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1 For behold, it came to pass that fifty and five years had passed away from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem; wherefore, Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment concerning the small plates, upon which these things are engraven.
What appears most probable is that the large plates were the primary record, and as such were the public record, and Jacob would have had multiple occasions to see them (though he never gives any indication of having read them, as he certainly has the brass plates). The small plates would have been known to him, but perhaps only that they existed and they appear to be much more of a private text for Nephi. Literary: Jacob's introduction to his own section on the plates is stylistically very different from Nephi's introduction in 1 Nephi 1:1. That introduction was not only more formal, but it was formulaic. Nephi followed an Old World tradition of the colophon, a tradition with which he would have been familiar by reason of training and access to texts. Jacob, on the other hand, is born in the wilderness. His early years are spent in the harsh environs of the desert crossing to Bountiful, and after that time spent in the new and challenging circumstances of the New World. It is obvious that Jacob's instruction included the ability to read and write, but it is unlikely that he would have been exposed to the quantity of the written word as was Nephi. Even taking into account that Nephi may not have had as much an exposure as modern man, it is still certain that Jacob would have had less. The brass plates were with the Lehites, but it is unknown whether or not there were any other written records. S. Kent Brown makes convincing case that Lehi kept a written record during the trek to the New World (Brown, S. Kent. "Recovering the Missing Record of Lehi." In: From Jerusalem to Zarahemla. Religious Studies Center, BYU. 1998, pp. 28-54), but it seems unlikely that the extra bulk and weight of more books would have been a priority for the family. Thus Jacob learns to read and write from the materials at hand, and they do not include samples of texts with colophons, save Nephi's alone. Jacob seems to see his record as a continuation of Nephi's record rather than his own work. Where Nephi's introduction formally presented his name as author, Jacob gives his name almost as an afterthought. Historical: The beginning of Jacob's record formally coincides with Nephi's delivery of the small plates, 55 years after the departure from Jerusalem. Using Spackman's date of 587 BC (Spackman, Randall. "Introduction to Book of Mormon Chronology." FARMS reprint, 1993. P. 11, Spackman, Randall. "The Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar." In: Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 1998. 7:1:57) as the time of departure, Nephi gives Jacob the small plates in 532 BC. Following Sorenson's estimate of the ages of Lehi and Sariah's sons, we have about a 20 year difference between the ages of Nephi and Jacob (Sorenson, John L. "The Composition of Lehi’s Family." In: Nephite Culture and Society. New Sage Books, 1997, p. 21). Thus while Nephi was aged unto death, it was reasonable to give the plates to Jacob rather than to a son (though another reason for this will be proposed later) because Jacob could be expected to have a similar life expectancy to Nephi. Assuming Nephi was 16 at the time of the departure (again following Sorenson) he is about 71 at this point, and Jacob is now 51, with at least 30 of those years in the service of his people as their primary religious leader.
2 And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious; that I should not touch, save it were lightly, concerning the history of this people which are called the people of Nephi. Jacob 1:3 3 For he said that the history of his people should be engraven upon his other plates, and that I should preserve these plates and hand them down unto my seed, from generation to generation.
It would appear that Nephi specifically gives Jacob this information. From this text it would appear that the purpose of the small plates is not something well known for Jacob. This is not particularly surprising, because Nephi has taken care of the records, and there is no indication of Jacob as a record keeper until he has these plates. Indeed, we will see that Jacob is not a particularly voluminous writer, with the majority of his text in this book coming from copied written records rather than text written directly to the plates (as this introduction appears to be).
