Audio podcast of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture

This is a video of Bart J. Kowallis's presentation on "From All Eternity to All Eternity: Deep Time and the Gospel" at the Science & Mormonism: Cosmos, Earth & Man symposium which took place on November 9, 2013.

This is Scripture Roundtable 100 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #2, “My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord,” focusing on scriptures in Luke 1 and Matthew 1.

This is Scripture Roundtable 99 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the New Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #1, “That Ye Might Believe That Jesus Is the Christ,” focusing on scriptures in Isaiah 61, JST Luke 3, John 1 and 20.

This is Scripture Roundtable 98 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #48, “The Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord,” focusing on scriptures in Zechariah 10-14, and Malachi.

The names Mary and Mormon most plausibly derive from the Egyptian word mr(i), “love, desire, [or] wish.” Mary denotes “beloved [i.e., of deity]” and is thus conceptually connected with divine love, while Mormon evidently denotes “desire/love is enduring.” The text of the Book of Mormon manifests authorial awareness of the meanings of both names, playing on them in multiple instances. Upon seeing Mary (“the mother of God,” 1 Nephi 11:18, critical text) bearing the infant Messiah in her arms in vision, Nephi, who already knew that God “loveth his children,” came to understand that the meaning of the fruit-bearing tree of life “is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore it is the most desirable above all things” (1 Nephi 11:17-25). Later, Alma the Elder and his people entered into a covenant and form a church based on “love” and “good desires” (Mosiah 18:21, 28), a covenant directly tied to the waters of Mormon: Behold here are the waters of Mormon … and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God … if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized …?”; “they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts” (Mosiah 18:8-11). Alma the Younger later recalled the “song of redeeming love” that his father and others had sung at the waters of Mormon (Alma 5:3-9, 26; see Mosiah 18:30). Our editor, Mormon, who was himself named after the land of Mormon and its waters (3 Nephi 5:12), repeatedly spoke of charity as “everlasting love” or the “pure love of Christ [that] endureth forever” (Moroni 7:47-48; 8:16-17; 26). All of this has implications for Latter-day Saints or “Mormons” who, as children of the covenant, must endure to the end in Christlike “love” as Mormon and Moroni did, particularly in days of diminishing faith, faithfulness, and love (see, e.g., Mormon 3:12; contrast Moroni 9:5).

A review of Blake T. Ostler, Fire on the Horizon: A Meditation on the Endowment and Love of Atonement. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013, 119 pages + subject and scripture indices.

A review of Blake T. Ostler, Fire on the Horizon: A Meditation on the Endowment and Love of Atonement. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013, 119 pages + subject and scripture indices.

Review of “Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony,” Jeremy Runnells, April 2013, Updated February 23, 2014. 83 pages. http://cesletter.com/Letter-to-a-CES-Director.pdf. Abstract: In his Letter to a CES Director, Jeremy Runnells explains how a year of obsessive investigation brought about the loss of his testimony. In an LDS FAQ, LDS blogger Jeff Lindsay deals with all of the same questions, and has done so at least twenty years and has not only an intact testimony, but boundless enthusiasm. What makes the difference? In the parable of the Sower, Jesus explained that the same seeds (words) can generate completely different harvests, ranging from nothing to a hundred-fold increase, all depending on the different soil and nurture. This essay looks at how different expectations and inquiries for translation, prophets, key scriptural passages on representative issues can lead to very different outcomes for investigators.

To many outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (and to some of its members), the Church’s teachings and practices appear not only socially and experientially constraining, but intellectually restrictive as well, given its centralized system of doctrinal boundary maintenance and its history of sometimes sanctioning members who publicly dissent from its teachings. Do these practices amount to a constraint of intellectual freedom? This essay argues that they do not, and offers several possible explanations for the commonly-asserted position that they do.

This is Scripture Roundtable 75 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #25, “Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord,” focusing on scriptures in Psalms.

In this brief note, I will suggest several instances in which the Book of Mormon prophet Enos utilizes wordplay on his own name, the name of his father “Jacob,” the place name “Peniel,” and Jacob’s new name “Israel” in order to connect his experiences to those of his ancestor Jacob in Genesis 32-33, thus infusing them with greater meaning. Familiarity with Jacob and Esau’s conciliatory “embrace” in Genesis 33 is essential to understanding how Enos views the atonement of Christ and the ultimate realization of its blessings in his life.

This is a video of John S. Lewis' presentation on "The Scale of Creation in Space and Time" at the Science & Mormonism: Cosmos, Earth & Man symposium which took place on November 9, 2013.

This is Scripture Roundtable 74 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #24, “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” focusing on scriptures in 2 Samuel 11-12, and Psalm 51.

This is Scripture Roundtable 73 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #23, “The Lord Be Between Thee and Me For Ever,” focusing on scriptures in 1 Samuel 18-20, 23-24.

The 1921 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants included an additional comma, which was inserted after the word “used” in D&C 89:13: “And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.” Later authors have speculated that the addition of the comma was a mistake that fundamentally changed the meaning of the verse. This article examines this “errant comma theory” and demonstrates why this particular interpretation of D&C 89:13 is without merit.