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<p style="text-align: justify;">Royal and divine sonship/daughterhood (bānı̂m = &ldquo;children&rdquo;/&ldquo;sons,&rdquo; bānôt = &ldquo;daughters&rdquo;) is a prevalent theme throughout the Book of Mosiah. &ldquo;Understanding&rdquo; (Hebrew noun, bı̂nâ or tĕbûnâ; verb, bı̂n) is also a key theme in that book. The initial juxtaposition of &ldquo;sons&rdquo; and &ldquo;understanding&rdquo; with the name &ldquo;Benjamin&rdquo; (binyāmı̂n, &ldquo;son of the right hand&rdquo;) in Mosiah 1:2&ndash;7 suggests the narrator&rsquo;s association of the underlying terms with the name Benjamin likely on the basis of homophony. King Benjamin repeatedly invokes &ldquo;understand&rdquo; in his speech (forms of &ldquo;understand&rdquo; were derived from the root *byn in Hebrew; Mosiah 2:9, 40; 4:4; cf. 3:15) &mdash; a speech that culminates in a rhetorical wordplay on his own name in terms of &ldquo;sons&rdquo;/&ldquo;children,&rdquo; &ldquo;daughters,&rdquo; and &ldquo;right hand&rdquo; (Mosiah 5:7, 9). &ldquo;Understand,&rdquo; moreover, recurs as a paronomasia on the name Benjamin at key points later in the Book of Mosiah (Mosiah 8:3, 20; 26:1&ndash;3), which bring together the themes of sonship and/or &ldquo;understanding&rdquo; (or lack of thereof) with King Benjamin&rsquo;s name. Later statements in the Book of Mosiah about &ldquo;becoming&rdquo; the &ldquo;children of God&rdquo; or &ldquo;becoming his sons and daughters&rdquo; (Mosiah 18:22; 27:25) through divine rebirth allude to King Benjamin&rsquo;s sermon and the wordplay on &ldquo;Benjamin&rdquo; there. Taken as a literary whole, the book of Mosiah constitutes a treatise on &ldquo;becoming&rdquo; &mdash; i.e., divine transformation through Christ&rsquo;s atonement (cf. Mosiah 3:18&ndash;19). Mormon&rsquo;s statement in Alma 17:2 about the sons of Mosiah having become &ldquo;men of a sound understanding&rdquo; thus serves as a fitting epilogue to a narrative arc begun as early as Mosiah 1:2.</p>


Becoming Men and Women of Understanding: Wordplay on Benjamin— An Addendum

Title

Becoming Men and Women of Understanding: Wordplay on Benjamin— An Addendum

Publication Type

Journal Collection

Year of Publication

2020

Authors

Bowen, Matthew L. (Primary)

Pagination

239-280

Volume

36

URL

https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/becoming-men-and-women-of-understanding-wordplay-on-benjamin-an-addendum/

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Abstract