Category: Scholarship
The Word of Wisdom is Coming Back into Style: Conspiring Men and the Myth of Healthy Alcohol Consumption
Did you catch the recent reports in the New York Times of a major National Institutes of Health study on the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption? It’s a great story…
“Artifact or Artifice?” Orson Scott Card’s Brilliant 1993 Essay Still Rings True
Twenty-five years ago a famous name among fiction writers, Orson Scott Card, gave a speech at BYU that provided a novel way of evaluating Book of Mormon claims. The speech…
The Oldest Hebrew Inscription and the Psalms in the Book of Mormon
Tiny silver amulets engraved with Hebrew from the era of King Josiah, found at Ketef Hinnon, Israel. From the Biblical Archaeology Society. My recent publication on David and the Psalms…
Joseph the Amusing Teller of Tall Tales: Lucy Mack Smith’s Puzzling Statement in Perspective
One of the pillars of disbelief for critics of the Book of Mormon is the notion that Joseph Smith was well known as an imaginative story teller. He was allegedly…
Update on Horses in the Book of Mormon
One of the toughest challenges for the Book of Mormon is the issue of horses. At first glance, it’s a simple case for rejecting the book. The Book of Mormon…
Some Resources for the Puzzling Facsimile 3 of the Book of Abraham
Latter-day Saints interested in the Pearl of Great Price have much to be excited about thanks to recent scholarship giving us many more insights into the significance and meaning of…
John Gee’s Introduction to the Book of Abraham: A Lifetime of Book of Abraham Scholarship Distilled into a Valuable Book for a Broad Audience
It was a pleasure to read John Gee’s recently published An Introduction to the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center,…
A Rookie Mistake in Forging an Ancient Document
Biblical Archaeology Review just shared an interesting story on a purportedly ancient Jewish document. As reported in October 2016, a papyrus mentioning the city of “Jerusalem,” “the king,” and “jars…
Fifty Years of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon: The Story of Its Discovery
One of my favorite stories from the world of Book of Mormon studies is the discovery of chiasmus in the text by a young missionary serving in Germany. Fifty years…
Elder Holland on LDS Apologetics
Recent weeks have been interesting for the unofficial, highly heterogeneous and sometimes contradictory cluster of so-called “LDS apologists.” I fall into that motley group. In fact, I was doing LDS…
