{"id":34641,"date":"2016-01-06T04:32:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T09:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=34641"},"modified":"2016-01-04T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T21:33:48","slug":"reading-nephi-118-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2016\/01\/reading-nephi-118-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Nephi – 11:8-12"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"068-068-the-liahona-full\"<\/a>The first conspicuous element here is the replacement of Lehi\u2019s test or opening\u2014all that time walking in darkness\u2014with Nephi\u2019s being questioned by the angel. Nephi does not walk in darkness\u2014his vision begins, after the opening angelic interchange, with looking directly on the vision of the tree.<\/p>\n

And this too is different. Lehi\u2019s dream<\/em> was experiential; Nephi\u2019s vision<\/em> is observational and propositional. This is huge.<\/p>\n

Nephi requested to see the things that his father had seen. In response, the angel shows him the tree. It doesn\u2019t start with the field, and the other elements of the vision all come later. There\u2019s no gradual unfolding as Nephi chooses what to scan and perceptually seek after. Nor is it presented as a mystery\u2014Nephi begins with an understanding of what he\u2019s going to see and at least a rough outline of what it means (though his purpose is to see and know more fully). Beginning at the tree, it\u2019s as though the angel is declaring that the whole purpose of Lehi\u2019s vision is to help the viewer understand what the existential point is\u2014what it is that all of our pain and our slogging through mortality is really about. There it is. The tree of life.<\/p>\n

Having been shown this fact, the angel once again tests Nephi. Now that you\u2019ve seen the tree, Nephi, what do you desire<\/em>? But unlike Lehi<\/em>, Nephi\u2019s goal here is mere understanding. He doesn\u2019t ask to taste the fruit because he can already perceive what the fruit is. He has his father\u2019s testimony. He\u2019s not looking for experience. He\u2019s after understanding. Give me the interpretation. And thus, Nephi doesn\u2019t partake. Instead the angel gives him what he asks for by showing him more, allowing him to fit the pieces together in order to come to an understanding.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also struck by the fact that Nephi\u2019s first response to the tree is aesthetic, which is different than Lehi\u2019s response. Lehi never mentions the beauty of the tree, but that\u2019s the first thing that Nephi sees. I\u2019m moved by this detail in ways that are hard to express.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always heard and thought myself that Nephi\u2019s parenthetical in vs. 11 means that Nephi saw the Holy Ghost in vision, but this time through that strikes me as completely wrong. We today call the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Lord, but why should we think that Nephi would? Why should we take it as anything different than what Nephi says\u2014namely, that it\u2019s the Lord\u2019s (Jehovah\u2019s) spirit? This parallels the Brother of Jared later in the Book of Mormon\u2014Nephi sees a vision of the spirit and form that the Lord will one day take.<\/p>\n

This strikes me as both appropriate and meaningful, given what Nephi gets shown next. First, however, the Spirit of the Lord disappears. \u201cLook!\u201d and then he\u2019s gone. But he\u2019s of course not gone. He\u2019s still there, in the vision, but now no longer as the man or as the Spirit of the Lord, but instead as the infant babe, born of the Mother of God after the manner of the flesh. Incredibly rich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first conspicuous element here is the replacement of Lehi\u2019s test or opening\u2014all that time walking in darkness\u2014with Nephi\u2019s being questioned by the angel. Nephi does not walk in darkness\u2014his vision begins, after the opening angelic interchange, with looking directly on the vision of the tree. And this too is different. Lehi\u2019s dream was experiential; Nephi\u2019s vision is observational and propositional. This is huge. Nephi requested to see the things that his father had seen. In response, the angel shows him the tree. It doesn\u2019t start with the field, and the other elements of the vision all come later. There\u2019s no gradual unfolding as Nephi chooses what to scan and perceptually seek after. Nor is it presented as a mystery\u2014Nephi begins with an understanding of what he\u2019s going to see and at least a rough outline of what it means (though his purpose is to see and know more fully). Beginning at the tree, it\u2019s as though the angel is declaring that the whole purpose of Lehi\u2019s vision is to help the viewer understand what the existential point is\u2014what it is that all of our pain and our slogging through mortality is really about. There it is. The tree of […]<\/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-34641","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\/34641","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=34641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34642,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34641\/revisions\/34642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}