Category: Scholarship
Is the Book of Abraham Translation Dependent on the Kirtland Egyptian Papers? Revisiting The Pearl of Greatest Price
A potentially troublesome flaw in the discussion of the Book of Abraham in the generally good book by Terryl Givens (with Brian Hauglid), The Pearl of Greatest Price, is its…
Review of Terryl Givens and Brian Hauglid, The Pearl of Greatest Price: Mormonism’s Most Controversial Scripture
A new book related to the Pearl of Great Price has just been published by two well-known LDS scholars, Dr. Terryl Givens and Dr. Brian Hauglid, both currently associated with…
Stunning Revelation about the Building Blocks of Life, Amino Acids
Foreordained or predestined: complex theological debates have raged around these terms for centuries. Finally science has weighed in, and the correct answer appears to “preordained.” Maybe not for the human…
Two Important, Even Troubling, Clues About Dating from W.W. Phelps’ Notebook with Egyptian “Translation”
Update, May 3, 2019, and more on May 8, 2019: In yet another frustrating turn as I explore the convoluted issues of the Book of Abraham, I need to add…
Wrong Again, In Part! How I Misunderstood the Plainly Visible Evidence on the W.W. Phelps Letter with Egyptian “Translation”
Update, April 23, 2019: Doubly wrong! When I wrote this post earlier today, I was examining the very light “ink” with the words “in part” on a key manuscript by…
It Depends on What the Meaning of “It” Is: Reconsidering the “Burning in the Bosom” and “Studying It Out” in Doctrine & Covenants 9
For years many of us have read about the “burning in the bosom” in Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9 and interpreted it to mean that Oliver Cowdery, in a failed attempt…
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…
The Iron Rod: Inspired by an Aqueduct in Rochester?
As discussed in my previous post, RT’s response to my defense of the evidence for Lehi’s Trail points to a new suggestion from Rick Grunder that perhaps the great and…
Burying Nahom
A couple of recent blog posts from skeptics have once again announced that Nahom in the Arabian Peninsula, the alleged soul shred of evidence for the Book of Mormon, the…
Noham, That’s Not History (Nor Geography, Cartography, or Logic): More on the Recent Attacks on NHM
As mentioned in my previous post about the significance of Nahom, in a recent presentation at an ex-Mormon conference, a man who says he is “addicted to truth” made the…
