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Articles 1 - 30 of 2856
Full-Text Articles in Religion
The Unwritten Debates In Moroni1’S Letter, Morgan Deane
The Unwritten Debates In Moroni1’S Letter, Morgan Deane
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Moroni1’s letter in Alma 60 is not simply an angry and intemperate screed against the government; it also responds to arguments about just tactics (what modern readers would call ethics) taking place among Nephite leaders at this time. Moroni1’s letter argues for his preferred strategies of active defense and ambush, while interpreting defeat as a failure of leaders. His rhetorical strategy is particularly noteworthy for associating his Nephite opponents’ hopeful trust in the Lord with the passive resistance of the king-men, and shifting blame for defeat away from his strategies and onto his political opponents. Overall, Moroni1’s arguments exemplify sophistication …
An Exceptional Example Of The Richness Of Church History, Susan Easton Black
An Exceptional Example Of The Richness Of Church History, Susan Easton Black
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Jeffrey Bradshaw has, in a single well-researched volume, provided a gift to those interested in the lives of early Church members. In Emer Harris & Dennison Lott Harris, Bradshaw brings out of obscurity the remarkable life of one of Martin Harris’s brothers and illustrates the contribution of that life to the initial decades of the Restoration.
Further Evidence From The Book Of Mormon For A Book Of Moses-Like Text On The Brass Plates, Jeffrey D. Lindsay
Further Evidence From The Book Of Mormon For A Book Of Moses-Like Text On The Brass Plates, Jeffrey D. Lindsay
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Students of the Book of Mormon have long mined the Old Testament as a rich source of influence on Nephite writers. However, surprising recent finds suggest that an ancient text related to the Book of Moses may have been an especially significant influence as well. That possibility was raised in Noel Reynolds’s early analytical paper, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis.” He found thirty-three proposed parallels between the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon, some of which pointed to a one-way connection with the Book of Moses as the source. Our recent collaboration resulted in identifying a total …
Are There Ten Commandments For Latter-Day Zion?, Dennis Newton
Are There Ten Commandments For Latter-Day Zion?, Dennis Newton
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
New faith traditions often modify existing religious tenets to accommodate the particulars of their membership’s needs. A specific example is how different faith communities have modified the Ten Commandments both inside and outside the historic Jewish community. This paper argues that Joseph Smith received a Latter-day Decalogue that was canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants but went unrecognized as such by either Smith or the early Saints. While some of the commands in this new set of commandments are familiar (thou shalt not kill, steal, nor commit adultery), others are specific to the conditions of the latter days. This paper …
Recovering The Lost Concept Of Truth In The Restoration Scriptures: Another Key To Understanding God’S Word, Blaine L. Hart
Recovering The Lost Concept Of Truth In The Restoration Scriptures: Another Key To Understanding God’S Word, Blaine L. Hart
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
The word “truth” has for practical purposes lost one of its original English-language meanings, and this has significant implications for understanding scriptures. The obvious, well- understood meaning is that which is real or factual. However, the earliest meaning in English is that which is true in an entirely different way, in the sense of fidelity, loyalty, and faithfulness. The King James translators frequently used “truth” in this latter sense. The sense of “truth” as “faithfulness” remained well known in the nineteenth century. Some passages in the Book of Mormon and other Restoration scriptures reveal deeper insights when read with this …
Christ Is Risen! Truly, He Is Risen!, Daniel C. Peterson
Christ Is Risen! Truly, He Is Risen!, Daniel C. Peterson
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
There is no more important message than that of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s life-transforming and world-transforming. It is also the most joyous news imaginable. What Jesus did on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives.
