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Poesy And Prosody In The Book Of Mormon, Robert F. Smith

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Robert Smith makes the case that “poetic art in the Book of Mormon is highly developed” — you just need to have the eye to recognize it. Though many readers are aware of the stunning examples of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, thanks to the pioneering work by John W. Welch, fewer are acquainted with the other important forms of parallelism that pervade the text, often placed strategically to highlight the importance of a particular passage. Smith also shows why apocalpytic texts, sometimes thought to originate at a later period, can be found, for example, in the first chapter …

Glad Tidings From Cumorah: Interpreting The Book Of Mormon Through The Eyes Of Someone In Hell, Steve Fotheringham

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This article offers evidence that at least some Book of Mormon authors may have understood the potential for post-mortal preaching of the gospel. Indeed, they may have recognized that the future Book of Mormon would be a tool to spread the gospel not only among the living but also among those in the spirit world. Prophecies about the message of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel being for all mankind may have broader scope than previously recognized, with application on both sides of the veil.

The Origin And Purpose Of The Book Of Mormon Phrase “If Ye Keep My Commandments Ye Shall Prosper In The Land”, Taylor Halverson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

We are told in the Title Page of the Book of Mormon that the Book of Mormon was revealed in our day “to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever.” Hence, the covenantal context, structure, and logic of the Book of Mormon demand further consideration, exploration, and elucidation. A prosperous starting point is the phrase “If ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land.” This covenantal phrase is used …

The Inclusive, Anti-Discrimination Message Of The Book Of Mormon, David M. Belnap

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Attitudes of superiority lead to societal conflict. The racial interpretation of a few Book of Mormon verses has contributed to these attitudes and conflicts, yet hundreds of inclusive messages are found in more than half of the book’s verses. God’s message, love, mercy, and justice are for all people. Righteous people did not think themselves above others, nor did they persecute others or start wars. War is tragic and is caused by wickedness. Conspiracies are a great evil. Righteous people were kind in their attitudes and actions, regardless of others’ social status or ethnicity. Some Book of Mormon people even …

The Brass Plates: Can Modern Scholarship Help Identify Their Contents?, A. Keith Thompson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon contains little information about what the Brass Plates contain. Nephi said it was a larger record than the Hebrew Bible brought to America by the Gentiles. But it could not have contained the records of Old Testament prophets who wrote after Lehi’s party left Jerusalem or the New Testament. We know it contained some writings from Zenos, Zenock, Neum, and Ezias, but what else could it have contained? Though the proposal from modern biblical source criticism that the Christian Bible is the product of redactors sometimes working with multiple sources is distasteful to many Christians, this …

The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars to be an independent principle in Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts of hesed, or loving kindness for his covenant people and is usually interpreted in the context of the covenants Israel received through Abraham and Moses. The Book of Mormon clearly echoes that Old Testament pattern but also presents two additional conceptual frameworks that are explained in terms of the goodness of God. It advances an explicit divine …

Additional Janus Parallels In The Book Of Mormon, Paul Y. Hoskisson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A little more than 40 years ago, Cyrus Gordon discovered and described for the first time an ancient literary technique which he had found in the Hebrew Bible, and he gave it a name — a Janus parallel. That is why no one, more than 40 years ago, could have faked a Hebrew Janus parallel in an English translation of an ancient document. But, as I reasoned, if Janus parallels were a Hebrew literary device at the time Lehi left Jerusalem (for an analog see chiasmus), then such parallels probably can be found in the Book of Mormon. In this …

An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom, Neal Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Latter-day Saint scholars generally agree that “the place called… Nahom,” where Ishmael was buried (1 Nephi 16:34) is identified as the Nihm tribal region in Yemen. Significantly, a funerary stela with the name ys1mʿʾl — the South Arabian equivalent of Ishmael — was found near the Nihm region and dated to ca. 6th century bc. Although it cannot be determined with certainty that this is the Ishmael from the Book of Mormon, circumstantial evidence suggests that such is a possibility worth considering.

World Enough, Tracy Fessenden

Mormon Studies Review

I value reviews that help me decide whether a book is likely to light up the classroom, so I will say it straightaway: Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon will. Classroom friendliness in the humanities feels especially pressing now, as the larger share of our students set foot in our fields to fulfill distribution requirements on their way to degrees in business or STEM. If your class in American literature or history or religious studies is the one experience of your discipline that students who take it are likely to seek, a semester’s offering built around this book will …

Subtle Hebraic Features In The Book Of Mormon, Amanda Colleen Brown

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Donald W. Parry combines a lifetime of insights about the Old Testament and Book of Mormon into one volume. Written for a nonacademic audience, this book provides a glimpse into some of the Book of Mormon’s literary complexities that originate from Hebrew grammar and style.

Giving The Book Of Ether Its Proper Due, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Illuminating the Jaredite Record collects ten papers by different Book of Mormon scholars. This is the second publication from the Book of Mormon Academy at Brigham Young University, a collection of scholars interested in the Book of Mormon. As with the first volume, the authors approach the text from different perspectives and thereby illuminate different aspects of the text.

