Becoming Men and Women of Understanding: Wordplay on Benjamin — An Addendum

Abstract: Royal and divine sonship/daughterhood is a prevalent theme throughout the Book of Mosiah. “Understanding” is also a key theme in that book. The initial juxtaposition of “sons” and “understanding” with the name “Benjamin” in Mosiah 1:2–7 suggests the narrator’s association of the underlying terms with the name Benjamin likely on the basis of homophony. King Benjamin repeatedly invokes “understand” in his speech — a speech that culminates in a rhetorical wordplay on his own name in terms of “sons”/“children,” “daughters,” and “right hand.” “Understand,” moreover, recurs as a paronomasia on the name Benjamin at key points later in the Book of Mosiah, which bring together the themes of sonship and/or “understanding” (or lack of thereof) with King Benjamin’s name. Later statements in the Book of Mosiah about “becoming” the “children of God” allude to King Benjamin’s sermon and the wordplay on “Benjamin” there.