{"id":34248,"date":"2015-10-29T04:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=34248"},"modified":"2015-10-25T18:39:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-25T23:39:21","slug":"reading-nephi-420-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2015\/10\/reading-nephi-420-38\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Nephi – 4:20-38"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"068-068-the-liahona-full\"<\/a>Zoram is another critical element of this narrative. Once again, we learn later in the Book of Mormon that there was controversy concerning Zoram\u2019s departure from Jerusalem and joining Lehi\u2019s expedition\u2014enough controversy to eventually fuel a serious political movement and secession (Alma 31-35). It\u2019s another instance of Nephi portraying himself as heroic, faithful and possessed of a liberal spirit. One certainly hopes that Lehi\u2019s later blessing of Zoram corroborates Nephi\u2019s account\u2014but Zoram\u2019s joining the Lehite project is another oddity.<\/p>\n

Why does Zoram join them so readily? He was from the lower classes, perhaps made naturally compliant on account of his life circumstances. He might well have felt compelled or lacking better alternatives. I suspect that this is where Nephi\u2019s murder is revealed. I imagine a terrified Zoram asking what Nephi (who is \u201clarge in stature,\u201d and this time the description is obviously physical\u2014he\u2019s just physically restrained Zoram from fleeing) what he did with his master Laban and how he had gotten Laban\u2019s clothes and sword. Nephi\u2019s brothers surely had the same question. Facing the question, and aware of how conspicuous his wearing of Laban\u2019s clothing was, and particularly given the dramatic nature of the night\u2019s events and the effects this would\u2019ve had upon an exhausted young Nephi, it\u2019s plausible that he straightforwardly confessed. It\u2019s easy to picture Zoram, physically restrained by the \u201clarge in stature\u201d Nephi, who has just explained to the group that he murdered Laban, feeling like he had no choice: go submissively or face the wrath of a physically large and unknown, self-proclaimed murderer. However Zoram felt (both at the time and later on), it\u2019s quite easy to see how this story could be politically exploited by later, nationalistic secessionists.<\/p>\n

Another conspicuous oddity occurs with Zoram leading Nephi to get the plates. Zoram speaks many times concerning the elders of the Jews. This seems natural enough. But why would Nephi mention it? Why remark on their conversation at all? He mentions it three times in fact. What did this mean to Nephi\u2019s audience? We of course can\u2019t know. My best guess is that it demonstrated a sort of street cred possessed by the later, older, friend-of-Nephi Zoram. Perhaps Zoram\u2019s knowledge of the elders of the Jews lent credence to Lehi\u2019s narrative, and likewise (indirectly) to Nephi\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zoram is another critical element of this narrative. Once again, we learn later in the Book of Mormon that there was controversy concerning Zoram\u2019s departure from Jerusalem and joining Lehi\u2019s expedition\u2014enough controversy to eventually fuel a serious political movement and secession (Alma 31-35). It\u2019s another instance of Nephi portraying himself as heroic, faithful and possessed of a liberal spirit. One certainly hopes that Lehi\u2019s later blessing of Zoram corroborates Nephi\u2019s account\u2014but Zoram\u2019s joining the Lehite project is another oddity. Why does Zoram join them so readily? He was from the lower classes, perhaps made naturally compliant on account of his life circumstances. He might well have felt compelled or lacking better alternatives. I suspect that this is where Nephi\u2019s murder is revealed. I imagine a terrified Zoram asking what Nephi (who is \u201clarge in stature,\u201d and this time the description is obviously physical\u2014he\u2019s just physically restrained Zoram from fleeing) what he did with his master Laban and how he had gotten Laban\u2019s clothes and sword. Nephi\u2019s brothers surely had the same question. Facing the question, and aware of how conspicuous his wearing of Laban\u2019s clothing was, and particularly given the dramatic nature of the night\u2019s events and the effects this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34249,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248\/revisions\/34249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}