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Tender Mercies in English Scriptural Idiom and in Nephi's Record

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Tender Mercies in English Scriptural Idiom and in Nephi's Record Tender Mercies in English Scriptural Idiom and in Nephi’s Record Miranda Wilcox Nephi records divine beings inviting humans to participate in the sacred story of salvation and humans petitioning divine beings for aid in their mortal affliction. The first chapter of Nephi’s story introduces linguistic, textual, and narrative questions about how humans should engage with and produce holy books that memorialize these divine- human relations in heaven and on earth. For Nephi, a central element of these relationships is “tender mercies” (1 Nephi 1:20). What are tender mercies? How do the Lord’s tender mercies make the chosen faithful “mighty, even unto the power of deliverance”? Nephi’s striking phrase has become popular in Latter-day Saint discourse since Elder David A. Bednar preached of the “tender mercies of the Lord” at general conference in April 2005. He defined tender mercies as “very personal and individualized blessings, strength, pro- tection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ.”1 I would like to extend this discussion and reconsider this definition with respect to Nephi’s record by explor- ing the biblical sources and the transmission of this beloved phrase through English scriptural idiom. 1. David A. Bednar, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,”Ensign , May 2005, 99. 75 76 Miranda Wilcox Nephi explains that he has acquired “a great knowledge of the good- ness and the mysteries of God” and that he will share this knowledge in his record (1 Nephi 1:1). To make this record, Nephi must translate his personal experience and spiritual knowledge into the medium of written language, a medium circumscribed by its lexical resources and cultural traditions. Nephi acknowledges his record’s linguistic and cul- tural hybridity in blending ancestral Jewish traditions with imperial Egyptian script: “Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyp- tians. And I know that the record which I make to be true. And I make it with mine own hand, and I make it according to my knowledge” (1 Nephi 1:2–3). As modern readers, we are limited in our ability to perceive and evaluate these linguistic and cultural contours because we lack access to the original language of Nephi’s record. Instead, we have Joseph Smith’s English translation, a translation made in the language of Smith’s own ancestors. Like Nephi’s Reformed Egyptian, Joseph’s English is encoded with linguistic and cultural hybridity, but unlike Nephi’s language, the history of the English language has been well documented. Consequently, we must triangulate the meaning of Nephi’s phrase tender mercies through the lens of Joseph’s translation, which is itself embedded in a long tradition of fashioning English as a functional and resonant medium for scripture. The rich history of translating scriptural texts into English involves generations of effort by many, including Ælfric, John Wyclif, William Tyndale, English expatriates in Geneva, and King James’s scholars. The translators of each generation were challenged to recapture the ancient scriptural truths anew in the common language of their day. As an inheritor of this tradition, Joseph Smith likewise recasts Nephi’s sixth-century Jewish world using the linguistic resources of the scriptural idiom popular in early nineteenth-century Protestant America—that is, the language of the King James Bible. Before we can understand tender mercies with respect to Nephi’s “learning of [his] father,” we need to explore the history of the term in the learning of Joseph’s fathers. Tender Mercies 77 The learning of Joseph’s fathers: Mercy in the Hebrew Bible and in English scriptural idiom The phrase tender mercies did not originate in the Book of Mormon.2 It appears eleven times in the King James Bible:3 ten times in the Psalms and once in Proverbs, where it consistently renders the Hebrew word rah. ămîm, an intensive, plural, nominal form of the verb rāh. am, mean- ing to “love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate.”4 Rah. ămîm appears thirty-nine times in the Hebrew Bible (eleven times in the Psalms),5 in contexts articulating God’s intrinsic and steadfast love and his patient willingness to forgive in order to preserve relation with both the obedi- ent and the unfaithful. The cluster of occurrences of the phrase tender mercies and the term rah. ămîm in the Psalms indicates a close rela- tionship between this term and the language of Israel’s songs of praise and lament. In the Hebrew Bible, the stem rh.m and its cognates refer to an intense visceral love and intimate commitment rooted in a natural bond of kinship and creation, especially of a mother for her child (for example, 1 Kings 3:26 and Isaiah 49:15) and of God for his children (for example, Isaiah 63:7, 15; Psalm 145:9).6 Rāh. am is linked with a homophone, reh. em (“womb”), and this verbal relation anchors the emotion of rh. m in physiological pain felt deeply in one’s inner organs while observing another’s vulnerability: a mother for her baby depen- dent on her care, and God for his creatures susceptible to sin and 2. The phrasetender mercies appears in 1 Nephi 1:20; 8:8; and Ether 6:12. 