Item Detail
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30192
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3
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0
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English
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"Virtue" in Moroni 9:9
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Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
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January 1, 2017
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26
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Provo, UT
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Neil A. Maxwell Institute of Religion: Brigham Young University Press
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260-65
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This note will focus on virtue, treating it as a synonym for chastity on the basis of popular tendencies to read the texts “chastity and virtue” as a hendiadys, even though virtue is better understood as a category of moral goods, with chastity as a subset. Other scriptural uses support this latter understanding. For instance, in Proverbs 31:10, “virtuous” renders a form of the Hebrew chayil, which indicates strength or ability rather than sexual purity, even though the verse gets used alongside Moroni 9:9 in discussions of chastity. Similarly, in the three passages from the Gospels where Jesus describes virtue going out of him (Mark 5:30; Luke 6:19; 8:46), “virtue” translates forms of the Greek dynamis, which denotes power or energy, rather than anything having to do with sexuality per se.
[from the author]