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Book of Moses Essays (Insights)

Essay #19: The Teachings of Enoch — “By the Spirit Ye Are Justified” (Moses 6:60, 63, 65–66)

In this article, we turn our attention to the second phrase in Moses 6:60: “by the Spirit ye are justified.” Simply put, individuals become “just”—in other words, innocent before God and ready for a covenant relationship with Him—when they demonstrate sufficient repentance to qualify for an “initial cleansing from sin” “by the Spirit,” thus having had the demands of justice satisfied on their behalf through the Savior’s atoning blood....

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Essay #17: The Teachings of Enoch — “By the Water Ye Keep the Commandment” (Moses 6:60, 64)

In Moses 6:60, Enoch declares the word of the Lord about the essential place of baptism in the suite of saving ordinances. In v. 64, he illustrates his point by describing the baptism of Adam. In this article, we will discuss the antiquity of water symbolism in rituals of rebirth, showing that in many ancient traditions, as in the Book of Moses, they are believed to go back to Adam....

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Essay #15: The Teachings of Enoch — “The Son of Man, Even Jesus Christ, a Righteous Judge” (Moses 6:57)

In a previous Essay, we discussed resemblances in vocabulary and phrasing between the prophetic call of Enoch in the Book of Moses and the account of Jesus’ baptism in the Gospels. We described evidence for the possibility that the authors of the New Testament gospels drew on older ideas present in ancient literature connected to the figure of Enoch when they composed their accounts. ...

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Essay #13: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Imprisonment of the Gibborim (Moses 7:38)

The conclusion of the story of the rebellion of the Watchers in 1 Enoch is their terrible binding and eternal imprisonment: "Go, Michael, bind Shemihazah and the others with him, … bind them … in the valleys of the earth, until the day of their judgment. … Then they will be led away to the fiery abyss, and to the torture, and to the prison where they will be confined forever....

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Essay #11: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Enoch’s Call Raises the Possibility of Repentance (Moses 6:47, 50–68)

As Hugh Nibley was finishing the concluding, August 1977 article in his long-running series on ancient Enoch manuscripts and Moses 6–7 for the Ensign magazine, he received—“just in time” —the anxiously awaited English translation of the fragments of Aramaic books of Enoch from cave 4 at Qumran. ...

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Essay #7: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Could Joseph Smith Have Borrowed “Mahijah/Mahujah” from the Book of Giants? (Moses 6:40)

As Hugh Nibley was finishing the concluding, August 1977 article in his long-running series on ancient Enoch manuscripts and Moses 6–7 for the Ensign magazine, he received—“just in time” —the anxiously awaited English translation of the fragments of Aramaic books of Enoch from cave 4 at Qumran. ...

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Essay #5: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Were Ancient Enoch Manuscripts the Inspiration for Moses 6–7? (Moses 6–7)

In this Essay, we will introduce the most well-known ancient Enoch manuscripts and review the possibility that Joseph Smith could have derived the Enoch accounts in Moses 6–7 from any of them. Pioneering insights on the relationship between ancient Enoch manuscripts and the Book of Moses can be found in the writings of Hugh W. Nibley, who wrote a series of articles on the subject for the Ensign magazine in 1975–1977. ...

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Book of Moses FAQ

This collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ) addresses general topics relating to the Book of Moses: • How Did We Get the Book of Moses? • What Kinds of Challenges Was Joseph Smith Facing at the Time He Received Moses 1? • How Was the Book of Moses Translated? • Did Joseph Smith Use Bible Commentaries in His Translation of the Book of Moses? • Is the Book of Moses…...

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Essay #18: The Teachings of Enoch — “Out of the Waters of Judah” (1 Nephi 20:1; JST Genesis 17:3–7)

In this article, we digress from the direct discussion of Enoch’s sermon on the ordinances to discuss the corresponding subject of the relationship between baptism, as revealed in the beginning to Adam and Eve, and the later institution of the Old Testament ordinance of circumcision through God’s command to Abraham. A neglected passage in the Joseph Smith Translation and an often criticized verse in the Book of Mormon give interesting insights on these topics....

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Essay #16: The Teachings of Enoch — “By Water, and Blood, and the Spirit” (Moses 6:58–60)

According to the Book of Moses, Enoch and other ancient prophets taught the doctrine of rebirth. Enoch cited the word of God to Adam to the effect that man must be “born … into the kingdom of heaven” in order to be “sanctified from all sin, … enjoy the words of eternal life in this [world], and [acquire] eternal life in the world to come,” even immortal glory....

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Essay #14: The Teachings of Enoch — Enoch as a Teacher (Moses 6:51–68)

In reviewing ancient and modern threads that highlight Enoch’s roles as a missionary, prophet, and visionary, we must not overlook his effectiveness as a teacher. Among the most precious and significant insights he conveyed to the people is the sequence described in Moses 6:60, whereby all people may be “born again into the kingdom of heaven.”...

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Essay #12: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — The Defeat of the Gibborim and the Roar of the Wild Beasts (Moses 7:13)

A previous Insight described how the gibborim sorrowed and trembled after Enoch read their wicked deeds out of the book of remembrance and tendered the possibility of repentance. Drawing jointly on the Manichaean and Qumran accounts, Matthew Goff conjectures that the Book of Giants follows a set of Jewish traditions where at least some of the nephilim and gibborim “are not killed in a flood but rather have long lives.”...

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Essay #2: Enoch’s Prophetic Commission — The Opening of Enoch’s Mouth and Eyes (Moses 6:31–32, 35)

When the Lord called Enoch as a prophet, Enoch was concerned about his ability to adequately preach to the people. In particular, he described himself as being “slow of speech.” Moses may have been quoting Enoch when, after receiving his own prophetic calling, he told the Lord he was “slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” —literally, in Hebrew idiom, “heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue.”...

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