Category: Gospel Doctrine

Adam and Eve Mourn the Death of Abel

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 5- Moses 5:16-41; 6:26-63; 7:13, 17-47, 68-69

February 1, 2026 /

 

I’m bumping this post for utility, although I haven’t had time to rework it.

Text: Moses 5:16-41; 6:26-63; 7:13, 17-47, 68-69

As always, time compels us to be selective in what we focus on. Today, it’s all about Cain.

First off, we need to understand that Cain has nothing to do with Canaan. That association is an accident of English transliteration and pronunciation. They sound similar in English, but in Hebrew Cain/qayin (accent on first syllable) has no relation at all with Canaan/kena’an (kuh-nah-ahn, accent on middle syllable.) If there’s any descent of Cain in the Bible, it’s… Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, who is a Kenite. Or rather, a Cain-ite, if we’re being more consistent.  As the intro paragraph of the Anchor Bible Dictionary article on Kenites says, “The Kenites—or more correctly the Qenites—were a community or clan whose ancestry was traced to an eponym, biblical Cain (Heb qayin ). The Kenites constituted a non-Israelite group, frequenting the wilderness near Sinai…” The text thus portrays Moses marrying  Jethro’s daughter Zipporah, a non-Israelite who is the namesake of Cain, if not a descendant.

If Cain has nothing to do with Canaan, he does have something in common with Cainan/qeynan who appears in Genesis 5:9-12. (See the genealogy discussion below.)

Cain and Master Mahan- I think this is a great opportunity to bring a human-centric and Christ-centric focus to the lesson. Continue reading

Public domain, http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=8577&picture=old-books

Church History/ Doctrine& Covenants Resources (and the blog) for 2025

December 13, 2024 /

(Post with minor updates from four years ago.)

I do not intend to write a weekly post on the Come Follow Me section. D&C is the book I have taught the least, read the least, know the least about, and have the most limited mental bibliography. While I do American religious history, 1820-1850 is not my time period or specialty at all.  Second, I am up to my eyeballs in writing projects: turning my dissertation into a book, some spin-off articles, and some other things. I will continue to write posts, some about D&C and Church history, but approximately… whenever the muse strikes and I have time.

Continue reading

Atrahasis, an ancient mesopotamian creation and flood story.

Come Follow Me: Ether

November 5, 2024 /

A few general introductory notes about the Book of Ether.

First, unlike the other two Book of Mormon migratory peoples, the Jaredites (as we call them) are not under the Law of Moses. Abraham>Isaac>Jacob (Israel)>>>>Moses. They’re not Jewish nor even Israelite (also a late term) nor Canaanite, but Mesopotamian, probably. So they are operating under a different set of religious ideas, different language— Sumerian, Akkadian, something else? Hebrew isn’t an option— and different cultural background than the rest of the Book of Mormon. And indeed, Ether has a different feel to it than the rest. It’s largely political history, stories of wars between scheming royal families, imprisonment, regicide, etc. All very Game of Thrones-y. Continue reading

War. Public domain

Come Follow Me: Alma 43-48 aka “The War Chapters” Part I

August 14, 2024 /

As I’ve pointed out previously, the Book of Mormon moves at different paces in different places. We’ve spent the last few weeks making a slow section even slower, and that means that with today’s chapters, we’ve likely forgotten some important history relevant to today’s readings. After six chapters of doctrinal exposition, we hit the famed “war chapters.” Continue reading

Come Follow Me: Mosiah 12-17

May 25, 2024 /

I want to plug Book of Mormon Central for collating published scholarship on lessons- See here for today’s links and summaries. (What they have is partly based on my own old work.) Most of today’s chapters involve Abinadi, his preaching, his words. We tend to read our scriptures without regard for where they came from, or how we got them, but that kind of context is often important. We tend to read direct speech (e.g. “And Abinadi said…”) as verbatim records, but should we? And what difference does it make? Continue reading