Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lecture 28

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Abstract: In Words of Mormon 1:8, Mormon declares, “And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people.” The expression “that they may once again” plausibly reflects the Hebrew idiom wayyôsipû or wayyôsipû ʿôd. Mormon’s apparent double-use of the wayyôsipû (ʿôd) idiom in Words of Mormon 1:8 (or some Nephite scribal equivalent), like 2 Nephi 5:2–3, recalls language in the Joseph story (Genesis 37:5, 8). The original Lamanite covenant, as an extension of the Abrahamic covenant, involved the complete abandonment of fraternal hatred and the violent means through which they had given expression to it (see Alma 24:12–13; 15–18); Mormon declared that a similar commitment would again be necessary when the descendants of Lehi (“the remnant of this people who are spared,” Mormon 7:1) were restored to the covenant in the future (Mormon 7:4–5). Thus, Mormon’s prayer—in the tradition of the prayers of Nephi, Enos, and others—is that the descendants of the Lamanites (and Nephite dissenters) would, through iterative divine action, regain their covenant identity as the seed of Joseph and partakers of the Abrahamic covenant.

 
A previous study1 proposes that Nephi permuted biblical wordplay on the name Joseph from Genesis 37:5, 8 (“and they hated him yet the more [wayyôsipû ʿôd]”) as a means of drawing autobiographical parallels between himself and his ancestor Joseph (the patriarch) [Page 166]throughout his small plates record.2 Nephi’s use of this biblical wordplay culminates in the statement that marked a tipping point in his relationship with his brothers, paving the way for a final separation in mortality from them: “Behold, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cry much unto the Lord my God, because of the anger of my brethren. But behold, their anger did increase [yāsap] against me, insomuch that they did seek to take away my life” (2 Nephi 5:2).
The name Joseph (“may he [God] add”) derives from the verb yāsap, which means “to add” or “increase,”3 but can also have the more nuanced senses “to continue to do, carry on doing” something or “to do [something] again, more.”4 I have further proposed that Nephi used a wordplay on the name of Joseph in terms of yāsap when he juxtaposed quotations from Isaiah 11:11 and 29:14 in 2 Nephi 25:17, 21 (“And the Lord will set his hand again [yôsîp] the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, he will proceed [yôsīp] to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of men . . . that the promise may be fulfilled unto Joseph”) and 2 Nephi 29:1 (“But behold, there shall be many—at that day when I shall proceed [yôsīp] to do a marvelous work among them, that I may remember my covenants which I have made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand again [*wĕʾōsîp yādî] the second time to recover my people”)...

“That They May Once Again Be a Delightsome People”: The Concept of Again Becoming the Seed of Joseph (Words of Mormon 1:8 and Mormon 7:4–5)

Kent P. Jackson spoke at the 2021 Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference on Saturday, April 24, 2021. 
Many Latter-day Saints are unaware of the origin of “Selections from the Book of Moses,” one of the books in the Pearl of Great Price. In short, it consists of the beginning pages of the book of Genesis in Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, containing the account of some visions of Moses followed by the Prophet’s translation of Genesis 1:1–6:13. This paper introduces the Joseph Smith Translation and tells how this selection from Genesis made its way into the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
All of the conference presentations were filmed, and both video and audio recordings of each presentation are available. Videos, audio recordings and transcripts are available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2021-book-of-moses-conference/videos/.  The videos are also available on the Interpreter Foundation YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/theinterpreterfoundation. A YouTube playlist is available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMn4gyXMWLtulXZ-y4mAph138aNdAWlw. 


Presented at:
2021 Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses ConferenceSaturday April 24, 2021https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2021-book-of-moses-conference/


Conference Proceedings:
Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volumes I and II at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/


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Conference Talks: How We Got the Joseph Smith Translation, the Book of Moses, and Joseph Smith—Matthew

Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lecture 33

Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lecture 32


This week, we have lectures 31, 32, and 33 from Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering Mosiah 7-11.
During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University.  The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures.  We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.
All 112 lectures are immediately available in PDF, audio, video, and electronic formats, as well as in paperback books that are available for purchase.  Links for all of the available online sources can be found in the Complete Bibliography for Hugh Nibley at https://interpreterfoundation.org/bibliographies/hugh-w-nibley/lectures/.
 

Lecture 31: Book of Mormon—Mosiah 7.
Also called “Stable Civilizations; The Search for the Lost Colony.“We come to chapter 7 now. The Book of Mormon tells us things we don’t like to be told. If it told us only what we wanted to hear, of course, we wouldn’t need it. But that’s the only part of the scriptures we are willing to accept. Well, here we go.
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Lecture 32: Mosiah 8–10.
Also called “Ammon and Limhi; The Record of Zeniff.“We are on chapter 8 of Mosiah, and it is absolutely staggering what’s in here. We can’t stop for everything, but nevertheless it’s jammed in here.
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Lecture 33: Mosiah 10–11.
Also called “War and Defenses.“We are on Mosiah 10:8, and things begin to happen that have a familiar ring. They try again here. Zeniff sent out his spies, and [the Lamanite king] is watchful and doesn’t miss a thing. This attack doesn’t go so well, but notice the situation and how they do it.
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Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lecture 28

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