The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity

Abstract

BYU Studies Quarterly 56, no. 3 (2017) N J. Frederick’s new book, The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity, is a highly detailed analysis in which Frederick compares the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants with the Gospel of John, especially the first eighteen verses of John’s Gospel—the Johannine Prologue. In so doing, Frederick argues that Joseph Smith purposefully incorporated biblical allusions into Mormon canonical works to imbue Mormon scripture, the nascent church, and Joseph Smith himself with authority and gravitas—a technique prophets have traditionally used throughout the ages (xiv). According to Frederick, one mark of a prophet, anciently speaking, was allusivity: “By adopting the rhetoric of allusivity, authors intentionally link themselves to earlier text . . . to gain entry into a canon” (xiv). Such, Frederick argues, was Joseph Smith’s intention. Quoting Grant Hardy, Frederick suggests that Joseph Smith was simply following the lead of Moroni, who knew “his core audience intimately; [that is,] latter-day Gentiles” (7). To reach such an audience, Frederick avers, Joseph Smith used passages from the King James Bible. Frederick divides Smith’s use of biblical allusivity into four categories: (1) an “echo” of John’s prologue, wherein the Johannine language appearing in the Book of Mormon is just that—an echo, meant to cause Book of Mormon readers to recall familiar pieces of the Bible and not, necessarily, to suggest any subtext, aside from establishing Smith’s authority as a prophet; (2) an “allusion” to John’s prologue, where both the language and context of John’s words are carried over from the Bible into the Book of Mormon, allowing readers to apply the meaning or subtext of John’s words to LDS scripture (and vice versa); (3) a Johannine “expansion,” in which a concept, originally expressed in John’s Gospel, is amplified or given additional meaning through its inclusion Nicholas J. Frederick. The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the Rhetoric of Allusivity. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016.