Two two-actor plays, an annual event, two items on Lehi, and a reminder

The Interpreter Radio Show will air its third broadcast today, Sunday, between 7 PM and 8 PM Utah time on K-Talk (1640 AM).  You can also listen to it on your computer via K-Talk’s website.   Bruce Webster, Martin Tanner, Daniel Peterson, and Mike Parker are scheduled to be on the show.

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Two more items from John W . Welch, et al., eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017):

“How Did Lehi Learn So Much about the Fall?” (70-71)

Lehi’s teachings about the fall of Adam and Eve are exceptionally rich, but they can be matched in other Jewish texts dating to the period immediately following him.  Hints of them can be found in the Hebrew Bible itself.  Impressively, they seem to have a special connection to ancient “temple theology.”

“Should 2 Nephi 1-4:12 Be Called the ‘Testament of Lehi’?” (72-74)

The instructions and blessings given by Lehi to his posterity shortly before his death fit the model or pattern of ancient Jewish testamentary literature strikingly well:  1) He gathers relatives and close friends together.  2) He exhorts them to avoid temptations.  3) He instructs them in the ways of righteousness.  4) He utters blessings and curses.  5) He describes the future as it has been revealed to him in a dream or a vision.  (Compare, say, the ancient Testament of Joseph.)

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Every January, our wives arrange for a brunch or lunch or dinner for a small group (four) of us who have January birthdays and who are linked by common service in the old Switzerland Zürich Mission and/or by involvement in Middle Eastern studies and/or the late and much-lamented Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS).  Today, it was brunch at the Black Bear Diner in Orem.

My wife and I then attended a performance at BYU of “The Secret Life of Suitcases,” a children’s production by Allie Cohen Puppet Maker, of Scotland, featuring Allie Cohen and Samuel Jameson.  Afterwards, we stuck around for a question-and-answer session with the two actor/puppeteers.  It was fun to see how enthusiastic the children were, and how full of questions and curiosity.

This evening, we went out to dinner at the Black Sheep Cafe in Provo with my wife’s brother and his wife, and then we attended a two-man performance, also at BYU, of Macbeth.  It was a production by the British theater company Out of Chaos, and featured the Englishman Paul O’Mahony and the Danish Troels Hagen Findsen.  The two actors and their stage manager, Claire Browne, also fielded questions afterwards, and, of course, we stayed.

Marrying a theater major has had a considerable effect on my life over the years.