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Paper Studies Characteristics Of Oral Culture In The Book Of Mormon Sep 2023

Paper Studies Characteristics Of Oral Culture In The Book Of Mormon

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

A recent fascinating study by William Eggington of the BYU English Department suggests that, by and large, Book of Mormon peoples functioned as an oral culture. Although the Lehite community had access to print as a technology, Eggington believes that they wrote only to accomplish narrow (i.e., religious) goals and that their writings retained many features of a nonprint culture. His evidence comes from certain indicators and memory-aiding devices within the text of the Book of Mormon, including repetitious patterns, balanced patterns, formulaic expressions, and parallelisms.


Selected Sperry Symposium Papers Now Available Sep 2023

Selected Sperry Symposium Papers Now Available

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The annual Sperry Symposium was held at BYU on October 26, 1991. Many of the papers presented will be published next spring. In the meantime, four papers are now available separately on the enclosed order form.


Byu Studies Features Griggs And Jett On Archaeology And Pre-Columbian Voyaging Sep 2023

Byu Studies Features Griggs And Jett On Archaeology And Pre-Columbian Voyaging

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

By special arrangement, the most recent issue of BYU Studies is available through F.A.R.M.S. This outstanding publication contains several articles that will be of great interest to F.A.R.M.S. readers.


Essay Illuminates Publishing Process Sep 2023

Essay Illuminates Publishing Process

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Religious Studies Center at BYU sponsored a conference on Joseph Smith at the dedication of the new Joseph Smith Building on campus. Organized by Susan Easton Black, associate professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU, the conference was well attended and well received. Papers delivered at the conference have been published by the center and Bookcraft, and F.A.R.M.S. has arranged to reprint one of the chapters that particularly sheds light on the Book of Mormon.


Brown Bag Seminar Presents Book Of Mormon Research Sep 2023

Brown Bag Seminar Presents Book Of Mormon Research

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Some of the most interesting current research on the Book of Mormon was reported on during the sessions of the F.A.R.M.S. brown bag seminar through the 1992-1993 school year. Fourteen Latter-day Saint scholars from Brigham Young University and elsewhere gave participants a glimpse of their most recent findings on a wide variety of topics.


Participants At Byu Summer Programs Are Invited To Visit Farms Aug 2023

Participants At Byu Summer Programs Are Invited To Visit Farms

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

INSIGHT'S subscribers who attend programs at BYU this summer, such as Education Week or the CES Symposium, as well as any other friends of F.A.R.M.S. who find themselves in Provo, are invited to stop by the F.A.R.M.S. office. You'll find us on the third floor of Amanda Knight Hall, which is on the southwest edge of the BYU campus, on the comer of University Avenue and 800 North.


Dead Sea Scroll Scholars Discuss Progress And New Technologies Aug 2023

Dead Sea Scroll Scholars Discuss Progress And New Technologies

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In July members of the international team of scholars working on the Dead Sea Scrolls held a conference in Provo to discuss the progress of their research and to examine new technologies that may assist them. The conference was hosted by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and Brigham Young University. It was organized and chaired by Eugene Ulrich of the University of Notre Dame and Donald W. Parry of Brigham Young University.


Subscriptions And Donations Still Essential For Farms Aug 2023

Subscriptions And Donations Still Essential For Farms

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Since the announcement that FARMS has been invited to become part of BYU, we have received several phone calls asking whether FARMS still needs the financial support of its subscribers and donors. The answer is emphatically yes!


Contributions Of Farms Members Still Crucial Aug 2023

Contributions Of Farms Members Still Crucial

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

As FARMS has become part of Brigham Young University, some of the faithful members of FARMS have asked if their support is still important to the Foundation. The answer is a resounding yes! Just in the financial area alone, membership fees (which we have also called subscriptions) are crucial to the research and publications of the Foundation. The university contributes less than 20 percent of the Foundation's annual operating budget-a very welcome contribution, but obviously not enough to keep FARMS and its projects running. We still must rely on membership fees, donations, and the sale of publications to support ongoing …


Brown Bag Wrap-Up Apr 2023

Brown Bag Wrap-Up

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On 23 February Terry Szink, an instructor in BYU's Department of Ancient Scripture, analyzed the structure of Enoch's vision recorded in Moses 7-8 and discussed how understanding that structure reveals insights about the meaning of the vision. The vision covers three general time periods (the time of the Flood, the meridian of time, the last days) and uses similar terms to express parallel meanings about all three.


