Talk:Alma 30:6-10

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

Hey Nathan, I wasn't quite sure what you meant by this phrase: rather than a jurisprudential exegesis of the legal material itself. Nice exegesis. Thanks, --Matthew Faulconer 07:14, 19 June 2007 (CEST)

Well it seems to me that if we are trying to extract a legal rule from the Shechem story we could approach it in at least two different ways. First, we couls say, "Hey, this is a legal event. The nation enters into a contract with God, and we ought to determine our legal obligations by construing the terms of that contract." This what I meant by my inelegant phrase "jurisprudential exegesis of the legal material itself."

Alternatively, one could say, "Here is a story about how one relates to God. In the story, the people related to God through a voluntary contract. Therefore, we ought to allow people to related to God on a voluntary basis." Notice that this approach (which is the approach taken by the Nephites) doesn't involve any legal analysis of the Shechem contract itself.

For what it is worth, I think that the interpretive approach revealed in the derivation of this rule is embedded deeply within the structure of the Book of Mormon, most strongly in Nephi's disputes with his brothers, which I think can be understood as dueling approaches to the interpretation of scripture. --Nathan Oman 16:48, 19 June 2007 (CEST)

Thanks, I tried rewriting it without this phrase. Of course, it is a bit risky for someone who doesn't know what the word jurisprudential means to do so (though I can use a dictionary). Feel free to re-revise (or just change it all back) if I ended up missing your point. --Matthew Faulconer 05:26, 20 June 2007 (CEST)