Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Brant Gardner on Jacob 5:77

  

And when the time cometh that evil fruit shall again come into my vineyard, then will I cause the good and the bad to be gathered; and the good will I preserve unto myself, and the bad will I cast away into its own place. And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire. (Jacob 5:77)

 

The allegory ends with the destruction of the vineyard after evil again creeps into the vineyard. Clearly, this is a reference to the end of the Millennium when Satan will be loosed briefly and when the earth will end in fire. Does this eschatological burning make sense in the allegory? Why would the Lord, who has resisted destroying the vineyard to this point, suddenly decide to bur the vineyard after it has finally become successful?

 

The answer lies in understanding the allegory’s botanical basis. First, while the efforts of the Lord clearly take time, this time is part of a season. “Then cometh the season and the end.” Although historical time requires thousands of years, allegorical time is comprised in a single “season.” This allegory demonstrates the efforts of the Lord of the vineyard to produce valuable fruit of the “season.”

 

At the end of a season, it was part of some ancient practices to burn the stubble form a harvested field, then plant in a newly cultivated area. Such an approach would not be used for anything as long-lived as an olive tree, but the botanical image of fire is one of renewal as much as of destruction. It is through the burning of the fields that nutrients are returned to the soil. Therefore, this burning at the last days is not pictured as devastation, but as translation. It is a renewal of life rather than a cessation of life. (Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007], 2:551)

 

A document reprinted from 1996 Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Annual Report, Special Report 961, by Oregon State University in cooperation with USDA-Agricultural Research Service, discusses the modern practice of rubble-burning. In the introduction it notes: “Nothing in recent years is quite so controversial as stubble burning, Burning has the capability to increase crop yield under some cropping conditions, but if repeated consistently, has the potential to lower soil quality. Changes in soil quality take place very slowly, and it might be years before they are detectable (Biederbeck et al., 1980). Stubble burning to facilitate no-till cropping may enhance yield in the short-term, but prove detrimental to soil organic matter (SOM) quality in the long term.”

 

Reports continue to appear stating that stubble burning is “maintaining or increasing soil organic matter (SOM) after 2 or 3 years in no till-systems.” “Effect of Annual Burn-No-Till Wheat on Soil Organic Matter Content and Bulk Density” (Ibid., 551 n. 33)

 

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