Prophet Or Loss: Mosiah1/Zeniff, Benjamin/Noah, Mosiah2/Limhi And The Emergence Of The Almas, Val Larsen
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 …
“Our Great God Has In Goodness Sent These”: Notes On The Goodness Of God, The Didactic Good Of Nephi’S Small Plates, And Anti-Nephi-Lehi’S Renaming, Matthew L. Bowen, Pedro A. Olavarria
“Our Great God Has In Goodness Sent These”: Notes On The Goodness Of God, The Didactic Good Of Nephi’S Small Plates, And Anti-Nephi-Lehi’S Renaming, Matthew L. Bowen, Pedro A. Olavarria
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s speech (Alma 24:7–16) reveals multiple allusions to significant texts in Nephi’s small plates record. Thus, when he declares “I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us,” he appears to allude to an inclusio that bookends the two books of Nephi’s small plates record which emphasizes the “goodness” of God as a theme. Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s description of his ancestors as “wicked fathers” appears to deliberately contrast Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael with Nephi’s “goodly parents” in 1 Nephi 1:1. The name …
Review Of Two New Theories About The Lamanite Mark Recently Presented In Two Different Forums, Clifford P. Jones
Review Of Two New Theories About The Lamanite Mark Recently Presented In Two Different Forums, Clifford P. Jones
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
T. J. Uriona has offered two new theories about the meaning of Nephi’s term “skin of blackness” in 2 Nephi 5:21. He suggests that Nephi’s term may indicate impending death and/or it may be a literal reference to diseased or deathly skin. Both theories are based on a motif in an ancient Neo-Assyrian treaty that curses people to have skin as black as pitch and crude oil. I submit that these two theories are inconsistent with the larger context in the Book of Mormon.
“That They May Once Again Be A Delightsome People”: The Concept Of Again Becoming The Seed Of Joseph (Words Of Mormon 1:8 And Mormon 7:4–5), Matthew L. Bowen
“That They May Once Again Be A Delightsome People”: The Concept Of Again Becoming The Seed Of Joseph (Words Of Mormon 1:8 And Mormon 7:4–5), Matthew L. Bowen
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
In Words of Mormon 1:8, Mormon declares, “And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people.” The expression “that they may once again” plausibly reflects the Hebrew idiom wayyôsipû or wayyôsipû ʿôd. Mormon’s apparent double-use of the wayyôsipû (ʿôd) idiom in Words of Mormon 1:8 (or some Nephite scribal equivalent), like 2 Nephi 5:2–3, recalls language in the Joseph story (Genesis 37:5, 8). The original Lamanite covenant, as an extension of the Abrahamic covenant, involved …
“This Stone Shall Become The Great, And The Last, And The Only Sure Foundation”: A Nephite Poetics Of Dramatic Fusion And Transfer In Jacob 5, Matthew Scott Stenson
“This Stone Shall Become The Great, And The Last, And The Only Sure Foundation”: A Nephite Poetics Of Dramatic Fusion And Transfer In Jacob 5, Matthew Scott Stenson
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
In this study, three intersecting images are traced through the small plates until Jacob 5, where they directly (or by implication) culminate in the final section of Zenos’s allegory. The three images appear fused together in Nephi’s and Jacob’s writings. Specifically, this literary study tracks the images of the olive vineyard, the sheepfold and pasture, and the cornerstone or rock foundation. These oddly fused (or adjacent) images, though complexly employed, can be understood best as representing not only Christ but a gospel-centered record to be revealed by him. Fundamental to this reading is the idea that the Good Shepherd gathers …
“Rise Up, O Light Of The Lord”: An Appropriate And Defensible Etymology For Cumorah, Paul Hoskisson
“Rise Up, O Light Of The Lord”: An Appropriate And Defensible Etymology For Cumorah, Paul Hoskisson
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
This article explores issues with past suggestions concerning the etymology of the name Cumorah and suggests a slightly updated etymology, “Rise up, O Light of the Lord.” It then suggests that Book of Mormon references to the Hill Cumorah appear to confirm the proposed etymology, thus becoming an apt description of the Restoration.
