The Book of Mormon contains a multitude of short, impressive statements, which Latter-day Saints often memorize and even “master,” so they can repeat them as the occasion requires. These statements include divine promises such as “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land” (2 Ne. 1:20 ); inspiring resolutions such as Nephi’s commitment to “go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded” (1 Ne. 3:7); theological insights such as “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25 ); as well as ringing assertions such as “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10 ) and “charity is the pure love of Christ” (Moro. 7:47 ).



Nevertheless, despite the obvious utility of these statements, Bradley J. Kramer asserts that “the Book of Mormon is simply too much of a book to be approached simply as a source of quotations. It is a sophisticated literary work where ideas do not exist in isolation, but where wording, characterization, setting, description, plot, as well as their placement in the canon relative to other scriptures, must be considered in order to be fully understood and appreciated. The Book of Mormon consequently demands a comprehensive, in-depth literary approach.”



In this episode of the Latter-day Saint Perspectives
Podcast, Laura Harris Hales interviews Bradley J. Kramer about his book Beholding the Tree of Life: A Rabbinic
Approach to the Book of Mormon. In this book, Kramer outlines what he means
by a “comprehensive, in-depth literary approach” and employs many of the
techniques developed by Talmudic and post-Talmudic rabbis in order to show how this
approach applies to the Book of Mormon.  



Kramer makes no claim that Nephi, Jacob, and the other
authors of the Book of Mormon were personally acquainted with these techniques
or consciously employed them as they wrote. Nonetheless, since this rabbinic approach
represents what he calls “universal principles” of effective reading that have
been specifically adapted for scriptural narratives, he feels they are well
suited to the Book of Mormon.



As Kramer asks, “Given that these rabbis took seriously the words of the Hebrew scriptures; assumed that these scriptures formed a coherent, meaningful, and inspired whole; and devoted themselves to scrutinizing every aspect of that whole in order to uncover subtly, sometimes hidden messages from God, why would their approach not work well with other scriptures? And why would it not work especially well with the Book of Mormon, a scripture that, like the Hebrew scriptures, tells a story of how a group of Jews left their homes, journeyed to a far off Promised Land, attempted to create a ‘holy nation,’ sinned under judges as well as kings, received prophetic warnings of destruction if they did not repent, failed to repent, and were ultimately dispersed or destroyed along with their capital city?”



Kramer, clearly, thinks it does and includes in his
book several examples to defend his position. For instance, the Talmudic and
post-Talmudic rabbis taught that the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) has at
least seventy “faces” or meanings (Numbers Rabbah 13:15 ). They, therefore, encouraged
their students to read the Torah on multiple levels—something Kramer feels the
writers of the Book of Mormon do as well.



As he points out, not only does the Book of Mormon contain at least one highly developed allegory (Zenos’s allegory of the olive tree), but Lehi’s dream demonstrates how simple elements in the Book of Mormon (mocking people in Jerusalem, a river and fruit in the wilderness, darkness in which Nephi creeps to find Laban’s house) can be interpreted allegorically—much as Nephi’s vision and his lecturing of his brothers afterward shows how the meaning of these elements can be expanded sermonically as well as mystically, through direct experience with the divine.



These rabbis also advocated that their students study everything