This is the fourth Scripture Roundtable from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss chapters 3 Nephi 16, 20-21 from The Book of Mormon, bringing in various insights to help us better understand these scriptures.
Panelists for this roundtable include Brant Gardner, Andrew Smith, and Robert Boylan.
This roundtable is also available as an audio podcast, and will be included in the podcast feed. You can listen by pressing the play button or download the podcast below:
Podcast: Download (Duration: 40:05 — 13.8MB)
do you think it possible references to gentiles in the BofM might refer to gentiles in americas at the time the BofM was being written??
I think that there are multiple references that get subsumed under the word “gentile.” There are times when it clearly refers to end times, and then gentiles become those who do not have the gospel. Early in the Book of Mormon, gentile appears to be used in reference to non-OId World peoples who join with the Nephites (though I don’t see the term applied to those who join with the Lamanites). I think this happens so that Isaiah prophecies can be adapted to the local situation.
I do see the third group as the Spanish who arrived in the New World and created much of the destruction that is prophesied of later gentiles.