Item Detail
-
32794
-
1
-
18
-
English
-
Rethinking the Iron Rod
-
BYU Studies Quarterly
-
2022
-
61
-
3
-
Provo, UT
-
Brigham Young University
-
141-163
-
"The iron rod is iconic within Latter-day Saint culture. It is the subject of lessons and sermons and songs. Media and art regularly depict it as some type of handrail. This concept of the iron rod as a type of rail or balustrade may at first appear to be the only possible way to understand and visualize the iron rod. A close reading of the Book of Mormon in light of the ancient Near East yields a surprisingly distinct interpretive possibility. To Lehi and those of the ancient Near East, the rod symbolized the right to rule and was held in the hand of gods, kings, and shepherds. The Israelite narrative contains extensive references to the rod in this context and provides strong support for conceptualizing the rod of iron as something other than a handrail when it is first introduced in Lehi’s vision. In that verse ('And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended' [1 Ne. 8:19]), the verb 'extend' gives the impression that the rod, as the subject in the sentence, is what extends, like a railing or handrail. However when the rod is viewed in an ancient context—as a discrete rod or shepherd’s tool—it suggests that there is an implied agent, the Lord, who is extending the rod of iron to shepherd those of Lehi’s dream. When read in this way the 'extended' rod matches well with the symbolism of the rod in the ancient Near East and the biblical account of Jesus Christ as the 'Good Shepherd.' Rethinking the rod of iron, when it is first introduced in the Book of Mormon, as a shepherd’s rod extended by Christ, significantly multiplies the symbolic potential of the image." [Author]
-
And Behold, They Had Fallen to the Earth : An Examination of Proskynesis in the Book of Mormon
Joseph Knew First : Moses, the Egyptian Son
Joseph Smith and Preexilic Israelite Religion
Killing Laban : The Birth of Sovereignty in the Nephite Constitutional Order
Lehi's Dream of the tree of Life : Springboard to Prophecy
Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life : A Cross-Cultural Perspective in Contemporary Latter-day Saint Art
Metals of the Book of Mormon
Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon
Straightening Things Out : The Use of Strait and Straight in the Book of Mormon
Straight (Not Strait) and Narrow
The Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5
The Deuteronomist Reforms and Lehi’s Family Dynamics : A Social Context for the Rebellions of Laman and Lemuel
The Great and Spacious Book of Mormon Arcade Game : More Curious Works from Book of Mormon Critics
The Lost 116 Pages : Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories
The Lost Prologue : Reading Moses Chapter One as an Ancient Text
The Things Which my Father Saw : Approaches to Lehi's dream and Nephi's Vision
Wanderers in the Promised Land : A Study of the Exodus Motif in the Book of Mormon and Holy Bible
Was the Path Nephi Saw "Strait and Narrow" or "Straight and Narrow"?