Mark Greene posted a comment a few days ago on my multi-part paper The Genesis of the Round Dance that I thought was very insightful:
In thinking further about your interesting paper on the genesis of the ring dance, I remembered that there is a marvelous example of a prayer circle and therefore a type of ring dance in the Book of Mormon. While teaching 2500 people at the temple of Bountiful, Christ organized them in concentric rings of righteousness and then He prayed with them. He was the center of these rings. Then came a ring of little children; next a ring of fire and angels; with the outer ring made up of righteous adults (see 3 Nephi 17:12, 15, 23-25). The message in forming these concentric rings of righteousness was in visual representation of the Savior’s imperatives found in 3 Nephi 11:37-38. To come unto Christ and become like Him we as adults must become sanctified little children.
I think that this might very well have allusions to a type of prayer circle when Christ visited the New World. Where else might we find hidden treasures such as this in the Book of Mormon?
Great post! I’m sure that there are so many things like this in the Book of Mormon just waiting to be noticed, like King Benjamin’s speech being part of the New Year Festival, the use of chiasmus, the connection between Lehi’s Tree of Life and ancient Near East symbolism, and many others. My thanks to you and Mark for sharing this one.
Is that not the true order of Prayer?
Or the sanctification process?
3 Nephi 11:38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.