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<\/a>An article written by . . . well, written by me<\/em> has just appeared in Meridian Magazine<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cAn Important Lesson in Getting the Most Out of Conference.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 So far, the general consensus \u2014 based on a survey of me and my very kind and longsuffering wife \u2014 is that it may not be altogether the worst thing ever written on the topic. \u00a0(If you disagree, please keep your disagreement to yourself. \u00a0I\u2019m rather fragile these days, what with Barbie<\/em> failing to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and all.)<\/p>\n These articles appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Plagiary of the Daughters of the Lamanites,\u201d<\/a> written by Alan Goff<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong> Repetition is a feature of all ancient Hebraic narrative. Modern readers may misunderstand this quality of biblical and Book of Mormon narrative. Biblical and Book of Mormon writers believed that history repeated, with what happened to the ancestors happening again to their posterity. Fawn Brodie and her acolytes misapprehend Book of Mormon narrative when\u2014instead of at least provisionally granting that God might exist, can intervene in history, and tenaciously reenacts events from the past while the recorders of such repeated stories firmly believed in the historical reality of the narratives they recounted\u2014they attribute such repeated stories to Joseph Smith\u2019s imputed plagiaristic tendencies. The story of the kidnapping of the Lamanite daughters by the priests of Noah (Mosiah 20) is a recurrence of the story of the mass kidnapping of the daughters of Shiloh (Judges 21), but to attribute such similarity to plagiarism by Joseph Smith is a grand and flagrant misreading of Hebraic narrative, its persistent allusive qualities, and its repetitive historiography. Such narratives were widespread in Levantine and classical antiquity, and neither ancient historians nor modern scholars take the relationship among such analogous stories to be one of plagiarism when their antiquity is undisputed. At least one additional construal of the Book of Mormon story\u2019s meaning needs to be explored and considered against the backdrop of Hebraic narrative.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cInterpreting Interpreter<\/em>: Turns Out It\u2019s Not Plagiarism,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cThe Plagiary of the Daughters of the Lamanites<\/a>\u201d by Alan Goff in Volume 61 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. All of the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> articles may be seen at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/category\/summaries\/<\/a>. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> series is available at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong> Goff argues that the story of King Noah\u2019s priests stealing the daughters of the Lamanites is in keeping with the ancient literary practice of using and building on themes from earlier stories (i.e., the kidnapping of the daughters of Shiloh in Judges 21<\/a>), and appears to align with an ancient understanding of the nature and purpose of historical narrative.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n The public portion of the annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> opens tomorrow morning. \u00a0In that connection, there is an issue that I wish to address:<\/p>\n Some critics of the Church, including some of its own members, have occasionally expressed disappointment (and sometimes even outrage) that today\u2019s apostles bear managerial responsibilities and aren\u2019t only charismatic ministers. \u00a0But that seems always to have been the case.<\/p>\n I argued earlier here in this place that \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u1f74\u03bd, translated in the King James Bible at Acts 1:20 \u00a0as \u201cbishoprick\u201d (that is, in modern English, as \u201cbishopric\u201d), could very reasonably be rendered as \u201cstewardship.\u201d \u00a0The closely related Greek term episkopos<\/em> means \u201coverseer\u201d or \u201csuperintendent,\u201d so an episkop\u00e9<\/em> is something like \u201can area of responsibility.\u201d \u00a0In the New International Version of the New Testament, which I give below, it is translated as \u201ca place of leadership\u201d:<\/p>\n 15\u00a0In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)\u00a016\u00a0and said, \u201cBrothers and sisters,\u00a0the Scripture had to be fulfilled\u00a0in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.\u00a017\u00a0He was one of our number\u00a0and shared in our ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n 18\u00a0(With the payment\u00a0he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field;\u00a0there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.\u00a019\u00a0Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language\u00a0Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)<\/p>\n 20\u00a0\u201cFor,\u201d said Peter, \u201cit is written in the Book of Psalms:<\/p>\n \u201c\u00a0\u2018May his place be deserted;<\/p>\n let there be no one to dwell in it,\u2019<\/p>\n and,<\/p>\n \u201c\u00a0\u2018May another take his place of leadership.\u2019<\/p>\n 21\u00a0Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us,\u00a022\u00a0beginning from John\u2019s baptism\u00a0to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness\u00a0with us of his resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n 23 So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, \u201cLord, you know everyone\u2019s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.\u201d 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The point that I wish to make here is that appointment to the apostleship in the earliest Christian church, just like such appointment in today\u2019s restored Church, seems pretty clearly to entail administrative responsibilities.<\/p>\n At Acts 4:32-37<\/a> and 5:1-11<\/a>, for instance, they\u2019re deeply involved in managing the material possessions of the members of the church. \u00a0In fact, according to Acts 6:1-4<\/a>, such management became so burdensome to them that they felt impelled to call assistants to help them meet the responsibility. \u00a0Acts 10<\/a>\u00a0and Acts 15<\/a> show the apostles making crucial decisions relating to the direction to be taken by the infant Christian church. \u00a0And so forth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n As Acts 1:21-26 (quoted above) clearly shows, both Matthias and Joseph Barsabbas (or Justus) were qualified, spiritually and by personal experience, to become witnesses of Christ\u2019s resurrection. \u00a0But only one of them was to be chosen to assume responsibility for the\u00a0\u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u1f74\u03bd \u2014 the administrative or leadership position \u2014 that Judas had forfeited because of his transgression.<\/p>\n Here is some additional news from the world of religion, including an important piece written by the ever-valuable and always interesting Ryan Burge<\/a>: \u00a0\u201cThe Rise of the Non-Christian Evangelical:\u00a0Some Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists are Identifying as Evangelicals \u2013 Why?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And I found this article, in Reason, very interesting as well: \u00a0\u201cAs America Becomes More Secular, American Religion Will Need To Become More Urban:\u00a0It\u2019s in cities that greater absolute numbers of religious people can compensate for declining per capita rates of religious observance.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Also: \u00a0National Catholic Reporter<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cWhy is reporting on religion and politics so lousy?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And\u00a0Southern Baptist Convention Lost Over 1,200 Churches in 2022<\/a><\/p>\n And\u00a0\u201cCould New Hate Speech Law In Scotland Target Christians?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And, although I know nothing about Katie Pruitt and don\u2019t particularly care to know any more<\/em> about her, this<\/a> caught my notice. \u00a0It\u2019s consistent with my own impressions, and it indicates a challenge that we must seek to meet, within the bounds the Lord has set, as well as we are able:<\/p>\n \u201cA recent survey<\/a> from the Public Religion Research Institute found that 11% of Americans are former Catholics, a number roughly in line with other surveys<\/a>. And across all the people PRRI surveyed, 47% of those who left their religion cited \u201cnegative teaching about or treatment of gay and lesbian people\u201d in their decision.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 An article written by . . . well, written by me has just appeared in Meridian Magazine: \u00a0\u201cAn Important Lesson in Getting the Most Out of Conference.\u201d\u00a0 So far, the general consensus \u2014 based on a survey of me and my very kind and longsuffering wife \u2014 is that it may not be altogether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":32288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1821,56,37415,5139,2905,788],"class_list":["post-104591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostle","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-daughter","tag-lamanite","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a>\n
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