“Not Built Upon My Rock but He Buildeth Upon a Sandy Foundation”

Brant Gardner

Textual: This passage again owes its imagery and vocabulary to Matthew:

Matthew 7:24-27

24 ¶ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

In the Book of Mormon we have imagery from different sections of Matthew that have been combined. In this case, it is the symbol of the rock that ties the different passages together. While the vocabulary is certainly Matthean, the concept of the difference in a foundation built on rock as opposed to sand would be well understood by a people as adept at building with stone as were the Nephites (and many Mesoamericans). Thus the language may have been influenced by Matthew, but the meaning was completely comprehensible and appropriate in the New World context.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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