“Your Worthless and Fallen State”

Brant Gardner

Textual: It is probable that this verse influence Mormon’s choice of words in his synoptic remarks (verse 2 above).

Theological: Benjamin is referring to their humility before God. The ability to recognize the need for our humility before God is a precursor to both repentance and forgiveness. Clearly the people had undergone both, and Benjamin was sufficiently spiritually perceptive to know it.

Rhetorical: Verse 5-8 form a logical set in that they progress naturally from one theme to another. However, verse 10 appears to return to the conceptual beginning of verse 5. Benjamin is a sufficiently talented speaker that this second iteration does not come across as a total repetition, nevertheless, the sequence reads as an aside that returns to an original topic. This is more of a characteristic of oral discourse than considered and deliberated written form. Where the first speech appeared to be very tightly crafted, and probably written (at least composed mentally) prior to delivery, this speech appears to be more spontaneous.

The situation of the speech also suggests that this was not a composed speech, because the content depends upon the experience of the crowd with the spirit, something for which Benjamin would have hoped, but could not have accurately predicted beforehand. Once again, if Nibley’s suggestion is correct that this entire pageant was scripted, then Benjamin would be continuing to follow the script. The power of the impact of the spirit on the people could not have been scripted, however, and the incident continues to have the feel of a spontaneous interaction rather than a formulaic repetition of a script.

The more unplanned nature of this second discourse suggests that the written texts of the discourse that Mormon describes beforehand (Mosiah 2:8) were actually records after-the-fact. Rather than scripts being handed out, they were reports on the words and covenants Benjamin had declared.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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