Religious Education Commons^™

Exploring The Role Of Divine Providence In History

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

Most modern historians view social, economic, and political factors as the sole shaping influences of history. For other scholars, the role of divine providence in history cannot be denied and is a topic worthy of serious consideration. Last year, Latter-day Saint scholars who embrace the notion of “providential history” shared their perspectives at a symposium titled “A Latter-day Saint View of History,” held at Brigham Young University on 6–7 February 2003. Among the 21 presenters at this unique event was John W. Welch, publications director for the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, editor in chief of BYU …

Lecture Report

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

On 10 October 2003, Father Columba Stewart presented an Institute-sponsored lecture at BYU titled “The Practices of Egyptian Monastic Prayer: Desert, Cell, and Community.” Fr. Stewart is a Benedictine monk of St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, where he is professor of theology at St. John’s School of Theology and teaches monastic studies. He is also the interim director of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, which is working closely with the Institute on its manuscript preservation projects in the Middle East and Ethiopia.

Was Aminadab A Zoramite?, Matthew Roper

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

In one of the more moving narratives found in the Book of Mormon, a group of Lamanites are miraculously prevented from killing the prophets Nephi and Lehi in a prison. The Lamanites and Nephite dissenters are then redeemed from their own spiritual bondage when they are converted to Christ.

Review Responds To Distortions Of Dna Evidence, Mormon Origins

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

The latest issue of the FARMS Review (vol. 15, no. 2, 2003) responds in full measure to two works challenging the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the foundational events of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. The contributing scholars not only expose fatal flaws in the critics’ arguments and methods but also provide background information and perspectives that readers will find instructive. In addition, this issue of the Review evaluates several other recent publications in Mormon studies and includes a Book of Mormon bibliography for 2002.

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

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Publications

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

Theodore Abū Qurrah, translated and introduced by John C. Lamoreaux of Southern Methodist University, includes first-ever English translations of a substantial portion of Theodore Abū Qurrah’s writings, which treat such issues as the characteristics of true religion and the nature of free will. Abū Qurrah (fl. ad 810), the bishop of Haran (in modern-day southern Turkey), was one of the first Christians to write in Arabic and to mount a sustained theological defense of Christianity against Islam. This book is now at press and will be distributed by the University of Chicago Press and made available through the BYU Bookstore.

Atonement And The Temple, John A. Tvedtnes

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

In 1988 Hugh W. Nibley noted that the use of terms based on the word atone (atonement, atoning, atoned, etc.), while used in the Old Testament mostly in association with rites performed in the tabernacle of Moses, clearly tied the Nephites to preexilic Israel, that is, prior to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews in 587 bc. He found that most of the occurrences were “in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where they explicitly describe the original rites of the tabernacle or temple on the Day of Atonement.”

“O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?”, Corbin T. Volluz

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

The Book of Mormon has come under frequent fire from its critics for allegedly quoting portions of the New Testament before the New Testament was written. A classic example of this is the famous phrase from 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Clear allusions to this passage are made by three Book of Mormon prophets: Abinadi (Mosiah 16:8), Aaron (Alma 22:14), and Mormon (Mormon 7:5).

Farms Review Takes Up Nibley, Dna, Book Of Mormon Origins

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

The latest issue of the FARMS Review (vol. 17, no. 1) is now available, offering its usual in-depth, incisive commentary on an array of recent publications and topics of interest to Latter-day Saint readers.

This is the first issue published since Hugh Nibley’s death earlier this year, and Louis Midgley’s tribute to this illustrious Latter-day Saint scholar has already proved to be one of the more popular contributions. The essay is essentially an intellectual autobiography in which Midgley (BYU professor emeritus of political science and associate editor of the Review) tells of his first encounter with Nib-ley, in 1949; his …

Nibley Classic On Papyri Given New Life In Second Edition

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

After years of intense effort, the long-overdue second edition of Hugh Nibley’s 1975 book The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment is at press. This new edition has been meticulously pre-pared by BYU Egyptologists John Gee and Michael D. Rhodes, who upgraded this Nibley classic on many points (some unseen, others impossible to miss, such as the superior illustrations by Michael Lyon) while preserving the original con-tent. Published by FARMS and Deseret Book, this edition is a fitting tribute to Nibley’s pioneering work and will enable a new generation of students and scholars to profit from Nibley’s …

Collaborative Constructions: Designing High School History Curriculum With The Lost & Found Game Series, Owen Gottlieb, Shawn Clybor

Articles

This chapter addresses design research and iterative curriculum design for the Lost & Found games series. The Lost & Found card-to-mobile series is set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the twelfth century and focuses on religious laws of the period. The first two games focus on Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, a key Jewish law code. A new expansion module which was in development at the time of the fieldwork described in this article that introduces Islamic laws of the period, and a mobile prototype of the initial strategy game has been developed with support National Endowment for the Humanities. The …

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

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Publications

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

Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri,edited by John Gee and Michael Rhodes, is a second edition of Hugh Nibley’s 1975 book of the same title on the Egyptian endowment. It is still the only book-length treatment of the important Egyptian text now known as the “Document of Breathings Made by Isis,” a copy of which was found among the Joseph Smith Papyri. The new edition features previously excised material, corrections of numerous typographical errors, improved illustrations, and accurate placement of illustrations in the text. This book, published jointly with Deseret Book, is now at press after years of intense effort. …

