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Experiential Knowledge and the Covenantal Relationship in Alma 7

Abstract: A favorite scripture of many faithful saints is Alma 7 where it describes how the Savior came to Earth to understand, in the flesh, not only human sin, but human suffering. He did this in...

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Our Faithful Lord: Passover to Easter

Abstract: Studying the origins and traditions of Passover enriches our understanding of Easter. We can deepen our own worship and expand our ritual memory by an acquaintance with these traditions....

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Putting Down the Priests: A Note on Royal Evaluations, (wĕ)hišbît, and...

Abstract: The historian who wrote 2 Kings 23:5 and Mormon, who wrote Mosiah 11:5, used identical expressions to describe King Josiah’s and King Noah’s purges of the priests previously ordained and...

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Alma’s Prophetic Commissioning Type Scene

Abstract: The story often referred to as Alma’s conversion narrative is too often interpreted as a simplistic plagiarism of Paul’s conversion-to-Christianity story in the book of Acts. Both the New and...

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“Can You Suppose That the Lord Will Spare You?”: Moroni’s Charged Rhetoric in...

Abstract: Under the duress of a lengthy war, and prompted by recent Lamanite military successes, as well as incensed at the government’s failure to resupply Helaman’s armies with provisions and to send...

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Liahona: “Prepared of the Lord, a Compass”

Abstract: This study assesses some of the interpretations of the name Liahona, which are unsatisfactory from a linguistic perspective. Since a dialect of Hebrew is the most likely underlying language...

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Khor Rori: A Maritime Resources-Based Candidate for Nephi’s Harbor

Abstract: Khor Rori, which forms the mouth of Wadi (Valley) Darbat, is the largest inlet along the Dhofar coast of southern Arabia. The khor was excavated into a harbor by the erosive action of the...

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“Believe All the Words”: A Key to Spiritual Outpouring

Abstract: In the Book of Mormon, many people received a remarkable spiritual outpouring following a declaration or demonstration of full belief in what they had already received or were about to...

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Modern Near East Archaeology and the Brass Plates

Abstract: Contemporary Palestinian archaeology has produced two major threats to traditional interpretations of the history of ancient Israel. The first threat, which derives from scientific discomfort...

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“This Great Mystery”: Gathering Still Other Sheep through the New Covenant of...

Abstract: The Book of Mormon sheds light on a “great mystery” located in John 10:16 (D&C 10:64). In this paper, using a comparative method that traces intersecting pastoral imagery, I argue that...

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Abridging the Records of the Zoramite Mission: Mormon as Historian

Abstract: Since the mid-twentieth century, scholarly studies of the literary craftsmanship of biblical texts have revealed considerable insights into the intended purposes of the authors of these...

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The Body As the Temple of God

Abstract: Metaphors occur when there is a contradiction in the senses of the words used that cause the text to be interpreted non-literally, as Paul Ricoeur has noted. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the...

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Lehi’s Dream, Nephi’s Blueprint: How Nephi Uses the Vision of the Tree of...

Abstract: This essay harnesses the late twentieth-century discovery of Hebrew rhetoric by Bible scholars to identify Lehi’s dream as the foundation of the carefully constructed unity in Nephi’s...

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A Comet, Christ’s Birth, and Josephus’s Lunar Eclipse

Abstract: A comet seen by the Chinese in 5 bc has been considered by some authors as a possibility for the Star of Bethlehem. This article starts with that premise and argues that Book of Mormon...

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There Is No Beauty That We Should Desire Him

Abstract: In two separate passages Isaiah appears to describe the mortal Messiah as lacking in physical beauty and perhaps as even having some type of physical disfigurement (see Isaiah 52:14 and...

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“But That Thou Wouldst Clear My Way Before Me”: A Note on the Personal and...

Abstract: The biblical Hebrew collocation pinnâ derek or pannû derek (cf. Egyptian Ἰr wꜣ.t [n]), often rendered “prepare the way” or “prepare a way” in English, is an evident stylistic feature of...

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Hannah’s Adversity and Peninnah’s Redemption

Abstract: Most biblical students are familiar with the story of Hannah, who after years of barrenness, finally gave birth to the prophet Samuel. Some will remember her adversary, Peninnah, who...