The Plagiary Of The Daughters Of The Lamanites, Alan Goff
The Plagiary Of The Daughters Of The Lamanites, Alan Goff
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Repetition is a feature of all ancient Hebraic narrative. Modern readers may misunderstand this quality of biblical and Book of Mormon narrative. Biblical and Book of Mormon writers believed that history repeated, with what happened to the ancestors happening again to their posterity. Fawn Brodie and her acolytes misapprehend Book of Mormon narrative when—instead of at least provisionally granting that God might exist, can intervene in history, and tenaciously reenacts events from the past while the recorders of such repeated stories firmly believed in the historical reality of the narratives they recounted—they attribute such repeated stories to Joseph Smith’s imputed …
Mormon Studies Center Created In Great Britain
Mormon Studies Center Created In Great Britain
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Nottingham University has established a Centre for Mormon Studies, which is a good sign of the Church's increased visibility-and to some extent acceptability-in Great Britain. The Church Educational System has provided them a basic library of Church-related materials, with the logistical support of the local CES coordinator, Brother David Cook.
Electronic Bulletin Board Formed
Electronic Bulletin Board Formed
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
F.A.R.M.S. has received notice of the formation of MORMON-L, an electronic bulletin board on Mormon studies. The organizers indicate that it is open to all persons, Mormons and non-Mormons alike, who wish to engage in substantial discussion of topics relating to Mormonism. The following guidelines will regulate the bulletin board.
Encyclopedia Of Mormonism Is Available Again
Encyclopedia Of Mormonism Is Available Again
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Macmillan has reprinted the 4-volume set of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. F.A.R.M.S. will again be able to provide this significant resource at a discount. See the order form.
Lectures Highlight Connections Between Scrolls And Mormonism
Lectures Highlight Connections Between Scrolls And Mormonism
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Selections from the March conference entitled "LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls" are now available for purchase on video and audiotape. The presentations teach about the ancient scrolls and how they contribute to LDS understanding of gospel teachings, the Bible, and other aspects of biblical life.
Emma And The Joseph Smith Translation, Scott H. Faulring
Emma And The Joseph Smith Translation, Scott H. Faulring
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Recently, researcher examining the original "New Translation" or Joseph Smith Translation (JST) manuscripts discovered evidence of a scribe whose work on the manuscripts had previously only been supposed. Emma Smith, the Prophet's wife, recorded more than two pages of the JST document on a certain day during the first months of the translation. Although only a small percentage of the overall content, Emma's scribal contribution tangibly displays the realization of an earlier revelatory assignment given her by the Lord.
Scholars Testify Of Connections Between Faith And Scholarship
Scholars Testify Of Connections Between Faith And Scholarship
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Twenty-four LDS scholars express their thoughts and deepest feelings on faith and scholarship in a new book scheduled for release next month. Expressions of Faith: Testimonies from LDS Scholars, edited by Susan Easton Black, professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU, is being copublished by FARMS and Deseret Book.
Several Significant Historical And Anthropological Essays Of John Sorenson Gathered In Two New Volumes
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Nearly two dozen essays by John L. Sorenson, professor emeritus of anthropology at Brigham Young University, have been conveniently gathered into two paperback volumes by a Salt Lake publisher, New Sage Books. Some of these essays will be familiar to FARMS readers, but many will be new. Both collections can be obtained at a discount from FARMS using the enclosed order form.
New Book Of Visual Aids Facilitates Book Of Mormon Study, Teaching
New Book Of Visual Aids Facilitates Book Of Mormon Study, Teaching
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Students and teachers of the Book of Mormon will find a new FARMS book by John W. and J. Gregory Welch to be a valuable resource. Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching is a collection of more than 175 visual aids that promote deeper understanding and appreciation of the Book of Mormon. Designed for multiple use as study guides, handouts, and masters for creating projectable images, the charts convey a wealth of information that will enrich personal study and teaching.
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: The Political Dimension, John W. Welch
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: The Political Dimension, John W. Welch
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
To conclude our reflections on when, where, and why Nephi wrote his final small plates account, we can now turn attention to three political dimensions of those plates. Once again, the real-life situations of Nephi and his people supply important contexts that bring interesting things to light.
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: Serving Practical Needs, John W. Welch
Why Nephi Wrote The Small Plates: Serving Practical Needs, John W. Welch
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Nephi wrote his small plates soon after important events such as Lehi's death, Nephi's separation from his rebellious brothers, and the establishment of the reign of kings (see last month's research update). Recognizing when he wrote, we can better appreciate not only Nephi's stated reasons for writing the small plates but also subtle underlying motivations behind his inspired selection and treatment of this material.
