Hugh W. Nibley Bibliography
Hugh Winder Nibley was born on 27 March 1910, in Portland, Oregon, to Alexander and Agnes Sloan Nibley. He attended public schools in Portland, Medford, and Los Angeles, where he excelled in school and gained a life-long love of nature, art, astronomy, drama, and literature.
Upon graduation from high school, seventeen-year-old Hugh served a three-year mission for the LDS Church to Germany. He later served a short-term mission to the Northern States. He earned his bachelors degree in history at UCLA in 1934, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and his PhD at Berkeley in 1938. As a college student, he belonged to the National Honor Society Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to the US entering World War II, he taught at the Consortium of Colleges at Claremont, California. In 1942, he joined the Army, where he served in military intelligence. Attached to the 101st Airborne Division, he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, fought in Holland during Operation Market-Garden, and was mapping German forces when the breakout occurred at Bastogne.
Following the war, he married Phyllis Ann Draper on 18 September 1946, in the Salt Lake Temple. Dr. Nibley began his teaching career that Fall at Brigham Young University, where he taught history, languages, and religion. He became best known for his writings on LDS scripture which were published in Church magazines almost monthly throughout the next three decades, as well as his numerous lectures and books. His book An Approach to the Book of Mormon was used as a lesson manual for the LDS Church in 1957. He officially retired from BYU in 1975, but continued teaching until 1994.
Dr. Nibley's legacy at BYU is substantial. In addition to teaching a wide variety of subjects, publishing numerous articles in both academic and LDS journals, and delivering lectures throughout the country, he helped the library acquire an extensive religious studies collection. In 1973, he was called to serve as the first director of the newly created Institute for Ancient Studies. In 2001, the Ancient Studies reading room at BYU was named in his honor. He received numerous awards, among them the David O. McKay Humanities Award in 1971, Professor of the Year in 1973, Distinguished Service Award in 1979, the Exemplary Manhood Award in 1991, and an honorary doctorate from BYU in 1983. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, which is being published by FARMS, has reached 15 volumes. He inspired an entire generation of Mormon scholars, and touched the lives of thousands of people throughout the world. Until his health declined, Brother Nibley served faithfully in the Provo 9th Ward as a Sunday School teacher and home teacher.
— "Hugh W. Nibley", Provo Daily Herald, 25 February 2005,
https://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/announcements/…
https://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/announcements/…
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Published Bibliographies
1990, Compiled by Louis Midgley
To download this bibliography in PDF format, click here.
2010, Compiled by Louis Midgley and Shirley S. Ricks
To download this bibliography in PDF format, click here.
Books
"The End of What?" An unpublished, book-length manuscript from the 1950s. Discusses the eschatological theories of the early Christian church. Intended to be included in CWHN.
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites. An unedited reprinting of the original version..
See also:
Lehi in the Desert (1950), The World of the Jaredites (1951)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1952)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1980)
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 5) (1988)
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Keywords:
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book. The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Of All Things! A Nibley Quote Book.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Of All Things: Classic Quotations from Hugh Nibley, 2nd ed., revised and expanded.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 13).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. When the Lights Went Out: Three Studies on the Ancient Apostasy.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Apostles and Bishops in Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 15).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 16).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Eloquent Witness: Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 17).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. An Approach to the Book of Abraham (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 18).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. One Eternal Round (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 19).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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book. Sergeant Nibley PhD: Memories of an Unlikely Screaming Eagle.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley and Alex Nibley
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1946
No, Ma'am, That's Not History: A Brief Review of Mrs. Brodie's Reluctant Vindication of a Prophet She Seeks to Expose. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft.
Abstract: This is a short, witty reply to Fawn M. Brodie’s No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (New York: Knopf, 1945; 1971). Nibley’s response to Brodie signaled to the Saints that there was still room for a nonnaturalistic account of Joseph Smith’s prophetic claims and revelations. Cultural Mormons who celebrated a new enlightenment with the appearance of Brodie’s treatment of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon were often troubled by what they considered Nibley’s flippant response to Brodie. Opposition to his views has also been a common feature of the secular, revisionist element in the so-called New Mormon History, which has tended to see in Brodie’s account of Joseph Smith the beginning or basic outline of an acceptable naturalistic account of Mormon things. Commenting on the reception of Fawn Brodie’s biography of Joseph Smith, Thomas G. Alexander claims that “perhaps no book in recent years has evinced more comment.” He then contrasted “the scholarly Marvin Hill’s” two reviews of Brodie’s biography of Joseph Smith (Dialogue 7/4 [1972]: 72–85; Church History 43/1 [March 1974]: 78–96) with “the rather outrageous Hugh Nibley’s No Ma’am That’s Not History. . . .” See Thomas G. Alexander, “The Place of Joseph Smith in the Development of American Religion: A Historiographical Inquiry,” Journal of Mormon History 5 (1978): 3–17, at 10, n. 9.
The bibliographer-historian Dale L. Morgan, who provided Fawn Brodie with considerable assistance with both the contents and style of her biography of Joseph Smith, described Nibley’s pamphlet as “something of a slapstick performance, and the irony of it is, Nibley . . . is much more intoxicated with his own language than you, the ‘glib English major,’ are.” See Morgan’s letter to Fawn Brodie, dated 9 June 1946, in Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence & A New History, ed. John P. Walker (Salt Lake City: Signature Press, 1986), 125. Tertius Chandler, a dilettantish polymath and friend of Morgan, included a polemic against Nibley’s pamphlet in Chandler’s Half-Encyclopedia ([Dedham, MA]: privately printed, 1956), 662–79. (The entry is entitled “The Controversy over Joseph Smith” and is dated 14 July 1952; it was extended to include other LDS responses to Brodie’s biography of Joseph Smith in “The Controversy over Joseph Smith—Part II,” dated 1 September 1952, 675–79). BYU Special Collections has a primitive typescript version of Chandler’s “The Controversy over Joseph Smith,” dated 1 September 1952, 22 pp.
The bibliographer-historian Dale L. Morgan, who provided Fawn Brodie with considerable assistance with both the contents and style of her biography of Joseph Smith, described Nibley’s pamphlet as “something of a slapstick performance, and the irony of it is, Nibley . . . is much more intoxicated with his own language than you, the ‘glib English major,’ are.” See Morgan’s letter to Fawn Brodie, dated 9 June 1946, in Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence & A New History, ed. John P. Walker (Salt Lake City: Signature Press, 1986), 125. Tertius Chandler, a dilettantish polymath and friend of Morgan, included a polemic against Nibley’s pamphlet in Chandler’s Half-Encyclopedia ([Dedham, MA]: privately printed, 1956), 662–79. (The entry is entitled “The Controversy over Joseph Smith” and is dated 14 July 1952; it was extended to include other LDS responses to Brodie’s biography of Joseph Smith in “The Controversy over Joseph Smith—Part II,” dated 1 September 1952, 675–79). BYU Special Collections has a primitive typescript version of Chandler’s “The Controversy over Joseph Smith,” dated 1 September 1952, 22 pp.
1952
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft.
See also:
Lehi in the Desert (1950)
The World of the Jaredites (1951)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1980)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1987)
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 5) (1988)
Abstract: The bulk of these materials appeared in the Improvement Era between 1950 and 1952. The original illustrations and some other materials were not included in the book.
Keywords:
1954
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1957
An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
See also:
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1964)
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 6) (1988)
Abstract: An Approach to the Book of Mormon was mentioned by Marvin S. Hill in an essay entitled “The Historiography of Mormonism,” Church History 28/4 (December 1959): 418–26. Hill seems to have preferred to account for the Book of Mormon with what he called “the Smith hypothesis,” which is the attempt to understand the Book of Mormon as a product of Joseph’s presumably fertile imagination coupled to an unusual responsiveness to his own environment. Hill introduced his comments on Nibley’s work by observing that the conflict between Gentiles and the Latter-day Saints is also evident among historians, who are “generally divided into two distinct groups, forging a cleavage of sentiment which is evident in the debates over the origin of the Book of Mormon” (418). According to Hill, the issue “of primary importance is the nature of that unique American scripture, the Book of Mormon. Acclaimed by the faithful as a sacred history of a Christian people in ancient America, the book has been labeled a fraud by non-believers.” “The case for the Latter-day Saints,” Hill acknowledged, “has been stated often, but with no greater sophistication than that exhibited by Hugh Nibley of Brigham Young University in his Approach to the Book of Mormon (1957). He reviews the culture of the ancient Near East to find that in theme, the details of its narrative, and its use of place and proper names the Book of Mormon is authentic. He states that the marks of genuine antiquity in the record could not have been imitated by anyone in 1830. However intimate his knowledge of ancient history may be, certain difficulties exist in his argument. He cites many phenomena which seem as much American as they do ancient, and exaggerates the significance of details which are hazy or all but lacking. Invariably he handles his topic in an authoritarian fashion, never indicating that some points may be open to question” (418).
Hill’s effort to show that “many phenomena,” which Nibley thinks are typical of the ancient Near East, “seem as much American as they do ancient” is supported by citing pp. 140, 202–16, 339, and 348 in Nibley’s book. Hill did not indicate what on those pages supports his assertions, and those pages seem to have been drawn almost at random from Nibley’s book (see 425, n. 3). Hill disagrees with Nibley’s having conceived Lehi as a merchant and also about his drawing parallels between the community at Qumran and “the society described in Alma 23” (see 425, n. 4).
Hill’s effort to show that “many phenomena,” which Nibley thinks are typical of the ancient Near East, “seem as much American as they do ancient” is supported by citing pp. 140, 202–16, 339, and 348 in Nibley’s book. Hill did not indicate what on those pages supports his assertions, and those pages seem to have been drawn almost at random from Nibley’s book (see 425, n. 3). Hill disagrees with Nibley’s having conceived Lehi as a merchant and also about his drawing parallels between the community at Qumran and “the society described in Alma 23” (see 425, n. 4).
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1961
The Myth Makers. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft.
Abstract: A highly satirical examination of the early criticisms of Joseph Smith.
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1962
The World and the Prophets. 2nd enl. ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1962. 281 pp.
See also:
Time Vindicates the Prophets
The World and the Prophets (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 3)
Abstract: “The Doctors’ Dilemma” and “The Return of the Prophets?” were added in this edition though they were not part of the original series of radio addresses and have a somewhat different style.
1963
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History. Provo.
See also:
"The Idea of the Temple in History" in Millennial Star (1958)
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History (1968)
“What is a Temple?” in The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives (1984)
Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4) (1987)
Abstract: This essay was first written in 1958 for the dedication of the London Temple. Those Church Fathers, especially of the fourth century, who proclaim the victory of Christianity over its rivals constantly speak of the Church as the competitor and supplanter of the Synagogue, and modern authorities are agreed that in ritual and liturgy the Christian Church grew up “in the shadow of the Synagogue.” This is a most significant fact. While the Temple stood the Jews had both its ancient ordinances and the practices of the Synagogue, but they were not the same. The Temple was unique, and when it was destroyed the Synagogue of the Jews did not take over its peculiarly sacred functions—they were in no wise authorized to do so.
Sounding Brass. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft.
See also: Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass: The Art of Telling Tales about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 11) (1991)
Abstract: This book carries the subtitle “Informal Studies in the Lucrative Art of Telling Stories about Brigham Young and the Mormons” and is a response to Irving Wallace’s The Twenty-Seventh Wife (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961). A few historians have been annoyed because Nibley pointed out some of the flaws in anti-Mormon literature. “Hugh Nibley’s Sounding Brass . . . is a meticulous critique of two anti-Mormon writings. Nibley’s book is most useful for the poorly informed who do not have the background to critique sensationalistic or popular works of questionable validity, like those of Ann Eliza Young and Irving Wallace. But it is a pointed and often sarcastic essay that emphasizes in great detail flaws already evident to the knowledgeable reader. The generally uninformed but orthodox Latter-day Saint will find this type of work supportive of his beliefs, but the Mormon who is familiar with critical methodology and with history will prefer a synthesis of the events critiqued. Many scholars find this style of writing to be a sort of intellectual overkill, and it has not been particularly influential among historians.” Thomas G. Alexander, “Toward the New Mormon History: An Examination of the Literature on the Latter-day Saints in the Far West,” an essay in Historians and the American West, ed. Michael P. Malone (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1983).
Keywords:
New Discoveries concerning the Bible and Church History. Provo.
Abstract: A series of quotations by various writers on six general topics: “The Old Testament Today,” “The New Testament Today,” “The Rediscovery of the Church,” “The New Concept of Scripture,” “‘Revelation’ No Longer a Naughty Word,” and “‘New Orthodoxy’ and the Trend to Literalism.” Introduces themes taken up more systematically in other essays.
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1964
The Early Christian Church in Light of Some Newly Discovered Papyri from Egypt. Provo, UT: BYU Extension Publications, 1964.
Abstract: An address delivered to the BYU Tri-Stake Fireside
Keywords:
An Approach to the Book of Mormon. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1964. xxii + 416 pp.
See also:
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1957)
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 6) (1988)
Abstract: Originally published in 1957
Keywords:
1967
Since Cumorah: The Book of Mormon in the Modern World. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
Abstract: Alexander T. Stecker reviewed Since Cumorah in BYU Studies 8/4 (1968): 465–68. Robert Mesle provided a critical RLDS reaction to it (Courage 2/1 [September 1971]: 331–32). At the time he published this review, Mesle was a student at the Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, where he now teaches religion and philosophy. Mesle granted that Nibley appeared to be a “very competent scholar in the field of ancient documents and their languages” but observed that Nibley is not “at all objective or critical in the sphere of his own religion.” The reason for this observation is that Nibley takes the Book of Mormon seriously as an historically authentic ancient document. Mesle, who claims that in order to be properly objective and sufficiently critical, one must hold that the Book of Mormon and the gospel are fraudulent and spurious rather than authentic and genuine, claimed that Nibley’s work is “trite and naive”—it is “both confident scholarship and the tritest of religious defenses,” though he neglected to indicate what in Since Cumorah was either hackneyed or unsophisticated.
For a sympathetic commentary on the last seventy pages of Since Cumorah, the portion of the book that did not appear in the original series in the Improvement Era, see Louis Midgley, “The Secular Relevance of the Gospel,” Dialogue 4/4 (1969): 76–85. A complaint was registered against Nibley’s position by Duane Stanfield. See the exchange of letters between Stanfield and Midgley, “Letters to the Editor,” Dialogue 5/2 (1970): 5–7.
For a sympathetic commentary on the last seventy pages of Since Cumorah, the portion of the book that did not appear in the original series in the Improvement Era, see Louis Midgley, “The Secular Relevance of the Gospel,” Dialogue 4/4 (1969): 76–85. A complaint was registered against Nibley’s position by Duane Stanfield. See the exchange of letters between Stanfield and Midgley, “Letters to the Editor,” Dialogue 5/2 (1970): 5–7.
Keywords:
1968
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History. 2nd ed. Provo.
See also:
"The Idea of the Temple in History" in Millennial Star (1958)
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History (1963)
“What is a Temple?” in The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives (1984)
Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4) (1987)
Abstract: This essay was first written in 1958 for the dedication of the London Temple. Those Church Fathers, especially of the fourth century, who proclaim the victory of Christianity over its rivals constantly speak of the Church as the competitor and supplanter of the Synagogue, and modern authorities are agreed that in ritual and liturgy the Christian Church grew up “in the shadow of the Synagogue.” This is a most significant fact. While the Temple stood the Jews had both its ancient ordinances and the practices of the Synagogue, but they were not the same. The Temple was unique, and when it was destroyed the Synagogue of the Jews did not take over its peculiarly sacred functions—they were in no wise authorized to do so.
1970
Since Cumorah. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970.
1973
Genesis of the Written Word. Provo.
Abstract: This was the Commissioner’s Lecture delivered in 1972.
1978
Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless: Classic Essays of Hugh Nibley. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1978. xxviii + 323 pp.
1980
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980. Contains a new comprehensive index by Gary P. Gillum.
See also:
Lehi in the Desert (1950)
The World of the Jaredites (1951)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1952), Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1987)
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 5) (1988)
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1981
Abraham in Egypt. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981. xi + 288 pp.
Keywords:
1986
Old Testament and Related Studies (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 1). Edited by John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum, and Don E. Norton. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1986. xiv + 290 pp.
Abstract: In December 1832, the Lord instructed the Prophet Joseph Smith, “Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”This collection of papers and lectures, many of which have never been published, includes papers on the earth before Adam, the historicity of the Bible, archaeology and religion, myths and the scriptures, patriarchy and matriarchy, apocryphal works, the message of Isaiah, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community, and other subjects, all in Dr. Nibley's fascinating and inimitable style.
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Enoch the Prophet (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley Vol. 2. Edited by Stephen D. Ricks. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1986. viii + 309 pp.
Abstract: 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 LDS 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.
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1987
The World and the Prophets (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 3). Edited by John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum, and Don E. Norton. 3rd ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1987. xii + 333 pp.
See also: Time Vindicates the Prophets
Abstract: In 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of weekly lectures on KSL Radio. The series called "Time Vindicates the Prophets," was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to call themselves Christians.
Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4). Edited by Todd M. Compton and Stephen D. Ricks. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1987. xiii + 446 pp.
Abstract: From the outset of his career, Dr. Hugh Nibley has been centrally concerned with primitive Christianity, especially the shadowy era between the New Testament proper and the emergence and the triumph of the Catholic Church and Holy Roman Empire. That is the era treated in the nine essays collected in this volume. The essays cover such subjects as early accounts of Jesus' childhood, the Savior's forty-day ministry after his resurrection, baptism for the dead in ancient times, the passing of the primitive church, and the early Christian prayer circle. Each essay examines the close connection between the practices and the doctrines of the early Church and the Church of the latter days. Each essay has been reedited, and all the original sources have been rechecked.
Keywords:
1988
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 6). Edited by John W. Welch. 3rd ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988. Xvii + 541 pp.
See also:
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1957)
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1964)
Abstract: Originally published in 1957 as a Melchizedek Priesthood manual , An Approach to the Book of Mormon is Dr. Hugh Nibley’s classic work on the Book of Mormon. A gifted scholar with expertise in ancient languages, literature, and history, Nibley shows numerous details in the Book of Mormon narrative to be in accord with cultural traits of the Middle East.
Keywords:
Since Cumorah: The Book of Mormon in the Modern World (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 7). Edited by John W. Welch. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988. xv + 512 pp.
Abstract: A hundred years ago, the Book of Mormon was regarded by the scholarly world as an odd text that simply did not fit their understanding of the ancient world. Since that time, however, numerous ancient records have come to light, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts. These discoveries have forced scholars to change their views of history, and they place the Book of Mormon in a new light as well. That is why respected Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley wrote Since Cumorah, a brilliant literary, theological, and historical evaluation of the Book of Mormon as an ancient book.
Keywords:
2000
Abraham in Egypt (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 14). Edited by Gary P. Gillum. Illustrations directed by Michael P. Lyon. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2000. xxxiii + 705 pp.
Abstract: Considered by many to be a classic in LDS literature, Abraham in Egypt is coming back to print in an enlarged edition published in association with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). In 1968-1970, Hugh Nibley wrote a series of articles for the Improvement Era titled "A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price." Brother Nibley asked that some of these articles be made into chapters to be added to Abraham in Egypt. This is what constitutes the new edition; no changes were made to the original chapters. For the articles, Nibley drew from many Jewish and rabbinical sources, while his work in the first edition was based on Egyptian material.
Keywords:
2014
The Essential Nibley: Excerpts from the Writings of Hugh W. Nibley. comp. and ed. by Marvin R. VanDam. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
Abstract: Drawing from the very best of Hugh Nibley, this collection of excerpts feels more like a guided tour through a brilliant mind than a quote book. Arranged thematically, it covers the highlights of Nibley's best thinking and writing on everything from the Creation, through ancient people, times, and documents, to modern-day prophets and righteous living today. Two features give great insight into the man and his life's work: a very personal life sketch about Hugh Nibley written by his grandson, and an introduction about Nibley's contribution to LDS literature and scholarship, his unique dynamic within the Church, and his abiding testimony. With highlights drawn from nearly 10,000 pages of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, The Essential Nibley shows how Nibley continues to give thinkers something to believe in and believers something to think about, even today.
