Historian of Religion, Science, and Biblical Interpretation
I’ve been devoting the vast majority of my time to the dissertation, and haven’t posted much. But here’s a fun little tidbit.
Oftentimes in the archive, something grabs your attention. And as you acquire more and more of these things that have grabbed, you start making connections between them.
Edwin S. Hinckley was a BYU science professor at the turn of the 19th century, back when BYU was very small. He was also the favorite uncle of a young boy named Gordon B. Hinckley.
Arvo Pärt’s magnificent Magnificat, one of many songs based on the Latin translation of Mary’s “my soul doth magnify (magnificat) the Lord” in Luke 1:46ff. (Here’s a small ensemble version)
Genealogies
Both Matthew and Luke give us genealogies, and read through modern eyes, we’re inclined to skip over them, or misunderstand them; the one thing they are NOT telling us is the one thing we assume they are telling us: genetic genealogical descent. And this is one reason why we get confused as to why Luke and Matthew’s genealogies differ. Continue reading
As we begin our year in the New Testament, we naturally start with the Gospels… which is a problem, funny enough. Continue reading
Let’s talk about languages, particularly, Biblical languages: Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. These are very different from English. Greek has five grammatical cases, for example, and Biblical Hebrew doesn’t have tenses, strictly speaking.1Modern Hebrew has reworked its verbal system on the basis of European languages so that it does have tenses. Many people are interested in looking at the underlying languages of the translation they’re reading. Frankly, to paraphrase King Benjamin,
I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit linguistic sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.
Even people with a semester or two can make serious errors.
So… what about Strong’s Concordance?
This is the first of several posts talking about studying the NT and resources to do so.
It’s that time of year when sales happen, Christmas money appears in your stocking, and January is coming and bringing changes. We’ll study the New Testament again, and I suspect this will be an interesting year for many; Church-oriented Gospel Doctrine experience now happens half as often, and most of our study and learning will take place at home, by ourselves or with family (as it should be.) Continue reading
I chat with a lot of missionaries, and have heard this question repeatedly recently. I also heard a lesson from a recent RM who expressed puzzlement as a sidebar to his lesson. So, let’s talk about Jesus-as-the-Father.
I had elaborate plans for this review, and just don’t have the time. The Maxwell Institute recently published Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints, and these are my thoughts. Continue reading
I really like Amos; so much, in fact, that I’m ignoring Joel completely today. I have an old podcast on Amos here, much of which is reflected in the text below. Amos is a powerful straight-shooting no-nonsense guy, but also subversive, “confrontational and abrasive. There is no attempt to win over the people he condemns.” (Collins, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible) Continue reading
First off, my very old podcast and transcript on Hosea are here. The (old) manual suggests primary focus on Hosea 1-3 (the marriage metaphor) and 11, 13, 14 (invitations to repent.) However, Hosea is not long, and reading the whole thing in preparation is fairly quick. I also recommend this post from the Mormon Women Project. Continue reading
Today we focus on Daniel 2, a vision. The story goes like this.
In King Nebuchadnezzar’s 2nd year, he has a dream. According to Daniel 1:1-2, Daniel and friends don’t get carried off until Neb’s third year, although they’re present here. Either Neb can’t remember what it was (like many of us with our dreams) or he’s being unreasonable. Either way, he demands all his wise men tell him both the dream itself, and the interpretation. When they can’t, he wants them all killed for incompetence. Daniel hears about this and offers to interpret (like Joseph in Egypt), which he does, thus saving everyone.
The content of the dream involves a statue representing various political/national entities, and a stone cut out of the mountain, which smashes them all.
Easy enough, right?
As it turns out, the books written just on Daniel 2 could fill an entire library, arguing over what exactly it’s referring to. Continue reading
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