Charity, Priest, and Church versus Love, Elder, and Congregation: The Book of Mormon’s Connection to the Debate between William Tyndale and Thomas More

Thomas More and William Tyndale were staunch opponents but they did agree on two things: (1) that language and theology were inseparable, and (2) that errors of language could lead to serious errors in theology. These two commonalities fueled their famous debate about Tyndale’s translation of the Greek words presbuteros, ekklēsia, and agapē into English as elder, congregation, and love. Though three centuries separate the Book of Mormon from More and Tyndale, that gap will be closed as the Book of Mormon’s use of charity/love, priest/elder, and congregation/church are analyzed within a sixteenth-century context.

This is a presentation by Jan J. Martin at the 2015 Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon Conference, which took place on BYU campus in Provo, Utah, on March 14, 2015.