Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount

In 1990 John W. Welch s book The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount presented a thorough Latter-day Saint interpretation of the Savior s greatest sermon, drawing on insights from Jesus s Sermon at the Temple in 3 Nephi to shed light on his Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and Sermon on the Mount builds on that earlier study with substantial additions based on insights gleaned throughout a decade of continuing research. The basic analysis remains unchanged: understanding the Sermon (meaning both texts in their shared, collective meaning) as a temple text reveals that it has far more power and unity than a mere collection of miscellaneous sayings of Jesus. Seeing the teachings and commandments of the Sermon on the Mount in its Book of Mormon setting at the Nephite temple, in connection with sacred ordinances of covenant making opens new insights into the meaning and significance of the Sermon. In this light, readers never again see the Sermon the same.