THE PEARL OF
GREAT PRICE
Personal
Comments by Duane R. Hurst
copyrighted,
October 1999
THE BOOK OF
MOSES
1. Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them.
COMMENT:
This refers to completion of the physical
creation of earth and all things on it.
2. And on the
seventh day I, God, ended my work, and all things which I had made; and I
rested on the seventh day from all my work, and all things which I had made
were finished, and I, God, saw that they were good;
COMMENT:
The seventh period is an unknown amount of
time, just as all of the previous six “days” lasted until each task was
completed. This verse emphasizes the
need to rest after work. It also shows
the importance of enjoying our own accomplishments. God and Christ work very well and succeed in what They do. They likewise admire their work and want us
to have satisfaction for what we do.
3. And I, God,
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it I had rested
from all my work which I, God, had created and made.
COMMENT:
Sanctified means to be pure and
clean. This is the condition of the
world before Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s commandments. It is the condition which we can have again
through the atonement of Jesus Christ and our obedience to His gospel--the plan
of salvation. It indicates the
following: 1) A detailed plan must be made before work begins; 2) Work is
completed through knowledge and labor; 3) The purpose of work is to enjoy what
we make, and to share it with others who appreciate what we do to help them.
4. And now, behold,
I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth,
when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and
the earth;
COMMENT:
This refers to the systematic order in
making this earth. There are slight
differences in the creative process as explained in the temple endowment. The process is:
Day 1 — Organization of the earth; this includes preparing an
atmosphere.
Day 2 — Separation of land and water.
Day 3 — Dividing light from darkness: sun, moon, stars.
Day 4 — Making of all plant life.
Day 5 — Making of all animal life: in the sea, on land, in the
air.
Day 6 — Making of man and woman; Adam and Eve enter the Garden of
Eden.
Day 7 — God and Christ rest from Their labor.
5. And every plant
of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it
grew. For I, the Lord God, created all
things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon
the face of the earth. For I, the Lord
God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the
children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I
them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither
in the air;
COMMENT:
This verse contains some ideas that are
strange or disturbing to some people.
It refers to the spiritual creation of earth and all things. This happened long before the physical
creation.
The word “flesh” comes from the Hebrew
word “basar.” This word refers to
animals which have bones, not such things as microorganisms. “Nefesh” is the Hebrew word for spirit,
actually “the breath of life.” These
two joined together become the soul.
This is confirmed in D&C 93:33 (“For man is spirit. The
elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a
fulness of joy”). D&C 88:15 says this clearly: “And the spirit and the body are the soul
of man.”
NOTE: Joseph Smith stated that the name of God is Ahman and His son’s name
is Ahman Christ aka Christ Ahman. This
gives more significance to the term Adam-Ondi-Ahman. According to Parley Pratt, Joseph Smith said that this phrase
means “Valley of God where Adam dwelt.” D&C 78:20 and 97:17 contain
statements of Jesus Christ in which he explains that He is “Son Ahman” (meaning
the Son of God).
(This is the end of chapter three.)