Digital Commons Network^™

Prophet Or Loss: Mosiah1/Zeniff, Benjamin/Noah, Mosiah2/Limhi And The Emergence Of The Almas, Val Larsen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Mormon’s overwhelmingly dominant rhetorical purpose is to testify of Christ, which he and his protagonists often directly do. But he also communicates his testimony more subtly through carefully crafted historical narratives. His use of frame narratives is especially artful. In the Book of Mosiah, Mormon frames the dispiriting account of Zeniff and Noah’s rule with the story of its aftermath: the suffering of Limhi and his people, which is recounted both before and after the central Zeniff/Noah narrative and which underscores the folly in the narrative it frames. The Limhi story is, in turn, framed by a Mosiah family narrative …

An Important Addition To The Library, Kevin Christensen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Oxford University Press has published an annotated edition of the Book of Mormon. This represents a significant event and provides a useful study resource. At the same time, the author’s determination to follow the conclusions of mainstream biblical scholars inevitably generates tensions on issues where the Book of Mormon conflicts with those conclusions. The author also assures readers that the commentary follows “the plain meaning of the text,” which ought to acknowledge Joseph Smith’s foundational observation that different teachers of religion may understand the same passages very differently, depending on their framing context. In this review, I introduce the content …

Heavenly Ascent In Jacob’S Writings In Second Nephi: Addressing The Question Of What The Plan Of Salvation Is In The Book Of Mormon, Skyler Smith

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Heavenly ascent describes the process of an individual (or community) returning to the presence of God. Though various elements exist within heavenly ascent literature, general patterns can be discerned. This project uses one such pattern as a hermeneutical tool to examine what can be learned about how Book of Mormon prophets may have understood the plan of salvation. Specifically, Jacob’s understanding of the plan of salvation will be analyzed by examining his writings in 2 Nephi 9–10. The evidence from this study suggests that some Book of Mormon prophets (at least Jacob and Nephi) viewed the plan of salvation through …

Mormon And Moroni’S Rhetoric: Reflections Inspired By Grant Hardy’S Understanding The Book Of Mormon, Val Larsen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Grant Hardy has shown that Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni have distinctive personalities, rhetorical strategies, implied readers, and thematic concerns. Mormon lived within history and wrote as a historian. He focused on the particulars of time and place and person, on political and military matters. But, Hardy says, Mormon lacked audience awareness. I argue Mormon’s historiography was well adapted to the needs of his initial envisioned audience, the Alma family. Moroni, who lived most of his life outside of history, wrote intertextually, in dialog with voices speaking from the dust. And he wrote as a theologian especially attuned to the tragedy …

King Benjamin’S Sermon As A Type Of Temple Endowment, Andrew I. Miller

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

To more permanently unify the Mulekites and the Nephites as a reunited kingdom of Israel, King Benjamin gathered his people at the temple, and in his role as a king and priest after the order of Melchizedek, imparted teachings that bear resemblance to the Latter- day Saint temple endowment ceremony first introduced in Nauvoo. Several of these similarities are explored in depth. Since the book of Mosiah is one of the earliest extant texts of Joseph Smith’s prophetic ministry, this finding adds to a growing body of literature that suggests that temple themes are apparent in the unfolding Restoration earlier …

An Analysis Of The Financial Incentives In Attacking The Restoration, Ron C. Rhodes

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

With the popularity of social media growing exponentially, prominent critics of the Church are leveraging the platforms, particularly YouTube, as a key resource to produce thousands of negative videos about the Church. The accusations made in the videos about Church history, leadership, doctrine, and culture are so numerous that it could take months or even years to research fully, all while the flood of new content continues. It is easy for those exposed to the accusations to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and, therefore, assume at least some of it must be true. This could place at least some …

Inadequate Healthcare For American Indians In The United States, Brooke Grow

Ballard Brief

Key Takeaways+ Inadequate healthcare access for American Indians due to geographical barriers, historical trauma, and funding shortages results in higher rates of chronic diseases, financial burdens, and reduced quality of life. In some areas in the United States, the life expectancy of Native Americans can be 20 years less than the national average. Of the hospitals located on reservations in the United States, all but three have less than 50 beds, and most do not provide surgical or obstetric services. Only 33% of American Indians report having any form of insurance, compared to 80% of non-Hispanic whites and 52% of …

Full Issue

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Eucharist Of The Latter-Day Saints: The Sacrament In The Broader Christian Context, Robin Douglas

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This paper views the sacrament prayers and rituals of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the broader context of Christian eucharistic worship, focusing on how the Latter-day Saint observances both resemble and differ from those of other Christian communities. It argues that, contrary to what is often supposed, the Church has a relatively “high” eucharistic theology.

