Introduction

The Book of Mormon is filled with examples of inspiring teachers. Scholars have previously analyzed teachers such as Nephi,[1] Abinadi,[2] King Benjamin,[3] Alma,[4] and Samuel the Lamanite,[5] gleaning lessons from both their pedagogical approaches and their specific doctrinal contributions. After reviewing many of the sermons of these great teachers, in an address given to religious educators at a symposium on the Book of Mormon, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “Jacob [is] surely one of the most unacknowledged or perhaps underappreciated doctrinal voices in all of scripture.”[6] The purpose of this chapter is to explore Jacob’s consecrated role as teacher and, in the spirit of Elder Holland’s comment, to both acknowledge and more deeply appreciate his unique doctrinal voice.

In recounting one of the most pivotal moments in Nephite history—the division of the Nephites from the Lamanites—Nephi records, “And it came to pass that the Lord did warn me, that I, Nephi, should depart from them and flee into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me” (2 Nephi 5:5). After briefly summarizing their settling of the land of Nephi and of their economic, political, and spiritual situation, Nephi writes that he “did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people” (2 Nephi 5:26). While the text of the Book of Mormon does not provide much detail on the functionality of a priest in this context,[7] Jacob’s role as a teacher almost immediately becomes apparent. Significantly, it is in the very next chapter that Jacob begins his first sermon (2 Nephi 6–10). In this sermon he addresses many core doctrines, such as the scattering and gathering of Israel; the Fall of Adam and Eve; the Atonement of Jesus Christ; the significant role of covenants; and other weighty matters.

One of the traits which amplifies Jacob’s unique doctrinal voice is his stated acknowledgement of the mantle he bore. He recognized that while his ecclesiastical calling provided him authority to teach, his power and impact were only possible insofar as his people chose to sustain and listen to him. Jacob said that because “ye [the people] look upon me as a teacher, it must needs be expedient that I teach you the consequences of sin” (2 Nephi 9:48). He recognized his obligation to speak the sometimes-difficult truths—what Elder Neal A. Maxwell once called “wintry doctrines.”[8] For Jacob, this recognition brought with it a sometimes sobering and even reverent approach to teaching. Commenting on this reverent approach, President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, “May [God] give you entrance to the hearts of those you teach and then make you know that as you enter there you stand in holy places.”[9] Perhaps in a way unlike any other prophet in scripture, Jacob knew, felt, and articulated the burden of that sacred trust. Consequently, and to demonstrate Jacob’s unique doctrinal voice, this chapter will analyze his teachings, looking specifically at why and how he taught, and then shifting to focus predominantly on what he taught.

Why He Taught

While determining authorial intent is sometimes a challenge, an exegetical approach shows Jacob often overtly stating his purposes and weaving autobiographical reflections throughout his writings and sermons. An example of this type of reflection is Jacob’s repeated recognition of his responsibility to God to declare truth. In his preface to one of his sermons he wrote, “I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord” (Jacob 1:17; emphasis added). Note the recognition of his personal divine appointment. He continues by explaining that he and Joseph, “consecrated priests and teachers of this people, . . . did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day” (v. 18–19). This may be the scriptural context which informed John Taylor’s popular statement when he said, “If you do not magnify your callings, God will hold you responsible for those whom you might have saved had you done your duty.”[10]

This theme appears several times throughout Jacob’s teachings. For example, in his second recorded sermon his opening lines are, “Now, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, according to the responsibility which I am under to God, to magnify mine office with soberness, and that I might rid my garments of your sins, I come up into the temple this day that I might declare unto you the word of God” (Jacob 2:2; emphasis added). His emphasis seems to be his sense of duty and responsibility, the need to magnify his office, and this continued need to free himself from the sins of the people by declaring the word of the Lord. One of his most dramatic ways of making this point is found in the following passage:

O, my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my salvation that he view me with his all-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, when all men shall be judged of their works, that the God of Israel did witness that I shook your iniquities from my soul, and that I stand with brightness before him, and am rid of your blood. (2 Nephi 9:44)

For Jacob, it was not enough to simply live the truths he taught. He felt the divine responsibility to teach the doctrine so clearly as to remove the excuse that his people simply didn’t know or understand. The weight of this obligation seems to have been an almost constant burden for him. Consider the following examples of Jacob’s words (emphasis added):

• “Ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things. Nevertheless, I speak unto you again; for I am desirous for the welfare of your souls. Yea, mine anxiety is great for you; and ye yourselves know that it ever has been. For I have exhorted you with all diligence” (2 Nephi 6:2–3).
• “Ye yourselves know that I have hitherto been diligent in the office of my calling; but I this day am weighed down with much more desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls than I have hitherto been” (Jacob 2:3).
• “It grieveth my soul and causeth me to shrink with shame before the presence of my Maker, that I must testify unto you concerning the wickedness of your hearts. And also it grieveth me that I must use so much boldness of speech” (Jacob 2:6–7).
• “Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you” (Jacob 2:9).
• “Were it not that I must speak unto you concerning a grosser crime, my heart would rejoice exceedingly because of you. But the word of God burdens me” (Jacob 2:22–23).
• I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you” (Jacob 4:18).

Weighed down. Anxiety. [11] Grieveth. Burdeneth. Jacob felt the weight of this responsibility deeply but, even in his anxieties, stayed true to his calling, “for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of [his] people” (Jacob 1:4). This statement summarizes Jacob’s dual commitment to follow the word of the Lord—regardless of difficulty—and to improve the spiritual welfare of his people. Summarizing his motivation to stay true to this charge, Jacob said, “We knew of Christ and his kingdom, which should come. Wherefore, we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest” (Jacob 1:6–7). His clarity of purpose and commitment to his people were sure, leading him to say with confidence, “ye yourselves know that I have hitherto been diligent in the office of my calling” (Jacob 2:3).

