The Book of Mormon

3 Nephi 16:12

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~AD 34

1830 Edition

and I will shew unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you, but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my Gospel.

Influences

1 Timothy 2:4 (KJV)
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Changes

aAnd I will sheow unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you,; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my Ggospel.

Simple English

I will show you, people of Israel, that the non-Jewish people will not have power over you. I will remember my promise to you, people of Israel. You will learn about the full message of my good news.

Paraphrase

I’ll show you, house of Israel, that the Gentiles won’t have power over you. I’ll remember my covenant with you, and you’ll come to know the fullness of my good news.

Notes

16:8-15

3 Nephi 16:8-15 is a prime example of the circular repetition that pervades the Book of Mormon.

"my people who are of the house of Israel have been cast out... and I have caused my people who are of the house of Israel to be smitten... I will remember my covenant with I have made unto my people, O house of Israel... But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. And I will not suffer my people who are of the house of Israel, to go among them, and tread them down... But if they will not turn unto me...I will suffer them, yea I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savior... to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel."

This repetitive writing style is found to be consistent across each author of the Book of Mormon. See also, Alma 5:6, 2 Nephi 3:4-21, and Ether 2:17.

Mormon critic M.T. Lamb made the rather axiomatic comment, "The prevailing style of the Book of Mormon is so verbose, so full of inelegant and uncalled-for repetitions, that any ordinary writer can greatly excel it-often reducing its wordy sentences to one-half, and one-third, and even one-fourth their present compass without any sacrifice of thought or force or beauty..." -M.T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or The Book of Mormon, Is It From God? (New York: Ward and Drummand, 1887), p. 27.

The verbose, lengthy, and repetitive style of the Book of Mormon casts doubt on the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. As Jerald and Sandra note, "Considering the effort needed to make the original gold plates of the Book of Mormon and then to engrave them, one would expect a scribe to be as concise as possible, not wordy. Nephi's brother, Jacob complained: 'I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates' (Jacob 4:1). However, lengthy sentences abound in the Book of Mormon." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 231.

B.H. Roberts, president of the LDS First Quorum of the Seventy and assistant church historian made these candid remarks, "... I shall hold that what is here presented [concerning various accounts of Anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon] illustrates sufficiently the matter taken in hand by referring to them, namely that they are all of one breed and brand; so nearly alike that one mind is the author of them, and that a young and undeveloped, but piously inclined mind. The evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their creator. It is difficult to believe that they are the product of history..." -B.H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon, ed. Brigham H. Madsen (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), p. 264.

Other examples of verbose sections: 3 Nephi 8:1-3; 3 Nephi 10:37 (compare against Matt. 23:37); 3 Nephi 16:8-10.