Obedient to Mosiah’s proclamation, (4) “all the people who were in the land of Zarahemla . . . gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them” (Mosiah 1:18 [Mos. 1:4]; 2:1, in which the formula is repeated). There was so great a number, Mosiah explains, (5) “that they did not number them,” this neglect of the census being apparently an unusual thing (Mosiah 2:2 [Mos. 1:5]).6 Since these people were observing the law of Moses and their going up to the temple was in the old Jewish manner, (6) “they also took of the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses” (Mosiah 2:3 [Mos. 1:5]). The “firstlings” mark this as (7) a New Year’s offering, and just as the great Hag was celebrated after the Exodus in thanksgiving for the deliverance from the Egyptians, so the Nephite festival was (8) to “give thanks to the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies” in the New World (Mosiah 2:4 [Mos. 1:5]).
The multitude (9) pitched their tents round about the temple, “every man according to his family . . . every family being separate one from another” (Mosiah 2:5 [Mos. 1:6]). (This is the Feast of Tabernacles practice according to the Talmud.)
(10) Every tent was erected “with the door thereof towards the temple” (Mosiah 2:6 [Mos. 1:6]). This, then, was a festival of the “booths.” Throughout the ancient world, whether among the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans, Slavs, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Indians, Arabs, Hebrews, etc., the people must spend the time of the great national festival of the New Year living in tents or booths, which everywhere have taken on a ritual significance. 7 In theory, these people should all have met “within the walls of the temple,” but because of the size of the crowd the king had to teach them from the top of (11) a specially erected tower (Mosiah 2:7 [Mos. 1:6]).8 Even so, “they could not all hear his words,” which the king accordingly had circulated among them in writing (Mosiah 2:8 [Mos. 1:7]).
At the Feast of Tabernacles
Six months before the end, Jesus goes up to the feast in secret, teaches openly in the temple anyway, and on the last and greatest day stands and cries an invitation to anyone who is thirsty, while the city argues about where he is from and the officers sent to arrest him come back without him.
Note. Only John records this feast. The Joseph Smith Translation makes two substantial corrections here: one to what men are told not to judge by, and one to what was said about the Holy Ghost.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
1After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. 2Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. 3His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples there also may see the works that you do; 4for there is no man that does anything in secret but he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. 5For neither did his brethren believe in him.
6Then Jesus said unto them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7The world cannot hate you, but me it hates because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. 8Go up unto this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast for my time has not yet fully come. 9When he had said these words unto them, he continued still in Galilee. 10But after his brethren had gone up, then went he also up unto the feast — not openly, but as if in secret.
11Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? 12And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him, for some said, He is a good man; others said, Nay, but he deceives the people. 13Nevertheless, no man spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
14Now about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, having never learned? 16Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it is of God or whether I speak of myself. 18He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he that seeks his glory that sent him, the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him.
19Did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you go about to kill me? 20The people answered and said, You have a devil. Who goes about to kill you? 21Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and you all marvel. 22Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers) and you on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. 23If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? 24Judge not according to the appearance your traditions, but judge righteous judgment.
25Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? 26But behold, he speaks boldly and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? 27Nevertheless, we know this man, from where he is, but when Christ comes, no man knows from where he is. 28Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, You both know me and you know from where I am! And I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom you know not; 29but I know him, for I am from him, and he has sent me. 30Then they sought to take him, but no man laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come. 31And many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ comes, will he do more miracles than these which this man has done?
32The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 33Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 34You shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come. 35Then said the Jews among themselves, Where will he go that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the gentiles and teach the gentiles? 36What manner of saying is this that he said, You shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come?
37In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink! 38He that believes on me as the scripture has said: Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water — 39but this spoke he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive, for the holy ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. promised unto them who believe, after Jesus was glorified. 40Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Truly this is the Prophet. 41Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? 42Has not the scripture said that Christ comes of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was? 43So there was a division among the people because of him. 44And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him.
45Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said unto them, Why have you not brought him? 46The officers answered, Never did man speak like this man. 47Then the Pharisees answered them, Are you also deceived? 48Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49But this people who knows not the law are cursed. 50Nicodemus says unto them (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them), 51Does our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he does? 52They answered and said unto him, Are you also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet.
The Feast of Booths
Tabernacles was the great autumn assembly: the New Year festival at which the whole nation left its houses and lived for a week in booths around the temple. Nibley spent much of his career on that pattern, and found it kept intact in the Book of Mormon, where King Benjamin’s people pitch their tents around the temple with every door turned toward it.
At a recent general conference we heard of plans for building a larger “tabernacle.” 1 That word taken literally denotes the opposite of an assembly hall, where everybody meets. A tabernacle (Latin tabernaculum) is “a little house made of boards,” a quick shelter or booth put together from boards, branches, and bits of clothing. The roots behind the English word booth describe its purpose: it is the Semitic bayt from the verb bāta-yabītu meaning “to spend the night” and certainly suggests our word bide or abide. The Hebrew sukkāh is the same as the Egyptian seh (sḥ), with an ideogram depicting the booth that provided shelter—“shadow in the daytime from the heat, and . . . covert from the storm and from rain” (Isaiah 4:6 [Isa. 1:12])—for an individual family living in the open during the Passover (see Leviticus 23:42–43; Nehemiah 8:17). “Thou mayest not eat within thy gates” (Deuteronomy 12:17; cf. 12:18).
The people whom Benjamin commanded to assemble “gathered themselves together throughout all the land” (Mosiah 2:1 [Mos. 1:5]). And yet they all enjoyed a private family outing, for they “pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family, . . . every family being separate one from another” (Mosiah 2:5 [Mos. 1:6]). This was the practice observed at the Feast of Tabernacles, and booths are one of the characteristic features of great national assemblies of the ancients throughout the world. At the culmination of the celebration we have both the vast unison of the hallelujah shouts and the private thoughts, secret names, and whispered exchanges of the initiation that preceded and followed with name, seal, mark, and personal registration.
Some today have trouble making the distinction between what is strictly private in one’s thinking—after all, we are commanded to pray in secret—and what is necessarily shared among members of the Church. Some would have uniform political commitment required of all members, and some would have mission and stake presidents prescribe what books may be read and what music may be heard by the individual members. How far does free agency go? How far can individual tastes be assigned? No one was a more stalwart exponent of temperance than Brigham Young; yet when his father asked him to sign the Temperance Pledge, he resolutely refused. What he objected to of course was being officiously told what his principles were.
Nibley writes about the feast itself rather than this chapter; the two entries are given as background to the setting John assumes his readers know.