Proper Names And Political Claims: Semitic Echoes As Foundations For Claims To The Nephite Throne, Lyle H. Hamblin

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon contains examples of phonemes in character names that resemble Semitic root words. The possible meanings of the names and their timing in the Book of Mormon narrative provide a deeper level of context to the Nephite political challenges in the books of Mosiah through 3 Nephi. Specifically, the English phonemes for the Hebrew and Arabic root- word for “king,” M-L-K, appear in character names in the Book of Mormon narrative when the people of Zarahemla, who were descended from Mulek, the last king of Judah, are discovered by the Nephites in the book of Omni. “King” …

Lds Perspectives On The Atonement?, Blake T. Ostler

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Latter-day Saint Perspectives on Atonement promises to provide new perspectives on the atonement that reflect awareness of scriptural and theological scholarship. The essays on the scriptural background are solid. The essays providing theological perspectives are uneven, at best. Indeed, the theological essays show little awareness of the major works in philosophical theology in the last sixty years—with one notable exception. Moreover, a feminist perspective that argues against seeing Christ’s blood that he shed as an appropriate basis for atonement theory receives the greatest attention. This review elucidates, explores, assesses, and critiques these approaches.

Did Korihor Usurp The Words Of Zeniff?, Elliott Jolley

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon contains several instances where a speaker or author in the Book of Mormon quotes a previous one. This article presents one such example: It appears that Korihor usurped the words of Zeniff, quoting some of them for his own purposes. The context of this reference to Zeniff’s words lies in Korihor’s claims that the Nephites were in bondage to the priests, just as the Lamanites wanted to bring Zeniff’s people into bondage. The connections between these two passages cross multiple generations and narrative events internally, and multiple pages of translated, dictated manuscript by Joseph Smith. It …

Insights Into The Story Of Korihor Based On Intertextual Comparisons, Noel Hudson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A brief outline of the saga of Korihor, the Anti-Christ, is provided along with a discussion of his affinities with other Book of Mormon anti-Christs, including those in the order of Nehors. Literary allusions suggesting Korihor as a foil to the king of the Lamanites are examined. Evidence of a schism among the order of Nehors leading to violence is discussed. Korihor’s unusual death is examined within the context of the theme of crushing the serpent from the stories of Adam, Eve, and Cain.

More Evidence For Alma As A Semitic Name, Neal Rappleye, Allen Hansen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Beginning with Hugh Nibley, several Latter-day Saint scholars have highlighted a deed found among the Bar Kokhba documents as evidence of the name Alma as a Jewish male name in antiquity. Here we highlight a second attestation of the same name used for a Jewish male from a slightly earlier period, as well as other evidence from Hebrew toponymy that helps corroborate not only that Alma is a Hebrew name, but also supports the etymology proposed by Latter-day Saint scholars and is suggestive of wordplays previously identified in the Book of Mormon text. Past critics have mocked the name Alma …

Nurture And Harvest: A Continued Conversation With The Annotated Book Of Mormon, Kevin Christensen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Because Grant Hardy’s important book deliberately contextualizes the Book of Mormon in light of “the generally agreed upon findings of modern biblical scholars and historians,” it invites further discussion on points in which the Book of Mormon and other significant biblical scholars and historians challenge those findings. Hardy also declares that his commentary “is consistently focused on the plain meaning of the text,” which is understandably appealing, but which is in tension with Joseph Smith’s foundational observation that “the different teachers of the religion understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the …

Aftermath Of The Martyrdom: Aspirants To The Mantle Of The Prophet Joseph Smith, R. Jean Addams