Much More Than A Reader: The Latest In Chiastic Studies For Interested Scholars And Lay Readers Alike, Steven L. Olsen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This collection of essays represents the latest scholarship on chiasmus. They were selected from papers delivered at an academic conference at Brigham Young University in 2017. Articles reflect both “the state of the art” and the state of the technique in chiastic studies.

Coming Down And Bringing Down: Pejorative Onomastic Allusions To The Jaredites In Helaman 6:25, 6:38, And Ether 2:11, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Mormon uses pejorative wordplay on the name Jaredites based on the meaning of the Hebrew verb yārad. The onomastic rhetoric involving the meaning of yārad first surfaces in Helaman 6 where Mormon also employs wordplay on the name Cain in terms of qānâ or “getting gain.” The first wordplay occurs in the negative purpose clause “lest they should be a means of bringing down [cf. lĕhôrîd] the people unto destruction” (Helaman 6:25) and the second in the prepositional phrase “until they had come down [cf. yārĕdû/yordû] to believe in their works” (Helaman 6:38). Mormon uses these pejorative wordplays as a …

An Ingenious And Inspiring Literary Analysis Of Alma 30–42, Blake T. Ostler

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Mark A. Wrathall’s analytic treatment of Alma 30–42 is a sheer gift that inspires insight into the theological depth of Alma’s thought. His reading of Alma teases out insights not previously recognized and not easily discovered regarding belief and knowledge and their relation to faith and committed action. This extremely rewarding introduction provides a glimpse at the best any writer in the Latter-day Saint tradition has written on Alma’s thoughts and goals.

The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible, but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars. to be a key piece of Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts of hesed or loving kindness for his covenant people and is usually interpreted in the context of the covenants Israel received through Abraham and Moses. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, presents an explicit divine plan that existed before Abraham—even before the creation of the earth—which had as its purpose making eternal life possible for …

Orson Pratt And The Expansion Of The Doctrine And Covenants, Brian C. Passantino

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a faith that is distinguished by its religious texts. The nickname "Mormon," that has been applied to adherents of the faith, comes from the name of its most cherished canonical book, the Book of Mormon. Aside from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, Latter-day Saints accept two other books of scriptures – the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants. These four books constitute the authorized scriptures of the faith, or as they refer to them, "the standard works."

My thesis focuses on the book entitled the Doctrine …

Theories And Assumptions: A Review Of William L. Davis’S Visions In A Seer Stone, Brian C. Hales

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Within the genre of Book of Mormon studies, William L. Davis’s Visions in a Seer Stone presents readers with an innovative message that reports how Joseph Smith was able to produce the words of the Book of Mormon without supernatural assistance. Using oral performance skills that Smith ostensibly gained prior to 1829, his three-month “prodigious flow of verbal art and narrative creation” (7) became the Book of Mormon. Davis’s theory describes a two-part literary pattern in the Book of Mormon where summary outlines (called “heads) in the text are consistently expanded in subsequent sections of the narrative. Termed “laying down …

“A Prophet Like Moses” (Deuteronomy 18:15–18) In The Book Of Mormon, The Bible, And The Dead Sea Scrolls, David R. Seely

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

David Seely provides a wide-ranging survey of interpretations of the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15–18 concerning “a prophet like unto Moses.” He examines relevant passages in the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls and shows how the prophecy has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ and others, continuing with Joseph Smith’s role in the Restoration and onward to the present day.

Missing Words: King James Bible Italics, The Translation Of The Book Of Mormon, And Joseph Smith As An Unlearned Reader And Editor Of A Visioned Text, Stan Spencer

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Chapters from Isaiah quoted in the Book of Mormon use the King James Bible as a base text yet frequently vary from it in minor ways, particularly in the earliest text of the Book of Mormon. A disproportionate number of these variants are due to the omission or replacement of words italicized in the KJV. Many of the minor variants were eliminated by the printer for the 1830 edition or by Joseph Smith himself for the 1837 edition, but others remain. Some of the minor variants are easily explained as errors of dictation, transcription, or copying, but others are not …

Itty Bitty Books With Big Lessons: Enos, Jarom, Omni, Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Sharon Harris, a professor of English at Brigham Young University, offers an analysis of the theology of the “small books” of Enos, Jarom, and Omni in this next installment of The Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Harris argues that the theology of these small books focuses on the covenant with the Nephites and Lamanites, the importance of genealogy, and the role kenosis plays in several of these Book of Mormon prophets. Harris presents both new and familiar readings of these compact books, providing a fair contribution to their study.

