Subtle example of internal consistency

Each time I read through the Book of Mormon I find more and more examples of internal consistency. Here is one I hadn't noticed before:

While explaining the purpose of his small plates, Nephi implies he is putting Lehi's lineage in his other plates:

1 And now I, Nephi, do not give the genealogy of my fathers in this part of my record; neither at any time shall I give it after upon these plates which I am writing; for it is given in the record which has been kept by my father; wherefore, I do not write it in this work.
2 For it sufficeth me to say that we are descendants of Joseph. (1 Nephi 6)

This is subtly confirmed as Mormon abridges the large plates of Nephi and knows more detail about the lineage of Lehi:

3 And Aminadi was a descendant of Nephi, who was the son of Lehi, who came out of the land of Jerusalem, who was a descendant of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren. (Alma 10)

 

The Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants in the Book of Mormon -- Part 2

The first part was an introduction to the topic. In this part I will focus on the Abrahamic covenant and how it is used in the Book of Mormon. As explained in part 1, the term "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" is used to specifically refer to this covenant and the God who gave these promises to Abraham and his posterity.

It is interesting to see how this evolves. In Genesis 17:1, God says to Abraham

I am the Almighty God

In Genesis 26:24, God says to Isaac: 

I am the God of Abraham

In Genesis 28:13, God says to Jacob

I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac

In Exodus 3:6, God says to Moses

I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob

From then on we see "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" repeated numerous times. Moses lived hundreds of years after Abraham. But this is where God started to fulfill his promises.

the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty (Exodus 1:7)

Numerous offspring was one of those promises. But a promised land was another and the exodus out of Egypt was the way there. The preface of the exodus is that the Israelites were in bondage and "God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Exodus 2:24). So this expression, "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" is associated with delivery from bondage, as we shall see later, and the promised blessings to Abraham and his seed. What were those blessings? In Genesis 12:2-3, we read

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

In Genesis 15 he is also promised a land for his posterity. But I want to focus on the bold part for a while. When Jesus appears to the Nephites, this is the part he focuses on. He tells them

ye are of the covenant which the Father made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. (3 Nephi 20:25)

The Book of Abraham expands on this a bit

in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal. (Abraham 2:11)

It explains that "blessed" is ultimately exaltation or receiving eternal life.

I searched the Book of Mormon to find all verses with "Abraham", "Isaac" and "Jacob" in them and found 12. I like how Nephi is using it in 1 Nephi 6:4

For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.

Read in this covenant context, Nephi is inviting us to the God that has given promises to Nephi's people, who are of Abraham's seed and the "remnant" who will read this in the future and who are also of Abraham's seed. This God will always keep his promises and is therefore the source of our salvation. I also like how this is not only Nephi's intent but the fulness of his intent.

Reading all these 12 mentions of "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" in the Book of Mormon, reveals a trend. They are usually in one of two categories:

• Delivery from captivity (with reference to Exodus 3:6 quoted above)

• Exaltation (with reference to Abraham 2:11 quoted above)

When delivery is the topic, there is sometimes reference to the exodus of their forefathers and sometimes reference to their own captivity. Here is Nephi reminding his brothers of their forefathers:

Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt. (1 Nephi 17:40)

Here is Mormon wanting to demonstrate to the reader that the same God and covenants applied to them (in this case Alma the Elder): 

For behold, I will show unto you that they were brought into bondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob. (Mosiah 23:23)

When salvation or exaltation is the topic, this expression is typically coupled with the concept of sitting down in the kingdom of heaven. One example

And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out. (Alma 7:25)

As explained before, the covenant is about "blessing" the posterity of Abraham, which ultimately means eternal life. "sit down" is the enthronement that is an important part of ancient temple theology. In the holy of holies there was a throne symbolizing exaltation. This was the throne of God the Father (see e.g. 1 Nephi 1:8), but we read about Jesus Christ sitting down at his right hand (Moroni 7:27) and then preparing a place for us to "sit[...] down" (Ether 12:37).

I know I have quoted a lot of scriptures in this post, but I want to quote one more because it links the two concepts of delivery from bondage and salvation.

And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos... (1 Nephi 19:10)

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt is the same God who delivers us from spiritual bondage through his sacrifice; a sacrifice that was foreshadowed by Abraham and his son, Isaac. Just as he kept his covenant and delivered Abraham's seed out of captivity and into the promised land, he can lead us to our eternal destination where we can "sit down" with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In part 3 we will have a closer look at the Mosaic covenant and how it is referenced in the Book of Mormon.

Internal consistency between 1 Nephi 6, 9 and Jacob 1

Compare 1 Nephi 6:6

Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.

and 1 Nephi 9:4

Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry 

with Jacob 1:1-2

Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven. And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious; that I should not touch, save it were lightly, concerning the history of this people which are called the people of Nephi.

Worth

In 1 Nephi 5:21, Nephi says

And we had obtained the records which the Lord had commanded us, and searched them and found that they were desirable; yea, even of great worth unto us, insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children.

