Joseph Smith spent Sunday afternoon, April 7, 1844, in a grove behind the Nauvoo Temple. There he gave a funeral sermon, which lasted for over two hours, dedicated to a loyal friend named King Follett, who had been crushed by a bucket of rocks while repairing a well.1 Known today as the King Follett Discourse and widely believed to be the Prophet’s greatest sermon,2 this address was Joseph’s most cogent and forceful presentation of his Nauvoo doctrine on the nature of God, including the ideas of a plurality of Gods and the potential of man to become as God.3 Several times in the first part of the discourse, Joseph expressed his intention to “go back to the beginning” in searching out the nature of God, and a little before midway through the sermon, he undertook a commentary on the first few words of the Hebrew Bible in support of the speech’s doctrinal positions.

This essay analyzes examples of poetry in the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Mormon that do not conform to the standards to which prose is typically confined. Each of these poems contains a syntactic device that scholars have come to identify by the term enallage (Greek for “interchange”). Rather than being a case of textual corruption or blatant error, the grammatical variance attested in these passages provides a poetic articulation of a progression from distance to proximity.

Considered by many to be a classic in LDS literature, this new edition of Abraham in Egypt [published in association with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS)] contains all the material from the first edition as well as additions from Nibley’s 1968–70 Improvement Era series “A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price.”
In 1968–70, Hugh Nibley wrote a series of articles for the Improvement Era titled “A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price.” Brother Nibley asked that some of these articles be made into chapters to be added to Abraham in Egypt. These new chapters are what constitutes the new edition; no changes were made to the original chapters. For the articles, Nibley drew from many Jewish and rabbinical sources, while his work in the first edition was based on Egyptian material.

Review of Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (1988), by Edwin B. Firmage and Richard C. Mangrum

Since their initial discovery in 1947, the ancient scrolls found in caves near the Dead Sea have stirred public curiosity. For Latter-day Saints, whose scriptural tradition speaks of sacred records to come forth in the last days, the Dead Sea Scrolls naturally give rise to questions such as:
— Are there references to Christ or Christianity in the scrolls?
— Do the scrolls contain scripture missing from the Bible?
— Is the plan of salvation attested in the scrolls?
— Do the scrolls refer to Joseph Smith or other latter-day figures?
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints succinctly deals with these and other questions on topics of particular interest to LDS readers. These topics are based on actual questions that Latter-day Saints have asked the authors as they have taught classes at Brigham Young University, shared their research at professional symposia, and spoken in other settings.

Lehi and his people understood their own times in terms of types and shadows from the past. God’s leading the family out of Jerusalem and reinstituting his covenant with Lehi in a new promised land can be understood only by comparison with the exodus and the roles of Lehi and Nephi in terms of Moses. This article identifies fourteen Mosiac themes and circumstances that Lehi invoked in his sermon recorded in 2 Nephi 1 and illustrates close parallels with these themes in Deuteronomy. Lehi may have compared himself to Moses as a rhetorical device to help his children see the divine direction behind his actions. In his final words to his children, Lehi invokes Moses’ farewell address to the Israelites. In so doing, Lehi casts himself in a role similar to that of Moses. Nephi portrays himself in similar terms on the small plates, apparently following the pattern set by his father.

Richard Lloyd Anderson is a scholars’ scholar. Among Latter-day Saints, he is dean and master of two separate fields of academic study: the New Testament and early LDS Church history. His passion for history has profoundly influenced his scholarly career; his passion for order and system has shaped his missionary work and directed him into studying law; and his love for Brigham Young University and loyalty to its mission and destiny have guided his academic path. This volume, as you can see from the table of contents, contains essays written by outstanding LDS scholars on Book of Mormon Studies, Old Testament Studies and Ancient History, and New Testament Studies and Early Christian History.

Review of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints (2000), by Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks

When a group of LDS scholars collaborated in 1994 under the auspices of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies to publish a book on the allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5, few substantial works on olive production in the ancient world existed. Now, two new archaeological books add a wealth of information to our understanding of the importance of the olive in ancient life. The first mention of the olive in the Book of Mormon is found in Lehi’s prediction of the Babylonian captivity and the coming of the Lamb of God. Lehi compared the house of Israel to an olive tree whose branches would be broken off and scattered upon all the face of the earth (1 Ne. 10:12). After being scattered,the house of Israel would be gathered and the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, would be grafted in, or come to a knowledge of the true Messiah (1 Ne. 10:14). In this passage, Lehi probably drew upon Zenos’s allegory, found on the plates of brass. In incredible horticultural detail, that allegory compares the house of Israel to an olive tree. Yet that Old World information was apparently lost among Lehi’s descendants in the New World. After the fifth chapter of Jacob, the olive is not mentioned again in the Book of Mormon.

