"Touch not that which is unclean"

Often we read about a physical, concrete concept in the Old Testament that has an abstract or spiritual counterpart. This counterpart is typically more prevalent in other scripture. The Law of Moses is one example. It is easy to get hung up on the rituals and rules that are found in Numbers and Leviticus and miss the fact that it all points to the Savior. A couple of other examples are found here and here.

We see the same trend reading about the concept of uncleanliness. The Book of Leviticus is obsessed with it. In Leviticus 11-15, words related to (un)cleanliness and (im)purity show up almost once per verse on average. These are instructions to Moses and Aron, primarily to ensure that no one enters into the Tabernacle unclean.

Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them. (Leviticus 15:31)

The Priests of the tabernacle had a special duty to ensure that nothing unclean entered in and defiled it. There is much emphasis on separating the clean and holy from the unclean and unholy.

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean (Leviticus 10:10)

God's word to Ezekiel just before the destruction of Jerusalem contains accusations of the priests not fulfilling this duty 

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean (Ezekiel 22:26)

When they do not manage to separate between the clean and unclean and when the people do not manage to rid themselves of the unclean, God needs to do the separation instead and it is much less pleasant than a ritual bath. 

18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. (Ezekiel 22)

Our equivalent of the Jewish ritual bath, mikveh, is baptism by water. This is followed by baptism by fire, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. The fire symbolism has been discussed on this blog before (see here and here). The idea is that fire can purge us by removing the dross in us. This is the second step after being cleansed with water. But if we have indulged in the unclean without washing, we are the dross, and then the purging looks very different.

Why all this emphasis on separating the clean and unclean? Avoiding to defile the tabernacle/temple could perhaps be reason enough. Israelites believed that it was the House of God in a very real sense. But perhaps there also was a spiritual counterpart to this concept that the Israelites missed? Isaiah hints on that and the Book of Mormon expands on it. Let's have a look at Isaiah first. "Unclean" is brought up twice in chapter 52

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. (Isaiah 52:1)

In this case, it is not only the temple where the unclean cannot enter, but the whole city of Jerusalem. This is describing a future state of Zion/Jerusalem, but still a place on earth (although perhaps in its millennial stage). Still speaking about this future time, Isaiah goes on to invite us to depart from Babylon in a second future exodus to Zion/the promised land.

Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.

Jesus also talks about the latter-day gathering of Israel to the Nephites and quotes this verse in 3 Nephi 20:41. It also seems to be alluded to in at least two other Book of Mormon verses.

And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things; and behold, their names shall be blotted out, that the names of the wicked shall not be numbered among the names of the righteous, that the word of God may be fulfilled, which saith: The names of the wicked shall not be mingled with the names of my people (Alma 5:57)

Hinting at the admonition by Isaiah, Alma adds "be ye separate" and goes on to explain that God wants to separate the names of the wicked and the names of his people. This idea is also rooted in ancient Jewish culture. The Law of Moses contained prohibitions to mingle certain types of grain or fabric, for example. Certain things had to be separated and kept separate. See Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:9-11. I am not sure if I understand the reason or symbolism behind the prohibition to plow with an ox and ass together or plant two different kinds of seeds in a field, but Alma applies this idea of separation on a more spiritual level. 

Moroni 10:30 is another Book of Mormon verse alluding to Isaiah 52:11

And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.

He connects it with coming unto Christ, which is the symbolic equivalent of temple entrance for ancient Israelites. 

But most Book of Mormon verses using the word "unclean", connect it with entering into the kingdom of God. The separation between the wicked and the righteous on that last day is the spiritual counterpart of all the separation issues and cleanliness before entering into the temple that we find in the Old Testament. Notice the temple reference in Alma 7:21, linking to us and our entrance into the kingdom of God 

And he doth not dwell in unholy temples; neither can filthiness or anything which is unclean be received into the kingdom of God; therefore I say unto you the time shall come, yea, and it shall be at the last day, that he who is filthy shall remain in his filthiness.

As a final example, Nephi lays it out very plainly: 

if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also. But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy. (1 Nephi 15:33-34)

Isaiah 52:7-10 in other scripture

In the previous post about Isaiah 52, I wanted to include all references in our standard works but it became a bit long. Having discussed the influence of Isaiah 52:7-10 in the Book of Mormon only in the last post, I will focus on the other standard works in this post. We find references to these verses in the Old Testament, New Testament and D&C.

