“GIVE EAR TO MY WORDS”
Alma2‘s Words to Helman2: Alma 36:1-37:47
Alma2 Recounts His Conversion: Alma 36:1-30
Click here for Jared Anderson’s podcast that goes with this lesson. There is extra learning material there as well as an outline of how he presents the material. The audio for the podcast is now up.
Other accounts of this experience can be found in Mosiah 27:8-37; Alma 26:17-20; 38:6-8
As pointed out in last week’s post, but deserves revisiting:
Occasionally there is tension between Mormon’s desire to tell an edifying story and his commitments to accuracy. He believes the facts of history will demonstrate moral principles, but the messy details of the past can get in the way of clear, unambiguous lessons. Embedded documents offer one way of avoiding inconvenient truths while at the same time fulfilling his obligations as a historian. They allow him to present a few significant particulars without having to comment upon them directly.
[In the previous chapters and in this chapter, we have sermons] by Alma and Amulek, with the result that many of the poorer Zoramites repent and are consequently expelled from the city. They make their way to the land of Jershon, where they are welcomed and given land (Alma 32:1-5; 35:1-7). The Zoramites are so angered by the hospitality of the Nephites in Jershon that they form an alliance with the Lamanites to attack them (the very scenario that Alma’s preaching was intended to prevent). Next we read that “thus commenced a war betwixt the Lamanites and the Nephites…and account will be given of their wars hereafter” (Alma 35:13; note that the combined Zoramite/Lamanite forces are now simply referred to as “Lamanites”).
Mormon quickly observes that Alma and his companions returned home to Zarahemla and that their new converts were forced to take up arms to defend themselves (35:13), and then he begins a rather lengthy digression: “Now Alma, being grieved for the iniquity of his people, yea for the wars, and the bloodsheds and the contentions which were among the people, and having been to declare the word…among all the people in every city…therefore, he caused that his sons should be gathered together, that he might give unto them every one his charge” (35:5-16). After seven chapters copied from Alma’s personal record – consisting of Alma’s eloquent speeches of counsel to his three sons – Mormon tells us that Alma and his sons went out to preach again, and then he brings us back to the war that had begun so many pages earlier (Alma 43:3,4; notice again that the conflict has been reduced to Nephites and Lamanites, further obscuring the cause of the invasion).
In other words, Mormon inserts Alma’s instructions to his sons in the middle of the Zoramite War, where it represents a significant break in the narrative. But, since the war itself takes place entirely within the eighteenth year, with no discernible impact from the new round of preaching, Mormon could have recounted the Zoramite affair from the beginning to the end and then added Alma’s document without upsetting the chronology at all. In fact, under this arrangement, Alma’s teachings would have concluded his term as record keeper (Alma 44:24) and would have led quite naturally into his last words and death (Alma 45), the place where we typically would expect final words of fatherly wisdom (as in 2 Nephi 1-4). The surprising placement seems designed to disrupt a smooth reading of the Zoramite story, which, taken as a whole, did not go so well. By the time readers get back to the war, they may have forgotten the rather awkward truth that Alma’s preaching to the Zoramites not only did not prevent hostilities but was itself a major catalyst for the fighting (upon his return to the main narrative, Mormon quickly adds additional factors; Alma 43:5-8). Yet all the facts are there, even if the sequence of causation is obscured. Technically, Mormon acquitted himself as an honest historian, but he has also managed to divert our attention from some awkward details. (Grant Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon, Reader’s Guide, 148-150)
In a foot-note Grant Hardy states: One possible connection is that when Alma addresses his youngest son, Corianton, he speaks at length of death, judgment, and resurrection – issues that the rebellious Corianton had been worried about. This discourse is particularly poignant given that Mormon has placed it at the beginning of the Zoramite War; before the year is out, a large number of young men are going to be dead (Alma 44:21-24) (Hardy, Reader’s Guide, pg. 305, note 51)
Why would Mormon see a second version of Alma2‘s conversion narrative as contributing to our understanding? Grant Hardy notes:
Copying Alma’s account verbatim allows Mormon to claim historical specificity (i.e., this is how Alma actually came to understand his own experience, with no tendentious paraphrases or prejudicial phrasing on my part), spiritual immediacy (in one of the most compelling expositions of the effects of the atonement to be found anywhere in the Book of Mormon), and literary quality (as will be seen in the care with which Alma has structured his account). Alma 36 is a remarkable pice of writing and is not surprising that Mormon chose to embed it whole into his narrative.
[Alma 36] contains a vivid memorable account of conversion that completely overwhelms the rather generic doctrinal point (“trust in the Lord”) that it was intended to support. In addition, although it features the appearance of an angel and an earthquake, the focus is on Alma’s psychological state rather than on the miraculous nature of his experience; throughout the Book of Mormon angels are described in a fairly matter-of-fact manner. The heavenly messenger here does not symbolically or metaphorically stand in for something else; he is just part of the story, and that is at least part of what makes this a “realistic” or “history-like” narrative, despite its supernatural elements.
