Are the writings of Josephus evidence for the Historical Jesus? Maybe, maybe not. I think so. Here’s a brief breakdown of this issue, along with some thoughts on, in the words of Josephus, the “startling deeds” of Jesus, as illustrated by the story of Jesus’s friend Zacchaeus, that tree-climbing tax collector. (more…)

Today’s Boston Globe printed a huge, full-color front page picture of Sasha Cohen falling on her bottom during last night’s figure skating competition for the Olympic gold medal. Poor Sasha. The indignity of falling on your butt is mulitiplied exponentially when the entire world watches you do it, and then replayed over and over and OVER again.  After years and years of flawless practices, you fall on your bottom in the only two minutes that actually matter. And then you’re reminded of this humiliating incident everywhere you turn. Sasha wound up with the silver medal anyway, so hopefully she’s not too disappointed. (more…)

The early anti-Mormons that lampooned the citizens of Deseret could never have imagined that their targets would one day be recognized as paragons of puritan sexuality. The caricatures of Mormons as sexual miscreants have, for the most part, ceded to images of anachronistic sexual constraint. An historic review of Mormon discourse on intimacy reveals that just as others’ perceptions of Mormon intimacy have changed, so too, though to a lesser degree, is our own self image dynamic. (more…)

This is Kathleen from Dialogue writing. I was trolling through some Dialogue magazines looking for information about the Word of Wisdom and found this in the opening paragraph of an article by Thomas G. Alexander. (”The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement, ” 14, No. 3 [Fall 1981] 78 - 87). In May of 1898 the First Presidency and the Twelve were discussing the Word of Wisdom. One member read from the 12th volume of the Journal of Discourses where Brigham Young seems to support the idea that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment. “Lorenzo Snow, then President of the Council of Twelve agreed, saying that he believed the Word of Wisdom was a commandment and that it should be carried out to the letter. In doing so, he said, members should be taught to refrain from eating meat except in dire necessity, because Joseph Smith had taught that animals have spirits.” Wilford Woodruff agreed the Word of Wisdom is a commandment, but thinks no action should be taken except that “members should be taught to refrain from meat.” (p. 78) (more…)

Historian John Lewis Gaddis has written about the “landscape of history.” I can think of no better metaphor for history, the foggy vista of the past that unfolds before (or behind!) the historian. In a sense, there is only one historical landscape—the past as it really happened—but this landscape exists on a plane far beyond our ability to recover. Instead, we stand on a hill and peer at the past, study it, scrutinize it, but can never perfectly replicate it. The historical landscapes we paint are our version of that perfect Platonic landscape, and each one differs from the next: you see light, I see shade; you see peaks, I see troughs.

A new landscape of Joseph Smith has been painted. Richard Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling (RSR) is the must-have Mormon history of our generation (see John Hatch’s BCC review here, and the T&S symposium here). Bushman’s landscape of Joseph has more light than shade, but it is certainly not the Crayola-creation of Correlation. (more…)

1 Nephi 16:18 reads as follows:

“And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food.”

Verse 21 reports that the bows of Nephi’s brothers had lost their “springs” (presumably, the tension provided by the flexibility of the wood). In verse 23 Nephi makes a new bow of wood and an arrow from a straight stick, and inquires of his father where he should hunt. Lehi inquires of the Lord, and the liahona directs Nephi to the top of the mountain, where he is able to slay wild beasts to feed the family.

Critics of the Book of Mormon have long pointed to Nephi’s bow of steel from verse 18 as a clear anachronism, as carbonized steel did not yet exist at that time. (more…)

Ed Snow has agreed to join us on a permanent basis here at BCC. Welcome Ed! (Ed is a Mormon humorist yearning to be taken seriously. It doesn’t help that his writings evidence a wide variety of inconsistent theological and historical views, found mostly in the pages of Sunstone, Dialogue, Irreantum, The Sugar Beet, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, and FARMS Review of Books, among others. He authored Of Curious Workmanship: Musings on Things Mormon published by Signature Books. Ed is a banking and finance lawyer in Atlanta.)

At Ricks College in 2000, during a speech on faith, an LDS leader explained:

“Out of reverence and respect for the name of the Savior and to avoid the too frequent repetition of His name, please keep in mind that as I now use the word “faith” I am referring to the more accurate and complete phrase of “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” (see Elder David A. Bednar, “According to thy Faith,” Ricks College Devotional, August 29, 2000, available in lds.org archives).

