Evidence #6 | April 30, 2024
Chiasmus Overview
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Scripture Central
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Abstract
The Book of Mormon’s pervasive and often complex chiastic structures are better explained as having come from various ancient writers than as having been created by Joseph Smith, especially under the circumstances described by the witnesses of the translation.Introduction
Chiasmus is a type of literary structure that has been used in both poetry and prose for thousands of years in a variety of cultures and languages. It can be described as an inverted parallelism, where key words, phrases, or ideas in the first half of the structure are reversed and repeated in the second half. For example, Jesus taught that “many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30). To help readers keep track of corresponding elements, chiasms are often formatted as follows:
A | many that are first | ||||||||||
B | shall be last; | ||||||||||
B | and the last | ||||||||||
A | shall be first. |
Not all chiasms, however, are so simple or follow precisely the same pattern. This more developed chiasm from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount has a 7-layer structure:
A | Ye shall know them by their fruits. | ||||||||||||
B | Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? | ||||||||||||
C | Even so every good tree | ||||||||||||
D | bringeth forther good fruit; | ||||||||||||
E | But a corrupt tree | ||||||||||||
F | bringeth forth evil fruit. | ||||||||||||
G | A good tree | ||||||||||||
F | cannot bring forth evil fruit | ||||||||||||
E | neither can a corrupt tree | ||||||||||||
D | bring forth good fruit. | ||||||||||||
C | Every tree | ||||||||||||
B | that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. | ||||||||||||
A | Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:16–20) |
Notice that in this chiasm the middle element (G) stands on its own without being repeated. Moreover, instead of being similar or the same, elements C are related but opposite concepts (the first instance discusses men who gather fruit for harvest and the second mentions the fruit-bearing trees being cast into a fire to be destroyed). Thus, while the fundamental parallel structure (inverted repetition) is always present, chiasmus can be implemented in a variety of nuanced ways.
Criteria for Identifying Chiasmus
In the last fifty years, scholars in many fields have found, or proposed to find, chiasms in ancient Ugaritic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and Mesoamerican writings, as well as in Medieval, Renaissance, Arabian, Hindu, and Modern literatures, including Shakespeare, Montaigne, and beyond. It has also been abundantly identified in the Book of Mormon.1
Some researchers have overzealously engaged in what can be called chiasmania—seeing chiasmus everywhere in writings, whether it was likely intended or not.2 Others, meanwhile, have argued that chiasmus may have occurred by mere chance in the Book of Mormon or in other texts.3 These opposing perspectives attest to the need for reliable criteria to distinguish between chiastic patterns that were most likely deliberate creations and those that occur randomly. Fortunately, a number of scholars have addressed this issue and their efforts have now been brought together for easy comparison on the Chiasmus Resources website.4 The most widely agreed upon standards can be summarized as follows:
- Chiasms should conform to natural literary boundaries.
- A climax or turning point should usually be found at the center.
- A chiasm’s inverted pattern should display a relatively well-balanced symmetry.
- Most of a chiasm’s repeated words or ideas should have significant meaning.
- Chiasms should manifest little, if any, extraneous repetition or divergent material.
- Chiastic structures should typically not compete or overlap with other strong literary forms.
While these criteria are helpful, the evaluation of chiastic structures necessarily remains an interpretive exercise. Hence, rather than advancing absolute, final judgments, those proposing chiastic arrangements in a text should recognize that all “chiastic passages manifest varying degrees of chiasticity.”5 It is even possible that different individuals will agree generally that a passage is chiastic, but may disagree on the particulars of its arrangement. In the final analysis, one can never definitively prove that an author intended to implement a chiasm. Yet, when a given proposal meets many or all of the most widely accepted standards, a chiasm’s likelihood of being intentional significantly increases.
In this regard, some researchers have sought to reduce the role of reader subjectivity by using statistical methods to evaluate chiastic patterns.6 These methods are able to determine that some proposed chiastic patterns were very likely to have been created deliberately, but they cannot prove if others which, statistically speaking, could plausibly have occurred by chance, actually did occur by chance.7 As such, statistical analysis is best used together with additional criteria to evaluate the merits of any proposed chiasm.8
Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon
The presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon was discovered by John W. Welch in 1967 while he was serving as a missionary in Germany.9 After returning home from his mission, Welch further developed and eventually published his findings,10 which helped initiate a wave of new literary studies on the Book of Mormon, including many more explorations of its use of chiasmus.11 Since then, various scholars and researchers have proposed hundreds of chiastic structures in its pages (see Chiasmus Resources).
These chiasms vary in length, complexity, and persuasiveness, but many of them measure up well against even the strictest sets of criteria. For example, statistical analysis conducted by Boyd and Farrell Edwards indicates that some of the Book of Mormon’s chiasms—namely Alma 36, Mosiah 3:18–19, Mosiah 5:10–12, and Helaman 6:9–11—are very unlikely to have occurred randomly or by accident.12 More recently, Dennis Newton has applied the same statistical technique to 15 chiasms in 1 and 2 Nephi, finding “there is strong likelihood that nine of these were composed intentionally and that it is probable that another three were intentional.”13
Overall, the Book of Mormon manifests a remarkable degree of chiasticity. Even if some of its proposed chiasms were not deliberately intended by the text’s authors, there are so many good candidates that it is hard to see them collectively as having been produced unintentionally or by random chance. For a comprehensive list of formatted chiasms in the text, see the Appendix.
Could Joseph Smith Have Known about Chiasmus in 1829?
Some Renaissance authors,14 especially William Shakespeare,15 made use of chiasmus in English texts. And to varying degrees the inverted structure persisted into the 19th century.16 However, discussions of chiasmus (or related concepts) seem to crop up rather infrequently in either the literature of Joseph Smith’s day or in the extensive volumes of literary criticism that have since been published about the literature of his time.17 Even when chiasmus has been identified in 18th or early-19th century texts, most proposed instances are simple A-B-B-A patterns.18 Some examples of macro chiastic structures (sometimes referred to in literary studies as “ring compositions” or “ring forms”) are also found in texts from that era,19 but such large structures are rather different from most of the proposed chiasms in the Book of Mormon.20
It is also possible that Joseph Smith could have learned about chiasmus from emerging biblical studies, but the relevant research was primarily being published across the ocean in London. In his investigation of this subject over the years, Welch has found no evidence that the published research had “reached America, let alone Palmyra or Harmony, in the 1820s.”21 As close as one can find is a brief summary of John Jebb’s 1820 work that was included in the second, 1825 edition of Thomas Hartwell Horne’s massive introduction to the critical study of the Bible, printed both in London and Philadelphia.22 Yet, as Welch has argued, it is unlikely that Joseph Smith ever came across this summary.23
Finally, some may assume that Joseph Smith simply noticed chiasmus in the Bible or in Shakespeare’s writings or from some other source. This possibility can never be completely ruled out, but it should be remembered that anything much more complex than chiastic couplets are typically not consciously noticed by readers. It took over 130 years for anyone to draw attention to the pervasive, complex chiastic structures in the Book of Mormon. And likely millions of people have read extensively from the Bible without ever recognizing its many chiasms. It is simply not a literary structure that readers—especially Western readers—are prone to consciously notice without it being pointed out to them.24
What Does Chiasmus Prove in the Book of Mormon?
The Book of Mormon indicates that it was written in an Egyptian script by ancient American prophets who preserved the literary tradition of their Hebrew ancestors. That being the case, it is noteworthy that chiasmus shows up anciently in Egyptian texts,25 and it was a “dominant, if not essential, element of Hebrew writing” in the centuries surrounding Lehi’s day.26 Preliminary evidence also suggests that chiasmus was prominent in early documents from Mesoamerica27—where many Latter-day Saint scholars and researchers believe the primary events recorded in the Book of Mormon took place. The large quantity of chiastic structures identified in the Book of Mormon is therefore what readers might expect to find, based on the text’s own claims about its origins and Joseph Smith’s understanding of its geographical setting.
On the other hand, the Book of Mormon’s pervasive chiastic structures seem to be out of place for an early 19th century text. Perhaps further research will someday demonstrate that other texts from that literary era are comparable in their quantity and variety of complex, multi-layered chiasms, but until then, the Book of Mormon appears to have a remarkable—and perhaps unparalleled—degree of overall chiasticity for its time.
It should also be remembered that multiple witnesses described the Book of Mormon, a notably lengthy and complex book, as having been rapidly dictated (historical evidence suggests it was completed in approximately 60 working days28) by an uneducated farmer who didn’t make use of any outlines, reference materials, working notes, or substantive revisions.29 How an inexperienced author like Joseph Smith could have implemented so many impressive chiastic structures under such constraining circumstances remains to be explained by naturalistic theories about the text’s origins.30 At the very least, the text’s extraordinary chiasticity places a heavy burden on such theories, while at the same time helping affirm the Book of Mormon’s claimed ancient origins.
Donald W. Parry, Poetic Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon: The Complete Text Reformatted (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2007), 565.
Robert F. Smith, “Assessing the Broad Impact of Jack Welch’s Discovery of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 2 (2007): 68–73, 98–99.
Boyd F. Edwards and W. Farrell Edwards, “Does Chiasmus Appear in the Book of Mormon by Chance?” BYU Studies Quarterly 43, no. 2 (2004): 103–130.
John W. Welch, “What Does Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon Prove?” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997), 199–224.
John W. Welch, “Criteria for Identifying and Evaluating the Presence of Chiasmus,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 2 (1995): 1–14.
John W. Welch, “Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon,” Ensign, February 1972, online at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
See Appendix and also Chiasmus Resources.
See Appendix and also Chiasmus Resources.
1 Nephi 1:1–3
A | yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, | |||
B | therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days. | |||
C | Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, | |||
D | which consists of the learning of the Jews | |||
C | and the language of the Egyptians. | |||
B | And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; | |||
A | and I make it according to my knowledge. |
1 Nephi 1:15–18
A | because of the things which he had seen, | ||||||||
B | yea, which the Lord had shown unto him. | ||||||||
C | A | And now I, Nephi, do not make a full account | |||||||
D | B | of the things which my father hath written, | |||||||
C | for he hath written many things | ||||||||
D | which he saw in visions | ||||||||
D | and in dreams; | ||||||||
C | and he also hath written many things | ||||||||
B | which he prophesied and spake unto his children, | ||||||||
E | A | of which I shall not make a full account. | |||||||
E | A | But I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days. | |||||||
D | B | Behold, I make an abridgment of the record of my father, | |||||||
C | Upon plates which I have made | ||||||||
C | with mine own hands; | ||||||||
B | wherefore, after I have abridged the record of my father | ||||||||
C | A | then will I make an account of mine own life. Therefore, I would that ye should know, | |||||||
B | A | that after the Lord had shown | |||||||
B | so many marvelous things unto my father, Lehi, yea, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, | ||||||||
C | behold he went forth among the people, | ||||||||
D | and began to prophesy | ||||||||
D | and to declare | ||||||||
C | unto them | ||||||||
B | concerning the things | ||||||||
A | A | which he had both seen and heard. |
1 Nephi 1:20–2 Nephi 2:1
A | and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. | ||
B | But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. | ||
C | For behold, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream, | ||
C | and said unto him: Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; | ||
B | and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, | ||
A | they seek to take away thy life. |
1 Nephi 2:2–4
A | And depart into the wilderness. | ||
B | And it came to pass that | ||
C | he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, | ||
C | wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him. | ||
B | And it came to pass that | ||
A | he departed into the wilderness. |
1 Nephi 2:4–5
A | save it were his family, | |||
B | and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness. | |||
C | And he came down by the borders near the shore of the Red Sea | |||
D | and he traveled in the wilderness | |||
C | in the borders which are nearer the Red Sea | |||
B | and he did travel in the wilderness | |||
A | with his family, |
1 Nephi 2:11–12
A | Now this he spake because of the stiffneckedness of Laman and Lemuel; | |||||||
B | For behold they did murmur in many thigs against their father, | |||||||
C | because he was a visionary man, | |||||||
D | and had led them out of the land of Jerusalem, | |||||||
E | to leave the land of their inheritance, and their gold, and their silver, | |||||||
E | and their precious things, | |||||||
D | to perish in the wilderness. | |||||||
C | and this they said he had done because of the foolish imaginations of his heart. | |||||||
B | and this Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. | |||||||
A | and they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who created them. |
1 Nephi 3:3–12
A | A | For behold, Laban hath the record of the Jews | |||||
B | and also a genealogy of my forefathers, | ||||||
C | and they are engraven upon plates of brass. | ||||||
B | Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness. | ||||||
C | And now, behold thy brothers murmur saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord. | ||||||
D | Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, | ||||||
E | said unto my father: | ||||||
F | I will go and do the things which | ||||||
G | the Lord hath commanded, for I know that | ||||||
G | the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, | ||||||
F | save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. | ||||||
E | And it came to pass that when my father had heard these words he was exceedingly glad for he knew that I had been blessed of the Lord. | ||||||
D | And I, Nephi, and my brethren took our journey in the wilderness, with our tents, to go up to the land of Jerusalem. | ||||||
C | And it came to pass that when we had gone up to the land of Jerusalem, I and my brethren did consult one with another. | ||||||
B | And we cast lots—who of us should go in unto the house of Laban. And it came to pass that the lot fell upon Laman; and Laman went in unto the house of Laban, and he talked with him as he sat in his house. | ||||||
A | A | And he desired of Laban the records | |||||
C | which were engraven upon the plates of brass, | ||||||
B | which contained the genealogy of my father. |
1 Nephi 3:16—22
A | A | therefore let us go down to the land | |||
B | of our father’s inheritance, | ||||
C | for behold he left gold and silver, | ||||
D | and all manner of riches. | ||||
B | And all this he hath done because of the commandments of the Lord. For he knew that Jerusalem must be destroyed, because of the wickedness of the people. | ||||
C | For behold, they have rejected the words of the prophets. Wherefore if my father should dwell in the land after he hath been commanded to flee out of the land, behold, he would also perish. Wherefore, it must needs be that he flee out of the land. | ||||
D | And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers; | ||||
D | And also that we may preserve unto them the words which have been | ||||
C | spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, which have been delivered unto them by the Spirit and power of God, since the world began, even down unto this present time. | ||||
B | And it came to pass that after this manner of language did I persuade my brethren, that they might be faithful in keeping the commandments of God. | ||||
A | A | And it came to pass that we went down to the land | |||
B | of our inheritance, | ||||
C | and we did gather together our gold, and our silver, | ||||
D | and our precious things. |
1 Nephi 4:5—24
A | And it was by night; and I caused that they should hide themselves without the walls. | |||||||
B | And after they had hid themselves, I, Nephi, crept into the city and went forth towards the house of Laban. And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was drunken with wine. And when I came to him I found that it was Laban. | |||||||
C | And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel. | |||||||
D | And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him. And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him intothy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property. | |||||||
E | And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands; Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. | |||||||
F | And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise. | |||||||
F | Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law. And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass. | |||||||
E | And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause—that I might obtain the records according to his commandments. | |||||||
D | Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword. | |||||||
C | And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the garments of Laban and put them upon mine own body; yea, even every whit; and I did gird on his armor about my loins. | |||||||
B | And after I had done this, I went forth unto the treasury of Laban. And as I went forth towards the treasury of Laban, behold, I saw the servant of Laban who had the keys of the treasury. And I commanded him in the voice of Laban, that he should go with me into the treasury. And he supposed me to be his master, Laban, for he beheld the garments and also the sword girded about my loins. And he spake unto me concerning the elders of the Jews, he knowing that his master, Laban, had been out by night among them. And I spake unto him as if it had been Laban. | |||||||
A | And I also spake unto him that I should carry the engravings, which were upon the plates of brass, to my elder brethren, who were without the walls. |
1 Nephi 4:32
A | that if he would hearken unto my words, | |||
B | as the Lord liveth, | |||
B | and as I live, | |||
A | even so that if he would hearken unto our words, we would spare his life. |
1 Nephi 4:33—35
A | And I spake unto him, even with an oath, | |||||||
B | that he need not fear; | |||||||
C | that he should be a free man like unto us | |||||||
D | if he would go down in the wilderness with us. | |||||||
E | And I also spake unto him, saying: Surely the Lord hath commanded | |||||||
F | us to do this thing; | |||||||
F | and shall we not be diligent | |||||||
E | in keeping the commandments of the Lord? | |||||||
D | Therefore, if thou wilt go down into the wilderness to my father | |||||||
C | thou shalt have place with us. | |||||||
B | And it came to pass that Zoram did take courage | |||||||
A | at the words which I spake. |
1 Nephi 4:38—5:6
A | And it came to pass that we took the plates of brass and the servant of Laban, | |||||||||||||
B | and departed into the wilderness, | |||||||||||||
C | and journeyed unto the tent of our father. | |||||||||||||
D | And it came to pass that after we had come down into the wilderness unto | |||||||||||||
a | our father, | |||||||||||||
b | behold, he was filled with joy, | |||||||||||||
a | and also my mother, Sariah, | |||||||||||||
b | was exceedingly glad, for she truly had mourned because of us. | |||||||||||||
E | a | For she had supposed that we had perished in the wilderness; | ||||||||||||
F | b | and she also had complained against my father, | ||||||||||||
c | telling him that he was a visionary man; saying: Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, | |||||||||||||
a | and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness. | |||||||||||||
F | b | And after this manner of language had my mother complained against my father. And it had come to pass that my father spake unto her, saying: | ||||||||||||
c | I know that I am a visionary man; for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision I should not have known the goodness of God, | |||||||||||||
E | but had tarried at Jerusalem, and had perished with my brethren. | |||||||||||||
D | And after this manner of language did my father, Lehi, comfort my mother, Sariah, | |||||||||||||
C | concerning us, while we journeyed | |||||||||||||
B | in the wilderness up to the land of Jerusalem | |||||||||||||
A | to obtain the record of the Jews. |
1 Nephi 5:7—9
A | A behold their joy was full, and my mother was comforted. | |||
B | And she spake, saying: | |||
C | Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; | |||
D | yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, | |||
D | and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, | |||
C | and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them. | |||
B | And after this manner of language did she speak. | |||
A | And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel. |
1 Nephi 5:14—16
A | And it came to pass that my father, Lehi, | |||
a | also found upon the plates of brass a genealogy of his fathers; | |||
b | wherefore he knew that he was a descendant of Joseph; yea, even that Joseph who was the son of Jacob, who was sold into Egypt, | |||
B | and who was preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he might preserve his father, Jacob, and all his household from perishing with famine | |||
C | And they were also led out of captivity | |||
C | and out of the land of Egypt, | |||
B | by that same God who had preserved them | |||
A | And thus my father, Lehi, | |||
a | did discover the genealogy of his fathers. | |||
b | And Laban also was a descendant of Joseph, wherefore he and his fathers had kept the records. |
1 Nephi 5:17—20
A | And now when my father saw all these things, he was filled with the Spirit, | |||
B | and began to prophesy concerning his seed— | |||
C | That these plates of brass should go forth | |||
D | unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, | |||
D | and people who were of his seed. | |||
C | Wherefore, he said that these plates of brass should never perish; neither should they be dimmed any more by time. | |||
B | And he prophesied many things concerning his seed | |||
A | And it came to pass that thus far I and my father had kept the commandments wherewith the Lord had commanded us. |
1 Nephi 6:1—2
A | And now I, Nephi, do not give the genealogy of my father in this part of my record | |||
B | neither at any time shall I give it after upon these plates | |||
C | which I am writing; | |||
D | for it is given in the record | |||
C | which has been kept by my father; | |||
B | wherefore, I do not write it in this work. | |||
A | For it sufficeth me to say that we are descendants of Joseph. |
1 Nephi 7:3—5
A | that I, Nephi, did again, with my brethren, go forth into the wilderness | ||||
B | to go up to Jerusalem | ||||
C | And it came to pass that we went up unto the house of Ishmael, | ||||
D | and we did gain favor in the sight of Ishmael, | ||||
E | insomuch that we did speak unto him the words of the Lord | ||||
D | And it came to pass that the Lord did soften the heart of Ishmael, | ||||
C | and also his household, | ||||
B | insomuch that they took their journey with us | ||||
A | down into the wilderness to the tent of our father. |
1 Nephi 7:13
A | shall be fulfilled | ||
B | concerning the destruction of Jerusalem; | ||
C | for all things which the Lord hath spoken | ||
B | concerning the destruction of Jerusalem | ||
A | must be fulfilled. |
1 Nephi 7:16—19
A | a | a | they were angry with him | |
b | b | And it came to pass that they did lay their hands upon me, | ||
a | for behold, they were exceedingly wroth, | |||
b | and they did bind me with cords, | |||
c | for they sought to take away my life, that they might leave me in the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts. | |||
B | But it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord, saying: | |||
C | O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; | |||
C | yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound. | |||
B | And it came to pass that when I had said these words, behold, the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet, and I stood before my brethren, and I spake unto them again. | |||
A | a | And it came to pass that they were angry with me again, | ||
b | and sought to lay hands upon me; but behold, one of the daughters of Ishmael, yea, and also her mother, and one of the sons of Ishmael, did plead with my brethren, | |||
c | insomuch that they did soften their hearts; and they did cease striving to take away my life. |
1 Nephi 8:8—9
A | I began to pray unto the Lord | |
B | that he would have mercy on me, | |
B | according to the multitude of his tender mercies. | |
A | And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord |
1 Nephi 8:10—12
A | whose fruit was desirable | |||||
B | to make one happy | |||||
C | And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit therof; | |||||
D | a | and I beheld that it was most sweet, | ||||
b | above all that I ever before tasted. | |||||
D | a | Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, | ||||
b | to exceed all the whitness that I had ever seen. | |||||
C | And as I partook of the fruit thereof | |||||
B | it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; | |||||