It is true that Mormon cold have communicated these ideas through a paraphrased rendition (as he did in Mosiah 27), but by presenting Alma’s testimony in full, we can appreciate its form as well as its content. Whether or not it represents valid evidence for ancient origins, Alma 36 does reflect a careful , deliberate arrangement of the story. (Grant Hardy, pg. 138, 139, 141)
36:2 “…remember the captivity of our fathers…” Compare to Alma 29:11, 12
36:3 The phrase “lifted up at the last day” appears at the beginning of Alma’s speech to Helaman. Alma then retells his own conversion story, in chiastic form to illustrate the point. The second appearance of the phrase “lifted up at the last day” near the end of his remarks, gives the speech a coherent focus. The phrase “lifted at the last day” occurs seven more times in the Book of Mormon. (Hardy, pg. 326, note 8)
36:9
It would be easy to become distracted by issues of fact and historicity, even apart from the appearance of an angel. One might casually regard this tale as a simple reworking of Paul’s transformation on the road to Damascus (though there are significant differences as well as similarities), or speculate on how it might reflect Joseph Smith’s own conversion experience, or observe how it mirrors other evangelical conversion narratives today, or note the presence of key phrases from the King James Bible. Latter-day Saints, however, have been eager to demonstrate that what makes this particular account remarkable – and distinct from the other retellings of Alma’s conversion story – is the way Alma 36 is organized chiastically (Hardy, pg. 139)
a) My son give ear to my words (v 1)
b) Keep the commandments and ye shall prosper in the land (v 1)
c) Do as I have done (v 2)
d) Remember the captivity of our fathers (v 2)
e) They were in bondage (v 2)
f) He surely did deliver them (v 2)
g) Trust in God (v 3)
h) Supported in trials, troubles and afflictions (v 3)
i) I know this not of myself but of God (v 4)
j) Born of God (v 5)
k) I sought to destroy the church (v 6-9)
l) My limbs were paralyzed (v 10)
m) Fear of the presence of God (v 14-15)
n) Pains of a damned soul (v 16)
o) Harrowed up by memory of sins (v 17)
p) I remembered Jesus Christ, a son of God (v 17)
p) I cried, Jesus, son of God (v 18)
o) Harrowed up by memory of sins no more (v 19)
n) Joy as exceeding as was the pain (v 20)
m) Long to be in the presence of God (v 22)
l) My limbs received strength again (v 23)
k) I labored to bring souls to repentance (v 24)
j) Born of God (v 26)
i) Therefore my knowledge is of God (26)
h) Supported under trials and troubles and afflictions (v 27)
g) Trust in him (v 27)
f) He will deliver me (v 27)
e) As God brought our fathers out of bondage and captivity (v 28-29)
d) Retain in remembrance their captivity (v 28-29)
The reversing, balanced halves indicate that Alma had spent some time and effort organizing his memories of an event twenty years earlier into a rhetorically compelling, aesthetically pleasing form. This experience obviously meant a great deal to him, and at the end of his career, when trying to provide guidance and counsel to his oldest son, he gives the story its most definitive, literary rendering. (Hardy, pg. 141)
John W. Welch of BYU, relates an experience he had with the distinguished general editor of the Anchor Bible series: “After Professor David Noel Freedman and I had read through Alma 36 together with the chiasmus in mind, he remarked to me, ‘Mormons are very lucky. Their book is beautiful.'” It was a kind and generous comment by a scholar who was willing to take a fresh look at someone else’s scripture. Whether Joseph Smith worked by craftiness, by genius, or by revelation, the Book of Mormon is a remarkable text, one that is worthy of serious study. It is better than it sounds. (John W. Welch, “What Does Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon Prove?” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997), 206 – cited in Hardy, pg. 273)
click here to read more about chiasmus
click here to read an article challenging the chiasmus found in the Book of Mormon
Thanks to Jared Anderson for the above links.
36:5 “…not of any worthiness of myself…” This is statement is in stark contrast to the standard narrative we often hear, in that Alma wasn’t “working’ to get an answer to a prayer.
36:14 “…the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul…” Occasionally one will hear, “How could God be all loving and still send people to hell?” Mormon theology clearly teaches us that we would be uncomfortable in the presence of God if we have lived an unrepentant life and would rather live apart from God.
36:18 Just as his conversion to Christianity marked a major turning point in his life, so also his appeal to Jesus in verse 18, is quite literally , the pivotal moment in his narrative. (Hardy pg. 141)
36:19 “a Son of God” vs “The Son of God” Why would Alma use the indefinite article “a” as opposed to the definite article “the”?
36:22 This is quoted exactly from 1 Nephi 1:8. This shows either Alma2‘s familiarity with the Small Plates or it was a common story that was repeated in Nephite culture.
