FairMormon

Register for the 2018 FairMormon Conference!
August 1-3 in Provo, Utah.

Bible

What Were Israel’s Most Serious Provocations of the Lord in the Wilderness? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 14B)

by Leave a Comment

Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665: The Adoration of the Golden Calf, 1634-1635

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 14: “Ye Shall Be a Peculiar Treasure Unto Me” (Exodus 15-20; 32-34) (JBOTL14B)

Question:The making of the golden calf is often presented as the height of Israel’s rejection of God and His law. But it was only one of several incidents of rebellion that occurred in the wilderness. Among all these provocations, which ones were the most serious?

Summary: The translations, revelations, and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith make it clear that the most serious provocations of Israel had nothing to do with their frequent complainings in the wilderness, as one might otherwise imagine. Rather, they had to do with Israel’s deliberate rejection of “the last law from Moses,” a law associated with the fulness of the priesthood and its blessings. In their rejection of that law, Israel had refused “to sanctify [themselves] that they might behold the face of God” at Sinai. Instead, they prayed “that God would speak to Moses and not to them.” “In consequence of [their actions, God] cursed them with a carnal law.” And, as a result of their actions, the generation of Israelites who left Egypt in the Exodus would neither enter into the promised land nor into “the rest of the Lord” during their mortal lives. Happily, the Lord holds out the possibility of receiving these sometimes-rejected blessings to faithful disciples in our day who are willing to make and keep the covenants that will enable them to continually enjoy the divine presence. Through “sufficient hope,” the “peaceable followers of Christ” may “enter into the rest of the Lord” in this life, “until [they] shall rest with him in heaven.” This rest “is the fulness of his glory.”

 

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL14B — What Were Israel’s Most Serious Provocations of the Lord in the Wilderness?

 

What Similarities Are There Between Egyptian and Israelite Temples? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 14A)

by Leave a Comment

Israel Camped Around the Wilderness Tabernacle

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrinesson 14: “Ye Shall Be a Peculiar Treasure Unto Me” (Exodus 15-20; 32-34) (JBOTL14A)

Question:Hugh W. Nibley and other LDS scholars have written at length about Egyptian temple rites. What similiarities are there between Egyptian and Israelite temples?

Summary: Temple rituals in the ancient Near East may seem in some respects far removed from current LDS teachings and ritual practices. However, what resemblances exist may be of significance to a people who claim that divine revelation about the ordinances go back to the beginning of mankind. Predating, as they do, the Israelite Tabernacle by more than a millennium, such resemblances may be “an embarrassment to exclusivistic readings of religion.” However, to Mormons they represent “a kind of confirmation and vindication.” Thus, Egyptian and other ancient temples should be better understood by Latter-day Saints. For although, as Hugh Nibley observed, “the Egyptian endowment was but an imitation, it was still a good one, and we may be able to learn much from it.”

 

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL14A — What Similarities Are There Between Egyptian and Israelite Temples?

An excellent short video discussing the Tabernacle and the Messiah is available from Daniel Smith at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TygiChDYd4Y. See also his presentation on “The Ancient Israelite Tabernacle, Its Accoutrements, and the Priestly Vestments,” given at the Interpreter Foundation 2016 Temple on Mount Zion Conference, 5 November 2016, Provo, Utah (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEb4u4OB-aU).

On 7 October 2015, Joshua Berman gave a talk for the Academy for Temple Studies on “Differences between the Tabernacle and the Temple,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB6xlYpcO-w. He gave a similar talk on 8 October 2015 at the BYU Kennedy Center, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ew7on3UL4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3nw2C1J5Lg.

Is There Any Evidence in Egyptian Sources for the Exodus? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 13C)

by Leave a Comment

. Smaller Tablet of the Hittite version of a Peace Treaty with Egypt, executed ca. 1259 BCE, sixteen years after the battle of Kadesh. It “is believed to be the earliest example of any written international agreement of any kind.”

