I remember hearing as a young girl in various writing workshops: never apologize for your writing. Never say, "Um, sorry this is still really lame because I haven't figured out the dialogue yet ..." or "I don't think you guys will like this, but this is my poem ..." But that's what this chapter is. Nephi apologizes for not copying the genealogy of his fathers onto the brass plates, because he wants to save the space for the most important things. Namely, the things of God. Not that family history isn't important! No sir! But he's right. For his intents and purposes, it really is sufficient to say that he is a descendant of Joseph.
It interests me that Nephi straight up says that his goal is to convince people to believe in God. You know, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That God. Not to be confused with some other God. And that his words will not be pleasing to the people of the world. Got that right. A nice Biblical genealogy might have helped to convince some scholar that the Book of Mormon is real scripture. Probably not too many people though. Nephi never was much for the popular opinion. Which is why even though I envision him as a bit of a goober, I still respect him. A lot.
1 comment:
There's a little bit of a discrepancy between his determination not to write the genealogy because it's already in Lehi's plates and his later decision to copy a fourth of the words of Isaiah. Perhaps by this point Nephi already knows that he's not just writing for his posterity; he's writing for Israel, so it makes sense to give an overview of the house of Israel and not focus on private issues.
It's always intriguing when the scriptures clarify which God they're talking about. Back then identifying the God you were referring to was more important. The different gods had less in common. Most cultures weren't even monotheistic, so there was no general antecedent of the word "God." But I think that specifying the God we're talking about still has meaning today. We Christians aren't always worshipping the same god. For some he is an incorporeal force, for others he has a body; for some he doesn't interfere in worldly affairs, for others he is constantly working miracles; for some he doesn't experience emotions, for others he is just like us; for some he is omnipotent, for others eternal laws set limits on even his actions.
But beyond different creeds and sects, even we Mormons don't all believe in the same God. Isn't the man who can't believe God has forgiven him thinking of a very different God than the man who thinks that God forgives him of sins he is not forsaking? Isn't the woman who thinks God is punishing her for not making it to sacrament meeting this last Sunday worshipping a very different God from the woman who goes to sacrament meeting once a month? Everyone has a different conception of God, and though we may agree on some important characteristics, there's enough leeway for even faithful members of the Church to conceive of God in drastically different ways.
To know who "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" I suppose I should read their stories to see how they related to God. I think that's one of the reasons that the scriptures include so many stories. A declaration of doctrine doesn't teach you how to really relate to God. It gives you behavioral rules and a basic picture of things, but it doesn't really introduce you to God. Only by reading about someone's relationship to God do we see how to develop our own.
Verse five is so true. This book has so little to recommend it to worldly types. We aren't even on the protagonist's side half the time.
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