The fulness of the Gentiles

Lord Wilmore's post on the "Fulness of the gospel" reminded me of research I did some months ago resulting in a very interesting find. It all started when I read a comment from a Jewish rabbi on the Book of Mormon. Commenting the expression, "multitudes of people" in 1 Nephi 12:1, he notes

Multitudes of people: What is most fascinating about this expression is that in Genesis 48:19 when the same promise is given to the tribe of Joseph through Ephraim the Hebrew reads מלא הגוים (meloh hagoyim). The word meloh can mean multitude but it can also mean fullness. And the word goyim can mean peoples but it can also mean gentiles. So this expression could read “fullness of the gentiles”. This cannot be a coincidence. In chapter 10 Nephi mentions the fullness of the revelation of the gentiles as a condition to happen before the regathering of Israel. It is likely that Nephi makes a connection between their own descendants and the fullness of the revelation that would happen in the times before the regathering of Israel.

After reading this, I went down the rabbit hole. One thing I did was searching and even asking other Jews online about "meloh hagoyim" and got confirmed that "fulness of the Gentiles" is a correct translation. "meloh" comes from the Hebrew verb "to fill" which for instance is used in the creation story where the fish were commanded to "fill" the waters. "goy" means nation and "im" indicates plural. "ha" is the definite article. But there is not a separate word for "Gentiles" in Hebrew. So when they talk about "the nations" (hagoyim), implying not themselves included, the Israelites would mean the other nations, the Gentiles.

I also found that "fulness of the Gentiles" is an expression used twice in the Book of Mormon and one time in the New Testament (Romans 11:25). Interestingly, this expression is used in Romans when Paul uses the allegory of an olive tree with natural (Israel) and wild (Gentiles) branches. This same allegory is used in 1 Nephi 10. In verse 14, that Lord Wilmore also referenced in his post, we read:

14 And after the house of Israel should be scattered they should be gathered together again; or, in fine, after the Gentiles had received the fulness of the Gospel, the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer.

After Nephi has had a vision described in 1 Nephi 11-14, he finds his brothers arguing about what their father was talking about in chapter 10, and chapter 15 picks up on that again as Nephi starts to explain. 1 Nephi 15:13

13 And now, the thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief, yea, for the space of many years, and many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed

This could also be a post on internal consistency, but we will focus on the message for now, which is profound: The fulness of the Gentiles means that the fulness of the gospel shall come to the Gentiles in the latter days and that the Gentiles shall be the instrument in bringing back the remnant of the House of Israel to the knowledge of the true Messiah and the covenant with Him.

So if we read the more correct translation of Genesis 48:19, we realize that Ephraim received a promise in his patriarchical blessing that he would bring about the "fulness of the Gentiles". How? When Gentiles like myself living in this "fulness of times" (Ephesians 1:10) enter into the covenant, we become part of the House of Israel and usually learn from our patriarchical blessings that we are of the tribe of Ephraim. Then we help gather the remnant of the house of Israel "in one...in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10 again), back to the covenants with Him.

As Lord Wilmore states in his post, the temple has a vital role in this. For instance, we accomplish the fulness of the Gentiles through the threefold mission of the church: perfecting the saints, proclaiming the gospel and redeeming the dead. Each of these is linked to the three priesthood keys that were restored to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey in the Kirtland Temple in D&C 110. The sealing keys are exercised in the temple, helping to bring "together in one all things in Christ". We live in exciting times, a time that Ephraim, Paul, Lehi and Nephi knew about and looked forward to!

The Savior himself declared in 3 Nephi 16:4

through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed, who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer.