Mormon founder joseph smith is said to have unsealed the book of mormon document when he was given the ancient plates by the angel moroni in order to translate and print the scripture in 1830. This book of mormon fhe lesson teaches us how to rejoice in the scriptures and what we can do if were. The last prophet in the book of mormon, moroni, wrote the following in the middle of a list of admonitions to his modern readers. The book of isaiah is replete with references to the savior, often calling him the holy one of israel. However, the passage in isaiah has nothing to do with mormonism or the book of mormon.
In the bible and the book of mormon springville, ut. I think its partly because we believe isaiah is only talking about his time and thus something we neednt be concerned about. Disparities with hebrew language, text, and style part 5. Two factors led to my study of the isaiah variants in the book of mormon.
About 100 references by quoting, paraphrasing, or interpreting isaiah s teachings. Nyman, great are the words of isaiah springville, ut. Words of comfort and encouragement from isaiah book of. Book of mormon fhe lesson the joyful prophecies of isaiah. Since the book of mormon is a loose translation that relies heavily on the kjv to translate similar ideas this means that the kjv of deutero isaiah was used along with many of the later edits from the exile and after the exile. For example, isaiah used the imagery of a tree or plant. Underline words and phrases that speak about gods attributes, nature, actions, and covenantal obligations to his children. Some people criticize the fact that isaiah is quoted in the book of mormon. How do we explain material from isaiah in the book of mormon. Isaiah 53, mosiah 14, and the book of mormon book of. There is no question that the isaiah passages in the book of mormon are in the language of the king james translation of the bible. After lehis departure from jerusalem with the writings of isaiah on the brass plates, some changes apparently occurred in the isaiah manuscripts. Full list of sidebyside comparisons i will update this list as i complete more sidebyside comparisons. Isaiah is the first book containing the writings of the prophets of the bible.
Gileadi gives you a jump start on understanding isaiah, and isaiah gives you a jump start on understanding the gospel of jesus christ and the end times. The book of mormon quotes isaiah more than any other prophet. A commandment i give unto you that ye search these things diligently. Sometimes the quotation is explicit, as in the second book of nephi, which contains 18 quoted chapters of the book of isaiah other significant connections between the two books include book of mormon words and phrases that only appear in. Book of mormon evidence vs book of mormon central pop isaiah april 9, 2019 it was a year ago this week, i spent three days at two book of mormon conferences on the same weekend. Other isaiah passages quoted in the book of mormon.
Isaiah was both a prophet and a poet, so one of the things you can do to make his prophecies easier to grasp is to read isaiah as poetry. This morning, as i studied 2 nephi 1620 isaiah 610, a number of phrases caught my attention. The book of mormon retains both, indicating that the hebrew and greek each lack elements that were in the original text of isaiah. Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the book of mormon. Why does this scripture in isaiah and in the book of. Understanding isaiah in the book of mormon thus presumes an understanding of the terms house of israel, covenant, and gentile, which predominate in the isaiah commentaries in the book of mormon and do not occur elsewhere in the book. The extensive use of isaiah poses several problems. Clearly the brass plates of laban afforded them access to that prophets works and was part of their scriptural understanding, perhaps even part of their daytoday conversations.
Reading the covenantal purpose of isaiah in the book of. Whereas we often look upon 2 nephi as the place we get stuck when reading the book of mormon because of the dreaded isaiah chapters, nephi offered us the option of rejoicing in them. It is to the variants that we will give our attention here. Mormon chose to keep about one third of isaiah s writings. The book of mormon and modern prophets have helped us better understand the meaning. Prophets in the book of mormon, including the lord himself, repeatedly declared the importance of reading isaiahs prophecies. The writers of the book of mormon quoted or paraphrased 35 percent of the book of isaiah. The book of mormon explicitly quotes the prophet isaiah, containing 19 chapters of the kjv of isaiah in their entirety, along with parts of a few other chapters. Isaiah is the most quoted old testament prophet in the book of mormon volume, and this tome does justice to the essential role isaiah plays in the volume, with many essays dedicating to exegeting the nephite midrash of isaiah periocpe and whole chapters in the book of mormon text. Many nonlds scholars claim that the second half of the book of isaiah was written after the time lehi left jerusalem, yet the book of mormon contains material. The book of mormon contains many linguistic similarities to the king james bible kjv. First, the savior gave a commandment to search the words of isaiah thoroughly. The relevance of isaiah 3 prophecy to the book of mormon story line is obvious.
Nearly a third of the chapters from isaiah had already been recorded in the book of mormon. Plagiarism the book of mormon narrative says that the jews who left jerusalem for the new world had with them the scriptures written up until that point 600 b. New archaeological evidence for book of mormon prophet isaiah. This particular phrase is one of the most commonly misunderstood in isaiah and in the book of mormon, where this isaiah phrase is quoted numerous times. However, i feel that the book of mormon can not only withstand the challenge, but the issue can actually be used to illuminate the nature of isaiah and shed light on why this is such a profound book. Avraham gileadi, isaiah key to the book of mormon, in rediscovering the book of mormon, ed.
And the author, isaiah, who is called the prince of prophets, shines above all the other writers and prophets of scripture. Finding doctrine and meaning in book of mormon isaiah. Parry, nephis keys to understanding isaiah 2 nephi 25. Tvedtnes, isaiah variants in the book of mormon, in isaiah and the prophets.
