Historian of Religion, Science, and Biblical Interpretation
(I’m under a number of serious deadlines right now, and haven’t had time to update this much.) Today we get to meet Samuel, who prophecies of, well, 3 Nephi, basically.
Thought question: What does it mean that the Lamanite prophet Samuel has a name from the Hebrew scriptures? What does it say, potentially, about his parents, upbringing, etc.?
My notes on these chapters of Helaman. Continue reading
Today’s text includes a good bit of carry-over from the war chapters, while adding political intrigue and plots. Continue reading
These chapters (beginning in 39) are all focused on Corianton, who gets quite the paternal talk. Assuming that these chapters aren’t using Corianton merely as a framework to talk doctrine (i.e. why would this all be recorded, or is Mormon expanding it?), we can guess that Corianton hadn’t understood some things, such as the resurrection, justice, mercy, atonement. And granted, it’s not as if these are basic arithmetic, easily graspable.
What do we know about Corianton? Continue reading
The Book of Mormon has a variable pace. Occasionally, we skip through decades or even hundreds of years on a single page. Other times, like today, Mormon’s editing moves us into super slow motion, relatively speaking. What is probably only a few hours in real time for Alma to speak to his sons occupies six full chapters, which we slow down further by breaking it up into two weeks of study. (This will be significant for understanding Alma 43 onwards, and I’ll comment further there.)
I open today with the structure of the text we’re covering. Alma 30-34 are really one unit, which we break up. In the 1830 Book of Mormon, they constitute one chapter, Alma XVI. Presumably, we’re breaking these up because of their doctrinal nature; we want to slow down and spend time on them.
Today we cover Alma 32-34, which looks like thisin the rough big-picture outline.
32– Alma continues preaching at Antionum; “faith sermon” on the hill Onidah.
33– Crowd’s negative response; Alma continues his sermon.
34– Amulek takes over, and preaches to the crowd on the hill.
A candle inside the Holy Sepulcher
These two chapters are loaded. First, we encounter the third member of the Unholy Trinity of antichrists in the Book of Mormon. First was Sherem (Jacob 7), then Nehor (Alma 1), now Korihor. Continue reading
An example of Egyptian history-writing, the Merneptah stele. Public domain.
Historiography is the study of how history is written. For many people today, history has become journalistic, a simple retelling of “the facts about the past,” but history and history-writing is, in fact, far more complex than that. (See here for some Ensign articles on it.) Continue reading
These chapters are the violent dénoument of the Ammonihah story. Grant Hardy cogently points out how this story with Alma/Amulek parallels an earlier story with Abinadi. Continue reading
My picture, from the Kidron Valley.
Once again, the lesson and chapter divisions cut across the 1830/original chapter divisions, breaking up logical units. In particular, today’s chapter 12 extended into chapter 13:9, where it terminates appropriately with an “amen.” Then a new section began in 13:10-15:19. It is after 13:10 that Alma transitions into speaking about Melchizedek and high priests, which I shall take up next week. (Teaser: I think Alma’s invocation of high priests is a direct response to the objection that the tree of life is blocked by cherubim and a flaming sword.) Continue reading
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