“Zenos”

Alan C. Miner

In Alma 33:12-13, Alma tells the people, "Do ye believe those scriptures which have been written by them of old? Behold, if ye do, ye must believe what Zenos said; for, behold he said: Thou hast turned away thy judgments because of thy Son." According to Hugh Nibley, Zenos was an outcast prophet who lived between Moses and Elijah. About 1906 in a work called the Pseudo-Philo the writings of this Zenos were discovered. Nibley wrote quite a bit about them in Since Cumorah. There was a prophet called Zenos. He was cast out and he wrote a long allegory on the olive tree. When Jacob gave his long story of the olive tree, he said he was quoting Zenos. He was a real person, a prophet who was lost and was found again in the early twentieth century. [Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2, p. 448]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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