John Welch’s observation that Alma 36:22 is an attributed quotation that replicated twenty-one words from 1 Nephi 1:8 exactly, means that Smith dictated the later citation before the original source of the quotation. (John W. Welch, “Textual Consistency,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS 1992),21-23 – cited in Hardy, pg. 321, note 18)
36:26 “…and have seen eye to eye…” Have seen eye to eye with whom?
36:27 “…God has delivered me from prison…” The story is found in Alma 14:26-29
It sounds as if Alma desperately wanted Helaman to take his words to heart, and [here] we get the most complete account of his conversion we have, as well as the one that focuses most intently on both the pains and joys that he felt. By contrast, we see only an abbreviated version in his words to his second son, Shiblon, along with an acknowledgment of Shiblon’s faithfulness and diligence (Alma 38:2-3 there is no similar praise for Helaman in chs. 36-37) (Hardy, pg. 143)
36:20 Direct quote from 1 Nephi 1:20 and repeat of what he said at the beginning of the chapter in vs. 1. This is a constant refrain in the Book of Mormon that is repeated some twenty times (with variations) – 1 Nephi 2:20,21; 4:14; 17:13; 2 Nephi 1:9; 4:4; 5:20; Jarom 1:9; Omni 1:6; Mosiah 1:7; 2:22; 2:31; Alma 9:13,14; 36:1; 36:30; 37:13; 38:1; 48:15; 48:25; 50:20
Alma’s public career begins with a war with the Amlicites (Alma 3:3) and it ends with a war with the Amlicites (Alma 44:21-22). In this context, Alma’s carefully recorded admonitions to his sons in his old age represent the distillations of a life-long struggle against a particular set of false ideas; it is no wonder that key passages highlight the need for repentance and the individualized nature of Christ’s atonement, as well as the certainty that all mankind will someday be raised from the dead to stand before God to be judged of their sins. (Hardy, pg. 308, note 28)
Alma2 Entrusts Helaman2 the Sacred Writings: Alma 37:1-19
Perhaps Alma had a premonition about the literary abilities of this particular son. Helaman seems to have gotten off to a reasonable start – at least Mormon gives him some credit when he inserts a headnote at the beginning of Alma 45: “the account of the people of Nephi…according to the record of Helaman, which he kept in his days” – but once he is swept up in the traumatic events of the Amalickiahite Wars as a major participant, it appears that he gets behind in his historiographical responsibilities. Consequently, rather than abridging Helaman’s record for the years 66-62 BC, Mormon instead has to piece together the sequence of events himself, based on the primary sources, mainly letters, that he had at hand. In other words, Helaman may have assembled notes and documents, but in the four years between the end of the war and his own death, when he was busy preaching and rebuilding the church (Alma 52:44-47), he apparently never got around to finishing his portion of the Large Plates of Nephi. (This would also explain why, contrary to convention in the Book of Mormon, Alma 45-62 was not made into a separate literary unit called “The first Book of Helaman” – it seems that the underlying source had been too meager and incomplete to stand on its own). Usually, a clear transition of record-keepers merits independent status as a separate book. We can see a deliberately demarcated transition at Alma 44:24, but Helaman2‘s actual contributions were probably minimal or fragmentary , like those of the record-keepers in the Book of Omni. The Book of Helaman, as another counterexample,was considered from the first to last as jointly authored by Helaman3 and his sons; see the headnote to to the book as well as Helaman 16:25, with a transition implied, rather than specified, in Helaman 3:37. Helaman is certainly an adequate letter writer, but the war chapters of the book of Alma, for which Helaman’s record would have been the source, have struck many readers as being relatively dry and uninspiring (though we shall see in Helaman Chapter 6, Mormon manages to make something wonderful of them).
A final indication of the of the unfinished nature of Helaman’s book is that he seems to have failed in his most important responsibility as record keeper – to ensure the smooth transmission of the plates in his possession. By this time in the Book of Mormon, we have seen numerous instances of how this was supposed to be done: before his death, Nephi entrusted his brother Jacob, with the words of counsel and warning (Jacob 1:1-5), and Jacob did the same with his own son (Jacob 7:27), as did Enos, Jarom, Omni, Amaron, Amaleki, Benjamin, Mosiah, and Alma. By contrast, Helaman dies before he makes the traditional and proper arrangements (presumably because he still had more work to do): “And Helaman died in the thirty and fifth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi. And it came to pass in the commencement of the thirty and sixth year…that Shiblon took possession of those sacred things which had been delivered unto Helaman by Alma” (Alma 62:52-63:1).
