Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication Year
Articles 181 - 194 of 194
Full-Text Articles in Religious Education
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: The Political Dimension, John W. Welch
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: The Political Dimension, John W. Welch
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
To conclude our reflections on when, where, and why Nephi wrote his final small plates account, we can now turn attention to three political dimensions of those plates. Once again, the real-life situations of Nephi and his people supply important contexts that bring interesting things to light.
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: Serving Practical Needs, John W. Welch
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: Serving Practical Needs, John W. Welch
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Nephi wrote his small plates soon after important events such as Lehi's death, Nephi's separation from his rebellious brothers, and the establishment of the reign of kings (see last month's research update). Recognizing when he wrote, we can better appreciate not only Nephi's stated reasons for writing the small plates but also subtle underlying motivations behind his inspired selection and treatment of this material.
A Literary Analysis Of Moroni 7, Richard Dilworth Rust
A Literary Analysis Of Moroni 7, Richard Dilworth Rust
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Moroni 7 is one of the most tightly woven and forceful sermons in the Book of Mormon. Recorded by Mormon's son Moroni, this sermon on faith, hope, and charity is particularly poignant because Mormon has been killed by the Lamanites and Moroni is the solitary survivor. We can picture Moroni rereading this sermon in order to strengthen his own faith, hope, and charity-topics he addresses in his concluding words in the Book of Mormon.
When Did Nephi Write The Small Plates?, John W. Welch
When Did Nephi Write The Small Plates?, John W. Welch
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
In reading 1 Nephi, few people stop to think when Nephi actually wrote this account of his family's flight from Jerusalem and journey across the sea to a land of promise. Knowing when Nephi began to write the small plates (beginning with the account we now have in 1 Nephi) clarifies the purposes that stand behind that record and influenced its final form and content.
Chiasmus Bibliography Marks Thirty Years Of Research
Chiasmus Bibliography Marks Thirty Years Of Research
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
As a missionary in Germany in 1967, John W. Welch, along with his companion, attended a theological lecture in which the professor explained chiasmus, a kind of literary parallelism prevalent in the Bible. Soon thereafter Welch was the first person to discover superb examples of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, a strong indication of that record's ancient and artistic composition. Bringing this to the professor's attention, Welch was unceremoniously dismissed. But the response a few months later from a Jesuit priest who was an authority on the subject was encouraging, even prophetic: "You are very fortunate. I think you …
The Remnant Of Joseph, John A. Tvedtnes
The Remnant Of Joseph, John A. Tvedtnes
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
In a speech of encouragement to his troops, the Nephite chief captain Moroni spoke of his people as "a remnant of [the seed of] Joseph" who had been sold into Egypt by his brothers (Alma 46:23-24, 27). This phrase and variations of it appear elsewhere in the Book of Mormon as well (e.g., 3 Nephi 5:23; 10:17; 15:12; Ether 13:6-8, 10).
