Gospel Doctrine, Lesson 2: All Things According to His Will, 1 Nephi 1-7

#1 J. W. Jack noted in 1938 that excavations have shown a closer connection with the land of the Pharaohs that was suspected.Recently found ivories, seals, inscriptions, and the preliminary study of mounds throughout the land all tell the same story: overwhelming and unexpected preponderance of Egyptian influence, to the equally surprising exclusion of influences from Babylonia and Assyria...Elephantine papyri tell us another thing that scholars never dreamed of and which they were at first most reluctant to believe, namely, that the colonies of Jewish soldiers and merchants were entirely at home in upper Egypt, where they enjoyed free practice of their religion. The ties between Palestine and Egypt were, moreover, of a very long standing, centuries of a common Hebrew-Egyptian environment being necessary to produce the permeation of Egyptian modes of thought and expression into Hebrew [A] near contemporary of Lehi can boast, behold, are not the Ethiopian, the Syrian, and all foreigners alike instructed in the language of Egypt? For centuries it was the custom of the princes of Syria to send their sons to Egypt to be educated. (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, 9-11) #2 The discovery of the Elephantine documents in 1925 showed that colonies of Jews actually did flee into the desert in the manner of Lehi, during his lifetime, and for the same reasons; arriving in their new home far up the Nile, they proceeded to build a replica of Solomons Temple, exactly as Lehi did upon landing in the New World. Both of these oddities, especially the latter, were once considered damning refutations of the Book of Mormon. (Hugh Nibley, The Prophetic Book of Mormon, 388) #3 The first three verses of 1 Nephi, sharply set off from the rest of the text, are a typical colophon, a literary device that is highly characteristic of Egyptian compositions. Typical is the famous Bremer -Rhind Papyrus, which opens with a colophon containing (1) the date, (2) the titles of Nasim, the author, (3) the names of his parents and a word in praise of their virtues, with special mention of his fathers prophetic calling, (4) a curse against anyone who might take the book away,.Compare this with Nephis colophon: (1) his name, (2) the merits of his parents, (3) a solemn avowal (corresponding to Nasims curse) that the record is true, and the assertion, I make it with mine own handan indispensable condition of every true colophon, since the purpose of a colophon is to establish the identity of the actual writer-down...of the text. Egyptian literary writings regularly close with the formula iw-f-pw thus it is, and so it is. Nephi ends the main sections of his book with the phrase, And thus it is, Amen. (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, 17)

#4 Why doesnt it come right out and say that Lehi saw God, rather than saying that he thought he saw God? The answer is simple. In order to avoid even the slightest chance of using the name of God inappropriately, ancient prophets sometimes used the polite indirect reference rather than using God outright. (David Ridges, The Book of Mormon Made Easier book 1, 11) #5 [I] was once greatly puzzled over the complete absence of Baal names from the Book of Mormon. By what unfortunate oversight had the authors...failed to include a single name containing the element Baal, which thrives among the personal names of the Old Testament?...It happens that for some reason or other the Jews at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. would have nothing to do with Baal names. An examination of Elephantine name lists shows that the change of Baal names, by substitution, is in agreement with Hoseas foretelling that they should be no more used by the Israelites, and consequently it is most interesting to find how the latest archaeological discoveries confirm the Prophet, for out of some four hundred personal names among the Elephantine papyri not one is compounded of Baal. Since Elephantine was settled largely by Israelites who fled from Jerusalem after its destruction, their personal names should show the same tendencies as those in the Book of Mormon. (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, 33-34) #6 One serious objection to using Book of Mormon names as philological evidence must not be passed by without an answer. Upon seeing these strange words before him, how could the illiterate Joseph Smith have known how to pronounce them? And upon hearing them, how could his halfeducated scribe have known how to write them down phonetically? Remember, these names are not translations into English like the rest of the book but remain bits of the authentic Nephite language. Between them, the guesses of the prophet as to pronunciation and the guesses of Oliver Cowdery as to transcription would be bound to make complete havoc of the original titles. Only there was no guessing. According to David Whitmer and Emma Smith...Joseph never pronounced the proper names he came upon in the plates during the translation but always spelled them out. Hence there can be no doubt that they are meant as they stand to be as accurate and authentic as it is possible to render them in our alphabet. (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, 31) #7 Elder H. Ross Workman of the Seventy explained that murmuring consists of three steps, each leading to the next in a descending path to disobedience. First, when people murmur they begin to question. They question first in their own minds and then [plant] questions in the minds of others. Second, those who murmur begin to rationalize and excuse themselves from doing what they [have] been instructed to do...Thus they [make] an excuse for disobedience. Their excuses lead to the third step: Slothfulness in following the commandment. The Lord has spoken against this attitude in our day. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned (D&C 58:29) I invite you to focus on the commandment from living prophets that bothers you the most. Do you question whether the commandment is applicable to you? Do you find ready excuses why you cannot now comply with the commandment? Do you feel frustrated or irritated with those who remind you of the commandment? Are you slothful in keeping it? Beware of the deception of the adversary. Beware of murmuring. (CR, Oct. 2001)

