5 Comments

  1. Mark Greene

    There are some prominent “temple texts” in the Book of Mormon. Other than King Benjamin’s speech there is Jacob’s speech at the temple which beautifully talks about the temple doctrine of broken hearts becoming pure hearts by “feasting upon his love” (Jacob 3: 1-3). The people of Gideon clearly had temple doctrine and liturgy taught to them by Alma. The key words are “enter into a covenant”, “paths of righteousness”, “one eternal round”, “unholy temples”, “the holy order of God”, “patience,temperate, diligent”, “faith, hope, charity”, “abound in good works”, “garments spotless”, “to go no more out”, and “peace of God rest upon you” (see Alma 7: 15-27). The key verse is Alma 8:1, Alma having taught the people of Gideon “many things which cannot be written”. Christ’s temple sermon on the mount in 3rd Nephi clearly teaches the major covenants of the current endowment. One of my favorite temple verses in the Book of Mormon is Ether 12:32.

  2. Excellent examples Mark! Thank you for sharing them. I have found many such connections to the temple in the Book of Mormon, even if it is just a word here or there. We’ll try to share those on this blog as we come upon them.

  3. Eric

    Great blog – I just found it a few months ago and am working through it slowly (hence my long-delayed comment). Something that you didn’t mention here, but is significant is that the people came and pitched tents, much like what would take place in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles. I forget where I got this idea, likely from some reading of some LDS scholar. It seems to be supported by Mosiah 1:10 in which Mosiah is instructed to gather all the people together tomorrow. We don’t know how many people gathered, but it was enough that they all couldn’t hear. Gathering that many people to Zarahemla in one day might have been difficult, and so it may be that the people were already gathered for a feast and only needed to be told that King Benjamin was going to speak to them. Of course, this reads a number of things into the text that aren’t there, but it seems plausible.

    One thing I love about King Benjamin’s sermon is that from the very beginning, King Benjamin had the intention of giving his people a name to distinguish them, and one that would never be blotted out except by transgression (Mosiah 1:11-12). Also, this event would be a coronation of a new king. Some interesting parallels.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.