Attitudes prevalent in the West about religious freedom, especially freedom of worship and freedom to teach religion openly, portend danger to those who hope to continue both to live and to teach religious truths at home, at Church, and in the public square. The Twenty-third chapter of the Book of Alma has much to teach us about both the blessings and the limitations of religious freedom under the law.
Alma's account of the Lamanite mission of the sons of Mosiah, the Nephite king, contemplates the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to "a wild and a ferocious people," "a people who did delight in bloodshed." The resultant "success," to borrow Alma's own language, suggests that anything is possible in our world, when Christians share truth with love. "Let your light so shine."
The story opens with drama and miracle; yet Alma insists on our grasping a broader view of the work of teaching and conversion. It is not enough to focus on the stunning accounts of Ammon in the court of Lamoni nor those of Aaron in the court of the old king, Lamoni's father. Here, we read of wonders, of trances, of visions, a dramatic beginning to the story of the Lamanite conversion. Even so, the sons of Mosiah spent 14 years in the mission field, and we suppose that each year was as necessary for the salvation of souls as the last--or even as the momentous first year.
It was after the shake-up at the palace-centers that the enduring work of teaching the Gospel began. The visions, while providing preliminary gospel instruction and blessings to a few, only opened the door for teaching so many more and also so much more deeply: "Now, as Ammon was thus teaching the people of Lamoni continually (Alma 22:1). Note, too, how Ammon convinced Lamoni's father to grant Lamoni full autonomy over his own kingdom before teaching the father, the "old king," himself. Ammon needed time and scope and freedom--religious freedom--or he could not have gone a step further.
We still have to identify the end of the beginning, the act that closes Scene One of the Lamanite mission. Tellingly, that act is not the miraculous conversion of Lamoni's father and household, in the central palace, but his subsequent proclamation and decree of "free access" for the sons of Mosiah as they began a fourteen-year work of teaching throughout the length and breadth of the realm.
Alma 23 allows us to understand that without a firm decree of religious freedom, not only to practice but fervently to publish and to establish, the entire Lamanite mission would have hit a dead end. It is the decree of "free access" that truly and surely and permanently opened the floodgates to the success of "Ammon and his brethren"; no wonder the conversion of kings and princes, at mission's beginning, provides the crucial key to success.
(The reader will wish to compare the proclamation in Alma 23 with that of Nephite King Mosiah in Mosiah 27. Each of these proclamations appeared in differing circumstances, and they differ in focus and expression, but each had as aim a royal defense of religious freedom, and each worked for the salvation of souls.)
Alma goes to great pains to describe the comprehensive, no loopholes nature of the Lamanite royal proclamation, which was not only decreed at the palace but also "sent" "throughout the land." How did I miss the full import of these verses in earlier readings? I lacked Erlebnis having never before lived in the second decade of the 21st century, a moment of challenge to the enshrined freedom to teach religious truth, with frankness and boldness--even with blessed, loving rebuke--in the public square.
"Behold, now it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites sent a proclamation among all his people, that they should not lay their hands on [those] who should go forth preaching the word of God, in whatsoever place they should be, in any part of their land." Whatsoever and any! "Yea, he sent a decree among them, that they should not lay their hands on them to bind them, or to cast them into prison; neither should they spit upon them, nor smite them, nor cast them out of their synagogues, nor scourge them; neither should they cast stones at them, but that they should have free access to their houses, and also their temples, and their sanctuaries. And thus they might go forth and preach the word according to their desires."
Today's missionaries increasingly have limited access to condominiums, apartments, gated neighborhoods, and the like--on the other hand, new technologies now augment free access.
Contemplate the all-embracing nature of the royal decree. Free access, here, has all the force and protection of a royal embassy. The sons of Mosiah were to be held sacrosanct, as if enjoying the privileges of the king himself. Never in all the annals of missionary endeavor in the latter-days do missionaries enjoy like immunity, along with such permissions, access, or allowances. Free access is the telling phrase here; for without such scope, as contemplated in the royal decree, the fourteen-year labor of converting seven cities and lands of the Lamanites would never have met with "success."
Even so, we can never pin the Book of Mormon down to a single formula: "the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people" (Alma 24:27). When Nephi and Lehi, a century later, preached to the Lamanites, they enjoyed no royal proclamation. Yet so great was the power of their words and the accompanying manifestations of the Holy Ghost that, ultimately, nothing could withstand the truth, and a nation of converts was born in a day "because of the greatness of the evidences" (Helaman 5:50).
Despite their success with the converted Seven, much of the kingdom, though all but required to hear them, stolidly rejected the sons of Mosiah. And Hugh Nibley keenly notes how the sweeping grant of "free access" recklessly bordered on royal prerogative: "I mean he practically transfers the kingdom over to the missionaries and lets them do what they want. A lot of people resent it, and they stage a revolution" (Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2: 401). One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon, Moroni tells us, is to reveal for our own instruction something of the weaknesses inherent in the character of the Lehites, high among which, says Joseph Smith, is that of being overzealous. Yet without the access so provided and decreed, it may be doubted that even a single city would have been "converted unto the Lord" in the fullness of the meaning of the phrase. Besides, there are the surprises.
The royal aim was "that the word of God might have no obstruction," and the "old king" surely foresaw all contingencies: the Amalekites and Amulonites, Nephite dissenters who lived in Lamanite lands, might block access to their own sanctuaries; they and others might spit, smite, and bind. Note how the decree does not touch on the intellectual rights of the hearers: they might freely choose to reject, disbelieve, even mock. But they had to hear the message, or let it be heard by any and all who might be willing, in a moment of free access. And--here's the surprise--the record does note how many who had initially rejected the message and thereafter fervently sought the destruction of the converted community--the Anti-Nephi-Lehies--did later, in the very teeth of struggle and bloodshed, remember, with stinging conviction, the words once taught them. It was not too late for them: they, too, "were converted unto the Lord." And to today's terrorists--en garde! With love irresistible, God may be seeking even you: for "we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people" (Alma 24:27). He will find His people, though He turn the earth over in unrelenting pursuit.
"I fled him, down the Nights and down the
Days;
I fled him, down the arches of the Years;"
"Ah, Fondest, Blindest, Weakest,
I am He Whom thou Seekest!"
(from Francis Thompson, "Hound of Heaven")
So prophesies the stunning Book of Mormon! And so--speaking in that same Spirit--"we can plainly discern" like transformations in days not long delayed in which He will also verify his word unto us "in every particular" (see Alma 24:30; 25:17; and also Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "The Coming Tests and Trials and Glory," in Conference Report, April 1980).
