Keywords

Fall of Adam and Eve, Alma, Hebraistic idioms

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Alma’s teaching of the doctrine of the Fall of Adam and Eve to his troubled youngest son, Corianton, brings together and approximates two related Hebraistic idioms: “as they [Adam and Eve] were cut off [Hebrew: nikrātû] from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth [yikkārētû mēʿal pĕnê hāʾădāmâ]” and “our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord [nikrātû . . . mippĕnê yhwh]” (Alma 42:6–7). In this brief article, I will attempt to show how Alma uses the multiple meanings or senses—hereafter polysemy—of the Hebrew word pānîm, literally “face,” in the idioms “cut off from the face of the earth” and “cut off . . . from the presence of the Lord” to emphasize the relational nature of the physical and spiritual death that resulted from the Fall. Moreover, I will also explain the additional wordplay on the names of Adam and Eve that Alma borrows from Genesis and uses in these verses.