Lehi was no stranger to adversity, tribulations, and challenges. He understood firsthand the goodness of God and the evils of Satan. Within Lehi’s own family, there were great dichotomies: humility versus pride, spirituality versus selfishness, obedience versus rebellion. It is no wonder that the aging patriarch, in his parting discourse to his sons, sounded the eternal theme: “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things… .” (2 Nephi 2:11). He could see with utter clarity that Laman and Lemuel and their followers, should they not change their prevailing lifestyle, would harvest a miserable destiny of darkness and death. Conversely, Nephi and his circle would enjoy untold blessings of the Lord based on their faithfulness and obedience. For Nephi, and all like him, there would be welcome meaning to the profound maxim uttered by Lehi: “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).
EVIDENCE: The Role of Eve
Many modern religious scholars do not believe that Mother Eve used logic to convince Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit. Rather, they see her as using her feminine wiles to achieve her goal. But the Book of Mormon depicts an Eve that understands the consequences of not partaking of the forbidden fruit, an intelligent Eve who is a help meet, not a weak and subservient helpmate. The Hebrew word ezer (“help”) is used in Genesis 2:18: “I will make him an help meet for him.” Donald Parry declares that ezer generally applies to the Lord, and says that the divine connotation of the term shows that “Eve is emulating God himself when she becomes a help. She is working with Adam in a work that becomes a help. Certainly the term ‘help’ does not denote a lesser status or subordinating role, but an equal, or perhaps even superior, role.” Similarly, in Paradise Lost, John Milton’s Eve offers a compelling explanation to Adam as to why they should partake of the fruit and enter mortality. When he translated the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith would have been familiar with biblical views on Eve, but probably not with Milton’s uncommon views nor with the Hebrew meaning of her name. (See Echoes, 442–445.)