3 Nephi 29

#3 Nephi Chapter 29

1 And now behold, I say unto you that when the Lord shall see fit, in his wisdom, that these sayings shall come unto the Gentiles according to his word, then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with the children of Israel, concerning their restoration to the lands of their inheritance, is already beginning to be fulfilled.

verse 1 Again, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon (“these sayings”) is a sign that the great final gathering is beginning and that his second coming is nigh (see verse 2; see also 3 Nephi 21:1-7; Ether 4:17).

2 And ye may know that the words of the Lord, which have been spoken by the holy prophets, shall all be fulfilled; and ye need not say that the Lord delays his coming unto the children of Israel.

3 And ye need not imagine in your hearts that the words which have been spoken are vain, for behold, the Lord will remember his covenant which he hath made unto his people of the house of Israel.

4 And when ye shall see these sayings coming forth among you, then ye need not any longer spurn at the doings of the Lord, for the sword of his justice is in his right hand; and behold, at that day, if ye shall spurn at his doings he will cause that it shall soon overtake you.

verse 4 Mormon is obviously writing to, and warning, the people of our dispensation. The Book of Mormon must obviously be taken most seriously, as it is the Lord’s solemn warning to our dispensation.

To spurn is to manifest disdain in rejecting any thing.

5 Wo unto him that spurneth at the doings of the Lord; yea, wo unto him that shall deny the Christ and his works!

verse 5 “Spurneth at” is a colorful verb form which obviously means to reject, scorn, or treat contemptuously.

The reader may notice the example of synonymous parallelism contained in this verse (see the supplemental article, The Hebrew Language and the Book of Mormon):

Wo unto him that spurneth at the doings of the Lord

Wo unto him that shall deny the Christ and his works!

6 Yea, wo unto him that shall deny the revelations of the Lord, and that shall say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation, or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost!

verse 6 One cannot help but be reminded of the so-called orthodox Christians in the world today. Generally speaking, they believe the canon of scripture is closed and includes only the Bible. They believe the sixty-six books of the Bible contain all the truths necessary to bring individuals to salvation and enable them to live godly lives. During the time of the Reformation, when the Reformers were struggling against the claims of authority in the Roman Catholic Church, they often used the terms sola scriptura (“the scriptures alone”) and ad fontes (“to the sources”). The first term was shorthand for the doctrine that the scriptures alone, God’s written word, were authoritative for the declaration and definition of doctrine. The second was directed to Christians wanting to understand the gospel. They should turn back from all other potential sources of doctrine to the scriptures—the only real sources of doctrine.

7 Yea, and wo unto him that shall say at that day, to get gain, that there can be no miracle wrought by Jesus Christ; for he that doeth this shall become like unto the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy, according to the word of Christ!

verse 7 “to get gain” These are the preachers guilty of the sin of “priestcraft.” If a man represents himself as a priesthood or church leader, yet his primary motive is personal popularity, power, or financial gain rather than the selfless serving of his fellow man, then he is guilty of practicing priestcrafts or priestcraft.

Here, again, the term “son of perdition” seems to refer to Judas Iscariot (see the commentary for 3 Nephi 27:32).

Here, as near the conclusion of the record of Christ’s visit to the Book of Mormon lands, Mormon adds a short message directed to the Gentile future readers (comprising 3 Nephi 29–30). Mormon pronounced a series of “woes” against those Gentiles who would reject his words and deny the plans and promises of Christ contained therein. Mormon, in 3 Nephi 29:5–7, repeated the phrase “Wo unto him” several times. He exclaimed, “wo unto him that”:

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spurneth at the doings of the Lord

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shall deny the Christ and his works! (verse 5)

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shall deny the revelations of the Lord

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shall say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation, or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost! (verse 6)

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shall say at that day, to get gain, that there can be no miracle wrought by Jesus Christ (verse 7)

Mormon concludes his list with the warning, “He that doeth this shall become like unto the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy, according to the word of Christ!” (3 Nephi 29:7). Mormon warns that those who act in this way will become like Satan, the original son of perdition, if they do not change their ways. This form of warning is known as a “simile curse,” a form of curse using “like” or “as”, which is well known from Old Testament and other ancient Near Eastern covenant/treaty texts. We have discussed previously this type of curse (See Donald W. Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities in the Book of Mormon,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch, Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002, 156–159).

