Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 74

Reporting on the Last Day

    A new publication has come from Professor Matthew Bowen, via the Interpreter Foundation:  Ancient Names in the Book of Mormon: Toward a Deeper Understanding of a Witness of Christ: The names of individuals, places, and peoples in the Book of Mormon are strong evidence of its authenticity as an ancient scriptural record. But these […]

Of Transience and Things that Matter

    Most of us were up very, very early this morning for hot-air balloon rides over the temples and tombs and fields on the west bank of the River Nile.  Then, after breakfast back on our boat, the Blue Shadow, we headed off for a visit to the Valley of the Kings, where most […]

Kom Ombo, Edfu, and the Book of Abraham

    We landed this morning beside the Greco-Roman era double temple of Kom Ombo, which was dedicated to both Horus and the crocodile god Sobek, who appears (accurately identified as “the idolatrous god of Pharaoh, which is probablynot the most obvious or immediately intuitive of identifications) as Figure 9 in Facsimile 1 of the […]

Of Arrogance and Ramses II

    We were up at 3 AM this morning for the 3.5 hour drive (each way) from Aswan to the remarkable temples of Ramses II and Nefertari at Abu Simbel.  The landscape between Aswan and Abu Simbel is absolutely flat and barren, making the familiar drive through the Mojave Desert in California look like […]

“Abraham the Seer”

    No day that begins with a visit to the pyramid plateau just outside of Giza can’t be all bad.  But it has been a long day, including a flight from Cairo south to Aswan, and we need to be up at 3 AM for a long drive to Abu Simbel and back.  So […]

A stunning new museum, other wonders, and the Book of Abraham

    My wife and I had a lot of fun this evening hosting a former student of mine and her husband for dinner at our hotel, outside on the shore of the River Nile.  I maintain my policy of not revealing the identity of such folks, lest, simply because of their association with me, […]

From the Valley of the Nile

    Our Interpreter Foundation tour of Türkiye ended yesterday, so we flew today from the great city of Istanbul to the massive city of Cairo.  Most of our group headed home (or, anyway, somewhere else), but some have come with us to Egypt and others will join us here, for a non-Interpreter tour of […]

Of creeds and cruises

    Today, we left Bursa and drove to İznik, which may not sound familiar to many but which was an important city in early Christian history.  İznik was known in ancient times as Nicaea – or, more accurately, as Νίκαια (Nikaia).  It was the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea—respectively, the […]

In Ilium

    First thing this morning, we visited the hilltop ruins of the ancient Greeek city of Assos ( Ἄσσος), which are located near today’s Behramkale or Behram on the Aegean coast in the province of Çanakkale.  It is on the southern side of the Biga Peninsula, which isbetter known by its ancient name of “the Troad.”  Specifically,  Assos sits […]

Smyrna and Pergamum

    The church of Smyrna (Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or Σμύρνα, Smýrna) was also one of the seven churches of Asia that are mentioned in the Revelation of John.   (See Revelation 2.)  Since around 1930 (in the wake of the founding of the Republic of Turkey), Smyrna has been known as Izmir.  It’s where we spent last night. It […]