Bookmarks with Terry Hutchinson

Many of us have been familiar with the great stories of Genesis since we were children. Nearly all Christians appreciate the book of Genesis. The other four books in the Pentateuch are another story, however, and many Christians and even Mormons tend to skim them when they read them at all. There is another way of looking at them, however. As we study the stories in Genesiscloser, they become useful in explaining doctrines and beliefs of the people of the time as well as elements of Christianity. The second half of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy contain what’s known as the Law of Moses. The Christian world in particular, tends to teach that the Law of Moses was done away when Christ came to fulfill it, so they don’t emphasize it much.

At the first of the year, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of BYU (used to be called FARMS) released the first issue of a new journal which will aid those studying the Bible. The new journal will be published twice a year. Its called Studies in the Bible and Antiquity. This slim journal is only 100 pages, but there are five articles that are excellent approaches to various aspects of both the Old and New Testament. One in particular will be of great use to those who are interested in the Law of Moses. The articles is written for Latter Day Saints, but it will also appeal to those non-Mormons who believe that the prophets in the Old Testament pointed the way to Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah of the world.

The article is by Julie M. Smith, a graduate of the Theological Union at Berkeley, California. She adapts the approach of Mary Douglas to the book of Leviticus and uses Douglas’ analogical approach to Leviticus to show how the book leads to Christ. Another fascinating article is by David E. Bokovoy, a doctoral candidate in the Hebrew Bible at Brandeis. He uses ritual hand placement, the seeking of blessings and the exchange of clothing (including animal skins) to shed new light on the difficult story of Jacob and Esau and the blessing of Isaac.

The other articles are equally enlightening and they are all very readable, even though they’re written for a more knowledgeable audience. I can’t recommend it highly enough for those wanting to know the Bible better. Here’s the link:  http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/studies.  I’ll say more about this later, so check back.

I have a real passion for books on religious doctrine and history. This month saw the release of a huge new history of Christianity that is sub-titled the First Three Thousand Years. Since Christ only lived 2000 years ago I pondered for a short time what the other thousand years might be. Several years ago, the Oxford Professor of Religious History Diarmaid MacCulloch won a National Book Critics Circle Award as well as a Wolfson Prize for his massive book on the Reformation. Since British titles are usually released here about six months after they come out, I knew that MacCulloch had written a new history of Christianity sub-titled the First Three Thousand Years. That book is now out from Viking and, like the Reformation book, its massive. Christianity:  The First Three Thousand Years is well over 1000 pages of text, not counting its bibliography and footnotes.

The missing millenium is the thousand years leading up to the appearance of Christ and MacCulloch begins the book by describing Greek and Israelite history leading up to the time of Christ. This makes perfect sense in understanding Christianity in its infancy. MacCulloch takes about 40 pages to describe Greek influence on the people of Jesus’ time and another 40 pages to talk about ancient Israel. Although it’s a book on Christianity, it really added to my study of the Old Testament, since I’m constantly looking at the Old Testament to see why so many people viewed Jesus as the Messiah when he came.

Even at a thousand pages, the book just can’t cover everything. MacCulloch emphasizes the Greek, Latin and Middle-Eastern versions of Christianity and manages to touch on many events that will point the way to further study, which is the mark of the best non-fiction books. He even finds a couple of pages to spend on Joseph Smith and the Mormons, which is a sign that the growth of the LDS Church has caught the attention of scholars who find the Church more significant than in the past.

MacCulloch’s narrative style keeps the reader turning the pages. Although I don’t agree with MacCulloch about everything; Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years met my very high expectations.

Most of the time when people say they wish they’d written a certain book, they are talking about the great sales and fame that comes with it, like J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter books. When I say that, however, I’m talking about a book I agreed with so much that it says what I think only better than I could have said it myself. 

