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Articles 1981 - 2010 of 9852

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Two Essays On Sustaining And Enlarging The Doctrine, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2020

Two Essays On Sustaining And Enlarging The Doctrine, Daniel C. Peterson

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

In a pair of recent books, Patrick Mason and Terryl and Fiona Givens seek to revitalize, reinvigorate, and deepen our understanding of basic terms and concepts of the Restoration. I welcome such efforts, convinced (even where I sometimes quibble) that the conversations they will engender among faithful and committed believers can be very healthy. Now that “the times of refreshing [have] come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:18), it is imperative, both for ourselves and for a world that needs to hear the news, that we not lose sight of the radical freshness of the divine gift and …

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Nephi’S Obsession, Or, How To Talk With Nephi About God, Ralph C. Hancock Jan 2020

Nephi’S Obsession, Or, How To Talk With Nephi About God, Ralph C. Hancock

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

Joseph Spencer’s intimate familiarity with the Book of Mormon text, based upon years of close textual study and informed by a well- developed theological sensibility, is in full evidence in this lead-off volume in Neal A. Maxwell Institute’s new series of books on the various books of the Book of Mormon. Leaving to prophets and apostles the responsibility for “declaring official doctrine,” this new series approaches the book with the tools of the “scholarly practice” of theology. In Spencer’s case at least, his practice is understood to be (1) informed by an emphasis on grace that is skeptical of claims …

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Confronting And Condemning “Hard Doctrine,” 1978–2013, Matthew L. Harris Jan 2020

Confronting And Condemning “Hard Doctrine,” 1978–2013, Matthew L. Harris

Mormon Studies Review

Although Spencer W. Kimball’s 1978 revelation in the Salt Lake Temple ended the 126-year-old priesthood and temple ban affecting persons of African descent, questions about racial teachings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lingered. The revelation, canonized as “Official Declaration 2” in Latter-day Saint scripture, failed to repudiate the theology justifying the ban.1 Some members, consequently, continued to assert that black people were cursed, equating their dark skin with misdeeds they allegedly committed in a pre-earth life.2 Anguished over these microaggressions, black Latter-day Saints petitioned church officials to condemn racism within the church as well as remove …

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Full Issue Jan 2020

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

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Ministering Across Fault Lines Of Belief And Community, Daniel Ellsworth Jan 2020

Ministering Across Fault Lines Of Belief And Community, Daniel Ellsworth

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

David Ostler’s book Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question addresses the daunting task of ministering to people who have grown disillusioned with the core doctrines and the community of believers they encounter in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is perhaps the most challenging ministering effort a leader or member of the Church can undertake, and Bridges provides valuable insight into the process of disaffection as well as specific things that Church leaders and members can do to create a healthy environment for members to work through challenges to their faith. This review discusses those strengths of …

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Full Issue Jan 2020

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

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The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 2020

The Brass Plates Version Of Genesis, Noel B. Reynolds

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

The Book of Mormon peoples repeatedly indicated that they were descendants of Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sold into Egypt by his brothers. The plates of brass that they took with them from Jerusalem c. 600 bce provided them with a version of many Old Testament books and others not included in our Hebrew Bible. Sometime after publishing his translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith undertook an inspired revision of the Bible. The opening chapters of his version of Genesis contain a lot of material not included in the Hebrew Bible. But intriguingly, distinctive phraseology in …

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A Passover Setting For Lehi’S Exodus, Don Bradley Jan 2020

A Passover Setting For Lehi’S Exodus, Don Bradley

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

Later in his life, former Palmyra resident Fayette Lapham recounted with sharp detail an 1830 interview he conducted with Joseph Smith Sr. about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Among the details he reports that Lehi’s exodus from Jerusalem occurred during a “great feast.” This detail, not found in the published Book of Mormon, may reveal some of what Joseph Sr. knew from the lost 116 pages. By examining the small plates account of this narrative in 1 Nephi 1−5, we see not only that such a feast was possible, but that Lehi’s exodus and Nephi’s quest for …

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An Approach To Isaiah Studies, Donald W. Parry Jan 2020

An Approach To Isaiah Studies, Donald W. Parry

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

This review makes a case, briefly, for the unmistakable presence of Jesus Christ in Isaiah’s text, which case is based on a corpus linguistic-based description of the Hebrew Bible, equivalent designations of deific names, self-identification declarations by the Lord, and more. And, importantly, one can never set aside the multiple teachings and testimonies of our modern prophets and apostles regarding Isaiah’s prophecies of Jesus Christ. Moreover, in my view, a knowledge of biblical Hebrew helps us to penetrate the very depths and heights of Isaiah’s text.