Grand as it is, planet Earth is part of something even grander—that great plan of God. Simply summarized, the earth was created that families might be.

Some years ago I bought Margaret Barker’s The Great Angel on the last day of an annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. (On the last day of each conference, hundreds of booksellers—Cambridge and Brill being notable exceptions—sell their display copies at a fifty-percent discount, creating the Bookanalia, a book-buying frenzy among otherwise staid and boring academics that is a wonder to behold.) As I began reading through the book on the flight home, I would come across passages that made me stop and ask, “Could Barker be a Mormon?” Reading further I would conclude she probably wasn’t. But a few pages later I would again be forced to wonder, “Well, maybe she really is a Mormon.” Every Latter-day Saint I’ve talked to about Barker’s research has had a similar reaction. The truth is, however, Barker is a Methodist preacher and a past president of the Society for Old Testament Study, who has had no extensive contact with Latter-day Saints. I have long believed that Barker’s books deserved to be more widely known and read by Latter-day Saints. Kevin Christensen’s “Paradigms Regained,” the second in the ongoing series of FARMS Occasional Papers, is an excellent introduction to Barker’s works and their possible implications for Latter-day Saints.

This book presents the scholar, historian, lawyer, and general student of the Bible with a highly readable and useful handbook. First published in Jerusalem in 1964, this concise yet knowledgeable treatise remains illuminating. Its skillful organization makes it the most accessible of all introductions to biblical law. Falk’s research is grounded in historical, sociological, linguistic, and comparative data. His work yields interesting insights about technical legal terminology, vital social information behind the Israelite legal system, and broad perspectives on law among Israel’s neighbors, the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians. Alongside its discussions of homicide, torts, property, contracts, slavery, and divorce, this book includes sections on law and religion, divine judgment, collective responsibility, blasphemy, and religious elements in biblical family law. These studies make it clear that Hebrew law in biblical times cannot be understood except as an integrated system of social institutions and religious values.

In 1828, the H. and E. Phinney Company in Cooperstown, New York, published a quarto-size edition of the King James Bible. This is the version that Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used in his work when he created a new translation of the Bible. Here the author examines Joseph Smith’€™s marked-up copy of the Phinney Bible as an artifact important to Mormonism’€”some of Smith’€™s corrections and additions appear in footnotes of the Bible that Mormons use today. The author notes that the Phinney Bible’s updated language is more modern than the version of the Bible Latter-day Saints officially use (the King James), and the modernization may or may not have influenced Joseph Smith’€™s word choice in creating his translation. The author also gives biographical information on the Phinneys, describes how their Bible may have made its way into Joseph Smith’€™s hands, briefly traces the history of the English Bible in America, and describes the printing process employed by the Phinneys.

Covenant and chosenness resonate deeply in both Mormon and Jewish traditions. For both of these communities, covenant and chosenness represent enduring interpretations of scriptural texts and promises, ever-present in themes of divine worship and liturgy. The chapters of this volume written by leading scholars of both communities, debate scriptural foundations, the signs of the covenant, the development of theological ideas about covenant, and issues of inclusivity and exclusivity implied by chosenness.

When the prophet Abinadi preached repentance to the Nephites, the people were upset and turned him over to King Noah. While in the king’s presence, Abinadi explained to the king and to the priests the meaning of Isaiah’s messianic prophecies. Although they did not heed Abinadi’s teaching, modern readers of the Book of Mormon are now able to better understand the life of Jesus Christ and the key principles of the atonement through Abinadi’s teachings.

Visualizing Isaiah is a full- color book filled with beautiful photographs, maps, and charts that illuminate the words of the prophet Isaiah. Author Donald W. Parry, an expert on Isaiah and Old Testament texts, complements the book’s gorgeous graphic elements with insight into Isaiah’s world.

The serpent is often used to represent one of two things: Christ or Satan. This article synthesizes evidence from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Greece, and Jerusalem to explain the reason for this duality. Many scholars suggest that the symbol of the serpent was used anciently to represent Jesus Christ but that Satan distorted the symbol, thereby creating this paradox. The dual nature of the serpent is incorporated into the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Book of Mormon.

