3 Nephi 1-7

READING FOR FEBRUARY 4

3 Nephi 8-11
 
 SAMUEL’S PROPHECY

“Here, too, the connection between present and future is starkly clear:“the sword of justice” hangs over the Nephites in the present, and it will fall on them in the future. But what is surprising is the amount of time Samuel says it will take for the present to lead to the future: four centuries!
This is not the only time Samuel places destruction so distantly in the future.A few verses later he says,“and there shall be those of the fourth generation who shall live, of your enemies, to behold your utter destruction” (13:10). Samuel is consistent, then, but one wonders whether it might be a bit excessive for Samuel to be criticizing his generation for their sinfulness if he goes on to predict not their inevitable destruction or the inevitable destruction even of their children but the inevitable destruction of a generation to come in the relatively distant future—in fact at the end of Nephite history.”

Joseph Spencer, https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-time-of-sin/

 LAMANITE SKIN COLOR

“I have elsewhere argued that this skin of blackness was a metaphor for a spiritual state rather than a change in pigmentation.While there are arguments to be made for or against that proposition, the decision as to whether a “skin of blackness” is a description of a physical or spiritual change should be decided upon something stronger than personal preference for one reading or the other.The text is the final arbiter of such questions.What might the text tell us to help us decide?
What would be ideal is to find a place in the text where some Nephite said something like ‘Oh, I see by your black skin that you are a Lamanite.’ That doesn’t happen.What we do get are some situations in which a difference in pigmentation should make a difference in an event.We do have a couple of those, but what we find is that what should make a difference, doesn’t.”

“Moroni’s plan requires a Lamanite. He finds one.What could a Lamanite do that a non-Lamanite could not? For most readers, conditioned by years of assumptions, the expectation is that he is darker skinned, while Nephites were “white.” However, this reason is unlikely, given the actual working-out of the plan (v.8): First, Laman is not alone. Moroni has selected other men to go with him. Moroni had searched for a Lamanite and found one. His companions were, therefore, not Lamanites. However, they approach with the one “true” Lamanite. If skin color identified the one Lamanite, then his companions would obviously be recognized on sight as Nephites. Furthermore, the Lamanite armies are being led by a Nephite dissenter, and many of those in the city of Nephi who had ejected the people of Ammon were also Nephite dissenters. According to the record, Laman does all of the talking, and the guards immediately accept his announcement that he is a Lamanite.Thus, there is a language difference between the two groups. Clearly, this difference is not great, because Nephite dissenters easily assimilate into the Lamanite ranks. However, there must be some differences, either in dialect or accent, so that the target Lamanites identified Laman’s voice as soon as they heard it as truly “Lamanite.” As long as his companions remained silent, this ruse would be sufficient.That reading fits the evidence, and the evidence does not allow for a pigmentation difference that is sufficient that it would be noticed.”

“These verses are consistent.They speak of the same mingling and the same curse. Interestingly, however, the Amlicite mark was red on the forehead, which the Nephites linked to the scriptural mark.Thus the Amlicites are marked, but it is not only a voluntary marking, but one that required red on the forehead. If the Amlicites were to be marked, why wasn’t it with the skin of blackness?
More importantly, if they really did have an immediate pigmentation change, the mark was unnecessary.Why was the mark necessary from the Amlicite perspective?”

“The Amlicite battle plan required that they flee from the Nephites towards a Lamanite army.That Lamanite army needed to know that the fully armed warriors running full speed at them were friends.They had to know the difference between the Amlicite friends who were springing a trap and the Nephites who were falling into it. If there were a pigmentation difference, it would have been obvious. It wasn’t visually obvious, so a red mark was required to mark the ones that the Lamanites should allow to pass.
Nevertheless, Mormon sees this marking in the context of the curse. If Mormon were familiar with the changeable skin pigmentation, he had no reason to case the Amlicite actions in the connection with that curse and mark.This even further clarifies that there was no available obvious difference that would allow someone to see that someone was Lamanite or Nephite.The “skin of darkness” is only textually consistent if read as a metaphor. It cannot be supported as a pigmentation change.”

Brandt Gardner, If Lamanites Were Black,Why Didn’t Anyone Notice,
https://www.fairmormon.org/blog/2012/05/21/if-lamanites- were-black-why-didnt-anyone-notice

 NEPHI

“Information is unusually scarce about a prophet and leader who served as long and faithfully as this man. Much can be deduced, however, from historical events themselves and from what Mormon mentions in his record.
Nephi was a man of immense spiritual power and extraordinary personal courage. He fearlessly taught the gospel of Jesus Christ through many years of great wickedness among this people when prophets were hated and killed and the Church was sorely persecuted.The enemies of the Church ‘were angry with him,’ Mormon wrote,‘even because he had greater power than they.’They were angry, too, because his righteous power made it impossible for them to ‘disbelieve his words.’
It was this Nephi who prayed ceaselessly for an entire day, grieving over the persecutions suffered by those who watched faithfully for the prophesied signs of the Savior’s birth.And it was he who received the glorious message that on that very ‘night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world.’ It was this Nephi who guided the Church for the next three decades and more, this Nephi who survived the destruction and darkness following the crucifixion, this Nephi whom the Savior called to serve at his side and establish the Church in the fulness of the gospel, this Nephi who was chosen to take the Church from the law of Moses to the higher law.”

Marilyn Arnold, English Professor, BYU, Book of Mormon Reference Companion