Feast upon the Word Blog

As promised in my last post, I’m planning on dealing here principally with 1 Nephi 6-9. My reasons, as I explained before, include the fact that 1 Nephi 6-9 formed a single chapter (the second chapter) in the original version of the Book of Mormon. I think Nephi’s own way of breaking up his text is of real importance. Not only does it set up the parallel I explored in my last post (between the stories of Lehi’s reading of the heavenly book and of Lehi’s reading the brass plates in 1 Nephi 1-5), it sets up a clear parallel between 1 Nephi 6 and 1 Nephi 9, two of Nephi’s texts about what he’s doing in the writing of his record, two texts that mark the opening and closing of what was originally Nephi’s second chapter.

Moreover—indeed, more importantly, in my eyes—Nephi’s way of dividing up the text separates more strongly than we are wont to do as readers of the Book of Mormon Lehi’s dream of the tree of life from Nephi’s vision of the tree of life. This is especially clear when one considers the strong break (again, discussed in my last post) between 1 Nephi 1-9 (Nephi’s account of his father) and 1 Nephi 10-22 (Nephi’s account of himself). These are two quite distinct “halves” of First Nephi, and it is of real significance that Lehi’s dream is to be found in one, while Nephi’s vision is to be found in the other. In short, I believe that we’re far too quick to equate Lehi’s and Nephi’s experiences in our reading of the Book of Mormon. Now, I don’t mean to suggest that there’s something illegitimate about reading 1 Nephi 8 through the lens of 1 Nephi 11, 15. It’s been done a great deal, and I suspect we’ve all learned a great deal from it. But it seems to me clear that there are other—and, I think, better—ways to read Lehi’s dream. I’ll try to spell that out today, leaving 1 Nephi 11 and 1 Nephi 15 for my next post.

And I should mention, before getting any further, that all of what I do here presupposes, as before, what I laid out in my “preliminaries on Nephi” post.

To work, then! Read the rest of this entry »

My task here is to say something about 1 Nephi 1-7 in a reasonable amount of space. I’ll see what I can do. Much of what I have to say can only be understood in the context I have already worked out at length in a post on Nephi’s record generally. I highly recommend it be read in connection with these notes.

At any rate, to work! Read the rest of this entry »