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Basic Resources
Overviews and Student Manuals
“Book of Moses FAQ.” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 09, 2020.Links to available media:
“Introduction to the Book of Moses.” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 02, 2020.Links to available media:
Pearl of Great Price Symposium: A Centennial Presentation, November 22, 1975. Robert J. Matthews, Chairman. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University [The Department of Ancient Scripture], 1976.Tenth Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium: The Pearl of Great Price, January 30, 1982. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University and the Church Educational System, 1985.“That Promised Day: The Coming Forth of the LDS Scriptures.” In BYU TV. 2010.This documentary film outlines the development of the 1979/1981 editions of the LDS Bible and Book of Mormon. Deepen your appreciation for the massive effort made to create the Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, Joseph Smith Translation, footnotes, maps, and more. Listen to those who worked on the project over 30 years ago and hear their inspired experiences.
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Religion 327: The Pearl of Great Price Student Manual. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2017.The Pearl of Great Price is a book of scripture, and the Lord will bless you as you carefully read and ponder the sacred words found therein. This student manual provides statements and commentary to support and enhance your study of the Pearl of Great Price.
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Religion 327: The Pearl of Great Price Teacher Manual. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2017.Links to available media:“The Book of Moses.” In A Bible! A Bible!, edited by Robert J. Matthews, 100–114. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1990.“Book of Moses.” In Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint Church History, edited by Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon and Richard O. Cowan, 121–22. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2000.“How We Got the Book of Moses.” Ensign. January, 1986.The book of Moses is the first of several documents in the collection of sacred writings published as the Pearl of Great Price. Although this material is currently labeled “Selections from the Book of Moses,” it was not always specified by that name, nor has the content of the material always been exactly as it is today. A quick look at its origin, development, and content can help us more fully appreciate what the book of Moses is, how it came to be, and why it is a unique witness for Jesus Christ.
Links to available media:Joseph Smith’s Revision of the Bible. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1969.“What is the Book of Moses?” In The Pearl of Great Price. Studies in Scripture: Volume 2, edited by Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson, 25–41. Salt Lake City, UT: Randall Book Co., 1985.The Pearl of Great Price: A History and Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1987.
Detailed Commentary
Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price. Revised edition. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2003.Book of Moses Essays. Seventy-Seven Essays on the Book of Moses. In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. 2020-21.Links to available media:“Creation, Fall, and the Story of Adam and Eve.” In In God’s Image and Likeness 1. Updated ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2014.The stories of the Grand Councils in Heaven, the Creation, the Fall, and the revelation of the Plan of Salvation to mankind are foundational to LDS doctrine. As it turns out, they are also the focus of a vast ancient literature by Jewish commentators, Islamic scholars, and early Christians, as well as the nexus of perennial controversies about science and religion.
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“Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel.” In In God’s Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014.One of the most prominent themes in the first eleven chapters of the Bible is a series of transgressions of boundaries that had been set up in the beginning to separate mankind from the dwelling place of God. This general thesis is useful as far as it goes. In the stories of the transgressions of Adam and Eve, of Cain, of Lamech, of the “sons of God” who married the “daughters of men,” and of the builders of the Tower of Babel, we cannot fail to observe the common thread of a God who places strict boundaries between the human and the divine. Surprisingly, however, a significant and opposite theme has been largely neglected by readers: namely, the fact that within some of these same chapters God is also portrayed as having sought to erase the divine-human boundary for a righteous few, drawing them into His very presence. The prime examples of this motif are, of course, Enoch and Noah, of whom it was explicitly said that they “walked with God.”
Links to available media:“The First Days and the Last Days.” The Interpreter Foundation website. Preprint article. December 13, 2021.Includes an excerpt from the Preface of The First Days and the Last Days: A Verse-By-Verse Commentary on the Book of Moses and JS—Matthew in Light of the Temple, followed by the title page and Table of Contents for the book as a whole.
Links to available media:The First Days and the Last Days: A Verse-By-Verse Commentary on the Book of Moses and JS—Matthew in Light of the Temple. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2021.Like a perfectly formed pair of bookends, the Book of Moses and Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of Matthew 24 (JS—Matthew) bracket within their pages the essential survival guide for our times. In the “first days,” Adam and Eve looked forward to Christ’s coming; in the “last days,” we look backward to Christ’s mortal life and forward to His return in glory. In the beginning, Enoch learned the ordinances and covenants that would allow his people to dwell in the presence of God; to the end, we will treasure the same ordinances and covenants. Through faith in Jesus Christ and faithfulness to these covenants we hope to stand someday in the holy place with perfect assurance.
This comprehensive phrase-by-phrase commentary on the Book of Moses and JS—Matthew is the result of decades of loving study of their wonderful words. In its pages you will find both everyday guidance and the answers to life’s most important questions. Importantly, this book is a witness that the doctrines and ordinances of the temple are deeply woven into the fabric of these supernal works of scripture, containing persuasive evidence of their authenticity and antiquity. Scores of carefully selected images, coupled with detailed explanations, enrich the commentary. Rather than simply illustrating the text, they seek to enter into dialogue with it.
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“ScripturePlus Commentary Minutes on Genesis and the Book of Moses.” In ScripturePlus from Book of Mormon Central. English and Spanish.English and Spanish
Links to available media:Temple Themes in the Book of Moses. Updated ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Publishing, 2014.The book of Moses is an ideal starting point for a scripture-based study of temple themes. It is well known, for example, that the LDS temple endowment, like the book of Moses, includes includes the stories of Creation and of Adam and Eve. What is more rarely appreciated, however, is that the relationship between scripture and temple teachings goes two ways. Not only have many of the stories of the book of Moses been included in the endowment, but also, in striking abundance, themes echoing temple architecture, furnishings, ordinances, and covenants have been deeply woven into the text of the book of Moses itself.
Links to available media:The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005.Principles of the Pearl of Great Price: A Topical Commentary. Lubbock, TX: Enterprise Books, 2001.An essay published posthumously in which England wrestles with what he believed to be a disturbing trend in Mormonism away from what he saw as Joseph Smith’s and Brigham Young’s doctrine of God as a personal being engaged with us in a tragic universe not of his own making and toward a more absolutistic God similar to the teachings about deity held by Evangelical Christianity.
Links to available media:The Pearl of Great Price. Studies in Scripture: Volume 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1989.Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price. Published as Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1986.Dr. Hugh W. Nibley, professor emeritus of ancient scriptures at Brigham Young University, gave the following twenty-six lectures in an honors class on The Pearl of Great Price. This class was videotaped in the Maesar Building during winter semester 1986 and the text was then transcribed and is included here in this book.
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Joseph Smith Translation (JST), Primary Manuscripts and Parallel Editions
Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2004.The latter-day restoration of the gospel included the restoration of much significant truth to the Bible. It brought about the restoration of biblical history that had been lost and the restoration of biblical texts that had been changed or omitted or were in need of clarification. More important, it included the restoration of biblical doctrine that had been either removed, distorted, or simply misinterpreted by a world that did not enjoy the fulness of the gospel.
Shortly after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint was organized, the Prophet Joseph Smith was instructed by the Lord to undertake a careful reading of the Bible to revise and make corrections in accordance with the inspiration that he would receive. The result was a work of profound significance for the Church that included the revelation of many important truths and the restoration of many of the “precious things” that the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi had foretold would be taken from the Bible (1 Ne. 13:23–29). In June 1830 the first revealed addition to the Bible was set to writing. Over the next three years, the Prophet made changes, additions, and corrections as were given him by divine inspiration while he filled his calling to provide a more correct translation for the Church. Collectively, these are called the Joseph Smith Translation (JST), a name first applied in the 1970s, or the New Translation, as Joseph Smith and others in his day referred to it.
Links to available media:Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible Electronic Library. CD-ROM. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2011.“New Testament Revision 1.” The Joseph Smith Papers.Links to available media:“New Testament Revision 2.” The Joseph Smith Papers.Links to available media:“Old Testament Revision 1.” The Joseph Smith Papers.Links to available media:“Old Testament Revision 2.” The Joseph Smith Papers.Links to available media:“Visions of Moses, June 1830 [Moses 1].” In The Joseph Smith Papers.“A Revelation given to Joseph the Revelator June 1830,” Visions of Moses, [Fayette Township, Seneca Co., NY, or Harmony Township, Susquehanna Co., PA (or possibly Colesville Township or Manchester Township, NY)], June 1830; handwriting of Oliver Cowdery; three pages; now in Old Testament Revision 1, CCLA.
Images of this item © Community of Christ and licensed to the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Inquiries about high-resolution images of this item for scholarly use should be directed to the Community of Christ Library-Archives, Independence, Missouri.
Links to available media:The Complete Joseph Smith Translation of the Old Testament: A Side-by-Side Comparison with the King James Version. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2009.
Doctrines and Teachings
The Unknown Testament. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1988.“The Book of Moses as a Pre–Augustinian Text: A New Look at the Pelagian Crisis.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 293–314. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Mortality Reconsidered: The Book of Moses as a Pre-Augustinian Text.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:“‘Compassion upon the Earth’: Man, Prophets, and Nature.” In Stewardship and the Creation: LDS Perspectives on the Environment, edited by George B. Handley, Terry B. Ball, and Stephen L. Peck, 81–88. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2006.Links to available media:“Insights into the Book of Genesis.” In The Joseph Smith Translation: The Restoration of Plain and Precious Things, edited by Monte S. Nyman and Robert L. Millet, 51–88. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1985.Links to available media:“1831 Edward Partridge Genesis Copy.” Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: Electronic Library, ed. Scott H. Faulring and Kent P. Jackson. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2011.“An Age of Contrasts: From Adam to Abraham.” Ensign 26, no. 2, February 1986, 28–30.Links to available media:“‘Book of Moses,’ 71–73; ‘Book of Moses Manuscripts,’ 78; ‘Cain,’ 84; ‘Canaan, People Of,’ 85; ‘Curse, Cursed, Cursing,’ 99–100; ‘Inspired Version,’ 166; ‘Intelligences,’ 167; ‘Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible,’ 187–188; ‘Like Unto God/like Unto the Son of Man,’ 199; ’Meridian of Time,’ 207; ‘One Flesh,’ 227; ‘Patriarchs, Ages Of,’ 233; ‘Pearl of Great Price: An Overview and Introduction,’ 1–5; ‘Pearl of Great Price, Historical Development Of,’ 234–135; ‘Perdition,’ 237; ‘Satan,’ 258–259.” In Pearl of Great Price Reference Companion, edited by Dennis L. Largey. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2017.“Inspired Additions to Genesis.” In Studies in Scripture, Vol. 3: The Old Testament— Genesis to 2 Samuel, edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet, 35–46. Salt Lake City, UT: Randall Book, 1985.The Restored Gospel and the Book of Genesis. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2001.The Joseph Smith Translation: Precious Truths Restored. American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2002.‘A Bible! A Bible!’: How Latter-day Revelation Helps Us Understand the Scriptures and the Savior. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1990.Of One Heart: The Glory of the City of Enoch. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1980.Links to available media:
Surveys and Perspectives on Ancient Sources from Outside the Bible
Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World. Proceedings of the 2013 BYU Church History Symposium. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2015.The 2013 BYU Church History Symposium This volume is a collection of essays by prominent LDS scholars–including keynote speakers Richard Bushman and David Holland–that discuss the interest in the ancient world shared by Joseph Smith and the early Latter-day Saints. Topics include Joseph Smith’s fascination with the ancient Americas, his interaction with the Bible, his study of Hebrew and Greek, his reading of Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings, and his work with the Book of Abraham in the context of nineteenth-century Egyptology. Together, these essays demonstrate that Joseph Smith’s interests in antiquity played an important role in his prophetic development as he sought to recover ancient scripture, restore the ancient Church, and bring the Latter-day Saints into fellowship with the sacred past. ISBN 978‐0‐8425‐2966‐2
Links to available media:Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973.The essays in this volume address key aspects of Israelite religious development. Cross traces the continuities between early Israelite religion and the Canaanite culture from which it emerged; explores the tension between the mythic and the historical in Israel’s religious expression; and examines the reemergence of Canaanite mythic material in the apocalypticism of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Links to available media:Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997.Latter-day Saint Scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Special issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity (Volume 2). Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2010.Links to available media:Apocryphal Writings and the Latter-day Saints. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1986.The Lord has told us that many things in the Apocrypha are true and many false. The fascination that apocryphal writings generally hold for Latter-day Saints was recognized in a 1983 BYU symposium on this topic addressed by fifteen scholars representing a wide range of expertise. Those addresses are collected in this book.
Links to available media:Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period: A Guide for New Testament Students. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2002.Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993.“Historicity and the Truthfulness of God.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 141–148. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 2001.While some may argue that gospel truth is separate from historical truth, the gospel cannot be true unless it is also historical. This means that events such as the Creation, Fall, Atonement, and Restoration all truly took place in an identifiable time and place, even if that time and place are not known to us. If these or any gospel events were not historically true, God could not render a righteous judgment on any person.
Links to available media:Keywords: Book of Mormon; Historicity; Truth“Whose Apocrypha? Viewing Ancient Apocrypha from the Vantage of Events in the Present Dispensation.” In Apocryphal Writings and the Latter-day Saints, edited by C. Wilfred Griggs, 1–18. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1986.When I was invited to participate in this symposium on the subject of apocryphal literature, my first inclination was to decline. This was a conference for experts trained in the biblical languages. But after some reflection, I changed my mind because I think there is a place for variety, and there might even be an advantage in having a paper from a nonlinguistic point of view. And so, although I do not know Greek or Hebrew, I have had considerable exposure to Church history, and I am familiar with the formation of several books of scripture and non-scripture. This is especially true as pertaining to the books that are used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereinafter labeled the LDS Church) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (hereinafter called the RLDS Church). And I think there are some parallels between the development of books in the Church anciently and development of books in the Church in modern times.
Links to available media:Keywords: ApocryphaJewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah: A Historical and Literary Introduction. 2nd edition. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005.The Dead Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000.Since their initial discovery in 1947, the ancient scrolls found in caves near the Dead Sea have stirred public curiosity. For Latter-day Saints, whose scriptural tradition speaks of sacred records to come forth in the last days, the Dead Sea Scrolls naturally give rise to questions such as:
— Are there references to Christ or Christianity in the scrolls?
— Do the scrolls contain scripture missing from the Bible?
— Is the plan of salvation attested in the scrolls?
— Do the scrolls refer to Joseph Smith or other latter-day figures?
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints succinctly deals with these and other questions on topics of particular interest to LDS readers. These topics are based on actual questions that Latter-day Saints have asked the authors as they have taught classes at Brigham Young University, shared their research at professional symposia, and spoken in other settings.
Links to available media:LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997.Links to available media:“Lying for God: The Uses of the Apocrypha.” In Apocryphal Writings and the Latter-day Saints, edited by C. Wilfred Griggs, 133-154. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1986.In this paper I intend to deal primarily with the element of deception in the production and employment of apocryphal literature, particularly as it is revealed by the devices of pseudonymity and pseudepigraphy. I am defining pseudonymity here as an author’s intentional adoption of another persona, not merely as a pen name but as an assumed identity. Thus the Testament of Solomon is pseudonymous because the author has clearly adopted the persona of Solomon and speaks, as Solomon, in the first person. On the other hand, Huckleberry Finn would not be pseudonymous by my definition even though Samuel Clemens used the nom de plume Mark Twain, because Clemens did not adopt a persona other than his own; that is, we may assume that Clemens did not return royalty checks made out to Mark Twain, but rather cashed them unashamedly. Sam Clemens was Mark Twain, and there was no real possibility of confusing one person for the other.
Links to available media:Keywords: Apocrypha; PseudepigraphaAncient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2005.Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996.“Joseph Smith’s Developing Relationship with the Apocrypha.” In Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World, Brigham Young University Church History Symposium, eds. Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey and Andrew H. Hedges, 331–355. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2015.Several approaches to interpreting Joseph Smith’s use of the so-called Jewish and Christian apocryphal literature have been employed both by critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter LDS), and by those professing faith in the Church and whose interests may be classified as apologetic. These approaches span the range of being probative of Joseph Smith’s restoration of lost texts and scripture and being dismissive of Mormonism generally, because its sacred religious texts are founded on flagrant plagiarism of apocryphal literature.[1] Before one can answer the most important historical question at hand, how Joseph Smith used the Apocrypha and what relationship that body of literature had to early Mormon writings, it seems prudent to first of all establish some controls on the discussion. This is necessary because previous discussions have largely contented themselves with drawing out parallels between apocryphal writings and early Mormon publications without any discussion of whether or not Joseph Smith had access to the texts under discussion. Moreover, a wide variety of modern translations of ancient apocryphal texts are often employed when there is no possible way that someone living in the early nineteenth century could have known them. This is particularly important when citing phrases or words that Joseph Smith might have incorporated into the language of his revelations.
