Translation: “Endure to the end” is another phrase that Joseph Smith borrowed from the King James Version New Testament. The meaning is as applicable to Nephi as to the New Testament Christians. Nevertheless, the phrase in English has connotations of suffering accompanying endurance. Thus, the whole idea of enduring to the end can become a metaphor for a painful process. However, in the King James Version, the word being translated as “endure” is the Greek hupomeno (to “remain under”) from meno (“to remain”) and hupo (“under”). Our “hypodermic” (“under skin”) comes from this prefix, “hypo-”. The larger list of meanings for hupomeno is, “To stay behind, survive. To await another. To abide their presence. To be patient under, abide patiently, submit to. To wait for. To stand one’s ground, stand firm. Persist in doing.”
In the New Testament context, the meanings most applicable are “to be patient under,” “to stand firm,” and “to persist in doing.” Understanding these definitions gives new dimensions to 1 Corinthians 13:7: “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” This verse in Corinthians is a short chiasm, with “beareth”/“endureth” and “believeth”/“hopeth” as parallel terms. “Bearing” and “enduring” have less to do with pain and suffering than with persistence and steadfastness. A loose retranslation might be: “Standing firm in all things, believing all things, hoping all things, persisting in doing all things.”
The word translated in the KJV as “end” is the Greek telos, which is defined as “the fulfillment or completion of anything. To be finished or ready. To be completed.”
Matthew 5:48 also presents this concept of completion, although we might not otherwise connect it with “endure to the end”: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (See also commentary on 3 Nephi 12:48 for a similar discussion.) “Perfect” is the term that the KJV translators chose for the Greek teleios.Telos and Teleios are different forms of the same word. Teleios is defined as “having reached its end, complete. Of persons, absolute, complete, accomplished.”
In both cases, “perfect” and “end” refer to something that is completed or finished. What is to be finished? The process of exaltation. We are enjoined to endure to the end, or, as it might be rephrased, persist in doing until we have been exalted.
This persistence in moving toward exaltation is a trait that Alma praises in his son Helaman: “And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end” (Alma 38:2). Alma equates “continu[ing] in keeping his commandments” and “endur[ing] to the end.” According to Alma, persistence in keeping the commandments (enduring to the end) will lead to blessing.
At the temple in Bountiful, the Messiah clarifies the reward that will come with the “end” or “completion”: “Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life” (3 Ne. 15:9). The “end” is eternal life, or receiving celestial glory.