“They Can No More See Corruption”

Brant Gardner

Literary: While the general language of this passage clearly owes a debt to Paul, there are important differences:

1 Cor. 15:42-44

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Amulek shares the contrasting themes between death and resurrection, with similar vocabularies, but there is an important difference in the vocabularies used that show that what Joseph is translating is no simple restating of Paul. Both Paul and Amulek use contrasting terms natural/spiritual (Paul) and temporal/spiritual (Amulek).

The difference is that those contrasts refer to completely different concepts. For Amulek the temporal/spiritual contrast deals with the difference between resurrection and the atonement for sin. For Paul, the natural/spiritual refers to the two states of the body, the mortal and the resurrected. While the language may be similar, the concepts encoded by that language are very different.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

References