Category: Evidence
What to Make of “Plagiarism” of the Bible in a Purportedly Ancient Text? A Jewish Scholar Offers a Thoughtful Perspective
The Book of Mormon’s frequent “plagiarism” of passages from the Bible is one of the most common criticisms raised against it’s authenticity and antiquity. It’s actually not very much like…
About That Burial Marker in Yemen for a Man Named Ishmael: Impossible That He Was a Hebrew?
Neal Rappleye recently reported that a grave marker in Yemen bearing the name Ishmael could fit the time and place for the burial of Ishmael inn the Book of Mormon. David Bokovoy argues that this is impossible because the marker bears the image of a face, and real Jews forbade images of faces. I discuss why that is an oversimplification of ancient Jewish practices. If cherubim in the Tabernacle can have faces, I suppose a grave marker can, too, as long as no idolatry was intended.
The Words of Gad the Seer: Thoughts on a “Lost Book” Preserved by the Jews at Cochin, India
The cover of the Hebrew edition of Meir Bar-Ilan’s The Words of Gad the Seer An old Jewish manuscript said to contain writings of Gad the Seer, one of the…
News from Mount Ebal: An Ancient Hebraic Inscription on Metal, a Chiasmus, Possibly Dating to the 13th Century BC or Earlier
An ancient Hebraic text dating to the 13th to 14th century BC has been discovered by sifting through the detritus of an archaeological dig at Mount Ebal in Israel. The…
“O Captain, My Captain”: Walt Whitman’s Surprising Role in the Ultimate Refutation of All Book of Mormon Evidence
Fond Memories from Before the Blast Back before a massive nuclear logic bomb wiped out Latter-day Saint apologetics a few days ago, the story behind the map below once counted…
An Update on Maps of the Arabian Peninsula Showing Nahom-related Names
In 2008, James Gee published the results of his extensive search for the rare European maps of Arabia that included names that seem related to Nahom, the place where Ishmael…
Recent Discoveries and Advances Published by Interpreter, Part 1
If you aren’t following the journal Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, you may have missed some discoveries and advances in understanding our scriptures that could be…
A Google Earth View of a Candidate for Bountiful, Khor Kharfot on Wadi Sayq
Here is a beautiful view from Google Earth of a leading candidate for the Book of Mormon site Bountiful, Khor Kharfot, the fertile inlet at the end of a long…
Witnesses, the Dramatic Movie About Some of the Book of Mormon Witnesses, Premiers on June 2
The powerful drama about the Three Witnesses of the gold plates of the Book of Mormon has now been captured in a movie, Witnesses, that is coming to some theaters…
Trying to Take the Shine off Shinehah: Vogel’s Response to a Commonly Cited Evidence for Book of Abraham Authenticity
This morning I was reading from what may be the premier work of Latter-day Saint scholarship on the Book of Abraham, the far-ranging magnum opus of Dr. Hugh Nibley with…