A | wherefore, I begain to be desirous |
1 Nephi 8:22—23
A | And it came to pass that they did come forth, | ||
B | and commence in the path which led to the tree. | ||
C | And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; | ||
C | yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, | ||
B | insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, | ||
A | that they wandered off and were lost. |
1 Nephi 9:3—5
A | a | Nevertheless, I have received a commandment of the Lord | |||||||
b | that I should make these plates | ||||||||
c | for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people. | ||||||||
B | d | Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, | |||||||
e | and the wars | ||||||||
f | and the contentions of my people | ||||||||
a | wherefore these plates | ||||||||
b | are for the more part of the ministry | ||||||||
c | and the other plates | ||||||||
d | are for the more part of the reign of the kings | ||||||||
e | and the wars | ||||||||
f | and contentions of my people | ||||||||
A | a | Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me | |||||||
b | to make these plates | ||||||||
c | for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. |
1 Nephi 11:11
A | for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; | |
B | for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; | |
B | yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; | |
A | and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another. |
1 Nephi 11:16—22
A | a | And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? | |
b | And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things. | ||
B | And he said unto me: Behold the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh. | ||
C | And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; | ||
C | and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look! | ||
B | And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms. | ||
A | a | And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? | |
b | And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. |
1 Nephi 11:32
A | And I looked and beheld | |
B | the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; | |
B | yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; | |
A | and I saw and bear record |
1 Nephi 11:34—35
A | And I looked and beheld | |
B | the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; | |
B | yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; | |
A | and I saw and bear record. |
1 Nephi 12:19
A | And while the angel spake these words, | |
B | I beheld and saw that the seed of my brethern | |
B | did content against my seed, | |
A | according to the word of the angel; |
1 Nephi 13:16—19
A | a | And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; | |
b | and the power of the Lord was with them. | ||
B | And I beheld that theri mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. | ||
B | And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle. | ||
A | a | And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity | |
b | were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations. |
1 Nephi 13:26
A | they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb | |
B | many parts which are plain and most precious; | |
B | and also many covenants of the Lord | |
A | have they taken away |
1 Nephi 13:29—30
A | the Gentiles which have gone forth out of captivity, thou seest–– | ||
B | because of the many plain and precious things which have been taken out out of the book, | ||
C | which were plain unto the understanding of the children of men, | ||
C | according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God–– | ||
B | because of these things which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them. | ||
A | Nevertheless, thou beholdest that the Gentiles who have gone forth out of captivity |
1 Nephi 13:39—42
A | unto the convincing of the Gentiles and the remnant of the seed of my brethren, | |||||||
B | and also the Jews | |||||||
C | who were scattered upon all the face of the earth, that the records of the prophets and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are true. And the angel spake unto me, saying: These last records, which thou hast seen among the Gentiles, | |||||||
D | shall establish the truth of the first, | |||||||
E | which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb | |||||||
F | and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, | |||||||
G | that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; | |||||||
H | and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved. | |||||||
H | And they must come according to the words which shall be established | |||||||
G | by the mouth of the Lamb | |||||||
F | and the words of the Lamb shall be made known in the records of they seed, | |||||||
E | as well as in the records of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; | |||||||
D | wherefore they both shall be established in one; for there is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth. | |||||||
C | And the time cometh that he shall manifest himself unto all nations, | |||||||
B | both unto the Jews | |||||||
A | and also unto the Gentiles; |
1 Nephi 13:42
A | and after he has manifested himself unto the Jews | |
B | and also unto the Gentiles | |
B | then he shall manifest himself unto the Gentiles | |
A | and also unto the Jews |
1 Nephi 13:42
A | and the last | |
B | shall be first | |
B | and the first | |
A | shall be last |
1 Nephi 14:15—16
A | And it came to pass that I beheld | |||
B | that the wrath of God was poured out | |||
C | upon that great and abominable church, | |||
D | insomuch that there were wars and rumors or wars among all the nations and kindreds of the earth. | |||
D | And as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations | |||
C | which belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spake unto me, saying: | |||
B | Behold, the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; | |||
A | and behold, thou seest all these things–– |
1 Nephi 14:20—25
A | And the angel said unto me: Behold one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb | |||
B | Behold, he shall see and write the remainder of these things; yea, and also many things which have been. And he shall also write concerning the end of the world. | |||
C | Wherefore, the things which he shall write are just and true; | |||
D | and behold they are written in the book which thou beheld proceeding out of the mouth of the Jew; | |||
D | and at the time they proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew, or, at the time the book proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew, | |||
C | the things which were written were plain and pure, and most precious and easy to the understanding of all men. | |||
B | And behold, the things which this apostle of the Lamb shall write are many things which thou hast seen; and behold, the remainder shalt thou see. | |||
A | But the things which thou shalt see hereafter thou shalt not write; for the Lord God hath ordained the apostle of the Lamb of God that he should write them. |
1 Nephi 15:7—12
A | Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken | |||||
B | concerning the natural branches of the olive-tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. | |||||
C | And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us. | |||||
D | Behold, I said unto them: How is that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? | |||||
E | How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts? | |||||
F | Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?–– | |||||
E | If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, | |||||
D | with diligence in keeping my commandments, | |||||
C | surely these things shall be made known unto you. | |||||
B | Behold, I say unto you, that the house of Israel was compared unto an olive-tree, | |||||
A | by the Spirit of the Lord which was in our father; |
1 Nephi 15:24—25
A | And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, | ||
B | they would never perish; | ||
C | neither could the temptations | ||
C | and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness | ||
B | to lead them away to destruction. |
A | I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; | |
B | yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, | |
B | and with all the faculty which I possesed, | |
A | that they would give heed to the word of God |
1 Nephi 15:33—34
A | and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy | ||
B | it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, | ||
C | the kingdom of God must be filthy also. | ||
C | But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, | ||
B | and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; | ||
A | wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy. |
1 Nephi 16:1—3
A | Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear. | ||||
B | And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; | ||||
C | and the righteous have I justified, | ||||
D | and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; | ||||
E | wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, | ||||
E | for it cutteth them | ||||
D | And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, | ||||
C | that ye might walk uprightly before God, | ||||
B | then ye would not murmer because of the truth, and say: | ||||
A | Thou speakest hard things against us. |
1 Nephi 16:13—14
A | we did call the name of the place Shazer. | ||
B | And it came to pass that we did take our bows and our arrows, and go forth into the wilderness | ||
C | to slay food for our families; | ||
C | and after we had slain food for our families | ||
B | we did return again to our families in the wilderness, | ||
A | to the place of Shazer |
1 Nephi 16:28—29
A | beheld the pointers which were in the ball, | |||
B | that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which he did give unto them. | |||
C | And there was also written upon them a new writing, | |||
D | which was plain to be read, | |||
D | which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; | |||
C | and it was written and changed from time ttime, | |||
B | according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. | |||
A | And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things. |
1 Nephi 17:7
A | the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: | |
B | Arise, and get thee into the mountain. | |
B | And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain | |
A | and cried unto the Lord |
1 Nephi 17:13
A | And I will also be your light in the wilderness; | ||
B | and I will prepare the way before you, | ||
C | if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments | ||
C | wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments | ||
B | ye shall be led towards the promised land; | ||
A | and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. |
1 Nephi 17:17—19
A | Our brother is a fool, | |||||
B | for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters. | |||||
C | And thus my brethren did complain against me, and were desirous that they might not labor, for they did not believe that I could build a ship; neither would they believe that I was instructed of the Lord.And not it came to pass that | |||||
D | a | I, Nephi, was exceedingly sorrowful | ||||
b | because of the hardness of their hearts; | |||||
D | a | and now when they saw that I began to be sorrowful | ||||
b | they were glad in their hearts, | |||||
C | insomuch that they did rejoice over me, saying: | |||||
B | We knew that ye could not construct a ship, | |||||
A | for we knew that ye were lacking in judgement; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great a work. |
1 Nephi 17:46
A | he can cause the rough places | |
B | to be made smooth, | |
B | and smooth places | |
A | shall be broken up. |
1 Nephi 17:48—52
A | and as they came forth to lay their hands upon me | ||||
B | I spake unto them, saying: | ||||
C | In the name of the Almighty GOd, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh; and whoso shall lay his hands upon me shall wither even as a dried reed; and he shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite him. | ||||
D | And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto them that they should murmur no more against their father; neither should they withold their labor from me, for God had commanded me that I should build a ship. | ||||
E | And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things | ||||
E | I could do them. | ||||
D | If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. | ||||
C | And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship? | ||||
B | And it came to pass that I, Nephi said many things unto my brethren, | ||||
A | insomuch that they were confounded and could not content against me; neither durst they lay their hands upon me nor touch me with their fingers, |
1 Nephi 18:24
A | that we did begin to till the earth, | |
B | and we began to plant seeds; | |
B | yea, we did put all our seeds | |
A | into the earth, |
1 Nephi 19:13—14
A | they shall be scourged by all people, | |||
B | because they crucify the God of Israel, | |||
C | and turn their hearts aside, | |||
D | rejecting signs and wonders, | |||
D | and the power and glory of the God of Israel. | |||
C | And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, | |||
B | and have despised the Holy One of Israel, | |||
A | they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations. |
1 Nephi 21:1
A | the Lord hath called me | |
B | from the womb; | |
B | from the bowels of my mother | |
A | hath he made mention of my name. |
1 Nephi 21:11
A | And I will make all my mountains | |
B | a way, | |
B | and my highways | |
A | shall be exalted. |
1 Nephi 21:24—25
A | For shall be the prey be taken from the mighty, | ||
B | or the lawful captives delivered? | ||
C | But thus saith the Lord, | ||
B | even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, | ||
A | and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; |
1 Nephi 22:1—3
A | What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold, are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, | |||
B | which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh? | |||
C | And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet | |||
D | by the voice of the Spirit; | |||
D | for by the Spirit; | |||
C | are all things made known unto the prophets, | |||
B | which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh. | |||
A | Wherefore, the things of which I have read are things pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual; |
1 Nephi 22:25
A | and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; | |
B | and there shall be one fold | |
B | and one shepherd; | |
A | and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture. |
1 Nephi 22:26
A | And because of the righteousness of his people, | ||
B | Satan has no power; | ||
C | wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; | ||
B | for he hath no power over the hearts of the people | ||
A | for they dwell in righteousness, |
2 Nephi 1:13—23
A | O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, whcih are the chains which bind the children of men, | ||||||||
B | that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe. | ||||||||
C | Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, | ||||||||
D | whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth. | ||||||||
E | But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. | ||||||||
F | And I desire that ye should remember to observe the statutes and the judgements of the Lord; | ||||||||
a | behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul | ||||||||
b | from the beginning | ||||||||
a | My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow | ||||||||
b | from time to time, for I have feared, lest for the hardness of your hearts the Lord your God should come out in the fulness of his wrath upon you, that ye be cut off and destroyed foever; | ||||||||
G | Or, that a cursing should come upon you for the space of many generations; and ye are visited by the sword, and by famine, and are hated, and are led according to the will and captivity of the devil. | ||||||||
G | O my sons, that these things might not come upon you, but that ye might be a choice and a favored people of the Lord. But behold, his will be done; for his ways are righteousness forever. | ||||||||
F | And he hath said that: | ||||||||
a | Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments | ||||||||
b | ye shall prosper in the land; | ||||||||
a | but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments | ||||||||
b | ye shall be cut off from my presence. | ||||||||
E | a | And now that my soul | |||||||
b | might have joy in you | ||||||||
a | and that my heart might leave this world | ||||||||
b | with gladness because of you, | ||||||||
D | that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, | ||||||||
C | arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity. | ||||||||
B | That ye may not be cursed with a sore cursing; and also, that ye may not incur the displeasure of a just God upon you, unto the destruction, yea, the eternal destruction of both soul and body. | ||||||||
A | Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteosuness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound., and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust. |
2 Nephi 1:28—29
A | I leave unto you a blessing, | ||
B | yea, even my first blessing. | ||
C | But if ye will not hearken unto him | ||
B | I take away my first blessing, | ||
A | yea, even my blessing, |
2 Nephi 2:7
A | to answer | |||
B | the ends of the law, | |||
C | unto all those | |||
D | who have a broken heart | |||
D | and a contrite spirit; | |||
C | and unto none else | |||
B | can the ends of the law | |||
A | be answered |
2 Nephi 3:1
A | Thou wast born | |
B | in the wilderness of mine afflictions; | |
B | yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow | |
A | did thy mother bear thee |
2 Nephi 5:2—4
A | insomuch that they did seek to take away my life. | |||
B | Yea, they did murmer against me, saying: | |||
C | Our younger brother thinks to rule over us; | |||
D | and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, | |||
D | that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; | |||
C | for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethern, to rule over this people. | |||
B | Now I do not write upon these plates all the words which they murmured against me. | |||
A | But if sufficeth me to say, that they did seek to take away my life. |
2 Nephi 5:16
A | And I, Nephi, did build a temple; | ||
B | and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon | ||
C | save it were not built of so many precious things; | ||
C | for they were not to be found upon the land, | ||
B | wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon's temple. | ||
A | But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine. |
2 Nephi 5:25
A | They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, | ||
B | to stir them up | ||
C | in rememberance of me; | ||
C | and inasmuch as they will not remember me, | ||
B | and hearken unto my words, | ||
A | they shall scourge them even unto destruction. |
2 Nephi 6:13
A | For the people of the Lord | |
B | are they who wait for him; | |
B | for they still wait | |
A | for the coming of the Messiah |
2 Nephi 6:14—15
A | and none will he destroy | |
B | that believe in him. | |
B | And they that believe not in him | |
A | shall be destroyed, |
2 Nephi 6:16—17
A | For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, | ||
B | or the lawful captive delivered? | ||
C | But thus saith the Lord: | ||
B | Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, | ||
A | and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; |
2 Nephi 7:17
A | Yea, for thus saith the Lord: | |
B | Have I put thee away, | |
B | or have I cast thee off forever? | |
A | For thus saith the Lord: |
2 Nephi 7:17
A | To whom have I put thee away, | |
B | or to which of my creditors have I sold you? | |
A | Yea, to whom have I sold you? |
2 Nephi 8:11
A | and everlasting joy and holiness | |
B | shall be upon their heads; | |
B | and they shall obtain | |
A | gladness and joy; |
2 Nephi 8:15
A | But I am the Lord thy God, | |
B | whose waves roared; | |
A | the Lord of Hosts is my name. |
2 Nephi 8:19
A | who shall be sorry for thee–– | |
B | they desolation and destruction | |
B | and the famine and the sword–– | |
A | and by whom shall I comfort thee? |
2 Nephi 9:20
A | For he knoweth | |
B | all things, | |
B | and there is not anything | |
A | save he knows it. |
2 Nephi 9:28
A | O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! | ||
B | When they are learned they think they are wise, | ||
C | and they hearken not unto the conusel of God, | ||
C | for they set it aside, | ||
B | supposing they know of themselves, | ||
A | wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. |
2 Nephi 9:38
A | And, in fine, wo unto all those who die in their sins; | |
B | for they shall return to God, | |
B | and behold his face, | |
A | and remain in their sins. |
2 Nephi 9:42
A | And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, | ||||
B | who are puffed up | ||||
C | because of their learning, and their wisdom, | ||||
D | and their riches–– | ||||
E | yea, they are they whom he despiseth; | ||||
D | and save they shall cast these things away, | ||||
C | and consider themselves fools before God, | ||||
B | and come down in the depths fo humility, | ||||
A | he will not open unto them. |
2 Nephi 9:44—46
A | wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, | ||||
B | when all men shall be judged of their works, | ||||
C | that the God of Israel | ||||
D | did witness that I shook your iniquities from my soul, | ||||
E | and that I stand with brightness before him, | ||||
E | and am rid of your blood. | ||||
D | O, my beloved bretheren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; | ||||
C | come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation. | ||||
B | Prepare your souls for that glorious day when justice shall be administered unto the righteous, | ||||
A | even the day of judgement, |
2 Nephi 11:2—8
A | For I will liken his words unto my people, | ||||||
B | and I will send them forth unto all my children, | ||||||
C | for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen him; | ||||||
D | Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses and he proveth all his words. | ||||||
E | Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; | ||||||
F | for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; | ||||||
G | and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him. | ||||||
F | And also my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers; yea, my soukl | ||||||
E | And my soul delighteth in proving unto my people that save Christ should come all men must perish. | ||||||
D | For if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no creation. But there is a God, | ||||||
C | and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fulness of his own time. | ||||||
B | And now I write some of the words of Isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men. | ||||||
A | Now these are the words, and ye may liken them unto you and unto all men. |
2 Nephi 12:10—19
A | O ye wicked ones, enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for the fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty shall smite thee. | |
B | And it shall come to pass that the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of Hosts soon cometh upon all nations, yea, upon every one; yea, upon the proud and lofty, and upon every one who is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. Yea, and the day of the Lord shall come upon all the cedars of Lebanon, for they are high and lifted up; and upon all the oaks of Bashan; And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every people; And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall; And upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. | |
B | And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. | |
A | And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the glory of his majesty shall smite them, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. |
2 Nephi 15:7
A | For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts | |
B | is the house of Israel, | |
B | and the men of Judah | |
A | his pleasant plant; |
2 Nephi 15:20
A | Wo unto them that call evil | |
B | good | |
B | and good | |
A | evil, |
2 Nephi 15:20
A | that put darkness | |
B | for light, | |
B | and light | |
A | for darkness, |
2 Nephi 15:20
A | that put bitter | |
B | for sweet, | |
B | and sweet | |
A | for bitter! |
2 Nephi 15:25
A | Therefore, is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, | ||
B | and hath smitten them; | ||
C | and the hills did tremble, | ||
B | and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. | ||
A | For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. |
2 Nephi 16:10
A | Make the heart of this people fat, | ||
B | and make their ears heavy, | ||
C | and shut their eyes–– | ||
C | lest they see with their eyes, | ||
B | and hear with their ears, | ||
A | and understand with their heart, |
2 Nephi 17:10—12
A | Moreover, the Lord spake | ||
B | again unto Ahaz, saying: | ||
C | Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; | ||
C | ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above. | ||
B | But Ahaz said: | ||
A | I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. |
2 Nephi 19:21
A | Manasseh, | |
B | Ephraim; | |
B | and Ephraim | |
A | Manasseh |
2 Nephi 20:20—21
A | that the remnant of Israel, | ||
B | and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, | ||
C | shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, | ||
C | but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Isarel, in truth. | ||
B | The remnant shall return, | ||
A | yea, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. |
2 Nephi 20:24
A | be not afraid of the Assyrian; | |
B | he shall smite thee with a rod, | |
B | and shall lift up his staff against thee, | |
A | after the manner of Egypt. |
2 Nephi 21:4
A | and he shall smite the earth | |
B | with the rod of his mouth, | |
B | and with the breath of his lips | |
A | shall he slay the wicked. |
2 Nephi 22:2
A | Behold, God is my salvation; | |
B | I will trust, and not be afraid; | |
B | for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; | |
A | he also has become my salvation. |
2 Nephi 24:9—18
A | Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, | |||||||
B | even all the chief ones of the earth; | |||||||
C | it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. | |||||||
D | All they shall speak and say unto thee: Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? | |||||||
E | Thy pomp is brought down to the grave; the noise of thy viols is not heard; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thy heart: | |||||||
F | I will ascend into heaven, | |||||||
G | I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; | |||||||
H | I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; | |||||||
G | I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; | |||||||
F | I will be like the Most High. | |||||||
E | Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. | |||||||
D | They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and shall consider thee, and shall say: Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? And made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners? | |||||||
C | All the kings of the nations, | |||||||
B | yea, all of them, | |||||||
A | lie in glory, every one of them in his own house. |
