Category: Daily Scripture Notes
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Mosiah 1 – Division & Unity
Notes on Mormon’s Record We jump into Mormon’s abridgement finally, in medias res (in the middle of things). We don’t have the introduction he would have given at the beginning of his record, now lost with the 116 pages (we do have a Title Page, but he likely only wrote a portion of that). Likely he began…
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Words of Mormon – The Precious Plates
WoM is not a named book in Mormon’s work. It appears to be both an introduction to the small plates (1-11) as well as a transition between the small plates and king Benjamin’s reign (12-18). Curiously, Oliver Cowdery originally had this ‘book’ as Omni II and our first book of Mosiah as Mosiah 3. It’s…
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Omni – Where Scripture, Jesus, & Family Meet
A lot happens in the short book of Omni, which spans 230 years of Nephite history. At the same time, much of it seems pretty cotidian. Is there some theme, some direction we are headed when we launch into the book? I think so. Something happens in a more intense way than anywhere else in…
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Jarom – Living in the Middle of a Dispensation
Jacob and his people find themselves squarely in the middle of a dispensation, not during any particularly exciting time, at least from a religious-history perspective. What does it look like to live and keep faith in the middle of a dispensation? The book of Jarom offers some insight. To introduce this idea, I’ll quote Sharon Harris in…
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Enos – The Covenant of The Book of Mormon
Who was Enos? Importantly, Mormon intended to end his record with the small plates (WofM 1:5). He tacked them on at the end of his book, organizing his record so that these constituted his final message. [Joseph Smith actually translated them last—when the 116 pages were lost, he resumed translation with the Book of Mosiah,…
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Jacob 7 – Sherem & Jacob: Dual Witnesses of Christ
Jacob’s treatment of Sherem is unique in the Book of Mormon because, rather than silencing him, Jacob gives Sherem the opportunity to repent and to influence the Nephites for good by testifying of Christ and the atonement. Rather than proving his spiritual authority by discounting Sherem, Jacob helps Sherem to recollect and reaffirm the truth…
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Jacob 6 – His Arm of Mercy is Extended Toward You
This chapter is in part a coda of Zenos’ allegory; but it is also a continuation of Jacob’s message to the Nephite men in chapters 2-4, and a call for them to repent. 1 I said unto you that I would prophecy, in Jacob 4:15. this is my prophecy—that the things which Zenos spake…must surely come to…
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Jacob 5 – A Commentary
7 Key Takeways 1. Even God may work hard and have things not turn out the right way. 2. God never gives up, to the very end. There is no place in his divine love that he is not willing to go to reclaim us. He is neither aloof nor an absentee Master. He comes…
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Jacob 5 – Allegory & Atonement
TAKE HOME – Those who interpret Zenos’ Allegory typically focus on how the scattering of the branches of the mother tree (the scattering of Israel, or the sprinkling of the nations, Is 52:15) blesses the Gentile world with “believing blood,” leavening the earth with righteousness. They argue that the allegory shows graphically how the covenant of Abraham is…
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Jacob 4 – Why Not Speak of the Atonement?
1 because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates, and not just because there were few plates. Regarding inscriptions on the famous Copper Scroll found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hugh Nibley writes: The business of writing on such plates was hard and distasteful work. The scribe, not without reason, appears to have tired…
Holy Envy 