Articles in Books
"." In The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives. Reprinted from What Is a Temple (1963 and 1968); reprinted in Mormonism and Early Christianity, CWHN 4:355–70.
See also:
"The Idea of the Temple in History" in Millennial Star (1958)
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History (1963)
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History (1968)
Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4) (1987)
Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4) (1987)
"." In The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives, edited by Truman G. Madsen, 39–51. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1984. Reprinted in Mormonism and Early Christianity, CWHN 4:370–90.
See also: Included as the last section of “What is a Temple?” in Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4) (1987)
"." In Looking toward Home, by Wulf Barsch (exhibition catalog), 10–13. Salt Lake City: LDS Church History Museum, 1985. Reprinted in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:550–54.
0000
book. Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 53-93. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004. Reprinted as “Treasures in the Heavens” in Old Testament and Related Studies, CWHN 1:171–214.
"." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 281-299. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004. Reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:63–84.
"." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021. Originally in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless: Classic Essays of Hugh Nibley. Provo, UT: RSC, 1978. xxviii + 323 pp. Foreword: Truman G. Madsen “An Intellectual Autobiography – HN” [reprinted as “Self-Portrait: An Intellectual Autobiography by Hugh Nibley,” in BYU Today, August 1978, 11–13; and as “An Intellectual Autobiography: Some High and Low Points,” in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 2nd ed. (2004).
0000
"book article." Easter and the Prophets.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Two Ways to Remember the Dead.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"book article." More Brigham Young on Education.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"book article." The Uses and Abuses of Patriotism.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"book article." Great Are the Words of Isaiah.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"book article." Two Ways to Remember the Dead.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"book article." Foreword.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Two Shots in the Dark: 1. Dark Days in Jerusalem; 2. Christ among the Ruins.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords:
"book article." The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Judging and Prejudging the Book of Abraham.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Acclamatio (Never Cry Mob).
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Science Fiction and the Gospel.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Foreword.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Decorative Hardware with Intricate Meanings.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Warfare and the Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Temples: Meanings and Functions of Temples.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." On the Sacred and the Symbolic.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Foreword.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." Assembly and Atonement.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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"book article." The Last Days, Then and Now.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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1927
"Two Stars." In Anthology of Student Verse, for 1925, edited by Snow Longley, 10–12. Los Angeles: Los Angeles High School, 1927; Reprinted in Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life, 2002, p. 56-58.
1955
"Do Religion and History Conflict?" In Great Issues Forum.
Abstract: This is the published version of the first of several exchanges between Nibley and Sterling M. McMurrin. The exchange was held on 23 March 1955, under the sponsorship of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Utah. McMurrin’s address, “Religion and the Denial of History,” is published on pp. 5–21, although Nibley spoke first.
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1959
"Strange Ships and Shining Stones." In A Book of Mormon Treasury: Selections from the Papers of the Improvement Era.
Abstract: Compares the ships of the Jaredites with boats from Mesopotamia and the Gilgamesh Epic, and the sixteen stones of the brother of Jared with shining stones reported in the pseudepigrapha, Jerusalem Talmud, and by Greek historians.
1962
"How to Write an Anti-Mormon Book. Lecture 2, 17 February 1962." In Seminar on the Prophet Joseph Smith, 30–41. Provo, UT: BYU Extension Publications, 1962.
Abstract: A penetrating satire on the foibles of typical anti-Mormon publications.
1970
1972
"Our Glory and Our Condemnation." In ASBYU Academics Office Presents: Last Lecture Series.
Abstract: A talk given in 1971 in the Last Lecture series. Social commentary touching on themes that became increasingly common in Nibley’s various addresses and writings.
"Jerusalem: In Christianity." Encyclopedia Judaica.
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1973
"What Is Zion? A Distant View." “What Is Zion? A Distant View.” In What Is Zion? Joseph Smith Lecture Series.
Abstract: This talk, originally given in 1973, was circulated prior to publication as “Waiting for Zion,” 34 pp., d.s., typed transcript.
1979
"Great Are the Words of Isaiah." In ASBYU Academics Presents: Outstanding Lectures, 1978–79, 71–88. Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1979.
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1991
"Foreword." The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, by Avraham Gileadi, vii–xiii. Orem: Book of Mormon Research Foundation, 1991.
1992
"Book of Mormon Near Eastern Background." In Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
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"Temples." In Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
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1994
"A House of Glory." In Temples of the Ancient World, edited by Donald W. Parry, 29–47. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994.
"Ancient Temples: What Do They Signify?" In Temples of the Ancient World, edited by Donald W. Parry, 399–410. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994.
1998
"Assembly and Atonement." In King Benjamin's Speech: That Ye May Learn Wisdom, edited by John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, 119–45. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.
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2002
"Appendix: Echoes and Evidences from the Writings of Hugh Nibley." In Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson and John W. Welch, 453-506. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002.
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0000
book. Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
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2004
"Beyond Politics." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 301-328. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: In most languages the Church is designated as that of the last days, and so this speech, which is only a pastiche of quotations from its founders, is unblushingly apocalyptic. Did our grandparents overreact to signs of the times ? For many years a stock cartoon in sophisticated magazines has poked fun at the barefoot, bearded character in the long nightshirt carrying a placard calling all to "Repent, for the End is at Hand." But where is the joke? Ask the smart people who thought up the funny pictures and captions: Where are they now? For all of us as individuals the fashion of this world passeth away; but the Big Bang is something else. How near is that? Should we be concerned at all?The problem may be stated in the form of a little dialogue:We: Dear Father, whenever the end is scheduled to be, can't you give us an extension of time?He: Willingly. But tell me first, what will you do with it?We: Well... ah .. .we will go on doing pretty much what we have been doing; after all, isn't that why we are asking for an extension?He: And isn't that exactly why I want to end it soon because you show no inclination to change? Why should I reverse the order of nature so that you can go on doing the very things I want to put an end to?We: But is what we are doing so terribly wrong? The economy seems sound enough. Why shouldn't we go on doing the things which have made this country great?He: Haven't I made it clear enough to you what kind of greatness I expect of my offspring? Forget the statistics; you are capable of better things your stirring commercials don't impress me in the least.We: But why should we repent when all we are doing is what each considers to be for the best good of himself and the nation?He: Because it is not you but I who decide what that shall be, and I have told you a hundred times what is best for you individually and collectively and that is repentance, no matter who you are.We: We find your inference objectionable, Sir, quite unacceptable.He: I know.
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"Churches in the Wilderness." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 169-201. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: Long before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, Robert Eisler called attention to the existence of societies of ancient sectaries, including the early Christians, who fled to the desert and formed pious communities there, after the manner of the order of Rekhabites (Jeremiah 35). More recently, E. Kdsemann and U. W. Mauser have taken up the theme, and the pope himself has referred to his followers as "the Wayfaring Church," of all things. No aspect of the gospel is more fundamental than that which calls the Saints out of the world; it has recently been recognized as fundamental to the universal apocalyptic pattern, and is now recognized as a basic teaching of the prophets of Israel, including the Lord Himself. It is the central theme of the Book of Mormon, and Lehi’s people faithfully follow the correct routine of flights to the desert as their stories now merge with new manuscript finds from the Dead Sea and elsewhere. And while many Christian communities have consciously sought to imitate the dramatic flight into the wilderness, from monastic orders to Pilgrim fathers, only the followers of Joseph Smith can claim the distinction of a wholesale, involuntary, and total expulsion into a most authentic wilderness. Now, the Book of Mormon is not only a typical product of a religious people driven to the wilds surprisingly we have learned since 1950 that such people had a veritable passion for writing books and keeping records but it actually contains passages that match some of the Dead Sea Scrolls almost word for word. Isn’t that going a bit too far? How, one may ask, would Alma be able to quote from a book written on the other side of the world among people with whom his own had lost all contact for five hundred years? Joseph Smith must have possessed supernatural cunning to have foreseen such an impasse, yet his Book of Mormon explains it easily: Alma informs us that the passages in question are not his, but he is quoting them directly from an ancient source, the work of an early prophet of Israel named Zenos. Alma and the author of the Thanksgiving Scroll are drawing from the same ancient source. No wonder they sound alike.
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"Educating the Saints." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 249-280. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: The compelling mystique of those franchise businesses that in our day have built up enormous institutional clout by selling nothing but the right to a name was anticipated in our great schools of Education, which monopolized the magic name of Education and sold the right to use it at a time when the idea of a "School of Education" made about as much sense as a class in Erudition or a year’s course in Total Perfection. The whole business of education can become an operation in managerial manipulation. In "Higher Education" the traffic in titles and forms is already long established: The Office with its hoarded files of score sheets, punched cards, and tapes can declare exactly how educated any individual is even to the third decimal. That is the highly structured busywork which we call education today, but it was not Brigham Young’s idea of education. He had thoughts which we have repeated from time to time with very mixed reception on the BYU campus. Still, we do not feel in the least inclined to apologize for propagating them on the premises of a university whose main distinction is that it bears his name.
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"Genesis of the Written Word." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 111-141. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: The most interesting thing about this article is that, within a month after it was printed, a cover story appeared in the prestigious journal Science recounting the strange achievement of an Apache Indian by the name of Silas John, who not only claimed to have had a whole writing system revealed to him in a dream for holy purposes, but actually produced the system, which turns out to be a highly efficient one; an instant alphabet, not out of nothing, but out of a dream. The thing to notice here is that Silas John was a plain, simple, but deeply religious Indian, while the system of writing he produced suddenly in 1904 was not only highly sophisticated but has proven perfectly functional. No long ages of evolution were necessary to its emergence; the thing was given, he always maintained, in a single vision, for the express purpose of instructing men in the will of heaven and keeping them faithfully observant of it; it has never been used for anything else. Here in a leading scientific journal is a scientific description of how a system of writing actually came into being among a "primitive" people, and it confirms our own suspicions at every point. If it could happen in 1904 to a semiliterate Apache, could it not have happened earlier? Only such evidence could break the vicious circular argument which has long prevented serious investigation into the origins of writing. Many writers in scientific journals have recently deplored the way in which scientific conclusions reached long ago and held as unimpeachable truths turn students away from avenues of research which might well prove most fruitful. The evolutionary rule of thumb, convenient, satisfying, universal, is cited as the prime offender. Here is a test of how it works: Ask your students to write a paper on “A Day in the Life of a Primitive Man." None of them has ever seen a primitive man or ever will, but does that stop them? Before the question is on the board they are off and running and can go on writing at top speed indefinitely. They all know exactly how it should have been; evolution emancipated them from the drudgery of research. And in all of science there never was a more open-and-shut case than the origin of writing: intuitively we know it must have begun with pictures, and traditionally we know it can have developed in only one way very slowly and gradually from simple to more complex forms, and all that. Some may elaborate on the theme with tree alphabets, oghams, runes, and (as we have) arrow markings, but if there ever was a hypothesis which enjoyed complete and unquestioning obedience, the origin of writing has been it. Yet the discerning Kipling, taking a hard, common-sense look at the official solution, found it simply absurd. It is the same hypothesis that we now dare to question, grateful for the support of the noble Silas John.
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"Subduing the Earth: Man's Dominion." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 95-110. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: Ever since the days of the Prophet Joseph, Presidents of the Church have appealed to the Saints to be magnanimous and forbearing toward all of God’s creatures. But in the great West, where everything was up for grabs, it was more than human nature could endure to be left out of the great grabbing game, especially when one happened to get there first, as the Mormons often did. One morning just a week after we had moved into our house on Seventh North, as I was leaving for work, I found a group of shouting, arm-waving boys gathered around the big fir tree in the front yard. They had sticks and stones and in a state of high excitement were fiercely attacking the lowest branches of the tree, which hung to the ground. Why? I asked. There was a quail in the tree, they said in breathless zeal, a quail! Of course, said I, what is wrong with that? But don’t you see, it is a live quail, a wild one! So they just had to kill it. They were on their way to the old B. Y. High School and were Boy Scouts. Does this story surprise you? What surprised me was when I later went to Chicago and saw squirrels running around the city parks in broad daylight; they would not last a day in Provo. Like Varro’s patrician friends, we have taught our children by precept and example that every living thing exists to be converted into cash, and that whatever would not yield a return should be quickly exterminated to make way for creatures that do. (We have referred to this elsewhere as the Mahan Principle Moses 5:31.) I have heard influential Latter-day Saints express this philosophy. The earth is our enemy, I was taught does it not bring forth noxious weeds to afflict and torment man? And who cared if his allergies were the result of the Fall, man’s own doing? But one thing worried me: If God were to despise all things beneath Him, as we do, where would that leave us? Inquiring about today, one discovers that many Latter-day Saints feel that the time has come to put an end to the killing.
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"The Book of Mormon: A Minimal Statement." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 163-168. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: The following statement was written on request for a journal that is published in eight languages and therefore insists on conciseness and brevity. Teaching a Book of Mormon Sunday School class ten years later, I am impressed more than anything by something I completely overlooked until now; namely, the immense skill with which the editors of the book put the thing together. The long book of Alma, for example, is followed through with a smooth and logical sequence in which an incredible amount of detailed and widely varying material is handled in the most lucid and apparently effortless manner. Whether Alma is addressing a king and his court, a throng of ragged paupers sitting on the ground, or his own three sons, each a distinctly different character, his eloquence is always suited to his audience and he goes unfailingly to the peculiar problems of each hearer.Throughout this big and complex volume, we are aware of much shuffling and winnowing of documents, and informed from time to time of the method used by an editor distilling the contents of a large library into edifying lessons for the dedicated and pious minority among the people. The overall picture reflects before all a limited geographical and cultural point of view small localized operations, with only occasional flights and expeditions into the wilderness; one might almost be moving in the cultural circuit of the Hopi villages. The focusing of the whole account on religious themes, as well as the limited cultural scope, leaves all the rest of the stage clear for any other activities that might have been going on in the vast reaches of the New World, including the hypothetical Norsemen, Celts, Phoenicians, Libyans, or prehistoric infiltrations via the Bering Straits. Indeed, the more varied the ancient American scene becomes, as newly discovered artifacts and even inscriptions hint at local populations of Near Eastern, Far Eastern, and European origin, the more hospitable it is to the activities of one tragically short-lived religious civilization that once flourished in Mesoamerica and then vanished towards the Northeast in the course of a series of confused tribal wars that was one long, drawn-out retreat into oblivion. Such considerations would now have to be included in any "minimal statement" this reader would make about the Book of Mormon.
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"The Expanding Gospel." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 23-52. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: Moses takes us back to the beginning, but which beginning? Nothing in the restored gospel is more stimulating to the inquiring mind than the infinitely expanded panorama of time and space it spreads before us. Our existence is viewed not as a one-act play, beginning with instantaneous creation of everything out of nothing and ending with its dissolution into the immaterial nothing from which it came (as St. Jerome puts it), but as a series of episodes of which for the present we are allowed to view only a few. The play has always been going on and always will be: the man Adam played other roles and was known by different names before he came here, and after his departure from mortal life he assumes other offices and titles. Even in this life everyone changes from one form to another, gets new names and callings and new identities as he plays his proverbial seven parts, but always preserving his identity as the same conscious living being. The common religion of the human race centers around that theme: the individual and the society pass from one stage of life to another not by a gradual and imperceptible evolution but by a series of abrupt transformations, dramatized the world over in rites of passage, of which birth and death are the prime examples, coming not unannounced but suddenly and irresistibly when their time is ripe; other passages, as into puberty and marriage, follow the same pattern. In such a perspective of eternity the stock questions of controversy between science and religion become meaningless. When did it all begin can you set a date? Were there ever humanlike creatures who did not belong to the human race? (There still are!) How old is the earth? the universe? How long are they going to last? What will we do in heaven forever? And so on. Nothing is settled yet, not only because the last precincts are never heard from in science and their report always comes as a shocker but because we are far from getting the last word in religion either; for us the story remains open-ended, at both ends, in a progression of beginnings and endings without beginning or end, each episode proceeding from what goes before and leading to the next. The Absolutes of the University of Alexandria, to which the doctors of the Christians and the Jews were completely in the thrall from the fourth century on, simply do not exist for Latter-day Saints. Instead of that, they have a much bigger book to study; it is time they were getting with it.
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"The Haunted Wilderness." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 203-231. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: Exactly at noon on the winter solstice of 1964, the writer stood at the entrance of an artificially extended cave at the place then called Raqim (now Sahab), a few miles south of Amman, with Rafiq Dajani, brother of the minister of antiquity for Jordan, who had just begun important excavations on the spot and duly noted that the sun at that moment shone directly on the back wall of the cave, a feat impossible at any other time of the year. The ancient picture of a dog painted on the cave wall had dimly suggested to the local inhabitants and a few scholars in an earlier generation the story of the dog who guarded the Cave of the Seven Sleepers hundreds of caves claiming that title but nobody took it very seriously. Beneath Byzantine stones, older ruins were coming to light, suggesting that the place may have been another Qumran, the settlement of early Christian or even Jewish sectaries of the desert; the region around was still all open country, mostly bare rocky ground. There it was, the beginning of an excavation that might turn up something exciting. Professor Dajani had read the article below in manuscript form and obligingly taken me for a visit to the place, where I took some pictures which were published in the Improvement Era. Compare those pictures with what you find there today! Twelve years later I returned to the spot with a tour group in excited anticipation of the wonders I would now see laid bare. What we found was that the excavations, far from being completed, had actually been covered up, all but the cave; on the spot was rising the concrete shell of a huge new mosque, and a large marble slab, before the cave, proclaimed in Arabic and English that this was the Cave o f the Seven Sleepers. The spot was being converted into a major Muslim shrine; our Christian Armenian guide was worried sick that there would be an incident, and at first hotly refused to stop the bus anywhere near the place. Naturally, I went straight for the cave and was met at the entrance by a venerable Mullah and his assistant who were selling candles; I said I wanted to see the holy dog, and they led me to the back of the cave where the wall was completely covered by a large old commode, through the dirty glass windows of which they pointed out some ancient brown bones and their prize the actual jawbone of the holy dog; a relic had usurped the place of the picture. So there it was: what had been a few scattered ruins, lying deserted and completely ignored on the heath, was now being promoted as a booming cult center, rapidly foundering in the encroaching clutter o f suburban real estate enterprises. To a student of John Chrysostom nothing could be more instructive; it had taken just twelve years to set up an ancient and hopefully profitable center of pilgrimage. So you see, all sorts of things go on in the haunted desert, as the following article will show.
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"The Sacrifice of Isaac." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 143-161. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: When I was in high school, everybody was being very smart and emancipated, and we always cheered the news that some scholar had discovered the original story of Samson or the Flood or the Garden of Eden in some ancient nonbiblical writing or tradition. It never occurred to anybody that these parallels might confirm rather than confound the scripture for us the explanation was always perfectly obvious: the Bible was just a clumsy compilation of old borrowed superstitions. As comparative studies broke into the open field, parallels began piling up until they positively became an embarrassment. Everywhere one looked there were literary and mythological parallels. Trying to laugh them off as "parallelomania" left altogether too much unexplained. In the 1930s English scholars started spreading out an overall pattern that would fit almost all ancient religions. Finally men like Graves and Santillana confront us with huge agglomerations of somehow connected matter that sticks together in one loose, gooey mass, compacted of countless resemblances that are hard to explain but equally hard to deny. Where is this taking us? Will the sheer weight and charge of the stuff finally cause it to collapse on itself in a black hole, leaving us none the wiser? We could forego the obligation of explaining it and content ourselves with contemplating and admiring the awesome phenomenon for its own sake were it not for one thing Joseph Smith spoils everything. A century of bound periodicals in the stacks will tell the enquiring student when scholars first became aware of the various elements that make up the superpattern, but Joseph Smith knew about them all, and before the search ever began he showed how they are interrelated. In the documents he has left us, you will find the central position of the Coronation, the tension between matriarchy and patriarchy, the arcane discipline for transmitting holy books through the ages, the pattern of cycles and dispensations, the nature of the mysteries, the great tradition of the Rekhabites or sectaries of the desert, the fertility rites and sacrifices of the New Year with the humiliation of the kind and the role of substitute, and so forth. Where did he get the stuff ? It would have been convenient for some mysterious rabbi to drop in on the penniless young farmer when he needs some high-class research, but George Foote Moore informs us that "so far as evidence goes, " apocalyptic things of that sort were "without countenance from the exponents of what we may call normal Judaism." Take, for example, the tradition that the sacrifice of Isaac merely followed the scenario of an earlier sacrifice of Abraham himself. Nobody has heard of that today until you tell them about it, when, of course, they shrug their shoulders and tell you that they knew about it all along. Which prompts me to recommend a simple rule for the ingenuous investigator: always ask the expert to tell you the story first. I have never found anyone who could tell me the Joseph Smith Abraham story, and the apocrypha records which report it have all been published since his day. Today the story of Abraham casts a new light on the story of Isaac. Here is some of it.