Alma 23 also lends further insight into the stupendous work of preaching the gospel to the dead: free access brings the mighty harvest.
"Thus we see" that the proclamation of Alma 23, with its sweeping terms and allowances, including full allowance of religious speech and proselytizing in every public place, without let whatsoever, became necessary for the full measure of missionary success.
And, in that light, notice how everything, despite hardships, labors, and even miracles, remains merely a beginning: "And thus they began to have great success. And thousands were brought to the knowledge of the Lord, yea, thousands were brought to believe in the traditions of the Nephites; and they were taught the records and prophecies which were handed down even to the present time." Even among the recalcitrant revolutionaries, the persecutors, when once deeply stung by the recollected Word: "there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth" (Alma 24:27).
And note again the idea of "teaching continually," that is, teaching thoroughly and deeply. Here was no brisk announcement of gospel truth, but a full-blown program of replacing all prior tradition, as passed from father to son, with an entirely unknown or forgotten tradition of reading Scripture, with the record stretching over hundreds of years. By the end of the fourteen years, those "converted unto the Lord" had themselves "searched the scriptures" as diligently, as completely, and as comprehensively and comprehendingly, as ever had Himni or Omner or Muloki. Clearly free access contemplated no brief stops in sanctuaries and houses but a continuation of teaching until the task reached all desired ends. Not until the Millennial dawn can Latter-day Saints imagine enjoying such free access in converting the world to Christ.
Although grateful for the provisions of the Bill of Rights and other world documents that guarantee freedom to publish the Word, we realize that such privileges and protections do not obtain in many parts of Africa, Asia, or the Middle East. There remain many places where No access obstructs the Word. For now, we glory in any and all access enjoyed throughout the Americas, Europe, and large swaths of Asia and Africa--yet even the boasted Bill of Rights, wise and inspired though it be, carries but little of the sweeping power of the Lamanite royal proclamation. "Oh, that I were an angel!" cries Alma. And well may we cry: Oh, that We enjoyed the privileges of free access, including the freedom of preaching without any let or harassment whatsoever, as once enjoyed by special sons of Mosiah for a fourteen-year period, in a little "hemmed-in" land, a century before the coming of Christ.
But, to borrow Alma's wording, we are men and do sin in our wish. And do we not often ask for what we ought not? As splendidly sweeping as free access sounds, the freedoms of speech and religious expression granted by our own Bill of Rights, even with all the limitations on carefree access inherent therein, that is to say, in our cultural and societal norms as respects free speech and free access, will better serve God's purposes. Balance, respect, public safety, choice, and an openness to thoughtful judicial interpretation and cultural norms: therein lies the safe path. As the Ancient Egyptians would say of justice and order: "Follow Ma'at, but do not exaggerate" (quoted in Erik Hornung, Idea into Image).
Let us fervently rejoice over what religious freedoms we do now enjoy, under the liberties and the strictures of the First Amendment, and let us protect, preserve, and defend those sacred freedoms forever. Even in that millennial day, when truth, as prophesied, will fill the earth, the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ will lend itself to both the spirit and the wording of our own treasured Bill of Rights.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
A Duckling Called Love
Ducklings in City Creek Park, a block away from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, are an event--even a Sabbath delight.
A family, who had been strolling by the Temple, caught sight of the ducklings, and an excited mother quickly steered children toward the pond, as Dad crouched down by the bank to shoot some pictures. They appeared to be an assortment: Mom, Uncle, Dad, Aunt, and the various 'ducklings.'
"They don't have any names," I offered. "Nobody's given them any names yet!"
The children eagerly responded. A wee Fairhair, pointing out her duckling, cried out: "That one's Grandma."
Paddling nearby were two female mallards, and one of the mothers said: "Look, two mommy ducks!" Fairhair, not-quite-three, immediately corrected her: "No! It's the mommy and the daddy!"
There came to mind a story from President Boyd K. Packer: "Hey there, you little monkeys. You'd better settle down." "I not a monkey, Daddy; I a person!" ("Little Children," Conference Report, October 1986).
What about that yellow duckling named Grandma? Childish absurdity? Grandma might have been any of the female ducks in the pond. To the little ones, Grandma has nothing to do with age anyhow--what do they care about age?--and everything to do with Love.
A family, who had been strolling by the Temple, caught sight of the ducklings, and an excited mother quickly steered children toward the pond, as Dad crouched down by the bank to shoot some pictures. They appeared to be an assortment: Mom, Uncle, Dad, Aunt, and the various 'ducklings.'
"They don't have any names," I offered. "Nobody's given them any names yet!"
The children eagerly responded. A wee Fairhair, pointing out her duckling, cried out: "That one's Grandma."
Paddling nearby were two female mallards, and one of the mothers said: "Look, two mommy ducks!" Fairhair, not-quite-three, immediately corrected her: "No! It's the mommy and the daddy!"
There came to mind a story from President Boyd K. Packer: "Hey there, you little monkeys. You'd better settle down." "I not a monkey, Daddy; I a person!" ("Little Children," Conference Report, October 1986).
What about that yellow duckling named Grandma? Childish absurdity? Grandma might have been any of the female ducks in the pond. To the little ones, Grandma has nothing to do with age anyhow--what do they care about age?--and everything to do with Love.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
The Title of Liberty: "In the air" and On the Air and Through Cyberspace
In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children
So reads Moroni's Title of Liberty, written on a rent piece of cloth and "fastened" "on the end of a pole" (Alma 46:12). Title recalls both Hebrew zikkaron (memorial sign or inscription) and, given the specific reference to a pole, tsiyyun (roadmark, signpost; see KJV 2 Kings 23:17).
Moroni waved the Title of Liberty "in the air, that all might see" (v. 19); we can broadcast religious freedom and family values on the air and through cyberspace.
So reads Moroni's Title of Liberty, written on a rent piece of cloth and "fastened" "on the end of a pole" (Alma 46:12). Title recalls both Hebrew zikkaron (memorial sign or inscription) and, given the specific reference to a pole, tsiyyun (roadmark, signpost; see KJV 2 Kings 23:17).
Moroni waved the Title of Liberty "in the air, that all might see" (v. 19); we can broadcast religious freedom and family values on the air and through cyberspace.
Friday, July 24, 2015
David Reeder: Willie Handcart Company
The justly famed hardcart pioneer, Levi Savage, made the following entry in his journal:
Platte R. Wednesday 1st Oct 1856
Today This morning, Brother David Reader was found dead in his bead. He has ben ill Some time. He had no pertient deseas. But debility He was a good man and a worthy member of the Church.