Of particular interest is Nahum 1:15, an Old Testament prophet whose name comes from the Hebrew root for "consolation" or "mourning". He shares his name with a location on the Arabian peninsula where Ishmael was buried, as we read in 1 Nephi 16. The verse reads

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

The first sentence is definitely related to Isaiah 52:7. Little is known about Nahum and I don't know if Wikipedia is the best source, but it states

Nahum's writings could be taken as prophecy or as history. One account suggests that his writings are a prophecy written in about 615 BC, just before the downfall of Assyria, while another account suggests that he wrote this passage as liturgy just after its downfall in 612 BC.

Whether it's 615 BC or 612 BC doesn't make that much of a difference to me. It is written perhaps a decade or two before Nephi took the brass plates and they headed to the promised land. Scholars who claim that Isaiah 52 was part of Deutero-Isaiah, written during the Jewish exile, must conclude that Isaiah 52 was based on Nahum, not the other way around. I think it makes more sense that Nahum borrowed from Isaiah based on the following reasons:

• Notice how this sentence is part of a longer clause in Isaiah 52:7. In Nahum 1:5, it is just this one sentence without further elaboration. It is natural for me to think that the longer clause is the original and someone borrowed a part of it, instead of one sentence being original and someone borrows it and expands on it. This is not hard proof of course, just something I find more likely.
• It is also natural to assume that the "small" prophet borrows from the "great", not the other way around.
• Since I believe in the historicity of the Book of Mormon, I am biased here, but we have noticed that Isaiah 52:7-10 is quoted multiple times in the Book of Mormon, not Nahum. If Nahum 1:15 was written shortly before Lehi and his group left Jerusalem and was based on Isaiah, it might further indicate that Isaiah in general and this passage in particular already had a prominent position in Lehi's religious environment.

In the New Testament, this is quoted once, in Romans 10:15.

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

Other parts of Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53 are also quoted liberally in the New Testament. Those two chapters alone comprise 19% of all Isaiah quotes in the New Testament.

There are also two Isaiah 52:7-10 quotes in the D&C. D&C 84:98 quotes Isaiah 52:8-9:

Until all shall know me, who remain, even from the least unto the greatest, and shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and shall see eye to eye, and shall lift up their voice, and with the voice together sing this new song, saying:

D&C 128:19 quotes Isaiah 52:7:

Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!

These examples show this Isaiah passage used in various context. In Nahum, the feet belong to the messenger who announces the destruction of Judah's enemies and her deliverance. Romans is about preaching the gospel and missionary work. The context for the Isaiah quote in D&C 84 is the ultimate spiritual redemption of Zion in the latter days and D&C 128 is about the redemption of the dead.

The beautiful feet on the mountain belong to whoever proclaims redemption, whether it is physical redemption from your enemies, personal redemption from receiving the gospel in your life, the ultimate redemption of Zion in the latter days or the redemption of the dead. The feet can belong to missionaries, messengers, angels, prophets, and even Christ himself (Mosiah 15:18). More on the symbolism of beautiful feet in Lord Wilmore's posts here, here and here.

Isaiah 52:7-10 in the Book of Mormon

It occurred to me how influential Isaiah 52 is in the Book of Mormon and really all scripture. Several parts of it is quoted in the Book of Mormon, sometimes more than once. I will focus on verses 7-10 because they seem to play a particular role in the Nephite culture. Ironically, it all starts with the wicked priests of king Noah quoting it.

20 And it came to pass that one of them said unto him: What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been taught by our fathers, saying:

21 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;

22 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion;

23 Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem;

24 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God? (Mosiah 12)

So verses 21-24 are quoting Isaiah 52:7-10. As I have showed before, Abinadi comes back to themes and expressions from this passage all throughout his sermon. We know that Alma was the only one who believed in Abinadi and wrote down his words and preached them. Lord Wilmore has demonstrated how the role of Abinadi as doctrinal mentor for Alma influenced him and even his son, Alma the younger (like here and here). Therefore it is also interesting to note how Mormon in his abridgment of the early stages of both Alma-1 and Alma-2's conversions, alludes to this Isaiah passage.

First in Mosiah 18:30

And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

The color coded connections may not seem significant. But notice the "how blessed are they" expression again in conjunction with Alma-2's conversion and the unmistakable reference to Isaiah 52.

36 And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.

37 And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth. (Mosiah 27:37)

There is only one other place where this expression shows up in the Book of Mormon, in 4 Nephi 1:17-18

17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

18 And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away

There is no Isaiah quote here at all, only perhaps a description of a time like the one Isaiah was prophesying about. But prior to this, as Jesus is visiting the Nephites, there are more Isaiah 52:7-10 quotes as he speaks of the latter-day gathering of Israel. Once in 3 Nephi 16

17 And then the words of the prophet Isaiah shall be fulfilled, which say:

18 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

19 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

20 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. 