3. See Psalms 25:6; 40:11; 51:1; 69:16; 77:9; 79:8; 103:4; 119:77, 156; 145:9; and Proverbs 12:10. Tender mercy appears twice in the New Testament: Luke 1:78 and James 5:11. 4. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), s.v. “rāh. am,” 2:841. For a thorough analysis, see Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, trans. David E. Green (Grand .rh. m,” 13:437–54 רחם“ .Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974–2004), s.v 5. The Hebrew wordrah. ămîm occurs eleven times in the Masoretic text of the Psalms, including the previously listed instances in note 3 plus one in Psalm 106:46 (KJV 106:45). 6. See Theological Dictionary, ed. Botterweck et al., 13:438–43. 78 Miranda Wilcox suffering. Such pain compels a compassionate and merciful response that alleviates this suffering. In the Hebrew Bible, rh. m primarily refers to a fundamental and enduring attribute of Yahweh, and it is “an essential constituent of the relationship between God and humanity.” 7 For example, in Exo- dus 34:6, Yahweh proclaims himself to Moses on Mount Sinai: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful (rah. ûm) and gracious (hannûn), slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (h. esed) and faithfulness (ʾĕmet ).”8 The same constellation of words appears in Psalm 25, where the psalmist expresses powerful confidence in Yahweh’s love and mercy amid petitions for divine rescue, teaching, and forgive- ness.9 Walter Brueggemann notes that this psalm juxtaposes themes of divine fidelity and human failure and in doing so models candid acknowledgment of human vulnerability, for “the candor of suffering . moves to a gratitude rooted in confidence that God’sh . esed will prevail. Candor turns to gratitude, suffering turns to hope, lament turns to praise.”10 6. Be mindful of your mercy (rah. ămîm), O Lord, and of your steadfast love (h. ĕsādîm), for they have been from old. 7. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love (h. esed) remember me, for your goodness’ sake, Lord! 7. Theological Dictionary, ed. Botterweck et al., 13:441. 8. Katharine D. Sakenfeld, The Meaning ofHesed in the Hebrew Bible: A New In- quiry (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978), 112–22. These verses have been interpreted as the heart of the Sinai covenant and are used liturgically in Judaism; see echoes in Psalms 86:15; 103:8; and 145:8. 9. John Goldingay, Psalms: Vol. 1, Psalms 1–41 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 368. See also Walter Brueggemann and William H. Bellinger Jr., Psalms, New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 130– 33. Goldingay suggests that the acrostic form of Psalm 25 may have been “designed as a model prayer” (368). 10. Walter Brueggemann, The Psalms and the Life of Faith, ed. Patrick D. Miller (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 199–200. Tender Mercies 79 8. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs the sinners in the way. 9. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love (h. esed) and faithfulness (ʾĕmet), for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.11 In verse 6, rah. ămîm is paired with h. esed, a word referring to an “act that preserves or promotes life,” constituted by mutual and enduring “goodness, grace, kindness.”12 This frequent pairing can be treated as “a compound of complementary expressions: h. esed expresses the fundamental goodness of God, rh. m the special favor shown by God in the face of a situation of sin and affliction.”13 Like rah. ămîm, h. esed is a rich and flexible word of relation. Scholars have considered h. esed as “loyal kindness,” the reciprocity of mutual beneficence between two parties who have entered a relationship entailing responsibility to the other party. While some scholars describe h. esed as involving a formal covenant, others stress that this commitment is rooted in moral responsibility rather than legal obligation.14 The mutuality in this relation involves reciprocal actions: a person “who receives an act of h.
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