In a series of posts (see here and here and here and here and here and here), I have worked through the basic contours of the remnant theology in the Book of Mormon—mostly in order to sketch out some of the basics, but with increasing brevity as I’ve approached the end of the book. In my discussion of Third Nephi, I skipped over 3 Nephi 20-21 completely, primarily because these two chapters constitute the most privileged—and complex!—discussion of the remnant in the Book of Mormon, and I thought it best to dedicate a more sustained and careful analysis to that text in particular. So here we are: the last word I’ll be putting together for now on the remnant. What of 3 Nephi 20-21? Read the rest of this entry »

In a series of posts so far, I’ve discussed the role of the remnant in the Book of Mormon, first in an anticipatory way, then, in succession, in terms of Isaiah, Nephi’s writings, the historical books of Mosiah, Alma, and Helaman, and, most recently, Third Nephi’s visit of Christ. In this last post, I left out any detailed discussion of 3 Nephi 20-21, a two-chapter discourse which is clearly the crux of Book of Mormon remnant theology. My intention here is to work through the discussions of the remnant to be found in Mormon’s and Moroni’s final contributions to the Book of Mormon before returning, in a separate post (or in several separate posts), to a (very) detailed analysis of 3 Nephi 20-21. The contributions of Mormon and Moroni, it turns out, are quite significant. Read the rest of this entry »

My previous posts on the remnant theme in the Book of Mormon have showed that after an initial period of development—the original theme being drawn in part from Isaiah and in part from Nephi’s visions—the theme seems to have gone more or less unrecognized by the Nephites for hundreds of years. What seems to have reintroduced the theme of the remnant of Israel was the visit of Christ, to which I will turn in this post. Like First Nephi and Second Nephi, Third Nephi is simply saturated with the remnant theme, and it is wonderfully complicated in a number of ways in that book. The principal figure, in Third Nephi, who opens up new possibilities with the theme is, of course, Christ Himself. So it is to Him primarily that this post will look. That said, though, there are a few mentions of the remnant that precede His actual visit, and so I’ll begin with those. Read the rest of this entry »