Today is my anniversary and one of the many thoughtful gifts JeNee has given me turned into a fantastic book. JeNee and I forward each other articles that we’d find interesting. (Just this weekend, I sent her an article from the New York Times about a Jewish woman who died at age 93 with 2000 descendents-her response to the Holocaust). An article JeNee sent a few weeks ago from Meridian Magazine (highly recommended) linked to a website, imageandlikeness.net. This website was for a book and there are pdf excerpts of about 200 pages of this 1100 page book.

The book is called In God’s Image and Likeness: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Book of Moses. Its written by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and is published by Eborn Books out of Salt Lake City. The book retails for around $50.00, but I will tell you that its under-valued. It is 1100 pages on thick luscious paper with countless illustrations covering the creation and Garden of Eden as well as the story of Adam and Eve and their children. The book is written for Mormons (since the Book of Moses was revealed to Joseph Smith shortly after the Book of Mormon went to press, but Bradshaw has gone to many sources, both ancient and modern that have nothing to do with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The annotated bibliography of ancient sources is easily a hundred pages and the bibliography of other sources is another hundred.

Bradshaw isn’t afraid to deal with questions raised by the accounts.  He and another scholar recently published an article about Satan’s role in the Garden of Eden (and it IS in the bibliography).  I’ve been working on a project of my own involving a talk Elder David A. Bednar gave in the April 2009 General Conference (IT is also in the bibliography).  In fact, almost all of the sources I’ve been using (at least those that are relevant) have been referred to here.

Setting aside the prodigious research, the analysis is the strength of the book.  This is a commentary worth waiting for, and it marks a great leap forward for Mormon scriptural studies.

Bradshaw thinks deeply about the stories and has compiled many versions and comments from around the world. He puts the Book of Moses in a context that makes it difficult to ignore and impossible to forget. I found myself learning so much, but confirming much of my own thought and study that I found myself wishing I’d written such a book. Check out the book on the website, imageandlikeness.net for yourselves.

This year, more than any other in a long time, has been spent in books about the Old Testament and in books by non-LDS authors.  They have really impacted the way I study all of my scriptures.  My 2009 religious book of the year is called Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the fulfillment of God’s Saving Promises. It’s written by Scott W. Hahn and is part of the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library.

Kinship by Covenant is not easily found on the shelves, but it is easy to order. The price may seem a little steep at $50.00, but it is worth every penny. In this book, Hahn, who is a Jesuit Priest, shows how covenant provides the over-arching themes for unifying the scriptures, particularly the Old and New Testaments. The book is extremely detailed. Its almost 340 pages of text, 150 pages of end notes and the bibliography is 60 pages. The notes and bibliography are worth the price of the book itself.

Hahn takes a different approach to the idea of covenant in the scriptures than that held by most scholars over the last century and a half. He argues that the relationship between God and His people is shaped by the different covenants entered into through the Old Testament. The covenants combine to make a family type of bond between God and His children. It also explains much of the New Testament views on Jesus as the Messiah and the Christian views of how He fulfilled the kingly promises made by God to David.

The real strength of this book is seeing how Hahn studies the Old Testament and makes it relevant to our relationships with God today. His depth and ideas have provided an entire new framework to add to my personal study.

Its not often that a book I’ve been looking forward to is released on my birthday, but that’s happening today. In fact, the book is one I talked about earlier in the year and now that its out, all I can say is, “What a gift!”

Earlier this year I suggested that people pre-order the second volume of the Joseph Smith Papers to come out. The Joseph Smith Papers is a documentary edition aimed at libraries and archives. Its written for serious scholars and is definitely not an easy read. The first two printings of the first volume totaled well over 10,000 copies, which is a huge release for a documentary book. Those printings sold out immediately and it was several weeks before stores could restock. The first volume, containing Joseph Smith’s journals and some excellent notes and historical aides. It continues to sell well.

Today is the national release for the second volume, which is the first in what’s called the Revelations and Translations series. This is what is called a facsimile edition. Its twice as large as the Journals. It contains full color reproductions of each page of two books containing revelations given to Joseph Smith between 1828 and 1834. Most of them were published in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. Nine of the revelations, however, have never been published. None of them are controversial or make major changes in church doctrine or belief, but their inclusion shows the Church is serious about releasing all of Joseph’s papers.  Future volumes will have copies of other manuscripts and revelations.  I assume they will include the manuscript for The Book of Mormon, the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, the Book of Abraham and others. 

