Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount: A Latter-day Saint Approach

by John W. Welch

The Sermon on the Mount has had greater influence on the history and character of Christianity than any other text in the Bible. Yet as biblical scholar Hans Dieter Betz has recently lamented, "New Testament scholarship up to the present has offered no satisfactory explanation of this vitally important text." The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount, by John W. Welch, offers, for the first time, a thorough Latter-day Saint interpretation of Jesus' famous sermon. The author relies especially on crucial information and details that only the Book of Mormon can supply. In New Testament Palestine, Jesus gave the Sermon on a mount. In the Book of Mormon's Bountiful, he gave it at the temple (see 3 Nephi 11—18). Close examination of the Savior's words spoken in Bountiful reveal that they have temple significance, particularly for Latter-day Saints. The relationship of the Sermon to the temple generates an extraordinary explanation of the Sermon on the Mount as a sacred and holy text. While it remains possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in many different ways, the unique Book of Mormon approach offers insights that make consistent sense of the Sermon as a whole and, at the same time, gives clear meaning to each of its parts. Chapters in this study of the two sermons include "The Temple Context and Unity of the Sermon at the Temple," "Joseph Smith and the Sermon at the Temple," "The Common Israelite Background," "The Sermon at the Temple and the Greek New Testament Manuscripts," and "Toward an Understanding of the Sermon as a Temple Text." Some have seen the presence of the Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi as a problem for the Book of Mormon. Now the Savior's words emerge, not as a mere copy of several chapters from the King James Version, but as a profoundly constituted text. The Sermon at the Temple is one more way the Book of Mormon restores plain and precious covenants pertaining to the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ that were once lost.

Genres: Mormonism, Religion

211 pages, Kindle Edition

About the author

John W. Welch is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, where he teaches various courses, including Perspectives on Jewish, Greek, and Roman Law in the New Testament. Since 1991 he has also served as the editor in chief of BYU Studies. He studied history and classical languages at Brigham Young University, Greek philosophy at Oxford, and law at Duke University. As a founder of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, one of the editors for Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of Mormonism, and codirector of the Masada and Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at BYU, he has published widely on biblical, early Christian, and Latter-day Saint topics.

from http://deseretbook.com/auth/420/John_...

Reviews

[Cami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very scholarly and parts are repetitive and harder to get through, but it is very instructive, and the conclusions are very compelling. Chapter 3 is the meat of it for me, outlining so many similarities between Christ's Sermon at the Nephite Temple and our current temple rituals.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome. I need to read it again.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting scholarly comparison of the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon at the Temple. It got a little technical for me towards the end of the book but I learned a lot and enjoyed it.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

insightful

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welch notes that the Sermon on the Mount was repeated, with important deviations, at the temple in Bountiful when the Savior appeared in the Americas. Starting with the premise that the chosen setting was important to understanding the sermon, Welch shows why he believes the textual changes are relevant to the setting, and how the sermon can be interpreted as temple-preparatory and temple-illuminating. The cover to the hardcover edition looks just like the paperback (I don't know why goodreads hasn't added it)--featuring the beautiful painting of Christ blessing the Sacrament at the temple by Minerva Teichert.

[Scott Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a significant analysis of the Lord's sermon at the Bountiful temple, which is very similar to the Matthean Sermon on the Mount. The book "casts the Sermon at the Temple as a complex, subtle, original, systematic, coherent, and purposefully orchestrated text" (p. 91). The most interesting message to me is the clear covenant-making and law-giving context that the sermon is placed in--similar to Moses giving the Law to Israel at Mount Sinai. The book also demonstrates that "what has seemed to many to be an embarrassing problem in the Book of Mormon is no naive plagiarism [by Joseph Smith] but a scripture fully constituted and meaningfully contextualized" (p. 90).

[Rusty Henrichsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for some help in determining what the Savior is trying to tell us in this great sermon. Unfortunately, Welch gives a scholarly description of various theories as to where and why the sermon was given. He does point out the differences between the old world and new world versions and gives plausible reasons. There is also a chart comparing Matthew, 3 Nephi and the JST.

I will probably pass on Welch writings in the future, not because they are bad, but they are not what I am usually looking for.

Rusty

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read an intellectual commentary on the scriptures so it took me a few pages to get into it. Very fascinating insights on the Sermon on the Mount found in the New Testament and the Sermon at the Temple given in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and the temple. The last two chapters I skimmed because they weren't as relevant to me, but overall I thought it was very well thought out and I learned a lot. I took several pages of notes while I was reading.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful comparison of the two title sermons, with great insights into how and why they are alike and different. The author has an excellent background in New Testament studies as well as in the Book of Mormon, and goes into depth without making the book into "scholars only" territory. This book is a true builder of testimony in the Book of Mormon and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opener. The sermon on the mount as guidebook for understanding the temple.

[Ernie Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some intersting material. The author is well known to the LDS community.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gained new insights into the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount.

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting, good background, some interesting theories