Tree of life vision

Corbin T. Volluz, a Latter-day Saint lawyer, reflected a common belief of church members that the vision is "one of the richest, most flexible, and far-reaching pieces of symbolic prophecy contained in the standard works [scriptures].

Wishing to share the fruit with his family, he sees his wife, Sariah, and two sons, Nephi and Sam, who come and eat it with him.

The "rod of iron" specifically is mentioned often referring to the scriptures or the words of the Lord, in order to convey the importance of heeding God's teachings.

[12] Writing in 1977, Brigham Young University (BYU) English professor Bruce Jorgensen introduced an interpretation of the tree of life vision as a key to understanding the Book of Mormon's typological unity.

[16] There are imaginative elements in the vision: the fruit doesn't fill Lehi's stomach, but his heart; a rod of iron appears in the wilderness, not attached to another structure; the great and spacious building floats in the air.

The reversals include subverting our expectations, like the guide taking Lehi to another dreary wilderness and people who eat the fruit but are ashamed and become lost.

[17] For Salleh and Hemming, writing in The Book of Mormon for the Least of These, Nephi's vision provides a notable inversion of God's covenant with Abraham.

[20] In the same article, Volluz offers another symbolic possibility of the vision: as corresponding to the events in the afterlife, with the righteous and unrighteous parted by the river representing the justice of God, the iron rod acting as the judgement "bar," and the righteous partaking of the fruit representing eternal life.

Christ performs multiple functions in the vision, also being symbolized by the fountain of living water and the tree of life.

[22] Latter-day Saint archaeologist M. Wells Jakeman wrote in 1958 that Izapa Stela 5 is a depiction of the tree of life vision.

[24] Professor of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Art, Julia Guernsey, wrote that Jakeman's research "belies an obvious religious agenda that ignored Izapa Stela 5's heritage".

[25] In a March 1845 edition of the LDS Newspaper The Prophet, a passage stated Codex Boturini was said to be the story of the Aztecs coming to America.

[30] Fawn Brodie noticed these similarities in her book No Man Knows My History, stating that a "reverse borrowing is unlikely" because Lucy Mack Smith had "probably" told the story of the dream many times before.

[31] In Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, Dan Vogel wrote that Lucy's interpretation of her husband's dream was "probably inspired by the Book of Mormon.