How He Taught

Great teachers spend time on both what and how they teach. In addition to his significant doctrinal contributions, Jacob also possessed a unique ability to articulate truth with clarity and purpose. Robert J. Matthews once wrote, “There have been few people in history who have possessed the combination of spirituality, intellectual capacity, judgment, literary ability, parentage, faith, and seership that Jacob did. He exhibited an inherent desire for righteousness. He was a plain-spoken man, but used very descriptive language.”[12] His intellect, his passion, and his commitment to the word of the Lord surely must have been felt among his people. Commenting on Jacob’s unique teaching style, John Tanner wrote:

Jacob’s stylistic stamp is also evident in other features throughout his writings, which are replete with a vivid, intimate vocabulary either unique to him or disproportionally present. Two-thirds of the uses of “grieve” and “tender” (or their derivatives) are attributable to Jacob. Likewise, he is the only Book of Mormon author to use “delicate,” “contempt,” “lonesome,” “sobbings,” “dread,” and “daggers.” He deploys this last term in a metaphor about spiritual anguish: “daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds” (Jacob 2:9). Similarly, Jacob alone uses “wound” in reference to emotions, and never uses it (as do many others) to describe a physical injury. Jacob uses “pierce” or its variants four of nine instances in the Book of Mormon, and he alone uses it in a spiritual sense.[13]

Such stylistic evidence suggests that Jacob lived close to his feelings and was gifted in expressing them. Moreover, the complex consistency of his style, linking as it does widely separated passages from two different books (2 Nephi and Jacob), bears out the portrait of the man that emerges from the narrative. Story, style, and subject matter all reveal Jacob, Lehi’s child of tribulation, to have become a sensitive and effective poet-prophet, preacher, writer, and powerful witness of Jesus Christ.

In addition to the features detailed by Tanner, another interesting facet of Jacob’s teaching is his use of doctrinal couplets. For example, he speaks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and also focuses on its companion doctrine, the Fall of Adam. He spends considerable time talking not only about the scattering of Israel but also about the promised gathering of Israel. He stresses the justice of God but places an equal emphasis on his mercy. While the connecting of these core doctrines isn’t unique to Jacob, his tendency to show two sides on other important topics is. He talks about the value of being “learned,” and he also includes the caution that it must be accompanied by a willingness to “hearken unto the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 9:29). He warns his people about the dangers of setting their hearts upon riches (see 2 Nephi 9:30, 42) and later stresses the value of riches in the Lord’s work, explaining that those who “have obtained a hope in Christ” can “obtain riches, if [they] seek them” (Jacob 2:19). In fact, Jacob further teaches that those who have obtained this hope in Christ will seek riches “for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted” (v. 19). His willingness to consider the relationship between doctrinal topics, and to look at both sides of an issue, demonstrates his spiritual maturity and intellectual humility.

Another consistent element of Jacob’s teaching is his almost constant reliance on the word of God. In addition to his engagement with the scriptural words of prophets like Isaiah and Zenos, Jacob also often highlights the importance of the word of God (emphasis added):

• “I come up into the temple this day that I might declare unto you the word of God” (Jacob 2:2)
• “Ye have been obedient unto the word of the Lord” (v. 4)
• “They have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul” (v. 8)
• “Feasting upon the pleasing word of God” (v. 9)
• “Wherefore, I must tell you the truth according to the plainness of the word of God” (v. 11)
• “But the word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes” (v. 23)
• “This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures” (v. 23)
• “Because of the strictness of the word of God, which cometh down against you” (v. 35)
• “Lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love” (Jacob 3:2)
• “Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God” (v. 9)
• “But behold, according to the scriptures” (Jacob 4:16)
• “Ye have been nourished by the good word of God” (Jacob 6:7)
• “And I said unto him: Believest thou the scriptures?” (Jacob 7:10)
• “They searched the scriptures” (Jacob 7:23)

For Jacob, the word of God is truth; it plainly represents the Lord’s commandments. In some of his references he shows actions the word of God expects of us, things we must do in our own engagement with it: search, declare, feast upon, obey, understand, believe, receive. In other passages he illustrates how the word can impact us: it can heal us, nourish us, or sometimes even burden us. In his efforts to remain true to his own commitment to the word of God, Jacob invites his people to take it seriously in their own lives and to rely on the promises he is giving them. As a leader, he sets the example for his people to follow.

What He Taught

The impact of Jacob’s teachings is felt throughout the Book of Mormon. John Hilton III observed, “The consistent use of Jacob’s teachings in the Book of Mormon demonstrates that he was a powerful literary figure. His words influenced notonly future generations of modern readers, but also prophets and others of his own time.”[14] In his research, Hilton persuasively demonstrates how Nephi, King Benjamin, and Moroni all drew upon the words of Jacob.[15] To analyze Jacob’s doctrinal contributions, this section will focus primarily on Jacob’s three recorded sermons (2 Nephi 6–10; Jacob 1:17–3:12; and Jacob 4–6). In this study we will see why Matthews once declared, “Jacob is one of the greatest doctrinal teachers and theologians of the Book of Mormon. . . . He demonstrates a philosophical grasp of the gospel and offers unique and valuable insights into important doctrinal matters.”[16]

In his opening lines of the book that bears his name, Jacob wrote that Nephi gave “a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious. . . . If there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates” (Jacob 1:2, 4). A helpful footnote in verse four indicates that the word translated as “heads” implies “the dominant, important items” or, as Grant Hardy suggests in his Maxwell Institute study edition of the Book of Mormon, “chief points.”[17] While Jacob touches on doctrines such as pride, chastity, consecration, obedience, and the ministering of angels, this paper will focus on his two most dominant teachings: the scattering and gathering of Israel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

On the Scattering and Gathering of Israel

Jacob teaches about the Lord’s work with covenant Israel in each of his three recorded sermons. In analyzing his teachings on the scattering and gathering of Israel, we will look first at how to approach these sermons in a way that helps the reader understand Jacob’s unique perspective. Jacob draws heavily on the writings of both Isaiah and Zenos and, as he does, he follows a pattern I outlined in a previous publication:[18]

• The Setup: Before Nephi or Jacob draw upon the writings of Isaiah, they prepare their audience by stating their purposes in including the quotations, thus giving their audience a few things to look for in the text.
• The Passages from Isaiah (or Zenos): Nephi and Jacob then quote large sections from the writings of Isaiah.
• The Follow-Up: After quoting from Isaiah (or Zenos), Nephi and Jacob provide commentary. In this section, we see them interpreting and likening the text from Isaiah to their own people (both stated and implied applications).