4 And if there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ's sake, and for the sake of our people.
Indeed, Nephi's record follows this general outline of topics, with far less history than we might want, an accounting of revelation (the tree of life dream), prophesying (parts of the Tree of Life dream as well as his prophetic extrapolation of Isaianic theme) and preaching (some record of his own less formal speeches to his brothers, and the record of Lehi's final blessings and Jacob's speech). Jacob will faithfully follow that mold, presenting again some history (so lightly as to be painful to the historian), revelations, and preachings. It is not quite clear what Jacob means by engraving the "heads" of these things. It is tempting to suppose that the writing system had been modified in a Mesoamerican location to a Mesoamerican style which indeed had "heads" representing some syllables. While the majority of the hieroglyphic texts in Mesoamerica date from the Classic period. which postdates the Book of Mormon the antecedents of that language were developed earlier, with seminal forms being found in the same general vicinity as the proposed Nephite populations. In Mesoamerican literature, those lands were part of the Epi-Olmec area, and were known to have hieroglyphic writings of which a few precious samples have been preserved. In spite of this intriguing possibility, the more likely meaning of "heads" in this text is that of a synopsis of the most important aspects rather than a full treatment. As we will find out, the plates have limited size, and Nephi has used most of it. It is therefore probable that Nephi was urging some restraint on the quantity while focusing on the quality of the content. John A. Tvedtnes has suggested that the use of the word "heads" in this context might be a reflection of an underlying Hebrew structure in the Book of Mormon: "The term head seems out of place. We would expect something like most important to be used. But the expression is readily explainable in terms of Hebrew. The Hebrew word for the head of the body is sometimes used to describe things as chief (see Deuteronomy 33:15; Psalm 137:6; and Proverbs 1:21) or precious (see Amos 6:1; Song of Solomon 4:14; Ezekiel 27:22). This is probably the sense in which Jacob used the word." (Tvedtnes, John A. "The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon." In: Rediscovering the Book of Mormon. Ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne. FARMS, 1991, p. 90). This presents an interesting possibility, but for all of that has been written on the Hebrew language background of the Book of Mormon, the evidence is still inconclusive, having almost as much possibility of derivation from KJV language as from an original Hebrew. It is an area that will receive much more attention. Narrative: The final phrases of this verse are crucial to understanding the verses that follow. In some ways, it was an unfortunate cutting of verses that allows such critical information to be separated from its content by the artificial conception of the verse. Jacob focuses on Nephi's instruction that the Messiah be the focus of the record. This should be done "for the sake of our people," the particular phrase that is explained in the next verse.
5 For because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them.
6 And we also had many revelations, and the spirit of much prophecy; wherefore, we knew of Christ and his kingdom, which should come.
7 Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness.
Jacob also places his task of teaching his people in the context of the Mosaic Exodus. He is not particularly creating a parallel at this time to the process of the Exodus, but rather to an event of the Exodus. For Jacob, the sacred history of the Jews provides models and types of the behaviors and reactions of his people. By placing their trials and tribulations into the context of the Exodus, he also places his people in the context of the blessings of the chosen people, reminding them that they share in those blessings directly and by right.
8 Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfil the commandment of my brother Nephi.
Thus Jacob does not see himself as creating a new work, but very literally extending Nephi's work and purposes.
9 Now Nephi began to be old, and he saw that he must soon die; wherefore, he anointed a man to be a king and a ruler over his people now, according to the reigns of the kings.
