Research note on the word salvation—English history, comparative frameworks, and especially King Benjamin’s usage in Mosiah 4:8 (covenant, retention, charity). Compiled from multi-source notes; interpretive claims about “ancient” parallels are reconstructive.

English etymology

When “salvation” first entered English, its meaning was almost exclusively religious. English already had the Germanic word “rescue” for physical saving, so “salvation” was adopted specifically for the Christian concept of being saved from hell or sin.

Linguists trace Latin salvus to a Proto-Indo-European root solh₂- (variants sol-), core sense “whole,” “well-kept,” or “intact.” Reflexes appear in classical Latin. The word largely displaced native Old English hǣlu (cognate with “health” and “whole”), which had covered overlapping ideas of safety and well-being.

Earliest firm English attestation: early 13th century (OED evidence ca. 1225 in the Ancrene Wisse). Trajectory reflects heavy medieval Christian Latin influence on English religious vocabulary. Cognates/related terms: save, safe, salve, salubrious, salvage.

Comparative religious frameworks

Abrahamic traditions

  • Christianity — Rescue from sin and its consequences through Jesus Christ’s atonement, received via faith, grace, and/or works (varies by denomination). Early NT Greek sōtēria (noun) and sōzō (verb) had a broad Koine range: rescue from physical peril, healing, preservation of well-being or safe return, deliverance from demonic forces or sin’s effects, restoration to wholeness. Everyday papyri and classical Greek often defaulted to bodily health/wellness. Over centuries, especially in Western theology, emphasis specialized toward spiritual and eschatological dimensions (justification, sanctification, eternal life). The name Yeshua (Hebrew form underlying “Jesus”) derives from the same root as “salvation”—“He saves” or “YHWH is salvation.”

  • Judaism — Hebrew root yashaʿ (ישע) / yeshaʿ, yielding yeshuʿah (“salvation,” “deliverance,” “help,” “victory”). Usages often stress concrete rescue from enemies, oppression, or trouble (Exodus as archetype), plus moral/repentant and future-oriented hopes (world to come, messianic deliverance). Emphasis tends to be more collective and covenantal—fidelity to Torah and Israel’s destiny—than highly individualized “personal salvation from sin,” though personal righteousness remains essential. Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) carries the same root meaning.

  • Islam — Eventual entrance to Paradise (Jannah) and avoidance of Hell through sincere faith in the one God, submission (islām), righteous deeds, the Five Pillars, and divine mercy. Works and faith interact; ultimate reliance rests on God’s compassion rather than human merit alone.

These more typically frame analogous ideas as self-realized liberation rather than rescue by an external agent:

  • Hinduism — moksha (liberation) from samsara (cycle of rebirth and suffering) and realization of unity with or identity in Brahman. Paths include knowledge (jnana), devotion (bhakti), action (karma), and meditation/ritual (varies by school).
  • Buddhism — nirvana—extinguishing craving, ignorance, and suffering—and release from samsara, via the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path. Some Mahayana traditions incorporate aid from bodhisattvas.
  • Jainism — moksha via ethical purification, non-violence, and right faith/knowledge/conduct.

Many other traditions express parallel concepts around cosmic harmony, ancestral relations, or escape from malevolent forces. Significant internal variation exists within each tradition.

Secular, metaphorical, and philosophical extensions

Outside religion, “salvation” denotes any rescue, preservation, or deliverance from peril, failure, or difficulty (e.g. “policies offered salvation for the industry”; “music was his salvation from despair”). Philosophically it can evoke liberation from illusion, ignorance, or existential constraint, echoing certain Eastern or classical motifs.

King Benjamin and Mosiah 4:8

Analyzing Benjamin’s use of “salvation” requires looking past English dictionaries to hypothesized Semitic roots and the rhetorical setting of his address. His vocabulary points to a covenantal, communal, and transformational view of salvation—distinct from modern, individualized Western theology.

