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“A New Reading of Lehi”

“A New Reading of Lehi”

Last updated on: April 24, 2026 at 9:00 pm by Dan Peterson

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“A New Reading of Lehi” 2026-04-24T21:00:33-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Adam and Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, as shown in a 16th-century Safavid manuscript of the Falnameh or “Book of Omens,” which is ascribed to the Shi‘i imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Today’s new journal article appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 68 (2026) : 371-420: “A New Reading of Lehi: A Rhetorical Context for Understanding His Teachings about the Fall of Adam and Eve,” written by Kelly E. Taylor:

Abstract: Based on Lehi’s teachings in 2 Nephi 2, many Latter-day Saints conclude that it was necessary for Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit to acquire the ability to have children. While this appears to be a straightforward reading of the text, it sets up the dilemma of conflicting commandments—obedience to one of the two commandments they were given in the Garden of Eden would require that they disobey the other. In this article, the author argues that the larger rhetorical context presents a different framework in which these teachings may be read—one that does not raise this dilemma. Lehi presents his teachings on the consequences of the Fall in two parallel chiasms. The rhetorical links within and between these chiasms (and with the other sections of Lehi’s teachings) suggest that God’s purposes for mankind may not have been frustrated if Adam and Eve had obeyed him. While their Fall was likely inevitable, it may not have been a required element in God’s eternal plan for his children. Rather, it might have been something he expected and for which he prepared.

The article is accompanied online by “Interpreting Interpreter: A New Lehi; A New Adam,” written by Kyler Rasmussen:

This post is a summary of the article “A New Reading of Lehi: A Rhetorical Context for Understanding His Teachings about the Fall of Adam and Eve” by Kelly E. Taylor in Volume 68 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the Interpreting Interpreter articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https:/interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/.

A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https://youtube.com/shorts/r98MaWhDorg.

The Takeaway: Taylor presents an alternative reading of 2 Nephi 2 and of the Fall, which posits that the Fall was something that God was prepared for, but that it was not required for humanity’s progression. In this view Adam and Eve were created in a mortal state—able to die and have children—and eating the fruit did not alter that state or of creation generally, but attached catastrophic consequences to eating from the tree of life, given their need for repentance. The idea that Adam and Eve would have had no children without the Fall would instead refer to Adam’s choice to stay in the Garden and partake of the fruit without Eve. Taylor suggests that, without Satan’s influence, Adam and Eve might have developed sufficiently in the garden to make an informed choice between good and evil, and supports his proposal through interpretations of the chiastic structure of 2 Nephi 2.

Brigham Young’s winter home in St. George, where we filmed into the evening on Thursday (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I regret that this will be my final food-and-lodging report from the April 2026 Interpreter Foundation tour of “The Epicurean Delights of Southern Utah,” which has now concluded. The investigators over at the Peterson Obsession Board will now have all of the fine-dining data and all of the information about accommodations that they will need to condemn me for this trip — as, in fact, they already did before it had even begun.

I started this morning in a luxury motel room that, unlike the previous night’s lodging, was equipped with actual hot and cold running water en suite. After showering and dressing, I enjoyed a sumptuous bowl of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran® in the motel’s breakfast area, directly in front of the reception desk, followed by a deliciously cold glass of milk. We then flew in one of the Foundation’s Learjet 45s, drove northward via I-15 back to Utah Valley, heavily laden with delicious memories as well as with our luggage, our cameras, and our other filmmaking equipment.

Ostensibly, of course, our gourmandizing was merely an incidental side benefit to, umm, a “work trip.” (Yeah. Right. That’s what it was. It was a “work trip.” I’m sticking with that.) So, in order to further the illusion that we were really out on the road filming portions of forthcoming episodes of Becoming Brigham rather than spending our entire time feasting in fine restaurants, we released a little bit of one of our supposed series of mini-documentaries today: “TRAILER—Becoming Brigham series, Episode 14″ is now available online, running roughly thirty-seven seconds in length. The full episode will drop on Monday:

Why was Brigham Young willing to follow Joseph Smith even when he didn’t fully understand or even like what Joseph was teaching? What would the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints look like today without Brigham Young’s absolute loyalty to the Prophet Joseph Smith?

I’ve been pleased, by the way, to be able to help the folks at the Peterson Obsession Board regain their verve, their joie de vivre. I think that I had been letting them down a little, but feigning concern about my food consumption on the just-completed trip and pretending to discern self-dealing financial corruption in my relationship to the Interpreter Foundation has really energized them. I’ve just now counted the threads on their first page: The first of those threads is a permanently pinned appeal for financial donations to support their important work. Of the twenty-four remaining threads on page one, though, ten are devoted wholly or in substantial part to . . . well, me. That’s nearly 42 percent. It seems that I provide them and their Obsession Board with a raison d’être, a reason to get out of bed in the morning. If such a monster of cruelty, dishonesty, malice, and buffoonery as I am didn’t exist, they would have been obliged to invent me. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much what they have done.

I’ll get to some more of the cub reporters’ earnest and vitally important questions mañana, probably. Or maybe still later. We’ll see. After the drive up from St. George today, however, I had to take somebody to the Salt Lake Airport. And it was rush hour coming back, with accidents. So I’m a little tired at the moment and their suspicions and concerns can wait.

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