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Lesson 6:

1. Lehi exhorts his sons to repent, obey the Lord’s commandments, and put on the armor of righteousness. (2 Nephi 1)

Helpful Insights

• The Promised Land: Lehi spends sometime prophesy about the promised land, focusing on the blessings and consequences that come with keeping the commandments of the Lord. Making this covenant with God and prospering in the land of promise is a common theme throughout the Book of Mormon.
  • Steven L. Olsen, "Prospering in the Land of Promise," FARMS Review 22/1 (2010):229-245
  • Steven L. Olsen, "The Covenant of the Promised Land: Territorial Symbolism in the Book of Mormon," FARMS Review 22/2 (2010):137-154
• Remembering: Lehi exhorts his sons to "remember...[and] hearken unto my words" (2 Nephi 1:12). "Remembrance" is a common theme in the Book of Mormon, and it means more than simply inner reflections, knowing the past, or recalling detailed information. Rather, to "remember" is a call to action - action that stems from realizing the meaning of past events.
  • Louis Midgley, "The Ways of Remembrance"

2. Lehi testifies of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. (2 Nephi 2:1-10)

Helpful Insights

• The First Born: Lehi calls Jacob his "first born in the wilderness." This phrasing may suggest that Lehi viewed him as a replacement of his wicked son Laman, a practice that has precedent in the Old Testament.
  • John A. Tvedtnes, "First Born in the Wilderness"
• Other People: While counseling his son Jacob, Lehi stresses the importance of sharing the message of the Messiah to the "inhabitants of the earth" (2 Nephi 2:8). Since all of Lehi's family would have been aware of these important teachings from both Lehi and Nephi's preaching, and the group had not yet divided, this may allud to other people that Lehi's family had encountered in the New World. The exhortation to preach to the "inhabitants of the earth" would have been hollow if there were not people young Jacob could have specifically identified that he knew did not know of the Messiah.
  • "The Book of Mormon People's Encounter with 'Other' Inhabitants"

3. Lehi teaches the importance of opposition and the freedom to choose good from evil. (2 Nephi 2:11-30)

Potential Criticisms

• Criticism: Some critics think that Joseph Smith plagiarized Shakespeare in using the phrase "from whence no traveler can return" (2 Nephi 1:14) to talk about death.
• Response: The concept of death a journey for which no one can return has long tradition across time and throughout many cultures, including the cultural milieu of the ancient Near East, from which Lehi came from. Even if the Book of Mormon isn't true, Joseph Smith would not have needed Shakespeare to come up with that phrase.
  • Matt Roper, "Review of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, 4/1 (1992): 189-191

Chiasms and Other Poetic Parallelisms in 2 Nephi 1-2

The Book of Mormon contains a number of literary structures called poetic parallelisms, chiasmus being the best known. While these are frequently used as evidence for the Book of Mormon’s authenticity, their real value is in helping shed light on the meaning and message in the text. The following passages contain examples of these structures from chapters being covered in this lesson. If you are planning on using any of these passages in your lesson, it may be worthwhile to check these structures to see if they help emphasize or focus attention on the message you hope to convey, or if they provide an alternative perspective you had not considered before which may enhance your lesson. For the sake of space, the references can only be listed here. To look at these structures, see Donald W. Perry, Poetic Parallelisms: The Complete Text Reformatted, which is graciously provided online for no charge (you have to go to the PDF file) by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute.

• Chiasmus: 2 Nephi 1:13-23; 2 Nephi 1:28-29; 2 Nephi 2:7
• Other Parallelisms: 2 Nephi 1:9; 2 Nephi 1:10; 2 Nephi 1:13; 2 Nephi 1:16-17; 2 Nephi 1:21; 2 Nephi 1:26; 2 Nephi 2:5; 2 Nephi 2:9-10; 2 Nephi 2:11; 2 Nephi 2:14; 2 Nephi 2:17-18; 2 Nephi 2:25; 2 Nephi 2:27; 2 Nephi 2:29