Although this verse is by far the most read verse in history, I am going to try and shed a little new light on it. I actually REALLY enjoyed reading this verse. The first phrase, "having been born of goodly parents" is really interesting. I would have brushed over a few things if it weren't for the footnotes. Born is its own footnote for whatever reason. The footnote takes you to the topical guide for birthright. Knowing what is coming I actually think that it is really important to Nephi that he states that he is actually born of his parents and not adopted or something. I think this will play very much into things as we see that his older brothers don't quite live up to their birthright. I will be honest, birthright is something that has always confused me a little but I am excited to learn more about it as we crawl through the Book of Mormon.
Then comes Goodly Parents. They are actually two separate footnotes! I thought for sure it was considered a phrase. The word goodly takes you to Proverbs 22:1 where it talks about how a good name cannot be chosen. That all the riches in the world cannot change where you come from. The word parents is going to jump forward just a little with its reference. There are two scriptures that it references, both talking about being educated by parents. Mosiah 1:2 talks specifically about sons being educated by their father. I believe this comes up again during the discussion of the strippling warriors. For whatever reason, in that day young men were educated by their fathers. Funny that in our current day and age it is more common for women to be the ones home instructing and educating the kids. Doctrine and Covenants 68:25 talks about a parent's duty to instruct their children in the ways of the Gospel. So being a good parent isn't having wealth or riches, it is simply instructing your children in beliefs and guiding them. I think it is also interesting to note that Nephi recognizes that his parents are qualified as "good" because they taught and educated him. I don't know how old Nephi is at this point, but I think at any age it is a remarkable thing that a child understands that.
Nephi goes on to say that he has seen many affliction in the course of his days. I don't know about you but it was my understanding that Nephi's family was wealthy. Not that wealth will make you impervious to affliction, but that narrows down what those could be significantly. I would love to know and understand what afflictions Nephi is talking about here. This begins the series of 'nevertheless'. This can often get confusing, but there is a huge sentence that goes something like nevertheless...yea...therefore. So bottom line is that all of these things are related to each other. They compound. So it is crucial to the meaning of the verse that you think of these are causes for one another. So Nephi has seen afflictions, but he has been highly favored of the lord. The 'yea' that comes next is saying that Nephi is qualifying what it is that makes him highly favored of the lord. Therefore Nephi is highly favored of the lord because he has a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God. Really cool that Nephi recognizes that it is only by God's grace that he has any kind of knowledge of these things at all. It is a blessing to know and understand the nature of God. I am definitely guilty of not treating my knowledge of God and a HUGE blessing. The last part of the puzzle is his connection with 'therefore'. He says "therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days." This is crucial. This is the lynchpin of the whole verse and I think we too often brush over it thinking that it is just him saying 'and I'm gonna make a record.' but if we look at all the previous pieces together and look at what it all means we get a much larger picture.
THE BIG THING:
Nephi is Lehi's son. Lehi is the prophet. Lehi taught what he did to EVERYONE but Nephi seems to think it is worth mentioning that his father taught him. He talks about his knowledge of God separately from the learning of his father. He also talks about this knowledge as a "great knowledge." On top of this all he talks about his afflictions and being highly favored of the Lord. Now you tell me, that if you were the son of the prophet, and you have seen your father and heard him talk about seeing visions and being visited by pillars of fires on rocks, if you would describe your knowledge and relationship with God how Nephi just did? He then says because of all of these things, I am making a record. Nephi wasn't just keeping a journal! Nephi had been divinely instructed to keep a record of certain things. For him to consider this a teaching of his father, that he has been favored of the Lord, and having a great knowledge of God and his workings, I can almost guarantee you that he is saying that he is only writing this because it is a mandate from God. I have literally wondered before why the Book of Mormon doesn't lead in with "Angels have told me to write this so I am. LISTEN UP!" Little did I know that Nephi is! He is straight up saying that he is doing exactly what God is telling him to here. Amazing.
We will see how tomorrow turns out, I'm sure it will be a little, if not a lot, shorter that this one. Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any additional insights.
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