Item Detail
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33675
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0
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4
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English
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"O God of Israel, Give a True Decision": Lot Divination in Biblical Tradition and the Book of Mormon
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They Shall Grow Together: The Bible in the Book of Mormon
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Provo, UT; Salt Lake City, UT
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BYU Religious Studies Center; Deseret Book Company
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49-80
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"When Nephi and his brothers returned to Jerusalem to obtain the plates of brass, they relied on cleromancy, or the casting of lots, to decide who among them should first go to the house of Laban. Because colloquial usage of the English expression 'the lot fell on [a person]' implies a random act of chance, readers may misinterpret the spiritual underpinnings of what casting lots signified in ancient Israel. This study offers a historical, contextual, and theological framework for understanding the role of lots in the Bible and Near Eastern traditions, an approach that in turn informs our understanding of this practice in the Book of Mormon. I show that Nephi and his brothers' casting of lots would have been the most common way of ascertaining God's will at the time, rather than simply being an exercise of random odds. Finally, cleromancy may have other implications for interpreting the loss of Laman's birthright privileges. In this regard, I analyze questions of inheritance and primogeniture in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, arguing for a possible double entendre in the use of lots relative to the reassignment of Laman's birthright to Nephi." [Abstract from text]