I published the column below in the Deseret News on 23 August 2018:   Understanding the meaning of important biblical names is often essential to fully grasping the Bible’s intended message. That is, such names can serve as pivotal “key-words.” Understanding them is surely not necessary for salvation, but perceiving the wordplays that frequently occur in the Old Testament (and sometimes in the New) can considerably enhance our appreciation of what’s going on. With regard to 1 Samuel 25,... Read more

    John 21:1-14  Compare Luke 5:1-11   The curious comment in John 21:12 (“Now none of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’  They knew it was the Lord.”) suggests, again, that Jesus’ appearance in his resurrected state was slightly altered from his mortal appearance.     1 Corinthians 15:3-8   It’s often forgotten that there’s another early Old World witness to the Resurrection of Christ, quite independent from the accounts given by the four gospels: some of... Read more

    Bill Hamblin and I published the column below on 30 March 2018, in the Deseret News:   Written most likely in the A.D. mid-50s — that is, about two decades after the death of Jesus — Paul’s first letter to the saints in Corinth contains a stirring testimony of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-11), including the implicit claim that the tomb in which Jesus’ body was placed was soon found to be empty: Specifically, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 explicitly says that... Read more

    Stephen O. Smoot presses forward with his critique of a major “Heartlander” publication:   “A Review of the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Part 3A)”   ***     Our principal “substantive” visits today were to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, and to Masada, where, following a two-year-long siege, it’s likely that the Qumran community met its end.   Here’s a snippet from the supposed final speech of the Zealot leader at Masada, Elazar Ben... Read more

    Luke 24:36-43 John 20:19-29 Compare Matthew 16:19; 18:18; Mark 16:14   In the Lukan account, Jesus makes a deliberate effort to impress upon the disciples that his resurrection was truly physical.  He tells them to touch him, and he eats before them — and not, presumably, because he’s suddenly famished, as if being resurrected creates a big appetite.  Of course, this simply confirms what the fact that the tomb was empty has already indicated:  His body has been resurrected,... Read more

    It was a great privilege tonight for our group to hear, through the good offices of Jack Welch, from an Interpreter author who is based here in Israel.  He spoke to us here in the King David Hotel, where we’re staying.   What follows is the note that prefaced his October 2015 Interpreter article “The Temple: A Multi-Faceted Center and Its Problems”:   Editor’s Note: At the request of BYU Law Professor John W. Welch, Dr. Berman graciously provided this article... Read more

    My friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague Matt Roper recently shared the following “faculty joke,” which I think I’ll share further:   One day while walking downtown, a young college professor with a newly minted Ph.D. was hit by a bus and was tragically killed. Her soul arrived up in Heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.   “Welcome to Heaven,” said St. Peter. “Before you get settled in though, it seems... Read more

    Somehow — things rapidly become quite confused and hectic on a tour such as this one — I think that I failed to post a link to the most recent article published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:  This one was written by Taylor Halverson:   “The Lives of Abraham: Seeing Abraham through the Eyes of Second-Temple Jews”   Abstract: During the Second-Temple Period, Jews remembered and reimagined the story of Abraham to address their own immediate... Read more

    Matthew 28:11-15   This is, as a matter of fact, one of the most ancient counter-explanations for the purported bodily resurrection of Jesus.   That’s significant:  It suggests that everybody agreed that the tomb was, in fact, empty.   No small thing, that.     Luke 24:13-35 Compare Mark 16:12-13   This wonderful story occurs only in the gospel of Luke, although Mark plainly alludes to it.   Three brief observations:   1.   Jesus is the same and... Read more

    The second installment of an ongoing critique of a major publication from the Book of Mormon “Heartlander” movement has appeared:   “A Review of the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Part 2)”   ***   I’ve fallen behind in linking to Jeff Lindsay’s valuable series of recent essays on the Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Kirtland Egyptian Papers.  So I’m grateful that this one features links to preceding posts:   “Another... Read more