Let there be light. If you haven’t yet done so, I’d recommend you pick up a copy of Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, produced by the Jewish Publication Society and used in conservative Jewish synagogue worship. The commentary includes rabbinic interpretation(s) of the text of the Torah as well as modern critical notes. Here are … Read more
The medieval Jewish philosopher and poet Judah ha-Levi, writing in his Kitab al Khazari, put forth a certain parable to explain the dangers of unauthorized or unqualified agents trying to dispense knowledge and wisdom. He is like an ignoramus who enters the surgery of a physician famous for the curative power of his medicines. The physician … Read more
For a few years now I have been kicking around a particular neologism in my correspondences with some of my friends and acquaintances. Although I am apparently not the first to use this term (see here and here), I do believe I am the first to use it in a Mormon “bloggernacle” context. I can … Read more
Inside the Sacred Grove. While serving as a missionary in New England, I heard it all the time: “Oh, I don’t need organized religion. I can find God when I go in nature.” I would scoff to my companion after the encounter. “Really, you tree-hugging Vermonter hipster? You can find God in some trees?” Being … Read more
Visual approximation of Hamblin and Park having a “discussion.” Ben Park has responded to Bill Hamblin and Dan Peterson’s critiques of his article at the Times and Seasons blog (here). Bill has also posted responses from Grant Hardy and “Smallaxe” at his blog (here and here), as well as his own follow-up comments (here). Leaving … Read more
The Internet (or at least the Mormon part of it) is in something of a tizzy over some posts by Dan Peterson and Bill Hamblin critiquing Benjamin Park’s recent essay in the new volume of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. You can read Dan and Bill’s posts here, here, and here. Be sure … Read more
Last month I presented at the 2014 Temple on Mount Zion symposium on the Book of the Dead as a temple text. The video of my presentation is now online. My understanding is that the proceedings of the conference (including my paper) will be published sometime next year. As I re-watch my presentation, I realize … Read more
El sueño de Jacob by José de Ribera (1638). Genesis 28 narrates Jacob’s dream at Bethel, wherein he saw Yahweh standing at the top of a stairway leading into heaven. The answer, according to the Hebrew Bible, is pretty clear. (All translations from the Hebrew are my own.) וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֞וּ אֶת־קֹ֨ול יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהִ֛ים מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן לְר֣וּחַ הַיֹּ֑ום וַיִּתְחַבֵּ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם וְאִשְׁתֹּ֗ו מִפְּנֵי֙ יְהוָ֣האֱלֹהִ֔ים בְּתֹ֖וךְ עֵ֥ץ הַגָּֽן׃ And they heard the voice of … Read more
Alexander Louis Leloir, Jacob Wrestling With the Angel (1865). This evening I (finally) finished reading Terryl Givens’ excellent Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity. (Before I say anything else, may I express my delight in Givens using a story from the Hebrew Bible to symbolize his treatise on Mormon theology?) … Read more
This is a follow-up to my last post. In reading the Introduction to the Loeb edition of Manetho, I encountered this: Of the two chronographers, the founder of Christian chronography, Sextus Julius Africanus, whose Chronicle came down to A.D. 217 or A.D. 221, transmits the Epitome in a more accurate form; while Eusebius, whose work … Read more
Anyone familiar with Ptolemaic Egypt, or indeed the study of Egyptian history at all, knows the name Manetho. Something really interesting that I stumbled upon in Manetho’s Aegyptiaca this morning is the following. Now, if you care to compare these figures with Hebrew chronology, you will find that they are in perfect harmony. Egypt is … Read more
This afternoon I watched the new Church-produced video Meet the Mormons. I was initially skeptical going into it, since it has been panned by film critics and what I did see and read about it before watching the actual film seemed to indicate that it’d be little more than an hour-long “I’m a Mormon” commercial. … Read more
Jeremy Runnells has a bad habit of misquoting people. As I showed on my blog a little while ago, he misquoted the printed endorsements of Brian Hales’ three-volume Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, for example. Most recently, he has misquoted both a dead and a living Latter-day Saint apologist, namely, B. H. Roberts and Daniel C. Peterson. … Read more