Links to available media:Space and Time in the Religious Life of the Near East. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.
Perspectives on Science and the Book of Moses
“The Mormon Myth of Evil Evolution.” Dialogue 35, no. 4 (2002): 19-59.Links to available media:Science and Mormonism: Cosmos, Earth, and Man. Interpreter Science and Mormonism Symposia 1. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2016.This book features the personal perspectives of prominent LDS scientists addressing the theme of “Cosmos, Earth, and Man.” Many of these were drawn from the first Interpreter Symposium on Science and Mormonism, held in Provo, Utah on 9 November 2013. In the pages of this book, readers will appreciate the concise and colorful summaries of the state-of-the-art in scientific research relating to these topics and will gain a deeper appreciation of the unique contributions of LDS doctrine to the ongoing conversation.
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“The Theory of Evolution is Compatible with Both Belief and Unbelief in a Supreme Being.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 16 (2015): 261-281.Abstract: The crux of the creation–evolution conflict is a futile desire to scientifically prove or disprove the existence of God. The conflict is manifest in the common belief that creation means a divine, supernatural process and that evolution denotes an atheistic, accidental event. Evolution involves a random change in an inherited trait followed by selection for or against the altered trait. If humans use this principle to design machines, solve complex mathematical problems, engineer proteins, and manipulate living organisms, then certainly a super-intelligent being could have used evolution to create life on earth. This reasoning indicates that evolution does not prove atheism and that evolution is a constructive process. The theory of evolution is a mechanistic description and therefore, like all other scientific principles, is neutral on the question of God’s existence. Evolution is compatible with the simple scriptural accounts of creation. Consequently, belief or unbelief in God is put back where it should be — on individual choice.
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Of Heaven and Earth: Reconciling Scientific Thought with LDS Theology. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1998.“Paley’s Stone, Creationism, Eschatology, and Conservation.” In Stewardship and the Creation: LDS Perspectives on the Environment, edited by George B. Handley, Terry B. Ball, and Stephen L. Peck, 33–42. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2006.Links to available media:Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements. Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2005.The Faith of a Scientist. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1967.Reflections of a Scientist. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1983.Science and Religion: Toward a More Useful Dialogue. 2 vols. Geneva, IL: Paladin House, 1979.“The Theory of Evolution is Compatible with Both Belief and Unbelief in a Supreme Being.” The Interpreter Foundation website. January 27, 2020.Links to available media:“Before Adam.” In Old Testament and Related Studies, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 1, edited by John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum, and Don E. Norton, 49—85. Salt Lake City/Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1986.Originally presented as a talk given on 1 April 1980 at Brigham Young University.
A controversial examination of evolution and the Latter-day Saint view on creation and the various roles of Adam.
Links to available media:See also: “Before Adam” (1980)Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology. Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1992.Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2015.Links to available media:The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2–3 and the Human Origins Debate. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015.“Evolution and the Gospel: Seeking Grandeur in This View of Life.” In Converging Paths to Truth: The Summerhays Lectures on Science and Religion, edited by Michael D. Rhodes and J. Ward Moody, 151–68. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2011.Links to available media:“Did the Flood Cover the Highest Mountains of the Earth?” In Evidences and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day, edited by John A. Widtsoe. 2nd ed, 109-12. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1943.
Study Resources for the Hebrew and Greek Texts of Genesis
Genesis 1–11: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text. Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible, ed. W. Dennis Tucker, Jr. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008.The Text of Genesis 1–11: Textual Studies and Critical Edition. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998.Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1–11. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009.Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1993.
Non-English Resources
“‘Veren kautta teidät pyhitetään’: Toimitusten ja hengellisen uudestisyntymisen vertauskuvallinen, pelastava, toisiinsa liittyvä, kertyvä, taaksepäin katsova ja ennakoiva luonne Johanneksen evankeliumin kolmannessa ja Mooseksen kirjan ensimmäisessä luvussa.” Finnish translation of “‘By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified’: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6.”.[Editor’s Note: This article is an updated and extended version of a presentation given at the Third Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference: The Temple on Mount Zion, November 5, 2016, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. For a video version of the presentation, see https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference-videos/]
Abstract: In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.”
To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”
In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of these ordinances within the allusive and sometimes enigmatic descriptions of John 3 and Moses 6. Moses 6:51–68, with its dense infusion of temple themes, was revealed to the Prophet in December 1830, when the Church was in its infancy and more than a decade before the fulness of priesthood ordinances was made available to the Saints in Nauvoo. Our study of these chapters informs our closing perspective on the meaning of the sacrament, which is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”
We discuss the relationship of the sacrament to the shewbread of Israelite temples, and its anticipation of the heavenly feast that will be enjoyed by those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Links to available media:See also:““By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6” (2017)
““By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6” (2020)“L’Apocalypse d’Abraham: Témoin Ancien du Livre de Moïse (The Apocalypse of Abraham : Ancient Witness of the Book of Moses).” Invited lecture at the FAIR France Conference, Strasbourg, France. March 29, 2009.Links to available media:“Die Apokalypse Abrahams: Ein antiker Zeuge für das Buch Mose (The Apocalypse of Abraham : Ancient Witness of the Book of Moses).” Invited lecture at the FAIR Germany Conference, Frankfurt, Germany. 28 March 2009.Links to available media:“ScripturePlus Commentary Minutes on Genesis and the Book of Moses.” In ScripturePlus from Book of Mormon Central. English and Spanish.English and Spanish
Links to available media:Temas del Templo en Libro de Moisés. Spanish translation of Temple Themes in the Book of Moses. Updated ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Publishing, 2014.The book of Moses is an ideal starting point for a scripture-based study of temple themes. It is well known, for example, that the LDS temple endowment, like the book of Moses, includes includes the stories of Creation and of Adam and Eve. What is more rarely appreciated, however, is that the relationship between scripture and temple teachings goes two ways. Not only have many of the stories of the book of Moses been included in the endowment, but also, in striking abundance, themes echoing temple architecture, furnishings, ordinances, and covenants have been deeply woven into the text of the book of Moses itself.
Links to available media:“Древо познания как завеса храма (Святилища).” Russian translation of “The Tree of Knowledge as the Veil of the Sanctuary” in Ascending the Mountain of the Lord: Temple, Praise, and Worship in the Old Testament, edited by David Rolph Seely, Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Matthew J. Grey. The 42nd Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium (26 October, 2013), 49–65. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2013.One thing that has always perplexed readers of Genesis is the location of the two special trees within the Garden of Eden. Although scripture initially applies the phrase “in the midst” only to the tree of life (Genesis 2:9), the tree of knowledge is later said by Eve to be located there too (see Genesis 3:3). In the context of these verses, the Hebrew phrase corresponding to “in the midst” literally means “in the center.” How can both trees be in the center?
Links to available media:See also: “The Tree of Knowledge as the Veil of the Sanctuary” (2013)
Joseph Smith Translation (JST)
Latter-day Saint Canon
Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion. Updated ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013.Philip L. Barlow offers an in-depth analysis of the approaches taken to the Bible by major Mormon leaders, from its beginnings to the present. He shows that Mormon attitudes toward the Bible comprise an extraordinary mix of conservative, liberal, and radical ingredients: an almost fundamentalist adherence to the King James Version co-exists with belief in the possibility of new revelation and surprising ideas about the limits of human language. Barlow’s exploration takes important steps toward unraveling the mystery of this quintessential American religious phenomenon. This updated edition of Mormons and the Bible includes an extended bibliography and a new preface, casting Joseph Smith’s mission into a new frame and treating evolutions in Mormonism’s biblical usage in recent decades.
Links to available media:Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2011.“The Latter-day Saint Concept of Canon.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson, 1–16. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001.Traditional Christianity struggled for many years to define its canon, to determine which of its writings were sacred, inspired, and authoritative. The Latter-day Saint concept of canon differs from that of other Christians. In addition to the Bible, the Latter-day Saint canon includes the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. These “standard works” provide a measuring rod by which we can judge other texts and statements. But while we have a canon, we nevertheless believe that God continues to make known His will through the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—men we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators. Inspired by the Holy Ghost, their decisions are to be made in unity (D&C 107:27). We as Church members also need the Holy Ghost in order to recognize scriptural power in their words, and we can be comforted in the Lord’s promise that the President of the Church will never lead us astray.
Links to available media:
Latter-day Saint Edition of the Bible
“Church Publishes First LDS Edition of the Bible.” Ensign, October 1979, 9-18.Links to available media:Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion. Updated ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013.Philip L. Barlow offers an in-depth analysis of the approaches taken to the Bible by major Mormon leaders, from its beginnings to the present. He shows that Mormon attitudes toward the Bible comprise an extraordinary mix of conservative, liberal, and radical ingredients: an almost fundamentalist adherence to the King James Version co-exists with belief in the possibility of new revelation and surprising ideas about the limits of human language. Barlow’s exploration takes important steps toward unraveling the mystery of this quintessential American religious phenomenon. This updated edition of Mormons and the Bible includes an extended bibliography and a new preface, casting Joseph Smith’s mission into a new frame and treating evolutions in Mormonism’s biblical usage in recent decades.
Links to available media:“Precious Truths Restored: Joseph Smith Translation Changes Not Included in Our Bible.” Religious Educator 5, no. 2 (2004): 56–74.Links to available media:“Precious Truths Restored: Joseph Smith Translation Changes Not Included in Our Bible.” The Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 5, no. 2 (2004): 57–74.The more we are acquainted with the life and ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the more evident it becomes that Elder John Taylor did not overstate reality when he said that “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it” (D&C 135:3). This passage goes on to specify that it was the abundance of revelation and scripture given Joseph Smith that particularly qualified him for such a lofty epithet.
Links to available media:“How Joseph Smith Translation Passages Were Selected for the LDS Bible.” In Selected Writings of Robert J. Matthews, edited by Robert J. Matthews. Gospel Scholars Series, 312–313. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1999.“‘A Miracle from Day One’: Publication of the Joseph Smith Translation Manuscripts.” The Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 5, no. 2 (2004): 13–21.Later this year, the Religious Studies Center will publish a volume called Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts, edited by Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews. To help readers understand the scope and purpose of this project, the Religious Educator held the following interview with two of the editors.
Links to available media:“Changing Attitudes toward Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible.” In Plain and Precious Truths Restored: The Doctrinal and Historical Significance of the Joseph Smith Translation, edited by Robert L. Millet and Robert J. Matthews, 187–226. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1995.“The Latter-day Saint Edition of the King James Bible.” In The King James Bible and the Restoration, edited by Kent P. Jackson, 260–280. Provo, UT and Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2011.During the early 1970s, a practical need arose for a Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Bible. As explained by George A. Horton Jr., director of curriculum production and distribution for the Church Educational System, three different Bibles were in circulation among Church members—one for adults, one for seminary students, and one for Primary children. Not only did this system create an element of chaos, but it also increased costs. [1] About this time, the Spirit of the Lord seemed to be hovering over several people in various organizations within the Church. Two of these people were Horton and his colleague Grant E. Barton, who was then serving as a member of the newly formed Meetinghouse Library Committee. [2] Horton and Barton were neighbors who carpooled together to the Church Office Building, using the occasion to discuss a desire to have one Bible as well as teaching aids for an LDS edition. [3] Barton, Horton, and another colleague decided to survey various organizations of the Church to help them decide “what the ideal characteristics/features would be of the ideal Bible that would be used by all.”
Links to available media:
Secondary Manuscripts and Published Editions
“Old Testament Manuscript 3: An Early Transcript of the Book of Moses.” Mormon Historical Studies 5, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 113–144.Links to available media:“1831 Edward Partridge Genesis Copy.” Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: Electronic Library, ed. Scott H. Faulring and Kent P. Jackson. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2011.“1845 John M. Bernhisel Copy.” Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: Electronic Library, ed. Scott H. Faulring and Kent P. Jackson. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2011.“1866–1867 RLDS Committee Manuscript.” Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: Electronic Library, ed. Scott H. Faulring and Kent P. Jackson. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2011.The Book of Moses and the Joseph Smith Translation Manuscripts. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005.This book is a study of the text of Selections from the Book of Moses, an excerpt of Genesis from the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Commonly called the Book of Moses, it is the first section in the Pearl of Great Price, one of the standard works of scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We now have access to the revealed text itself, which we did not have before, and we can examine the words as they were recorded when they first came from the inspired lips of the Prophet. We are in a new day, a day of closer access to one of the great fruits of the Restoration—an important branch of Joseph Smith’s calling, as he designated his inspired work on the Bible. With our ability now to examine the original documents closely, we can express our thanks to a loving God who has provided that “righteousness and truth.”
Links to available media:“Joseph Smith Translating Genesis.” BYU Studies Quarterly 56, no. 4 (2017): 7–28.Links to available media:The Inspired Revision of the Bible. Revised edition. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News Press, 1963.
Translation
“Joseph Smith Translation with Mark Ashurst-McGee and Michael Hubbard MacKay.” On From the Desk of Kurt Manwaring. https://www.fromthedesk.org/producing-ancient-scripture/. August 4, 2020.Links to available media:“A Commentary on Joseph Smith’s Revision of First Corinthians.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 53, no. 2 (Summer 2020): 57-105.Links to available media:“The Joseph Smith Translation and Ancient Texts of the Bible.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 19, no. 3 (Fall 1986): 85-102.Links to available media:“Book of Moses Textual Criticism 3: Was the Book of Moses Simply an Unplanned Afterthought to Moses 1? A response to Thomas A. Wayment. ‘Intertextuality and the Purpose of Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible.’” The Interpreter Foundation, September 10, 2020.Links to available media:“Could Joseph Smith Have Drawn on Ancient Manuscripts When He Translated the Story of Enoch?: Recent Updates on a Persistent Question.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 33 (2019): 305-374.Abstract: In this article, we offer a general critique of scholarship that has argued for Joseph Smith’s reliance on 1 Enoch or other ancient pseudepigrapha for the Enoch chapters in the Book of Moses. Our findings highlight the continued difficulties of scholars to sustain such arguments credibly. Following this general critique, we describe the current state of research relating to what Salvatore Cirillo took to be the strongest similarity between Joseph Smith’s chapters on Enoch and the Qumran Book of Giants — namely the resemblance between the name Mahawai in the Book of Giants and Mahujah/Mahijah in Joseph Smith’s Enoch account. We conclude this section with summaries of conversations of Gordon C. Thomasson and Hugh Nibley with Book of Giants scholar Matthew Black about these names. Next, we explain why even late and seemingly derivative sources may provide valuable new evidence for the antiquity of Moses 6–7 or may corroborate details from previously known Enoch sources. By way of example, we summarize preliminary research that compares passages in Moses 6–7 to newly available ancient Enoch texts from lesser known sources. We conclude with a discussion of the significance of findings that situate Joseph Smith’s Enoch account in an ancient milieu. Additional work is underway to provide a systematic and detailed analysis of ancient literary affinities in Moses 6–7, including an effort sponsored by Book of Mormon Central in collaboration with The Interpreter Foundation.
Links to available media:“Foreword.” In Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture, edited by Matthew L. Bowen, ix-xliv. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2018.Links to available media:“Ten Questions with Jeffrey M. Bradshaw [about the Book of Moses].” From The Desk of Kurt Manwaring. September 14, 2020.Links to available media:Joseph Smith’s Translation: The Words and Worlds of Early Mormonism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2020.“Translating Time: The Nature and Function of Joseph Smith’s Narrative Canon.” Journal of Religion 87, no. 4 (October 2007): 497–527.Links to available media:“Ancient History and Modern Commandments: The Book of Mormon in Comparison with Joseph Smith’s Other Revelations.” In Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects and the Making of Mormon Christianity, edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Michael Hubbard MacKay and Brian M. Hauglid, 205–227. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2020.
