Alma 17-22

FINAL CLASS

Thank you all for a wonderful year of Book of Mormon study and learning. I appreciate each of you and the desire you have to learn and develop deeper understanding. You made this experience remarkable. How blessed we are to have the opportunity to be united in faith and effort. Have a wonderful summer! Stay curious!

Class will meet again
Tuesday, October 15, 9:30-11:00 a.m. 
Gilbert Building RS room

 SPIRIT RESPONSE IN THE BODY

“Their brains and bodies physically responded to religious stimuli, researchers said.Their hearts beat faster.Their breathing slowed. Many participants were in tears by the end of the scan, according to Anderson.
And in each stage of the exam, the researchers saw the same regions of the brain light up.
They saw the most activity in the nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain that is also associated with romantic love, parental love, appreciation of music, gambling and certain drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines.
Peak activity in the nucleus accumbens consistently spiked several seconds before participants pushed the button indicating that they were strongly having a spiritual experience, according to the study.”
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865668195/U-study-Spiritual-experiences-associated-with-brains- reward-center.html

 MORMON’S INTENT

“Mormon’s history, like other ancient histories, is not primarily empirical. His account is shaped by a clear rhetorical purpose: to bear testimony of Christ and illustrate the consequences of accepting or rejecting him. Since his history is so brief, Mormon has the option—and has exercised it—of selecting material that is aesthetically unified, that can be arranged to feature narrative parallels and contrasts that anticipate, echo, and amplify.If we recognize his literary sensibility, we will be better prepared to see important dimensions of meaning that he communicates allegorically or implicitly in the micro and macro structure of his history.
Modern readers cannot be passive if they want to fully understand the testimony Mormon has handed down to them.They must meet him and his sources half way. Reading carefully between the lines, they must look for the subtle linkages that reveal the underlying unity and coherence of the real lives and real cultures he describes.They must do this because unconscious and unstated background knowledge and off-stage actions that are present only by implication will sometimes be the key to a fuller understanding of an intended meaning.Thus, to fully comprehend the reality Mormon experienced and what he meant to say (or not say), readers must sometimes ransack the nooks and crannies of his text looking for information it did not occur to him to explicitly tell us, i.e., cultural norms and implicit knowledge about life and people that form the matrix of the meanings he meant to communicate.”

Val Larsen, https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/in-his-footsteps-ammon-and-ammon/

 AT THE WATERS OF SEBUS

“No episode in the Book of Mormon is more strange and, on its surface, incoherent than the account of Ammon’s fight at the waters of Sebus and its aftermath.”

“The most surprising facts connected with the narrative are these: (a) the plundering of the king’s flocks is routine and predictable, yet he doesn’t send a force capable of protecting his property; (b) the servants of the king make no effort to fight the marauders in spite of the fact that they will be executed if they fail to protect the flocks; (c) when they predictably fail, the king kills his own servants and, thus, weakens his forces; (d) the king refers to the marauders as “my brethren”; and (e) the marauders and their families are unafraid to hang around the king’s palace in the immediate aftermath of the fight.This is an improbable constellation of details. How are we to account for it? The answer must lie in the implicit dynamics of Lamanite politics in the land of Ishmael.”

“The back story at Sebus is a conflict between Lamoni, the titular king in the land of Ishmael, and another group of nobles whom Lamoni calls “my brethren,”, e.g., some mix of brothers, uncles, or cousins.The contest between the two groups is deadly earnest, but neither can do violence to the other because all are loved and protected by Lamoni’s father, the great king of the land, who has a short temper and who responds ferociously if anyone, including his own family, crosses him. Since they cannot directly attack each other without risking their lives by antagonizing their shared patron, Lamoni and his rivals seek to weaken their opponent by attacking their economic interests and by ruining their reputation in the eyes of the great king. It is in this context that Lamoni’s servants face doom at the waters of Sebus. The herdsman servants are ordinary citizens of the kingdom. Knowing the disposition of Lamoni’s father, they probably understand that they and their family will die a painful death if they do the slightest injury to any of the great king’s extended family. So if they are so unlucky as to be attacked at the waters of Sebus by the king’s noble relatives, they are doomed.They cannot raise a hand to prevent Lamoni’s flocks from being scattered and plundered by his noble rivals. And if they fail to prevent the scattering and loss of the flocks, Lamoni will put them to death.
But why will Lamoni execute them when they fail? Doesn’t he injure himself when he does that by reducing his political and military base in the land of Ishmael? In an ordinary political situation, that would be the case. Lamoni’s father believes a king should use aggressive violence to enforce his will. Lamoni retains his kingdom only if his father is persuaded that he, too, is a man of violence who will impose the severest sanctions on those who fail him. Lamoni executes his servants not because he is angry with them but as an act of political theater to appease his father”

“If we correctly interpret the political dynamics in the land of Ishmael, we can recognize in this narrative a profound allegory of the human condition and of the plan of salvation, including its key element, the Atonement.”
“Mormon apparently recognized the symbolic potential of Ammon’s adventure at Sebus and featured it precisely because, read allegorically, it testifies so powerfully of Christ.”

