One finding is that the Zenos allegory in Jacob 5 seems to be highly influential in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I will post more on that later. But one example is the expression, "hewn down and cast into the fire". This expression is used 14 times in the Book of Mormon. It is found 3 times in the New Testament and nowhere in the Old Testament, but "hew(n) down" as a general term is found several times, which shouldn't be all that surprising. Traditionally it is regarded as one of those textual connections between the Book of Mormon and the New Testament. There are many of those and they are interesting, but not the subject of this post. But in this case, it is obvious to me that the earliest source (that we know of) is Zenos (again!). Jacob 5 uses this expression 5 times and when Jacob comments on this in the next chapter, it is used once more.
I am very curious about when the knowledge of Zenos disappeared in the Old World. Since he was highly esteemed among the Nephites and this expression is used so much in the Book of Mormon, this seems to be originating from his olive tree allegory. But did Matthew and Luke know about Zenos? I would think that the knowledge of Zenos was lost at this point or otherwise we would have heard of him from other sources than the Book of Mormon. But perhaps his influence was not completely lost, even though his name was? At least the context in the New Testament is completely aligned with Jacob 5. It is always about trees and producing bad fruit. For instance:
every tree which not forth good fruit is down, and cast into the fire. (Matthew 3:10)
And now these which have once brought forth good fruit have also become corrupted; and now all the trees of my vineyard are good for nothing save it be to be down and cast into the fire. (Jacob 5:42)If Jacob 5 were in the Old Testament, we would naturally conclude that Matthew was a reference to it.
When this expression is used in the Book of Mormon other than Jacob, it is not necessarily related to trees. But Jacob explains that the trees are really about us.
For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be down and cast into the fire? (Jacob 6:7)The other examples of "hewn down and cast into the fire" are aligned with this understanding. For instance:
whosoever repenteth the same is not down and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire (Helaman 14:18)
Yea, come unto me and bring forth works of righteousness, and ye shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire (Alma 5:35)The Zenos influence is apparent even though they talk about people rather than trees or branches, because they are familiar with the symbolism. In fact, branches or trees symbolically representing people is common in the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament and might be the subject for another post.
The conclusion I draw from this is that Zenos once again is the original source of a Book of Mormon expression, and in this case perhaps also a New Testament expression. It wouldn't be the first time, and several of these Zenos related posts show other examples. I don't think the New Testament authors knew about Zenos, but since he was an important prophet in the Northern Kingdom, I don't find it unlikely that parts of Zenos influence and tradition survived the Assyrian and Babylonian destructions. Another possibility is that he was censored while going through the hands of "the great and abominable church" that Nephi saw in vision. Zenos was outspoken about the coming of Christ, which probably did not make him popular among a lot of Jews, presumably including those who were responsible for preserving and transmitting the scriptures.
