Abinadi
How did Alma obtain knowledge of Christ? He heard the preaching of Abinadi, an itinerant prophet martyred by the wicked Noah. And Alma1 “did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken” (Mosiah 17:4). Where did Abinadi, who appears suddenly in the narrative with no background or introduction, get his knowledge? In chapters 13 and 14 of Mosiah, we see him reading the words of Moses and of Isaiah to Noah’s court, finding in them clear foreshadowing of a “God [who should] himself . . . come down among the children of men, and . . . redeem his people” (18:1). Where did Abinadi obtain those scriptures? He was a member of Zeniff’s colony, which was an offshoot of the major Nephite settlement, and apparently, they took copies of the Nephite records with them when they departed Zarahemla and resettled Lehi–Nephi.
Givens, Terryl. 2nd Nephi (The Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions). The Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Kindle Edition.
Abinadi is Jacob’s unquestionable doctrinal heir. Faced with Noah’s priests who seem, as will be seen, to have inherited (and likely distorted) only Nephi’s covenantal focus, Abinadi criticizes them by setting forth the soteriology that they apparently overlooked through their focus on a strictly covenantal theology. Moreover, Abinadi’s discourse borders on being a commentary on 2 Nephi 9 (as well as on 2 Nephi 2), revealing his familiarity with Jacob’s teachings. And Abinadi—through his influence on Alma—seems thereby to have launched a two-centuries-long Nephite focus on soteriology. Abinadi thus appears in Mosiah as the double heir of Jacob, as much doctrinally or theologically as narratively or historically. Joseph Spencer - https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=mi
. . . Abinadi is indeed a prophet’s prophet. He’s much more like a classic Old Testament prophet than Nephi or Benjamin. Rather than being a king, Abinadi is an outsider. He is . . . eccentric and incorrigible. He’s alien and fierce. He appears to blow in from nowhere, a nobody, without power or reputation, crying repentance and prophesying destruction. He’s hunted for two years until he reappears to seal his testimony. And where Nephi and Benjamin both report stunning revelations delivered by angels, Abinadi’s final message is shaped by an interpretive contest with Noah’s priests, a contest that turns on who, at the end of the day, can actually read and understand Isaiah.
Miller, Adam S.; Welch, Rosalynde F.. Seven Gospels: The Many Lives of Christ in the Book of Mormon (p. 56). Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
Q: What does the Lord mean when he says he is jealous?
“According to Donna Nielsen, a knowledge of the biblical marriage imagery can greatly enrich our understanding of how God relates to us through covenants. In Mosiah 11:22 we find the Lord declaring to his covenant people that "they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of my people." Nielsen notes that the biblical definition of "jealous" (or "zealous") includes having a fiery concern and determination to protect the intimacy of the covenant relationship. It is not about being possessive in a selfish way or showing immature insecurity. It is an appropriate reaction to the intense preciousness of the relationship with the other partner.”
Other Disguises in Biblical Narratives
Yet when this story is compared to biblical stories which also deal with prophetic messengers, kings, and disguises, it seems that there is likely more to Abinadi’s disguise than initially meets the eye.
This story has several parallels with biblical narratives that also deal with prophetic messengers, kings, and disguises. These include (1) King Saul disguising himself in order to receive guidance from the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28), (2) a prophet disguising himself in order to condemn King Ahab for not executing a Syrian King (1 Kings 20), (3) an Israelite king disguising himself to avoid harm in battle, only to be slain by an archer (1 Kings 22), (4) Josiah disguising himself in order to meet with an Egyptian Pharaoh (2 Chronicles 35; 2 Kings 23), and (5) Jeroboam’s wife disguising herself to visit a blind prophet concerning her son’s illness (1 Kings 14).
Biblical scholar Richard Coggins has explained that in these types of biblical narratives, “one of the parties disguises himself (or in one case herself), but the disguise is penetrated, and God’s will is conveyed in a form which is liable to be quite unacceptable to the one seeking it.”
