Book of Mormon Reading Group: 30 Oct - 05 Nov 2023 (Alma 13 - Alma 25)

[zil2]

14 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

I was just looking into whether or not you can breed llamas with camels, and it seems it has been done using artificial insemination. The offspring you get is called a "cama".

I also discovered that while mules cannot mate with each other and produce viable offspring, it is possible to breed a female mule with a male donkey or horse.

12 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

However, it seems that alpacas and camels cannot be breeded (bred?) with each other.

[Jamie123]

11 minutes ago, zil2 said:

(And no, I can't write proper cursive. I was never taught that at school, and never felt sufficiently motivated to learn it later.)

[Jamie123]

Totally sexist I know, but "You'll be a man/woman my son/daughter" doesn't have quite the same ring. (And it doesn't rhyme either!)

P.S. Even that is transphobic: how about "You'll be a man/woman/non-binary person my son/daughter/child"?

Edited November 3, 2023 by Jamie123

[zil2]

 

[Carborendum]

2 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

I was just looking into whether or not you can breed llamas with camels, and it seems it has been done using artificial insemination. The offspring you get is called a "cama".

I'm sorry, but I had to pause for a moment to think about that.

2 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

I also discovered that while mules cannot mate with each other and produce viable offspring, it is possible to breed a female mule with a male donkey or horse.

I'll alert the cartels.

[Jamie123]

54 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I'm sorry, but I had to pause for a moment to think about that.

I'll alert the cartels.

It's a kind of chameleon!

P.S. This is what it looks like:

P.P.S. Poor little guy. His mum was a camel and his dad was a llama (or vice versa), and the whole purpose of his existence is to satisfy the humans' curiosity about whether or not he's possible!

Edited November 3, 2023 by Jamie123

[Vort]

4 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

However, it seems that alpacas and camels cannot be breeded (bred?) with each other.

[zil2]

10 minutes ago, Vort said:

[Vort]

10 minutes ago, zil2 said:

 

[askandanswer]

On 11/2/2023 at 7:45 AM, zil2 said:

Yes, true enough - we need another column!

Meanwhile, do you suppose the folks who choose images to include with the Book of Mormon will consider my drawing of Ammon watering king Lamoni's sheep?

I'm puzzled about why Ammon would water the king's sheep using a green snake that's spitting venom.

[zil2]

1 hour ago, askandanswer said:

I'm puzzled about why Ammon would water the king's sheep using a green snake that's spitting venom.

[zil2]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

 

[askandanswer]

10 hours ago, zil2 said:

Isn't that the whole purpose of fountain pen day? We collectively gather round the bonfires and melt our fountain pens.

[zil2]

Alma 22

v1: Obviously, Ammon, Aaron, and presumably the others kept records - otherwise Mormon would have nothing of this story to abridge.  IMO, this emphasizes the importance of everyone keeping journals.  They could not have known they would end up teaching the rulers and converting so many people - look at how Aaron's ministry started.  We cannot know when we might experience something huge.  (But then, I can say that for children who love their parents, just reading the ordinary is well worth it.)  So keep a journal, especially if you have children.

v2: Be generous (which does not necessarily require money).

v14: Never forget that whatever blessings you receive are through the grace of Jesus Christ.  This is why we pray, and do all things, in the name of Christ - his is the only name with any "merit".

v15: Would that we were all like this king at this point, all the time.

v18: One of the best statements in all scripture: "I will give away all my sins to know thee" - it's the only way to know God, yet giving them all up is so hard.

v21: The queen has one purpose, God has another.

v28+: Too bad Mormon couldn't draw us a map...

Alma 23

v1-3: Conversion to the Lord inspires one to embrace freedom.

v4: When the gospel is allowed to be heard, it flourishes.  This is why the wicked don't want it heard.

v18: The gospel teaches the virtue of work.

[JohnsonJones]

This is leaping ahead just slightly.

So, as the Rulers of this group of Lamanites is converted they establish the religion of the Nephites among them.  However, then we see that others come up to kill them and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies do nothing. 