Seek Ye Words Of Wisdom, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, Shon D. Hopkin

Interpreter Foundation Books

Stephen David Ricks is a professor of Hebrew and cognate learning in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he has taught for almost four decades (1981–). It was at BYU, in a freshman Book of Mormon class, that he first met Shirley Smith. Four years later, after they had both served German- speaking missions (Stephen in Switzerland and Shirley in Southern Germany), they were married in the Provo Utah Temple in 1974. They are now the proud parents of six children—three girls and three boys, all of whom are married—and have twenty …

The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon peoples repeatedly indicated that they were descendants of Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold into Egypt by his brothers. The plates of brass that they took with them from Jerusalem c. 600 bce provided them with a version of many Old Testament books and others not included in our Hebrew Bible. Sometime after publishing his translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith undertook an inspired revision of the Bible. The opening chapters of his version of Genesis contain a lot of material not included in the Hebrew Bible. But intriguingly, distinctive phraseology in …

A Passover Setting For Lehi’S Exodus, Don Bradley

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Later in his life, former Palmyra resident Fayette Lapham recounted with sharp detail an 1830 interview he conducted with Joseph Smith Sr. about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Among the details he reports that Lehi’s exodus from Jerusalem occurred during a “great feast.” This detail, not found in the published Book of Mormon, may reveal some of what Joseph Sr. knew from the lost 116 pages. By examining the small plates account of this narrative in 1 Nephi 1−5, we see not only that such a feast was possible, but that Lehi’s exodus and Nephi’s quest for …

Section 1: Mormon The Writer, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Ammaron was entrusted with the sacred Nephite archives. Although he recorded Nephite history in the same way so many of his predecessors had, we have nothing that he wrote. As the penultimate official Nephite historian, we know that he wrote and cared for the sacred Nephite records in perilous times.11 Rather than his writings, however, we have the record of his efforts to preserve and continue the plates. We learn that: “Ammaron, being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were sacred — yea, even all the sacred records which had been handed down from generation …

Rethinking Alma 36, Noel B. Reynolds

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

While Alma 36 has long been one of the most admired examples of classical Hebrew chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, critiques in the last two decades have questioned whether, in fact, it really meets the requirements of classical biblical chiasms. The principal objections have pointed to the large sections of the chapter that are not easily included in the chiasm as outlined by John W. Welch and other proponents. Until now, this debate has not taken note of dramatic new developments in the analysis of Hebrew rhetoric over the last fifty years. The following essay turns to the discoveries …

“Somebody Wrote It:” The Book Of Mormon’S Missionary Message To A 21st-Century World, Jim Bennett

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nathan Oman’s “Welding Another Link in Wonder’s Chain: The Task of Latter-day Saint Intellectuals in the Church’s Third Century” wisely called for “new language in which to celebrate the Restoration.” That new language can be found in understanding the power of the Book of Mormon, which is the tangible miracle at the heart of the Restoration that defies the critics. My father, Senator Robert F. Bennett, devoted his final years to arguing that the Book of Mormon’s existence is a stumbling block to those who try to dismiss it as an obvious fraud. Those who scoff at the Book of …

Chapter 5: Mormon Writing, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

When Moroni described what his father had written, he called it “an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi” (Title Page). Mormon himself similarly referred to what he had written: “after I had made an abridgment from the plates of Nephi...” (Words of Mormon 1:3). Nevertheless, Mormon doesn’t appear to use the term in the way we might expect.101 A modern reader expects that an abridgment makes a shorter but faithful version of a longer text. This is not what Mormon did. When Mormon wrote his eponymous book within his larger work, he said that “I write a …

Section 2: Nephi The Writer Chapter 7: Nephi Preparing, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

We have the Book of Mormon people because of Lehi. Nephi began the tradition that eventually allowed Mormon to create the Book of Mormon. Lehi led his family to the New World, but Nephi defined his descendants as a record-keeping people. The Nephites were a people of the Book both because Nephi (and his brothers) preserved a record-keeping tradition (the brass plates) and because he began a new one after arriving in the New World. Mormon may be most directly responsible for the Book of Mormon, but the records Mormon used (and many of the organizational structures that Mormon used) …

Chapter 11: Book Of 1 Nephi, Brant Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi begins his book according to traditions he learned in his scribal training.277 He adds a colophon,278 which had two functions: describe the contents of the book and to identify that author. The synoptic header prior to chapter I provides the outline of the events to be covered in Nephi’s first book: the departure of the family from Jerusalem, the journey into the wilderness, the return to Jerusalem for the brass plates, the acquisition of wives from Ishmael’s family, the arrival at Bountiful, the building of a ship, and the journey to the new world. Evidence from Mormon’s use of …

An Other Approach To Isaiah Studies, Joshua M. Sears

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A recent review of Joseph M. Spencer’s book The Vision of All: Twenty-Five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record made the case that the book contains several challenges and problems, in particular that it advocates a theologically deficient interpretation of Isaiah that denies Isaiah’s witness of Jesus Christ. This response provides an alternative reading of Spencer’s work and suggests these assertions are often based on misunderstanding. At stake in this conversation is the question of whether or not there is more than one valid way to read Isaiah that draws upon a faithful, Restoration perspective. While Spencer may interpret and …