When Did Nephi Write The Small Plates?, John W. Welch
When Did Nephi Write The Small Plates?, John W. Welch
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
In reading 1 Nephi, few people stop to think when Nephi actually wrote this account of his family's flight from Jerusalem and journey across the sea to a land of promise. Knowing when Nephi began to write the small plates (beginning with the account we now have in 1 Nephi) clarifies the purposes that stand behind that record and influenced its final form and content.
Study Guides On New Testament Themes Available
Study Guides On New Testament Themes Available
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Richard Lloyd Anderson, professor emeritus of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University, has made available two outstanding course supplements on the New Testament. His expansive knowledge of the New Testament and early Christianity is readily apparent in Guide to the Life of Christ and Guide to Acts and the Apostles' Letters.
Tents In The Book Of Mormon, John L. Sorenson
Tents In The Book Of Mormon, John L. Sorenson
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Rerences to New World tents in the Book of Mormon raise legitimate questions about whether tents are known from scholarly sources on Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence comes from historical documents written around the time of the Spanish conquest in 1521, or more than one thousand years after the demise of the Nephite civilization. These records indicate that different kinds of tents and tent-like structures were in regular use by Aztec armies and that, when the Spaniards saw them, they immediately labeled them tiendas, "tents."
New Book A Milestone In Mormon Studies, Louis C. Midgley
New Book A Milestone In Mormon Studies, Louis C. Midgley
Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Latter-day Saint scholar Terryl L. Givens has recently made two extraordinary contributions to Mormon studies. The first, Viper on the Hearth: Mormons,Myths, and the Construction of Heresy, was published by the prestigious Oxford University Press in 1997 and received virtually uniformly glowing reviews. If one wishes to understand the complex of interests and motivations—pecuniary, personal, and ideological—that fuel both sectarian and secular anti-Mormonism, Viper is the book to consult. The editors at Oxford appreciated the merits of this well-written, informative book and invited Givens to publish again with them. The result is By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture …
Doctrine And Covenants 21: Metanarrative Of The Restoration, Steve L. Olsen
Doctrine And Covenants 21: Metanarrative Of The Restoration, Steve L. Olsen
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Joseph Smith dictated Doctrine and Covenants 21 at the inaugural meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ on April 6, 1830. The present study examines the literary craftsmanship of the revelation to plumb the depths of its role in the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The analysis explores the meaning of patterns of usage in the text from the most specific (diction, syntax, figures of speech) to the most general (tone, rhetoric, and structural logic). The hypothesis of this study is that Doctrine and Covenants 21 provides a metanarrative of the Restoration — that is, a set of …
Twenty Years After “Paradigms Regained,” Part 1: The Ongoing, Plain, And Precious Significance Of Margaret Barker’S Scholarship For Latter-Day Saint Studies, Kevin Christensen
Twenty Years After “Paradigms Regained,” Part 1: The Ongoing, Plain, And Precious Significance Of Margaret Barker’S Scholarship For Latter-Day Saint Studies, Kevin Christensen
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Twenty years ago, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies published “Paradigms Regained: A Survey of Margaret Barker’s Scholarship and Its Significance for Mormon Studies” as its second FARMS Occasional Paper. The first part of this essay provides an overview of Doctor Barker’s scholarship and its wider reception through early 2022, and then includes a broad survey of Latter-day Saint interaction with her work to the present. Part 2 of this essay (forthcoming) will address specific criticisms and appreciations of Barker’s work.
Turning Type Into Pi: The Destruction Of The Nauvoo Expositor In Historical Context, Craig L. Foster
Turning Type Into Pi: The Destruction Of The Nauvoo Expositor In Historical Context, Craig L. Foster
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
The destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor has been portrayed as an event that stands out as a unique act where Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo City Council suppressed free speech. However, rather than being an anomaly, the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor was historically and socially reflective of society in a volatile period in American history during which time several presses were destroyed and even editors attacked and killed.