“Jackson Article Preview — Did Joseph Smith Use Adam Clarke?” The Interpreter Foundation website. August 18, 2020.Links to available media:“The Coming Forth of the King James Bible.” In The King James Bible and the Restoration, edited by Kent P. Jackson, 43–60. Provo, UT and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book and , 2011.“Joseph Smith’s Translation of the New Testament.” In New Testament History, Culture, and Society, edited by Lincoln H. Blumell, 707–718. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2019.Links to available media:“The King James Bible and the Joseph Smith Translation.” In The King James Bible and the Restoration, edited by Kent P. Jackson, 197–211. Provo, UT and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2011.“The Process of Inspired Translation: Two Passages Translated Twice in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.” BYU Studies 42, no. 2 (2003): 35–64.Since 1996, researchers from Brigham Young University—with the assistance of new photographs, scanned images, and much hands-on examination of the documents—have been engaged in a careful study of the text written on the original manuscripts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. The work has yielded the publication of a large facsimile transcription of all the original manuscript pages and much new information about how Joseph Smith prepared the text. Among the many new discoveries resulting from this research is an enhanced understanding of the sequence and chronology of the Prophet’s work.
Links to available media:“Some Notes on Joseph Smith and Adam Clarke.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 40 (2020): 15-60.Abstract: Authors of two recent articles believe they have found evidence that Joseph Smith, in preparing his revision of the Bible, drew ideas from a contemporary Bible commentary by British scholar Adam Clarke. The evidence, however, does not bear out this claim. I believe that none of the examples they provide can be traced to Clarke’s commentary, and almost all of them can be explained easily by other means. The authors do not look at their examples within the broader context of the revisions Joseph Smith made to the Bible, and thus they misinterpret them. Some of the revisions they attribute to Clarke are ones that Joseph Smith had made repeatedly before he arrived at the passages where they believe he got ideas from Clarke. In addition, there is a mountain of material in Clarke that is not reflected in the Joseph Smith Translation, and there is a mountain of material in the Joseph Smith Translation that cannot be explained by reference to Clarke. The few overlaps that do exist are vague, superficial, and coincidental.
Links to available media:“Ten Questions with Kent P. Jackson [about the Joseph Smith Translation].” In From the Desk of Kurt Manwaring. November 23, 2020.Links to available media:“The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible: Ancient Material Restored or Inspired Commentary? Canonical or Optional? Finished or Unfinished?” BYU Studies Quarterly 60, no. 3 (2021): 147–57.Joseph Smith began an ambitious program to revise the biblical text in June 1830, not long after the organization of the Church of Christ and the publication of the Book of Mormon. While the result came to be known as the Joseph Smith Translation (JST), it was not a literal word-for-word translation of ancient biblical languages from a manuscript but more of an inspired revision or paraphrase based on the King James Version in English, carried out primarily between June 1830 and July 1833.1 Since Joseph Smith never specifically addressed how or exactly why he made the particular changes he did, it is an open question whether he felt he was restoring ancient material, making inspired commentary, modernizing the language, a combination of things, or something else.2 Another open question related to this project is its status among Latter-day Saint scripture. Is the entire JST considered canonical or not? Perhaps a further open question is whether the JST project was ever finished. This paper will address these issues by giving an overview of statements and approaches toward the JST.
Links to available media:“A Narrative Approach to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Synoptic Gospels.” BYU Studies Quarterly 54, no. 2 (2015): 35–62.One of the first projects Joseph Smith undertook after the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 1830 was a translation of the Bible. Although it was not a typical translation from original Greek or Hebrew manuscripts, the project was often called a “translation” nonetheless. The Joseph Smith Translation, or JST as it is often called, was referred to by the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants as “the new translation of my holy word” (D&C 124:89). At the top of the manuscript of the revision of Matthew, it reads, “A translation of the New Testament translated by the power of God.”
Links to available media:“Mormons and Midrash: On the Composition of Expansive Interpretation in Genesis Rabbah and the Book of Moses.” BYU Studies Quarterly 54, no. 2 (2015): 15–34.One of the intriguing things about religious texts is how long of a life and how long of an afterlife they have. Once a text becomes a part of a “canon,” once it becomes in a way fixed, it becomes open to further discussion and elaboration. Different groups and religious traditions create different genres of interpretation to work with and understand their scriptures according to the needs of their traditions. One form of interpretation involves reopening the Bible and expanding on the narrative of the already canonized text, such as is found in the rabbinic genre of midrash and in Joseph Smith’s New Translation (JST) of the Bible.
Links to available media:“The Earliest Textual Sources for Joseph Smith’s ‘New Translation’ of the King James Bible.” The FARMS Review 17, no. 2 (2005): Article 13.Review of Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds. Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts.
Links to available media:“Intertextuality and the Purpose of Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible.” In Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources, edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen and Sharalyn Howcroft, 74–100. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.“Joseph Smith, Adam Clarke, and the Making of a Bible Revision.” Journal of Mormon History 46, no. 3 (July 2020): 1–22.Links to available media:“Joseph Smith’s Use of Adam Clarke’s Commentary in the JST.” Interview by Laura Harris Hales. LDS Perspectives Podcast, Episode 55, September 26, 2017. Accessed September 1, 2020.Links to available media:“A Recovered Resource: The Use of Adam Clarke’s Bible Commentary in Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation.” In Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects and the Making of Mormon Christianity, edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Michael Hubbard MacKay and Brian M. Hauglid, 262–284. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2020.“Thomas Wayment and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.” In From the Desk of Kurt Manwaring. August 10, 2020.Links to available media:
History
The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism’s Most Controversial Scripture. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2019.“A Community of Christ Perspective on the JST Research of Robert J. Matthews: An Interview with Ronald E. Romig.” The Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 5, no. 2 (2004): 49–55.Links to available media:“Robert J. Matthews and His Work with the Joseph Smith Translation.” The Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 5, no. 2 (2004): 23–47.In 1979, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published its edition of the King James Version of the Bible. The Scriptures Publication Committee decided to include portions of the Joseph Smith Translation in the new edition. For the first time, Latter-day Saints had access to Joseph’s inspired work in their own personal scriptures. Many Latter-day Saints may be unaware that the efforts to include the JST material in the new edition of the Bible were pioneered by Robert J. Matthews, former dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University. Beginning in 1953, Brother Matthews began a letter-writing campaign to the RLDS Church (now called the Community of Christ), requesting permission to study the original JST manuscripts. Through his sustained efforts, the RLDS Church gave Brother Matthews permission to examine the manuscripts.
Links to available media:Restoration Scriptures. 2nd ed. Independence, MO: Herald House, 1995.“‘Book of Moses,’ 71–73; ‘Book of Moses Manuscripts,’ 78; ‘Cain,’ 84; ‘Canaan, People Of,’ 85; ‘Curse, Cursed, Cursing,’ 99–100; ‘Inspired Version,’ 166; ‘Intelligences,’ 167; ‘Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible,’ 187–188; ‘Like Unto God/like Unto the Son of Man,’ 199; ’Meridian of Time,’ 207; ‘One Flesh,’ 227; ‘Patriarchs, Ages Of,’ 233; ‘Pearl of Great Price: An Overview and Introduction,’ 1–5; ‘Pearl of Great Price, Historical Development Of,’ 234–135; ‘Perdition,’ 237; ‘Satan,’ 258–259.” In Pearl of Great Price Reference Companion, edited by Dennis L. Largey. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2017.“The Cooperstown Bible.” New York History 95, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 243–270.Links to available media:“How We Got the Joseph Smith Translation, the Book of Moses, and Joseph Smith—Matthew.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (April 23-24, 2021), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2021.Links to available media:“How We Got the Joseph Smith Translation, the Book of Moses, and Joseph Smith—Matthew.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 75–96. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Joseph Smith’s Cooperstown Bible: The Historical Context of the Bible Used in the Joseph Smith Translation.” BYU Studies Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2001): 41-70.In 1828, the H. and E. Phinney Company in Cooperstown, New York, published a quarto-size edition of the King James Bible. This is the version that Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used in his work when he created a new translation of the Bible. Here the author examines Joseph Smith’s marked-up copy of the Phinney Bible as an artifact important to Mormonism’some of Smith’s corrections and additions appear in footnotes of the Bible that Mormons use today. The author notes that the Phinney Bible’s updated language is more modern than the version of the Bible Latter-day Saints officially use (the King James), and the modernization may or may not have influenced Joseph Smith’s word choice in creating his translation. The author also gives biographical information on the Phinneys, describes how their Bible may have made its way into Joseph Smith’s hands, briefly traces the history of the English Bible in America, and describes the printing process employed by the Phinneys.
Links to available media:Keywords: Bible Translation; Joseph Smith Translation; King James Bible“Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible, 1830.” In Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P. Jackson, 51–76. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2010.Links to available media:“New Discoveries in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.” In By Study and by Faith: Selections from the Religious Educator, revised edition, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P. Jackson, 169–181. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2009.In November 2004 the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University published a facsimile transcription of all the original manuscripts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. [1] I was privileged to be one of the editors of the project and worked with those manuscripts in preparing the publication. A facsimile transcription seeks to reproduce in print—as much as is humanly and typographically possible—the writing found on a handwritten document. Thus the transcription includes the writers’ original spelling, grammar, punctuation, line endings, omissions, errors, insertions, and deletions. The purpose of the publication is to provide scholars and lay readers with an accurate reproduction of the text as found on Joseph Smith’s original manuscripts. Its importance is in the fact that those documents had never been made public before but were stored in archives that were only available for study to a limited number of researchers.
Links to available media:“Ten Questions with Kent P. Jackson [about the Joseph Smith Translation].” In From the Desk of Kurt Manwaring. November 23, 2020.Links to available media:“The Visions of Moses and Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation.” In “To Seek the Law of the Lord”: Essays in Honor of John W. Welch, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson and Daniel C. Peterson, 161–169. Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation, 2017.Links to available media:“Ignored and Unknown Clues of Early Mormon Record Keeping.” In Preserving the History of the Latter-day Saints (Brigham Young University Church History Symposium), edited by Richard E. Turley, Jr. and Steven C. Harper, 135–64. Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Book, 2010.Links to available media:“A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible—A History and Commentary. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1975.The Joseph Smith Translation: The Restoration of Plain and Precious Things. Religious Studies Center Monograph Series 12. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1985.Ten prominent Church scholars presented at the symposium on the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Their in-depth study of the Joseph Smith Translation and related scriptures clarifies the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and show how Joseph Smith restored many plain and precious truths to that holy book. This volume brings together those addresses, illuminating this inspired translation as perhaps no other book had done.
Links to available media:“The Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Moses: An Outpouring of Revelations and the Beginning of Joseph Smith’s ‘New Translation’ of the Bible.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 137–62. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“The Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Moses: An Outpouring of Revelations and the Beginning of Joseph Smith’s ‘New Translation’ of the Bible.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (April 23-24, 2021), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2021.Links to available media:
Historicity and Ancient Threads — General Issues
“The Priestly Interests of Moses the Levite.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:See also: “The Priestly Interests of Moses the Levite” (2021)“The Priestly Interests of Moses the Levite.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 163–256. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:See also: “The Priestly Interests of Moses the Levite” (2020)Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World. Proceedings of the 2013 BYU Church History Symposium. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2015.The 2013 BYU Church History Symposium This volume is a collection of essays by prominent LDS scholars–including keynote speakers Richard Bushman and David Holland–that discuss the interest in the ancient world shared by Joseph Smith and the early Latter-day Saints. Topics include Joseph Smith’s fascination with the ancient Americas, his interaction with the Bible, his study of Hebrew and Greek, his reading of Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings, and his work with the Book of Abraham in the context of nineteenth-century Egyptology. Together, these essays demonstrate that Joseph Smith’s interests in antiquity played an important role in his prophetic development as he sought to recover ancient scripture, restore the ancient Church, and bring the Latter-day Saints into fellowship with the sacred past. ISBN 978‐0‐8425‐2966‐2
Links to available media:“Man and Son of Man: Probing Theology and Christology in the Book of Moses and in Jewish and Christian Tradition.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (April 23-24, 2021), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2021.Links to available media:“Man and Son of Man: Probing Theology and Christology in the Book of Moses and in Jewish and Christian Tradition.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 1257–332. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Moses 1 and the Apocalypse of Abraham: Twin Sons of Different Mothers?” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 38 (2020): 179-290.Abstract: This article highlights the striking resemblances between Moses 1 and a corresponding account from the Apocalypse of Abraham (ApAb), one of the earliest and most important Jewish texts describing heavenly ascent. Careful comparative analysis demonstrates a sustained sequence of detailed affinities in narrative structure that go beyond what Joseph Smith could have created out of whole cloth from his environment and his imagination. The article also highlights important implications for the study of the Book of Moses as a temple text. Previous studies have suggested that the story of Enoch found in the Pearl of Great Price might be understood as the culminating episode of a temple text woven throughout chapters 2–8 of the Book of Moses. The current article is a conceptual bookend to these earlier studies, demonstrating that the account of heavenly ascent in Moses 1 provides a compelling prelude to a narrative outlining laws and liturgy akin to what could have been used anciently as part of ritual ascent within earthly temples.
Links to available media:“Moses 1 and the Apocalypse of Abraham: Twin Sons of Different Mothers?” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:“Moses 1 and the Apocalypse of Abraham: Twin Sons of Different Mothers?” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 789–922. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Ten Questions with Jeffrey M. Bradshaw [about the Book of Moses].” From The Desk of Kurt Manwaring. September 14, 2020.Links to available media:Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities. Volume 1. Proceedings of the Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference, September 18-19, 2020 and April 23–24, 2021. Volume 1 of 2. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Volume I:
Keynote Overviews
Inspired Origins and Historical Contexts
Volume II
Literary Explorations
Moses 1: Temple Echoes in the Heavenly Ascent of Moses
Moses 6–7: Enoch’s Divine Ministry
Links to available media:“Truth and Beauty in the Book of Moses.” In Proceedings of the Fourth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 10 November 2018, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. The Temple on Mount Zion Series. Volume 5, in preparation. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books.Links to available media:“An Early Christian Context for the Book of Moses.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (April 23-24, 2021), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2021.Links to available media:“An Early Christian Context for the Book of Moses.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 505–90. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Centralizing Scriptural Resources.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 591–96. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:See also: “Centralizing Scriptural Resources” (2020)“Scripture as Incarnation.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 17–61. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 2001. Reprint, in Faulconer, J. E. Faith, Philosophy, Scripture. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, 2010, 151–202.Today the modernist view of history in which texts only represent events is so predominant that most Latter-day Saints automatically apply it to the question of scriptural historicity. Unfortunately, historical scholarship rarely lines up with our understanding of scripture as well as we would like. Problems arise when we use modernist tools to examine scripture written by premoderns, who considered their writing not as mere representation but as incarnation—an embodiment of the symbolic ordering of the world. The premodernist reading of the scriptures more accurately reflects Latter-day Saint beliefs: whereas modernism would use reason to understand history (and thus the Divine in history, i.e., scripture), premodernism uses divinely revealed scripture as well as ritual, ritual objects, and ritual language to give order to history. Instead of examining scripture as just another element of history, premoderns consider scripture to be the defining element in history.
The historicity of scripture is important to most Christians and especially to Latter-day Saints. [1] Christians disagree among themselves about how to understand scriptural history, but few deny that, in some important sense, Christian scripture is historical. However, given the challenges to scriptural history, challenges that are especially strong for Latter-day Saints who take the Book of Mormon to be historical, what are we to make of the claim that scriptures are history? Given those challenges, is it possible to understand scripture as literal history? The answer to that question—positive, I will argue—lies in answering the question of what we mean by history.
Links to available media:“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures. Religious Studies Monograph Series 18. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001.Since the beginnings of the Church, those who participated in the Restoration were commanded to keep a history. Latter-day Saints have an abiding interest in the history of God’s dealings with this earth. Similarly, we reverence the history in scripture because our faith is grounded in events that have taken place in the time and space of this earth. Historicity is the study of the authenticity of recorded past events. This significant compilation addresses the issue of historicity as it relates to the scriptures that Latter-day Saints accept as the word of God. With articles from Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Robert J. Matthews, Robert L. Millet, and more, this book provides an inspiring and more complete picture of the necessity for the historical nature of the Latter-day Saint canon.