“Lamoni’s servants are caught on the horns of a horrible dilemma.They are bound by two incompatible laws that, taken together, seal their doom.They must not fail to keep the commandment of their lord to protect his flock and they must not raise a hand against any noble relative of the great king.When the nobles scatter the flock, hopeless and helpless despair is the only available response for the servants because their doom is sure. For their predecessors, that was the end of the story. But for these fortunate servants the story is wonderfully changed. A godlike nobleman—the most powerful of all, one who can vanquish even the great king himself—has condescended to come among them and voluntarily share their servant status.When the crisis comes and they fall into despair, he rallies them. From him they draw the courage and ability to keep their lord’s commandments. Placing their faith in him and doing as he commands (an essential element in their redemption), they gather the scattered flock and encircle them to prevent their flight.
He, the suffering servant, in turn, goes forth to bear the brunt of the violence meant for them which they were powerless to resist. Against all human odds, this godlike nobleman defeats forces arrayed against him and them. He reconciles the two laws, making it possible for his fellow servants to keep both.They have neither allowed the flock to be plundered nor lifted a hand against the great king’s relatives. Led by their savior, the servants return to their lord without blemish, their lives preserved by the gracious intervention of the godlike figure who condescended to be one with them.Their faith in this noble savior redeems not just their bodies but their eternal souls, for he brings them back not just to their temporal lord, Lamoni, but to their eternal lord, the Lord God.”

Val Larsen, https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/in-his-footsteps-ammon-and-ammon/

ABISH

The phrase “vision of her father” allows not only multiple possibilities for the content of the vision but also two possibilities for the one who had the vision. Although others may be educed, we have at least three interpretive possibilities for “understanding the phrase ‘remarkable vision of her father.’”
1. The text refers to a vision seen by Abish’s father.This interpretation takes the construction “vision of her father” as a subjective possessive — i.e., that the subject (Abish’s father) is the seer of the vision, whatever its content.
2. The text refers to Abish’s own vision, the content of which was a special or “remarkable” appearance of her own father to her.This interpretation takes the construction “vision of her father” as an objective — i.e., that Abish’s father himself is the object or content of the vision.Abish’s own status as a servant in the royal court (a royal dependent) may suggest that her father had died sometime previously and perhaps that he had appeared to her.
3. The text refers to Abish’s own vision, the content of which may have included a theophany beyond the personal appearance of her earthly father. In other words, did the Savior himself (the divine “Father” mentioned throughout the Book of Mormon) also appear to her? This interpretation, while not explicitly supported by the language of Alma 19:16, is perhaps partially inferred by the content of Lamoni’s previously-mentioned vision (“I have seen my Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind,” Alma 19:13). Is the “remarkable vision of her father” (19:16) still “remarkable” by the (very high) standard of Lamoni’s vision and the other Lamanite visionary experiences (Alma 17:29–30, 34; 22:18)?”
 
“Abish the “woman-servant” plays the feminine counterpart to Ammon the “man” and “servant” and completes this miracle of faith.”

Matthew Bowen, https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/father-is-a-man-the-remarkable-mention-of-
the-name-abish-in-alma-1916-and-its-narrative-context/
 
“We, your brethren, need your strength, your conversion, your conviction, your ability to lead, your wisdom, and your voices.The kingdom of God is not and cannot be complete without women who make sacred covenants and then keep them, women who can speak with the power and authority of God!
We need women who know how to make important things happen by their faith and who are courageous defenders of morality and families in a sin-sick world.We need women who are devoted to shepherding God’s children along the covenant path toward exaltation; women who know how to receive personal revelation, who understand the power and peace of the temple endowment; women who know how to call upon the powers of heaven to protect and strengthen children and families; women who teach fearlessly.”

Russell M. Nelson, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/a-plea-to-my-sisters?lang=eng