Nehor is tried and convicted of priestcraft in Alma 1.12. In verse 15 we read that “his name was Nehor; and they carried him upon the top of the hill Manti, and there he was caused, or rather did acknowledge, between the heavens and the earth, that what he had taught to the people was contrary to the word of God; and there he suffered an ignominious death.”
Hugh Nibley has seen a connection here between the death of Nehor and the punishment given to the rebellious angels in the various stories of the Watchers from Ancient Near Eastern texts. The Watchers, you will remember, are the rebellious angels that we read about in Genesis 6.1-4. These angels fight against God and the created order and wreak all kinds of havoc on the earth in their quest to fight against God.
Nibley writes:”And thou hast shed the blood of a righteous man. Therefore thou art condemned to die, according to the law which has been given us by Mosiah, our last king; and it has been acknowledged by this people; therefore this people must abide by the law.” There it is again. It is the law; they accepted it; therefore, they must abide by it. Then they carried out the old ritual of Harut and Marut. In the days of Enoch the Watchers came to the earth and started corrupting men. They started taking the sacred ordinances and claiming them, but perverting them. They claimed that they had the right gospel. They gave a false slant and a false teaching to it, and justified all sorts of immorality. Therefore, Harut and Marut were hanged on a high hill because the earth would not accept them. They were the first to betray the law of God to men. There was plenty of wickedness and murder, etc., but they were doing it in the name of the gospel and the priesthood. They introduced the temple ordinances but falsified them.
There is quite a story about the Watchers here. One was Harut and one was Marut; there are various names given to them. They were hanged between heaven and earth because the earth wouldn’t receive them, just as it wouldn’t receive Cain. Remember, the earth refused her strength to Cain. And heaven wouldn’t receive them. So what can you do? You can just leave them hanging there because neither would receive them. And they hang there until the Day of Judgment-that’s the point. That’s very widespread; everybody knows about the story of Harut and Marut suspended between heaven and earth because they were the first corrupters of the human race in the name of preaching religion. 1
At another time Nibley wrote:
When the celebrated liberal-preacher Nehor killed an opponent in his rage, he was condemned to death: “And they carried him upon the top of the hill Manti, and there he was caused, or rather did acknowledge, between the heavens and the earth, that what he had taught to the people was contrary to the word of God; and there he suffered an ignominious death” (Alma 1.15). Centuries later the traitor Zemnarihah suffered a like hanging “upon a tree, yea, even upon the top thereof, until he was dead” (3 Nephi 4.28). This acknowledging of one’s crime between heaven and earth takes us back to the first sinners, Harut and Marut (another tradition of the Magi), and in the Jewish tradition the angel Shamhozi who “repented, and by way of penance, hung himself up between heaven and earth.” 2
Like Nehor, Shamhozi, or Shemyaza, worked on creating a counterfeit religion in the Enoch literature outside of the Biblical canonical texts. The text informs readers that: “Semyaza, who was their leader, said to them: “I fear that you may not wish this deed to be done and that I alone will pay for this great sin.” And they all answered him, and said: “Let us all swear an oath, and bind one-another with curses, so not to alter this plan, but to carry out this plan effectively.” Then they all swore together and all bound one another with curses to it” (1 Enoch 6.3-5).
Notes
- Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, volume 2, Mosiah 29-Alma 1: Treatise of Power, Priestcraft.
- Hugh Nibley, The Prophetic Book of Mormon, p. 250. The name Shamhozi has many variants, for example: Shemyaza, Shemhazai, Azza, or Ouza. This is the name of one of the fallen angels of extrabiblical literature. See: Samyaza.
I love your podcast so so much! I feel the lights turning on everytime I listen, so great!
I have no idea what the watchers are, I feel like I don’t have the basic foundational knowledge I need to understand this post. Where could I start? Or what could I study to learn more so I can understand these insights better?
Cassie thanks for checking out the podcast! I did a short article on this here. Just scroll down to “Who are the Sons of God who sinned?” All of this relates to the text of Enoch and Genesis 6.1-4 and is the explanation (one of them) in early Jewish traditional writings for the cause of evil. So many texts in the Bible make more sense when Genesis 6.1-4 is understood in its cultural context. This article by Amar Annus is good. An excellent book you may want to get is “Reversing Hermon” by Michael Heiser. He is an excellent Biblical scholar who makes the scholarship on this subject simple to understand for the normal person.
Thanks so very much!