Talk:D&C 98:1-10

D&C 98:7: More or less

I wonder what "more or less" means in verse 7. I feel like if I knew it would give me insight into the same phrase in 3 Ne 18:13. It seems to me that we do a lot more than what we are told in the verses prior to 3 Ne 18:13 and I can't really make sense of what it would mean not to do more than that. Any ideas on what this phrase means here in verse 7? Also, any ideas, on whether that same definition works for 3 Ne 18:13--Matthew Faulconer 07:34, 8 Nov 2006 (UTC)

I think a very politically conservative (i.e. classical liberal) reading of this verse/passage would be related to James Madison's view that even the Bill of Rights shouldn't have been added b/c it gave the wrong impression about the proper role of government that he believed in. That is--if I have my history right--he thought the Constitution was granting certain rights to the government and that the government did not have any other rights that were not granted to it by the people. Thus, it was redundant to state that the government did not have certain rights as per the Bill of Rights, and in fact weakened this idea of limited government. Surely there are other readings of this passage, but I'm a bit stumped along with Matthew and Rob. --RobertC 14:42, 8 Nov 2006 (UTC)

There seems to be at least this difference between the present verse and 3 Ne 18:13: the phrase "cometh of evil." I think the presence of that phrase ties this to 3 Ne 11:40 and perhaps more primordially to Matt 5:37 (which doesn't have the "less" but has the "more" and the "cometh of evil" business). That said, I think Mosiah 13:33 is interesting on this subject. There "more or less" seems to be "precisely" or "completely." Perhaps. It might be worth considering at any rate. --Joe Spencer 15:36, 8 Nov 2006 (UTC)

Joe, thanks for pointing me to Mosiah 13:33. I had read "more or less" in that context as meaning "about as much." If the about as much reading stands, it is interesting because in that case "more or less" almost is an opposite to the way it is used here. In that case "more or less" in Mosiah 13:33 means said differently with but meaning about the same thing--whereas, one assumes that here and 3 Ne 18:13 more or less means something like "significantly changed." Is that right??? --Matthew Faulconer 06:17, 13 Nov 2006 (UTC)