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1 Nephi 3–ch. 5

  These chapters use the return of Lehi’s four oldest sons to obtain the brass plates from Laban as a dramatic and insightful demonstration of the operation of the Spirit. It took three attempts for Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi to get the plates, and most readers focus on what happened instead of the message to be learned from the […]

1 Nephi 2

This posting covers 1 Nephi 1:20–ch. 2. (The chapter division between chapter one and chapter two, unfortunately, breaks a literary unit.) This posting does not include chapters three through five even though the somewhat forced chiasmus outline of 1 Nephi militates in favor of considering chapters two through five together. Chapter is different than chapters three through five, so there […]

1 Nephi 1

Careful study of 1 Nephi will allow the reader of the Book of Mormon to better understand what is happening in the rest of the book. Glossing over this important chapter will lead to the same treatment of the rest of the book, a superficial reading that is not so profitable. Therefore, analysis of 1 Nephi is presented alone, notwithstanding […]

Reading the Book of Mormon from the Right Perspective

Hebrew metaphysical paradigm. The word metaphysics originated with Aristotle, circa 322 BC. It is a division of philosophy that deals with ontology—the science of being. The Greeks viewed a physical object as something different than the idea of or word for the physical object. The Hebrews viewed reality and truth differently than this Greek metaphysical construct, because the Hebrew paradigm […]