Posted in Book of Abraham Books Doctrine Evidence history Prophets Scholarship Scripture Translation

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…

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Posted in Book of Mormon Books Evidence history Origins Scholarship Scripture

A Breakthrough in Understanding the Book of Mormon: Don Bradley’s Brilliant Sleuthing on the Lost 116 Pages (or Lost 400 Pages!)

Don Bradley’s new book, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2019), is something I’ve been looking forward to for many…

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Posted in Book of Abraham Origins Scholarship Translation

Points to Consider in the Concoted “Egyptian” Characters in the KEP

Update, Dec. 24 and 26, 2019: The statement describing the papyri originally occurs in a letter signed by Oliver Cowdery, so it is his, not Joseph’s description. Perhaps because it…

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Posted in Antiquity Book of Abraham Critics Egyptian Evidence history Origins Scholarship Scripture Translation

More on the Meaning of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers: Recent Explorations Based on Comments at Interpreter

One of the best things about finally having a reply from the Joseph Smith Papers Project on the issue of alleged flaws in scholarship in their volume on the Book…

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Posted in Book of Abraham Critics Scholarship Translation

Back and Forth with the Book of Abraham: Fascinating Circular Footnotes

One of the things I love about blogging and writing occasional articles for The Interpreter, Meridian Magazine or other places is the ability to get rapid feedback from those with…

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Posted in Book of Abraham Critics Scholarship The Church

Viva Dialog! The JSP Team Responds to My Complaints About Their Volume on the Book of Abraham

A few of you may have noticed that the Joseph Smith Papers team has publicly responded to my unfortunate complaints about bias and flawed scholarship in their volume on the…

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Posted in Book of Abraham Books history Prophets Revelation Scholarship Scripture Translation

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…

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Posted in Creation Scholarship Science

Much Ado About Creation Ex Nihilo

Robert Boylan in Ireland makes some salient points in his review of a recent debate between the Latter-day Saint Kwaku El and the Evangelical Jeremy Howard. I especially liked Robert’s…

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Posted in Ancient Near East Book of Mormon Egyptian Evidence Hebrew language Mesoamerica Scholarship

John S. Robertson Offers Strong Support for Brian Stubbs

Recently Brian Stubbs, a leading and widely respected expert on the Uto-Aztecan language family, provided a guest post with his detailed response to a harshly critical review of his work…

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Posted in Ancient Near East Book of Moses Egyptian language Scholarship wordplays

Nathan Arp on an Apparent Egyptian Wordplay on the Name of Moses

One of the joys of living in Shanghai is just how much from around the world comes to this town. Whether you want to find interesting technology,  conferences and trade…

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