Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple & Sermon on the Mount

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Understanding the Sermon on the Mount (meaning both texts in their shared, collective meaning) as a temple text reveals that it has far more power and unity than a mere collection of miscellaneous sayings of Jesus. John W. Welch examines the teachings and commandments of the Sermon on the Mount in its Book of Mormon setting—at the Nephite temple, in connection with sacred ordinances of covenant making. This context opens new insights into the meaning and significance of the Sermon whereby readers never again see the Sermon the same.

Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple & Sermon on the Mount adapts and expands Welch’s earlier work to offer a thorough Latter-day Saint interpretation of the Savior’s greatest sermon, drawing on insights from Jesus’s Sermon at the Temple in 3 Nephi to shed light on his Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. This edition includes substantial additions based on insights gleaned throughout a decade of continuing research.

About the Author

John W. Welch

John W. Welch (J.D., Duke University) is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School, editor in chief of BYU Studies, and director of publications for the university's Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for LDS History. He is the founder of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. He serves on the executive committee of the Biblical Law Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.