“Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s)”

Last updated on: January 3, 2025 at 2:34 pm By Dan Peterson

A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It is “Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s),” and it was written by John S. Thompson, who currently serves as a researcher for the Interpreter Foundation’s sister organization, Scripture Central. Abstract: The official account of Martin Harris’s visit to Charles Anthon, canonized in the Pearl of Great Price, suggests that Anthon may have been shown more than one transcript by Harris. The differing responses... Read more

Gratitude, and “Prayer with Uplifted Hands”

Last updated on: January 2, 2025 at 5:24 pm By Dan Peterson

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I’m pleased to remind you that both Witnesses (2021) and Six Days in August (2024) are now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book. And I happily point out that each of them would very nicely accompany and complement this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum at appropriate points. In that connection, I received a note this morning from someone back in one of the eastern states — whose name is suppressed here in conformity with my rule of... Read more

Welcome to 2025!

Last updated on: January 1, 2025 at 12:09 pm By Dan Peterson

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First of all, I want to wish everybody who reads this a happy new year, a healthy and prosperous and satisfying 2025. I’m not a big fan of the New Year’s Eve and New Years Day holiday, but I’m pretty positive about such ideas as finding personal satisfaction, prosperity, good health, and happiness, and I would like them to be as widely shared as possible. Here’s an interesting account of a rather unique near-death experience that you might find... Read more

“Ring Out, Wild Bells!”

Last updated on: January 1, 2025 at 11:17 am By Dan Peterson

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What better words to end the year with than those of Alfred, Lord Tennyson? Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the... Read more

“We’re captive on the carousel of time”

Last updated on: December 31, 2024 at 12:35 pm By Dan Peterson

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Here is an interesting article by my friend Brian Hales and Michael Peterson (no relation) that was brought to my attention by another friend, Scott Gordon, the president of FAIR: “Doubt in the Digital Age: How a Perfect Storm of Random Forces Inflated the CES Letter Beyond Its Merits: What triggered the wide dissemination of the CES Letter? Examining a perfect storm of tech, naivety, and scholarly silence.” I agree with their analysis. The “CES Letter” is a very... Read more

In the bleak post-Christmas midwinter

Last updated on: December 29, 2024 at 9:15 pm By Dan Peterson

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When I was young, the weeks-long build-up to Christmas was always followed — usually by the afternoon of 25 December — by a severe let-down. After at least a month of mounting anticipation, Christmas was done. The presents had arrived, which was wonderful, but the surprises were past. There was nothing left for me to look toward. (I’ve never cared much about New Year’s Eve.) My relationship to Christmas is substantially different than it once was. I’ve long since... Read more

Rating the Book of Mormon

Last updated on: December 28, 2024 at 10:20 pm By Dan Peterson

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I’ve had a long and busy day today. I’ve scarcely been home and it’s late, so I think that I’m going to repost something that I originally put up several years ago. I still hold to it: There was considerable buzz back in 2014 about the results of a Facebook survey asking people which books had “stayed with you.” A writer for Salt Lake City’s Deseret News emphasized the fact that both the Bible (which came in sixth) and... Read more

A note on the evolution of evolution (and other matters)

Last updated on: December 27, 2024 at 5:29 pm By Dan Peterson

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It’s Friday, so a new article has been published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The “Allegory” of Ruth as a Prophecy of Latter-day Gathering,” written by Jan Francisco Abstract: In the historical context of the late fifth century BC, the book of Ruth was a powerful story of hope and redemption for the eventual gathering and restoration of Israel’s covenants. Connecting their golden period of unity under King David to this idyllic tale with... Read more

A Christmas message from Iran’s vice president and his wife

Last updated on: December 26, 2024 at 7:43 pm By Dan Peterson

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This article has been newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Temple: Past, Present and Future: “The Messianic Sacred, Not Secret: The Son as a Hidden Name in the Gospel of Mark,” written by Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Past, Present and Future, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-past-present-and-future/. For video and audio recording of... Read more

“At Bethlehem I had my birth.”

Last updated on: December 25, 2024 at 4:34 pm By Dan Peterson

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First of all, Merry Christmas to all! I hope that you’ve had a joyous Christmas season and that you will enjoy this day to the full with family and friends and food and music and whatever else will make for a very satisfying and memorable time. On Monday last, Meridian Magazine republished a Christmas-themed column that my late and still sorely missed friend Bill Hamblin and I originally wrote for the 11 December 2015 edition of the Deseret News.... Read more