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Annotations |
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Chapter 8
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1 And it came to pass that we had gathered together all
manner of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of the
seeds of fruit of every kind.
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As I understand it, certain sediments collect pollen from
local plants and are easily dated, so if a particular plant were common at a
particular place and time, we would expect to easily find its pollen in
particular strata of sediment. Yet, there is no evidence of a migration of
any plants from the old world to the new at the time Lehi and company are
said to have come to the Americas, even though this says seeds of every kind
were gathered. Apparently they never got these plants to flourish in the
Americas.
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2 And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the
wilderness he spake unto us, saying: Behold, I have dreamed a dream; or, in
other words, I have seen a vision.
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I love the similarities between Lehi’s vision of the tree
of life and Joseph Smith Senior’s vision of a tree of life in 1811, about 18
years before the Book of Mormon translation (Joseph Smith Sr.’s Remarkable Vision of the Tree of Life).
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3 And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I
have reason to rejoice in the Lord because of Nephi and also of Sam; for I
have reason to suppose that they, and also many of their seed, will be saved.
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4 But behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because
of you; for behold, methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary wilderness.
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5 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed
in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.
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6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me
follow him.
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7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld
myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.
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8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in
darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me,
according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
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9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I
beheld a large and spacious field.
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10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit
was desirable to make one happy.
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11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of
the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever
before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed
all the whiteness that I had ever seen.
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12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul
with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family
should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other
fruit.
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13 And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might
discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it
was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit.
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14 And I looked to behold from whence it came; and I saw
the head thereof a little way off; and at the head thereof I beheld your
mother Sariah, and Sam, and Nephi; and they stood as if they knew not whither
they should go.
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There are only three Book of Mormon women named:
Sariah, Abish, and Isabel-the Harlot.
(Biblical women named in the Book of Mormon: Eve, Mary,
and Sarah, Abraham’s wife)
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15 And it came to pass that I beckoned unto them; and I
also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me, and
partake of the fruit, which was desirable above all other fruit.
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16 And it came to pass that they did come unto me and
partake of the fruit also.
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17 And it came to pass that I was desirous that Laman and
Lemuel should come and partake of the fruit also; wherefore, I cast mine eyes
towards the head of the river, that perhaps I might see them.
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18 And it came to pass that I saw them, but they would not
come unto me and partake of the fruit.
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19 And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the
bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood.
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20 And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came
along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led
by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had
been a world.
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21 And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom
were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the
tree by which I stood.
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22 And it came to pass that they did come forth, and
commence in the path which led to the tree.
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23 And it came to pass that there arose a mist of
darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they
who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and
were lost.
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24 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing
forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron;
and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod
of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.
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25 And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree
they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed.
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26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the
other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood
as it were in the air, high above the earth.
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27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both
male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they
were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who
had come at and were partaking of the fruit.
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28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were
ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into
forbidden paths and were lost.
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This verse explains that some of those who have tasted of
the fruit of the tree of life fall away into forbidden paths and are lost
because they were ashamed as a result of the mocking of others. Again,
according to this text, this is another invalid reason for not staying the
course.
As a former devout member of the LDS Church, I’m “lost” in a forbidden path,
according to the Church, but I could not care less what others think. Having
been a devout High Priest living in Utah County, if I were predominantly
concerned about what others think, it would have an influence to shame or
pressure me to stay in the Church.
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29 And now I, Nephi, do not speak all the words of my
father.
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30 But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other
multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the
rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast
to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the
fruit of the tree.
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31 And he also saw other multitudes feeling their way
towards that great and spacious building.
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32 And it came to pass that many were drowned in the
depths of the fountain; and many were lost from his view, wandering in
strange roads.
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Again, according to this text, notice the invalid reasons
for not staying the course and the results being horrendous—drowning in the
depths, becoming lost, wandering in strange roads.
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33 And great was the multitude that did enter into that
strange building. And after they did enter into that building they did point
the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also;
but we heeded them not.
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34 These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded
them, had fallen away.
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35 And Laman and Lemuel partook not of the fruit, said my
father.
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36 And it came to pass after my father had spoken all the
words of his dream or vision, which were many, he said unto us, because of
these things which he saw in a vision, he exceedingly feared for Laman and
Lemuel; yea, he feared lest they should be cast off from the presence of the
Lord.
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37 And he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a
tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would
be merciful to them, and not cast them off; yea, my father did preach unto
them.
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38 And after he had preached unto them, and also
prophesied unto them of many things, he bade them to keep the commandments of
the Lord; and he did cease speaking unto them.
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Syntax:
room &optional x => implementation-dependent
Arguments and Values:
x---one of t, nil, or :default.
Description:
room prints, to standard output, information about the state of internal storage and its management. This might include descriptions of the amount of memory in use and the degree of memory compaction, possibly broken down by internal data type if that is appropriate. The nature and format of the printed information is implementation-dependent. The intent is to provide information that a programmer might use to tune a program for a particular implementation.
(room nil) prints out a minimal amount of information. (room t) prints out a maximal amount of information. (room) or (room :default) prints out an intermediate amount of information that is likely to be useful.
Examples: None.
Side Effects:
Output to standard output.
Affected By:
Exceptional Situations: None.
See Also: None.
Notes: None.


(X + Y + Z) * n = R
X = 50
Y = 36
Z = 1
n = Randomly generated integer number between 1 and 5
R = Calculated result
Guess which value (X, Y or Z) was not used within the formular
Calculated Result