Robert Reeder gives us precious added insight into the nature of a pioneer's "debility":
My father, David Reeder, would start out in the morning and pull his cart until he would drop on the road. He did this day after day until he did not rise early October 1, 1856.
I thankfully acknowledge my pioneer ancestry, those of the tall ship and of the handcart, those of the last wagon, and those of the first.
I am grateful, humbled, to know that my grandfather, David Reeder, belonged to the Willie Handcart Company. I am far more grateful to know that he lived and died "a worthy member of the Church."
Platte R. Wednesday 1st Oct 1856
Today This morning, Brother David Reader was found dead in his bead. He has ben ill Some time. He had no pertient deseas. But debility He was a good man and a worthy member of the Church.
Robert Reeder gives us precious added insight into the nature of a pioneer's "debility":
My father, David Reeder, would start out in the morning and pull his cart until he would drop on the road. He did this day after day until he did not rise early October 1, 1856.
I thankfully acknowledge my pioneer ancestry, those of the tall ship and of the handcart, those of the last wagon, and those of the first.
I am grateful, humbled, to know that my grandfather, David Reeder, belonged to the Willie Handcart Company. I am far more grateful to know that he lived and died "a worthy member of the Church."
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Follow Thou Me
Of late, a flurry of articles and media discussions hovers about the matter of vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Speculation abounds over who might be called and how newer members of the Quorum might help direct the future of the Church. Journalists seek out experts from the fields of history, anthropology, and what-not, to weigh in.
So it was with Moses on "the mountain of God," for "God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses" (Exodus 3:1, 4). Pharaoh, when he first faced meek Moses, sensed nothing of the power attending Moses' prophetic calling. Power came by demonstration; yet a continuing darkness and ignorance enshrouded the divine king all the way to the Sea. I would love to know the name of that Pharaoh. I've consulted an expert or two, but his name, though appearing in its turn in the king lists--carved into stone--remains out of reach. Yet even should we come to know the Pharaoh of the Exodus; given the power and glory of the divine triumph of Israel, the name would slip into the footnotes of God in History. Don't be part of a footnote.
The invitation to prepare for the future comes to all. Speculation may hover; the invitation stands. "And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me" (2 Nephi 31:10). The "beloved of God" are all "called to be saints" (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2). The calling of beloved saints "into the grace of Christ" surely also comes "by his grace" (Galatians 1:6, 15).
Prepare for new scripture by reading and observing the scriptures we now have. Prepare for new apostolic messages at General Conference--all 19 or so new apostolic messages--by reading and applying those shared in April or October by apostles and prophets, seventies, bishops, and the other chosen leaders. Each message carries an imprimatur, the prophetic imprimatur of President Thomas S. Monson and of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ.
The simple stories of the special callings will take care of themselves. Slipping under the media radar, they will join the historical record of the joy of the saints (see Enos 1:3).
Notes
I solely am responsible for what I post; nothing, here, represents the official viewpoint of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The wise look to the past. They will remember stories about men and women who were called to service by prophets. They will remember reading about the simple yet moving pledge of a young Thomas S. Monson to President David O. McKay to put "my very life on the line if necessary." They will remember the simplicity of the call to Boyd K. Packer. Brother Packer had been invited to join President Joseph Fielding Smith and his counselors in greeting a delegation from Japan. After the meeting, as Brother Packer readied to leave, President N. Eldon Tanner said to him: "I think the President wants you to stay" (Heidi S. Swinton, To The Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson, 215-217; Lucille C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower, 170).
Catch the humility in that statement: "I think the President wants you to stay."
N. Eldon Tanner knew what pertained to him as a counselor in the First Presidency--and he knew what did not pertain to him.
N. Eldon Tanner knew what pertained to him as a counselor in the First Presidency--and he knew what did not pertain to him.
We recall the visit of President Spencer W. Kimball to the hospital bed of Neal A. Maxwell. The invitation to serve came quietly.
Latter-day Saints may someday learn of the serene manner in which prophets will call any future members to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or to the Quorums of the Seventy. A serene sky may still produce a bolt out of the blue! As quiet as such stories often seem, they will become a matter of record, of the History of the Church, for angels and children to look upon. What shall we say then of articles, experts, interviews, political and ecclesiastical surmises? Will not these all descend into the footnotes or step aside to the marginalia?
The apostolic calling is "not of men, neither of man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead" (Galatians 1:5).
The "plain humility" of the Lord Jesus Christ stands far removed from the flurry of speculation (Ether 12:39). We do not know what Peter said to Joseph and Oliver when Peter, James, and John conferred the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood and then ordained them to the holy apostleship; we do know the words of Jesus when He first called Peter and Andrew to discipleship: "Follow me, and I shall make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:18-19). "He called them"--even Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip, Nathanael, and the rest (Matthew 4:21; John 1:43). "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles" (Luke 6:12-13; Mark 3:13-14).
The apostolic calling is "not of men, neither of man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead" (Galatians 1:5).
The "plain humility" of the Lord Jesus Christ stands far removed from the flurry of speculation (Ether 12:39). We do not know what Peter said to Joseph and Oliver when Peter, James, and John conferred the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood and then ordained them to the holy apostleship; we do know the words of Jesus when He first called Peter and Andrew to discipleship: "Follow me, and I shall make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:18-19). "He called them"--even Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip, Nathanael, and the rest (Matthew 4:21; John 1:43). "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles" (Luke 6:12-13; Mark 3:13-14).
So it was with Moses on "the mountain of God," for "God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses" (Exodus 3:1, 4). Pharaoh, when he first faced meek Moses, sensed nothing of the power attending Moses' prophetic calling. Power came by demonstration; yet a continuing darkness and ignorance enshrouded the divine king all the way to the Sea. I would love to know the name of that Pharaoh. I've consulted an expert or two, but his name, though appearing in its turn in the king lists--carved into stone--remains out of reach. Yet even should we come to know the Pharaoh of the Exodus; given the power and glory of the divine triumph of Israel, the name would slip into the footnotes of God in History. Don't be part of a footnote.
The invitation to prepare for the future comes to all. Speculation may hover; the invitation stands. "And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me" (2 Nephi 31:10). The "beloved of God" are all "called to be saints" (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2). The calling of beloved saints "into the grace of Christ" surely also comes "by his grace" (Galatians 1:6, 15).
