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Administrative notices

Interpreter Conference

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by Jeffrey Bradshaw

Beginning in the 1970s, a few scholars, most notably Hugh W. Nibley, began to point to evidence relating to the ancient context of the Book of Moses. However, over-enthusiastic scholars (admittedly, at times, including myself) have not always been careful in their research and sometimes have gone farther in their claims than the evidence warrants. As a result, some of the early enthusiasm for comparative studies has waned and, paralleling the course of biblical studies, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme where comparisons of scripture to the ancient world became less common.

Now the pendulum is swinging back the other way. We hope that the presentations at the conference will reflect the still increasing maturity of the field, relying on more well-defined methodologies designed to better assure the reliability of their results — avoiding the extremes of both parallelomania and parallelophobia. In addition to more well-defined methodologies, recent research has also benefitted from new discoveries and better understandings of the manuscripts and other material remains of the cultures and religious traditions of the ancient Near East.

The conference is based on the premise that significant patterns of resemblance to ancient manuscripts not available during the lifetime of Joseph Smith and of unexpected conformance to conditions imposed by an archaic setting are potential indicators of antiquity that are best explained when the essential element of divine revelation is acknowledged. [Read more…] about Interpreter Conference

Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses

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2020 Interpreter Foundation Conference

 

Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses

September 18-19, 2020
Brigham Young University, Tanner Building, Room 251
(If temporary COVID-19 restrictions preclude gathering on campus, we will hold the conference virtually. For late-breaking news, watch this website.)

Presented by
The Interpreter Foundation
Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture
Book of Mormon Central
FairMormon

Because we believe that the Book of Moses includes authentic history, the possibility of evidence for that belief interests us as scholars. Although the primary intent of Joseph Smith’s translations is to meet the needs of modern readers, not to provide precise matches to texts from other times, we consider significant patterns of resemblance to ancient manuscripts that the Prophet could not have known and of unexpected conformance to conditions imposed by an archaic setting as potential indicators of antiquity that are best explained when the essential element of divine revelation is acknowledged. [Read more…] about Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses

2019 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award

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Congratulations to this year’s recipient of the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award, Spencer Marsh!

Each year, FairMormon awards the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award to a volunteer who made meritorious contributions to FairMormon’s mission and outstanding personal efforts in helping defend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Potential recipients are nominated by members of the FairMormon management team and recipients are selected by the board of directors.

Prior recipients include:

  • 2018 Michael W. Hickenbotham
  • 2017 Marion Allen
  • 2016 Julianne Hatton
  • 2015 Nick Galieti and Ben McGuire
  • 2014 Trevor Holyoak
  • 2013 Neal Rappleye and Hales Swift
  • 2012 Steve Densley and Cassandra Hedelius
  • 2011 Ken Kyle
  • 2010 Tanya Spackman
  • 2009 Roger Nicholson
  • 2008 Tyler Livingston
  • 2007 Greg Smith
  • 2006 Mike Parker
  • 2005 Mike Ash
  • 2004 Marc Schindler (posthumously)
  • 2003 Sharon Bunch
  • 2002 Allen Wyatt
  • 2001 Scott Gordon

Donate to FairMormon on Facebook for #GivingTuesday on Nov. 27 and it will be matched!

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Thanks for all the donations! We couldn’t exist without you! We were able to raise a total of $5,233 (before matching)!

If you would still like to donate, you can do it here at any time. Thanks for your help!

 

Today is #GivingTuesday! Facebook and PayPal are matching a total of up to $7 million of donations made through Facebook. Help us today by donating at https://www.facebook.com/donate/262507577691633/

There are no fees on donations — 100% of the donations go to FairMormon!

 

FairMormon’s Content and Update Policy

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FairMormon stands as a witness of Jesus Christ and His restored Church. Our mission is to answer charges leveled against the Church, its leaders, teachings and practices.

We are an all-volunteer organization. We seek volunteers who agree with our mission and want to help. These individuals contribute with a full understanding of our mission, and know their work may be used or modified as needed in order to achieve our mission. They further understand that the purpose of volunteering is to defend the Church and not to pursue a personal agenda.

Because our priority is our mission and not ourselves, much of FairMormon’s content is generated collaboratively and not attributed to individuals. Some blogs, podcasts, and other content do have attributed authors. Because our volunteer resources are limited, not all content in blogs and podcasts can be carefully reviewed in advance. Therefore, sometimes it is necessary to edit, refine, or even remove already-published content in order to keep it consistent with our mission.

Many of our volunteers contribute content in other venues, such as on personal blogs, in scholarly publications, and in podcasts. When a current or former FairMormon volunteer publishes views that contradict the position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or accuses Church leaders of wrongdoing, malicious intent, and so forth, it may become confusing or harmful to FairMormon’s audience, and contrary to FairMormon’s mission, to maintain that volunteer’s content on our website. Because FairMormon is a trusted entity for many Latter-day Saints and sincere investigators, FairMormon must avoid endorsing external content that opposes our mission and the Church’s values.

FairMormon reserves the right to edit or remove content produced by attributed authors in order to ensure that we maintain integrity in our mission. When content is not attributed, there is generally no change to the content we make available to the public.

