“Shall We Not Go On in So Great a Cause?”

Last updated on: November 12, 2024 at 7:57 pm By Dan Peterson

New, from the long-comatose and perpetually dying Interpreter Foundation: Take a Journey into Arabia Just in time for Christmas, we are pleased to announce the publication of a brand-new book, Into Arabia: Anchoring Nephi’s Account in the Real World. Focusing on the first eighteen chapters of the Book of Mormon, Into Arabia examines the epic journey made over 2,600 years ago by Lehi and Sariah’s family from Jerusalem to Bountiful. Written by Warren Aston, Godfrey Ellis, and Neal Rappleye,... Read more

Notes on Latter-day Saints and the Third Reich, Then and Now

Last updated on: November 12, 2024 at 12:57 pm By Dan Peterson

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The following note went out yesterday to the subscriber list of the Interpreter Foundation. I’ve redacted it slightly, so as not to make public the contact information of the Interpreter volunteer who is overseeing this matter. I don’t want to expose him or her to the tender mercies of the obsessive critics who monitor my blog every day and who continually seek to exploit it as a weapon. If you are interested in helping us in the way described... Read more

Contra Latter-day Saint Temples

Last updated on: November 12, 2024 at 9:40 am By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — November 3, 2024, including “The Book of Mormon in Context” for Ether 12-15 In the 3 November 2024 installment of the Interpreter Radio Show, Martin Tanner, Brent Schmidt, and Hales Swift discussed Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson 48, the Interpreter Foundation’s Margaret Barker seminars, Saints Volume 4, the new Church garments, the recent articles in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship... Read more

“It is Well With My Soul”

Last updated on: November 11, 2024 at 10:20 am By Dan Peterson

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We closed our sacrament meeting today with a song that will eventually appear in the new revised hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s generally known under the title of “It is Well with My Soul,” but it also goes by the beginning of its first line: “When Peace, Like a River”: When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know It... Read more

Approaching the Final Days of “Six Days in August”?

Last updated on: November 9, 2024 at 6:45 pm By Dan Peterson

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I doubt that many will be going to theaters along the Mormon Corridor this evening to attend screenings of Six Days in August, and not merely because our numbers are dwindling in a shrinking array of movie houses. There is also, of course, the football game tonight between Brigham Young University and the University of Utah — a pair of schools, by the way, that were both founded by President Brigham Young. Still, I encourage you to see Six... Read more

The Compassionate and Caring Brother Brigham

Last updated on: November 8, 2024 at 2:47 pm By Dan Peterson

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Two new articles went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Verbal Punctuation in the Book of Mormon III—Behold,” written by John Gee Abstract: As an ancient book, the Book of Mormon employed verbal punctuation rather than typographical punctuation. An example of this verbal punctuation is the word behold, which is used in the Book of Mormon to point things out, to highlight unexpected effects of situations, and to modify a previously expressed proposition.... Read more

Sorrow for Wayward Children

Last updated on: November 7, 2024 at 4:55 pm By Dan Peterson

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This article reprint has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings: The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact, written by Stephen O. Smoot Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-symbols-sermons-and-settings/. “In a 1983 study, Lynn M.... Read more

Of building temples

Last updated on: November 6, 2024 at 5:03 pm By Dan Peterson

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Almost a week ago, posting from Mexico City, I wrote that One of the high points for the day was visiting the Veracruz México Temple. In outward appearance, it’s very similar if not identical to several of the other small temples that were built in México and elsewhere during the rapid flurry of temple construction that was undertaken during Gordon B. Hinckley’s tenure as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, I very much liked... Read more

The Long Farewell

Last updated on: November 5, 2024 at 10:19 pm By Dan Peterson

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I’m afraid that I’ve fallen behind in chronicling the death-throes of the Interpreter Foundation, so I’ll make an effort here in this blog entry to catch up a bit on that sad tale of sorrow and woe. Here are a few things that have appeared in recent days: ““Behold, I Went to Hunt Beasts in the Forest”: An Addendum on Enos, Esau, and the Symbolic Geography of Seir,” written by Matthew Bowman Abstract: Enos’s use of the onomastic wordplay... Read more

La Terreur

Last updated on: November 5, 2024 at 1:36 pm By Dan Peterson

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Here’s something new from the ever-dying Interpreter Foundation: “Now Available on all of our Social Media Channels: “Interpreting Interpreter” Videos with Kyler Rasmussen”: Watch the first video now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a5wkAIP2xU You might have noticed that Latter-day Saints have lately come in for a great deal of attention in “Hollywood.” Little if any of it has been exactly helpful, let alone flattering. In the context of that attention, which has been almost comical — note that I said... Read more