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“For Their Good Have I Written Them”: The Onomastic Allusivity and Literary...

Abstract: Nephi’s writings exhibit a distinctive focus on “good” and divine “goodness,” reflecting the meaning of Nephi’s Egyptian name (derived from nfr) meaning “good,” “goodly,” “fine,” or “fair.”...

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The Last Nephite Scribes

Abstract In an earlier paper, I concluded that Lehi and Nephi were highly trained Josephite scribes and were associated with an official Jerusalem scribal school that preserved ancient Manassite...

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“Unto the Taking Away of Their Stumbling Blocks”: The Taking Away and Keeping...

Abstract: In the latter part (1 Nephi 13–14) of his vision of the tree of life (1 Nephi 11–14), Nephi is shown the unauthorized human diminution of scripture and the gospel by the Gentile “great and...

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A Backstory for the Brass Plates

Abstract: This paper brings contemporary Ancient Near East (ANE) scholarship in several fields together with the ancient scriptures restored through Joseph Smith to construct a new starting point for...

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The Diachronic Usage of Exclamation Marks across the Major Book of Mormon...

Abstract: The usage of the exclamation mark has changed over time but continues to serve as an important textual interpretation aid. Punctuation itself has not been a permanent fixture in English,...

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Twenty Years After “Paradigms Regained,” Part 1: The Ongoing, Plain, and...

Abstract: Twenty years ago, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies published “Paradigms Regained: A Survey of Margaret Barker’s Scholarship and Its Significance for Mormon Studies” as...

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Rethinking the Encounter between Jacob and Sherem

Abstract: The Book of Mormon story of Jacob and Sherem has been evaluated and interpreted from many different viewpoints over the years. In his retelling of the story, Jacob crafted a cautionary tale...

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“Being of that Lineage”: Generational Curses and Inheritance in the Book of...

Abstract: The seeming appearance of a lineal or generational curse in the Book of Abraham has been used erroneously to marginalize people and justify racist ideas in Latter-day Saint history. To avoid...

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Stained Swords: A Psalm of Redemption

Abstract: The author proposes a novel ideal for understanding the stained swords of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies that involves repetition, parallelism, and metaphoric Hebrew wordplay. A favorite story in the...

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An Important New Study of Freemasonry and the Latter-day Saints: What’s Good,...

Review of Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, and Nicholas S. Literski, Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2022). 544 pages. $44.95...

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Assyria and the “Great Church” of Nephi’s Vision

Abstract: The Book of Mormon begins at a pivotal point in Israelite history and in the history of the ancient Near East more broadly. With the fall of Assyria and the power vacuum that grew out of...

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Twenty Years After “Paradigms Regained,” Part 2: Responding to Margaret...

Abstract: Here I address specific criticisms of Margaret Barker’s work. First, I set the stage by discussing Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as a map and compass for navigating...

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“According to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophecy”: Alma2’s Prophetic...

Abstract: Some students of the Book of Mormon have felt that while the coming of the Lord to the Lehites was clearly revealed to and taught by Nephi1, those prophecies having to do with the subject may...

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Toward a Greater Appreciation of the Word Adieu in Jacob 7:27

Abstract: The phrase “Brethren, adieu” (Jacob 7:27) has been criticized over the years as an obvious anachronism in the Book of Mormon. That criticism holds no validity whatsoever, as others have...

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Elias: Prophet of the Restoration

Abstract: The Prophet Elias is a puzzle, with a handful of pieces scattered through the standard works and the teachings of Joseph Smith. Rather than proving a point conclusively, this paper will put...

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Nephi’s “Bountiful”: Contrasting Both Candidates

Abstract: In May 2022, George Potter published an article that makes the most comprehensive case to date that Khor Rori in southern Oman is the most likely location for the place “Bountiful” described...

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“That They Might Come Again unto the Remnant of the House of Jacob”:...

Abstract: The prophecies in 3 Nephi 26:8–10 and 4 Nephi 1:49 are third-generation members of the same family of texts derived from Isaiah 11:11–12 and Isaiah 29:4, all of which ultimately rely on yāsap...

