The “Hoarding” Church
Hordes of critics are wringing their hands, often gleefully, about the uncharitable “hoarding” of the Church, based on shocking claims that the Church has been saving some of the money…
The Willard Richards Book of Abraham Manuscript 2: Live Dictation of Abraham 3 in 1842, or Copying Existing Text?
In an important publication from the Joseph Smith Papers Project, The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 4: Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts, eds. Robin Scott Jensen and…
Some Sources for the Kirtland Egyptian Paper’s Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, Part Two
In Part 1 of this topic posted earlier this week, I reviewed several pages of entries in the first part of the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, one…
An Update, Barely, on Barley
A Dec. 23, 2019 news release from Washington University in St. Louis reports new research results about the “lost crops” of North America that could have been more productive than…
Some Sources for the Kirtland Egyptian Paper’s Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language, Part One
One of the vital issues in Book of Abraham debates is the role of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, including the large and mysterious work, the Grammar and Alphabet of the…
A Christmas Surprise: An Ancient Jewish Temple at the Same Time as Solomon’s Temple
The Dec. 23 newsletter from the Biblical Archaeology Society surprised me with a report about another ancient Jewish temple outside of Jerusalem. See “A Rival to Solomon’s Temple” by Marek…
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…
Preliminary Thoughts on the Accusation that the Church Violated Tax Law
In response to the news stories about a whistleblower’s complaint to the IRS regarding the Church’s failure to properly pay taxes on investment returns in a fund managed by Ensign…
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…