Coggins “also argued that the appearance of prophetic disguises in several Old Testament stories, all from the same historical period, is “surely not simply a matter of coincidence.” Rather, with the use of a prophetic disguise, “a theological point is being made.”
These stories typically depict a contest or conflict between God and an earthly king. As Alan Goff has noted, “All of the kings or their heirs in the biblical disguise stories meet with brutal deaths, and in each case the dynasty fails.” The same outcome befell King Noah, who was burned to death by his own people and whose dynasty ended after the reign of his son (Mosiah 19:20).
As for the disguise itself, it’s notable that right before it is mentioned in the text, the narrator reported that the “eyes of the people were blinded” (Mosiah 11:29). This suggests that the disguise typifies the inability of wicked people to discern between truth and error. King Noah himself arrogantly asked, “Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction?” (Mosiah 11:27). Although Noah’s question was surely meant to be rhetorical, it ironically demonstrates his personal lack of spiritual perception. He could discern neither the Lord nor his prophetic servant.
“Clearly, there is more to Abinadi’s disguise than meets the eye. Hiding beneath the surface, the text pursues its own thematic purposes by developing a complex network of allusions to biblical disguise stories that also feature kings and prophets. “Whoever wrote the Book of Mormon text,” Goff concluded, “seems to have had a sharp eye for detail and is far beyond any contemporary readers in subtlety and knowledge of the Bible.”
Pentecost
Both of Abinadi’s speeches deal with the themes of Pentecost. He reversed the festival’s blessings and rejoicing, and turned them into curses and predictions of gloom. At the time when a bounteous grain season would have been at hand, Abinadi cursed the crops: he prophesied that hail, dry winds, and insects shall ruin “their grain” (Mosiah 12:6). While Israel’s deliverance from bondage was traditionally being celebrated, Abinadi called upon Exodus terminology to proclaim that bondage and burdens would return to the wicked people in the city of Nephi: “They shall be brought into bondage; . . . and none shall deliver them” (Mosiah 11:21, 23), “and I will cause that they shall have burdens lashed upon their backs” (Mosiah 12:2, 5; compare Exodus 1:11). Jack Welch, "Abinadi and Pentecost."
“Their eyes were surely opened, though, when Abinadi’s disguise (whatever its physical nature) was symbolically unveiled and “his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses’ did while in the mount of Sinai” (Mosiah 13:5). Whether or not they had already identified him as Abinadi the preacher, there would have been no question at this point that they were dealing with Abinadi the prophet.” KnoWhy. https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/why-did-abinadi-use-a-disguise
Just as Benjamin’s gospel depicts the life of Jesus Christ in terms that resonate with Benjamin’s own experience, Abinadi bears a resemblance to the Redeemer of his gospel. Christ, like Abinadi, comes in disguise. Jesus takes upon him a body of flesh with “no form nor comeliness . . . [nor] beauty that we should desire him,” which hinders the people from understanding his full identity as God himself (Mosiah 14:2). Like Abinadi, the unknown Christ manifests miraculous power with and in his human body. Both are bound, scourged, and led before a hostile tribunal. And both are delivered up to “suffer even until death” (Mosiah 17:10). One role of a prophet is to stand in for God as a surrogate before his people, and Abinadi seals his surrogacy with his own life.
Miller, Adam S.; Welch, Rosalynde F.. Seven Gospels: The Many Lives of Christ in the Book of Mormon (p. 51). Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
Just like the Jews in Jesus' day had a different idea of what they were expecting with the Messiah, it seems that the priests of King Noah's court also lack this understanding. To be fair, Peter lacked this understanding. This was hard for people to understand. The expectation was the Messiah is going to come in great power, and he's going to be this political leader who's going to free us from this oppression that we have so that when Jesus comes and now remember that scene where he's standing before Pilate, and he's bound, and the people are crying out, "Crucify him, crucify him," this can't be the Messiah, because our Messiah is going to break the bonds of oppression. Think of Peter in Matthew 16, "Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God," but it's the same exact chapter that Jesus is going to prophesy and say, "I'm going to be taken, and I'm going to be killed, and I'm going to rise again the third day."