2 Nephi 24:10—12
A | Art thou also become weak as we? | |||
B | Art thou become like unto us? | |||
C | Thy pomp is brought down to the grave; the noise of thy viols is not heard; | |||
D | the worm is spread under thee, | |||
D | and the worms cover thee. | |||
C | How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! | |||
B | Art thou cut down to the ground, | |||
A | which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thy heart: |
2 Nephi 25:4
A | Wherefore, hearken, | |
B | O my people, | |
B | which are of the house of Israel, | |
A | and give ear unto my words; |
2 Nephi 25:7
A | in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled | |
B | men shall know of a surety, | |
A | at the times when they shall come to pass. |
2 Nephi 25:15
A | Wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered among all nations; | |
B | yea, and also Babylon shall be destroyed; | |
A | wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations. |
2 Nephi 25:24—27
A | And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses | ||||
B | and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. | ||||
C | For, for this end was the law given; | ||||
D | wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments. | ||||
E | And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, | ||||
E | and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for remission of their sins. Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know | ||||
D | the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, | ||||
C | and know for what end the law was given. | ||||
B | And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, | ||||
A | that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away. |
2 Nephi 26:1—9
A | And after Christ shall have risen from the dead he shall show himself unto you, my children, and my beloved bretheren; | |||||||
B | and the words which he shall speak unto you shall be the law which ye shall do. | |||||||
C | For behold, I say unto you that I have beheld that many generations shall pass away, | |||||||
D | and there shall be great wars and contentions among my people. | |||||||
E | And after the Messiah shall come there shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection; and great and terrible shall that day be unto the wicked, | |||||||
F | for they shall perish; and they perish | |||||||
G | becasue they cast out the prophets, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the blood of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them. | |||||||
H | Wherefore, all those who are proud, and that do wickedly, the day that cometh shall burn them up, | |||||||
H | saith the Lord of hosts, for they shall be as stubble. | |||||||
G | And they that kill the prophets, and the saints, | |||||||
F | the depths of the earth shall swallow them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; and the mountains shall cover them, and the whirlwinds shall carry them away, and the buildings shall fall upon them and crush them to pieces and grind them to powder. | |||||||
E | And they shall be visited with thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and all manner of destructions, for the fire of the anger of the Lord shall be kindled against them, and they shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall consume them, saith the Lord of Hosts. | |||||||
D | O the pain, and the anguish of my soul for the loss of the slain of my people! | |||||||
C | For I, Nephi, have seen it, and it will nigh consumeth me before the presence of the Lord; but I must cry unto my God: They ways are just. | |||||||
B | But behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all persecution––behold, they are they which shall not perish. | |||||||
A | But the Son of righteounessness shall appear unto them; |
2 Nephi 27:1—4
A | behold, they will be drunken | |||
B | with iniquity and all manner of abominations––And when that day shall come they shall be visited of the Lord of Hosts, with thunder, and with earthquake, and with a great noise, and with a storm, and with a tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire. | |||
C | And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, | |||
D | even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; | |||
D | or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; | |||
C | yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. | |||
B | For behold, all ye that doeth iniquity, stay yourselves and wonder, for ye shall cry out, and cry; | |||
A | yea, ye shall be drunken but not with wine, ye shall stagger but not with strong dink. |
2 Nephi 27:5
A | For behold, ye have closed your eyes, | |
B | and ye have rejected the prophets; | |
B | and your rulers, | |
A | and the seers hath he covered because of your iniquity. |
2 Nephi 28:3
A | that the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, | ||
B | when the one shall say unto the other: | ||
C | Behold, I, I am the Lord's | ||
C | and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord's; | ||
B | and thus shall every one say | ||
A | that hath built up churches, and not unto the Lord |
2 Nephi 28:16—20
A | Wo unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of naught and revile against that which is good, and say that it is of no worth! | |||
B | For the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth; and in that day that they are fully ripe in iniquity they shall perish. | |||
C | But behold, if the inhabitatnts of the earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations they shall not be destroyed, saith the Lord of Hosts, | |||
D | But behold, that great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, must tumble to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof. | |||
D | For the kingdom of the devil must shake, | |||
C | and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, | |||
B | and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; | |||
A | For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. |
2 Nephi 28:21
A | And others will be pacify, | |||
B | and lull them away into carnal security, | |||
C | that they will say: All is well | |||
D | in Zion; | |||
D | yea, Zion prospereth, | |||
C | all is well–– | |||
B | and thus the devil cheateth their souls, | |||
A | and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. |
2 Nephi 28:32
A | Wo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! | |||
B | For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day | |||
C | they will deny me; | |||
D | nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent | |||
C | and come unto me; | |||
B | for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, | |||
A | saith the Lord God of Hosts. |
2 Nephi 29:3—6
A | A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. | |||||||
B | But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; | |||||||
C | and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. | |||||||
D | And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? | |||||||
E | Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? | |||||||
F | Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, | |||||||
G | in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles | |||||||
G | O ye Gentiles, | |||||||
F | have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? | |||||||
E | Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. | |||||||
D | But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; | |||||||
C | for I the Lord have not forgotten my people. | |||||||
B | Thou fool, that shall say: | |||||||
A | A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. |
2 Nephi 29:13
A | that the Jews | ||
B | shall have the words | ||
C | of the Nephites | ||
C | and the Nephites | ||
B | shall have the words | ||
A | of the Jews |
2 Nephi 29:13
A | and the Nephites and the Jews | ||
B | shall have the words | ||
C | of the lost tribes of Israel | ||
C | and the lost tribes of Israel | ||
B | shall have the words | ||
A | of the Nephites and the Jews |
2 Nephi 30:9
A | And he shall smite the earth | |
B | with the rod of his mouth; | |
B | and with the breath of his lips | |
A | shall he slay the wicked. |
2 Nephi 32:2
A | that after ye had received the Holy Ghost | |
B | ye could speak with the tongue of angels? | |
B | And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels | |
A | save it were by the Holy Ghost? |
Jacob 1:11
A | Wherefore, the people were desirous to retain in remembrance his name. | ||
B | And whoso should reign in his stead were called by the people, | ||
C | second Nephi, | ||
C | third Nephi, and so forth, | ||
B | according to the reigns of the kings; and thus they were called by the people, | ||
A | let them be of whatever name they would. |
Jacob 1:14
A | but I shall call them Lamanites | |
B | that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, | |
B | and those who are friendly to Nephi | |
A | I shall call Nephites, |
Jacob 2:6—10
A | Yea, it grieveth my soul and causeth me to shrink with shame | ||||||||
B | before the presence of my Maker, | ||||||||
C | that I must testify unto you concerning the wickedness of your hearts. | ||||||||
D | And also it grieveth me that I must use so much boldness of speech concerning you, | ||||||||
E | before your wives and your children, many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste and delicate before God, which thing is pleasing unto God; | ||||||||
F | And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, | ||||||||
G | yea, the word which healteth the wounded soul. | ||||||||
H | Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you according to your crimes, | ||||||||
I | to enlarge the wounds | ||||||||
I | of those who are already wounded, | ||||||||
H | instead of consoling | ||||||||
G | and healing their wounds; | ||||||||
F | and those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God | ||||||||
E | have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds. | ||||||||
D | But, notwithstanding the greatness of the task, I must do according to the strict commands of God, | ||||||||
C | and tell you concerning your wickedness and abominations, | ||||||||
B | in the presence of the pure in heart, and the broken heart, | ||||||||
A | and under the glance of the piercing eye of the Almighty God. |
Jacob 3:6
A | And now, this commandment | |
B | they observe to keep; | |
B | wherefore, because of this observance, | |
A | in keeping this commandment, |
Jacob 4:9
A | For behold, by the power of his word | |
B | man came upon the face of the earth, | |
B | which earth | |
A | was created by the power of his word. |
Jacob 5:7—9
A | wherefore, go and pluck the branches from a wild olive-tree, and bring them hither unto me; and we will pluck off those main branches which are beginning to wither away, and we will cast them into the fire that they may be burned. | ||
B | And behold, saith the Lord of the vineyard, I take away many of these young and tender branches, and I will graft them whithersoever I will; | ||
C | and it mattereth not that if it so be that the root of this tree will perish, | ||
C | I may preserve the fruit thereof unto myself; | ||
B | wherefore, I will take these young and tender branches, and I will graft them whithersoever I will. | ||
A | Take thou the branches of the wild olive-tree, and graft them in, in the stead thereof; and these which I have plucked off I will cast into the fire and burn them, that they may not cumber the ground of my vineyard. |
Jacob 5:46—48
A | But, behold, they have become like unto the wild olive-tree, | |||||
B | and they are of no worth but to be hewn down and cast into the fire; | |||||
C | and it grieveth me that I should lose them. | |||||
D | But what could I have done more in my vineyard? | |||||
E | Have I slackened my hand, that I have not nourished it, | |||||
F | Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; | |||||
E | and I have stretched forth my hand | |||||
D | almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh. | |||||
C | And it grieveth me | |||||
B | that I should hew down all the trees of my vineyard, and cast them into the fire that they should be burned. | |||||
A | Who is it that has corrupted my vineyard? |
Jacob 5:61—64
A | Wherefore, go to, and call servants, that we may labor diligently with our might in the vineyard, that we may prepare the way, | |||
B | that I may bring forth again the natural fruit, which natural fruit is good and the most precious above all other fruit. | |||
C | Wherefore, let us go to and labor with our might this last time, for behold the end draweth nigh, and this is for the last time that I shall prune my vineyard. | |||
D | Graft in the branches; begin at the last that they may be first, and that the first may be last, | |||
D | and dig about the trees, both old and young, the first and the last; and the last and the first, | |||
C | that all may be nouished once again for the last time. Wherefore, dig about them, and prune them, and dung them once more, for the last time, for the end draweth nigh. | |||
B | And if it be so that these last grafts shall grow, and bring forth the natural fruit, | |||
A | then shall ye prepare the way for them, that they may grow. |
Jacob 5:63
A | begin at the last | |
B | that they may be first, | |
B | and that the first | |
A | may be last, |
Jacob 5:63
A | the first | |
B | and the last; | |
B | and the last | |
A | and the first, |
Jacob 7:19
A | I fear lest I have committed the unpardonable sin, | |||
B | for I have lied unto God; | |||
C | for I denied the Christ, | |||
D | and said that I believed the scriptures; | |||
D | and they truly | |||
C | testify of him. | |||
B | And becasue I have thus lied unto God | |||
A | I greatly fear lest my case shall be awful; but I confess unto God. |
Enos 1:8—12
A | And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole. | |||
B | Now, it came to pass that when I had heard these words I began to feel a desire for the welfare of my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore, I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them. | |||
C | And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the Lord came into my mind again, saying: I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments. | |||
D | I have given unto them this land. | |||
D | and it is a holy land; and I curse it not save it be for the cause of iniquity; | |||
C | wherefore, I will visit thy brethren according as I have said; and their transgressions will I bring down with sorrow upon their own heads. | |||
B | And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites. | |||
A | And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith. |
Enos 1:13—16
A | And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation— | ||
B | For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith. | ||
C | And they swore in their wrath that, if it were possible, they would destroy our records and us, and also all the traditions of our fathers. | ||
C | Wherefore, I knwoing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it. | ||
B | And I had faith, | ||
A | and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records; and he covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time. |
Jarom 1:1—15
A | Now behold, I, Jarom, write a few words according to the commandment of my father, Enos, that our genealogy may be kept. And as these plates are small, and as these things are written for the intent of the benefit of our brethren the Lamanites, wherefore, it must needs be that I write a little; but I shall not write the things of my prophesying, nor of my revelations. | ||||
B | For what could I write more than my fathers have written? For have not they revealed the plan of salvation? I say unto you, Yea; and this sufficeth me. Behold, it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness of their necks; (synonymous words) nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has not as yet swept them off from the face of the land. And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked. And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith. | ||||
C | And now, behold, two hundred years had passed away, and the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land. They observed to keep the law of Moses and the sabbath day holy unto the Lord. And they profaned not; neither did they blaspheme. And the laws of the land were exceedingly strict. | ||||
D | And they were scattered upon much of the face of the land, and the Lamanites also. And they were exceedingly more numerous than were they of the Nephites; and they loved murder and would drink the blood of beasts. And it came to pass that they came many times against us, the Nephites, to battle. | ||||
E | But our kings and our leaders were mighty men in the faith of the Lord; and they taught the people the ways of the Lord; wherefore, we withstood the Lamanites and swept them away out of our lands, and began to fortify our cities, or whatsoever place of our inheritance | ||||
E | And we multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, (synonymous words) making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war— yea, the sharp pointed arrow, and the quiver, and the dart, and the javelin | ||||
D | And thus being prepared to meet the Lamanites, they did not prosper against us. | ||||
C | But the word of the Lord was verified, which he spake unto our fathers, saying that: Inasmuch as ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land. And it came to pass that the prophets of the Lord did threaten the people of Nephi, according to the word of God, that if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land. | ||||
B | Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them. And it came to pass that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land; for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance. And it came to pass that two hundred and thirty and eight years had passed away— after the manner of wars, and contentions, and dissensions, for the space of much of the time. | ||||
A | And I, Jarom, do not write more, for the plates are small. But behold, my brethren, ye can go to the other plates of Nephi; for behold, upon them the records of our wars are engraven, according to the writings of the kings, or those which they caused to be written. And I deliver these plates into the hands of my son Omni, a that they may be kept according to the commandments of my fathers. |
Jarom 1:4
A | And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, | |
B | have communion with the Holy Spirit, | |
B | which maketh manifest unto the children of men, | |
A | according to their faith. |
Omni 1:5—7
A | Behold, it came to pass that three hundred and twenty years had passed away, and the more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed. | |||
B | For the Lord would not suffer, | |||
C | after he had led them out of the land of Jerusalem | |||
D | and kept | |||
D | and preserved them | |||
C | from falling into the hands of their enemies, | |||
B | yea, he would not suffer that the words should not be verifiedm, which he spake unto our fathers, saying that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall not propser in the land. | |||
A | Wherefore, the Lord did visi them in great judgement; |
Omni 1:12—13
A | Behold, I will speak unto you somewhat concerning Mosiah, who was made king over the land of Zarahemla; | |||||
B | for behold, he being warned of the Lord | |||||
C | that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, | |||||
D | and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord | |||||
E | should also depart out of the land with him, into the wilderness | |||||
F | And it came to pass that he did according as the Lord had commanded him. | |||||
E | And they departed out of the land into the wilderness, | |||||
D | as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord; | |||||
C | and they were led by many preachings and prophesyings. | |||||
B | And they were admonished continually by the word of God; and they were led by the power of his arm, through the wilderness, | |||||
A | until they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahelma. |
Omni 1:14
A | Now, there was great rejoicing | |
B | among the people of Zarahemla; | |
B | and also Zarahemla | |
A | did rejoice exceedingly, |
Words of Mormon 1:3—11
A | And now, I speak somewhat concerning that which I have written; for after I had made an abridgement from the plates of Nephi, down to the reign of this king Benjamin, | |||||
B | of whom Amaleki spake, I searched among the records whcih had been delivered into my hands, and I found these plates, which contained this small account of the prophets, from Jacob down to the reign of this king Benjamin, and also many of the words of Nephi. And the things which are upon these plates pleasing me, because of the prophecies of the coming of Christ; and my fathers knowing that many of them b have been fulfilled; yea, and I also know that as many things as have been prophesied concerning us down to this day have been fulfilled, and as many as go beyond this day must surely come to pass— | |||||
C | Wherefore, I chose these things, to finish my record upon them, which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi; and I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people | |||||
D | But behold, I shall take these plates, which contain these prophesyings and revelations, and put them with the remainder of my record, for they are choice unto me; and I know they will be choice unto my brethren. | |||||
E | And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. | |||||
F | And now, I do not know all things; | |||||
F | but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; | |||||
E | wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will. | |||||
D | 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 by a delightsome people. | |||||
C | And now I, Mormon, proceed to finish out my record, which I take from the plates of Nephi; and I make it according to the knowledge and the understanding which God has given me. | |||||
B | Wherefore, it came to pass that after Amaleki had delivered up these plates into the hands of king Benjamin, he took them and put them with the other plates, which contained records which had been handed down by the kings, from generation to generation until the days of king Benjamin. | |||||
A | And they were handed down from king Benjamin, from generation to generation until they have fallen into my hands. And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written. |
Mosiah 2:5—6
A | And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, | |||
B | they pitched their tents round about, | |||
C | every man according to his family, | |||
D | consisting of his wife, and his sons, and his daughters, | |||
D | and their sons, and their daughters, from the eldest down to the youngest, | |||
C | every family being separate one from another. | |||
B | And they pitched their tents round about | |||
A | the temple, |
Mosiah 2:7—8
A | For the multitude being so great | |||
B | that king Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, | |||
C | therefore he caused a tower to be erected, | |||
D | that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them. | |||
D | And it came to pass that he began to speak to his people | |||
C | from the tower; | |||
B | and they could not all hear his words | |||
A | because of the greatness of the multitude; |
Mosiah 2:25
A | yet ye were created | |
B | of the dust of the earth; | |
B | but behold, it belongeth to him | |
A | who created you. |
Mosiah 2:26
A | for I am also of the dust. | |
B | And ye behold that I am old, | |
B | and am about to yield up this mortal frame | |
A | to its mother earth. |
Mosiah 3:1—3
A | for behold, I have things to tell you concerning | |||||
B | that which is to come. | |||||
C | And the things which I shall tell you | |||||
D | are made known unto me by an angel from God. | |||||
E | And he said unto me: Awake; | |||||
F | and I awoke, and behold he stood before me. | |||||
E | And he said unto me: Awake, | |||||
D | and hear the words | |||||
C | which I shall tell thee; | |||||
B | for behold, I am come | |||||
A | to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy. |
Mosiah 3:11—16
A | For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. | ||
B | But wo, wo unto him who knoweth that he rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. | ||
C | And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them. Yet the Lord God saw that his people were a stiffnecked people, | ||
C | and he appointed unto them a law, even the law of Moses. And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming; and also holy prophets spake unto them concerning his coming; | ||
B | and yet they hardened their hearts, and understood not that the law of Moses availeth nothing except it were through the atonement of his blood. | ||
A | And even if it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins |
Mosiah 3:18—19
A | they humble themselves | |||||
B | and become as little children, | |||||
C | and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent | |||||
D | For the natural man | |||||
E | is an enemy to God, | |||||
F | and has been from the fall of Adam, | |||||
F | and will be, forever and ever, | |||||
E | unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, | |||||
D | and putteth off the natural man | |||||
C | and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, | |||||
B | and becometh as a child, | |||||
A | submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. |
Mosiah 4:6—7
A | towards the children of men; | ||||
B | and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, | ||||
C | that thereby salvation might come to him | ||||
D | that should put his trust in the Lord, | ||||
E | and should be diligent | ||||
E | in keeping his commandments, | ||||
D | and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body–– | ||||
C | I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, | ||||
B | through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world | ||||
A | for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world. |
Mosiah 4:11—12
A | and have tasted of his love, and have a remission of your sins | ||
B | which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, | ||
C | the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, | ||
C | and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. | ||
B | And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, | ||
A | and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; |
Mosiah 4:14—15
A | And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; | ||||
B | neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, | ||||
C | and fight and quarrel one with another, | ||||
D | and serve the devil, | ||||
E | who is the master of sin, | ||||
E | or who is the evil spirit | ||||
D | which hath been spoken of by our fathers, | ||||
C | he being an enemy to all righteousness. | ||||
B | But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; | ||||
A | ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another. |
Mosiah 4:18—22
A | O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. | ||||||
B | For behold, are we not all beggars? | ||||||
C | Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? | ||||||
D | And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? | ||||||
E | Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, | ||||||
F | and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, | ||||||
G | and has caused that your mouths should be stopped | ||||||
G | that ye could not find utterance, | ||||||
F | so exceedingly great was your joy. | ||||||
E | And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, | ||||||
D | doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, | ||||||
C | O then, how ye ought to impart of the subtance that ye have one to another. | ||||||
B | And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongteth; and yet ye put up no petition, | ||||||
A | nor repent of the thing which thou hast done. I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; |
Mosiah 5:8—9
A | There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; | |||
B | therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, | |||
C | all you that have entered into the covenant with God | |||
D | that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives. | |||
D | And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this | |||
C | shall be found at the right hand of God, | |||
B | for he shall know the name by which he is called | |||
A | for he shall be called by the name of Christ. |
Mosiah 5:10—12
A | that whosoever shall not take upon him the name of Christ | |||||
B | must be called by some other name; | |||||
C | therefore, he findeth himself on the left hand of God. | |||||
D | And I would that ye should remember also, that this is the name | |||||
E | that I said I should give unto you that never should be blotted out, | |||||
F | except it be through transgression; therefore, | |||||
F | take heed that ye do not transgress, | |||||
E | that the name be not blotted out of your hearts. | |||||
D | I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name | |||||
C | written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, | |||||
B | but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, | |||||
A | and also, the name by which he shall call you. |
Mosiah 7:4
A | therefore they wandered | |
B | many days in the wilderness, | |
B | even forty days | |
A | did they wander. |
Mosiah 7:7—8
A | and they were surrounded by the king's guard. | ||
B | and were taken, and were bound, | ||
C | and were committed to prison. | ||
C | And it came to pass when they had been in prison two days | ||
B | they were gain brought before the king, and their bands were loosed; | ||
A | and they stood before the king, |
Mosiah 8:17
A | and things which are not known | |
B | shall be made known by them, | |
B | and also things shall be made known by them | |
A | which otherwise could not be known. |
Mosiah 10:17
A | And thus they have taught their children | |||
B | that they should hate them, | |||
C | and that they should murder them, | |||
D | and that they should rob | |||
D | and plunder them | |||
C | and do all they could to destroy them; | |||
B | therefore they have an eternal hatred | |||
A | towards the children of Nephi. |
Mosiah 11:20—25
A | Behold, thus saith the Lord, and thus hath he commanded me, saying, Go forth, and say unto this people, | |||||||
B | thus saith the Lord–– | |||||||
C | Wo be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations, and their wickedness, and their whoredoms; | |||||||
D | and except they repent I will visit them in mine anger. | |||||||
E | And except they repent and turn to the Lord their God, behold, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies; yea, and they shall be brought into bondage; and they shall be afflicted by the hand of their enemies. | |||||||
F | And it shall come to pass that they shall know that I am the Lord their God | |||||||
G | and am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of my people. | |||||||
H | And it shall come to pass that except this people repent | |||||||
H | and turn unto the Lord their God | |||||||
G | they shall be brought into bondage; | |||||||
F | and none shall deliver them, except it be the Lord the Almighty God. | |||||||
E | Yea, and it shall come to pass that when they shall cry unto me I will be slow to hear their cries; yea, and I will suffer them that they be smitten by their enemies. | |||||||
D | And except they repent in sackcloth and ashes, and cry mightily to the Lord their God | |||||||
C | I will not hear their prayers, neither will I deliver them out of their afflictions; | |||||||
B | and thus saith the Lord, | |||||||
A | and thus hath he commanded me. |
Mosiah 11:28
A | that I may slay him, | ||
B | for he has said these things that he might stir up my people | ||
C | to anger one with another, | ||
C | and to raise contentions | ||
B | among my people; | ||
A | therefore I will slay him. |
Mosiah 12:1—8
A | Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this my people, for they have hardened their hearts against my words | |||||||
B | they have repented not of their evil doings; therefore, I will visit them in my anger, yea, in my fierce anger will I visit them | |||||||
C | in their iniquities and abominations. | |||||||
D | Yea, wo be unto this generation! And the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thy hand and prophesy saying: Thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass that this generation, | |||||||
E | because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek; | |||||||
F | yea, and shall be driven by men, and shall be slain; and the vultures of the air, and the dogs, yea, and the wild beasts, shall devour their flesh. And it shall come to pass that the life of king Noah shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace; for he shall know that I am the Lord. | |||||||
G | And it shall come to pass that I will smite this my people with sore afflictions, yea, with famine and with pestilence; and I will cause that they shall howl all the day long. | |||||||
H | Yea, and I will cause that they shall have burdens lashed upon their backs; | |||||||
H | and they shall be driven before like a dumb ass. | |||||||
G | And it shall come to pass that I will send forth hail among them, and it shall smite them; and they shall also be smitten with the east wind; and insects shall pester their land also, | |||||||
F | and devour their grain. | |||||||
E | And they shall be smitten with a great pestilence–– | |||||||
D | and all this will I do | |||||||
C | because of their iniquities and abominations. | |||||||
B | And it shall come to pass that except they repent I will utterly destroy them from off the face of the earth; yet they shall leave a record behind them, and I will preserve them for other nations which shall possess the land; yea, even this will I do that I may discover the abominations of this people to other nations. | |||||||
A | And many things did Abinadi prophesy against this people. |
Mosiah 12:1
A | I will visit them | |
B | in my anger, | |
B | yea, in my fierce anger | |
A | will I visit them |
Mosiah 12:19
A | but he answered them boldly, | ||
B | and withstood all their questions, | ||
C | yea, to their astonishment; | ||
B | for he did withstand them in all their questions, | ||
A | and did confound them in all their words. |
Mosiah 12:24
A | The Lord hath made bare his holy arm | |
B | in the eyes of all the nations, | |
B | and all the ends of the earth | |
A | shall see the salvation of our God? |
Mosiah 12:25—27
A | Are you priests, and pretend to teach this people, | |||
B | and to understand the spirit of prophesying, and yet desire to know of me what these things mean? | |||
C | I say unto you, wo be unto you for perverting the ways of the Lord! | |||
D | For if ye understand these things | |||
D | ye have not taught them; | |||
C | therefore, ye have perverted the ways of the Lord. | |||
B | Ye have not applied your hearts to understanding; | |||
A | therefore, ye have not been wise. Therefore, what teach ye this people? |
Mosiah 14:7
A | yet he opened not his mouth; | |
B | he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, | |
B | and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb | |
A | so he opened not his mouth. |
Mosiah 15:20—23
A | But behold, the bands of death | |||||||||
B | shall be broken, | |||||||||
C | and the Son reigneth, | |||||||||
D | and hath power over the dead; | |||||||||
E | therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead. | |||||||||
F | And there cometh a resurrection, | |||||||||
G | even a first resurrection; | |||||||||
H | yea, even a resurrection of those that. have been, and who are, and who shall be, | |||||||||
I | even until the resurrection | |||||||||
J | of Christ–– | |||||||||
J | for so shall he be called. | |||||||||
I | And now, the resurrection | |||||||||
H | of all the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God, | |||||||||
G | shall come forth in the first resurrection; | |||||||||
F | therefore, they are the first resurrection. | |||||||||
E | They are raised to dwell with God who has redeemed them; | |||||||||
D | thus they have eternal life | |||||||||
C | through Christ, | |||||||||
B | who has broken | |||||||||
A | the bands of death. |
Mosiah 15:26—27
A | for ye ought to tremble; | |||
B | for the Lord redeemeth none such | |||
C | that rebel against him | |||
D | and die in their sins; | |||
D | yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since. theworld began, | |||
C | that have willfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments. ofGod, and would not keep them; | |||
B | these are they that have no part in the first resurrection. | |||
A | Therefore ought ye not to tremble? |
Mosiah 15:31
A | The Lord hath made bare his holy arm | |
B | in the eyes of all the nations; | |
B | and all the ends of the earth | |
A | shall see the salvation of God. |
Mosiah 16:7—8
A | And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death | ||
B | that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, | ||
C | there could have been no resurrection. | ||
C | But there is a resurrection, | ||
B | therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death | ||
A | is swallowed up in Christ. |
Mosiah 18:1—3
A | who had fled from the servants of king Noah, repented of his sins and iniquities, | ||||
B | and went privately among. the people, | ||||
C | and began to teach the words of Abinadi–– | ||||
D | and also concerning the resurrection of the dead, | ||||
E | and the redemption of the people, | ||||
E | through the power, and sufferings, and death of Christ, | ||||
D | and his resurrection and ascension into heaven. | ||||
C | And as many as would hear his word he did teach. | ||||
B | And he taught them privately, | ||||
A | that it might not come to the knowledge of the king. |
Mosiah 18:21
A | that there should be no contention one with another, | ||
B | but that they should look forward with one eye, | ||
C | having one faith | ||
C | and one baptism, | ||
B | having their hearts knit together in unity | ||
A | and in love one towards another. |
Mosiah 23:7
A | Behold, it is not expedient that we should have a king; | ||
B | for thus saith the Lord: | ||
C | Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, | ||
C | or one man shall not think himself above another; | ||
B | therefore I say unto you | ||
A | it is not expedient that ye should have a king. |
Mosiah 24:14—15
A | And I will also ease the burdens | |||||
B | which are put upon your shoulders, | |||||
C | that you cannot feel them upon your backs, | |||||
D | even while you are in bondage; | |||||
E | and this will I do | |||||
F | that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, | |||||
F | and that ye may know of a surety | |||||
E | that I, the Lord God, do visit | |||||
D | my people in their afflictions. | |||||
C | And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his bretheren were made light; | |||||
B | yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up | |||||
A | their burdens with ease, |
Mosiah 24:21
A | and had delivered them | |
B | out of bondage; | |
B | for they were in bondage, | |
A | and none could deliver them |
Mosiah 26:1—3
A | not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did | ||
B | not believe the tradition of their fathers. | ||
C | They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, | ||
C | neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. | ||
B | And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; | ||
A | and their hearts were hardened. |
Mosiah 26:21—28
A | And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and him shall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive. | |||
B | For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive. | |||
C | For it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world; for it is I that hath created them; | |||
D | For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand. | |||
D | And it shall come to pass that when the second trump shall sound then shall they that neveer knew me come forth and shall stand before me. | |||
C | And then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, that I am their Redeemer; but they would not be redeemed. | |||
B | And then I will confess unto them that I never knew them; and they shall depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. | |||
A | Therefore I say unto you, that he that will not hear my voice, the same shall ye not r eceive into my church, for him I will not receive at the last day. |
Mosiah 27:24—25
A | For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; | ||
B | behold I am born of the Spirit. | ||
C | And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, | ||
C | all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, | ||
B | must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, | ||
A | being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; |
Mosiah 27:34
A | And four of them were the sons of Mosiah; | |
B | and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, | |
B | and Omner, and Himni; | |
A | these were the names of the sons of Mosiah. |
Mosiah 28:10—29:1
A | Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom upon, for there was not any of his sons who would accept the kingdom. | |||||
B | Therefore he took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi; | |||||
C | And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know | |||||
D | concerning the people who had been destroyed. | |||||
E | And now. he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow. Now these things were prepared from the beginning, | |||||
F | and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages; | |||||
F | And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people; | |||||
E | And whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times. Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, | |||||
D | behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam. | |||||
C | Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice. And this account shall be written hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account. | |||||
B | And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of brass, and all the things which he had kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma; yea, all the records, and also the interpreters, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him that he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem. | |||||
A | Now when Mosiah had done this he sent out throughout all the land, among all the people, desiring to know their will concerning who should be their king. And it came to pass that the voice of the people came, saying: We are desirous that Aaron thy son should be our king and our ruler. |
Mosiah 29:20
A | But behold, he did deliver them | |
B | because they did humble themsleves before him; | |
B | and because they cried mightily unto him | |
A | he did deliver them out of bondage; |
Alma 1:1
A | nevertheless he had established laws, | |
B | and they were acknowledged by the people; | |
B | therefore they were obliged to abide | |
A | by the laws which he had made. |
Alma 2:22
A | Now those whom he had sent out to watch the camp of the Amlicites | |
B | were called Zeram, and Amnor, and Manti, and Limher; | |
B | these were they who went out with their men | |
A | to watch the camp of the Amlicites. |
Alma 3:6—7
A | And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, | ||||
B | according to the mark whcih was set upon their fathers, | ||||
C | which was a curse upon them | ||||
D | because of their transgression and their revellion against their brethren, | ||||
E | who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, | ||||
E | who were just and holy men. | ||||
D | And their brethren sought to destroy them, | ||||
C | therefore they were cursed; | ||||
B | and the Lord God set a mark upon them, | ||||
A | yea, upon Laman and Lemuel, |
Alma 5:7—9
A | Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, | ||||
B | their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; | ||||
C | yea, they were encircled about | ||||
D | by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them | ||||
E | And now I ask of you, my brethren, were they destroyed? | ||||
E | Behold, I say unto you, Nay, they were not. | ||||
D | And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell | ||||
C | which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, | ||||
B | Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. | ||||
A | And I say unto you that they are saved. |
Alma 5:11
A | did not my father Alma believe in the words | ||
B | which were delivered by the mouth of Abinadi? | ||
C | And was he not a holy prophet? | ||
B | Did he not speak the words of God, | ||
A | and my father Alma believe them? |
Alma 5:20—25
A | I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil? | |||||
B | I say unto you, ye will know at that day that ye cannot be saved; | |||||
C | for there can no man be saved except his garments are washed white; yea, his garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, | |||||
D | through the blood of him of whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins. | |||||
E | And now I ask of you, my brethren, how will any of you feel, if ye shall stand before the bar of God, having your garments stained with blood and all manner of filthiness? | |||||
F | Behold, what will these things testify against you? | |||||
F | Behold will they not testify that ye are murderers, | |||||
E | yea, and also that ye are guilty of all manner of wickedness? | |||||
D | Behold, my brethren, do ye suppose that such an one can have a place to sit down in the kingdom of God, with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and also all the holy prophets, | |||||
C | whose garments are cleansed and are spotless, pure and white? | |||||
B | I say unto you, Nay; except ye make our Creator a liar from the beginning, or suppose that he is a liar from the beginning, ye cannot suppose that such can have place in the kingdom of heaven; | |||||
A | but they shall be cast out for they are the children of the kingdom of the devil. |
Alma 5:44—49
A | For I am called to speak after this manner, according to the holy order of God, | ||||
B | which is in Christ Jesus; yea, I am commanded to stand and testify unto this people the things which have been spoken by our fathers concerning the things which are to come. | ||||
C | And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? | ||||
D | Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. | ||||
E | Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. | ||||
E | And now I do know of myself that they are true; | ||||
D | for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me. | ||||
C | And moreover, I say unto you that it has thus been revealed unto me, that the words which have been spoken by our fathers are true, even so according to the spirit of prophecy which is in me, which is also by the manifestation of the Spirit of God. I say unto you, that I know of myself that whatsoever I shall say unto you, concerning that which is to come, is true; | ||||
B | and I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. And behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name | ||||
A | And now I say unto you that this is the order after which I am called, |
Alma 5:62
A | I speak by way of command unto you | |
B | that belong to the church; | |
B | and unto those who do not belong to the church | |
A | I speak by way of invitation, |
Alma 6:5
A | Now I would that ye should understand that the word of God | |
B | was liberal unto all, | |
B | that none were deprived of the privilege of assembling themselves together | |
A | to hear the word of God. |
Alma 7:11—13
A | And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; | |||||
B | and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. | |||||
C | And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; | |||||
D | and he will take upon him their infirmities, | |||||
E | that his bowels may be filled with mercy, | |||||
F | according to the flesh, | |||||
F | that he may know according to the flesh | |||||
E | how to succor his people | |||||
D | according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; | |||||
C | nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh | |||||
B | that he might take upon him the sins of his people, | |||||
A | that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. |
Alma 7:14—15
A | Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; | |||
B | therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, | |||
C | that ye may be washed from your sins, | |||
D | that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, | |||
D | who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. | |||
C | Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, | |||
B | yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins | |||
A | and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. |
Alma 8:4
A | And he began to teach the people in the land of Melek | |
B | according to the holy order of God, | |
B | by which he had been called; | |
A | and he began to teach the people throughout all the land of Melek. |
Alma 9:12
A | yea, he will visit you | |
B | in his anger, | |
B | and in his fierce anger | |
A | he will not turn away. |
Alma 9:31—32
A | the people were wroth with me | |
B | because I said unto them that they were a hard-hearted and a stiffnecked people. | |
B | And also because I said unto them that they were a lost and a fallen people | |
A | they were angry with me, |
Alma 10:6
A | Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, | ||
B | for I was called many times and I would not hear; | ||
C | therefore I knew concerning these things, | ||
C | yet I would not know; | ||
B | therefore I went on rebelling against God, | ||
A | in the wickedness of my heart, |
Alma 10:7—11
A | and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house. | ||||
B | And it came to pass that I obeyed the voice of the angel, and returned towards my house. And as I was going thither I found the man whom the angel said unto me: Thou shalt receive into thy house— | ||||
C | and behold it was this same man who has been speaking unto you concerning the things of God. | ||||
D | And the angel said unto me | ||||
E | he is a holy man; | ||||
E | wherefore I know he is a holy man | ||||
D | because it was said by an angel of God. | ||||
C | And again, I know that the things whereof he hath testified are true; | ||||
B | for behold I say unto you, that as the Lord liveth, even so has he sent his angel to make these things manifest unto me; and this he has done while this Alma hath dwelt at my house. | ||||
A | For behold, he hath blessed mine house, he hath blessed me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk; yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed, |
Alma 11:40
A | and these are they | |
B | that shall have eternal life, | |
B | and salvation | |
A | cometh to none else. |
Alma 12:11—17
A | and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. | ||||||
B | Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell. | ||||||
C | And Amulek hath spoken plainly concerning death, and being raised from this mortality to a state of immortality, | ||||||
D | and being brought before the bar of God, to be judged according to our works. Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened insomuch that it has not been found in us, | ||||||
E | then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned. | ||||||
F | For our words will condemn us, | ||||||
G | yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; | ||||||
F | and our thoughts will also condemn us; | ||||||
E | and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence. | ||||||
D | But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion, and acknowledge to our everlasting shame that all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance. | ||||||
C | And now behold, I say unto you then cometh a death, even a second death, which is a spiritual death; then is a time that whosoever dieth in his sins, as to a temporal death, shall also die a spiritual death; yea, he shall die (repetition of words) as to things pertaining unto righteousness. | ||||||
B | Then is the time when their torments shall be as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever; and then is the time that they shall be chained | ||||||
A | down to an everlasting destruction, according to the power and captivity of Satan, he having subjected them according to his will. |
Alma 12:13
A | Then if our hearts | |
B | have been hardened, | |
B | yea, if we have hardened | |
A | our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, |
Alma 13:2—3
A | to look forward to his Son for redemption. | |||
B | And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, | |||
C | on account of their exceeding faith and good works; | |||
D | in the first place being left to choose good or evil; | |||
D | therefore they having chosen good, | |||
C | and exercising exceedingly great faith, | |||
B | are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, | |||
A | and according to, a preparatory redemption for such. |
Alma 13:6—10
A | And thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest— | ||
B | This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity, according to his foreknowledge of all things— | ||
C | Now they were ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, | ||
C | which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end— | ||
B | Thus they become high priests forever, after the order of the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of grace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen. | ||
A | Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; |
Alma 14:2—3
A | But the more part of them were desirous that they might destroy Alma and Amulek; | ||
B | for they were angry with Alma, because of the plainness of his words unto Zeezrom; and they also said that Amulek had lied unto them, | ||
C | and had reviled against their law | ||
C | and also against their lawyers and judges | ||
B | And they were also angry with Alma and Amulek; and because they had testified so plainly against their wickedness, | ||
A | they sought to put them away privily. |
Alma 14:29
A | and fled from the presence of Alma and Amulek | |
B | even as a goat fleeth with her young from two lions; | |
A | and thus they did flee from the presence of Alma and Amulek. |
Alma 15:3
A | And also Zeezrom lay sick at Sidom, with a burning fever, | |||
B | which was caused by the great tribulations of his mind | |||
C | on account of his wickedness, | |||
D | for he supposed that Alma and Amulek were no more; | |||
D | and he supposed that they had been slain | |||
C | because of his iniquity. | |||
B | And this great sin, and his many other sins, | |||
A | did harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, |
Alma 16:1
A | in the eleventh year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, | ||
B | on the fifth day of the second month, | ||
C | there having been much peace in the land of Zarahemla, | ||
C | there having been no wars nor contentions for a certain number of years, | ||
B | even until the fifth day of the second month | ||
A | in the eleventh year, |