...and once in 3 Nephi 20. Here he quotes almost all of Isaiah 52, but in a different order, see this post for details. Verses 7-10 are quoted as follows

32 Then shall their watchmen lift up their voice, and with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye (Isaiah 52:8).

33 Then will the Father gather them together again, and give unto them Jerusalem for the land of their inheritance.

34 Then shall they break forth into joy—Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Father hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:9).

35 The Father hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of the Father(Isaiah 52:10); and the Father and I are one...

40 And then shall they say: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings unto them, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings unto them of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion: Thy God reigneth! (Isaiah 52:7)

I think it's interesting to note that "the salvation of God" is replaced by "the salvation of the Father" with the addition "and the Father and I are one" in verse 35.

Why does Mormon use the "how blessed were they" expression when referring to Isaiah 52 at least twice? Isaiah 52 says nothing about being blessed. The answer may be found in 3 Nephi 20 just quoted above. A few verses prior to this, the Savior states:

25 And behold, ye are the children of the prophets; and ye are of the house of Israel; and 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.

26 The Father having raised me up unto you first, and sent me to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities; and this because ye are the children of the covenant— 

Before quoting Isaiah 52, Jesus quotes the promise to Abraham given in Genesis 12:3. The blessing associated with Isaiah 52 is a consequence of being part of a covenant people. Since 3 Nephi 20 probably is a direct quote from the large plates of Nephi, it's easy for me to imagine Mormon studying this, making the connection between the Abrahamic covenant and Isaiah 52 and applying this when writing about Alma the elder and younger. After all, Alma-1 and his followers truly were blessed by entering into the covenant through their baptism at the Waters of Mormon.

Abinadi and the first and second Moses

In his book, "Understanding the Book of Mormon", Grant Hardy writes about the connection between Abinadi and Moses.

The tale of Abinadi includes a number of parallels to the Exodus story, beginning with God's command "Go forth and say unto this people, 'Thus saith the Lord...'" (Mosiah 11:20). The injunction to "say (un)to [someone], 'Thus saith the Lord'" is fairly common in the Hebrew Bible, where it recurs more than fifty times, but the first - and most memorable - usages are in the story of Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh at Exodus 4:22, 8:1, 20, and 9:13. Although King Noah may unwittingly play the part of Pharaoh, Mormon recognizes the pattern and narrates accordingly, though it was God himself who first spoke to Abinadi in the same language he had used long before with Moses. It appears that both Mormon and God want us to perceive Abinadi's preaching not just as doctrinal discourse but as a reenactment of sacred drama - Abinadi is a New Moses, giving the Law once again (as when he recites the Ten Commandments) and standing up to a recalcitrant, faithless ruler. The verbal correspondences become more distinctive as the story progresses, though it adds yet another layer of complexity to note that the narrator never reports God's words directly; we always hear them as quoted by Abinadi

Hardy then goes on to give many examples of textual connections. Given the uniqueness of many of the shared phrases between the Exodus and the Abinadi story and sermon, I think they are significant. I cannot go into the same amount of detail as Hardy, but will just list the shared phrases or themes here

• "shall know that I am the Lord" (Mosiah 12:3) is a key phrase in Exodus
• "a jealous God, visiting the iniquities" (Mosiah 11:22) only occurs in the Abinadi story in the Book of Mormon and as part of the Ten Commandments in the Bible
• "Who is Abinadi, that I..." (Mosiah 11:27) reminds us of Pharaoh's "who is the Lord, that I..." in Exodus 5:2
• hardened hearts (Mosiah 11:29) is a common concept in the Book of Mormon but in the Bible it is ovewhelmingly associated with Pharaoh
• The Lord distinctly commands Abinadi to "stretch forth his hand" (Mosiah 12:2) as a prophetic gesture as he does five times in the Moses/Pharaoh story
• threats of hail, east wind, insects and pestilance in Mosiah 12:6-7 remind us of the plagues over Egypt

Then, in what may seem an effort to remove all doubt that these connections are intentional, Mormon narrates about Abinadi that

his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses' did while in the Mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord (Mosiah 13:5)

It is hard to tell how obvious these parallels were as they happened or to what degree Mormon creatively connected the words and events in his abridgement. In any case, they are quite interesting. Hardy does not really attempt to provide an explanation or speculate about why Mormon/Abinadi/God would draw these parallels. But I like to speculate, so here goes...

Lately I have read a bit about the old Jewish idea about the Messiah as a second Moses. See this article, for instance. Many Christian scholars also see these parallels between Moses and Christ. They are also present in the Book of Mormon around the time of Christ's coming to earth, see this blog post.

