Alma 12:21-25
The Book of Mormon > Alma > Chapter 12
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Contents
Questions
Verse 24
- Probationary. What does it mean to say that life is probationary? Is the word being used as it is when we speak of criminals on probation? If so, is the implication that we have already been convicted? Alma teaches here that life is the time given us to repent. How do we avoid a belief in original sin given these teachings?
Lexical notes
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Exegesis
Verse 21
Antionah's question is decisive because he draws explicitly on Gen 3:24, that is, on the conclusion of the Fall story as it is recorded in Gen 2-3. But it must be clear at the same time that Antionah seems to draw on something more than just what is recorded in Genesis: the Genesis text is hardly as specific as Antionah is. The Genesis text reads: "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." The precision with which most of Antionah's quotation and the Genesis text match up is remarkable, and this very precision highlights the few differences between them: though the Genesis text implies that Adam and Eve are to be kept from the tree of life, there is no specific mention of entering or partaking, and certainly not of living forever! (It is perhaps also worth mentioning that the Genesis text mentions only the man here, while Antionah has reference to "our first parents," perhaps an echo of Lehi's discourse to his son Jacob—especially 2 Ne 2:15. It is probably worth exploring the filiation that seems to obtain between Antionah's reading and the remarkably theological discourse of Lehi.) What is to be made of this difference? More importantly, perhaps: how does this difference alter the direction in which Alma takes his discourse?
As it turns out, the difference is hardly a minor one: it is the business of living forever that is the most important element of "the scripture" for Antionah. His conclusion draws on that phrasing only: "And thus we see that there was no possible chance that they should live forever." Although it seems that Antionah is familiar with some scripture, it seems he is not familiar with Jacob's teachings in 2 Ne 9:13, 15.
Verse 25
One way to read this verse is to consider the possibility of Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit of the tree of life before having time to prepare to meet God. If this were the case, Adam and Eve would not have died before becoming immortal, and would therefore not be resurrected (emphasis on the re- prefix, that is, without dying, it does not make sense to be raised from the dead as the term resurrection implies).
Related links
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