Portfolio

Category: Core Book
Date: 17 Jul 2006 05:01pm
Title: 1 Nephi 1:1-3

v1

goodly parent --> father taught me all his learning

• good parents teach their children
• teaching children (is evidence of) good parents

testimony of homeschooling?

v2

1) seen many afflications      \
2) highly favored of the Lord   >  -->  I make a record
3) great knowledge of God      /        (it is his duty)

v3

learning of Jews but language of Egyptians

Why?

reformed Egyptian is more compact than Hebrew (need reference)

e.g. demotic egyptian on Rosetta Stone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone

Other possible reasons?

• Josephus wrote in Greek, needed help with grammer
• Latin in middle ages, to be understood widely
• English today, same reason

v3

Record is true <-- Nephi is eyewitness, wrote it himself: no middleman

Pattern: separation of story-teller and story-hearer

When you hear a story:

• zeroth degree of separation is telling yourself a story
• did it happen to the teller? highly credible (1 degree of separation)
• happened to the one who told the teller? credible, but interpreted (2nd degree of separation)
• heard it from a friend who heard...? not credible (3rd degree)

3rd degree cannot be distinguished from > 3rd, which is why it is not very credible.

Compare with researching urban legends.