The week-to-week functioning of the Interpreter Foundation owes a very great deal to the volunteer efforts of Allen Wyatt, who currently serves as a member of our Board of Trustees, as our Vice President of Operations, and as the managing editor of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. Last night, I received distressing news regarding his son Eric, who is experiencing a sudden and severe health crisis. (For whatever little it might be worth in... Read more
Video and audio recordings of the presentations that were given at the Interpreter Foundation’s recent conference on the temple are now available, at absolutely no charge, for your edification and enjoyment: 2022 Temple on Mount Zion Conference: Videos and Audio Recordings We hope that you will devote some time to them. I’m sorry to say that no recording was made of Royal Skousen’s lecture this past Saturday night on “Textual Criticism and the Book... Read more
But, first: Yesterday evening, at 7 PM Utah time, another new episode of our series of Witnesses-related video “Insights” went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 30: No Matter the Consequence If the Book of Mormon was a fraud, why would supposed insiders to such a fraud allow themselves to suffer incredible hardship and pain, why would they face down mobs and actually risk their lives to... Read more
First of all, I want to remind you yet again of Royal Skousen’s presentation — 7 PM tonight! — on “Textual Criticism and the Book of Mormon.” In a previous blog entry here a day or two ago, I briefly noted the passing of Kent G. Budge, which I had absolutely not expected. I was sitting in the Paris DeGaulle airport about to catch a transatlantic flight when I received the news, and I passed it... Read more
This new little essay went up earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “When an Evident Fact Cannot Be Allowed to Be True,” written by one Daniel C. Peterson Abstract: Miracles occur relatively often in scripture, as do people who, for various reasons, want or even need to deny their occurrence. The arguments that are deployed to justify such denial haven’t changed all that much over the centuries. In fact, they’re still around... Read more
I’m deeply saddened to pass on the news, which I received only just now, that Kent Budge, a Caltech-trained computational physicist who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and who (in recent years as dCyl) commented here from time to time — very helpfully and sanely, I might add — has passed away. As I understand it, his death (on Wednesday night, I think) came as a result of complications from injuries sustained several months... Read more
WiFi on the Nile cruise boats has always been frustratingly bad. This time, it was altogether nonexistent. Here, though, is something that I put together in Aswan on Monday, 7 November and then was unable to post. I love the scenery around Aswan. As we always do when we’re here with a group, we took our people on a small boat from where our cruise ship is docked to a small Nubian village several miles to the... Read more
Several hours ago — I’m very busy in a very different time zone on the other side of the world, and I’m doing the best that I can — a new installment in the Interpreter Foundation’s series of short Witness-related “Insights” videos went up. Please take a look. They’re free. And please share them. Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 29: Women Witnesses—Why and Why Not? There are a number of unofficial witnesses of the... Read more
Preface: Kufic Arabic script is a style of writing the Arabic language. It originated very early — presumably in the city of Kufa, in Iraq — but it’s still sometimes used today. It features the same Arabic letters that are commonly used elsewhere in other script styles but, in Kufic, they’re elongated and angular. (See above.) This makes Kufic script especially well-suited for, among other things, monumental architectural inscriptions in stone. Now to an anecdote: ... Read more
Two new articles appeared just a few minutes ago in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. They are: “The Diachronic Usage of Exclamation Marks across the Major Book of Mormon Editions,” written by Scott L. Howell, Brooke Anderson, LaReina Hingson, Lanna McRae, Jesse Vincent, and Brandon Torruella Abstract: The usage of the exclamation mark has changed over time but continues to serve as an important textual interpretation aid. Punctuation itself has not been a permanent fixture in English, rather... Read more
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