We see this pattern in 2 Nephi 6–10 (with the words of Isaiah), and we see it again in Jacob 4–6 (with the words of Zenos). The setup is crucial because as readers pay close attention to what Jacob says before he draws upon the writings of these earlier prophets, they will be better prepared for the scriptural passage he is quoting: his words during the setup signpost what readers should be looking for in the passage. Similarly, analyzing what he says afterward (the follow-up) helps readers to study the passage with Jacob, as he often underscores the primary points in the quoted passage that he wants his listeners to understand.

We see an example of this pattern in 2 Nephi 6–10. Because these chapters represent one sermon, they are best understood when viewed together. In this sermon Jacob engages with Isaiah 49:22–52:2 in the following ways:

2 Nephi 6:2–5 → Jacob begins his sermon and explains why he is drawing upon Isaiah

2 Nephi 6:6–7 → Jacob quotes Isaiah 49:22–23

2 Nephi 6:8–15 → Jacob interjects his own commentary

2 Nephi 6:16–18 → Jacob continues quotation in Isaiah 49:24–26

2 Nephi 7–8 → Jacob quotes Isaiah 50–52:2

2 Nephi 9:1–3 → Jacob briefly summarizes a few key points

2 Nephi 9:4–54 → Jacob preaches on the Atonement of Christ and provides warnings to his people

2 Nephi 10:1–25 → Jacob provides further commentary on the gathering of Israel

In his introductory comments in this sermon, Jacob explains that he wants to speak “concerning things which are, and which are to come,” and that he is doing this so that his people “may learn and glorify the name of [their] God” (2 Nephi 6:4). Recognizing the dual nature of Isaiah’s prophecies, this is an interesting framework that Jacob provides. Providing one possible reading to this phrase, Joseph Spencer wrote, “I’m not sure quite how much we should read into that formula, but I find it striking. Jacob seems here to be saying relatively straightforwardly that Isaiah’s words inherently have two meanings, one bound up with the original context of Isaiah’s prophecy (‘things which are’) and one bound up with Nephi’s likening of Isaiah’s prophecies texts to the larger history of the covenant he’s witnessed in vision (‘things . . . which are to come’).”[19] Highlighting the implications for his people, Jacob then explains, “The words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel; wherefore, they may be likened unto you for ye are of the house of Israel” (2 Nephi 6:5). “Now,” Jacob continues, “these are the words” (2 Nephi 6:6):

Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. (2 Nephi 6:6–8; compare Isaiah 49:22–23)

Although he is going to continue with these Isaiah passages for another couple of chapters, Jacob immediately interjects his own commentary after these first two verses. I say his own commentary, but note the language he uses: “And now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words. For behold, the Lord has shown me” (2 Nephi 6:8; emphasis added). This is not just an intellectual commentary. Jacob makes clear throughout the next couple of verses that the insights he shares were given to him by the Lord and by the words of an angel (emphasis added):

The Lord has shown me that those who were at Jerusalem, from whence we came, have been slain and carried away captive. Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should return again. And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh; and after he should manifest himself they should scourge him and crucify him, according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me. (2 Nephi 6:8–9)

In analyzing how Jacob approaches this important topic we see that, in addition to what he surely learned from both Lehi and Nephi, Jacob’s doctrinal understanding of the scattering and gathering of Israel also came from engaging with scripture, from the word of the Lord, and from the words of an angel. Perhaps this is why, when teaching on this important subject, Jacob’s overarching emphasis is on the Lord’s constant outpouring of mercy upon the house of Israel.

Prior to his discussion on the allegory of the olive tree, Jacob’s commentary on the scattering of Israel is limited. When he does speak on it, it seems his purpose is to set up his primary interest: the promised gathering. For example, in 2 Nephi 6 he teaches that “after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them . . . [and] they shall be scattered, and smitten” (v. 10–11). But note that Jacob immediately follows that up with, “Nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again” (v. 11). After providing some of his own insights, he then returns to the promises the Lord made through the prophet Isaiah: that “the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people,” that “all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (v. 17–18), and that “the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion” (2 Nephi 8:11).

In our efforts to study Isaiah with Jacob, we need to key in on what he says immediately after his use of these chapters. Jacob overtly states his purpose in drawing upon those particular passages: “And now, my beloved brethren, I have read these things that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord that he has covenanted with all the House of Israel . . . that they shall be restored to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise” (2 Nephi 9:1–2). Even as the Lord and his angels have tutored Jacob and helped him to see the reality of this scattering—indeed as Jacob himself is living it—he seems to be fixated on the redemption and gathering of Israel.

As Jacob moves toward the end of this first sermon he again underscores this covenantal promise, saying, “For behold, the promises which we have obtained are the promises unto us according to the flesh; wherefore, as it has been shown unto me that many of our children shall perish in the flesh because of unbelief, nevertheless, God will be merciful unto many; and our children shall be restored, that they may come to that which will give them the true knowledge of their Redeemer” (2 Nephi 10:2; emphasis added). What follows is another example of Jacob’s tendency to briefly mention the scattering of Israel in order to subsequently testify of the mercy of the Lord, his commitment to his people, and the promise of a gathering. He says, “because of their iniquities, destructions, famines, pestilences, and bloodshed shall come upon them; and they who shall not be destroyed shall be scattered among all nations” (2 Nephi 10:6). Immediately following that statement, he continues, “But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion” (2 Nephi 10:7–8). Understanding Jacob’s consistent emphasis on the Lord’s promised gathering in these chapters will help readers better understand the overarching message in his later sermon, when he masterfully uses Zenos’s allegory of the olive tree to teach about the Lord’s mercy shown to his covenant people.

Jacob 4–6: Reading Zenos’s Allegory with Jacob

Earlier in this paper I described a helpful pattern in approaching the scriptural passages in which Jacob draws upon the writings of earlier prophets. Such an approach, I suggested, helps us to read the words of Isaiah and Zenos with Jacob. In this approach, and considering the example of Jacob’s use of the allegory of the olive tree, the reader engages in a serious study of what Jacob teaches immediately before the quotation from Zenos (the setup). This helps the reader approach the allegory exegetically, as Jacob’s preliminary comments provide the stated lens through which he encourages us to read Jacob 5. In following the pattern outlined earlier, the reader then studies the words of Zenos, paying particular attention to the points emphasized in the setup, and then looks to Jacob’s commentary in the following chapter to gain further clarity.