BYU Professor of Hebrew Bible, Donald W. Parry, has noted that the “Woe unto . . . ” statements in the Book of Mormon (Note that Jacob pronounces a series of ten woes in 2 Nephi 9:27–38 and Mormon similarly warns against ten grievous sins in 3 Nephi 30. For more on “woe” statements in the Book of Mormon, see John W. Welch, “Counting to Ten,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 2, 2003: 42–57, 113– 114) are also an example of a recognized genre of prophetic pronouncement known as the “woe oracle,” found in many of the prophetic books of the Old Testament (For example, Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20–22; Amos 5:18; Ezekiel 13:1–9; 34:1–10; 16:23– 27; Habakkuk 2:6, 9, 12, 15, 19; Hosea 7:13; Zephaniah 2:5; Zechariah 11:15–17), and also in the New Testament (For example, Matthew 11:21; 18:17; 23:23–33; Luke 6:24– 26; 42–51; Revelation 8:13; 12:12; 18:10). There are approximately forty examples of this formula in the Book of Mormon (For example, 1 Nephi 1:13; 2 Nephi 9:27; 15:21; 28:15; Jacob 3:3; Mosiah 3:12; Helaman 7:16–27;13:11–16; 3 Nephi 9:2; 28:4; Moroni 8:16, 21; 10:25, 26). Parry explained that the “woe oracle” is “often part of a judgment speech . . . used to pronounce anguish and distress upon a person or group of people” (Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities,” 170).

Woes were pronounced by prophets and by the Lord, Jesus, Himself when warning those who act out in rebellion against God’s plans, especially against His promises to His covenant people. They announce, as it were, an impending doom upon such offenders.

For example, in the first of several “woes” against the Jewish leadership of His day, Jesus exclaimed, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in” (Matthew 23:13).

3 Nephi 29–30 was written by Mormon as a conclusion to the record of the visit of Christ to the Americas, directed specifically to the Gentiles who would receive these words in the latter days. The record is meant to act as a sign to the Gentiles that the Lord has begun to fulfill his covenant with the children of Israel, “concerning their restoration to the lands of their inheritance” (3 Nephi 29:1).

Mormon foresaw that some of the Gentiles who would receive the Book of Mormon would doubt that the Lord would truly fulfill His word. They would believe that His “coming unto the children of Israel” would be delayed and that the words spoken by the prophets and by Christ Himself would be “vain” (3 Nephi 29:2–3). Mormon’s purpose in adding this addendum to the record in 3 Nephi, was to declare to such that “the Lord will remember his covenant which he hath made unto his people of the house of Israel,” that He would do for His covenant people “that which he hath sworn” (3 Nephi 29:8), and that the Lord would wield “the sword of his justice” against all those who denied or opposed His plans.

Although Mormon’s warnings are bold in decrying those who would work against the Lord and His people, he ultimately offered these offenders the promise of the Lord’s forgiveness. He announced that through repentance and baptism, they could receive the “remission of your sins,” the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and the opportunity to be “numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 30:2).

Readers may note the sincerity of the Lord’s promises to the Gentile readers when Mormon emphasizes that it was Jesus Christ Himself who “commanded” Mormon to add these words to his conclusion. The seriousness of the offenses addressed in the “woes,” augmented by the simile curse that “he that doeth this shall become like unto the son of perdition” (3 Nephi 29:7), underscores the idea that anyone can be forgiven for their sins. The Lord will extend His mercy to all that hear His word, are willing to change their ways, and are willing to enter into covenant with Him.

8 Yea, and ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them, and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn.

verse 8 The word “hiss” is used in the scriptures with two quite different meanings. Here the word is used in its pejorative or negative sense. It means to express disapproval by hissing and even carries with it the spirit of persecution.

It is also used negatively in the expression “hiss and a by-word.” This colorful expression is found in none other scripture than the Book of Mormon where it is found 3 Nephi 16:9 and 1 Nephi 19:14. In these verses the word “hiss” is used as a noun and means something like “someone or some thing spoken of in disapproving terms.” A “byword” or “byword” is, in this context, a person or thing known for contemptible qualities.

The word “hiss” may also have a positive meaning in that it is used to mean to signal to or call or notify (see 2 Nephi 15:26; Isaiah 5:26; 7:18; Zechariah 10:8; Moroni 10:28).

9 Therefore ye need not suppose that ye can turn the right hand of the Lord unto the left, that he may not execute judgment unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the house of Israel.

verse 9 This verse is reminiscent of the profound truth revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith when he was in Liberty Jail: “How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the

Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints” (D&C 121:33).

The colorful phrase “turn the right hand of the Lord unto the left” obviously means to thwart the Lord in his purposes.