I’ve made no secret of the fact that I regard Richard Lloyd Anderson’s Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981) as one of the most important books ever written by a Latter-day Saint scholar. Brother Anderson (1926-2018) was a hero of mine and, for his last decades, a friend. He was unusually well trained, with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in ancient history from the University of California at Berkeley,… Read more
July 15, 2020
“New Study Finds Some Polynesians Carry DNA of Ancient Native Americans”
July 15, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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In case you missed this news, here’s a brief write-up from the Interpreter Foundation: “New Study Finds Some Polynesians Carry DNA of Ancient Native Americans” *** And here’s a response to a gross misrepresentation that is still remarkably — and shamefully — common in some circles: “What Does Richard Bushman Believe About the Book of Mormon?” *** I’ve sometimes had occasion on this blog to quote the explanation of his method as a… Read more
July 15, 2020
Revision 1.13 “The Mishnah and the Talmuds”
July 15, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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What really interested the earliest rabbis was the collection and organization of the so-called “oral law,” the traditions that had already been gathering about the text of the Torah for centuries. This was the next layer, the next level of sediment in the mounting deposit of what would come to be modern rabbinic Judaism. It culminated in the completion of the Mishnah, around the year 200 A.D. This important text, collected and edited by the illustrious Rabbi Judah… Read more
July 14, 2020
Ancient geology and really ancient geology
July 14, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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I continue with some notes from Jerry D. Grover, Jr., Geology of the Book of Mormon (2014). (See this and other works by him and by others at Brother Grover’s Book of Mormon Scientific and Linguistic Research site.). He is talking here, of course, about the New World catastrophe described in the Book of Mormon at the time of the death of Christ: [I]n evaluating all of the events described in 3rd Nephi it is apparent that a… Read more
July 14, 2020
Revision 1.12 “Philo and the Intellectuals”
July 14, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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The scholars now reigned supreme within Palestinian Judaism. Family, social standing, and wealth no longer mattered. All that mattered was learning. Study, the scholars said, was even more important than keeping the commandments.[1] They did not claim revelation themselves, and they did not recognize revelation to others. This is well illustrated by the excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, a conservative scholar who followed the earlier Rabbi Shammai and who, it seems, was something of an individualist. When… Read more
July 14, 2020
“Human Wrecks”
July 14, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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Come, Follow Me — Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 29, July 20-26: Alma 36-38 — “Look to God and Live” A brief discussion by Jonn Claybaugh Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 29 “Look to God and Live” Alma 36-38 This Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 29, “Look to God and Live,” on Alma 36-38 features Bruce Webster and Kris Frederickson. All commercial and other interruptions having been removed from it, it was extracted from the 12 June… Read more
July 13, 2020
Revision 1.11 “Yohanan ben Zakkai”
July 13, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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Furthermore, the ruling classes of Jewry, including the chief families of hereditary priests, had perished along with the temple and the state they had served. Roman administrators were busily monitoring, harrassing, and persecuting descendants of the Davidic line, including the leaders of the Sanhedrin, in order to prevent them from serving as the nucleus of any new revolt. The prophets were long gone. Only the rabbis were left to become the leaders of a new Torah-centered Judaism. And,… Read more
July 13, 2020
“Temples All the Way Down”
July 13, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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Another article has gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, appearing now in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. This piece was written by one Daniel C. Peterson: “Temples All the Way Down: Some Notes on the Mi‘raj of Muhammad” Abstract: In this article, Daniel C. Peterson describes the famous “night” journey that Muhammad allegedly made from Arabia to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem through the heavens and into the presence of God. His… Read more
July 13, 2020
“If You Could Hie to Kolob”
July 13, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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This passage from John D. Barrow, The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos (New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2011) — Dr. Barrow is a professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge University — reminded me of something: [T]here is a geographical dimension in the myths about the sky and the nature of the universe around us. Far from the Equator, in Scandinavia and Siberia, we find legends of the great circle… Read more
July 12, 2020
Revision 1.10. “What survived from Second Temple Judaism”
July 12, 2020 By Dan Peterson
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The new gospel preached by Jesus and Paul and the other apostles was, in a certain sense, the universal reformed Judaism of which Hellenistic reformers—at least those of the better sort—had long dreamed. The blessings of Abraham were now available to all, provided only that they accepted Jesus and his teachings. “There is,” wrote Paul, “neither Jew nor Greek . . . for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye… Read more
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