Now, this may sound heretical to some—particularly to those who despise spoilers in books or movies—but teachers, students, and readers of the Book of Mormon might find value in the following recommendation. To gain a clearer picture of what Jacob is seeing in the allegory quoted in Jacob 5, study Jacob 4 (Jacob’s setup), skip the quotation itself (Jacob 5), carefully study Jacob 6 to more fully understand what elements from the allegory Jacob is emphasizing, and then return to read Jacob 5 with Jacob.

The Setup (Jacob 4)

In Jacob’s introduction to the allegory, he places a heavy emphasis on mercy, hope, and the Atonement of Christ.[20] He begins, “For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming” (Jacob 4:4). He helps his people understand the central place of the Atonement of Christ by teaching that the primary purpose of keeping the law of Moses was to point their souls to Christ. He teaches that they can “be reconciled unto [God] through the atonement of Christ” (v. 11) and then, after testifying of the Resurrection, asks, “why not speak of the atonement of Christ” (v. 12)? His message seems to align closely with his stated purpose of helping his children and future generations understand that Jacob and his people knew of, believed in, and had hope through the Atonement of Christ.

Later in Jacob 4, Jacob says he is “led on by the Spirit unto prophesying” (v. 15). He continues, “for I perceive by the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that by the stumbling of the Jews they will reject the stone upon which they might build and have safe foundation” (v. 15). The “stone” in this passage, representing the Savior, ties back to Jacob’s purpose in preaching about and testifying of Christ: “But behold, according to the scriptures, this stone shall become the great, and the last, and the only sure foundation, upon which the Jews can build” (v. 16; emphasis added). The centrality of Christ as the only sure foundation is emphasized throughout this chapter. Whether testifying that the law of Moses points to Christ or teaching that the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac “is a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (v. 5), Jacob consistently emphasizes the need to focus on Christ. Indeed, in reading Jacob’s warning that the blindness of the Jews “came by looking beyond the mark” (v. 14), Neal A. Maxwell suggested he is teaching that “the mark is Christ”[21] and that looking beyond the mark is “failing to see Christ as the center of it all.”[22]

The Lord revealed to Jacob that the Jews[23] would indeed fall, stumble, and reject Christ—the sure foundation. It is this understanding which gets at the heart of Jacob’s question, the very question he sees Zenos’s allegory answering. In Jacob 4:17 he writes, “And now, my beloved, how is it possible that these [the Jews], after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?” Or in other words, can those who rejected Christ still have “a hope of his glory” (v. 4)? “Behold,” Jacob says, “I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you” (v. 18). In summary, Jacob, a committed and concerned teacher, invites his people to look for the answer to the question set forth in Jacob 4:17 as they read the allegory: “How is it possible that these [the Jews], after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?”

The Follow-Up and the Tie-in (Jacob 6)

To analyze how Jacob answers that question, we will look at his comments provided after the Jacob 5 allegory, turning instead to Jacob 6. “Behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel . . . must surely come to pass” (v. 1). What follows could be read as Jacob’s own observations from the allegory of the olive tree and what he seems to find most relevant. While there are many possible applications from Jacob 6, we will only look at three.

First, Jacob emphasizes that the Lord “shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people” (Jacob 6:2). Set against the backdrop of the question posed before he quoted Zenos—“How is it possible” (Jacob 4:17)—Jacob could be saying that this gathering is possible because even after the Jews have rejected Christ, he is still committed to his recovering his covenant people. This theme of recovery is seen throughout Jacob 5. In the allegory of the olive tree, Zenos describes the process by which the Lord recovers his people as a grafting (Jacob 5:8–10, 17–18, 30, 34, 52–57, 60–68). Importantly, when the comparison of the house of Israel to an olive tree was first introduced in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 10, Lehi explained, “And after the house of Israel should be scattered they should be gathered together again; or, in fine, after the Gentiles had received the fulness of the Gospel, the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer” (v. 14; emphasis added). Indeed, Jesus himself spoke on this important grafting when he said, “And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them. And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel” (3 Nephi 16:11–12). For Jacob, the allegory appears to give him confidence that the laborers in the vineyard will “begin at the last that they may be first, and that the first may be last . . . that all may be nourished once again” (Jacob 5:63), or in other words, that the Lord will recover his covenant people.

The second application Jacob seems to pull from the allegory is subtler than the first. It connects to the use of pronouns to describe who, exactly, is performing the work on the vineyard (the gathering of Israel). In his own analysis of the allegory, Jacob’s words mirror the seemingly intentional language used by Zenos. A careful reading of the text shows an interesting pattern in how both Zenos and Jacob use pronouns throughout Jacob 5–6. For example, Jacob says, “The servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard . . . and how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard” (Jacob 6:2–3; emphasis added). Both Zenos and Jacob consistently state that the work of the vineyard is God’s work. Throughout the allegory, when referring to the vineyard, the Lord of the vineyard identifies it as “my vineyard” thirty-one times. Similarly, he uses the phrase “mine own self” ten times, and the phrase “mine own purpose” three times. He says, “Wherefore, go to, and call servants . . . that we may prepare the way, that I may bring forth again the natural fruit” (Jacob 5:61; emphasis added). The role of the servants is to prepare the way, but the actual work of the vineyard is the work of the Lord. He alone has the power to recover and change his people.

This leads to the final application I will emphasize from Jacob’s post-allegory commentary. Jacob movingly proclaims, “And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long” (Jacob 6:4). This is the ultimate answer to Jacob’s question. How can the Jews be recovered from their scattered state? Because God is merciful! Even after having rejected Christ, the house of Israel has hope for future redemption because of the mercy of the Lord. For Jacob, this is the central message of the allegory. To illustrate the Lord’s mercy and compassion throughout the allegory, consider highlighting each time the Lord of the vineyard laments, “It grieveth me that I should lose this tree” (Jacob 5:7, 11, 13, 32, 46, 47, 51, 66). The Lord is committed to saving his covenant people, even after they have rejected him.

