Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Ether 9 and 10

In these two chapters, the cycle continues. If there are righteous kings, the people prosper. When there are not, the people are oppressed. It is amazing to me the the amount of insurrection that comes from within the families of the reigning kings. Father is against son, brother is against brother. The insurrection only comes occasionally from the people. One king, Riplakish, was a dictator, using the people to establish his own wealth, imprisoning any who failed to pay taxes or work on behalf of the state, and the people rose up in rebellion against him. On the other hand, you have prophets like Coriantum who saw the Savior, and Lib who helped the people advance remarkably. For awhile, the secret combinations cease to exist, but with the prosperity, they now start to make a comeback.

There is mention of things which create what appear to be an anachronisms. And anachronism is saying something like George Washington spent the afternoon watching television. Something doesn't fit the time or place. One anachronism in the Book of Mormon seems to be the mentioning of elephants in the land. While there is no evidence that wasn't elephants in the land, and there are places in the world where elephants historically had been mentioned but thought to be an anachronism but later evidence was found of their existence, I personally think that it is a misnaming, much like Indians referred to buffalo as cattle and cows.

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