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2020

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Articles 2491 - 2520 of 2936

Full-Text Articles in Religion

Chapter 5: Mormon Writing, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 5: Mormon Writing, Brant Gardner

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

When Moroni described what his father had written, he called it “an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi” (Title Page). Mormon himself similarly referred to what he had written: “after I had made an abridgment from the plates of Nephi...” (Words of Mormon 1:3). Nevertheless, Mormon doesn’t appear to use the term in the way we might expect.101 A modern reader expects that an abridgment makes a shorter but faithful version of a longer text. This is not what Mormon did. When Mormon wrote his eponymous book within his larger work, he said that “I write a …

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Chapter 6: Mormon, Special Considerations, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 6: Mormon, Special Considerations, Brant Gardner

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

Mormon wrote a cohesive book that set out his arguments explaining the destruction of his people and his hope in Christ. Sadly, we have only part of that book. The sculpture known as Venus de Milo is still beautiful without arms, but it must have been even more beautiful before they were lost. So it is with Mormon’s book. It is a marvelous work and a wonder, but what wonder might it have been had we all that he wrote.

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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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Section 3: Making Nephi’S Books, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Section 3: Making Nephi’S Books, Brant Gardner

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

One of the most important statements Nephi made about writing what we know as the books of 1 and 2 Nephi comes at the end of his historical section in 2 Nephi: And thirty years had passed away from the time we left Jerusalem.

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Section 4: Making Mormon’S Book, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Section 4: Making Mormon’S Book, Brant Gardner

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

It is enticing to think that if we had the book of Lehi, we might more easily discern Mormon’s agenda in compiling what we know today as the Book of Mormon. Perhaps he gave some indication of why he selected certain types of information to include or exclude. He probably did not. As an ancient writer, Mormon would have assumed his readers would understand that he was constructing his text and pay attention to what he did to learn the meta-lessons he wanted to teach. We modern readers are not that audience, and we approach the Book of Mormon much …

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Preface, Nick Frederick Jan 2020

Preface, Nick Frederick

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

Brant Gardner changed the way I read the Book of Mormon. Back in the mid-2000’s I was preparing to teach two courses on the Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University as an adjunct professor. I had taught several New Testament courses in prior semesters, but this was my first time teaching Book of Mormon. As I began to prep for the course I began to get more and more frustrated. Due to my years as a Classics major, I had felt pretty confident in teaching the New Testament. I had spent years studying the ancient world, toiling with Greek …

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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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Chapter 15: Book Of Helaman, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 15: Book Of Helaman, Brant Gardner

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

Helaman Chapter I (1–2) [Book Header] As a new book, there is a synoptic header: An account of the Nephites. Their wars and contentions, and their dissensions. And also the prophecies of many holy prophets, before the coming of Christ, according to the records of Helaman, who was the son of Helaman, and also according to the records of his sons, even down to the coming of Christ. And also many of the Lamanites are converted. An account of their conversion. An account of the righteousness of the Lamanites, and the wickedness and abominations of the Nephites, according to the …

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Chapter 17: Book Of 4 Nephi, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 17: Book Of 4 Nephi, Brant Gardner

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

The book of 4 Nephi returns to the structure typical of the large plate records. In the first verse we have: “And it came to pass that the thirty and fourth year passed away, and also the thirty and fifth, and behold the disciples of Jesus had formed a church of Christ in all the lands round about” (4 Nephi 1:1). There are more years per verse than in any other book — 29 years are specifically mentioned.354 Time races through 4 Nephi — often with empty years (4 Nephi 1:6, 14).

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Chapter 14: Book Of Alma, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 14: Book Of Alma, Brant Gardner

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

Alma Chapter I (1–3) [Book Header] When Mormon introduces a new book, he provides a synoptic header: The account of Alma, who was the son of Alma, the first and chief judge over the people of Nephi, and also the high priest over the Church. An account of the reign of the judges, and the wars and contentions among the people. And also an account of a war between the Nephites and the Lamanites, according to the record of Alma, the first and chief judge.

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Chapter 18: Book Of Mormon, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 18: Book Of Mormon, Brant Gardner

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

Mormon I (1–3) When Mormon begins his book of Mormon, he is no longer consulting a record. He doesn’t need to, as he is the source. This is an autobiography, but it begins with the declaration of the author and his ability to accurately portray the information: “And now I, Mormon, make a record of the things which I have both seen and heard, and call it the Book of Mormon” (Mormon 1:1).

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Bibliography, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Bibliography, Brant Gardner

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

No abstract provided.

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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 10: Final Considerations About Writing, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 10: Final Considerations About Writing, Brant Gardner

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

Neither the extant original manuscript nor the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon have any indication of punctuation. The dictation was written as it was heard, with no attempt to add the literary niceties of paragraphs and punctuation. The nature of the dictation in English cannot tell us whether the Nephite language had visual clues that helped divide ideas. Based on many early texts, it is safest to assume that it did not.