Prepare for new scripture by reading and observing the scriptures we now have. Prepare for new apostolic messages at General Conference--all 19 or so new apostolic messages--by reading and applying those shared in April or October by apostles and prophets, seventies, bishops, and the other chosen leaders. Each message carries an imprimatur, the prophetic imprimatur of President Thomas S. Monson and of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ.
The simple stories of the special callings will take care of themselves. Slipping under the media radar, they will join the historical record of the joy of the saints (see Enos 1:3).
Notes
I solely am responsible for what I post; nothing, here, represents the official viewpoint of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Some Thoughts on the Study of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
The testimony of the two witnesses of Christ, the Bible and the Book of Mormon, runs together. The flood of truth "shall grow together" "unto the laying down of contentions, and establishing peace" (2 Nephi 3:12). We do not take up Scripture to contend, for by Scripture comes the millennial peace.
Such rising scriptural convergence changes for all time the very nature of Scripture, even as it bursts open the sluices for yet "other books" to swell the tide. The Book of Mormon, in expression of its own witness, both signifies and clarifies the Bible and thus contains "the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ." That being so, can we ever truly separate, even in casual speech, what has so fruitfully grown together?
See Doctrine and Covenants 20:9; Boyd K. Packer, "The Reason for Our Hope," Conference Report, October 2014; Neal A. Maxwell, "The Book of Mormon: A Great Answer to 'The Great Question,'" The Voice of My Servants: Apostolic Messages on Teaching, Learning, and Scripture, 221-38.
Hugh Nibley felt the Book of Mormon to run deeper even than Shakespeare: We should not be surprised at finding traces and echoes on every side. Conjuring up enemies and apostates on every side is a different matter; the waters of life will inevitably flow into the dry patches, "unto the confounding of false doctrines," if we will keep up with our reading and sharing (2 Nephi 3:12).
To find and to trace, and to listen well, is inevitably to write--and to write well. But I hope readers of the Book of Mormon will dust off scholasticism and a clinging Alexandrian staleness. I hope those who take up the Book of Mormon as their theme will be so caught up into the heavens that their words will ring with a high beauty. I hope writers will let endless geographies alone, let insincere critics alone, let entirely alone online debates (see Titus 3:9; 1 Timothy 1:4).
May we teach, not tilt.
Latter-day Saints, by the millions, give themselves to daily study. Such spirited and spiritual absorption among the general membership partakes of more intellectual horsepower and yields more insight than do the methods of the schools. And how sophomoric to label someone else's reading devotional and one's own, academic (2 Nephi 9:28)--how close to sophistry. There is no advanced Book of Mormon scholarship beyond the scope of child or teen. Even so, none of us can daily approach the Book of Mormon from every angle or, daily, multiply comment beyond measure.
See Elder David A. Bednar, "Three Methods of Scripture Study," CES Fireside, 4 February 2007.
One method stands superior to the rest:
We must all discover the scriptures for ourselves.
Then we must walk in their light.
Such rising scriptural convergence changes for all time the very nature of Scripture, even as it bursts open the sluices for yet "other books" to swell the tide. The Book of Mormon, in expression of its own witness, both signifies and clarifies the Bible and thus contains "the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ." That being so, can we ever truly separate, even in casual speech, what has so fruitfully grown together?
See Doctrine and Covenants 20:9; Boyd K. Packer, "The Reason for Our Hope," Conference Report, October 2014; Neal A. Maxwell, "The Book of Mormon: A Great Answer to 'The Great Question,'" The Voice of My Servants: Apostolic Messages on Teaching, Learning, and Scripture, 221-38.
Hugh Nibley felt the Book of Mormon to run deeper even than Shakespeare: We should not be surprised at finding traces and echoes on every side. Conjuring up enemies and apostates on every side is a different matter; the waters of life will inevitably flow into the dry patches, "unto the confounding of false doctrines," if we will keep up with our reading and sharing (2 Nephi 3:12).
To find and to trace, and to listen well, is inevitably to write--and to write well. But I hope readers of the Book of Mormon will dust off scholasticism and a clinging Alexandrian staleness. I hope those who take up the Book of Mormon as their theme will be so caught up into the heavens that their words will ring with a high beauty. I hope writers will let endless geographies alone, let insincere critics alone, let entirely alone online debates (see Titus 3:9; 1 Timothy 1:4).
May we teach, not tilt.
Latter-day Saints, by the millions, give themselves to daily study. Such spirited and spiritual absorption among the general membership partakes of more intellectual horsepower and yields more insight than do the methods of the schools. And how sophomoric to label someone else's reading devotional and one's own, academic (2 Nephi 9:28)--how close to sophistry. There is no advanced Book of Mormon scholarship beyond the scope of child or teen. Even so, none of us can daily approach the Book of Mormon from every angle or, daily, multiply comment beyond measure.
See Elder David A. Bednar, "Three Methods of Scripture Study," CES Fireside, 4 February 2007.
One method stands superior to the rest:
We must all discover the scriptures for ourselves.
Then we must walk in their light.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Detecting Nephi: Detection in Helaman Chapter 9 (Part Two)
Detect is one of the unanticipated words of the Book of Mormon. It pops out of the air. Readers, bred on Poe and Conan Doyle, see in it a bit of fun. Dorothy Sayers would point us to the riddles of Solomon and Daniel. We may find in Helaman a trace of detective literature. . .
So what does Helaman mean by "detect this man"? It's not Sherlock Holmes, and it also goes beyond the plain dictionary meaning.
I This Man
The demonstrative pronoun also merits a look through the magnifying glass: "We will detect this man." In many languages the demonstrative pronoun can carry a powerful pejorative punch. In Hebrew ha-ish ha-zeh, lit. "the man, the this," often signals despite, criminalization, and accusation. Think of Shebna in Isaiah 22:15: ha-sokhen ha-zeh ("the premier, the this": "this (so-called) premier"). This pretender is about to fall from his high office. Even more biting are the deictic forms hallaz or hallezeh (Here comes this dreamer). This man, in Helaman's Nephite, answers, in both spirit and form, to hallezeh: We will detect hallezeh. And as Baruch Levine notes, these pejorative pronominal expressions only appear in direct discourse--another linguistic detail Helaman gets right.
