Category: Scripture
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Book of Mormon’s Ties to the Northern Kingdom of Israel: New Research from Dr. Richley Crapo
One of the more novel arguments I’ve seen against the Book of Mormon was the graduate work of Kyle Beshears, “Davidic References in the Book of Mormon as Evidence Against…
Rethinking Enemies
One of the challenges for me as I gradually prepare to return to the United States, after my eight years in China, is the animosity here. Too many people treat…
A Few Reasons Why Hugh Nibley Is Still Relevant for Book of Abraham Scholarship
I’m grateful to the Interpreter Foundation for publishing my lengthy, controversial, and painful (at least to me) article reviewing the Joseph Smith Papers’ volume on the Book of Abraham, a…
The Twin BOA Manuscripts: A Window into Creation of the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language?
While I believe there is significant evidence showing that the twin manuscripts (Manuscript A and Manuscript B) of the Book of Abraham do not represent live dictation from Joseph Smith…
Kirtland’s Rosetta Stone? The Importance of Word Order in the “Egyptian” of the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language
There may be an important story hidden in one of the easily-overlooked details in the always puzzling Kirtland Egyptian Papers, especially the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (GAEL)…
The Twin Book of Abraham Manuscripts: Do They Reflect Live Translation Produced by Joseph Smith, or Were They Copied From an Existing Document?
A number of critics of the Book of Abraham and even some LDS scholars have alleged that a pair of Book of Abraham manuscripts with a few Egyptian characters in…
