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Behind The Messiah Documentary, S. Kent Brown

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

The following is part 3 of a three-part series of articles written by S. Kent Brown, executive producer of Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, a Neal A. Maxwell Institute, BYU Broadcasting, and Religious Education production. BYU Television will air the seven-part documentary beginning on January 10, 2010. Copies will be available for purchase in the spring. This third article reviews unusual occurrences tied to the early filming in Egypt and Israel.

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

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Peterson Participates In World Parliament

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

Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic studies and Arabic and editor in chief of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, will chair a plenary session at the Parliament of the World’s Religions held December 3–9, 2009, in Melbourne, Australia.

Entitled “Islam and the West: Creating an Accord of Civilisations,” the panel discussion will center on understanding Islam. Peterson’s involvement illustrates METI’s engagement with scholars worldwide.

Valuable Research Tool Available Soon

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

By the end of this year, “Nineteenth-Century Publications about the Book of Mormon (1829–1844)” will be made available as one of the Harold B. Lee Library’s digital collections.

Building on the work of previous generations of researchers, Matthew Roper, research scholar with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, has collected digital facsimiles and electronic transcriptions of as many of these early publications as could be found.

Givens Featured Speaker At First Biennial Willes Center Lecture

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

The Book of Mormon and its status as an American Bible was the subject of the First Biennial Laura F. Willes Center Book of Mormon Lecture held October 8, 2009, at Brigham Young University. Terryl L. Givens, professor of literature and religion and occupant of the James Bostwick Chair of English at the University of Richmond, focused his remarks on two points: the provenance of the Book of Mormon and major motifs within it.

Behind The Messiah Documentary, S. Kent Brown

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

The following is part 2 of a three-part series of articles written by S. Kent Brown, executive producer of Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, a Neal A. Maxwell Institute, BYU Broadcasting, and Religious Education production. BYU Television will air part of the series on December 6, 2009. The entire seven-part documentary will air beginning on January 10, 2010. Copies will be available for purchase in the spring. This second article explores the path by which the film climbed from a simple concept to a completed project.

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

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A Note On Volcanism And The Book Of Mormon, Matt Roper

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

The account of the great destruction at the death of Christ in Third Nephi relates that many cities at the time were destroyed by fire (3 Nephi 8:14; 9:3, 9–11). In an article published in 1998, geologist Bart Kowallis argued that the destructive events, including the burning of cities described there, are consistent with the effects of a significant volcanic event. The volcanic interpretation fits particularly well in a Mesoamerican setting where volcanic events are historically common. Additional support for this interpretation can be found in Mormon’s description of the aftermath of these events. In his abridgement of the subsequent …

Changes Coming To Periodical Subscriptions

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

With the addition of a new annual periodical at year’s end, Maxwell Institute subscribers will be offered new options effective January 1, 2010.

All current subscribers will receive a complimentary copy of the first issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity at the end of 2009. This periodical focuses on the Bible and the ancient biblical world. Beginning in January 2010, this periodical, as well as the other Maxwell Institute periodicals, will be available as part of the new basic subscription structure.

Nibley Magnum Opus To Be Released Soon

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

Hugh Nibley’s long-anticipated One Eternal Round is in the final stages of production. This volume represents the culmination of Nibley’s thoughts and research on the Book of Abraham, especially Facsimile 2.

Behind The Messiah Documentary, S. Kent Brown

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

The following is part 1 of a two-part series of articles written by S. Kent Brown, executive producer of Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God. During production he was director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and FARMS at the Maxwell Institute. Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, a documentary produced by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, the College of Religious Education, and BYU Broadcasting, received a sneak preview at BYU’s Education Week in August. For the first time ever, teachings of the restoration, sound academic views from faithful Latter-day Saint scholars, …

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

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Blossoming With Books: Syriac Manuscripts From The Egyptian Desert

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

The birthplace and spiritual heart of Christian monasticism is the Nitrian Desert of Egypt and the long, shallow valley of Scetis (Wadi el-Natrun). It was to here, from the fourth century onwards, that Macarius the Great and other of the sainted desert fathers retreated from the world, devoting their lives to worship and prayer. While some monks chose to live in isolation as hermits, many others banded together to establish the first monasteries, building churches for worship and libraries for study.

Preview Of Forthcoming Farms Review

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

Readers awaiting this year’s first number of the FARMS Review (vol. 21, no. 1) will be rewarded with a deep lineup of reviews and other essays on the Book of Mormon. Sure to heighten anticipation is a promised peek at Terryl Givens’s in-press volume from Oxford University Press: The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction. Chapter 2, “Themes,” will be featured in its entirety—a substantial excerpt from the 152-page work that will fill an important gap in Oxford’s popular Very Short Introduction series. Review readers will enjoy other Book of Mormon–related fare as well: a literary interpretation of the …

Of Scorpions, Vipers, And The Assassin’S Drug, D. Morgan Davis

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

Twelfth-century Cairo was a vibrant place. The legendary Saladin, who had recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, had established himself there and was actively transforming it from a royal resort into a cosmopolitan center of power, commerce, learning, and culture. A pious Muslim, Saladin chose for his physician at court a Jew who had been twice exiled—first from his hometown of Cordoba, Spain (Andalusia), and then again from Fez, Morocco (al- Maghreb)—by the fanatical Almohad regime of Northwest Africa.