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 13: Bondage, Passover, and Exodus (Exodus 1-3; 5-6; 11-14) (JBOTL013C)

Question:Most of the evidence for the historical Exodus comes indirectly from general archaeological findings and analysis of biblical texts. Is there any specific evidence for the reality and timing of the Exodus that can be corroborated from Egyptian sources?

Summary: Very possibly, but only indirectly. Although the Egyptians, like other ancient (and modern!) peoples, were understandably loathe themselves to truthfully advertise a military defeat, the Israelites had no qualms about publicizing such an event on their behalf. According to Hebrew Bible scholar Joshua Berman, the author of the “Sea Account,” the oldest description of Israel’s final escape in the book of Exodus, may have intentionally imitated the structure and vocabulary of Egyptian propaganda trumpeting a claimed victory at the Battle of Kadesh in order to mock the pharaoh’s failure to stop the flight of the Israelites. Berman makes the case that the Israelite “Sea Account” must have been authored within a reasonable period of time after the battle of Kadesh by someone personally acquainted with the Egyptian inscriptions that reported it.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL13C — Is There Any Evidence in Egyptian Sources for the Exodus?

A three-minute synopsis of Joshua Berman’s ideas can be found in “A Passover Story: Archaeology and the Exodus,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGeusWwI-g

For a video describing the historical context and weapon technology of the battle of Kadesh, see Ancient Discoveries: Egyptian Warfare (History Channel), Ancient Discoveries: Egyptian Warfare (History Channel), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS3eQbQG5mA.

What Can We Learn About Patriarchal Blessings from a Congolese Patriarch? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 12B)

by Leave a Comment

Laurent Clément Shambuyi Biaya Katembwe, patriarch in DR Congo

 Photo Essay and Video Shorts for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 12:“Fruitful in the Land of My Affliction”(Genesis 40-45) (JBOTL12B)

Summary: This photo essay with accompanying video shorts are intended to supplement the study of Jacob’s blessings to his twelve sons as recorded in Genesis 49. As part of an assignment to gather oral histories for the Church History Library in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I was accompanied by Brother Daniel Tusey Kola on a visit to Laurent Clément Shambuyi Biaya Katembwe, one of the first members of the Church in the DRC. Brother Shambuyi has served diligently in many leadership assignments and has now been called as a stake patriarch. The video shorts, subtitled in English, Brother Shambuyi’s answers to three questions: “What is a patriarchal blessing?” “What is the significance of the declaration of lineage?” And “What is the role of revelation in patriarchal blessings?”

The photo essay and video shorts may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL12B — What Can We Learn About Patriarchal Blessings from a Congolese Patriarch?

What Can We Learn About the Historical Exodus from Outside the Scriptures? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 13B)

by Leave a Comment

Egyptian Figurine of a Semitic Slave

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 13: Bondage, Passover, and Exodus (Exodus 1-3; 5-6; 11-14) (JBOTL013B)

Question:Many people nowadays believe that the Exodus never happened. Are there traces of the historical Exodus from sources outside the scriptures? And do they help us to identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus?

Summary: Traces of the historical Exodus from sources outside the scriptures are available — but only if you are looking for the right things in the right direction. For example, if you are expecting to find archaeological evidence for a group of millions of Israelites crossing the Sinai desert after leaving Egypt in shambles, you are likely to be disappointed. True it is that large numbers of Semitic people came and went from Egypt in the centuries before a much smaller group eventually left in the Exodus. But teasing out the subtleties of the historical context of scripture requires tedious and diligent efforts of dedicated scholars. In this article, we present a few tentative conclusions to help familiarize readers with the current landscape.

 

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL13B — What Can We Learn About the Historical Exodus from Outside the Scriptures?

