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| + | #REDIRECT [[3 Ne 16:4-20]] |
| − | | [[3 Ne 16:1-5|Previous]] || [[3 Ne 16:11-15|Next]]
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| − | == Questions ==
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| − | * ''Click the edit link above and to the right to add questions''
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| − | == Lexical notes ==
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| − | * ''Click the edit link above and to the right to add lexical notes''
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| − | == Exegesis ==
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| − | ===Verse 6===
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| − | As the theme of the Gentiles really opens up in this verse (see [[3 Ne 16:4|the preceding two verses]]), the context in which this theme opens must be stated. And the context is rather clear: the Gentiles, marked here by their "belief..., in and of the Holy Ghost," are clearly--though perhaps only in the first place--those preached to and converted in the earliest Christian era. If verses 4-5 set up the possibility of exploring the role of the Gentiles in the history of the Abrahamic covenant, this verse begins to undertake that exploration from the very earliest moment of the Gentile involvement in that history.
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| − | As [[3 Ne 15:23|before]], the Gentiles are only to experience God through the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, but now the nature of that visitation is implicitly different. Whereas before it appeared that the limited visitation of the Gentiles was due simply to their being outside the original boundaries of the covenant, it now appears that there is a sort of test or trial at work in the visitation: the Gentiles are "blessed" because they are filled with "belief," though it is ''only'' "in and of the Holy Ghost." Since the verse goes on quite explicitly to state that that same Holy Ghost has witnessed to the Gentiles of both the Son and the Father, it seems clear that the Gentiles are blessed for overcoming a sort of distancing performed by God Himself. In other words, though they are ministered to from afar at first, they respond faithfully and move quickly toward the center, for which responsiveness they are blessed.
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| − | Key to this faithful movement is the Trinitarian theme that again arises here (as [[3 Ne 16:4|before). The Gentile conversion is marked by their full involvement with the Trinity, with the three members of the Godhead at work. If verse 5 establishes the role of the Father in this Trinitarian, covenantal history as the One who covenants specifically with Israel, then this verse's admission that the Gentiles, through the Holy Ghost, have some access to--or, at the very least, witness of--the Father is rather significant: there is already a hint of a Gentile adoption at work in these verses. The blessing spoken by the Christ upon the Gentiles must be read in that light.
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| − | ===Verse 7===
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| − | The belief of the Gentiles, initially explored in verse 6, is now set against the unbelief of Israel. If the Gentiles in question seem to be those of the earliest Christian era, then the Israelites in question seem also to be of the same time. The unbelief of Israel, then, seems to be the broad rejection of the Christian proclamation in the first few centuries of the common era. The paucity of good historical documentation from the era in question makes any detailed historical study of the subject rather difficult, but what Christ Himself says here seems rather clear: at the moment of first proclamation, the Gentiles receive the Holy Ghost, while Israel rejects the very presence of the Son. In other words, while the Gentiles receive only the most distant experience of God (the Holy Ghost), they receive it happily and so receive the witness of the Son and Father through the Holy Ghost; at the same time, the House of Israel (and the Nephites/Lamanites present on the occasion, along with the "other sheep" to be visited soon, seem to be the ones implied here), receiving more directly the undeniable visitation of the Son, will go on to leave off Son, Father, and ultimately the Holy Ghost.
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| − | This broad scheme is interesting for a number of reasons. Perhaps most obvious is the complete lack of reference to the Jews in this comparison: this is not at all a question of the Gentiles and Jews, of the Jews who rejected Jesus versus the Gentiles who humbled themselves before the word of Saint Paul. Rather, the role of Jews is entirely left off until later, while the Gentiles and the lost (but not yet scattered?) tribes of Israel are compared as to their reception of the Christian dispensation. While Israel, as the covenant promised them, receive the presence of the Son in person, the Gentiles receive only the distant manifestation of the Holy Ghost; but the believing Gentiles maintain what they can of their visitation, while Israel broadly rejects theirs.
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| − | The result of this discrepency is a sort of reversal of the covenant (though with the aim, in the end, of fulfilling perfectly the covenant). Because Israel rejects and the Gentiles receive, the last day will be marked by a revelation to the Gentiles, and "the fulness of these things shall be made known unto them." The Gentiles are privileged, still believing, over the Israelites, who will have long since fallen away. The reversal, then: Israel, promised to be gathered together in the covenant, are only to receive their part in the covenant knowledge derivatively, second-hand. The ramifications of this reversal of sorts are the real subject matter of all of the following.
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| − | ===Verses 8-10===
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| − | Suddenly, however, the spirit of this entire discourse changes with a turn of events introduced across three verses (though in the end the spirit of the discourse will have remained precisely the same). The subject shifts from the believing Gentiles to the unbelieving Gentiles, and a negative tone arises. But this shift from a happier theme to a more depressing one dissociate the present three verses from the preceding two: the last phrase of verse 10 ("I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them") can only be read as tied to the last phrase of verse 7 ("the fulness of these things shall be made known unto them"). Some sort of continuity between the believing and unbelieving Gentiles is implied: the continuity is undeniably not a question of two opposing groups of Gentiles, one believing and one unbelieving, but it is rather a question of just one Gentile group passing through two phases, a time of belief and a time of unbelief. In other words, verses 8-10 follow verses 6-7 not to draw a distinction between those (one group of Gentiles) who believe and those (another group of Gentiles) who do not, but between the Gentiles at the first (believing) and the same Gentiles later (unbelieving): the continuity is meant to explain the rejection of a later grace offered in the name of an earlier Gentile belief.
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| − | This shift from belief (in the Holy Ghost) to unbelief (qualified in a number of ways) is traced over the course of these three verses. In verse 8, the Gentiles function as the Lord's tool to scatter the Nephite/Lamanite remnant on the American continent, even to cast the remnant out of their midst, and to trod the same under their feet. This functioning is introduced with the word "notwithstanding," implying that the scattering performed is a work of great grace for the Gentiles, a manifestation of divine favor on their behalf. The same disposition on the Lord's part opens verse 9, where the "mercies" for the Gentiles are opposed to the "judgments" upon the house of Israel. In verse 9, much the same functioning is described again, though in stronger words: "smitten," "afflicted," even "slain," then "cast out," "hated," and becoming "a hiss and a byword among them." But this disposition of grace suddenly falls away in verse 10, where the wickedness of the Gentiles is put on display: they "sin against my gospel," "reject the fulness of my gospel," are "lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations," are "filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations...." Key in the list seems to be that the Gentiles are "lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth." The passage may have reference to Isaiah 10 (where Assyria is one of the Gentile nations already), where Assyria is subject to much the same transfer: there, in [[Isa 10:5|verses 5 and 6]], Assyria is explicitly named an instrument in the hand of the Lord to punish His people, but Assyria goes on to exalt himself above all nations in [[Isa 10:12|verses 12-13]], for which he is punished--perhaps more harshly than the Gentiles here.
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| − | In fact, it must be admitted, in the end, that the punishment of the Gentiles is rather mild here: though it is no small thing to lose "the fulness of my gospel," it is something less than the absolute destruction one would expect from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, the verses still to come will bring in questions of thorough destruction. Preparatory to that destruction--or really, grounding that destruction--is this loss of the gospel (a prevalent theme in the Book of Mormon: a people first loses the truth, and then the same people is destroyed).
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| − | == Related links ==
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| − | * ''Click the edit link above and to the right to add related links''
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| − | ----
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| − | {| width="20%"
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| − | | [[3 Ne 16:1-5|Previous]] || [[3 Ne 16:11-15|Next]]
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| − | |}
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