1 Nephi: Headnote, Part VI
“They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife.”
I suppose we’ll deal with this in more detail when I get to 1 Nephi 7, but I think it bears mentioning that Nephi found this tiny little detail—his marriage—important enough to mention in his headnote. With very few exceptions, women are never mentioned in the scriptures unless they are essential to the story or chronology. So by even mentioning it, we can see that Nephi views his marriage as a major event in his life and history.
So what can we learn from this? Although Nephi’s parting commandment to his brother Jacob did allow him to “touch… lightly [upon] the history of this people” (Jacob 1:2), the commandment that Nephi had himself received from God (ostensibly just before writing the headnote!) was that he “should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of [his] people” (1 Nephi 9:3). Furthermore, he states that:
Likening the scriptures unto myself:
Given the culture in which Nephi was raised, it is unsurprising that he never mentions his wife’s name in his book, leaving that task for later authors to speculate (e.g. the oft-maligned The Book of Mormon Movie, Volume 1: The Journey
). Regardless, this culture means that by mentioning her at all, Nephi pays great deference to his wife. How, then, do I show my wife the love and respect Nephi obviously had for his? Our modern prophets treat their wives in much the same way I imagine Nephi did, his. Am I doing anywhere near as well as any of they?
So what can we learn from this? Although Nephi’s parting commandment to his brother Jacob did allow him to “touch… lightly [upon] the history of this people” (Jacob 1:2), the commandment that Nephi had himself received from God (ostensibly just before writing the headnote!) was that he “should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of [his] people” (1 Nephi 9:3). Furthermore, he states that:
“the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world. Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.” (1 Nephi 6:5-6).It is apparent that Nephi finds his marriage to be “pleasing unto God,” “of worth unto the children of men,” and even a part of “the ministry of [his] people”—truly glowing praise, from a prophet of God.
Likening the scriptures unto myself:
Given the culture in which Nephi was raised, it is unsurprising that he never mentions his wife’s name in his book, leaving that task for later authors to speculate (e.g. the oft-maligned The Book of Mormon Movie, Volume 1: The Journey
). Regardless, this culture means that by mentioning her at all, Nephi pays great deference to his wife. How, then, do I show my wife the love and respect Nephi obviously had for his? Our modern prophets treat their wives in much the same way I imagine Nephi did, his. Am I doing anywhere near as well as any of they?
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