Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ancient Hebrew concepts of Past and Future

Alma 13:1
1 AND again, my brethren, I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children; and I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people.

In the Book of Mormon in Alma 13:1 we see Alma using a puzzling term "cite you minds forward" when he is obviously referring to the past and pre-earth life. Why would he do this?

The following short video may help us to understand why Alma would do this by explaining the ancient concepts of past and future,

8 comments:

Jennifer O. said...

I really enjoyed this post. It will certainly help me understand and apply the scriptures more. Thank you, Brother Norman!

Livin' Life Day-by-Day said...

Oh, this is perfect since I'm going to be taking a Biblical Hebrew class this Fall (starting next week, of all things)!! Thank you so much!

ross Walker said...

Thank you President, I have wondered about that before!

Melanie said...

So interesting!

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Donna Nielsen said...

What a blessing to have this information--and what a witness of Joseph Smith's faithful translating. Thanks for this--loved it. That Hebrew site is definitely in the top ten best sites to understand the ancient Hebraic perspective of the scriptures.

Greg Nelson said...

That also helps explain the admonition of king Mosiah in Mosiah 29. After rehearsing the story of his sons not wanting to accept the kingship and having had their fair share of wicked kings in the recent past (King Noah and Amulon, in a sense) he states in verse 10 - And now let us be wise and look forward to these things, and do that which will make for the peace of this people. So he references something in the past by telling them to look forward to it. Thanks for the video, it was very interesting.

Lee said...

This certainly puts in perspective what we need to do to even begin to comprehend the subtleties to be found in the scriptures.

Joseph was a true and faithful servant to be sure.