When we arrived here on Monday afternoon, my wife and I and my two visiting Utah cousins had an early dinner at the Farmhouse at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.  Only my second time, I think.  Maybe my third.  (My wife had been introduced to the place by friends, and she introduced me.)  Wonderful outdoor southern California ambience and really good food.  Then we stocked up at the grocery store and checked into our lodgings for a... Read more

    Newly posted at 7 PM Utah time on Saturday:   “Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 23: Why did Martin Harris Join So Many Churches?“ Martin Harris was away from the church for many years before finally returning. Critics have tried to use the fact that he joined other denominations as something that invalidates his testimony of The Book of Mormon. What’s the real story here? This is the twenty-third in a series compiled from from... Read more

    Three new items appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  As with all such articles, they are made freely available to anybody who might be interested:   ““For Their Good Have I Written Them”: The Onomastic Allusivity and Literary Function of 2 Nephi 25:8,” written by Matthew L. Bowen Abstract: Nephi’s writings exhibit a distinctive focus on “good” and divine “goodness,” reflecting the meaning of Nephi’s Egyptian name (derived from nfr) meaning “good,” “goodly,” “fine,” or... Read more

    Something new has gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   Conference Talks: “Edfu and Exodus” (John Gee) In this essay John Gee draws a connection between the Egyptian “Book of the Temple” and the book of Exodus, both in structure and topic, describing the temple from the inside out. Gee concludes that both probably go back to a common source older than either of them.     All day long, I’ve either been at a... Read more

    On several occasions over the past few years, in various venues — see here, for example — I’ve published a list of four books that I recommend as a kind of “basic  packet” for people struggling with their testimonies, and I’ve explained that I think it important to preemptively strengthen faith as well as to fend off attacks, criticisms, or doubts.   Let me explain a little bit of what I have in mind:   Suppose that, one... Read more

    Today’s reading in the new issue of BYU Studies was Stephen O. Smoot and Kerry Muhlestein, “Prophets, Pagans, and Papyri: The Jews of Greco-Roman Egypt and the Transmission of the Book of Abraham,” BYU Studies Quarterly 61/2 (2022): 105-134.  Stephen O. Smoot holds a master’s degree in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizationsf rom the University of Toronto and is a doctoral candidate in Semitic and Egyptian languages and literature at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. ... Read more

    But first, I’ve been really busy of late, and I haven’t called attention to the newest of our short Witness-related videos.  It went up, as they always do, at 7 PM on Saturday evening, Utah time.  And, as they always are, it’s free.  Here it is:   “What Else Did the Witnesses See?” While trying to dismiss claims that the witnesses interacted with the gold plates, critics often gloss over—or even completely ignore—the fact that many of the... Read more

    Just this morning, my wife and I received news of the death of a relatively young friend who has been living in southern California.  It was not unexpected.  In fact, over the past week or two we’ve been, in the odd way that happens in cases of prolonged and painful terminal illness, many of us have been praying for it.  She is the daughter of a good friend from our days of living in Cairo who was claimed... Read more