Another part of the allegory that captures the mercy of the Lord is that moment when, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland summarizes, “after digging and dunging, watering and weeding, trimming, pruning, transplanting, and grafting, the great Lord of the vineyard throws down his spade and his pruning shears and weeps, crying out to any who would listen, ‘What could I have done more for my vineyard?’”[24] In the allegory the Lord laments, “Have I slackened my hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long” (Jacob 5:47). “What an indelible image of God’s engagement in our lives!” Elder Holland observes. “What anguish in a parent when His children do not choose Him nor ‘the gospel of God’ He sent! How easy to love someone who so singularly loves us!”[25]

For Jacob, this passage encompasses more than a lesson on the history of the Jews or even a promise of their future redemption. For him, it elicits a call to action for his own people: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart . . . while his arm of mercy is extended towards you” (Jacob 6:5). When Jacob asks the question, “How is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner” (Jacob 4:18; emphasis added), exegetically, he is speaking of the Jews. However, as Nephi often did, Jacob is repurposing this prophecy to teach a lesson to his own family. For him, the question is, “How is possible that these [the Nephites], after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?” Jacob then answers his own question: God is merciful, so “repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you” (Jacob 6:5).

Returning to the allegory with the perspective of what Jacob says before and after will help readers to see the role of the Lord of the vineyard, how he is going to gather his people, and his mercy and patience with his covenant people. Perhaps most importantly though, reading through this lens allows us to see how we can have hope when we have, in our own ways, rejected the Lord. Elder Holland presents a poignant message that we may see and feel as we read this allegory with Jacob: “Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.”[26] And as we ourselves act upon these feelings and experience the grace of the Lord of the vineyard, we may with Jacob proclaim, “why not speak of the atonement of Christ” (Jacob 4:12)?

On the Atonement of Christ

In fulfilling his role as teacher, Jacob tells us that he “ministered much unto [his] people in word” (Jacob 4:1). He then parenthetically confides, “I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates” (v. 1). Perhaps this is why he explains, “And a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people . . . cannot be written upon these plates” (Jacob 3:13). Recognizing the stated restrictions which forced him to be selective in what he wrote down, the importance of Jacob’s emphasis on the Atonement of Jesus Christ cannot be overstated. Speaking to this emphasis, Elder Holland wrote, “Jacob seems to have been particularly committed to presenting the doctrine of Christ. Given the amount of space he gave to his witness of the Savior’s Atonement, Jacob clearly considered this basic doctrine the most sacred of teachings and the greatest of revelations.”[27]

Jacob’s interest in the Atonement of Jesus Christ surely began when, in his youth, he beheld “[God’s] glory” (2 Nephi 2:4). Indeed, it is telling that of all that Lehi could have chosen to share with Jacob in his final words to him, he focused on the doctrines of the Fall of Adam and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. While an entire project could be dedicated to all that Jacob taught about these central doctrines, the next portion of this chapter will focus on how he seems to build upon what he learned from his father’s foundational teachings.

Lehi’s Teachings on the Atonement

Early in the Book of Mormon record, after prophesying that the Lord will “raise up . . . a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world,” Lehi briefly introduces the truth that “all mankind [are] in a lost and fallen state, and ever [will] be save they should rely on this Redeemer” (1 Nephi 10:4, 6). This important doctrine is not picked up again until Lehi expounds upon it in his final words to Jacob in 2 Nephi 2. In this chapter Lehi teaches that through Christ “the way is prepared from the fall of man” (v. 4); that “Redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah” (v. 6); and that “[Christ] offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law” (v. 7).

Lehi then provides a profound summary of the Creation, the Fall of Adam, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ (see 2 Nephi 2:16–28), what Elder Bruce R. McConkie once called the “three pillars of eternity.”[28] Here Lehi explains that because of the Fall, Adam and Eve were “driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth” (v. 19), “they have brought forth children” (v. 20), and “their state became a state of probation” (v. 21). He taught how the Lord “showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents” (v. 21). Lehi then poses a tantalizing theological idea. In essence he invites Jacob, and by extension each of us, to consider: what “if Adam had not transgressed” (v. 22)? Lehi’s answer:

• “He would not have fallen” (v. 22)
• “He would have remained in the garden of Eden” (v. 22)
• “All things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created” (v. 22)
• They must have remained forever, and had no end” (v. 22)
• “They would have had no children” (v. 23)
• “They would have remained in a state of innocence” (v. 23)
• “Having no joy, for they knew no misery” (v. 23)
• “Doing no good, for they knew no sin” (v. 23)

After detailing these implications of Adam’s transgression, and in one of the most doctrinally saturated statements in scripture, Lehi succinctly summarizes, “the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall” (2 Nephi 2:26; emphasis added). The implications of this statement seem to be key to what Jacob chooses to focus on in his own landmark address on the Fall of Adam and Eve and the Atonement of Christ.

Jacob’s Teachings on the Atonement

Jacob’s teachings on the Atonement in 2 Nephi 9 are situated within his broader discourse spanning chapters 6–10 and come immediately following his recitation of Isaiah 50–52. Of these words from Isaiah, Jacob writes, “I have read these things that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord” (2 Nephi 9:1). Having emphasized the historical scattering of Israel and their being “established in all their lands of promise” (v. 2), Jacob pivots to a different, though related, theological challenge facing his Israelite audience—their own fallen condition. Could it be that this pedagogical pivot is his way of suggesting that his listeners see a parallel between the scattering and the Fall, and the gathering as a type for the Atonement of Jesus Christ? Whether this is intentional or not, what begins as a sermon on the house of Israel being “restored to the true church and fold of God” (v. 2) shifts to a sermon on their physical “bodies and spirits” being “restored one to the other” (v. 12) and then, through the Atonement of Christ, being “restored to that God who gave them breath” (v. 26), their ultimate “promised land.” As Daniel L. Belnap observes, “This is the true land of inheritance, not some earthly land that can be lost. Regardless of physical land, covenantal worthiness brings upon one the blessings of a place in the eternal kingdom of God.”[29]

While clearly informed by Lehi’s earlier teachings, in this chapter Jacob provides fresh doctrinal insights which have become fundamental to atonement theology in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Ezra Taft Benson once said, “Just as a man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ. No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind. And no other book in the world explains this vital doctrine nearly as well as the Book of Mormon.”[30]

Jacob’s doctrinal contributions lead out in these important explanations. While Lehi’s pedagogical approach in 2 Nephi 2 was to pose the question, “What if there had been no Fall,” Jacob is asking, in essence, “What if there had been no Atonement?” This is the distinctive contribution Jacob makes to our understanding of these central doctrines. Where Lehi shared the narrative of the garden of Eden, the premortal fall and subsequent beguiling of the devil, and the probationary state brought on by the Fall of Adam (see vv. 17–25), Jacob’s singular focus seems to be on the primary consequences of the Fall—the introduction of physical and spiritual death. Note Jacob’s emphasis on these two types of death in his own summary of the three pillars of eternity: “For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord” (2 Nephi 9:6; emphasis added). I suggest that the next several verses represent some of Jacob’s greatest doctrinal contributions.

