I’m very pleased that the first copies of the Interpreter Foundation’s newest book — Matthew L. Bowen, Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, 2018) — have arrived from the press. It will be a few days or weeks before they’re generally available for sale, though some arrived in time for people at the just-concluded FairMormon conference, but this is good news. And it’s a significant book.
Here is the description of the book that appears on its back cover:
Throughout the Bible, understanding the meaning of names of important people and places is often crucial to understanding the message of the ancient authors. In other words, names of people and places serve as “key-words” that can help unlock the intended messages of scripture.
Since the Book of Mormon is an ancient record rooted in Old Testament traditions, it is not suprising that similar patterns of wordplay emerge from its pages. Besides their important role as key-words in scripture interpretation, the names of people and places may also provide our clearest glimpses into the text that existed on the plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. In many instances, the names of important Book of Mormon people and places are directly related to words matching the most-likely Hebrew and Egyptian origins for those names. Textual and contextual clues suggest that this matching was done deliberately in order to enhance literary beauty and as an aid to understanding. In some cases, authorial wordplay can be verified by a close analysis of matching text structures. In others, the wordplay can be verified by using the Bible as a “control” text.
A wealth of philological, onomastic, and textual evidence suggests that the Book of Mormon, like the Bible, is the work of ancient authors rather than that of a rural nineteenth-century man of limited literary attainments. Knowing more about these names enriches our understanding of the stories that these authors tell.
Two reviews of Name as Key-Word appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture — and (you can trust me on this) not by coincidence. One is by Amanda Colleen Brown and the other is by Kevin Barney:
“Toward a Deeper Understanding: How Onomastic Wordplay Aids Understanding Scripture”
““What’s in a Name? Playing in the Onomastic Sandbox”
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Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the First Quorum of the Seventy gave a very helpful address today during the morning session of the FairMormon conference, titled “A Sacred and Imperative Duty.” It’s up on the FairMormon Facebook page, and I hope that you’ll watch it (including the question-and-answer session immediately following his formal remarks, during which he even mentions the Interpreter Foundation). Go ahead and skip the first two minutes:
https://www.facebook.com/fairmormon/videos/2107767335901306/
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