This is the column that I published last year just prior to the anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865617930/A-modern-witness-to-the-baby-born-in-Bethlehem.html   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     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.     Read more

    I suspect that most of my readers live in the American West.  It’s easy to imagine exciting archaeological discoveries in, for example, the exotic Middle East.  But the Western United States can provide interesting archaeological material, as well.  And, it seems, did so in 2015:   http://westerndigs.org/top-5-archaeology-discoveries-in-the-american-west-in-2015/   Posted from Richmond, Virginia (where there’s also a bit of history and prehistory) Read more

    Matthew 28:16-20 Compare Mark 16:14-18; John 14:23   1.   It’s difficult to imagine that “some doubted” even in the presence of the resurrected Lord.  But the fact of death is so universally well known and so widely understood as definitive, and wishful thinking so generally understood to be a dangerous spur to error, that some still wondered whether it was all too good to be true.  So much, I suppose, for the complacent modern notion that ancient... Read more

    On 7 August 2014, the Mormon Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein addressed that year’s annual FairMormon conference regarding the Book of Abraham.  A transcript of his remarks is accessible online:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2014-fairmormon-conference/book-abraham-unnoticed-assumptions   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Here’s another sentimental favorite of mine from German-speaking Europe.  The melody stems from a medieval Latin song, and the German lyrics seem to have been written by a monk in Salzburg, Austria:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M3P8PUTmRM   Joseph, lieber Joseph mein,hilf mir wiegen mein Kindlein.Gott, der wird dein Lohner seinim Himmelreich, der Jungfrau Sohn Maria.Eia!  Eia!Gerne, liebe Maria mein,helf ich dir wiegen das Kindelein.Gott, der wird mein Lohner seinim Himmelreich, der Jungfrau Sohn Maria.Eia! Eia!Freu dich nun, o Christenschar,der himmlische... Read more

    I’d like to take a pause from the frenzied “Smithmas” festivities that are currently engulfing my family and, no doubt, Mormon families all around the world to remind my LDS readers that today is Joseph Smith’s birthday.   (In my family, thus far, we’ve marked the occasion by eating breakfast and taking the dogs for a walk, and, soon, we’re going shopping.  I also intend to celebrate by grading some student papers, eating lunch, and eating dinner.)  ... Read more

    A fun little short video (less than two minutes) illustrating some shared vocabulary:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxYrHqw3mJo   The languages are really quite unrelated — one Indo-European and the other Semitic — but there’s been a lot of vocabulary-borrowing.  After all, Arabs occupied substantial portions of the Iberian Peninsula from AD 711 to AD 1492.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia   Read more

    A wonderful, thought-provoking, Christmas-related video, under four minutes in length:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ-JuJZTpVE   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    An interesting (and not too long) series of brief interviews with the man-on-the-street.   Be advised that there is one f-bomb clearly audible in the original Dutch and visible in the translated subtitles.   Nonetheless, this is an interesting (and revealing) little experiment, worth a quick watch:   http://www.fastcocreate.com/3054407/this-prank-presents-bible-verses-as-quran-passages-to-make-a-smart-point   Posted from Richmond, Virginia   Read more