Alma 17:37—38
A | But behold, every man that lifted his club to smite Ammon, | ||||
B | he smote off their arms with his sword; | ||||
C | for he did withstand their blows by smiting their arms with the edge of his sword, insomuch that they began to be astonished, | ||||
D | and began to flee before him; | ||||
E | yea, and they were not few in number; | ||||
D | and he caused them to flee by the strength of his arm. | ||||
C | Now six of them had fallen by the sling, but he slew none save it were their leader with his sword; | ||||
B | and he smote off as many of their arms | ||||
A | as were lifted against him, and they were not a few. |
Alma 18:6
A | For he had slain many of them | |
B | because their brethren had scattered their flocks at the place of water; | |
B | and thus, because they had had their flocks scattered | |
A | they were slain. |
Alma 18:7
A | Now it was the practice of these Lamanites | |
B | to stand by the waters of Sebus to scatter the flocks of the people, | |
B | that thereby they might drive away many that were scattered unto their own land, | |
A | it being a practice of plunder among them. |
Alma 18:12—14
A | therefore he was about to return out of his presence. | |||
B | And one of the king’s servants said unto him, Rabbanah, | |||
C | which is, being interpreted, powerful | |||
D | or great king, | |||
D | considering their kings | |||
C | to be powerful; | |||
B | and thus he said unto him: Rabbanah, the king desireth thee to stay | |||
A | Therefore Ammon turned himself unto the king, |
Alma 18:16
A | Is it because thou hast heard that I defended thy servants | ||
B | and thy flocks, | ||
C | and slew seven of their brethren with the sling | ||
C | and with the sword, and smote off the arms of others, | ||
B | in order to defend thy flocks | ||
A | and thy servants; |
Alma 18:39
A | and he also made known unto them | |
B | concerning the coming of Christ, | |
B | and all the works of the Lord | |
A | did he make known unto them. |
Alma 19:6—7
A | Now, this was what Ammon desired, | ||||
B | for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; | ||||
C | he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, | ||||
D | and the light which did light up his mind, | ||||
E | which was the light of the glory of God, | ||||
E | which was a marvelous light of his goodness— | ||||
D | yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul | ||||
C | the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, | ||||
B | and that the light (repetition of words) of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God— | ||||
A | Therefore, what the queen desired of him was his only desire. |
Alma 19:13
A | behold, I have seen my Redeemer; | |
B | and he shall come forth, | |
B | and be born of a woman, | |
A | and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name |
Alma 20:4
A | But behold, I will go with thee to the land of Middoni | |
B | for the king of the land of Middoni | |
B | whose name is Antiomno, is a friend unto me; | |
A | therefore I go to the land of Middoni, |
Alma 20:10—13
A | Whither art thou going with this Nephite, who is one of the children of a liar? | ||
B | And it came to pass that Lamoni rehearsed unto him whither he was going, for he feared to offend him. | ||
C | And he also told him all the cause of his tarrying in his own kingdom, | ||
C | that he did not go unto his father to the feast which he had prepared | ||
B | And now when Lamoni had rehearsed unto him all these things, behold, to his astonishment, his father was angry with him, and said: | ||
A | Lamoni, thou art going to deliver these Nephites, who are sons of a liar |
Alma 20:26—27
A | And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy him, | ||||
B | and when he also saw the great love he had for his son Lamoni, | ||||
C | he was astonished exceedingly, and said: | ||||
D | Because this is all that thou hast desired, that I would release thy brethren, | ||||
E | and suffer that my son Lamoni should retain his kingdom, | ||||
E | behold, I will grant unto you that my son may retain his kingdom from this time and forever; and I will govern him no more— | ||||
D | And I will also grant unto thee that thy brethren may be cast out of prison, and thou and thy brethren may come unto me, in my kingdom; for I shall greatly desire to see thee. | ||||
C | For the king was greatly astonished at the words which he had spoken, | ||||
B | and also at the words which had been spoken by his son Lamoni, | ||||
A | therefore he was desirous to learn them. |
Alma 25:16
A | Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; | |
B | but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; | |
B | and thus they did retain a hope through faith, | |
A | unto eternal salvation, |
Alma 26:29
A | And we have entered into their houses and taught them, | |
B | and we have taught them in their streets; | |
B | yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; | |
A | and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; |
Alma 27:22
A | Behold, we will give up | ||
B | the land of Jershon, | ||
C | which is on the east by the sea, which joins the land Bountiful, | ||
C | which is on the south of the land Bountiful; | ||
B | and this land Jershon is the land | ||
A | which we will give unto our brethren for an inheritance. |
Alma 29:1—7
A | O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people! Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. | ||
B | But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me. | ||
C | I ought not to harrow up in my desires, the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction. Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience. | ||
B | Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called? | ||
A | Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth? |
Alma 29:8—17
A | For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we | |||
B | I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; | |||
C | then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me | |||
D | Yea, and I also remember the captivity of my fathers; for I surely do know that the Lord did deliver them out of bondage, and by this did establish his church; yea, the Lord God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did deliver them out of bondage. Yea, I have always remembered the captivity of my fathers; and that same God who delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians did deliver them out of bondage. Yea, and that same God did establish his church among them; | |||
C | yea, and that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full | |||
B | But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi. Behold, they have labored exceedingly, and have brought forth much fruit; and how great shall be their reward! Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy. | |||
A | And now may God grant unto these, my brethren, that they may sit down in the kingdom of God; yea, and also all those who are the fruit of their labors that they may go no more out, but that they may praise him forever. And may God grant that it may be done according to my words, even as I have spoken. Amen. |
Alma 29:9
A | I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, | |
B | and I glory in it. | |
B | I do not glory of myself, | |
A | but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; |
Alma 29:9—10
A | yea, and this is my glory | ||||
B | that perhaps I may be an instrument in the | ||||
C | hands of God to bring | ||||
D | some soul to repentance; | ||||
E | and this is my joy. And behold, when I see many | ||||
D | of my brethren truly penitent, | ||||
C | and coming to the Lord their God, | ||||
B | then is my soul | ||||
A | filled with joy; |
Alma 29:14—16
A | but my joy is more full | ||
B | because of the success of my brethren, | ||
C | who have been up to the land of Nephi. Behold, they have labored exceedingly, | ||
C | and have brought forth much fruit; and how great shall be their reward! | ||
B | Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, | ||
A | even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy. |
Alma 30:4—5
A | And thus the people did have no disturbance | |
B | in all the sixteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi | |
B | And it came to pass that in the commencement of the seventeenth year of the reign of the judges, | |
A | there was continual peace. |
Alma 30:6—12
A | But it came to pass in the latter end of the seventeenth year, there came a man into the land of Zarahemla, and he was Anti-Christ, for he began to preach unto the people against the prophecies which had been spoken by the prophets, concerning the coming of Christ. | |||
B | Now there was no law against a man’s belief; for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God that there should be a law which should bring men on to unequal grounds. | |||
C | For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve | |||
D | Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege; or rather, if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him; but if he did not believe in him there was no law to punish him. | |||
D | But if he murdered he was punished unto death; and if he robbed he was also punished; and if he stole he was also punished; and if he committed adultery he was also punished; yea, for all this wickedness they were punished. | |||
C | For there was a law that men should be judged according to their crimes. | |||
B | Nevertheless, there was no law against a man’s belief; therefore, a man was punished only for the crimes which he had done; therefore all men were on equal grounds. | |||
A | And this Anti-Christ, whose name was Korihor, (and the law could have no hold upon him) began to preach unto the people that there should be no Christ. |
Alma 30:44
A | yea, and all things denote there is a God; | |
B | yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, | |
B | yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form | |
A | do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. |
Alma 30:50—52
A | Korihor was struck dumb, that he could not have utterance, according to the words of Alma | ||||
B | And now when the chief judge saw this, he put forth his hand and wrote unto Korihor, saying: | ||||
C | Art thou convinced of the power of God? | ||||
D | In whom did ye desire that Alma should show forth his sign? | ||||
E | Would ye that he should afflict others, to show unto thee a sign? | ||||
D | Behold, he has showed unto you a sign; | ||||
C | and now will ye dispute more? | ||||
B | And Korihor put forth his hand and wrote, saying: | ||||
A | I know that I am dumb, for I cannot speak; |
Alma 31:17—23
A | we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, | |||||
B | which doth bind them down to a belief of Christ, | |||||
C | which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God. | |||||
D | And again we thank thee, O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people. Amen. Now it came to pass that after Alma and his brethren and his sons had heard these prayers, they were astonished beyond all measure. | |||||
E | For behold, every man did go forth and offer up these same prayers. | |||||
F | Now the place was called by them Rameumptom, | |||||
F | which, being interpreted, is the holy stand. | |||||
E | Now, from this stand they did offer up, every man, the selfsame prayer unto God, | |||||
D | thanking their God that they were chosen of him, | |||||
C | and that he did not lead them away after the tradition of their brethren, and that their hearts were not stolen away | |||||
B | to believe in things to come, which they knew nothing about. | |||||
A | Now, after the people had all offered up thanks after this manner, |
Alma 31:31—33
A | O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people. | ||
B | O Lord, wilt thou comfort my soul, and give unto me success, | ||
C | and also my fellow laborers who are with me— | ||
C | yea, Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and also Amulek and Zeezrom and also my two sons—yea, even all these wilt thou comfort, O Lord. | ||
B | Yea, wilt thou comfort their souls in Christ. | ||
A | Wilt thou grant unto them that they may have strength, that they may bear their afflictions which shall come upon them because of the iniquities of this people. |
Alma 32:1
A | and began to preach the word of God unto the people, | |
B | entering into their synagogues, | |
B | and into their houses; | |
A | yea, and even they did preach the word in their streets. |
Alma 32:5
A | Behold, what shall these my brethren do, | ||
B | for they are despised of all men because of their poverty, yea, and more especially by our priests; | ||
C | for they have cast us out of our synagogues | ||
C | which we have labored abundantly to build with our own hands; | ||
B | and they have cast us out because of our exceeding poverty; and we have no place to worship our God; | ||
A | and behold, what shall we do? |
Alma 32:9—10
A | for we are cast out of our synagogues, | ||
B | that we cannot worship our God. | ||
C | Behold I say unto you, | ||
B | do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God | ||
A | save it be in your synagogues only? |
Alma 32:12
A | I say unto you, it is well that ye are cast out of your synagogues, that ye may be humble, | |
B | and that ye may learn wisdom; | |
B | for it is necessary that ye should learn wisdom; | |
A | for it is because that ye are cast out, that ye are despised of your brethren because of your exceeding poverty, that ye are brought to a lowliness of heart; for ye are necessarily brought to be humble. |
Alma 33:11
A | and it is because of thy Son | ||
B | that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, | ||
C | therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, | ||
C | for in thee is my joy; | ||
B | for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, | ||
A | because of thy Son. |
Alma 34:9
A | For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; | |||
B | for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, | |||
C | or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; | |||
D | yea, all are hardened; | |||
D | yea, all are fallen and are lost, | |||
C | and must perish | |||
B | except it be through the atonement | |||
A | which it is expedient should be made. |
Alma 34:10
A | For it is expedient that t there should be a great and last sacrifice; | ||
B | yea, not a sacrifice of man, | ||
C | neither of beast, | ||
C | neither of any manner of fowl; | ||
B | for it shall not be a human sacrifice; | ||
A | but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice. |
Alma 34:11—12
A | Now there is not any man that can sacrifice his own blood which will atone for the sins of another. | ||
B | Now, if a man murdereth | ||
C | behold will our law, which is just, take the life of his brother? | ||
C | I say unto you, Nay. But the law requireth the life of him | ||
B | who hath murdered; | ||
A | therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world. |
Alma 34:13—14
A | Therefore, it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; | |||
B | and then shall there be, or it is expedient there should be, a stop to the shedding of blood; | |||
C | then shall the law of Moses be fulfilled; | |||
D | yea, it shall be all fulfilled, | |||
D | every jot and tittle, | |||
C | and none shall have passed away. | |||
B | And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, | |||
A | every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; |
Alma 34:34
A | Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, | |
B | that I will repent, | |
B | that I will return to my God. | |
A | Nay, ye cannot say this; |
Alma 34:36
A | because the Lord hath said he dwelleth not | |
B | in unholy temples, | |
B | but in the hearts of the righteous | |
A | doth he dwell; |
Alma 35:15
A | Now Alma, being grieved | |||
B | for the iniquity of his people, yea for the wars, and the bloodsheds, and the contentions | |||
C | which were among them; | |||
D | and having been to declare the word, | |||
D | or sent to declare the word, | |||
C | among all the people in every city; | |||
B | and seeing that the hearts of the people began to wax hard, and that they began to be offended because of the strictness of the word, | |||
A | his heart was exceedingly sorrowful. |
Alma 36:1–30
A | My son, give ear to my words; | ||||||||||
B | for I swear unto you, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land. | ||||||||||
C | I would that ye should do as I have done, in remembering the captivity of our fathers; | ||||||||||
D | for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions. | ||||||||||
A | And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; | ||||||||||
E | for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day. | ||||||||||
F | And I would not that ye think that I know of myself— not of the temporal but of the spiritual, not of the carnal mind but of God. | ||||||||||
G | Now, behold, I say unto you, if I had not been born of God I should not have known these things; but God has, by the mouth of his holy angel, made these things known unto me, not of any worthiness of myself. | ||||||||||
H | For I went about with the sons of Mosiah, seeking to destroy the church of God; but behold, God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way. And behold, he spake unto us, as it were the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet; and we all fell to the earth, for the fear of the Lord came upon us. But behold, the voice said unto me: Arise. And I arose and stood up, and beheld the angel. And he said unto me: If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God. And it came to pass that I fell to the earth; and it was for the space of three days and three nights that I could not open my mouth, neither had I the use of my limbs. And the angel spake more things unto me, which were heard by my brethren, but I did not hear them; for when I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God —I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth and I did hear no more. | ||||||||||
I | But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments. Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror. Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds. And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul. | ||||||||||
J | And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, | ||||||||||
K | behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world | ||||||||||
K | Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. | ||||||||||
J | And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more | ||||||||||
I | And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy. Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there. | ||||||||||
H | But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God. Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, | ||||||||||
G | that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; | ||||||||||
F | therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. | ||||||||||
E | And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; | ||||||||||
D | yea, and I will praise him forever, for he has brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he has swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red Sea; and he led them by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time. Yea, and he has also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he has also, by his everlasting power, delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time even down to the present day; | ||||||||||
C | and I have always retained in remembrance their captivity; yea, and ye also ought to retain in remembrance, as I have done, their captivity. | ||||||||||
B | But behold, my son, this is not all; 1 for ye ought to know as I do know, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land; and ye ought to know also, that inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God ye shall be cut off from his presence. | ||||||||||
A | Now this is according to his word. |
Alma 37:1–13
A | And now, my son Helaman, I command you that ye take the records which have been entrusted with me; And I also command you that ye keep a record of this people, according as I have done, | |||||
B | upon the plates of Nephi, and keep all these things sacred which I have kept, even as I have kept them; for it is for a wise purpose that they are kept. And these plates of brass, which contain these engravings, which have the records of the holy scriptures upon them, which have the genealogy of our forefathers, even from the beginning— | |||||
C | Behold, it has been prophesied by our fathers, that they should be kept and handed down from one generation to another, and be kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord until they should go forth unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, that they shall know of the mysteries contained thereon. | |||||
D | And now behold, if they are kept they must retain their brightness; yea, and they will retain their brightness; yea, and also shall all the plates which do contain that which is holy writ. | |||||
E | Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. | |||||
F | And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; | |||||
E | and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls | |||||
D | And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls. Yea, I say unto you, were it not for these things that these records do contain, which are on these plates, Ammon and his brethren could not have convinced so many thousands of the Lamanites of the incorrect tradition of their fathers; yea, these records and their words brought them unto repentance; that is, they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer. | |||||
C | And who knoweth but what they will be the means of bringing many thousands of them, yea, and also many thousands of our stiffnecked brethren, the Nephites, who are now hardening their hearts in sin and iniquities, to the knowledge of their Redeemer? Now these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me; therefore I shall forbear. | |||||
B | And it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he doth counsel in wisdom over all his works, and his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round | |||||
A | O remember, remember, my son Helaman, how strict are the commandments of God. |
Alma 37:21–26
A | And now, I will speak unto you concerning those twenty-four plates, that ye keep them, that the mysteries and the works of darkness, and their secret works, or the secret works of those people who have been destroyed, may be made manifest unto this people; | ||||
B | yea, all their murders, and robbings, and their plunderings, and all their wickedness and abominations, | ||||
C | may be made manifest unto this people; yea, and that ye preserve these interpreters. | ||||
D | For behold, the Lord saw that his people began to work in darkness, yea, work secret murders and abominations; therefore the Lord said, if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth. And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, | ||||
E | that I may discover unto my people who serve me, | ||||
E | that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, | ||||
D | yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations. | ||||
C | And now, my son, these interpreters were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying: | ||||
B | I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works and their abominations; and except they repent I will destroy them from off the face of the earth; and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land. And now, my son, we see that they did not repent; therefore they have been destroyed, | ||||
A | and thus far the word of God has been fulfilled; yea, their secret abominations have been brought out of darkness and made known unto us. |
Alma 37:35
A | O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom | |
B | in thy youth; | |
B | yea, learn in thy youth | |
A | to keep the commandments of God. |
Alma 40:23
A | The soul shall be restored | |
B | to the body, | |
B | and the body | |
A | to the soul; |
Alma 41:10–12
A | Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. | ||||
B | Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness | ||||
C | And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, | ||||
D | or I would say, in a carnal state, | ||||
E | are in the gall of bitterness | ||||
E | and in the bonds of iniquity; | ||||
D | they are without God in the world, | ||||
C | and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; | ||||
B | therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness. | ||||
A | And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature? |
Alma 42:5–8
A | yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated | ||||
B | But behold, it was appointed unto man to die— | ||||
C | therefore, as they were cut off from the tree of life | ||||
D | they should be cut off from the face of the earth— | ||||
E | and man became lost forever, | ||||
E | yea, they became fallen man. | ||||
D | And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally | ||||
C | and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will. | ||||
B | Now behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this temporal death, | ||||
A | for that would destroy the great plan of happiness. |
Alma 42:13
A | Therefore, according to justice, | |||
B | the plan of redemption could not be brought about, | |||
C | only on conditions of repentance of men | |||
D | in this probationary state, | |||
D | yea, this preparatory state; | |||
C | for except it were for these conditions, | |||
B | mercy could not take effect | |||
A | except it should destroy the work of justice. |
Alma 42:14
A | And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, | |
B | and they were in the grasp of justice; | |
B | yea, the justice of God, | |
A | which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence. |
Alma 42:15
A | And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about | |
B | except an atonement should be made; | |
B | therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world | |
A | to bring about the plan of mercy, |
Alma 43:38
A | they being shielded from | |
B | the more vital parts of the body, | |
B | or the more vital parts of the body | |
A | being shieleded from the strokes of the Lmanites, |
Alma 46:15
A | yea, all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, | |
B | gladly, the name of Christ, | |
B | or Christians as they were called, | |
A | because of their belief in Christ who should come. |
Alma 46:23
A | yea, we are a remnant of the seed of Joseph, | ||
B | whose coat was rent by his brethren into many pieces; | ||
C | yea, and now behold, let us remember to keep the commandments of God, | ||
B | or our garments shall be rent by our brethren, and we be cast into prison, or be sold, or be slain | ||
A | Yea, let us preserve our liberty as a remnant of Joseph; |
Alma 46:24
A | Even as this remnant of garment of my son hath been preserved, | ||
B | so shall a remnant of the seed of my son be preserved | ||
C | by the hand of God, | ||
C | and be taken unto himself, | ||
B | while the remainder of the seed of Joseph shall perish, | ||
A | even as the remnant of his garment. |
Alma 49:2–3
A | And behold, the city had been rebuilt, and Moroni had stationed an army by the borders of the city, and they had cast up dirt around about to shield them | |||
B | from the arrows | |||
C | and the stones | |||
D | of the Lamanites; | |||
D | for behold, they fought | |||
C | with stones | |||
B | and with arrows. | |||
A | Behold, I said that the city of Ammonihah had been rebuilt. |
Alma 49:18–19
