General Comments on 1 Nephi 13-14 The division between these two chapters is artificial as they are both covering the same subject. Given editorial license I would eliminated the chapter division between them. In ch. 12 Nephi we saw a practical application of the symbolism employed in ch. 11. The same occurs in these chapters. We have the symbols of the Great and Spacious Building and the Iron Rod from ch. 11 equated with the real world Great and Abominable Church and the Book which contains the gospel of the Lamb. In chapter 12 the setting was the New World, whereas the setting in ch. 13-14 becomes the entire world. Nephi sees the local view of his descendants and then is zoomed for the big picture, seeing how his descendants fit into it. The general subject of these two chapters is conflict between the devil and the Lord. This conflict manifests itself on earth as a struggle over revealed Scripture. The devil's kingdom on earth does everything it can to eliminate the Word of the Lord and persecute His saints. However, the Lord mitigates the devil's actions by revealing more of His word to His saints, which ultimately comprise the righteous among Natural Israel and Gentile nations. Comments on 1 Nephi 13 v1-9 Focus shifts away from the Lehites in the New World, the subject of the preceding chapter, to all the nations of the earth (v. 1-3). Nephi sees a "church", the devil's kingdom (v. 6), formed among the nations of the earth (v. 4). The devil's kingdom does everything it can to persecute the Lord's faithful (v. 5). The devil's kingdom is filled with all of the material corruptions of the world (v. 7-8) and is driven by "the praise of the world" (v. 9). v3 "the Gentiles", the Hebrew term "goyim" is translated to both "nations" and "Gentiles" in the KJV. The context of "Gentiles" is generally more exclusive as "Israel" isn't among the "Gentiles", but "nations" is generally all-inclusive. v4 "a great church", a "church", from the Greek "ecclesia", or a synagogue, from the Greek "sunagoge", is a group of people and not an ecclesiastical organization. As this "church" is being compared to the Great and Spacious Building it includes people who are not wearing a religious front. This "church" is also equated with the great harlot Babylon (cf. 14:11, cp. Rev. 17:5). In 14:10 the angel draws a sharp dichotomy saying that all people are either in the church of the Lamb or the church of the devil. This being the case, the church of the devil is composed of apostate religionists and secularists alike. Who is in what church is determined by behavior, cf. v. 7-9, 8:27-28, 11:35. Since the term "church" in modern English has come to be equated with some sort of ecclesiastical edifice as opposed to the people, I prefer to refer to the this "church" as "the kingdom of the devil". In my experience this title communicates the concept more effectively as people generally think of religious institutions when they hear "church", whereas "kingdom" is generally more inclusive. It is fairly common for LDS Church members to equate this church with the Roman Catholic Church. This equation was largely popularized by B.R. McConkie as a result of comments he made in the 1st edition _Mormon Doctrine_ as well as additional comments made in his _Doctrinal New Testament Commentary_ comments on John's Revelation. Despite the fact that McConkie was censured for these, as well as other, comments in _Mormon Doctrine_ by the First Presidency under D.O. McKay, and the fact that he edited them out of the 2nd edition, the tradition held and is perpetuated to this day largely by word of mouth. Nowhere in Scripture is the Roman Catholic church equated with the Great and Abominable church. In fact, it is quite the opposite. In JS-H 1:20 Smith characterizes the various Protestant sects in league against him as the kingdom of the adversary. The Roman Catholic church was largely absent from New England because there were relatively few of their members until large numbers of Irish and Italian Roman Catholics emigrated. Now, lest we hastily label all of the Protestant sects as the Great and Abominable, it should be noted that v. 5 and v. 9, and v. 12-16 calls Gentiles who are pre-restoration "saints" and says that God works with them and supports them to accomplish His goals. Nephi calls them "exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people" (cf. v. 15). As early emigrants to New England were Protestants, the people addressed here are Protestants and are being called "saints". What is boils down to is superficial classifications of what groups are in the church of the devil and which aren't simply doesn't work. The definitions given in these chapters are behavior-based. Do some in the Roman Catholic church fit these descriptions? Yes. So do some in Protestant sects, some who are secular, and some who are in the LDS Church as well. The definition is ultimately given that whoever is covenant Israel is the Church of the Lamb and whoever is not covenant Israel is the Church of the Devil, cf. 14:8, 14. v7-9 The descriptions here are quite similar to those given for the Great and Spacious Building, cf. 8:26-28, 11:35-36, also cp. Isa. 3:16-21. See also v. 34 where the abominable church is called "the mother of harlots". Also cp. 22:23 and 2 Ne. 10:16. v10-14 The wrath of God is unleashed upon the Lamanites in the New World. After Nephi sees the whole world and the big picture in v. 1-9, the role of his people from ch. 11 is defined in the big picture. Nephi sees the separation between his people and the Gentiles is one of geography, namely the Atlantic Ocean (v. 10). He then sees that the wrath of God (v. 11) causes Him to drive the Gentile nations across the geographic divide (v. 12). After that, he sees that many Gentiles are impelled by the Spirit to cross the Ocean to escape religious persecution (v. 13). The result is the Lamanites are displaced and scattered by those moving in (v. 14). The underlying concept employed here is a classic covenant curse. When covenant Israel rebels against