Links to available media:Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses 2020 Conference. 2020 Book of Moses Conference, September 18-19, 2020. The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture, Book of Mormon Central, and FAIR. Orem, Utah.Links to available media:See also:“Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses 2021 Conference” (2021)
Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities. Volume 1 (2021)
Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities. Volume 2 (2021)Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses 2021 Conference. 2021 Book of Moses Conference, April 23-24, 2021. The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture, Book of Mormon Central, and FAIR. Orem, Utah.Links to available media:See also:“Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses 2020 Conference” (2020)
Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities. Volume 1 (2021)
Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities. Volume 2 (2021)“‘Strong Like Unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:See also:““Strong Like unto Moses”: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates” (2021)
““Strong Like unto Moses”: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates” (2021)“‘Strong Like unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 44 (2021): 1-92.Abstract: Over 30 years ago, Noel Reynolds compared matching non-Biblical phrases in the Book of Moses and Book of Mormon. Based on this analysis, Reynolds proposed a possible connection between the Book of Moses and hypothetical material on the brass plates that may have influenced some Book of Mormon authors. Reynolds’s work, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis,” provided potentially plausible explanations for additional relationships between the Book of Moses and Book of Mormon that arose in two later Jeff Lindsay studies: one on the Book of Mormon account of Lehi1’s trail and another on the Book of Mormon’s intriguing use of the ancient theme of rising from the dust. The additional findings and connections presented here strengthen the original case Reynolds made for the ancient roots of the Book of Moses, roots that could have extended to the brass plates and then on to the Book of Mormon. Critics might dismiss such connections by asserting that Joseph merely drew from the Book of Mormon when drafting the Book of Moses; however, this view overlooks significant evidence indicating that the direction of dependence is the other way around. In light of the combined evidence now available, it is time to reconsider Reynolds’s original proposal and recognize the possibility that the Book of Moses is more deeply rooted in antiquity that many have recognized in the past.[Editor’s Note: This article is based on a presentation by Reynolds and Lindsay made at the Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference, Provo, Utah, Sept. 18–19, 2020, presented by The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture, Book of Mormon Central, and FairMormon. A more detailed version, along with an edited transcript of the question-and-answer session that followed the presentation, can be found in the forthcoming conference proceedings.].
Links to available media:See also:“‘Strong Like Unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates” (2020)
““Strong Like unto Moses”: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates” (2021)“‘Strong Like unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 315–420. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:See also:“‘Strong Like Unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates” (2020)
““Strong Like unto Moses”: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates” (2021)“The Historicity of the Book of Mormon.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 237–248. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001.The issue of the historicity of the Book of Mormon highlights the difference between those who rely solely on scholarship and those who rely on revelation, faith, and scholarship. Those who rely solely on scholarship reject revelation and focus on a limited number of issues. But they can neither prove nor disprove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon through their secular evidence and methods. On the other hand, those who rely on a combination of revelation, faith, and scholarship can see and understand all of the complex issues of the Book of Mormon record, and it is only through that combination that the question of the historicity of the Book of Mormon can be answered.
Links to available media:“Notes on Historicity and Inerrancy.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, ed. by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 197–215. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 2001.Some believe that historicity and inerrancy in scripture are the same. By this argument, when a portion of scripture is found to have errors, the entire record is considered neither historical nor accurate. However, nothing in this imperfect world is inerrant, and although the authors of the scriptural records were prophets and called of God to write their portion of the scriptures, they were not perfect—no one is. So although the authors were not inerrant, their writings are nonetheless historical. By academic standards the scriptures fulfill all the criteria for historically accurate records. With the human errors accounted for, the scriptures are reliable historically and accurate in their testimony of the doctrines of the gospel and the mission of Jesus Christ.
Links to available media:“‘We Believe the Bible to Be the Word of God, as Far as It Is Translated Correctly’: Latter-Day Saints and Historical Biblical Criticism.” Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 8 (2016): 64–86.This study presents the basic Latter-day Saint beliefs about the Bible and documents the relationship between these beliefs and the approach and results of historical biblical criticism. Latter-day Saints believe the Bible is the word of God but do not believe it is inerrant or sufficient and thus is supplemented by other revealed ancient texts—most notably the Book of Mormon. Latter-day Saints believe in the pursuit of truth through “study and faith” and are thus not opposed to intellectual examination of scripture. In fact LDS scholars selectively use biblical critical methods in defending of their scripture. At the same time Mormons are defensive about the historicity of the Bible and the Book of Mormon—and thus find themselves with a tradition of conflict with the results of modern biblical criticism that challenge these assumptions. A growing number of LDS scholars in the church who are trained in the historical critical approach to scripture has resulted in renewed discussions and studies about the relationship between faith and scholarship. These discussions are enhanced by a greater openness in the church regarding the critical study of its history, and the results of this approach have also generated biblical and Book of Mormon studies relating to historical critical issues.
Links to available media:“‘We Believe the Bible to Be the Word of God, as Far as It Is Translated Correctly’: Latter-day Saints and Historical Biblical Criticism.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 137–62. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“The World and the Word: History, Literature, and Scripture.” In Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson, 217-235. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 2001.Scriptures are by nature preserved in words. Words alone, however, cannot contain the full reality of the worlds they represent. As sacred texts, our scriptures are overwhelmingly historical, presenting factual accounts of things that happened in time and space. But because they are written, scriptures are also inherently textual, possessing literary qualities that contribute to their witness. The aim of the writing of sacred history is different from that of history writing in general, because scripture seeks to bear testimony while it seeks to preserve events. To read the record without feeling the testimony is to misread. To be understood properly, scripture requires both the companionship of the Holy Ghost and a keen sensitivity to the inspired objectives of the author. Often those objectives are not seen fully without reading the scripture as sacred literature as well as history.
Links to available media:
Chapters of the Book of Moses
Moses 1 — Visions of Moses
“‘Where is Thy Glory’: Moses 1, the Nature of Truth, and the Plan of Salvation.” Religious Educator 10, no. 2 (2009): 163–179.While the first chapter of the book of Moses is often understood as introductory to the rest of the book, the chapter itself is an inclusive text centering on Moses’s transformation through three separate encounters with supernatural beings. In each encounter he is taught something of the meaning of truth and experiences the power that the comprehension of truth brings. His example is particularly instructive in light of the doctrine that “truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24).
Links to available media:“Essay #31: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Heavenly Ascent and Ritual Ascent (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. November 28, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #32: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: The Two-Part Pattern of Heavenly and Ritual Ascent (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 05, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #33: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses 1 as a ‘Missing’ Prologue to Genesis (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 12, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #34: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses in the Spirit World (Moses 1:1–8).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 19, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #35: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Falls to the Earth (Moses 1:9-11).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 26, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #36: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Defeats Satan (Moses 1:12–23).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 02, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #37: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Ascends to Heaven (Moses 1:24).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 09, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #38: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Passes Through the Heavenly Veil (Moses 1:25–27).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 16, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #39: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: The Names of Moses as ‘Keywords’ (Moses 1:25).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 23, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #40: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses’ Vision at the Veil (Moses 1:27–30).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 30, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #41: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses in the Presence of God (Moses 1:31, chapters 2-4).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. February 06, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #42: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: ‘The Words of God’ (Moses 1:1–7, 35, 40–42).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. February 13, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #43: Moses 1: A Literary Masterpiece. Many-Great Waters and Moses’ Mission to Baptize (Moses 1:25-26).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. February 20, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #44: Moses 1: A Literary Masterpiece. Hebrew Literary Features of Moses 1 (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. February 27, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #45: Moses 1: A Literary Masterpiece. Chiasmus in Moses 1 (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. March 06, 2021.Links to available media:“‘And They Shall Be Had Again’: Onomastic Allusions to Joseph in Moses 1:41 in View of the So-called Canon Formula.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 32 (2019): 297-304.Abstract: Moses 1:41 echoes or plays on the etymological meaning of the name Joseph — “may he [Yahweh] add,” as the Lord foretells to Moses the raising up of a future figure through whom the Lord’s words, after having been “taken” (away) from the book that Moses would write, “shall be had again among the children of men.” Moses 1:41 anticipates and employs language reminiscent of the so-called biblical canon formulas, possible additions to biblical texts meant to ensure the texts’ stability by warning against “adding” or “diminishing” (i.e., “taking away”) from them (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:2; 5:22 [MT 5:18]; 12:32 [MT 13:1]; cf. Revelation 22:18– 19). This article presupposes that the vision of Moses presents restored text that was at some point recorded in Hebrew.
Links to available media:“‘Made Stronger Than Many Waters’: The Names of Moses as Keywords in the Heavenly Ascent of Moses.” In The Temple: Past, Present and Future. Proceedings of the Fifth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 7 November 2020, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. The Temple on Mount Zion Series. Vol. 6. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2021.The idea of names as “keywords” has been associated with temples since very early times. In a temple context, the meaning of the term “keyword” can be taken quite literally: the use of the appropriate keyword or keywords by a qualified worshipper “unlocks” each one of a successive series of gates, thus providing access to specific, secured areas of the sacred space. In this presentation, we will explore how a series of names and titles purportedly given to Moses at various points in his life might relate to accounts of his ascents to heaven.
Links to available media:“‘Made Stronger Than Many Waters’: The Purported Sacred Names of Moses as a Series of Keywords.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 943–1000. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“What Meaneth the Rod of Iron?” Insights 25, no. 2 (2005): 2–3.Latter-day Saint scholars Hugh W. Nibley and John A. Tvedtnes have discussed at length how a staff, rod, and sword came to be commonly identified with the word of God in the ancient Near East. The evidence they cite from the Bible, the earliest Hebrew commentators, modern biblical scholarship, and elsewhere affirms Nephi ’s unambiguous assertion that the “word of God” is a “rod.”
Links to available media:“Book of Moses Textual Criticism 3: Was the Book of Moses Simply an Unplanned Afterthought to Moses 1? A response to Thomas A. Wayment. ‘Intertextuality and the Purpose of Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible.’” The Interpreter Foundation, September 10, 2020.Links to available media:“Moses 1 and the Apocalypse of Abraham: Twin Sons of Different Mothers?” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 38 (2020): 179-290.Abstract: This article highlights the striking resemblances between Moses 1 and a corresponding account from the Apocalypse of Abraham (ApAb), one of the earliest and most important Jewish texts describing heavenly ascent. Careful comparative analysis demonstrates a sustained sequence of detailed affinities in narrative structure that go beyond what Joseph Smith could have created out of whole cloth from his environment and his imagination. The article also highlights important implications for the study of the Book of Moses as a temple text. Previous studies have suggested that the story of Enoch found in the Pearl of Great Price might be understood as the culminating episode of a temple text woven throughout chapters 2–8 of the Book of Moses. The current article is a conceptual bookend to these earlier studies, demonstrating that the account of heavenly ascent in Moses 1 provides a compelling prelude to a narrative outlining laws and liturgy akin to what could have been used anciently as part of ritual ascent within earthly temples.
Links to available media:“Moses 1 and the Apocalypse of Abraham: Twin Sons of Different Mothers?” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:“Moses 1 and the Apocalypse of Abraham: Twin Sons of Different Mothers?” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 789–922. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“My Words … Never Cease.” Ensign 38, no. 5, May 2008, 91–94.We invite all to inquire into the wonder of what God has said since biblical times and is saying even now.
Links to available media:“The Visions of Moses and Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation.” In “To Seek the Law of the Lord”: Essays in Honor of John W. Welch, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson and Daniel C. Peterson, 161–169. Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation, 2017.Links to available media:“The Lost Prologue: Reading Moses Chapter One as an Ancient Text.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 36 (2020): 145–186.Abstract: The character and complexion of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible (JST) is often a puzzle to students and scholars. One text in particular, the first chapter of the Book of Moses, claims that its very words would be lost and later restored to the believing. As this bold claim has not yet been verified by the discovery of an ancient copy of this text, clues to the antiquity of this document will need to be discovered within the text itself. This study investigates Moses 1 with the tools of biblical and literary criticism to discover if the text has the characteristics and content of an ancient religious document.
Links to available media:“To Open the Last Dispensation: Moses Chapter 1.” In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 1–22. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.After all these years, it comes as a surprise for me to learn that the book of Moses appeared in the same year as the publication of the Book of Mormon, the first chapter being delivered in the very month of its publication. And it is a totally different kind of book, in another style, from another world. It puts to rest the silly arguments about who really wrote the Book of Mormon, for whoever produced the book of Moses would have been even a greater genius. That first chapter is a composition of unsurpassed magnificence. And we have all overlooked it completely. The Joseph Smith controversy is silly for the same reason the ShakeÂspeare controversy is silly. Granted that a simple countryman could not have written the plays that go under the name of Will Shakespeare, who could? If that man is hard to imagine as their author, is it any easier to imagine a courtier, or a London wit, or a doctor of the schools, or, just for laughs, a committee of any of the above as the source of that miraÂculous outpouring? Joseph Smith’s achievement is of a different sort, but even more staggering: he challenged the whole world to fault him in his massive sacred history and an unprecedented corpus of apocalyptic books. He took all the initiative and did all the work, withholding nothÂing and claiming no immunity on religious or any other grounds; he spreads a thousand pages before us and asks us to find something wrong. And after a century and a half with all that material to work on, the learned world comes up with nothing better than the old discredited Solomon Spaulding story it began with. What an astounding tribute to the achievement of the Prophet that after all this time and with all that evidence his enemies can do no better than that! Even more impressive is the positive evidence that is accumulating behind the book of Moses— which includes fragments from books of Adam, Noah, and Enoch; for in our day ancient books that bear those names are being seriously studied for the first time in modern history, and comparison with the Joseph Smith versions is impressing leading scholars in the field. But even without external witnesses, what a masterpiece we have in that first chapter of the book of Moses! Consider the below.
Links to available media:Keywords: Abraham (Prophet); Adam (Prophet); Apocalypse of Abraham; Apocrypha; Combat of Adam; Deliverance; Early Church History; Joseph; Jr.; Moses (Prophet); Plan of Salvation; Prophet; Satan; Smith; Translation“‘I Am a Son of God’: Moses’ Prophetic Call and Ascent into the Divine Council.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 923–42. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“‘I Am a Son of God’: Moses’ Prophetic Call and Ascent into the Divine Council.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (April 23-24, 2021), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2021.Links to available media:“The King James Bible in the Book of Moses, Part 1.” Rational Faiths. April, 12, 2014.With the recent publication of David Bokovoy’s Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis-Deuteronomy, many have wondered to what extent the Bible has had influence on the Book of Moses. The discussion has mainly revolved around the parts of the text that are obvious revisions of the Genesis creation chapters (Genesis 1, 2-3) that originate from different Israelite sources written centuries after the time of Moses. In response to and in order to make a contribution toward further understanding this topic I will look closely at the full text of the Book of Moses in the original manuscripts (as presented in BYU’s RSC publications) and locate the places of intertextuality. I will present the Book of Moses on a chapter by chapter basis until I arrive at the end, and after this is complete I will offer some thoughts on to what extent the KJV influenced the composition of the Book of Moses. This will take time for each of these posts to come out, and I hope that in the meantime others will utilize the work here to discuss the topic. My approach in these posts is based on my much larger project of locating textual dependence throughout the Book of Mormon on the King James Bible, a manuscript that will be published by Greg Kofford Books.
Links to available media:“The Visions of Moses (Moses 1).” In The Pearl of Great Price. Studies in Scripture: Volume 2, edited by Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson, 43–61. Salt Lake City, UT: Randall Book Company, 1985.
Moses 2 — Creation
“Essay #46: Moses Witnesses the Creation (Moses 2): The Days of Creation and Temple Architecture (Moses 2:1-27).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. March 13, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #47: Moses Witnesses the Creation (Moses 2): The Creation of Light and the Heavenly Host (Moses 2:3-5).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. March 20, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #48: Moses Witnesses the Creation (Moses 2): ‘This I Did By the Word of My Power’ (Moses 2:5).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. March 28, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #49: Let Us Make Man in Our Image, After Our Likeness (Moses 2:26).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. April 03, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #50: Moses Witnesses the Creation (Moses 2): ‘Male and Female Created I Them’ (Moses 2:27).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. April 10, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #51: Moses Witnesses the Creation (Moses 2): Science and the Creation of Man (Moses 2:26–27).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. April 17, 2021.Links to available media:“‘By the Word of My Power’: The Divine Word in the Book of Moses.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:See also: ““By The Word of My Power”: The Divine Word in the Book of Moses” (2021)“‘Creator of the First Day’: The Glossing of Lord of Sabaoth in D&C 95:7.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 22 (2016): 51–77.Links to available media:Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011.
