Book of Mormon Made Harder.indb

Lesson 38

3 Nephi 12–15

This is one of the longer sets of notes, but even so I have left

a great deal unexplored. There is a great deal of material in

these chapters.

3 Nephi 12

Verse 1: Why does Jesus describe those he calls as minis-

ters and servants? What sense does it make to tell people

that they should pay attention to their servants? What is

going on here?

Verses 1–2: Why are those who have not seen and heard

more blessed than those who have?

Verse 3: This begins the parallel version of the Sermon on

the Mount. It may help you to read the two versions of the

sermon side by side. Sometimes the footnotes in Matthew

will also help you understand the version of the sermon

we have in 3 Nephi. What is the advantage of having two

almost identical accounts in scripture?

When Jesus delivers the sermon as Matthew reports it, the

setting is important to our understanding of it. Matthew

4:23 tells us, “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their

synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.”

Then Matthew 5–7 tells us the gospel that he preached.

As Matthew tells the story, Jesus seems deliberately to give

the Sermon on the Mount in a way that compares him to

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Moses: he goes up on a mountain and delivers a “new”

law for a multitude who are gathered at the base of the

mountain waiting for his return.

What is the setting in the Book of Mormon, and how might

it make the Nephites understand it differently than did

those in Galilee? In Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount

is partly a response to the Pharisaic focus on the law of

Moses. To what Nephite problem or problems might the

sermon in Zarahemla be a response?

Arthur Bassett has pointed out that we can understand

verse 3 as a repetition of verse 2, as a kind of summary of

the gospel. In that case, it isn’t one of the Beatitudes, and

the next verses, which are the Beatitudes, have a chiastic

pattern with mercy at its center:

A They that mourn shall be comforted (verse 4)

B The meek shall inherit the earth (verse 5)

C Those who hunger and thirst for righteous-

ness will be ﬁlled with the Holy Ghost (verse 6)

D The merciful will obtain mercy (verse 7)

C' The pure in heart will see God (verse 8)

B' Peacemakers will be the children of God (verse 9)

A' Those who are persecuted for righteousness will

receive a great reward, the kingdom of heaven (verses

10–12)

If you think that Bassett’s understanding of how these verses

are related to each other is plausible, why might the beati-

tudes center on mercy? Why would mercy be an important

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lesson for the Nephites? Have recent events made the neces-

sity of mercy clear? Which ones in particular, and how do

they do that?

Verse 3: What are other words that mean the same as

blessed?

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It cannot mean

that one has a spirit that is poor or wanting, so what does it

mean? In the King James translation of the Bible (KJV), the

phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” translates a Greek

phrase that could also be translated “the kingdom of heaven

belongs to them.” If we understood the phrase that way

here, would it give any additional meaning to the verse?

Verse 4: Compare this verse to Isaiah 61:2.

Verse 5: Who are the meek? In verses 39–42, the Savior will

give examples of meekness. Note, too, that this verse is a

quotation of Psalm 37:11. Why would Jesus quote from the

Old Testament so much in this explication of his gospel?

Verse 6: What false understandings of righteousness have

the Nephite and Lamanite prophets had to deal with? What

does Jesus teach about righteousness? Where, speciﬁcally,

do you ﬁnd a Book of Mormon explanation of what it

means to be righteous? The word translated “righteous-

ness” in the KJV translation of Matthew could also be

translated “justice.” Does that also make sense as a way of

understanding righteousness here? Why or why not?

Verse 7: What does mercy mean? What does it take to be

merciful? How are the requirement to be righteous (verse

6) and the requirement to be merciful related to each

other?

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Verse 8: The word translated “pure” in the KJV could also

have been translated “cleansed.” Is that relevant? What does

it mean to have a pure heart? What does it mean to see

God? Where do we see God?

Verse 9: Whom do you think Jesus has in mind when he

speaks of the peacemakers? (Does this have anything to

do with 3 Nephi 11:28?) Do verses 21–26 give us an idea

of what he means? What does it mean that the peacemak-

ers will be called the children of God? Aren’t we already his

children? Why might Jesus have associated being a peace-

maker with being a child of God?

Verses 11: We can see a division in the sermon at verse 11:

the Beatitudes (verses 4–10) give us the general descrip-

tion of the gospel, and the verses that follow expand on that

general description.

Verses 13–16: Do verses 13 and 14 teach the same thing,

or does each teach something different? Compare 3 Nephi

18:24 to verses 15–16; verse 16 seems to explain the other

verses in this group. What does verse 16 teach us about

good works?