The first unpublished revelation is June 1829 and it appears to be a revelation written by John Whitmer but received by Oliver Cowdery. In the original revelation book, pages 15-22 are missing, the Oliver revelation is contained on pages 23 and 24 and then pages 25 and 26 are missing. Oliver’s revelation appears to be the sacramental blessings on the bread and wine, with admonitions not to take the sacrament unworthily and other ways to treat those who repent. Most of this is a restatement of verses currently contained in the Doctrine and Covenants.

The second is from early 1830 sometime between April [when the Church was organized] and July. It is probably in April, since it follows revelations written April 6 and then five others merely dated April 1830 and then is followed by one dated April 16, 1830, with the next entry dated July, 1830. Its written by John Whitmer but received by Joseph Smith. It is written between the revelations at Doctrine & Covenants 23:4, 5, 6-7 and Section 22 and 24 [which come after it in the first revelation book]. It is to Oliver Cowdery, Hiram Page, Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight. It has to do with securing the copyright for the work [I’m presuming they mean the copyright for The Book of Commandments they are preparing, not necessarily the Book of Mormon, which had already been published by this time.

The third one is dated May 15, 1831 and is written by John Whitmer, received by Joseph Smith. It is given to Ezra Thayer and Joseph Smith, Sr.. It concerns a farm and a house for Ezra Thayer but also discussed Frederick G. Williams’ family while he was heading west. This was clearly marked in the book with a large and small X across it to show it was not for publication.

The fourth is from March 1832. It was written by John Whitmer and was received by Joseph Smith. It discusses paper to be purchased for the printing of the Book of Commandments and that Martin Harris was not yet to go to the Land of Zion [Missouri]. It was also marked with a large X probably to indicate it was not for publication.

The fifth is from April 28, 1834. Its written by John Whitmer and received by Joseph Smith. It is very short. “Verily thus saith the Lord concerning the division and settlement of the United Firm. Let there be reserved three thousand dollars for the right and claim of the Firm, in Kirtland for inheritances in due time, even when the Lord will; and with this claim to be had in remembrance when the Lord shall reveal it for a right of inheritance. Ye are made free from the Firm of Zion and the Firm in Zion is made free {in/from} the firm in Kirtland thus saith the Lord Amen”. Never published.

The next new revelation comes from the second Revelation Book, which begins with the recording of the Vision received by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. This is a fascinating portion in and of itself. It consists of 10 pages written by Frederick G. Williams with a few portions hand-written by Joseph Smith himself. The majority of corrections are from Joseph himself as well.

The sixth new revelation was received 2 weeks later on February 27, 1832. It is short and reads, “Behold thus saith the Lord unto you my servants that I have chosen Lincoln [Haskins] to be a servant unto me wherefore verily I say unto you let him be ordained and receive the articles and covenants which I have given unto you and some of the commandments that he may go forth and proclaim my gospel whithersoever I will send him in the congregations of the wicked and inasmuch as he is faithful I will prosper him. Even so Amen.”

The seventh is from March 20, 1832 and appears to be similar in content to the fourth one above discussing the purchase of the paper. There is an addition at the bottom that reads, “Shall we finish the translation of the new testament before we go to Zion or wait till we return. It is expedient saith the Lord that there be no delays and this saith the Lord is for the greatest good and benefit of the Church wherefore omit translating for the present time.”

The eighth is from May 15, 1831 and appears to be very similar to the third one I discussed above. This one, however, is written by Frederick G. Williams. The ninth is written by Orson Hyde and is basically the same as the fifth one described above about the United Firm.

It appears to me that the second revelation book copied some previous revelations from the first as part of the publication preparation process, but then the revelations were not determined necessary as part of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants process. More research on my part is certainly required.