Moses 3 — Garden of Eden
“Essay #52: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Seventh Day (Moses 3:1–3).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. April 24, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #53: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): Is the transition between Moses 2 and 3 a clumsy stitch or a skillful shift? (Moses 3:4–5).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 01, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #54: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): Spiritual Creation (Moses 3:5–7).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 08, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #55: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Garden of Eden as a Model for the Temple in Israel and Old Babylon (Moses 3:8–15).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 15, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #56: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Naming of Animals, Angels, Adam, and Eve (Moses 3:8–15).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 22, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #57: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): God Instructs Adam and Eve (Moses 3:15–17).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 29, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #58: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Symbolism of the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life (Moses 3:9).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 05, 2021.Links to available media:“The Tree of Knowledge as the Veil of the Sanctuary.” In Ascending the Mountain of the Lord: Temple, Praise, and Worship in the Old Testament, The 42nd Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium (26 October, 2013), edited by David Rolph Seely, Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Matthew J. Grey. , 49–65. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2013.One thing that has always perplexed readers of Genesis is the location of the two special trees within the Garden of Eden. Although scripture initially applies the phrase “in the midst” only to the tree of life (Genesis 2:9), the tree of knowledge is later said by Eve to be located there too (see Genesis 3:3). In the context of these verses, the Hebrew phrase corresponding to “in the midst” literally means “in the center.” How can both trees be in the center?
Links to available media:See also: “Древо познания как завеса храма (Святилища)” (2013)“The Investiture Panel at Mari and Rituals of Divine Kingship in the Ancient near East.” Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 4 (2012): 1–42.This article explores the ancient Near Eastern ritu-als that endowed kings with this power, specifically the rites suggested by the Investiture Panel at the palace of Mari, with specific focus on the motifs of creation, sacred garden, and divine kingship. Because contemporary evidence at Mari relating to an interpretation of the panel and the functions of various rooms of the palace is limited, it will be necessary to rely in part on a careful comparative analysis of religious texts, images, and architecture throughout the ancient Near East, including the Old Testament. Comparative analysis not only has the benefit of increasing our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religion but also can enrich our understanding of the Bible.
Links to available media:“The Doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31–32 as an Approach to the Vision of the Tree of Life.” In: The Things Which My Father Saw: Approaches to Lehi’s Dream and Nephi’s Vision (2011 Sperry Symposium), eds. Daniel L. Belnap, Gaye Strathearn, and Stanley A. Johnson. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2011. 161–178.Links to available media:“The Cherubim, the Flaming Sword, the Path, and the Tree of Life.” In The Tree of Life: From Eden to Eternity, edited by John W. Welch and Donald W. Parry, 1–24. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2011.“Garden of Eden: Prototype Sanctuary.” In Temples of the Ancient World, edited by Donald W. Parry, 126–151. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1994.The Garden of Eden pericope (Genesis 2-3) contains a number of powerful symbols that are related to and represent archetypal depictions of subsequent Israelite temple systems. In a cogent manner, the Garden of Eden, as it is referred to throughout the Bible, Pseudepigrapha, and rabbinic writings, served as the prototype, pattern, and/ or originator of subsequent Israelite temples, “a type of archetypal sanctuary.” The garden was not a sanctuary built of cedar or marble, for it is not necessary for a temple to possess an edifice or structure; but rather it was an area of sacred space made holy because God’s presence was found there. Mircea Eliade has stated that the Garden of Eden was the heavenly prototype of the temple, and the Book of Jubilees 3:19 adds that “the garden of Eden is the Holy of Holies, and the dwelling of the Lord.” This essay will examine these claims.
Links to available media:The Tree of Life: From Eden to Eternity. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2011.
Moses 4–6:12 — Grand Council in Heaven, Adam and Eve
“Essay #59: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): Satan’s Original Glory and the Symbols of Kingship (Moses 4:1–4).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 12, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #60: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The Willing and Unwilling Sons in the Council in Heaven (Moses 4:1-4).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 19, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #61: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The Tree in the Sacred Center of the Garden of Eden (Moses 3:9).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 26, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #62: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): What Was the Nature of Satan’s Premortal Proposal? (Moses 4:1–4).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 03, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #63: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The False and the True ‘Keeper of the Gate’ (Moses 4:5–12).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 10, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #64: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The False Apron and the Tree of Death and Rebirth (Moses 4:13).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 17, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #65: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): A Curse for the Serpent (Moses 4:14–21).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 24, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #66: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The Challenges and Blessings of Celestial Marriage (Moses 4:22–26).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 31, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #67: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): Was Eve Beguiled? (Moses 4:5–12).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 07, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #68: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The Nakedness and Clothing of Adam and Eve (Moses 3:25, 4:13–17, 27).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 14, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #69: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): ‘Stand Ye in Holy Places, and Be Not Moved’ (Moses 4:29–31).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 21, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #70: Moses Witnesses the Fall (Moses 4): The ‘Temple Work’ of Adam and Eve (Moses 4:23–25, 31).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 28, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #71: The Two Ways (Moses 5): The Prayer of Adam and Eve (Moses 5:4).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 04, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #72: The Two Ways (Moses 5): Adam, Eve, and the New and Everlasting Covenant (Moses 5:4–6).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 11, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #73: The Two Ways (Moses 5): The Five Celestial Laws (Moses, chapters 5–8).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 18, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #74: The Family of Adam and Eve (Moses 6:1–12).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 25, 2021.Links to available media:“Getting Cain and Gain.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 15 (2015): 115-141.Abstract: The biblical etiology (story of origin) for the name “Cain” associates his name with the Hebrew verb qny/qnh, “to get,” “gain,” “acquire,” “create,” or “procreate” in a positive sense. A fuller form of this etiology, known to us indirectly through the Book of Mormon text and directly through the restored text of the Joseph Smith Translation, creates additional wordplay on “Cain” that associates his name with murder to “get gain.” This fuller narrative is thus also an etiology for organized evil—secret combinations “built up to get power and gain” (Ether 8:22–23; 11:15). The original etiology exerted a tremendous influence on Book of Mormon writers (e.g., Nephi, Jacob, Alma, Mormon, and Moroni) who frequently used allusions to this narrative and sometimes replicated the wordplay on “Cain” and “getting gain.” The fuller narrative seems to have exerted its greatest influence on Mormon and Moroni, who witnessed the destruction of their nation firsthand — destruction catalyzed by Cainitic secret combinations. Moroni, in particular, invokes the Cain etiology in describing the destruction of the Jaredites by secret combinations. The destruction of two nations by Cainitic secret combinations stand as two witnesses and a warning to latter-day Gentiles (and Israel) against building up these societies and allowing them to flourish.
Links to available media:“Standing in the Holy Place: Ancient and Modern Reverberations of an Enigmatic New Testament Prophecy.” In Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of the Expound Symposium, 14 May 2011, edited by Matthew B. Brown, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Stephen D. Ricks, and John S. Thompson. Temple on Mount Zion Series 1, 71–142. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014.Links to available media:“The Tree of Knowledge as the Veil of the Sanctuary.” In Ascending the Mountain of the Lord: Temple, Praise, and Worship in the Old Testament, The 42nd Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium (26 October, 2013), edited by David Rolph Seely, Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Matthew J. Grey. , 49–65. Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2013.One thing that has always perplexed readers of Genesis is the location of the two special trees within the Garden of Eden. Although scripture initially applies the phrase “in the midst” only to the tree of life (Genesis 2:9), the tree of knowledge is later said by Eve to be located there too (see Genesis 3:3). In the context of these verses, the Hebrew phrase corresponding to “in the midst” literally means “in the center.” How can both trees be in the center?
Links to available media:See also: “Древо познания как завеса храма (Святилища)” (2013)“‘This Thing Is a Similitude’: A Typological Approach to Moses 5:1–15 and Ancient Apocryphal Literature.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:“‘This Thing Is a Similitude’: A Typological Approach to Moses 5:4–15 and Ancient Apocryphal Literature.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 468–504. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 46 (2021): 157-200.Abstract: The authors begin by 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.”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Bruce C. Hafen and Marie K. Hafen, “Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement,” in Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Tooele, UT: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/.]Historicity and Plausibility of the Book of Moses.
Links to available media:“Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 1–50. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Was Adam a Monotheist? A Reflection on Why We Call Abraham Father and Not Adam.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 31 (2019): 245-258.Abstract: The three great monotheistic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all claim Abraham as father and prototypical monotheist. Though Adam is the putative first father in all of these traditions, he is seldom remembered in Judeo-Christian scriptural, apocryphal, or pseudepigraphic texts as an exemplary monotheist. This essay briefly reviews why Abraham retains the lofty title “Father of Monotheism” while exploring how Latter-day restoration scripture adds to and challenges this ancient tradition vis-à-vis enhanced understanding of Adam’s covenantal and monotheistic fidelity to God.
Links to available media:“Mormonism’s Satan and the Tree of Life.” Element: A Journal of Mormon Philosophy and Theology 4, no. 2 (2010): 1-54.Longer version of an invited presentation originally given at the 2009 Conference of the European Mormon Studies Association, Turin, Italy, July 30-31, 2009
Links to available media:“Women, Eve, and the Mosaic Covenant: A Latter-day Saint Theological Reading.” In Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn and Shon D. Hopkin. Orem and Provo, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Brigham Young University Religious Education, 2020, 171–98.“‘Arise from the Dust’: Insights from Dust-Related Themes in the Book of Mormon. Part 1: Tracks from the Book of Moses.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 22 (2016): 179–232.Links to available media:Fleeing the Garden: Reading Genesis 2-3. Maxwell Institute Publications 37. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2017.Links to available media:“Eve’s Role as a ‘Help’ (‘ezer) Revisited.” In Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn and Shon D. Hopkin, 199–216. Orem and Provo, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Religious Education, Brigham Young University, 2020.“The Brass Plates Version of Genesis.” In By Study and Also By Faith, Volume 2. Edited by John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks, 1990, pp. 136-173.This second of two volumes of essays honoring Hugh Nibley includes scholarly papers based on what the authors have learned from Nibley. Nearly every major subject that Dr. Nibley has encompassed in his vast learning and scholarly production is represented here by at least one article. Topics include the sacrament covenant in Third Nephi, the Lamanite view of Book of Mormon history, external evidences of the Book of Mormon, proper names in the Book of Mormon, the brass plates version of Genesis, the composition of Lehi’s family, ancient burials of metal documents in stone boxes, repentance as rethinking, Mormon history’s encounter with secular modernity, and Judaism in the 20th century.
Are there indirect evidences of distinctive contents of the brass plates? Can we learn anything about the plates and their contents through an examination of indirect textual evidence in the Book of Mormon?
Links to available media:See also: “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis” (2020)“The Brass Plates Version of Genesis.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 34 (2020): 63-96.Abstract: The Book of Mormon peoples repeatedly indicated that they were descendants of Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold into Egypt by his brothers. The plates of brass that they took with them from Jerusalem c. 600 bce provided them with a version of many Old Testament books and others not included in our Hebrew Bible. Sometime after publishing his translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith undertook an inspired revision of the Bible. The opening chapters of his version of Genesis contain a lot of material not included in the Hebrew Bible. But intriguingly, distinctive phraseology in those chapters, as now published in Joseph Smith’s Book of Moses, also show up in the Book of Mormon text. This paper presents a systematic examination of those repeated phrases and finds strong evidence for the conclusion that the version of Genesis used by the Nephite prophets must have been closely similar to Joseph Smith’s Book of Moses.
[Editor’s Note: This paper appeared first in the 1990 festschrift published to honor Hugh W. Nibley.
It is reprinted here as a convenience for current scholars who are interested in intertextual issues regarding the Book of Mormon. It should be noted that Interpreter has published another paper that picks up this same insight and develops considerable additional evidence supporting the conclusions of the original paper.
This reprint uses footnotes instead of endnotes, and there are two more footnotes in this reprint than there are endnotes in the original paper.].
Links to available media:See also: “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis” (1990)“Symbolism in the Parable of the Willing and Unwilling Two Sons in Matthew 21.” In Let Us Reason Together, edited by J. Spencer Fluhman and Brent L. Top, 97–116. Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2016.Deeply valuable symbolism is thoroughly embedded in two of Jesus’ parables, both of which begin, “A certain man had two sons.” The more famous of these two is commonly called parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke 15. The less often mentioned can be called the parable of the willing and unwilling two sons, found in Matthew 21. Even people who have written much and taught profoundly about the parables of Jesus have rarely had much to say about this brief text, which is nevertheless freighted with significantly authoritative cargo. In explicating this lesser-known of the two-sons parables, I hope to honor and recognize Robert L. Millet for his consummate willingness to do the will of the Father and to go down this day to work in his vineyard, wherever the needs may be found.
Links to available media:
Moses 6:13–7 — Enoch
“Essay #1: Enoch’s Prophetic Commission (Moses 6:26–36) — Introduction.” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 02, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #2: Enoch’s Prophetic Commission — The Opening of Enoch’s Mouth and Eyes (Moses 6:31–32, 35).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 09, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #3: Enoch’s Prophetic Commission — Enoch As a Lad (Moses 6:31).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 16, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #4: Enoch’s Prophetic Commission — Enoch’s Power Over the Elements and His Divine Protection (Moses 6:32, 34).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 23, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #5: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Were Ancient Enoch Manuscripts the Inspiration for Moses 6–7? (Moses 6–7).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. May 30, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #6: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Enoch and the Other ‘Wild Man’ (Moses 6:38).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 06, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #7: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Could Joseph Smith Have Borrowed ‘Mahijah/Mahujah’ from the Book of Giants? (Moses 6:40).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 13, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #8: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Mahijah and Mahaway Interrogate Enoch (Moses 6:40).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 20, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #9: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Secret Works, Oaths, and Murders (Moses 6:15).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. June 27, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #10: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Enoch Reads from a Book of Remembrance (Moses 6:46–47).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 04, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #11: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Enoch’s Call Raises the Possibility of Repentance (Moses 6:47, 50–68).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 11, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #12: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — The Defeat of the Gibborim and the Roar of the Wild Beasts (Moses 7:13).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 18, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #13: Enoch’s Preaching Mission — Imprisonment of the Gibborim (Moses 7:38).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. July 25, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #14: The Teachings of Enoch — Enoch as a Teacher (Moses 6:51–68).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 01, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #15: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘The Son of Man, Even Jesus Christ, a Righteous Judge’ (Moses 6:57).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 08, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #16: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘By Water, and Blood, and the Spirit’ (Moses 6:58–60).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 15, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #17: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘By the Water Ye Keep the Commandment’ (Moses 6:60, 64).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 22, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #18: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘Out of the Waters of Judah’ (1 Nephi 20:1; JST Genesis 17:3–7).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. August 29, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #19: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘By the Spirit Ye Are Justified’ (Moses 6:60, 63, 65–66).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 05, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #20: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified’ (Moses 6:60).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 12, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #21: The Teachings of Enoch — ‘Thus May All Become My Sons’ (Moses 6:59, 66–68).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 19, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #22: Enoch the Prophet and Seer — Enoch’s Transfiguration (Moses 7:1–3).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. September 26, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #23: Enoch the Prophet and Seer — Enoch’s Prophecy of the Tribes (Moses 7:5–11, 22).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 03, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #24: Enoch, the Prophet and Seer: The End of the Wicked and the Beginnings of Zion (Moses 7:12–18).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 10, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #25: Enoch’s Grand Vision: A Chorus of Weeping (Moses 7:18–49).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 17, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #26: Enoch’s Grand Vision: The Complaining Voice of the Earth (Moses 7:48–49, 54, 61, 64).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 24, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #27: Enoch’s Grand Vision: The Weeping Voice of the Heavens (Moses 7:28–29, 40, 42–43).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 31, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #28: Enoch’s Grand Vision: The Weeping of Enoch (Moses 7:28–43).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. November 07, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #29: Enoch’s Grand Vision: The Earth Shall Rest (Moses 7:60–69).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. November 14, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #30: Enoch’s Grand Vision: God Receives Zion unto Himself (Moses 7:18–19, 68–69).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. November 21, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #31: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Heavenly Ascent and Ritual Ascent (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. November 28, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #32: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: The Two-Part Pattern of Heavenly and Ritual Ascent (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 05, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #33: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses 1 as a ‘Missing’ Prologue to Genesis (Moses 1).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 12, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #34: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses in the Spirit World (Moses 1:1–8).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 19, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #35: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Falls to the Earth (Moses 1:9-11).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. December 26, 2020.Links to available media:“Essay #36: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Defeats Satan (Moses 1:12–23).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 02, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #37: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Ascends to Heaven (Moses 1:24).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 09, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #38: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: Moses Passes Through the Heavenly Veil (Moses 1:25–27).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 16, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #39: Moses 1 in Its Ancient Context: The Names of Moses as ‘Keywords’ (Moses 1:25).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. January 23, 2021.Links to available media:“‘By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified’: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 24 (2017): 123-316.[Editor’s Note: This article is an updated and extended version of a presentation given at the Third Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference: The Temple on Mount Zion, November 5, 2016, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. For a video version of the presentation, see https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference-videos/]
Abstract: In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.”