the Lord, he punishes them in an effort to get them to repent. One of the most common is the threat of foreign invasion and occupation, cf. Lev. 26:32- 39. v12 This "man" is typically equated with Christopher Columbus, but it could be taken as a more general representation of any of the prominent early explorers who paved the way for subsequent colonization. v13 "they went forth out of captivity", the "captivity" is defined in v. 5. v15-19 While the Gentiles were initially brought in to punish the wicked Lamanites, the Lord ends up establishing them in the New World for His own purposes because of their humility before Him (v. 15-16). The nations the Gentiles in the New World fled from rise up against them to battle (v. 17-18), but the Lord protects and delivers them (v. 19). v16 "the power of the Lord was with them", i.e., "they were delivered by the power of God..." per v. 19. v20-42 Nephi sees that along with the Gentiles coming into the New World comes a book (v. 20). The angel pauses from the vision to explain to Nephi (v. 21- 22) that the Book contains writings of the Jews similar to those he has on the brass plates (v. 24) and it also contains some of the writings of the apostles of the Lamb (v. 25) which survived the efforts of the kingdom of the devil to get as rid of as much as possible (v. 25-28). As a result of losing a lot of the apostle's writings, the Gentiles stumble (v. 29). But, in one great feat, the Lord will remove the Gentile's stumbling block and preserve the natural remnant of Israel in the Lamanites (v. 30-34) by "bring[ing] forth unto them, in mine own power, much of my gospel, which shall be plain and precious" (v. 34). This will be accomplished by bringing forth the writings of Nephi and his ancestors, which contain the gospel (v. 36), to the Gentiles (v. 35). At this same time they will also be given power to establish Zion (v. 37). The vision resumes with Nephi seeing the Book (i.e., the Bible) going to the Lamanites from the Gentiles (v. 39). Nephi also sees other books coming forth by revelation which convince both the Gentiles and Natural Israel that the Bible is true (v. 39). The angel then pauses from the vision again and explains to the Nephi that the purpose of bring forth the records through the Gentiles is to give them the gospel as well (v. 40). The Lord already has a covenant with Israel, now He wants to get all nations into that covenant. All nations, not just Israel, must be made to understood that salvation is only through the Lamb of God. The record given through the Gentiles agrees with the testimony of the apostles, so this shows the unity of God, the unity of His revelation, and His desire to save all nations (v. 41). The Lord first manifested Himself to the Jews, but He is now manifesting Himself to the Gentiles. And that which is made manifest to the Gentiles will ultimately be made manifest to the Jews, so that everyone is covered, the first and the last (v. 42). v23-24 Verse 23 is referring to what we call the OT, and v. 24 is referring to the NT as it is written by the "twelve apostles". v23 "like unto...the plates of brass, save they are not so many", the Hebrew Bible we have today, the Old Testament, is not as large a record as Nephi had access to in the brass plates. It is safe to assume that OT era prophets mentioned in the BofM which we presently have no record of are documented in the brass plates. v26 "taken away", it is common for LDS persons to use this verse as a proof text for the Biblical text being corrupted. But, that is not what it is saying at all. What it is saying is a considerable amount of material is simply missing from the NT. It is not saying what we have isn't good or accurate, it isn't making any comment whatsoever on the quality of what survived. It is saying a lot of material is simply absent. Note also the statements in v. 24-28 are limited to the NT era texts of the twelve apostles. It is not commenting at all on the OT era texts. And these texts go forth in purity from the Jews to the Gentiles and it is the Gentiles who eliminate a lot of the text. It is clear from history and archaeology, most notably the Dead Sea Scrolls, that the OT canon as we have it today was established well before the NT era. So, the BofM prediction of future history has been shown accurate in separating the two portions of text when it comes to canonization. v30 "mixture of thy seed", while the Nephites as a race and culture have been annihilated, some of Nephi's lineage survives by intermarriage with the Lamanites. v32 "blindness", the 1st Ed. BofM has "woundedness". v33 offers an unusual interplay of judgement and mercy. What is judgement to Israel is mercy to the Gentiles, and so the Lord accomplishes two things at once. v37 "lifted up", i.e., exalted. To be exalted means to be lifted up. v39 "other books", the books is plural, but that could just mean the BofM and D&C and PofGP. It might imply the revelation of the sealed portion of the plates, but I doubt it. In Ether 4:4-7 it says the sealed portions of the plates will remain sealed until/unless the Gentiles repent and become clean before the Lord. Such a thing doesn't appear to be likely until after the Second Coming. Other related passages are 2 Ne. 29:12-14, 2 Ne. 30:15-18, Ether 4:13-17 and possibly Mormon 8:25-26. v40 "that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father", the "Son of the" is omitted in the 1st Ed. BofM. See my comments on 11:18. v42 In bring the gospel to the Gentiles, who were last, the Lord is fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant, cp. 15:18. At the present, the Lord is dealing with the Gentiles first and Israel last, but that will change with the Second Coming. The manifestation of the Lord referred to here is not a personal manifestation (cf. 3 Ne. 15:23), it is a manifestation of His word in the Scriptures. Copyright © 2001 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. Digital or printed copies may be freely made and distributed for personal and public non-commercial use.