Introduction ⎜ Part 2 ⎜ Part 3 | Part 4 ⎜ Part 5 ⎜ Part 6 See the Introductory blog (#1) for explanation about this series on hearing the voice of the Lord in the mind. The below are accounts shared by those who have experienced this spiritual gift and have thereby...
read moreIntroduction ⎜ Part 2 ⎜ Part 3 | Part 4 ⎜ Part 5 ⎜ Part 6 See the Introductory blog (#1) for explanation about this 6-part blog series on hearing the voice of the Lord in the mind. The below are accounts shared by...
read moreIntroduction ⎜ Part 2 ⎜ Part 3 | Part 4 ⎜ Part 5 ⎜ Part 6 This piece begins a 6-part series about leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hearing the voice of the Lord in their mind. In...
read moreTwo hundred years ago, during the French Revolution, the new government prevented the churches throughout France from displaying their traditional life-size nativity scenes. As a result, many people began to display small nativity scenes in their own homes. Besides the traditional shepherds and wise men, the nativity figurines included all the villagers of Bethlehem, who are dressed, not in the robes of Bible times, but rather in the traditional clothing of the trades of the French countryside. This episode tells their story....
read moreFor ancient readers of the Bible, the story of the shepherds was an extraordinary tale, a thinning of the veil like no other. In this posting, we explore several of the little known temple themes that are part of the most stunning appearance of angels recorded in scripture. We highlight in particular several that are found in Charles Wesley's masterpiece "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!"...
read moreFor many years, I was mystified by the title of the seventeenth-century French Christmas carol “Quelle est cette odeur agréable ?”[1] When the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performs Mack Wilberg’s ethereal arrangement[2] that begins with the words:
Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing stealing our senses all away?
Never the like did come a-blowing, shepherds, in the flow’ry fields of May,
have you ever wondered, as I had, why a particular smell should be taken as a sign of Christ’s birth?...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon as dictated by Joseph Smith might discover that some of the archaic words,...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might discover that some of the archaic words, phrases, and expressions...
read moreA response to Thomas A. Wayment. "Intertextuality and the purpose of Joseph Smith’s new translation of the Bible." In Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources, edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen and Sharalyn Howcroft, 74-100. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018....
read moreIn a vision of Enoch described in a JST manuscript named “Old Testament 1” (OT1), we are told that after viewing the wickedness and misery of mankind “the God of heaven looked down … and wept.” In the “Old Testament 2” (OT2) manuscript, the text was revised to read “Enoch looked down … and wept.” A recent article by Colby Townsend argues that the OT2 revision is a better reading of the passage. A forthcoming article by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, and Ryan Dahle argues that a more balanced understanding of Moses 7 emerges when comparing it to suitable Old Testament analogues, specifically Deuteronomy 32 and Isaiah 1....
read moreIntroduction ⎜ Part 2 ⎜ Part 3 | Part 4 ⎜ Part 5 ⎜ Part 6 See the Introductory blog (#1) for explanation about this blog series on hearing the voice of the Lord in the mind. The below are accounts shared by those who...
read moreIntroduction ⎜ Part 2 ⎜ Part 3 | Part 4 ⎜ Part 5 ⎜ Part 6 See the Introductory blog for explanation about this series on actually hearing the voice of the Lord in the mind. The below are accounts shared by those who...
read moreUpdated March 22, 2021: “I’ve done a thorough proofing of my witness chapter, and I am attaching a clean version of it for the Interpreter blog. This time there are no major differences, only me cleaning up my earlier version(s) to make them as accurate as...
read moreThough the event is rarely mentioned in modern Christmas celebrations, the traditional carols of earlier centuries often give as much attention to the Fall of Adam as they do to the birth of Christ. This episode shows how traditional carols and art relating to Christ and Mary have been deliberately woven to feature themes of Adam and Eve throughout....
read moreStudents of the Book of Mormon have long noted that the brief book of Ether is quite different in its content and style than the rest of the Book of Mormon. Believers may argue that it’s because the origins of the book came from an ancient culture much different...
read moreAnd Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai … Sarai was barren; she had no child. (Gen 11:29-30) And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might discover that some of the archaic words, phrases, and expressions...
read moreIn The Nature of the Original Language [of the Book of Mormon] (hereafter, NOL), Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack indicated that additional research into the language of the Book of Mormon might mean that some of the archaic words, phrases, and expressions...
read moreA recent article by Colby Townsend proposes that the names “Mahijah” and “Mahujah” were included in the Book of Moses as the result of one of two scenarios. A forthcoming article by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, and Ryan Dahle argues that a common ancient source for “Mahujah” and “Mahijah” in the Book of Moses and similar names in the Bible and an ancient Dead Sea Scrolls Enoch text named The Book of Giants cannot be ruled out....
read moreThis is a September 2, 2020 update to the earlier August 25, 2020 post that appears below. UPDATE I believe that academic dialogue is important and can be fruitful. There are many scholars who are academically interested in the Book of Abraham, its translation, and...
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