Usually when we interpret the scriptures we start from individual verses. That gets us immediately into the details, but sometimes we can miss the big picture that way. You are probably aware that the Book of Mormon often incorporates phrases and short quotations from the Bible; what follows is a list of every time the Nephite record includes an extended biblical quotation of two or more sequential verses. (The references in bold are those noted in the chapter headings of the official 1981 edition.)
1 Ne. 20-21 = Isa. 48-49
2 Ne. 6:6-7, 16-18 = Isa. 49:22-23, 24-26
2 Ne. 7-8 = Isa. 50-52:2
2 Ne. 9:50-51 = Isa. 55:1-2
2 Ne. 12-24 = Isa. 2-14
2 Ne. 27:2-5 = Isa. 29:6-10
2 Ne. 27:25-35 = Isa. 29:13-24
2 Ne. 30:9-15 = Isa. 11:4-9
Mos. 12:21-24 = Isa. 52:7-10 (cited again at Mos. 15:29-31)
Mos. 12:34-36; 13:12-24 = Ex. 20:2-17
Mos. 14 = Isa. 53
3 Ne. 12-14 = Matt. 5-7
3 Ne. 16:18-20 = Isa. 52:8-10
3 Ne. 20:16-19 = Micah 5:8-9; 4:12-13
3 Ne. 20:23-26 = Acts 3:22-26
3 Ne. 20:32-45 = Isa. 52:8-10, 1-3, 6-7, 11-15
3 Ne. 21:12-21 = Micah 5:8-15
3 Ne. 22 = Isa. 54
3 Ne. 24-25 = Mal. 3-4
Morm. 9:22-24 = Mark 16:15-18
Moro. 7:45-46 = 1 Cor. 13:4-8
Moro. 7:48 = 1 John 3:2-3
Moro. 10:8-17 = 1 Cor. 12:4-11
I know that lists don’t make for particularly exciting reading. In fact, you probably just skipped over the one above, but go back for another look and see if you can identify any patterns there. Because this is a comprehensive inventory, it may be able to tell us something about the Book of Mormon in general, and the attitudes and values of the prophets who wrote it.
The rest of this article will consist of a second list enumerating the things that I noticed in the first one. You can check my work here. Did I miss anything significant? Am I reading too much into the passages where the Book of Mormon quotes the Bible?
1. Book of Mormon authors really like Isaiah. He is by far the most quoted Old Testament prophet, and indeed, the list probably underplays this connection since item #5 is actually thirteen complete chapters of Isaiah, quoted virtually verbatim. This preference for Isaiah is probably not a surprise—you may remember Nephi’s confession that “my soul delighteth in [Isaiah’s] words” (2 Ne. 11:2) or Christ’s exclamation “Great are the words of Isaiah!” (3 Ne. 23:1)—but when you see all the extended quotations laid out side by side, the prevalence of that one ancient prophet is truly remarkable.
2. But they like some parts of Isaiah more than others. Isaiah 2-14 is quoted once, in a single block, but the section of Isaiah that Nephite prophets return to again and again are chapters 48-55:1-2. What is it about those passages that so caught their attention? In particular, Isaiah 52:8-10 gets quoted four separate times (in part because Abinadi’s dramatic speech at Noah’s court both begins and ends with these verses). If there is anything in Isaiah that you ought to consider memorizing, perhaps it should be “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. . . . “
3. Not every New World prophet or preacher made his points through extended quotations. In fact, very few of them do this—just Nephi, Jacob (in 2 Ne. 7-9), Abinadi, Jesus, Mormon (in Moro. 7), and Moroni. The Book of Mormon includes lengthy speeches and writings from Lehi, King Benjamin, Alma1, Alma2, the sons of Mosiah, Amulek, Helaman, Nephi2, and Samuel the Lamanite, but not one of them incorporates extended biblical quotations into their discourses. One of the things I love about the Book of Mormon is how distinctive the voices are of different Nephite prophets. (Though to be fair, both Lehi and Alma2 quote writings from the Brass Plates that never made it into the Bible at 2 Ne. 3 [Joseph of Egypt] and Alma 33 [Zenos]).
4. There are a few New Testament quotations in addition to those from the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament quotes were presumably on the Brass Plates, but sometimes critics have decried the New Testament passages as anachronistic. From a certain perspective, they are right—every quotation is from the King James Version, which wasn’t translated until 1611. But even if the book of Matthew was not written until several decades after Jesus’ death (and visit to the New World), Christ could still have delivered to the Nephites a sermon that reflected his foreknowledge of how his words would eventually go out to the Bible-reading world. I’m not sure if the appearance of Paul’s words in Mormon and Moroni’s speeches is the result of extraordinary revelation to those two Nephite prophets, or whether it is a function of the book’s inspired translation into English, which could well have adopted language that would be familiar and authoritative to its readers. Either way, I’m happy to accept the Book of Mormon as God’s word. (The Isaiah passages are not without controversy either. Many scholars believe that Isa. 40-55 were written after Lehi’s family left Jerusalem, but even the chapters 2-14 seem to have been revised and augmented over many centuries. The fact that the Book of Mormon translation borrows from the KJV seems to affirm God’s general approval of the Bible in its final, modern form.)
5. Some of these quotations seem puzzling. Why do verses from Isaiah 52 appear with gaps and out of order in 3 Nephi 20? Why does Christ quote Isaiah 52 and 54 but not Isaiah 53, which is one of the clearest Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament? I’m not sure, but these are the kinds of questions that can sometimes lead to deeper understanding.
6. Occasionally, biblical passages are quoted more than once. When we compare them side by side, there are sometimes striking differences. For instance, at 3 Nephi 16 Jesus cites Isaiah 52:8-9 like this:
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Yet four chapters later, it appears in a slightly modified form (I’ve italicized the differences):
Then shall their watchmen lift up their voice, and with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye. Then will the Father gather them together again, and give unto them Jerusalem for the land of their inheritance. Then shall they break forth into joy—Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Father hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Apparently the Savior can be somewhat free in his quotation of scripture, interpreting as he goes along, likening its meaning to his hearers. Nephi also seems to treat scripture in a similarly respectful, yet creative way. You may also recall Joseph Smith’s observations that the Angel Moroni quoted scripture “with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles” (JS-History 1:36).
7. Micah? Really? If you are like most Latter-day Saints, you already know about the extended quotations from Isaiah, Malachi, Matthew, and Paul. Many of these are noted in the chapter headings, and the passages from 1 Corinthians 12-13 are so familiar that it is hard to miss them.
But because the 1981 edition does not clearly demarcate all of the quoted biblical passages, most readers never realize that Christ quotes three passages from Micah in two different chapters. We can assume that Micah’s prophecies were on the Brass Plates since he was a contemporary of Isaiah, but it seems that the Nephites had not given his words much thought before Christ so emphatically brought them to their attention.
After two lists, we can end with two more questions. What is it about Micah 4-5 that made it so important for the Nephites at Christ’s coming, and for us as well (since Mormon selected those parts of Jesus’ discourse that would be the most helpful to his latter-day readers)? And are there passages in the scriptures that we have so far generally overlooked that Jesus might want to bring to our attention in helping us prepare for the challenges and opportunities our own times?
Grant Hardy is the editor of The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition (University of Illinois Press, 2003) and the author of Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (Oxford University Press, 2010). He is a professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina—Asheville.