Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Of Mormon Citations In General Conference, 1965–2014, Sharon Black, Brad Wilcox, Kyle Lyons

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Joseph Smith referred to the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our religion; however, the book was not frequently studied in worship services or in gospel instruction in the early Church. In the 1970s, focus on the scriptures increased as the curriculum for adult gospel study shifted from manuals discussing the scriptures to the actual scripture texts. The Book of Mormon became part of the correlated curriculum for Sunday School Gospel Doctrine lessons, and Seminaries and Institutes also increased their use of scriptural content. In response, Church leaders oversaw the preparation of a fully cross-referenced version of the standard …

Biblical Merismus In Book Of Mormon Gospel References, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This study is an extension of previously published work that identifies three inclusios in the Book of Mormon, each of which presents the same six-element definition of the doctrine or gospel of Jesus Christ. However, the six elements are not presented as a straightforward list, but rather in a series of smaller combinations intended to gradually deepen and extend the reader’s understanding of each one and of its role in the larger gospel process. This mode of presentation makes something else clear: Whenever some pair or selection from these six elements is mentioned, the entire set is implicitly invoked. Each …

Chiastic Structuring Of Large Texts: Second Nephi As A Case Study, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The experiment conducted in this paper has been the application of the principles of Hebrew rhetoric—as that has come to be understood by biblical scholars over the last half century—to the Book of Second Nephi, self-described as personally written by Nephi, who was educated in Jerusalem at the end of the 7th century BCE, a time and place where these principles are now thought by scholars to have been de rigeur. The experiment did not refute the hypothesis, but instead did produce a plausible division of the book into 13 sub-units that readily organize themselves chiastically as a whole. The …

Book Of Mormon Kingship And The Deuteronomistic History, Justin Moses, Dana M. Pike

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My academic inquiry is a bipartite construction and demands a thorough, but succinct, introduction. The first and primary element of my study concerns kingship in the Book of Mormon. The main purpose of this study is, first, to outline Nephite kingship ideology as it is portrayed in the Book of Mormon and, second, to find possible origins for that ideology. While kingship ideology in the Book of Mormon has demonstrated unique properties, it has also shown a propensity to be similar to, and potentially influenced by, the ideology of other cultures. Depending on whether one believes the Book of Mormon …

Death Being Swallowed Up In Netzach In The Bible And The Book Of Mormon, David Larsen

BYU Studies Quarterly

One way to read the Book of Mormon is to be attentive to ways in which it comes across as a translated text. Being mindful of this is wise, because all translations—even inspired translations—lose something of the primary language, particularly as meanings shift when words are rendered into the vocabulary or idioms of the target language.

Answering For His Order: Alma's Clash With The Nehors, Matthew Scott Stenson

BYU Studies Quarterly

From the beginning, Lehite culture was richly oral and often divided over the question of authority (see Alma 1–2, 8–14, 30). On one side of the conflict stood the prophets, and on the other side stood “popular” opportunistic figures, wise in their own eyes, who resemble in a general way classical sophists (Alma 1:3; see 2 Ne. 9:28). The classical sophists, some of whom were philosophic pretenders, sought to subvert on occasion the moral authority and epistemological methods of the actual philosophers. In contrast, the Nephite “sophists” (an encompassing term for our purposes that describes a certain kind of proud, …

From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation And Publication Of The Book Of Mormon, Steven L. Olsen

BYU Studies Quarterly

Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat. From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon.

Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015.

Visualizing Apostolic Succession, Meilan Jin, Iliesa S. K. Delai, Geoffrey M. Draper

BYU Studies Quarterly

For years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has published pictures and other illustrative diagrams to communicate its message. For example, the children's book Book of Mormon Stories includes an illustrative map indicating the possible route of Lehi's family from the Arabian peninsula to the Americas. Seminary students receive bookmarks showing a timeline of peoples and events in the Book of Mormon. More recently, the Church has published a series of "information graphics" (known more commonly as infographics) on its website. Infographics in a visually pleasing manner. The Church's infographics cover a range of topics such as …

Schooling The Prophet: How The Book Of Mormon Influenced Joseph Smith And The Early Restoration, Mark L. Staker

BYU Studies Quarterly

Gerald E. Smith. Schooling the Prophet: How the Book of Mormon Influenced Joseph Smith and the Early Restoration.

Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2016.

The Book Of Mormon As Biblical Interpretation: An Approach To Lds Biblical Studies, Joseph M. Spencer

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

Recent years have witnessed a growing recognition in the academy that the Book of Mormon deserves closer attention than it has received. Not surprisingly, adherents to the various Mormon faiths have long read the book with some care. But larger numbers of believing and nonbelieving academics have come to recognize that, despite its often didactic style and relative literary artlessness, the Book of Mormon exhibits remarkable sophistication. This is perhaps nowhere truer than in those passages where the volume interacts—whether explicitly or implicitly—with biblical texts (always in or in relation to the King James rendering). Close reading of the Book …

David E. Bokovoy. Authoring The Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2014., Alex Douglas

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

David Bokovoy’s most recent book, Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis–Deuteronomy, represents a fresh and much-needed perspective on how Latter-day Saints can simultaneously embrace both scholarship and faith. This book is the first in what is anticipated to be a three-volume set exploring issues of authorship in the Old Testament published by Bokovoy with Greg Kofford Books. Bokovoy uses current scholarship on the Pentateuch as a springboard for discussing LDS perspectives on scripture, revelation, and cultural influence. To my knowledge, this is the first book-length attempt to popularize the classical Documentary Hypothesis among Latter-day Saints, and Bokovoy does an exemplary job …