Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen Richard Dutcher’s murder mystery Brigham City and you want to enjoy the suspense of the story, don’t keep reading past this point. I’m going to give it all away in just a few sentences.

This is a little random - but just thought I’d mention it anyway.

I was recently scanning a copy of Stephen King’s book “The Dead Zone” and part of the storyline reminded me of what I saw in Richard Dutcher’s movie “Brigham City.” The characters Frank Dodd (of the Dead Zone) and Terry Woodruff (of Brigham City) both happen to be sheriff deputies and serial killers.

There are major differences between the associated plot lines - but the similar characteristics are still interesting.I can’t find an online script for “Brigham City” - perhaps I haven’t looked hard enough - but I suspect it hasn’t been transcribed or made available. I think it would be interesting to compare parts of the Brigham City movie script with portions of Stephen King’s book. It seems to me that the friendship between sheriff and deputy and the consequent discovery and horror experienced by the sheriffs might be a worthwhile comparison.

וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר יוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי.

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وَكَانَ مَسَاءٌ وَكَانَ صَبَاحٌ يَوْمًا ثَالِثًا.

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Y fué la tarde y la mañana el día tercero.

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And the evening and the morning were the third day.

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Additional LDS scriptural sources:

Moses 2:13
And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Abraham 4:13
And it came to pass that they numbered the days; from the evening until the morning they called night; and it came to pass, from the morning until the evening they called day; and it was the third time.

Notes/Questions:

I’m not sure why the Spanish (Reina Valera 1909) says “tarde” (which usually translates into English as “afternoon”) instead of “noche” … or maybe there’s another Spanish word for evening that could be used.

Abraham 4:13 refers to this as “the third time” - which leaves plenty of room for the idea that in these verses the word “day” is merely a word used to describe distinct periods of time - periods of time that may or may not be equal in duration.

וַתּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב

מַזְרִיעַ זֶרַע לְמִינֵהוּ

וְעֵץ עֹשֶׂה-פְּרִי אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ לְמִינֵהוּ

וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים כִּי-טוֹב.

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فَأَخْرَجَتِ الأَرْضُ عُشْبًا

وَبَقْلاً يُبْزِرُ بِزْرًا كَجِنْسِهِ

وَشَجَرًا يَعْمَلُ ثَمَرًا بِزْرُهُ فِيهِ كَجِنْسِهِ

وَرَأَى اللهُ ذلِكَ أَنَّهُ حَسَنٌ.

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Y produjo la tierra hierba verde,

hierba que da simiente según su naturaleza,

y árbol que da fruto, cuya simiente está en él, según su género:

y vió Dios que era bueno.

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And the earth brought forth grass,

and herb yielding seed after his kind,

and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:

and God saw that it was good.

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Additional LDS scriptural sources:

Moses 2:12
And the earth brought forth grass, every herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed should be in itself, after his kind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good;

Abraham 4:12
And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth grass from its own seed, and the herb to bring forth herb from its own seed, yielding seed after his kind; and the earth to bring forth the tree from its own seed, yielding fruit, whose seed could only bring forth the same in itself, after his kind; and the Gods saw that they were obeyed.

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Notes/Questions:

A person may ask whether there was any possibility that the elements might disobey God’s commands. One of the Jewish sages, Rashi (acronymn for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki), suggests as much. He points out that (in Genesis 1:11) God commanded the earth to bring forth “the fruit tree yielding fruit …” and in Genesis 1:12 we read that the earth brought forth “the tree yielding fruit.” Rashi’s view of this verse is that the trees themselves should be edible and taste like the fruit that the tree brings forth. From this interpretive view, the earth was not exactly obedient to God’s command. Jewish commentary does argue that one tree was obedient to this command - claiming the etrog tree bark tastes like the etrog fruit the same tree produces.

I have never tasted an etrog. I’ve read that it tastes bitter.

Abraham 4:12 doesn’t seem to pay much attention Rashi’s strict comparison of the different wording in Genesis 1:11 with the wording in Genesis 1:12. Abraham 4:12 ends, saying: “and the Gods saw that they were obeyed.”

Harold Schulweis writes an essay titled: Adonai-Elohim: the Two Faces of God: Confronting the Reality of Suffering and Tragedy.

This essay uses an analysis of the Genesis creation story to identify forces that are at play in the world - forces that impact our lives for good and for evil. These forces can be identified as middat ha-din (the way of justice), middat ha-rahamim (the way of mercy) and middat ha-teva (the way of nature).

The first point is that middat ha-din (justice) and middat ha-rahamim (mercy) are directly bound to aspects of the divine personality. These qualities are linked with specific divine titles. According to this analysis, the title Elohim (the title which appears in Genesis chapter 1), when it appears by itself, represents the divine quality of justice. The title Adonai Elohim (which first appears in Genesis chapter 2) represents the aspect of mercy.

Adonai Elohim first shows up in the following verse:

No shrub of the field was yet on earth, and no grasses of the field had yet sprung up, because Adonai Elohim had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no human being to till the soil.”

According to Schulweiss, this verse signifies a new scriptural idea. Previously Elohim alone made things happen. The new idea here is that (in Genesis chapter 2) Adonai Elohim and mankind are involved in a collaboration. Adonai Elohim sends rain and the human being tills the soil. Adonai Elohim makes the grain and grapes grow and the human being makes the grain into bread and the grapes into wine.

However, Elohim (as a lone title) is not only associated with middat ha-din (justice). He writes:

“Elohim is the God of nature, the Creator of the plenitude in nature. Elohim is the Creator of mountains and valleys, sunshine and darkness, earthquakes and droughts, lions and lambs — the God who creates a morally neutral universe.”

As I understand it, he is saying that Elohim created raw materials and a cyclical nature that are programmed to follow certain natural laws in a manner that does not require continual divine supervision.

To demonstrate what it means for nature to follow its own course, Schulweiss pulls two negative examples from rabbinic sources:

If a man should steal a measure of wheat and sow it on his own property, by virtue of the law of justice this stolen seed should not flourish. But the sages observe: Olam k’minhago nohaig, nature pursues its own course.

… if a man rapes his neighbor’s wife, by virtue of the law of justice the woman should not bear a child. But again the rabbis declare: Olam k’minhago nohaig, nature pursues its own course.

These are, admittedly, some of the most negative examples that could be imagined for nature pursuing its own course. However, we are all witnesses as well to the many beautiful and interesting ways that nature follows its own course.

As a Mormon, I am aware that Schulweiss’s ideas about God and creation do not perfectly meld with our perspective of the Creation story, but they do present some intriguing possibilities and concepts to think about.