The Gospel According to Jeffrey

“Nephi taketh his brethren and returneth to the land of Jerusalem after the record of the Jews. The account of their sufferings.” I think this passage speaks a lot to the character of Nephi. Grant Hardy points out that Nephi, while not merely “a biased, self-aggrandizing character,” nonetheless “offers a didactic, one-side narrative that severely truncates events and flattens characters” (Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon , 44). I think this comes through quite clearly, in this passage. The events here summarized begin in 1 Nephi 3, when Lehi instructs his sons—on behalf of the Lord—to “go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness” ( 1 Nephi 3:4 ). While Nephi is certainly portrayed as the more obedient party, he never mentions “taking” his brethren with him; they simply “took [their] journey in the wilderness, with [their] tents, to go up to the land of Jerusalem” ( 1 Nephi 3:9 ). (Incidentally, the fa...

One of the things that has always fascinated me about the First Book of Nephi is the first phrase of the headnote: “An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi.” The Small Plates of Nephi were written long after most of the events therein, indeed some 30-40 years after the family left Jerusalem (see 2 Nephi 5:28-34 ). So realizing that Nephi is now an older man, why does he only speak of Lehi’s “four sons”? Why not “six sons”? Nephi obviously wasn’t trying to hide his 30ish-year-old brothers, Jacob and Joseph; heck, in the same chapter as he makes the plates, he “consecrate[s them] that they should be priests and teachers over the land of [his] people”! ( 2 Nephi 5:26 ). So what gives? A couple of weeks ago, this concern was brought to mind as I was reading Understanding the Book of Mormon . In his section on Nephi, Grant Hardy deals with Nephi’s characterization of others. As he points out: “Aside f...

I’m finally getting around to starting to read the Book of Mormon again, which is ironic, because I hadn’t even gotten to 1 Nephi 1 before getting sidetracked and having a month or so of downtime. I suppose that’s to be expected, really; the easiest time to break a habit (be it for good or for bad) is when the habit is relatively new. In fact, I’ve heard it said that it takes three weeks to ingrain a good habit, but only three days to undo that ingraining. Hopefully this will be day one of those first 21 days. :-) Before I begin my study of the Book of Mormon, I’d like to introduce my readers to a book I recently purchased:  Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide , by Grant Hardy. I’ve been reading this book for about a week now, and I must say it is absolutely amazing: as I follow Hardy into the minds of the three most significant authors of the Book of Mormon, my understanding of their lives and their writings is being enhanced like I never imagined. What mak...