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The Covenant of Christ’s Gospel in the Book of Mormon

November 02, 2020

Abstract: With the trained eye of an anthropologist and a historian, Steven Olsen refutes claims that the Book of Mormon is a simple hodge-podge of biblical phrases and responses to controversies that Joseph Smith absorbed from his surroundings. Through a careful discussion of four main claims, he illustrates his thesis that the Book of Mormon “evidences a high degree of focus and coherence, as though its principal writers intentionally crafted the record from a unified and comprehensive perspective.” He shows that the Book of Mormon is not merely a history in the conventional sense, but rather is purposeful in the selection and expression of its core themes.

[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Steven L. Olsen, “The Covenant of Christ’s Gospel in the Book of Mormon,” in “To Seek the Law of the Lord”: Essays in Honor of John W. Welch, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson and Daniel C. Peterson (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, 2017), 209–46. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/to-seek-the-law-of-the-lord-essays-in-honor-of-john-w-welch-2/.]

This study supports the general thesis that the Book of Mormon text evidences a high degree of focus and coherence, as though its principal writers intentionally crafted the record from a unified and comprehensive perspective. This general thesis has four main claims.

* [Page 284]Mormon and Moroni model their respective abridgments of the Nephite and Jaredite records after Nephi’s Small Plates account.1
* Nephi’s vision (1 Ne. 11–14) serves as the spiritual and interpretive centerpiece of his sacred record.2
* Nephi’s vision has three dominant themes—Christ’s gospel, promised land, and chosen people—which Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni develop as covenants in their respective accounts.3
* Covenants serve the Nephites as the foundation of their (a) special identity as a people, (b) unique historical consciousness, (c) enduring relationship with God, and (d) understanding of and hope for the blessings of eternal life.

Support for these claims comes from a variety of literary patterns in the Book of Mormon text involving diction, poetics, rhetoric, narrative contents, and formal structures, including the following:

* By far, the four most frequently used nouns in the Book of Mormon are people, God, Lord, and land(s), with 1765, 1675, 1576, and 1353 uses respectively.