Ryan Sharp - Follow Him Podcast
Abinadi in Court - Contrasts
Abinadi, on the other hand, appears to have no friends. When he shows up calling the people to repentance, he seems to come out of nowhere (Mosiah 11:20). When he disappears for two years, we have no idea where he goes (Mosiah 12:1). When he is arrested, nobody speaks on his behalf. When he is tried, he calls no witness to testify to his innocence, except the words of an ancient prophet (Mosiah 14:1). It’s only when Abinadi is condemned to death that the priest Alma speaks in his defense, though it’s not clear that Abinadi is aware of Alma’s advocacy and in any case Alma is soon expelled (Mosiah 17:2-3). In the end, Abinadi dies as he (apparently) ministered: an isolated figure without social or family attachments (Mosiah 17:20).
Noah, on the contrary, runs from his death--literally. First, he begs for his life from Gideon when cornered on his tower (see Mosiah 19:8). Later, he commands his men to abandon their wives and children to flee Lamanite forces (see Mosiah 19:11).
Rosalynde F. Welch
Abinadi’s Influence on Others
We see the great righteousness one very righteous man can cause to take place among the children of men." Not only Abinadi and his influence, but then in chapter 17, there was one among them, these priests, and he believed. And then what does Alma do? He hides out and he begins to write the words of Abinadi. And then what does he do in chapter 18? He begins to teach the words of Abinadi. And it's the words of Abinadi that lead to the conversion of 450 souls at the end of Mosiah 18. And then it's Alma and his son Alma. And then the story of Alma the Younger connected with the sons of Mosiah gets us into the missionary work of the sons of Mosiah and their conversion is going to impact King Lamoni and the Queen, his father and the entire anti-Nephi-Lehi's. And then you have Alma's son, Helaman, and his son Helaman, and then as we mentioned at the beginning of this, the Nephi's. Until finally we get to the end of 3rd and 4th Nephi, the culmination, the climax of the Book of Mormon. This moment and the impact of Abinadi is truly going to transform the rest of Nephite civilization all the way up through 3rd and 4th Nephi.
Ryan Sharp
Abinadi as the Angel Who Appeared to King Benjamin
Remember - Professor Andrew Skinner has considered the angel who directed King Benjamin as Gabriel because of similar language.
The cluster of parallels surrounding the voice of the angel prompts the question, did the same angel appear to Abinadi as appeared to King Benjamin? While we cannot know for certain, some have speculatively suggested another possibility—that Abinadi may have been the angel that appeared to King Benjamin.[41] While such an assertion must be extremely tentative, it is interesting to note that King Benjamin frequently refers to the angelic messenger (see Mosiah 3:2–3; 4:1, 11). In addition, those in King Benjamin’s audience specifically reference the words of the angel, further emphasizing the importance of the angel in King Benjamin’s discourse (see Mosiah 5:5). In contrast, there is no mention of angels anywhere in the pericope surrounding Abinadi and those who heard his message, suggesting that an angelic messenger may not have played an important role in Abinadi’s ministry. If Abinadi was the angel who appeared to Benjamin, his words have an additional influence in the Book of Mormon through King Benjamin’s important speech. This potential influence is not tangential in understanding Book of Mormon teachings. If Abinadi did teach King Benjamin (or another angel taught Abinadi’s words to King Benjamin), then Abinadi is the first prophetic witness found in Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates of Nephi, influencing all prophetic voices after him.
John Hilton III - “Abinadi’s Legacy,” Abinadi: He Came Among Them in Disguise
How will Abinadi influence us?
“Comfort is the God of our generation” - Matt Chandler and Megan Fate Marshman
Comfortable, easy - Abinadi did not take the comfortable easy road for the Savior
Romans 8:28-29 - “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Whatever the “thing is” God will use that to help us conform to the image of the Son.
