The Sermon at the Temple is a passage in the Book of Mormon, first published by Joseph Smith in 1830 as the founding scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This passage narrates Jesus appearing at a temple to inhabitants of the Americas, called Nephites, shortly after his ascension and preaching the Sermon on the Mount to the Nephites very much as it appears in Matthew 5-7 in the King James Version. This study investigates the historical authenticity of this “Sermon at the Temple” by utilizing the tools of biblical scholarship such as textual criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, and sociocultural analysis. Against criticisms by Mormon scholars, the study defends the textual and historical reliability of the Gospel of Matthew as well as the conventional view of biblical scholarship that the Sermon on the Mount as it appears in Matthew owed much of its arrangement and wording to the literary work of the Evangelist. An overview of issues pertaining to the Book of Mormon, including its origins, historical claims, and use of the Bible, explains why assertions of the historical authenticity of the Sermon at the Temple bear the burden of proof.

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