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"Their Portrait of a Prophet." In Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 233-248. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.
Abstract: In 1977 two full-length biographies of Joseph Smith appeared, both more of the same with a little more added. They all continue to miss the point: Why is Joseph Smith worth writing about? Only, apparently, because the Mormons are still going strong. He was once thought interesting as a picturesque, even fantastic, frontier character; but now that it has become the fashion to explain him away as a perfectly ordinary guy, even that has been given up. But do ordinary guys do what Joseph Smith did ? It is as if the biographers of Shakespeare were to go on year after year digging up all the details of his rather ordinary life, omitting only that, incidentally, he was credited with writing some remarkable plays. The documents which Joseph Smith has placed in our hands are utterly unique; if you doubt it, please furnish an example to match the books of Moses, Abraham, any book of the Book o f Mormon, or for that matter, Joseph Smith’s own story. No one since Eduard Meyer has pointed out how closely Joseph’s productions match those of the prophets of Israel; no one but he and E. A. W. Budge have had the knowledge to detect familiar overtones from ancient apocryphal writings in Joseph Smith’s revelations and his autobiography. From the first deriding of the Book of Mormon before 1830, to the latest attacks on the book of Abraham, the approach has always been the same: "Considering who Smith was and the methods he used, it is hardly worth the trouble to examine the writings which he put forth as holy scriptures and ancient histories." And so his work remains unread by his critics, and the greatest of all literary anomalies remains not only unexplained but unexamined. But why should his critics not see in Joseph Smith only what they choose to see, since the Mormons themselves do the same?
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"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.
Abstract: 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 Shakespeare 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 miraculous 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 nothing 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.
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2005
"Great Are the Words of Isaiah." In Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 177–95. Salt Lake City: RSC, 2005.
"“Great Are the Words of Isaiah”." In Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson, 177–95. Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005.
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2021
"Nibley’s Early Education." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"Graduate School through BYU." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"A Brighter Light." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"Memories of a Special Occasion." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"Remarks." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"In Memoriam HWN." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"Called in a Council of the Prophets: The Mission of Hugh Nibley." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"Remembering My Father." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"A Tribute to My Father." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
"Hugh Nibley, World’s Worst Politician." In Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation in cooperation with Eborn Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 2021.
Articles in Church Magazines and Newspapers
""
Abstract: This essay was published as part of the section in the Ensign called “I Have a Question.”
"." Ensign, December 1981, 48–54. Reprinted as “The Lachish Letters,” in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:380–406.
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"church article." The Christmas Quest.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"church article." The Literary Style of the Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"church article." A Strange Thing in the Land: The Return of the Book of Enoch.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1926
"Of Birthdays." The Improvement Era; 1920-1930 (Volumes 24-33); 1925-1926 (Volume 29); 1926 June (No. 8); Church History Library, 743; Reprinted in Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life, 2002, p. 55.
Abstract: Poem written for his grandmother when he was 16
1948
"Review of Our Book of Mormon, by Sidney B. Sperry." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1948 (Volume 51); 1948 January (No. 1); Church History Library, 42.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Book of Mormon as a Mirror of the East." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1948 (Volume 51); 1948 April (No. 4); Church History Library.
Abstract: “THE AVERAGE MAN,” Wrote the great A. E. Housman, “believes that the text of ancient authors is generally sound, not because he has acquainted himself With the elements of the problem, but because he would feel uncomfortable if he did not believe it.” The Book of Mormon has enjoyed no such popular support. Indeed, the “average man” would like nothing better than to see it thoroughly exposed once and for all; it has made him feel uncomfortable for over a century. What is holding up the show? The earliest version of Nibley’s theory that a portion of the meaning and the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon can be uncovered and tested by drawing upon the literary remains of the Near East. This essay contains Nibley’s initial speculation on possible links between Book of Mormon names and Egyptian etymologies. The series drew the attention of Wesley Walters, who drafted a statement concerning its contents, a statement which was signed by William F. Albright in 1949. Since that time the Reverend Walters has been an anti-Mormon polemicist.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Baptism for the Dead in Ancient Times." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 5 parts running from Dec 1948 through Apr 1950. Reprinted in Mormonism and Early Christianity.
Abstract: Authors Note: The rapid amassing of primary source works and auxiliary documents at Brigham Young University through the purchase of large collections and sets both in this country and abroad, has made it possible for the first time to examine the Latter-day Saint position with reference to many ancient and valuable texts, which it has been the custom of Christian scholars in general either to pass by in silence or to interpret arbitrarily. This article is in the nature of a preliminary survey dealing with a subject which has meant little to church historians in the past, but on which in recent years a surprising amount of evidence has been brought to light.”H. N. Portions of Nibley’s position on baptism for the dead were briefly described and then rejected by Bernard M. Foschini, in “‘Those Who Are Baptized for the Dead,’ I Cor. 15:29,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 13/1 (1951): 52–55, 70–73. Foschini offered a treatment of the language used by Paul and tried to explain away his apparent reference to baptism for the dead in a 96-page series appearing in five numbers of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly 12/3, 4 (July, October 1950): 260–76, 379–88; 13/1, 2, 3 (January, April, July 1951): 46–79, 172–98, 278–83.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1948 (Volume 51); 1948 December (No. 12); Church History Library, 786–88, 836–38.
"Part 2." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1949 (Volume 52); 1949 January (No. 1); Church History Library, 24–26, 60.
Abstract: The Teaching of the Lord After His Resurrection
"Part 3." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1949 (Volume 52); 1949 February (No. 2); Church History Library, 90–91, 109–10, 112.
Abstract: How the Dead Received Baptism
"Part 4." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1949 (Volume 52); 1949 March (No. 3); Church History Library, 146–48, 180–83.
"The Dilemma: Part 5—Conclusion." The Improvement Era; 1941-1950 (Volumes 44-53); 1949 (Volume 52); 1949 April (No. 4); Church History Library, 212–14.
1950
"Lehi in the Desert." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 10 parts running from Jan 1950 through Oct 1950. Reprinted.
See also:
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1952)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1980)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1987)
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 5) (1988)
Abstract: Virtually all that is known of the world in which Lehi is purported to have lived has been discovered within the last hundred years — mostly within the last thirty. How does this information check with that in the book of 1 Nephi? A classic reflection on Lehi’s world in Arabia: poetry, tree of life, family affairs, politics, imagery, travel, tents, and foods. One of the first attempts to test the Book of Mormon against known geographical and cultural details in the regions where Lehi probably traveled in the Old World.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1 - The Problem." Improvement Era 53, no. 1 (1950): 102-104, 155-159.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2." Improvement Era 53, no. 2 (1950): 102-104, 155-159.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3 - The Problem." Improvement Era 53, no. 3 (1950): 200-202, 222, 225-226, 229-230.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 4." Improvement Era 53, no. 4 (1950): 276-277, 320-326.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 5 - Contacts in the Desert." Improvement Era 53, no. 5 (1950): 382-384, 448-449.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 6 - Place Names in the Desert." Improvement Era 53, no. 6 (1950): 486-487, 516-519.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7." Improvement Era 53, no. 7 (1950): 566-567, 587-588.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8 - Adventures in Jerusalem." Improvement Era 53, no. 8 (1950): 640-642, 670.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 9 - A Word About Plates." Improvement Era 53, no. 9 (1950): 706-708, 744.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 10 - Conclusion." Improvement Era 53, no. 10 (1950): 804-806, 824, 826, 828, 830.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1951
"The World of the Jaredites." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 11 parts running from Sep 1951 through Jul 1952. Reprinted as the second half of Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1952); and reprinted in Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites.
See also:
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1952)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1980)
Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1987)
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 5) (1988)
Abstract: A detailed reconstruction of the epic milieu and ancient historical setting in the third millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia and Asia relative to details about the Jaredites: their ships, shining stones, government, wars, society, and worldview. These articles were written in the form of expository letters to a fictitious “Professor F.”
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1." Improvement Era, September 1951, 628–30, 673–75.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2." Improvement Era, October 1951, 704–6, 752–55.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3." Improvement Era, November 1951, 786–87, 833–35.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 4." Improvement Era, December 1951, 862–63, 946–47.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 5." Improvement Era, January 1952, 22–24.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 6." Improvement Era, February 1952, 92–94, 98, 100, 102, 104–5.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7." Improvement Era, March 1952, 162–65, 167–68.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8." Improvement Era, April 1952, 236–38, 258, 260–65.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 9." Improvement Era, May 1952, 316–18, 340, 342, 344, 346.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 10." Improvement Era, June 1952, 398–99, 462–64.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Conclusion." Improvement Era, July 1952, 510, 550.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1953
"The Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 5 parts running from Jan 1953 through May 1953. Reprinted in The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Writing on tally sticks is related to Ezekiel 37 and the meaning of the prophecy that two sticks shall become one. Extensive commentary on the traditional interpretations given to Ezekiel 37.
"Part 1: The Doctors Disagree." Improvement Era, January 1953, 16–17, 38–41.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2: What Were the Sticks?" Improvement Era, February 1953, 90–91, 123–27.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3." Improvement Era, March 1953, 150–52, 191–95.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 4." Improvement Era, April 1953, 250, 267.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Conclusion." Improvement Era, May 1953, 331–32, 334, 336, 338, 341, 343, 345.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Columbus and Revelation." Instructor.
Abstract: Relevant to 1 Nephi 13:11-12, this brief article gives historical evidence showing that Columbus was moved upon by the Holy Ghost.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"New Approaches to Book of Mormon Study." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 9 parts running from Nov 1953 through Jul 1954. Reprinted in The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Vividly displays internal and external evidences to test whether the Book of Mormon is or is not a forgery, using the standard scholarly criteria for detecting forged writings. Very insightful comments on methodology for studying the Book of Mormon, evaluating evidence, using newly discovered documents, metal plates, literary criticism, poetry, lower criticism, and history. Also comments on animals, weights and measures, and the use of the Bible in the Book of Mormon.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1: Some Standard Tests." Improvement Era, November 1953, 830–31, 859–62.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2: Some Standard Tests." Improvement Era, December 1953, 919, 1003.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3." Improvement Era, January 1954, 30–32, 41.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 4." Improvement Era, February 1954, 88–89, 125–26.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 5." Improvement Era, March 1954, 148–50, 170.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 6." Improvement Era, April 1954, 232–33, 246, 248–50, 252.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7." Improvement Era, 1954, 308–9, 326, 330.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8." Improvement Era, June 1954, 389, 447–48, 450–51.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Conclusion." Improvement Era, July 1954, 506–7, 521.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1955
"The Way of the Church." A series of articles in three sections printed in the Improvement Era in 12 parts running from Jan 1955 through Dec 1955. Material from this series was used in “The Passing of the Church,” Church History 30/2 (June 1961): 131–54; reprinted in When the Lights Went Out (1970): 1–32; in BYU Studies 16/1 (1975): 139–64; in Mormonism and Early Christianity.
Abstract: This series was to have been continued but was actually abandoned. The materials were eventually used in “The Passing of the Church,” Church History 30/2 (June 1961): 131–54; reprinted in When the Lights Went Out (1970): 1–32; in BYU Studies 16/1 (1975): 139–64; in Mormonism and Early Christianity, CWHN 4:209–322; and as “The Passing of the Primitive Church: Forty Variations on an Unpopular Theme,” in When the Lights Went Out (2001), 1–47.
"The Way of the Church—1: Controlling the Past"
"Controlling the Past (A Consideration of Methods)." Improvement Era, January 1955, 20–22, 44–45.
"Controlling the Past." Improvement Era, February 1955, 86–87, 104, 106–7.
"Controlling the Past: Part 3." Improvement Era, March 1955, 152–54, 166, 168.
"Controlling the Past: Part 4." Improvement Era, April 1955, 230–32, 258, 260–61.
"Controlling the Past: Part 5." Improvement Era, May 1955, 306–8, 364–66.
"Controlling the Past: Part 6." Improvement Era, June 1955, 384–86, 455–56.
"The Way of the Church—2: Two Views of Church History"
"Two Views of Church History." Improvement Era, July 1955, 502–4, 538.
"Two Views of Church History: Part 2." Improvement Era, August 1955, 570–71, 599–600, 602–6.
"Two Views of Church History: Part 3." Improvement Era, September 1955, 650–53.
"Two Views of Church History: Part 4." Improvement Era, October 1955, 708–10.
"The Way of the Church—3: The Apocalyptic Background"
"The Apocalyptic Background, 1: The Eschatological Dilemma." Improvement Era, November 1955, 817, 829–31.
"The Apocalyptic Background, 2: The Eschatological Dilemma." Improvement Era, December 1955, 902–3, 968.
1956
"There Were Jaredites." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 14 parts running from Jan 1956 through Feb 1957. Reprinted as part three of Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites.
Abstract: This wide-ranging series discusses the “epic milieu” of the second millennium B.C. and places the Jaredites in their historical context alongside the Babylonians, Egyptians, early Greeks and others. Makes a comparison between the Book of Ether and ancient writings of Babylon, Egypt, Sumer, and others. The description of the Jaredite boats seem to resemble the boat of Ut-Napitshtim who was the Sumerian counter-part of Noah. Old Jewish and even older Indian sources record the use of shining stones that protect the owner beneath the water. These have been traced back to Babylonian tales of the deluge. Since the Jaredite record reports that their boats were patterned after Noah’s ark, ancient myths that surely have their foundation in real events help to provide greater understanding of the book of Ether. The book of Ether meets all the criteria of epic traditions of heroic societies. The remains of heroic societies are difficult to identify.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"There Were Jaredites." Improvement Era, January 1956, 30–32, 58–61.
Abstract: This wide-ranging series discusses the “epic milieu” of the second millennium B.C. and places the Jaredites in their historical context alongside the Babylonians, Egyptians, early Greeks and others. Makes a comparison between the Book of Ether and ancient writings of Babylon, Egypt, Sumer, and others. The description of the Jaredite boats seem to resemble the boat of Ut-Napitshtim who was the Sumerian counter-part of Noah. Old Jewish and even older Indian sources record the use of shining stones that protect the owner beneath the water. These have been traced back to Babylonian tales of the deluge. Since the Jaredite record reports that their boats were patterned after Noah’s ark, ancient myths that surely have their foundation in real events help to provide greater understanding of the book of Ether. The book of Ether meets all the criteria of epic traditions of heroic societies. The remains of heroic societies are difficult to identify.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"1: Egypt Revisited." Improvement Era, February 1956, 88–89, 106, 108.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"2: Egypt Revisited." Improvement Era, March 1956, 150–52, 185–87.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"3: Egypt Revisited." Improvement Era, April 1956, 244–45, 252–54, 258.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"4: Egypt Revisited." Improvement Era, May 1956, 308–10, 334, 336, 338–40.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"5: Egypt Revisited." Improvement Era, June 1956, 390–91, 460–61.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Babylonian Background, 1." Improvement Era, July 1956, 509–11, 514, 516.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Babylonian Background, 2." Improvement Era, August 1956, 566–67, 602.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Shining Stones—Continued." Improvement Era, September 1956, 630–32, 672–75.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Epic Milieu in the Old Testament." Improvement Era, October 1956, 710–12, 745–51.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Our Own People." Improvement Era, November 1956, 818–19, 857–58.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Our Own People: Continued." Improvement Era, December 1956, 906–7.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"There Were Jaredites." A series of articles in the Improvement Era, continued.
Abstract: This wide-ranging series discusses the “epic milieu” of the second millennium B.C. and places the Jaredites in their historical context alongside the Babylonians, Egyptians, early Greeks and others. Makes a comparison between the Book of Ether and ancient writings of Babylon, Egypt, Sumer, and others. The description of the Jaredite boats seem to resemble the boat of Ut-Napitshtim who was the Sumerian counter-part of Noah. Old Jewish and even older Indian sources record the use of shining stones that protect the owner beneath the water. These have been traced back to Babylonian tales of the deluge. Since the Jaredite record reports that their boats were patterned after Noah’s ark, ancient myths that surely have their foundation in real events help to provide greater understanding of the book of Ether. The book of Ether meets all the criteria of epic traditions of heroic societies. The remains of heroic societies are difficult to identify.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Our Own People—Continued." Improvement Era, January 1957, 26–27, 41.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Our Own People—Concluded." Improvement Era, February 1957, 94–95, 122–24.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"More Voices from the Dust." Instructor.
Abstract: Some brief references to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
1957
An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
See also:
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1964)
An Approach to the Book of Mormon (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 6) (1988)
Abstract: An Approach to the Book of Mormon was mentioned by Marvin S. Hill in an essay entitled “The Historiography of Mormonism,” Church History 28/4 (December 1959): 418–26. Hill seems to have preferred to account for the Book of Mormon with what he called “the Smith hypothesis,” which is the attempt to understand the Book of Mormon as a product of Joseph’s presumably fertile imagination coupled to an unusual responsiveness to his own environment. Hill introduced his comments on Nibley’s work by observing that the conflict between Gentiles and the Latter-day Saints is also evident among historians, who are “generally divided into two distinct groups, forging a cleavage of sentiment which is evident in the debates over the origin of the Book of Mormon” (418). According to Hill, the issue “of primary importance is the nature of that unique American scripture, the Book of Mormon. Acclaimed by the faithful as a sacred history of a Christian people in ancient America, the book has been labeled a fraud by non-believers.” “The case for the Latter-day Saints,” Hill acknowledged, “has been stated often, but with no greater sophistication than that exhibited by Hugh Nibley of Brigham Young University in his Approach to the Book of Mormon (1957). He reviews the culture of the ancient Near East to find that in theme, the details of its narrative, and its use of place and proper names the Book of Mormon is authentic. He states that the marks of genuine antiquity in the record could not have been imitated by anyone in 1830. However intimate his knowledge of ancient history may be, certain difficulties exist in his argument. He cites many phenomena which seem as much American as they do ancient, and exaggerates the significance of details which are hazy or all but lacking. Invariably he handles his topic in an authoritarian fashion, never indicating that some points may be open to question” (418).
Hill’s effort to show that “many phenomena,” which Nibley thinks are typical of the ancient Near East, “seem as much American as they do ancient” is supported by citing pp. 140, 202–16, 339, and 348 in Nibley’s book. Hill did not indicate what on those pages supports his assertions, and those pages seem to have been drawn almost at random from Nibley’s book (see 425, n. 3). Hill disagrees with Nibley’s having conceived Lehi as a merchant and also about his drawing parallels between the community at Qumran and “the society described in Alma 23” (see 425, n. 4).
Hill’s effort to show that “many phenomena,” which Nibley thinks are typical of the ancient Near East, “seem as much American as they do ancient” is supported by citing pp. 140, 202–16, 339, and 348 in Nibley’s book. Hill did not indicate what on those pages supports his assertions, and those pages seem to have been drawn almost at random from Nibley’s book (see 425, n. 3). Hill disagrees with Nibley’s having conceived Lehi as a merchant and also about his drawing parallels between the community at Qumran and “the society described in Alma 23” (see 425, n. 4).