Charity As An Exegetical Principle In The Book Of Mormon, Matthew Scott Stenson
Charity As An Exegetical Principle In The Book Of Mormon, Matthew Scott Stenson
BYU Studies
The eclectic Book of Mormon effectively collapses intellectual and sacred history. Anachronisms have drawn and do currently draw the attention of some Book of Mormon students and researchers. Nicholas J. Frederick, for instance, has written extensively on the presence of New Testament language in the largely pre–Christian Era record. Not all anachronisms are so extensive and involved as those Frederick traces. Some are minor and comparatively unimportant. However, there is a significant and pervasive conceptual anachronism that deserves critical attention. I speak of the primary narrators of the Book of Mormon using faith, hope, and charity (or love) as textual …
The Orchid And The Missile, Paul Alan Cox
The Orchid And The Missile, Paul Alan Cox
BYU Studies
The MX missile program was proposed by the United States as a response to a perceived missile gap with the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. The basing mode, consisting of multiple silos between which a single launch vehicle would be shuttled, would have consumed large portions of western Utah and eastern Nevada. Although touted as a counterforce weapon, the extraordinary accuracy of the MX would have resulted in the USA constructing an invisible first strike system, destabilizing the strategic balance. Stopping or even slowing the MX deployment seemed impossible before two unexpected events occurred: explicit opposition to the MX …
Gold, Silver, And Grain, Shinji Takagi
Gold, Silver, And Grain, Shinji Takagi
BYU Studies
In this paper, I discuss, from the perspective of a monetary economist, the operational aspects of the system of fixed prices for gold, silver, and all kinds of grain described in the Book of Mormon (Alma 11:3–19), based on internal evidence, economic logic, and historical precedents from antiquity. Previous authors have noted several unique features of the Nephite system, which was purportedly created by king Mosiah in the early first century BC. For example, John Welch, approaching the system strictly as one of weights and measures, argued that, in this otherwise binary system (in which denomination increases by a multiple …
Covenant Language In Biblical Religions And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds
Covenant Language In Biblical Religions And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds
BYU Studies
Because twenty-first-century public discourse in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to feature the language of covenant more and more often, it may be helpful to step back and reexamine the scriptural and historical backgrounds for covenant theology and terminology. When the Restoration took shape in the first half of the nineteenth century, it was dependent primarily on the language of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and contemporary Protestant teachings for a context in which to interpret the language of Joseph Smith’s revelations and the Book of Mormon. After two centuries of modern linguistic …
A New Witness To The World, By Robert A. Rees (Salt Lake City: By Common Consent Press, 2020), Lane Welch
A New Witness To The World, By Robert A. Rees (Salt Lake City: By Common Consent Press, 2020), Lane Welch
BYU Studies
This book provides a series of essays that analyze and contextualize the text of the Book of Mormon while providing Professor Rees’s faithful perspective on the text. Though each essay stands on its own as a separate work, the later essays, handling the context of Joseph Smith’s work as a nineteenth-century American writer, do reference and build off one another. These later essays handle the backgrounds and processes of various American writers contemporary to Joseph Smith, providing an effective survey of the literary milieu into which the Book of Mormon first entered; the earlier essays are more focused on the …
Rethinking The Rod Of Iron, T. J. Uriona
Rethinking The Rod Of Iron, T. J. Uriona
BYU Studies
Near its beginning, the Book of Mormon relates the dream of an Israelite father and visionary prophet named Lehi. About 600 BCE, Lehi and his family “tarried in the wilderness,” having fled Jerusalem for a promised land, guided by the Lord (1 Ne. 8:2). In this dream, Lehi saw a symbolic scene with multiple elements, including a tree with desirable fruit and a river running near the tree. “And,” he said, “I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree” (1 Ne. 8:19). Lehi observed how people made their …
How The Book Of Mormon Reads Ancient Religious Texts, Kristian S. Heal, Zach Stevenson
How The Book Of Mormon Reads Ancient Religious Texts, Kristian S. Heal, Zach Stevenson
BYU Studies
The Book of Mormon turned the Latter-day Saints purposefully toward ancient religious texts. Early converts connected the Book of Mormon with lost texts recorded in the Bible. The space left by these lost books could be filled by the Book of Mormon. But not by the Book of Mormon alone. There was room to spare, and with it, a growing desire not only to find lost scriptures that were known but also to restore lost scriptures that were until then unknown (see D&C 9:2). This fervor was centrifugal, compelling Joseph Smith and others to seek out and reveal ancient texts …
Book Of Mormon Studies: An Introduction And Guide By Daniel Becerra, Amy Easton-Flake, Nicholas J. Frederick, And Joseph M. Spencer, Matthew B. Christensen
Book Of Mormon Studies: An Introduction And Guide By Daniel Becerra, Amy Easton-Flake, Nicholas J. Frederick, And Joseph M. Spencer, Matthew B. Christensen
BYU Studies
The aptly titled Book of Mormon Studies: An Introduction and Guide gives readers a welcome, straightforward, and helpful overview of where the field of Book of Mormon studies has been, where it is currently, and where it may go in the future. The book is coauthored by Daniel Becerra, Amy Easton-Flake, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Joseph M. Spencer—all professors of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.