But Helaman works even more subtlety into the narrative, for, in their pointed expression this man, the unrighteous judges unwittingly place Nephi in the prophetic role of "this man, Moses." Here is the doctrine of the one righteous man, a favorite Book of Mormon theme for Hugh Nibley. "Have ye not read that God gave power unto one man, even Moses, to smite upon the waters of the Red Sea, and they parted hither and thither". . .[and] if God gave unto this man such power, then why should ye dispute among yourselves, and say that he hath given unto me no power[?]. . .Ye [thus] deny not only my words, but ye also deny. . . the words which were spoken by this man, Moses, who had such great power given unto him" (Helaman 8:11-13).
Not only do we see power added to knowledge as Leitwoerter par excellence in Helaman 7-9, Nephi's emphatic use of the demonstrative, in logical argument, trumps its echoed pejorative use in the pretended detection of "the pretended prophet." The demonstrative pronoun, subtly but significantly interwoven into the narrative, works much of its magic as metadiscourse, and not solely as a deictic marker in an isolated instance of direct speech. That is to say, as a linguistic marker, it becomes even more essential to the ironic workings of the narrative, than to the one-liner occasion of speech. And Helaman's irony is never more effective: "We will detect this man" leads reader and judge alike to the discovery in Nephi of a man like Moses. One man, armed with knowledge and power, can champion the cause of God.
II First Definitions
On to the verb. Because it appears to fall to the prerogative of judges, we might understand the verb detect as a technical term in Nephite law, as would be the case for words such as interrogate or discovery. But detect need not be a technical term to be a lawyerly word. An air of cynicism, of craft, here attaches to detect; it connotes cunning and "divers questions," rather than discovery. We get the sense judges are using the word quite often these days and that such detection serves them well. It's so simple, and it requires no magnifying glass: the judges detect who has money and who has none; by means of their secret signs they detect who belongs to Society, and who does not. In their choice of detect, the judges only reveal themselves.
Because the Book of Helaman comes to us in English, we start with the Oxford English Dictionary, IV, 544. We first learn that detect comes from the Latin detegere, unroof, take off a covering: "to uncover, discover, detect." The judges seek to uncover the true murderer of the Chief Judge; they will discover what Nephi, as confederate, knows about the matter. Such a plain reading of detect gives the idea, but not the whole idea.
Detecting Nephi may require more than removing a roof. Explain the meaning, if you will be so kind, of the following line, spoken by the disguised duke--the undetected duke--in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure:
I never heard the absent duke much detected for women.
Does Shakespeare mean to say that the detecting duke never took either missing-persons or infidelity cases? or that he himself was the object of such like detection? Perhaps he means the duke, unlike Guy Noir, never heard the knock of the femme fatale at his office door? And why the intensifier: much detected? In "much detected" lies much happy irony.
I never heard the absent duke much detected for women.
Definition 2a in the OED reads: "To expose (a person) by divulging his secrets or making known his guilt or crime; to inform against, accuse." The usage is often self-referential: I detect myself! The OED marks definition 2a: obsolete.
"Detected, that is, accused, impeached, charged," Halliwell (ed.) The Works of William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, (1854), 146.
By willing to detect this man, the elites are already formulating an official accusation. We will accuse this man. We will expose this man as a fraud. We will force him to confess his "fault." The decision about Nephi's "fault," which is based on will rather than evidence, precedes the humiliating interrogation. Breaking under the "struggle session," Nephi shall detect himself: divulge his secret confederacy and inform against his "confederate" brother.
Detection, however, following this last definition, is not simply about establishing through investigation Nephi's "fault," or complicity, in the governor's assassination, or about finding the "true murderer"; it's mostly about exposing a self-proclaimed "some great man" and "prophet," who seeks to "convert" everyone, as a fraud. The judges hustle Nephi from fault to fraud.
The modern detective does not appear by name or in method until the 1840s, and our great detectives work their magic clue-by-clue. The detecting Gadiantons could not be any more different; the judges are in a wild rush to make known Nephi's guilt and thus expose him as a false prophet by any means possible, legal, evidentiary, or not. Poirot and Holmes, step aside! Such railroading, a standard judicial proceeding in American and Egyptian media-cum-courts today, as everybody knows, has not a touch of wit or grace.
To detect, in this game of wits--accusation and counter-accusation--consists of pressuring Nephi with "divers questions" to "cross" and trip him up, and a show of bribes. The show of bribes would not have been in the public eye: the judges likely put the people on hold, while subjecting an already dejected and lamenting Nephi to a rapid-fire "struggle session." But the crowd, to whom the decision had been leaked, stood by in anticipation of the scheduled news-conference, verdict, and summary execution. Hugh Nibley sees the interrogation as unfolding in public, bribes and all as part of the show, "with the judges at their best." During China's Cultural Revolution such "struggle sessions" were always a public pummeling--so Nibley may be right. The contrast betweet public fair play and open debate versus secretive, confederate, and conspiratorial private doings (and knowledge) makes up another theme of these chapters. Nephite fair play, according to Nibley, is the only thing that keeps Nephi alive throughout the day, even as the prophetic signs continue to unfold to his ultimate vindication (Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 387-388).
Detect, more surely than any other word in the text, thus signals that great contest in which each side tries to expose and even destroy the other as illegitimate claimant to power or as a secret confederate of criminals. But Nephi, the "honest man," never uses the word, nor has need: all truth is present to his view. In their very use of the word, the elites, to the amusement of the reader, expose only their own ignorance and their love of darkness and intrigue.
Why expose Nephi? The judges, in detecting Nephi as "confederate" of a brotherhood, propose anything but an true act of de-tegere. They want Nephi to name names, yes; but their overriding purpose is to silence him as quickly as possible, and thus thatch over their own secret combination. By exposing Nephi, they cover themselves. On his garden tower, Nephi presented himself openly and spoke freely--there was no search for cover; Seantum hides under his roof.
III Detection as Oracular Narrative and Narrative Oracle
The elites finally leave dejected Nephi to detect Seantum. Ironically, their detection and interrogation follow Nephi's instructions to the letter. Of themselves, they ask nothing, find nothing, detect nothing. Detection tellingly comes as a Sign. So is the questioning and examination oracle or analytic detection literature? All is one: the action of detecting comes significantly wrapped in a prophetic oracle.
Has Nephi, the pretended prophet. . .agreed with thee, in the which ye have murdered Seezoram, who is your brother?. .
He shall say unto you Nay. . .
Have ye murdered your brother?
And he shall stand with fear, and wist not what to say. . .
He shall deny. . .he shall make as if he were astonished. . . he shall declare unto you that he is innocent. . .
Ye shall examine him, and ye shall find blood upon the skirts of his cloak. . .
From whence cometh this blood?
Do we not know that it is the blood of your brother?