This is the only time in the Book of Mormon when the records go into probate, as it were, and a relative is forced to step in and take over the transmission process on his own authority. Mormon is quick to add that Helaman “was a just man, and he did walk uprightly before God, and he did observe to do good continually” (Alma 63:2), but it is hard to miss the implicit comparison a few verses later when Shiblon, though only an interim figure, still manages to get the pattern right: “it became expedient for Shiblon, to confer those sacred things, before his death, upon the son of Helaman, who was called Helaman, being called after the name of his father” (Alma 63:11). And again, for added emphasis: “these things were to be… handed down from one generation to another; therefore, in this year, they had been conferred upon Helaman [that is Helaman3], before the death of Shiblon” (Alma 63:13). Helaman’s son finally gets the records, but only after a detour through an uncle. Helaman2 may have been a good, even a great man, but he was not a great record keeper, and Mormon’s inclusion of letters at the end of the Book of Alma seems to be an attempt to fill in the historiographical gaps that Helaman had left. (Hardy, pg. 143,1440, and footnote 45, pg. 305)
37:1 Alma was entrusted with the plates in Mosiah 28:20
The rest of Alma’s lecture to Helaman is a charge to receive, safeguard, and update the sacred records in his possession, so it comes as something of a surprise when we learn some fourteen chapters later, after Alma’s death, that Helaman had not been his first choice to be the next keeper of the records (see Alma 50:37-38) (Hardy, pg. 143)
37:2 “…keep all these things sacred…” How has Alma been doing this? We often speak of the temple endowment as being “sacred not secret” meaning we don’t speak of the ceremony outside the temple. Is it safe to assume that those that kept the Nephite record, did so secretly, and did not speak of them, but only to a select few? Hmm….?
37:3 It is interesting that Alma refers to the Plates of Brass as scripture, but the Nephite record is not referred to as such.
37:4 The prophecy is contained in 1 Nephi 5:17-19
37:5 “…all the plates which do contain that which is holy writ.” Here, it alludes to the idea that the Nephite record was seen as scripture.
37:8, 9 Of what record and plates is Alma speaking? In Alma 18:36-38 and Alma 22:12-14 speak of Ammon and then Aaron expanding scripture “…[beginning] from the creation of Adam…” Are we to assume then that they were using the Plates of Brass exclusively or as Alma 18:38 suggests (“…he rehearsed unto them concerning the rebellions of Laman and Lemuel…”) that they also taught from the Nephite record? Obviously they wouldn’t have been lugging around the actual, original Plates of Brass or of Nephi. So they could have been rehearsing the stories from memory, or perhaps they carried with them small sections of the the Plates, written down (much like a Gideon Bible). Could the lost 116 page manuscript (The Book of Lehi) have contained some of the earlier parts of the Pentateuch?
37:9 Compare with Alma 29:14-15. It seems that even Alma is impressed with the success of the sons of Mosiah.
37:11 Of what mysteries is Alma speaking? Is he referring back to verse 10 regarding whether the records “will be a means of bringing many thousands of …Nephites…to the knowledge of their redeemer”?
37:14 This is an interesting “slide of hand” that Alma does here. In verse 1 it is Alma who commands Helaman to take the records (he doesn’t request that Helaman does it). However, in verse 14, it is now God that is is entrusting Helaman with the records, not Alma.
37:18, 19 “…he would reserve these things…they shall be preserved…” compare with verse 8 where Alma says God has “preserved” the records. How do these two different words carry a different meaning in the context of preserving/reserving the records?
37:20 “…I command you …keeping the commandments of God…” Kind of weird to command someone to keep a commandment. Did Alma run this by the Redundant Department of Redundancy?
Alma2 Tells Helaman2 of the Twenty-four Plates: Alma 37:21-31
These plates which contain a record of the Jaredites, were discovered by the people of Limhi (Mosiah 8:9; 28:11-19; Ether 1:1,-2). Notice that the indefinite article “a” was used for the record, not “the”, for there were other records of the Jaredites that were discovered (by the people of Zarahemla) that were written on a stone and given to Mosiah1 to translate (Omni 1:20).
37:21 The interpreters are first introduced in Mosiah 8:13 and Mosiah 18:20.
37:22 compare with Ether 11:12
37:23 It is unclear whether “Gazelem” is the name of the servant or the stone, but nothing further is known about either (Grant Hardy, The Book of Mormon, A Reader’s Guide, footnote pg. 358).
37:25 This reference is uncertain.
37:25 “…bring forth out of darkness unto light…” occurs only in two other places in the Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 3 and in Mormon 8. This is one of several phrases that occur almost exclusively in Mormon 8 and 2 Nephi 3
37:29 “Therefore, ye shall keep these secret plans…and only their wickedness and their murders, and their abominations shall ye make known unto them…” This sounds like Alma is a proponent of “faith-promoting history”.
37:30 see Ether 9:29; 11:5.
