Item Detail
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32392
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5
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5
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English
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Onomastic Wordplay on Joseph and Benjamin and Gezera Shawa in the Book of Mormon
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Interpreter : A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
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2016
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18
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Orem, UT
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Interpreter Foundation
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255-273
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"The Book of Mormon contains several quotations from the Hebrew Bible that have been juxtaposed on the basis of shared words or phrases, this for the purpose of interpreting the cited scriptural passages in light of one another. This exegetical technique — one that Jesus himself used — came to be known in later rabbinic times as Gezera Shawa ('equal statute'). In several additional instances, the use of Gezera Shawa converges with onomastic wordplay. Nephi uses a Gezera Shawa involving Isaiah 11:11 and Isaiah 29:14 twice on the basis of the yāsap verb forms yôsîp/yôsīp (2 Nephi 25:17 and quoting the Lord in 2 Nephi 29:1) to create a stunning wordplay on the name 'Joseph.' In another instance, King Benjamin uses Gezera Shawa involving Psalm 2:7, 2 Samuel 7:14, and Deuteronomy 14:1 (1–2) on the basis of the Hebrew noun bēn ('son'; plural bānîm, bānôt, 'sons' and 'daughters') on which to build a rhetorical wordplay on his own name. This second wordplay, which further alludes to Psalm 110:1 on account of the noun yāmin ('right hand'), was ready-made for his temple audience who, on the occasion of Mosiah’s coronation, were receiving their own 'endowment' to become 'sons' and 'daughters' at God’s 'right hand.' The use of Gezera Shawa was often christological — e.g., Jacob’s Gezera Shawa on ('stone') in Jacob 4:15–17 and Alma’s Gezera Shawa on Zenos’s and Zenock’s phrase 'because of thy Son' in Alma 33:11–16 (see Alma 33:4 17). Taken together, these examples suggest that we should pay more attention to scripture’s use of scripture and, in particular, the use of this exegetical practice. In doing so, we will better discern the messages intended by ancient prophets whose words the Book of Mormon preserves." [Publisher]
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“And They Shall Be Had Again” : Onomastic Allusions to Joseph in Moses 1:41 in View of the So-called Canon Formula
Perspectives on Latter-day Saints Names and Naming: Names, Identity, and Belief
“The Lord God Will Proceed”: Nephi’s Wordplay in 1 Nephi 22:8–12 and the Abrahamic Covenant
"They Shall Be Scattered Again": Some Notes on JST Genesis 50:24-25, 33-35
“Unto the Taking Away of Their Stumbling Blocks”: The Taking Away and Keeping Back of Plain and Precious Things and Their Restoration in 1 Nephi 13–15 -
Becoming Sons and Daughters at God's Right Hand :
King Benjamin's Rhetorical Wordplay on His Own Name
“In the Mount of the Lord It Shall Be Seen” and “Provided” : Theophany and Sacrifice as the Etiological Foundation of the Temple in Israelite and Latter-day Saint Tradition
Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon
Reexploring the Book of Mormon
"What Thank They the Jews"? (2 Nephi 29:4) : A Note on the Name "Judah" and Antisemitism