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<p style="text-align: justify;">Paronomasia in the Hebrew text of Exodus creates narrative links between the name Miriam (Mary) and the &ldquo;waters&rdquo; (mayim) of the Re[e]d Sea from which Israel is &ldquo;pulled&rdquo; and the nearby &ldquo;bitter&rdquo; waters of Marah. Nephi sees Mary (Mariam), the mother of Jesus, associated with the &ldquo;love of God,&rdquo; and thus to both &ldquo;the tree of life&rdquo; and &ldquo;the fountain of living waters&rdquo; (1 Nephi 11:25) vis-à-vis &ldquo;the fountain of filthy water&rdquo; (1 Nephi 12:16). Mormon was named after &ldquo;the land of Mormon&rdquo; (3 Nephi 5:12). He associates his given name with &ldquo;waters,&rdquo; which he describes as a &ldquo;fountain of pure water&rdquo; (Mosiah 18:5), and with the good &ldquo;desires&rdquo; and &ldquo;love&rdquo; that Alma the Elder&rsquo;s converts manifest at the time of their baptism (Mosiah 18:8, 10‒11, 21, 28). Mormon&rsquo;s accounts of the baptisms of Alma the Elder&rsquo;s people, Limhi&rsquo;s people, the people at Sidom (Alma 15:13), and a few repentant Nephites at Zarahemla who responded to Samuel the Lamanite&rsquo;s preaching (Helaman 16:1), anticipate Jesus&rsquo;s eventual reestablishment of the church originally founded by Alma, the baptism of his disciples, and their reception of the Holy Ghost &mdash; &ldquo;that which they most desired&rdquo; (see 3 Nephi 19:9‒14, 24). Desire serves as a key term that links all of these baptismal scenes. Mormon&rsquo;s analogy of &ldquo;the bitter fountain&rdquo; and its &ldquo;bitter water&rdquo; vis-à-vis the &ldquo;the good fount&rdquo; and its &ldquo;good water&rdquo; &mdash; which helps set up his discussion of &ldquo;the pure love of Christ,&rdquo; which &ldquo;endureth forever&rdquo; (Moroni 7:47‒48) &mdash; should be understood against the backdrop of Lehi&rsquo;s dream as Nephite &ldquo;cultural narrative&rdquo; and the history of Alma the Elder&rsquo;s people at the waters of Mormon. As Mormon&rsquo;s people lose the &ldquo;love [which] endureth by faith unto prayer&rdquo; (Moroni 8:26; see also Moroni 8:14‒17; 9:5) they become like the &ldquo;bitter fountain&rdquo; (Moroni 7:11) and do not endure to the end in faith, hope, and charity on the covenant path (cf. 2 Nephi 31:20; Moroni 7:40‒88; 8:24‒26). The name Mormon (&ldquo;desire is enduring&rdquo; or &ldquo;love is enduring&rdquo;), as borne by the prophet-editor of the Book of Mormon, embraces the whole cloud of these associations.</p>


“That Which They Most Desired”: The Waters of Mormon, Baptism, the Love of God, and the Bitter Fountain

Title

“That Which They Most Desired”: The Waters of Mormon, Baptism, the Love of God, and the Bitter Fountain

Publication Type

Journal Collection

Year of Publication

2020

Authors

Bowen, Matthew L. (Primary)

Pagination

261-298

Volume

39

URL

https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/that-which-they-most-desired-the-waters-of-mormon-baptism-the-love-of-god-and-the-bitter-fountain/

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