Jacob's Sermon: 2 Nephi 9

 In 2 Nephi 6-10 Jacob, Nephi's younger brother, gives a sermon based on the writings of Isaiah which were found on the plates of brass. In this sermon, Jacob takes passages from Isaiah usually associated with the scattering and gathering of Israel and relates them to the mission and atonement of Christ. His teaching in 2 Nephi 9 sounds very Christian.  In many ways it could have been attributed to Paul or another New Testament theologian. I know I have said this before, but this is way earlier than anything known in the Old World. From the establishment of the Law under Moses until the Babylonian Captivity, the religion of Jehovah was that if Israel as a group were righteous, they, as a group, would be safe from other nations.  When the fall of the Northern Tribes began to seem imminent, Isaiah, Jeremiah and others began to talk about the Messiah who would come and free Israel from captivity.  There were hints in Isaiah that this was a spiritual redemption instead of a physical redemption, but this is all hidden in mists of symbolism.  Jesus was able to point out these ideas to his disciples later, and they didn't even really get it before his death and resurrection. 

It was a mercy from God that Nephi and even to a greater extent Jacob were given an understanding that the covenants of God didn't only pertain to the safety of a nation and its ownership of a land of inheritance.  Nephi left all that seemed to be promised by the Abrahamic Covenant when he left Jerusalem: the temple, inheritance in the promised land (i.e. Israel), and membership in the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  After arriving in the new Promised Land, Nephi and Jacob were gradually taught that the salvation of the Lord wasn't a physical group salvation from political captivity, but a spiritual salvation from Death and Sin.  They were made to understand that they hadn't left the God of Israel and all his covenants behind when they left Jerusalem, but instead had even greater understanding and hope of his eternal covenants than the people in Jerusalem had. It would have been a comfort, after all they had lost, to know that God's promises were sure and eternal.

So what are the main point of Jacob's sermon?

v. 1-3  Reassurance of God's Covenant with scattered Israel

v. 4-5 Christ will suffer to overcome Death and Sin

v. 6    The Fall brings about Death and Sin

v.7-13  The atonement overcomes Death and Sin

v.14-22 Final Judgement 

v. 23-24 Need for ordinances and obedience

v. 25-27 Those who don't have the law are not condemned

v. 28-39 Condemnation of the prideful and wicked

v. 40-53 Exhortation to righteousness

Clearly, by the time of Jacob's ministry, the Nephites had a fairly complete understanding of the doctrine of Christ.  They are missing a few things that were clarified later, but they had as much as the New Testament people had. It wasn't until Joseph Smith that the last few details were added in, like assignment to different degrees of glory after judgement, the eternal nature of families and necessity of eternal marriage, the universal access to priesthood power et alii.

2 Nephi 3-5: Weighing in on the debate

This week in Come Follow Me, we read 2 Nephi 3-5.  My favorite part of this section is Nephi's Lament in 2 Nephi 4.  I like it so much that a couple of years ago I took the time to memorize it. It is a lovely example of a Hebrew lament poetry, but that isn't what I am going to talk about today.

Today I want to weigh in on the debate about 2 Nephi 5. This chapter contains the highly controversial passage about the "cursing" mentioned in v 21. 

"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing because of their iniquity.  For behold they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them." 

What is Nephi describing here?  It is possible they went to bed one night and had light skin and woke up the next morning and they had dark skin, but I don't really think so. That kind of instant and obvious mass miracle is recorded a couple of times in the Old Testament, but if it had happened here wouldn't we have some kind of indication of the Lamanite's response?  Wouldn't they have seen the change and realized God was sending them a message?  I have to think that the change was subtle so that Nephi saw it as an act of God, but the Lamanites probably didn't.  What then is Nephi referring to when he said they had a "skin of blackness"?