In another previous blog post, I noted that the first half of Abinadi's sermon is about Moses and the old law. Note that all the parallels to Pharaoh/Exodus are in Mosiah 11-13. Then, at a transition point in Mosiah 13:31, the second half of the sermon (Mosiah 14-16) is all about Christ, the second Moses, and salvation through Him. This makes me wonder if the Messiah as second Moses tradition is older than 600 BC and the Book of Mormon prophets had it. Perhaps this tradition is basically as old as Moses because he said himself that

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers (Deuteronomy 18:15)

Compare with 1 Nephi 10:4, where Nephi talks about his father's prophecies

Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world.

This sounds like a reference to Deuteronomy and Lehi clearly understood this prophet to be the Messiah. When Christ is among the Nephites he identifies himself as that prophet.

Behold, I am he of whom Moses spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me (3 Nephi 20:23)

Realizing that the Nephites probably had this understanding of the Messiah as a second Moses, it is interesting to note that Abinadi's sermon was split into a first part about the first Moses and a second part about the second Moses the way he did. Thus all the references to Moses in the first half of his talk, both the Exodus and the Law, make sense. I don't think the point with these parallels was to just compare Abinadi with Moses. Abinadi is there to point the way from the first Moses to the second Moses. 

But one may wonder, why Abinadi and his sermon? It started with a question from King Noah's priests about the meaning of a scripture in Isaiah. What does Isaiah have to do with all this? I don't know if this scripture triggered Abinadi's choice/inspiration to give the sermon the way he did, or if it was the fact that King Noah's priests told him that they taught the people to live the law of Moses. Perhaps both? In the Isaiah scripture that they queried him about, we read:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation (Isaiah 52:7 / Mosiah 12:21)

Two keywords in bold: Mountains can lead our thoughts to Mount Sinai, where Moses stood. Abinadi seizes the opportunity to ask if they think salvation comes through the Law of Moses. When they respond that they think it does, Abinadi explains how the first Moses and the Law merely represented "types of things to come" (Mosiah 13:31) and went on to talk about the second Moses, whose feet would stand on Mount Zion and publish salvation. 

I'm still not sure if I should credit Mormon or Abinadi or both for this brilliant allusion to the idea of a first and second Moses in this story and sermon, but in the end I believe the Book of Mormon is the inspired word of God and that he has left an abundance of treasures for us to find in the scriptures as we study.

Redeemer - kinsman -- Part 2

In part 1, we saw how Lehi talked about a "Redeemer of the world", an idea that seems to fly in the face of the Old Testament tradition of the redeemer only redeeming his kin. What Lehi had understood, however, was that Jesus Christ is our brother, regardless of nationality and that everyone who repents is of the House of Israel, an understanding not all Jews at his time or later shared.

Still, the Book of Mormon is consistent with the idea of Redeemer as a kinsman, most notably through the expression "redeem his people". Even though it is consistent with the kinsman-redeemer idea, the expression is not found in the Old Testament and only once in the New Testament (in Luke 1:68 when Zacharias can finally talk again and starts praising the Lord). In the Book of Mormon, this expression is found 12 times.

The closest we get to "redeem his people" in the Old Testament is Isaiah 52:9

the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem

This is from the passage that King Noah's priests ask Abinadi about. Abinadi keeps quoting and paraphrasing this Isaiah passage throughout his sermon and his sermon accounts for 5 of those 12 "redeem his people" occurrences in the Book of Mormon. But according to Abinadi, not only Isaiah, but Moses in particular, said that "God should redeem his people".

For behold, did not Moses prophesy unto them concerning the coming of the Messiah, and that God should redeem his people? (Mosiah 13:33)

I searched the 5 books of Moses and could not find the word redeem used in this sense. It is only used in conjunction with the Jewish law regarding obligations of the kinsman or to describe how God redeemed his people out of Egypt. Either Abinadi is seeing these as types for the redemption through Messiah or there are actual more direct prophecies about this from Moses that have become lost. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter is the case. 

Another aspect of the use of "Redeemer" in the Book of Mormon is something that connects to Job in the Old Testament. We don't know exactly when Job was written, but chronologically at least it is the first time "Redeemer" is used in a Messianic sense. 

25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God (Job 19:25-26)

Job's connotation, that being redeemed is to see God, is a common meaning in the Book of Mormon too. Here are some examples

Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men. And thou hast beheld in thy youth his glory. (2 Nephi 2:3-4)

Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you. (Ether 3:13)

the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory (2 Nephi 1:15) 

But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord. (Helaman 14:17)

This is not the first time I have observed or been informed about Book of Mormon terms being consistent with the ancient Hebrew understanding, but in subtle ways as to indicate that the Book of Mormon prophets had an understanding that reflect ancient ideas that our current Bibles have only left traces of.