Unfortunately, we couldn’t just walk across.

The second installment of an ongoing critique of a major publication from the Book of Mormon “Heartlander” movement has appeared:

“A Review of the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Part 2)”

***

I’ve fallen behind in linking to Jeff Lindsay’s valuable series of recent essays on the Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Kirtland Egyptian Papers.  So I’m grateful that this one features links to preceding posts:

“Another Connection Between the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and Prior Documents”

I’m also pleased that it calls attention, again, to my friend William Schryver’s important 2010 presentation at the annual FairMormon conference.

***

Members of our group had a variety of options this morning.  Some went hiking to the top of the cliffs of Arbel, above the Wadi al-Hammam over by Magdala or Migdal.  Some were up really early to ride in a hot air balloon.  Some went on an ATV trip.  Others went water skiing and wake boarding.  And, of course, some simply relaxed.

Once everybody was back from their adventures, we had lunch (as our tours always do) at Kibbutz En Gev and then took a boat cruise across the lake to the western shore.  Before landing, though, we cut the engines and had some brief remarks from Jack Welch and from a member of the Marriott School National Advisory Council.

(Kibbutz En Gev, by the way, is where BYU students typically stay for the Galilean portion of their studies.  In this connection, they sing a slightly modified song:  “I swam today where Jesus walked.”)

Once deposited on land, we took a short bus ride to the ruins of ancient Capernaum, the base of Jesus’ operations in the Galilee.  I spoke to my busload there and then turned them loose to see the synagogue and to visit the ruins of the traditional (and, I think, authentic) house of the apostle Peter.  Once finished at Capernaum, we again boarded the boat for the very brief ride over to the site of “Peter’s Primacy” (roughly equivalent to Tabgha), where, according to tradition, the post-resurrection events narrated in John 21 took place.  I spoke to the group there, too.

On the way back to our hotel, passing by the possible ruins of ancient Bethsaida and around the northern end of the lake, we listened on the bus to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s wonderful October 2012 conference address, “The First Great Commandment,” which is a meditation on John 21.

Posted from En Gev, Israel