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<\/a>(Wikimedia CC public domain photo by Gordon Hatton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I published this column early this morning in Meridian Magazine<\/em>:\u00a0 \u201cProminent Lutheran Leader has \u201cHoly Envy\u201c for Baptisms for the Dead\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And two new articles went up at noon today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dance of Reader and Text: Salom\u00e9, the Daughter of Jared, and the Regal Dance of Death,\u201d<\/a> written by Alan Goff<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Modern readers too often and easily misread modern assumptions into ancient texts. One such notion is that when the reader encounters repeated stories in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Herodotus, or numerous other texts, the obvious explanation that requires no supporting argument is that one text is plagiarizing or copying from the other. Ancient readers and writers viewed such repetitions differently. In this article, I examine the narratives of a young woman or girl dancing for a king with the promise from the ruler that whatever the dancer wants, she can request and receive; the request often entails a beheading. Some readers argue that a story in Ether 8 and 9, which has such a dance followed by a decapitation, is plagiarized from the gospels of Mark and Matthew: the narrative of the incarceration and death of John the Baptist. The reader of such repeated stories must study with a mindset more sympathetic to the conceptual world of antiquity in which such stories claim to be written. Biblical and Book of Mormon writers viewed such repetitions as the way God works in history, for Nephi asserts that \u201cthe course of the Lord is one eternal round\u201d (1 Nephi 10:19), a claim he makes barely after summarizing his father\u2019s vision of the tree of life, a dream he will repeat, expand upon, and make his own in 1 Nephi chapters 11\u201315 (and just because it is developed as derivative from his father\u2019s dream in some way, no reader suggests it be taken as a plagiaristic borrowing). Nephi\u2019s worldview is part of the shared mental system illustrated by his eponymous ancestor \u2014 Joseph, who gave his name to the two tribes of Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh, the latter through which Lehi traced his descent (Alma 10:3) \u2014 for youthful Joseph boasts two dreams of his ascendance over his family members, interprets the two dreams of his fellow inmates, and articulates the meaning of Pharaoh\u2019s two dreams, followed by his statement of meaning regarding such\u00a0repetitions: \u201cAnd for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass\u201d (Genesis\u00a041:32).<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: Plagiarizing Salom\u00e9?<\/a>\u201d written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cThe Dance of Reader and Text: Salom\u00e9, the Daughter of Jared, and the Regal Dance of Death<\/a>\u201d by Alan Goff in Volume 57 of\u00a0Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. An introduction to the Interpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>\u00a0series is available at\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0 Goff addresses the charge that Ether\u2019s story of a young woman dancing for Akish represents plagiarism of Salom\u00e9 dancing for Herod Antipas in Mark. He shows how many of the themes present in Salom\u00e9\u2019s narrative allude to even more ancient tales from Persia, Greece, Rome, and the Old Testament. Goff suggests that these consistent details do not mean that these stories are pure folklore, and that they\u2019re best understood in the backdrop of ancient literary practice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This is a worthwhile little essay, and the John Ciardi poem cited in it is a gem:\u00a0 \u201cThe blessings of age \u2014 Elder Holland\u2019s essay on the First Presidency:\u00a0Elder Jeffrey R. Holland describes the maturity and judgment of Presidents Nelson, Oaks and Eyring\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I was pleased to see notice of this National Review<\/em> podcast featuring my friend Dr. Mark Skousen<\/a>, in whose spectacular annual libertarian FreedomFest gatherings I\u2019ve been able to participate on perhaps half a dozen previous occasions:\u00a0 \u201cThe Legacy of Adam Smith\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I look forward to listening to it.\u00a0 And Mark has a new article out in National Review<\/em> that is closely related to the topic of the podcast:\u00a0 \u201cHow Much of Adam Smith\u2019s Hand is Still Visible?\u00a0 Three hundred years after his birth, the influence of the father of economics lives on.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Unfortunately, I won\u2019t be able to be there for this year\u2019s FreedomFest<\/a>, which will be held in Memphis, Tennessee, on 12-15 July 2023.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve always enjoyed them, and I like to think that, when I have<\/em> participated in them, the damage that I\u2019ve done to them hasn\u2019t been terribly severe.<\/p>\n And, by the way, this summer should see the publication of There Were Giants in the Land: Episodes in the Life of W. Cleon Skousen<\/em>, compiled and edited by Jo Ann and Mark Skousen.\u00a0 (Mark is a nephew of Cleon Skousen, and Jo Ann<\/a> is Mark\u2019s very accomplished wife.)\u00a0 I\u2019m quoted on the back cover of the new book as follows:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to overstate how big a name W. Cleon Skousen was when I was growing up in southern California. His books were widely read and his views on religious history and doctrine \u2014 to say nothing of political issues \u2014 carried considerable weight.\u00a0 This new compilation affords a look into the mind and personality of one of the more consequential lay Latter-day Saints of the twentieth century \u2014 an author whose influence continues to echo into the twenty-first.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a>