Category: Daily Scripture Notes
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1 Nephi 19 – He Suffereth It, Because of His Loving Kindness
1-2, I did make plates of ore, there is no chapter break in the 1830 edition, so this immediately follows Nephi’s comment about finding gold, silver, and copper ore (18:25). Some scholars have suggested that the plates were likely made from an alloy called tumbaga, which was commonly used in South and Central America and consists…
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1 Nephi 18 – I Did Not Murmur
“Ancient Seafaring Technology: A question naturally arises as to whether vessels and nautical skills were available to account for the early voyages. Contrary to the picture we were once taught about ‘primitive’ sailors timidly avoiding the open sea until an intrepid Columbus made a breakthrough, evidence now clearly establishes that sailors long ago ventured widely. As…
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1 Nephi 17 – If I Should Say It, It Would Be Done
“I knew I could do it because, well, I already did.” -Harry Potter, on conjuring his patronus. So it is with Nephi and his ship. He knew he could do it, because the same type of miracle had already been done by Moses in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea…
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1 Nephi 16 – Liahona
Chapters 16 through 18 of 1 Nephi contain some of the best-known stories in the Book of Mormon, and rightly so. The historical narrative recounts the arduous journey of Lehi and his family from the Valley of Lemuel to the New World, and it compares with the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the…
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1 Nephi 15 – Have Ye Inquired of the Lord?
4-6 I considered that mine afflictions were great above all…for I had beheld their fall, all previous dispensations, while yet having the gospel and trying to spread it, ended in apostasy (see Moro 9:6). We take for granted that we are the only dispensation that will not dwindle in unbelief, but continue to grow as the…
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1 Nephi 14 – A Marvelous Work & A Wonder
[Note: The notes I’m including in these daily entries are skeletal. I have a personal, verse-by-verse commentary I’ve put together over the years as I sought to read everything I could from those who wrote about the Book of Mormon—prophets and scholars who know more than I do; but, I’m saving those for another day…
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1 Nephi 13 – Plain & Precious Truths
1 I looked and beheld many nations and kingdoms, It stands to reason that Nephi would see a vision of the Savior and his ministry (ch 11). But why the rest of the vision (ch 12-14)? Because Nephi needed to know why he had to keep a record. The central idea of the vision is that…
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1 Nephi 12 – War
1 multitudes of people, so the vision now becomes the basis for making sense of Nephite future history. As in the vision where the multitudes pressed forward toward the tree, so the multitudes of Nephites pressed forward through time toward the coming of the resurrected Christ to America, as prophesied by their prophets (just as Lehi…
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1 Nephi 11 – The Condescension of God
1-2, I had desired to know…Spirit said unto me, compare the personage who responds to Nephi’s desire with the one who responded to Lehi (1 Nephi 1:5–6). Are they the same being? How does Nephi’s desire to know what his father had seen (see 1 Nephi 10:17), presumably a desire expressed in prayer, differ from his…
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1 Nephi 10 – The Scattering & Gathering Of Israel
Intro, I could not overemphasize how important this chapter is. It summarizes and applies all of Lehi’s visions and teachings, introduces Nephi’s own upcoming visions and prophecies, sums up the central message Mormon and Moroni seek to convey in the Book of Mormon, and contains the first outline of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And…
Holy Envy 