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Appendix 1 - The Archaeological Problem." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The Book of Mormon is so often taken to task by those calling themselves archaeologists that it is well to know just what an archaeologist is and does. Book of Mormon archaeologists have often been disappointed in the past because they have consistently looked for the wrong things. We should not be surprised at the lack of ruins in America in general. Actually the scarcity of identifiable remains in the Old World is even more impressive. In view of the nature of their civilization one should not be puzzled if the Nephites had left us no ruins at all. People underestimate the capacity of things to disappear, and do not realize that the ancients almost never built of stone. Many a great civilization which has left a notable mark in history and literature has left behind not a single recognizable trace of itself. We must stop looking for the wrong things.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 1 - Introduction." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: This is a general introduction to the lessons. It declares the purpose of the course as being to illustrate and explain the Book of Mormon, rather than to prove it. In many ways the Book of Mormon remains an unknown book, and the justification for these lessons lies in their use of neglected written materials, including ancient sources, which heretofore have not been consulted in the study of the Book of Mormon. In spite of the nature of the evidence to be presented, the average reader is qualified to pursue this course of study, though he is warned to avoid the practice common among the more sophisticated critics of the Book of Mormon of judging that book not in the light of the ancient times in which it purports to have been written, but in that of whatever period the critic himself arbitrarily chooses as the time of its production. The Book of Mormon must be read as an ancient, not as a modern book. Its mission, as described by the book itself, depends in great measure for its efficacy on its genuine antiquity. After stating this purpose, the present lesson ends with discussion of the “Great Retreat” from the Bible which is in full swing in our day and can only be checked in the end by the Book of Mormon.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 10 - Portrait of Laban." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Laban is described very fully, though casually, by Nephi, and is seen to be the very type and model of a well-known class of public official in the Ancient East. Everything about him is authentic. Zoram is another authentic type. Both men provide food for thought to men of today: both were highly successful yet greatly to be pitied. They are representatives and symbols of a decadent world. Zoram became a refugee from a society in which he had everything, as Lehi did, because it was no longer a fit place for honest men. What became of “the Jews at Jerusalem” is not half so tragic as what they became. This is a lesson for Americans.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 11 - The Flight into the Wilderness." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: To appreciate the setting of much of Book of Mormon history it is necessary to get a correct idea of what is meant by “wilderness”. That word has in the Book of Mormon the same connotation as in the Bible, and usually refers to desert country. Throughout their entire history the Book of Mormon people remain either wanderers in the wilderness or dwellers in close proximity to it. The motif of the Flight into the Wilderness is found throughout the book, and has great religious significance as the type and reality of the segregation of the righteous from the wicked and the position of the righteous man as a pilgrim and an outcast on the earth. Both Nephites and Lamanites always retained their nomadic ways.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 12 - The Pioneer Tradition and the True Church." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The Israelites always looked back upon the days of the wandering in the wilderness as the true schooling of the Chosen People and the time when they were most nearly fulfilling the measure of their existence. The concept of man as a wanderer and an outcast in a dark and dreary world is as old as the records of the human race. The desert has always had two aspects, that of refuge and asylum on the one hand, and of trial and tribulation on the other: in both respects it is a place where God segregates and tests his people. Throughout the history of Israel zealous minorities among the people have gone out into the wilderness from time to time in an attempt to get back to the ways of the Patriarchs and to live the old Law in its purity, fleeing from Idumea or the wicked world. This tradition remained very much alive among the early Christians, and is still a part of the common Christian heritage, as can be seen from numerous attempts of Christian groups to return to the ways of Israel in the desert. Only the restored Church of Jesus Christ, however, has found itself in the actual position of the ancient saints, being literally driven out into the desert.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 13 - Churches in the Wilderness." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: As outcasts and wanderers the Nephites took particular pains to preserve unbroken the records and traditions that bound them to their ancestors in the Old World. Special emphasis is laid in the Book of Mormon on one particular phase of the record; namely, the care to preserve intact that chain of religious writing that had been transmitted from generation to generation by these people and their ancestors “since the world began”. The Book of Mormon is a religious history. It is specifically the history of one religious community, rather than of a race or nation, beginning with the “people of Nephi” who became established as a special minority group at the very beginning of Book of Mormon times. The Nephite prophets always preached that the nation could only maintain its integrity and its very existence by remaining a pious religious society. Alma founded a church based on religious traditions brought from the Old World: it was a Church in the Wilderness, a small group of pious dissenters who went forth into the desert for the purpose of living the Law in its fullness. This church was not unique among the Nephites; other “churches of anticipation” flourished in the centuries before Christ, and after Christ came many churches carrying on in the apocalyptic tradition.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 14 - Unwelcome Voices from the Dust." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The mystery of the nature and organization of the Primitive Church has recently been considerably illuminated by the discovery of the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls. There is increasing evidence that these documents were deliberately sealed up to come forth at a later time, thus providing a significant parallel to the Book of Mormon record. The Scrolls have caused considerable dismay and confusion among scholars, since they are full of things generally believed to be uniquely Christian, though they were undoubtedly written by pious Jews before the time of Christ. Some Jewish and Christian investigators have condemned the Scrolls as forgeries and suggest leaving them alone on the grounds that they don’t make sense. Actually they make very good sense, but it is a sense quite contrary to conventional ideas of Judaism and Christianity. The Scrolls echo teachings in many apocryphal writings, both of the Jews and the Christians, while at the same time showing undeniable affinities with the Old and the New Testament teachings. The very things which made the Scrolls at first so baffling and hard to accept to many scholars are the very things which in the past have been used to discredit the Book of Mormon. Now the Book of Mormon may be read in a wholly new light, which is considered here in lessons 14, 15, 16, and 17.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 15 - Qumran and the Waters of Mormon." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Alma’s church in the wilderness was a typical “church of anticipation”. In many things it presents striking parallels to the “church of anticipation” described in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Both had gone forth into the wilderness in order to live the Law in its fullness, being dissatisfied with the official religion of the time, which both regarded as being little better than apostasy. Both were persecuted by the authorities of the state and the official religion. Both were strictly organized along the same lines and engaged in the same type of religious activities. In both the Old World and the New these churches in the wilderness were but isolated expressions of a common tradition of great antiquity. In the Book of Mormon Alma’s church is clearly traced back to this ancient tradition and practice, yet until the recent discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls no one was aware of its existence. We can now read the Book of Mormon in a totally new context, and in that new context much that has hitherto been strange and perplexing becomes perfectly clear.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 16 - The Apocrypha and the Book of Mormon." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: In the light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, all the Apocryphal writings must be read again with a new respect. Today the correctness of the 91st Section of the Doctrine and Covenants as an evaluation of the Apocrypha is vindicated with the acceptance of an identical view by scholars of every persuasion, though a hundred years ago the proposition set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants seemed preposterous. What all the apocryphal writings have in common with each other and with the scriptures is the Apocalyptic or eschatological theme. This theme is nowhere more fully and clearly set forth than in the Book of Mormon. Fundamental to this theme is the belief in a single prophetic tradition handed down from the beginning of the world in a series of dispensations, but hidden from the world in general and often confined to certain holy writings. Central to the doctrine is the Divine Plan behind the creation of the world which is expressed in all history and revealed to holy prophets from time to time. History unfolds in repeating cycles in order to provide all men with a fair and equal test in the time of their probation. Every dispensation, or “Visitation”, it was taught, is followed by an apostasy and a widespread destruction of the wicked, and ultimately by a refreshing or a new visitation.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 17 - A Strange Order of Battle." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: This lesson is on an unusual theme. The Book of Mormon story of Moroni’s “Title of Liberty” gives valuable insight into certain practices and traditions of the Nephites which they took as a matter of course but which are totally unfamiliar not only to the modern world but to the world of Biblical scholarship as well. Since it is being better recognized every day that the Bible is only a sampling (and a carefully edited one) of but one side of ancient Jewish life, the Book of Mormon must almost unavoidably break away from the familiar things from time to time, and show us facets of Old World life untouched by the Bible. The “Title of Liberty” story is a good example of such a welcome departure from beaten paths, being concerned with certain old Hebrew traditions which were perfectly familiar to the Nephites but are nowhere to be found either in the Bible or in the apocryphal writings. These traditions, strange as they are, can now be checked by new and unfamiliar sources turned up in the Old World, and shown to be perfectly authentic.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 18 - Life in the Desert, 1. Man versus Nature." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: In Nephi’s description of his father’s eight years of wandering in the desert we have an all but foolproof test for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. It can be shown from documents strewn down the centuries that the ways of the desert have not changed, and many first-hand documents have actually survived from Lehi’s age and from the very regions in which he wandered. These inscriptions depict the same hardships and dangers as those described by Nephi, and the same reaction to them. A strong point for the Book of Mormon is the claim that Lehi’s people survived only by “keeping to the more fertile parts of the wilderness,” since that is actually the custom followed in those regions, though the fact has only been known to westerners for a short time. Nephi gives us a correct picture of hunting practices both as to weapons and methods used. Even the roughest aspects of desert life at its worst are faithfully and correctly depicted.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 19 - Life in the Desert, 2. Man versus Man." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: A valuable passage about fire-making in 1 Nephi furnishes the perfect clue to the nature of Lehi’s contacts in the desert. He avoided all contact whenever possible. This behavior is perfectly consistent with the behavior of modern Arabs and with known conditions in the desert in Lehi’s day. The whole story of Lehi’s wandering centers about his tent, which in Nephi’s account receives just the proper emphasis and plays just the proper role. Another authentic touch is Lehi’s altar-building and sacrificing. The troubles and tensions within Lehi’s own family on the march, and the way they were handled and the group led and controlled by Lehi’s authority are entirely in keeping with what is known of conditions both today and in ancient times. The description of the role and the behavior of women in 1 Nephi are also perfectly consistent with what is known of actual conditions from many sources.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 2 - A Time for Re-Examination." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract:
The Book of Mormon can and should be tested. It invites criticism, and the best possible test for its authenticity is provided by its own oft-proclaimed provenance in the Old World. Since the Nephites are really a branch broken off from the main cultural, racial, and religious stock, that provenance can be readily examined.
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In case one thinks the Book of Mormon has been adequately examined in the past, it is well to know that today all ancient records are being read anew in the light of new discoveries. In this lesson we discuss some of the overthrows of the last decades that make it necessary to undertake the thoroughgoing re- evaluation of ancient records, including the Bible. The old evolutionary interpretation is being re-examined, while in its place is coming the realization that all ancient records can best be understood if they are read as a single book.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 20 - Life in the Desert, 3. Lehi's Dream." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Long ago Sigmund Freud showed that dreams are symbolic, that they take their familiar materials from everyday life and use them to express the dreamer’s real thoughts and desires. Lehi’s dreams have a very authentic undertone of anxiety of which the writer of 1 Nephi himself seems not fully aware; they are the dreams of a man heavily burdened with worries and responsibilities. The subjects of his unrest are two: the dangerous project he is undertaking, and the constant opposition and misbehavior of some of his people, especially his two eldest sons. It may be instructive for the student to look for these two themes in the dreams discussed here. This lesson is devoted to pointing out the peculiar materials of which Lehi’s dreams are made, the images, situations, and dream-scenery which though typical can only come from the desert world in which Lehi was wandering. These 13 snapshots of desert life are submitted as evidence for that claim.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 21 - Life in the Desert, Lehi the Poet ??÷ A Desert Idyll." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: One of the most revealing things about Lehi is the nature of his great eloquence. It must not be judged by modern or western standards, as people are prone to judge the Book of Mormon as literature. In this lesson we take the case of a bit of poetry recited extempore by Lehi to his two sons to illustrate certain peculiarities of the Oriental idiom and especially to serve as a test-case in which a number of very strange and exacting conditions are most rigorously observed in the Book of Mormon account. Those are the conditions under which ancient desert poetry was composed. Some things that appear at first glance to be most damning to the Book of Mormon, such as the famous passage in 2 Ne. 1:14 about no traveler returning from the grave, turn out on closer inspection to provide striking confirmation of its correctness.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 22 - Proper Names in the Book of Mormon." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: In this lesson we test certain proper names in the Book of Mormon in the light of actual names from Lehi’s world, unknown in the time of Joseph Smith. Not only do the names agree, but the variations follow the correct rules and the names are found in correct statistical proportions, the Egyptian and Hebrew types being of almost equal frequency, along with a sprinkling of Hittite, Arabic, and Greek names. To reduce speculation to a minimum, the lesson is concerned only with highly distinctive and characteristic names, and to clearly stated and universally admitted rules. Even so, the reader must judge for himself. In case of doubt he is encouraged to correspond with recognized experts in the languages concerned. The combination of the names Laman and Lemuel, the absence of Baal names, the predominance of names ending in -iah such facts as those need no trained philologist to point them out; they can be demonstrated most objectively, and they are powerful evidence in behalf of the Book of Mormon.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 23 - Old World Ritual in the New World." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: In the writer’s opinion, this lesson presents the most convincing evidence yet brought forth for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Very likely the reader will be far from sharing this view, since the force of the evidence is cumulative and based on extensive comparative studies which cannot be fully presented here. Still the evidence is so good, and can be so thoroughly tested, that we present it here for the benefit of the reader who wishes to pursue the subject further. Since Gressmann, Jeremias, Mowinckel, and many others began their studies at the start of the century a vast literature on the subject of the Great Assembly at the New Year and the peculiar and complex rites performed on that occasion has been brought forth. Yet nowhere can one find a fuller description of that institution and its rites than in the Book of Mormon. Since “patternism” (as the awareness of a single universal pattern for all ancient year rites is now being called) is a discovery of the last thirty years, the fact that the now familiar pattern of ritual turns up in a book first published almost 130 years ago is an extremely stimulating one. For it is plain that Mosiah’s account of the Great Year Rite among the Nephites is accurate in every detail, as can be checked by other year-rites throughout the world.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 24 - Ezekiel 37:15-23 as Evidence for the Book of Mormon." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The Latter-day Saint claim that Ezekiel’s account of the Stick of Joseph and the Stick of Judah is a clear reference to the Book of Mormon has, of course, been challenged. There is no agreement among scholars today as to what the prophet was talking about, and so no competing explanation carries very great authority. The ancient commentators certainly believed that Ezekiel was talking about books of scripture, which they also identify with a staff or rod. As scepters and rods of identification the Two Sticks refer to Judah and Israel or else to the Old Testament and the New. But in this lesson we present the obvious objections to such an argument. The only alternative is that the Stick of Joseph is something like the Book of Mormon. But did the ancient Jews know about the Lord’s people in this hemisphere? The Book of Mormon says they did not, but in so doing specifies that it was the wicked from whom that knowledge was withheld. Hence it is quite possible that it was had secretly among the righteous, and there is actually some evidence that this was so.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 25 - Some Test Cases from the Book of Ether." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: In this lesson we pick out some peculiar items in the Book of Ether to show how they vindicate its claim to go back to the very dawn of history. First, the account of the great dispersion has been remarkably confirmed by independent investigators in many fields. Ether like the Bible tells of the Great Dispersion, but it goes much further than the Bible in describing accompanying phenomena, especially the driving of cattle and the raging of terrible winds. This part of the picture can now be confirmed from many sources. In Ether the reign and exploits of King Lib exactly parallel the doings of the first kings of Egypt (entirely unknown, of course, in the time of Joseph Smith) even in the oddest particulars. The story of Jared’s barges can be matched by the earliest Babylonian descriptions of the ark, point by point as to all peculiar features. There is even ample evidence to attest the lighting of Jared’s ships by shining stones, a tradition which in the present century has been traced back to the oldest versions of the Babylonian Flood Story.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 26 - The Way of the "Intellectuals"." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has brought to light the dual nature of ancient Judaism, in which “the official and urban Judaism” is pitted against the more pious Jews “intent on going back to the most authentic sources of Jewish religion . . . in contrast to the rest of backsliding Israel.” (Moscati.) The official Judaism is the work of “intellectuals” who are not, however, what they say they are, namely seekers after truth, but rather ambitious men eager to gain influence and followers. The Book of Mormon presents a searching study of these people and their ways. There is the devout Sherem, loudly proclaiming his loyalty to the Church and his desire to save it from those who believe without intellectual proof. There is Alma, who represents the rebellion of youth against the teachings of the fathers. There is Nehor, the Great Liberal, proclaiming that the Church should be popular and democratic, but insisting that he as an intellectual be given special respect and remuneration. There is Amlici, whose motive was power and whose tool was intellectual appeal. There is Korihor, the typical Sophist. There is Gadianton whose criminal ambitions where masked by intellectual respectability. For the Old World an exceedingly enlightening tract on the ways of the intellectuals is Justin Martyr’s debate with Trypho, and also an interesting commentary on the Book of Mormon intellectuals whose origin is traced directly back to the “Jews at Jerusalem.”
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 27 - The Way of the Wicked." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Crime has a conspicuous place in the Book of Mormon. It is organized crime and for the most part singularly respectable. Here we trace the general course of criminal doings in the Book of Mormon, showing that the separate events and periods are not disconnected but represent a single great tradition. Petty crime is no concern of the Book of Mormon, but rather wickedness in high places. The Book of Mormon tells us how such comes into existence and how it operates, and how it manages to surround itself with an aura of intense respectability and in time to legalize its evil practices. Finally, the whole history of crime in the Book of Mormon is directed to our own age, which is described at the end of the book in unmistakable terms.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 28 - The Nature of Book of Mormon Society." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The long summary at the end of this chapter tells what it is about. It is a general picture of Nephite culture, which turns out to be a very different sort of thing from what is commonly imagined. The Nephites were a small party of migrants laden with a very heavy and complete cultural baggage. Theirs was a mixed culture. In America they continued their nomadic ways and lived always close to the wilderness, while at the same time building cities and cultivating the soil. Along with much local migration attending their colonization of the new lands, these people were involved in a major population drift towards the north. Their society was organized along hierarchical lines, expressed in every phase of their social activity.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 29 - Strategy for Survival." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Beginning with a mobile defense, the Nephites soon adopted the classic system of fortified cities and strong places, their earth-and-wood defenses resembling those found all over the Old World. Settled areas with farms, towns, and a capital city were separated from each other by considerable stretches of uninhabited country. The greatest military operation described in the Book of Mormon is the long retreat in which the Nephites moved from one place to another in the attempt to make a stand against the overwhelmingly superior hereditary enemy. This great retreat is not a freak in history but has many parallels among the wars and migrations of nations. There is nothing improbable or even unusual in a movement that began in Central America and after many years ended at Cumorah.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 3 - An Auspicious Beginning." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The note of universalism is very strong in the Book of Mormon, while the conventional views of tribal and national loyalties are conspicuously lacking. This peculiar state of things is an authentic reflection of actual conditions in Lehi’s world. Lehi like Abraham was the child of a cosmopolitan age. No other time or place could have been more peculiarly auspicious for the launching of a new civilization than the time and place in which he lived. It was a wonderful age of discovery, an age of adventurous undertakings in all fields of human endeavor, of great economic and colonial projects. At the same time the great and brilliant world civilization of Lehi’s day was on the very verge of complete collapse, and men of God like Lehi could see the hollowness of the loudly proclaimed slogans of peace (Jer. 6:14, 8:11) and prosperity. (2 Ne. 28:21.) Lehi’s expedition from Jerusalem in aim and method was entirely in keeping with the accepted practices of his day.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 4 - Lehi as a Representative Man." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: There are many indications in the book of First Nephi that Lehi was a merchant. That title meant a great deal in Lehi’s day; there is ample evidence that the greatest men of the ages engaged in the type of business activities in which Lehi himself was occupied. But along with that these same men were great colonizers, seekers after wisdom, political reformers, and often religious founders. Here we see that Lehi was a typical great man of one of the most remarkable centuries in human history, and we also learn how he was delivered from the bitterness and frustration that beset all the other great men of his time.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 5 - Lehi's Affairs, 1. The Jews and the Caravan Trade." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Only within the last few years has it been realized that the ancient Hebrews were not the primitive agricultural people that scholars had always supposed they were, but among other things that they were always very active in trade and commerce. Their commercial contracts reached for many hundreds of miles in all directions, which meant an extensive caravan trade entailing constant dealings with the Arabs. In Lehi’s day the Arabs had suddenly become very aggressive and were pushing Jewish merchants out of their favored positions in the deserts and towns of the north. To carry on large-scale mercantile activities with distant places it was necessary for merchants to have certain personal and official connections in the cities in which they did business; here we mention the nature of such connections. Jewish merchants were very active in Arabia in Lehi’s day, diligently spreading their religion wherever they went, and settling down not only as tradesmen in the towns but as permanent cultivators and colonizers in the open country. Lehi’s activity in this regard is more or less typical, and closely resembles that of his predecessor Jonadab ben Rekhab.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 6 - Lehi's Affairs, 2. Lehi and the Arabs." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Here we discuss Lehi's personal contacts with the Arabs, as indicated by his family background and his association with Ishmael, whose descendants in the New World closely resemble the Ishmaelites (Bedouins) of the Old World. The names of Lehi and some of his sons are pure Arabic. The Book of Mormon depicts Lehi as a man of three worlds, and it has recently become generally recognized that the ancient Hebrews shared fully in the culture and traditions of the desert on the one hand and in the cultural heritage of Egypt on the other.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 7 - Lehi's Affairs, 3. Dealings with Egypt." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: The Book of Mormon insists emphatically and specifically that Lehi had acquired at least a veneer of Egyptian culture. Only within the last few decades have students come to appreciate the intimate cultural ties between Egypt and Palestine in Lehi’s day. Here we note some of the discoveries that have brought about that surprising realization. Though Lehi’s loyalty to Egypt seems mainly cultural, there is a good deal in the Book of Mormon to indicate business ties as well. Here we present two documents describing business dealings between Egypt and Palestine in ancient times: the one depicts the nature of overland traffic between two regions, the other gives a picture of trade by sea. That Lehi was interested also in the latter type of commerce is apparent from the prominence of the name of Sidon in the Book of Mormon.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 8 - Politics in Jerusalem." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: Nephi tells us a great deal about conditions in Jerusalem in his day. Lessons 8, 9, and 10 take a closer look at the city on the eve of its overthrow. From Nephi we learn that the Elders of the Jews were running things, and that these Elders hated Lehi. From other sources it is known that Jerusalem at the time actually was under the control of the Sarim, an upstart aristocracy that surrounded and dominated the weak king and hated and opposed both the prophets and the old aristocratic class to which Lehi belonged. This accounts for Nephi’s own coldness towards “the Jews at Jerusalem.” Among the considerable evidence in the Book of Mormon that identifies Lehi with the old aristocracy, the peculiar conception and institution of “land of one’s inheritance” deserved special mention. Also the peculiar relationship between city and country has now been explained, and with it the declaration of the Book of Mormon that Christ was born in the land of Jerusalem becomes a strong argument in support of its authenticity. Another significant parallel between the Book of Mormon and the political organization of Jerusalem in Lehi’s day is the singular nature and significance of the office of judges. The atmosphere of Jerusalem as described in the first chapters of the Book of Mormon is completely authentic, and the insistence of Nephi on the greatness of the danger and the completeness of the destruction of Judah has recently been vindicated by archaeological finds.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Lesson 9: Escapade in Jerusalem." In An Approach to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1957.