Cpart Digitizes Archives In Lebanon And Vatican Apr 2023

Cpart Digitizes Archives In Lebanon And Vatican

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In April 1999 INSIGHTS reported on negotiations between representatives of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART) at Brigham Young University and officials in Beirut, Lebanon, and at the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome about digitally imaging ancient Syriac manuscripts for inclusion in CD-ROM databases. Since then agreements have been forged and work is under way.


Lds Church Sponsors Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit In Chicago Apr 2023

Lds Church Sponsors Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit In Chicago

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the principal sponsors of an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls that opened on 10 March at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Running through 11 June 2000, the exhibit features 15 scroll texts and 80 artifacts excavated at Qumran, a site of ancient ruins located near the caves where the scrolls were first discovered.


Call For Papers Mar 2023

Call For Papers

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Institute invites interested persons to submit papers for a conference on Latter-day Saint views on the sacrifice of Isaac. The conference will be held at BYU on 11 October 2003.


Brown Bag Report Mar 2023

Brown Bag Report

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

25 September 2002: BYU professors John W.Welch (law) and John F. Hall (classics) reported on projects involving the Institute’s Early Christianity Initiative.Welch spoke of a presentation he gave in Berlin to the International Society of Biblical Literature in which he showed the results of an Institute team’s digital imaging of a dozen early New Testament manuscripts. He also described imaging projects involving (1) a large collection of early manuscripts damaged during World War II (among them are eighth- and ninth-century copies of the Pauline epistles, including a rare copy of an apocryphal epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans); and (2) …


New Review A Double Issue Mar 2023

New Review A Double Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The latest FARMS Review of Books is actually two issues in one. It reviews 15 books in the usual categories of Book of Mormon, Mormon studies, and biblical studies but also devotes more than 100 pages to a multipronged response to an evangelical book titled The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement.


New Book Enriches Nt Study Jan 2023

New Book Enriches Nt Study

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

A new book from FARMS offers a world of information about the New Testament and its background. Charting the New Testament contains scores of charts, tables, and graphs, each with helpful explanatory and reference materials in a reader-friendly format. Covering a wide array of topics-from the ancient Jewish setting of the New Testament and the world of the Greeks and Romans in which the activities of Jesus and his apostles took place to detailed analysis of the scriptural text itself-the book offers an extensive overview of matters doctrinal, literary, and historical. A companion volume to Charting the Book of Mormon, …


Researchers Share, Test Ideas With Peers Jan 2023

Researchers Share, Test Ideas With Peers

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Each semester the Institute sponsors an average of six brown bag presentations (so named because they are informal lectures delivered during the noon hour). Held on the BYU campus, these events are conducted largely for the benefit of scholars and other specialists who are invited to report on research projects they are pursuing and papers they are writing. At the conclusion of their presentations, the speakers respond to questions and constructive comments from the audience. These events enable researchers to test and explore the ideas and insights they are developing on a host of topics related to the work of …


Byu Journal Explores Hebrew Law In The Book Of Mormon Jan 2023

Byu Journal Explores Hebrew Law In The Book Of Mormon

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In February 2001, a conference titled “Hebrew Law in the Book of Mormon” was held at Brigham Young University under the sponsorship of FARMS (see “BYU Conference on Hebrew Law a Success,” Insights 21/4 [2001], available on the FARMS Web site). Among the papers presented there were studies by seven BYU students on aspects of ancient law that might be reflected in the Book of Mormon. These papers are now available in a special issue, copublished by FARMS, of the student journal Studia Antiqua. They treat such topics as slavery, the Noachide laws (minimum standards of social and moral conduct …


Forthcoming Publications Dec 2022

Forthcoming Publications

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, edited by John Gee
and Brian Hauglid, is volume 3 in the Book of Abraham
Series. It includes FARMS conference papers on the Book
of Abraham and its commonalities with ancient texts,
Abraham’s vision of the heavens, and the significance of
the Abrahamic covenant. Available autumn 2003.


Brown Bag Report Dec 2022

Brown Bag Report

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

With fall semester under way at Brigham Young University, we look forward to keeping you abreast of another round of Institute-sponsored brown bag lectures. These presentations, which are not open to the general public, enable researchers to share their expertise and findings with their peers in related fields and to receive constructive input. Following are reports of three such presentations from earlier this year.


