3 Nephi 17

3 Nephi 17:7 Have Ye Any That Are Lame, or . . . or . . . or . . . or:

According to Donald Parry, the repetition of the disjunctives “either” and “or” or “neither” and “nor” at the beginning of successive sentences is called pardiastole. Jesus used the word “or” seven consecutive times during his visit to the righteous Nephites after his resurrection.

     Have ye any that are lame,

     or blind,

     or halt,

     or maimed,

     or leprous,

     or that are withered,

     or that are deaf,

     or that are afflicted in any manner? (3 Nephi 17:7)¹

3 Nephi 17:7 Have Ye Any That Are . . . Leprous:

The Book of Mormon records that when Jesus visited the inhabitants of ancient America, He commanded that they bring forth any that were “leprous” so that he could heal them (3 Nephi 17:7). According to Richardson, Richardson and Bentley, Book of Mormon critics have pointed out that there is no medical evidence for the existence of leprosy in ancient America.

In replying to these critics, one should realize that there has been some question as to what the word leprosy really meant in biblical times and whether or not the biblical use of the word is translated correctly. But regardless of the conflicting opinions as to the specific type of skin disease that has been labeled as leprosy in the Bible, we find that one of the early Spanish Padres in America, Father Sahagun, reported that one of the diseases attributed to the god Tloac was what he labeled “leprosy.” ²

3 Nephi 17:21 He Took Their Little Children, One by One, and Blessed Them:

Weeping, Jesus took the children “one by one” and blessed them, and prayed to the Father for them. (3 Nephi 17:21) Then he wept again. According to Catherine Thomas, this is the second use of “one by one” (see 3 Nephi 11:15) and reassures us of the Lord’s individual attention to each of his children. Again we calculate how much time the blessing of many hundreds of children individually must have taken. (If each child’s blessing took 1 minute of the Savior’s time, and if we just figure for only 300 children, then five hours were spent in these blessings.) If such was the case, the Savior well illustrated what he says later: “I know my sheep, and they are numbered.” (3 Nephi 18:31) ³

3 Nephi 17:23 Behold Your Little Ones:

After Jesus blesses the parents, then he turns to the children and blesses each one of them. Concerning this action, John Welch has this to say:

I think it’s significant that the text says, after [Jesus] concludes this blessing [of the children], that he turns to the parents and says, “Behold your little ones” (3 Nephi 17:23). It seems to me–and again I just suggest this for your pondering–that Jesus is doing something more here than simply saying: look at your little kids–aren’t they cute? Aren’t they cute little guys? He’s saying “behold your little ones.” In some sense now I think they are their little ones, in a sense that they weren’t prior to the time this blessing was given. . . . You remember that the parents witness what has gone on. Angels descend and minister, and thus this portion of the Sermon at the Temple is witnessed by God, angels, and the parents as witnesses. The suggestion, of course, is that some form of priesthood blessing has been given which now brings these families together in a special, spiritual way. They would never be the same as families, in any event, having experienced this great event together as a family unit. ⁴