Abstract: There is no more authentic bit of Oriental "culture-history” than that presented in Nephi’s account of the brothers’ visits to the city. Because it is so authentic it has appeared strange and overdrawn to western critics unacquainted with the ways of the East, and has been singled out for attack as the most vulnerable part of the Book of Mormon. It contains the most widely discussed and generally condemned episode in the whole book, namely, the slaying of Laban, which many have declared to be unallowable on moral grounds and inadmissible on practical grounds. It is maintained that the thing simply could not have taken place as Nephi describes it. In this lesson these objections are answered.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1958
"The Idea of the Temple in History." Millennial Star 120 (August 1958): 228–37.
See also:
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History (1963)
What Is a Temple? The Idea of the Temple in History (1968)
“What is a Temple?” in The Temple in Antiquity: Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives (1984)
Mormonism and Early Christianity (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4) (1987)
Abstract: This essay was first written in 1958 for the dedication of the London Temple. Those Church Fathers, especially of the fourth century, who proclaim the victory of Christianity over its rivals constantly speak of the Church as the competitor and supplanter of the Synagogue, and modern authorities are agreed that in ritual and liturgy the Christian Church grew up “in the shadow of the Synagogue.” This is a most significant fact. While the Temple stood the Jews had both its ancient ordinances and the practices of the Synagogue, but they were not the same. The Temple was unique, and when it was destroyed the Synagogue of the Jews did not take over its peculiarly sacred functions—they were in no wise authorized to do so.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1959
"Mixed Voices: A Study in Book of Mormon Criticism." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 9 parts running from Mar 1959 through Nov 1959. Reprinted as six chapters in The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: A series about the Book of Mormon and its nineteenth-century American critics. David Marks, who heard the story of the book from the Whitmer family, dismissed it as deception that he could not support by purchasing the book. Alexander Campbell, Origen Bacheler, E. D. Hose, and Professor Rafinesque joined him. The critics could not believe in angelic visits, visions, and further revelation from God. They criticized the grammar and content, rebuked the translator as a fraud, a liar, and a money-digging, peep-stone looking cheat. One critic relied upon the words of another without checking to see if there was any truth.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Kangaroo Court." Improvement Era, March 1959, 145–48, 184–87.
Abstract: A witty exposé of anti-Mormon methods of Book of Mormon criticism.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Kangaroo Court: Part Two." Improvement Era, April 1959, 224–26, 300–301.
Abstract: A witty exposé of anti-Mormon methods of Book of Mormon criticism.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Just Another Book? Part One." Improvement Era, May 1959, 345–47, 388–91.
Abstract: Shows ways in which the Book of Mormon was out-of-sorts with the nineteenth century and thus not just another book of that time
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Just Another Book? Part Two." Improvement Era, June 1959, 412–13, 501–3.
Abstract: Shows ways in which the Book of Mormon was out-of-sorts with the nineteenth century and thus not just another book of that time
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Just Another Book? Part Two, Conclusion." Improvement Era, July 1959, 530– 31, 565.
Abstract: Shows ways in which the Book of Mormon was out-of-sorts with the nineteenth century and thus not just another book of that time
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Grab Bag." Improvement Era, July 1959, 530–33, 546–48.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"What Frontier, What Camp Meeting?" Improvement Era, August 1959, 590–92, 610, 612, 614–15.
Abstract: Responds to the assertion that the Book of Mormon is a product of the religious and political milieu of the American frontier.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Comparative Method." Improvement Era, October 1959, 744–47, 759.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Comparative Method." Improvement Era, November 1959, 848, 854, 856.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1961
"The Liahona's Cousins." Improvement Era.
Abstract: Analysis of the Liahona, especially in light of Arabic divination arrows. Proposes an etymology for this name.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Boy, Nephi, in Jerusalem." Instructor.
Abstract: Historical fiction about the possible thoughts on a day in the life of the twelve-year-old Nephi in Jerusalem.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Censoring the Joseph Smith Story." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 4 parts running from Jul 1961 through Nov 1961. Reprinted in Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass.
Abstract: Explains how Joseph Smith’s critics in the 1840s and also Fawn Brodie rewrote Joseph’s story to suit their perceptions of the Book of Mormon and the First Vision.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1: The Problem." Improvement Era, July 1961, 490–92, 522, 524, 526, 528.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2: Suppressing the First Vision Story after 1842." Improvement Era, August 1961, 577–79, 605–9.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3." Improvement Era, October 1961, 724–25, 736, 738, 740.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Conclusion." Improvement Era, November 1961, 812–13, 865–69.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1962
"The Book of Mormon: True or False?" Millennial Star 124 (November 1962): 274–77. Reprinted in The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Nibley argues that if Joseph Smith was not telling the truth when he provided the world with the Book of Mormon, then he recklessly exposed his forgery and fraud to public discovery. In the course of his argument, Nibley complains about what is currently being called “parallelomania.” Everywhere in Book of Mormon criticism, as well as in the scholarly world generally, various parallels are being noted, and simplistic explanations are made to flow from those supposed parallels. With the Book of Mormon, the end result is that, with those who study nineteenth-century materials and who read English literature, the tendency is to leap to the conclusion that they have discovered the sources upon which Joseph Smith presumably drew in fabricating the Book of Mormon; they are then quick to condemn the book as a forgery, or, when sentimental attachments to the Mormon community remain, they see the fabrication of fiction as a kind of inspiration, or at least as potentially inspiring, thus providing a novel and competing theory of what constitutes divine revelation.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1963
"“Howlers” in the Book of Mormon." Millennial Star 125 (February 1963): 28–34. Reprinted in The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Lists over twenty Book of Mormon points that may have seemed ridiculous in 1830 but that “appear very different” in light of modern scholarship, including transoceanic voyaging, gold plates, steel, elephants, coins, names, literary and ritual patterns, execution, modes of prophecy and revelation.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Dead Sea Scrolls: Some Questions and Answers." Instructor.
Abstract: An address originally given on 5 July 1962 to the Seminary and Institute faculty assembled at BYU.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1964
"Since Cumorah: New Voices from the Dust." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 27 parts running from Oct 1964 through Dec 1966. These materials were reprinted in Since Cumorah (1967/1970), with two large additions and a deletion; and reprinted again, with corrections and a collation of materials with those published in the book, as Since Cumorah, CWHN 7.
Abstract: The changing attitudes of biblical scholars toward basic questions about scripture allow room for claims made by the Book of Mormon. Discusses external evidences, the primitive church, Lehi, Zenos, the olive tree, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Since Cumorah: New Voices from the Dust." A series of articles in the Improvement Era.
Abstract: The changing attitudes of biblical scholars toward basic questions about scripture allow room for claims made by the Book of Mormon. Discusses external evidences, the primitive church, Lehi, Zenos, the olive tree, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"Part 1." Improvement Era, October 1964, 816–21, 844–47.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1 (continued)." Improvement Era, November 1964, 924–28, 974–75, 977–78, 980–83.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1 (continued)." Improvement Era, December 1964, 1032–35, 1126–28.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1 (continued)." Improvement Era, January 1965, 34–37, 60–64.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2: Hidden Treasures: The Search for the Original Scriptures." Improvement Era, February 1965, 100–103, 146–47.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2: Hidden Treasures: The Search for the Original Scriptures (continued)." Improvement Era, March 1965, 210–13, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3: Secrecy in the Primitive Church." Improvement Era, April 1965, 308– 11, 326, 328–32.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3: Secrecy in the Primitive Church (continued)." Improvement Era, May 1965, 406–7, 444.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3: Secrecy in the Primitive Church (concluded)." Improvement Era, June 1965, 482–83, 574–76.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Testament of Lehi: Part 1." Improvement Era, July 1965, 616–17, 645–48.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Testament of Lehi: Part 1 (continued)." Improvement Era, August 1965, 696–99, 702, 704.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Story of Zenos." Improvement Era, September 1965, 782–83, 792.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Olive Tree." Improvement Era, October 1965, 876–77, 916–17.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Bible, the Scrolls, and the Book of Mormon: A Problem of Three Bibles." Improvement Era, November 1965, 974–77, 1013, 1040.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Bible, the Scrolls, and the Book of Mormon: A Problem of Three Bibles (continued)." Improvement Era, December 1965, 1090–91, 1165–68.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Bible, the Scrolls, and the Book of Mormon: A Problem of Three Bibles (continued)." Improvement Era, January 1966, 32–34, 44–46.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Bible, the Scrolls, and the Book of Mormon: A Problem of Three Bibles (continued)." Improvement Era, February 1966, 118–22.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Bible, the Scrolls, and the Book of Mormon: A Problem of Three Bibles (continued)." Improvement Era, March 1966, 196–97, 232–34.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"The Mysteries of Zenos and Joseph." Improvement Era, April 1966, 296–97, 334–36.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Problems, Not Solutions." Improvement Era, May 1966, 419–20, 422, 424.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Problems, Not Solutions (continued)." Improvement Era, June 1966, 582–83.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Epilogue: Since Qumran." Improvement Era, July 1966, 636–38.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Since Qumran (continued)." Improvement Era, August 1966, 710–12.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1965
"Early Accounts of Jesus' Childhood." Instructor.
Abstract: An assessment of the various infancy materials about the childhood of Jesus.
1964
"Since Cumorah: New Voices from the Dust." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 27 parts running from Oct 1964 through Dec 1966. These materials were reprinted in Since Cumorah (1967/1970), with two large additions and a deletion; and reprinted again, with corrections and a collation of materials with those published in the book, as Since Cumorah, CWHN 7.
Abstract: The changing attitudes of biblical scholars toward basic questions about scripture allow room for claims made by the Book of Mormon. Discusses external evidences, the primitive church, Lehi, Zenos, the olive tree, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1966
"Since Cumorah (Since Qumran)." Improvement Era, September 1966, 794–95, 799–800, 802, 804–5.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Since Cumorah (Since Qumran)." Improvement Era, October 1966, 884–85.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Since Cumorah (Since Qumran)." Improvement Era, November 1966, 974–75, 1028–31.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Since Cumorah (Since Qumran)." Improvement Era, December 1966, 1084–85, 1162–65.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1968
"A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price." A series of articles in the Improvement Era in 29 parts from Jan 1968 through May 1970.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1. Challenge and Response." Improvement Era, January 1968, 18–24.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1. Challenge and Response (continued)." Improvement Era, February 1968, 14–18, 20–21.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1. Challenge and Response (continued)." Improvement Era, March 1968, 16–18, 20–22.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 1. Challenge and Response (continued)." Improvement Era, April 1968, 64–69.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2. May We See Your Credentials?" Improvement Era, May 1968, 54–57.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2. May We See Your Credentials? (continued)." Improvement Era, June 1968, 18–22.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3. Empaneling the Panel." Improvement Era, July 1968, 48–55.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 4. Second String." Improvement Era, August 1968, 53–64.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 5. Facsimile No. 1: A Unique Document." Improvement Era, September 1968, 66–80.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 5. Facsimile No. 1: A Unique Document (continued)." Improvement Era, October 1968, 73–81.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 6. Facsimile No. 1: A Unique Document (continued)." Improvement Era, November 1968, 36–38, 40, 42, 44.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 6. Facsimile No. 1: A Unique Document (continued)." Improvement Era, December 1968, 28–33.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7. The Unknown Abraham." Improvement Era, January 1969, 26–33.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7. The Unknown Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era, February 1969, 64–67.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8[7]. The Unknown Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era, March 1969, 76, 79–80, 82, 84.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7. The Unknown Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era, April 1969, 66–72.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8[7]. The Unknown Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era, May 1969, 87–91.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7. The Unknown Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era, June 1969, 126–28, 130–32.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 7. The Unknown Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era, July 1969, 97–101.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8. Facsimile No. 1, By the Figures." Improvement Era 72.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8. Facsimile No. 1, By the Figures (continued)." Improvement Era, September 1969, 85–95.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8. Facsimile No. 1, By the Figures (continued)." Improvement Era, October 1969, 85–88.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 9. Setting the Stage—The World of Abraham." Improvement Era, October 1969, 89–95.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 9. Setting the Stage—The World of Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era 72.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 9. Setting the Stage: The World of Abraham (continued)." Improvement Era 73.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 10. The Sacrifice of Isaac." Improvement Era, March 1970, 84–94.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 11. The Sacrifice of Sarah." Improvement Era, April 1970, 79–95.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Conclusion: Taking Stock." Improvement Era, May 1970, 82–89, 91–94.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1970
"The Book of Mormon as a Mirror of the East." Improvement Era.
Abstract: Book of Mormon proper names are related to Egyptian etymologies.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1971
"If There Must Needs Be Offense." “If There Must Needs Be Offense.” Ensign.
1972
"Islam and Mormonism—A Comparison." Ensign, March 1972, 55– 64.
Abstract: Not all of the footnotes containing the citations for the supporting texts and explanations were published with this essay.
"Ancient Temples: What Do They Signify?" Ensign.
Abstract: Comments about the roles of ancient temples in general, with emphasis on Mesoamerican temples as centers of religion, culture, the arts, and world view.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Man's Dominion." New Era.
Abstract: Pointed social commentary concerning the state of the natural environment.
1973
"The Genesis of the Written Word." New Era.
Abstract: Reprinted from the Commissioner’s Lecture Series, 1973 or 1972?. An examination of writing as a gift from God and as a vehicle for the preservation and communication of knowledge of divine things.
0000
"church article." A Strange Thing in the Land: The Return of the Book of Enoch.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
1975
"Part 1." Ensign, October 1975, 78–84.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 2." Ensign, December 1975, 72–76.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 3." Ensign, February 1976, 64–68.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
"Part 8." Ensign, December 1976, 73–78.
Abstract: The purpose of these articles is (1) to call attention to some of the long-ignored aspects of the Joseph Smith account of Enoch in the book of Moses and in the Inspired Version of Genesis and (2) to provide at the same time some of the evidence that establishes the authenticity of that remarkable text. Contemporary learning offered few checks to the imagination of Joseph Smith; the enthusiasm of his followers presented none. Yet
"Part 9." Ensign, February 1977, 66–75.
Abstract: In the previous installment
"Part 10." Ensign, March 1977, 86–90.
Abstract: This exciting and penetrating comparison of the Joseph Smith book of Enoch with four known variant manuscripts of that ancient work provides yet another evidence of the Prophet’s inspiration and the scope of his vision in the great work of the Restoration.
"Part 11." Ensign, April 1977, 78–89.
Abstract: The idea that Enoch had great cosmological visions
"Part 12." Ensign, June 1977, 78–90.
Abstract: Editor’s Note: The deliberate wickedness of the people at Enoch’s time created a moral turbulence that was reflected in chaotic nature-earthquakes
1983
"Christ among the Ruins." Ensign, July 1983, 14, 16–19.
Abstract: A comparison of the Old World early Christian ‘forty-day ministry’ story with the New World 3 Nephi accounts.” Compares Jesus’ post-resurrection words to his disciples in Galilee with accounts in the Book of Mormon.
Keywords: Forty-Day Literature;Jesus Christ;Ministry of Christ
Articles in Non-Church Magazines, Journals, and Newspapers
"An Ambivalent Emblem." 6 pp., s.s., talking of being in the world but not of the world.
"Circle and Square." A 30 pp., d.s., undated and unpublished manuscript. Published as “The Circle and The Square,” in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:139–73.
"Early Jewish and Christian Belief in the Preexistence." 15 pp., d.s., n.d.
"G-2 Report, Enuma Elish, The Babylonian Poem of the Creation." 4 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.
"G-2 Report, No. 3 Evolution: A Convenient Fiction, Eschatology, etc." 8 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.
"G-2 Report, No. 4 Eduard Meyer’s Comparison of Mohammed and Joseph Smith." 7 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.
"G-2 Report, No. 6 Conflict in the Churches between the God of the Bible and the God of the Philosophers." 6 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.
"G-2 Report, No. 9 Church History." 8 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.
"Some Significant Statements by Leading Scientists on the Scope of Scientific Authority." 17 pp., s.s., but pagination is not continuous, n.d.
Abstract: A class handout which consists of a medley of quotations from various people, for example, Karl Popper, arranged under headings. The materials were collected after 1965.
"Some Very Vital Statistics." 2 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: This short autobiography seems to be an introduction to a series in the Improvement Era or elsewhere.
"Temple." 27 pp., d.s., typed manuscript, with 9 pp. of notations by Nibley. Published as “Return to the Temple,” in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:42–90.
""
"The Ancient Christian Church." 160 pp. manuscript dealing with authority and the councils. Possibley related to the 155 page manuscript that became CWHN 15 - although that focues on the office of Bishop.
""
"The Priesthoods of Men." 7 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: Seems to be a combination of Nibley’s G-2 reports or the outline for a lecture or book. Thirty separate points are outlined.
"G-2 Report, No. 1 The Religious Picture." 5 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.“The Religious Picture.” Changes in the religious world and in scholarship concerning religion are illustrated by numerous quotations from various writers.