Some of the podcasters I listened to suggested that the idea of a black skin is metaphorical; that somehow their countenances changed and they didn't look as blessed or righteous as before.  I think the textural evidence suggests that there was some kind of physical change, or else why would Nephi say, "that they might not be enticing unto my people."  A metaphorical change would assume that all the people of the Nephites would have been sensitive to the metaphor. Could Nephi be sure that everyone of his people would pick up on the changed countenance, and think "wow, those Lamanites really have a black aura now." 

Others suggest that the Lamanites started wearing black animal skins as clothing.  That is a possibility, but does someone wear the same thing every day, and would everyone in that society just start to wear the same color?  Maybe, but again it seems unlikely. 

If they are not wearing black clothes, or have a black aura, what could Nephi be describing? One idea is that the "black" skin came over time a the Lamanites married native peoples that had darker skin than the Lehites. I think there is quite a bit of evidence for this one. In v 23 Nephi says, "cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed."  This suggests that: 1. the curse could be associated with intercultural marriage, something that was forbidden under Mosaic law, and 2. That is was passed on genetically. There is additional evidence that if the Lamanites did meet and join with indigenous people they were hunter gatherers. It says in v. 24 "And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey."  In contrast, the Nephites established a stationary settlement, only possible with an agrarian culture, "And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, ..."  (v. 15).  Another evidence is that within only a few generations, the Lamanites far outnumber the Nephites (Jarom 1:6).  Why would they be more numerous if they hadn't joined with other people and intermarried?  

One fault in the argument is that there is really no reason to believe the indigenous people of the Americas were black skinned. Archeology suggest that the inhabitants of the Americas had migrated from northern Asia where skin tone is darker than northern Europeans, but not at all like the black skin of some African peoples. They might have had darker skins than the Lehites, but why would Nephi say they had a skin of "blackness" instead of a skin of "darkness".  He might have done so for dramatic and metaphorical impact, but I am not sure "blackness" is more metaphorically expressive than "darkness."  Both terms carry a negative association in the Old Testament.  

Another possibility that I heard on a podcast was that the Lamanites might have adopted a local custom of tattooing their skin. If there were an indigenous people whose warriors had a tradition of tattooing their skin, and if the Lamanites adopted this practice in order to be incorporated into the society,  Nephi could have called the tattoos a "skin of blackness" and considered it unattractive to his people. Of course, tattooing is not passed on genetically through intermarriage, but the practice might have been passed on to descendants of Laman and Lemuel culturally for a long time and any later Nephites joining the culture might have been required to also assume the tattoos. 

These are interesting speculations, but in the end, there is no way to resolve the question. We just don't have enough information. It is important, however, to reassert, as church leaders have done over the pulpit and on the church website, that dark skin is not a sign of divine disapprobation. The curse that came on the Lamanites for the disobedience was a separation from the Lord (v. 20).  In this specific case there was some kind of side affect of the separation that Nephi described as "skin of blackness" but the skin was not the curse, the separation was the curse. 

2 Nephi 2 : Foundational Doctrines

 This week in Come Follow Me we read just two chapters, 2 Nephi 1-2.  2 Nephi 1 is Lehi's final admonitions to his posterity. 2 Nephi 2 is a longer discourse that Lehi gives to his younger son, Jacob.  It is hard to know how old Jacob was when he received this talk, but Lehi is clearly seeing Jacob as a future spiritual leader of the family.  He imparts to Jacob the most complete understanding of the role of the Messiah and the Plan of Salvation that we see anywhere in the scriptures.  It seems that Lehi has learned all of this as an adult.  His spiritual education began in 1 Nephi 1 where he first saw the Savior and didn't seem to recognize who he was, "And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day. And he also saw twelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed the stars in the firmament" (v. 9-10).  By 2 Nephi, he not only knows Jesus' name and role as the Messiah, but he has a clear understanding of why a Messiah was needed. 