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The Role And Purpose Of Synagogues In The Days Of Jesus And Paul, Taylor Halverson Jan 2020

The Role And Purpose Of Synagogues In The Days Of Jesus And Paul, Taylor Halverson

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

This article explores why Jesus so often healed in synagogues. By comparing the uses and purposes of Diaspora and Palestinian synagogues, this article argues that synagogues functioned as a hostel or community center of sorts in ancient Jewish society. That is, those needing healing would seek out such services and resources at the synagogue.

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An American Indian Language Family With Middle Eastern Loanwords: Responding To A Recent Critique, John Robertson Jan 2020

An American Indian Language Family With Middle Eastern Loanwords: Responding To A Recent Critique, John Robertson

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

In 2015 Brian Stubbs published a landmark book, demonstrating that Uto-Aztecan, an American Indian language family, contains a vast number of Northwest Semitic and Egyptian loanwords spoken in the first millennium bc. Unlike other similar claims — absurd, eccentric, and without substance — Stubbs’s book is a serious, linguistically based study that deserves serious consideration. In the scholarly world, any claim of Old World influence in the New World languages is met with critical, often hostile skepticism. This essay is written in response to one such criticism.

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He Knows My Affliction: The Hill Onidah As Narrative Counterpart To The Rameumptom, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2020

He Knows My Affliction: The Hill Onidah As Narrative Counterpart To The Rameumptom, Matthew L. Bowen

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

The toponym Onidah, attested as the name of a hill in Alma 32:4, most plausibly derives from Hebrew ʿŏnî /ʿōnî/ʿônî (ʿonyî, “my affliction”) + yādaʿ/yēdaʿ (“he knew,” “he knows”) — i.e., “he has acknowledged my affliction” or “he knows my affliction.” This etymology finds support in the context of the Zoramite narrative in which it occurs. In view of the pejorative lexical associations of the Rameumptom, the “high” and “holy stand,” with Hebrew rām (< rwm, “high”) and haughtiness, arrogance, and pride, we see Mormon using the Rameumptom, the “high” platform for Zoramite self-exalting worship, with Onidah, the hill from which Alma and Amulek taught the Zoramite poor and humble. The latter name and Alma’s teaching from that location constituted a sign that the Lord “knew” their “affliction.” Alma devotes a significant part of his message not only extolling the spiritual value of their state of “affliction” and humiliation or compelled “humility” (ʿŏnî Exodus 3:7, 17), but teaching them how to “plant” the “word” (even Jesus Christ himself) in their hearts through prayer — the word that would grow up into a “perfect knowledge” of God — experientially “knowing” God (Alma 32:16‒36) and being known by him (cf. Alma 7:12).

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Rethinking Alma 36, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 2020

Rethinking Alma 36, Noel B. Reynolds

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

While Alma 36 has long been one of the most admired examples of classical Hebrew chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, critiques in the last two decades have questioned whether, in fact, it really meets the requirements of classical biblical chiasms. The principal objections have pointed to the large sections of the chapter that are not easily included in the chiasm as outlined by John W. Welch and other proponents. Until now, this debate has not taken note of dramatic new developments in the analysis of Hebrew rhetoric over the last fifty years. The following essay turns to the discoveries …

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Chapter 8: Nephi Organizing, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 8: Nephi Organizing, Brant Gardner

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

As the author of these two books on the small plates as well as the beginning of the book of Lehi on the large plates, Nephi began the Nephite record-keeping tradition. Principles that Nephi used to create his text were copied and continued until Mormon’s time.

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Chapter 12: Book Of 2 Nephi, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 12: Book Of 2 Nephi, Brant Gardner

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

The first, and perhaps most important structural element in 2 Nephi is that there is a 2 Nephi at all. The text we have from the small plates of Nephi are holographic. That is, they are in the hand of the original writers. There is no Mormon standing between the original text and our final version, such as we find in the material from Mosiah to 4 Nephi (or Moroni’s treatment of Ether’s record). We have the chapters just as Nephi created them. We also have the anomaly of two separate books by the very same writer, something that never …

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Section 2: Nephi The Writer Chapter 7: Nephi Preparing, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Section 2: Nephi The Writer Chapter 7: Nephi Preparing, Brant Gardner

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

We have the Book of Mormon people because of Lehi. Nephi began the tradition that eventually allowed Mormon to create the Book of Mormon. Lehi led his family to the New World, but Nephi defined his descendants as a record-keeping people. The Nephites were a people of the Book both because Nephi (and his brothers) preserved a record-keeping tradition (the brass plates) and because he began a new one after arriving in the New World. Mormon may be most directly responsible for the Book of Mormon, but the records Mormon used (and many of the organizational structures that Mormon used) …

