Jacob’s sermon in its historical context: The backdrop of Jacob 2

Brant Gardner makes some points regarding Jacob’s sermon in Jacob 2 of the Book of Mormon that are certainly worth noting. His assessment that Jacob’s words are rooted in the context of Mesoamerican society at this particular time in history of these people is interesting indeed. While there are acknowledged disagreements among some readers of the Book of Mormon as to the specific location of the events, Gardner’s approach to the Mesoamerican backdrop of the text certainly demonstrates the plausibility of the Book of Mormon as an ancient text, and his approach explains the text in a way that we previously did not understand.

In Jacob 2.12-13, Jacob attacks his people regarding their pride. Gardner writes:

Jacob here enunciates the first of his two condemnations: pride because of wealth. The second accusation- “whoredoms,” by which he means polygamy- is closely related. In Jacob’s cultural context, the acquisition of wealth is inseparably intertwined with the “whoredoms.” …

Mesoamerica did not have a money economy. It had a barter economy, although various commodities served as currencies to “even out” a bartered transaction. Linda Schele (an epigrapher and professor of art at the University of Texas) and David Freidel (professor of archaeology at Southern Methodist University) describe: “The ancient Maya used various precious commodities for money- carved and polished greenstone beads, beads of red spiny oyster shell, cacao beans, lengths of cotton cloth, and measures of sea salt. Such currencies were in wide demand throughout the Mesoamerican world.”^[1]Schele and Freidel, A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya, 1990, p. 92.

If two items being exchanged were not perceived to be of equal value a “currency” could be added to the transaction to create the required value. They could even be exchanged directly for another item, but they were always commodities rather than money as we understand it…

Our cultural history creates the assumption that gold is valuable. In Mesoamerican, however, it was not nearly as valuable as jade… How does the Mesoamerican economic system inform our understanding of Jacob’s discourse? First and foremost it tells us that it cannot have been the possession of gold and silver that produced wealth. Jacob notes (v. 12) that these ores are “abundant.” Not only do we have a lesser cultural value on gold and silver in Mesoamerica, but Jacob’s indication that the metals are abundant tells us that the presence of the ore cannot lead to economic wealth. Scarcity increases value, abundance decreases it. Both with the unstated relative value of the metals and with the stated abundance, Jacob is telling us that the finding of the ore I and of itself could not have been the reason for their wealth. In fact, Jacob declares that finding these things is part of Yahweh’s favor: “The hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches.”

Jacob’s condemnation is not of wealth, but of social inequality that accompanies wealth: “Because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts… and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they.” … As Jacob notes, wealth occurs only when there is a relative difference in the accumulation of valued goods… Jacob’s distress is not over the accumulated goods, but the resulting social segregation: “and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they” (v. 13).

What is the Mesoamerican context for understanding this statement?… The Late Preclassic Period is dated from 400 B.C. to A.D. 250 – about two hundred years later than Jacob’s time period. Nevertheless, John S. Henderson, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University, provides a general picture of the Late Preclassic with its earlier antecedents that seems plausible for the Book of Mormon events of Jacob’s day, which was about 550-500 B.C.:

Although some parts of the Maya world- mostly in the highlands- were firmly tied into the economic networks and related patterns of interaction of the Olmec world, centered to the west on the Gulf Coast, most early Maya communities, especially in the lowlands, were small, simple, egalitarian villages. By the end of the Middle Preclassic period, after 500 B.C., communities like Mirador were beginning to reflect a new developmental trajectory. Jewelry and other goods made from exotic raw materials indicate increasing prosperity, expanded economic ties to distant regions, and sharper differences in wealth and social status; large-scale, elaborately decorated public buildings reflect the emergence of powerful permanent leaders, chiefs or kings. These trends continued and intensified during the Late Preclassic period, setting the fundamental patterns of Classic period Maya city-states.”^[2]John S. Henderson, The World of the Ancient Maya, 1997, p. 87-88.

Henderson’s description of the developing Maya kingdoms contains the same undercurrents that we have just analyzed in the Book of Mormon. What he adds is the missing piece in Jacob’s discourse: the acquisition of wealth through trade of the “jewelry and other goods made from exotic materials.” The wealth occurs not because of the possession of unworked and undervalued ore, but because the ore could be worked into exotic goods that could be exchanged with other communities. While Jacob does not state it, the economic situation he describes cannot be explained without understanding the context of trade with other communities.

Trade provides the foundation for understanding the development of the social differences among Jacob’s people- differences that were beginning to be displayed in other Mesoamerican communities at this very time. This parallels the Near East and Palestine in particular during the fourteenth century B.C. The influence of Hellenistic culture increased with the increase in trade.

In addition to the effect of trade, the value system of Mesoamerican trade tells us why Jacob’s discourse specifically denounces costly apparel. Schele and Peter Mathews (an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Calgary) describe the way Mesoamerican elite proclaimed their wealth of exotic trade goods: “The Maya used commodities both in their raw state and as worked objects for money… People throughout Mesoamerica wore these currencies as jewelry and clothing to display the wealth and enterprise of their families.”^[3]Schele and Mathews, The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs, 1998, p. 19, emphasis added. Clothing served a similar function in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. Bettany Hughes, a cultural and social historian, describes the Mycenaean world: “The finds from the Mycenaean citadels and graves illustrate the centrality of visual signals in pre-history. Before writing was employed as a tool of propaganda, appearance and experience are all-important. Images have to speak louder than words.”^[4]Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore, Knopf, 2005, p. 43.

