Mormans,LDS, Hugh Nibley Parables

A TREATISE ON HUGH NIBLEY, HIS BACKGROUND, AND TWO OF HIS PARABLES

Webster defines parable as a simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson, or... a comparison; the NY Times Crossword Dictionary offers, a likeness; or a similitude; or an allegory; or a proverb, among other words.

Many of you know that Hugh Nibley was a giant of an intellect, a highly revered professor at BYU, a master of several languages and cultures, an often misunderstood man because of his depth and mannerisms in speaking and teaching engagements. Many ex-students have agreed that one had to take copious notes in his lectures and then thoroughly review them soon afterward, or all would be lost!

Many of you may not be aware of his military background. When World War Two began for the USA, he was just eighteen years old, and instead of awaiting the military draft as many young men did, he chose to enlist in the Army as an enlisted man, wanting to be with the men as he put it. Pearl Harbor was Dec. 7, 1941. Not long afterward Nibley enlisted, and was given all of the tests then given to draftees and others. His scores were so high that he was referred up to higher echelons and again tested, and offered an army commission, a higher field grade one at that which would serve the perceived intelligence. He refused! He next went thru Army Basic Training successfully, and was given more tests, scoring so high and impressing officers such that he was sent to Washington DC for higher evaluation

He was again offered a high level army commission in Intelligence, but refused again. Next he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, already preparing for shipment to North Africa and combat. He would head up Division Intelligence as an enlisted Master Sergeant! He never took jump training, so was assigned to a glider infantry regiment at first but soon then assigned to division Headquarters as head of intelligence matters, and soon was advising division on such matters as planning was being done. Nibley was knowledgable in many languages which aided him in all prisoner interviewing and decision making.

The 101st fought all thru North Africa, then in Airborne action in Sicily, then next D-Day in France, where rather than go in by glider as most Division Hdqtrs men did, he chose to go ashore by landing craft and driving his jeep across the beaches, which contained all of the communication equipment he wanted to do his job. Next the 101st went into the big airborne operation in Holland, many of you know from the movie "A Bridge Too Far." Following that battle, he was not sent into The Bulge with his unit, but was reassigned by top intelligence people to Hitler’s secret headquarters in the mountains at Bertchesgaden in Austria to do follow up intelligence work, still a master sergeant which he stubbornly continued to insist on.

Following World War Two release Nibley continued his learning and then into writing and teaching, and soon to a professorship at BYU. Mostly his subjects were Book Of Mormon related and Latter day Saint issues as well. He was highly rated and sought after by all for his knowledge as a speaker.

Now to the depth of this man, explaining part of it only with two of his parables. The first is an assignment he would offer or request of his Book Of Mormon classes on day one each semester. As you peruse it, bear in mind that he has converted the depth and complexities, and answered all of the criticisms of many noted critics of the Book and of Joseph Smith, in his description of a term paper he asks them to do and hand in at the end of the semester. This is a gem, a guide to one if he tried to write a similar book today! Here is parable number one.

HUGH NIBLEY’S FACETIOUS CLASS TERM PAPER

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Hugh NIbley would ask his Book Of Mormon classes at BYU, "Since Joseph was younger than most of you and not nearly so experienced and well-educated as any of you at the time he copyrighted the Book Of Mormon, it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of the semester, (which will give you more time than he had), a paper of say, five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred book if you will, and give it the form of a history.

Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of public and private vicissitudes, (authors interruption: the quality or state of being changeable). give them names...hundreds of them...pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names circa 600 BC, be lavish with technical and cultural details, manners and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions, rites and traditions, include long and complicated military and economic histories, have your narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps ; keep a number of interrelated local histories going at the same time; feel free to introduce religious controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting; observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials. Above all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to the really hard part of this assignment. You and I know that you are making this all up….we have our little joke---but just the same you are going to be required to have your paper published when you finish it, not as a fiction or romance, but as a true history! After you have handed it in you may make no changes in it, (in this class we always use the first edition of The Book Of Mormon), what is more, you are to invite any and all scholars to read and criticize your work freely, explaining to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If they seem over skeptical, you might tell them that you translated the book from original records with the aid of the Urim and Thummim: they will love that! Further, to allay their misgivings, you might tell them that the original manuscript was on golden plates, and that you got the plates from an angel! Now, go to work and good luck!

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Imagine the concern in the minds of the students. “Is he serious?” “So that’s what the Book Of Mormon is all about! “No wonder all those early critics were doubtful that Joseph Smith wrote it! They could not even believe he may have stolen it from somebody! Who could possibly have written a book with all of those issues in it and yet covering over one thousand years of history? But this parable is quite an accurate description of the content and details and truth in The Book Of Mormon.

Now to Parable number two………

THE SARDONIC AND WITTY TALE OF THE FARMER WHO FOUND A DIAMOND WHILE PLOWING A FIELD

A young man long ago claimed that he had found a large diamond in his field as he was ploughing. He proudly put the stone on display to the public, free of charge, and everyone that saw it took sides on just what it was. A Psychologist, by citing some famous case studies, that the man was suffering from a well known form of delusion. A Historian showed that other men had also claimed to have found diamonds in fields and had been deceived. A Geologist proved that there were no diamonds in the area, but only quartz; the young man had been fooled by quartz. When asked to inspect the stone itself, he declined with a weary tolerant smile and a kindly shake of his head.

An English Professor showed that the young man in describing his stone had used the same language that others had used in describing uncut diamond’s, he was therefore simply speaking the common language of his time. A Sociologist (facetiously, I add) showed that only three out of 177 florists assistants in four major cities thought the stone was genuine. A Clergyman wrote a book to show that it was not this young man who found the stone, but someone else!

Eventually, an indigent jeweler named Snite pointed out that since the stone was readily available for examination, the answer to the question of whether or not it was a diamond had nothing to do with who found it, or whether the finder was honest or sane, or who believed him, or whether he would know a diamond from a brick, or if diamonds ever are found in plowed fields. Or if ever people have been fooled by quartz or glass, but could be answered simply and solely by putting the stone to certain well known tests for diamonds.

Experts on diamonds were called in. Some of them declared it genuine. Others made nervous jokes about it,, and declared that they could not jeopardize their dignity and reputations by appearing to take the matter seriously. To hide the confusion and bad impressions made, someone came out with the theory that the stone was really a synthetic diamond, very skillfully made, but a fake just the same.

The objection to this theory is that the production of a good synthetic diamond in the early 1800’s would have been an even more remarkable feat than the finding of a real one!

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In his Book Of Mormon class term paper assignment, Nibley cites in great detail, the complex content and complications, the great depth, of an over one thousand year history of two warring peoples who inhabited these two American continents from about 600 BC to roughly 400 AD when the last of the Nephites were eliminated by the savage Laminates….but he converts the content to as if it were to be written today by a learned BYU Book Of Mormon class member. No one has yet come up with that completed assignment…..coul d you? Probably not! The Book Of Mormon is truly the diamond!!

These two parables by Hugh Nibley have been used and referred to by speakers and teachers of NIBLEY and his genious since way before he passed away just before the turn of the century. Most of my information comes from THE JOURNAL OF THE BOOK OF MORMON AND OTHER RESTORATION SCRIPTURE, PUBLISHED BY the Neal A Maxwell Institute for religious scholarship at BYU. A biography of Hugh Nibley has been published, SERGEANT NIBLEY ,PHD, MEMORIES OF AN UNLIKELY SCREAMING EAGLE (The 101st Airborne Division), by his son, Alex Nibley, Shadow Mountain Publishers, SLC, Utah, available thru Deseret Boo k store.

RJJ Feb.,2013