Some other interesting tid bits:

What astonishes the western reader is the miraculous effect of Nephis oath on Zoram, who upon hearing a few conventional words promptly becomes tractable, while as for the brothers, as soon as Zoram made an oath unto us that he would tarry with us from that time forth.our fears did cease concerning him. (1 Ne 4:35,37) The reaction of both parties make sense when one realizes that the oath is the one thing that is most sacred and inviolable among the desert people and their descendants: Hardly will an Arab break his oath, even if his life be in jeopardy, for there is nothing stronger, and nothing more sacred than the oath among the nomads, and even the city Arabs, if it be exacted under special conditions.But not every oath will do. To be most binding and solemn an oath should be by the life of something, even if it be but a blade of grass. The only oath more awful than that by my life or (less commonly) by the life of my head is the wa hayat Allah by the life of God, or as the Lord liveth,. Today it is glibly employed by the city riff raff, but anciently it was an awful thing, as it still is among the desert people. So we see that the only way that Nephi could possibly have pacified the struggling Zoram in an instant was to utter the one oath that no man would dream of breaking, the most solemn of all oaths to the Semite: As the Lord liveth, and as I live! (1 Ne 4:32) (Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 104-5)

To an Arab, My father dwelt in a tent says everything. The present inhabitants of Palestine, writes Canaan, like their forefathers, are of two classes: dwellers in villages, and cities, and the Bedouin.. An ancient Arab poet boasts that his people are the proud, the chivalrous people of the horse and camel, the dwellers-in-tents, and no miserable ox-drivers. Casual travelers in the Orient, who have seen only the filthy, wretched tents of the tribeless gypsy Bedouins...would be surprised, perhaps, at the spaciousness and simple luxury in the tent of a great desert sheikh. So with the announcement that his father dwelt in a tent, Nephi serves notice that he had assumed the desert way of life, as perforce he must for his journey. Any easterner would appreciate the significance and importance of the statement, which to us seems almost trivial. (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, 51-2)

As to the direction taken by Lehis party the Book of Mormon is clear and specific. He took what we now know to have been the only possible way out, what with immediate danger threatening from the north, and the eastern and western lands held by opposing powers on the verge of war. (Ibid., 49)

Though it sounds simple enough when we read about it, it was almost as great a feat for Nephi to make a bow as it was for him to build a ship, and he is justly proud of his achievement. According to the ancient Arab writers, the only bow-wood obtainable in all Arabia was nab wood that grew only amid the inaccessible and overhanging crags of Mount Jasum and Mount Azd, which are situated in the very region where, if we follow the Book of Mormon, the broken bow incident occurred. How many factors must be correctly conceived and correlated to make the apparently simple story of Nephis bow ring true! The high mountain near the Red Sea at a considerable journey down the coast, the game on the peaks, hunting with bow and sling, the finding of bow-wood viewed as something of a miracle by the partywhat are the chances of reproducing such a situation by mere guess work? (Ibid., 61)

As his first act once his tent had been pitched for his first important camp, Lehi built an altar of stones, and made an offering unto the Lord, and gave thanks to the Lord (1 Ne 2:7). ...This is what the Arabs call a dhavihat-alkash, a sacrifice to celebrate the successful return of warriors, hunters, and raiders to the camp. This sacrifice, writes Jaussen, is always in honor of an ancestor, and Nephi twice mentions the tribal ancestor Israel in his brief account. In the best desert manner Lehi, immediately after the thanksgiving rites, fell to examining the spoils (1 Ne 5:10) St. Nilus, in the oldest known eyewitness account of life among the Arabs of Tih, says, they sacrifice on altars of crude stones piled together. ...Lehis was such an altaran altar of stones, which is not the same thing as a stone altar. Such little heaps of stones, surviving from all ages, are still to be seen throughout the south desert. (Ibid.,
62-3)

It was only after they reached the seashore, [Nephi] says, that his people were able to make fires without danger, for the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire. I remember well, writes Bertram Thomas, taking part in a discussion upon the unhealthiness of campfires by night; we discontinued them forthwith in spite of the bitter cold. Major Cheesmans guide would not even let him light a tiny lamp in order to jot down star reading, and they never dared build a fire on the open plain where it would attract the attention of a prowling raiding party over long distances and invite a night attack. A lonely life it is, writes Philby, ...a life of constant fear;...hunger is the rule of the desert. Hunger, danger, loneliness, fearLehis people knew them all. (Ibid., 63-5)