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Chapter 13: Book Of Mosiah, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 13: Book Of Mosiah, Brant Gardner

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

All evidence points to the Nephite continuation of Nephi’s original mandate for the large plates. They were to record the wars and contentions of the people (1 Nephi 9:4, 19:4). It is therefore unsurprising that Mormon tells us in the first extant sentence that there was no more contention (Mosiah 1:1). However, where a modern reader might think that was the point of writing, for Mormon this is a filler statement indicating nothing was happening (of interest to Mormon). Perhaps the best evidence of Mormon’s lack of interest in times of no contentions comes in the aftermath of the Savior’s …

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First Visions And Last Sermons: Affirming Divine Sociality, Rejecting The Greater Apostasy, Val Larsen Jan 2020

First Visions And Last Sermons: Affirming Divine Sociality, Rejecting The Greater Apostasy, Val Larsen

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

There is a kinship between Lehi and Joseph Smith. They are linked to each other by similar first visions, and they faced roughly the same theological problem. Resisted by elites who believe God is a Solitary Sovereign, both prophets affirm the pluralistic religion of Abraham, which features a sôd ’ĕlôhim (Council of Gods) in which the divine Father, Mother, and Son sit. These prophets are likewise linked by their last sermons: Lehi’s parting sermon/blessings of his sons and Joseph’s King Follett discourse. Along with the first visions and last sermons, the article closely reads Lehi’s dream, Nephi’s experience of Lehi’s …

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The Character And Knowledge Of Mary, The Mother Of Christ, A. Keith Thompson Jan 2020

The Character And Knowledge Of Mary, The Mother Of Christ, A. Keith Thompson

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

The Virgin Mary is arguably the archetype of the virtuous woman and even the divine feminine on earth, but we know very little about her. She is remembered in Christianity in a variety of ways including with cathedrals built in her honor. Though many seek her intercession when they pray, that does not seem to accord with Luke’s account of her self- effacing and private character. This article considers what Latter-day Saints know about Mary from the scriptures, distinct from others of Christian faith who seek to honor her in different ways. That discussion also includes surmise as to what …

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The Lost Prologue: Reading Moses Chapter One As An Ancient Text, Mark J. Johnson Jan 2020

The Lost Prologue: Reading Moses Chapter One As An Ancient Text, Mark J. Johnson

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

The character and complexion of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible (JST) is often a puzzle to students and scholars. One text in particular, the first chapter of the Book of Moses, claims that its very words would be lost and later restored to the believing. As this bold claim has not yet been verified by the discovery of an ancient copy of this text, clues to the antiquity of this document will need to be discovered within the text itself. This study investigates Moses 1 with the tools of biblical and literary criticism to discover if the …

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Becoming Men And Women Of Understanding: Wordplay On Benjamin — An Addendum, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2020

Becoming Men And Women Of Understanding: Wordplay On Benjamin — An Addendum, Matthew L. Bowen

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

Royal and divine sonship/daughterhood (bānîm = “children”/“sons,” bānôt = “daughters”) is a prevalent theme throughout the Book of Mosiah. “Understanding” (Hebrew noun, bînâ or tĕbûnâ; verb, bîn) is also a key theme in that book. The initial juxtaposition of “sons” and “understanding” with the name “Benjamin” (binyāmîn, “son of the right hand”) in Mosiah 1:2–7 suggests the narrator’s association of the underlying terms with the name Benjamin likely on the basis of homophony. King Benjamin repeatedly invokes “understand” in his speech (forms of “understand” were derived from the root *byn in Hebrew; Mosiah 2:9, 40; 4:4; cf. 3:15) — a …

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Full Issue Jan 2020

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

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An Other Approach To Isaiah Studies, Joshua M. Sears Jan 2020

An Other Approach To Isaiah Studies, Joshua M. Sears

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

A recent review of Joseph M. Spencer’s book The Vision of All: Twenty-Five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record made the case that the book contains several challenges and problems, in particular that it advocates a theologically deficient interpretation of Isaiah that denies Isaiah’s witness of Jesus Christ. This response provides an alternative reading of Spencer’s work and suggests these assertions are often based on misunderstanding. At stake in this conversation is the question of whether or not there is more than one valid way to read Isaiah that draws upon a faithful, Restoration perspective. While Spencer may interpret and …

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Sacred Time, Sacred Space, Sacred Meaning : Proceedings Of The Third Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference "The Temple On Mount Zion" 5 November 2016, Matthew L. Bowen, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David M. Calabro, Camille Fronk Olson Jan 2020

