James Charlesworth's exegesis of the Book of Mormon

[ChinoCoug]

The following are excerpts from James Charlesworth's 1978 BYU speech entitled, "Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha and the Book of Mormon."

Charlesworth is the world leader on Pseudepigrapha and was SE Robinson's dissertation adviser at Duke.

Summary (if you don’t want to read anything else)

Two distinct ideas expose an interesting link between the Pseudepigrapha and the Book of Mormon. The first is the concept that the Messiah speaks to the lost tribes and the second is the idea that the advent of the Messiah may be conceived as his return.

There are many other important parallels between the Pseudepigrapha and the Book of Mormon that deserve careful examination.

Research Question:

How is the Messiah perceived in the pseudepigrapha and to what extent do these views help us understand the Christological sections in the Book of Mormon?

Example:

In the Ascension of Isaiah, for example, we find the idea that after the Crucifixion and the Ascension “his disciples will forsake the teaching of the twelve apostles and their faith, their love and their purity, and there will arise much contention about [his coming and] his appearing…And many will exchange the glory of the garment of the saints for the garment of the covetous, and respect for persons will be common in those days, and such as love the honour of this world.” Mormons will think not only about the reference to a spiritual garment but also perhaps about 1 Nephi 13:26: “…for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.” Perhaps the importance of studying the documents that have so rapidly passed before our attention is the recognition that the Judaeo-Christian tradition is a living tradition.

Link #1a: Messianic Prophecies

At the outset we should recognize that, as with the Pseudepigrapha, the Book of Mormon contains length sections that look very Jewish and others that look peculiarly Christian. The pseudipigrapha and the Book of Mormon preserve some passages that prophesy that future coming of an ambiguously described Messiah, and others that describe his advent in a singularly descriptive and particularistic way. Passages in the pseudepigrapha that refer to the coming of the Messiah have been presented above; a significant passage in the Book of Mormon that prophesies about his future appearance is found in 1 Nephi 10:4-17…

Much more frequent in the Book of Mormon are the sections which it seems evident that we have later Christian influence because the precise description of the Messiah’s life and activity is distinguishable from the reserved generic nature of what is usually recognized as pre-Christian prophecy.

About Mosiah 3:8-10 (with 2 Ne. 25:16-19, 2 Nephi 26:3 as parallels)

In these three verses, we find what most critical scholars would call clearly Christian phrases; that is, the description is so precise that it is evident it was added after the event. The technical term for this phenomenon is vaticinium ex eventu.

On apparent anachronistic use of Christian language in the BoM:

How are we to evaluate this new observation? Does it not vitiate the claim that this section of the Book of Mormon, Mosiah, was written before 91 B.C.? Not necessarily so, since Mormons acknowledge that the Book of Mormon could have been edited and expanded on at least two occasions that postdate the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

On the same phenomenon in the OT pseudepigrapha:

The books designated pseudepigrapha were written by Jews and Jewish Christians and were usually redacted by later Christians.

Today biblical scholars are making significant and exciting discoveries into the various strata of ancient documents through use of what is called Redaction Criticism, a method employed to discern the editorial tendencies of an author-compiler. Perhaps it would be wise for specialists to look carefully at this phenomenon in the Book of Mormon. The recognition that the Book of Mormon has been edited on more than one occasion would certainly explain why certain of the messianic passage appear to be Christian compositions.

Link #1b: Messiah visiting lost tribes

The idea that the Messiah will visit the lost tribes of Israel is unique; it is neither in the Old nor in the New Testament. It does, however, seem to be somewhat paralleled in two pseudepigrapha. Earlier we saw that 2 Baruch 72-74 contains a developed concept of the Messiah. Only a few chapters later, namely in 77:17-26, the author of 2 Baruch talks about the lost tribes; but the author of 2 Baruch admittedly does not state that the Messiah shows himself to the lost tribes.

Another pseudepigraphon seems to make this equation. The author of 4 Ezra, in which we found one of the most significant passages about the Messiah, clearly develops a sophisticated messianism in chapter 7, and a few chapters later, in chapter 13, he discusses a messianic figured called “a man.” In verses 29-32, this figure is identified with “my Son” who was earlier called “my Son the Messiah” (7:28-29). One of the functions of “my Son” is rather striking; he will gather the lost tribes of Israel.

Link #2: Messiah to return

The second link between messianism in the Pseuepigrapha and in the Book of Mormon is the idea that the advent of the Messiah is perceived sometimes as his return. The idea is to be distinguished from the widely disseminated and popular concept that Jesus Christ shall return again, which is the so-called Second Coming or Parousia that is well documented in the New Testament, Christian literature, and the Book of Mormon. The idea that the advent is a return seems to be found in 2 Nephi 6:14…[text from BoM].

This passage may refer to the Parousia; although it is confusing to me, it may contain the idea that the advent of the Messiah is a return. Perhaps ther is a subtle double entendre, referring both to the Parousia and to the advent by “the second time.”

The concept of the advent as a return seems to be found in the Psalms of Solomon 18:5, which does not talk about the Second Coming in the technical sense but mentions that God will bring back his Messiah.

I found this very interesting, because one of the arguments Jews make against Christians is that the OT doesn’t mention the messiah coming twice. The BoM then serves as a pre-incarnation testament that the Messiah will come twice.