Setting and the verse

“And this is the means whereby salvation cometh. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you.” (Mosiah 4:8)

The verse sits in the third, practical section of Benjamin’s oration (Mosiah 2–5), delivered from a tower at the temple during a covenant-renewal assembly and the coronation of his son Mosiah. The people have already been spiritually awakened, fallen to the earth, and cried for mercy through the atoning blood of Christ (Mosiah 4:1–3). Benjamin then lays out the “means” (the atonement prepared from the foundation of the world) and insists salvation is exclusive and conditional on what he has taught: believing in God’s existence, creative power, wisdom, and incomprehensibility; repenting and forsaking sins; humbling oneself; sincerely asking forgiveness—with the charge that belief must issue in action (“if you believe all these things see that ye do them,” v. 10).

Later in the same chapter he adds ongoing retention of a remission of sins “from day to day” through remembering dependence on God, steadfast faith, and—strikingly—imparting substance to the poor (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick) as concrete expression of that faith (vv. 11–12, 26). The chapter closes with a call to watch thoughts, words, and deeds and continue in faith “even unto the end of your lives” lest one perish (v. 30).

Research on the structure of Mosiah 2–5 places the speech in the frame of an ancient Israelite-style coronation and covenant-renewal festival, often compared to the autumn Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).

Semitic roots in the speech’s lexicon

The claimed original language (reformed Egyptian with underlying Hebrew influences) is described as lost; analysis works with the received English text and literary features scholars identify in it.

  • Yasha (deliverance / space) — Primary Hebrew root for salvation (yasha, forming words like yeshua). Physical connotation: being brought into a wide, spacious place, free from distress, confinement, or siege. Active deliverance, not a passive static state. (Full constellation below.)
  • Root of “Mosiah” — Benjamin’s son and the book’s name derive from Hebrew m-s-h (or m-w-s-y-h), “savior” / “deliverer.” Discourse on salvation is tied to the deliverance theme of his dynasty and the book.

Covenantal and communal character

Modern contexts often frame salvation as a private transaction. Benjamin’s use is thoroughly covenantal:

  • Royal adoption — Salvation is the process of being adopted into a new royal lineage. Those who enter the covenant become “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7).
  • Taking a name — Salvation is synonymous with taking upon oneself a specific name: formally entering a covenant community that bears the name of the sovereign.

Conditions of salvation (Mosiah 4:8)

Benjamin says there are no conditions whereby man can be saved “except the conditions which I have told you.” In context those conditions include:

  • Ontological transformation — Baseline human condition is the “natural man,” enemy to God (Mosiah 3:19). Salvation is not merely a change in legal standing (being forgiven); it requires “putting off” the natural state and changing disposition to become a “saint.”
  • Acknowledgment of “nothingness” — Stark economic and spatial language: “nothingness” of man, “unprofitable servants.” Salvation requires awakening to complete dependence on God (Mosiah 4:5, 11).
  • Social justice as saving principle — Immediately after 4:8, retention of salvation is linked to communal obligation: because all are “beggars” before God, maintaining a remission of sins requires imparting substance to the poor (Mosiah 4:16–26). Salvation is verified by how a person treats the marginalized.

Rhetorical structure and parallelism

Mosiah 4:8 uses synonymous Hebraic parallelism:

“And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of;
neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you.”

Duplicating the thought (none other salvation / no other conditions) seals loopholes and emphasizes the exclusivity of the Atonement as the sole mechanism for deliverance.

Distinctive features of Benjamin’s voice

Within the Book of Mormon’s presentation, Benjamin is a distinctive speaker. He taught his sons “all the language of his fathers” (Hebrew and Egyptian, Mosiah 1:2–4). His oration is often analyzed as a unified address marked by parallelism, chiasmus, careful repetition, conditional structures, and a blend of doctrinal depth with ethical application. Studies in the Welch and Ricks collection King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom” identify a recognizable register: authoritative yet self-effacing, covenantal, hortatory, and relational. Later Nephite voices quote or allude to his formulations.