I’ve always been puzzled by this concept among Mormons–the too frequent repetition of His name. Is this a commandment, a practice, or something else? I know it’s a part of being reverent, but what does that exactly have to do with frequency? Writing perhaps where angels even fear to post, I will take a brief, and, I hope, respectful, look at this topic, trusting what I say won’t offend anyone but open the door to a useful dialogue.

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In some ways, Joseph and the early Saints set about restoring, not just the practices of early Christianity, but also of ancient Israel. As such, they/we were both Christian and Old Testament “primitivists,” seeking to restore the primitive, and presumably superior, institutions of a previous culture.

Since much of the bible is the story of the relationship of one tribe—the Israelites—with God, the primitivist Mormons were intensely interested in that tribe. They prepared for the “literal gathering of Israel,” the Book of Mormon identified a new world people as Israelites, and the European Saints, though non-Israelite “Gentiles,” considered themselves to be spiritually of Israel, or to be of Israel through adoption.

But many Saints came to view themselves as literally of Israel; they believed they were genetically descended from Israel (through Ephraim). The Mormon tendency towards a literal “Israelism” seems to have played out over time. (more…)

Here’s a list of my top 10 LDS lesson manuals ever. Did I hear someone snicker? Shame on you–some of my favorite books were once church lesson manuals. Perhaps it’s because you are too young or didn’t have parents who kept their old manuals next to balls of twine on sagging bookshelves in the basement, just inviting you to blow off the dust and read them like I did. I’m talking about nothing less than the golden age of LDS Church manuals here. (more…)

From a long time back I have observed that Mormons are so competitive that they want to have a superlative Mormon version of almost any kind of achievement that secular civilization manifests. Thus we have repeated calls for a Mormon Michelangelo, a Mormon Tolstoy, a Mormon Nobel laureate, and so on. Underlying these calls is the faith that, along with having native intelligence and extensive training, Mormon scientists, scholars, artists, and writers can expect to be inspired by the Holy Ghost. However, it is apparent that the call for superlative achievement among the Mormons has gone unanswered. (more…)

Getting back to the Historical Jesus (although expect a few more detours now and again). Let’s turn to the gospels, specifically to that scholarly gadget known as “Q” and the “synoptic problem” and their relationship to the search for the Historical Jesus. You, the reader, have a license to kill any of the following you find objectionable. (more…)

There are two consequences of dropping off the face of the ‘nacle and lurking for several months. The first is that you are harassed by your co-bloggers because of your lack of participation. Kind of a snarky and blog-worthy home teaching equivalent. Although, I have to say I couldn’t tell if they were “hey, we’d really like you to come back to full fellowship” kind of messages, or if they were “hey, wouldn’t you like to remove yourself from the rolls of the ‘nacle before we go to the bother of ex-ing you” kind of messages. Maybe I’ll lie low a little longer, find out, and let you know… (more…)

There is a non-alcoholic “beer” in Austria called Null Komma Josef (”Zero Point Joe”). Some members and some of the edgier missionaries there (I served in Austria) used to partake of ol’ Joe. I didn’t, but when I returned to Austria a year after the mish (complete with goatee and ragged jeans) I did enjoy a Josef with some old (LDS) friends.

A friend of mine here in the US has told me about St. Pauli non-alcoholic “beer”. Apparently it’s good (i.e. the lack of alcohol doesn’t mean that it tastes like urine). On the plus side, it sounds like a nice “mild drink” which our own “Josef” would have enjoyed on the stoop of the Nauvoo Mansion House. But the nature of the Word of Wisdom in the Church today is no longer fully Joseph’s own brew: these “beers” are not strictly devoid of alcohol, with about 0.3% of the bad stuff remaining (hence “Null Komma”). Does this make them unkosher, or is 0.3% equal to the residue left behind from a mouthwash? Is it the “appearance of evil” that makes this a no-no? Or is there simply no point in drinking “beer” without the alcohol? Are we entering decaf coffee/Coke/green tea territory, or does “Joe” go a step beyond? (And if it does, why do some Austrian missionaries and members seem to think otherwise?) Prost!

