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<\/a>Newly posted today on the completely stagnant website of the Interpreter Foundation \u2014 which, I read just this morning, is largely if not completely focused on me, my toxic personality, my vanity, and my self-promotion: \u00a0\u201cAbraham the Astronomer,\u201d Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition<\/em><\/a>, written by Stephen O. Smoot<\/a>. \u00a0I had long hoped that my use of the pseudonyms Abraham<\/em>, Stephen O. Smoot<\/em>, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw<\/em>, John S. Thompson<\/em>, Matthew L. Bowen<\/em>, and David R. Seely<\/em> would remain unnoticed, but it seems that my luck has run out:<\/p>\n Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition<\/em>, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, and David R. Seely. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/abraham-and-his-family<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOne notable element of the Book of Abraham is the book\u2019s depiction of the patriarch Abraham as an astronomer. The third chapter opens with this detail: \u201cAnd I, Abraham, had the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord my God had given unto me, in Ur of the Chaldees; and I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it\u201d (Abraham 3:1\u20132). Abraham\u2019s narrative describes a survey of celestial bodies, including stars, the sun, the moon, and a significant star or planet called Kolob, which is positioned near God\u2019s throne (vv. 3\u20134, 9, 16).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Also new on the perpetually unchanging Interpreter Foundation website: Come, Follow Me<\/em> \u2014 Old Testament Study and Teaching Helps (2026): March 30-April 5: Easter \u2014 <\/a>\u201cHe Will Swallow Up Death in Victory.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>Once again, under my heretofore secret pseudonym Jonn Claybaugh<\/em>, I provide a concise set of notes for students and teachers of the Come, Follow Me<\/em> curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n In preparation for our ongoing Becoming Brigham<\/em> series<\/a>, and in generating content for it, we have conducted numerous interviews with scholars and experts in areas relevant to the story of Brigham Young and the emergence of the Twelve that we\u2019re trying to tell. \u00a0And we continue<\/em> to conduct and film such interviews. \u00a0Typically, these interviews last an hour or two, or even perhaps longer. \u00a0Then, though, we can only use a few minutes from each of the interviews in our finished product. \u00a0(In most cases, episodes of Becoming Brigham<\/em> have run between ten and fifteen minutes in length.)<\/p>\n At the end of each interview, I\u2019ve thought to myself how much good material we had heard and I\u2019ve regretted how little of it we would actually be able to use<\/em>. \u00a0Commonly, I\u2019ve also thought that what we had envisioned as a single episode might now need to be expanded into a two- or three-part installment, and I\u2019ve commiserated with Mark Goodman<\/a>, our director and principal writer, at the daunting task of selection that perpetually confronts him.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one of the reasons for the fact that what we had initially envisioned as a series of fifty-two weekly episodes will now likely stretch out to approximately seventy<\/em> or seventy-five<\/em> episodes.<\/p>\n Even so, though, most of the interview material that we\u2019ve gathered will not be included in our series installments but will remain, rather, \u201con the cutting-room floor\u201d (as they used to say when the process involved the physical cutting of physical film).<\/p>\n Troubled by this, and aware of the fact that, in these interviews, we\u2019ve gathered a great deal of interesting and valuable material from leading historians and other experts, we\u2019ve decided to make full (\u201clong-form\u201d) transcripts and full audiotapes of the interviews available. \u00a0These will begin to go up fairly soon, probably on both the Interpreter Foundation website<\/a> and the becomingbrigham.com page<\/a>. \u00a0These will be only lightly edited, mostly to remove film-crew instructions and a few other such extraneous interruptions. \u00a0The audio recordings and transcripts will, I hope, be of value to people who want to take a deeper dive into the issues that we\u2019re treating and even, very possibly, to future historians.<\/p>\n With the help of Russ Richins<\/a>, I spent part of yesterday afternoon recording voice-over introductions and the like for the forthcoming \u201clong-form\u201d audio versions of four of these interviews, with LaJean Purcell Carruth<\/a>, Sam Weston<\/a>, Susan Easton Black<\/a>, and Matt Grow<\/a>.<\/p>\n I said \u2014 on Sunday I believe \u2014 that I was going to try to extend the Easter season in advance of it by sharing relevant music and poetry and other such things every day in the lead-up to the holiday. \u00a0I was distracted by other matters yesterday, but I\u2019m repentant and I now resume my effort:<\/p>\n So perhaps it\u2019s time again for one of my favorite poems.<\/p>\n I\u2019m very fond of the excellent second-tier English poet A. E. Housman (d. 1936), who, in addition to writing such works as \u201cTo an athlete dying young,\u201d<\/a> from A Shropshire Lad<\/em>, was a distinguished classical scholar at the University of Cambridge. \u00a0For some reason, the melancholy mood of many of his poems speaks to me. \u00a0I\u2019ve even made a minor pilgrimage to his grave.<\/p>\n Housman was an atheist, and sometimes a hostile one. \u00a0But he had moments of yearning. \u00a0This poem, entitled \u201cEaster Hymn,\u201d captures those feelings of longing for a belief that, in the end, he simply couldn\u2019t muster. \u00a0And who knows? \u00a0Somebody might even choose to incorporate it into remarks for this coming Sunday\u2019s Palm Sunday service:<\/p>\n If in that Syrian garden, ages slain, But if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,<\/a><\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nYou sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
\nNor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
\nAscends in smoke and fire by day and night
\nThe hate you died to quench and could but fan,
\nSleep well and see no morning, son of man.<\/p>\n
\nAt the right hand of majesty on high
\nYou sit, and sitting so remember yet
\nYour tears, your agony and bloody sweat,
\nYour cross and passion and the life you gave,
\nBow hither out of heaven and see and save.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a>