Shiblon’s Stoning
and Mistreatment
After stressing the Core Covenant,
Alma comments Shiblon for patiently bearing his captivity and torture in the
form of stoning while serving among the Zoramites (see Alma 38:3-5). In the Old
Testament, stoning (saqal in Hebrew) was a common yet horrific form of
judicial execution for adultery (see Deuteronomy 22:21), necromancy (see
Leviticus 20:27), blasphemy (see 24:16), murder (see v. 17), idolatry (see
Deuteronomy 17:2-5), Sabbath violation (see Numbers 15:35-36), and other
offenses. Its purpose was overtly the death of the accused; for example, with
adultery: “Ye shall stone them with stones that they die” (Deuteronomy 22:24;
compare Leviticus 20:2, 27; Numbers 15:35). However, in Shiblon’s case, he
survives the stoning, possibly suggesting this mention of “stoning” has a
different connotation. In fact, the Book of Mormon refers to stones being used
in a variety of ways, such as in warfare with slings (Alma 2;12; 3:5; 17;36).
It is also possible that “stoning” in the Book of Mormon had a broader meaning
including torture that did not necessarily lead to death, perhaps akin to the
Mesoamerican practice of handheld stones, [20] stone cudgels, and other related
objects used in hand-to-hand-combat [21] or an “impromptu weapon[s]” [22]
(compare 57:14). Note that when Ammon and some of his brethren went to the land
of Nephi to teach the Lamanites they were “cast out, and mocked, and spit upon,
and smote upon [their] cheeks” and “stoned, and taken and bound with strong
cords, and cast into prison,” plainly indicating stoning was part of their
mistreatment before being imprisoned, not a method of intended death
(26:29). [23]
I suggest Shiblon suffered pelting
with stones as a form of punishment without the intention to kill him, such as
in the ancient Greco-Roman world, where pummeling with stones was sometimes
used as a way of showing dissatisfaction or anger, even in some cases coming
from audience members at a performance. [24] Shiblon suffered from his stoning
episode, and Alma extols his courage for bearing it and other abuses “with
patience,” but then gently reminds Shiblon, lest he fail to recognize it, “and
now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee” (Ama 38:4; emphasis
added). (Kerry M. Hull, “The Core Covenant: An Everlasting Decree,” in Book
of Mormon Insights: Letting God Prevail in Your Life, ed. Kenneth L.
Alford, Krystal V. L. Pierce, and Mary Jane Woodger [Provo, Utah: BYU Religious
Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023], 218-19)
Notes
for the Above:
[20] Indeed, the Maya hieroglyph for
“strike, hit” (read jatz’) depicts a hand holding a stone. See Marc
Zender, “Glyph for ‘Handspan’ and ‘Strike’ in Classic Maya Ballgame Texts,” PARI
Journal 4, no. 4 (2004): 1-9.
[21] See Heather S. Orr, “Stone Balls
and Masked Men: Ballgame as Combat Ritual, Dainzú, Oaxaca,” Ancient America (Washington,
DC: Center for Ancient American Studies, 2003): 5:73-103. See also Zach Zorich,
“Fighting with Jaguars, Bleeding for Rain,” Archaeology 61, no. 6
(2008): 51.
[22] Karl Taube and Marc Zender,
“American Gladiators: Ritual Boxing in Ancient Mesoamerica,” in Blood and
Beauty: Organized Violence in the Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and
Central America, ed. Heather S. Orr and Rez Koontz (Los Angeles: UCLA
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2009), 197.
[23] Yet in other cases, such as with
Zenock (see Alma 33:15-17) and the brother of Nephi (see 3 Nephi 7:19), stoning
is expressly said to have led to death.
[24] The ancient Greek statesman and
orator Demosthenes noted that the orator Aeschines was driven “from the stage
with hisses and cat-calls, and came near to pelting him with stones when he
took the stage” during a theatrical performance (On False Assembly
19.337). See Rosivach, “Execution by Stoning in Athens,” 232n2. See also Arthur
Stanley Pease, “Notes on Stoning among the Greeks and Romans,” Transactions
and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 38 (1907): 10.