Biblical Scholar Presents Lectures At Byu Dec 2022

Biblical Scholar Presents Lectures At Byu

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

During the week of 5–9 May, the Institute sponsored a visit by British biblical scholar Margaret Barker to Brigham Young University. Each morning, Barker offered a seminar (usually three hours in length) to a group of invited faculty and guests in which she summarized her research and numerous publications. She also delivered a university forum address during her stay, as well as an evening public lecture in the auditorium of the Harold B. Lee Library.


Institute News Dec 2022

Institute News

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Noel B. Reynolds has been appointed director of the Institute. A professor of political science and a past president of FARMS, he recently completed a five-year term as associate academic vice president for undergraduate studies at BYU. Further coverage on this change in leadership will appear in a future issue of Insights.


Brown Bag Report Dec 2022

Brown Bag Report

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On 13 November John F. Hall, professor of classical languages and ancient history at Brigham Young University, spoke about his new book, New Testament Witnesses of Christ: Peter, John, James, and Paul. The book draws on early Christian writings to show that the “four pillars” of early Christianity—Peter, John, James (the brother of Jesus), and Paul—consistently testified of the life and mission of Jesus Christ. The book is important, Hall believes, because many professing Christians, even many ministers, do not accept Christ as the literal Son of God even though the scriptures and the writings of the early church fathers …


The Book Of Mormon At The Bar Of Dna “Evidence” Dec 2022

The Book Of Mormon At The Bar Of Dna “Evidence”

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On 29 January a capacity crowd gathered in the Harold B. Lee Library auditorium to hear BYU biology professor Michael F. Whiting address the topic “Does DNA Evidence Refute the Authenticity of the Book of Mormon? Responding to the Critics.” The size of the audience suggested the great interest people have in the role and limitations of DNA research in unlocking the past, especially the religious past.


Byu, Institute Continue Presence At Scholarly Conference Nov 2022

Byu, Institute Continue Presence At Scholarly Conference

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Several BYU and Institute scholars attended the joint annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature held in Toronto, Ontario, last November. In recent years this scholarly venue has enabled BYU entities specializing in religious scholarship to join ranks in the interest of promoting their recent publications while cultivating professional contacts, staying abreast of developments in the field, and presenting their research findings at conference sessions.


Farms Scholars At Sperry Symposium Nov 2022

Farms Scholars At Sperry Symposium

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

2004In any given year, FARMS-affiliated scholars present their research at a number of scholarly conferences at home and abroad. Brigham Young University’s Sidney B. Sperry Symposium in Octo-ber 2004, entitled “Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church,” was one such venue on the home front. Selected highlights follow.


Farms Book Of Mormon Research Highlighted Nov 2022

Farms Book Of Mormon Research Highlighted

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

During a recent meeting of the FARMS Development Council, four principal investigators on Book of Mormon–related projects reviewed the status of their ongoing work. The reports clarified each project’s goals, highlighted new findings, noted future directions, and expressed appreciation for the crucial support of generous donors, many of whom were in attendance. A summary of the presentations follows.


Herculaneum Papyri Project Catalyzes New Oxford Society Nov 2022

Herculaneum Papyri Project Catalyzes New Oxford Society

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Brigham Young University’s Herculaneum papyri project continues to gain support among American and European scholars. The project’s director, Roger T. Macfarlane, an associate professor of classics at BYU, was invited to serve on the organizing board of the nascent Herculaneum Society, which was inaugurated in Oxford, England, on 3 July 2004. The society promotes inter-national attention on scholarship and fund-raising related to the ancient town of Herculaneum and its Villa of the Papyri. Together with David Arm-strong, a classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Macfarlane will direct the North American division of the Herculaneum Society. “There is …


Lectures On Christianity In The Middle East Nov 2022

Lectures On Christianity In The Middle East

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In March the Institute cosponsored a lecture series at Brigham Young University titled “Christianity in the Middle East.” The series provided a historical overview of the eastward spread of Christianity into the pagan Near East, a subject largely neglected in religious and socio-cultural studies. Over many centuries, Christian groups maintained a presence in the region, leaving behind a notable literary, monumental, and artistic legacy that is increasingly being recognized as an important part of the world’s cultural heritage.


‘Binding Of Isaac’ Focus Of Farms Conference, Lecture Nov 2022

‘Binding Of Isaac’ Focus Of Farms Conference, Lecture

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Genesis 22 records that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac upon an altar but intervened at the last moment, providing instead a ram for the actual sacrifice and greatly blessing Abraham for passing what has come to be viewed as the ultimate test of obedience to God’s will. The account, simple enough in outline, is nevertheless seen by different religious traditions as profoundly symbolic and even enigmatic, its moral and religious implications having spawned numerous interpretations.