PDF feed of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
377 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingA nonprofit educational journal focused on the scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, the Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, early LDS history, and related subjects. All publications are peer-reviewed and are made available as free internet downloads or through at-cost print-on-demand services.
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Episodes
The Lives of Abraham: Seeing Abraham through the Eyes of Second-Temple Jews
May 31, 2019 17:59 - 210 KB application/pdfAbstract: During the Second-Temple Period, Jews remembered and reimagined the story of Abraham to address their own immediate historical and cultural concerns. By exploring these reimaginations, we learn more about the faith and interests of later Jews who looked to their forefather for inspiration and guidance on how to live in a world of change, opportunity, […]
D&C 21, George Albert Smith, and Hugh B. Brown: A Fresh Look at Three Incidents in Church History
May 24, 2019 17:59 - 205 KB application/pdfAbstract. When discussions arise about the relationship between Church members and the prophets who lead them, certain episodes in Church history often appear. These include the Lord’s words about “all patience and faith” in Doctrine and Covenants 21:4–5, as well as incidents involving George Albert Smith and Hugh B. Brown. On the surface, such episodes might seem […]
The Māori Latter-day Saint Historical Narrative: Additions and Amendments
May 17, 2019 17:59 - 251 KB application/pdfAbstract: Selwyn Kātene has again assembled twelve essays written by the descendants of famous Māori Latter-day Saints. This volume flows from a revival of interest in the ground and content of the faith of early Māori Saints that began in the late 1990s. In various ways the essays in this volume add to and amend what has […]
Volume 31 Now Available for Ordering in Paperback and E-book Formats
May 15, 2019 17:59 - 2.23 MB application/pdfThe Interpreter Foundation is pleased to announce that Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, Volume 31 (2019), is now available in paperback and digital formats for ordering and downloading.
Joseph Knew First: Moses, the Egyptian Son
May 10, 2019 17:59 - 140 KB application/pdfAbstract: After about 1500 years of slumber, ancient Egyptian was brought back to life in the early 19th century, when scholars deciphered hieroglyphs. This revolutionary success opened the door to a reevaluation of history from the viewpoint of ancient Egypt. In the wake of this new knowledge, the first scholar posited the idea in 1849 that […]
Joseph Smith: The World’s Greatest Guesser (A Bayesian Statistical Analysis of Positive and Negative Correspondences between the Book of Mormon and The Maya)
May 03, 2019 17:59 - 718 KB application/pdfAbstract: Dr. Michael Coe is a prominent Mesoamerican scholar and author of a synthesis and review of ancient Mesoamerican Indian cultures entitled The Maya.1 Dr. Coe is also a prominent skeptic of the Book of Mormon. However, there is in his book strong evidence that favors the Book of Mormon, which Dr. Coe has not taken into account. This article analyzes that […]
Procedural Violations in the Trial of the Woman Taken in Adultery
April 26, 2019 17:59 - 199 KB application/pdfAbstract: The story in John 8 of the woman taken in adultery is sometimes used to argue that Jesus was lenient toward sin and that we should be too. However, when placed in its broader context, we can see the story is not one in which Christ shows indifference or contempt for the law, but […]
The Crucifixion as a Mockery, Witness, and Warning of the Judgment
April 19, 2019 18:42 - 153 KB application/pdfAbstract: In its action, setting, and arrangement, the crucifixion may be viewed as a stark mockery of the final judgment scene. This article provides a brief review of the relevant scriptures, considered together with some related apocryphal and other early Christian writings of interest in regard to the crucifixion. These sources point to the interpretation that the […]
The First Easter
April 19, 2019 17:55 - 87 KB application/pdfAbstract: Scriptural accounts are rife with information about the import of the first Easter. Understanding the events of the week before the death and resurrection of Christ can help us appreciate the words of the witnesses as well as the importance of these events in our lives. All Easter celebrations, Orthodox or Western, reach back […]
The Record of My Father
April 12, 2019 17:59 - 187 KB application/pdfAbstract: In 1 Nephi 1:16–17, Nephi tells us he is abridging “the record of my father.” The specific words Nephi uses in his writings form several basic but important patterns and features used repeatedly by Nephi and also by other Book of Mormon writers. These patterns and features provide context that appears to indicate that Nephi’s abridgment of Lehi’s […]
Revisiting “Sariah” at Elephantine
April 05, 2019 17:59 - 1.07 MB application/pdfAbstract: Jeffrey R. Chadwick has previously called attention to the name ŚRYH (Seraiah/Sariah) as a Hebrew woman’s name in the Jewish community at Elephantine. Paul Y. Hoskisson, however, felt this evidence was not definitive because part of the text was missing and had to be restored. Now a more recently published ostracon from Elephantine, which contains a sure […]
Research and More Research
March 29, 2019 17:59 - 110 KB application/pdfAbstract: Young members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have grown up with a plethora of information available to answer the questions they may have about the Gospel. This, in turn, has allowed discordant information to cause concern in many members, ultimately drawing some away from the Gospel. In a recent address to young, married […]
I Don’t Have a Testimony of the History of the Church
March 22, 2019 18:49 - 166 KB application/pdfAbstract: In this masterful presentation, accomplished historian Davis Bitton addresses the role of history and belief. Testimonies, he asserts, are born of belief and spiritual witnesses, not from historical events. It is quite possible to know all about Church history and still remain a believing member. [Editor’s Note: This essay was presented at the 2004 FAIR Conference.1 […]
An Approach to History
March 22, 2019 17:55 - 100 KB application/pdfAbstract: When researching and evaluating historical information, it is easy to come across things that may lead to a crisis of faith. Some of those crises may lead individuals to leave the Church and actively proselytize against it. It is much better when dealing with historical issues to approach them from a standpoint of charity, treating historical […]
Seeing Psalms as the Libretti of a Holy Drama
March 15, 2019 17:59 - 187 KB application/pdfAbstract: Psalms was the favorite Old Testament book at Qumran and in the New Testament; the Book of Mormon contains more than three dozen allusions to Psalms. While Psalms contains both powerful, poetic words of comfort and doctrinal gems, many psalms also seem to careen between praise, warning, comfort, military braggadocio, and humility, sometimes addressing […]
Volume 30 Now Available for Ordering in Paperback and E-book Formats
March 09, 2019 16:00 - 2.77 MB application/pdfThe Interpreter Foundation is pleased to announce that Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, Volume 30 (2018), is now available in paperback and digital formats for ordering and downloading.
