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Unit 1 – Segment 2

Unit 1 – Segment 2 – Lehi’s Commission – 1 Nephi 1:4-17

*This segment title “Lehi’s Commission” comes from Grant Hardy’s “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition.”

The organization of the text into sense lines is derived from the manner in which Royal Skousen organizes the text of “The Book of Mormon: the Earliest Text.”

full text and audio

sense line 1: “For it came to pass in the commencement of the first year”

The word “commencement” and the phrase “the commencement of the” appear three times in Unit 1 (1 Nephi 1:4, 5:12, 13). In all cases they are referring to the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah.

sense line 2: “of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah,”

The words “reign” and “Zedekiah” and the phrase “of the reign of Zedekiah” occur 3 times in Unit 1 (1 Nephi 1:4, 5:12, 13). The words “king” and “Judah” and the phrase “of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah” appear twice in Unit 1 (1 Nephi 1:4, 5:12).

sense line 3: “(my father, Lehi, having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days);”

my father – 37 occurrences in 36 verses – 1 Nephi 1:1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 2:1, 2, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 3:1, 7, 8, 12, 14, 18, 28, 4:34, 5:2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 16, 17, 20

my father Lehi – 7 occurrences in 7 verses – 1 Nephi 1:4, 5, 18, 5:6, 10, 14, 16

father – 44 occurrences in 42 verses – 1 Nephi 1:1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 2:1, 2, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 3:1, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 18, 28, 4:34, 35, 38, 5:1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 16, 17, 20

Lehi – 8 occurrences in 8 verses – 1 Nephi 1:4, 5, 18, 2:1, 5:6, 10, 14, 16

at Jerusalem – 4 occurrences in 4 verses – 1 Nephi 1:4, 7, 2:13, 5:4

Jerusalem – 19 occurrences in 16 verses – 1 Nephi 1:4, 7, 13, 18, 2:11, 13, 3:2, 9, 10, 17, 29, 4:1, 4, 30, 5:4, 6

sense line 4: “and in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people”

sense line 5: “that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed.”

sense line 6: “Wherefore it came to pass that”

sense line 7: “my father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord,”

sense line 8: “yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people.”

sense line 9: “And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord,”

sense line 10: “there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him;”

sense line 11: “and he saw and heard much;”

sense line 12: “and because of the things which he saw and heard”

sense line 13: “he did quake and tremble exceedingly.”

sense line 14: “And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem;”

sense line 15: “and he cast himself upon his bed,”

sense line 16: “being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen.”

sense line 17: “And being thus overcome with the Spirit,”

sense line 18: “he was carried away in a vision,”

sense line 19: “even that he saw the heavens open,”

sense line 20: “and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne,”

sense line 21: “surrounded with numberless concourses of angels”

sense line 22: “in the attitude of singing and praising their God.”

sense line 23: “And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven,”

sense line 24: “and he beheld that his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day.”

sense line 25: “And he also saw twelve others following him,”

sense line 26: “and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament.”

sense line 27: “And they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth;”

sense line 28: “and the first came and stood before my father,”

sense line 29: “and gave unto him a book, and bade him that he should read.”

sense line 30: “And it came to pass that as he read,”

sense line 31: “he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord.”

sense line 32: “And he read, saying: Wo, wo, unto Jerusalem,”

sense line 33: “for I have seen thine abominations!”

sense line 34: “Yea, and many things did my father read concerning Jerusalem —”

sense line 35: “that it should be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof;”

sense line 36: “many should perish by the sword,”

sense line 37: “and many should be carried away captive into Babylon.”

sense line 38: “And it came to pass that when my father had read”

sense line 39: “and seen many great and marvelous things,”

sense line 40: “he did exclaim many things unto the Lord; such as:”

sense line 41: “Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty!”

sense line 42: “Thy throne is high in the heavens,”

sense line 43: “and thy power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth;”

sense line 44: “and, because thou art merciful,”

sense line 45: “thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish!”

sense line 46: “And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God;”

sense line 47: “for his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled,”

sense line 48: “because of the things which he had seen,”

sense line 49: “yea, which the Lord had shown unto him.”

sense line 50: “And now I, Nephi, do not make a full account of the things”

sense line 51: “which my father hath written,”

sense line 52: “for he hath written many things which he saw in visions and in dreams;”

sense line 53: “and he also hath written many things”

sense line 54: “which he prophesied and spake unto his children,”

sense line 55: “of which I shall not make a full account.”

sense line 56: “But I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days.”

sense line 57: “Behold, I make an abridgment of the record of my father,”

sense line 58: “upon plates which I have made with mine own hands;”

sense line 59: “wherefore, after I have abridged the record of my father”

sense line 60: “then will I make an account of mine own life.”