In approaching the question “what if there had been no Atonement?” Jacob writes, “Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgement which came upon man”—namely physical and spiritual death—“must needs have remained to an endless duration” (2 Nephi 9:7). We are now getting to his answer. He continues: “And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more” (v. 7). If there were no Atonement, physical death would remain and, as Jacob said earlier, “our flesh must waste away and die” (v. 4), never to rise again. But what of our spirits? What of the consequences of the spiritual death brought on by the fall? “If the flesh should rise no more,” Jacob teaches, “our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself” (vv. 8–9; emphasis added). Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our bodies would waste away and become part of the earth while our spirits would become devils, even angels to a devil.

A careful study of Jacob’s sermon shows he is clearly engaging with Lehi’s earlier teachings (compare, for example, 2 Nephi 2:17–18 with 2 Nephi 9:8–9). But rather than just rehearsing again what Lehi taught about the fall in 2 Nephi 2:19–26, Jacob provides expanded insight as to why the Messiah needed to “redeem the children of men from the fall” (2 Nephi 2:26). Jacob underscores the desperate situation of mankind when he talks of “the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit” (2 Nephi 9:10). Brant A. Gardner suggested that Jacob’s “reference to hell as a monster may reflect Old World imagery.”[31] Gardner posits:

Lehi’s religious world retained more of the influence of the ancient forms of Israelite religion than does our current Bible. . . . One of those contexts is the conflict between God and various monsters. The physical realms associated with God were heavenly, but the monsters inhabited the underworld. . . . In biblical literature, the conflict role moves away from the monsters and toward the heavenly adversary. The evolutionary process made the monsters less real and more symbolic—they became metaphorical representations of the heavenly adversary—the Satan. Thus, a monster “belongs” with death and hell, as each of these images stands in opposition to Yahweh.[32]

Jacob’s allusion to the fierceness of this monster openly sets up his primary message: “How great the goodness of our God” in providing an “escape from the grasp of this awful monster” (2 Nephi 9:10), what he calls “the way of deliverance of our God” (v. 11). As Jacob explains how the Lord “delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell” (v. 19), note his demarcation of temporal from spiritual (references to temporal death are italicized, while references to spiritual death are in bold):

This death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls. (2 Nephi 9:11–13; emphasis added)

It is interesting to note that two of these three verses were part of a continuous paragraph in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. In that form, Gardner observed, it is easier to see the literary continuity and Jacob’s use of “parallelism to emphasize his point: ‘This death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead’ (v. 11) // ‘This death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead’ (v. 12). In both cases, the atonement reverses one of these aspects of death. Each sentence mirrors the other except for the single change in the central phrase. This similarity is intentional.”[33] This literary move, with its focus on the word deliver, further underscores “the mercies of the Holy One of Israel” and how “because of the atonement . . . they are delivered by the power of him” (2 Nephi 9:25; emphasis added).

In addition to Jacob’s “textual legacy” including specific words and phrases drawn upon by later Nephite authors, as we saw from Hilton’s work,[34] it seems likely that important voices like King Benjamin (see Mosiah 3–4), Abinadi (see Mosiah 16), Alma (see Alma 42), and Samuel the Lamanite (see Helaman 14) built upon the doctrinal foundation laid by Jacob in these passages. Consider, for example, the words of Alma to his son Corianton when he explained the consequences of the Fall:

Man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man. And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will. . . . Therefore, as the soul could never die, and the fall had brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal, that is, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord, it was expedient that mankind should be reclaimed from this spiritual death. (Alma 42:6–7, 9)

Jacob’s doctrinal emphasis on the “doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind”[35] shows that he felt a compelling need for Christ. Perhaps this truth resonated so poignantly with Jacob because, on a more individual scale, he lived it personally. Lehi describes Jacob as “the firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness,” and recounts how, even in his childhood, he “suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of [his] brethren” (2 Nephi 2:1). Yet even though Jacob endured these painful experiences, Lehi testifies to him, “Thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain. . . . Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer” (vv. 2–3; emphasis added). Jacob had already experienced deliverance and redemption. He had experienced the Lord’s compensatory grace as the afflictions he bore were consecrated for his own good. Little wonder, then, that he would boldly proclaim, “O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel!” (2 Nephi 9:19).

Come unto Christ: Jacob’s Witness

Toward the end of his sermon in 2 Nephi 6–10, Jacob discloses that an angel came in the night and taught him a new title for the Lord—the name of “Christ” (2 Nephi 10:3). It was by Jacob’s “faith and great anxiety” that he received “many revelations, and the spirit of much prophecy” and that he “knew of Christ and his kingdom, which should come” (Jacob 1:5–6). Jacob describes his consuming mission thusly: “We labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God. . . . Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world” (Jacob 1:7–8). Jacob knew that Christ “cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken until his voice” (2 Nephi 9:21; emphasis added), and this led him to be a profound witness to the name of Christ.

Jacob’s Encounter with Sherem

Some scholars have suggested that Jacob intended his record to end with the final verse of Jacob 6, when he formally bids farewell to his people.[36] If that is indeed the case, then Jacob’s decision to include his encounter with Sherem becomes even more intriguing. Some scholars have provided legal justification for its inclusion,[37] while others have looked at doctrinal reasons.[38] Is it possible that there are pedagogical reasons as well? Could this be Jacob’s final lesson for those whom he was consecrated to teach? Could Jacob be sharing this story as part of his final message because of its Christocentric theme and his commitment to touch upon this most important doctrine “as much as it were possible, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of our people” (Jacob 1:4)? While it is impossible to know his motivation for including this account, consider some of the important lessons he teaches against the backdrop of this narrative.

