This video is the inaugural Scripture Roundtable from the Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss chapters of 3 Nephi 1-7 from the Book of Mormon, bringing in various insights to help us better understand these scriptures.
Panelists in attendance are Benjamin McGuire, Brant Gardner, Bryce Haymond, Daniel Peterson, and William Hamblin.
Next week we plan to discuss 3 Nephi 8-11. We want these discussions to be interactive. Please let us know if you have any topics or questions you’d like us to address in these chapters, and we will select some to talk about during next week’s roundtable.
The Scripture Roundtable is also available as an audio podcast, and will be included in the podcast feed. You can listen by pressing the play button or download the podcast below:
Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:37 — 18.8MB)
I have a question on 3 Nephi 8:5 it states, “And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm.” Mormon (as editor) is very specific here on the exact date that the storm/earthquake that happened. Mormon also seems to write very consecutively in his writings – he seems overly concerned that we know the exact dates etc of events (unlike Nephi or Moroni). Then in 3 Nephi 10:18 Mormon gives another date, “And it came to pass that in the ending of the thirty and fourth year, behold, I will show unto you that the people of Nephi who were spared, and also those who had been called Lamanites, who had been spared, did have great favors shown unto them, and great blessings poured out upon their heads, insomuch that soon after the ascension of Christ into heaven he did truly manifest himself unto them—.” So you have the begining of the year and now the end of the 34th year. I have seen in a recent book by Brother S. Kent Brown that he seemed to indicate that it took possibly a year before the Lord came to the Temple Bountiful. Most other writers/movies seem to indicate that is was just a few days or hours after the storm that the Lord visited the people. After seeing the destruction in Japan with their earthquake – it seems to make more sense to me that it was longer than just a few days or hours. Possibly the people were going to the Temple a year later for some significant holy day and that is when the visitation occured. I guess that the “soon after” is the question. What does that mean? Any comments on this sequence of events. If it was aproximately a year for the Lord to come than I think that it adds to the story and the need to be prepared for a calamity even if for a year not only spritually but physically. We are asked to have a year supply of food etc to support our families and as I understand it the visit of the Lord and destruction that preceded it for the Nephites will parallel the events of the Last Days. This seems interesting to me because Mormon seems to be so specific in his time schedule and he commends us to be more wise that they have been.
Excellent! Thank you so much! Looking forward to the next installment.
Maurice & Alicia in Saudi Arabia
I enjoyed your group discussion of III Nephi chapters 1-7. I am currently serving in Afghanistan and today is Friday, our day of rest here, so to listen to your “gospel doctrine lesson” was a delightful Sunday School treat to listen to as I awoke this morning to check my e-mail. I can personally identify with Bro Peterson’s comments on the Gadianton Robbers as they relate to the Taliban and other extreme militant groups that sally forth from their mountain strongholds for hit and run attacks. This is an ancient phenomena and will certainly continue right up until the end of days. I can only imagine it happening to this same degree in the mountain fastness of North America.
Thank you for this refreshing discussion of 3 Nephi 1-7. My husband, who has a Masters Degree in Ancient Scripture from BYU, will be happy that I can now discuss the scriptures more in depth with him.