Knowing how murderous we see some groups in our modern world are, I wonder how the events of Chapter 24 would occur.  In our world, groups would be more than happy to murder them all, or to murder them and take the rest prisoners to be re-educated or otherwise.  I would think the Lamanites who were opposed to the Anti-Nephi-Lehies being converted would have similar ideas.  Instead we see many of those Lamanites also converted. 

[zil2]

I have created next week's thread:

 

[Jamie123]

Why "Anti-Nephi-Lehis"? Were they Lehis who were against Nephi? Or does "anti" mean something other than "against"?

P.S. The Wikipedia article on the Anti-Nephi-Lehis lists some interesting theories about the origin of the name. Yer man Nibley thinks the "anti" part comes from Egyptian not Greek. (In fact, if it is Greek it must be a translation of some other word since the Greek invasion didn't come until long after Lehi left.)

Edited November 4, 2023 by Jamie123

[Vort]

13 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Why "Anti-Nephi-Lehis"? Were they Lehis who were against Nephi? Or does "anti" mean something other than "against"?

"Anti" means "against" as in "opposite to", which does not necessarily mean "unlike". Consider e.g. the antipodes. I have wondered if the term means those Lehites who were adjacent to Nephi—that is, Lehites who would follow Nephi though were not of Nephi, rejecting the ancestral term "Laman", the way the (Nephite) children of Noah's priests cast off their ancestral names and turned their backs on their wicked fathers.

In any case, your question has long been a topic of conversation among Latter-day Saints. I know of no authoritative answer. As a Nibleyphile, I give his opinion a lot of weight. But this is basically a topic of speculation until God, or perhaps a resurrected Mormon (or Joseph Smith), fills us in on the details.

[zil2]

24 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Why "Anti-Nephi-Lehis"?

Heaven knows, but:

• Ani-Anti—Lamanite village in land of Nephi
• Antiomno—Lamanite king
• Antion—Nephite money
• Antionah—a chief ruler in Ammonihah
• Antionum—Nephite commander
• Antionum, Land of—east of the land of Zarahemla
• Antiparah—Nephite city
• Antipas, Mount
• Antipus—Nephite commander

...So, ya know, the pair of syllables was somewhat popular...  I suspect it had some meaning other than what it does in English today.  (I could be wrong, and the "Anti" part could be a translation just as the pluralization is.)

PS: The index pluralizes it thusly: Anti-Nephi-Lehies.  You say potato and I say potatoe...

[Vort]

17 minutes ago, zil2 said:

47 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Why "Anti-Nephi-Lehis"?

[...]

PS: The index pluralizes it thusly: Anti-Nephi-Lehies.  You say potato and I say potatoe...

-ies it is. I wouldn't mind getting proven wrong, except that it happens so often.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Vort

[zil2]

3 minutes ago, zil2 said:

potatoe

[Vort]

Just now, zil2 said:

Ewwwwwww! (We really need that icon, @pam.)

[zil2]

2 minutes ago, Vort said:

At a quick glance, I think I prefer Jamie's pluralization. If the Book of Mormon has a plural form, I'll go with whatever spelling was used there, but I don't think the term "anti-Nephi-Lehies" ever actually occurs in the text of the Book of Mormon.

Quote

Alma 23:17 And it came to pass that they called their names Anti-Nephi-Lehies; and they were called by this name and were no more called Lamanites.

Index to the Triple Combination - most useful!

Edited November 4, 2023 by zil2

[Jamie123]

21 minutes ago, zil2 said:

You say potato and I say potatoe...

Ok I get the two ways of saying "tomato". But who ever says "potartoe"? Nobody, that's who. I only ever heard that in that song.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Jamie123
Correct spelling of potato to make it sound like in the song

[zil2]

12 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Ok I get the two ways of saying "tomato". But who ever says "potartoe"? Nobody, that's who. I only ever heard that in that song.

I have no idea.  I don't recall ever hearing the complete song, let alone poe-tar-toe (regardless of where the emphasis is), only puh-TAY-toe and puh-TAH-toe.  But mostly, I was going for a plural where an "e" is added:

potatos or potatoes - one could argue either way, even though only the second is correct.