Not surprisingly, in a non-monetized economy, an item’s value lay in its trade value. One displayed wealth by wearing it- precisely Jacob’s complaint about some of his people. This visual display of wealth highlighted differences among individual access to the exotic trade goods and led to the social inequality that lies behind Jacob’s condemnation. In the Book of Mormon, the unstated contact with other communities is obvious in both the economic descriptions and the obvious importation of foreign ideas along with the foreign goods. Costly apparel becomes, in the Book of Mormon, a marker that the Nephites are adopting the culture and values of their Mesoamerican neighbors, including social stratification and status. In the Mesoamerican world around the Nephites, social class was maintained by visually displaying one’s wealth and by the leisure of elites who did not need to labor with their own hands for food. When these traits begin to appear in Nephite society, the prophets condemn them.^[5]Brant Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Volume 2 Second Nephi-Jacob, Kofford Books, 2007, p. 487-490, emphasis added.

Why would Lehi condemn polygamy?

In Jacob 3.5 we are told that Lehi was commanded that his people should not practice polygamy. We read:

Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it were bone wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them.

No prohibition of this would have been given if this were not an issue or at least a potentiality, when Lehi arrived in the New World. Again, Gardner makes the case that this chapter (Jacob 2) fits into the cultural context of Mesoamerica at this particular time period. He writes:

At the time the Lehites left Jerusalem, the social norm was monogamy, reinforced by the Deuteronomic reform. Therefore, the Lehites were culturally predisposed toward monogamy… The need to preserve a pure lineage- pure, that is, from apostasy- suggests that Lehi quickly perceived that neighboring communities would pose alternative practices and was taking steps to safeguard against that eventuality. No prohibition would be required unless he had reason to suspect a temptation.

John E. Clark and Michael Blake see personal ambition as fueling the development of “institutional social inequality and political privilege” in Mesoamerica. They call “aggrandizers” those who succeed in climbing the social and political ladder by their “successful deployment of resources and labor”:… “An aggrandizer first accumulates deployable resources by the sweat of his brow, and through the efforts of his wife (wives) and children. The more wives and children the better.”^[6]Clark and Blake, “The Power of Prestige: Competitive Generosity and the Emergence of Rank Societies in Lowland Mesoamerica,” in The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica, edited by Michael E. … Continue reading

Gardner continues:

I suggest that just this situation explains why Jacob’s discourse specifically pairs the problem of increasing social hierarchy through wealth with the issue of polygamy. In this point in time the two are inextricably intertwined in Jacob’s society. Both are social issues stemming from the nascent trade of the local “aggrandizers.” …

The Mesoamerican picture of developing social distinctions is precisely the type of threat that the early Nephite community is facing. There is pressure for social hierarchies and that pressure is related to multiple wives. The increase in wealth is tied to outside trade, or the same access to external resources Clark and Blake describe. Assuming that Nephite wealth was built on trade of manufactured items with neighboring communities and assuming that these neighbors would have practiced polygamy, Nephite traders would have immediately seen the advantages of adopting their neighbors’ successful means of enhancing production, then displaying the results in their “costly apparel.” Because these men would be following the regional marriage customs, their unions would have been seen as legal in that context but as “whoredom” because it violated Israelite law by seeking exogamous wives and because it violated Lehi’s specific injunction about plural wives…

Positioning this Book of Mormon situation in the context of the developing social-economic situation of Middle Preclassic Mesoamerica explains both the problem of “costly apparel” and the early issue of polygamy. It particularly explains why Jacob addressed both of them in the same discourse.^[7]Brant Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Volume 2 Second Nephi-Jacob, Kofford Books, 2007, p. 497-499.

I find Gardner’s arguments convincing and relevant. Understanding the social and economic backdrop to this text helps moderns understand why Jacob is addressing both of these issue in the same message. Modern readers can adapt this message to fit their world, for example, many of the issues faced relating to the moral standard are relevant today and modern prophets have spoken out on these issues. In my opinion, much of this is related with an overabundance of wealth and the social pressures and messages bombarding us today. So much of what we struggle with today comes from our culture.

Another interesting point made in the Book of Mormon is the association the authors and prophets make with pride and costly apparel. As compared to the Hebrew Bible, where prophets denounce the abandonment of following Yahweh to “whore after false gods” (something mentioned at least 20 times in the text), or at least their involvement with including Yahweh in the pantheon of the gods of their culture, the Nephite prophets cry out against the problem of pride. And to these prophets, the association pride has with costly apparel cannot be missed, as it comes up (by my count) 10 times in the text. The following verses make the association, and it is always a negative one:

Jacob 2.13

Alma 1.6

Alma 1.27

Alma 1.32

Alma 4.6

Alma 5.53

Alma 31.28

Helaman 13.28

4 Nephi 1.24

Mormon 8.36-37