A couple of days ago, I finished reading William J. Peters (with Michael Kinsella), At Heaven’s Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better (New York City: Simon and Schuster, 2022). I found it interesting. Here are five of the passages in the book that I marked during my reading: In the first two of them, William Peters recounts some personal experiences of his own. In February 1993, I contracted... Read more
Something new has just been posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 21: Who Felt or Saw the Plates? Critics have long claimed that the various witnesses—both official and unofficial—never interacted with the plates in a physical way. First hand accounts indicate otherwise. What are we to make of such criticism? This is the twenty-first in a series compiled from from the many interviews conducted during the course... Read more
I don’t know how much longer this can or will go on, but he is, quite simply, astounding: “President Russell M. Nelson Celebrates 98th Birthday: Prophet spends the day participating in meetings at Church headquarters in Utah” I’ve just completed reading William J. Peters (with Michael Kinsella), At Heaven’s Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better (New York City: Simon and Schuster, 2022). I picked it up last Saturday... Read more
“Hannah’s Adversity and Peninnah’s Redemption,” written by Loren Blake Spendlove Abstract: Most biblical students are familiar with the story of Hannah, who after years of barrenness, finally gave birth to the prophet Samuel. Some will remember her adversary, Peninnah, who allegedly tormented Hannah to tears. My objective in this article is to reclaim Peninnah’s good name by reinterpreting the passage found in 1 Samuel 1:6. “Interpreting Interpreter: Redeeming Peninnah,” written by Kyler Rasmussen This post is a summary of... Read more
In the first portion of this episode of the fabled Interpreter Radio Show, Neal Rappleye and Jasmin Rappleye and Hales Swift, joined by their guest Stephen O. Smoot, recap the 2022 FAIR conference., which was originally broadcast on 7 August 2022. (It has now been edited, meaning that all commercial and other extraneous interruptions have been meticulously removed from it, and archived, made accessible to you at your convenience and at no charge.) By contrast, the second portion... Read more
I’m asking a favor from readers of this blog who live, move, and have their being outside of the United States of America. Recently, during our extensive travels overseas (which are, alas, far from over for the year), I’ve been made aware of limitations in the distribution of Witnesses and Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon that I had not expected. It turns out that streaming rules vary in surprising ways from country to country. And... Read more
The inexplicably weird English of the headline continues throughout the article. Still, I think that some of you will find it of interest: “Can BYU is mainstream and can still be ‘not of the world’?” One day, many years ago while I was serving as a missionary in Interlaken, Switzerland, I sat in sacrament meeting. The speaker was a counselor in the mission presidency. (I was fairly green, still a rather new missionary, and my... Read more
I saw the news yesterday that Don Lind has died. Holder of a doctorate in high-energy nuclear physics, a faithful Latter-day Saint, and a retired NASA astronaut, he had written an entry for my old Mormon Scholars Testify site, now renamed Latter-day Saint Scholars Testify: Don L. Lind I actually only met him a few times, but here are a couple of stories about him: During my last months as a young missionary, while I... Read more
A new item went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 20: Who Wrote the Testimony of the Witnesses?“ Every edition of the Book of Mormon has included a copy of the Testimony of the Three Witnesses. Who wrote it? And if each of the three witnesses didn’t actually write the words themselves, does that somehow invalidate that testimony? This is the twentieth in a series compiled... Read more
It’s Friday, so yet another new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: ““But That Thou Wouldst Clear My Way Before Me”: A Note on the Personal and Emotional Rendering of an Ancient Idiom in 2 Nephi 4:33,” written by Matthew L. Bowen Abstract: The biblical Hebrew collocation pinnâ derek or pannû derek (cf. Egyptian Ἰr wꜣ.t [n]), often rendered “prepare the way” or “prepare a way” in English, is an evident stylistic... Read more
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