Alma2 Counsel Helaman2: Alma 37:32-37
The words of Alma’s as he is giving advice to his oldest son, Helaman, on the momentous occasion of his handing over the sacred records to the next generation. This transfer takes place at a time of national crisis, and there are indications elsewhere in the text that Alma has had concerns about this particular son, who is probably no longer a youth. The speech is also the first of three that Alma addresses to each of his sons the year before his death. At a higher narratological level, this quotation comes from a primary source document that was inserted by Mormon into a crucial juncture of his abridgment of Nephite history, between the preaching to the Zoramites that leads to a devastating war, and his account of the war itself. And finally, we will see Helaman putting his father’s advice into practice just a few years later, when he is placed in command of an army of two thousand young Ammonite soldiers, despite the fact that his prior experience has been as a church leader rather than as a military man. He reports to his superior, Captain Moroni, that “we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us” (Alma 58:10), and in the end Helaman and his troops enjoy astonishing success, surpassing even that of Moroni, a man who brought to the task an entire lifetime of military training and experience. The Book of Mormon is as complex, sometimes perplexing text, but it is worth considering how such a narrative can infuse the lives of believers with meaning (Hardy, pg. 273).
Alma2 Describes the Liahona as a Type: Alma 37:38-47
37:40 See 1Nephi 16:10, 16, 26-39; 18:12, 21
37:41 I wonder if it would read better like this: “Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means which did show unto them marvelous works, they were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased.”
[End of Alma2‘s Words to Helaman2: Alma 36:1-37:47]
Alma2‘s Words to Shiblon: Alma 38:1-15
38:3 See Alma 31:7; 35:14
38:4 Nothing more is know of these experiences.
38:6 “Born of God” occurs 9 times in the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 27:25,28; Alma 5:14; 22:15(Lamanite King); 36:5, 23, 24, 26, 38:6. It never occurs in the Old Testament and occurs 6 times in the New Testament ( all occurring in 1 John) (Hardy, note 29, pg. 302)
38:8 This same conversion story was just told to Helaman: Alma 36:6-24.
38:15 “Sit down in peace” and other variations i.e. “Sit down… in the kingdom of God/Heaven” originates with Matthew 8:11 and Luke 13:29, but the phrase is not pervasive in the Book of Mormon; rather, it seems to have been a favorite of Alma’s (Alma 5:24; 7:25; 29:17; 38:15) (Hardy, pg. 135)
Alma2‘s Words to Corianton: Alma 39:1-42:31
Corianton’s Sins: Alma 39:1-14
39:1 Why is he referring to the righteousness of only one of his sons and to which one is he referring? Alma 31:7 tells us that Helaman did not go with Alma to preach to the Zoramites. So, the son Alma is referring to must be Shiblon.
Grant Hardy notes:
Despite the fact that these words immediately follow Alma’s admonitions to his sons Helaman and Shiblon, only one brother – Shiblon – is held up as an example. Helaman’s character and behavior apparently did not merit the same unqualified approbation. This is so surprising in the context that when Oliver Cowdery took the dictation for the original manuscript, he twice mistakenly wrote the plural “brothers” in the passage before going back to cross out the superfluous “s” (See Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants in the Book of Mormon, Part Four (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2007), 2387-8) Cited in Hardy, pg. 304, not 44). But note that in 39:10, Alma urges Corianton to counsel with both his elder brothers; he seems to expect that Helaman will do fine from this point on.
Although Alma preached in at least five cities during the Nephite Reformation (Alma 4-16), we have extended reports – actually, embedded primary documents – for only three sermons: Zarahemla (whose situation was morally ambiguous), Gideon (clearly righteous, with the shortest discourse), and Ammonihah (obviously wicked, with the longest speech). The same number, sequence, and relative length appear again in Alma 36-42 in another series of primary sources – Alma’s words of counsel to his three sons. Helaman, with some evidences of moral ambiguity, comes first; then Shiblon, who is clearly righteous, gets the shortest discourse; and finally Corianton, who is reproved for his transgressions, receives the longest sermon. There is even considerable overlap in content between the messages that Alma delivered to the city of Ammonihah and to his third son: both focus on the themes of resurrection and redemption. Happily, however, Corianton, unlike Ammonihah, repents. [This] final observation [seems to show] that Alma, Mormon, or Joseph Smith have structured the first two-thirds of the Book of Alma according to a series of parallels (Hardy, pg. 304, note 44).
39:2 See Alma 31:7; 34:14
39:3 Hurray!! We get a woman mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon! Oh, wait…she’s a whore. Damn it!
39:5 “…save it be the shedding of innocent blood…” I wonder if there is a better way of framing sexual transgression. The following is link to a article by Michael Ash in Sunstone Magazine that looks at a way to interpret this scriptural passage differently than we normally do. Click here to read.
Click here to read an article looking at scriptural lessons on chastity. The part of the article that deals with Alma 39 starts on pg. 18.
Thanks to Jared Anderson for the above links.
39:9 “..cross yourselves…” This is a weird idiom that I have only seen used in the Book of Mormon. What does it mean?