Book of mormontranslation errors from the kjv fairmormon. So here is another installment on the book of mormon previous post on 1 nephi 1. And now i write some of the words of isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men. Isaiah variants in the book of mormon religious studies. Making sense or not of isaiah in the book of mormon. Isaiah in the book of mormon book of mormon central. Whats going on in the book of mormon isaiah chapters. In the book of mormon, the daughter of zion appears in quotations of isaiah. Abinadi interprets isaiah, journal of book of mormon and other restoration scripture 10, no. There are at least three reasons why the book of isaiah is of great importance to the reader. Tammy uzelac hall, the host of lds livings sunday on monday, shares an answer to this and other questions readers might have in their studies of the book of mormon this week.
It seems that if nephi had copied them from the plates of brass in hebrew onto his own record and that if joseph smith had then received the english translation by the gift and power of god, the isaiah passages would read more like the 1830 book of mormon and less. However, many people call the words of isaiah too difficult to understand or even boring. On the basis of the book of mormon reading the textual critic can reconstruct what happened to the original text. The isaiah passages in the book of mormon a non aligned text the above title and link refers to a 2001 masters thesis. Atonement 1, introduction to the atonement in the small plates of nephi duration. This chart organizes important isaiah references in the book of mormon according to their order of appearance in the book of isaiah. Some 58 are paraphrased and 11 others are variants and or paraphrases. These chapters in the book of mormon stand as a witness to us that there is strength in holding to the lords standard. The problem this presents for lds is one of authorship dating. The name isaiah means the salvation of the lord or the lord is salvation.
A sidebyside comparison of the text found in isaiah and the book of mormon. Why is isaiah quoted so much in the book of mormon. We often find differences in book of mormon isaiah texts where modern texts disagree see also vestal and wallace, firm foundation of. Parry published a book called poetic parallelisms in the book of mormon available to read for free online. Amazing and there is no way that joseph smith wrote his book and included the isaiah prophecies to coincide and perfectly fit the story line. Now i, nephi, do speak somewhat concerning the words which i have written, which have been spoken by the mouth of isaiah. Isaiah variants in the book of mormon religious studies center. Isaiah 214 as contained in 2 nephi 1224, and a significant portion of isaiah 29 in 2 nephi 27. Always there is a call to repentance and loyalty to the savior. Of the 478 verses in the book of mormon quoted from the book of isaiah, 201 agree with the king james reading while 207 show variations.
Great are the words of isaiah eve out of the garden. The isaiah problem in the book of mormon chap 11 shields. In some cases, entire passages are duplicated in the book of mormon. Deutero isaiah verses in the book of mormon overview of the deutero isaiah problem in the book of mormon. However, many people call the words of isaiah too difficult to understand or. In the lds curriculum, we are now plodding through the isaiah chapters in second nephi. Kjv isaiah in the book of mormon why the lds church is.
By a most peculiar coincidence, the words stinketh and dried up. Pattern and purpose of the isaiah commentaries in the book. Avraham gileadi, isaiah key to the book of mormon, in rediscovering the book of mormon. The book of mormon and the king james bible wikipedia. Im going to focus on 2 nephi 9, which follows chapters 7 and 8 isaiah 50 and 51, more or less and presents itself as a commentary on those two chapters.
Isaiah in the book of mormon religious studies center. Interestingly, there are many other places in the book of mormon that isaiah is quoted. The main nephite prophets who quoted isaiah were nephi, jacob, and abinadi. Next to the book of mormon references in this chart are corresponding references in the book of isaiah. Isaiah prophecies in book of mormon are relevant to the. Covers many of the literary forms that isaiah uses to convey his message of our times. This powerful call for the captive daughter of zion to rise up and shake off the dust and bands of bondage will be quoted again by. The isaiah text in the book of mormon is an inspired rendering of text taken originally from the brass plates of laban and which consequently predates our current isaiah texts by several centuries. Nephi delighted in the words of isaiah and took great care to record them for his people. Often when we are reading isaiah in the old testament and the book of mormon that quotes isaiah, we skip a lot of it. I recommend trying this exercise on your own with any or all of the isaiah chapters in the book of mormon or the bible. The scope of this paper does not allow a detailed explication of the isaiah chapters in the book of mormon.
The lord will defend his peoplethe messiah the restoration. This phrase is first encountered in the fifth chapter of isaiah corresponding to the fifteenth chapter of 2 nephi. This chart lists book of mormon passages that quote or paraphrase the words of isaiah, which held great meaning for the nephites and also apply to us today. In the book of mormon, there are many chapters of isaiah directly incorporated from the king james version kjv of the bible, complete with translation errors that were obviously not possible to have been recorded on the gold plates since the kjv was not available until thousands of years. That the book of mormon quotes from isaiah is not a problem, except that joseph smiths 1830 translation reads nearly verbatim to the 1611 king james translation. When isaiah heard that help was needed, he volunteered immediately and enthusiastically. Nephi quotes isaiah for a whopping chapters straight in 2 nephi 1224, and continues to quote and refer to him throughout the small plates. Textual variants in the isaiah quotations in the book of mormon. Authorship of the book of isaiah in light of the book.