Is it any wonder that Laman and Lemuel worked off their pent-up frustration by beating their younger brother with a stick when they were once hiding in a cave? Every free man in the East carries a stick, the immemorial badge of independence and of authority; and every man asserts his authority over his inferiors by his stick, which shows that the holder is a man of position, superior to the workman or day-labourers. The government officials, superior officers, tax-gatherers, and schoolmasters use this short rod to threatenor if necessary to beattheir inferiors, whoever they may be. The usage is very ancient. (Ibid., 69-70)

All that saved Nephis life on one occasion was the pleading of a daughter of Ishmael and her mother another authentic touch, since the proud Semite may yield only to the entreaties of a woman without losing face. Burton recalls how even robbers will spare a victim who appeals to them in the name of his wife, the daughter of his uncle. Through it all, Laman, as the eldest son, is the nastiest actor: When only one boy is in the family he is the tyrant, and his will dominates over all. So we see Laman still thinking to dominate over all and driven mad that a younger brother should show superior talents. The rivalry between the sons of a sheikh often leads to bloody tragedies in the sheikhs household, and Nephi had some narrow escapes. (Ibid., 70)

Why...if there was no power to compel them, did not Laman and Lemuel simply desert the camp and go off on their own?... Fear and greed. To be without tribe or family is to forfeit ones identity in the earth; nothing is more terrible than to be cut off, and that is exactly the fate that is promised Laman and Lemuel if they rebel (1 Ne 2:21). Within his own country, says an Arab proverb, the Bedouin is a lion; outside of it he is a dog. (Ibid., 71)

Hebraisms: sets of words or phrases that appear in English but with Hebrew-like construction One of the most common Hebraisms is the cognate accusative, in which Hebrew verbs and their related nouns are used in the same phrase, something writers try to avoid in English. Old Testament examples...are bloom blossoms (Numbers 17:8); sacrificed sacrifices (1 Samuel 11:15); ...and preach the preaching (Jonah 3:2). Book of Mormon examples include curse...with a curse (1 Nephi 2:23); dreamed a dream (1 Ne 3:2); work a...work (1 Ne 14:7); build buildings (2 Ne 5:15); die a death (Alma 12:16). These and many other examples corroborate the fact that the Book of Mormon originated from ancient Semitic cultures and languages.

The phrase a river of water is another internal evidence that the Book of Mormon account is a translation of an ancient record which originates in the area of the Holy Land. In that arid country, there are many rivers which are usually dry river beds and are commonly called wadis. Here, Nephi indicates that the river actually has water flowing in it at the time they camp by it. (See 1 Ne 2:6) (Ridges, The Book of Mormon Made Easier, 15)

Nicholson notes that the very best oriental poetry contains much that to modern taste is absolutely incongruous with poetic style. Their finest pictures...often appear uncouth or grotesque, because without an intimate knowledge of the land and people it is impossible for us to see what the poet intended to convey, or to appreciate the truth and beauty of its expression. One is constantly coming upon strange little expressions that recall the Book of Mormon. Thus the non-biblical use of white as the equivalent of delightsome in the Book of Mormon strongly suggest the Arabic alhasan waI-biyad a very early expression, while the designation of the sea by the earliest Arab poet as the ocean spring or fountain immediately recalls the term used by Lehis wanderers, the fountain of the Red Sea, and solves a knotty problem with a single cut. (Hugh Nibley, The Prophetic Book of Mormon, 105)

(Charts from: Charting the Book of Mormon, by Welch)

MURMURINGS OF LAMAN & LEMUEL Target of Complaint Lehi Reference 1 Nephi 2:11-12 1 Nephi 3:5,28 1 Nephi 17:20-21,49 1 Nephi 16:3 1 Nephi 16:18-20 1 Nephi 17:17-18 2 Nephi 1:26 2 Nephi 1:25; 5:3-4 1 Nephi 3:31 1 Nephi 4:4
See Charting the Book of Mormon, by Welch

Reason for Complaint commandment to leave Jerusalem commandment to return for plates of brass hardship Nephi explains Lehis vision and condemns wickedness Nephi breaks bow Nephi builds a ship Nephi rebukes them Nephi rules over them difficulty in obtaining the plates of brass difficulty in obtaining the plates of brass
See Gospel Doctrine Teachers Manual

Nephi

Lord

COMPARISON OF RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES Nephi 1:1 2:16 2:16, 19 3:7 3:15 4:1,3 Knew he had goodly parents Believed all the words spoken by his father Went to the Lord for understanding Was determined to go and do what the Lord commanded Refused to return without the records Knew that the Lord was mightier than Laban Laman and Lemuel 2:11 Murmured against their father 2:13 Did not believe all of Lehis words 2:12 Knew not the dealings of...God 3:5 Complained that the Lord had asked a hard thing 3:14 Wanted to give up after one try 3:31 Doubted that the Lord could deliver Laban to them

