Item Detail
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30251
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2
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10
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English
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'Skin' or 'Scales' of Blackness? Semitic Context as Interpretive Aid for 2 Nephi 4 : 35 (LDS 5 : 21)
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Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
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2018
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27
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Champaign, IL
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University of Illinois Press
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278-289
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As mentioned before, there is a history of interpretation in the Mormon tradition that has viewed “skin of blackness” in 2 Nephi as referring to spiritual darkness. My proposal contributes to this history by adding Semitic precedent in favor of this type of interpretation. My agenda here is not to critique Joseph Smith’s rendering of the text as it currently stands in the Book of Mormon or to claim that the prophet translated the received material incorrectly. Rather, as someone who believes in the Book of Mormon as scripture and that God speaks through scripture in multiple ways, my goal is to open up and expose the multifaceted readings available in the sacred text. I believe that this is of special importance in the current racial climate that exists both in the larger Mormon community and in the United States as a whole. We would all do well to redirect our attention again to the scriptures and remind ourselves of Nephi’s proclamation that the Lord “denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female” (2 Nephi 11:114; LDS 26:33).
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Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Neither White nor Black : Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church
Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Religion of a Different Color : Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Since Cumorah : The Book of Mormon in the Modern World
Skins as Garments in the Book of Mormon :
A Textual Exegesis
The Book of Mormon : The Earliest Text
The Mormon Mirage : A Former Mormon Tells Why She Left the Church
The Prophetic Book of Mormon