Rhetoric: Nephi asks, “Know ye not that he was holy?” The Hebrew words qadosh (verb) or qodesh (noun) are translated as “holy” in the King James Version. They both carry the meaning of separation, or being set apart. When Nephi asks of his people understand that the Messiah is holy he is asking if they understand that he is in a different category from humans. Prior to his mortal mission, Yahweh is certainly something other than human, something quite separated from the human realm. It is this context of difference and separation that forms the background for both Nephi’s question and the answers.
Scripture: Nephi’s answer stems from his understanding about the identity of Jesus. Even though modern Latter-day Saints understand that Jehovah or Yahweh is the premortal Jesus (see commentary accompanying 3 Nephi 1:14), for Nephi this identification of Jesus and Yahweh was paramount. While modern Latter-day Saint theology has a strong definition of the Father as separate from Yahweh, Nephi’s background on Yahweh’s Father would have been slightly different. By the time Lehi’s family left Jerusalem, Yahweh had become the focal point of Israelite religion. The understanding of the Father, El, presiding over his numerous sons in the heavenly council, was receding into the background. Nephi knew that Yahweh’s father was El, but the Book of Mormon frequently uses “Father” as a designation for Yahweh. (See “Excursus: The Nephite Understanding of God,” following 1 Nephi 11.) In a very real sense, Nephi’s God was made flesh and came to earth.
The Father, El, remains in heaven and remains the ultimate authority. However, Yahweh came to earth, has become flesh, and is among men. Thus, Nephi gives Jesus’s reason for baptism in three phases:
1. “He showeth unto the children of men.… ” Jesus is among men, but he is still the incarnate Yahweh and the predicted Messiah. As such, he might be considered more than man, yet his actions are directed to humankind. He serves as an example for all humankind.
2. “… that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father.” This phase emphasizes Jesus’s change of location. He is no longer in heaven. He is “in the flesh” like a mortal man, whatever his previous and future positions might have been or will be. It is in the flesh that he elects to humble himself before the Father. The emphasis is on the voluntary humbling, a status assumed of humans, but not of Yahweh. The Israelites would not have been able to conceive of Yahweh humbling himself; but while Jesus/Yahweh is in this condition of flesh, he does what is proper for one in that state and humbles himself before God. This example of the incarnate Yahweh (one in no need of deference to God) shows to all men their absolute necessity of deference to God. Of course, this reason also implies the deference due to a Father-God, whose eternal position is superior to Yahweh’s.
3. “And witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments.” The first two phases of Nephi’s reason are horizontal—that is, Yahweh directs his activities toward human beings. In this third phase, Nephi emphasizes the vertical direction; that Jesus also witnesses to the Father. Thus, Jesus becomes an example to men, while still manifesting the personal necessity of obedience to the Father. Not even Jesus, the incarnate Yahweh, can avoid the responsibility of obedience.