And then shall he tremble, and shall look pale, even as if death had come upon him. . .
Because of this fear and this paleness which has come upon your face, behold, we know that thou art guilty.
And then shall greater fear come upon him; and then shall he confess" (9:27-35).
The tell-tale signatures of guilt but rarely appear in the writings of the ancients, but comparable to Helaman is a place in the Ayurveda (900 BC?):
"A person who gives poison may be recognized. He does not answer questions, or they are evasive answers; he speaks nonsense, rubs the great toe along the ground, and shivers; his face is discolored; he rubs the roots of the hair with his fingers; and he tries by every means to leave the house."
True detection comes at the last: the prompted judges observe signs of paleness and terror in Seantum's face and voice and manner and, finally, even "examine" the skirts of his cloak for delicate traces of blood. Here is a seeming moment of triumph for the elites; yet Nephi has won the game, and the secret combination, of whom Seantum was a leading and promising light, has suffered irremediable injury in the eyes of the people. They now know the truth about "the great Chief Judge" and his family, the great man whose murder they were so poignantly mourning. The idea of the "great man" is swept away and the mourners, weeping dramatically turning to anger and argument, march off in a huff. Sic transit gloria mundi--and the stage is empty, leaving Nephi, like all the prophets of Christ, "standing alone."
In all literature, no one resembles Nephi so much as solitary Elijah, and it is the story of the false accusation and judicial murder of Naboth that forcibly comes to mind (1 Kings 21). The very difference in the two narratives heightens the suspense, as unanticipated twists make of Nephi, at first, Naboth, at denouement, Elijah. Was all this interplay of narrative intended solely for a latter-day readership? Helaman certainly also had his ancient admirers. Professor John W. Welch rightly sets alongside Helaman 9 the story of Joshua and Achan (Joshua 7; The Legal Cases in The Book of Mormon). But in the case of Achan, finding comes by oracular lot, not by oracular narrative as narrated prophetic sign. The taking of Achan works, step-by-step, by objective instrument, or, as technique; the prophet, by contrast, himself instrument, appears in dramatic subjectivity: flesh-and-blood, face-to-face--and facing kings. Helaman "had his eye fixed" on "one of the prophets": he looks back to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nathan, and in particular, Elijah (Doctrine and Covenants 128:17). And oracular Elijah, in detection's denouement, plays Dupin or Lord Peter Wimsey far better than either Solomon or Daniel, Dorothy Sayer's prototypes:
"Hast thou killed and taken possession?"
"And Ahab said to Elijah,
Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?
And he answered, I have found thee"
(1 Kings 21:19-20; Heb. matzah, find; cf. Helaman 9:31).
IV Detecting Nephi: Coming to Acknowledgment
In the OED's third definition of detect, we find the clue to unravel the full significance of Helaman's narrative--and it plays out as irony. It's one thing to "find blood upon the skirts," and another
3. "To find out, discover (a person) in the secret possession of some quality, or performance of some act; to find out the real character of."
Facing accusations of complicity in the teeth of a shaken crowd, Nephi's whole concern is now to prove "that I am an honest man, and that I am sent unto you of God." Proof of honesty will not only save the man from death; of foremost concern to Nephi, it will save a prophet from death under shadow of fraud, it will confirm his witness and, by conviction, stir the wavering people to repentance. Indeed honest Nephi is not detectable; his true character resists unrighteous detection. At story's end the judges do detect Nephi--and, here, the irony--they find out that "this man" is in the secret and true possession of the sure prophetic witness, and they find that his real character mirrors his assertion: "I am an honest man."
Detecting Nephi is a powerful coming to acknowledgment through signs, evidences, and examinations. The pain and humiliation of the judges has come full circle from prophetic exposure to forced acknowledgment. By detecting Nephi, their own qualities, secrets, and character stand exposed, a house without roof. The narrative tells us no more about these specific judges; there is no slaughter as on Carmel, nor a sudden fall from power, though the confidence of the people has been shaken to the core. Justified Nephi escapes death--that is all. Nevertheless. the tell-tale signs marking out the "true murderer" but tell the loss of their own "great cities," a prophetic toll of doom they rejected out-of-hand just the day before. Nephi's victory spells a zero-sum game. Zarahemla stands detected. She will soon "be taken away" by her enemies.
Nephi alone stands beyond detection: some in the crowd think him a prophet, others say "he is a god." They never fully see him as he is. Nephi is left "standing alone in their midst."
Jesus stands separate.
Mihaly Munkacsy's Christ Before Pilate portrays Jesus on trial before assembled humanity. The debate rages on, the Divinity of Jesus Christ the "Great Question" on all minds (see Alma 34:5). Though at the center of the painting, as of the debate, Jesus stands increasingly unnoticed. Captivated by argument, germane or no, few now turn their gaze toward Him: certainly none penetrates the calm Divinity of His mind. None disturb His silence. Pilate absorbed, attuned only to his own inner debate, looks on Jesus with a scowl. He doesn't really see Jesus. No one does. All are distracted or abstracted. At that very moment, stands Mankind Before Jesus.
Notes
1) Stuart Lasine has written on detection and riddling in the Bible and Apocrypha: "Solomon, Daniel, and the Detective Story: The Social Functions of a Literary Genre."
2) For the well-known pejorative use of the demonstrative in Classical Greek and Hebrew, now see Scott B. Noegel, "The 'Other' Demonstrative Pronouns: Pejorative Colloquialisms in Biblical Hebrew," Jewish Bible Quarterly 33:1 (2005), 23-30; I believe the usage has also been noted in print for the Book of Mormon.
3) Ayurveda: Paul V. Trovillo, "History of Lie Detection," Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 29:6 (1939), 849.
4) The reader may wish to compare the semantics of detection in the Doctrine and Covenants: "But the hypocrites shall be detected and shall be cut off" (50:8); "The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light!" (128:20); "you may therefore detect him [the devil, by his attempt to deceive] (129:8).
So what does Helaman mean by "detect this man"? It's not Sherlock Holmes, and it also goes beyond the plain dictionary meaning.
I This Man
The demonstrative pronoun also merits a look through the magnifying glass: "We will detect this man." In many languages the demonstrative pronoun can carry a powerful pejorative punch. In Hebrew ha-ish ha-zeh, lit. "the man, the this," often signals despite, criminalization, and accusation. Think of Shebna in Isaiah 22:15: ha-sokhen ha-zeh ("the premier, the this": "this (so-called) premier"). This pretender is about to fall from his high office. Even more biting are the deictic forms hallaz or hallezeh (Here comes this dreamer). This man, in Helaman's Nephite, answers, in both spirit and form, to hallezeh: We will detect hallezeh. And as Baruch Levine notes, these pejorative pronominal expressions only appear in direct discourse--another linguistic detail Helaman gets right.