A FARMS symposium at BYU on Saturday, 26 January, highlighted findings from a years-long effort to collect, translate, and publish ancient accounts of the early life of the patriarch Abraham. Titled “Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham,” the free public event featured presentations by John Tvedtnes, Brian Hauglid, and John Gee, compilers and editors of a new book of the same title published by the Institute under the FARMS imprint.

Review of Donald W. Parry. Harmonizing Isaiah: Combining Ancient Sources.

**Only a selection of these chapters are available for online reading. An introduction to several key literary, cultural, linguistic, and religious connections between the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament. Since 1830, millions of people have read the Book of Mormon and studied its claims for ties with the ancient world. The Book of Mormon begins with references to Jerusalem and the Hebrew Bible. Readers often wonder to what extent the Book of Mormon reflects the literary, cultural, and religious world of ancient Israel. In the book Testaments, these and other issues are carefully addressed in a reader-friendly style. The authors, David E. Bokovoy and John A. Tvedtnes illustrate that the Book of Mormon shares much in common with the Old Testament. These exciting links provide clear evidence that the Book of Mormon and the Hebrew Bible serve as related testaments of the Savior Jesus Christ and his restored gospel.

Review of John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee, comps. and eds. Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham.

Since 1989, the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon has published review essays to help serious readers make informed choices and judgments about books and other publications on topics related to the Latter-day Saint religious tradition. It has also published substantial freestanding essays that made further contributions to the field of Mormon studies. In 1996, the journal changed its name to the FARMS Review with Volume 8, No 1. In 2011, the journal was renamed Mormon Studies Review.
Review of Hugh Nibley. Abraham in Egypt.

Includes three papers: \"Who Controls the Water? Yahweh vs. Baal\" (Fred E. Woods), \"Justice and Mercy in the Book of Deuteronomy (Is There Mercy in the Old Testament?)\" (Jared W. Ludlow) and \"Garment of Joseph: An Update\" (Brian M. Hauglid).

Most modern historians view social, economic, and political factors as the sole shaping influences of history. For other scholars, the role of divine providence in history cannot be denied and is a topic worthy of serious consideration. Last year, Latter-day Saint scholars who embrace the notion of “providential history” shared their perspectives at a symposium titled “A Latter-day Saint View of History,” held at Brigham Young University on 6–7 February 2003. Among the 21 presenters at this unique event was John W. Welch, publications director for the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, editor in chief of BYU Studies, and founder and board member of FARMS.

Review of Melodie Moench Charles. “The Mormon Christianizing of the Old Testament.” In The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture

Reprinted as “Treasures in the Heavens” in Old Testament and Related Studies, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 1, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 171–214.
A complex and rich study of the cosmology of the Christian world, which is compared to other similar sources. — Midgley. As Christianity has been deeschatologized and demythologized in our own day; so in the fourth century it was thoroughly dematerialized, and ever since then, anything smacking of “cosmism” that is, tending to associate religion with the physical universe in any way has been instantly condemned by Christian and Jewish clergy alike as paganism and blasphemy. Joseph Smith was taken to task for the crude literalism of his religion not only talking with angels like regular people but giving God the aspect attributed to Him by the primitive prophets of Israe, and, strangest of all, unhesitatingly bringing other worlds and universes into the picture. Well, some of the early Christian and Jewish writers did the same thing; this weakness in them has been explained away as a Gnostic aberration, and yet today there is a marked tendency in all the churches to support the usual bloodless abstractions and stereotyped moral sermons with a touch of apocalyptic realism, which indeed now supplies the main appeal of some of the most sensationally successful evangelists. Over a century ago, J.-P. Migne argued that the medieval legends of the Saints were far less prone to mislead the faithful than those scientifically oriented apocrypha of the Early Church, since the former were the transparent inventions of popular fantasy that could never lead thinking people astray, while the latter, by their air of factual reporting and claims to scientific plausibility, led the early Christians into all manner of extravagant speculation, drawing the faithful astray in many directions. To appreciate the strength of their own position, Latter-day Saints should not be without some knowledge of both these traditions. Since the “cosmist” doctrines have been almost completely neglected, here we offer a look at some of them.

Also called “Insights from Lehi’s Contemporaries: Solon and Jeremiah.“
Lehi and his great contemporaries started a lot of chain reactions. We don’t mention them just because they were interesting curiosities, or anything like that, but because we are still living on their capital.

Also called “Souvenirs from Lehi’s Jerusalem.“
Lehi had full baggage. Remember, his people were especially prepared to transfer the culture from one world to the other. We want to find out first what happened to Jeremiah because that’s very much in the story of Lehi. The reason we are bringing this up is that there are some marvelous documents that have appeared “out of the blue“ right from Lehi’s day.

