Tag: Alma 5
-
Concentric degrees of holiness (and unholiness)
I need to add a disclaimer to the top of this post. What I write below is merely a fleshing out of ideas. It is not meant to be a definitive declaration of my beliefs. The purpose of this blog is to document ideas and impressions that come through my study of the scriptures. I…
-
Hearken, ‘shama’ and the Two Ways
I’ve been studying the word ‘hearken’ in the scriptures. In the Old Testament, the word translated to ‘hearken’ is: shama: to hear (שָׁמַע) Source: Biblehub In my studies, I came across an interesting note about how the bivalent usage of ‘shama’ in the book of Jeremiah. In the prophetic books (esp. Jer), hearing sounds is…
-
Land of our inheritance — Part 2
In Part 1 we looked at the covenant connection of the Hebrew yeresh, meaning to inherit/possess. The promised land is an inheritance given by covenant. It is a blessing (“flowing with milk and honey”) but also a great responsibility. 9 And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a…
-
Captivity
Captivity is a very central theme in both the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. Searching for that particular word gives 163 results in those two volumes of scripture combined and 4 results in the rest of the standard works! No wonder, perhaps, considering the captivity in Egypt between Abraham and Moses, when the…
-
Blood, murder and guilt
The Book of Mormon is a Jewish book. This has become increasingly clear to me as I have studied it in much detail while learning more of ancient Israelite culture and language. I mean “Jewish” in a broad sense, since Lehi was from the tribe of Manassah, but he came from Jerusalem and the inhabitants…
-
Endowment Narratives in the Book of Mormon, Part 3a — Finding Meaning in the Symbols
The more I study the scriptures and ponder their meaning, the more I realize how much we underappreciate the significance of the archetypal story of Adam and Eve as presented in the books of Genesis, Moses, and Abraham. I believe the ancient prophets saw themselves as Adam and created intentional parallels in their accounts. As…
-
Even more on the number 8
I just found a detail that should have been part of this post, but I didn’t know at the time so I will make a short, separate post as add-on to it. To recap briefly, in Hebrew, the number eight represents new beginnings and is derived from the word “to grow fat” and therefore also…
-
"Deliver" and "hand"
In light of my previous post connecting consecration and the phrase “delivered into [their] hands,” I decided to revisit scriptures which use this phrase. As is often the case, we see positive and negative examples. Negative Context In some cases, God allows the righteous to be delivered into the hands of the wicked, for example:…
-
Five witnesses who were liberated
I will start off by giving credit where credit is due. This post is largely based on another blog post where an interesting observation has been made. The blogger’s name is Robert Kay and apparently he is both a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and a Jew. In Helaman 8, Nephi, the…
-
Qodesh (קֹדֶשׁ): Holy
I have studied the Hebrew root, קֹדֶשׁ – qodesh, which is related to that which is holy. There are several words based on this root: Qodesh: Apartness, sacredness (noun) Qadash: To be set apart, consecrated (verb) Qadosh: Sacred, holy (adjective) In the Bible, words for “holiness” appear more often than words for “love”. This is definitely…
Book of Mormon Notes 