Israelite Feasts in the Book of Mormon

[SpiritDragon]

Hey everyone,

What do we know of feasts and festivals one would expect to find in the Old Testament that would have been a part of Mosaic custom prior to the Lehites flight from Jerusalem? I am hoping to find some useful material for a talk. I was thinking over the scripture stating to feast upon the words of Christ and suddenly had the thought that perhaps Feasting had a bit of a different meaning than we typically think of that may be worth exploring.

Even beyond helping me with information for the upcoming talk, I'm just really interested in this now, because I expect there should be plenty of evidence of such feasts, although my searches so far have mostly only come up with King Benjamin's address as having some resemblance to some feasts and how the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith during the Feast of Trumpets.

I suppose I'm just curious to get some context as to whether or not it is safe to assume that Book of Mormon people would have observed the same holy days and feasts/festivals as OT Israel. If so I'm also curious to learn more about the duration of the feasts and customs around them. 

Some of my digging so far has yielded the following for anyone interested in exploring this with me:

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/did-the-nephites-have-a-“holiday-season”-like-we-do-today

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/feasts?lang=eng

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Introduction/introduction.html

[mordorbund]

Those are some good sources. You may also want to look at the Old Testament Institute Manual. And then there's Edersheim's The Temple - Its Ministry and Services as They Were at the Time of Christ. Obviously you won't be able to sort out exactly what the practices were at the time Lehi left since most of the sources come from the Exilic period. But I figure it's better than nothing. Edersheim is considerate enough to place the post-Mosaic feasts in a separate section from the others (Purim/Lots and Feast of Dedication/Lights).

[wenglund]

2 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:

Hey everyone,

What do we know of feasts and festivals one would expect to find in the Old Testament that would have been a part of Mosaic custom prior to the Lehites flight from Jerusalem? I am hoping to find some useful material for a talk. I was thinking over the scripture stating to feast upon the words of Christ and suddenly had the thought that perhaps Feasting had a bit of a different meaning than we typically think of that may be worth exploring.

Even beyond helping me with information for the upcoming talk, I'm just really interested in this now, because I expect there should be plenty of evidence of such feasts, although my searches so far have mostly only come up with King Benjamin's address as having some resemblance to some feasts and how the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith during the Feast of Trumpets.

I suppose I'm just curious to get some context as to whether or not it is safe to assume that Book of Mormon people would have observed the same holy days and feasts/festivals as OT Israel. If so I'm also curious to learn more about the duration of the feasts and customs around them. 

Some of my digging so far has yielded the following for anyone interested in exploring this with me:

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/did-the-nephites-have-a-“holiday-season”-like-we-do-today

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/feasts?lang=eng

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Introduction/introduction.html

There are several scriptures in the Book of Mormon indicating they observed the Law of Moses and performed sacrifices, and there are even a couple scriptures mentioning feasts where large groups gathered. 

However, given that the Isrealite feasts had such a strong tie to Jerusalem, observance of the feast by Lehi's family may have been left by them in Jerusalem. when they left Jerusalem for another promised land. The feasts associated with the edodus of Moses and his people, then, may have been rendered somewhat irrelevant by the exodus of Lehi and his people..

If I understand correctly, the Jaredites predate the Old TEstament feasts.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

Edited May 26, 2018 by wenglund