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The Bountiful version of the Sermon on the Mount (3 Nephi 12-16)
2025

Episode 54: The Bountiful version of the Sermon on the Mount

3 Nephi 12-16

12 1 Jesus gave twelve men the power to baptize, telling the people that they should obey their words and get baptized by them with water. Then later Jesus will baptize them with fire and the Holy Ghost. And blessed is whoever believes in Jesus whether they've ever seen him or not.

3-45 Jesus repeats the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5:3-45. 46-47 But Jesus ends it a bit differently this time. He says that the Old Time Religion has been done away with to be replaced with a brand-new religion.

Jesus quotes Matthew 6 to his twelve new Nephite disciples

13 1-24 After adding a short introduction (to make it sound just a bit more bibley), Jesus quotes nearly verbatim from the King James Version of Matthew 6:1-34.

25-34 Then Jesus took a little break from quoting the Gospel of Matthew to remind the readers of the Book of Mormon that he is addressing the twelve Nephite disciples. Then he finishes reading Matthew 6 from his favorite translation of the Bible, the King James Version.

Jesus reads Matthew 7 to the Nephite multitude

14 1-27 After adding another short introduction (And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he turned again to the multitude, and did open his mouth unto them again, saying: Verily, verily, I say unto you), Jesus continues to read the King James Version of the Gospel of Matthew to the Nephite multitude, leaving out the last two verses.

Jesus's other (New World) sheep

15 1 After Jesus finished reading chapters 5 through 7 in the Gospel of Matthew, he went off script a bit. Oh, he still quoted from the King James Version of the Bible now and then, but he added some new material, too. He said it was important to try to remember the things he was saying, because whoever could remember them would be saved.

2 A few chapters ago, Jesus said that he was doing away with the old things, and now he noticed that some of the Nephites seemed a bit puzzled by this. So he thought he'd better try to explain that a little better. 3-8 He said that he gave Moses the law and he fulfilled the law, since he had covenanted with the Israelites and whatnot. So the old things (like the law of Moses) have passed away and no one has to obey that law anymore.

9 Jesus is the law and the light. If you look unto him and endure to the end, he'll give you eternal life. 10 Oh, and keep Jesus's commandments (Whatever they are). This is the law and the prophets. They were all about Jesus. 11-13 Jesus tells his Nephite disciples that the Father has given the New World to them.

14-17 The Father never told Jesus to tell the people living in the Old World about the Nephites or about the existence of the New World. He only told them to say something about having some "other sheep." So Jesus told them about that. (See John 10:16.) 18-24 But Jesus's Old World disciples were just too stiff-necked, and unbelieving to understand what he was trying to tell them. [That some Israelites sailed to the New World in 600 BCE and discovered the New World; that some of them would believe in Jesus because of special prophecies and revelations delivered to them before he was born; and that Jesus would later select twelve Nephite disciples to lead his "other sheep" in the New World. (See 3 Nephi 19:4)]

Ye shall write these sayings after I'm gone

16 1-2 Jesus says he has lots of other sheep. He has Jewish sheep in Jerusalem, Nephite sheep in the New World, and other sheep in "that land round about" that he hasn't even visited yet. 3 But Jesus has received a commandment from the Father to go visit his other sheep, so they can hear his voice and join the other herds of sheep to make one fold and one shepherd.

4-7 Jesus tells his Nephite disciples to write down his sayings after he's gone. That way Jesus's people in Jerusalem will find out about Jesus's Nephite followers in the New World -- just in case his Jewish followers don't ask the Father in Jesus's name to have the Holy Ghost tell them about Jesus's Nephite followers. Then later the things he's revealing to the Nephites will be revealed to the Gentiles through the fullness of the Gentiles so that people scattered throughout the world because of their unbelief can be brought into the flock. Or something like that. 8-10 But woe, says the Father, to the unbelieving Gentiles who reject the gospel and become proud, wicked, dishonest, hypocritical, mischief-makers who commit murders, priestcrafts, whoredoms, and secret abominations.

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