Nephi’s Six keys to understanding Isaiah:
Key
No. 1: Be “filled with the spirit of prophecy”
Key
No. 2: Learn “manner of prophesying among the Jews”
Key
No. 3: Know concerning the “Judgments of God”
Key
No. 4: Live in the last days
Key
No. 5: Be familiar with the “regions round about” Jerusalem
Key
No. 6: Search diligently
Donald Parry on no. 2:
Key No
2: Learn the “Manner of Prophesying among the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:1)
Nephi held Key #2 to be of
sufficient import that he referred to it several times in the first six verses
of 2 Nephi 25: “the manner of the Jews” (v. 2); “the things of the prophets”
(v. 5); “the things which were spoken unto the Jews” (v. 5); “the manner of the
things of the Jews” (v. 5); and “the manner of the Jews” (v. 6). In my view,
this “manner of prophesying” pertains to Isaiah’s use of poetic parallelisms,
symbols, prophetic speech forms, and much more. Symbols and parallelisms are
two barriers that we must overcome to understand Isaiah . . . . (Donald W.
Parry, Search Diligently The Words of Isaiah [Provo, Utah: BYU Religious
Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023], 43)