But Helaman works even more subtlety into the narrative, for, in their pointed expression this man, the unrighteous judges unwittingly place Nephi in the prophetic role of "this man, Moses." Here is the doctrine of the one righteous man, a favorite Book of Mormon theme for Hugh Nibley. "Have ye not read that God gave power unto one man, even Moses, to smite upon the waters of the Red Sea, and they parted hither and thither". . .[and] if God gave unto this man such power, then why should ye dispute among yourselves, and say that he hath given unto me no power[?]. . .Ye [thus] deny not only my words, but ye also deny. . . the words which were spoken by this man, Moses, who had such great power given unto him" (Helaman 8:11-13).
Not only do we see power added to knowledge as Leitwoerter par excellence in Helaman 7-9, Nephi's emphatic use of the demonstrative, in logical argument, trumps its echoed pejorative use in the pretended detection of "the pretended prophet." The demonstrative pronoun, subtly but significantly interwoven into the narrative, works much of its magic as metadiscourse, and not solely as a deictic marker in an isolated instance of direct speech. That is to say, as a linguistic marker, it becomes even more essential to the ironic workings of the narrative, than to the one-liner occasion of speech. And Helaman's irony is never more effective: "We will detect this man" leads reader and judge alike to the discovery in Nephi of a man like Moses. One man, armed with knowledge and power, can champion the cause of God.
II First Definitions
On to the verb. Because it appears to fall to the prerogative of judges, we might understand the verb detect as a technical term in Nephite law, as would be the case for words such as interrogate or discovery. But detect need not be a technical term to be a lawyerly word. An air of cynicism, of craft, here attaches to detect; it connotes cunning and "divers questions," rather than discovery. We get the sense judges are using the word quite often these days and that such detection serves them well. It's so simple, and it requires no magnifying glass: the judges detect who has money and who has none; by means of their secret signs they detect who belongs to Society, and who does not. In their choice of detect, the judges only reveal themselves.
Because the Book of Helaman comes to us in English, we start with the Oxford English Dictionary, IV, 544. We first learn that detect comes from the Latin detegere, unroof, take off a covering: "to uncover, discover, detect." The judges seek to uncover the true murderer of the Chief Judge; they will discover what Nephi, as confederate, knows about the matter. Such a plain reading of detect gives the idea, but not the whole idea.
Detecting Nephi may require more than removing a roof. Explain the meaning, if you will be so kind, of the following line, spoken by the disguised duke--the undetected duke--in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure:
I never heard the absent duke much detected for women.
Does Shakespeare mean to say that the detecting duke never took either missing-persons or infidelity cases? or that he himself was the object of such like detection? Perhaps he means the duke, unlike Guy Noir, never heard the knock of the femme fatale at his office door? And why the intensifier: much detected? In "much detected" lies much happy irony.
I never heard the absent duke much detected for women.
Definition 2a in the OED reads: "To expose (a person) by divulging his secrets or making known his guilt or crime; to inform against, accuse." The usage is often self-referential: I detect myself! The OED marks definition 2a: obsolete.
"Detected, that is, accused, impeached, charged," Halliwell (ed.) The Works of William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, (1854), 146.
By willing to detect this man, the elites are already formulating an official accusation. We will accuse this man. We will expose this man as a fraud. We will force him to confess his "fault." The decision about Nephi's "fault," which is based on will rather than evidence, precedes the humiliating interrogation. Breaking under the "struggle session," Nephi shall detect himself: divulge his secret confederacy and inform against his "confederate" brother.
Detection, however, following this last definition, is not simply about establishing through investigation Nephi's "fault," or complicity, in the governor's assassination, or about finding the "true murderer"; it's mostly about exposing a self-proclaimed "some great man" and "prophet," who seeks to "convert" everyone, as a fraud. The judges hustle Nephi from fault to fraud.
The modern detective does not appear by name or in method until the 1840s, and our great detectives work their magic clue-by-clue. The detecting Gadiantons could not be any more different; the judges are in a wild rush to make known Nephi's guilt and thus expose him as a false prophet by any means possible, legal, evidentiary, or not. Poirot and Holmes, step aside! Such railroading, a standard judicial proceeding in American and Egyptian media-cum-courts today, as everybody knows, has not a touch of wit or grace.
To detect, in this game of wits--accusation and counter-accusation--consists of pressuring Nephi with "divers questions" to "cross" and trip him up, and a show of bribes. The show of bribes would not have been in the public eye: the judges likely put the people on hold, while subjecting an already dejected and lamenting Nephi to a rapid-fire "struggle session." But the crowd, to whom the decision had been leaked, stood by in anticipation of the scheduled news-conference, verdict, and summary execution. Hugh Nibley sees the interrogation as unfolding in public, bribes and all as part of the show, "with the judges at their best." During China's Cultural Revolution such "struggle sessions" were always a public pummeling--so Nibley may be right. The contrast betweet public fair play and open debate versus secretive, confederate, and conspiratorial private doings (and knowledge) makes up another theme of these chapters. Nephite fair play, according to Nibley, is the only thing that keeps Nephi alive throughout the day, even as the prophetic signs continue to unfold to his ultimate vindication (Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 387-388).
Detect, more surely than any other word in the text, thus signals that great contest in which each side tries to expose and even destroy the other as illegitimate claimant to power or as a secret confederate of criminals. But Nephi, the "honest man," never uses the word, nor has need: all truth is present to his view. In their very use of the word, the elites, to the amusement of the reader, expose only their own ignorance and their love of darkness and intrigue.
Why expose Nephi? The judges, in detecting Nephi as "confederate" of a brotherhood, propose anything but an true act of de-tegere. They want Nephi to name names, yes; but their overriding purpose is to silence him as quickly as possible, and thus thatch over their own secret combination. By exposing Nephi, they cover themselves. On his garden tower, Nephi presented himself openly and spoke freely--there was no search for cover; Seantum hides under his roof.
III Detection as Oracular Narrative and Narrative Oracle
The elites finally leave dejected Nephi to detect Seantum. Ironically, their detection and interrogation follow Nephi's instructions to the letter. Of themselves, they ask nothing, find nothing, detect nothing. Detection tellingly comes as a Sign. So is the questioning and examination oracle or analytic detection literature? All is one: the action of detecting comes significantly wrapped in a prophetic oracle.
