The Book of Mormon

Jacob 5:46

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~544–420 BC

1830 Edition

And now behold, notwithstanding all the care which we have taken of my vineyard, the trees thereof hath become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit; and these I had hope to preserve, to have laid up fruit thereof, against the season, unto mine own self. But behold, they have become like unto the wild olive tree; and they are of no worth, but to be hewn down and cast into the fire: and it grieveth me that I should lose them.

Influences

Matthew 3:10 (KJV)
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Changes

And now, behold, notwithstanding all the care which we have taken of my vineyard, the trees thereof hathve become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit; and these I had hoped to preserve, to have laid up fruit thereof, against the season, unto mine own self. But, behold, they have become like unto the wild olive tree;, and they are of no worth, but to be hewn down and cast into the fire:; and it grieveth me that I should lose them.

Simple English

'Even with all the care we gave my vineyard, the trees have gone bad. They don’t make good fruit. I had hoped to save them. I wanted to store their fruit for later. But they have become like wild olive trees. They are worthless except to cut down and burn. I am sad that I will lose them.'

Paraphrase

'Despite all the care we’ve taken of my vineyard, the trees have become corrupt and produce no good fruit. I’d hoped to preserve these, to store up their fruit for the season. But they’ve become like wild olive trees. They’re worthless except to be cut down and burned. It breaks my heart to lose them.'

Notes

5:1-77

In Jacob chapter 5 and 6, an allegory of the tame and wild olive trees is attributed to an ancient prophet named Zenos, who supposedly lived before Lehi’s journey to the New World. The allegory, however, closely mirrors material from multiple biblical sources: Apostle Paul’s discussion of olive trees in Romans 11:17–24, Jesus’ parable of the unfruitful fig tree in Luke 13:6–9, and imagery from Isaiah 5:1–7 concerning a vineyard. In the Book of Mormon, these sources are expanded into an allegory spanning over six pages. As Jerald and Sandra Tanner note, “It is probably the most repetitious part of the Book of Mormon. It gives the impression that the author is deliberately trying to use up as much space as possible. It is very hard to resist the idea that it is merely filler material." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 165.

Similarly, Wesley P. Walters observes, “For a grand finale of his work, however, he returned to this olive tree illustration [given by Apostle Paul] and worked it into a mind-boggling allegory, combining it with Jesus' parable about the unfruitful fig tree (Lk. 13:6–8) and working in the words from Isaiah 5:1–5 about God's disappointment with his grape vineyard. The result is a staggering conglomeration that would perplex a horticulturalist and bewilder an exegete” -Wesley P. Walters, "The Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon," (Master's thesis, St. Louis: Covenant Theological Seminary, April 1981), pp. 152-153.