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Chapter 11: Book Of 1 Nephi, Brant Gardner Jan 2020

Chapter 11: Book Of 1 Nephi, Brant Gardner

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

Nephi begins his book according to traditions he learned in his scribal training.277 He adds a colophon,278 which had two functions: describe the contents of the book and to identify that author. The synoptic header prior to chapter I provides the outline of the events to be covered in Nephi’s first book: the departure of the family from Jerusalem, the journey into the wilderness, the return to Jerusalem for the brass plates, the acquisition of wives from Ishmael’s family, the arrival at Bountiful, the building of a ship, and the journey to the new world. Evidence from Mormon’s use of …

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A Democratic Salvation, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2020

A Democratic Salvation, Daniel C. Peterson

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

Over the centuries, many religious thinkers — precisely because they are religious thinkers — have put a premium on intellectual attainment as a prerequisite for salvation. This has sometimes yielded an elitism or snobbishness that is utterly foreign to the teachings of the Savior. The Gospel as taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints values education and knowledge, certainly. But not unduly. Intellectuals, while heartily welcome among the Saints and, when faithful, much appreciated for their potential contributions to the Church, have no claim on any special status in the Kingdom simply because of their (real or …

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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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Was The Denarius A Daily Wage? A Note On The Parable Of The Two Debtors In Luke 7:40–43, Taylor Halverson Jan 2020

Was The Denarius A Daily Wage? A Note On The Parable Of The Two Debtors In Luke 7:40–43, Taylor Halverson

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

This note provides a brief overview of Roman economic history and currency in order to throw light on the value and significance of the two debts illustratively used by Jesus in his parable to Simon the Pharisee. Though we cannot with accuracy make the claim that a Roman denarius was always the daily wage, we can determine that the debtors of Jesus’s parable owed something on the order of a year’s worth of wages and ten years’ worth of wages.

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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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Christ And The Work Of Suffering, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye Jan 2020

Christ And The Work Of Suffering, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye

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

Christ’s voluntary subjection to the horrible realities of this world transformed him forever. His vulnerability became his capacity to save and heal all humankind. Our own suffering develops our capacity for love, which is the power that makes us useful to others, and humility, which is the root of wisdom.

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“Feast Upon The Words Of Christ”, Trevor Holyoak Jan 2020

“Feast Upon The Words Of Christ”, Trevor Holyoak

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

ScriptureNotes is a valuable tool for serious, in-depth scripture study, and it definitely has the best search functionality. ScripturePlus, in its current state, is good for daily reading of the Book of Mormon, thanks to its helpful linked resources. But if you often mark or underline as you read, you’ll need to use Gospel Library, which is also the only app that includes the Church’s vast resources beyond the scriptures.

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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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Death To Seducers! Examples Of Latter-Day Saint-Led Extralegal Justice In Historical Context, Craig L. Foster Jan 2020

Death To Seducers! Examples Of Latter-Day Saint-Led Extralegal Justice In Historical Context, Craig L. Foster

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

Some people have suggested a strain of violence within nineteenth- century Latter-day Saint culture as violent as and perhaps more so than that of most Americans around them. Critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints point to a few well-known acts of extralegal violence as evidence of a culture of violence that permeated the early Church. But were these examples of violence really out of the norm of nineteenth-century American society? This article looks at examples of extralegal punishment for certain crimes, placing them and the examples of extralegal punishment in Utah within a greater historical and …

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Scriptures Through The Jeweler’S Lens, Mark J. Johnson Jan 2020

Scriptures Through The Jeweler’S Lens, Mark J. Johnson

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

Among the many revelatory works of Joseph Smith, members and scholars alike seem to give lesser attention to what is found in the Pearl of Great Price. In The Pearl of Greatest Price, Terryl Givens and Brian Hauglid attempt to provide some of the attention that has been lacking. The result is a book that, while spotty in places, provides a good resource that should receive wide exposure in academic circles. Believing members, on the other hand, may find the book lacking or downright questionable because of the secular approach it takes to dealing with scripture understood to have a …

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Discipleship Of Yesterday For Today, Matt Gardner Jan 2020

Discipleship Of Yesterday For Today, Matt Gardner

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

What does the Gospel of John say about discipleship? Does early Christian discipleship matter today? Can coming unto Christ be different for each person? Eric Huntsman offers answers to these questions through his excellent scholarly background in Greek, which lends to crisp exegetic interpretations on the fourth gospel. Even more, Huntsman provides valuable hermeneutic applications for a growing diversified membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indeed, this book delivers a better understanding of how each child of God uniquely comes to know Jesus Christ.

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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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Pitfalls Of The Ngram Viewer, Standford Carmack Jan 2020

Pitfalls Of The Ngram Viewer, Standford Carmack

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

Google’s Ngram Viewer often gives a distorted view of the popularity of cultural/religious phrases during the early 19th century and before. Other larger textual sources can provide a truer picture of relevant usage patterns of various content-rich phrases that occur in the Book of Mormon. Such an approach suggests that almost all of its phraseology fits comfortably within its syntactic framework, which is mostly early modern in character.

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Proper Names From The Small Plates: Some Notes On The Personal Names Zoram, Jarom, Omni, And Mosiah, Stephen D. Ricks Jan 2020

Proper Names From The Small Plates: Some Notes On The Personal Names Zoram, Jarom, Omni, And Mosiah, Stephen D. Ricks

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

With a selection of a few notable examples (Zoram, Jarom, Omni, and Mosiah) that have been analyzed by the ongoing Book of Mormon names project, Stephen Ricks argues that “proper names in the Book of Mormon are demonstrably ancient.”

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“We May Not Understand Our Words”: The Book Of Abraham And The Concept Of Translation In The Pearl Of Greatest Price, John S. Thompson Jan 2020

“We May Not Understand Our Words”: The Book Of Abraham And The Concept Of Translation In The Pearl Of Greatest Price, John S. Thompson

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

In recent years there has been an effort among some scholars to make sense of the historical sources surrounding Joseph Smith’s claims to be a translator of ancient records. Terryl Givens, with some assistance from Brian Hauglid, has explored the evidence surrounding the Book of Abraham and suggests that, in this case, Joseph Smith may not have translated an ancient record of Abraham’s writings into English as typically believed in the Latter-day Saint community. Consequently, Givens provides four alternative ways the work of “translating” may have been understood or practiced by the Prophet and his scribes. This essay highlights some …

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