The transfer of rulership in the Nephite community is established by Nephi himself during his reign. It is not left to chance, but is established and ordained. It need not have been so. Nephi could have relied upon some other mechanism to transfer power, such as a vote, or an assumption of leadership. The formal transferal of power virtually assumes a situation where there could be sufficient pretenders to power to be disruptive to the community. The historical process of a king personally endorsing (here anointing) a successor prevents internal feuding. For our purpose of understanding the social organization of the Nephites, it tells us that there is sufficient wealth and power that the position is desirable (we don't hand pick successors to jobs nobody wants in the first place) and that there is a sufficient population that divisions might reasonably take place. This fits very will with the suggested population of around 300 households, understanding that there were viable divisions of groupings at 50 households or less. The second point to note is that Nephi presents his next ruler by anointing him. This process suggests that the ruler is created in the context of Jewish tradition. Rulers might be crowned, they may be invested, or any other type of verb might describe the process. By describing it as an anointing are placed inn the context of Old World Jewish kingship rather than any idea the New World might have about kings. This is appropriate given the Old World heritage of the ruling clan, the Nephites. Even though any of the "others" who had joined the Nephites would have had a perhaps different mode of creating a king, their acceptance of Nephi as their ruler presupposes their acceptance of the new way of creating transference of power. Lastly, we note that the person who is created as king is first, not named, and second, not Jacob. Ludlow notes that there is disagreement about who might have been the king, whether, Jacob or a son of Nephi (Ludlow, Daniel H. A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon. Deseret Book, 1976, p. 156). The text provides the clue that can resolve this issue. We might suspect Jacob as the next ruler simply because of his importance to the community. However, Jacob also tells us very specifically how the new king is chosen. The new king is selected "according to the reign of kings." Knowing that we have an Old World model at work tells us that the new king would be Nephi's eldest son. Old World lineage models would have selected for the brother of the king only in the absence of a son. While a son of Nephi is not specifically mentioned, there is no reason in the text to believe that he did not have one. Since Jacob doesn't tell us his name, he may presume that it is rather to be understood, and that there is no controversy. Thus with this verse we have the creation of a lineage based rulership that follows Nephi's direct line. We may expect that the physical symbols of rulership (which we will meet later with Mosiah as the sword of Laban, the Liahona, and the brass plates; Mosiah 1:16) and the large plates would follow this line. Jacob is Nephi's brother, and as a prophet in his own right has the qualifications to fulfill Nephi's intent for the small plates. Nephi has created two transmission lines for his records; the official "history" on what we call the large plates of Nephi, and this secondary "sacred history" through his brother and his brother's descendants. As population increased, and time went on, this parallel line to the kingly succession might have had a claim to the throne. This appears to have been avoided either naturally or through an unknown means which continued to remove Jacob's descendants from prominent positions. As we move to the end of the small plates, even the position of main religious leader no longer belongs to Jacob's lineage. The peripheral nature of the lineage of Jacob tells us even more of the reason that those descendants didn’t have the political or economic clout to obtain the materials to continue the small plates. Translations: In addition to this occurrence, the phrase "began to be old" occurs six more
times in the Book of Mormon, and not in any other volume of scripture. In each case, the phrase is used in a context
that suggests that the person who "began to be old" is near death:
10 The people having loved Nephi exceedingly, he having been a great protector for them, having wielded the sword of Laban in their defense, and having labored in all his days for their welfare—
This again reinforces the estimation of population at this point as relatively small, though perhaps being one of the larger villages in the area if we correctly read the information about the wealth of the community. Biographical: This information gives us Nephi as a warrior king. If he were 16 at the time the family left Jerusalem, he was recording that the were wars and skirmishes by 40 years after the departure (2 Nephi 5:34). Thus this warrior king's career lasted at least to his mid fifty's, and probably would have had at least a ceremonial presence with the sword of Laban after that. In the earlier years when the population was smaller and Nephi younger, he would certainly have been in the fighting - wielding the sword against the enemy in personal combat. With increasing years and an increasing population to protect him, his presence would have been more distant and protected, much more akin to Moses watching from afar, yet leading through personal presence.
11 Wherefore, the people were desirous to retain in remembrance his name. And whoso should reign in his stead were called by the people, second Nephi, third Nephi, and so forth, according to the reigns of the kings; and thus they were called by the people, let them be of whatever name they would.