It seems that this realization is what inspires Nephi to write about his own record just a few verses later

Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.(1 Nephi 6:6)

These are the first two uses of the word, "worth" in the Book of Mormon. The next is in 1 Nephi 13:23, where Nephi in vision sees the coming forth of the Bible and says it will be of "great worth unto the Gentiles". Interestingly, the first three uses of that word in the Book of Mormon refer to the worth of the brass plates, the plates of Nephi and the Bible, respectively.

In fact, most of the 17 uses of that word in the Book of Mormon are related to the scriptures and especially the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as part of the marvelous work in the latter days. Some examples:

And after our seed is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto our seed (1 Nephi 22:8)

confine the words unto mine own people; for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days (2 Nephi 25:8)

And the things which shall be written out of the book [of Mormon] shall be of great worth unto the children of men (2 Nephi 28:2)

When Moroni decides to write more, contrary to his initial plan, it is only because he thinks his words might be of worth

I had supposed not to have written any more; but I write a few more things, that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren (Moroni 1:4)

The Book of Mormon authors are very clear: The scriptures, including their own engravings are of great worth. Nephi acknowledges, however, that the definition of "great worth" is highly subjective

But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught. But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth (2 Nephi 33:2-3)

For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet. (1 Nephi 19:7)

Zeezrom, for instance, initially was one of those setting "at naught" the word of God as Nephi described, and claimed that his silver was of "great worth" (Alma 11:25). Contrast that with Moroni's message:

And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth (Mormon 8:14)

How wealthy was Lehi?

It has been assumed that Lehi was quite wealthy because of textual clues, including him having a land of inheritance (1 Nephi 3:16), having gold and silver, and knowing the Egyptian language (was he involved in trading as some kind of businessman?). There are a couple of other interesting aspects that might suggest that Lehi was even more wealthy than we might think.

In 1st Nephi 3:13, when Laman first tries to ask Laban for the plates, Laban says he is a robber. That seems a bit odd since he only asked. But we know from 1st Nephi 5:16 that Lehi and Laban were related. Perhaps they knew or believed this already. The same verse also says that the brass plates contained the genealogy of their fathers. According to the Law of Moses, every 7 years the land returned to the families they originally belonged to by birthright. Genealogical records were really important for the more prominent and wealthy Jews because those were proof of their ancestry and hence their rights of property. Without the genealogical records, Laban would be risking his wealth. The fact that Lehi wanted the records could be interpreted by Laban not as merely losing a valuable artifact but that Lehi intented to take away his possession when the year of remission came and the genealogy records were consulted to verify each one's birthright.

Later, Nephi suggests they go to the land of Lehi's inheritance to get all their silver and gold and try to purchase the plates. The reason Nephi was persuaded that he could convince Laban was because their gold and silver would exceed any property Laban would lose for not having the proper records. In other words, if this theory is correct, Lehi was more wealthy than Laban.

1 Nephi 3:25 describes Lehi's property as "exceedingly great"

And it came to pass that when Laban saw our property, and that it was exceedingly great, he did lust after it,

Another, less obvious clue is given in 1 Nephi 6:1

And now I, Nephi, do not give the genealogy of my fathers in this part of my record; neither at any time shall I give it after upon these plates which I am writing; for it is given in the record which has been kept by my father; wherefore, I do not write it in this work.

A Jewish rabbi has the following comment to this passage;

It is crucial for the reader to understand that in Hebrew there are two different expressions for genealogy. One of them is תולדות (toledot) which literally means “sequels” and is usually translated as “generations”. This appears for example in Genesis 5:1: “This is the book of the generations of Adam.” Whenever the term “generations” appears it is simply meant to give a line of descendants.

However, the word that would literally be translated as “genealogy” in Hebrew is the ancient form יחש (yachash) which is found in Nehemiah 7:5 “And my God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy.”

This particular word is used to indicate a royal dynasty. As we had already seen there is plenty of evidence that Nephi was of a ruling family in his own tribe so this fits the big picture.

It’s important to understand that an average Israelite would not bother to give a full account of all his descendants until their days. You don’t see this pattern for example in the writings of the prophets. However if one was a ruler it would be crucial to present such information.

When Nephi does not give this information in his records, it is more than simply saving space. He wants his words to be believed because of the message they contain and not because of his own royal background. For a man to consider his own royal bloodline to be nothing compared to what G-d had prepared for him would have required an enormous leap of faith from his part

Based on all this, it seems that Lehi as a descendent of Joseph was perhaps a 2nd or 3rd generation immigrant to Jerusalem from the conquered Northern Kingdom, with a noble bloodline and a large inheritance. Nephi does not focus at all on this aspect in the small plates, so we only have to pick up certain small clues.

This makes me wonder: If Lehi really was that wealthy, did he have a large household with many servants, and if so, did he bring any of them into the wilderness and to the promised land? They are never mentioned, but neither are Nephi's sisters until the last chapter he writes that has any narrative (2 Nephi 5).

So when Laman as the oldest brother keeps complaining to Nephi that he has the right to rule, it may be more to it than just claiming the regular Jewish privileges that being the oldest of 5 brothers would entail.

Anyway, that's probably enough speculation for today:)