Audio podcast of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture

This is Scripture Roundtable 146 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Lesson #2, All Things According to His Will, focusing on scriptures in 1 Nephi 1-5, and 7

This is Scripture Roundtable 145 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Lesson #1, The Keystone of Our Religion, focusing on scriptures in 1 Nephi 13, 19, 2 Nephi 25, 27, Mormon 8, Ether 5, Moroni 1, 10, and D&C 10, 20, 84.

This is Scripture Roundtable 144 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #46, “He Will Dwell with Them, and They Shall Be His People,” focusing on scriptures in Revelation 5-6, 19-22.

This is Scripture Roundtable 143 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #45, “He That Overcometh Shall Inherit All Things,” focusing on scriptures in Revelation 1-3, and 12.

This is Scripture Roundtable 142 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #44, “God Is Love,” focusing on scriptures in 1 John 1-5, 2 John, and 3 John.

This is Scripture Roundtable 141 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #43, “A Chosen Generation,” focusing on scriptures in 1 Peter 1-4, 2 Peter 1-3, and Jude.

Mormon, as an author and editor, was concerned to show the fulfillment of earlier Nephite prophecy when such fulfillment occurred. Mormon took care to show that Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, fulfilled their father’s prophetic and paranetic expectations regarding them as enshrined in their given names — the names of their “first parents.” It had been “said and also written” (Helaman 5:6-7) that Nephi’s and Lehi’s namesakes were “good” in 1 Nephi 1:1. Using onomastic play on the meaning of “Nephi,” Mormon demonstrates in Helaman 8:7 that it also came to be said and written of Nephi the son of Helaman that he was “good.” Moreover, Mormon shows Nephi that his brother Lehi was “not a whit behind him” in this regard (Helaman 11:19). During their lifetimes — i.e., during the time of the fulfillment of Mosiah’s forewarning regarding societal and political corruption (see Mosiah 29:27) that especially included secret combinations — Nephi and Lehi stood firm against increasingly popular organized evil.

Review of Duane Boyce, Even Unto Bloodshed: An LDS Perspective on War (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2015). 312 pp., including appendices and index. $29.95. Abstract: Even Unto Bloodshed: An LDS Perspective of War by Duane Boyce is a thorough and engrossing philosophical discussion describing the failure of secular and spiritual pacifism. Boyce provides a detailed summary of secular views regarding just war and pacifism, and systematic rebuttals of almost every major pacifist thinker in LDS thought. The text is far more brief describing the LDS theory of just war, but remains an essential resource for creating that theory.

The brass plates version of Isaiah 2:2, as contained in 2 Nephi 12:2, contains a small difference, not attested in any other pre-1830 Isaiah witness, that not only helps clarify the meaning but also ties the verse to events of the Restoration. The change does so by introducing a Hebraism that would have been impossible for Joseph Smith, the Prophet, to have produced on his own.

Soon after the appearance of my Interpreter review of Jeremy Runnells’ Letter to a CES Director, he promised to provide his personal response. Although this response has not yet appeared, he did post an essay called “The Sky is Falling” by his friend Johnny Stephenson. After I read the essay closely in May, I realized that it provides, however unintentionally, a valuable set of discussion points with illustrative examples. My response begins with some preliminaries, surveys essential background issues concerning facts, ideology, and cognitive dissonance, and then addresses his historical arguments regarding the first vision and priesthood restoration accounts.

Review of: Jack R. Lundbom, Biblical Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism. Hebrew Bible Monographs 45 (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013), 354 pp., $130.00. Roland Meynet, Rhetorical Analysis: An Introduction to Biblical Rhetoric. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 256 (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 392 pp., $200.00. Abstract: There is now a growing consensus that the eighth and seventh centuries produced a distinctive Hebrew rhetoric that enabled writers, even down into New Testament times, to use both words and structures to communicate with readers in ways that have been largely invisible to modern Western interpreters. In this essay, the efforts of two leaders of this movement in Biblical studies to explain and defend their respective versions of this developing approach are reviewed.

“A Temple Studies Bibliography,” located on the Academy for Temple Studies website (http://www.templestudies.org/home/introduction-to-a-temple-studies-bibliography/), boasts over 8,000 entries focused on ancient temples from the Mediterranean and the Near East and modern expressions of temple building and worship, primarily in the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) community. This review details the bibliography’s extensive strengths and comprehensive nature, identifies current limitations that will be resolved with full release of the resource, suggests future improvements, and gives examples of how this bibliography can be used to enhance scholarship in the growing field of temple studies.

One of the primary identities of the Temple is that it is the place of hashra’at ha-shekhinah, the site at which God’s presence is most manifest. It is no surprise then, that the Temple is the focal point of prayer. Yet, as the site at which God’s presence is most intimately manifest, the Temple is also the center of the nation in several major spheres of collective life. This centrality is exhibited in the structure of the Book of Deuteronomy. Chapters 12-26 depict commandments that are to be the social and religious frame of life in the land of Israel. Within this section the central shrine, “the place in which God shall establish His name,” is mentioned nearly twenty times. The Temple is cast as the center for sacrifices (ch. 12), the consumption of tithes (14:23-25), the celebration of the festivals (ch. 16), and the center of the judicial system (ch. 17). In this chapter we will explore how the Temple constitutes the national center for social unity, education, and justice. The concentration of activity and jurisdiction at the Temple, however, renders it prone to abuse, and in the second half of this chapter, we will probe the social and religious ills that emerged as an endemic part of the Temple’s existence.

This is a presentation given at the conference entitled 2015 Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon, which took place on 14 March 2015 in Provo, Utah.

This is Scripture Roundtable 140 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #42, “Pure Religion” focusing on scriptures in James 1-5.