If I could ask them one question about
the Church’s Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, Lesson 7
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For Feb. 10-16, 2020
2 Ne 6-10
If I wanted to encourage thought and try to understand devout believers better, I might ask:
“Why would an angel reveal a Greek title as a name for the Messiah to someone from Jerusalem in the Americas in about 550 BCE?”
Things to consider:
- 2 Ne 10:3 tells us that an angel revealed to Nephi that Jesus’ name would be Christ.
- Christ is ultimately “from the Greek Christos, which meant ‘the Anointed’” (Elder Durham, General Conference talk “Jesus the Christ”).
- Interestingly, Messiah means the same thing. It’s “an Aramaic word meaning ‘the anointed.’ . . . In the New Testament the deliverer is called the Christ, which is the Greek equivalent of Messiah, and Jesus the Messiah is called Jesus the Christ, Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus” (LDS Bible Dictionary).
- He wasn’t even originally called Christ (as a name) by early Christians in the Old World. “After his death he came to be called Jesus Christ” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
- Though “Christ” was used as part of the name “Jesus Christ” in the New Testament, “Christ” is not a name; it is a title. And, notice how “Christ” is used in 2 Ne 10:7: “they shall believe . . . that I am Christ.” I doubt anyone is seriously claiming that this says there will come a day when they believe he is the guy with this name. It seems obvious that the verse means there will be a day when they believe in his divinity, in his role as Messiah. Why would Nephi, an Israelite, use a Greek word here for the title “the anointed” when his Hebrew would give him the word “Messiah” to express this thought?
- But, according to verse 3, an angel provided to an ancient Israelite this Greek title as a name of the Messiah. To argue that he really meant “title” instead of “name” would be to argue that the title “anointed one” was unknown to Jacob until the night before when the angel told him this. The problem would be that the word “Messiah” is used often prior to this point in the book. See Lehi’s preaching to Jacob of the Messiah in 2 Ne 2:6.
- Another problem is that the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon actually uses the term or name “Jesus Christ” in 1 Ne 12:18—at least 33 years before the “name” of Christ is revealed to Jacob according to the time frame indicated in the chapter summaries (p. 28, Joseph Smith Papers, Book of Mormon, 1830).
- How does this happen when the translation process provides Joseph the Book of Mormon text word-for-word as described by Emma Smith: “When my husband was translating the Book of Mormon, I wrote a part of it, as he dictated each sentence, word for word, and when he came to proper names he could not pronounce, or long words, he spelled them out, and while I was writing them, if I made any mistake in spelling, he would stop me and correct my spelling (A Treasured Testament).
- It is possible that a scribe inserted this incorrectly at a point that is supposed to be 33 years before the “name” of Christ is revealed, but is it likely that a scribe would have taken such liberty? Besides, as Emma told us, if she made a mistake as small as a spelling error, Joseph would stop and correct the error (A Treasured Testament).
If you could ask believers questions about the scriptures for this lesson, what would you ask?
Have fun studying!
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If I could ask them one question, Lesson 7
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