The Book of Mormon

Jacob 5:75

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~544–420 BC

1830 Edition

And it came to pass that when the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good, and that his vineyard was no more corrupt, he calleth up his servants and sayeth unto them, Behold, for this last time have we nourished my vineyard; and thou beholdest that I have done according to my will; and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning; and blessed art thou. For because that ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and hath brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold, ye shall have joy with me, because of the fruit of my vineyard.

Influences

John 1:2 (KJV)
The same was in the beginning with God.

Changes

And it came to pass that when the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good, and that his vineyard was no more corrupt, he callethd up his servants, and sayethid unto them,: Behold, for this last time have we nourished my vineyard; and thou beholdest that I have done according to my will; and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning;. aAnd blessed art thou.; Ffor because that ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and hathve brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold, ye shall have joy with me, because of the fruit of my vineyard.

Simple English

When the Lord saw that his fruit was good and his vineyard wasn’t bad anymore, he called his servants. He said to them: 'For this last time we have fed my vineyard. You can see I have done what I wanted. I have saved the natural fruit. It is good, just like it was at the beginning. God blesses you. Because you worked hard with me in my vineyard and kept my commands, you brought me natural fruit again. My vineyard isn’t bad anymore. The bad is thrown away. You will be happy with me because of my vineyard fruit.'

Paraphrase

When the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good and his vineyard was no longer corrupt, he called his servants and said, 'This last time we’ve nourished my vineyard together. You’ve seen that I’ve done what I set out to do—I’ve preserved the natural fruit. It’s good, just like it was in the beginning. You are blessed. Because you’ve worked hard with me in my vineyard and followed my commands, you’ve helped me recover the natural fruit. My vineyard is no longer corrupt. The bad has been thrown out. You’ll share my joy in the fruit of my vineyard.'

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.