The poem from which the film Invictus (about which I wrote in my immediately previous blog entry) takes its title — and which evidently inspired Nelson Mandela during his many years in South African prisons — was written by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903).  Curiously, at least according to his Wikipedia entry, Henley — who lost one of his legs to disease as a boy — inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to create the character of Long John Silver (in Treasure Island, 1883),... Read more

    An important observation from the redoubtable Jeff Lindsay:   “He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken: Hugh Nibley”   ***   I found this both interesting and moving.  If you have eight minutes, please take a look:   “Watch: How a Former NFL Player’s Powerful Testimony Helped Bring a Temple to Philadelphia”   ***   Tad Walch writes interesting articles generally, and his coverage of President Russell M. Nelson’s ministry tour of the Pacific was, as expected, very good.... Read more

    Matthew 27:3-10   According to the gospel of John, Judas hanged himself out of remorse after his betrayal of Jesus.  (The “field of blood” mentioned is still visible — its traditional site, anyway — from the grounds of the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.)   Nevertheless, Judas is generally viewed by Latter-day Saints — and not without good reason (see, for example, John 17:12) — as the very model of an unredeemable “son... Read more

    For this second installment of my two-part “series,” I share a passage from a manuscript still in progress:   From its earliest days, Israel has felt itself linked to a par­ticular piece of land. This is important for many reasons. For one thing, much of the story of Israel recounts its efforts to acquire the land in the first place, along with the warnings of the prophets about losing it and the dream after one exile or another... Read more

    I am, I suppose, in a melancholy mood.  “All real life is meeting,” said the great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber.  “Alles wirkliche Leben ist Begegnung.”  (Another way of rendering the German would be “All actual life is encounter.”)   This is true, I guess.  And we can hope that, in the end, it’s ultimately and supremely true.   In the meanwhile, though, and pending that glorious day, real life is also parting.   My wife and I said... Read more

    Matthew 26:57-68 Mark 14:53-65 Luke 22:54-71 John 18:13-24 Compare Matthew 26:55, 67-75; 27:1-2; Mark 14:49, 65-72; 15:1; Luke 19:47; 22:53, 63-65; John 2:19; 18:25-27   My longtime friend and colleague John W. Welch, who is not only a professor of law but a superb scholar of the Bible and antiquity, has published several items about the trial of Jesus.  See the list here, for example.     Matthew 26:69-75 Mark 14:66-72 John 18:25-27 Compare Luke 22:56-72; John 18:15-18... Read more

    “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”   That quotation, often (but probably incorrectly) attributed to the former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, has been on my mind a bit over the past few days, since I posted my entry “John Gee’s good news.”   In response to that little post of mine, which was written fairly carefully to avoid reigniting any long-simmering controversy between those who founded the Maxwell Institute (formerly the Foundation... Read more

      I’ve found myself thinking today about how geography has influenced the history of, respectively, England and Israel.   To make my point about the first, I can do no better than to quote the famous words spoken by the dying John of Gaunt in William Shakespeare’s Richard II (Act II, Scene 1), which refer to the isolated position enjoyed by the British Isles, separated from Europe by the English Channel and the North Sea:   This royal... Read more

    Matthew 26:47-56 Mark 14:43-52 Luke 22:47-53 John 18:2-12 Compare John 17:12; 18:20, 36   1.   The fact that Judas needed to identify Jesus (ironically, with a kiss) for those who had been sent to arrest the Savior demonstrates that Jesus didn’t have an unusual appearance.  He didn’t, for example, habitually levitate six inches off the ground, or glow, or wear luminescent white robes.   This is obvious, of course, when we think about it.  But I mention it... Read more

    I published the column below in the Deseret News for 5 April 2018:   “The singing of hymns,” President Dallin H. Oaks, the first counselor in the LDS Church’s First Presidency, observed in “Worship through Music,” “is one of the best ways to learn the doctrine of the restored gospel.” And, indeed, Latter-day Saint hymn lyrics, taken altogether, summarize essential church teachings remarkably well. Located at the very core of regular Mormon worship, they provide an instructive and... Read more