Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 33

This week for Come, Follow Me lesson 33 covering Alma 43-52, we have lectures 57 through 70 (14 lectures!) from Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering Alma 45–54.

During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.

All 112 lectures are immediately available in PDF, audio, video, and electronic formats, as well as in paperback books that are available for purchase. Links for all of the available online sources can be found in the Complete Bibliography for Hugh Nibley at https://interpreterfoundation.org/bibliographies/hugh-w-nibley/lectures/.

Lecture 57: Book of Mormon—Alma 45.

Also called “Periodic Extinctions.”
Well, we obviously are living at the end of an age when things are going to change. We have to do something about it. What’s the handbook? What do we do? I panic when I read things like this. One answer comes—the Book of Mormon. You may think that’s a paradox, but it isn’t. We’ll see what the Book of Mormon is going to tell us.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/57-nibley-BOM-Alma-45.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 58: Book of Mormon—A Review.

Also called “A Review of Book of Mormon Themes.”
I thought that since we are going to begin with Alma 46 and since I have not been looking especially at the Book of Mormon all summer, and neither have you, a review might be in order.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/58-nibley-Themes.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 59: Book of Mormon—Alma 46.

Also called “Book of Mormon Themes; Apostasy.”
We were talking about these recurrent themes in the Book of Mormon.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/59-nibley-Alma-46.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 60: Book of Mormon—Alma 46.

Also called “The Title of Liberty; The Dead Sea Scrolls; The Flag of Kawe.”
We are on Alma 46. I said it before and I say it again. If this was all Joseph Smith ever left us, it would be very powerful evidence to his being a true prophet. It starts out on a theme that has become painfully obvious today.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/60-nibley-BOM-Alma-46.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 61: Book of Mormon—Alma 46.

Also called “Evidence of the Authenticity of the Book of Mormon.”
The prodigality of Alma 46 leaves my poor old noggin bemused. I don’t know how to handle it. I made a list last night of sixteen points of evidence it brings out, any one of which would be enough to write a book about. Just now before the class a question occurred to me, and it is very important for us to answer it here. Is our main interest here proving the Book of Mormon? No. What is our main interest in the Book of Mormon? Learning more about its message.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/61-nibley-BOM-Alma-46.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 62: Book of Mormon—Alma 46.

Also called “The Garment of Joseph; Religious Brotherhoods.”
We were talking about the battles and the scrolls. We are told in Alma 46:20 that Moroni waves his banner and summons the people to maintain this title upon the land, entering into a covenant with the Lord. They make a covenant, and they not only come under the banner but they also sign their names. They sign all their names.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/62-nibley-BOM-Alma-46.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 63: Book of Mormon—Alma 47.

Also called “Religious Brotherhoods; The World (Babylon); Nomadic Warlords.”
In Alma 47 it becomes clear that there are different kinds of civilizations we are dealing with. We said last time that there are four different kinds. Why should there be four? Throughout the world—down at Lincoln Beach and all over South America, North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa you will find petroglyphs, and the commonest of all petroglyphs is this. That’s the quadrata. What do you think this stands for? It’s the sign of the cosmos. How do you think the most primitive people would be aware of the fact that it should be divided into no less than four parts? Those people are aware of it being on the earth because they look at the sky. What do you learn from the sky? In what direction does the sun rise? The sun goes down in the west and it comes up again in the east. Everybody notices that, you know. But today you’ll notice an interesting thing.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/63-nibley-Alma-47.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 64: Book of Mormon—Alma 47.

Also called “Tragedy and Suffering in the Scriptures.”
Now we are on chapter 47 and some interesting phenomena emerge. You think everything will be an anticlimax after 46, don’t you? Well, you’re wrong. There are no anticlimaxes in the Book of Mormon, at least not many of them.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/64-nibley-Alma-47.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 65: Book of Mormon—Alma 48.

Also called “Warfare; World War II Memories.”
Now we have chapter 48. Do you think this going to be a letdown? This is on another subject, and it’s a “dilly.” It’s on war. Why do we have to bother about that? We’re beyond that sort of barbarism today, aren’t we? Well, I think I can save trouble by reading the introduction to a section on war.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/65-nibley-BOM-Alma-48.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 66: Book of Mormon—Alma 48.

Also called “Abraham; Clausewitz’s Rules of War; World War II Memories.”
You’re perfectly free to read the Book of Mormon anytime you want to, as fast as you want to. That’s not the idea. I’m pointing out a few things which you would overlook, which you wouldn’t see. These are important things, I think. I know you’ve overlooked them, because I’ve overlooked them for sixty years.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/66-nibley-BOM-Alma-48.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 67: Book of Mormon—Alma 48–49.

Also called “Clausewitz’s Rules of War.”
We ask why dwell on the savagery of ancient wars, of all things, in this enlightened age? The answer is because we haven’t changed one bit. It’s exactly as it was before. I came out by the same door wherein I went. This is one of the great lessons of the Book of Mormon—that we don’t improve, we don’t get any better at all. Today most men are as dense as they have ever been, and no matter how far back you go in time, you’ll find people just as enlightened as any alive today. The picture never changes; the balance never changes. That’s a sweeping statement, but it’s true.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/67-nibley-Alma-48-49.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 68: Book of Mormon—Alma 49–50.

Also called “Clausewitz’s Rules of War; World War II Memories.”
“I don’t want to get morbidly engaged with this military stuff, but it has got me quite excited. We were talking about the “fog of war.” The main reason is that the Book of Mormon sets this forth so beautifully, so clearly, so succinctly. One hundred and seventy pages is quite an essay on war, but it

treats every aspect. It doesn’t leave anything untouched and it’s marvelous. Everything is in context. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll see this.“

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/68-nibley-BOM-Alma-49-50.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 69: Book of Mormon—Alma 49–52.

Also called “World War II Memories.”
Well, the major earthquake on October 17, 1989, shows us certainly that things can get rough in this enlightened age. Of course, later on the Book of Mormon has a great deal to say about that sort of happening. Now we are dealing with the war sort of happening. We don’t want to linger on it too long, though the Book of Mormon, we notice, spends a lot of time on it. There’s a reason for that. As I said, we can read the Book of Mormon anytime, but there are some things that must be pointed out here.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/69-nibley-BOM-Alma-49-52.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Lecture 70: Book of Mormon—Alma 52–54.

Also called “The Prevalence of Warfare.”
What kind of religious book is this that goes on telling us who moved where and what forces go where? Why the purely technical side? Well, these are the games men play, and there’s a purpose for putting them in here. Why these games? Is this to be the nature of our probation, waging battle?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/70-nibley-lect-70-alma-52-54.mp3

Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

Contents