Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 120

Bluffing a Beatenberger

    The Interpreter Foundation continues to be a fountain of productivity, thanks to generous people who give wonderfully of their time, talents, and energy.  Here are the four most recently posted items on the website:   “Nibley Lectures: Time Vindicates the Prophets — Prophets and Crisis” Between 7 March 1954 and 17 October 1954, […]

Thinking about the world’s religions

    Jet lag is a real beast and, at the moment, I’m having to struggle not to do face plants on my laptop.  When I’m not typing gibberish.  (Covfefe, anyone?)  Accordingly, I think that I’ll re-use something that I originally posted here roughly four years back:   More than three decades ago now, I […]

“Do Book of Mormon Names Have Ancient Origins?”

    More than a few of you, I think, will find this interview of interest.  Kurt Manwaring posed questions to my longtime friend and colleague in BYU’s Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, Professor Stephen D. Ricks — who was also one of my companions in the Switzerland Zürich Mission — about the […]

“It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.”

    Well, my positive recent impressions of airlines and airports continue to accumulate:  Last night, trying to fly out of New York City’s JFK Airport, we sat on the plane for roughly an hour and forty-five minutes before take-off.  Most of that time was spent sitting at the gate.  I wouldn’t have cared quite […]

Let their witness be heard!

    Last night, while I was aboard a transcontinental flight to New York City, the Interpreter Foundation published yet another in our series of short video features:   Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 16: Why Witnesses? Why were witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and to the Gold Plates, necessary? What […]

Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, and, Oh Yes, Sexual Abuse in Arizona

    We had a very productive meeting of the Interpreter Foundation board of trustees this morning and early afternoon.  Happily, among many other good things, we were able to see the first delivered print copies of the Foundation’s newest book: Stephen D. Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith and John Gee, eds., Dictionary […]

It was a feast

    The Interpreter Foundation’s docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, already available on DVD, is now streaming via Living Scriptures.   ***   The 2022 FAIR Conference is now over.  I think it was a strong one.  Here’s a run-down of the Thursday presentations, since I’ve already provided a quick summary for […]

On Nephi, the tree of life, covering up sexual abuse, being sacked by the General Authorities, and RINOs

    Two new articles appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “Lehi’s Dream, Nephi’s Blueprint: How Nephi Uses the Vision of the Tree of Life as an Outline for 1 and 2 Nephi,” written by Noel B. Reynolds Abstract: This essay harnesses the late twentieth-century discovery of Hebrew rhetoric […]

Two great opportunities to learn more about temples

    Please mark your calendars for the 2022 Temple on Mount Zion Conference, which is coming up on 5 November 2022.   My understanding, by the way, is that the new book by Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw, Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances, is now available, as of today:   The topic […]

A day filled with good people

    Today’s session of the 2022 FAIR Conference was extremely good.   Kerry Muhlestein presented some very helpful and informed keys to making sense of the biblical book of Isaiah. Bruce Young, who returned just two weeks ago from a mission with his wife, Margaret Blair Young, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, […]