Unit 1 – Segment 1

sense line 1: I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents,

“I” and “I, Nephi“

The word “I” occurs in Unit 1 (1 Nephi chapter 1 through chapter 5) a total of 103 times and the phrase “I, Nephi” occurs 10 times.

A student of the Book of Mormon should compare the text to the Bible – for the purpose of identifying similarities and differences.

From its beginning, one significant way in which the Book of Mormon differs from the Bible is in the manner that the original Book of Mormon writers and editors identify themselves and address the reader in the first person.

Grant Hardy makes this comparison in his book “Understanding the Book of Mormon” (see page 15) and provides analysis of its impacts on the text and reader as well:

“From its first verses, the extended first-person narrative of Nephi offers a mode of writing almost entirely absent from the Hebrew Bible (the only exceptions are a few chapters of Ezra-Nehemiah). This means that the primary narrators of the Book of Mormon – Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni – are accessible to readers in a way that the dominant narrative voice of the Bible is not. The narrators in the Hebrew Bible are anonymous, omniscient, reticent, and unobtrusive. They speak from no particular time or place, reporting words, actions, and secret thoughts (even, at times, what God is thinking). They rarely comment on the story, offer judgments, mention themselves, refer to their own editing, or address their audience directly. We are seldom told how we should react to specific incidents, and as a result, biblical narratives are generally open to multiple readings and interpretations. This is part of their literary appeal. As Robert Alter has observed: “Many of these habits of reticence may be plausibly attributed to an underlying aesthetic predisposition. The masters of ancient Hebrew narrative were clearly writers who delighted in an art of indirection, in the possibilities of intimating depths through the mere hint of a surface feature, or through a few words of dialogue fraught with implication.” Without exception, the Book of Mormon narrators operate very differently. They reveal their identities from the beginning and exercise strict control over their material. They write from a limited, human perspective-that is, they give us their personal view of what happened and why it is important (though for those within the faith, the prophetic authority of these men makes them uniquely qualified to render such judgments). They do not hesitate to address readers directly to explain their intentions, their writing processes, their editorial decisions, and their emotional responses to the events they recount. They demarcate textual units for our consideration. They interrupt the narrative to offer explicit judgments. They even admit the possibility of human error and ask indulgence for their “weakness in writing.” (Ether 12:23, 40; cf. 2 Nephi 33:1, 4).”

“having been“

The phrase “having been” occurs twice in Unit 1. Both instances of this phrase appear in 1 Nephi 1:1.

sense line 2: therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father;

The acquisition of knowledge is crucial to every individual soul. As we read in Doctrine and Covenants 131:6: “it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.”

The word “learning” and the phrase “the learning of” appear twice in Unit 1.

sense line 3: and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days,

sense line 4: nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days;

In 1 Nephi 3:6, Lehi speaks to Nephi and provides one reason why Nephi was “favored of the Lord“. It reads: “… and thou shalt be favored of the Lord because thou hast not murmured.”

sense line 5: yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God,

The word “mysteries” and the phrase “the mysteries of God” appear twice in Unit 1. The other occurrence is in 1 Nephi 2:16, which reads:

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young,
nevertheless being large in stature,
and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God,
wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord;
and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart
that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father;
wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.

sense line 6: therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

The phrase “I make a record” occurs twice in Unit 1. The other instance is in 1 Nephi 1:2.

sense line 7: Yea, I make a record in the language of my father,

sense line 8: which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.

sense line 9: And I know that the record which I make to be true.

sense line 10: And I make it with mine own hand,

sense line 11: and I make it according to my knowledge.

Unit 1 – Segment 1 – Nephi’s Introduction – 1 Nephi 1:1-3

*This segment title “Nephi’s Introduction” comes from Grant Hardy’s “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition.”