Though the event is rarely mentioned in modern Christmas celebrations, the traditional carols of earlier centuries often give as much attention to the Fall of Adam as they do to the birth of Christ. This episode shows how traditional carols and art relating to Christ and Mary have been deliberately woven to feature themes of Adam and Eve throughout....
read moreStudents of the Book of Mormon have long noted that the brief book of Ether is quite different in its content and style than the rest of the Book of Mormon. Believers may argue that it’s because the origins of the book came from an ancient culture much different...
read moreAnd Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai … Sarai was barren; she had no child. (Gen 11:29-30) And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might discover that some of the archaic words, phrases, and expressions...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might mean that some of the archaic words, phrases, and expressions...
read moreA recent article by Colby Townsend proposes that the names “Mahijah” and “Mahujah” were included in the Book of Moses as the result of one of two scenarios. A forthcoming article by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, and Ryan Dahle argues that a common ancient source for “Mahujah” and “Mahijah” in the Book of Moses and similar names in the Bible and an ancient Dead Sea Scrolls Enoch text named The Book of Giants cannot be ruled out....
read moreThis is a September 2, 2020 update to the earlier August 25, 2020 post that appears below. UPDATE I believe that academic dialogue is important and can be fruitful. There are many scholars who are academically interested in the Book of Abraham, its translation, and...
read moreOn Tuesday, August 18, 2020, Dan Peterson spoke at a Fireside for the Stanford institute via Zoom about the Witnesses film. Both audio and video recordings of the fireside are available below. The video is also available on YouTube at...
read moreAs the concluding item of this series on the First Vision, I have sifted through most of the preceding nineteen pieces and selected brief quotations—nuggets of pure testimony—from those holding the holy Apostleship (including the keys of the Kingdom as received in direct line from the Prophet Joseph Smith, who got them from Peter, James, and John, and other ancient prophets), declaring their incontrovertible spiritual witness of the reality of Joseph Smith’s First Vision. ...
read moreAs far as I can discover, it seems to me that President Hinckley had more to say about Joseph Smith’s First Vision than any other modern prophet or apostle. President Hinckley’s testimony of the First Vision must therefore be considered one of the greatest prophetic witnesses given since the event of the vision itself. ...
read moreFor ancient readers of the Bible, the story of the shepherds was an extraordinary tale, a thinning of the veil like no other. In this posting, we explore several of the little known temple themes that are part of the most stunning appearance of angels recorded in scripture. We highlight in particular several that are found in Charles Wesley's masterpiece "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!"...
read moreFor many years, I was mystified by the title of the seventeenth-century French Christmas carol “Quelle est cette odeur agréable ?”[1] When the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performs Mack Wilberg’s ethereal arrangement[2] that begins with the words:
Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing stealing our senses all away?
Never the like did come a-blowing, shepherds, in the flow’ry fields of May,
have you ever wondered, as I had, why a particular smell should be taken as a sign of Christ’s birth?...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon as dictated by Joseph Smith might discover that some of the archaic words,...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might discover that some of the archaic words, phrases, and expressions...
read moreA response to Thomas A. Wayment. "Intertextuality and the purpose of Joseph Smith’s new translation of the Bible." In Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources, edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen and Sharalyn Howcroft, 74-100. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018....
read moreIn a vision of Enoch described in a JST manuscript named “Old Testament 1” (OT1), we are told that after viewing the wickedness and misery of mankind “the God of heaven looked down … and wept.” In the “Old Testament 2” (OT2) manuscript, the text was revised to read “Enoch looked down … and wept.” A recent article by Colby Townsend argues that the OT2 revision is a better reading of the passage. A forthcoming article by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, and Ryan Dahle argues that a more balanced understanding of Moses 7 emerges when comparing it to suitable Old Testament analogues, specifically Deuteronomy 32 and Isaiah 1....
read moreThe Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price continues to generate considerable interest (and controversy) among readers. Ever since George Reynolds published his series “The Book of Abraham—Its Genuineness Established” in the year 1879,[1] members of The Church of...
read moreThe results of a new study reported in Nature (“Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement”, published July 8, 2020) found “conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesian individuals with Native American...
read morePresident Hinckley occasionally referenced public and private efforts of the enemies and critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to disturb or distract, or to diminish or destroy faith in Jesus Christ and His modern prophets. As President Hinckley noted, many of them have targeted Joseph Smith and his First Vision—and (as he notes) while they have had some small success among the weak in testimony, the true and faithful have not faltered. ...
read moreA few years ago, a returned missionary who served in one of the Mexican missions shared with me a classic experience that illustrates the “diligence” principle in the acquisition of faith and sacred knowledge. ...
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