Further dimensions from placement in Benjamin’s mouth:

  • Exclusivity tied to enumerated, actionable conditions — Not only “through Christ,” but “none other salvation save this,” anchored to the conditions he has just delineated: believe, then do—repentance, humility, prayer for forgiveness, and (as the chapter develops) tangible charity.
  • Processual and retentive — Distinguishes initial reception of remission (faith in the atonement) from ongoing retention “from day to day.” Not a completed transaction; maintained through humility, prayer, steadfastness, and ethical practice.
  • Soteriology integrated with social ethics — Withholding substance from those in need disqualifies walking “guiltless before God” and retaining remission. “Are we not all beggars?” levels every person—king included—before God and one another.
  • Humble kingship and relational address — Models humility about royal status while directing loyalty to the “Lord Omnipotent.” Inclusive lexicon (“My friends and my brethren, my kindred and my people”). Conditions presented as means of covenant relationship, not distant legalism. Scholarship often reads Mosiah 5 covenant-making as echoing ancient covenant-renewal patterns, with Benjamin in a suzerain-like role pointing beyond himself to the divine king.
  • Rhetorical and conditional framing — Heavy “if…then” constructions and imperatives that turn belief into observable action. Salvation offered universally (“prepared…for all mankind”) yet conditional on response; phrasing redolent of covenantal stipulation language.

Collectively: salvation in Benjamin’s usage is covenantally structured, ethically embodied, communally oriented, and continually maintained—emphasized by speaker, temple/covenant setting, and rhetorical goals.

Pre-exilic Hebrew constellation

To capture Benjamin’s blend of physical deliverance, covenantal adoption, absolute reliance on a redeemer, and communal obligation to the poor, look at a network of pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew terms—not a single abstract noun for “salvation” in the modern spiritual sense, but action-oriented, relational verbs and nouns (attested primarily in Iron Age II material: Torah, Deuteronomistic History, Psalms, Isaiah 1–39, etc.).

1. Gaʾal (גאל) — the kinsman-redeemer

  • Literal: To redeem, act as a kinsman, buy back.
  • Context: In ancient Israelite law, if a person fell into absolute poverty (a “beggar,” as Benjamin says) and sold themselves into slavery, the nearest capable relative—the goʾel (redeemer)—was obligated to pay the debt and restore freedom and family standing. Prominent in legal/covenantal contexts (e.g. Leviticus; Ruth precursors); relational loyalty parallels Benjamin’s ethical stipulations for retaining remission.
  • Benjamin: Maps to royal-adoption theology. Humanity is in spiritual debt (“unprofitable servants”). Salvation is familial redemption: the people become “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7).

2. Kaphar (כפר) — the covering (atonement)

  • Literal: To cover, pacify, make propitiation, ransom. Root of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
  • Context: In pre-600 BC temple theology, blood of a substitute sacrifice was smeared or sprinkled to “cover” sins and impurities, reconciling the people with a holy God.
  • Benjamin: Salvation linked to the “atoning blood of Christ” (Mosiah 4:2). “Put off the natural man” aligns with kaphar—covering/removal of an impure, hostile state so one can stand before the Divine without being destroyed.

3. Pada (פדה) — the ransom price

  • Literal: To ransom, deliver by paying a price.
  • Context: Unlike gaʾal (family relationship), pada stresses the economic transaction of buying someone out of bondage or death.
  • Benjamin: Heavy economic metaphors—even full service leaves one “unprofitable servants…indebted unto him” (Mosiah 2:21–24). Salvation as pada: ransom for debtors of absolute “nothingness” who cannot afford their own release.

4. hesed (חסד) — covenantal grace and loyalty

  • Literal: Lovingkindness, steadfast love, covenant loyalty, grace. (President Nelson’s spelling: hesed; see The Everlasting Covenant.)
  • Context: Not merely emotion; action—unmerited, steadfast loyalty God shows covenant people, especially when they cannot help themselves.
  • Benjamin: “Goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience” (Mosiah 4:6) describes hesed. Salvation is accessible because God maintains His hesed toward people who are otherwise “dust of the earth.”

5. Tzedaqah (צדקה) — righteousness as communal justice

  • Literal: Righteousness, justice; heavily associated with charity and doing right by the vulnerable.
  • Context: Modern English “righteousness” often sounds like personal moral purity. In pre-exilic Hebrew, tzedaqah was highly social—you could not be righteous while ignoring the poor.
  • Benjamin: Explains the jarring transition in Mosiah 4: to retain a remission of sins you must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick (Mosiah 4:26). Salvation and tzedaqah are inseparable; receiving God’s hesed but refusing tzedaqah toward a fellow beggar voids covenantal rescue.

