http://ldsmag.com/article-1-721/

It goes a bit more in to the comparison with the story of Elijah and the widow.

The treatment (usually neglect) of women in the Book of Mormon is troubling. I’m sure we’ll get to more of that in the future.

But again, this isn’t my main point. In fact, my main point isn’t even Nephi’s use of Sariah’s experience to further the faithful political narrative (God commands, Nephi & Lehi answer the call, Laman & Lemuel despite miracles struggle [i.e., their whole approach and narrative is discredited], Sariah serves as hard-headed realist and yet has this glorious conversion –> Nephi’s solid theocratic political narrative overcomes the anti-Nephi political narrative taking place in the new world), though that is unquestionably one of the things that stood out to me this time through.

My main point is that Sariah’s conversion offers us a model of waiting on the Lord in the midst of uncertainty (and empirical reasons to doubt), which is then transformed into an ability to see and experience God’s hand. This strikes me as both a more plausible and a more fruitful way to read her role in this passage than the common reading: faithless wife doubts prophet husband, but in the end see’s he was right and so is comforted.

Of course even if Nephi didn’t have scriptures that doesn’t mean the stories weren’t told orally or the scriptures read publicly at times.

James, the account of the invasions suggests a lot of violence. The Northern Kingdom is gone. Jerusalem has already been conquered, troops sacking the temple, and a new King put in place just a few years earlier. I’d be hard pressed to see how they wouldn’t be experienced in that sort of violence. The ancient world seems like an oppressive violent place. I just think we’re reading too much through a modern lens. There’s no sense the Jews at this time are pacifists. Rather we seem put in the middle of a very tense time of invasions, conquests and war.

If Lehi is a trader then he has a career with the constant threat of violence from robbers or worse.

I’m fine asking these hard questions. But again we have to ask them from the place Nephi grew up.

I think that our determination to lionize Nephi together with our millennia removal from the events often tends to cover over our ability to see the genuine difficulties.

I definitely agree that this is a conversion — and as noted, I suspect Nephi’s making full use of that conversion, just as we make use of conversions today, but with a political twist.

I don’t see Nephi throwing his mother under the bus. I’m *sure* their mother would complain if she thought all her sons had just died. Also note the word choice in verse 6. It’s “comfort” rather than some variant on “berate.” I think Nephi’s trying to explain his mother’s feelings.

I also think that as we go through the text, we’re seeing the conversions to Lehi’s vision. So for the overarching narrative this is pretty important. If anything it reminds me of some of the narratives for when people become convinced that Jesus is risen from the dead. (Don’t know if anyone’s done a study on these conversion narratives in the ANE)

Of course Nephi is writing decades later when he does have scriptures and thus some version of these stories so maybe this isn’t much of an issue.

Rob, I fear that your whole view of this series is overshadowed by your belief that my reading is heretical. I’m wondering if your entire dialogue on this series is going to be so overshadowed, or if you’ll ever be able to comment on the substance of what I write.