"G-2 Report, No. 2 Changes in Religious Scholarship further Illustrated." 5 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.Changes in religious scholarship further illustrated. Quotations are arranged under headings such as “‘Revelation’ No Longer a Dirty Word,” “Neo-orthodoxy,” “Science.”
"." Dialogue 8/3–4 (1974): 76–98. Reprinted as “Treasures in the Heavens” in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (1978), 49–84; (2004), 53–93; and in Old Testament and Related Studies, CWHN 1:171–214.
Abstract: A complex and rich study of the cosmology of the Christian world, which is compared to other similar sources.
"G-2 Report, No. 5 The God of the Christian Doctors." 4 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.This report is a summary of the teachings of the early church fathers on the nature of God.
""
Abstract: A talk originally given on 26 October 1973, to the Pi Sigma Alpha society in the Political Science Department at BYU. An argument that political action is desirable, even in an imperfect world, under the condition that it be the pursuit of the common good by reasonable discussion. But such conditions are not often found in the politics of man, which turn out to be instances of force and fraud, fueled by money and the desire for power and gain.
"G-2 Report, No. 7 New Testament." 7 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.Including such topics as no more infallible books, more revelation needed, the language problem, the textual problem, Paul quotes the ancients, the statue of John, the historical Jesus, the present impasse.
"." BYU Studies 16/1 (1975): 139–64; Reprinted from Church History 30/2 (1961): 131–54; and included in Mormonism and Early Christianity, CWHN 4:168–208.
"G-2 Report, No. 8 Introduction: ‘An Age of Discovery’ and ‘Old Testament’." 7 and 8 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.Two topics or reports are included. Includes various quotations from the Expository Times on Old Testament biblical research. See “New Age of Discovery” in Since Cumorah.Excerpts from the Expository Times by Nibley in the form of a G-2 Report. 14 pp., s.s., 1984. Most excerpts deal with the state of Christianity in 1983 and 1984.
"." “Nibliography.” Century II 1/2 (1976): 54–57. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:46–50.
"G-2 Report, Old Testament." 8 pp., s.s., n.d.
Abstract: G-2 Reports—a series of handouts prepared in the fifties and early sixties for distribution to various audiences. “Years ago it was my custom to communicate to the General Authorities in an occasional brash and self-appointed newsletter (called “G-2 Report”) items of interest dealing with new discoveries which I considered significant. My boldness was not ill-received.” Quoting a letter from Nibley to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, 2 October 1979.Topics include the flood, the patriarchal age, the Old Testament as history, the Old Testament in its Near Eastern setting, patterning, language of the Old Testament, the integrity of the text.
"." Dialogue 11/2 (1978): 101–12. Reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:63–84.
"." BYU Today, August 1978, 11–13. Reprinted from Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (1978), xix–xxvii.
Abstract: When sent a copy of this item, Fawn M. Brodie indicated that she “found the mini-autobiography fascinating in every way. This man surely had a touch of genius, and a great linguistic talent. What a pity that he was emotionally trapped by his allegiance to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The final paragraph of the ‘Self-Portrait’ suggests to me that there must be grave deterioration in Nibley at the moment. But it may be that he is not really much changed from what he has been all through the years. What a pity that we never sat down and talked to each other.” Letter from Fawn M. Brodie to Everett Cooley, dated 23 August 1978, Brodie Papers, Box 4, Folder 6B, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah.
"." Dialogue 12/4 (1979): 10–27. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:51–72.
Abstract: An informal interview conducted by Mary L. Bradford, Gary P. Gillum, and H. Curtis Wright.
"." Dialogue 12/4 (1979): 29–45. Also published by the Harold B. Lee Library Forum Committee and the Friends of the BYU Library in 1980 as a 15-page leaflet. Reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:149–77.
Abstract: The lecture was originally part of the Sesquicentennial Lectures on Mormon Arts. In it the foundations of the kingdom are discussed, ending with a passionate plea for building Zion.
""
Abstract: A response by Nibley to a criticism of the historicity of the Book of Abraham by Edward H. Ashment at the Sunstone Theological Symposium at the University of Utah on 24–25 August 1979.
""
Abstract: A review of Avraham Gileadi’s The Apocalyptic Book of Isaiah, A New Translation and Interpretative Key (Provo, UT: Hebraeus Press, 1982).
"." Dialogue 16/4 (1983): 12– 21. Also available in Fireside and Devotional Speeches, 1982–83, ed. Cynthia M. Gardner (Provo, UT: University Publications Press, 1983), 184–90; and as “Leadership versus Management,” BYU Today, February 1984, 16–19, 45–47, with photographs of Nibley, at 17, 18, 19; and reprinted under the original title in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:491–508.
Abstract: The editors, while correcting an inaccurate citation (18, for example), did not allow Nibley’s own translation—”Choke on a gnat and gulp down a camel”—to stand (16).
""
Abstract: Interview by Lin Ostler Strack.
"." BYU Studies 25/1 (1985): 7–27. Reprinted in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:470–97. Reprinted in Social and Political Studies about the Book of Mormon: Articles from BYU Studies. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, **.
"." Sunstone, January 1988, 14–25. Reprinted in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:498–532.
"." Sunstone, December 1990, 10–11. Originally part of a Sunday School lesson. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:252–58.
"." Insights 25/1 (2005): 10–16. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:483–500.
1921
"Sketch of a steamship." Juvenile Instructor, January 1921, 49.
Abstract: Sketch of a steamship, caption says: Drawn by Hugh Nibley, Age 10, Portland, Oregon
1926
"The Freight Train." Lyric West 5/5 (1926): 171; Reprinted in Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life, 2002, p. 56.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1930
"Plato's Republic." Student paper for UCLA class.
1939
"The Roman Games as a Survival of an Archaic Year-Cult." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1939; Copy in HBLL SC box 27 folder 4 through box 29 folder 1.
Abstract: Nibley’s dissertation was completed and approved by December 1938. The library at the University of California at Berkeley catalogued the dissertation in early 1939.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1942
"New Light on Scaliger." Classical Journal 37/5 (February 1942): 291-95; Reprinted in CWHN 10:303-10. Reprinted in The Ancient State, CWHN 10:303–10.
Abstract: Note: Did Nibley write “Joseph Scaliger, Scholar and Educator” at Claremont? See box 37, folder 2 or was it an article he was reviewing?
Keywords: Brigham Young
1945
"Basic Arabic Root System." unpublished handwritten manuscript.
Abstract: Compiled in Compiegne, France [at the end of World War II] using J. G. Hava, Arabic-English Dictionary for the Use of Students (Beirut: Catholic University Press, 1921).
"Sparsiones." Classical Journal 40/9 (June 1945): 515-43; Reprinted in The Ancient State.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1949
"The Arrow, the Hunter, and the State." Western Political Quarterly 2/3 (1949): 328–44. Reprinted in The Ancient State.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1951
"Review of The Ancient World, by Joseph W. Swain." Historian 13/1 (1951): 79–81. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"The Hierocentric State." Western Political Quarterly 4/2 (1951): 226–53. Reprinted in The Ancient State.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1952
"Questions on Authority and Passages for Discussion (The Apostasy)." Mimeographed class handout, ca. 1952. Reprinted in LDS Views on Early Christianity and Apocrypha: Articles from BYU Studies. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
Abstract: A compendium of passages from the New Testament, from the early fathers of the church, and from historians of Christian antiquity on the question of the apostasy. The issues raised in this handout were eventually dealt with systematically in the series that appeared in the Improvement Era between January and December 1955 called “The Way of the Church,” and also in the essay entitled “The Passing of the Church,” Church History 30/2 (June 1961): 131–54; reprinted in When the Lights Went Out (1970), 1–32; and in “The Passing of the Church: Forty Variations on an Unpopular Theme,” BYU Studies 16/1 (1975): 135–64; “The Passing of the Primitive Church,” in Mormonism and Early Christianity, CWHN 4:209–322; and “The Passing of the Primitive Church: Forty Variations on an Unpopular Theme,” in When the Lights Went Out (2001), 1–47.
"Review of History of Syria: Including Lebanon and Palestine, by Philip K. Hitti." Western Political Quarterly 5/2 (June 1952): 312–13. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"Review of Near Eastern Culture and Society: A Symposium on the Meeting of East and West, edited by T. Cuyler Young." Western Political Quarterly 5/2 (June 1952): 315–16. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1953
"The Unsolved Loyalty Problem: Our Western Heritage." Western Political Quarterly 6/4 (1953): 631–57. Reprinted in The Ancient State.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1956
"Victoriosa Loquacitas: The Rise of Rhetoric and the Decline of Everything Else." Western Speech 20/2 (1956): 57–82.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"Review of The Torment of Secrecy: The Background and Consequences of American Security Policies, by Edward A. Shils." American Political Science Review 50/3 (September 1956): 887–88. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1958
"Review of Stela 5, Izapa, by M. Wells Jakeman." Provo, Utah, ca. 1958. 7 pp.
Abstract: A critique of Jakeman’s claim to have found and interpreted a stone depicting Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life. This can be compared with Jakeman’s response to Nibley’s treatment of amateur archaeology, which was circulated in the form of a review of Nibley’s An Approach to the Book of Mormon, in UAS Newsletter 40 (30 March 1957): 1–11. [This was the newsletter of the University Archaeology Society at BYU.] Jakeman’s criticisms of Nibley’s remarks about archaeology seem to have led to Nibley’s review of Jakeman’s claims made about a stone presumably depicting Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life, which are called into question in this review.
1959
"Christian Envy of the Temple." Jewish Quarterly Review 50/2 (October 1959): 97–123. Reprinted in When the Lights Went Out (1970).
Keywords: Brigham Young
1960
"Christian Envy of the Temple [part 2]." Jewish Quarterly Review 50/3 (January 1960): 229–40. Reprinted in When the Lights Went Out (1970).
Keywords: Brigham Young
""
1961
"Paul and Moroni." Letter to Christianity Today 5/5 (22 May 1961): 727.
Abstract: A response to a letter by C. Sumter Logan of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Ogden
"The Passing of the Church: Forty Variations on an Unpopular Theme." Church History 30/2 (June 1961): 131–54.; Reprinted in When the Lights Went Out (1970), in BYU Studies 16/1 (1975): 139–64; in Mormonism and Early Christianity, CWHN 4:168–208; and as “The Passing of the Primitive Church: Forty Variations on an Unpopular Theme,” in When the Lights Went Out (2001), 1–47.
Abstract: Nibley sets out forty arguments for the apostasy as he examines the expectation of early Christian writers of the fading of the Church. Hans J. Hillerbrand wrote a letter protesting Nibley’s thesis because, among other reasons, of the possibility that, if widely accepted, Nibley’s view would preclude one such as Hillerbrand from continuing to teach what is traditionally known as “Church history.” See Hillerbrand, “The Passing of the Church: Two Comments on a Strange Theme,” Church History 30/3 (December 1961): 481–82; and a response to Hillerbrand by Robert M. Grant, “The Passing of the Church: Comments on Two Comments on a Strange Theme,” Church History 30/3 (December 1961): 482–83.
William A. Clebsch, in his “History and Salvation: An Essay in Distinctions,” published in a collection of essays entitled The Study of Religion in Colleges and Universities, ed. Paul Ramsey and John F. Wilson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 40–72, commented on Nibley’s arguments for the apostasy in “The Passing of the Church” as follows:
During the early 1960s there arose in the pages of Church History a brief but in retrospect fascinating argument, which I will trace briefly. The argument not only revolved around the question of the continuity of the Christian church but also involved a more fundamental question about the very survival of the church through its early history. On the basis of his study of patristic writings, Hugh Nibley scored all church historians since Eusebius for describing rather than questioning the survival of the church through the early centuries. That Nibley took a Mormon’s viewpoint on the nascent Christian movement does not make any easier the defense of its identity and continuity against his attack. “By its very definition,” he wrote, “church history requires unquestioning acceptance of the basic proposition that the Church did survive. . . . Church history seems to be resolved never to raise the fundamental question of survival as the only way of avoiding a disastrous answer, and the normal reaction to the question—did the Church remain on earth?—has not been serious inquiry in a richly documented field, but shocking recoil from the edge of an abyss into which few can look without a shudder” (67; also CWHN 4:168–69).
Clebsch continues:
An incensed retort from Hans J. Hillerbrand, who confessed that it was to him a “bread and butter” issue, pleaded the Reformers’ distinction between the church visible and invisible as the knife Nibley should have used to cut his knot. Further, Hillerbrand proposed the viability of considering church history “as the history of the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures” (Gerhard Ebeling) or as “the history of the Gospel and its consequences in the world” (Heinrich Bornkamm). “Or, more simply but quite adequately,” according to Hillerbrand, “one can define church history as the history of Christianity or the Christian religion and avoid thereby the theologically dangerous term ‘church’” (68–69; quoting Church History 30/3 [December 1961]: 481).
According to Clebsch, Robert M. Grant, “at the request of the journal’s editors . . . arose to referee the debate.” And he admitted that only a Catholic understanding of the Church makes any sense. And he brushed aside Hillerbrand’s attempt to slide around the issue by reducing church history to the “history of interpretation,” which would turn it into merely the history of ideas, or by talking about the “history of Christianity” or the “history of Christian religion.” Albert Outler then settled the issue by assertion, just as Nibley had said that it had always been settled. If we cannot tell the story of church history, Outler held, “then more than the enterprise of church history is at stake, for the Christian faith itself will not long outlive its major premise: God’s real presence in human history—past, present, and future” (70). “Indeed, the church historian must assume the survival of his object of investigation.” But the assumption of continuity cannot be settled because the “hard data indicate as much discontinuity as continuity in the church” (70).
The tendency, at least since 1960, has been to turn away from the doing of “church” history, and to the doing of the history of “religion,” an even more ambiguous and amorphous term. Among some Mormon historians there are signs of a shift from “church” to “religious” history. For example, some effort has been made to place Joseph Smith in the development of American religion, and even the faithful have been charmed by recent efforts to describe “Mormonism” as “a new religious tradition.” “For if it is true that Mormonism represents a new religious tradition, then a narrative of mythic dimensions that relates the origins of that tradition becomes imperative for the true believer,” according to Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, in “Literary Form and Historical Understanding: Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” Journal of Mormon History 7 (1980): 40. Jan Shipps later fashioned a book around that bit of speculation. See her Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985).
There has been a tendency, for various reasons, even for Latter-day Saint historians to move away from doing the history of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and, in that sense, the Church, understood as God’s covenant people, toward doing history controlled by questions of a presumed religious development, understood often through sociological and psychological categories. Unwilling to address the issues raised by Nibley, some historians have turned to the study of the Church understood as a political, economic, or cultural institution or artifact, and not as the covenant people of God.
William A. Clebsch, in his “History and Salvation: An Essay in Distinctions,” published in a collection of essays entitled The Study of Religion in Colleges and Universities, ed. Paul Ramsey and John F. Wilson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 40–72, commented on Nibley’s arguments for the apostasy in “The Passing of the Church” as follows:
During the early 1960s there arose in the pages of Church History a brief but in retrospect fascinating argument, which I will trace briefly. The argument not only revolved around the question of the continuity of the Christian church but also involved a more fundamental question about the very survival of the church through its early history. On the basis of his study of patristic writings, Hugh Nibley scored all church historians since Eusebius for describing rather than questioning the survival of the church through the early centuries. That Nibley took a Mormon’s viewpoint on the nascent Christian movement does not make any easier the defense of its identity and continuity against his attack. “By its very definition,” he wrote, “church history requires unquestioning acceptance of the basic proposition that the Church did survive. . . . Church history seems to be resolved never to raise the fundamental question of survival as the only way of avoiding a disastrous answer, and the normal reaction to the question—did the Church remain on earth?—has not been serious inquiry in a richly documented field, but shocking recoil from the edge of an abyss into which few can look without a shudder” (67; also CWHN 4:168–69).
Clebsch continues:
An incensed retort from Hans J. Hillerbrand, who confessed that it was to him a “bread and butter” issue, pleaded the Reformers’ distinction between the church visible and invisible as the knife Nibley should have used to cut his knot. Further, Hillerbrand proposed the viability of considering church history “as the history of the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures” (Gerhard Ebeling) or as “the history of the Gospel and its consequences in the world” (Heinrich Bornkamm). “Or, more simply but quite adequately,” according to Hillerbrand, “one can define church history as the history of Christianity or the Christian religion and avoid thereby the theologically dangerous term ‘church’” (68–69; quoting Church History 30/3 [December 1961]: 481).
According to Clebsch, Robert M. Grant, “at the request of the journal’s editors . . . arose to referee the debate.” And he admitted that only a Catholic understanding of the Church makes any sense. And he brushed aside Hillerbrand’s attempt to slide around the issue by reducing church history to the “history of interpretation,” which would turn it into merely the history of ideas, or by talking about the “history of Christianity” or the “history of Christian religion.” Albert Outler then settled the issue by assertion, just as Nibley had said that it had always been settled. If we cannot tell the story of church history, Outler held, “then more than the enterprise of church history is at stake, for the Christian faith itself will not long outlive its major premise: God’s real presence in human history—past, present, and future” (70). “Indeed, the church historian must assume the survival of his object of investigation.” But the assumption of continuity cannot be settled because the “hard data indicate as much discontinuity as continuity in the church” (70).
The tendency, at least since 1960, has been to turn away from the doing of “church” history, and to the doing of the history of “religion,” an even more ambiguous and amorphous term. Among some Mormon historians there are signs of a shift from “church” to “religious” history. For example, some effort has been made to place Joseph Smith in the development of American religion, and even the faithful have been charmed by recent efforts to describe “Mormonism” as “a new religious tradition.” “For if it is true that Mormonism represents a new religious tradition, then a narrative of mythic dimensions that relates the origins of that tradition becomes imperative for the true believer,” according to Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, in “Literary Form and Historical Understanding: Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” Journal of Mormon History 7 (1980): 40. Jan Shipps later fashioned a book around that bit of speculation. See her Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985).
There has been a tendency, for various reasons, even for Latter-day Saint historians to move away from doing the history of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and, in that sense, the Church, understood as God’s covenant people, toward doing history controlled by questions of a presumed religious development, understood often through sociological and psychological categories. Unwilling to address the issues raised by Nibley, some historians have turned to the study of the Church understood as a political, economic, or cultural institution or artifact, and not as the covenant people of God.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1963
"Paths That Stray: Some Notes on Sophic and Mantic." 75 pp., plus an additional 7 lettered pages, and a 14-page bibliography of sources cited, ca. 1963. Published in The Ancient State, CWHN 10:380–478.
1965
"Qumran and the Companions of the Cave." Revue de Qumran 5/2 (1965): 177–98. Reprinted as “The Haunted Wilderness,” in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (1978).
Keywords: Brigham Young
"Archaeology and Our Religion." The essay has been published in Old Testament and Related Studies, CWHN 1:21–36. It also appeared in the Seventh East Press, 18 January 1982, 4–7, 12.
Abstract: This is the manuscript of an essay submitted to the Instructor, rejected, and circulated with two letters, both dated 16 September 1965, one addressed to “Dear Brother,” 1 p., and the other addressed to “Mr. W,” 5 pp.
1966
"Writing and Publication in Graduate School." “Writing and Publication in Graduate School.” Provo.
"Evangelium Quadraginta Dierum." Vigiliae Christianae 20/1 (1966): 1–24. Reprinted under the title “The Forty-day Mission of Christ—The Forgotten Heritage,” in When the Lights Went Out (1970).
Keywords: Brigham Young
"Tenting, Toll, and Taxing." Western Political Quarterly 19/4 (1966): 599–630. Reprinted in The Ancient State.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1967
""
"The Mormon View of the Book of Mormon." Concilium: An International Review of Theology 10 (December 1967): 82–83. Also printed in the United States under the same title in Concilium: Theology in the Age of Renewal 30 (1968): 170–73.
Abstract: A summary statement of the content and purpose of the Book of Mormon prepared for Concilium, a journal devoted to an examination of the Christian scriptures. Explains it as an ancient record, a companion to the Bible with revealed Christianity before Christ and 40-day literature from the appearance of Christ among the Nephites.