Taking this past tense literally, we have Jacob writing on the plates a number of years after they have been given to him. Thus while the writing must be chronological, the events written about do not, because they are written not only after the fact, but probably long after the fact. We do not know the precise date of Jacob’s death. The next specific date marker we have is just prior to Enos’ death where he notes that 179 years have passed since the departure from Jerusalem (Enos 1:25). From the time of Nephi’s death until Enos’ death (presuming it came soon after that 179 year marker) we have 124 years in which there are only two writers on the small plates. This is a long time, and requires advanced ages for both Jacob and Enos. Splitting the difference between them, each would have had to have had a life time of about 87 years. That is quite old for the ancient world, but Nephi lived into his 70’s, and these ages would not be beyond possibility, although remarkable. Of course any revision of Jacob’s probable date of birth to a later year makes this span shorter. With this proposed life span for Jacob, he will have nearly 36 years as the record keeper after his brother’s death. We would therefore have Jacob writing in his record near the end of his life, and having witnessed at least two anointings of kings in his own lifetime. While this can give us a time reference for Jacob's writings, it gives us a fascinating question as to why there should be two anointings of kings, and a speculation as to who the second king might have been. There are three reasons prevalent in the ancient world which account for the short reign of kings, and all have to do with the death of the king. We might have a king die by illness, war, or intrigue in his own house by pretenders to the throne. I believe we may safely eliminate this last reason if for no other reason that Jacob does not mention it. It will show up later in the Book of Mormon, but is usually associated with a larger population. Illness and war are two possibilities. Since this is inherently speculative, it appears that war is the most likely as the Book of Mormon at this point speaks little of disease, and we have long lives for Nephi and Jacob. As a king, the best of the living conditions and food would be available, and so conditions would be favorable to have as long a life as his father and uncle. This leaves war, and with the tradition of Nephi personally wielding the sword of Laban, it is quite likely that this king would also be expected to wield the sword personally, placing him in potential harm's way. It is certain that he would have been protected, but our understanding of Mesoamerican warfare does suggest the possibility of the death or capture of the opposing king. This appears the most likely reason Jacob would see the anointing of the second Nephi - titled king. These kings continue to be anointed "according to the reign of kings" which still follows the Old World model. Thus the next king would be the son of the second, or the grandson of Nephi. Even though youths could and did sit on ancient thrones, Nephi was certainly of an age where he could have one or more mature grandsons.
12 And it came to pass that Nephi died.
While that is a possibility, it is not a strong one. We have examined the ending chapters of 2 Nephi and noted that 2 Nephi 32 appears to be abbreviated. The suggestion was that this was due to failing health, and the desire to end with a final testimony. Nephi specifically notes in verse 14 of 2 Nephi 33 that "I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust." This reference to Isaiah is probably in the original context of words from one who had died and lies in the grave. The indications are that Nephi senses his impending demise. The next piece of information is that Nephi arranges for succession. First he makes sure that there is a transmission line for the small plates, and then a formal transmission of rulership, and not coincidentally, the large plates. These are the actions of a man preparing for the end, not one assuming several remaining years. While there is likely some time between the transfer of the small plates and the anointing of a new king, the time is probably measured in months, not years.
13 Now the people which were not Lamanites were Nephites; nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites.
The language used to describe the inside /outside boundaries can tell us much about the way the community sees itself, and sees all others with which is must deal. In these conditions, it is quite logical that the primary language of group identity should be based on the entire group. Thus they were all Nephites who fit into that village definition. This carries the multiple distinctions of geography, politics, and religion, all of which may be assumed to be uniform throughout the group at this time. If the internal designation is collective, it makes sense to create an external collective term as well. Thus Jacob notes that "the people which were not Lamanites were Nephites." The term Lamanite is a collective rather than a tribal designation. It corresponds to an internal collective term "Nephite" that also is not tribal designation. The way in which Jacob phrases this distinction may be instructive also. The implication is of a greater number of Lamanites that can be distinguished only in that anyone who does not fall into that group is Lamanite. Meeks notes that "the insider/outsider language invariably implies a negative perception of the outside society, even when the immediate function of the dualistic expressions is to reinforce the internal ordering of the group." (Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians. Yale University Press. 