The Archaic Vocabulary Of The Book Of Mormon, Royal Skousen

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

In my work as editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project (which began in 1988), I was initially interested in discovering the original English-language text of the book. But I soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to fully recover the original text by scholarly means, in large part because only 28 percent of the original manuscript is extant. In addition, there are obvious errors in the original manuscript itself that require conjectural emendation. As I have worked on the text of the Book of Mormon, I have come to some surprising conclusions regarding the …

New Volume Explores Themes, Background Of Book Of Abraham

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

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, the third volume in FARMS’s Studies in the Book of Abraham, was recently published and is now available. This book deals with three broad themes: astronomy in the Book of Abraham, the background of the Joseph Smith Papyri, and the nature of the Abrahamic covenant. In the course of treating these subjects, various papers discuss Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt, commonalities between the Book of Abraham and ancient Islamic texts, accounts of Abraham in 19th-century America, and a number of other interesting issues. All but 3 of the 12 articles were initially presented as papers at a …

New Directors Appointed For Ispart And Farms

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

In June Brigham Young University announced the appointment of Andrew C. Skinner as the new executive director of the Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts. Skinner, a professor of ancient scripture at BYU who has served as dean of Religious Education since 2000, replaces Noel B. Reynolds, who was called to pre-side over the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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

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Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit Tours United Kingdom And Europe

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

Since their initial discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have drawn the interest of people world­wide. FARMS has been fortunate to play a part in bringing the scrolls to the world, and that effort continues. The FARMS Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints and managed by full­time missionaries Wayne and Janet Chamberlain, completed its tour of the United Kingdom and western Europe in May and is now making its way through central Europe.

Textual Analysis Of Book Of Mormon Continues

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

FARMS and Brigham Young University are pleased to announce the release of part 2 of volume 4 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. Part 2 analyzes the text from 2 Nephi 11 through Mosiah 16.

New Research Pushes Christian Apostasy Earlier In Time

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

A much­-anticipated book exploring the root causes of the early Christian apostasy is now off the press: Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy, edited by Noel B. Reynolds and published by FARMS and BYU Press.

Library Of Congress Hosts Academic Conference On Joseph Smith, Part 2

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

This report covers the proceedings of the second day of “The Worlds of Joseph Smith,” an academic conference held on 6–7 May 2005 at the Library of Congress, in Washington DC, in recognition of the bicentennial of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s birth. For a report of the first day of proceedings, see the article in Insights 25/3 (2005).

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

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Lehi’S Journey Of Faith Topic Of Farms Documentary

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

FARMS has teamed with award-winning Latter-day Saint filmmaker Peter Johnson to produce a documentary on Lehi and company’s route from Jerusalem to the New World.

Based on the most recent research, the 90-min-ute DVD documentary will feature Latter-day Saint scholars commenting on proposed sites for the party’s first base camp near the Red Sea; Nahom, where Ishmael was buried; and Bountiful, the fertile coast-al locale where Nephi directed the building of his ship. The documentary will also feature the latest findings on Lehi’s ocean voyage and explore candidates for Book of Mormon sites in Mesoamerica.

Library Of Congress Hosts Academic Conference On Joseph Smith

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

In recognition of the bicentennial of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s birth, the Library of Congress, in Washington DC, hosted an academic conference on 6–7 May 2005 titled “The Worlds of Joseph Smith.” Carried internationally via webcast, the event featured 17 scholars (nearly evenly divided between Latter-day Saints and those of other faiths) who examined Joseph Smith’s theological contributions and evaluated the claim that the church he founded is on track to becoming a world religion.

Full Issue

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

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Dead Sea Scrolls Reader Released

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

A new multivolume work promises to facilitate study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader, published by the prestigious academic publisher E. J. Brill, offers transcriptions and English translations of all the nonbiblical Qumran texts.

Byu Anthropologist Addresses Maya Origins Puzzle

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

In 2001 the chance discovery of a 2,000-year-old Maya mural in a chamber buried beneath a pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle stirred the archaeological community. It was a sensational find, one of the most important for Mayanists in half a century. Rendered in brilliant colors with exquisite skill, the remarkably well-preserved mural reveals a highly sophisticated artistic tradition and hieroglyphic script predating the Maya’s golden age by 800 years.

“What Meaneth The Rod Of Iron”?, Matthew L. Bowen

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

Latter-day Saint scholars Hugh W. Nibley and John A. Tvedtnes have discussed at length how a staff, rod, and sword came to be commonly identified with the word of God in the ancient Near East.¹The evidence they cite from the Bible, the earliest Hebrew commentators, modern biblical scholarship, and elsewhere affirms Nephi’s unambiguous assertion that the “word of God” is a “rod.”

Farms Review Probes Geography, Papyri, Isaiah, Creation, And More

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

The latest FARMS Review (vol. 16, no. 2, 2004) is another weighty issue flush with articles covering a wide array of interesting topics. In the lineup are reviews of works on Book of Mormon geography, de-Christianization of the Old Testament, the Joseph Smith Papyri, Isaiah’s central message, Jerusalem in Lehi’s day, creation theology, gospel symbolism, and the Christian countercult movement. Also included are two freestanding essays, one older article of lasting appeal (initiating a new feature in the Review), book notes, a 2003 Book of Mormon bibliography, and the editor’s top picks of recent publications. A foretaste of the many …

Latest Addition To The Collected Works Of Hugh Nibley Series

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

FARMS is pleased to announce the release of a new volume of previously unpublished class lectures by celebrated Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley, who recently passed away at age 94. Apostles and Bishops in Early Christianity, volume 15 in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley series, comprises Nibley’s finely detailed lecture notes for a course he taught at Brigham Young University in 1954 on the office of bishop in the early Christian church.