Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon — 3 Nephi 12-16

This week for Come, Follow Me lesson 40 covering 3 Nephi 12-16, we have lectures 84 and 85 from Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering 3 Nephi 11-20. These were the last two classes in semester 3. At the start of semester 4, the lectures jump back to the beginning of 3 Nephi and lectures 86 through 100 discuss chapters we have already covered and on up through 3 Nephi 18 in more detail. Therefore, this week, we have a total of 17 lectures!

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 84: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 11-15.

Also called “The Lord Teaches His People.”
Notice what happens. The Savior comes to them. If you were writing this, it would be the biggest challenge of all when you came to the big climax—the Lord finally comes. Now what does he do? What does he say? Does he just repeat the New Testament? Well, he does and a lot more too.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/84-nibley-lect-84-3-Nephi-11-15.mp3

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Lecture 85: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 16–20.

Also called “The Joy of the Lord’s Visit.”
We should notice some things here, such as the theme of the other sheep in 3 Nephi 16. Notice, suddenly it broadens out immensely. The other sheep all must be considered. Every individual in the whole world is going to get the full treatment. Here we see the earth from space, as one world, in this 16th chapter here, with all these other tribes. Then why is Israel so small in that case?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/85-nibley-lect-85-3-Nephi-16-20.mp3

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Lecture 86: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 6.

Also called “The Horse in the Americas; War and Prosperity.“
Why is 3 Nephi 6:1 a good place to begin a story? It ends one phase; it ends the war. It’s the end of an epic, and we begin a new phase.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/86-nibley-BOM-lect-86-3-Nephi-6.mp3

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Lecture 87: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 6.

Also called “Style of Writing in the Book of Mormon; Pride, Gain, and Power.“
To start out I should ask a question. What do you notice in the first two verses of 3 Nephi 6? What do they have in common? What particular stylistic use do you find in the opening sentences of these two verses?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/87-nibley-BOM-lect-87-3-Nephi-6.mp3

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Lecture 88: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 6–7.

Also called “Government; Families and Tribes.“
A strange thing has happened, you see, very disturbing. Everything was going so well. They’d come through a terrible time; then everything was going too well. It all “came up roses”; everything was happy. Then we’re told in 3 Nephi 6:5 that things couldn’t be better. There was nothing to keep them from being completely happy. There were no economic, social, or any other kinds of problems except in themselves—that was the only trouble. And almost immediately things started going bad. It tells us the cause of it was what? We’ve already seen that. But in that case, what do you do? Isn’t that a remarkable parallel to things now?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/88-nibley-BOM-lect-88-3-Nephi-6-7.mp3

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Lecture 89: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 7–8.

Also called “Conversion; Signs and Destruction.“
3 Nephi 7:14 talks about the splinter groups that always take place. You’re always going to find them, and they’re characteristic. This is the way it happens. You notice how rich this verse is.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/89-nibley-BOM-lect-89-3-Nephi-7-8.mp3

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Lecture 90: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 9.

Also called “Destruction and Blessings.“
Now we’re really getting in over our heads here. This chapter nine is pretty deep stuff. See, the Lord in the aretalogy tells us that he’s been doing all the destroying that’s been going on here. But first of all, what is the theme of the Book of Mormon? The theme of the Book of Mormon is, of course, salvation in Jesus Christ. But what is its historical message? What is its particular message to us? Remember, Parley P. Pratt wrote A Voice of Warning about the Book of Mormon. What’s it warning us against?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/90-nibley-BOM-lect-90-3-Nephi-9.mp3

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Lecture 91: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 9-10.

Also called “The Early Christians; The FIve Gospels.“
The whole Book of Mormon is centered on one focal point, isn’t it? It’s like a burning glass centered with ferocious concentration on one single point. What is there in chapters 9 and 10 of 3 Nephi that points that out? One little word keeps hammering away, repeating and repeating. The whole Book of Mormon is just centered on one person, isn’t it? And who is that? Christ.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/91-nibley-BOM-lect-91-3-Nephi-9-10.mp3

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Lecture 92: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi.

Also called “Resurrection; The Forty-Day Ministry; Reality.“
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts show what remarkable fact about the resurrection toward which everybody had looked forward, which was to be the great climax of human history? When it actually happened, what was the reaction of most people to it, including members of the Church and apostles? Did they say, “Hooray, hooray, it has happened at last?” When somebody told them about it, what did they say? You’d expect them to be dancing in the streets.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/92-nibley-BOM-lect-92-3-Nephi.mp3

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Lecture 93: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi; Psalm 19.