Sherem is introduced as one who “was learned,” who “had a perfect knowledge of the language of the people,” and who used “much flattery, and much power of speech” (Jacob 7:4). Jacob seems intent on articulating two points: that Sherem declared “there should be no Christ,” and that Sherem desired to “overthrow the doctrine of Christ” (v. 2). Note also that when Sherem actually addresses Jacob, he specifically mentions how Jacob goes “about much, preaching that which ye call the gospel, or the doctrine of Christ” (v. 6). Again, Jacob seems intent that Christ and his doctrine be central to this narrative.

During his recounting of this story, Jacob provides a powerful testimony that conveys an important message to his initial audience and, by extension, the rest of us. Jacob gives his readers a way to be sure and unshaken in their faith in Christ and his gospel. He explains Sherem’s desire to destroy his own testimony, saying, “He had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken” (Jacob 7:5; emphasis added). Jacob had personal experiences with Christ. Consequently, he almost suggests it is audacious for Sherem to think he could shake him from his faith. As the Lord pours his spirit into his soul, Jacob confounds Sherem in his words.

But Jacob doesn’t leave it there. He chooses to include the dialogue from this conversation. “Deniest thou the Christ who should come?” he asks. “If there should be a Christ,” Sherem responds, “I would not deny him; but I know that there is no Christ, neither has been, nor ever will be” (Jacob 7:9). Continuing this theme, Jacob asks Sherem, “Believest thou the scriptures?” After Sherem responds in the affirmative, Jacob testifies, “Then ye do not understand them; for they truly testify of Christ. Behold, I say unto you that none of the prophets have written, nor prophesied, save they have spoken concerning this Christ. . . . Wherefore, I know if there should be no atonement made all mankind must be lost” (vv. 10–12). Again, for Jacob, the message of all scripture is the message of Christ.

After “the power of the Lord [comes] upon” Sherem (Jacob 7:15), he realizes the error of his ways and gathers the multitude to share with them his final words (vv. 16–17). Importantly, when telling this story, Jacob emphasizes that Sherem “confessed the Christ,” and then includes the words of Sherem’s own stated confession: “I have lied unto God; for I denied the Christ, and said that I believed the scriptures; and they truly testify of him” (vv. 17, 19). Only after explaining that “peace and the love of God was restored among the people” and that “they searched the scriptures, and hearkened no more to the words of this wicked man” (v. 23) does Jacob move to close this chapter.

Jacob’s Final Writings

“To the reader,” Jacob says, “I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, adieu” (Jacob 7:27). While much has been made of the use of the word adieu from an apologetic perspective,[39] Deidre Nicole Green recently provided an inspiring insight highlighting what it also might teach us about Jacob:

Jacob’s offering is summed up in the curious final word of the book: “adieu” (Jacob 7:27). This French word connotes a last farewell, indicating that one is making one’s final departure. Further, adieu can be employed to express regret over a loss or in recognition that something will no longer be experienced. Etymologically, adieu comes from two words meaning “to God,” and older versions of this phrase variously meant “go to God,” “be commended to God,” and “remain with God.” With this word choice, Jacob both conveys his final orientation to God and leaves his readers with a final invitation to similarly adopt or maintain this right relation. . . . Adieu captures a life that remains equivocal and the loving witness that abides. Jacob finishes his role in the Book of Mormon just as he starts it, with consecration.[40]

While Jacob would not have used the French word adieu in his record on the plates, the idea of this word capturing Jacob’s commitment to God and the work of the kingdom is meaningful. Indeed, Jacob’s consecrated life, teachings, and ministry make a significant contribution to the Book of Mormon’s stated purpose of showing “unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers” (title page of the Book of Mormon).

Conclusion

Our analysis of Jacob has now come full circle. What began with his stated commitment to “teach [his people] the word of God with all diligence” (Jacob 1:19) ends with an example of his faithfulness to this divinely appointed responsibility. Elder Holland summarized Jacob’s commitment to Christ and his word with this poignant tribute:

Jacob, the believer. Jacob, the foe of the anti-Christ. Jacob, the unshakable. By definition all Book of Mormon prophets had great faith and were unyielding in their convictions. All had a deep witness of the mission and divinity of Christ. But in a life only sketchily documented (Jacob’s teachings are limited to thirty-one pages in the Book of Mormon, and many of those are devoted to the quotations of other prophets), and although he considers his contribution to the Book of Mormon to be small (see Jacob 7:27), nevertheless this prophet comes to us in word and deed as absolutely rocklike, solid, invincible, unshakable.[41]

“Ye look upon me as a teacher,” Jacob reminds his people (2 Nephi 9:48). As a teacher, Jacob taught truth. He taught doctrine. He taught things that were sometimes hard for his people to hear but that the Lord needed to be said. Jacob understood that “when crises come in our lives—and they will—the philosophies of men interlaced with a few scriptures and poems just won’t do.”[42] He knew of the need for real doctrinal nourishment and of the dangers of what Elder Holland once called a “theological Twinkie—spiritually empty calories.”[43] He knew that when the substantial is what is needed, the superficial just won’t do. Movingly, Jacob invites, “Come, my brethren, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 9:50–51).

For Jacob, the most meaningful testament to his impact as a teacher likely did not come from his large public sermon that spanned the better part of two days (2 Nephi 6–10), nor from the powerful address he gave within the sacred walls of the temple (Jacob 2–3), nor even from his profound treatment of Zenos’s allegory of the olive tree (Jacob 4–6). No, for him, his greatest impact as a teacher is seen in the next book, written by his own son, Enos. At the beginning of his eponymous book, Enos begins a familiar journey through the forest in search of beasts to hunt. But, as President Kimball wrote, “no animals did he shoot nor capture. He was traveling a path he had never walked before. He was reaching, knocking, asking, pleading; he was being born again. He was seeing the pleasant valleys across the barren wastes. He was searching his soul.”[44]

Indeed, it is while Enos is in this forest hunting that Jacob’s most important sermon is given, preached from the pulpit of his own son’s memory. Enos writes, “The words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart. And my soul hungered” (Enos 1:3–4; emphasis added). As Enos pondered these words, his “memory was both cruel and kind. The pictures his father had painted in sermon and admonition now stirred his soul. He was warmed and inspired. He hungered for the good. Then memory opened the doors to his ugly past. His soul revolted at the reliving of the baser things but yearned now for the better. A rebirth was in process. It was painful but rewarding.”[45] Then, Enos writes, “I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul . . . and there came a voice unto me, saying, Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee . . . wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole. . . . And after I, Enos, had heard these words, my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord” (Enos 1:4–5, 8, 11; emphasis added). We can see in Enos’s words all of the themes which we have previously explored from Jacob’s writings. A hungering soul, the preaching of pure doctrine, the unrestrained mercy of the Lord, and a now-unshakable disciple of Christ. Such was the influence of Jacob.