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In the weeks, months, and years following the murders of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, several aspirants stepped forward to claim the mantle of the prophet. Who were these individuals with claims to the leadership of the church? What were their motives? How were these men able to inspire large numbers of saints to follow them? What became of their efforts and how are their works manifest in the present day? The reasons that members or prospective members chose or rejected the claims of these aspirants are examined, as are the churches of the organizations that were …

The Anomaly: Elliott West’S Continental Reckoning And Its Latter-Day Saints, Robert Swanson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This review explores how Latter-day Saints are portrayed in a new landmark history of the American West. Noting the author’s generally accurate portrayal of the Saints, this review focuses on some areas that were missing in this Bancroft Prize winning book that has numerous implications for Latter-day Saint studies.

Restoring Melchizedek Priesthood, John S. Thompson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Church historical sources make four differing claims as to when, how, and by whom Melchizedek priesthood was restored. These seemingly conflicting sources have led to many theories about what happened, including the idea that Joseph Smith changed his narrative and rewrote history as his ideas of priesthood evolved. A closer look at the sources, more carefully defining the terminology, and being more aware of ancient patterns provide a better solution for understanding the purpose and relationship of these four narratives and thus the nature of the Melchizedek priesthood Joseph Smith restored.

Student Interaction With Generative Ai: An Exploration Of An Emergent Information-Search Process, Ryan M. Schuetzler, Justin Scott Giboney, Taylor M. Wells, Benjamin Richardson, Tom Meservy, Cole Sutton, Clay Posey, Jacob Steffen, Amanda Lee Hughes

Faculty Publications

ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence, is one of the fastest-adopted tools in history and has quickly become a valued tool in education. This study seeks to understand how generative artificial intelligence has changed the information search process. We collected prompts submitted to ChatGPT and thoughts about ChatGPT responses through a survey of 455 students at a US university. Using thematic analysis, we identified ways that ChatGPT changes the information search process of students by supporting diverse information needs, allowing cycling of prompt adjustments, and promoting easy adoption of results.

The Intellectual Structure Of Audit Committee Research: A Bibliometric Analysis (1969 – 2020), Joel Behrend, Marc Eulerich, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The audit committee is a widely recognized mechanism of effective corporate governance. We advance prior literature reviews by using bibliometric analysis techniques that comprehensively process large bodies of bibliometric information. We base inferences on citation patterns of 1,173 articles to identify concepts that “shine through” within the scientific understanding of audit committees. Using content analysis, we then analyze these concepts and explore existing interrelationships. We document a declining influence of audit committee research, as well as a widening gap between the quantitative and qualitative research camps. While the former is mostly derivative in nature, the latter produces innovative insights on …

Effects Of Cognitive And Social Demands On Linguistic Production For People With Moderate, Mild, Or No Aphasia, Tyson G. Harmon, Emily Mcdonald, Kyle Steele

Faculty Publications

Background

Most everyday communication occurs in situations where cognitive and social demands are present. These types of situations may compound language deficits for people with aphasia (PWA). An understanding of the language interference that may occur from cognitive and social demands is an important precursor for assessment and intervention that addresses everyday communication situations.

Aims

To determine how cognitively and socially demanding conditions affect micro- and macrolinguistic production for people with moderate, mild, or no aphasia during narrative discourse and to compare effects among groups.

Method

Thirty participants with mild (n = 9), moderate (n = 9), or no (n …

The Contracts Word List: Integral Vocabulary For Reading And Writing English Contracts, Elizabeth Hanks, Brett James Hashimoto, Jesse Egbert

Faculty Publications

Both Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) and Legal English as a Lingua Franca (LELF) users engage with legal contracts regularly. However, contractual language is notoriously complex, due in part to the vocabulary it contains. To help mitigate the challenges related to learning the vocabulary of contracts, this paper introduces a word list of American English contracts called the ContractsWord List (CWL).We describe the compilation of the Corpus of English Business Contracts (CEBC) that represents six major contract types in 48 million words. The extraction of prevalent and specialized words from the CEBC is described, following validation procedures in …

