In my post here I stated that I essentially agreed with a comment made by David Bokovoy on the nature of biblical historiography. Biblical authors were not historians, at least not in the modern sense of the term. They were storytellers. Their accounts were certainly sacred, but they were also entertaining, and sometimes even political … Read more
Nephi – 6th century BC Judahite author or 19th century AD fictional character? [Note: Be sure to check out my follow-up to this post here.] David Bokovoy very recently has posted an article on the subject of historicity and scripture. If I understand his post correctly, Bokovoy approvingly cites Joseph Spencer and Adam Miller in … Read more
Visual approximation of Hamblin and Park having a “discussion.” Ben Park has responded to Bill Hamblin and Dan Peterson’s critiques of his article at the Times and Seasons blog (here). Bill has also posted responses from Grant Hardy and “Smallaxe” at his blog (here and here), as well as his own follow-up comments (here). Leaving … Read more
The Internet (or at least the Mormon part of it) is in something of a tizzy over some posts by Dan Peterson and Bill Hamblin critiquing Benjamin Park’s recent essay in the new volume of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. You can read Dan and Bill’s posts here, here, and here. Be sure … Read more
Earl Wunderli recently published a book arguing that the Book of Mormon is 19th century fiction. It was, unsurprisingly, published by Signature Books. The reviews of Wunderli’s work are in, and so far the critical responses to the book have been . . . not that great. Matthew Roper, Paul Fields, and Larry Bassist, “‘If … Read more
The temple of the Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri. I took this picture when I visited this site last year. This afternoon I ran into Professor Alex Baugh on BYU campus, who very kindly handed me a copy of the latest issue of the Mormon Historical Studies journal. As I was thumbing through the … Read more
1. From J. N. Washburn (sent to me by my friend Neal Rappleye): I have no fears for the future of the Book of Mormon. While I may agree with those who say, “If it is man-made, the sooner we find it out the better,” I am convinced that it will stand up under all … Read more
The Bar’an temple in Yemen. Warren Aston has a piece in Meridian Magazine on the NHM altar inscriptions that’s worth reading. Aston, having presented his findings on the Nihm tribe of Yemen at such places as Cambridge University, is one of the leading experts in the study of this topic. Besides discussing the history of … Read more
Joseph Smith Preaching to the Indians (1890) by William Armitage. Some of the responses to the Church’s recent essay on DNA and the Book of Mormon have been rather perplexing. (The responses of certain prominent critics of the Church, who shall, for their sakes, remain nameless, were downright embarrassing.) One of the responses I’ve heard … Read more
One of the NHM altar inscriptions. As promised, here is my article (co-written with my good friend Neal Rappleye) responding to Dan Vogel’s arguments against the significance of the NHM altar inscriptions for the Book of Mormon’s historicity. The article can accessed online here. If nothing else, the article will probably serve as a good … Read more