Keywords: Brigham Young
1968
"Phase One." Dialogue 3/2 (1968): 99–105.
Abstract: This essay concerns the debate over the Joseph Smith Papyri; the bulk of the issue contains materials on this issue.
"Getting Ready to Begin: An Editorial." BYU Studies 8/3 (1968): 245–54.
Abstract: A contribution to the continuing debate over the Joseph Smith Papyri and the historical authenticity of the Book of Abraham.
"As Things Stand at the Moment." BYU Studies 9/1 (1968): 69–102. Reprinted in Studies of the Books of Moses and Abraham: Articles from BYU Studies. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
"Book of Breathings, P. Louvre 3284." “Book of Breathings, P. Louvre 3284.” An English translation, 1968. 6 pp., s.s., typescript, mimeograph, and privately circulated.
Abstract: This is Nibley’s translation of the most famous parallel version of the Egyptian text once in the possession of Joseph Smith. Cf. Richard A. Parker, “The Book of Breathings (Fragment 1, The ‘Sensen’ Text, with Restorations from Louvre Papyrus 3284),” Dialogue 3/2 (1968): 98–99; and Klaus Baer, “The Breathing Book of Hôr: A Translation of the Apparent Source of the Book of Abraham,” Dialogue 3/3 (1968): 109–34. The hieratic text of P. Louvre 3284 is reproduced in BYU Studies 11/2 (1971): 154–56. **Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri
1969
"How to Have a Quiet Campus, Antique Style." BYU Studies 9/4 (1969): 440–52. Reprinted in The Ancient State.
1970
"Educating the Saints—A Brigham Young Mosaic." BYU Studies 11/1 (1970): 61–87. Reprinted as “Educating the Saints” in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (1978).
Keywords: Brigham Young
1971
"Renounce War or A Substitute for Victory." “Renounce War” or “A Substitute for Victory.” An antiwar letter of 26 March 1971.
1973
"The Best Possible Test." Dialogue 8/1 (1973): 73–77. Reprinted in Temple and Cosmos.
"Review of Bar-Kochba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome, by Yigael Yadin." BYU Studies 14/1 (1973): 115–26. Reprinted as “Bar-Kochba and Book of Mormon Backgrounds,” in The Prophetic Book of Mormon.
Abstract: Points out that Yadin’s discoveries seem to show, among other things, that the presumably feminine name Alma was also used by Jews as a masculine name, just as it was in the Book of Mormon. Draws a number of parallels between the Bar Kochba artifacts and the Lehi colony. Compares materials in the Book of Mormon about Lehi, Captain Moroni, and the name Alma with Palestinian warfare and practices from the first century A.D
"Commentary on D&C Section 1." Types transcript of a home evening lesson.
Abstract: A verse-by-verse commentary
"Common Carrier: Author Defends Image of Joseph Smith as Prophet." Salt Lake Tribune.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"What Shall We Do?" 4 pp. single space typescript.
Abstract: Home evening lesson
"A New Christmas Theme." 3 pp. single spaced typescript, dated Christmas 1973.
1974
"A Note on F. M. Brodie." typescript; Published in Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass, CWHN 11:47–52.
Abstract: Brief comments by Nibley on two reviews of Fawn Brodie’s Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (New York: Norton, 1974). He calls attention to similarities between features of his 1946 review of Brodie’s No Man Knows My History and criticisms of her Jefferson book by David H. Donald in Commentary 58/1 (July 1974): 96–98, and Gary Wills in the New York Review of Books 21 (18 April 1974): 26–27.Nibley’s remarks might be compared to the more extensive, though still limited, review of reviews of Brodie’s book on Jefferson by Louis Midgley, “The Brodie Connection: Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith,” BYU Studies 20/1 (1979): 59–67, and also by Jerry Knudson, “Jefferson the Father of Slave Children? One View of the Book Reviewers,” Journalism History 3/2 (1976): 56–58, who examined a somewhat larger sample of the reviews of Brodie’s book than did Midgley, though with similar results. Knudson concluded that professional historians had been highly critical of her scholarship.Brodie responded (Journalism History 3/2 [Summer 1977]: 59–60) to Knudson by citing, as examples of historians who had written favorable comments on her book, the advertising blurbs that were provided by her historian friends for W. W. Norton, her publisher. The conclusions found in the Midgley and Knudson essays can be checked against and updated from the more than seventy separate reviews of her Jefferson book, most of which have been assembled in the Brodie Papers in Special Collections at the Marriott Library, University of Utah.
1977
"It Takes All Kinds and Some Warming Up Exercises." “I. It Takes All Kinds” and “II. Some Warming-up Exercises.” 23 pp. manuscript of a draft of a pamphlet on the Book of Abraham.
Abstract: Examines three approaches to the Book of Abraham: ask the experts; examine Joseph Smith’s work in some broad and general aspects; take a closer look at some particulars. Part I constitutes the first 8 pages and Part II the remainder of the manuscript. These materials were circulated in response to inquiries concerning the debate over the authenticity of the Book of Abraham, with a cover letter addressed to “Dear Brother, Sister, Friend,” which discussed the charges brought against the Book of Abraham by Dee J. Nelson, who advertised himself as a trained Egyptologist and as a Latter-day Saint. Nibley raises questions about Mr. Nelson’s credentials, which were later shown to be bogus. For an exhaustive debunking of Mr. Nelson and his attack on the Book of Abraham, see Robert L. and Rosemary Brown, They Lie in Wait to Deceive, vol. 1, ed. Barbara Ellsworth, rev. ed. (Mesa, AZ: Brownsworth, 1982). For an example of uncritical use of Mr. Nelson’s “work” on the Book of Abraham, see Fawn M. Brodie’s “Supplement” to No Man Knows My History, 2nd ed. (New York: Knopf, 1971), where, preliminary to an attack upon Nibley’s views on the Book of Abraham (424), the reader is urged (on 423) to consult “Mormon scholar Dee Jay Nelson’s translation, The Joseph Smith Papyri, Parts I and II, and Joseph Smith’s Eye of Ra (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm, 1969).” Brodie and others anxious to find “authorities” who would assert that the Book of Abraham was fraudulent and hence that Joseph Smith had been involved in crafting false historical documents, made somewhat uncritical use of both of Nelson’s essays.
1978
"Open Letter." Open letter, 20 September 1978. 16 pp., s.s., typed.
Abstract: A response to each of the essays in Tinkling Cymbals (privately printed, 1978), which was a collection of essays honoring Nibley.
1979
"The Word of Wisdom: A COmmentary on D&C 89." 6 pp., s.s., typed transcript of a lesson given in the Manavu Ward Gospel Doctrine class in 1979. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:228–37.
1982
"A Few Notes from “Where Is the Battle”." 3 pp. d.s.
"Letters to Smoother, Etc. . . . Proceedings of the 1980 Brigham Young University Symposium on the Humanities." Miscellaneous comments in a panel discussion on the arts. With Eliot Butler, Robert Rees, Dennis Smith, and Eugene England (arbitrator). “BYU Faculty Panel.” In Letters to Smoother, Etc. . . . Proceedings of the 1980 Brigham Young University Symposium on the Humanities, edited by Joy C. Ross and Steven C. Walker, 102–4, 111–12. Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1982.
1983
"Dear Friend of the Book of Mormon." An open letter. 2 pp., ca. 1983, distributed by FARMS. Included as part of the foreword to The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8.
1985
"." A lecture given in the Spheres of Influence lecture series on 7 November 1985 at BYU. Reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:407–21.
1989
"Letter to the Editor, Daily Herald." Letter to the Editor, Daily Herald, 1989**, concerning pollution of Geneva Steel in Orem. (Hugh Nibley Archive, H.B. Leee Library SPecial COllections, BYU, see box 21, folder 5).
1990
"The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Part 1." Ensign 20, no. 7 (1990): 18-23.
Abstract: A four-part series that emphasizes that the Book of Mormon teaches the correct principles of the Atonement. The power of resurrection is provided only by the Savior. Only the Book of Mormon teaches the fulness of the truth of the Atonement, why life is as it is, and how one may approach God to be at one with him. Since all fall short, the blood sacrifice of the Savior was the indispensable step. Atonement is both individual and collective and so God’s people must be “of one heart and one mind.” “The Atonement is one of the grand constants in nature.”
Keywords: Brigham Young
"The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Part 2." Ensign 20, no. 8 (1990): 30-34.
Abstract: A four-part series that emphasizes that the Book of Mormon teaches the correct principles of the Atonement. The power of resurrection is provided only by the Savior. Only the Book of Mormon teaches the fulness of the truth of the Atonement, why life is as it is, and how one may approach God to be at one with him. Since all fall short, the blood sacrifice of the Savior was the indispensable step. Atonement is both individual and collective and so God’s people must be “of one heart and one mind.” “The Atonement is one of the grand constants in nature.”
Keywords: Brigham Young
"The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Part 3." Ensign 20, no. 9 (1990): 22-26.
Abstract: A four-part series that emphasizes that the Book of Mormon teaches the correct principles of the Atonement. The power of resurrection is provided only by the Savior. Only the Book of Mormon teaches the fulness of the truth of the Atonement, why life is as it is, and how one may approach God to be at one with him. Since all fall short, the blood sacrifice of the Savior was the indispensable step. Atonement is both individual and collective and so God’s people must be “of one heart and one mind.” “The Atonement is one of the grand constants in nature.”
Keywords: Brigham Young
"The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Part 4." Ensign 20, no. 10 (1990): 26-31.
Abstract: A four-part series that emphasizes that the Book of Mormon teaches the correct principles of the Atonement. The power of resurrection is provided only by the Savior. Only the Book of Mormon teaches the fulness of the truth of the Atonement, why life is as it is, and how one may approach God to be at one with him. Since all fall short, the blood sacrifice of the Savior was the indispensable step. Atonement is both individual and collective and so God’s people must be “of one heart and one mind.” “The Atonement is one of the grand constants in nature.”
Keywords: Brigham Young
1995
"Tribute to Kresimir Cosic." Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:259–62.
1998
"Conversation with Hugh Nibley." 20 pp. typescript of conversation on 13 March 1998 with Kent Brown, Patricia J. Ward, Hugh Nibley, and Phyllis Nibley.
2000
""
Abstract: A letter of protest about the South Campus Area Master Plan signed by Hugh and Phyllis Nibley and other individuals.
2001
"Approach to John Gee, Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (2001) Vol. 13 : No. 2, Article 9.
Abstract: Review of A Guide to the Joseph Smtih Papyri (2000), by John Gee
Keywords: Brigham Young
2010
"The Early Christian Prayer Circle: Sidebar, Coptic Liturgical Text." Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 2 (2010): 89-94.
Abstract: This text, from a Christian “Book of Breathings,” highlights the importance of the prayer circle in early Christian worship.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"The Early Christian Prayer Circle: Sidebar, Minutes of the Second Council of Nicaea in ad 787." Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 2 (2010): 65.
Abstract: Patriarch Tarasius and various bishops and monks condemn the Acts of John on which an account of the early Christian prayer circle is recorded.
Keywords: Brigham Young
2011
"Beyond Politics." Mormon Studies Review 23, no. 1 (2011): 135-153.
Abstract: Politics defined as the self-interested activity of the city of man is opposed to the ways of the city of God, resulting in conflicting obligations. God’s hand is evident in virtuous governments and laws, but human institutions inexorably deteriorate. Fateful developments are reviewed, including man’s refusal to repent. Final relief of woes lies beyond politics in the next world.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"Classics from the Past: Literary Style Used in Book of Mormon Insured Accurate Translation." Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 20, no. 1 (2011): 69-72.
Abstract: Responding to an inquiry from a member of a different faith about why the Book of Mormon was translated into the English of the King James Version of the Bible, Nibley discusses the use of biblical language in contemporary society, citing in particular the language of prayer and the use of King James English in the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This article also serves as a platform for Nibley to discuss other issues raised about the Book of Mormon, especially in reference to the King James version of the Bible.
Keywords: Brigham Young
"Beyond Politics." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (2011) Vol. 23 : No. 1, Article 12.
Abstract: This talk was given on 26 October 1973 to the Pi Sigma Alpha honor society in the Political Science Department at Brigham Young University. It first appeared in BYU Studies 15/1 (1974) and was reprinted in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1978) and in the second edition of that volume in 2004. It is reprinted here with minor technical editing.
Keywords: Brigham Young
Addresses, Talks, Lectures, and Presentations
"." 63 minute VHS video [1985], and 32 pp. annotated typed transcript. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:148–76.
"." Talk given on 16 February 1989, at Brigham Young University as part of a Clean Air Symposium. Published in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:55–75; and reprinted in New Genesis: A Mormon Reader on Land and Community, ed. Terry Tempest Williams (Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith, 1998), 114–29.
"." Talk given on 24 March 1989, at the FARMS Symposium on Warfare in the Book of Mormon. Published as “Warfare and the Book of Mormon” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 127–45; and reprinted in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:278–97.
"." Address delivered on 13 September 1991 at Snyder's Mill in Park City, Utah, to representatives of the LDS Church Communications Department. Reprinted in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:380–404.
"." Talk originally entitled The Value of the Land given on 9 October 1992, at the J. Reuben Clark Law School to an assembled group of lawyers. Published as “Promised Lands,” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:76–101.
"." Talk given on 20 February 1993, at the Joseph Smith Auditorium, Brigham Young University, as a part of the Sixth Annual FARMS Book of Mormon Symposium, Temples of the Ancient World. Published as “A House of Glory,” in Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism, ed. Donald W. Parry (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994), 29–47. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:323–39.
Abstract: Verse-by-verse elucidation on D&C 109.
"Accomodating Religion to Your Life Style." 27 pp. manuscript of a lecture in the Religion in Life series.
Abstract: Includes many quotations from Brigham Young and the scriptures.
"Ancient Ordinances." 3 pp. typescript of notes on a talk, n.d.
"Egypt and Joseph Smith." 4 pp. unpublished typescript, n.d.
Abstract: Questions and answers given at an unknown time and place. Answers the questions: “What is the Prophet’s attraction to Egypt?”; “Why have the vast majority of people never known the Gospel?”; “What is the relationship between the Osiris myth and the Abraham story?”; “What is the pattern we must follow to become sons of God, to gain eternal life?”; How do the three Facsimiles relate to that pattern?”; “What specifically is the Hypocephalus?”; and “What is the appeal of Light to the Egyptians? What does the Sun represent?”- from Gary Gillum
"Humanism and the Gospel." 49pp. d.s.* pp., s.s., rough draft of lecture notes, n.d.
"Irenaeus, Lecture #2." 24 pp., d.s., rough transcription of a talk, n.d.
"Peter." 30 pp. rough transcript of a lecture, n.d. [Note: p. 12 is missing.].
"Plato's Athens." 10 pp., d.s., typed transcript of a lecture, n.d.
Abstract: The views of Aristophanes are set forth on corruption in the commercial world of the time. This is then linked to certain themes in the Platonic dialogues (Phaedrus, Gorgius, Sophist, Meno, Apology) in which language can be found in which Socrates quarrels with the Sophists over such matters.
"Priesthood." 3 pp., s.s., transcript, n.d.
Abstract: An excellent description of what the priesthood is.
"The Apocrypha and the Book of Mormon." 1 p. typescript from cassette tape, incomplete.
"the Jerusalem Scene." 16 pp. transcript of a lecture, n.d.
Abstract: Cf. the various versions of Nibley’s talk on the Lachish letters.
"The Lesson of the Sixth Century B. C." 14 pp., d.s., transcript of a lecture, n.d., Published by FARMS in 1984, indexed as N-LES, as part of the Nibley Archive, 13 pp.
"Zion and Babylon Contrasted." Typed transcript of a talk, unknown date.
""
Abstract: Satirical lecture on some of the excesses and weaknesses of archaeology and theories of Book of Mormon geography. This satirical talk was read by Nibley, perhaps as early as 1965. A version of Nibley’s satirical lecture on some of the excesses and weaknesses of archaeology and theories of Book of Mormon geography.bicentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence. It was rejected by the editors.
"." Address delivered on 9 June 1967. “Brigham Young as a Theologian.” 4 pp. typescript of an address delivered on 9 June 1967. Part IV of what was called A Brigham Young Mosaic in Four Parts.
"." Paper read at the regional meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature in Denver, Colorado, in 1974. Published in Enoch the Prophet, CWHN 2:66–88.
"." Brigham Young University forum assembly in which Nibley was interviewed by Louis Midgley on 21 May 1974. Later retitled “Hugh Nibley: The Faithful Scholar.” Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:23–45.
""
Abstract: Baer was an eminent Egyptologist and former teacher of Hugh Nibley, then teaching at the University of Chicago. From 1962 to 1975 letters were exchanged between the two friends. This copyrighted correspondence is part of the University of Chicago’s Klaus Baer Archives. Nibley provides a listing of various reasons why one should give careful consideration to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He deals with Joseph Smith’s version of the book of Enoch, with the Book of Abraham, various compelling elements of the Book of Mormon, and the role of prophetic warnings to the Saints.
"." Talk given at a Portland Institute Symposium held in Portland, Oregon, in 1979. Portions of this essay are reprinted as a supplement to the essay entitled “The Book of Mormon: True or False?” in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:232–42 n. 29.
"." Talk given in 1980, and again on 18 January 1981 at the J. Reuben Clark Law School. 20 pp., s.s., typed typescript of a talk given in 1980, and again on 18 January 1981 at the J. Reuben Clark Law School. Also circulated as a 30 pp., d.s., version, dated 18 August 1986. Published as “Freemen and King-men in the Book of Mormon,” in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:328–79.
""
Abstract: Social commentary on reminding the Saints of the good things God has blessed us with and the law which must govern our use of such gifts; several addresses of this nature were given in 1982 and thereafter.
"." Address given in March 1982 in St. George, Utah. Reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:178–201.
Abstract: An examination of the blessing and cursing formulas found in the Deuteronomic materials in the Old Testament, with applications for our day.
"." Talk given on 20 April 1982 to the Cannon-Hinckley Club at the Lion House in Salt Lake City. A condensed version of this talk was published under the same title in BYU Today, November 1982, 8–12. The full text was reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:202–51.
"." Talk given at the services for Donald M. Decker on 11 August 1982. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:290–307.
Abstract: A series of haunting reflections on the stages of life and the meaning of the experiences that each affords an individual as they pass from one stage to another, including death.
"." Address, dated November 1982. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:308–40.
"." Talk read in 1984. 21 pp., s.s., typed manuscript of a talk read in 1984. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:341–77.
""
Abstract: 36 Page typescript, with an additional 8 pp. of figures
"." Address delivered on 12 March 1986, as part of the Ramses II International Lecture Series. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:271–311.
"." Spheres of Influence lecture given at Brigham Young University on 6 November 1986. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:487–523.
""
""
Abstract: Topics include Utah, the economy, the dangers of money, and Nibley’s grandfather Charles W. Nibley.
"." Talk given in the Church Office Building auditorium on 6 February 1987. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:422–86.
"." Talk given to the Cannon-Hinckley Club on 19 May 1987. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:252–89.
Abstract: This talk was delivered at various other places during 1987. A sequel to Nibley’s lecture entitled “Work We Must, But the Lunch Is Free,” originally given on 20 April 1982.
"." Address given in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in August 1987. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:238–51.
Abstract: The talk is essentially a commentary on certain portions of the Gospel of Matthew.
""
Abstract: **this could be Gillum’s “Mormons and the Environment,” 23 pp. transcript of a talk given 19 September 1987; cf. “Man’s Dominion,” “Brigham Young on the Environment,” and “Stewardship of the Air.”
0000
"Sorting Out the Documents." 1975 Annual Welch Lecture Series, 28 March 1975; see box 22, folder 2 of Nibley Archive, Special Collections, BYU H. B. Lee Library.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley’s sixty-fifth birthday in the Varsity Theater, Brigham Young University, in connection with the 1975 Annual Welch Lecture Series by Klaus Baer and others.