6. Yasha (ישע) — the broad space (and derivatives)

  • Literal: To save, deliver, be spacious or wide.
  • Earliest physical concept: Pulled from a tight, restricted, or besieged place into a broad, expansive, safe pasture. Active freedom from constriction or danger; used for physical rescue (enemies, peril) and divine deliverance in covenantal/moral contexts. Common in pre-exilic Psalms, early prophetic literature, historical books.
  • Derivatives:
    • יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ, verb) — save, deliver, rescue, help, bring to safety.
    • יְשׁוּעָה (yəšûʿâ, noun) — salvation, deliverance, victory, help, welfare. God’s rescuing act for people who trust and remain faithful; covenantal settings stressing God’s power, wisdom, and response to humility/repentance. Roughly 77 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, with strong pre-exilic attestation.
    • יֵשַׁע (yēšaʿ) — deliverance/salvation, often overlapping yəšûʿâ.
  • Benjamin: Captures the relief and freedom the people experience—fall to the earth, joy and “peace of conscience” (Mosiah 4:3): from constricted guilt into wide, peaceful deliverance. Aligns with exclusive divine means, belief leading to action, and retention through faithfulness and charity (social deliverance mirroring divine yeshuʿah). In pre-exilic orations/psalms of covenant renewal, yashaʿ words often tie deliverance to remembering God’s acts, humility, and obedience—echoing retention “from day to day.”
  • פָּלַט (pālat) — escape, deliver, bring to safety. Personal or communal escape from peril, sometimes with divine agency; early poetic and prophetic texts.
  • גָּאַל (gāʾal) — see gaʾal above; included here as the same root in verb form.

Strongest cluster for Mosiah 4:8: yāšaʿ / yəšûʿâ—holistic deliverance, divinely initiated yet conditioned on faithfulness, encompassing rescue, victory, and sustained well-being. Semantic range is broader “rescue to well-being” than later specialized theological senses. Extra-biblical inscriptions offer limited abstract theological usage but confirm the root’s early presence in personal names and deliverance contexts.

Modern translations of Mosiah 4:8

The Book of Mormon exists in over 110 languages. Official translations render the English core faithfully (“means whereby salvation cometh… none other salvation… conditions whereby man can be saved”) with no fundamental doctrinal alteration. Target-language vocabulary sometimes stresses rescue from peril, liberation, wholeness/safety, or ongoing deliverance—complementing English, which can feel more abstract or future-oriented.

By language family

Romance (close cognates of Latin salvatio):

  • Spanish — salvación / ser salvo. Active process (“being saved”).
  • French — salut (also safety/well-being).
  • Portuguese / Italian — salvação / salvezza (salvezza adds “safety”).

Germanic:

  • German — Errettung / errettet: rescue from danger/peril—more immediate than abstract “salvation.”
  • Dutch — verlossing or heil: liberation/redemption or wholeness.

Slavic and other European:

  • Russian — spasenie (спасение): rescue/preservation; same root as practical emergency rescue (lifeguards, etc.).

Asian:

  • Japanese — sukui (救い): rescue, help—deliverance from bondage or peril.
  • Korean — guwon (구원): relief, rescue; regional character traditions often evoke untying a knot or pulling someone from fire—sin as entanglement the Savior unbinds.
  • Chinese — jiùshú (救贖) or jiùēn: redemption/salvation grace—redemptive act and favor, close to atonement.

Other samples:

  • Indonesian/Malay — keselamatan (root selamat: peaceful, safe, successful—cf. selamat pagi). Connects to “peace of conscience” Benjamin promises nearby.
  • Tagalog — kaligtasan (root ligtas: safe, secure, out of harm’s way)—protective boundary.
  • Polynesian (e.g. Samoan, Tongan) — often blend salvation with peace, wholeness, or divine protection.
  • Swahili — wokovu (verb okoa: save, rescue, redeem)—practical rescue from danger, sickness, or enemies.