1983, p. 95). Even at this very early date, the connotations of the term Lamanite are absolutely pejorative. The Nephite = good, Lamanite = bad correlation is sufficiently well known from the Book of Mormon that it need not be documented. Even modern readers quickly adopt this very same attitude. The early social development of Nephite society was built on a natural geo-political boundary, and reinforced by creating an insider/outsider terminology of Nephite and Lamanite. Of course this does not mean that all Lamanites were "bad" - only that because of the necessary social distinctions of the Nephite community, all outsiders were seen in a negative light, and labeled with this collective name of "Lamanites." The last piece of information we have is that inside of the larger community the kin-based organization continued. Therefore there were Nephites, but among the Nephites as a collective name, there were specific divisions that were based on kin groups. This internal kin-based organization appears to have strong parallels in the Mesoamerican context. Formative sites already show evidence of internal organizations: "shortly after 600 BC, the village of Moyotzingo, Puebla, was divided into at least two residential areas… at Naranjito there seemingly were eastern and western residential areas." (Flannery, Kent V. "Two Possible Village Subdivisions: The Courtyard Group and the Residential Ward." In: The Early Mesoamerican Village. ed. Kent V. Flannery. Academic Press, 1976, p. 73). While these early divisions appear to be related perhaps more to status than kinship, the principle of the internal divisions is the same. Later Maya political organizations to appear to have distinctions based on hereditary clans (Schele, Linda, and Peter Matthews. The Code of Kings. Scribner. 1998, p. 299). The religious history of the Quiche (long post-dating the Book of Mormon, but perhaps indicative of tradition) also maintains the clan divisions inside the larger polity: "The achieved glory there. Their marvelous seats sand cushions were arranged; the varieties of splendor were sorted out for each one of the lords of the nine lineages. One by one they took their places: The nine lords of the Cauecs. The nine lords of the Greathouses. The four lords of the Lord Quiches. The two lords of the Zaquics. They became numerous. Those who were in the following of a given lord were also numerous, but the lord came first, at the head of his vassals. There were masses, masses lineages for each of the lords." (The Popol Vuh.. Tr. Dennis Tedlock. Simon and Schuster. 1985, p. 210). If we may presume that the Nephite kin organizations worked (at least eventually) in a reasonably Mesoamerican fashion, each would have its own leaders and the patriarch of the clan, responsible to and for the kin unit, and subject to the ruler of the city. The internal organization of these clans would be sufficient even in large cities to maintain some form of order among chaos, and will be a significant explanation for the tribal descriptions of the Nephites after a general political failure nearer to the end of the Book of Mormon text.
14 But I, Jacob, shall not hereafter distinguish them by these names, but I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the reigns of the kings.
15 And now it came to pass that the people of Nephi, under the reign of the second king, began to grow hard in their hearts, and indulge themselves somewhat in wicked practices, such as like unto David of old desiring many wives and concubines, and also Solomon, his son. Jacob 1:16 16 Yea, and they also began to search much gold and silver, and began to be lifted up somewhat in pride.
Anthropological: It is not by chance that Jacob’s discussion of multiple wives and his indication that his people "began to search much gold and silver" come closely together. Each statement is a manifestation of increasing wealth, and emphasis on the trappings of wealth. While polygamy is not the common practice among world populations, it is often the preferred marriage style. It is inhibited in most societies because of its tremendous cost. Maintaining multiple families requires greater control of substance, and thus it is a marriage form that tends to be practiced among the wealthier members of the society in which it is allowed. The very presence of the practice among the Nephites at this juncture in history (perhaps 70+ years after the departure from Jerusalem, 60+ years in the New World) suggests not only that the Nephites have indeed managed to become wealthy, but that there was a supply of marriageable women available such that a man might have more than one wife. Once again, both the wealth and the availability of desirable women (proper age, sufficiently removed from the kin group) is so strongly suggestive of other populations with which the Nephites had social interaction as to be nearly a certainty.
17 Wherefore I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord.
18 For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests and teachers of this people, by the hand of Nephi. Jacob 1:19 19 And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.
Jacob tells us that he was diligent in teaching his people, and next will provide one of his sermons as evidence of that statement. Sociological: Both Jacob and Joseph were consecrated as priests and teachers. That Nephi is not specifically mentioned as a priest and teacher is interesting, but easily explained by his larger title of king, which would have included the ability to teach and administer (and clearly did allow him to preach, as indicated by the included sermon from 2 Nephi 31-32). That there were two priests and teachers again suggests a reasonably large population at this point in time. Had there been only a handful of people, one teacher would have been sufficient. Historical: While "priests" and "teachers" are both descriptive of offices in the modern Aaronic Priesthood, we are not justified in seeing these terms in Nephite society in the light of modern Priesthood organization. These are merely descriptive terms, not offices. The Book of Mormon is not interested in priesthood organization at this point. It is sufficient that the Lord has given them the authority and responsibility. Because there are no competing concepts of how their religion should be lived (whatever the Lamanites had would be considered completely foreign) there is no reason to spend time defining priesthood against any other possible conceptions of that authority. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1999 |
Jacob
1:1
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