Much of what Lehi expounds are beliefs that are shared among all Christians: 

• That Jesus brings about the resurrection of the dead (v. 8)
• That Jesus makes intersession for us to the father (v. 9)
• There will be a final judgement (v. 10) 

These are familiar principles from the New Testament, but we need to remember that these were not widely known to the ancient Hebrews.  Lehi received these truths 600 years before almost all other people did.  Isaiah might have seen a glimpse of it.  (Actually, According to Taylor Halverson, it might have been more widely known than we think, but the knowledge was later taken out of the record by the reforms under Josiah, but that is a discussion for another time). Still it is remarkable how fully Lehi, at this point, understood the plan of salvation.

Lehi, then goes into a discussion of Adam and Eve. Much of what he recounts about the Adam and Eve story is commonly held among Christians, but some of what he says is unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:  

• The idea that Adam and Eve would not have had children if they had stayed in the Garden (v. 23) 
• The Fall was a good and necessary part of the plan and leads ultimately to joy.  (v. 25)

These two beliefs, so easily stated, change everything about what we see as our purpose on earth.  The Fall was not, as many believe, an unfortunate event caused by man's (or woman's) depravity, that broke the wonderful world God had intended for us to inhabit.  It was, instead, the way we gained free moral agency.  The story of Adam and Eve's fall is symbolic of the choice each of us made to leave the pre-Earth life and experience the vicissitudes of mortality. It enabled us to come to a world where we could could learn to choose between good and evil, be organized into family units, and ultimately return to God and enjoy eternal life with him. The passage, "Adam fell that man might be; and men are that they might have joy." is probably the most original Christian doctrine to come from the restoration.

Travels in the Wilderness: 1 Nephi 16-22

 This week in Come Follow Me we studied the time period from when Lehi and Ishmael's families leave the Valley of Lemuel, travel to Bountiful, build ships and sail to the Promised Land.  These are very familiar stories and I can't say I had many new insights about them.  Here are just a few:

1. When it says that the family of Lehi ate raw meat in the wilderness, (1 Nephi 17:2) the picture that came to my mind as a child was them taking dead animals, skinning them and then biting into the red meat.  That is, frankly, pretty disgusting and also pretty risky from a health point of view. Recently I read a survival story where the main character stops every 3-5 days, catches fish and then dries them to carry with him on his next part of the journey.  I am thinking this is what must have been going on.  They were traveling through the desert.  If they carried salt with them, it would have been possible to salt the meat and then dry it into jerky.  That would make it less likely to spoil, lighter to carry and safer and more palatable to eat.

2. I had never really connected the death of Ishmael with the lack of food,  but those two things happen back to back in the story.  Ishmael probably died because of starvation or he became susceptible to illness because of lack of food. It would further explain why his family was so angry at Nephi about their father's death.

3. One of the podcasters, I think it was Tyler Griffith, pointed out that Nephi had more confidence that he would be able to build a ship, cross the many waters, and make it to the Promised Land than his brother because he had seen in a vision that this is what was going to happen. The revelation strengthened his faith. It goes along with Joseph's Smith's teaching in the Lectures on Faith that in order to exercise faith we need to receive revelation of Heavenly's Father's will, and then move forward with confidence that His will would be fulfilled. (Lectures on Faith: Law of Sacrifice)

4. I have mentioned this before, but this whole Book of Mormon exodus narrative is told in such a way to draw parallels to the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and through the wilderness. Many of the same elements are there. The initial vision of Lehi is like Moses' vision.  Getting the brass plates are like the Israelites plundering the Egyptians.  Food is miraculously provided though Nephi's broken bow instance, like the mana in the Old Testament. The Liahona is like the fire that went before the Israelites by night and the cloud by day to lead their way.  Crossing the river Jordan is like building the ships and crossing the great waters. Then what do they do when they get to the new land?  They build a temple like Solomon's temple. By telling the story this way Nephi is legitimizing the decision to leave Jerusalem, which is compared to Egypt and captivity, and to establish a new center of worship in the new world.