To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”
In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of these ordinances within the allusive and sometimes enigmatic descriptions of John 3 and Moses 6. Moses 6:51–68, with its dense infusion of temple themes, was revealed to the Prophet in December 1830, when the Church was in its infancy and more than a decade before the fulness of priesthood ordinances was made available to the Saints in Nauvoo. Our study of these chapters informs our closing perspective on the meaning of the sacrament, which is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”
We discuss the relationship of the sacrament to the shewbread of Israelite temples, and its anticipation of the heavenly feast that will be enjoyed by those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Links to available media:See also:““By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6” (2020)
““Veren kautta teidät pyhitetään”: Toimitusten ja hengellisen uudestisyntymisen vertauskuvallinen, pelastava, toisiinsa liittyvä, kertyvä, taaksepäin katsova ja ennakoiva luonne Johanneksen evankeliumin kolmannessa ja Mooseksen kirjan ensimmäisessä luvussa” (Finnish, 2017)“‘By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified’: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6.” In Sacred Time, Sacred Space, and Sacred Meaning. Proceedings of the Third Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 5 November 2016, Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, eds., 43–237. The Temple on Mount Zion Series. Vol. 4. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2020.Abstract: In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.” To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”
In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of these ordinances within the allusive and sometimes enigmatic descriptions of John 3 and Moses 6. Moses 6:51–68, with its dense infusion of temple themes, was revealed to the Prophet in December 1830, when the Church was in its infancy and more than a decade before the fulness of priesthood ordinances was made available to the Saints in Nauvoo. Our study of these chapters informs our closing perspective on the meaning of the sacrament, which is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”
We discuss the relationship of the sacrament to the shewbread of Israelite temples, and its anticipation of the heavenly feast that will be enjoyed by those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Links to available media:See also:““By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6” (2017)
““Veren kautta teidät pyhitetään”: Toimitusten ja hengellisen uudestisyntymisen vertauskuvallinen, pelastava, toisiinsa liittyvä, kertyvä, taaksepäin katsova ja ennakoiva luonne Johanneksen evankeliumin kolmannessa ja Mooseksen kirjan ensimmäisessä luvussa” (Finnish, 2017)“Textual Criticism and the Book of Moses: A Response to Colby Townsend’s ‘Returning to the Sources,’ Part 1 of 2.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 40 (2020): 99-162.Review of Colby Townsend, “Returning to the Sources: Integrating Textual Criticism in the Study of Early Mormon Texts and History.” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 10, no. 1 (2019): 55–85, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol10/iss1/6/.
Abstract: Textual criticism tries by a variety of methods to understand the “original” or “best” wording of a document that may exist in multiple, conflicting versions or where the manuscripts are confusing or difficult to read. The present article, Part 1 of a two-part series by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Ryan Dahle, commends Colby Townsend’s efforts to raise awareness of the importance of textual criticism, while differing on some interpretations. Among the differences discussed is the question of whether it is better to read Moses 7:28 as it was dictated in Old Testament 1 version of the Joseph Smith Translation manuscript (OT1) that “God wept,” or rather to read it as it was later revised in the Old Testament 2 version (OT2) that “Enoch wept.” Far from being an obscure technical detail, the juxtaposition of the two versions of this verse raises general questions as to whether readings based on the latest revisions of Latter-day Saint scripture manuscripts should always take priority over the original dictations. A dialogue with Colby Townsend and Charles Harrell on rich issues of theological and historical relevance demonstrates the potential impact of the different answers to such questions by different scholars. In a separate discussion that highlights the potential significance of handwriting analysis to textual criticism, Bradshaw and Dahle respond to Townsend’s arguments that the spelling difference between the names Mahujah and Mahijah in the Book of Moses may be due to a transcription error.
Links to available media:“Where Did the Names Mahaway and Mahujah Come From? A Response to Colby Townsend’s ‘Returning to the Sources,’ Part 2 of 2.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 40 (2020): 181-242.Review of Colby Townsend, “Returning to the Sources: Integrating Textual Criticism in the Study of Early Mormon Texts and History,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 10, no. 1 (2019): 55–85, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol10/iss1/6/.
Abstract: In the present article, Part 2 of 2 of a set of articles supporting Colby Townsend’s efforts to raise awareness of the importance of textual criticism, we focus on his argument that Joseph Smith created the Book of Moses names Mahijah and Mahujah after seeing a table of name variants in the Hebrew text of Genesis 4:18 in a Bible commentary written by Adam Clarke. While we are not averse in principle to the general possibility that Joseph Smith may have relied on study aids as part of his translation of the Bible, we discuss why in this case such a conjecture raises more questions than it answers. We argue that a common ancient source for Mahujah and Mahijah in the Book of Moses and similar names in the Bible and an ancient Dead Sea Scrolls Enoch text named the Book of Giants cannot be ruled out. More broadly, we reiterate and expand upon arguments we have made elsewhere that the short and fragmentary Book of Giants, a work not discovered until 1948, contains much more dense and generally more pertinent resemblances to Moses 6‒7 than the much longer 1 Enoch, the only ancient Enoch text outside the Bible that was published and translated into English in Joseph Smith’s lifetime.
Links to available media:“Ancient Affinities within the LDS Book of Enoch Part One.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 4 (2013): 1-27.Abstract: In this article, we will examine affinities between ancient extracanonical sources and a collection of modern revelations that Joseph Smith termed “extracts from the Prophecy of Enoch.” We build on the work of previous scholars, revisiting their findings with the benefit of subsequent scholarship. Following a perspective on the LDS canon and an introduction to the LDS Enoch revelations, we will focus on relevant passages in pseudepigrapha and LDS scripture within three episodes in the Mormon Enoch narrative: Enoch’s prophetic commission, Enoch’s encounters with the “gibborim,” and the weeping and exaltation of Enoch and his people.
Links to available media:“Ancient Affinities within the LDS Book of Enoch Part Two.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 4 (2013): 29-74.Abstract: In this article, we will examine affinities between ancient extracanonical sources and a collection of modern revelations that Joseph Smith termed “extracts from the Prophecy of Enoch.” We build on the work of previous scholars, revisiting their findings with the benefit of subsequent scholarship. Following a perspective on the LDS canon and an introduction to the LDS Enoch revelations, we will focus on relevant passages in pseudepigrapha and LDS scripture within three episodes in the Mormon Enoch narrative: Enoch’s prophetic commission, Enoch’s encounters with the “gibborim,” and the weeping and exaltation of Enoch and his people.
Links to available media:“Book of Moses Textual Criticism 1 — Article Preview: Did God or Enoch weep?” The Interpreter Foundation, August 27, 2020.Links to available media:“Book of Moses Textual Criticism 2 — Article Preview: Were the Names ‘Mahijah’ and ‘Mahujah’ Inspired by Adam Clarke’s Commentary?” The Interpreter Foundation, September 3, 2020.Links to available media:“Could Joseph Smith Have Drawn on Ancient Manuscripts When He Translated the Story of Enoch?: Recent Updates on a Persistent Question.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 33 (2019): 305-374.Abstract: In this article, we offer a general critique of scholarship that has argued for Joseph Smith’s reliance on 1 Enoch or other ancient pseudepigrapha for the Enoch chapters in the Book of Moses. Our findings highlight the continued difficulties of scholars to sustain such arguments credibly. Following this general critique, we describe the current state of research relating to what Salvatore Cirillo took to be the strongest similarity between Joseph Smith’s chapters on Enoch and the Qumran Book of Giants — namely the resemblance between the name Mahawai in the Book of Giants and Mahujah/Mahijah in Joseph Smith’s Enoch account. We conclude this section with summaries of conversations of Gordon C. Thomasson and Hugh Nibley with Book of Giants scholar Matthew Black about these names. Next, we explain why even late and seemingly derivative sources may provide valuable new evidence for the antiquity of Moses 6–7 or may corroborate details from previously known Enoch sources. By way of example, we summarize preliminary research that compares passages in Moses 6–7 to newly available ancient Enoch texts from lesser known sources. We conclude with a discussion of the significance of findings that situate Joseph Smith’s Enoch account in an ancient milieu. Additional work is underway to provide a systematic and detailed analysis of ancient literary affinities in Moses 6–7, including an effort sponsored by Book of Mormon Central in collaboration with The Interpreter Foundation.
Links to available media:“Enoch and the Gathering of Zion.” The Interpreter Foundation website. December 20, 2021.Links to available media:Enoch and the Gathering of Zion: The Witness of Ancient Texts for Modern Scripture. Orem, Springville, and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“KnoWhy OTL05D — What Did Hugh Nibley Have to Say About the LDS Enoch and the Aramaic Book of the Giants?” The Interpreter Foundation website. April 9, 2018.Links to available media:“The LDS Book of Enoch as the Culminating Story of a Temple Text.” BYU Studies 53, no. 1 (2014): 39–73.In this article, I will suggest how the LDS story of Enoch might be understood as the culminating episode in a temple text cycle woven through the book of Moses. I will begin by giving a brief summary of “temple theology” and what is meant by the term “temple text.” Distinctive aspects of LDS temple teachings will be outlined. I will then outline how the book of Moses reflects elements of temple architecture, furnishings, and ritual in the story of the Creation and the Fall. Like other scripture-based temple texts, the general structure of the second half of the book of Moses follows a pattern exemplifying faithfulness and unfaithfulness to a specific sequence of covenants that is familiar to members of the LDS Church who have received the temple endowment. I argue that the story of Enoch and his people provides a vivid demonstration of the final steps on the path that leads back to God and up to exaltation.
Links to available media:“Moses 6–7 and the Book of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses of Enoch’s Ministry.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 48 (2021): 95-312.Abstract: The Book of Giants (BG), an Enoch text found in 1948 among the Dead Sea Scrolls, includes a priceless trove of stories about the ancient prophet and his contemporaries, including unique elements relevant to the Book of Moses Enoch account. Hugh Nibley was the first to discover in the BG a rare personal name that corresponds to the only named character in the Book of Moses besides Enoch himself, a finding that some non-Latter-day Saint Enoch scholars considered significant. Since Nibley’s passing, the growth of new scholarship on ancient Enoch texts has continued unabated. While Nibley’s pioneering research compared the names and roles of one character in Moses 6–7 and BG, scholars have now been able to examine the names and roles of nearly all of the prominent figures in the two books and analyze their respective accounts in more detail. Not only are the overall storylines of the two independent accounts more similar than could have imagined a few years ago, a series of recent studies have added substance to the claim that the specific resemblances of the Book of Giants to Moses 6–7—resemblances that are rare or absent elsewhere in Jewish tradition—are more numerous and significant than the resemblances of any other single ancient Enoch text—or, for that matter, to all of the most significant extant Enoch texts combined. Of particular note is new evidence in BG that relates to the Book of Moses account of Enoch’s gathering of Zion to divinely prepared cities and the ascent of his people to the presence of God.
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
[Page 96]See Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, “Moses 6–7 and the Book of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses of Enoch’s Ministry,” in Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, ed. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2021), 1041–256. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/.
A condensed and simplified version of ancient evidence for the Enoch account in the Book of Moses will be forthcoming in a new book:
Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., Enoch and the Gathering of Zion: The Witness of Ancient Texts for Modern Scripture. Orem, Springville, and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, and Eborn Books, 2021. See https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/enoch-and-the-gathering-of-zion/.
In the meantime, perhaps this video version may be a little easier to digest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP6GYxbieNQAlso, the Book of Moses Essays #1-30 at https://interpreterfoundation.org/book-of-moses-essays/ overlap somewhat, containing both earlier versions of some (but not all) of the findings in this article, while also including topics that are not in the paper.]
Links to available media:“Moses 6–7 and the Book of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses of Enoch’s Ministry.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 1041–256. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Revisiting the Forgotten Voices of Weeping in Moses 7: A Comparison with Ancient Texts.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 2 (2012): 41-71.Abstract: The LDS Book of Moses is remarkable in its depiction of the suffering of the wicked at the time of the Flood. According to this text, there are three parties directly involved in the weeping: God (Moses 7:28; cf. v. 29), the heavens (Moses 7:28, 37), and Enoch (Moses 7:41, 49). In addition, a fourth party, the earth, mourns—though does not weep—for her children (Moses 7:48–49). The passages that speak of the weeping God and the mourning earth have received the greatest share of attention by scholars. The purpose of this article is to round out the previous discussion so as to include new insights and ancient parallels to the two voices of weeping that have been largely forgotten—that of Enoch and that of the heavens. ((An expanded and revised version of material contained in this study will appear as part of Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and David J. Larsen, Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel (Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Publishing, forthcoming, 2014). All translations from non-English sources are by the first author unless otherwise specifically noted.)) .
Links to available media:“Since Hugh Nibley: Remarkable New Findings on Enoch and the Gathering of Zion.” Paper presented at the 2021 FairMormon Conference. August, 2021.Links to available media:“What Did Enoch Scholar Matthew Black Say To Hugh Nibley about the Book of Moses Enoch Account?” In “Insight Videos about Hugh Nibley Interpreter Foundation,” by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR. 22 April 2021. Video.In the “Things That Mattered Most to Hugh Nibley” series.
Hugh Nibley discovered many evidences of the authenticity of the Book of Moses, and there are non-Latter-day Saint scholars who agree with the significance of his findings.
Links to available media:“Congruence and Concatenation in Jewish Mystical Literature, American Freemasonry, and Mormon Enoch Writings.” Journal of Religion and Society 16 (2014): 1–19.The Biblical character Enoch is a central figure in early Jewish mystical literature, where his story is redolent with themes related to the concepts of transformation and communion with the Divine. This rich and mythic wisdom significantly influenced American Royal Arch Freemasonry, and through it, early Mormonism. This paper explores the shared aspects of these traditions: where they overlap, and specifically, where Mormonism may rely upon Freemasonry. The Enoch pseudepigrapha and their Masonic and Mormon iterations are presented as a series of related mystical traditions. Linked by common themes of theophany, grand assembly, and heavenly ascent, they are utilized in similar, yet innovative ways to impart spiritual truth to their followers.
Links to available media:“An Early Christian Context for the Book of Moses.” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (April 23-24, 2021), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2021.Links to available media:“An Early Christian Context for the Book of Moses.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 47 (2021): 181-262.Abstract: This study argues that the Book of Moses was an early Christian text. The book’s language, literary genre, and references to its own production could fit with a date in the late first century ad. Further, the study argues that a possible ritual context of the book was a baptismal ritual, as suggested by the detailed description of Adam’s baptism in Moses 6. A comparison between the content of the Book of Moses and early Christian sources on baptism shows some close resemblances, which may suggest that the Book of Moses was read aloud, and perhaps portrayed as a ritual drama, on sacred space during a baptismal ritual.
Links to available media:“An Early Christian Context for the Book of Moses.” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 1. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 505–90. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:“Early Christian Temples and Baptism for the Dead: Defining Sacred Space in the Late Antique Near East.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 46 (2021): 77-100.Abstract: This paper addresses the early Christian transition from temple-based Judaism to the Constantinian basilica of the fourth century. David argues that some Christians of the second and early third centuries may have had places of worship that, while not monumental in scale, qualify typologically as temples and were understood as such. These sacred structures may have been used for the performance of baptisms for the dead, as suggested by Doctrine and Covenants 124. In support of this thesis, he takes as case studies the Christian places of worship at ancient Edessa and Dura Europos, based on a combination of textual sources and archaeological remains. David then briefly applies these findings to a question posed years ago in studies by Hugh Nibley and John Lundquist, “What Is a Temple?”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See David Calabro, “From temple to church: Defining sacred space in the Near East,” in The Temple: Past, Present, and Future. Proceedings of the Fifth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 7 November 2020, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-past-present-and-future/.]Introduction.