Also called “The Days of King Zedekiah: ’There Came Many Prophets.’“
Nephi has the four qualities that Matthew Arnold attributes to Homer. The Book of Mormon has them; I don’t know anything else that has them. If you were to be asked, “What is the significance of the Lachish Letters for the Book of Mormon?“ They are immensely important.

Also called “The Book of Mormon and the Dead Sea Scrolls.“
Now we are going to talk about the Book of Mormon and the Jews in the light of the new discoveries (the Dead Sea Scrolls).

Review of Avraham Gileadi. Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven.

Review of David P. Wright. “Isaiah in the Book of Mormon: Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah.” In American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon

In “Who Controls the Water? Yahweh vs. Baal,” the lead article in Occasional Papers 4, Fred E. Woods presents a fascinating discussion of the polemical usage of water and storm language in the Deuteronomic History (the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings). As Woods notes, the most active deity at the Canaanite city of Ugarit (located in present-day Syria near the Mediterranean coast) is Baal, the god of water and storm. The strong denunciation of Baal in the Old Testament indicates that the Baal cult had deeply penetrated Israelite culture. And while scholars have long been aware of the explicit warnings against worshipping Baal, the metaphorical arguments against Baal have gone virtually unnoticed.

This collection of articles will add zest and savor to your study of the Old Testament. You will find a wide range of readings taken from the Sidney B. Sperry Symposium series. The articles in this book touch on a variety of aspects of Old Testament study. Some authors discuss the Old Testament itself, others offer explanations and interpretations, and still others use the Old Testament as a springboard to discuss Restoration theology. ISBN 1-59038-533-0

This book is a study of the text of Selections from the Book of Moses, an excerpt of Genesis from the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Commonly called the Book of Moses, it is the first section in the Pearl of Great Price, one of the standard works of scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We now have access to the revealed text itself, which we did not have before, and we can examine the words as they were recorded when they first came from the inspired lips of the Prophet. We are in a new day, a day of closer access to one of the great fruits of the Restoration—an important branch of Joseph Smith’s calling, as he designated his inspired work on the Bible. With our ability now to examine the original documents closely, we can express our thanks to a loving God who has provided that “righteousness and truth.”

Originally published in Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, 1978.
Hugh Nibley dives into the book of Isaiah and how wonderful its teachings are, though they are occasionally difficult to comprehend.

Can also be accessed at https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sba/vol2/iss1/5.
Hugh Nibley, late professor of ancient history and religion at Brigham Young University and one of the foremost scholars of the ancient world in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, discussed the Rule of the Community in an appendix to his 1975 book The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri. The Joseph Smith Papyri is an initiatory text; the Rule of the Community is both an initiatory text, enumerating details for entrance into the Essene community at Qumran, and a covenant document, listing elements in the covenant made between God and individuals entering the Essene community at Qumran. This piece is an excerpt from the appendix of his text mentioned above and outlines the various aspects of this Rule of the Community as found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QS).

Some Latter-day Saint commentators deem a phrase that appears in 2 Nephi 12:16 but not in the parallel passage in Isaiah 2:16—“and upon all ships of the sea”—as evidence that the Book of Mormon preserves a version of this verse from the brass plates that is more complete than the Hebrew or King James readings. One scholar’s conclusions in this regard are reviewed and then critiqued for ignoring the complexities of the ancient Hebrew and Greek versions of the Bible. The authors examine Isaiah 2:16 in its broader literary context, noting that the 2 Nephi reading alters a pattern of synonymous couplets; analyze the Greek and Hebrew texts of the verse; and relate their findings to the Book of Mormon reading. They discuss the inherent limitations of textual criticism in this kind of study and conclude that LDS and non-LDS scholars are open to different interpretive possibilities owing to the role that faith plays in one’s approach to and interpretation of textual evidence.

This book takes a fresh look at the apostasy of the early Christian church. Most Latter-day Saint scholars and leaders previously based their understanding of the Christian apostasy on the findings of Protestant scholars who provided a seemingly endless array of evidences of apostasy in Christian history. Since the classic treatments of this topic were written, many newly discovered manuscripts written during the first Christian centuries have come to light, giving a clearer picture of what the early Christian experience was like. Drawing on this material, LDS scholars today are able to shift the focus of study to the causes of the apostasy rather than the effects. This volume of essays reports new research by several LDS scholars in different fields. They identify common myths and misconceptions about the apostasy and promote better understanding of when and why the apostasy occurred.