A video version of a presentation by Richard Elliott Friedman on the subject entitled “The Exodus Based on the Sources Themselves” can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-YlzpUhnxQ 

What Did the Lord Mean When He Said Moses Would Become “God to Pharaoh” During the Plagues of Egypt? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 13A)

by Leave a Comment

Moses and Pharaoh

An Old Testament KnoWhy relating to the reading assignment for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 13: Bondage, Passover, and Exodus (Exodus 1-3; 5-6; 11-14) (JBOTL013A)

Question: What did the Lord mean when He said Moses would become “god to Pharaoh”? And how did the symbolism of the plagues undermine the worship of the Egyptian gods?

Summary: Surprisingly, Exodus 7:1 does not say that Moses was to be “like a god” to Pharaoh. Rather, the Lord’s words to the prophet in Hebrew read literally: “I have made you God/god to Pharaoh.” To make sense of this statement, it must be remembered that Pharaoh was considered to be a god by his people, “the living embodiment of the god Horus, god of kingship, represented by the falcon.” Thus, to prepare Moses for his summit meeting with the leader of Egypt, the Lord made him not only Pharaoh’s “equal” in rank but in addition also enabled him to demonstrate the greater potency of the true and living God whom he served. Because Pharaoh was divine in the eyes of the Egyptians, “he should have been the one to function as a god to Moses.” However, in a display of power whose symbolism would have been understood both by the Egyptians and the people of Moses, Jehovah, the God of Israel, turned the tables against Ra, the supreme sun-god of Pharaoh. By means of the plagues, the great I AM executed His judgment “against all the gods of Egypt,” a phrase meant to include Pharaoh and his firstborn son. Drawing primarily on the work of Rutgers professor Gary A. Rendsburg, this article will describe the significance of the means by which Jehovah devastated Ra.

 

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL13A — What Did the Lord Mean When He Said Moses Would Become “God to Pharaoh” During the Plagues of Egypt?

For Gary Rendsburg’s 8 March 2007 BYU Kennedy Center talk entitled “Light from Egypt on the Exodus Story,” see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iwvTZnwSy0 .

To access Gary Rendsburg’s 2013 video presentation of “Moses the Magician” at the UCSD Exodus Conference “Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination,” see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYhNo1jC9Fg .

How Should We Understand the Rich Symbolism in Jacob’s Blessings of Judah and Joseph? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 12A)

by 2 Comments

Harry Anderson: Jacob Blesses His Twelve Sons

An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 12: “Fruitful in the Land of My Affliction” (Genesis 40-45) (JBOTL012A)

Question: Some of the most significant prophecies in scripture regarding the posterity of Jacob are found in the blessings of Judah and Joseph in Genesis 49. However much of the poetry in the blessings is difficult to understand. How should we understand the rich symbolism of these verses?

Summary: The Hebrew manuscripts of Jacob’s blessings of Judah and Joseph present difficult problems in translation, since they contain several obscure and archaic terms and phrases. Some important passages (e.g., “until Shiloh comes” [49:10]; “Joseph is a fruitful branch” [49:22]) have been particularly troublesome, leaving translators with few options outside of “conjectural emendation” to reconstruct the text. This approach may result in translations of key phrases that differ significantly from what is contained in the LDS edition of the Bible. Adding to the difficulties of interpretation of these blessings is that we have no direct help from modern scripture. Surprisingly, while Joseph Smith made substantive changes in the wording of the blessings of Ephraim and Manasseh in Genesis 48 and in the testament of Joseph in chapter 50, he made no significant changes to Genesis 49. And, apart from brief restatements of a few lines from Jacob’s words to Joseph in an 1833 blessing of Joseph Smith’s father, we have no other known allusions to the specific content of Genesis 49 in the teachings and history of the Prophet. The intent of this article is to make this chapter — arguably “the most difficult segment of the Book of Genesis” — more understandable for LDS readers. More importantly, it is hoped that this understanding will lead us to a greater dedication to our own responsibilities as the posterity of Israel.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL12A — How Should We Understand the Rich Symbolism in Jacob’s Blessings of Judah and Joseph?

