# Give/Gift

Discover how the principles of giving and generosity intersect with Mormon Transhumanist thought—exploring the transformative power of gifts in shaping our future.

[Image: James 1:17 and Moroni 10:18 portray all gifts as coming from the Father, placing an obligation on the receiver to give freely of their substance.]

In the ancient Near East, a gift is never merely a transaction; rather, it is a free conveyance of possession, favor, or capacity that inherently binds the giver and the receiver in a covenant relationship. We see this vividly in the Hebrew verb *nathan* (“to give”), which appears some two thousand times in the Old Testament in the context of granting, setting, and restoring. Its very orthography—the three letters *nun-tav-nun*—forms a palindrome. Jewish exegetes have long interpreted this bidirectional spelling as a profound structural hint: that which is given ultimately returns to the giver.

In the New Testament, the Greek *dōrea* denotes a gift given without charge, while its adverbial form, *dōrean*, means “freely.” Similarly, the Apostle Paul’s concept of *charisma*—rooted in *charis*, or “grace”—designates a divine capacity bestowed wholly without merit. To modern minds, such unconditional grace might seem to leave the recipient free of all obligation. Yet, in the ancient world, the reception of a gift forged enduring bonds of loyalty. Scripture masterfully preserves the priceless, unmerited nature of divine gifts while reorienting the recipient's resultant obligation outward, toward the community of Saints.

## **Gifts from the Heavenly Council**

Both the Apostle James and King Benjamin anchor the origin of all gifts in the divine realm, but Benjamin brilliantly extrapolates from this heavenly descent a horizontal duty to our fellow man.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” James observes, “and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Moroni similarly exhorts us to “remember that every good gift cometh of Christ” (Moroni 10:18). King Benjamin, speaking from the temple in a setting of covenant renewal, takes this theology of descent to its logical, consecratory conclusion. After his people petition the Lord for a remission of sins, Benjamin asks them piercingly, “Are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have?” He reasons that if God grants our righteous petitions, “O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another” (Mosiah 4:19, 21). Crucially, Benjamin does not demand that the people attempt the impossible task of repaying God. Instead, the covenantal return runs sideways—to the beggar at the door—ensuring that the grace which descends from the heavenly temple remains in perpetual, consecratory motion on earth.

## **Freely Ye Have Received**

[Image: Matthew 10:8 links the disciples’ newly bestowed priesthood authority with an outward obligation to use it in the service of others.]

When the Savior commissioned His disciples, He instructed: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). Here, the Greek text repeats *dōrean* in both clauses, eloquently fusing the manner in which the apostles received their priesthood capacity with the manner in which they were bound to dispense it.

We might recognize this same economy of grace in modern technological and scientific stewardship. A life-saving surgical technique or a vaccine is a distillation of received knowledge, retaining its supreme value only as it is passed on to heal others. Open-source software, freely released into the commons for collective use and improvement, operates on a similar “gift economy.” Indeed, Latter-day Saint technologists and Mormon transhumanists often interpret this collaborative sharing as a modern extension of the apostolic commission—a democratization of knowledge explicitly aimed at human flourishing and the alleviation of suffering.

## **The Stewardship and Diversities of Gifts**

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit,” Paul wrote, noting that “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:4, 7). Scholars have frequently noted the striking parallels between Paul’s catalog of spiritual gifts and Moroni’s. Yet, what is often overlooked in comparative analyses is the principle of distributed stewardship that both prophets emphasize: no single individual possesses every gift, and each specific endowment is granted to one for the ultimate edification of the whole.

A Kirtland-era revelation introduces a sober warning regarding this stewardship, declaring that gifts are given “that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts” (D&C 46:9). A gift intended for the communal good can tragically be co-opted to feed the selfish appetites of the holder.

This prophetic warning is profoundly relevant to our modern digital landscape, where technologies are routinely offered "without charge." In reality, the price of such "free" services is often extracted through the user's data and attention, deliberately engineered to foster behavioral addiction. King Benjamin's hearers were entirely dependent—beggars before God—yet the king transformed their divine dependence into charitable action. Conversely, a digital gift engineered for dependency traps the receiver in a closed loop, perpetually returning to the corporate giver while offering nothing to the community.

## **The Reception of the Gift**

[Image: D&C 88:33 teaches that a gift can be bestowed yet remain unreceived—when that happens, the recipient neither rejoices in what is given nor in the giver.]

Ultimately, Latter-day Saint theology posits that the reception of a gift is an ontological necessity. As a profound 1832 revelation instructs, a gift can tragically remain unreceived: “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift” (D&C 88:33). Here, the Lord intertwines the joy of the object given with the joy of relationality with the Giver.

King Benjamin’s covenant people and the man described in Section 88 represent the two polar ends of this ancient pattern. The Nephites received the gift of the Atonement with profound joy and were immediately directed by their king to succor the marginalized, demonstrating that the very grace that bound them to God simultaneously bound them to their neighbors. The man in Section 88, however, refuses the covenantal relationship; he receives nothing, rejoices in no one, and the flow of grace terminates with him. Whether it is shared medical knowledge, open-source technology, or the gifts of the Spirit, they are gifts of the identical, divine species. They achieve the full measure of their creation only when they reach a recipient willing to pay the favor forward. When hoarded behind artificial paywalls or maliciously designed to extract endless engagement from users, they wither—stopping abruptly with their holders, just as the unreceived gift dies with the man who refuses to open his hands.

*See also*: [Agency](/topical-guide/agency), [Bless/Blessing](/topical-guide/blessblessing), [Charity](/topical-guide/charity), [Consecrate](/topical-guide/consecrate), [Covenant](/topical-guide/covenant), [Generosity](/topical-guide/generosity), [Mercy](/topical-guide/mercy), [Relief](/topical-guide/relief), [Responsibility](/topical-guide/responsibility)