![\"Oman](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/01\/612px-Oman.png\")
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The Interpreter Foundation continues to flourish, much to the disgust of at least a few vocal critics:<\/p>\n
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\u201cNephi\u2019s \u201cBountiful\u201d: Contrasting Both Candidates,\u201d<\/a> written by Warren P. Aston<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>In May 2022, George Potter published an article that makes the most comprehensive case to date that Khor Rori in southern Oman is the most likely location for the place \u201cBountiful\u201d described by Nephi. However, despite its many positives, there are a number of reasons to question the suitability of Khor Rori and to favor the other major candidate for Bountiful, Khor Kharfot. I propose that a careful reading of Nephi\u2019s account coupled with recent discoveries based on field work show Khor Kharfot to be a superior candidate meeting all criteria we can extract from the text. To support a thorough comparison, aspects of both candidates are weighed, including pictorial comparisons of key features. I am in full agreement with Potter that with the entire eastern coast of Arabia now explored, only two candidates for Bountiful remain in contention \u2014 Khor Rori and Khor Kharfot. No other location still merits serious consideration.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>:\u00a0 Comparing Bountifuls,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cNephi\u2019s \u201cBountiful\u201d: Contrasting Both Candidates<\/a>\u201d by Warren P. Aston in Volume 55 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 Aston provides a detailed comparison between Khor Rori and Khor Kharfot as candidates for Nephi\u2019s Bountiful, and suggests that, though questions remain about the suitability of Khor Kharfot, its access to wild fruit, its distinctive nearby mountain, and its easier access to potentially useful timber (among other details) make it the best available candidate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Conference Talks: \u201cPrayer with Uplifted Hands.\u201d<\/a> delivered by Stephen D. Ricks<\/a><\/p>\n This paper was presented at the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2014 Temple on Mount Zion Conference<\/em> on Saturday, 25 October 2014.\u00a0 Among other things, Professor Ricks is the co-author, with Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee, of Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 He is also the recipient of Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin, eds., Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCall for Papers: Anthology of Latter-day Saint Speeches\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Professor Richard Benjamin Crosby and Isaac James Richards are currently soliciting contributions for an anthology of speeches from Latter-day Saint history. Any scholar with a sufficient background in the humanities is welcome to submit; we invite contributions from those interested in Mormon studies, American history, rhetoric, literature, religion, theology, philosophy, textual analysis, political science, cultural studies, etc.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n According to the Book of Mormon, among the acquaintances of the prophet Lehi in Jerusalem was a man named Ishmael.\u00a0 When Lehi took his family into the wilderness, he eventually had Ishmael and his family come down and join them.\u00a0 The daughters of Ishmael eventually married the sons of Lehi, but the sons of Ishmael aligned themselves with Laman and Lemuel in their rebellion against Nephi and Lehi.\u00a0 According to 1 Nephi 16:34, Ishmael died in the wilderness and was buried at a place called Nahom.<\/p>\n With that in mind, did you miss this 2021 article in Interpreter<\/em>?<\/p>\n \u201cAn Ishmael Buried Near Nahom,\u201d<\/a> written by Neal Rappleye<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0Latter-day Saint scholars generally agree that \u201cthe place called\u2026 Nahom,\u201d where Ishmael was buried (1 Nephi 16:34) is identified as the Nihm tribal region in Yemen. Significantly, a funerary stela with the name y s1<\/sup>m\u02bf\u02bel \u2014 the South Arabian equivalent of Ishmael \u2014 was found near the Nihm region and dated to ca. 6th century\u00a0bc<\/span>. Although it cannot be determined with certainty that this is the Ishmael from the Book of Mormon, circumstantial evidence suggests that such is a possibility worth considering.<\/em><\/p>\n I was reminded of Brother Rappleye\u2019s article by something that I read in the current issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em>\u00a0(BAR):<\/p>\n It seems that, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), a papyrus inscribed with an Old Hebrew (Paleo-Hebrew) text and dating to the First Temple period has been discovered.\u00a0 (If it authentic \u2014 and, unfortunately, it\u2019s unprovenanced and may have surfaced on the antiquities market, which isn\u2019t very helpful \u2014 it is only the third Hebrew papyrus from that period that has ever been found.).\u00a0 Damaged, and containing just four lines of text, it is plainly part of a letter that contained instructions to its recipient:\u00a0 \u201cTo Ishmael, send . . . \u201d<\/p>\n Ishmael, the BAR article says, may have been an administrative official in the Kingdom of Judah.\u00a0 The request to him seems to have asked that he send commodities to the author of the letter, which initial paleographic and radiocarbon analyses date to somewhere between the late seventh century BC and the somewhere in the sixth century BC \u2014 in other words, to the very period of the Book of Mormon\u2019s own Ishmael.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying that this is<\/em> the Ishmael of the Book of Mormon.\u00a0 That\u2019s possible, I suppose, but unlikely.\u00a0 I just think it interesting to see the name attested in Judah in a document from the very time of Lehi and Ishmael.<\/p>\n See \u201cRare Old Hebrew Papyrus?\u201d in Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em> 49\/1 (Spring 2023): 15.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, here are some horrors that I may or may not already have shared with you from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u00a9:<\/p>\n \u201cChurch helps give aid to refugees in Democratic Republic of the Congo: Funding from the Church helps Catholic Relief Services and Caritas support thousands of displaced people \u2014 primarily women and girls \u2014 in war-torn province of North Kivu\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cChurch sends emergency aid after heavy rains, landslides in Brazil:\u00a0 Donated supplies and service will help victims on the north coast of S\u00e3o Paulo\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBYU study examines how missionary service helps female students find strengths, make informed career decisions\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cChurch\u2019s aid to Turkey, Syria totals more than $5 million:\u00a0 The Church is working with several organizations to send food, tents, medical supplies and clothing to earthquake victims\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHow recent research out of BYU shows its scholarship is both \u2018wide and deep\u2019: From exercise to icebergs and leopards to social media, take a look at some of the research coming out of BYU\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>