The latest FARMS Review (vol. 16, no. 2, 2004) is another weighty issue flush with articles covering a wide array of interesting topics. In the lineup are reviews of works on Book of Mormon geography, de-Christianization of the Old Testament, the Joseph Smith Papyri, Isaiah’s central message, Jerusalem in Lehi’s day, creation theology, gospel symbolism, and the Christian countercult movement. Also included are two freestanding essays, one older article of lasting appeal (initiating a new feature in the Review), book notes, a 2003 Book of Mormon bibliography, and the editor’s top picks of recent publications. A foretaste of the many engaging articles follows.

A new multivolume work promises to facilitate study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader, published by the prestigious academic publisher E. J. Brill, offers transcriptions and English translations of all the nonbiblical Qumran texts.

Nephi tells the story of the founding events of the Nephite people in such a way that his readers will see him as a second Moses. Although Nephi’s use of the Moses typology has been previously noted, what has not been noticed before is that his father, Lehi, also employs this same typology in his farewell address in 2 Nephi 1-4 in order to persuade his descendants of his own divine calling and of their new covenant relationship to the same God who had given the promised land to ancient Israel. The fact that Nephi and Lehi both saw themselves as Moses figures demonstrates their awareness of a recognizable feature of preexilic Israelite literature that has only recently been explicated by Bible scholars.

Few verses in the Bible have produced as much debate and commentary as Psalm 22:16: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” The discussions center on the last character (reading right to left) of the Hebrew וראכ (“pierced/dug”), assumed to be the word from which the Septuagint Greek ὢρυξαν (“they have pierced”) was translated—assumed because the original Hebrew texts from which the Septuagint was translated are no longer extant. If the last character of the Hebrew word was a waw ()ו, as the Greek seems to indicate, then the translation “pierced” is tenable. But a later Hebrew text called the Masoretic text has a yod (×™) instead of a waw (ו), making the word יראכ, which translated into English reads “like a lion my hands and my feet.” Thus, two divergent possibilities have existed side by side for centuries, causing much speculation and debate. The controversy has often been heated, with large variations in modern translations into English, as evidenced by a brief survey of some important Bible translations.

Since their initial discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have drawn the interest of people world­wide. FARMS has been fortunate to play a part in bringing the scrolls to the world, and that effort continues. The FARMS Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints and managed by full­time missionaries Wayne and Janet Chamberlain, completed its tour of the United Kingdom and western Europe in May and is now making its way through central Europe.

In 1988 Hugh W. Nibley noted that the use of terms based on the word atone (atonement, atoning, atoned, etc.), while used in the Old Testament mostly in association with rites performed in the tabernacle of Moses, clearly tied the Nephites to preexilic Israel, that is, prior to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews in 587 bc. He found that most of the occurrences were “in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where they explicitly describe the original rites of the tabernacle or temple on the Day of Atonement.”

The Lord has always made covenants with his people to bless them and help them return to him. This restoration to the presence of God is the end goal of the Plan of Happiness that Christ made possible through his Atonement. A covenant is “an agreement enacted between two parties in which one or both make promises under oath to perform or refrain from certain actions stipulated in advance” (Mendenhall and Herion 1: 1179). In the Hebrew Old Testament, the word bryt (“covenant”) is almost always associated with the verb krt (“to cut”). These together mean “to make a covenant,” but the literal meaning of the idiom krt bryt suggests that some aspect of cutting is involved in making a covenant. This creates an interesting paradox, since a covenant is a binding agreement between two groups but the phrase has an underlying etymology of division. Though bryt in time came to refer to many kinds of oaths and covenants, certain covenants under the law of Moses reveal this connection with cutting as the rituals accompanying the covenants are performed: animal sacrifice, circumcision, and the rending of cloth. These ordinances and their corresponding covenants made after Christ’s condescension allow the believer to better see, in both the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon, how covenants relate to the ultimate goal of returning to the Father.

Referring to ancient and long-lost scripture that Joseph Smith restored, Wilford Woodruff declared it to be part of “the rich treasures that are revealed unto us in the last days.” One such treasure is Moses chapter 1, a scriptural jewel we have hardly begun to appreciate but whose luster has become more apparent in light of various ancient texts and traditions that have emerged since Joseph Smith’s day. So striking are the parallels as to recall Joseph’s own prophecy that “the world will prove Joseph Smith a true prophet by circumstantial evidence.”

Review of Kenneth A. Kitchen. On the Reliability of the Old Testament.

Review of E. Douglas Clark. The Blessing of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People.