Rising Scholars Mentored Through Summer Seminar

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

A select group of graduate and advanced under- graduate students participated in a seminar on Mormon thought at BYU this past May and June. The participants’ papers presented at a public sym- posium on June 25 will be published in the near future.

Book Of Mormon Critical Text Project Completes Text Analysis

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

The Maxwell Institute and Brigham Young University are pleased to announce the publica- tion of part 6 of volume 4 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. Part 6 analyzes the text from 3 Nephi 19 through Moroni 10.

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

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New Appointment For Editor Of Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library

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

Donald W. Parry, Brigham Young University pro­ fessor of Biblical Hebrew and longtime contribu­ tor to the work of the Maxwell Institute, has been appointed as an editor for a new edition of Biblia Hebraica, the standard critical edition of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). He is one of about two dozen well­established Hebrew scholars from the world­ wide community also serving as editors for this new edition, and one of three from the United States.

Work Of The Maxwell Institute Highlighted In Presentations At Education Week

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

Brigham Young University Campus Education Week, slated for August 17–21, 2009, will feature a series of presentations that represent the range of the work done by the Maxwell Institute.

Beginning Wednesday, August 19, at 11:10 in the Assembly Hall of the Hinckley Center, Paul Y. Hoskisson, D. Morgan Davis Jr., and Kristian S. Heal will present on the topic “The Work of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at BYU.”

New Nibley Volume Explores The Book Of Abraham

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

An Approach to the Book of Abraham, volume 18 in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, is now avail­ able. This volume contains Nibley’s early work on the Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri and is his closest look at Facsimile 1 of the Book of Abraham. In chapter 5, Nibley is at his best as he has Mr. Jones, the curator, conduct Dick and Jane through an imaginary museum in which the most important lion­couch scenes have all been gathered together in a single hall. Mr. Jones possesses a hand­ book that tells him all. In a …

Missing The Mark, Paul Y. Hoskisson

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

In teaching Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University over the past quarter century, I have rarely found a student, whether true freshman or returned missionary, who knows what the word mark means in Jacob 4:14.1 Most of them know that the mark symbolizes Christ in this verse, but they do not know what a mark is. That is, if a mark symbolizes Christ, then mark must be something in real life other than Christ. In fact, most Book of Mormon readers justifiably feel satisfied and uplifted by relying on what they think mark means in this verse. While it …

Anderson Speaks At Third Annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture

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

With the intent of probing the lives of Christ and Joseph Smith, Richard Lloyd Anderson, emeritus professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, gave the third annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture, held March 20, 2009. Anderson discussed the reliability of the documentary process by which we know of events in the New Testament and in the early years of the Restoration.

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

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“Voices In The Human Conver­Sation” Available On Internet

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

Several video broadcasts exploring areas related to the work of the Maxwell Institute are available to view online through the BYU Web site. In February, the College of Humanities at BYU presented, as part of their “Voices in the Human Conversation” program that was originally broadcast on KBYU, a lecture by Roger Macfarlane, associate professor of humanities, classics, and comparative literature at BYU. Entitled “Illuminating the Papyri from Herculaneum, Oxyrhymchus, and Beyond,” Macfarlane discussed Multi-Spectral Imaging and ancient texts. In the past, the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts at the Maxwell Institute (then under the auspices of …

Nibley Fellowship Program Assists Rising Scholars

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

For a number of years the Maxwell Institute has sponsored a graduate fellowship program that gives financial aid to students pursuing advanced degrees in fields of special interest to the Institute. Named in honor of the late eminent Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh W. Nibley, this program fosters the next gen- eration of faithful scholars by providing financial aid to students enrolled in accredited PhD programs in areas of study directly related to the work and mission of the Maxwell Institute. Work done under the auspices of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Foundation for …

Mentoring Students At The Maxwell Institute

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

We have all felt the excitement that comes from seeing a great scholar at work, whether in the classroom or the archives. No less palpable is the thrill of a personal encounter with the past through direct contact with ancient texts or artifacts. Most of us can trace our fascination with the ancient world back to just such a personal encounter. One of our roles at the Maxwell Institute is to help inspire the next generation of young scholars. We do this by providing opportunities for BYU students to work directly with Institute scholars on new research, and thus to …

Moving Syriac Literature Into The Digital Age, Carl Griffin

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

The mother tongue of Jesus and his disciples was not Greek or Latin or even Hebrew, but Aramaic, the language of Israel’s Babylonian captors. Aramaic, and in particular the dialect of Syriac, has continued to be spoken by many Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere down to the present time. This Semitic language became the vehicle for a vast body of early Christian literature that expressed Christian theology in singularly Semitic forms. For example, just as the Hebrew prophets expressed themselves primarily in poetry or rhythmic prose, rich with symbolism and analogy, so also early Syriac teachers composed didactic …

Examining The Cross-Cultural Competence Of United States Christian Missionaries Engaged In Developing Indigenous Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study, Craig W. Goodman

Dissertations

For the past two millennia, missionaries have crossed from one culture to another to bring the Christian message to all cultures of the world. Questions about the effectiveness of these mission efforts have been asked and researched by many; however, one key question remains unanswered: what personal attributes help a person to be more competent at crossing cultures as they interact with people from other cultures? Although cross-cultural competence has been studied in a variety of fields over the past 50 years, the models and assessments used have never been applied to Christian missionaries.

To address this deficiency, this parallel …

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

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