Was Adam a Monotheist? A Reflection on Why We Call Abraham Father and Not Adam
March 08, 2019 18:59 - 143 KB application/pdfAbstract: The three great monotheistic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all claim Abraham as father and prototypical monotheist. Though Adam is the putative first father in all of these traditions, he is seldom remembered in Judeo-Christian scriptural, apocryphal, or pseudepigraphic texts as an exemplary monotheist. This essay briefly reviews why Abraham retains the lofty […]
Campbellites and Mormonites: Competing Restoration Movements
March 01, 2019 18:59 - 133 KB application/pdfAbstract: In October 1830, Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson were the first missionaries sent to travel through the western states to the Indian territory at the far reaches of the United States. Pratt, a former resident of northeastern Ohio, suggested they stop in the Kirtland, Ohio, area and visit his preacher friend, […]
Assessing the Criticisms of Early-Age Latter-Day Saint Marriages
February 22, 2019 18:59 - 271 KB application/pdfAbstract: Critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have accused Joseph Smith and other early Latter-day Saint men of pedophilia because they married teenaged women. Indeed, they have emphatically declared that such marriages were against 19th-century societal norms. However, historians and other experts have repeatedly stated that young people married throughout the […]
Curiously Unique: Joseph Smith as Author of the Book of Mormon
February 15, 2019 18:59 - 602 KB application/pdfAbstract: The advent of the computer and the internet allows Joseph Smith as the “author” of the Book of Mormon to be compared to other authors and their books in ways essentially impossible even a couple of decades ago. Six criteria can demonstrate the presence of similarity or distinctiveness among writers and their literary creations: […]
Feasting on the Book of Mormon
February 08, 2019 18:59 - 105 KB application/pdfAbstract: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship has recently published a new study edition of the Book of Mormon. Edited by Grant Hardy, the Maxwell Institute Study Edition (MISE) incorporates important advances in Book of Mormon scholarship from the past few decades while grounding the reader’s experience in the text of the Book of Mormon. The reformatted text presented in […]
Read This Book: A Review of the Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon
February 08, 2019 18:50 - 85.1 KB application/pdfAbstract: The Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon is an important tool for personal and class study of the Book of Mormon. Not only does it provide a better reading experience, it has important features that enhance study. Review of Grant Hardy, ed. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell […]
Messengers of the Covenant: Mormon’s Doctrinal Use of Malachi 3:1 in Moroni 7:29–32
February 01, 2019 18:59 - 276 KB application/pdfAbstract: Although not evident at first glance, shared terminology and phraseology in Malachi 3:1 (3 Nephi 24:1) and Moroni 7:29–32 suggest textual dependency of the latter on the former. Jesus’s dictation of Malachi 3–4 to the Lamanites and Nephites at the temple in Bountiful, as recorded and preserved on the plates of Nephi, helped provide […]
Translating the New Testament for Latter‑day Saints
January 25, 2019 18:59 - 176 KB application/pdfAbstract: A new translation of the New Testament by Thomas A. Wayment, a professor of Classics at Brigham Young University, offers Latter-day Saints a fresh look at this volume of scripture. Accompanying the translation are study notes that touch on historical, textual, and other items of importance in any critical reading of the New Testament. […]
Barriers to Belief: Mental Distress and Disaffection from the Church
January 18, 2019 18:59 - 222 KB application/pdfAbstract: People leave the Church for a variety of reasons. Of all the reasons why people leave, one that has attracted little or no attention is the influence of mental distress. People who experience anxiety or depression see things differently than those who do not. Recognizing that people with mental distress have a different experience with church […]
Light and Perspective: Essays from the Mormon Theology Seminar on 1 Nephi 1 and Jacob 7
January 11, 2019 18:59 - 365 KB application/pdfAbstract: The Mormon Theology Seminar has produced two volumes of essays exploring 1 Nephi 1 on Lehi’s initial visions, and Jacob 7 on the encounter with Sherem. These essays provide valuable insights from a range of perspectives and raise questions for further discussion both of issues raised and regarding different paradigms in which scholars operate that readers must navigate. […]
“Come unto Me” as a Technical Gospel Term
January 04, 2019 18:59 - 233 KB application/pdfAbstract: The Book of Mormon repeatedly outlines a six-part definition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but most writers within the book refer to only two or three of them at a time in a biblical rhetorical device called merismus. Throughout the scriptures, the term “come unto Christ” in its many forms is used as part of these […]