Links to available media:“Joseph Smith, Mormonism, and Enochic Tradition.” Master’s Thesis, Durham University, 2010.Links to available media:“The Weeping God of Mormonism.” Dialogue 35, no. 1 (2002): 63–80.An essay published posthumously in which England wrestles with what he believed to be a disturbing trend in Mormonism away from what he saw as Joseph Smith’s and Brigham Young’s doctrine of God as a personal being engaged withus in a tragic universe not of his own making and toward a more absolutistic God similar to the teachings about deity held by Evangelical Christianity.
Links to available media:The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life. Salt Lake City, UT: Ensign Peak, 2012.“The Ages of the Patriarchs in the Joseph Smith Translation.” In A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews, edited by Kent P. Jackson and Andrew C. Skinner, 1–11. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2007.Links to available media:“‘Enoch Walked with God, and He Was Not’: Where Did Enoch Go After Genesis?” Presented at the conference entitled “Tracing Ancient Threads of the Book of Moses” (September 18–19, 2020), Provo, UT: Brigham Young University 2020.Links to available media:“‘Enoch Walked with God, and He Was Not’: Where Did Enoch Go after Genesis?” In Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volume 2. Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon, 1001–40. Orem, UT; Springville, UT; Redding, CA; Tooele, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, and Eborn Books, 2021.Links to available media:Enoch the Prophet. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2, edited by Stephen D. Ricks, Salt Lake City/Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1986. viii + 309 pp.In the Book of Moses, part of the Latter-day Saint scriptural canon known as the Pearl of Great Price, are what the Prophet Joseph Smith entitled “extracts from the prophecy of Enoch.” These scriptures, says the eminent Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley, “supply us with the most valuable control yet on the bona fides of the Prophet. . . . We are to test. . . . ‘How does it compare with records known to be authentic?’ The excerpts offer the nearest thing to a perfectly foolproof test—neat, clear-cut, and decisive—of Joseph Smith’s claim to inspiration.”
In Enoch the Prophet, Dr. Nibley examines and defends that claim by examining Joseph Smith’s translations in the context of recently discovered apocryphal sources.
This book contains a collection of various comparisons of the Enoch materials in the Book of Moses with the Slavonic and Ethiopic Enoch texts and other related materials and lore from antiquity, showing the possibility that Joseph Smith’s book of Enoch could be authentic ancient text.
Links to available media:“Enoch the Prophet.” In Pearl of Great Price Symposium: A Centennial Presentation, 76–85. Provo, UT: BYU Publications, 1976.Reprinted in Enoch the Prophet, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley vol. 2.
Discusses the book of Enoch and its relationship with the Pearl of Great Price.
Links to available media:See also:“Enoch the Prophet” (1975)
“Enoch the Prophet” (1986)“Enoch the Prophet.” Lecture given 22 November 1975 for the Pearl of Great Price Symposium, at Brigham Young University.Reprinted in Enoch the Prophet, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley vol. 2.
Discusses the book of Enoch and its relationship with the Pearl of Great Price.
Links to available media:See also:“Enoch the Prophet” (1976)
“Enoch the Prophet” (1986)“Enoch the Prophet.” In Enoch the Prophet, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 2, edited by Stephen D. Ricks. Salt Lake City/Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1986.Originally presented as a lecture given 22 November 1975 for the Pearl of Great Price Symposium at Brigham Young University.
Discusses the book of Enoch and its relationship with the Pearl of Great Price.
Links to available media:See also:“Enoch the Prophet” (1975)
“Enoch the Prophet” (1976)“What Did Hugh Nibley Have to Say About the LDS Enoch and the Aramaic Book of the Giants?” The Interpreter Foundation.These comments by Nibley are excerpted from a FARMS videocassette entitled “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Era Dawns.”
It contains material recorded in connection with a National Interfaith Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls, 20 November 1992 in the Kresge Auditorium of Stanford University.
Links to available media:“On the Motif of the Weeping God in Moses 7.” In Revelation, Reason, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson and Stephen D. Ricks, 285—317. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002.Links to available media:“Zion of Enoch.” The Seer 2, no. 5 (May 1854): 261–265. Reprint, Orem, UT: Grandin Book Company, 1994.Links to available media:“The Apocryphal Book of Enoch.” The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star 1, no. 3, July 1840, 61—63.Links to available media:“‘Behold These Thy Brethren!’: Deeply Seeing All of Our Brothers and Sisters.” In Covenant of Compassion: Caring for the Marginalized and Disadvantaged in the Old Testament, edited by Avram R. Shannon, Gaye Strathearn, George A. Pierce and Joshua M. Sears, 101–23. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2021.Links to available media:“Joseph Smith Vindicated Again: Enoch, Moses 7:48, and Apocryphal Sources.” In Reason, Revelation, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson and Stephen D. Ricks, 365—381. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002.Links to available media:“The People of Canaan: A New Reading of Moses 7.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 47 (2021): 159-180.Abstract: Moses 7 is one of the most famous passages in all of Restoration scripture. It is also one of the most problematic in regard to its description of the people of Canaan as black (v. 8) and as a people who were not preached to by the patriarch Enoch (v. 12). Later there is also a mention of “the seed of Cain,” who also are said to be black (v. 22). This article examines the history of interpretation of Moses 7 and proposes an alternative understanding based on a close reading of the text. In contrast to traditional views, it argues that the reason for Enoch’s not preaching to the people of Canaan stems not from any sins the people had committed or from divine disfavor but from the racial prejudice of the other sons of Adam, the “residue of the people” (vv. 20, 22) who ironically are the only ones mentioned as “cursed” in the text (v. 20). In looking at the implications of this passage for the present-day Restoration, this article notes parallels between Enoch’s hesitancy and various attitudes toward black priesthood ordination throughout the Restoration traditions, including the Community of Christ where the same type of hesitancy existed. This article argues that, rather than being indicative of divine disfavor toward persons of African descent, this tendency is a response to the racist attitudes of particular eras, whether the period of the Old Testament patriarchs or the post-bellum American South. Nevertheless, God can be seen as working through and within particular contexts and cultures to spread the gospel to all of Adam’s children irrespective of race.
[Editor’s Note: We are pleased to publish this article from an author outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but from a related Restoration faith tradition. Adam Stokes was formerly with the Community of Christ and currently is an ordained Apostle and Elder in The Church of Jesus Christ with the Elijah Message—The Assured Way [Page 160]of the Lord. Adam notes that “while the Book of Moses is not officially part of my church’s canon, my own personal beliefs still accept the Joseph Smith translation/Inspired Version as inspired and sacred scripture and I read it often.” We are grateful for the faithful insights Elder Stokes kindly provides for the Book of Moses.]
Links to available media:“The Vision of Enoch: Structure of a Masterpiece.” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 17, no. 1–2 (2008): 6–19.The seventh chapter of the Book of Moses portrays Enoch’s vision of the history and future of the world within a specific literary framework. The text, coming from the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, outlines three periods of time: (1) the days of Noah, (2) the meridian of time, and (3) the last days. The portrayal of each of these time periods contains five similar characteristics. Szink also compares this text with accounts in the Bible and other nonbiblical sources to further understand the vision and the significance of its framework. By presenting the three periods in a literary art form, the author has created a complex beauty that reflects and reinforces the content of the vision.
Links to available media:Keywords: Creation; Dream; Enoch (Prophet); Joseph Smith Translation; Last Days; Literary; Literature; Meridian of Time; Vision“Revisiting Joseph Smith and the Availability of the Book of Enoch.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 53, no. 3 (Fall 2020): 41–71.Links to available media:“The Book of Enoch, the Book of Moses, and the Question of Availability.” In Faith-Promoting Rumor. Originally published at https://faithpromotingrumor.com/2017/09/24/the-book-of-enoch-the-book-of-moses-and-the-question-of-availability/.Originally posted at https://faithpromotingrumor.com/2017/09/24/the-book-of-enoch-the-book-of-moses-and-the-question-of-availability/. Note that this blog post has since been removed without explanation, but was not disavowed by the author and was originally archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20181217192041/https://faithpromotingrumor.com/2017/09/24/the-book-of-enoch-thebook-of-moses-and-the-question-of-availability/ (accessed November 22, 2018). It seems that the archive.org version has now been removed, but the original article can now be found at: https://archive.interpreterfoundation.org/Ben-Tov-Availability-of-1-Enoch-Cirillo-error-The-Book-of-Enoch-the-Book-of-Moses-and-the-Question-of-Availability-FAITH-PROMOTING-RUMOR.pdf.
Links to available media:“Enoch, Whom the Lord Took Unto Himself.” The Juvenile Instructor 36, no. 11 (1 June 1901): 342–346.Links to available media:“Extra-Biblical Enoch Texts in Early American Culture.” In Archive of Restoration Culture: Summer Fellows’ Papers 1997–1999, edited by Richard Lyman Bushman, 185–193. Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, 2000.“The Order of Enoch.” Remarks delivered in the Bowery, Logan City, Sunday Morning, 29 June 1873. In Journal of Discourses 16, 122–123. Liverpool and London, England: Latter-day Saints Book Depot, 1853–1886. Reprint, Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1966.Links to available media:“‘Zion’ and ‘Jerusalem’ as Lady Wisdom in Moses 7 and Nephi’s Tree of Life Vision: Reverberations of Enoch and Asherah in Nineteenth Century America.” In Textual and Comparative Explorations in 1 & 2 Enoch, edited by Samuel Zinner. Ancient Scripture and Texts 1, 239–273. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014.“‘Zion’ and ‘Jerusalem’ as Lady Wisdom in Moses 7 and Nephi’s Tree of Life Vision.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 12 (2014): 281-323.Editor’s Note: This article is drawn from a chapter in Samuel Zinner’s new book entitled Textual and Comparative Explorations in 1 and 2 Enoch (Provo, UT: The Interpreter Foundation/Eborn Books, 2014). The book is now available online for purchase (e.g., Amazon, FairMormon Bookstore) and will be available in selected bookstores in October 2014. The other new temple books from Interpreter are also now available for purchase. Click here for more details.
The essay traces lines of continuity between ancient middle eastern traditions of Asherah in her various later Jewish, Christian, and Mormon forms. Especially relevant in Jewish texts are Lady Wisdom (Proverbs 8; Sirach 24; Baruch 3-4), Daughter of Zion (Lamentations; Isaiah); Lady Zion and Mother Jerusalem (4 Ezra), Binah in kabbalah etc. The divine feminine in the Jewish-Christian texts Odes of Solomon 19 and Shepherd of Hermas is examined, as well as in Pauline Christian texts, namely, the Letter to the Galatians and the writings of Irenaeus (Against Heresies and Apostolic Preaching). Dependence of Hermas on the Parables of Enoch is documented. The essay identifies parallels between some of the above ancient sources and traditions about Zion and other forms of the feminine divine in 19th century America, specifically in the Mormon scriptures (Moses 7 and Nephi 11). While recognizing the corporate nature of the Enochic city of Zion in Moses 7, the essay argues that this Zion also parallels the hypostatic Lady Zion of Jewish canonical and extracanonical scriptures, especially 4 Ezra. The essay also points how the indigenous trope of Mother Earth parallels forms of the divine feminine stretching from the ancient middle eastern Asherah, the Jewish Lady Wisdom and Shekhinah, the Christian Holy Spirit, to the Mormon Enochic Zion.
Links to available media:
Moses 8 — Noah
“Essay #75: Noah (Moses 8): The Sons of God and the Sons of Men (Moses 8:1-21).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 02, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #76: Noah (Moses 8): Was Noah’s Ark Designed as a Floating Temple? (Moses 8:22–30; Genesis 6:5–22; chapters 7–8).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 09, 2021.Links to available media:“Essay #77: Noah (Moses 8): Was Noah Drunk or in a Vision? (Genesis 9).” In Pearl of Great Price Central; The Interpreter Foundation. October 16, 2021.Links to available media:“‘This Son Shall Comfort Us’: An Onomastic Tale of Two Noahs.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 23 (2017): 263-298.Abstract: From an etiological perspective, the Hebrew Bible connects the name Noah with two distinct but somewhat homonymous verbal roots: nwḥ (“rest”) and nḥm (“comfort,” “regret” [sometimes “repent”]). Significantly, the Enoch and Noah material in the revealed text of the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis (especially Moses 7–8) also connects the name Noah in a positive sense to the earth’s “rest” and the Lord’s covenant with Enoch after the latter “refuse[d] to be comforted” regarding the imminent destruction of humanity in the flood. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, connects the name Noah pejoratively to Hebrew nwḥ (“rest”) and nḥm (“comfort” and “repentance” [regret]) in a negative evaluation of King Noah, the son of Zeniff. King Noah causes his people to “labor exceedingly to support iniquity” (Mosiah 11:6), gives “rest” to his wicked and corrupt priests (Mosiah 11:11), and anesthetizes his people in their sins with his winemaking. Noah and his people’s refusal to “repent” and their martyring of Abinadi result in their coming into hard bondage to the Lamanites. Mormon’s text further demonstrates how the Lord eventually “comforts” Noah’s former subjects after their “sore repentance” and “sincere repentance” from their iniquity and abominations, providing them a typological deliverance that points forward to the atonement of Jesus Christ.
“Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” (Isaiah 49:13).
Links to available media:“The Ark and the Tent: Temple Symbolism in the Story of Noah.” In Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference ‘The Temple on Mount Zion,’ 22 September 2012, edited by William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely. Temple on Mount Zion Series 2, 25–66. Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014.Links to available media:“The Ark and the Tent: Temple Symbolism in the Story of Noah.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 44 (2021): 93-136.Abstract: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw compares Moses’ tabernacle and Noah’s ark, and then identifies the story of Noah as a temple related drama, drawing of temple mysticism and symbols. After examining structural similarities between ark and tabernacle and bringing into the discussion further information about the Mesopotamian flood story, he shows how Noah’s ark is a beginning of a new creation, pointing out the central point of Day One in the Noah story. When Noah leaves the ark, they find themselves in a garden, not unlike the Garden of Eden in the way the Bible speaks about it. A covenant is established in signs and tokens. Noah is the new Adam. This is then followed by a fall/Judgement scene story, even though it is Ham who is judged, not Noah. In accordance with mostly non-Mormon sources quoted, Bradshaw points out how Noah was not in “his” tent, but in the tent of the Shekhina, the presence of God, how being drunk was seen by the ancients as a synonym to “being caught up in a vision of God,” and how his “nakedness” was rather referring to garments God had made for Adam and Eve.
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, “The Ark and the Tent: Temple Symbolism in the Story of Noah,” in Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 22 September 2012, ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 25–66. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/temple-insights/.].
Links to available media:“Jeffrey Bradshaw on ‘The Ark and the Tent: Temple Symbolism in the Story of Noah’” The Interpreter Foundation website. October 27, 2012.Links to available media:“Did the Flood Cover the Highest Mountains of the Earth?” In Evidences and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day, edited by John A. Widtsoe. 2nd ed, 109-12. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1943.
Temple Themes in the Book of Moses and Related Scripture
[Editor’s Note: This article is an updated and extended version of a presentation given at the Third Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference: The Temple on Mount Zion, November 5, 2016, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. For a video version of the presentation, see https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference-videos/]
Abstract: In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.”
