Mercy is associated with...

I'm studying references to "mercy" in the Book of Mormon.  In my last post, I looked at 5 references to "the arm of mercy."

In this post, I've compiled a list of attributes mentioned in association with mercy.  I've noticed that God's "mercy" is often mentioned in a list of other attributes. Before you look at this list, ask yourself which attributes you might think are most often connected with God's mercy.

In the list below, I've highlighted attributes which show up in more than one list, and italicized attributes which only show up once.

Passages containing lists about attributes of God which include mercy

"through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things" (Mosiah 5:15)
"by the mercy and power of God" (Alma 5:4)
"have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them?" (Alma 5:6)
"the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth." (Alma 5:48)
"if it had not been for his matchless power, and his mercy, and his long-suffering towards us" (Alma 9:11)
"the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, equity, and truth, full of patience, mercy, and long-suffering," (Alma 9:25)
"who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men?" (Alma 26:16)
"he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation" (Alma 26:35)
"that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also" (Alma 42:15)
"let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full sway in your heart" (Alma 42:30)
"according to the mercy, and the justice, and the holiness which is in Christ" (3 Nephi 26:3)
" the mercies and the long-suffering of the Lord" (Mormon 2:12)
"his justice and mercy" (Mormon 6:22)
"may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life" (Moroni 9:25)
"thy power, and goodness, and mercy" (1 Nephi 1:14)
"through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah" (2 Nephi 2:8)
"the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God" (2 Nephi 2:12)
"O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!" (2 Nephi 9:8)
"his greatness, and his grace and mercy" (2 Nephi 9:53)
"his justice, and power, and mercy" (2 Nephi 11:5)
"he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy" (Jacob 4:10)

Mercy is associated with...

• justice x 8
• long-suffering x 7
• grace x 5
• wisdom x 4
• power x 3
• truth x 2
• equity x 1
• patience x 1
• understanding x 1 
• goodness x 1
• greatness x 1
• holiness x 1
• hope of his glory x 1
• sufferings and death x 1
• merits x 1
• the showing his body unto our fathers x 1

Conclusions

Should we be surprised that God's mercy is most often associated with His justice? Or that long-suffering, grace, wisdom, power, and truth show up more than once on this list? I'm not sure any of those findings surprise me too much. It seems that studying each of these concepts in more detail would likely enhance my understanding of His mercy, too.  

Keeping track of the timeline

Many posts have been written about the internal consistency of the Book of Mormon. Those who believe that a poor young farmer invented it and dictated it at record speed without notes or manuscript, would need to answer why he made it so complicated for himself. A collection of revelations of the type "thus saith the Lord" should do. But in addition to the theology, we get complex interwoven stories, about 200 personal names, a consistent geography with an additional 100 names, internal references and a timeline. Some examples of the latter are given in this post. We have seen some examples of long side stories resuming. Another one of those is the flashback to the Lamanite mission of the Sons of Mosiah. In Alma 16:21

thus ended the fourteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi.

In the next chapter, Alma meets the sons of Mosiah. In 17:4

And they had been teaching the word of God for the space of fourteen years among the Lamanites

This is consistent with Mosiah 28, where the Sons of Mosiah leave on a mission to the Lamanites, right before the start of the reign of the judges in Mosiah 29, i.e. the first year. In Alma 17, when Alma meets his old friends, the flashback starts and we follow them on their mission to the Lamanites. This story is told over 10 chapters and in Alma 27, we get a second account of their meeting. After that, in Alma 28:7:

And thus endeth the fifteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi

Since the fifteenth year ends after they meet and the fourteenth year ends before they meet, this is all consistent, but due to the flashback, these two are 12 chapters apart. In order to keep the timeline straight, the author needs to not only know what happened in previous chapters but when.

Some other examples:

Mosiah's reign

Mosiah 6:4: 

And Mosiah began to reign in his father’s stead. And he began to reign in the thirtieth year of his age, making in the whole, about four hundred and seventy-six years from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem

Then 33 years later in Mosiah 29:46

And it came to pass that Mosiah died also, in the thirty and third year of his reign, being sixty and three years old; making in the whole, five hundred and nine years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem

These are not numbers just thrown out there. Anything else in Mosiah 29 would make it inconsistent with Mosiah 6.