A Sociolinguistic View Of Cultural Influences In Conversations About Religion, Rachael Merrill

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

My research project deals with intercultural communication issues in religious conversations among American English speakers and Japanese speakers. Much research has been done to examine how miscommunications occur across cultures, and that understanding cultural contexts can help us be more successful in linguistic endeavors. This paper specifically examines how the different sociocultural meanings attached to individual lexical items associated with religious topics (e.g., ‘God’ and ‘prayer’) differ between English and Japanese. This is a qualitative study using data from publicly available corpora of Japanese and English, as well as sociolinguistic interviews. I will not present the analysis of the interviews …

Blame In The North Korean Famine, 1994-1998, Zoe Ngan

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

This paper intends to analyse blame for the North Korean famine through Amartya Sen’s entitlement theory, which suggests that the North Korean state was largely to blame. The collapse of the public distribution system (PDS), as well as the North Korean government’s misallocation of aid, were most significant in obstructing North Koreans’ ability to access food, and can be interpreted as severe entitlement ‘failures’ that were directly facilitated by the state.

The Many Names Of Limahong: Remembering A Chinese Pirate In The Philippines, William Martindale

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The 1574 attack of Limahong on Manila and the subsequent expulsion of his attempted Pangasinan colony left a profound impact in Philippine history. The threat once presented by Limahong cast a long shadow over Spanish colonization and Philippines security, particularly regarding relations with China and Chinese. As a result, his name was continually evoked in the centuries after his attack. This paper examines how Limahong is remembered in the Philippines. Limahong is remembered as a generic sea-borne threat, a pirate whose name is evoked at any threat from the sea or from China. But, he is also remembered as a …

From Biology Major To Religion Professor: Personal Reflections On Evolution, Joshua M. Sears

BYU Studies

When I arrived at Brigham Young University as an excited freshman, my plan was to major in biology. I had really enjoyed biology in high school and scored a perfect 5 on the AP exam, so I figured this was something I could be good at. That first year I took courses in general biology, biodiversity, chemistry, and physical science.

Translation And The World Order, Richard Lyman Bushman

BYU Studies

Joseph Smith published three books he called translations: his masterwork, the Book of Mormon, translated from gold plates when he was twenty-four and published in March 1830; the eight chapters of the book of Moses based on Genesis in the Bible, begun in June 1830 and completed by February of the following year; and the book of Abraham, translated from scrolls that the Church purchased from Michael Chandler in 1835 and published in 1842. It is hard to think of any prophetic figure in religious history who relied as extensively on translations to spread his message as did Joseph Smith.

Book Of Mormon Grammar And Translation, Stanford Carmack

BYU Studies

This paper discusses some of the Book of Mormon’s nonstandard grammar, showing how in many cases it was not the kind of grammar that Joseph Smith would have been expected to produce, since it was neither his native usage nor a presumed biblically influenced English. In these contexts, if he had been in control of the wording of the text, it is highly likely that he would have expressed things differently. Quite a few examples are provided in support of this claim, along with additional matching examples found in early modern texts.

Tasting God’S Light: Saints And The Spiritual Senses, Philip Abbott

BYU Studies

While many Westerners once assumed that sensory perception is more or less constant and universal, scholarship in the area of sensory studies has shown how volatile and diverse sensory discernment can be. For instance, though Western epistemology categorizes sensory knowledge into five senses, people across world cultures do not agree on the number of human senses that exist (some enumerate two, four, six, or seven senses), nor do they agree on how the senses function. As anthropologists have illuminated, these various notions of sensory perception lead people to translate sensory experience into vastly different worldviews. Thus, researchers have concluded that …

Making Mistakes, Shamae Budd

BYU Studies

My four-year- old son is not a quiet child. He is the kind of child that people call “spirited,” “high energy,” or “all boy.”

My four-year- old son is not a quiet child. He is the kind of child that people call “spirited,” “high energy,” or “all boy.” His enthusiasm for the beautiful, rare cosmic bliss of living seems limitless. His zeal exists in all directions, at all times of day, and in all seasons and sizes and shapes and colors. It is technicolor joie de vivre. As an illustration, he recently spent the morning stomping from room to room …