COME FOLLOW ME
“Be It Unto Me according to Thy Word”
Matthew 1 and Luke 1
Commentary by Lynne Hilton Wilson Ph.D.
The Book of Mormon adds important details to the nativity narratives.
Only in the Book of Mormon do we find prophecy foretelling the name of the virgin mother of the Messiah, and prophecy that she will be from Nazareth (Mosiah 3:8, 1 Nephi 11:13, 21). Four hundred years later, as the Nephites are further removed from the memory of their Judaic homeland when Alma speaks of Jesus’ birth, he uses a more general reference to the old world geography—“ he shall be born of Mary at Jerusalem” (Alma 7:10). These details add to the reality that the text was ancient. A nineteenth-century American would most likely claim Bethlehem as the birthplace, not the larger city six miles away. These little details add to the historical account in the New Testament.
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