Also called “Physical and Spiritual Bodies; Anthropism.“
There’s a difference between being naughty and being vicious and rancorous. It goes back to this marvelous idea we have in 3 Nephi. To the Christian world, Adam’s fall was the sin. There was everything nasty and vile that followed it. The world had become so nasty, corrupt, and decayed that Christians decided that having a body means being vile. You don’t have to, you know.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/93-nibley-BOM-lect-93-3-Nephi-Psalm-19.mp3

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Lecture 94: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 9–13.

Also called “Christ’s Ministry and Teachings.“
This sixth chapter—isn’t it something? Didn’t it just knock you off the Christmas tree? What’s the remarkable thing about it? I think it’s the most powerful editorial for us in the whole Book of Mormon, probably. I say that about every chapter, but this one really does it. This one covers all the ground. You’ll notice it starts out with a model society. They’ve been through a long war and suffered terribly. They return as a model society. They reform very wisely. They rehabilitate the enemy and all this sort of thing and begin immense prosperity. And then they start becoming spoiled. Then business becomes everything, and they’re divided into classes. Then, lo and behold, you get a secret government, the lawyers take over, and everything collapses. That’s the sixth chapter—what a marvelous cycle! It’s probably the most condensed cycle. Is it the story of American capitalism? Well, read it carefully; it’s very condensed. There’s an awful lot in it, but the next chapter does just like it. And what is the result of that?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/94-nibley-BOM-lect-94-3-Nephi-9-13.mp3

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Lecture 95: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 11–17.

Also called “Christ’s Membership; Christ’s Ministry.“
The editor of a Catholic journal told me in a letter that Joseph Smith was merely repeating the New Testament in 3 Nephi—it’s just the same old story. Well, what would you say to that? What did Jesus Christ say about that? He explained why he was telling them those things, and what did he say? Remember, he said, these are the same things which I taught the Jews in Jerusalem. Now, here’s the question. Would you expect him to teach something different?

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/95-nibley-3-Nephi-11-17.mp3

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Lecture 96: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 11–19.

Also called “Resurrection; The Forty-Day Ministry; Blessing the Children.“
The apostles made lost writings, a lot of them, and they are very rich. I notice that I cite fifty to a hundred of them here in this article, just dealing with the resurrection, that were not known or published in Joseph Smith’s day. Why do you think they weren’t widely published by the Christian world? They are the oldest writings we have, incidentally. The oldest Christian writings we have nearly all talk about the resurrection and nearly all have the heading “The Things Which the Lord Taught the Disciples in Secret after the Resurrection.” Why didn’t the Christian world preserve them? Well, it did—under cover.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/96-nibley-3-Nephi-11-19.mp3

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Lecture 97: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 11.

Also called “The Sermon at the Temple; Law and Covenant.“
We all know the Sermon on the Mount—that’s Matthew 5–7. The Sermon at the Temple is in 3 Nephi 11–18. It is a monumental text. It is one of those texts that acts as a “Grand Central Station,” a switchboard through which almost everything else in the Book of Mormon sooner or later will pass.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/97-nibley-BOM-3-Nephi-11.mp3

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Lecture 98: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 11.

Also called “Christ at the Nephite Temple.“
Turn your attention to the content of the message of Jesus in the first part of the Sermon at the Temple. This is a sobering, deeply spiritual experience that the Nephites there at the temple in Bountiful were blessed to participate in. I am always humbled whenever I approach this text. As King Benjamin said, these texts are here that we can relive the experiences that those people were blessed to experience.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/98-nibley-BOM-3-Nephi-11.mp3

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Lecture 99: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 12–14.

Also called “The Beatitudes; Christ’s Teachings.“
We continue our probing and developing of the hypothesis that the Sermon at the Temple provides us with temple-rich material which when viewed in a covenant-making context takes on new and important meanings and significance. I would like to continue to test this hypothesis in terms of looking at each of the elements in the text to see if they can be understood in this way.

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/99-nibley-BOM-3-Nephi-12-14.mp3

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Lecture 100: Book of Mormon—3 Nephi 15–18.

Also called “Sacrament Prayers; Implications of the Sermon at the Temple.“
Finishing up the last few elements in the Sermon at the Temple and considering some implications

https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/nibley/audio/Book-of-Mormon-Class/100-nibley-3-Nephi-15-18.mp3

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