A Bible and the Jews
2 Nephi 29:3-4, 6 “And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. 4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles? 6 Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?”
Luke 24:27; “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
We have a few things to look at in this Book of Mormon passage so let’s get started!
First of all the word Bible is Greek and because Joseph Smith said there was no Greek or Latin on the plates, this obviously poses a huge problem.
Secondly, the Bible didn’t come forth from the Jews. Only the Old Testament scriptures came from the Jews, not the New Testament.
Thirdly, it looks like Jesus was quite comfortable trusting in the scriptures as we see here in the book of Luke so why shouldn’t we?
Fourth, this chapter talks about the “Lost Tribes of Israel”. At that time in history, they weren’t “lost”. Both God and the tribes knew exactly where they were!
1. The word Bible is an English word with Greek roots. Joseph Smith’s comment had to do with the language of the original text and not the translated language.
2. So I guess Matthew, John, Peter, James, and Paul, to mention a few weren’t Jews? If they were, then I guess the New Testament did come from the Jews.
3. There is nothing in the text that you quoted from the Book of Mormon that even hints at any reason to distrust the scriptures. I don’t know why this point was made.
4. They are called the Lost Tribes because we don’t know where they are. And at the time Nephi didn’t know where they were either. And I don’t think you know where they are. And using you logic, you can’t call them lost either because God and the tribes still know where they are, even if you don’t.
The text you quote is talking about how further word from The Lord in our day would be accepted. In no way does it attempt to say in any way that the scriptures are unreliable. But it very clearly says that the wisdom of men is unreliable,.
Marvin