean that the abominable church destroys and enslaves the saints “for the praise of the world"? How is the word “saint” being used here? How does the abominable church destroy and enslave the saints?

Verse 10

• Did Nephi and the New World prophets abandon the Old Testament practice of naming Seas?
• What does Nephi mean by "many waters"? Can we presume that he means "the ocean" or is there something else going on here?
• Is this the first intimation that Nephi might have that they will have to cross the ocean to get to their land of promise?

Lexical notes

• Many Waters According to LDS.org, this phrase occurs 24 times in scripture, including a dozen times in the Old and New Testament. In Hebrew, the word translated as "many" is rab, which can also be translated as great, much, mighty.

Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 11

• How long did God stay angry with the Lamanites after they rejected his gospel and killed off the Nephites?

Verse 12

• Could this "man among the Gentiles" be a role that was filled by many individuals from Europe who came to the New World in the early days of initial contact?

Verse 13

• Is Nephi saying the Holy Ghost had to work upon these Gentiles in order for them follow the Lord's will?

Verse 14

• Was this "land of promise" just one of several "lands of promise" (see 2 Ne 9:2 and 2 Ne 24:2).

Verse 15

• If the Europeans were killing the Lamanites and stealing their land, then why did they remain favored of the Lord?

Lexical notes

Verse 15

• White: This could refer to the righteousness or the skin color of the Gentiles. (See Tvedtnes article below.)

Exegesis

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Verse 12

• See De Lamar Jensen's Ensign article Columbus and the Hand of God.

Verse 15

• Tvedtnes on "white": See The Charge of "Racism" in the Book of Mormon by John A. Tvedtnes.

The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

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.

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 21

• Was the angel really asking about the what the book contents meant or was he continuing the biblical tradition of finding "meaning" in visions (see Dan 8:15, 1 Ne 11:17, and 1 Ne 11:21)?

Verse 22

• Why didn't Nephi guess that there was a connection between the brass plates in his possession and the book he saw?

Verse 23

• Why is the singular wording, "a Jew," used in the first sentence of this verse?

• The angel says that the Bible contains the covenants of the Lord and some of the prophecies of the prophets, and he repeats that they are important because it contains the covenants of the Lord. What covenants is he referring to? Why are they important to Lehi’s people?

• The word "covenants" is used here in the singular, and yet is never used in the plural in the Old Testament (at least "covenants" never turns up in the KJV according to this search, though it shows up a couple times in the New Testament). Why does Nephi use the plural form of the word covenants and how does this relate to and differ from the meaning we should take from the Old Testament passages concerning covenant(s)?

• What can we learn about the nature, purpose(s), and character of the Bible from Nephi's description of it here?

• "Not so many." Is this saying that the Bible does not contain as many records as the plates of brass, or is there another way to read this?

• Why are the covenants that the Lord made with Israelites "of great worth unto the Gentiles"? Were other covenants made with other people (e.g., the Jaredites)? Would other such covenants be significant to the Gentiles?

Verse 24

• How much did Nephi witness and how much was elaboration from the angel?

Verse 25

• If the Bible went forth from the Jews in purity, what does that suggest about when or how things might have been removed from the record? What does it mean to say that the book went forth “in purity"? In this case is purity the same as completeness? as accuracy? or does the angel mean something else? Does “in purity” modify the book or the way that it was transmitted or . . . ?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 26

• To whom does "they" refer to in the phrase "they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious"? Is "they" the Jews who Jacob tells us "despised the words of plainness"? Or, is "they" the Gentiles since verse 25 tells us that "these things [went] forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles"?

• Does this verse tell us that the abominable church is abominable because it has taken away plain and precious parts? Are “many parts which are plain and most precious” and “many covenants” two different things that have been removed, or is this a case of parallelism in which the second item in the parallel tells us what the first item means? In what ways could one remove a covenant from the Bible?

• Is there a difference between proceeding forth from the "mouth" of a Jew or from the "hands" of the Apostles?

Verse 27

• If they had such an evil agenda, then how was so much good left in the Bible?

Verse 28

• Does "the book" of verses 24 and 28 refer to what we call the Bible today, or could it refer to something else?

Verse 29

• Many stumble because the plain things have been removed from the book. Is that stumbling apostasy or something else?