A | Now behold, the Lamanites could not get into their forts of security by any other way | ||
B | save it were by the entrance | ||
C | because of the highness of the bank which had been thrown up, | ||
C | and the depth of the ditch which had been dug round about | ||
B | save it were by the entrance | ||
A | And thus were the Nephites prepared to destroy all such as should attempt to climb up to enter the fort by any other way |
Alma 49:26–27
A | And it came to pass that he was exceedingly angry with his people, | |
B | because he had not obtained his desire over the Nephites; | |
B | he had not subjected them to the yoke of bondage. | |
A | Yea, he was exceedingly wroth, and he did curse God, |
Alma 50:14
A | And they also began a foundation for a city between | ||
B | the city of Moroni | ||
C | and the city of Aaron, | ||
C | joining the borders of Aaron | ||
B | and Moroni; | ||
A | and they called the name of the city, or the land, Nephihah. |
Alma 52:3
A | And it came to pass that the brother of Amalickiah was appointed king over the people; | |
B | and his name was Ammoron; | |
B | thus king Ammoron, | |
A | the brother of king Amalickiah, was appointed to reign in his stead. |
Alma 52:28–31
A | for they were wearied because of their march, | ||||
B | and the men of Lehi were fresh. | ||||
C | Now the Lamanites did not know that Moroni had been in their rear with his army; and all they feared was Lehi and his men. | ||||
D | Now Lehi was not desirous to overtake them till they should meet Moroni and his army. | ||||
E | And it came to pass that before the Lamanites had retreated far | ||||
D | they were surrounded by the Nephites, | ||||
C | by the men of Moroni on one hand, | ||||
B | and the men of Lehi on the other, all of whom were fresh and full of strength; | ||||
A | but the Lamanites were wearied because of their long march. |
Alma 53:1
A | And it came to pass that they did set guards over the prisoners of the Lamanites, | |
B | and did compel them to go forth and bury their dead, | |
B | yea, and also the dead of the Nephites who were slain; | |
A | and Moroni placed men over them to guard them while they should perform their labors. |
Alma 53:8–9
A | on account of some intrigue amongst the Nephites, | |||
B | which caused dissensions | |||
C | amongst them, | |||
D | had gained some ground over the Nephites, | |||
D | yea, insomuch that they had obtained possession of a number of their cities in that part of the land. | |||
C | And thus because of iniquity amongst themselves, | |||
B | yea, because of dissensions | |||
A | and intrigue among themselves |
Alma 54:12
A | I will come against you | |
B | with my armies; | |
B | yea, even I will arm my women and my children, | |
A | and I will come against you, |
Alma 56:38
A | But behold, it was night; | |
B | therefore they did not overtake us, | |
B | neither did Antipus overtake them; | |
A | therefore we did camp for the night. |
Alma 57:25–26
A | nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, | ||
B | and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, | ||
C | there was not one soul of them who did perish; | ||
C | yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds. | ||
B | And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. | ||
A | And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, |
Alma 60:15–16
A | we could have withstood our enemies that they could have gained no power over us. | |||||
B | Yea, had it not been for the war which broke out among ourselves; | |||||
C | yea, were it not for these king-men, who caused so much bloodshed among ourselves; | |||||
D | yea, at the time we were contending among ourselves, | |||||
E | if we had united our strength as we hitherto have done; | |||||
F | yea, had it not been for the desire of power and authority which those king-men had over us; | |||||
F | had they been true to the cause of our freedom, | |||||
E | and united with us, | |||||
D | and gone forth against our enemies, instead of taking up their swords against us, | |||||
C | which was the cause of so much bloodshed among ourselves; | |||||
B | yea, if we had gone forth against them in the strength of the Lord, | |||||
A | we should have dispersed our enemies, |
Alma 60:22
A | Yea, will ye sit in idleness | |
B | while ye are surrounded with thousands of those, | |
B | yea, and tens of thousands, | |
A | who do also sit in idleness, |
Alma 61:12–13
A | We would subject ourselves to the yoke of bondage | |
B | if it were requisite with the justice of God, or if he should command us so to do. | |
B | But behold he doth not command us | |
A | that we shall subject ourselves to our enemies, |
Alma 61:11–13
A | Therefore it became expedient for Shiblon to confer those sacred things, before his death, | ||||
B | upon the son of Helaman, who was called Helaman, | ||||
C | being called after the name of his father. | ||||
D | Now behold, all those engravings which were in the possession of Helaman | ||||
E | were written and sent forth among the children of men | ||||
E | save it were those parts which had been commanded by Alma should not go forth. | ||||
D | Nevertheless, these things were to be kept sacred, | ||||
C | and handed down from one generation to another; | ||||
B | therefore, in this year, they had been conferred upon Helaman, | ||||
A | before the death of Shiblon. |
Helaman 1:3–4
A | Now these are their names who did contend for the judgment-seat, who did also cause the people to contend: | |
B | Pahoran, Paanchi, and Pacumeni. | |
B | Now these are not all the sons of Pahoran, (for he had many) | |
A | but these are they who did contend for the judgment-seat; therefore, they did cause three divisions among the people. |
Helaman 2:1–2
A | therefore there began to be a contention again among the people | ||
B | concerning who should fill the judgment-seat. | ||
C | And it came to pass that Helaman, | ||
C | who was the son of Helaman, | ||
B | was appointed to fill the judgment-seat, | ||
A | by the voice of the people. |
Helaman 3:13–15
A | And now there are many records kept of the proceedings of this people, by many of this people, which are particular and very large, concerning them | ||||
B | But behold, a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, | ||||
C | and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, | ||||
D | and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping | ||||
E | and their building of ships, | ||||
E | and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, | ||||
D | and their righteousness, | ||||
C | and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, | ||||
B | cannot be contained in this work. | ||||
A | But behold, there are many books and many records of every kind, and they have been kept chiefly by the Nephites. |
Helaman 3:23–26
A | insomuch that there were thousands | ||||
B | who did join themselves unto the church | ||||
C | and were baptized unto repentance | ||||
D | And so great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, | ||||
E | that even the high priests | ||||
E | and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure. | ||||
D | And it came to pass that the work of the Lord did prosper | ||||
C | unto the baptizing | ||||
B | and uniting to the church of God, many souls, | ||||
A | yea, even tens of thousands. |
Helaman 4:9–19
A | And it came to pass in the sixtieth year of the reign of the judges, Moronihah did succeed with his armies in obtaining many parts of the land; | ||||||||
B | yea, they regained many cities which had fallen into the hands of the Lamanites | ||||||||
C | And it came to pass in the sixty and first year of the reign of the judges | ||||||||
D | they succeeded in regaining even the half of all their possessions. | ||||||||
E | Now this great loss of the Nephites, and the great slaughter which was among them, would not have happened had it not been for their wickedness and their abomination which was among them; yea, and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God. | ||||||||
F | And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry, withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, rising up in great contentions, | ||||||||
G | and deserting away into the land of Nephi, | ||||||||
H | among the Lamanites— | ||||||||
I | And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, | ||||||||
I | they were left in their own strength; | ||||||||
H | therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, | ||||||||
G | until they had lost possession of almost all their lands. | ||||||||
F | But behold, Moronihah did preach many things unto the people because of their iniquity, and also Nephi and Lehi, who were the sons of Helaman, did preach many things unto the people, yea, and did prophesy many things unto them concerning their iniquities, | ||||||||
E | and what should come unto them if they did not repent of their sins. And it came to pass that they did repent, and inasmuch as they did repent they did begin to prosper. | ||||||||
D | For when Moronihah saw that they did repent he did venture to lead them forth from place to place, and from city to city, even until they had regained the one-half of their property and the onehalf of all their lands. | ||||||||
C | And thus ended the sixty and first year of the reign of the judges. | ||||||||
B | And it came to pass in the sixty and second year of the reign of the judges, that Moronihah could obtain no more possessions over the Lamanites. | ||||||||
A | Therefore they did abandon their design to obtain the remainder of their lands, for so numerous were the Lamanites that it became impossible for the Nephites to obtain more power over them; therefore Moronihah did employ all his armies in maintaining those parts which he had taken. |
Helaman 5:48–50
A | And now, when they heard this they cast up their eyes as if to behold from whence the voice came; and behold, they saw the heavens open; | |||
B | and angels came down out of heaven and ministered unto them. | |||
C | And there were about three hundred souls who saw and heard these things; and they were bidden to go forth | |||
D | and marvel not, | |||
D | neither should they doubt. | |||
C | And it came to pass that they did go forth, | |||
B | and did minister unto the people, | |||
A | declaring throughout all the regions round about all the things which they had heard and seen, |
Helaman 6:7–13
A | And behold, there was peace in all the land, | ||||
B | insomuch that the Nephites did go into whatsoever part of the land they would, whether among the Nephites or the Lamanites. And it came to pass that the Lamanites did also go whithersoever they would, whether it were among the Lamanites or among the Nephites; and thus they did have free intercourse one with another, to buy and to sell, and to get gain, according to their desire | ||||
C | And it came to pass that they became exceedingly rich, both the Lamanites and the Nephites; | ||||
D | and they did have an exceeding plenty of gold, and of silver, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north | ||||
E | Now the land south was called Lehi and the land north was called Mulek, which was after the son of Zedekiah; for the Lord did bring Mulek into the land north, and Lehi into the land south. | ||||
D | And behold, there was all manner of gold in both these lands, and of silver, and of precious ore of every kind; | ||||
C | and there were also curious workmen, who did work all kinds of ore and did refine it; and thus they did become rich. | ||||
B | They did raise grain in abundance, both in the north and in the south; and they did flourish exceedingly, both in the north and in the south. And they did multiply and wax exceedingly strong in the land. And they did raise many flocks and herds, yea, many fatlings. Behold their women did toil and spin, and did make all manner of cloth, of fine-twined linen and cloth of every kind, to clothe their nakedness. | ||||
A | And thus the sixty and fourth year did pass away in peace. |
Helaman 6:10
A | Now the land south | ||||
B | was called Lehi | ||||
C | and the land north | ||||
D | was called Mulek, | ||||
E | which was after the son of Zedekiah; | ||||
E | for the Lord | ||||
D | did bring Mulek | ||||
C | into the land north, | ||||
B | and Lehi | ||||
A | into the land south. |
Helaman 6:15
A | And it came to pass that in the sixty and sixth year of the reign of the judges, | |||
B | behold, Cezoram was murdered | |||
C | by an unknown hand as he | |||
D | sat upon the judgment-seat. | |||
C | And it came to pass that in the same year, that his son, | |||
B | who had been appointed by the people in his stead, was also murdered. | |||
A | And thus ended the sixty and sixth year. |
Helaman 6:21–26
A | But behold, Satan | ||||||||
B | did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, | ||||||||
C | insomuch that they did unite with those bands of robbers, | ||||||||
D | and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, | ||||||||
E | that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, | ||||||||
F | that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings. | ||||||||
G | And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; | ||||||||
H | and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, | ||||||||
I | that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do | ||||||||
H | he should not be injured by his brother, | ||||||||
G | nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant. | ||||||||
F | And thus they might murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God. | ||||||||
E | And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the world of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness, which had been given by Gadianton and Kishkumen. | ||||||||
D | Now behold, it is these secret oaths and covenants which Alma commanded his son should not go forth unto the world, lest they should be a means of bringing down the people unto destruction. Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth | ||||||||
C | unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; | ||||||||
B | but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton | ||||||||
A | by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit— |
Helaman 7:1–3
A | returned to the land of Zarahemla from the land northward. | ||
B | For he had been forth among the people who were in the land northward | ||
C | and did preach the word of God unto them, | ||
C | and did prophesy many things unto them; | ||
B | And they did reject all his words, insomuch that he could not stay among them, | ||
A | but returned again unto the land of his nativity |
Helaman 7:6–9
A | Now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years; | |||||
B | and when Nephi saw it, his heart was swollen with sorrow within his breast; | |||||
C | and he did exclaim in the agony of his soul: | |||||
D | Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have joyed with him in the promised land; | |||||
E | then were his people easy to be entreated, | |||||
F | firm to keep the commandments of God, | |||||
F | and slow to be led to do iniquity; | |||||
E | and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord— | |||||
D | Yea, if my days could have been in those days, | |||||
C | then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren. | |||||
B | But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with sorrow | |||||
A | because of this the wickedness of my brethren. |
Helaman 7:29
A | Behold now, I do not say that these things shall be, of myself, | ||
B | because it is not of myself that I know these things; | ||
C | but behold, I know that these things are true | ||
B | because the Lord God has made them known unto me, | ||
A | therefore I testify that they shall be. |
Helaman 8:20
A | (Jeremiah being that same prophet who testified | |
B | of the destruction of Jerusalem) | |
B | and now we know that Jerusalem was destroyed | |
A | according to the words of Jeremiah. |
Helaman 8:27
A | yea, go ye in unto the judgment-seat, | |||
B | and search; | |||
C | and behold, your judge is murdered, | |||
D | and he lieth in his blood; | |||
C | and he hath been murdered by his brother, | |||
B | who seeketh | |||
A | to sit in the judgment-seat. |
Helaman 10:4–5
A | Blessed art thou, Nephi, | |||
B | for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, | |||
C | which I have given unto thee, unto this people. | |||
D | And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, | |||
D | but hast sought my will, | |||
C | and to keep my commandments. | |||
B | And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, | |||
A | behold, I will bless thee forever; |
Helaman 10:7
A | Behold, I give unto you power, | |
B | that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; | |
B | and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; | |
A | and thus shall ye have power among this people. |
Helaman 10:13–15
A | they did harden their hearts and did not hearken unto the words of the Lord. | ||
B | Therefore Nephi did declare unto them the word of the Lord, saying: | ||
C | Except ye repent, thus saith the Lord, | ||
C | ye shall be smitten even unto destruction. | ||
B | And it came to pass that when Nephi had declared unto them the word, | ||
A | behold, they did still harden their hearts and would not hearken unto his words; |
Helaman 11:2
A | And this war did last | |
B | all that year; | |
B | and in the seventy and third year | |
A | it did also last. |
Helaman 11:5–6
A | And thus in the seventy and fourth year the famine did continue, | ||
B | and the work of destruction did cease by the sword | ||
C | but became sore by famine. | ||
B | And this work of destruction | ||
A | did also continue in the seventy and fifth year. |
Helaman 11:21
A | And the seventy and seventh year | |||
B | began in peace; | |||
C | and the church did spread throughout the face of all the land; | |||
D | and the more part of the people, | |||
D | both the Nephites and the Lamanites, | |||
C | did belong to the church; | |||
B | and they did have exceedingly great peace in the land; | |||
A | and thus ended the seventy and seventh year. |
Helaman 12:22–23
A | for this cause, that men might be saved, | |
B | hath repentance been declared | |
B | Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; | |
A | for these are they that shall be saved. |
Helaman 13:5–9
A | that the sword of justice hangeth over this people; | ||||
B | and four hundred years pass not away save the sword of justice falleth upon this people. | ||||
C | Yea, heavy destruction awaiteth this people, and it surely cometh unto this people, | ||||
D | and nothing can save this people save it be repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, who surely shall come into the world, and shall suffer many things and shall be slain for his people. | ||||
E | And behold, an angel of the Lord hath declared it unto me, and he did bring glad tidings to my soul. | ||||
E | And behold, I was sent unto you to declare it unto you also, that ye might have glad tidings; but behold ye would not receive me. | ||||
D | Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Because of the hardness of the hearts of the people of the Nephites, except they repent | ||||
C | I will take away my word from them, and I will withdraw my Spirit from them, and I will suffer them no longer, and I will turn the hearts of their brethren against them. | ||||
B | And four hundred years shall not pass away before I will cause that they shall be smitten; | ||||
A | yea, I will visit them with the sword and with famine and with pestilence. |
Helaman 13:11
A | But if ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, | |
B | saith the Lord; | |
B | yea, thus saith the Lord, | |
A | blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me, |
Helaman 13:20
A | And the day shall come that they shall hide up their treasures, | |
B | because they have set their hearts upon riches; | |
B | and because they have set their hearts upon their riches, | |
A | I will hide up their treasures when they shall flee before their enemies; |
Helaman 13:24–25
A | that ye do cast out the prophets, and do mock them, | ||||
B | and cast stones at them, | ||||
C | and do slay them, and do all manner of iniquity unto them, | ||||
D | even as they did of old time. | ||||
E | And now when ye talk, | ||||
E | ye say: | ||||
D | If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, | ||||
C | we would not have slain the prophets; | ||||
B | we would not have stoned them, | ||||
A | and cast them out. |
Helaman 13:27
A | But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: | ||
B | Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; | ||
C | yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; | ||
C | yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, | ||
B | and do whatsoever your heart desireth— | ||
A | and if a man shall come among you and say this, |
Helaman 14:2–7
A | Behold, I give unto you a sign; for five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name. | |||||
B | And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, | |||||
C | insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day | |||||
D | Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; | |||||
E | for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; | |||||
E | therefore they shall know of a surety | |||||
D | that there shall be two days and a night; | |||||
C | nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born. | |||||
B | And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you. And behold this is not all, there shall be many signs and wonders in heaven. And it shall come to pass that ye shall all be amazed, and wonder, insomuch that ye shall fall to the earth. | |||||
A | And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life. |
Helaman 14:15–17
A | that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord. | ||||
B | Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, | ||||
C | and redeemeth all mankind from the first death— | ||||
D | that spiritual death; | ||||
E | for all mankind, | ||||
E | by the fall of Adam | ||||
D | being cut off from the presence of the Lord, | ||||
C | are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual. | ||||
B | But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, | ||||
A | and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord. |
Helaman 14:21–22
A | and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, are both above the earth and beneath, | |||
B | which ye know at this time are solid | |||
C | or the more part of it is one solid mass, | |||
D | shall be broken up; | |||
D | Yea, they shall be rent in twain, | |||
C | and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, | |||
B | and in broken fragments | |||
A | upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath. |
Helaman 14:23
A | and there shall be many mountains laid low, | |
B | like unto a valley, | |
B | and there shall be many places which are now called valleys | |
A | which shall become mountains, whose height is great. |
Helaman 15:3
A | yea, the people of Nephi hath he loved | |
B | and also hath he chastened them; | |
B | yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them | |
A | because he loveth them. |
Helaman 15:10–11
A | behold, the Lord shall bless them and prolong their days, | |
B | notwithstanding their iniquity— | |
B | Yea, even if they should dwindle in unbelief | |
A | the Lord shall prolong their days, |
Helaman 16:1–3
A | desiring that they might be baptized unto the Lord. | |||
B | But as many as there were who did not believe in the words of Samuel were angry with him; | |||
C | and they cast stones at him upon the wall, and also many shot arrows at him as he stood upon the wall; | |||
D | but the Spirit of the Lord was with him, | |||
C | insomuch that they could not hit him with their stones neither with their arrows. | |||
B | Now when they saw that they could not hit him, there were many more who did believe on his words, | |||
A | insomuch that they went away unto Nephi to be baptized. |
3 Nephi 1:15
A | for behold, at the going down of the sun | ||
B | here was no darkness; | ||
C | and the people began to be astonished | ||
B | because there was no darkness | ||
A | when the night came. |
3 Nephi 1:25
A | But it came to pass that they soon became converted, and were convinced of the error which they were in, | |
B | for it was made known unto them that the law was not yet fulfilled, and that it must be fulfilled in every whit; | |
B | yea, the word came unto them that it must be fulfilled; yea, that one jot or tittle should not pass away till it should all be fulfilled; | |
A | therefore in this same year were they brought to a knowledge of their error and did confess their faults |
3 Nephi 2:7–8
A | And nine years had passed away | ||
B | from the time when the sign was given, which was spoken of by the prophets, that Christ should come into the world. | ||
C | Now the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period | ||
B | when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ; | ||
A | therefore, nine years had passed away. |
3 Nephi 2:14–16
A | And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites | ||
B | were numbered among the Nephites; | ||
C | And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites; | ||
C | And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair, | ||
B | and they were numbered among the Nephites, | ||
A | and were called Nephites. |
3 Nephi 4:15
A | And it came to pass that this nineteenth year did pass away, | |
B | and the robbers did not come again to battle; | |
B | neither did they come again | |
A | in the twentieth year. |
3 Nephi 4:24–25
A | therefore he did send out his armies in the night-time, | |
B | and did cut off the way of their retreat, | |
B | and did place his armies in the way of their retreat. | |
A | And this did they do in the night-time, |
3 Nephi 5:8
A | And there had many things transpired which, in the eyes of some, would be great and marvelous; | ||
B | nevertheless, they cannot all be written | ||
C | in this book; | ||
C | yea, this book | ||
B | cannot contain even a hundredth part | ||
A | of what was done among so many people in the space of twenty and five years; |
3 Nephi 5:24–26
A | And as surely as the Lord liveth, | ||||
B | will he gather in from the four quarters of the earth all the remnant of the seed of Jacob, who are scattered abroad upon all the face of the earth. | ||||
C | And as he hath covenanted with all the house of Jacob, | ||||
D | even so shall the covenant wherewith he hath covenanted | ||||
E | with the house of Jacob be fulfilled in his own due time, | ||||
E | unto the restoring all the house of Jacob unto the knowledge | ||||
D | of the covenant that he hath covenanted with them. | ||||
C | And then shall they know their Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; | ||||
B | and then shall they be gathered in from the four quarters of the earth unto their own lands, from whence they have been dispersed; | ||||
A | yea, as the Lord liveth so shall it be. Amen. |
3 Nephi 6:1–2
A | And now it came to pass that the people of the Nephites did all return to their own lands in the twenty and sixth year, | ||
B | every man, with his family, his flocks and his herds, his horses and his cattle, and all things whatsoever did belong unto them | ||
C | And it came to pass that they had not eaten up all their provisions; | ||
C | therefore they did take with them all that they had not devoured, | ||
B | of all their grain of every kind, and their gold, and their silver, and all their precious things, | ||
A | and they did return to their own lands and their possessions, |
3 Nephi 6:13
A | and others were exceedingly humble; | ||
B | some did return railing for railing, | ||
