I want to take this lesson in something like reverse order. That is, I want to dwell first on the teachings of Joseph, and then I’d like to look at the “examples” drawn from his life. Hopefully the richness of taking the lesson this way will make clear, in the end, why I’ve chosen to take this path. Read the rest of this entry »

“My Soul Delighteth in the Words of Isaiah”: 2 Nephi 11-25

I’m going to be focusing my comments on 2 Nephi 16 (Isaiah 6), which I will argue is the central chapter for understanding this week’s lesson (and possibly all of 1st and 2nd Nephi). I will be lifting most of my ideas directly from Joe Spencer’s seminary lesson podcasts from last December (see here) and a mansucript of his on the Book of Mormon that is under review for publication. First, however, let me provide some links to other online material for this lesson:
Read the rest of this entry »

2 Nephi 6-10

In studying and understanding Jacob’s speech contained in these five chapters, I’d like to look at it from a historical and traditional perspective, that being a formal Covenant or Treaty Speech. Read the rest of this entry »

Attached are my notes for Lesson #7:

BOM #7 handout

Also, here is a link for some useful information regarding Joseph of Egypt.

What we have in these five chapters, of course, is a massive discourse given by Jacob to the Nephites. Its basic makeup is simple enough: Jacob, by the request of Nephi, is reading from and interpreting two and a half chapters of Isaiah to his people. After reading Isaiah but before doing his work of “likening,” Jacob gets distracted for six or seven pages of text in the marvelous chapter 9 (perhaps the only part of this speech that is usually referenced or commented upon). Three questions, it seems to me, must be asked about this speech, then: (1) How does Jacob think/liken Isaiah? (2) What is Jacob teaching in chapter 9? (3) How is the Isaiah/interpretation of Isaiah connected to the teachings of chapter 9? Read the rest of this entry »

My apologies for the extent—whatever it is—that this post is a distraction from the purposes of the site, but since the LDS-HERM blog project grew out of discussions here, it seems appropriate to me to mention that a new reading project will be beginning there shortly. We have worked through Girard’s The Scapegoat and are now planning to begin reading Paul Ricoeur’s Memory, History, Forgetting. Below is the tentative schedule for reading and posting there. Please ask any questions at all about the project, and I (we) do hope that others become interested and join the discussion there. The site for the LDS-HERM blog can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, as it turns out, I won’t be teaching lesson 4. When I arrived at opening exercises yesterday, the “week 2 instructor” approached me confessing that he had just remembered that he had only just remembered that he was on for teaching. I told him that I was prepared to teach in his place, and he offered to teach lesson 4 for me in a few weeks (because of ward conference, we were only coming to lesson 2 yesterday). So, as it turns out, I had the opportunity to teach lesson 2 instead of lesson 4. However, I’ve had such a marvelous time writing out a post on each part of the lesson, that I might do that at least more often, if not every time in the future…

At any rate, I certainly will continue onward today with part 4 of this four-part series on lesson 4. Again, see here for part 1; here for part 2; and here for part 3. Read the rest of this entry »

We have a new page which indexes the posts on the blog by Sunday School lesson number. The url is http://feastupontheword.org/Site:SS_lessons

Read the rest of this entry »

This is part 3 of a four-part series of posts on lesson 4 from the Joseph Smith manual. See here for part 1 and here for part 2. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Nephi 3-5

Read the rest of this entry »