“The Son of the Most High God”

Alan C. Miner

Critics of the Book of Mormon view terms like "the Son of the most high God" (1 Nephi 11:6) and "the Son of God" as plagiarisms from the New Testament gospels because they represent later developments peculiar to Christianity. However, according to Matt Roper, both titles have recently turned up in an unpublished Dead Sea Scroll fragment written in Aramaic from before the time of Jesus. Although it is unknown to whom the prophecy refers, the fragment states:

[X] shall be great upon the earth. [O king, all (people) shall] make [peace], and all shall serve [him. He shall be called the son of] the [G]reat [God], and by his name shall be hailed (as) the Son of God, and they shall call him Son of the Most High,"

The writer for Biblical Archaeology Review states,

this is the first time that the term "Son of God" has been found in a Palestinian text outside the Bible. . . . Previously some scholars have insisted that the origin of terms like "Most High" and "Son of the Most High" were to be found in Hellenistic usage outside of Palestine and that therefore they relate to later development of Christian Doctrine. Now we know that these terms were part of Christianity's original Jewish heritage.

[Matthew Roper, Book Review of Jerald and Sandra Tanner's Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon, in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3 1991, pp. 173-174]

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

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