Non-Western languages frequently heighten rescue from peril or restoration to wholeness, enriching the conditional, retentive, and communal-ethical reading of the verse without contradicting doctrine. Modern translations prioritize fidelity while using natural target equivalents; stronger “rescue” fields (German, Japanese, Korean, etc.) make atonement-as-means and belief-to-action feel more immediate—aligned with earlier Hebrew/Greek breadth (rescue + well-being).

Metaphor patterns across languages

When translators leave Western European defaults, word choice highlights different angles of Benjamin’s theology:

  1. Cleared debt (Middle Eastern) — Benjamin’s economic imagery (“unprofitable servants,” Mosiah 2:22–24).
    • Arabic — khalas (خلاص): finished, cleared, free from a burden; everyday “it is done.” Salvation as settling an impossible spiritual debt.
    • Persian (Farsi) — rastegāri (رستگاری): deliverance/liberation from a confined or trapped state—mirrors Hebrew “wide place.”

  2. Safe harbor (Austronesian) — protection from disaster, secure destination (kaligtasan, keselamatan—above).

  3. Upward pull (Indic) — lifting from a lowly or burdened state.
    • Hindi — uddhaar (उद्धार): uplifting, pulling up from a degraded state. Fits “dust of the earth” and the Savior lifting the natural man.
    • Tamil / Telugu — often Rakshana (protection/guardianship) or Mukti (liberation from the cycle of suffering)—Christ as guardian who releases the soul.

  4. Survival and preservation (Slavic & African) — same word as surviving war, famine, catastrophe (spaseniye, wokovu—above). Humanity in terminal danger without outside intervention.

  5. Release from knots (Sino-Tibetan region) — guwon and related traditions (above): untying entanglement; sin as a complex knot.

Comparison with the Bible Dictionary and Gospel Topics

Authoritative teaching on salvation for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is set out in the Bible Dictionary entry “Salvation” and the Gospel Topics overview “Salvation,” with related treatments of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation, and grace. Those sources govern doctrine. The linguistic and Mosiah-focused material above is secondary: it may illuminate scriptural language but does not redefine Church teaching.

How the comparison is organized. Each subsection below uses the same four-part sequence:

  1. Linguistic / Mosiah analysis — summary of the etymological, rhetorical, and Mosiah 4:8 material developed earlier in this document
  2. Bible Dictionary — relevant teaching from the official study help
  3. Gospel Topics — relevant teaching from the official overview (and, where noted, related Church topics)
  4. Alignment — how the linguistic reading sits under Church teaching (never the reverse)

Church sources remain the standard throughout. The sequence is only a reading aid.

Core definition and scope

Linguistic / Mosiah analysis. Salvation spans rescue and deliverance—physical, national, or spiritual—and often the idea of being made whole or safe. Hebrew yashaʿ / yəšûʿâ (deliver, help, victory; freedom from constriction) and Greek sōtēria / sōzō (rescue, heal, preserve) support that breadth. In Mosiah 4:8 the term is bound to the exclusive means of the Atonement and to conditions for receiving and retaining it.

Bible Dictionary. Salvation is “to be saved from both physical and spiritual death.” All people will be saved from physical death by the grace of God through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Each individual can also be saved from spiritual death by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, “manifested in a life of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel and service to Christ.”

Gospel Topics. In the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “saved” and “salvation” have various meanings. The overview distinguishes, among others: salvation from physical death (resurrection for all through the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ—a free gift); salvation from sin (conditional on faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring faithfulness); being born again; salvation from ignorance of the restored gospel; salvation from the second death; and eternal life, or exaltation (the highest sense, requiring temple covenants and coming only after the Final Judgment). As used in Romans 10:9–10, the words can signify a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ that assures salvation from the eternal consequences of sin if the disciple is obedient.

Alignment. Church teaching is the standard. The dual physical/spiritual frame and the centrality of Jesus Christ and His Atonement match the linguistic emphasis on exclusive means. Ancient “rescue-to-wholeness” senses fit under that teaching; they do not replace it. Gospel Topics systematizes levels (general resurrection vs. conditional spiritual salvation vs. exaltation) more fully than a Mosiah 4:8 reading alone.