Verse 30

• At the end of verse 30 and in verse 31, the Lord promises that he will not allow the Gentiles to utterly destroy the seed of Nephi and his brethren. Why would Nephi find such a promise comforting rather than disheartening?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 26 says that it was those in the great and abominable church that took away the plain and most precious things from the gospel. Further it indicates that this church was formed after the things in the bible went forth from the hand of the twelve apostles. Further, verse 25 says that when these things went from the Jews unto the Gentiles they were pure "according to the truth which is in God." In sum verses 25 and 26 indicate that the plain and precious things were taken from the bible sometime after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, since the bible as we know it was not compiled until several centuries after the resurrection, it is difficult to determine from these passages exactly when the changes occurred or who was responsible for making the changes.

Related links

• Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus discusses how the Biblical canon was formed and transmitted in the early days of Christianity.

The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 31

• How does the extinction of many tribes not count as destruction?

Verse 32

• Is this vision saying that the Gentiles were both spiritually blind and filled with the power of God?

Verse 33

• Why does mercy for the Gentiles come at the cost of death and destruction for the Lamanites?

Verse 34

• What kind of stumbling did the Europeans and Americans experience between 1492 and 1830?

Verse 35

• Did Jesus appear unto the Nephites and not unto the Lamanites?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 13

Questions

Verse 36

• The writings of the Book of Mormon contain “the gospel [. . .] and my rock and my salvation” (v. 36). Why does the Lord describe the gospel as “my rock"? In what other ways does he use “rock” and how might it be related to his use here? (Compare, for example, Matt 16:18.) Why does he describe the gospel as “my salvation” rather than just “salvation"?

Verse 37

• What does it mean to bring forth Zion? Is the last part of the verse ("and whoso shall publish peace . . .") parallel to the first part, making “bring forth Zion” and “publish peace” parallel? What does it mean to publish peace?

Verse 38

• Why did Nephi think that all his direct descendants were exterminated by the Lamanites?

Verse 39

• How conscious was Nephi of the fact that he was helping to produce these "other books"?

Verse 40

• Are the last records referred to here those of the Book of Mormon, or are they all of the scriptural revelations of the latter-days? How do the last records restore the plain and precious things that have been removed? Can we use the later records to figure out what things were removed from the earlier ones? The verse says that the records “shall make known the plain and precious things” and that they “shall make known [. . .] that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father.” Are these two things intended to be parallel in meaning?

• What does it mean to be "saved" in this context?

Verse 41

• Was this a recognition or subversion of the law of witnesses?

Verse 42

• Which nations have not yet received this manifestation?

Lexical notes

• v. 37: Isa 9:6 refers to the Messiah as "The Prince of Peace." The word for peace in Hebrew used here is shalowm whose root is shalam which has the dual meaning to make whole or complete; to be repaid or recompensed. When Christ speaks of being perfect in Matt 5:48 and Matt 9:21, the Greek word for perfect here (teleios) also has a dual meaning of complete. Thus, when Nephi (quoting Isaiah) says how beautiful upon the mountains shall they who "publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy" be, "publishing peace" can be lexicographically linked to proclaiming the gospel of the Atonement which allows us sinners to be complete.

Exegesis

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• v. 37: "publish peace" is a phrase first used in Isa 52:7. Other verses using this phrase can be thought of as also quoting Isaiah (Nahum 1:15, Mosiah 12:21, Mosiah 15:14-17, Mosiah 27:37, and 3 Ne 20:40).

The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 14

Questions

Verses 1 & 2

• What does the phrase "the house of Israel shall no more be confounded" mean (verse 2)? The structure of verses 1 and 2 suggest that whether this happens depends on whether the Gentiles hearken to (verse 1) and harden not their hearts against (verse 2) the Lamb of God. Why is it that the house of Israel being no more confounded depends on whether the Gentiles accept the message of our Savior?

• What are the stumbling blocks that will be removed? Why is the promise that believing Gentiles will be numbered among the descendants of Lehi? What does that mean to us? In other words, so what?

Verse 3

• The punishment of those who have dug the pit is that they will be thrown into it. What does this mean? Is this related to the idea that sin is its own punishment? (See, for example, Rom 1:24; Mosiah 2:36; Hel 14:30; and Morm 4:5 and Morm 9:3.) What does the idea that sin is its own punishment rather than that punishment is something imposed by God teach us about the character of God?

Verse 4

• Is this an example of God and Satan working together?

Verse 5

• The angel reminds Nephi of three things he already knows (1) that if they gentiles repent, they will be saved (2) about the covenants the Lord made unto the house of Israel, and (3) that whoever doesn't repent will perish. What is the reason for reminding Nephi of this second item?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 4 tells us that it is according to the captivity of the devil and the justice of God that those who dig a pit (i.e. a trap) for others will themselves fall into the pit they dug. In this case those who built the pit will be lead down to hell--as this was the purpose for which the pit was dug (verse 3).