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Moving Beyond the Historicity Question, or a Manifesto for Future Book of...

Review of Daniel Becerra, Amy Easton-Flake, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Joseph M. Spencer, Book of Mormon Studies: An Introduction and Guide (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young...

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The Teachings of Silvanus: A Little-Known Gem from Nag Hammadi

Abstract: Scholars have recently suggested that The Teachings of Silvanus, a text from Nag Hammadi Codex VII, is the product of several authors with the earliest portion dating to the late first or...

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Unavailable Genetic Evidence, Multiple Simultaneous Promised Lands, and...

Abstract: This paper is composed of three parts connected consecutively because their conclusions build upon each other. The first part investigates the transportation methods used in the Book of...

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“In the Cause … of their God”: Clarifying Some Issues Regarding the Book of...

Abstract: A recent effort to think about war concludes that the Book of Mormon displays two righteous approaches to conflict: a violent approach that is justified and therefore “blessed;” and a...

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Understanding the Lamanite Mark

Abstract: The Book of Mormon describes a dark mark on the skin that distinguished people who rebelled against God and his laws from those who obeyed God. The Old Testament refers to a mark that fits...

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Theosis in the Book of Mormon: The Work and Glory of the Father, Mother and...

Abstract: While some scholars have suggested that the doctrine of theosis — the transformation of human beings into divine beings — emerged only in Nauvoo, the essence of the doctrine was already...

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The Dance of Reader and Text: Salomé, the Daughter of Jared, and the Regal...

Abstract: Modern readers too often and easily misread modern assumptions into ancient texts. One such notion is that when the reader encounters repeated stories in the Bible, the Book of Mormon,...

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The Holy Ghost in the Book of Moroni: Possessed of Charity

Abstract: The role played by the Holy Ghost is an especially important connecting thread that runs through the Book of Moroni. The book illuminates the various ways in which the Holy Ghost transforms...

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Doctrine and Covenants 21: Metanarrative of the Restoration

Abstract: Joseph Smith dictated Doctrine and Covenants 21 at the inaugural meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ on April 6, 1830. The present study examines the literary craftsmanship of the...

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“They Shall Be Scattered Again”: Some Notes on JST Genesis 50:24–25, 33–35

Abstract: This article examines the extension of the etiological wordplay on the name Joseph (in terms of the Hebrew verbs ʾāsap and yāsap), recurrent in the canonical text of Genesis, into the JST...

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“I Will Come to You”: An Investigation of Early Christian Beliefs about...

Abstract: While later Creedal Christians have come to view “the Ascension” recorded in the first chapter of Acts as a conclusive corporeal appearance of the Resurrected Lord, earliest Christians do not...

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Verbal Punctuation in the Book of Mormon II — Nevertheless

Abstract: One example of verbal punctuation that has a very clear pattern of usage in the Book of Mormon is the term nevertheless. It is used to draw a marked contrast between what the previous text...

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Moses as Midwife: What the Exodus Birth Story Teaches about Motherhood and...

Abstract: This work explores an alternative interpretation of the Exodus narrative as a metaphor for childbirth. Gleaning from Old Testament and Judaic sources, we find rich female birth and salvific...

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The Nephite Metaphor of Life as a Probation: Rethinking Nephi’s Portrayal of...

Abstract: Commentaries on Nephi’s first book tend to interpret the fraternal struggles it reports as historical facts that are meant primarily to invite readers’ evaluative responses. While recognizing...

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Nephi’s Eight Years in the “Wilderness”: Reconsidering Definitions and Details

Abstract: A traditional reading of Nephi’s chronicle of the trek through Arabia relies heavily on two verses in 1 Nephi 17. In verse 4, Nephi states that they “did sojourn for the space of many years,...

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Withstanding Satan’s Siege through Christ’s Iron Rod: The Vision of the Tree...

Abstract: Nothing was more terrifying in the ancient world than a siege. Besiegers disregarded normal conventions of war and either utterly slaughtered or enslaved a city’s residents. Nephi used siege...

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