1. Most scholars don’t believe that Moses wrote the five books of Moses. Moses never claims to have written them (within the text) and there are things that happen in them that Moses couldn’t have written (his death being the most important of these). So, they don’t call them the Five Books of Moses. Instead, most Christian scholars call these books the Pentateuch (greek for “five books”) and most Jewish Scholars call these books the Torah (Hebrew for “instruction”). People... Read more
I believe in uncorrelated hymns. This post is a personal reflection about one of my favorites. February is the Year’s obituary in my life, which seems strange, given that my own birthday falls on the first of that month. Of course, I celebrate the death of the old year and birth of the new between December 31 and January 1 with the rest of the Gregorian collective. But every year it seems like I personally feel the real death in... Read more
David L. is currently working on his dissertion at University of St. Andrews in Biblical Studies under the direction of Dr. James Davila. David graciously agreed to be interviewed about his dissertation research. David and I recently had a great exchange on how to interpret ancient biblical temple practices in relation to modern LDS temple rites. That exchange stands independent from some of the research that David is pursuing here and we thought our readers would like to learn more... Read more
The voices of inequality and brutal Social Darwinistic capitalism have enjoyed a resurgence on the bloggernacle…even and including attacks on the character of the poor. While I am not surprised to hear these things, like Brother Nibley, they sadden and sicken me. Also, today I am teaching in Elder’s Quorum about Work and Responsibility. I will be mentioning Brother Nibley (fitting since I incorporated Kant last week). I have recently invited Brother Nibley back from the dead to re-post, in... Read more
In 1846 Abraham Lincoln wrote the following about his religious outlook: To the Voters of the Seventh Congressional District. FELLOW CITIZENS: A charge having got into circulation in some of the neighborhoods of this District, in substance that I am an open scoffer at Christianity, I have by the advice of some friends concluded to notice the subject in this form. That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth... Read more
In 1858 Edward Tullidge wrote to Brigham Young to volunteer himself as the epic chronicler of the Restoration. The off-and-on again British convert to Mormonism enthusiasticaly described his fifteen-thousand-line epic style biography of Joseph Smith, “The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century.” He compared his work to Homer and John Milton and promised more to come.1 Evidently, Tullidge never completed the project.2 Fortunately, however, one chapter was published in The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star in January 1858. I located a scanned... Read more
David L., who recently joined M*, and I have been having a really wonderful conversation about methodologies of interpretation and comparison. My response got too long, and so I thought it would be better to put up as a full post of its own. At issue, I believe, is how LDS should understand themselves and their relationship to the ancient world, David and I representing two different approaches that are currently wrestling for primacy in LDS scholarship more generally. Let... Read more
Debate over spiritual gifts is about as old as the first New Testament passage describing them. Paul’s discourse and description of the gifts in 1 Corinthians is a response to the first-century Church’s turmoil over the nature and practice of these gifts. The Montanist heresy is evidence of continued confusion in the second and third century. From references found in Eusebius and others we learn that one of the greatest arguments between Montanists and the Church in Asia Minor was... Read more
1. The biblical, or so-called “canonical,” prophets–those whom we tend to consider the prophets–in many instances (e.g., Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea) are not called prophets (Hebrew nabi’) in the superscriptions to their books, or elsewhere, and indeed probably would have rejected this label for themselves. For instance, in a third person biographical narrative about Amos, he rejects the Bethel priest Amaziah’s suggestion that he is a nabi’ (See Amos 7:10-17; cf. Hosea 9:7; Micah 3). This is because… (more…) Read more
Four years ago we launched a “Ten Tidbits” Series that sought to introduce some basic information about scriptural texts assumed by scholars, but not necessarily well known by Latter-day Saints. The goal was to introduce these points as the results of close readings that could lead to a more accurate understanding of the scriptural texts for LDS readers. I’d like to continue that series with a more focused look not at entire books of scripture, but smaller portions. Some of... Read more
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