Last year, the New York Times ran an article entitled, “We All Have A Life. Must We All Write About It?” Personal writing has always had its critics and many have refused to consider it as a serious literary form. E.B. White, remarked that, “The essayist must be content in his self-imposed role of second class citizen … a writer who has his sights trained on the Nobel Prize or other earthly triumphs, had best write a novel, poem or play.” Despite these perceived limitations, personal essays, particularly Mormon ones as of late, continue to occupy a favoured place upon my bedside table. (more…)

According to the rabbis (i) one of God’s first creations was the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), (ii) God studies Torah for three hours every day (hmmm, in “God Years” (I’m not dyslexic) that’s … about … 125 years every day) and (iii) out of respect, whenever God reads Torah, he stands. On this brief detour from the Historical Jesus, I want to suggest study as a form of divine imitation, a form of worship. (more…)

This guest post on race is by Jared of the ever excellent LDS Science Review.

When I was an undergraduate at BYU one of my professors told our class the story of an experience he had while conducting a genetic study that included residents of Utah. In the course of the study he determined that in a certain family, a daughter was not the biological offspring of the father. He met with the family to explain the findings relevant to the study and was asked by the father about the daughter. After an awkward moment my professor told the father that the daughter was not his genetic offspring. To my professor’s relief this was not a surprise to the father–but the father had a different problem. The family was LDS and the daughter had been sealed to him. At the sealing the officiator told the family something to the effect that the daughter’s blood had been changed. This father expected his daughter’s genetic identity to reflect this change. My professor managed the best answer he could–that whatever the changing of blood meant, it didn’t mean a change in genetic identity. (more…)

This Sunday is Superbowl Sunday. What this means is that lots of otherwise devout Mormons will flippantly ignore the covenants they have made with the Lord, and instead of keeping his Sabbath day holy, they will plant themselves in front of the Boob Tube and imbibe unhealthy victuals, while watching pointless acts of violence on the screen and behaving like a rabid mob. Why do they do it? Why can’t they see how offensive this is to all right-thinking people? I have finally come to a belated, but obvious conclusion: It’s because they just aren’t as spiritual as people like me. Many are tempted by the wiles of Satan, but there are a few hardy souls like myself who are able to resist the buffetings of the Adversary and who are able to maintain an eternal perspective. For this, I think I deserve to be congratulated. (more…)

Fine. Have it your way. (more…)

Only a blogpoll can decide whether Cain was is black.

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I received an email announcment today about February’s Enrichment being an activity to learn how to cut vegetables. It was a fun email, and I had originally posted it here for laughs, but I have decided to take the email down. The person who wrote the email might not appreciate it being posted for all (the millions of) BCC readers.

So, um, what were some of the best Enrichment nights you attended??

This picture of Adam and Eve used by the Church is problematic to say the least. Apparently, Adam and Eve were white. Not only were they white, they were Rocky Mountain Mormons (who simply wore skins instead of Gap). Now, if you think Geoff is right (that many aspects of the Adam and Eve story are figurative), then it doesn’t matter: Adam and Eve are you, and you are (predominately) white Americans. So this, in fact, is a perfectly reasonable picture.

But I don’t think most Mormons think that way. For them, Adam and Eve were literal people, the first humans and ancestors of all of us. So, this painting says: Adam and Eve were white, and white is somehow original.

Church art rarely stops there. Jesus is white, God the Father is white, angels are white, spirits are white. In the Lamb of God video (seminary version), when Jesus enters the spirit world, he is greeted by people who are not only dressed in white, they are white. (more…)

Last year’s bicentennial celebration and associated bibliophilistic apex made accessible to popular discourse a granularity in 19th century Mormonism that had been lacking for perhaps decades. One of the concepts that has found a voice in this maturation is the Prophet’s tools of divination and revelation. Like many things in our history, these do not translate well to our modern praxis. This disparity forces us to consider the propriety of folk magical approaches to divine communication in our time. (more…)

Opponents in polemical religious debate are always on the lookout for a handy silver bullet. Some students of Mormon thought like to load their revolvers with “Mormons aren’t Christians” (which is not the topic of this blog). On another note, some observers of Christianity prefer “Jesus Never Existed” ammunition. I’ve always considered both of these claims on the ridiculous side, distractions really, from far more important issues. But in the search for the historical Jesus, we need to consider the question how we “know” he existed. (more…)