October 2009 General Conference

Safety for the Soul

Jeffrey R. Holland Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world that the Book of Mormon is true. Prophecies regarding the last days often refer to large-scale calamities such as earthquakes or famines or floods. These in turn may be linked to widespread economic or political upheavals of one kind or another. But there is one kind of latter-day destruction that has always sounded to me more personal than public, more individual than collectivea warning, perhaps more applicable inside the Church than outside it. The Savior warned that in the last days even those of the covenant, the very elect, could be deceived by the enemy of truth.1 If we think of this as a form of spiritual destruction, it may cast light on another latter-day prophecy. Think of the heart as the figurative center of our faith, the poetic location of our loyalties and our values; then consider Jesuss declaration that in the last days mens hearts [shall fail] them.2 The encouraging thing, of course, is that our Father in Heaven knows all of these latter-day dangers, these troubles of the heart and soul, and has given counsel and protections regarding them. In light of that, it has always been significant to me that the Book of Mormon, one of the Lords powerful keystones3 in this counteroffensive against latter-day ills, begins with a great parable of life, an extended allegory of hope versus fear, of light versus darkness, of salvation versus destructionan allegory of which Sister Ann M. Dibb spoke so movingly this morning. In Lehis dream an already difficult journey gets more difficult when a mist of darkness arises, obscuring any view of the safe but narrow path his family and others are to follow. It is imperative to note that this mist of darkness descends on all the travelersthe faithful and the determined ones (the elect, we might even say) as well as the weaker and ungrounded ones. The principal point of the story is that the successful travelers resist all distractions, including the lure of forbidden paths and jeering taunts from the vain and proud who have taken those paths. The record says that the protected did press their way forward, continually [and, I might add, tenaciously] holding fast to a rod of iron that runs unfailingly along the course of the true path.4 However dark the night or the day, the rod marks the way of that solitary, redeeming trail.

I beheld, Nephi says later, that the rod of iron was the word of God, [leading] to the tree of life; a representation of the love of God. Viewing this manifestation of Gods love, Nephi goes on to say: I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world, [who] went forth ministering unto the people. And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and they were healed by the power of the Lamb of God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out.5 Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.6 That phrasetaken from Moronis final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehis visionis a dying mans testimony of the only true way. May I refer to a modern last days testimony? When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words to comfort the heart of his brother: Thou hast been faithful; wherefore thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I, Moroni, bid farewell until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ.7 A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down, still visible. Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.8 Shortly thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators. As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatestand lasthour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless.

Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be houseless, friendless and homeless and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor.9 Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have diedfrom Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.10 I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day workand thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our timesuntil he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pagesespecially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readersif that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence,11 a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work. Witnesses, even witnesses who were for a time hostile to Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had handled the plates. They have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man, they declared. Wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.12 Now, I did not sail with the brother of Jared in crossing an ocean, settling in a new world. I did not hear King Benjamin speak his angelically delivered sermon. I did not proselyte with Alma and Amulek nor witness the fiery death of innocent believers. I

was not among the Nephite crowd who touched the wounds of the resurrected Lord, nor did I weep with Mormon and Moroni over the destruction of an entire civilization. But my testimony of this record and the peace it brings to the human heart is as binding and unequivocal as was theirs. Like them, [I] give [my name] unto the world, to witness unto the world that which [I] have seen. And like them, [I] lie not, God bearing witness of it.13 I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my last days, but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days. My witness echoes that of Nephi, who wrote part of the book in his last days: Hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and they teach all men that they should do good. And if they are not the words of Christ, judge yefor Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day.14 Brothers and sisters, God always provides safety for the soul, and with the Book of Mormon, He has again done that in our time. Remember this declaration by Jesus Himself: Whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived15and in the last days neither your heart nor your faith will fail you. Of this I earnestly testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1. See Matthew 24:24; see also Joseph SmithMatthew 1:22. 2. Luke 21:26. 3. See History of the Church, 4:461. 4. 1 Nephi 8:30. 5. 1 Nephi 11:25, 2728, 31. 6. Moroni 10:32. 7. Ether 12:3738; see also D&C 135:5. 8. See History of the Church, 6:600. 9. Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 4:539. 10. George Cannon, quoted in The Twelve Apostles, in Andrew Jenson, ed., The Historical Record, 6:175. 11. 1 Peter 2:8. 12. The Testimony of Three Witnesses, Book of Mormon. 13. The Testimony of Eight Witnesses, Book of Mormon; emphasis added. 14. 2 Nephi 33:1011; emphasis added. 15. Joseph SmithMatthew 1:37.