Alma 37 as a Temple Text

The Book of Mormon is written in code.₁ It has many layers. On the surface we read the stories, wars, sermons, and the situations the heroes in the text find themselves in. Underneath the text there is the message about the mysteries of God, the temple, and character of the Father and Son.

Alma’s message to his son Helaman in Alma 37 is filled with temple symbolism. This post is just the cliff notes version. I leave it to you the reader, to fill in the gaps. Go to the temple, think about the messages, read Alma 37. I believe seeing the meaning behind some of the repeated words in the text will unlock more of what Alma is saying as he writes in code to his son.

Helaman, I am giving you the records! (Alma 37.1)

There were at least 4 sets of plates:

1. Brass Plates
2. Large Plates
3. Small plates of Nephi
4. Plates of Ether (mentioned in v. 21)

37.23 – Gazelem– possibilities on the meaning of this word. See The Book of Mormon Onomasticon for more on this.

1. cutting/polished stones
2. Ugaritic = young man, warrior
3. To launch an attack
4. Arabic: to be abundant/plentiful

Keep and preserve them! (versus 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 14, 16, 19)

“These things” = davar דָּבָר/ related to devir דְּבִיר the oracle or holy of holies/ place of speaking= v. 2, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 18, 37, 43, 47 (these sacred things) = 10 times! ₂

Sacred qodesh קֹדֶשׁ This word is associated with being holy, being set apart, made sacred, etc. It is used 7 times – v. 2, 14 (x2), 15, 16, 17

This whole chapter is the way towards the Tree of Life! = stay in the derek, the way, the hodos, come unto God, “keep” and “preserve” (shamar, tereo) “these things” דָּבָר (davar) that come from sacred places (The Devir) ₃

Keep – shamar שָׁמַר Hebrew and in the Greek tereo τηρέω – v. 2 (x2), 13 (x2), 14, 16, 20, 21, 27, 29, 35. This word is used consistently in both Hebrew and Greek, and essentially means to keep, preserve, heed, watch, guard, beware, save, be a watchman, and stand at the ready. This is essentially how the word is used throughout Jesus’ prayer to his Father in John 17 and his instruction to the Twelve. We are to be awake and watching. We are to arise, and be aware, ready to receive instruction from God. This word and its associated words in Alma 37 to me give an unmistakable impression that they are related to the temple, revelation, and preparing oneself to stand in the presence of God.

Preserve – v. 4, 8, 12, 14, 18, 19, 21 = 7 times … to me this word has to be closely associated with “keep” as it is communicating the same idea.

Wisdom – 3 times= v. 8, 12, 35 – this is a temple word.₄

Wise – 6 times = 2, 6, 7, 12, 14, 18 (4 times it is “wise purpose”)

What is the message? Be wise, take counsel from God, stand at the ready, always watching (keep, preserve, give heed, look and live) and you will “live forever” (verse 46).

Is there not a type in this thing? (Alma 37.45)

type (n.) late 15c., “symbol, emblem,” from Latin typus “figure, image, form, kind,” from Greek typos “a blow, dent, impression, mark, effect of a blow; figure in relief, image, statue; anything wrought of metal or stone; general form, character; outline, sketch,” from root of typtein “to strike, beat,” from PIE *tup-, variant of root *(s)teu- (1) “to push, stick, knock, beat” (see steep (adj.).

Extended 1713 to printing blocks of metal or wood with letters or characters carved on their faces, usually in relief, adapted for use in letterpress printing. The meaning “general form or character of some kind, class” is attested in English by 1843, though the corresponding words had that sense in Latin and Greek. To be (someone’s) type “be the sort of person that person is attracted to” is recorded from 1934.

Notes

1. These were the secrets that were hidden from the foundation of the world. They had always been hidden and they always will be hidden. For that reason they might not be spoken except in symbols and code. All the world might be able to see the symbols, but they may only be read and understood by those who already know the code- and the code can only be known in the context of sacred space and sacred time. LeGrand Baker, Who Shall Ascend to the Hill of the Lord? p. 114.
2. Throughout the Book of Mormon, the phrase “these things” seems to be a kind of short hand code representing the ancient temple ceremony. Ibid., p. 153.
3. “The Way” is frequently used as a code that refers to the sequence of the ordinances and covenants, connoting the “way” or “path” by which one climbs the “mountain” that is symbolic of the Jerusalem Temple Mount, and/or “the way” one conducts his or her life after leaving the Temple. Ibid., p. 382. New Testament scholar Julie Smith has an excellent presentation that she gave at BYU on how this idea of the hodos or “The Way” represented to early Christians what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus and how it fit into the context of the book of Mark in the gospels.
4. Wisdom was the knowledge of God – not knowledge about God, but God’s knowledge. See LeGrand Baker, Who Shall Ascend to the Hill of the Lord? p. 491-492. See also: Margaret Barker, Older Testament (1987), p. 81-99; Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (1978), p. 97-99. We find in the Didache thanksgiving for the gifts of knowledge and eternal life, and for the Sacred Name dwelling in the hearts of those who have received the spiritual food (Didache 9-10). This, as we shall see, is priestly Wisdom imagery. The hope is for the ingathering of the scattered Church into the Kingdom. Bishop Sarapion (mid 4th century Egypt) prayed that his people would become ‘living’, i.e. resurrected, and able to speak of the mysteries, that the spiritual food would be the medicine of life to heal every sickness. ‘Make us wise by the participation of the body and the blood’. Margaret Barker, The Temple Roots of the Liturgy, p. 2.