{"id":114550,"date":"2026-01-23T16:48:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=114550"},"modified":"2026-01-23T22:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:02:02","slug":"naming-and-narrative-irony-in-mosiah-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2026\/01\/naming-and-narrative-irony-in-mosiah-23.html","title":{"rendered":"Sincere concern in Flagstaff? Maybe. In some cases."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bonampak<\/a>
A scene of ancient Mesoamerican warfare in a detail from a reproduction of one of the murals at Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, a new article from Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>: \u00a0\u201c\u201cThey Did Multiply and Prosper Exceedingly in the Land of Helam\u201d: Naming and Narrative Irony in Mosiah 23,\u201d<\/a> written by Matthew L. Bowen<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong> The name Helam, attested as a place name in the Bible is also attested as a personal and place name in the Book of Mormon. Evidence suggests that this name is derived from the Hebrew noun <\/em>\u1e25ayil\/\u1e25\u00eal<\/span>, which has a wide range of meaning, including \u201cwealth,\u201d \u201cabundance,\u201d \u201cpower,\u201d and even \u201carmy\u201d (including Pharaoh\u2019s \u201carmy\u201d or \u201chost\u201d). The form of Helam suggests the meaning, \u201c[God is] their wealth,\u201d \u201c[God is] their abundance,\u201d \u201c[God is] their power,\u201d and even \u201c[God is] their army.\u201d Although the promise latent in the name Helam is celebrated in their exceeding prosperity and abundance, Alma1<\/sub>\u2019s people also meet with a dramatic and ironic (apparent) reversal of this abundance and prosperity, when an army of the Lamanites occupies Helam and brings them into bondage. Mormon draws multiple lessons from this event, and he draws substantively from the language of Alma2<\/sub>\u2019s conversion accounts to narrate this event and its meaning.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also appearing today, on the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s website, is \u201cInterpreting Interpreter: Helam\u2019s Abundance,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This post is a summary of the article \u201c\u201cThey Did Multiply and Prosper Exceedingly in the Land of Helam\u201d: Naming and Narrative Irony in Mosiah 23<\/a>\u201d by Matthew L. Bowen in Volume 67 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. All of the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> articles may be seen at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/category\/summaries\/<\/a>. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> series is available at https:\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/XXPUNguI2PI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Takeaway:<\/strong> Bowen suggests that the Book of Mormon uses the Hebrew word \u201cHelam\u201d (\u1e25ayil\/h\u00eal<\/span><\/em> meaning \u201cwealth\u201d or \u201cabundance\u201d) as an appropriate label for a land where people experience both spiritual and temporal abundance. He also explores the term\u2019s secondary meaning of \u201carmy\u201d in the context of descriptions of Lamanite armies in connection with that land.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Pluto,<\/a>
A Wikimedia Commons public domain image of the Pluto formerly known as \u201cplanet,\u201d created on the basis of photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope. Drawing upon serious inspection of this image extending over several seconds, I propose my own account of the object: Plainly, it\u2019s an exceptionally large but quite moldy cantaloupe. \u00a0Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

You will remember the lamentations of those who opposed the building of a Latter-day Saint temple in Cody, Wyoming, on the grounds that it would loom oppressively over the city, block views of the night sky, and hide the surrounding mountains. \u00a0Construction photos<\/a> from the scene of the crime have abundantly justified those concerns, demonstrating that the massive 9,950-square-foot bulk of the nearly-completed Cody Wyoming Temple does indeed conceal the mountains, blot out the expanse of the Wyoming sky, and make it impossible for residents of Cody to see so much as a trace of the mountains around them.<\/p>\n