Why Are the Stories of Joseph and Judah Intertwined? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 11A)

by Leave a Comment

Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902): Joseph Converses with Judah, His Brother

An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 11: “How Can I Do This Great Wickedness?” (Genesis 34; 37-39) (JBOTL011A)

Question: Immediately after telling us that Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt, Genesis suddenly shifts our attention to the story of Judah and Tamar. Why is Joseph’s story abruptly interrupted at such a crucial point in the narrative? Why are the stories of Joseph and Judah intertwined throughout?

Summary: The story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38 “seems to be out of place,” with some scholars going so far as to dismiss it entirely as “an extraneous fragment.” But closer examination of this story demonstrates that it was placed where it was for good reason — and with great skill and subtlety. Lacking this important interlude, we might think that the final chapters of Genesis were concerned only with the rise of Joseph in Egypt and how, through God’s hand and his faithfulness, Jacob’s family was saved from death by famine. In fact, however, the inspired editor of Genesis has deliberately interwoven the stories of Joseph and Judah. In doing so, he demonstrates that their trials and tests were part of a divine tutorial designed to prepare them to become models for and eventually leaders of their brothers. Later, Joseph and Judah would become the ancestors of the most prominent tribes of Israel’s northern and southern dominions respectively, thus fulfilling (in part) God’s promises to Abraham: “I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.”

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: Why Are the Stories of Joseph and Judah Intertwined?

What Are We To Make of Jacob’s Apparent Deceitfulness? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 10A)

by Leave a Comment

Francesco Hayez (1791-1881): Meeting of Esau and Jacob, 1844

An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 10: Birthright Blessings; Marriage in the Covenant (Genesis 24-29) (JBOTL010A)

Question: Why is Jacob so greatly blessed when “the pivotal moments in the scriptural account of [his] life seem to turn on deceit”?

Summary: Jacob’s youthful deceits are proverbial. Indeed, the Savior Himself praised Nathanael by contrasting him with Jacob, saying, “Behold an Israelite [i.e., descendant of Jacob] indeed, in whom[, unlike his forefather, there] is no guile!” However, as in all scripture stories (as in life), we cannot fully understand the lessons of Jacob’s divine tutorial unless we follow it to its end. In the Bible’s version of measure-for-measure justice, the deceiver will be himself deceived. Eventually, among the happy results of Jacob’s crucible of experience, he will learn humility, forgiveness, and that God has His own ways to fulfill His own promises.

 

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL10A — What Are We to Make of Jacob’s Apparent Deceitfulness?

 

Must Every Disciple Make an Abrahamic Sacrifice?(Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson 9A)

by Leave a Comment

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669): The Sacrifice of Isaac

An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 9: “God Will Provide Himself a Lamb” (Abraham 1; Genesis 15-17; 21-22) (JBOTL09A)

Question: In his willingness to offer up Isaac in sacrifice, Abraham made an unthinkable choice — a choice that opposed reason, went contrary to the commandments, seemed to nullify God’s prior promises, and must have made his whole soul recoil in moral repugnance. Does the Lord require every disciple to make a similar choice?

Summary: It is one thing to choose the right when the right seems reasonable and blessings for obedience seem obvious. It is another thing to bow in humble submission when “the thought makes reason stare” and the rewards of faith are not forthcoming. This article will show how Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Hagar each experienced such tests, as have many in modern times. The relevance of these tests to temple covenants and blessings is made apparent, as is the need for the rescuing power of the Atonement. Will something of a similar nature be required sooner or later of every disciple? Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are the most difficult for us to do.” Thus, “sometimes the best people have the worst experiences because they are the most ready to learn.”

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL09A — Must Every Disciple Make an Abrahamic Sacrifice?

An excellent 13-minute film portraying Genesis 22 entitled “Akedah (The Binding)” can be found in the LDS Media Library: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-03-027-akedah-the-binding?lang=eng