C | while others would receive railing and persecution | ||
C | and all manner of afflictions, | ||
B | and would not turn and revile again, | ||
A | but were humble and penitent before God. |
3 Nephi 6:18
A | Now they did not sin ignorantly, | |
B | for they knew the will of God concerning them, | |
B | for it had been taught unto them; | |
A | therefore they did wilfully rebel against God. |
3 Nephi 6:20
A | preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people, | ||
B | and testifying unto them concerning the redemption | ||
C | which the Lord would make for his people, | ||
B | or in other words, the resurrection of Christ; | ||
A | and they did testify boldly of his death and sufferings. |
3 Nephi 7:2–4
A | and they did separate one from another into tribes | ||
B | every man according to his family and his kindred and friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land. | ||
C | And every tribe did appoint a chief or a leader over them; | ||
C | and thus they became tribes and leaders of tribes. | ||
B | Now behold, there was no man among them save he had much family and many kindreds and friends; | ||
A | therefore their tribes became exceedingly great. |
3 Nephi 8:10
A | And the earth was carried up | |
B | upon the city of Moronihah | |
B | that in the place of the city | |
A | there became a great mountain. |
3 Nephi 8:16
A | And there were some who were carried away in the whirlwind; | |
B | and whither they went no man knoweth, | |
B | save they know | |
A | that they were carried away. |
3 Nephi 9:16–17
A | And the scriptures concerning my coming are fulfilled. | ||
B | And as many as have received me, | ||
C | to them have I given to become the sons of God; | ||
C | and even so will I to | ||
B | as many as shall believe on my name, | ||
A | for behold, by me redemption cometh, and in me is the law of Moses fulfilled. |
3 Nephi 9:19
A | And ye shall offer up unto me no more | |
B | the shedding of blood; | |
B | yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings | |
A | shall be done away, |
3 Nephi 10:4–5
A | O ye people of these great cities which have fallen, | |||
B | who are descendants of Jacob, yea, who are of the house of Israel, | |||
C | how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, | |||
D | and have nourished you. | |||
C | And again, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, | |||
B | yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, | |||
A | who have fallen; |
3 Nephi 10:12
A | And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, | |
B | and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; | |
B | and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints | |
A | who were spared— |
3 Nephi 11:5–8
A | and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came. | ||
B | And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; and it said unto them: | ||
C | Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, | ||
C | in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him. | ||
B | And it came to pass, as they understood | ||
A | they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; |
3 Nephi 11:29
A | he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, | |
B | but is of the devil, | |
B | who is the father of contention, | |
A | and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another |
3 Nephi 12:10–12
A | And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, | |||
B | for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. | |||
C | And blessed are ye | |||
D | when men shall revile you and persecute, | |||
D | and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; | |||
C | For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, | |||
B | for great shall be your reward in heaven; | |||
A | for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. |
3 Nephi 12:19
A | And behold, I have given you the law | ||
B | and the commandments of my Father, that ye shall believe in me, | ||
C | and that ye shall repent of your sins, | ||
C | and come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. | ||
B | Behold, ye have the commandments before you, | ||
A | and the law is fulfilled. |
3 Nephi 12:23–24
A | Therefore, if ye shall come unto me, | |||
B | or shall desire to come unto me, | |||
C | and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee— | |||
D | Go thy way unto thy brother | |||
C | and first be reconciled to thy brother, | |||
B | and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, | |||
A | and I will receive you. |
3 Nephi 12:42
A | Give to him | |
B | that asketh thee, | |
B | and from him that would borrow of thee | |
A | turn thou not away. |
3 Nephi 13:22
A | The light of the body | |
B | is the eye; if, therefore, | |
B | thine eye be single, | |
A | thy whole body shall be full of light. |
3 Nephi 13:24
A | No man can serve two masters; | ||
B | for either he will hate the one | ||
C | and love the other, | ||
C | or else he will hold to the one | ||
B | and despise the other. | ||
A | Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. |
3 Nephi 13:34
A | Take therefore no thought | |
B | for the morrow, | |
B | for the morrow | |
A | shall take thought for the things of itself. |
3 Nephi 15:5–9
A | Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; | |||
B | therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end. | |||
C | Behold, I do not destroy the prophets, | |||
D | for as many as have not been fulfilled in me, | |||
D | verily I say unto you, shall all be fulfilled. | |||
C | And because I said unto you that old things have passed away, I do not destroy that which hath been spoken concerning things which are to come. | |||
B | For behold, the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled; but the law which was given unto Moses hath an end in me. | |||
A | Behold, I am the law, and the light. |
3 Nephi 15:17–21
A | That other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. | |||
B | And now, because of stiffneckedness and unbelief they understood not my word; | |||
C | therefore I was commanded to say no more of the Father concerning this thing unto them. | |||
D | But, verily, I say unto you that the Father hath commanded me, and I tell it unto you, that ye were separated from among them because of their iniquity; | |||
D | therefore it is because of their iniquity that they know not of you. | |||
C | And verily, I say unto you again that the other tribes hath the Father separated from them; | |||
B | and it is because of their iniquity that they know not of them. And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: | |||
A | Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. |
3 Nephi 15:17
A | That other sheep I have | ||
B | which are not of this fold; | ||
C | them also I must bring, | ||
C | and they shall hear my voice; | ||
B | and there shall be one fold, | ||
A | and one shepherd. |
3 Nephi 15:21
A | Other sheep I have | ||
B | which are not of this fold; | ||
C | them also I must bring, | ||
C | and they shall hear my voice; | ||
B | and there shall be one fold, | ||
A | and one shepherd. |
3 Nephi 17:6–7
A | Behold, my bowels are filled | |||
B | with compassion towards you | |||
C | Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. | |||
D | Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, | |||
D | or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? | |||
C | Bring them hither and I will heal them, | |||
B | for I have compassion upon you; | |||
A | my bowels are filled with mercy. |
3 Nephi 17:12–13
A | So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, | ||
B | and Jesus stood in the midst; | ||
C | and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him. | ||
C | And it came to pass that when they had all been brought, | ||
B | and Jesus stood in the midst, | ||
A | he commanded the multitude that they should kneel down upon the ground. |
3 Nephi 17:24
A | and they saw angels descending out of heaven | ||
B | as it were in the midst of fire; | ||
C | and they came down and encircled those little ones about, | ||
C | and they were encircled | ||
B | about with fire; | ||
A | and the angels did minister unto them. |
3 Nephi 18:22
A | and ye shall not forbid any man | |
B | from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, | |
B | but suffer them that they may come unto you | |
A | and forbid them not; |
3 Nephi 18:27–35
A | Behold verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you another commandment, and then I must go unto my Father that I may fulfil other commandments which he hath given me. | ||||
B | And now behold, this is the commandment which I give unto you, | ||||
C | that ye shall not suffer any one knowingly to partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it; For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid him. | ||||
D | Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out from among you, but ye shall minister unto him and shall pray for him unto the Father, in my name; and if it so be that he repenteth and is baptized in my name, then shall ye receive him, and shall minister unto him of my flesh and blood. | ||||
E | But if he repent not he shall not be numbered among my people, | ||||
E | that he may not destroy my people, for behold I know my sheep, and they are numbered. | ||||
D | Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; | ||||
C | and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them. Therefore, keep these sayings which I have commanded you that ye come not under condemnation; for wo unto him whom the Father condemneth. | ||||
B | And I give you these commandments because of the disputations which have been among you. And blessed are ye if ye have no disputations among you. | ||||
A | And now I go unto the Father, because it is expedient that I should go unto the Father for your sakes. |
3 Nephi 18:28–29
A | that ye shall not suffer | ||
B | any one knowingly to partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it; | ||
C | For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; | ||
B | therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood | ||
A | ye shall forbid him. |
3 Nephi 19:2–3
A | And it was noised abroad among the people immediately | |||
B | before it was yet dark, | |||
C | that the multitude had seen Jesus, | |||
D | and that he had ministered unto them, | |||
C | and that he would also show himself on the morrow unto the multitude. | |||
B | Yea, and even all the night | |||
A | it was noised abroad concerning Jesus; |
3 Nephi 20:35
A | The Father hath made bare his holy arm | |
B | in the eyes of all the nations; | |
B | and all the ends of the earth shall see | |
A | the salvation of the Father; |
3 Nephi 23:3
A | And all things that he spake | |
B | have been | |
B | and shall be, | |
A | even according to the words which he spake. |
3 Nephi 23:6–13
A | And now it came to pass that when Jesus had said these words he said unto them again, after he had expounded all the scriptures unto them which they had received, he said unto them: | ||||
B | Behold, other scriptures I would that ye should write, that ye have not. | ||||
C | And it came to pass that he said unto Nephi: Bring forth the record which ye have kept. And when Nephi had brought forth the records, and laid them before him, he cast his eyes upon them and said: | ||||
D | Verily I say unto you, I commanded my servant Samuel, the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me that there were many saints who should arise from the dead, and should appear unto many, and should minister unto them. | ||||
E | And he said unto them: Was it not so? | ||||
E | And his disciples answered him and said: Yea, Lord, Samuel did prophesy according to thy words, and they were all fulfilled. | ||||
D | And Jesus said unto them: How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them? | ||||
C | And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. | ||||
B | And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded. | ||||
A | And now it came to pass that when Jesus had expounded all the scriptures in one, which they had written, he commanded them that they should teach the things which he had expounded unto them. |
3 Nephi 25:1
A | For behold, the day cometh that shall burn | ||
B | as an oven; | ||
C | and all the proud, | ||
C | yea, and all that do wickedly, | ||
B | shall be stubble; | ||
A | and the day that cometh shall burn them up, |
3 Nephi 25:5–6
A | For behold, the day cometh that shall burn | ||
B | as an oven; | ||
C | and all the proud, | ||
C | yea, and all that do wickedly, | ||
B | shall be stubble; | ||
A | and the day that cometh shall burn them up, |
3 Nephi 26:16–18
A | yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any man write them. | ||
B | And it came to pass that the disciples whom Jesus had chosen | ||
C | began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them; | ||
C | and as many as were baptized | ||
B | in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost. | ||
A | And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written. |
3 Nephi 27:7–9
A | Therefore, whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my name that he will bless the church for my sake. | ||
B | And how be it my church save it be called in my name? | ||
C | For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; | ||
C | or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; | ||
B | but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel. Verily I say unto you, that ye are built upon my gospel; | ||
A | therefore ye shall call whatsoever things ye do call, in my name; therefore if ye call upon the Father, for the church, if it be in my name the Father will hear you |
3 Nephi 27:13
A | Behold I have given unto you | |
B | my gospel, | |
B | and this is the gospel | |
A | which I have given unto you— |
3 Nephi 27:19
A | And no unclean thing | |
B | can enter into his kingdom; | |
B | therefore nothing entereth into his rest | |
A | save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood |
3 Nephi 28:1–4
A | And it came to pass when Jesus had said these words, he spake unto his disciples, one by one, saying unto them: What is it that ye desire of me, after that I am gone to the Father? | |
B | And they all spake, save it were three, saying: We desire that after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, may have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom. | |
B | And he said unto them: Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest. | |
A | And when he had spoken unto them, he turned himself unto the three, and said unto them: What will ye that I should do unto you, when I am gone unto the Father? |
3 Nephi 28:13–14
A | and saw and heard unspeakable things. | |
B | And it was forbidden them that they should utter; | |
B | neither was it given unto them power that they could utter | |
A | the things which they saw and heard; |
3 Nephi 28:37–38
A | that there must needs be a change wrought upon their bodies, | |
B | or else it needs be that they must taste of death; | |
B | Therefore, that they might not taste of death | |
A | there was a change wrought upon their bodies, |
4 Nephi 1:31–34
A | the people did harden their hearts, and did seek to kill them, even as the Jews at Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus, according to his word. | |
B | And they did cast them into furnaces of fire, and they came forth receiving no harm | |
B | And they also cast them into dens of wild beasts, and they did play with the wild beasts even as a child with a lamb; and they did come forth from among them, receiving no harm. | |
A | Nevertheless, the people did harden their hearts, for they were led by many priests and false prophets to build up many churches, and to do all manner of iniquity |
4 Nephi 1:34
A | the people did harden their hearts, and did seek to kill them, even as the Jews at Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus, according to his word. | |
B | And they did cast them into furnaces of fire, and they came forth receiving no harm. | |
B | And they also cast them into dens of wild beasts, and they did play with the wild beasts even as a child with a lamb; and they did come forth from among them, receiving no harm. | |
A | Nevertheless, the people did harden their hearts, for they were led by many priests and false prophets to build up many churches, and to do all manner of iniquity. |
Mormon 1:16
A | And I did endeavor to preach unto this people, | |
B | but my mouth was shut, | |
B | and I was forbidden | |
A | that I should preach unto them; |
Mormon 2:8
A | therefore there was blood and carnage spread throughout all the face of the land, | |
B | both on the part of the Nephites | |
B | and also on the part of the Lamanites; | |
A | and it was one complete revolution throughout all the face of the land. |
Mormon 9:10
A | And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves | |
B | a god who doth vary, and | |
B | in whom there is shadow of changing, | |
A | then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a |
Mormon 9:13
A | yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, | ||
B | because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, | ||
C | which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, | ||
C | from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God | ||
B | when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, | ||
A | and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death. |
Mormon 9:15
A | And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, | |
B | I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? | |
B | Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; | |
A | and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. |
Mormon 9:18
A | And who shall say that Jesus Christ | |
B | did not many mighty miracles? | |
B | And there were many mighty miracles | |
A | wrought by the hands of the apostles. |
Mormon 9:19
A | And if there were miracles wrought then, | ||
B | why has God ceased to be a God of miracles | ||
C | and yet be an unchangeable Being? | ||
C | And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; | ||
B | if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, | ||
A | and is a God of miracles. |
Mormon 9:32–33
A | And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, | |||
B | in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, | |||
C | being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. | |||
D | And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; | |||
D | but the Hebrew | |||
C | hath been altered by us also; | |||
B | and if we could have written in Hebrew, | |||
A | behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record. |
Ether 1:5
A | I give not | |
B | the full account, | |
B | but a part of the account | |
A | I give, |
Ether 1:35
A | therefore he did not confound | |
B | the language of Jared; | |
B | and Jared and his brother | |
A | were not confounded. |
Ether 1:38
A | Go and inquire of the Lord | |
B | whether he will drive us out of the land, | |
B | and if he will drive us out of the land, | |
A | cry unto him whither we shall go. |
Ether 3:4–5
A | And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, | ||
B | and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; | ||
C | therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; | ||
C | and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. | ||
B | Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. | ||
A | We know that thou art able to show forth great power, |
Ether 3:19–20
A | And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; | |
B | and he saw the finger of Jesus, which, when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew | |
B | that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting | |
A | Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; |
Ether 6:9
A | and he did thank and praise the Lord | |
B | all the day long | |
B | and when the night came, | |
A | they did not cease to praise the Lord. |
Ether 6:14–20
A | And Jared had four sons; and they were called Jacom, and Gilgah, and Mahah, and Orihah. | ||||
B | And the brother of Jared also begat sons and daughters. | ||||
C | And the friends of Jared and his brother were in number about twenty and two souls; and they also begat sons and daughters before they came to the promised land; | ||||
D | and therefore they began to be many. | ||||
E | And they were taught to walk humbly before the Lord; | ||||
E | and they were also taught from on high. | ||||
D | And it came to pass that they began to spread upon the face of the land, and to multiply and to till the earth; and they did wax strong in the land. | ||||
C | And the brother of Jared began to be old, and saw that he must soon go down to the grave; wherefore he said unto Jared: Let us gather together our people that we may number them, that we may know of them what they will desire of us before we go down to our graves. And accordingly the people were gathered together. | ||||
B | Now the number of the sons and the daughters of the brother of Jared were twenty and two souls; | ||||
A | and the number of sons and daughters of Jared were twelve, he having four sons. |
Ether 10:23
A | And they did work in all manner of ore, | ||
B | and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; | ||
C | and they did dig it out of the earth; | ||
C | wherefore they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, | ||
B | of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. | ||
A | And they did work all manner of fine work |
Ether 12:7
A | For it was by faith | ||
B | that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, | ||
C | after he had risen from the dead; | ||
B | and he showed not himself unto them | ||
A | until after they had faith in him; |
Ether 12:17
A | And it was by faith that the three disciples | ||
B | obtained a promise | ||
C | that they should not taste of death; | ||
B | and they obtained not the promise | ||
A | until after their faith. |
Ether 12:23–25
A | And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, | ||||
B | because of our weakness in writing; | ||||
C | for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, | ||||
D | but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; | ||||
E | for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them; | ||||
E | And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. | ||||
D | Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. | ||||
C | Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; | ||||
B | wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; | ||||
A | and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. |
Ether 12:32
A | that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, | |
B | in which man might have a more excellent hope; | |
B | wherefore man must hope, | |
A | or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared. |
Ether 13:4–6
A | and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land. | |||
B | And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come— | |||
C | after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; | |||
D | wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem | |||
D | for it had been in a time of old; | |||
C | but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; | |||
B | and it should be built unto the house of Israel— | |||
A | And that a New Jerusalem should be built upon this land, |
Ether 13:12
A | there are they who were first, | |
B | who shall be last; | |
B | and there are they who were last, | |
A | who shall be first. |
Moroni 1:2–3
A | and because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite | |
B | that will not deny the Christ. | |
B | And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; | |
A | wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life. |
Moroni 1:4
A | Wherefore, I write a few more things, | |
B | contrary to that which I had supposed; | |
B | for I had supposed not to have written any more; | |
A | but I write a few more things, |
Moroni 2:1–3
A | The words of Christ, which he spake unto his disciples, the twelve whom he had chosen, as he laid his hands upon them— | ||
B | And he called them by name, saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this | ||
C | ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, | ||
C | ye shall give the Holy Ghost; | ||
B | and in my name shall ye give it, for thus do mine apostles. | ||
A | Now Christ spake these words unto them at the time of his first appearing; and the multitude heard it not, but the disciples heard it; and on as many as they laid their hands, fell the Holy Ghost |
Moroni 7:11
A | For behold, a bitter fountain | |||
B | cannot bring forth good water; | |||
C | neither can a good fountain | |||
D | bring forth bitter water; | |||
D | wherefore, a man being a servant of the devil | |||
C | cannot follow Christ; | |||
B | and if he follow Christ | |||
A | he cannot be a servant of the devil. |
Moroni 7:14
A | that ye do not judge that which is evil | |
B | to be of God, | |
B | or that which is good and of God | |
A | to be of the devil. |
Moroni 7:27–29
A | Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased | |||
B | because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, | |||
C | to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men? | |||
D | For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; | |||
D | and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; | |||
C | wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; | |||
B | and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens. | |||
A | And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? |
Moroni 9:22
A | to witness the return of his people unto him, | |
B | or their utter destruction; | |
B | for I know that they must perish | |
A | except they repent and return unto him. |
Moroni 10:4–5
A | he will manifest the truth of it unto you, | |
B | by the power of the Holy Ghost. | |
B | And by the power of the Holy Ghost | |
A | ye may know the truth of all things |
Alma 36
Alma 36 was one of the first chiasms discovered by John W. Welch in 1967. Since that time several scholars have contributed to our understanding of this structure, each offering different proposals and analysis. Here are several publications which detail their findings and proposals:
- Noel B. Reynolds, “Rethinking Alma 36,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 34 (2020), 279–312
- Jeff Lindsay, “‘Arise from the Dust’: Insights from Dust-Related Themes in the Book of Mormon (Part 3: Dusting Off a Famous Chiasmus, Alma 36),” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 22 (2016):
- Boyd F. Edwards and W. Farrell Edwards, “When are Chiasms Admissible as Evidence?” BYU Studies 49, no. 4 (2010): 131–154.
- Donald W. Parry, Poetic Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon: The Complete Text Reformatted (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2007), 318–321.
- Boyd F. Edwards and W. Farrell Edwards, “Does Chiasmus Appear in the Book of Mormon by Chance?” BYU Studies Quarterly 43, no. 2 (2004): 103–130.
- John W. Welch, “A Masterpiece: Alma 36,” Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights That You May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1991), 114–141.
- John W. Welch, “Chiasmus in Alma 36,” FARMS Preliminary Report (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1989), 2–11.
In addition, here is a new proposal suggested by Ryan Dahle, the project manager for Evidence Central. It draws on several of the above publications but suggests a number of new arrangements. In this proposal, underlined text signals parallels between main sections (highlighted in red) while bolded text indicates parallels within substructures. Note that some main sections have multiple proposed subtructures.
