Posted in Uncategorized

An Even More Embarrassing Issue Involving the Book of Mormon

I may have erred recently when I spoke of the awkward phrase “in them days” as perhaps the most embarrassing language problem in the original text of the Book of…

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Posted in Uncategorized

Another Test: The 1835 Doctrine and Covenants Use of Command Syntax and What It Tells Us About the Language in the Book of Mormon

In a recent post examining the language of the Doctrine and Covenants, I found that the Early Modern English style of using “did” for past tense, such a common feature…

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An Old Story Gets a New Face: The Seer Stone and the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon

Photo of the long-discussed seer stone used by Joseph Smith. What’s interesting news for many Latter-day Saints is, for some of our critics, simply earth-shattering and hopely faith-shattering for benighted…

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Posted in Charity Service

Inspired By a Technical Suport Call–Will Miracles Never Cease?

Often when I’m calling customer service, especially for technical support issues with computer or software trouble, the call is frustrating and often a painful waste of time. I often encounter…

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Posted in Book of Mormon language Problems Translation

An Embarrassment . . . of Riches in the Book of Mormon Text–And a Surprise from “Them Days”

When I first opened up my newly purchased blue-bound volume from Royal Skousen containing the details of the surviving original text of the Book of Mormon, I was immediately disappointed….

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Did You Notice? What the Doctrine and Covenants Tells Us About the Earliest Text of the Book of Mormon

Introduction and Overview For those of us puzzled over the fascinating and fairly strong occurrence (so it seems, tentatively) of Early Modern English (EModE) in the Book of Mormon, the…

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Its … It’s So Easy to Overlook–Another Test Related to Language in the Original Book of Mormon

In my previous post, I looked at the use of the word be in the earliest text of the Book of Mormon in a test to look for unique elements…

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Posted in Apologetics Book of Mormon Early Modern English Evidence language Scholarship Translation

Update on Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon: One Potential Test to Identify the Possible Influence of New England Dialect on the Dictated Text

Executive Summary: I remain impressed with the detailed, data-rich work of Carmack and Skousen regarding Early Modern English (EModE) influence in the original text of the Book of Mormon. However,…

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Dark Matter and Joseph Smith’s Statement on the Material Nature of Spirit

My latest post over at the Nauvoo Times (Orson Scott Card’s LDS project with a good variety of writers) is “Mystery of the Hidden Cosmos: Something Big is Missing from…

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From Hope to Despair and Back Again: The Mysterious Power of Complaining

I have newfound respect for the marvelous power of complaining after an instructive experience in which I feel blessed and instructed by the hand of the Lord. Or call it…

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