PARALLELISM
“Hebrew poetry is based on parallelism within couplets or, less commonly, triplets, which are related either grammatically or semantically. Grammatical parallelism can be recognized by similar syntactic structures for successive lines, while semantic parallelism occurs when an idea is rephrased, reformulated, or developed from line to line.”
Grant Hardy, Maxwell Institute Study Edition, The Book of Mormon
“The Book of Mormon is replete with parallelisms. The poetic patterns serve, as they do in the Bible, to emphasize messages, define and expand them, make them more memorable, and structure them.”
Donald W. Parry, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1989/10/research-and-perspectives-hebrew-literary-patterns-in-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
ISABEL
“In a book where women rise so infrequently to the surface of the narrative, why should this woman be among those graced with this rare privilege? Is it evidence, as one author somewhat sentimentally suggests, that ‘Alma was aware of someone as lowly as a harlot,’ demonstrating his ‘knowledge and familiarity with his people?’ Or is it evidence, as another author critically suggests, that Alma principally saw a woman like Isabel as ‘merely a vehicle for male degeneracy?’ Are there other and perhaps better approaches to Isabel’s peculiar place of privilege in the Book of Mormon?”
“Careful study of the details of the book’s structure suggests that the few women who appear within it are strategically placed. This is perhaps clearest in the contrasting but parallel stories of the Nephi-Lamanite mission and the Nephrite-Lamanite wars. Each of these stories begins with a Nephi man in line (or wishing to be in line) to be a Nephite king. Each figure finds himself eventually among the Lamanites and discovers that he must negotiate his place among that people through an encounter with a Lamanite queen—a woman wielding power in a fashion apparently foreign to the Nephites."
"The unmistakable turning point in the Nephite-Lamanaite mission comes when Abish, the Lamanite servant woman, takes the necessary initiative to gather her people to the site of the royal household’s conversion.”
“Mormon seems to wish his readers to see the book of Alma as, among other things, providing readers with a sense for the respective statuses of women among the Nephites and women among the Lamanites."
"He seems to hope in the book of Alma to help make that difference apparent. His stories alternately highlight the way that Nephite wickedness repeatedly culminates in oppression for women, and the way that Lamanite repentance rests on the foundation of the right relations between women and men that characterize their society.”
CORIANTON
“Yet immediately after noting the abominable nature of Corianton’s actions and the fact that his actions were second only to murder, which was second only to denying the Holy Ghost, Alma launches into a description of the unpardonable sin—to knowingly deny the Holy Ghost. Following this explication, Alma continues by explaining that ‘whosoever murdereth against the light and knowledge of God, it is not easy for him to obtain forgiveness’ (Alma 39:6). Denying the Holy Ghost is unforgivable, but those who murder ‘against the light and knowledge of God’ can receive forgiveness, albeit with great difficulty.
What does it mean to murder “against the light and knowledge of God,” and why does Alma feel the need to convey this information to Corianton at this time? Some have supposed that to “murder against the light and knowledge of God” refers to the shedding of innocent blood. And this certainly is a possible interpretation. I believe, however, that in context of Corianton’s sin, there is a better interpretation.”
"It appears that Alma framed his argument thusly: Corianton is guilty of leaving his mission to chase a harlot (either literally and/or figuratively). This harlot has damaged many testimonies already, and Corianton’s actions have also led some of the people to destruction instead of to God. Among Corianton’s sins is one that ranks next to the shedding of innocent blood, which ranks second only to the unpardonable sin of willfully denying the Holy Ghost. Corianton’s grievous sin, for which forgiveness is still possible albeit difficult, is murdering “against light and knowledge.” To murder or shed innocent blood (the most serious of the pardonable sins) is to extinguish someone’s life. To murder against light and knowledge is, I believe, in Alma’s logic, to extinguish someone’s testimony.”
Michael R. Ash, https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/143-34-43.pdf
“It is clear that Alma is deeply concerned with a kind of spiritual murder, and the patterns of his speech in Alma 39 suggest that he fears Corianton has ventured into that extremely dangerous territory. It thus seems likely that what Alma himself means to suggest is that not one’s own sexual transgressions but rather one’s efforts (intentional or not) to lead others astray is ‘most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost.’”
Joseph Spencer, https://religion.byu.edu/event/2019-sidney-b-sperry-symposium
ISABEL
“Perhaps, then, Isabel is best read not simply as a wicked woman, a figure for temptations that men should know to avoid. Perhaps she is better understood as a symbol of the unnecessary struggles for power that perpetuate patterns of sexual oppression at the very moment those patterns begin to disappear. She seems to be a woman at the end of a long history of oppression, glimpsing the possibility of female ascendency for the first time (unfortunately through the eyes of Korihor). She was victimized before, but now she victimizes in turn.”
“Is the story of Isabel and Corianton of real value in the twenty-first century? It is certainly true that the Book of Mormon leaves modern readers wondering about the relative absence of women and women’s voices in scriptural text and raises questions about issues of equality and the meaning and authority that these texts can or should have for us today. And yet it also seems important that when Nephi reports on his vision of the last day, he worries explicitly that the latter-day readers might not regard ‘male and female’ as ‘alike unto God.’ It may be, in fact, that it implicitly asks readers to reflect on how certain cultures might claim to model righteousness before God while embracing social practices that produce ‘sorrow’ and ‘mourning’ among their more vulnerable members."
"It seems that one of the reasons for people’s fall concerns the failure on the part of their men to repent, while those among them who survive do so because they do not forget God’s equal regard for women and men.”
Joseph Spencer, https://religion.byu.edu/event/2019-sidney-b-sperry-symposium
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