A | My son, give ear to my words, | |||||||||||||
B | for I swear unto you that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God, ye shall prosper in the land. (v. 1) | |||||||||||||
C | I would that ye should do as I have done in remembering the captivity of our fathers, | |||||||||||||
D | a | for they were in bondage | ||||||||||||
b | and none could deliver them except it were | |||||||||||||
c1 | the God of Abraham and | |||||||||||||
c2 | the God of Isaac and | |||||||||||||
c3 | the God of Jacob; | |||||||||||||
b | and he surely did deliver them | |||||||||||||
a | in their afflictions. (v. 2) | |||||||||||||
E | And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me, for I do know that whomsoever shall put his trust in God shall be supported in their trials and their troubles and their afflictions and shall be lifted up at the last day. (v. 3) | |||||||||||||
F | And I would not that ye think that I know of myself—not of the temporal but of the spiritual, not of the carnal mind but of God. (v. 4) Now behold, I say unto you: If I had not been born of God, I should not have known these things. But God hath by the mouth of his holy angel made these things known unto me not of any worthiness of myself. (v. 5) | |||||||||||||
G | a | For I went about with the sons of Mosiah | ||||||||||||
b | seeking to destroy | |||||||||||||
c | the church of God. | |||||||||||||
c | But behold, God | |||||||||||||
b | sent his holy angel to stop us | |||||||||||||
a | by the way. (v. 6) | |||||||||||||
H | a | And behold, he spake unto us | ||||||||||||
b | as it were the voice of thunder, | |||||||||||||
c | and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet. | |||||||||||||
c | And we all fell to the earth, | |||||||||||||
b | for the fear of the Lord came upon us. (v. 7) | |||||||||||||
a | But behold, the voice said unto me: | |||||||||||||
b | Arise. | |||||||||||||
b | And I arose and stood up | |||||||||||||
a | and beheld the angel. (v. 8) And he said unto me: | |||||||||||||
a | If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the | |||||||||||||
b | And it came to pass that I fell to the earth; and it was for the space of three days and three nights that I could not open my mouth, neither had I the use of my limbs. (v. 10) | |||||||||||||
c | And the angel spake more things unto me which were heard by my brethren, but I did not hear them. | |||||||||||||
a | For when I heard the words, if thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God, | |||||||||||||
b | I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps that I should be destroyed that I fell to the earth | |||||||||||||
c | and I did hear no more. (v. 11) | |||||||||||||
I | a | But I was racked with eternal torment, | ||||||||||||
b | for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. (v. 12) | |||||||||||||
b | Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, | |||||||||||||
a | for which I was tormented with the pains of hell. | |||||||||||||
a1 | Yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God and that | |||||||||||||
a2 | I had not kept his holy commandments. (v. 13) Yea, and | |||||||||||||
a3 | I had murdered many of his children—or rather led them away unto destruction— | |||||||||||||
a4 | yea, and in fine, so great had been my iniquities | |||||||||||||
b | that the very thoughts of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror. (v. 14) | |||||||||||||
b | O, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct, both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God | |||||||||||||
a | to be judged of my deeds. (v. 15) | |||||||||||||
J | a | And now for three days and for three nights was I racked, | ||||||||||||
b | even with the pains of a damned soul. (v. 16) | |||||||||||||
a | And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, | |||||||||||||
b | while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, | |||||||||||||
K | a | behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one | ||||||||||||
b | Jesus Christ, a Son of God, | |||||||||||||
c | to atone for the sins of the world. (v. 17) | |||||||||||||
K* | a | Now as my mind catched hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: | ||||||||||||
b | O Jesus, thou Son of God, | |||||||||||||
c | have mercy on me, who art in the gall of bitterness and art encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. (v. 18) | |||||||||||||
J* | And now behold, when I thought this, | |||||||||||||
a | I could remember | |||||||||||||
b | my pains | |||||||||||||
c | no more. | |||||||||||||
a | Yea, I was harrowed up by the memory | |||||||||||||
b | of my sins | |||||||||||||
c | no more. (v. 19) | |||||||||||||
I* | And O what joy and what marvelous light I did behold! Yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pains. (v. 20) | |||||||||||||
a | Yea, I say unto you, my son, | |||||||||||||
b | that there can be nothing so exquisite | |||||||||||||
c | and so bitter | |||||||||||||
d | as was my pains. | |||||||||||||
a | Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, | |||||||||||||
b | that on the other hand there can be nothing so exquisite | |||||||||||||
c | and sweet | |||||||||||||
d | as was my joy. (v. 21) | |||||||||||||
Yea, and methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God. Yea, and my soul did long to be there. (v. 22) | ||||||||||||||
H* | But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God. (v. 23) | |||||||||||||
G* | a | Yea, and from that time even until now I have labored without ceasing that I might bring souls unto repentance | ||||||||||||
b | that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste, | |||||||||||||
c | that they might also be born of God | |||||||||||||
c | and be filled with the Holy Ghost. (v. 24) | |||||||||||||
b | Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceeding great joy in the fruits | |||||||||||||
a | of my labors; (v. 25) | |||||||||||||
F* | a | for because of the word which he hath imparted unto me, behold, many hath been born of God | ||||||||||||
b1 | and hath tasted | |||||||||||||
c1 | as I have tasted | |||||||||||||
b2 | and hath seen eye to eye | |||||||||||||
c2 | as I have seen. | |||||||||||||
b3 | Therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken; | |||||||||||||
c3 | as I do know | |||||||||||||
a | and the knowledge which I have is of God. (v. 26) | |||||||||||||
E* | a | And I have been supported under | ||||||||||||
b1 | trials and | |||||||||||||
b2 | troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of | |||||||||||||
b3 | afflictions. | |||||||||||||
a | Yea, God hath delivered me from | |||||||||||||
b1 | prisons and from | |||||||||||||
b2 | bonds and from | |||||||||||||
b3 | death. | |||||||||||||
a | Yeah and I | |||||||||||||
b | do put my trust | |||||||||||||
c | in him | |||||||||||||
c | and he | |||||||||||||
b | will still deliver | |||||||||||||
a | me. (v. 27) | |||||||||||||
a | And I know that he will | |||||||||||||
b | raise me up at the last day | |||||||||||||
c | to dwell with him in glory. | |||||||||||||
a | Yea, and I will | |||||||||||||
b | praise him | |||||||||||||
c | forever. | |||||||||||||
D* | a | For he hath brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he hath swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red Sea, | ||||||||||||
b | and he led them by his power into the promised land; | |||||||||||||
c | yea, and he hath delivered them out of bondage and captivity | |||||||||||||
d | from time to time. (v. 28) | |||||||||||||
a | Yea, and he hath also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem, | |||||||||||||
b | and he hath also by his everlasting power | |||||||||||||
c | delivered them out of bondage and captivity | |||||||||||||
d | from time to time, even down to the present day. | |||||||||||||
C* | a | And I have always | ||||||||||||
b | retained in remembrance | |||||||||||||
c | their captivity; yea, and | |||||||||||||
a | ye also had ought to | |||||||||||||
b | retain in remembrance, as I have done, | |||||||||||||
c | their captivity. (v. 29) | |||||||||||||
B* | But behold, my son, this is not all. | |||||||||||||
a | For ye had ought to know as I do know | |||||||||||||
b | that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God | |||||||||||||
c | ye shall prosper in the land; | |||||||||||||
a | and ye had ought to know also | |||||||||||||
b | that inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God, | |||||||||||||
c | ye shall be cut off from his presence. | |||||||||||||
A* | Now this is according to his word. (v. 30) |
- 1 See “Chiasmus Index,” online at chiasmusresources.org.
- 2 See, for example, various proposals at latterdaychiasmus.com or davidicchiasmus.com.
- 3 See, for example, Brent Lee Metcalfe, “Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26, no. 3 (1993): 162–171. For a response to Metcalfe, see William J. Hamblin, “An Apologist for the Critics: Brent Lee Metcalfe’s Assumptions and Methodologies,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, 6, no. 1 (1994): 493–499. See also Boyd F. Edwards and W. Farrell Edwards, “Does Chiasmus Appear in the Book of Mormon by Chance?” BYU Studies Quarterly 43, no. 2 (2004): 105–106. For a wide-ranging collection of discussions about the phenomenon of chiasmus in general, see Boris Wiseman and Anthony Paul, ed., Chiasmus and Culture (New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2014).
- 4 See “Criteria Chart,” online at chiasmusresources.org.
- 5 John W. Welch, “Criteria for Identifying and Evaluating the Presence of Chiasmus,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 2 (1995): 14.
- 6 See Boyd F. Edwards and W. Farrell Edwards, “Does Chiasmus Appear in the Book of Mormon by Chance?” BYU Studies 43, no. 2 (2004): 103–130; Boyd F. Edwards and W. Farrell Edwards, “When are Chiasms Admissible as Evidence?” BYU Studies 49, no. 4 (2010): 131–154; Dennis Newton, “Nephi’s Use of Inverted Parallels,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 22 (2016): 79–106; Yehuda T. Radday, “Chiasmus in Hebrew Biblical Narrative,” in Chiasmus in Antiquity: Structures, Analysis, Exegesis, ed. John W. Welch (Hildesheim, GER: Gerstenberg Verlag, 1981; reprint Provo, UT: Research Press, 1999), 50–117. For recent statistical linguistic research aimed more generally at detecting chiasmus in texts, see Marie Dubremetz and Joakim Nivre, “Rhetorical Figure Detection: Chiasmus, Epanaphora, Epiphora,” Frontiers in Digital Humanities 5 (2018); Marie Dubremetz and Joakim Nivre “Machine Learning for Rhetorical Figure Detection: More Chiasmus with Less Annotation,” Proceedings of the 21st Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics, May 2017, 37–45; Marie Dubremetz and Joakim Nivre, “Syntax Matters for Rhetorical Structure: The Case of Chiasmus,” Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature, 2016, 47–53; Marie Dubremetz and Joakim Nivre, “Rhetorical Figure Detection: the Case of Chiasmus,” Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Literature, 2015, 23–31.
- 7 See Edwards and Edwards, “Does Chiasmus Appear,” 109: “Though a moderate or a large value of P for a passage implies that its chiastic structure could easily be replicated by random rearrangements, this does not imply that chiastic structure is likely to have been unintentional on the part of the author. Moderate and large values of P say absolutely nothing about intentionality. The author of a passage with a moderate or large value of P may well have intentionally invoked the chiastic form in composing the passage, but such a value simply provides no evidence that she did, nor does it provide evidence that she did not.” See also, Edwards and Edwards, “When are Chiasms Admissible,” 141, 154: “Some chiasms with P > 0.05 have literary value and might well have appeared by design. … Failing our statistical admissibility test does not mean that a chiasm was not intentional. For such chiasms, other compensating merits and other analytical approaches, such as Welch’s fifteen criteria, can be considered in reaching a judgment about intentionality.” Newton, “Nephi’s Use of Inverted Parallels,” 88 emphasizes this same point: “this does not mean the lower probability candidates were not written intentionally.” This is inherent in statistical reasoning, which is why a p-value < 0.05 yields the conclusion to “reject the null-hypothesis” (that X occurs by random chance), but a p-value > 0.05 only leads to the conclusion “fail to reject the null-hypothesis” rather than simply accepting the null-hypothesis.
- 8 For an attempt to employ statistical methods in conjunction with additional criteria, see Newton, “Nephi’s Use of Inverted Parallels,” 79–106.
- 9 For Welch’s own recounting of this story, see John W. Welch, “The Discovery of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon: Forty Years Later,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 2 (2007): 74–87, 99; John W. Welch, “Forty-Five Years of Chiasmus Conversations: Correspondence, Criteria, and Creativity,” 2012 FairMormon Conference address, online at fairmormon.org. See also, Book of Mormon Central, “How Was Chiasmus Discovered in the Book of Mormon? (Mosiah 5:11),” KnoWhy 353 (August 16, 2017).
- 10 For Welch’s first publication on chiasmus, see John W. Welch, “Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon,” BYU Studies 10, no. 1 (1969): 69–84.
- 11 See Robert F. Smith, “Assessing the Broad Impact of Jack Welch’s Discovery of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 2 (2007): 68–73, 98–99. For a broad survey of publications on chiasmus generally, see “Chiasmus Bibliography,” online at chiasmusresources.org.
- 12 Edwards and Edwards, “Does Chiasmus Appear,” 125.
- 13 Newton, “Nephi’s Use of Inverted Parallels,” 98.
- 14 See William E. Engel, Chiastic Designs in English Literature from Sidney to Shakespeare (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2009); Jeffrey Bilbro, “The Form of the Cross: Milton’s Chiastic Soteriology,” Milton Quarterly 47, no. 3 (2013): 127–148; William E. Engel, “John Milton’s Recourse to Old English: A Case Study in Renaissance Lexicography,” LATCH 1 (2008): 19–20; Dunya Muhammad Miqdad I’jam and Zahraa Adnan Fadhil, “Chiasmus as a Stylistic Device in Donne’s and Vaughan’s Poetry,” Journal of Education and Practice 7, no. 26 (2016): 43–52.
- 15 See James E. Ryan, Shakespeare’s Symmetries: The Mirrored Structure of Action in the Plays (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016); William L. Davis, “Structural Secrets: Shakespeare’s Complex Chiasmus,” Style 39, no. 3 (2005): 237–258; William L. Davis, “Better a Witty Fool than a Foolish Wit: the Art of Shakespeare’s Chiasmus,” Text and Performance Quarterly 23, no. 4 (2003): 311–330; Ira Clark, “‘Measure for Measure’: Chiasmus, Justice, and Mercy,” Style 35, no. 4 (2001): 659–680.
- 16 See Richard Copley, The Formal Center in Literature: Explorations from Poe to the Present (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2018); Mark J. Bruhn, “William Wordsworth: The Prelude (1798, 1799, 1805, 1850),” in Handbook of British Romanticism, ed. Ralf Haekel (Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2017), 399–402; Sanford Budick, “Chiasmus and the Making of Literary Tradition: The Case of Wordsworth and ‘The Days of Dryden and Pope’,” ELH 60, no. 4 (1993): 961–987; Keith G. Thomas, “Jane Austen and the Romantic Lyric: Persuasion and Coleridge’s Conversation Poems,” ELH 54, no. 4 (1987): 893–924; Richard Kopley, “Chiasmus in Walden,” The New England Quarterly 77, no. 1 (2004): 115–121.
- 17 Besides the relatively sparse results gained from searching for various chiasmus-related terms in 19th century texts (or in the subsequent literature about those texts) in online search engines and databases, fairly recent discussions of this topic often hint that formal knowledge or discussion about chiasmus was sparse in Joseph Smith’s day. For example, Davis, “Structural Secrets,” 237 remarks that “even though these [chiastic] patterns were commonly used in earlier centuries, an awareness of the large-scale biblical patterns appears to have begun fading into the background with the passage of time, and English Renaissance books on rhetoric and poetry remain silent on the subject.”
- 18 For example, Henry David Thoreau’s frequent use of simple chiasms (with an A-B-B-A pattern) seems somewhat puzzling to Richard Kopley, who writes: “Precisely how Thoreau learned his chiastic skill is uncertain.” This uncertainty would not likely exist if chiasmus was a standard part of 19th century literary instruction or a matter frequently brought up in the literary criticism of the day. As a possibility, Kopley proposed that perhaps Thoreau learned of chiasmus from “his rhetoric textbook at Harvard, Richard Whately’s Elements of Rhetoric, which discusses the ABBA pattern.” Kopley, “Chiasmus in Walden,” 120. Yet, not only does Whately’s text (published in 1832) fail to explicitly describe the A-B-B-A pattern, it doesn’t even show any examples of it. Another possibility presented in the footnote is that Thoreau learned of chiasmus from George Campbell, The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 2 vols. (London: W. Strahen, and T. Cadell, and W. Creech, 1776), 2:353–355. This seems to be a much more likely option. It provides several examples of chiasmus, which it refers to as an “inverted” arrangement of repeated words (p. 354). This widely influential text could indeed have been a source for Thoreau or other late-18th and 19th century authors. However, it appears that its treatment of chiasmus never goes beyond simple couplets with the A-B-B-A formula.
- 19 Not all proposals of what has been called “ring composition” are necessarily macro structures (sometimes ring composition can refer to smaller chiasms), but most examples tend to involve much larger amounts of text than most of the proposed chiasms in the Book of Mormon.
- 20 For a brief discussion of ring composition in relation to the Book of Mormon, see Benjamin McGuire, “The Book of Mormon as a Communicative Act: Translation in Context,” 2016 Fair Mormon Conference presentation, online at fairmormon.org. For proposals of ring composition in a variety of ancient and modern texts, see Mary Douglas, Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007); William L. Benzon, “Ring Composition: Some Notes on a Particular Literary Morphology,” online at academia.edu. For a cautionary critique of ring composition proposals, see Joseph A. Dane, “The Notion of Ring Composition in Classical and Medieval Studies: A Comment on Critical Method and Illusion,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 94, no 1. (1993): 61–67. See also Welch, “Criteria for Identifying and Evaluating the Presence of Chiasmus,” 4: “The degree of certainty about the presence of chiasmus in a text usually varies in inverse proportion to the total length of the text. In other words, the more spread out the proposed chiasm, the less certain the fact of its chiasticity becomes, except in remarkable circumstances. Hence, the more extended the proposed chiasm, the greater will be the need for multiple corroborating factors before the passage can be meaningfully described as chiastic.”
- 21 John W. Welch, “How Much Was Known about Chiasmus in 1829 When the Book of Mormon Was Translated?” FARMS Review 15, no. 1 (2003): 76.
- 22 In 1825, Horne published the 4th edition of his three-volume Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia, PA: Littell, 1825). It seems to have been the first American publication to mention Jebb’s work on chiasmus. A 6th edition of this biblical encyclopedia was published in 1828, with changes mostly to its typesetting. In 1827, Horne published the 2nd edition of a condensed version of his encyclopedia, called Compendious Introduction to the Study of the Bible (New York, NW: Arthur), and in 1829 he published a 3rd edition. These works contained an even briefer mention of Jebb’s chiasmus-related writings (p. 191 in the 1827 edition and p. 144 in the 1829 edition). These encyclopedic volumes never discussed Boys’ research on chiasmus in the Psalms and in the New Testament, and it appears that only Horne’s 1825 edition was published in America. This information corrects and expands what was known in the 1960s and 1970s about these obscure sources. See Welch, “How Much Was Known about Chiasmus in 1829?” 63–68.
- 23 In its 28-page chapter on Hebrew poetry, Horne’s publication contains only three short examples of “parallel lines introverted” in the Old Testament and two A-B-B-A examples in the New Testament. Horne, Introduction to the Critical Study, 456–457, 467. Moreover, as Welch has observed, “Horne’s work is massively intimidating … [and] mentions virtually everything in the then-known world of biblical scholarship. Merely locating the discussion of chiasmus, epanodos, or introverted parallelism in this vast array is difficult, even when one knows what to look for. Welch, “How Much Was Known about Chiasmus in 1829?” 78. Thus, while it is technically possible that Joseph Smith could have stumbled upon a summary of the London-based research, it seems unlikely that he actually did.
- 24 See John W. Welch, “What Does Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon Prove?” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997), 219: “On the other hand, it may be suggested that Joseph Smith could have sensed intuitively the nature and importance of chiasmus as a reader of the Bible. This factor, however, is not very persuasive for several reasons. First, it is rarely the case that the Hebrew or Greek chiastic patterns have been preserved rigorously through the process of English translation. In many cases, the English translators preferred to correct the inverted verb orders and to restructure them in more natural English word orders. Moreover, many biblical scholars who work regularly with the texts do not naturally write in chiastic forms themselves, and many of them are not aware, either consciously or subconsciously, of the chiastic structure of biblical text. When I presented a paper on chiasmus in biblical law to a conference of the Jewish Law Association held in Boston, several distinguished Jewish scholars were quite astonished that a Gentile could show them something as distinctive and remarkable in their own Torah as the arrangements in Leviticus 24 and elsewhere. I was not the first to discover chiasmus in Leviticus 24, but the present point is simply to show that structures such as these do not naturally jump out at readers—even at those who read this text regularly and assiduously, and in Hebrew—without someone pointing these patterns out to them. Consequently, it assumes too much to believe that the young Joseph Smith’s reading of the King James English adequately explains the extensive and objectively rigorous instances of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon.”
- 25 See “Ancient Egyptian Texts,” online at chiasmusresources.org.
- 26 Welch, “What Does Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon Prove?” 213.
- 27 See Book of Mormon Central, “Was Chiasmus Known to Ancient American Writers? (Alma 29:4),” KnoWhy 346 (July 31, 2017); Kerry M. Hull and Michael D. Carrasco, eds., Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature (Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2012); Allen J. Christenson, “The Use of Chiasmus in Ancient Mesoamerica” (FARMS Preliminary Report, 1988); Allen J. Christenson, “Chiasmus in Mayan Texts,” Ensign, October 1988, online at churchofjesuschrist.org;
- 28 See John W. Welch, “Timing the Translation of the Book of Mormon: ‘Days [and Hours] Never to Be Forgotten’,” BYU Studies Quarterly 57, no. 4 (2018): 10–50; Book of Mormon Central, “Why Is the Timing of the Book of Mormon’s Translation So ‘Marvelous’? (2 Nephi 27:26),” KnoWhy 506 (March 15, 2019).
- 29 See John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2017), 143, 168; Daniel C. Peterson, “Editor’s Introduction—Not So Easily Dismissed: Some Facts for Which Counterexplanations of the Book of Mormon Will Need to Account,” FARMS Review 17, no. 2 (2005): xiii–xvi; Royal Skousen, “How Joseph Smith Translated the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7, no. 1 (1998): 24.
- 30 For a brief summary of the Book of Mormon’s various types of complexity, see Melvin J. Thorne, “Complexity, Consistency, Ignorance, and Probabilities,” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997), 179–193.
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