John Gee’s Troubling Review of the Joseph Smith Papers Volume on the Book of Abraham
Update, Aug. 29, 2019: There has been an important and welcome update to John Gee’s recent article, “The Joseph Smith Papers Project Stumbles,” at The Interpreter that clarifies and to…
There May Be Far More Earthlike Planets Than We Imagined
A Hubble photo of interacting galaxies from NASA.gov. As one looks at the endless fog of stars dotting our galaxy and countless other galaxies, it’s easy to believe that there…
The Making of a Myth: A Possible Explanation for the Mysterious Ignorance of Champollion (Among Scholars)
I’ve been puzzled several times by the mysterious ignorance of Champollion in the early nineteenth century — not among ordinary Americans of that day, but among modern scholars writing about…
Royal Skousen’s Interesting Theory on the Book of Abraham and Its Relationship to the Papyri
A reader raised an interesting question after reading Dr. Royal Skousen’s C.V. at BYU, where he mentions a theory he is exploring that has not yet been published. Under the…
Ignoring Christian Refugees from Iraq
While many people seem to think that the US has liberated Iraq, first from Saddam Hussein and then from the Islamic State, for the Assyrian Christian community in Iraq, one…
Ifs, Ands, or Buts: A Reminder on the Origins of the Book of Mormon
In a past Maxwell Institute publication, Daniel Peterson made a great point about the nature of the language in the Book of Mormon that seems to defy theories of Joseph…
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…
