“All Sorts of Fruit”

Brant Gardner

The focus now returns to the main root/trunk of the tree. The natural branches that were broken of refers to the source of the branches that were most recently under discussion in the nethermost parts of the vineyard. Once again, the grafted wild branches would be the infusion of the gentiles into the covenant. The result is "all sorts of fruit." It is essential for the allegory that "all sorts" indicate the appearance of good fruit, but of somewhat differing appearances. In this phase, the allegory describes the rise of modern Christianity in all of its diversity, a diversity that scholars are now finding reaches back to even the earliest days of the establishment of the church in the world, but certainly proliferating most greatly after the reformation movement.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

References