Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
- Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii
"For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armour was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words
mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects."
- Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning, Oxford, 1947
"I might point out that it was not wars or plagues or famines or climatic changes that wiped out ancient empires and nations. It was rhetoric." - Hugh Nibley
@InqstvMuse@Bobby_Clayson Interestingly, part of the knowledge Nephi receives is the entire destruction of his people which “affliction” was “great above all” because of it. 1N 15:5.
Was interested in this selection from Northrup Frye’s the Bible Code.
“When the apostle Thomas demanded visible and tangible evidence for the resurrection, he was told that he would have understood the resurrection more clearly if he hadn’t bothered with it.”
Commentary:
This is Frye’s concise, slightly provocative paraphrase of Jesus’ words to Thomas in John 20:29: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Frye isn’t dismissing evidence or critical inquiry outright. He clarifies (in both the book and related lectures) that he does not mean “an uncritical attitude is spiritually closer to the truth than a critical one.” Instead, he’s highlighting a deeper issue about kinds of understanding.
The Resurrection is presented in the Gospels as the climactic event in the Bible’s overarching U-shaped mythic narrative (descent into death/alienation → ascent/restoration). This is mythos—a self-contained story structure that generates meaning through its internal patterns, repetitions, and imaginative power (tying back to Chapter 2’s focus on myth).
• Thomas’s demand represents the shift to (or intrusion of) the demotic/descriptive mode: “Show me the physical facts—let me verify it empirically like a scientific observation or historical report.” He wants sensory, external proof to confirm the event as a verifiable occurrence in ordinary space and time.
• Jesus’ response (per Frye) suggests that this kind of tangible evidence, while granted as an accommodation, is ultimately secondary or even distracting for grasping the deeper reality of the Resurrection. Why? Because:
• The Resurrection’s true significance lies in its place within the Bible’s mythic and typological framework—fulfilling Old Testament patterns (e.g., Exodus deliverance, prophecies of restoration, the “third day” motifs). It proclaims a transformative spiritual reality that invites participation and belief, not detached verification.
• Relying too heavily on “visible and tangible” proof risks reducing the event to something that can be pinned down like a historical curiosity or scientific datum. This can block the imaginative, proclamatory (kerygmatic) force that calls for ongoing understanding and personal response.
Frye elaborates: “The more trustworthy the evidence [in the empirical sense], the more misleading it is.” Trustworthy external proof provides an authoritative “answer” that can stop further questioning and deeper exploration. Serious religious or existential insight progresses through better questions, not final factual closures. The Gospel writers aren’t acting as biographers or journalists; they’re crafting a narrative that points beyond ordinary history.
@InqstvMuse Something I am thinking about - looks like Lehi prays and sees the tree and makes his way there. He then beckons Sariah, Nephi, and Sam and tells them to come and partake and they come. Laman and Lemuel would not come.
“Don't be like anybody else. Be different. Then you can make a contribution. Otherwise, you just echo something; you're just a reflection.” - Hugh Nibley
“Scripture is the most important tradition that man can have, and yet how few people make use of it. Instead they read the news. The news is what will be old tomorrow and without interest.”
- Dennis Rasmussen