King Benjamin's Speech: "That Ye May Learn Wisdom"

by John W. Welch (editor), Stephen D. Ricks (Editor)

For readers of the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin s speech is a treasure trove of inspiration, wisdom, eloquence, and spiritual insight. King Benjamin s That Ye May Learn Wisdom is the most substantial collection of studies ever to focus exclusively on this landmark address.

The contributors examine this speech in the multifaceted contexts in which it was as a classic speech of a departing leader near the time of his death, as the focus of an annual festival season mandated anciently under the law of Moses, as part of a covenant renewal ceremony delivered within the sacred precinct of the Nephite temple in Zarahemla, and as preparation for the coronation of a new king.

Historical and linguistic tools and information are employed in these essays to help the reader to better grasp the speech s historical setting, its doctrinal implications, its literary qualities, its influence then and now, and its overall brilliance. This book contains the complete text of the speech along with detailed notes, cross-references, textual commentary, and a select bibliography.

Genres: Religion, Lds, Nonfiction

661 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John W. Welch is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, where he teaches various courses, including Perspectives on Jewish, Greek, and Roman Law in the New Testament. Since 1991 he has also served as the editor in chief of BYU Studies. He studied history and classical languages at Brigham Young University, Greek philosophy at Oxford, and law at Duke University. As a founder of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, one of the editors for Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of Mormonism, and codirector of the Masada and Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at BYU, he has published widely on biblical, early Christian, and Latter-day Saint topics.

from http://deseretbook.com/auth/420/John_...

Reviews

[Jenny Webb]

The pieces range a bit from the devotional to the academic, but there is some thoughtful work, and a lot of work with the text.

[Jamie Huston]

Not quite as good as I'd hoped, but after having this book for 20 years and this speech just being covered in our Come Follow Me study, I figured this was the time to finally read it!

Neal A. Maxwell's overview is excellent, and a favorite of mine. Sadly, not much of what follows can keep up.

Most of the book is written by Welch, who is an excellent legal scholar, but whose writing tends to be dry. He also tends to obsess over minutiae, such as the (blessedly short) chapter on KBS as a lawsuit.

Another downside is that the material gets redundant more than once, even when Welch is covering material he's already taught.

But he often does a great job of highlighting linguistic features and their doctrinal conclusions, from word choice to structure (obviously, since he's the King of Chiasmus). I made some notes there.

Nibley's chapter is one of the last things he ever did, and is unusually direct. A home run!

I was intrigued by M. Catherine Thomas's topic, but as speculative as much of the material in this collection must be by nature, hers was even more so. Still good, but not great.

I wasn't looking forward to Van Orden's survey of KBS by LDS leaders over time, but by that point I'd been feeling that the book wasn't practical and "devotional" enough, after Elder Maxwell's start, but I was surprised by how clever and useful his summary was. It was like an annotated hard copy of a scriptures.byu.edu search result. Thorough and solid!

I confess, I only skimmed the appendix of footnotes, as that seemed like more of an encyclopedic resource than a straight read. Might be worth a deeper dip someday, as it seems to be a condensed version of the whole book.

Best chapters: 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12

[Kami]

Super fascinating but dry at times (the nature of the beast, I don't think you can have an intense study like this without it being dry occasionally). Anyway, overall I highly recommend.

Favorite quote just for fun:
“If natural selection chooses only those defenses of which the creature has absolute need for survival, why has our brain capacity so outrageously exceeded our needs? Where did we develop it? Where did we need it, if not in a far more sophisticated environment than we have here, where the stupidest species have survived the longest? We are equipped for much greater things than we ever achieve, and we yearn for something better than we can ever expect here…That is what Plato calls anamnesis, dim memories of a better world that give us intimations of immortality…” (pg 130).

It's Hugh B. Nibley. How could it not be? He's always so much fun to read. My other favorite chapter (besides the one by Nibley) was Benjamin, the Man:His Place in Nephite History, loved the insights into Mulekite/Nephite culture clash. I get a lot of it is speculation, but a new perspective is always refreshing. Anyway, I could fill a book (ha ha) with all the tidbits on Aramaic culture, Jewish religious festivals, etc etc that I found riveting, but it's already been written....

[Magyar]

This book has place on my "Reference" shelf, and is included anytime I am studying the Book of Mormon. A worthy reference for any student in their study of King Benjamin & other prophet/leaders.

[Dawn]

I loved being able read about how this amazing speech was delivered, written, and sent out among the people. Plus, there are clear marks on how it mirrored other speeches given by leaders in the Jersalem and among the Hebrews making it more "believeable" if you need that. I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in learning more about this amazing speech and studying this part of the Book of Mormon more thouroughly. I really loved it.

[Alex]

This book is phenomenal. Most of the chapters are written by John W. Welch, who is quite erudite, but there are two Easter eggs: one from Neal A. Maxwell and the other from Hugh Nibley. Both of them have their own chapter in the book and write about King Benjamin's speech. This book afforded me great insight into a man from the scriptures whose personality comes to life in this book. I now know King Benjamin's temperament type.

[Ted Izatt]

The most thorough account of King Benjamin's speech that I've ever read. Discusses it from many different aspects, which provides greater context about the culture and writing style. I have always felt inspired by this speech, but now I appreciate it much more. The book is meant to be scholarly and is very deep. For me, it was too deep at times and I had to just focus on the basic messages.

[Marco Brown]

Probably the best book on any aspect of the Book of Mormon I've ever read. The essays demonstrate just how intricate, profound, and spiritual King Benjamin's speech really was. Beautifully done.

[Mike]

I am learning so much from this book. I have been intently studying the Book of Mormon this year, but I am learning so much more from this Book as well. It is amazing.

[David Barney]

Good explanation of aspects of King Benjamin’s speeches.

[Jeff]

Fascinating collection of studies and papers regarding King Benjamin's discourse as found in the Book of Mormon. Definitely recommended to those that want to take a deeper look at these teachings.