In verse 5 the angel shows Nephi that ultimately it doesn't matter to a person's salvation whether they were born into the house of Israel (see also 2 Ne 26:33). The angel makes this clear by first reminding Nephi that, as he has seen, someone not born into the house of Israel, if they repent, will be saved and then, that all men must repent or they will perish. In other words, regardless of whether someone is born into the house of Israel, if they repent, they will be saved and if not, they will perish.

Related links

• v. 3: See RobertC's journal for cross-references all on one page about sinners digging their own pits.

The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 14

Questions

Verse 6

• Why are the gentiles specifically targetted in v. 6, given that in v. 5 (and as we know) no one who doesn't repent can be saved?

Verse 7

• What kind of temporal destruction awaits the wicked?

Verse 8

• When the angel asks Nephi whether he remembers the covenants with the house of Israel, what is he asking? What covenant or covenants does he have in mind? How is that relevant to Nephi’s purpose for writing his record (1 Ne 1:20)? to this vision? What does it mean to remember the covenants? Does it mean the same thing for a human being as it does for God? (See, for example, Lev 26:42-45.) What is the connection between remembrance and faithfulness? between faithfulness and obedience? Given your answer to that question, what is the angel asking Nephi?

• To which covenants specifically does the angel refer?

Verses 9 & 10

• Why does he remind Nephi of covenants before discussing the great and abominable church?

• Having just asked Nephi whether he remembers the covenants, the angel immediately shows him a vision of the abominable church (v. 9). Why? What does that vision have to do with remembering the covenants? Does v. 2 help us understand who constitutes the church of the Lamb (v. 10)? How do we know which church we are in? Is 1 Ne 12:7-8 relevant? Are there reasons we might have to judge which of the two churches a person other than ourselves is in?

Verse 10

• What does it mean to "belong" to one of the churches (verse 10)? Would it be possible to belong to one of the churches and not know it, or does it need to be a conscious decision?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

In thinking about verse 10, we may wonder about people who are good but haven't had the opportunity to know about the Savior. It doesn't seem right to say that people who don't even know about the Savior belong to his church. But, if we read verse 10 by itself, it would suggest that such a person belongs to the church of the devil. That doesn't seem right either. To resolve this dilemma, we have to read verse 10 in context.

Verse 7 tells us about a time when a great and marvelous work will come among the children of men. The angel tells Nephi that this work is everlasting and then explains what that means. It is everlasting because the work will either convince people toward peace and life eternal or it will deliver them to being in the captivity of the devil. This work is the preaching of the restored gospel on the earth. So then, in verse 10, when the angel speaks of there only being two churches and that whoever doesn't belong to the church of the Lamb of God belongs to the church of the devil, the angel is speaking from the context of this great and marvelous work.

As verse 7 indicates, it is this great and marvelous work which divides the people into two groups. Verse 10 then isn't applicable to someone who has never heard about the gospel. It is however applicable to us. For us, as verse 10 makes clear, there is no place for a middle ground: whichever of us doesn't follow the Lamb of God belongs to the church of the devil.

Given that the angel's description of the 'two churches' to Nephi follow directly after verse 8, in which the angel asks Nephi if he remembers the 'covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel', I'm going to venture out on a limb here and suggest that the idea of a church is explicitly tied to the idea of a covenant or covenants. In other words, to be a part of a church at all, one must enter into an agreement of some kind with somebody else, in this case the choice being between the 'Lamb of God' or the 'devil'. What's interesting to note is that the angel says 'whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church...' which makes it sound as though there's no scenario where somebody can be 'in between' the two, so to speak. It also implies that there is no choice of whether we want to be a part of the great and abominable church, other than choosing to join the church of the lamb of God. In other words, we are already by default a part of the church of the devil until we *join* the other one. What about that church is so compelling to mankind, that the statement can be made that all belong to it unless they join the church of the Lamb of God? Is it entirely a question of covenants? The Atonement?

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 14

Questions

Verse 11

• Is this related to the cursing of the waters that happened in the last days (see D&C 61:14)?

Verse 12

• Why have a quarter of all Polynesians worldwide become Latter-day Saints if the Church was never supposed to be more than few in numbers?

Verse 13

• Is this a reference to the battle of Gog and Magog?

