Jarom
From CleanPosts
Jarom
The Book of Jarom is very short, only fifteen verses covering the years 399-361 BCE. Jerom was the son of Enos, and the grandson of Jacob, and the great-grandson of Lehi. He kept the commandment of his father to preserve the plates, and in turn he commanded his son Omni to preserve the plates. In the meantime, he scribbled these few verses on them.
He declared that he would not write his prophesies and revelations because there is nothing he could add to the plan of salvation that his forefathers didn't already write first. Besides, there wasn't enough room left on these plates to write very much. But Jarom recommended that his readers go to the other plates that have all the records of the wars between the Nephites and Lamanites.
Jerom says most of the Nephites have stiff necks (like a stubborn ox who won't turn), but God is merciful to them and he has not destroyed them yet. And there are even some Nephites who do not have stiff necks, and they have communion with the Holy Spirit.
Despite having stiff necks, the Nephites have grown in population and keep the law of Moses, including no labor the sabbath day, which is Saturday. In the scriptures it is commanded that we "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy". The most important part about remembering the Sabbath day is remembering what day it is, which is Saturday. Actually, to get technical, the Sabbath runs from Friday evening at sundown until sunset on Saturday. But Mormons observe their day of rest on Sunday. Why? Because Mormons aren't really a colony of Jews but a religion made up by someone who grew up in a country dominated by Protestant Christianity.
He said the Lamanites vastly outnumbered the Nephites, loved murder, and would even drink the blood of animals. The Nephites withstood numerous assaults by the Lamanites, and fortified their cities against them. Not one of these fortified cities exists today as ruins. To make a short story even shorter, the essence of what Jarom wants to say here is that the Nephites did decide to obey the commandments of God and they did not get wiped off the face of the earth.
We are now 25% of the way through the Book of Mormon, and we have been given the name of only one woman, Sariah, the mother of Nephi. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card (himself a Mormon) says:
"…women are virtually absent from the Book of Mormon. When they do manage to show up, they are rarely named. There are only three women who are actually of the culture of the Book of Mormon who are given names. One is Sariah, the mother of Nephi. Another is a harlot named Isabel, and the third is a servant woman named Abish.
None of the queens who show up in the story are mentioned by name. None of these writers ever mentions his own wife, and when women do show up in a specific role they're still almost never named. Nephi did not even bother to mention the name of the woman who saved his life by pleading for him in the desert."
Aside from these three women, only Mary the mother of Jesus, Eve, and Sarah the wife of Abraham are mentioned by name in the entire Book of Mormon