39:9 The wicked “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” phrasing is found in both First Corinthians and Galatians ( 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; 15:50; Galatians 5:21). This expression is found in all three of Alma’s sermons given during the Nephite reformation. In the Book of Mormon the expression occurs nine times, six of which are spoken by Alma (and two other occurrences – within a single sentence – are in the words of his missionary companion Amulek): Mosiah 27:26; Alma 5:51; 7:14; 9:12; 11:37 (2x, Amulek), 39:9; 40:26; 3 Nephi 11:38 (Jesus).
39:11 “Harlots” Wait, there were more than just one? Geez.
The Mayans maintained several phallic religious cults, possibly involving homosexual temple prostitution. Aztec religious leaders were heterosexually celibate and engaged in homosexuality with one another as a religious practice, temple idols were often depicted engaging in homosexuality, and the god Xochipili (taken from both Toltec and Mayan cultures) was both the patron of homosexuals and homosexual prostitutes. The Inca sometimes dedicated young boys as temple prostitutes. The boys were dressed in girls clothing, and chiefs and headmen would have ritual homosexual intercourse with them during religious ceremonies and on holidays. The conquistadores were horrified by the widespread acceptance of homosexuality, pedophilia, pederasty, and pedophilia among Central and South American peoples, and used torture, burning at the stake, mass beheadings, and other means to stamp it out both as a religious practice and social custom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_prostitution
39:14 “…return unto them, and acknowledge your faults…” That would be incredibly hard to do.
Alma2 Teaches about Death and the Resurrection: Alma 39:15-19
Here we see, after Alma calling his son to repentance, he gives Corianton hope that forgiveness can come.
Great lesson. I really like the quotes that you bring into the lesson. And how you incorporate Grant Hardy’s ideas into the lesson. I love the idea of diving into the story and the translation of Mormon on the record. Thank you for another great lesson.
Thank you Jessica. Grant Hardy has made me fall in love with the Book of Mormon again. His insights bring out all kinds of internal consistencies within the Book of Mormon that I have never appreciated before. Despite all the problems with the anachronisms, etc. that all informed Mormons are aware of, Hardy’s scholarly, non-apologetic approach to the Book of Mormon leaves one asking, how did Joseph Smith come up with all of this?
… leaves one asking, how did Joseph Smith come up with all of this? Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, Ethan Smith, Solomon Spaulding, et al? Maybe?
The historical record we have just doesn’t point to that at all – Joseph staring into a hat dictating with his scribes writing – that’s what we consistently get.
We must consider the down-time, the time between translating sessions,(for example the period of time between when Martin Harris lost the 116 manuscript pages and when Smith was allowed to recommence his work, and, as reported by Oliver Cowdery, when Smith seemed to suffer from writer’s block and took extended walks to pray and prepare his mind.) These were instances where no one knows for certain what Smith was doing or possibly whom or what he was consulting. (It seems apparent that Smith used an older version of the King James Bible for portions of his translation since errors contained in this particular version were also included in the Book of Mormon.) Next, we must consider reports that on some occasions there was a barrier between scribe and Smith, and thus it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to witness Smith’s potential sources,(resources), etc. Finally, there was at least one incident (reported by Isaac Hale, Smith’s father-in-law–and admittedly–no fan of Smith) where Smith and scribe allegedly were not even in the same area during a translation that Hale claimed to have witnessed. (See An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins, Grant H. Palmer, and Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon. David Persuitte.)
I see what you are saying. What I am speaking of is not the over-arching narrative, but of the internal consistencies within the text itself. There are certain idioms that are only used by specific people in the Book of Mormon. That’s all I was saying.
The biggest problem I have with Grant Palmer’s hypothesis,is that there is just too much conjecture. What was Joseph doing as he was walking around in a melancholy state? I don’t know. No one knows. Regarding what Emma’s father said, I guess that could be true. I thought the story that he told was that Joseph wasn’t even in the same room as the plates, but they were outside. Regardless, as you pointed out, Isaac wasn’t a huge fan of Joseph. So, I have to look at that evidence a little more skeptically; I would like to see Isaac’s recollection corroborated by another source.
The other problem I have with Grant Palmer’s hypothesis is that the Book of Mormon, as he presents it, is a patch work of different things; part King James Bible with its mistakes, a bit of this and that. The Bible reads like a patch work, because it is. Luke and Matthew rely on Mark, etc. The Book of Mormon just doesn’t read like a patch-work. It flows. How did Joseph do that? I don’t know. I cannot explain it. Does that prove anything? Of course not. It just compels me to not throw the whole thing out as a pious fraud.
I guess I could be wrong.
On a different note, I hear you guys are coming over to Paul’s and Ang’s tomorrow. We are taking off around 10:00 so I think we will barely miss each other. I think it is the first time, in a long time we haven’t been in Utah at the same time. I was looking forward to a robust discussion with you; I am kind of bummed out.