Our volunteers are never guaranteed their content will never be removed or edited. We try to make sure our volunteers understand that FairMormon’s mission is a higher priority than any individual’s wishes or feeling of pride in his or her contributions. We at FairMormon are not here for ourselves, but to serve the interests of the Lord and His restored Church. We defend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unapologetically in the hopes that our efforts will help sustain the faith of those who visit our site.

FairMormon on Social Media

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With the mission of FairMormon being the defense of the LDS Church, we find it necessary that a key element of defending our religion is the promotion of our mission and of our love for the Gospel of Christ. With valuable information and perspective, our voice is useless if it is nowhere to be heard.

In an effort to make our voice heard and to share our insight and give our love and support, all in an effort to defend the Gospel that we hold dear, we are embracing the counsel from Elder Bednar and will strive to “Sweep the Earth as With a Flood” and turn our attention more fully to social media. With that being said, we cannot accomplish this on our own. As with everything about the FairMormon organization, we rely heavily on your support and donations (as we are a non-profit organization). This will be no different. We rely on your help and support by helping us “go viral”.

Please:

Share us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fairmormon

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @fairmormon

Follow us on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/+FairMormon

Follow us on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/FairMormon

Facebook: We would be very appreciative if you were to “share” us with your friends on Facebook. To do this, you can simply go to our Facebook page and up in the right-hand corner there is the option to “share” our page. If anything, share one of our posts that you find interesting. This helps us to generate more traffic.

Instagram: Instagram is a social media site of people, organizations and businesses who share their lives, thoughts, programs through pictures or memes. This is a “smartphone only app” and is generally more confusing for people of more “seasoned” generations to activate, so we will be giving more than just “sharing” instructions. To activate an Instagram account a person will need to download the app from their particular app store (it’s free). You can connect it through either your Facebook (recommended) or an email. The use of hashtags is a big feature of Instagram. Hashtags are a pound sign (#) immediately followed by a word or phrase (usually specific to the picture). The use and importance of hashtags is, you can click on any given hashtag and it will take you to every other picture or meme that used that particular hashtag. Once a person gets the hang of their use, they will begin to see how effective hashtags can be in promoting a certain picture or meme.

And if you can +1 and repin our posts on Google+ and Pinterest, respectively, that would also help spread our message.

We give you our continued thanks and appreciation for helping us in our neverending mission and duty of defending the gospel of Christ. The Internet is used for good and evil. With your help, we can do our part in using it for good of the gospel and of all mankind, in general.

Announcement: 2014 Temple on Mount Zion Conference

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–––From the Interpreter website–––

The Interpreter Foundation would like to announce a forthcoming conference, the 2014 Temple on Mount Zion Conference to be held in 251 TNRB (N. Eldon Tanner Building) on the campus of Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, on 25 October, 2014. This conference is sponsored by the BYU College of Humanities and Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages as well as The Interpreter Foundation.

The conference focuses on LDS conceptions of ancient and modern Temple theology as reflected in the Bible and LDS scripture. There will be thirteen presenters. You can see a list of presenters and schedule on the Program & Schedule page.

Program & Schedule

2014 Temple on Mount Zion Conference
Saturday, 25 October 2014, 8:45 am–5:45 pm
251 TNRB (N. Eldon Tanner Building)
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

8:45 am           Opening Prayer, Greeting—Donald W. Parry, presiding

9:00 am           Jeffrey Bradshaw: “What Did Joseph Smith Know about the LDS Endowment by 1836?”

9:30 am           Dan Belnap: “‘Let the Beauty of the Lord our God be Upon Us’: The Role of Visual Aesthetics in Ancient Israel’s Temple Worship”

10:00 am         Carli Anderson: “Enthroning the Daughter of Zion: The Coronation Motif of Isaiah 60-62”

10:30 am         Break

 

10:45 am         Carli Anderson, presiding

Stephen D. Ricks: “Prayer with Uplifted Hands”

11:15 am         David Calabro: “Joseph Smith and the Architecture of Genesis”

11:45 am         Stephen Smoot: “The Book of the Dead as a Temple Text and the Implications for the Book of Abraham”

12:15 pm         David J. Larsen: “Psalm 24 and the Two Yahwehs at the Gate of the Temple”

12:45 pm         Lunch break

 

1:55 pm           Greeting—David J. Larsen, presiding

2:00 pm           Ann Madsen: “Temples in the Margins: The Temple in Isaiah”

2:30 pm           Donald W. Parry: “Temple Themes in Cities of Refuge Texts”

3:00 pm           Matthew L. Bowen: “‘I Have Done According to My Will’: Reading Jacob 5 as a Temple Text”

3:30 pm           Break

 

3:45 pm           Stephen D. Ricks, presiding

John W. Welch: “Leviticus as an Archetypal Temple Template”

4:15 pm           John S. Thompson: “How John’s Gospel Portrays Jesus as the Way of the Temple”

4:45 pm           Shon D. Hopkin: “The Day of Atonement, the Mosaic Temple, and the Christian Sacrament of Communion: Links and Symbols”

5:15 pm           Daniel C. Peterson: “The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Qur’an”

5:45 pm           Concluding Remarks, Closing Prayer

This conference is sponsored by the BYU College of Humanities, the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, and the Interpreter Foundation