""
1941
"The Origin of the Roman Dole." Copy in HBLL SC box 37 folder 6.
Abstract: Presentation to the American Historical Association
1954
"Time Vindicates the Prophets." Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1954. 30 pamphlets, weekly radio addresses from 7 March to 17 October.
Abstract: In 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of weekly lectures on KSL Radio. The series called “Time Vindicates the Prophets,” was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to call themselves Christians.
"A World without Prophets (later How Will It Be When None More Saith 'I Saw'?)"
"A Substitute for Revelation"
"Prophets and Mystics"
"Rhetoric and Revelation"
"Prophets and Reformers"
"The Prophets and the Open Mind"
"Prophets and Miracles"
"The Book of Mormon as a Witness"
Abstract: Radio talk on the Book of Mormon as a witness of continuing revelation and God’s dealings with mankind.
Keywords:
"What Makes a True Church?"
"Prophets and Glad Tidings"
"The Doctors' Dilemma." (added in 1962).
"The Return of the Prophets?" (added in 1962).
1956
1960
1961
"The First Vision." Address given on 18 February 1961 at a seminar on Joseph Smith held at Brigham Young University.
Abstract: Nibley sets forth various reasons for believing that there had been suppression of the story of the initial vision of Joseph Smith by his enemies between 1820 and 1838. See also the series entitled “Censoring the Joseph Smith Story,” published in 1961 in the Improvement Era. Compare with “Censoring the Joseph Smith Story” in CWHN 11
1962
"How to Write an Anti-Mormon Book." February 17.
Abstract: Learn how authors of anti-Mormon materials use specific strategies to convince readers of their trustworthiness, knowledge, and lack of bias. Essentially a preview of Sounding Brass (1963). A long satirical list of informal rules commonly followed by those anxious to attack Mormon things.
1963
"Three Shrines: Mantic, Sophic, and Sophistic (The Confrontation of Greek and Christian Religiosity)." Three Deseret Lectures given on 1.
Keywords:
"Jerusalem’s Formula for Peace." October 25, 1963, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley speaks about the history and theology surrounding the highly coveted city of Jerusalem and the hope for peace there one day.
1964
"Forty Day Ministry Part 1." February 12, 1964, Brigham Young University Devotional.
"Forty Day Ministry Part 2." February 12, 1964, Brigham Young University Devotional.
"Earliest Christians According to Newly Discovered Papyrii." March 1, 1964, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Abstract: As we seek to understand the belief and practices of the earliest Christians, we find ordinances and doctrines quite familiar to the restored gospel.
"The Philosophical Implications of Automation." Lecture given on 19 March 1964.
1965
"New Light on Israel and Her Neighbors, Part 1." February 24, 1965, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley presents interesting new scholarship about the relationship between Israelis and other Middle Eastern people in Biblical times.
"New Light on Israel and Her Neighbors, Part 2." February 24, 1965, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Abstract: Israel’s language, religion, and culture were heavily influenced by Israel’s neighbors. Many early Christian practices were performed even before Christ.
""
"Rediscovery of the Apocrypha." “Rediscovery of the Apocrypha.” 58 pp., d.s., typed transcript of a lecture given on 17 March 1965. Published in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:212–63.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley draws parallels between language and traditions found in the Apocrypha to the culture of the people in the Book of Mormon. In the second half of his lecture, Hugh Nibley compares the linguistics and culture of the Book of Mormon to that found in the Apocrypha. The imagery and practices found in the Book of Mormon are compared with certain phrases and material concerns found in Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings. Cf. “Unrolling the Scrolls—Some Forgotten Witnesses,” in Old Testament and Related Studies, CWHN 1:115–70.
Keywords:
"Rediscovery of the Apocrypha, Part 2." March 18, 1965, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Abstract: In the second half of his lecture, Hugh Nibley compares the linguistics and culture of the Book of Mormon to that found in the Apocrypha.
Keywords:
"On the Pearl of Great Price." Lecture given on 13 May 1965.
Abstract: “On the Pearl of Great Price.” 34 pp.
Keywords:
"BYU Education Week lectures." BYU Education Week lectures delivered in the summer of 1965 at Oakland.
"Prayer." Transcript of a prayer given at a BYU commencement ceremony.
Abstract: See “Leaders to Managers: Fatal Shift.”
"BYU Education Week lectures." BYU Education Week lectures delivered in the summer of 1965 at Oakland.
"The Dead Sea Scrolls"
Keywords:
"Vertical Judaism"
"Primitive Christianity"
"The Book of Mormon"
Keywords:
"New Light from Egypt"
Keywords:
"Nag Hammadi and the Gnostic Controversy"
"Early Christian Doctrines According to Coptic Texts"
"Early Christian Ordinances According to Coptic Texts"
"Pearl of Great Price Problems"
Keywords:
"The 1912 Critics Examined"
"The Present Critics Examined"
"Some Guesses of Our Own"
"Assembly Hour"
""
1967
"Unrolling the Scrolls—Some Forgotten Witnesses." Talk given in Glendale.
"Pearl of Great Price Papyri Acquisition." Talk given on 14 March 1967 prior to the presentation of the Egyptian papyri to the Church by the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 27 November 1967. “Pearl of Great Price Papyri Acquisition.” 15 (19) pp. transcript of a talk given on 14 March 1967 prior to the presentation of the Egyptian papyri to the Church by the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 27 November 1967. [Some 10 pages of this item consist of questions and answers.] Published as “Prolegomena to Any Study of the Book of Abraham.” BYU Studies 8/2 (1968): 171–78. **did this include the questions and answers?* Reprinted in Studies of the Books of Moses and Abraham. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
Keywords:
"Brigham Young as a Leader." Address delivered on 6 June 1967. “Brigham Young as a Leader.” 21 pp. typescript of an address delivered on 6 June 1967. Published in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints.
Keywords:
"[Brigham Young] The Statesman." 41 pp. typescript of an address delivered on 7 June 1967. Published as “Brigham Young as a Statesman,” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:138–86.
"[Brigham Young] The Statesman." Address delivered on 7 June 1967.
Keywords:
"Brigham Young as an Educator." June 9, 1967, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Abstract: Like Brigham Young, the educator, we should seek to educate ourselves in a wide variety of spiritual and secular fields in order for us to progress.
Keywords:
""
"Apocryphal Writings." Talk given at a Long Beach.
1969
"Secrets of the Scriptures—The Creation." Talk given in 1969 in Glendale.
Abstract: A pre-eminent scholar of ancient languages, Hugh Nibley presents radically different teachings about the nature of God and the universe found in ancient Christian and Jewish documents
1970
""
1971
"Brigham Young on the Environment." “Brigham Young on the Environment.” 6 pp. typescript of a talk given on 21 April 1971.
Keywords:
1973
""
1974
"Sin Against Nature." Education Week Lecture, 21 Aug 1974.
1975
"." Presentation for a translation seminar at the Brigham Young University Language Research Center, 18 January 1975. May be similar to “Translation.” 12 pp. notes from a presentation given 11 February 1975, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"." Brigham Young University Academic Awareness lecture, 26 June 1975. Original manuscript available in mimeographed form, 22 pp., frequently reproduced. Reprinted in Dialogue 11/2 (1978): 101–12, as well as in Nibley on the Timely and Timeless (1978), 261–77; (2004), 281–99; and in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:63–84.
"." Lecture given 14 October 1975, in 32 ELWC, Brigham Young University. Published in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:91–138. 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.
Abstract: 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.
"Enoch the Prophet." Lecture given 22 November 1975 for the Pearl of Great Price Symposium at Brigham Young University.
Keywords:
1976
"More Brigham Young on Education." March 1, 1976, Brigham Young University Devotional.
Keywords:
"." Academics Lecture given on 3 June 1976, at Brigham Young University. Published in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:105–37.
Abstract: An examination of how the Saints should understand involvement in politics, among other things drawing upon the examples of Paul and Daniel.
1977
""
1979
"." Talk given on 13 March 1979, at Brigham Young University. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:85–117.
Abstract: Nibley interviews himself on the moral advice contained in the Book of Mormon.
1980
"The Three Facsimiles from the Book of Abraham." Talk prepared ca. 1980.
Keywords:
"." Talk given on 1 April 1980, at Brigham Young University. Published in Old Testament and Related Studies, CWHN 1:49–85.
Abstract: A controversial examination of evolution and the LDS view on creation and the various roles of Adam.
""
Abstract: Lecture notes regarding Mesoamerican ruins, pre-Columbian, American races, Cumorah, and the disappearance of ancient cultures. Lecture on Mesoamerican ruins and pre-Columbian peoples, with two maps. See the note provided by the editor to Nibley’s “Freemen and King-men in the Book of Mormon,” in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:378 n. 4.
1981
"." Talk given in a Brigham Young University Alumni House lecture on 23 September 1981. “The Prophetic Book of Mormon.” 17 pp. typed transcript of a talk given in a BYU Alumni House lecture on 23 September 1981. This material is not the same as that included in Since Cumorah under the same title. This appeared in the Seventh East Press, 27 March 1982, 6–8, 16–17, and was published in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:435–69.
1983
"Leaders and Managers." August 19, 1983, Commencement at Brigham Young University.
Abstract: Twenty-three years ago on this same occasion, I gave the opening prayer, in which I said: “We have met here today clothed in the black robes of a false priesthood.” Many have asked me since whether I really said such a shocking thing, but nobody has ever asked what I meant by it. Why not? Well, some knew the answer already, and as for the rest, we do not question things at the BYU. But for my own relief, I welcome this opportunity to explain: a “false priesthood?”
1984
"[title unknown]." typed manuscript of a talk given on 30 September 1984 at Theatre in the Pines (near Sundance) for the BYU 42nd Ward.
"." Lecture given on 8 November 1984, at Brigham Young University, in the Spheres of Influence lecture series entitled Breakthroughs 84. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:378–406.
Abstract: This lecture discusses the Saints and the law of consecration.
1985
""
Abstract: This address was delivered during the Ramses II exhibit at BYU to a number of dignitaries from Egypt. **cf. with “Perennial Egypt.” 19 pp., s.s., n.d., possibly given in connection with the Ramses II exhibit at BYU in 1985 and 1986* The Egyptian delegates were visiting Utah on occasion of the Ramses II exhibit at BYU during 1985 and 1986. The dignitaries were His Excellency Ismail Abd El-Moeti, Consul General of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Dr. Gamal El-Din Mohktar, 1st Undersecretary of State, Former Chairman and Member of Executive Board of Directors of Egyptian Antiquities Organization; Dr. Ibrahim E.-Nawawy, Director General of Egyptian Museums, Egyptian Antiquities Organization; Dr. G. A. Gaballa, Vice Dean, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, Member of the Executive Board of Directors of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization; General Fouad Alaam, Director of Tourism Police; and Mrs. Diane Smith Kadry, wife of Dr. Ahmed Kadry, the First Undersecretary of State and Chairman of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization.
""
1986
"Hugh Nibley, Restoring What Was Lost (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 1)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Allegory and Rhetoric (Pearl of Great Price Lectures Series - 2)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Literalism (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 3)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Preexistence (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 4)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Cosmology (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 5)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Creation (Pearl of Great Price Lectures Series - 6)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Council (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 7)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Council According to the Shabako Stone (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 8)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Shabako Stone Continued (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 9)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Babylon Creation Myth (Pearl of Great Price Lectures Series - 10)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Human Condition (Pearl of Great Price Lectures Series - 11)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Plurality of Worlds (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 12)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Pearl of Great Price on the Plurality of Worlds (PoGP Lecture Series - 13)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Treasures in Heaven (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 14)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Geological Problem (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 15)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Mountain of the Lord's House (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 16)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Heavenly Prologue (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 17)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Combat (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 18)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Adam and Eve (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 19)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Heritage of Cain (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 20)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Eve Theme; The Book of Enoch (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 21)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Abraham (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 23)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, The Destruction (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 24)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Joseph Smith Matthew (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 25)"
Keywords:
"Hugh Nibley, Joseph Smith (Pearl of Great Price Lecture Series - 26)"
Keywords:
1987
"As Far as the Utmost Heavens." 23 pp. typed transcript of a talk given in 1987 or 1988 somewhere in Alaska. Perhaps same as Gillum’s “Alaska” Joseph Smith’s Contributions: Scriptural, Institutional, Doctrinal, and Historical.” 19 pp., d.s., date unknown (given in Alaska after March 1983).
Abstract: A talk in which the accomplishments of Joseph Smith are set forth and defended. Contributions mentioned include the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the restoration of the priesthood, and temples.
"." Talk given on 9 October 1987, to the UEA retired teachers association at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. Reprinted in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:524–53.
1988
""
"." Talk given at the Sunstone 1988 Book of Mormon Lecture Series, 10 May 1988, at the Fine Arts Auditorium, University of Utah. Published in The Prophetic Book of Mormon, CWHN 8:533–69.
"." Talk given on 8 September 1988 as part of the Deseret Book/FARMS Nibley lecture series. Published in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:336–79.
"." Talk given on 10 November 1988, as part of the Deseret Book/FARMS Nibley lecture series. Published in Approaching Zion, CWHN 9:554–614. An abbreviated version was published in the Student Review, 20 December 1989, 3.
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley is one of the best-known and most highly revered of Latter-day Saint scholars. For over forty years this near-legendary teacher has enthralled his readers and listeners with his encyclopedic knowledge
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 3." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 4." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Abstract: Hugh Nibley is one of the best-known and most highly revered of Latter-day Saint scholars. For over forty years this near-legendary teacher has enthralled his readers and listeners with his encyclopedic knowledge
Keywords:
"Lecture 05 - Book of Mormon - Jeremiah & Solon: Lehi's Contemporaries"
Keywords:
"Lecture 06 - Book of Mormon - 1 Nephi 1 & Jeremiah 29, Lehi's Jerusalem"
Keywords:
"Lecture 15 - Book of Mormon - 1 Nephi 17-19,22 Toward the Promised Land"
Keywords:
"Lecture 17 - Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 2 The Law and The Atonement"
Keywords:
"Lecture 19 - Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 9 The Atonement & Judgment"
Keywords:
"Lecture 20 - Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 25 The Jews and Jerusalem"
Keywords:
"Lecture 21 - Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 25-28 Nephi's Prophecy of our Times"
Keywords:
"Lecture 22 - Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 29-31 Scripture and Canon"
Keywords:
"Lecture 24 - Book of Mormon - Jacob 3-4 Filthiness and the Atonement"
Keywords:
"Lecture 28 - Book of Mormon - Mosiah 1-2 King Benjamin's Speech"
Keywords:
"Lecture 29 - Book of Mormon - Mosiah 3-5 King Benjamin's Speech"
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 2." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 3." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Keywords:
"Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 4." Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1989.
Keywords:
1989
"." Talk given on 12 January 1989 as part of the Deseret Book/FARMS Nibley lecture series. Published as “One Eternal Round: The Hermetic Version,” in Temple and Cosmos, CWHN 12:379–433.
""
1990
"One Eternal Round." series of twelve lectures on Facsimile 2 in the Pearl of Great Price, almost weekly beginning on 27 June 1990, first in the Maeser Building and later in the Joseph Smith Building auditorium.
1991
"Two Authorities on War." Talk given on 21 February 1991, at the Varsity Theatre at Brigham Young University.
"." Keynote Address given on 11 April 1991, at the Associated Students Awards Assembly at Brigham Young University. Published as “‘Exemplary Manhood,’” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, CWHN 13:509–22.
""
1993
""
"Egyptian Temples and Ours." Talk given on 22 May 1993, for a group in Richfield, Utah.
Keywords:
1994
""
1995
""
"Abraham." Lecture given at the LDS Institute, Utah Valley State College, 14 June 1995.
Keywords:
1999
"Abraham's Creation Drama." Talk given on 6 April 1999, at the Joseph Smith Building auditorium, Brigham Young University, and later at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, as part of the Book of Abraham Lecture Series sponsored by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies.
Keywords:
"." Address given on 4 December 1999, at the Joseph Smith Building auditorium, Brigham Young University. Published in a memorial issue of Insights 25/1 (2005): 10–16. Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:483–500.
2001
"Graveside Service Address for Joel Erik Myres." Reprinted in Eloquent Witness, CWHN 17:263–68.
Abstract: Joel Erik Myres was married to Nibley’s granddaughter Natalie Mincek.
Reviews of Hugh Nibley's Works
1955
"Review of The World of the Jaredites, by Hugh Nibley." University Archaeological Society Newsletter 27 (1955): 1–6.
Keywords: Politics
1957
"Review of An Approach to the Book of Mormon, by Hugh Nibley." University Archaeological Society Newsletter 40 (1957): 1–11.
Keywords: Politics
1968
"Review of Since Cumorah: The Book of Mormon in the Modern World, by Hugh Nibley." BYU Studies 8/4 (1968): 465–68.
Keywords: Politics
1969
"The Secular Relevance of the Gospel. Review of Since Cumorah, by Hugh Nibley." Dialogue 4/4 (1969): 76–85.
1971
"Review of Since Cumorah: The Book of Mormon in the Modern World, by Hugh Nibley." Courage 2/1 (1971): 331–32.
Keywords: Politics
1974
"A Hint of an Explanation. Review of The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, by Hugh Nibley." Dialogue 9/4 (1974): 74–75.
Keywords: Politics
1975
"A Great Fuss about a Scrap of Papyrus. Review of The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, by Hugh Nibley." Ensign, October 1975, 84.
Keywords: Politics
1982
"The Extremes of Eclecticism. Review of Abraham in Egypt, by Hugh Nibley." Dialogue 15/4 (1982): 123–25.
Keywords: Politics
1987
"Zeal in the Quest of Knowledge. Review of Old Testament and Related Studies, by Hugh Nibley." Sunstone 11/2 (1987): 33–35.
Keywords: Politics
1988
"Review of Old Testament and Related Studies, by Hugh Nibley." BYU Studies 28/4 (1988): 114–19.
Keywords: Politics
1989
"Review of Mormonism and Early Christianity, by Hugh Nibley." Whitmer Historical Association Journal 9 (1989): 108–12.
"Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites; An Approach to the Book of Mormon; and Since Cumorah." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1989) Vol. 1 : No. 1, Article 13.
Abstract: Review of Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites (1988); An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1988); and Since Cumorah (1988), by Hugh Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
1990
"Hugh Nibley as Cassandra. Review of Since Cumorah, Approaching Zion, and Warfare and the Book of Mormon, by Hugh Nibley." BYU Studies 30/4 (1990): 104–16.
Keywords: Politics
"Time Vindicates Hugh Nibley." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1990) Vol. 2 : No. 1, Article 18.
Abstract: Review of An Approach to the Book of Mormon (1988), by Hugh Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
"Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1990) Vol. 2 : No. 1, Article 19.
Abstract: Review of Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites (1988), by Hugh Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
"Ecological Nomadism versus Epic Heroism in Ether: Nibley's Works on the Jaredites." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1990) Vol. 2 : No. 1, Article 20.
Abstract: Review of Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites (1988), by Hugh Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
"Hugh Nibley, Prophetic Book of Mormon." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1990) Vol. 2 : No. 1, Article 21.
Abstract: Review of the Prophetic Book of Mormon (1989), by Hugh Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
"Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1990) Vol. 2 : No. 1, Article 22.
Abstract: Review of Since Cumorah (1988), by Hugh Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
1993
"Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 3.." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1993) Vol. 5 : No. 1, Article 35.
Abstract: Review of Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Sememster 3 (1992), by Hugh W. Nibley.
Keywords: Politics
1999
"Hugh W. Nibley. The Ancient State: The Rulers and the Ruled." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (1999) Vol. 11 : No. 1, Article 8.
Abstract: Review of The Ancient State: The Rulers and the Ruled (1991), by Hugh W. Nibley
Keywords: Politics
2003
"Nibley's Abraham in Egypt: Laying the Foundation for Abraham Research." Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: (2003) Vol. 15 : No. 1, Article 9.
Abstract: Review of Hugh Nibley. Abraham in Egypt.
Keywords: Politics
"An Exemplary Biography." <