Author: benspackman

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Virtual Sperry Fireside On Reading the Old Testament in Context (Updated with text)

May 5, 2022 /

This paper and presentation introduces a couple kinds of context and how to get at it, in order to understand the Bible better. Update 05-05-2022, I have made my formal paper draft available here. 

If you missed attending one of my firesides or the Sperry Symposium, this is for you. I recorded the audio/powerpoint from my final presentation last weekend, which benefitted from having done it three times. The length is about 1:10, and unfortunately I cut the audio before I closed with some testimony about the utility of the Old Testament, my appreciation for it, etc. The first slide is up for almost two minutes, they do change. And below are books/authors I quote or allude to in the slides. The actual paper has many more references, of course, and I’ll be posting it in chunks. And if you want to link, please link to this post, not direct to the youtube video.  
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President Smith in 1910

Tales from the Archives: Joseph Fielding Smith, Utah Geology, and Premises

February 25, 2022 /

President Joseph Fielding Smith took his understanding of geology and cosmology from his readings of scripture. One of his central premises was that scripture consisted of divinely-revealed facts of religion but also science and history; and therefore, scripture— as he interpreted it—  should take precedence over limited and flawed human theorizing, i.e. modern science.

On two occasions, Smith commented on the mountains of Utah, and these illustrate his premises.

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Carvaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac

Abraham 1:1, 5-20; Genesis 15-17; 21-22

February 20, 2022 /

I haven’t had time to update this post significantly .

This weeks’s chapters are difficult and socially significant like last week’s, which makes them difficult to write on. My approach, therefore, will be to come at it from a few disconnected directions in which I ask questions I don’t really have good answers to. Before moving on, I strongly recommend you read Robert Alter’s literary translation and commentary on chapter 22 as well as my post on why all the chapters leading up to Genesis 22 are important for Genesis 22.

What makes this chapter difficult and uncomfortable? (BTW, if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, I’d suggest you’re either not paying attention, or haven’t really thought about it.) Continue reading

The Longer (and More Important?) Abraham Story

February 12, 2022 /

I want to clarify why Genesis 22 unrolls the way it does. Isaac isn’t the sacrifice there  just because “it’s the most horrific thing we can think of.” Abraham’s test goes far beyond that, but in order to grasp it, we have to start back in Genesis 12, and see how the events unfold, culminating with Isaac. Genesis 22 is thus intimately connected to the events of the preceding chapters, and if we ignore them, we misunderstand. This is one of those times we look so much at one tree that we miss the forest around it. Edit: As Ardis Parshall pointed out to me, all of this shows that the command to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22 was not arbitrary nor is it “out of the blue.”

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