Zenos and the Allegory of the Olive Tree
last update: 2020-05-16
(notes)
An interesting apologetic argument for Zenos documented at Book of Mormon central.
A few notes in counter:
Primarily, there are a substantial numbers of modern sources which can explain the allegory.
There is not a great correspondence between the Zenos of the BoM and Cenez:
However, after careful analysis, Welch concluded that a direct identification between Cenez and Zenos is not likely.
What is more probable is that there was an earlier ancient source than the surviving story of Cenez which inspired the vineyard imagery found in the Book of Mormon.
- Zenos and Zenoch sound very similar to Enos and Enoch, the latter two which are both biblical names (from here)
- Zeno (and zenos in plural or possessive form) was used somewhat commonly in the early 1800s literature.
- The Greek meaning of “Zeno” is derived from the greek God Zeus, which seems odd for an Israelite prophet of that time. (oddity noted here)