Verses 17–20: What does it mean to say that Jesus did

not come to annul the law? How does verse 19 explain

the purpose of law? Does that explain why law cannot

save us—why an atonement was required? Verse 20 tells

us that obedience is required. How does that ﬁt with the

deﬁnition of his doctrine that the Savior gave in 3 Nephi

11:31–35, where obedience wasn’t mentioned and where

the Savior said that nothing more could be added to his

doctrine (3 Nephi 11:40)?

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Verses 21–26: Jesus seems to me to be giving examples of

what he meant when he spoke of peacemakers in verse 9.

Verses 22: Notice that the Book of Mormon and the JST

omit “without a cause” (Matthew 5:22 KJV) in verse 22—

as do almost all Greek manuscripts. How does that change

our understanding of the verse?

In verse 22, the word raca means the same thing as the

Greek word translated “fool” at the end of the verse. It

isn’t any stronger than the kinds of things we sometimes

say to each other when we are angry, such as “You idiot!”

What does Jesus mean, then, when he says (paraphrasing),

“Whoever calls his brother a fool is in danger of the com-

munity’s judgment, but whoever says ‘You fool’ is in danger

of hellﬁre”? Does it make a difference that the ﬁrst case is

about anger towards a brother and no one is speciﬁed in

the second? What is the point of verses 21–22?

Verses 23–24: What is Jesus saying about reconciliation?

Is it more or less important than worship? Notice that we

begin with the prohibition of murder in verse 21, move to

the prohibition of anger in verse 22, and ﬁnd a prohibi-

tion of hard feelings in verse 23. We would usually begin

with the least serious problem and work our way up to

the most serious. Why do you think the Savior reverses

the normal order?

Verses 25–26: Can you think of particular adversaries that

Jesus might have in mind in verses 25–26? How do these

examples apply to us?

Verses 27–28: In Galilee, these verses were directed at the

Pharisees and their insistence on the formalities of the

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Mosaic law. To whom do you think the verses would ap-

ply among the Nephites?

Verses 29–30: Jesus is obviously speaking hyperbolically.

What is the point of his hyperbole? Does he here give us a

deﬁnition of what it means to take up one’s cross?

Verses 31–32: The scripture to which Jesus refers (Deu-

teronomy 24:1) is unclear about the grounds for divorce.

It says that a man can put away his wife if he ﬁnds some-

thing shameful in her (“some uncleanness” in the King

James translation). In Galilee this was the basis for a major

debate about the grounds for divorce. How might these

words have been relevant to the Nephites? How are they

relevant to us? It isn’t easy to understand the exception

that Jesus allows here because in the KJV it isn’t clear what

Matthew means by the word translated “fornication.” The

Greek word that Matthew uses literally means “prostitu-

tion.” How do you understand these verses?

Verses 33–37: The part of the law that Jesus has in mind

here seems to be that found in places such as Exodus 20:7,

Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:3, and Deuteronomy 23:22.

How might the teaching in these verses have applied to the

Nephites? Can you think of speciﬁc problems to which this

would have been a response? How does it apply to us?

Verses 38–42: It appears that in the Mosaic law “an eye for

an eye” was not a directive as to how much punishment to

inﬂict, but a limitation on the retribution one could seek:

if someone puts out your eye, you have no right to demand

more than the recompense for that eye.

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A more accurate translation of the ﬁrst part of Matthew

5:39 might be “resist not the one who troubles you [or the

one who deﬁes you].” Would that also be a reasonable way

to understand the ﬁrst part of verse 39 here? What do these

verses teach us about how we are to respond to physical

violence? How does this teaching compare to what we ﬁnd

in D&C 98:16–48? How does it compare to the way that the

Book of Mormon prophets dealt with violence?

What do these verses teach us about how we should deal

with others in legal contention? The demand of verse 41 is

one dictated by Roman law: a Roman soldier could compel

others to carry his baggage a mile, so the general topic seems

to be something like “the demands of the government.” How

would the Nephites have understood this verse?

What do these verses teach us about how we should re-

spond to the demands of those who oppress us? Compare

verse 42 to Mosiah 4:16–23. What obligation is Jesus giv-

ing us in verse 42?

Verses 43–47: The Old Testament teaches that we must love

our neighbor. (See Leviticus 19:18.) But nowhere does it

teach that we should hate our enemies. How do you think

this idea of hating one’s enemies became part of the under-

standing of the commandment to love our neighbors? What

particular enemies does verse 44 suggest Jesus had in mind?

What reason does verse 45 give for loving our enemies?

What does verse 45 suggest that it means to be one of God’s

children? Why might these verses have been even more im-

portant to the Nephites than they were to the Jews?