Means, conditions, and process (Mosiah 4:8)

Linguistic / Mosiah analysis. Mosiah 4:8 names the means (the Atonement), excludes every other salvation, and ties saving conditions to belief, repentance, humility, and doing what has been taught—then retention “from day to day,” including care for the poor.

Bible Dictionary. Faith is shown in obedience to laws and ordinances and in service to Christ; grace operates through Christ and calls for personal response.

Gospel Topics. Spiritual salvation from sin is conditional: faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and continuing faithfulness. Individuals cannot be saved in their sins; through the grace of God all can be saved from their sins as they repent and follow Jesus Christ (see 2 Nephi 25:23; Helaman 5:10–11). Rebirth and covenant (including Mosiah 5) are part of the same path. Eternal life/exaltation requires further covenants and faithfulness.

Alignment. Mosiah 4:8 exemplifies conditional spiritual salvation: Atonement as sole means, conditions of trust and obedience, retentive faithfulness and service. Church sources place that pattern inside the plan of salvation and ordinances; stress on charity and humility illustrates the “life of… service” the Bible Dictionary names.

Exclusivity and Christ-centeredness

Linguistic / Mosiah analysis. Old Testament and Book of Mormon language stress God’s sole role as deliverer and “none other salvation save this.”

Bible Dictionary / Gospel Topics. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation; the Atonement enables every sense of the word. Scriptural usage remains flexible (physical, spiritual, covenantal, eschatological) while remaining Christ-centered.

Alignment. Exclusivity through Christ is shared. Linguistic breadth and translation nuances (e.g. stronger “rescue” in some languages) help explain why scripture uses salvation in more than one sense—the same point Gospel Topics makes by listing multiple meanings.

Assessment

  • Church sources are authoritative for doctrine, practice, and the ordered meanings of salvation and exaltation.
  • The linguistic and Mosiah material adds historical and lexical context (English etymology, Hebrew/Greek roots, Mosiah 4 rhetoric, translation samples) that can deepen reading of the same scriptures the Church teaches from.
  • No doctrinal conflict: Mosiah 4:8 fits the Church’s account of conditional spiritual salvation under the Atonement; retention and service match obedience and covenant faithfulness. Where the analysis is reconstructive (ancient roots, speaker “voice”), confidence is moderate; where it restates Church teaching, the official entries control.

Sources and method

  • Authoritative Church sources — Bible Dictionary, “Salvation”; Gospel Topics, “Salvation”; related: Atonement of Jesus Christ, plan of salvation, grace.
  • Scripture — Standard text of Mosiah 2–5 (esp. 4:1–30, 5:7); cross-check wording on the Church’s scriptures site for translations.
  • Literary scholarship — Welch and Ricks (eds.), King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom” (structures, covenant themes, influence on later Nephite discourse). Royal Skousen’s Critical Text Project: transmission/variants more than idiolect. Broader rhetorical and some stylometric work on distinct “voices” in the Book of Mormon.
  • Lexicons — Standard Biblical Hebrew entries (e.g. Strong’s and etymological discussions) for yashaʿ, gaʾal, kaphar, pada, ḥesed, tzedaqah, pālat; scope restricted to pre-~600 BC attestation where possible. Avoided post-exilic/Mishnaic and modern Israeli developments unless noted.
  • Comparative / translation notes — Sampled official Book of Mormon translations across major language families; nuances are lexical, not doctrinal.
  • hesed — Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, Oct. 2022 (spelling hesed חֶסֶד).

Confidence: English rhetorical features of the speech are directly observable. Interpretive weight on “ancient” parallels, Hebraisms, and reconstructed Semitic roots is reconstructive and carries moderate confidence. Mainstream academic perspectives often attribute speaker differentiation to 19th-century authorial technique rather than ancient distinct sources—internal textual observations (what the narrative and phrasing allow) are distinguished here from historical-origin claims. Doctrine is taken from the official publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This work by @diagonalcounty is licensed under CC-BY-4.0.