“We got back more than we lost. And it was known from the beginning that it would be so. We do not know exactly what we have missed in the lost 116 pages, but we do know that what we received on the small plates was the personal declarations of three great witnesses, three of the great doctrinal voices of the Book of Mormon, testifying that Jesus is the Christ. Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah bore a very special witness—they testified of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he who would be the central, commanding, presiding figure throughout the Book of Mormon. Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, January 1996
Isaiah
- Old Testament prophet who ministered in the kingdom of Judah from around 740 BC to at least 701 BC during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
- His was an era of political unrest, war, and apostasy.
- He labored to turn the people back to Jehovah. His message to the apostates is reflected in his name, which means “Jehovah is salvation.” Sadly his message was largely rejected.
- He eventually witnessed the fall and removal of Israel to Assyria in 722 BC.
- He is the most quoted prophet in the Book of Mormon, having approximately 35% of his Old Testament writings either quoted directly or paraphrased.
- He is the most quoted by Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
What Guides Nephi’s Choice of Isaiah Chapters
Four Stages of Nephi’s Prophetic View
John W. Welch, https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/getting-through-isaiah-help-nephite-prophetic-view
- Stage 1: Christ’s coming (1 Nephi 11);
- Stage 2: His rejection and the scattering of the Jews (1 Nephi 12);
- Stage 3: the day of the Gentiles (1 Nephi 13); and
- Stage 4: the restoration of Israel and the ultimate victory of good over evil (1 Nephi 14).
Four Stages of Nephi’s Prophetic View
John W. Welch, https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/getting-through-isaiah-help-nephite-prophetic-view
“Before addressing the roles played by the Isaiah texts in connection with this pattern, it is important to realize the significance of this prophetic view to the Nephites. This set of four specific stages of expectation for the future was more than just a social perspective or a political outlook: it constituted a full worldview that shaped and controlled other interpretations and opinions about various scriptures, religious questions, personal and group identity, and the very purpose of life among the Nephites. To the righteous Nephites, this sequence of truths and values explained the big questions of their group's existence: where they as a people had come from, why they had left the Old World, what they were doing in a remote corner of the world, and where their extraordinary journey would eventually take them and their posterity. Thus, this prophetic expectation constituted a richly developed and actualized worldview, not merely an abstract hypothesis.”
Four Stages of Nephi’s Prophetic View
“The Lord has designated these days in which we live as the “times of the Gentiles.” The Gentile nations are the so-called Christian nations—North and South America and the European nations from which we came. The “times of the Gentiles” refers to that period of time extending from when the gospel was restored to the world (1830) to when the gospel will again be preached to the Jews—after the Gentiles have rejected it.”
President Ezra Taft Benson, New Era, 1982
Nephi’s Personal Reasons
S. Kent Brown, https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/jerusalem-zarahemla-literary-and-historical-studies-book-mormon/what-isaiah-doing-first
“When we turn to his more personal view, I suggest that as Nephi looked back on his family’s experience in the desert of Arabia, he eventually came to see those events in poignantly personal terms. In a word, the desert formed a decisive moment for his extended family. Although he himself was guarded in expressing how the desert experience had affected him and the others, his younger brother Jacob was not. As a result, Jacob supplies an important set of clues about what the family’s separation from home meant for them. In short, the separation was painful and the early generations did not feel completely at home in their adopted surroundings in the New World. Near the end of his life, Jacob spoke of the record on the small plates of Nephi, sighing, “I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days” (Jacob 7:26). This mournful summary, in fact, cast in the language of lament, provides a key to the last chapters of 1 Nephi, including the personal reasons why Nephi inserted two chapters from Isaiah’s book. How so?
Although Jacob was not born in Jerusalem, nor did he ever set foot in the city, he faithfully reflects the feelings of other family members about the harsh necessity of leaving their home, even though their departure was mandated by the Lord. After all, Jacob would not have generated such feelings on his own. They must have come from his family environment.
Yes, the extended family had learned from Lehi just before his death that the prophetic warning about the fall of the city had come to dreadful fulfillment, thus sparing the lives of family members as the Lord had promised. And yes, they all must have been grateful that they had not been ground down in the inevitable and terrible retributions leveled against citizens by the fierce Babylonian warriors. But home was home.”
“From a review of the passages it becomes clear that the time in the desert had left a bitter taste in the mouths of family members—nothing but bad memories.”
No comments:
Post a Comment