But, now, another urgent crusade has been launched: \u00a0Agitation against the construction of a Latter-day Saint temple in Flagstaff, Arizona, began almost immediately upon President Russell M. Nelson\u2019s announcement, on 6 April 2025, of the Church\u2019s intent to build one \u2014 well before its location was announced. \u00a0By, it seems<\/a>, no later than 7 April: \u201cPrevent the Construction of Mormon Temple Protecting Flagstaff\u2019s Dark Sky Designation\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposed site for the temple (along with its size as a single-story building of about 18,500 square feet) was announced on 20 January 2026 \u2014 three days ago \u2014 and the opposition seems to have instantly ratcheted up a notch or two (or three): \u201cSign the Petition, protect our beautiful dark sky from the Mormon temple\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(which went up three days ago).<\/p>\n

The comments on these petitions are instructive. \u00a0Many are (ostensibly, at least) about protecting the darkness and clarity of the night skies over Flagstaff, which is (ostensibly, anyhow) a legitimate concern, and one that, I hope and trust, the Church will seek to accommodate. \u00a0(It doesn\u2019t appear, though, that Flagstaff is completely<\/em> dark at night.)<\/a> Nor, for that matter, is Flagstaff\u2019s famous Lowell Observatory complex<\/a>\u00a0 itself.) \u00a0Many comments, though, seem to represent flat-out and quite unashamed religious bigotry, and I, at least, am not at all unhappy to see such bigotry on brazenly prominent display. \u00a0Let them rave; such expressions can only damage their cause.\u00a0 Some opponents clearly object to a Latter-day Saint temple being built in Flagstaff at all<\/em>, whatever its lighting or design (about which nothing official has yet been said) might be. \u00a0Some devote their comments to maligning my faith as such, manifesting no apparent concern whatever for the visibility of the Big Dipper or the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

\"Basel<\/a>
A view of Basel, Switzerland, from the Rhine River
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by Rokus Cornelis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was pleased to see this: \u00a0\u201cExperience Greater Love: \u2018Lamb of God\u2019 Comes to The Metropolitan Opera House:\u00a0The concert is scheduled for Monday, March 30, 2026\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I wish that I could be there for the performance, but the odds of that are pretty low at the moment. \u00a0Perhaps it will be recorded and made more widely available.<\/p>\n

I suppose that this composition, Lamb of God<\/em>, like other oratorios (such as Johann Sebastian Bach\u2019s St. John Passion<\/em> and St. Matthew Passion<\/em> and George Frideric Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em>)\u00a0as well as Franz Schubert\u2019s Mass in G<\/em> and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\u2019s Requiem<\/em>), is simply yet another redundant specimen from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything: File<\/em>\u2122. \u00a0In moments of moral weakness, though, I actually really like<\/em> some of that toxic music.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, there was a brief discussion in some of the comments to a prior blog entry here about Swiss German or Schweizerdeutsch<\/em> (or Schwyzert\u00fctsch<\/em>, or Schwizerd\u00fctsch<\/em>, or Schwiizerd\u00fctsch<\/em>) as contrasted with Standard German (Hochdeutsch<\/em>, \u201cHigh German,\u201d or, as the Swiss tend to call it, Schriftdeutsch<\/em>, \u201cWritten German\u201d). \u00a0It might interest some who noticed that exchange to know that, in the first video that\u2019s included \u2014 rather mysteriously and without explanation \u2014 in the news article to which I link above \u2014 all but one of the German-speaking people being interviewed are actually speaking in their Swiss German dialect rather than in Standard German. \u00a0The concert evidently took place in Basel, Switzerland, and that\u2019s where the interviews were conducted. \u00a0People who know German will readily hear the difference, but I think that even non-German speakers might be able to detect it, as well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Just posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, a new article from Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: \u00a0\u201c\u201cThey Did Multiply and Prosper Exceedingly in the Land of Helam\u201d: Naming and Narrative Irony in Mosiah 23,\u201d written by Matthew L. Bowen Abstract: The name Helam, attested as a place name […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":36748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,36132,38602,39589,788,641],"class_list":["post-114550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-cody","tag-flagstaff","tag-helam","tag-mormon","tag-temple"],"yoast_head":"\nSincere concern in Flagstaff? Maybe. 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