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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
All Kindreds Shall Be Blessed: Nephite, Jewish, And Christian Interpretations Of The Abrahamic Covenant, Noel B. Reynolds
All Kindreds Shall Be Blessed: Nephite, Jewish, And Christian Interpretations Of The Abrahamic Covenant, Noel B. Reynolds
Faculty Publications
A review of current and traditional scholarship regarding the covenant God made with Abraham combined with a thorough review of Book of Mormon references shows that the Nephite understanding varies in important ways from traditional Christian and Jewish interpretations. However, some of the insights of contemporary scholarship are more compatible with the Book of Mormon perspective.
The Ancient Doctrine Of The Two Ways And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds
The Ancient Doctrine Of The Two Ways And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds
Faculty Publications
Scholars have long recognized that a number of ancient cultures shared a traditional doctrine of the Two Ways that could be used to instruct youth and others in the right way to live their lives. While the language of the Two Ways surfaces on occasion in both the Old and New Testaments, the doctrine is not developed or explained in any detail in the Bible. However, noncanonical texts of the Greco-Roman period display a highly developed and stylized form of the doctrine in both Jewish and Christian traditions. The earliest known version of these stylized forms of the doctrine occurs …
On Doubting Nephi's Break Between 1 And 2 Nephi: A Critique Of Joseph Spencer's "An Other Testament: On Typology", Noel B. Reynolds
On Doubting Nephi's Break Between 1 And 2 Nephi: A Critique Of Joseph Spencer's "An Other Testament: On Typology", Noel B. Reynolds
Faculty Publications
This essay rejects the proposal by Joseph Spencer to recognize the true break in Nephi's two books as occurring after the fifth chapter of the second book. The essay invokes standard interpretive practices arguing that while Spencer does present reasoning to make sense of this novel proposal, he does not acknowledge the much greater weight of standard interpretation or provide explanations for ignoring it.
How "Come Unto Me" Fits In The Nephite Gospel", Noel B. Reynolds
How "Come Unto Me" Fits In The Nephite Gospel", Noel B. Reynolds
Faculty Publications
Book of Mormon readers can easily be left wondering in numerous passages where the repeated term "come unto me/him/Christ" refers to unspecified elements of the gospel understood as "the way" by which men and women can come to him. This paper identifies six passages that are presented as quotations from Jesus himself and that have identical rhetorical structures---in which this phrase appears to refer each time to that stage of the gospel described as "enduring to the end." This discovery may offer useful interpretive guidance for the numerous other passages that invoke the same phrase. This paper was updated June …
The Ancient Doctrine Of The Two Ways In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds
The Ancient Doctrine Of The Two Ways In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds
Faculty Publications
Consistent with their preexilic Hebrew Bible predecessors, the Book of Mormon prophets taught a version of the Two Ways doctrine that featured (1) invitations to repentance defined as turning or returning to God’s way, (2) the context of the Abrahamic covenant, (3) the blessings and cursings that would come from obedience or disobedience, and (4) the contrast of the path of righteousness that leads to life with the path of evil that leads to death. But this analysis has also produced a number of expansions or refinements of the Two Ways doctrine that are not reflected in biblical treatments of …