…non-apologetic approach to the Book of Mormon leaves one asking, how did Joseph Smith come up with all of this?
I believe that “Occam’s Razor” applies here: the simplest explanation (without any leprechauns)is the most plausible and credible explanation, which is that, while composing the Book of Mormon, Smith obtained assistance from multiple sources, sources such as the book “View of the Hebrews” and the Bible, as well a from other writings available in the early 1800s. Several known individuals (Cowdery, Rigdon, et al) could have supplied him with additional input. And, perhaps, even more salient is that although Smith lacked education, he nevertheless possessed singular intelligence, a vivid imagination (according to his mother), charisma, and a notable talent for motivating others.
Theologically, there is nothing in the Book of Mormon that was not already part of mainstream Protestant thought and or doctrine during that era. So, rather than looking to the supernatural, we must instead look to the simplest and most reasonable explanation for Smith’s creation.
Without any leprechauns? Come on now. I don’t mind vigorous dialogue, but setting up a straw-man premise (and a disparaging one at that) does nothing to promote further dialogue.
Ok, then remove it from the reply.
Wiki used the term as part of its definition.
Possible explanations can get needlessly complex. It is coherent, for instance, to add the involvement of Leprechauns to any explanation, but Occam’s razor would prevent such additions, unless they were necessary.
Last post–no further dialog.
Brent
Sorry we’ve been on the road with a sketchy 3G network and only an IPhone to respond. When we finally got to the hotel room, I realized I had forgotten the lap-top in the car. Having just paid a tip for valet parking, I didn’t want to pay another one just so I could get the computer out.
I feel you deserve more than just a pithy response, so I will wait until I get home and can use more than my fat thumbs to type.
Brent,
We got in late last night, so sorry for the delayed response.
I decided to go read the wikepedia entry on Ockam’s razor, because I was concerned that what had been presented there was incorrect; to my surprise it is a well done, accurate entry.
One correction to (what I perceive) as your interpretation of Ockam’s razor and leprechauns: The point is not that Ockam’s razor does away with super-natural explanations, but the problem is if they are ADDED UNECESARILY to an otherwise simple hypothesis. Adding the leprechauns would be committing the fallacy of an ad-hoc explanation – which wikipedia does a great job of pointing out.
I think the cogent argument you are presenting would be better explained by the 18th century Scottish philosopher, David Hume’s argument against miracles. Which baisically is (and I am grossly summarizing it here) that miracles, by their very definition, are so unlikely to happen, that they don’t happen. So things such as the existence of God, or his involvement with the revelation of the Book of Mormon, become problamatic based on a philosophical world view; it has nothing to do with what the facts are presented as evidence for a hypothesis. If one does not believe God intervenes in such things, then one has to look for a naturalistic explanation. They have a philosophical bias to begin with. Saying that, I know Grant Palmer does believe in God based on his book “The Incomparable Jesus.” Never-the-less, his view of the Book of Mormon seems to be a re-packaging of Hume’s argument against miracles.
Less my explanation be interpreted as making an argument for the “God of the gaps”, let me clarify my position.
Because I am open to God intervening, I then have to look at what hypothesis best explains all the known data. This is what philosophers call “inference to the best explanation“. This is a comparative sort of study. One has to compare the available theories, then decide which one is the best theory. I argue that the theory that God did assist in the revealing of the Book of Mormon best meets the criteria for being the best explanation better than any of the other theories.
What the critic or sceptic has to say is that one of the other theories is to be preferred because the theory that God got involved with the Book of Mormon is defective. As alrady stated, this usually requires some type of ani-supernaturalist move such as one cannot appeal to miracles or supernatural explanations. However, skepticism isn’t warranted if you have a hypothesis that has enough explanatory power, explanatory scope, is not ad-hoc, and is plausible.
There are six important criteria ( five of which were mentioned above) for weighing historical hypothesis; what historian call one’s method. C. Beham McCullagh’s book, Justifying Historical Descriptions, gives the following criteria- which I think you’ll appreciate, being the huge history buff that you are:
1) Explanatory Scope. According to this criterion, the best explanation is the one that includes all of the relevant data. Imagine trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle. Each puzzle piece represents a historical fact.
2)Explanatory power. According to the criterion, the best explanation accounts for all the known facts without having to force any of them to fit and without leaving much ambiguity. The hypothesis that does this best is to be preferred. In this case we have some pieces of the puzzle that do fit, but you can tell they have been forced (which is what we are trying to avoid).
3)Less ad-hoc. Sometimes it appears that historians are tempted to salvage their failing hypothesis by appealing to an explanation for which there is no independent evidence. When this occurs, that hypothesis may be said to be “ad-hoc”(ie wikepedia’s leprechaun). In this solution to the puzzle, not only are some of the pieces stranded, while others are forced, but you can see that there is an outside solution that makes the whole thing quite convoluted and tortuous, and that is what we are trying to avoid.
