Talk:D&C 122:1-9

If...

Mike, this is a really good question (about verse 6). I'd like to take some time to develop something in response to it in the commentary, but may not have time until Friday or so. Keep an eye. Others: how might you answer this? --Joe Spencer 19:39, 20 June 2007 (CEST)

Here's a first reaction to these questions (and only a first reaction! of course I'll be thinking about these questions much more...):

• v. 6: "If" raises the discussion to a level of theology, or typology as Joe might prefer (that is, I'm thinking theology as simply more of a transcendent and figurative level...). Some things may have happened, some things may happen in the future, and some things may not ever happen--that's not the point. Rather, the point is to call up the experiences Joseph has just had into a higher level of discussion, harking back to the whole point of creation in the first place, a way to reorient and thus retranslate and reinterpret (even recreate, in a sense, though a very important sense...) all that has just befallen Joseph (and, typologically, may befall us...).

• v. 7: I think "the heavens gather blackness" is a fascinating phrase. Job 3:5 might be a good place to start for thinking about the scriptural connotations of black clouds (and I think there are other very important and fascinating thematic and linguistic relations between this D&C passage and the book of Job more generally...).

• v. 8: I've always thought "their" in "their bounds are set" is harking back to "them all" (v. 8) and "these things" (at the end of v. 7)--that is, the list of "if's" given in the previous verses. Interesting possibility to think about though, "their" referring to the men of the priesthood. The ambiguity, it seems, gives us occassion to think about the relation between men of the priesthood and way in which these experiences and the bearers of the priesthood, and the sense in which the priesthood takes on meaning in the presence of such experiences (or the possibility of such experiences...).

--RobertC 21:30, 20 June 2007 (CEST)