Sacred Time, Sacred Space, Sacred Meaning : Proceedings Of The Third Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference "The Temple On Mount Zion" 5 November 2016, Matthew L. Bowen, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David M. Calabro, Camille Fronk Olson

Interpreter Foundation Books

The temple is central to Latter-day Saint worship. Through modern revelation Joseph Smith restored the ancient tradition of temples and the ordinances performed therein. Studies of ancient temples can shed much light on latter-day temples and temple worship. Several years ago Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Brown planned a conference entitled The Temple on Mount Zion and began to invite participants. Matthew Brown loved the temple and temple worship and studied and published on ancient and modern temples. His interests and knowledge were vast. When Matthew passed away very unexpectedly in 2011, his friends decided to organize a series of conferences …

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Student-Led Feedback On Writing: Requests Made And Feedback Received, Rachael Ruegg Jan 2020

Student-Led Feedback On Writing: Requests Made And Feedback Received, Rachael Ruegg

Journal of Response to Writing

It has been suggested that students experience more autonomy in the feedback process when they communicate feedback preferences to their teacher or peers. However, little is known about what kinds of feedback students request when given this autonomy. Furthermore, when student writers supply feedback requests, it is unknown to what extent readers act in accordance with such feedback requests while providing feedback. In this study, Japanese university students made feedback requests to teacher and peer reviewers, and I evaluated the feedback requests and the feedback subsequently received. The findings indicate that the most common feedback requests were about the content …

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Reckoning With The Mortally Inevitable, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2020

Reckoning With The Mortally Inevitable, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Every human enterprise — even the best, including science and scholarship — is marred by human weakness, by our inescapable biases, incapacities, limitations, preconceptions, and sometimes, yes, sins. It is a legacy of the Fall. With this in mind, we should approach even the greatest scientific, cultural, and academic achievements with both grateful appreciation and humility. J. B. Phillips’s rendition of Paul’s words at 1 Corinthians 13:12 captures the thought nicely: “At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all …

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Table Rules: A Response To Americanist Approaches To The Book Of Mormon, Kevin Christensen Jan 2020

Table Rules: A Response To Americanist Approaches To The Book Of Mormon, Kevin Christensen

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

Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon is an ambitious collection of essays published by Oxford University Press. By “Americanist” the editors refer to their preferred mode of contextualization: to situate the Book of Mormon as a response to various currents of nineteenth- century American thought. The “table rules” in this case determine who gets invited to the table and what topics can be discussed, using what types of evidence. The approach is legitimate, and the contributors offer a range of interesting perspectives and observations. Several essays base their arguments on the notion that the Book of Mormon adapts itself …

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Bad Grammar In The Book Of Mormon Found In Early English Bibles, Standford Carmack Jan 2020

Bad Grammar In The Book Of Mormon Found In Early English Bibles, Standford Carmack

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

This study describes ten types of grammatical usage found in early modern Bibles with correlates in the original text of the Book of Mormon. In some cases Joseph Smith’s own language could have produced the matching grammar, but in other cases his own linguistic preferences were unlikely to have produced the patterns or usage found in the original text. Comparative linguistic research indicates that this grammatical correspondence shouldn’t be a surprise, since plenty of Book of Mormon syntax matches structures and patterns found in Early Modern English.

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Mormonism And The Limits Of Scripture, Vincent L. Wimbush Jan 2020

Mormonism And The Limits Of Scripture, Vincent L. Wimbush

Mormon Studies Review

The complex, modern, US-founded but now international, social-cultural phenomenon categorized most popularly by insiders and outsiders as “Mormons,” the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” and/or simply by analysts as a provocative example of modern “religion,” is, as it should be, approached by the latter through many different disciplines and areas and fields of study and in myriad and overlapping ways. From the historical to the literary-rhetorical, from the scientific/social-scientific to the materialist, from the theological and psycho-social to the aesthetic, and from the comic-farcical to the political—whatever approach has been attempted in terms of examining historical and ongoing …

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The Mobility Of Race: An Indigenous Feminist View From Aotearoa/New Zealand, Gina Colvin Jan 2020

The Mobility Of Race: An Indigenous Feminist View From Aotearoa/New Zealand, Gina Colvin

Mormon Studies Review

This paper provides a commentary on how race and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints intersect in Aotearoa/New Zealand and will include an exploration of the mobility of race through an analysis of hermeneutics in the LDS Church. I will argue that while the interpretative lens of sacred texts, including the four standards works of the LDS Church, is shaped by and enforced by an American patriarchal leadership, the redemptive power of scripture will be lost to a population who can least afford another spiritual deprivation.

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