Verse 14

• Why is Nephi apparently drawing a distinction between Latter-day Saints and the Lord's covenant people?

Verse 15

• Is God opposed to war or does he instigate it as a punishment for the people who will not obey him?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 14

Questions

Verse 16

• Will the Latter-day Saints and covenant people of the Lord be members of nations that do not belong to the mother of abominations?

Verse 17

• Did the wrath and the restoration both begin in the early 1800s?

Verse 18

• If angels usually tell people to "behold" something, then why did this angel change the protocol and tell Nephi to "look"?

Verse 19

• Why does the Old Testament say nothing about its angels being dressed in white robes?

Verse 20

• Where did Joseph Smith get the idea to introduce quotations with a colon if the Bible only used commas for this purpose?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 14

Questions

Verse 21

• Did John have to find words to describe what he saw or was he given the words that needed to be written?

Verse 22

• Was this verse influenced by Ps 19:4, Isa 62:11, neither, both, or just the latter?

Verse 23

• Nephi says that the John’s revelation (or the Bible itself--see lexical note below) was “plain and pure, and most precious and easy to the understanding of all men.” However, in 1 Ne 15:3 he says that Lehi’s revelation was “hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord.” Does this mean that Lehi’s revelation is, in itself, more difficult to understand than John’s or is something else going on here?

Verse 24

• Where did Nephi learn to use a word like "apostle" if it appears nowhere in the Old Testament?

Verse 25

• Why was Nephi not allowed to become a second witness to what John would see and write?

Lexical notes

Verse 23

• "The things which were written." In the phrase "the things which were written were plain and pure, and most precious and easy to the understanding of all men," the "things that were written" could be read either as referring to the things which were written by John, the "apostle of the Lamb" (v. 24), or as referring to the things which were written in the Bible, "the book . . . proceeding out of the mouth of the Jew." If the latter view is adopted, the grammatical structure of verse 23 would be taken as significant in that the preceding verse (v. 22) and subsequent verse (v. 24) are talking about John, as is the beginning of verse 23; however, on this view, the material following the first semicolon would be taken as a modifying tangent about the book in which John's revelation is recorded, and so the final clause of the verse would be taken as a continuation of this tangent describing the book that John's revelation is found in rather than John's revelation itself. Furthermore, this verse may be alluding back to 1 Ne 13:28-29 where "plain and precious things" are described as being taken away from the Bible.

Exegesis

Verse 23 provides commentary on the nature of the revelations written by John. They are "just and true", "plain and pure", "precious" and "easy to the understanding of all men". These descriptors are self-explanatory, and, upon reflection, it seems an easy enough step to further assert that prophetic writings in general follow this pattern. That is certainly the case with modern revelations. Most would agree Joseph Smith's revelatory writing, for instance, are generally simple and straightforward, yet somehow manage to be inspiring and persuasive to so many notwithstanding their simplicity.

Perhaps a qualification for a good prophet is the ability not to get too much in the way of the message by letting rhetoric and personality creep in. While Joseph seemed to display plenty of both in his social communications, it would be fair to say that his revelations generally do not.

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The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 14

Questions

Verse 26

• Is this the only place in the scriptures where the purpose for sealing scriptures is explained as not physical protection but as purity preservation?

Verse 27

• Why did Nephi say the apostle's name "was" John, rather than "would be" John?

Verse 28

• Was Nephi forbidden in verse 25 from writing down what he heard, or was it just what he saw?

Verse 29

• Was Lehi forbidden, like Nephi was, from recording the full contents of his vision?

Verse 30

• How dependent was Nephi's wording on the phrasing in Rev 17:3 and Rev 21:10?

Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 30

The following can be confusing. Nephi writes: "if all the things which I saw are not written, the things which I have written are true." The construction here ("if ..., ...") suggests a logical if-then connection between the two halves of this quote. But that is confusing because this interpretation leads to a nonsensical reading, something like: you can know that the things which I have written are true because I didn't write down everything I saw.

Instead of reading the "if" as suggesting some logical if-then connection, we might read it more like the way we use "though" today. That gives us something like: though I wasn't able to write everything I saw, what I was able to write is true. Even so the connection between the two halves may seem like a stretch. One way to bring them a bit closer would be to see Nephi as trying to respond to the perceived dissapointment the reader will have in not getting to know everything Nephi saw. In that case we might see Nephi's statement "the things which I have written are true" as either a consolation (at least you got to know part) or as a reminder to us to focus on what we got to know rather than on what we didn't.

Related links

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