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RECENT NEWS, POSTS & INTERPRETER ARTICLES
“A Life Lived in Crescendo”:
Selected Punctuation Marks of Joseph Smith’s Final Years
“A Life Lived in Crescendo”:A “Come, Follow Me” Virtual Fireside Series
Sponsored by
The Interpreter Foundation
Book of Mormon Central
FAIR
Beginning Sunday, June 27, at 6:00 PM
(Anniversary of Joseph Smith’s martyrdom)
True to the End: The Martyrdom
Presented by
R. Jean Addams
For more information, including schedule, presenters and live-stream links, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/a-life-lived-in-crescendo-firesides/
Videos Available
Videos AvailableTracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses
The 2021 Book of Moses Conference
April 23-24, 2021
Presented by
The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture,
Book of Mormon Central and FAIR
To watch, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2021-book-of-moses-conference/videos/
Essay #65: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): A Curse for the Serpent (Moses 4:14–21)
Jewish pseudepigraphal texts tell of how, after Adam and Eve’s transgression, God’s “chariot throne [descends and] rests at the Tree of Life and all the flowers come into bloom.” Of this painting, Conisbee writes:
The Rebuke of Adam and Eve perfectly illustrates Domenichino’s classical style at the peak of his career. … The group of God and the angels is derived directly from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. … and should be read as an homage by the seventeenth-century painter to his great predecessor.
The Origin and Purpose of the Book of Mormon Phrase “If Ye Keep My Commandments Ye Shall Prosper in the Land”
Abstract: We are told in the Title Page of the Book of Mormon that the Book of Mormon was revealed in our day “to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord,...
Estimating the Evidence, Episode 3: On an Improbable Dictation
It seems unlikely that Joseph Smith could write the Book of Mormon through the dictation process described by witnesses, or that he could have written it in some other way without leaving a trail of evidence.
Many critics seem convinced that Joseph could dictate the Book of Mormon without much trouble, and those who recognize the difficulty of the dictation process rely on him authoring the manuscript in secret—without leaving any evidence of that process.
Interpreter Radio Show — July 11, 2021
You can listen to or download the July 11 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. It will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). The hosts were Martin Tanner, John Gee and Kevin Christensen. In this...
Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 31 (D&C 84)
This is an Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 31, “The Power of Godliness” on D&C 84. The panelists for this roundtable were Kris Fredrickson and Martin Tanner. This roundtable was extracted from the June 20, 2021 broadcast...
Doctrine and Covenants Study and Teaching Helps — Lesson 31
D&C 84:2-5 The New Jerusalem The section heading indicates that Joseph Smith called this “a revelation on priesthood,” which it certainly is, but it could also be described as a revelation on covenants and ordinances, the gathering of Israel, missionary work, the...
Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement
Abstract: The authors begin by the highlighting the importance of Book of Moses research that has discovered plausible findings for its historicity, rendering it at least reasonable to give the benefit of the doubt to sacred premises — even if, ultimately, the choice of premises is just that, a choice. Emphasizing the relevance of the Book of Moses to the temple, they note that the Book of Moses is not only an ancient temple text, but also the ideal scriptural context for a modern temple preparation course. Going further, the authors address an important question raised by some who have asked: “Since Christ is at the center of the gospel, why doesn’t the temple endowment teach the story of the life of Christ? What’s all this about Adam and Eve?” The answer given in detail in the paper is as follows: “The story of the life of Christ is the story of giving the Atonement. And the story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the Atonement. Their story is our story, too.”
Essay #64: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The False Apron and the Tree of Death and Rebirth (Moses 4:13)
We read in Moses 4:13 that after Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they had been naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” The ending of the verse implicitly signals to the reader that the making of the aprons is the culminating event in the story. However, Emily Mahan observes that the Old English manuscript shown above punctuates the verse differently, with three dots in triangle form, highlighting the importance of the opening of the eyes of Adam and Eve: “and the eyes of them both were opened .·.”
The Goodness of God and His Children as a Fundamental Theological Concept in the Book of Mormon
Abstract: The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars to be an independent principle in Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts...
Interpreter Radio Show — July 4, 2021
You can listen to or download the July 4 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. It will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). This episode was hosted by Martin Tanner. In this episode, Martin discussed...
Interpreter Radio Show — June 27, 2021
You can listen to or download the June 27 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. It will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). The hosts were Steve Densley, Matthew Bowen and Mark J. Johnson with special...
Estimating the Evidence, Episode 2: On the Consistency of Visions
How can we expect to believe Joseph’s story when his accounts of the First Vision have so many inconsistencies?
In reality, even people who recount true stories will do so differently with each telling, and those stories aren’t much more consistent than for people who are telling lies. Taken as a whole, Joseph does add and omit a lot of material in his first-hand accounts, and there are some contradictions, but even if you stack the deck in favor of the critics, consistency just isn’t a great way to tell truth from error.
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