Keywords

Lehi's vision, Lehi's dream, First Nephi, Hebrew Rhetoric

Abstract

This essay harnesses the late twentieth-century discovery of Hebrew rhetoric by Bible scholars to identify Lehi’s dream as the foundation of the carefully constructed unity in Nephi’s writings and to identify previously unrecognized elements of that dream that are distributed throughout his final work. All the teachings and prophecies in First and Second Nephi are shown to derive from that dream/vision. Further, the entirety of Nephi’s writings in the small plates are shown to be a tightly designed rhetorical production that establishes the centrality of Christ’s identity, mission, and teachings for current and future generations of Lehi’s descendants and ultimately for the entire world.