Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 995

New Testament 336

    Matthew 27:11-14 Mark 15:2-5 Luke 23:2-5 John 18:29-38 Compare Matthew 26:53; Luke 23:9-10, 13-14; John 19:8-15   Why did Jesus make no defense?  Why did he say so little before Pilate?   Because he would go to his death without resistance.  He would no more defend himself verbally than he had defended himself [Read More...]

“Christmas Shopping by the Four Wise Men”

    Are you feeling too solemn?   Studio C provides the most recent entry for the “Social” component of the Church’s 2015 campaign, “A Savior is Born”:   https://www.mormon.org/christmas/stud...    

A Muslim’s response to 9-11, and two excellent recent Mormon gestures

    I thank K. G. Budge for bringing the image above to my notice.   Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan was an American soldier, born in New Jersey, who died fighting for his country in Iraq.   He was twenty years old.   He was a Muslim.   Read about him here.   And he’s [Read More...]

On failure

    “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson    

“Click here to make sure your kid doesn’t become a liberal [possibly offensive noun deleted] at college”

    John Gee’s always-interesting blog alerted me to an interesting article that, as a bonus, compliments BYU for — and this will make some groan in indignant disbelief — its diversity:   http://nypost.com/2015/12/10/how-to-f...    

“The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch”

    With all the recent discussion of religion and violence, this important documentary may prove helpful:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgL...   Thanks to Robert Boylan for reminding me of it.    

New Testament 335

    Matthew 27:3-10   According to the gospel of John, Judas hanged himself out of remorse after his betrayal of Jesus.  (The “field of blood” mentioned is still visible — its traditional site, anyway — from the grounds of the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.)   [Read More...]

Typewriter Symphony Orchestra

    A little light relief, probably much needed in certain circles about now:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZCh4...    

New Testament 334

    Matthew 27:1-2 Mark 15:1 Luke 23:1 John 18:28 Compare Luke 22:66   There’s a certain black humor — perhaps intended, perhaps not — in John’s little detail about how the chief priests and elders decline to enter into the praetorium, lest they be ritually defiled just before the Passover while they’re engaged in [Read More...]

“The Mosque That Is as American as Apple Pie”

    My friend and BYU colleague Jim Toronto — a Harvard-trained Arabist and Islamicist who previously served as a mission president in Sicily and who is currently living in Istanbul, from which he presides over the units of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey itself, Turkmenistan and [Read More...]