\n3 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time<\/strong> he cometh to bring salvation unto men<\/strong>.<\/td>\n26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time<\/strong>, that he may redeem the children of men<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4 And thou hast beheld in thy youth his glory; wherefore, thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh; for the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And the way is prepared from the fall of man<\/strong>,<\/td>\nfrom the fall<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nand salvation is free<\/strong>.<\/td>\n27 And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5 And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil<\/strong>.<\/td>\nknowing good from evil<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAnd the law<\/strong> is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever.<\/td>\nto act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law<\/strong> at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n6 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.<\/strong> <\/td>\n| 27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.<\/strong> And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n This strikes me as an important literary device used by Lehi to emphasize his primary points and frame the whole discussion of redemption and agency. However, I am not sure how this bookending strikes you. How much stock do you put in something like this as a hermeneutical guide to the rest of 2 Nephi 2? These parallel expressions could potentially cast a new light on 2 Nephi 2:4 and what Lehi means when he says “salvation is free.” Should we interpret “free” in the context of the rest of the chapter which focuses on the freedom of agency and the redemption’s role in providing that agency? Does this bookending support that kind of exegesis?<\/p>\n Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s go to another example from just a few chapters away. In 2 Nephi 6-10 Jacob delivers one of the most important sermons in the Book of Mormon. Chapter 6 is introduction, chapters 7 and 8 quote Isaiah 50-52:2, chapter 9 is the well known chapter on the atonement, and chapter 10 wraps things up. On my mission, I was very familiar with chapter 9, but I started wondering what it had to do with the Isaiah that preceded it. While trying to answer that question for myself during personal scripture study, I noticed the following bookends to Jacob\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sermon:<\/p>\n \n\n| 2 Nephi 6<\/th>\n | 2 Nephi 10<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | \n9 Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should return again. And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh<\/strong>;<\/td>\n3 Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor in the last night the angel spake unto me that this should be his name\u00e2\u20ac\u201dshould come among the Jews<\/strong>, among those who are the more wicked part of the world;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nand after he should manifest himself they should scourge him and crucify him<\/strong>, according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me. <\/td>\nand they shall crucify him<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| <\/td>\n | 4 For should the mighty miracles be wrought among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n10 And after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel<\/strong>,<\/td>\n5 But because of priestcrafts and iniquities, they at Jerusalem will stiffen their necks against him<\/strong>, that he be crucified.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nbehold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted<\/strong>.<\/td>\n6 Wherefore, because of their iniquities, destructions, famines, pestilences, and bloodshed shall come upon them<\/strong>;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n11 Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro<\/strong>, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered<\/strong>, and smitten, and hated;<\/td>\nand they who shall not be destroyed shall be scattered among all nations<\/strong>. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nnevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again<\/strong> to the lands of their inheritance<\/strong>. <\/td>\n7 But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance<\/strong>.
\n 8 And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion<\/strong>, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\nThese literary bookends struck me (and still do strike me) as very important keys to unlocking the rest of this speech. In my study as a missionary, I was able to pull 6 main points from these passages which I then looked for in Isaiah and in 2 Nephi 9. Using these points to map the two, I found the points of correlation between Isaiah 50-52 and Jacob\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commentary on those chapters in 2 Ne 9. Incidentally, Jacob seems to me to take some dramatic artistic license in his use of Isaiah.† Be that as it may, the question I am focused on is the here is the hermeneutical question. <\/p>\n Do you find my use of these bookends to be at all compelling, or are you more likely to write off these parallels I am using to define the bookends as accidental? Am I justified in using these points as a lens through which to view the rest of the speech, or is this over-doing it?<\/p>\n I am continually interested in what kinds of issues strike different people as the most important when trying to discover the meaning of scriptural texts.‡ Does anyone have thoughts on these specific examples or on the more general hermeneutical question about this (potential) literary device?<\/p>\n
\n† I ended up writing a paper exploring the relationship between Isaiah 50-52 and 2 Nephi 9 but I could never get any of my fellow missionaries excited about it (shocking, I know). Later, I noticed that the 6 points I generalized from Jacob\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bookend show up prominently in King Benjamin (Mosiah 2-5) and Abinadi (Mosiah 12-16). Within the passages dealing with the same topic (according to this mapping of the texts) I discovered that the later speeches sometimes quoted the earlier ones and built subtly on the same points, convincing me that the earlier speeches had an impact on the later ones. I ended up writing a paper about that which I have similarly never been able to get anyone interested in (I used to write a lot of boring papers before I started blogging. Now I write boring blog posts).<\/p>\n ‡ For example, this type of hermeneutical question is my real reason for being interested in this post<\/a>. On questions where it could go either way, it is interesting to see which issue tips people over the edge to one position over another.
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