Book of Mormon Word Usage: Opposition

The word opposition is used in the Book of Mormon to contrast things that are opposed to each other. Lehi illustrates this with a number of word pairs that are opposed or contrary to each other. His list includes:

• punishment vs. happiness (2 Nephi 2:10)


• righteousness vs. wickedness (2 Nephi 2:11)


• holiness vs. misery (2 Nephi 2:11)


• good vs. bad (2 Nephi 2:11)


• life vs. death (2 Nephi 2:11)


• corruption vs. incorruption (2 Nephi 2:11)


• sense vs. insensibility (2 Nephi 2:11)


• the forbidden fruit vs. the tree of life (2 Nephi 2:15)

Indeed, Lehi argues that "there is an opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11). But it is not so in the Book of Mormon. The term opposition appears only in 2 Nephi, in Lehi's speech to his son Jacob (2 Nephi 2:10-11, 15).