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Verse 48: This verse marks a signiﬁcant break in the ser-

mon, the culmination to this point. As such, perhaps we

should understand it as a restatement of verse 3. Can you

think of ways in which those verses mean the same? In the

corresponding verse in Matthew, notice the footnote that

explains what the word perfect means: whole, complete,

ﬁnished, developed. A better translation of the Matthew

verse might be: “Be ye therefore whole, even as your Father

in heaven is whole.” Does that tell us anything about how

to understand this verse?

I believe that Jesus may be quoting or paraphrasing Leviti-

cus 19:2 here: “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am

holy.” What does it mean to be holy? The Hebrew word in

Leviticus means “sacred” or “set apart.” Does that help us

understand what it means to be holy? To be whole?

James speaks of the double-minded person (James 1:8).

What does it mean to be double minded? In contrast, what

does it mean to be whole?

Can we be whole in this life? If not, then why has Jesus

commanded us to be whole?

Is wholeness something that pertains only to myself—I

must be undivided—or is it something that also pertains

to my relation with others, including God—my relations

with others must be whole? What would it mean for a rela-

tion not to be whole?

How does the Sermon on the Mount teach us to be per-

fect, or whole? Assuming that the chiasm we saw in verses

4–12 is accurate, does it suggest anything about how we

are to be perfect? Is it possible to use the concept of mercy

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to restate or rethink each of the speciﬁc discussions that

we saw in verses 11–47? What does mercy have to do with

wholeness or perfection?

3 Nephi 13

Verses 1–7: Joseph Smith said, “I have a key by which I un-

derstand the scriptures. I enquire, what was the question

which drew out the answer, or caused Jesus to utter the par-

able? . . . To ascertain its meaning, we must dig up the root

and ascertain what it was that drew the saying out of Jesus”

(History of the Church, 5:261–62). Though that is a method

of interpreting parables, presumably the same principle

applies to other teachings. The corresponding verses in

Matthew answered particular questions that the saints in

the areas of Jerusalem and Galilee had to deal with. What

Nephite questions do they answer? Did these verses mean

something different for the Nephites than they did for the

Jews?

We probably have no difﬁculty condemning the behavior

described in verses 1–2, but do we have difﬁculty living the

principle taught in verses 3–4? What obstacles do we face in

that regard? The teaching in these verses seems, on the sur-

face, to conﬂict with the teaching in 3 Nephi 5:14–16, but

since both are the teachings of the Savior, we must assume

that they do not. How would you explain these teachings so

that they do not conﬂict?

Verses 3–4, 5–6: These two proscriptions are parallel. Why do

you think that is so? Against what is Jesus warning in them?

To whom is he referring when he speaks of “the heathen”?

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Verses 8–9: Verse 8 tells us that the Father knows before we

ask what we need. Verse 9 says therefore we should pray in

the manner to be described. Why does the Father’s knowl-

edge of our needs mean that we should pray in that way?

Verses 9–13: Compare this version of the Lord’s Prayer to

the version in Matthew 6:9–13, noting the differences (dif-

ferences that remain if you compare the Joseph Smith revi-

sion of the Bible with the Book of Mormon).

What does it mean to pray that the Father’s name will be

hallowed, in other words, holy? Why is the phrase “thy

kingdom come” missing from this prayer, though we see it

in the Matthew version? Why is the prayer for daily bread

missing in the Book of Mormon version of the prayer?

How are sins like debts?

What does this verse say about the connection between our

relation to others and our salvation?

Why does the Lord speak of the Father leading us into

temptation in both versions of the prayer?

Paraphrased, verse 13 says “because the kingdom, the

power, and the glory belong to thee forever.” How does the

word for (“because”) connect the ﬁnal part of the prayer to

the rest? Does it relate only back to the immediately previ-

ous verse—forgive us as we forgive our debtors because the

kingdom, power, and glory belong to thee forever—or does

it relate back to something else?

Verses 14–15: Why does the Savior add this commentary

on the prayer? Why is the only part of the prayer on which

he comments the part about forgiveness?

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Verses 16–18: Notice the parallel between these verses and

verses 3–4 and 5–6. What do you make of that parallel? The

Lord addresses signs of mourning and repentance that come

from the early part of the Old Testament, and he seems to be

saying, “You must go beyond these.” How would a person go

beyond them? Is there anything similar in our own worship?

What would it be, and how would we go beyond it?

Verses 19–23: Only righteousness results in anything of

lasting value, and what we treasure tells us what we value.

What is the Lord teaching here about righteousness? Do

these verses help us understand better whom he was speak-

ing of in 3 Nephi 12:6 when he spoke of those who hunger

and thirst after righteousness?

