Revision 1.15 “Jerusalem, Byzantines, and Persians”

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 12:17 am By Dan Peterson

Some Jews were martyred, some hid in caves and deserts in order to continue to live the commandments, and some—perhaps (understandably) questioning the point of remaining faithful— apostatized. Many simply left, hoping to get away. The dispersion of the Jews, their diaspora, had now begun in earnest. Some of Hadrian’s successors relaxed official measures against Judaism. The situation wasn’t always desperate; there were even times of relative prosperity among the Jews in the Holy Land. For many reasons,... Read more

“Four Idolatrous Gods in the Book of Abraham”

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 12:12 am By Dan Peterson

A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. Written by John Gee, it is entitled “Four Idolatrous Gods in the Book of Abraham” Abstract: Although unknown as deities in Joseph Smith’s day, the names of four associated idolatrous gods (Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah, and Korash) mentioned in the Book of Abraham are attested anciently. Two of them are known to have connections with the practices attributed to them in the Book of... Read more

A bit more about Hagia Sophia and those huge black disks suspended within it

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 12:02 am By Dan Peterson

Sam LeFevre, a valued commenter on this blog, responding to a curiously hybrid entry that I posted earlier today that was partly about the remarkable Cathedral and Basilica of Hagia Sophia — which was transformed into a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and was then turned into a museum under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and is now being turned back into a mosque by the regrettable Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, formerly the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey (2003-2014) and... Read more

“Bad men on paper”

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 11:30 pm By Dan Peterson

New on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, from Hales Swift: “Prayer and Worship in Alma 32-34” A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 28 “Plant This Word in Your Hearts” (Alma 32-35) *** Back quickly to a passage that I marked while re-reading Richard Lloyd Anderson’s classic Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981): Anyone following this discussion can soon see that authentic statements from the Book of... Read more

Setbacks, Archaeological and Epidemiological

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 11:40 pm By Dan Peterson

The latest installment of my bi-weekly Deseret News column appeared earlier today: “The dramatic story behind one of the world’s greatest churches: The Hagia Sophia was rebuilt after riots, fires destroyed much of Constantinople” For unusual reasons, I actually wrote the column a couple of weeks ago, before this news came out: “World reacts to Turkey reconverting Hagia Sophia into a mosque: UNESCO, Greece, Cyprus and church leaders among others express concern about changing status... Read more

Revision 1.14 “Talmudic Judaism, Constantinian Christianity, and the ‘De-Judaizing’ of Palestine”

Last updated on: July 23, 2020 at 11:36 pm By Dan Peterson

The Babylonian Talmud became, by a considerable distance, the more important of the two works, partly because Palestinian Jewry was steadily on the wane while the Jews of Babylon were relatively well organized and prosperous. “It became,” as Israeli historian Shmuel Safrai observes, the basic—and in many places almost the exclusive—asset of Jewish tradition, the foundation of all Jewish thought and aspirations and the guide for the daily life of the Jew. . . . In almost every... Read more

Simple deception?

Last updated on: July 16, 2020 at 12:16 am By Dan Peterson

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I regard Richard Lloyd Anderson’s Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981) as one of the most important books ever written by a Latter-day Saint scholar. Brother Anderson (1926-2018) was a hero of mine and, for his last decades, a friend. He was unusually well trained, with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in ancient history from the University of California at Berkeley,... Read more

“New Study Finds Some Polynesians Carry DNA of Ancient Native Americans”

Last updated on: July 15, 2020 at 7:02 pm By Dan Peterson

In case you missed this news, here’s a brief write-up from the Interpreter Foundation: “New Study Finds Some Polynesians Carry DNA of Ancient Native Americans” *** And here’s a response to a gross misrepresentation that is still remarkably — and shamefully — common in some circles: “What Does Richard Bushman Believe About the Book of Mormon?” *** I’ve sometimes had occasion on this blog to quote the explanation of his method as a... Read more

Revision 1.13 “The Mishnah and the Talmuds”

Last updated on: July 15, 2020 at 7:30 pm By Dan Peterson

What really interested the earliest rabbis was the collection and organization of the so-called “oral law,” the traditions that had already been gathering about the text of the Torah for centuries. This was the next layer, the next level of sediment in the mounting deposit of what would come to be modern rabbinic Judaism. It culminated in the completion of the Mishnah, around the year 200 A.D. This important text, collected and edited by the illustrious Rabbi Judah... Read more

Ancient geology and really ancient geology

Last updated on: July 15, 2020 at 7:33 pm By Dan Peterson

I continue with some notes from Jerry D. Grover, Jr., Geology of the Book of Mormon (2014). (See this and other works by him and by others at Brother Grover’s Book of Mormon Scientific and Linguistic Research site.). He is talking here, of course, about the New World catastrophe described in the Book of Mormon at the time of the death of Christ: [I]n evaluating all of the events described in 3rd Nephi it is apparent that a... Read more