Has Nephi, the pretended prophet. . .agreed with thee, in the which ye have murdered Seezoram, who is your brother?. .
He shall say unto you Nay. . .
Have ye murdered your brother?
And he shall stand with fear, and wist not what to say. . .
He shall deny. . .he shall make as if he were astonished. . . he shall declare unto you that he is innocent. . .
Ye shall examine him, and ye shall find blood upon the skirts of his cloak. . .
From whence cometh this blood?
Do we not know that it is the blood of your brother?
And then shall he tremble, and shall look pale, even as if death had come upon him. . .
Because of this fear and this paleness which has come upon your face, behold, we know that thou art guilty.
And then shall greater fear come upon him; and then shall he confess" (9:27-35).
The tell-tale signatures of guilt but rarely appear in the writings of the ancients, but comparable to Helaman is a place in the Ayurveda (900 BC?):
"A person who gives poison may be recognized. He does not answer questions, or they are evasive answers; he speaks nonsense, rubs the great toe along the ground, and shivers; his face is discolored; he rubs the roots of the hair with his fingers; and he tries by every means to leave the house."
True detection comes at the last: the prompted judges observe signs of paleness and terror in Seantum's face and voice and manner and, finally, even "examine" the skirts of his cloak for delicate traces of blood. Here is a seeming moment of triumph for the elites; yet Nephi has won the game, and the secret combination, of whom Seantum was a leading and promising light, has suffered irremediable injury in the eyes of the people. They now know the truth about "the great Chief Judge" and his family, the great man whose murder they were so poignantly mourning. The idea of the "great man" is swept away and the mourners, weeping dramatically turning to anger and argument, march off in a huff. Sic transit gloria mundi--and the stage is empty, leaving Nephi, like all the prophets of Christ, "standing alone."
In all literature, no one resembles Nephi so much as solitary Elijah, and it is the story of the false accusation and judicial murder of Naboth that forcibly comes to mind (1 Kings 21). The very difference in the two narratives heightens the suspense, as unanticipated twists make of Nephi, at first, Naboth, at denouement, Elijah. Was all this interplay of narrative intended solely for a latter-day readership? Helaman certainly also had his ancient admirers. Professor John W. Welch rightly sets alongside Helaman 9 the story of Joshua and Achan (Joshua 7; The Legal Cases in The Book of Mormon). But in the case of Achan, finding comes by oracular lot, not by oracular narrative as narrated prophetic sign. The taking of Achan works, step-by-step, by objective instrument, or, as technique; the prophet, by contrast, himself instrument, appears in dramatic subjectivity: flesh-and-blood, face-to-face--and facing kings. Helaman "had his eye fixed" on "one of the prophets": he looks back to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nathan, and in particular, Elijah (Doctrine and Covenants 128:17). And oracular Elijah, in detection's denouement, plays Dupin or Lord Peter Wimsey far better than either Solomon or Daniel, Dorothy Sayer's prototypes:
"Hast thou killed and taken possession?"
"And Ahab said to Elijah,
Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?
And he answered, I have found thee"
(1 Kings 21:19-20; Heb. matzah, find; cf. Helaman 9:31).
IV Detecting Nephi: Coming to Acknowledgment
In the OED's third definition of detect, we find the clue to unravel the full significance of Helaman's narrative--and it plays out as irony. It's one thing to "find blood upon the skirts," and another
3. "To find out, discover (a person) in the secret possession of some quality, or performance of some act; to find out the real character of."
Facing accusations of complicity in the teeth of a shaken crowd, Nephi's whole concern is now to prove "that I am an honest man, and that I am sent unto you of God." Proof of honesty will not only save the man from death; of foremost concern to Nephi, it will save a prophet from death under shadow of fraud, it will confirm his witness and, by conviction, stir the wavering people to repentance. Indeed honest Nephi is not detectable; his true character resists unrighteous detection. At story's end the judges do detect Nephi--and, here, the irony--they find out that "this man" is in the secret and true possession of the sure prophetic witness, and they find that his real character mirrors his assertion: "I am an honest man."
Detecting Nephi is a powerful coming to acknowledgment through signs, evidences, and examinations. The pain and humiliation of the judges has come full circle from prophetic exposure to forced acknowledgment. By detecting Nephi, their own qualities, secrets, and character stand exposed, a house without roof. The narrative tells us no more about these specific judges; there is no slaughter as on Carmel, nor a sudden fall from power, though the confidence of the people has been shaken to the core. Justified Nephi escapes death--that is all. Nevertheless. the tell-tale signs marking out the "true murderer" but tell the loss of their own "great cities," a prophetic toll of doom they rejected out-of-hand just the day before. Nephi's victory spells a zero-sum game. Zarahemla stands detected. She will soon "be taken away" by her enemies.
Nephi alone stands beyond detection: some in the crowd think him a prophet, others say "he is a god." They never fully see him as he is. Nephi is left "standing alone in their midst."
Jesus stands separate.
Mihaly Munkacsy's Christ Before Pilate portrays Jesus on trial before assembled humanity. The debate rages on, the Divinity of Jesus Christ the "Great Question" on all minds (see Alma 34:5). Though at the center of the painting, as of the debate, Jesus stands increasingly unnoticed. Captivated by argument, germane or no, few now turn their gaze toward Him: certainly none penetrates the calm Divinity of His mind. None disturb His silence. Pilate absorbed, attuned only to his own inner debate, looks on Jesus with a scowl. He doesn't really see Jesus. No one does. All are distracted or abstracted. At that very moment, stands Mankind Before Jesus.
Notes
1) Stuart Lasine has written on detection and riddling in the Bible and Apocrypha: "Solomon, Daniel, and the Detective Story: The Social Functions of a Literary Genre."
2) For the well-known pejorative use of the demonstrative in Classical Greek and Hebrew, now see Scott B. Noegel, "The 'Other' Demonstrative Pronouns: Pejorative Colloquialisms in Biblical Hebrew," Jewish Bible Quarterly 33:1 (2005), 23-30; I believe the usage has also been noted in print for the Book of Mormon.
3) Ayurveda: Paul V. Trovillo, "History of Lie Detection," Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 29:6 (1939), 849.
4) The reader may wish to compare the semantics of detection in the Doctrine and Covenants: "But the hypocrites shall be detected and shall be cut off" (50:8); "The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light!" (128:20); "you may therefore detect him [the devil, by his attempt to deceive] (129:8).
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