Wednesday, June 19, 2024

The book that proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew

Nephi's vision prominently features a book that "proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew" (1 Ne. 13). Mormons almost universally understand this to be the Bible, even though that doesn't really make any sense. The Bible was written by lots of different people, some of whom were Jews (though such important authors as Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Paul were not), but the book Nephi saw is repeatedly described as coming out of the mouth of one Jew. It's not the Bible.

I was just thinking about this mysterious book the other day because of its possible relevance to one of the couplets in "With?"

Minbad the Mailer was a Jew
And wrote a lot of novels, too.

Norman Mailer, obviously. It's oddly worded, though, making him first and foremost a Jew, with the fact that he was a novelist mentioned only as a sort of afterthought. As soon as I started reading "With?" seriously, I suspected that Minbad was "the Jew" from Nephi's vision.

This checks out:

Thou hast beheld that the book proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord (1 Ne. 13:22).


A "Norman mailer" could be someone sending out messages from Normandy, France. Mailer's real name was actually Nachem, meaning "comforter."

Jews are members of the Tribe of Judah, whose symbol is the Lion, just as the Bull is the symbol of the House of Joseph. In my last post, I discussed a picture of two lions in a library and focused on one of the books, The Gospel of Luke, which is symbolized by the Bull. I somehow missed the very conspicuous fact that there's another book literally proceeding forth from the mouth of a Lion!


Lassie Come Home -- that is, symbolically, the title of the Book from the Mouth of the Jew. I have a lot to say about the significance of that title, but it will have to wait until I have time. For now, I just want to get it out there with this quick post.

2 comments:

Leo said...

I'm generally suspicious of this entire sync phenomenon but I've been looking at that topic and chapter this week as well so despite myself, I'll share a couple of thoughts. That lion could be eating the book which is a scriptural theme you've brought up before.

As for the Bible being the book referenced by Nephi as the corrupted version of whatever the Jew wrote, it could be correct. In fact, that is the very question I was trying to answer in reading it again this week. It just depends on how deep the corruption of the original Book of the Lamb of God went. Did they completely rewrite it from a multi-author standpoint? That doesn't seem improbable to me.

I think the answer lies in the timeline established by Nephi, Jesus, and Mormon around this book. If we can anchor the BoM in that timeline then it might answer the question of whether the corrupted BotLoG is the Bible, or something yet to come out. I lean toward yet to come out, but after reading again this week, I think the Bible could be the corrupted BotLoG.

William Wright (WW) said...

My guess has been that the "Jew" whose mouth the book proceeds from is a woman. So it was interesting to see the book titled "Lassie come home". Lassie literally means "Young Woman".

The title of the book could be alternatively punctuated as "Lassie: Come Home". Meaning, the words that Lassie is sharing or speaking basically come down to an invitation to come home.

This is consistent with Lassie being a sheep dog, whose role is to gather sheep, and whose word are about the Shepherd, since the Book of the Lamb is about Jesus.

Here is my post with my initial guess as to the identity of the Jew:

https://coatofskins.blogspot.com/2024/01/out-of-mouth-of-jew-eowyn-ilmare-as-jew.html

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