To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”
In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of these ordinances within the allusive and sometimes enigmatic descriptions of John 3 and Moses 6. Moses 6:51–68, with its dense infusion of temple themes, was revealed to the Prophet in December 1830, when the Church was in its infancy and more than a decade before the fulness of priesthood ordinances was made available to the Saints in Nauvoo. Our study of these chapters informs our closing perspective on the meaning of the sacrament, which is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”
We discuss the relationship of the sacrament to the shewbread of Israelite temples, and its anticipation of the heavenly feast that will be enjoyed by those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
““By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6” (2020)
““Veren kautta teidät pyhitetään”: Toimitusten ja hengellisen uudestisyntymisen vertauskuvallinen, pelastava, toisiinsa liittyvä, kertyvä, taaksepäin katsova ja ennakoiva luonne Johanneksen evankeliumin kolmannessa ja Mooseksen kirjan ensimmäisessä luvussa” (Finnish, 2017)
Abstract: In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.” To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”
In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of these ordinances within the allusive and sometimes enigmatic descriptions of John 3 and Moses 6. Moses 6:51–68, with its dense infusion of temple themes, was revealed to the Prophet in December 1830, when the Church was in its infancy and more than a decade before the fulness of priesthood ordinances was made available to the Saints in Nauvoo. Our study of these chapters informs our closing perspective on the meaning of the sacrament, which is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”
We discuss the relationship of the sacrament to the shewbread of Israelite temples, and its anticipation of the heavenly feast that will be enjoyed by those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
““By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”: The Symbolic, Salvific, Interrelated, Additive, Retrospective, and Anticipatory Nature of the Ordinances of Spiritual Rebirth in John 3 and Moses 6” (2017)
““Veren kautta teidät pyhitetään”: Toimitusten ja hengellisen uudestisyntymisen vertauskuvallinen, pelastava, toisiinsa liittyvä, kertyvä, taaksepäin katsova ja ennakoiva luonne Johanneksen evankeliumin kolmannessa ja Mooseksen kirjan ensimmäisessä luvussa” (Finnish, 2017)
The idea of names as “keywords” has been associated with temples since very early times. In a temple context, the meaning of the term “keyword” can be taken quite literally: the use of the appropriate keyword or keywords by a qualified worshipper “unlocks” each one of a successive series of gates, thus providing access to specific, secured areas of the sacred space. In this presentation, we will explore how a series of names and titles purportedly given to Moses at various points in his life might relate to accounts of his ascents to heaven.
Abstract: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw compares Moses’ tabernacle and Noah’s ark, and then identifies the story of Noah as a temple related drama, drawing of temple mysticism and symbols. After examining structural similarities between ark and tabernacle and bringing into the discussion further information about the Mesopotamian flood story, he shows how Noah’s ark is a beginning of a new creation, pointing out the central point of Day One in the Noah story. When Noah leaves the ark, they find themselves in a garden, not unlike the Garden of Eden in the way the Bible speaks about it. A covenant is established in signs and tokens. Noah is the new Adam. This is then followed by a fall/Judgement scene story, even though it is Ham who is judged, not Noah. In accordance with mostly non-Mormon sources quoted, Bradshaw points out how Noah was not in “his” tent, but in the tent of the Shekhina, the presence of God, how being drunk was seen by the ancients as a synonym to “being caught up in a vision of God,” and how his “nakedness” was rather referring to garments God had made for Adam and Eve.
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, “The Ark and the Tent: Temple Symbolism in the Story of Noah,” in Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 22 September 2012, ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 25–66. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/temple-insights/.].
In this article, I will suggest how the LDS story of Enoch might be understood as the culminating episode in a temple text cycle woven through the book of Moses. I will begin by giving a brief summary of “temple theology” and what is meant by the term “temple text.” Distinctive aspects of LDS temple teachings will be outlined. I will then outline how the book of Moses reflects elements of temple architecture, furnishings, and ritual in the story of the Creation and the Fall. Like other scripture-based temple texts, the general structure of the second half of the book of Moses follows a pattern exemplifying faithfulness and unfaithfulness to a specific sequence of covenants that is familiar to members of the LDS Church who have received the temple endowment. I argue that the story of Enoch and his people provides a vivid demonstration of the final steps on the path that leads back to God and up to exaltation.
The book of Moses is an ideal starting point for a scripture-based study of temple themes. It is well known, for example, that the LDS temple endowment, like the book of Moses, includes includes the stories of Creation and of Adam and Eve. What is more rarely appreciated, however, is that the relationship between scripture and temple teachings goes two ways. Not only have many of the stories of the book of Moses been included in the endowment, but also, in striking abundance, themes echoing temple architecture, furnishings, ordinances, and covenants have been deeply woven into the text of the book of Moses itself.
One thing that has always perplexed readers of Genesis is the location of the two special trees within the Garden of Eden. Although scripture initially applies the phrase “in the midst” only to the tree of life (Genesis 2:9), the tree of knowledge is later said by Eve to be located there too (see Genesis 3:3). In the context of these verses, the Hebrew phrase corresponding to “in the midst” literally means “in the center.” How can both trees be in the center?
Abstract: This study argues that the Book of Moses was an early Christian text. The book’s language, literary genre, and references to its own production could fit with a date in the late first century ad. Further, the study argues that a possible ritual context of the book was a baptismal ritual, as suggested by the detailed description of Adam’s baptism in Moses 6. A comparison between the content of the Book of Moses and early Christian sources on baptism shows some close resemblances, which may suggest that the Book of Moses was read aloud, and perhaps portrayed as a ritual drama, on sacred space during a baptismal ritual.
Abstract: This paper addresses the early Christian transition from temple-based Judaism to the Constantinian basilica of the fourth century. David argues that some Christians of the second and early third centuries may have had places of worship that, while not monumental in scale, qualify typologically as temples and were understood as such. These sacred structures may have been used for the performance of baptisms for the dead, as suggested by Doctrine and Covenants 124. In support of this thesis, he takes as case studies the Christian places of worship at ancient Edessa and Dura Europos, based on a combination of textual sources and archaeological remains. David then briefly applies these findings to a question posed years ago in studies by Hugh Nibley and John Lundquist, “What Is a Temple?”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See David Calabro, “From temple to church: Defining sacred space in the Near East,” in The Temple: Past, Present, and Future. Proceedings of the Fifth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 7 November 2020, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-past-present-and-future/.]Introduction.
Abstract: This paper addresses the early Christian transition from temple-based Judaism to the Constantinian basilica of the fourth century. David argues that some Christians of the second and early third centuries may have had places of worship that, while not monumental in scale, qualify typologically as temples and were understood as such. These sacred structures may have been used for the performance of baptisms for the dead, as suggested by Doctrine and Covenants 124. In support of this thesis, he takes as case studies the Christian places of worship at ancient Edessa and Dura Europos, based on a combination of textual sources and archaeological remains. David then briefly applies these findings to a question posed years ago in studies by Hugh Nibley and John Lundquist, “What Is a Temple?”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See David Calabro, “From temple to church: Defining sacred space in the Near East,” in The Temple: Past, Present, and Future. Proceedings of the Fifth Interpreter Foundation Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, 7 November 2020, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-past-present-and-future/.]Introduction.
During his lifetime, Joseph Smith revealed at least four versions of what I will refer to as the “Genesis account,” which consists of the creation of the world, the experiences of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and the events that befell them and their near posterity following the expulsion from the garden. These four versions each differ in important ways from the biblical text in Genesis, and they also differ one from another. The versions of the Genesis account include the following:
(1) scattered references found in the Book of Mormon;
(2) the biblical account as revised in the Book of Moses;
(3) the account in the Book of Abraham; and
(4) the version presented in the temple endowment.
I will focus on the second of these, the Book of Moses, especially chapters 1-7, which were revealed to Joseph Smith from June to December 1830. Many have already pointed out temple-related themes that abound in these chapters.
I will take these discoveries a step further, arguing that Moses 1-7 is fundamentally a ritual text whose elements are adapted to the physical features of the temple of Solomon. I will then discuss how this reading of the Book of Moses might interact with modern scholarship on the biblical book of Genesis, and finally how this reading of Moses can provide insight into ritual performances both ancient and modern
Abstract: The authors begin by 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.”
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Bruce C. Hafen and Marie K. Hafen, “Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement,” in Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Tooele, UT: Eborn Books, 2021), page numbers forthcoming. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/.]Historicity and Plausibility of the Book of Moses.
This article explores the ancient Near Eastern ritu-als that endowed kings with this power, specifically the rites suggested by the Investiture Panel at the palace of Mari, with specific focus on the motifs of creation, sacred garden, and divine kingship. Because contemporary evidence at Mari relating to an interpretation of the panel and the functions of various rooms of the palace is limited, it will be necessary to rely in part on a careful comparative analysis of religious texts, images, and architecture throughout the ancient Near East, including the Old Testament. Comparative analysis not only has the benefit of increasing our understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religion but also can enrich our understanding of the Bible.
Abstract: The character and complexion of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible (JST) is often a puzzle to students and scholars. One text in particular, the first chapter of the Book of Moses, claims that its very words would be lost and later restored to the believing. As this bold claim has not yet been verified by the discovery of an ancient copy of this text, clues to the antiquity of this document will need to be discovered within the text itself. This study investigates Moses 1 with the tools of biblical and literary criticism to discover if the text has the characteristics and content of an ancient religious document.
Reprinted in Mormonism and Early Christianity, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley vol. 4, 45–99. Also reprinted in LDS Views on Early Christianity and Apocrypha: Articles from BYU Studies, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
Draws upon a host of sources and shows certain parallels between an early Christian form of prayer and that of the Latter-day Saint prayer circle.
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle” (1987)
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle” (2010)
Originally published as an article in BYU Studies in 1978.
Draws upon a host of sources and shows certain parallels between an early Christian form of prayer and that of the Latter-day Saint prayer circle.
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle” (1978)
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle” (2010)
A practice that was eventually condemned by the church because of its Jewish affinities—being found, for example, in the Testaments of Abraham and Job and in the writings of Philo—the prayer circle has a long and complex history in Christian practice. This practice was considered one of the “ mysteries” and therefore was protected from all who weren’t initiated. For the initiated participants, this was a very sacred practice, which demanded unity between all those involved. The prayer circle, generally referred to as a “ dance,” often included hymns, prayers for the living and the dead, and gestures that would prepare the participants for heavenly visitations.
In Temple and Cosmos, Brother Nibley explains the relationship of the House of the Lord to the cosmos. In Temple, the first part of the volume, he focuses on the nature, meaning, and history of the temple, discussing such topics as sacred vestments, the circle and the square, and the symbolism of the temple and its ordinances. In the second part, Cosmos, he discusses the cosmic context of the temple-the expanding gospel, apocryphal writings, religion and history, the genesis of the written word, cultural diversity in the universal church, and the terrible questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? and Where are we going?
This lecture was originally accompanied by slides. It was circulated in two different editions in 1986 and 1987 and was available in a much expanded version, including illustrations, in 1988.
What does the Book of Enoch say or not say about the temple, and to which Book of Enoch do I refer? Is it the text called 1 Enoch, or the one known as 2 Enoch, or the so-called 3 Enoch? And all of them discuss or, better, visualize the temple. I restrict myself here to 1 Enoch.
The Garden of Eden pericope (Genesis 2-3) contains a number of powerful symbols that are related to and represent archetypal depictions of subsequent Israelite temple systems. In a cogent manner, the Garden of Eden, as it is referred to throughout the Bible, Pseudepigrapha, and rabbinic writings, served as the prototype, pattern, and/ or originator of subsequent Israelite temples, “a type of archetypal sanctuary.” The garden was not a sanctuary built of cedar or marble, for it is not necessary for a temple to possess an edifice or structure; but rather it was an area of sacred space made holy because God’s presence was found there. Mircea Eliade has stated that the Garden of Eden was the heavenly prototype of the temple, and the Book of Jubilees 3:19 adds that “the garden of Eden is the Holy of Holies, and the dwelling of the Lord.” This essay will examine these claims.
Messianic and Christological Themes in the Book of Moses
First, I want to deal with the figure of the Son of Man in ancient literature, reviewing along the way what current biblical scholarship says about this personality, especially since he is mentioned prominently in nonscriptural sources. Second, I intend to treat the question of the anthropomorphic view of God in scripture, specifically in the Old Testament. Third, I wish to touch on the issue of the nature of the titles used for deity throughout scripture, for we all have the impression that a great many are applied to God, especially within the pages of the Old Testament. Fourth and last, I want to single out the parallels in ancient Christian and Jewish literature to the remarkable, almost singular theological position to which we Latter-day Saints are committed when we call deity a Man, whether Man of Holiness, Man of Counsel (Moses 7:35), or some similar title.
Literary and Textual Studies of the Book of Moses
Review of Colby Townsend, “Returning to the Sources: Integrating Textual Criticism in the Study of Early Mormon Texts and History.” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 10, no. 1 (2019): 55–85, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol10/iss1/6/.
Abstract: Textual criticism tries by a variety of methods to understand the “original” or “best” wording of a document that may exist in multiple, conflicting versions or where the manuscripts are confusing or difficult to read. The present article, Part 1 of a two-part series by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Ryan Dahle, commends Colby Townsend’s efforts to raise awareness of the importance of textual criticism, while differing on some interpretations. Among the differences discussed is the question of whether it is better to read Moses 7:28 as it was dictated in Old Testament 1 version of the Joseph Smith Translation manuscript (OT1) that “God wept,” or rather to read it as it was later revised in the Old Testament 2 version (OT2) that “Enoch wept.” Far from being an obscure technical detail, the juxtaposition of the two versions of this verse raises general questions as to whether readings based on the latest revisions of Latter-day Saint scripture manuscripts should always take priority over the original dictations. A dialogue with Colby Townsend and Charles Harrell on rich issues of theological and historical relevance demonstrates the potential impact of the different answers to such questions by different scholars. In a separate discussion that highlights the potential significance of handwriting analysis to textual criticism, Bradshaw and Dahle respond to Townsend’s arguments that the spelling difference between the names Mahujah and Mahijah in the Book of Moses may be due to a transcription error.
Review of Colby Townsend, “Returning to the Sources: Integrating Textual Criticism in the Study of Early Mormon Texts and History,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 10, no. 1 (2019): 55–85, https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol10/iss1/6/.
Abstract: In the present article, Part 2 of 2 of a set of articles supporting Colby Townsend’s efforts to raise awareness of the importance of textual criticism, we focus on his argument that Joseph Smith created the Book of Moses names Mahijah and Mahujah after seeing a table of name variants in the Hebrew text of Genesis 4:18 in a Bible commentary written by Adam Clarke. While we are not averse in principle to the general possibility that Joseph Smith may have relied on study aids as part of his translation of the Bible, we discuss why in this case such a conjecture raises more questions than it answers. We argue that a common ancient source for Mahujah and Mahijah in the Book of Moses and similar names in the Bible and an ancient Dead Sea Scrolls Enoch text named the Book of Giants cannot be ruled out. More broadly, we reiterate and expand upon arguments we have made elsewhere that the short and fragmentary Book of Giants, a work not discovered until 1948, contains much more dense and generally more pertinent resemblances to Moses 6‒7 than the much longer 1 Enoch, the only ancient Enoch text outside the Bible that was published and translated into English in Joseph Smith’s lifetime.
In this article, I will suggest how the LDS story of Enoch might be understood as the culminating episode in a temple text cycle woven through the book of Moses. I will begin by giving a brief summary of “temple theology” and what is meant by the term “temple text.” Distinctive aspects of LDS temple teachings will be outlined. I will then outline how the book of Moses reflects elements of temple architecture, furnishings, and ritual in the story of the Creation and the Fall. Like other scripture-based temple texts, the general structure of the second half of the book of Moses follows a pattern exemplifying faithfulness and unfaithfulness to a specific sequence of covenants that is familiar to members of the LDS Church who have received the temple endowment. I argue that the story of Enoch and his people provides a vivid demonstration of the final steps on the path that leads back to God and up to exaltation.
Abstract: In this essay, Richard Bushman borrows a critical perspective from Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. He analyzes the representation of antiquity in two of Joseph Smith’s striking translations, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses. The two texts, produced within a few years of one another, created distinctive stages on which to dramatize the human-God relationship. The question is: What can we learn from this comparison about God, prophets, and human destiny?
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Richard L. Bushman, “Mormon, Moses, and the Representation of Reality,” in Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Tooele, UT: Eborn Books, 2021), 51–74. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/.].
Abstract: This study argues that the Book of Moses was an early Christian text. The book’s language, literary genre, and references to its own production could fit with a date in the late first century ad. Further, the study argues that a possible ritual context of the book was a baptismal ritual, as suggested by the detailed description of Adam’s baptism in Moses 6. A comparison between the content of the Book of Moses and early Christian sources on baptism shows some close resemblances, which may suggest that the Book of Moses was read aloud, and perhaps portrayed as a ritual drama, on sacred space during a baptismal ritual.