King Benjamin's Speech: Great Literature from an Ancient Voice
by Jeff Lindsay
Some
of our critics frequently slam The Book of Mormon for its alleged
lack of literary value. True, its writers are often not poets like
Isaiah, and the text from Mormon, for example, tends to be very
straightforward and direct. But there are literary treasures in the
book that our critics and even faithful readers may be missing.
For
example, take another look at the powerful speech of King Benjamin in
the early chapters of Mosiah in The Book of Mormon. Although critics
might lampooned this as just another revival sermon obviously drawn
from Joseph’s 19th
Century experiences, they are missing an ancient gem that ought to
command a little more respect, even awe.
In
my opinion, this section of The Book of Mormon raises serious
questions about attempts to explain the book as a result of
plagiarism from Solomon Spaulding, Ethan Smith, Shakespeare, the King
James Bible, the Apocrypha, or even Walt
Whitman.
Perhaps even more than the extremely sophisticated chiasmus
of Alma 36, Mosiah 1-6 contains such strong textual evidences of
ancient Semitic origins that it strains the imagination to think that
Joseph Smith whipped this up, no matter whose shoulder he was looking
over in 1829.
In part of
Welch’s chapter on kingship and coronation, he discusses the
six elements of the ancient covenant renewal pattern. Pay attention
to these points. Long before this book was published, my testimony of
the Restoration and especially of the divinity of the Temple got a
major boost when I bought and read a book by a Jewish scholar on the
ancient temple paradigm.
I
was amazed to read about the twentieth-century discovery of a common
pattern found in many ancient Middle Eastern covenants between
unequal parties (e.g., a ruling nation and its subjects). This
ancient pattern for making a covenant between God and man or a king
and his subjects is known as the “covenant formulary” and
includes the following six elements, though many ancient examples of
covenants may only have a subset of the six:
1. The
preamble
2. Historical
prologue (description of what the king has done for the subjects)
3. Stipulations
(to secure fidelity of the subjects to the king)
4. Deposition
of the text of the treaty or covenant (special writings and other
means to ensure that the covenants aren’t forgotten and are
recorded and reviewed)
5. List
of witnesses
6. Statement
of curses and blessings (the results of disobedience or obedience)
While
I do not desire to discuss details of the temple, each element of the
ancient covenant formulary is clearly present in the LDS temple. And
as Stephen Ricks shows in his chapter, these elements appear to be
present in the covenant-making process that King Benjamin directs
(though one element is implied rather than explicitly present). This
adds an interesting perspective to our appreciation of The Book of
Mormon.
Modern recognition of the ancient covenant formulary
dates back to the 1950s, when George Mendenhall and Klaus Baltzer
began comparing biblical literature with other ancient treaties (see
discussion in Levenson, p. 26; see also George Mendenhall, “Covenant
Forms in Israelite Tradition,” Biblical
Archaeologist,
Vol. 17, No. 3, 1954, pp. 50-76, as cited by Stephen Ricks “Kingship,
Coronation, and Covenant in Mosiah 1-6,” with references
pertaining to Mendenhall and other related sources cited on p. 274).
Though
these elements can be found scattered in the Bible, their
significance and their relationship to each other was not appreciated
in Joseph Smith’s day. (Actually, there is still vigorous
debate on these elements: see “Covenant,
Treaty, and Prophecy”
by E. C. Lucas, originally printed in Themelios,
Vol. 8, No. 1, Sept. 1982, pp. 19-23. This article discusses the
ancient six-part treaty concept proposed by Mendenhall and reviews
some recent criticisms of Mendenhall’s views.)
Although
the covenant formulary is an exciting concept for appreciating King
Benjamin’s speech, there is much more in Levenson’s book
and other modern writings about ancient practices that puts not only
The Book of Mormon but also the LDS temple ceremony squarely into the
realm of ancient practice.
Some
of the elements that deeply impressed me were the relationship
between the temple and the Sabbath day (sacred space and sacred
time), the symbolism of the baptismal font (and subterranean waters
in general) in the temple, the relationship between mountains and
temples (also found strongly in the Bible and The Book of Mormon),
the significance of covenant making, the link between Zion and the
temple, the things one does to show reverence for sacred ground, the
significance of the Creation story, and so on.
Levenson
probably knows little of LDS temples, at least when he wrote this,
yet his writings about the ancient Jewish experience did more for my
understanding of LDS temples than any modern LDS writer had up to
that time.
A related summary of information about the ancient
Middle Eastern temple concept is available online in John M.
Lundquist’s scholarly article, “What
Is a Temple? A Preliminary Typology,”
originally printed in H. B. Huffman, F. A. Spina, and A. R. W. Green,
eds., The
Quest for the Kingdom of God: Studies in Honor of George E.
Mendenhall
(Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1983), which was republished in
Temples
of the Ancient World,
ed. by Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks (Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book and FARMS, 1994, pp. 83-118). Although Lundquist’s article
is not explicitly about the LDS temple, those familiar with LDS
temples will find intriguing evidence for its ancient roots.
Getting back to The Book
of Mormon, I am impressed with how often we can better understand the
text by understanding aspects of the ancient world. It is a book
written for our day by people who never experienced a 19th
Century revival, but were steeped in the patterns and ways of
antiquity.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.