Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for sharing this with me:   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scholars-split-by-claim-that-koran-scrap-rewrites-story-of-islam-10487474.html   For the record: I’m strongly inclined to the more conservative view of the significance of this fragment.   I can well imagine that it dates to soon after the making of the so-called “‘Uthmanic rescension” of the Qur’an.  That would already be a remarkably valuable find.   I would be extremely surprised to learn that it dates to the lifetime of Muhammad himself — even though I’m... Read more

    It’s time, I think, to call attention again to a really good Latter-day Saint blog.  It’s done by Robert Boylan, out of Ireland:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.ie     Read more

      On 27 October:   http://www.mormonwomenstand.com/elder-m-russell-ballard-to-speak-at-world-congress-of-families-in-salt-lake-city/   Among other things, the speech will come twenty years after the issuing of The Family: A Proclamation to the World.     Read more

      John 10:40-42    In the preceding installment (New Testament 257: “Jesus at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem”), Jesus was on the western side of the Jordan River, high up on the north-south mountain ridge that runs through Judea, in the city of Jerusalem.   Now, he withdraws “across the Jordan to the place where John [the Baptist] at first baptized.”   This verse is one of many suggesting that the popular baptismal location up northwards at... Read more

    And to mark that centennial, a new exhibit will open in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/landmark-book-jesus-the-christ-honored-at-century-milestone     Read more

    Here’s a tentative schedule for a really interesting upcoming visitor to BYU:   Dr. Joshua Berman Senior Lecturer in the Zalman Shamir Bible Department, Bar-Ilan University, Israel   Wednesday, October 7, 7:00 pm “The Differences between the Tabernacle and the Temple: Architecture and Ideology” Place TBA   Thursday, October 8, 11:00 am “The Kadesh Inscriptions of Ramesses II and the Exodus Sea Account”  Room 238, Harold R. Clark Building, David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, BYU  ... Read more

    “Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”  (D. Elton Trueblood)     Read more

    I had some positive words to say, earlier today, about Carly Fiorina.   I might as well add some more:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423601/carly-fiorina-first-tier-candidate   Mind you, I haven’t endorsed her.  I’m not sure that I’ll be endorsing anybody anytime soon (as if my mighty endorsement were worth anything!).   Except, of course, for Bernie Sanders, whom I would dearly love to see as the Democratic nominee.   But I view her quite positively, and can easily imagine myself supporting... Read more

    Except, of course — at least, from what I’ve seen — as objects of ridicule (cf. the Book of Mormon musical) or as occasions for fear or as obstacles to be overcome on the road to social justice and progress.   Here’s an article on that topic from U. S. Catholic:   http://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201508/faith-communities-are-missing-todays-television-30321     Read more

    I’d like to call the attention of parents, grandparents, teachers, Church leaders, police, youth leaders, teenagers themselves, and just about everybody else to an extraordinarily interesting article in the June 2015 issue of Scientific American.  (Unfortunately, so far as I’m aware, it’s not completely accessible online without a purchase.  But there are libraries and other ways of gaining access to it.)  It’s by Jay N. Giedd, who’s not only the editor in chief of the journal Mind, Brain,... Read more