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A new article went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Words of Gad the Seer: An Apparently Ancient Text With Intriguing Origins and Content,\u201d<\/a> written by Jeff Lindsay<\/a><\/p>\n Review of Meir Bar-Ilan,\u00a0Words of Gad the Seer\u00a0<\/em>(Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Publishing, 2016); Christian Israel,\u00a0The Words of Gad the Seer: Bible Cross-Reference Edition<\/em>\u00a0(self-published, 2020); and Ken Johnson,\u00a0Ancient Book of Gad the Seer: Referenced in 1 Chronicles 29:29 and Alluded to in 1 Corinthians 12:12 and Galatians 4:26<\/em>\u00a0(self-published, 2016).<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>A long-overlooked Hebrew document from an ancient Jewish colony in Cochin, India, purports to contain the words of Gad the Seer. Professor Meir Bar-Ilan has translated the text into English and has stirred interest in the fascinating document. At least two other English translations are also now available. Here we examine the story of the coming forth of the text and some issues of possible interest to Latter-day Saints, including some of Bar-Ilan\u2019s insights in evaluating the antiquity of disputed texts. Bar-Ilan\u2019s translation of this intriguing document and his related publications may be valuable for anyone with an interest in the Hebrew scriptures and ancient Judaism.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Good reading at Christmas time?\u00a0 \u201cAgainst the \u201cJesus\u201d of the Journalists\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Readable, with scholarly backing, well-organized, and relatively short, Brant Pitre\u2019s \u201cThe Case for Jesus\u201d is a handbook\u00a0for Christians faced with the academic-journalistic war on Jesus\u2019 lordship at Christmas. It cannot give faith of itself, but it does what the best works of apologetics do: It clears away intellectual objections and provides a balanced and reasonable account of the evidence that Jesus is neither liar, lunatic, nor the subject of tall tales.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here is a newspaper column that I wrote for Christmas 2014:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jesus wasn\u2019t born on December 25.\u00a0 Pretty much everybody knows that.\u00a0 But the precise date of his birth scarcely matters, compared to the sheer fact that he was, in fact, born.<\/span><\/p>\n The notion that Jesus is merely mythical, that no historical Jesus ever actually existed, has gained surprising traction among non-scholars over the past decade or two, especially in certain vocally atheist circles.<\/span><\/p>\n In an early-2014 interview (http:\/\/christian-agnostic.blogspot.com\/2014\/01\/0-0-1-1963-11194-student-93-26-13131-14.html), Princeton Theological Seminary\u2019s Dale Allison, one of the most prominent New Testament scholars now working, suggested that \u201cthe recent resurgence of the mythical point of view . . . may be driven in part by the internet. In the past, most of the gatekeepers of the discipline\u2014acquisitions editors\u2014wouldn\u2019t have been interested in the topic. The internet, for better and worse, has changed this. It\u2019s now possible for a movement to make itself felt independently of the big publishers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s surely right.\u00a0 As he also is, I suspect, in commenting that, \u201cif I may presume to speak for the scholarly community, my guess is that most New Testament scholars are more annoyed than anything by the renewed debate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That annoyance is plainly visible in Maurice Casey\u2019s 2013 book \u201cJesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths\u201d (http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0567447626\/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1<\/a>).\u00a0 Casey, who was Emeritus Professor of New Testament Languages and Literature at Britain\u2019s University of Nottingham when he died in May 2014 following a lengthy illness, had been, as he himself said, completely irreligious since his twentieth year.\u00a0 Nonetheless, he devoted his last book\u2014which has been gently described as \u201cfeisty\u201d and \u201cspirited\u201d\u2014to countering the claim that Jesus is an invented fictional character.<\/span><\/p>\n And I\u2019ve already written in this space about the prolific New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (http:\/\/www.deseretnews.com\/article\/765589224\/An-agnostics-argument-that-Jesus-did-exist.html?pg=all<\/a>).\u00a0 Although he describes himself as \u201can agnostic with atheist leanings,\u201d he was astonished to realize, only recently, how widespread the view has become that Jesus is myth, not history, and felt himself compelled to write a book firmly answering Yes to the question \u201cDid Jesus Exist?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Latter-day Saints, of course, are blessed with modern revelation confirming both Jesus\u2019 historical existence and his divinity.\u00a0 We\u2019re not left to sift through fragmentary, disputed ancient texts hoping to draw provisional inferences.\u00a0 The Book of Mormon, for example, corroborates many of the details of Christ\u2019s life, including his miraculous birth, miracles, atoning death, and resurrection.<\/span><\/p>\n Among the fundamental beliefs separating Christianity from its Jewish and Muslim sister faiths is the conviction that the Lord of heaven became incarnate (literally, \u201cenfleshed\u201d) and dwelt among us\u2014\u201cthat God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:19).\u00a0 \u201cFor God so loved the world,\u201d testifies the gospel of John, \u201cthat he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life\u201d (John 3:16).<\/span><\/p>\n