Verses 24–34: Verse 24 provides a transition to a new theme:

we cannot serve both God and possessions (Mammon).

Verses 25–31 give various examples of what that means: we

need not take thought for ourselves and our provisions be-

cause God will provide.

The Greek translated as “take no thought” in the KJV might

be better translated “don’t be anxious” or “don’t worry.”

Does that change your understanding of these verses and

what Jesus commands?

President John Taylor once taught that these verses do

not apply to people generally, but to those who serve in

the church through the priesthood (Hyrum M. Smith and

Janne M. Sjodahl, Doctrine and Covenants Commentary,

rev. ed. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1965], 462–63). How

do they apply to them? How does verse 33 explain verses

24–32?

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What does “Sufﬁcient is the day unto the evil thereof”

(verse 34) mean? It isn’t a quotation from scripture but

seems to be a Jewish proverb of Jesus’s time. What could it

have meant to the Nephites who probably didn’t have the

same proverb? What does it mean to us?

3 Nephi 14

Verses 1–5: When are we guilty of the kind of judgment

of which Jesus speaks here? Notice that though the Mat-

thew text and the 3 Nephi text are very similar here, they

are both quite different from the text in the Joseph Smith

Translation. (For some of the differences, see page 802 in

your Bible.) How do you explain that?

Verse 6: What is Jesus teaching here? When would we be

giving holy things to the dogs or casting our pearls before

swine? How do we avoid doing so?

Verses 7–11: The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew keeps petition

to only one line (daily bread) while the version of 3 Nephi

omits it altogether. Here, however, we see that we are com-

manded to petition for our needs. Is there a contradiction

between the Lord’s Prayer and these verses? Explain what

you think. If the Father already knows our needs (3 Nephi

12: 8, 32), why should we petition at all? In verse 11, Jesus

calls those to whom he speaks evil. Is he being hyperbolic?

Why does he use that term?

Verse 12: This is one version of the Golden Rule. Can a

person who is not pure in heart use the Golden Rule as an

accurate standard of his conduct? What problem might he

encounter using it?

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Verses 13–14: Remember that the word strait means “nar-

row”: the gate leading to destruction is wide and the road

to destruction is spacious, but the gate leading to life—

eternal life—is narrow. What does it mean to say that few

ﬁnd the strait gate?

Verses 15–20: We can recognize prophets by their fruits.

Notice that verse 19 is a word-for-word repetition of John

the Baptist’s teaching (Matthew 3:10). Does it make any

difference that those in Galilee would probably have recog-

nized that Jesus was speaking of John, while those in Zara-

hemla almost certainly would not? Why was this teaching

particularly important in Jesus’s time? How is it important

to us today? Where do we encounter false prophets?

Verses 21–23: To whom is Jesus referring when he speaks

of those who say “Lord, Lord” to him? Of those who

prophesy in his name? Of those who do miracles in his

name? Why would some who did these things be excluded

from his presence? How can prophesying in Jesus’s name

and working miracles be iniquitous? Do any of the teach-

ings that have come before this in the sermon answer that

question?

Verses 24–27: What does it mean to hear the sayings of

Christ and do them? What does it mean to hear them and

not do them? As the Lord gives this parable, what do build-

ing on rock and building on sand have to do with doing

and not doing? How do these verses relate to Deuteronomy

6:4–9? How do they relate to 3 Nephi 14:21–23?

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3 Nephi 15

Verse 2: The Nephites respond to this sermon by wonder-

ing about the passing of the law of Moses. How was the

response in Galilee different? Do those differences tell us

anything about the two groups of people?

Verse 8: What speciﬁcally is Christ referring to when he says

“the law which was given unto Moses”? Are the Ten Com-

mandments part of that law? How do we know what has

been fulﬁlled and what hasn’t? What covenant was made

that has not been completely fulﬁlled?

The word end has various meanings, including “cessation

of existence,” “ﬁnal destination,” and “purpose.” Which

meaning do you think the Lord means when he says “the

law . . . hath an end in me”?

Verse 9: What does the Savior mean when he says, “I am

the law, and the light”? How is he, a person, the law? How

is that different from the law of Moses? What does he mean

when he says, “Look unto me”? How do we look unto him?

What is the signiﬁcance of that metaphor?

Verse 11: What does this suggest about whom the Lord has

been speaking to up to this point?

Verses 14–24: Why do you think the Father didn’t want

those in Jerusalem to know about those on these conti-

nents or the “other tribes”? He says it is because of iniquity,

but how does that explain it? Does this mean that even the

apostles did not know? Does verse 18 also describe them?

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