“The Plates of Gardner”

Last updated on: July 18, 2025 at 1:07 pm By Dan Peterson

This new review-essay appeared today in the never-changing Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The Plates of Gardner,” written by Kimberley Heuston: Review of Brant A. Gardner, The Plates of Mormon: A Book of Mormon Study Edition, and its companion volume, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2023). Study edition 598 pp.; $34.95 (paperback). Commentary 485 pp.; $24.95 (paperback). Abstract: This paper... Read more

An Application of Ockham’s Razor to Apologetic Motivations

Last updated on: July 17, 2025 at 2:10 pm By Dan Peterson

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It’s Thursday at the Interpreter Foundation, so here’s a chapter reprint for you: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Manipulating Text to Reinforce the Message: Content informs Form in the Bible and Book of Mormon,” written by my long-time friend Paul Y. Hoskisson Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry,... Read more

Dang it, we ran out of time

Last updated on: July 16, 2025 at 3:04 pm By Dan Peterson

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So near and yet so far. We didn’t have enough minutes to do Yellowstone even approximate justice today; this has been, for at least two of us, a working vacation, one of whom has fixed hours of employment geared to a different time zone. So the eventual choice today wasn’t to go into the National Park but to take the grandchild who is with us here to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center right near our lodging. It was... Read more

A Tale of Two Temples

Last updated on: July 15, 2025 at 11:57 pm By Dan Peterson

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Come, Follow Me — D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Doctrine and Covenants 81–83: July 21 – 27: Where “Much Is Given Much Is Required” Jonn Claybaugh has contributed yet another concise set of helpful notes to the Interpreter Foundation for teachers and students of the Come, Follow Me curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was surprised (though not really surprised) to learn that Maurine Proctor, to whom I send my columns for Meridian... Read more

Slowly deemphasizing, allegorizing, the Book of Mormon?

Last updated on: July 14, 2025 at 2:36 pm By Dan Peterson

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Every once in a while, I encounter the claim from some former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that leaders of the Church are quietly, gradually, stealthily moving Latter-day Saints toward acceptance of the notion that the Book of Mormon is merely “inspired” fiction of some sort. Perhaps an allegory. A parable. Church leaders are being forced in this direction — so the reasoning typically goes — not only by the alleged lack of any... Read more

High Thoughts, Shared Among Friends

Last updated on: July 13, 2025 at 11:47 pm By Dan Peterson

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This is the abstract that I sent in this morning for the 2025 FAIR Conference, which will run from the evening of Wednesday, 6 August, through Friday, 8 August, at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. I will be speaking on Friday: “Brigham Young and Slavery” We cannot hide the fact that Brigham Young said some things about race that make us wince in the twenty-first century. In fact, to make matters worse, as territorial governor of Deseret he presided... Read more

Notes on the passing scene

Last updated on: July 12, 2025 at 4:46 pm By Dan Peterson

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Coming tomorrow: “5,000 episodes: The power and reach of ‘Music & the Spoken Word’: Messages from listeners have helped to craft the choir’s milestone 5,000th episode on Sunday” I don’t know whether I’ll have the opportunity to watch this. I hope that at least some of you will. And, of course, it may be available online for later viewing. I hope so. And this new item, written by Newell D. Wright, was posted earlier today on the blog of the... Read more

Reconnecting on the Bow

Last updated on: July 12, 2025 at 12:49 am By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Smooth Words and Slippery Things: Samuel the Lamanite’s Prophetic Use of Hebrew ḥlq,” written by Matthew L. Bowen Abstract: Samuel the Lamanite expressly drew on the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 30:10) and possibly Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:12) with a clever, powerful wordplay on forms of the Hebrew verbal root ḥlq: ḥălāqôt (“flattering words,” literally “smooth things”) and ḥălaqlaqqôt (“slippery [things]”) in Helaman 13:28–36. This wordplay established a genetic... Read more

This World or the Next? Why Not Both?

Last updated on: July 10, 2025 at 7:00 pm By Dan Peterson

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This item has just been posted on the fossilized and entirely static website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: “Columbus among the Lamanites,” written by Andrew H. Hedges: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom/. “Students... Read more

Heartland or Mesoamerica?

Last updated on: July 9, 2025 at 10:33 pm By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Heartland Versus Mesoamerica Part 13: Some Final Comments , written by Brant A. Gardner. I regard this series as a very important contribution to studies of the Book of Mormon, and a useful corrective. Is the Interpreter Foundation officially pledged to a limited-geography for the Book of Mormon that is centered in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and (perhaps) adjacent areas? No, it is not. Am I myself fundamentally committed... Read more