4)Plausibility. This has to do with the degree to which accepted knowledge implies the hypothesis. In this case, “accepted knowledge” means both the background evidence, as well as the specific evidence for the case at hand. This “accepted knowledge” is compared to the degree in which the data would imply the falsity of the hypothesis. Plausibility means you take all your information and the degree to which it implies the truth of the hypothesis as opposed to implying the falsehood of the hypothesis. Which one is more plausible given the data – that the hypothesis is true or that it is false?
5)It needs to be disconfirmed by fewer accepted beliefs. It must be disconfirmed by fewer accepted beliefs than any other competing hypothesis about the same subject; that is, when conjoined with accepted truths it must imply fewer observation statements and other statements which are believed to be false. If you add the hypothesis to accepted truths, fewer falsehoods will result.
6)It exceeds its rival hypothesis in meeting criteria 1-5. In order to be the best explanation, the accepted hypothesis must exceed its rival hypotheses in meeting conditions 1-5 to a good degree.This also means there is little chance that future discoveries will show rival hypotheses as meeting the first five criteria better than the accepted hypothesis
If one still argues against a hypothesis that meets all six requirements, then it is just being plain stubborn to resist the inference to the best explanation to the data.
Looking at all the historical facts surrounding the revelation that we call the Book of Mormon, the hypothesis that Grant Palmer presents fulfills less of the criteria than the hypothesis that God involved himself, in some way, with the revealing of the Book of Mormon.
Specifically, Grant Palmer and others, appear to use more “ad-hoc” explanations ie. – Was Joseph consulting with other sources as he was walking in the woods in “deep contemplation”? Or, what was behind the curtain that was drawn up (for which there is little historical data that this occured except at the beginning of the “translation” process)?
Yeah, I was looking forward to a bit of back-and-forth myself, but we won’t be there until late afternoon. Next time; but I’ll keep it going here on the blog. Like the new look. (Kinda confused me yesterday when I first arrived after the change.)LOL
I had a bump cut off my head, so I decided just to shave the whole thing instead of just a patch. Paul and I decided to give our heads a real close shave and he grew out a goatee for the very purpose of confusing people. We always think it odd that people in his ward get us confused when I have a full head of hair and Paul is butt-smooth bald; so we decided to give them reason for confusion.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this or not, but for me it is always difficult to tell someone’s tone through writing. I know (in a different venue) that people have gotten angry with me because they could not tell I was joking (because they couldn’t hear me laughing and see me smiling) and they have responded to me in writing in a very, very, mean and condescending way. That is one of the things that I have found so refreshing with our blog, and specifically the needling you give me every so often. Although there may be strong disagreement, no one is belittling anybody. OK, there were two exceptions and we did have to delete their comments; they were horrible.
This comment unfortunately isn’t going to be nearly as articulate or well thought out as you deserve Brent, and for that I apologize. But upon thinking of your reference of “Occam’s Razor” I actually feel like the more complex possible origin of the Book of Mormon is the one that Joseph Smith was supplied the material for the BOM through other individuals and materials available in his era, ie “View of the Hebrews”. The reason for this is because of all the anachronisms that have since been proven true, which now number in the dozens. Even if Sidney Rigdon was the man behind the curtain, so to speak, and Joseph Smith did fabricate much of it, I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation as to all of the things he did get right that would have been impossible for him to either know or discover in 1830. That also includes all of the differences (which are many) from View of the Hebrews. I’m not dismissing the many questions that do remain and some of the inconsistencies, but my goodness, the more I study the BOM, the more amazed I am that in the 1830’s that book could be put together in such a short amount of time. And, for as “educated” as Sidney Rigdon was, his education was vastly inferior to many of the scholars of todays era who still are dumbfounded by the complexity of the Book of Mormon. So, going back to Occam’s Razor”, the simplest explanation for all of this is that the contents of the Book of Mormon were revealed to Joseph Smith by God. The more complex explanation is that an untrained, barely literate Joseph Smith living in early 19th century frontier region was able to compile an extremely complex book with the help of some cohorts in a very short amount of time that has been proven to contain egyptian and hebrew literary contents, archaeological and anthropological descriptions of mesoamerica that not only were unknown in 1830 but were mocked by scholars of that day as preposterous, and is so consistent doctrinally with the Bible. Man, the list goes on and on. Do you get what I’m struggling to say? To me, it just seems improbable that Joseph Smith et al could have composed this book from their own merit or plagiarism.
Cody,
Just a little note of advice. If you click “reply” at the bottom of someone’s comment, the person leaving that comment will be notified that you posted a comment regarding their comment. So, for example, your above comment no one knows about except for me, because I did the post and am alerted to whenever a comment is made, but Brent was not.
Is that a new feature? If so, I like it!
No. But I usually make the same mistake and then Paul ridicules me.