The reign of judges

The reign of judges started in Mosiah 29 and with it a new time reckoning. Mosiah 29:46:

making in the whole, five hundred and nine years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem

So the reign of the judges started 509 years after Lehi left Jerusalem. Then in 3 Nephi 1:1, 80 chapters later:

Now it came to pass that the ninety and first year [of the judges] had passed away and it was six hundred years from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem

509+91=600

Mormon's age

4 Nephi 1:48

when three hundred and twenty years had passed away, Ammaron, being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were sacred

Mormon 1:2

about the time that Ammaron hid up the records unto the Lord, he came unto me, (I being about ten years of age…)

So Mormon was about 10 years old when 320 years had passed, and in Mormon 2:2

In my sixteenth year… 326 years had passed

And it adds up again. It always does. The Book of Mormon authors have been thorough with their time-keeping. Or was it just Joseph Smith making this up without notes or manuscript? Ummm, no!

Mormon and the Nephite records

I'm trying to set the record straight (pun intended) for myself with respect to Mormon's dealings with the Nephite records. Writing some sort of timeline is helpful:

About 310 AD: Mormon is born probably somewhere in the land northward, which usually is not part of the Book of Mormon narrative. We know little of his background other than his father's name also being Mormon

About 320 AD: The last record keeper, Ammoron, apparently not a relative of Mormon, gives the 10-year old boy an important message: When he is about 24, he needs to go to the hill Shim where all the Nephite records are hidden, retrieve the plates of Nephi and make a record.

About 345 AD: Mormon retrieves the plates of Nephi in the hill when his armies are close to the site. He is about 35 years old, 11 years older than he was supposed to be when getting the records. Warfare has probably prevented him until this time. He makes a record on the plates, even "a full account" (Mormon 2:17-18). Note: This is not the account we have in the Book of Mormon today

About 384-385 AD: Mormon is now about 74 years old. It is just before the final battle between the Nephites and Lamanites. Mormon creates a new record (plates of Mormon) on which he engraves an abridgment of the plates of Nephi before he makes his own account and then hands the plates to his son, Moroni. His own account on the "few" plates (Mormon 6:6) he made seems to be a shorter version than the one on the plates of Nephi (Mormon 2:18).

What seems to also have happened in the meantime, between 345 and 384, is that he retrieved all of the Nephite records from the hill, Shim. In 345 he only took the plates of Nephi and left the rest there. But in 384, he says that he had

been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.

Since Lamanites have captured all the lands south of Cumorah, Mormon must have taken the records out of Shim before the Lamanites possessed that part of the land. Now everything, except the plates of Mormon is hidden in Cumorah instead.

When Mormon has abridged about half of the Nephite record, he discovers the small plates of Nephi (see Words of Mormon 1:3). Then he attaches them to the plates of Mormon (somehow?). This could indicate that he hadn't had the plates for very long or at least hadn't had the time in the middle of warfare to look through all of them, or perhaps there really just was a very large amount of records. As they now spent years gathering the people for the last battle, he had some time on his hands and it seems to be the time period where he is making this abridgment. At this time, Mormon has already lived a long life and "witnessed almost all the destruction of [his] people" (Words of Mormon 1:1).

400 AD: The next thing we know is Moroni finishing his father's record, telling us that 400 years have passed and Mormon has died sometime after the last battle at Cumorah We don't know exactly when, but at least we know he died sometime between age 75 and 90.

A few notes:

• Mormon was only 10 years old when he received instructions about the Nephite records, but the Book of Mormon (in the Book of Mormon) was probably written when he was more than 70 years old.
• Mormon made two accounts: One on the plates of Nephi, which we don't have, one on the plates he made himself which contain the abridgment from the plates of Nephi. Like Nephi himself, he first made a larger account, then a smaller account, and we only have the smaller.
• It sounds like Mormon has a lot of records in addition to the plates of Nephi and the plates he made. We learn from Helaman 3:15 that "there are many books and many records of every kind, and they have been kept chiefly by the Nephites." Helaman 3 talks about the people "who were in the land northward" (verse 9), so it seems that the many books and records are kept by the people there. It is worth noting that the hill, Shim, where the records were hidden, is in the land northward.