Notes

[1] Tyler J. Griffin, “Nephi: An Ideal Teacher of Less-Than-Ideal Students,” Religious Educator 13, no. 2 (2012): 61–71.

[2] John Hilton III, “Abinadi’s Legacy: Tracing His Influence through the Book of Mormon,” in Abinadi: He Came Among Them in Disguise, ed. Shon D. Hopkin (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018), 93–116.

[3] John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom” (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998), 233.

[4] Gerald Hansen Jr., “The Book of Alma as a Prototype for Teaching the Word of God,” in The Book of Mormon: Alma, the Testimony of the Word, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992), 263–80.

[5] Ryan H. Sharp, “‘Was It Not So?’ Remembering the Contributions of Samuel the Lamanite,” in Samuel the Lamanite: That Ye Might Believe, ed. Charles Swift (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2021), 73–104.

[6] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Standard unto My People” (CES Symposium on the Book of Mormon, August 9, 1994), 14, https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/farms/pdf/preliminary_reports/Holland-A-Standard-unto-My-People-1994.pdf.

[7] For more on Jacob as priest and the connections between the role of teacher and priest, see Leviticus 10:10–11; and Avram Shannon’s chapter in this volume.

[8] Quoted in Bruce C. Hafen, “The Story of A Disciple’s Life: Preparing the Biography of Elder Neal A. Maxwell,” BYU Studies Quarterly 42, no. 1 (2003): 16.

[9] J. Reuben Clark Jr., “The Charted Course of the Church in Education” (address to seminary and institute of religion leaders at the Brigham Young University summer school, August 8, 1938), 12.

[10] John Taylor, in Journal of Discourses (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1881), 20:23.

[11] He began his sermon by confessing his “anxiety” over his people and over his painful duty to rebuke them for their sins (Jacob 2:3). Similarly, Jacob prefaced his two other discourses by alluding to his “anxiety” (2 Nephi 6:3; Jacob 4:18). No other Book of Mormon prophet so begins a sermon; indeed, half the references to anxiety in the Book of Mormon occur in Jacob’s writing. See John Hilton III’s chapter in this volume.

[12] Robert J. Matthews, “Jacob: Prophet, Theologian, Historian,” in The Book of Mormon: Jacob through Words of Mormon, To Learn with Joy, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1990), 33.

[13] John S. Tanner, “Jacob, Son of Lehi,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 2, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 714.

[14] Hilton, “Jacob’s Textual Legacy,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 22, no. 2 (2013): 52.

[15] Hilton, “Jacob’s Textual Legacy,” 52–65.

[16] Matthews, “Jacob: Prophet, Theologian, Historian,” 52.

[17] Grant Hardy, ed., The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018), 135n3.

[18] Ryan Sharp, “Except Some Man Should Guide Me: Studying Isaiah with Nephi and Jacob,” in They Shall Grow Together: The Bible in the Book of Mormon, ed. Charles Swift and Nicholas J. Frederick (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2022), 327–63.

[19] Joseph Spencer, The Vision of All: Twenty-Five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2016), 128.

[20] Jacob uses the word atone (and its variants) more than any other author in the Book of Mormon.

[21] Neal A. Maxwell, “Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King,” Ensign, May 1976, 26.

[22] Maxwell, “The Precious Promise,” in The Rock of Our Redeemer: Talks from the 2002 BYU Women’s Conference (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 3.

[23] It is important to note that in Jacob’s seventh-century-BC environment, “Jew” does not refer to our modern notions of Jewish people, but instead to the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. Even as Jacob looks to the future, this political idea remains his primary lens.

[24] Holland, “The Grandeur of God,” Ensign or Liahona, November 2003, 72.

[25] Holland, “Grandeur of God,” 72.

[26] Holland, “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2012, 33.

[27] Holland, Christ and the New Covenant (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997), 62.

[28] Bruce R. McConkie, “The Three Pillars of Eternity” (Brigham Young University devotional, February 17, 1981), speeches.byu.edu.

[29] Daniel L. Belnap, “‘We Are Not Cut Off’: Separation and Reconciliation through Sacred Covenants,” in Living the Book of Mormon: Abiding by Its Precepts, ed. Gaye Strathearn and Charles Swift (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2007), 119.

[30] Ezra Taft Benson, “Great Plan of the Eternal God,” Ensign, May 1987, 85.

[31] Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 2, Second Nephi–Jacob (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007), 163.

[32] Gardner, Second Witness, 2:163–64.

[33] Gardner, 165.

[34] Hilton, “Jacob’s Textual Legacy,” 52–65.

[35] Benson, “Great Plan,” 85.

[36] Robert L. Millet, “Sherem the Anti-Christ,” in Nyman and Tate, Jacob through Words of Mormon, 175–76.

[37] John W. Welch, “The Case of Sherem,” in The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2008), 107–37; and Welch, “Sherem’s Accusations against Jacob,” in Welch, ed., Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 84–87.

[38] Millet, “Sherem the Anti-Christ,” 175–76.

[39] Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 163; and Angela Crowell, “Adieu: The Right Word After All,” in Recent Book of Mormon Developments: Articles from the Zarahemla Record, vol. 2 (Independence, MO: Zarahemla Research Foundation, 1992), 40.

[40] Deidre Nicole Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2020), 114–15.

[41] Holland, “Jacob the Unshakable,” in Heroes from the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1995), 46.

[42] Holland, “A Teacher Come from God,” Ensign, May 1998, 26.

[43] Holland, “Teacher Come from God,” 26.

[44] Spencer W. Kimball, “Prayer: ‘Raise Your Voice to the Heavens,’” in Faith Precedes the Miracle: Based on Discourses of Spencer W. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973), 210.

[45] Kimball, “Prayer: ‘Raise Your Voice,’” 210.