In addition, there are other things that were not published in the Doctrine and Covenants. There is a Testimony of the witnesses to the Book of Commandments dated around November 1, 1831 with several signatures. This appears to have been intended to have witness statements similar to those of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses which attend The Book of Mormon. Another is a “Sample of Pure Language” from around March of 1832. Joseph is discussing the meaning of the name Amen or Ahmen. It comes in the book right after the Answer to Questions that make up Section 77 in the Doctrine and Covenants and perhaps was just a bit too rough to be included.

The books are beautifully bound and extensively annotated. The photograph of the book is on the left and the typescript is on the right. There are color codes to show who made corrections to the original and footnotes are included to provide proper context or other historical notes. There is an essay at the beginning about the revelation and translation processes. The book also contains biographical information for the scribes and a few other aids for study. These volumes are worth whatever money you pay for them. I couldn’t say that about very many books today. I’m proud to have the Joseph Smith Papers in my personal library.

Oxford University Press is the most prestigious religious publisher in the world. Several years ago, they published By the Hand of Mormon by Terryl Givens, a book that explains what The Book of Mormon is and why it should be taken seriously by both members and non-members alike. They have now published several books by Givens and others about Mormon beliefs and history. Now another prestigious religious publisher has a new Book of Mormon project out. I’ll tell you more about it after this brief message.

Yale University Press is another respected religious publisher. Yale has just released one of the most long-awaited (and important) Book of Mormon projects in my lifetime. Professor Royal Skousen works for Brigham Young University. I interviewed him on the Open Mike program a few years ago to talk about his work on a “critical text” of The Book of Mormon. For the last two decades, and in several volumes published by FARMS, Skousen has attempted to trace the history of the Book of Mormon text from its various editions to the original manuscripts in an attempt to find out how it came from the mouth of Joseph Smith. This project has clearly had the support of the LDS Church at the Quorum of the Twelve level.

Yale University has agreed to publish Skousen’s completed work in a new edition of the Book of Mormon called The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Skousen believes that this is as close as it is currently possible to get to the words exactly as Joseph Smith dictated them to those who wrote down what he was translating back in 1829. This edition retails for $35.00 and it contains valuable information in the Appendix concerning its differences with modern editions and how some of the changes affect the text’s meaning. Grant Hardy, who has put out an excellent edition of the Book of Mormon for scholars from University of Illinois, has written an Introduction explaining the Book of Mormon’s place in world scripture.

The official release date for this book is Tuesday, September 22, in honor of the day Joseph Smith received the Golden Plates that The Book of Mormon came from, but copies are already available. I’ve seen them on the shelves at Barnes & Noble in St. George and Las Vegas. Serious readers of the Book of Mormon will be interested in these and they’ll make great gifts.

 I intend to add more to this later.

Several years ago, Doubleday announced that they would be putting out a new edition of the Book of Mormon in co-operation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Mormon Church had never before allowed anyone to use the current edition. The Doubleday edition was designed to be accessible to the general public and lacks the cross-references of the traditional LDS edition.

Doubleday was extremely surprised by the success of the project, which sold five to ten times more copies than they expected.  As I said earlier, one sign of success in the book world is when another publisher jumps on your bandwagon and tries to copy it. That looks like its happened with a release of a new paperback edition of the Book of Mormon in the Penguin Classics series. The Penguin Classics constitute more than a thousand titles of extremely diverse literature from all around the world.

Penguin used the 1840 edition which is in the public domain. It is the last major edition approved by Joseph Smith himself. The Penguin edition has an introduction written by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp of the University of North Carolina, who has written on Mormon topics. I especially appreciated the introduction.  I think Maffly-Kipp’s comments are particuarly insightful for the non-Mormon reader who is wondering why this book is important.  She includes non-religious reasons the Book of Mormon is important, but if she had to pick one reason I think she would identify that (particuarly for believers) it is a sign that God continues to communicate with man today.  It also contains a balanced list for further reading of the most sophisticated books on the topic, both pro and con.  The list includes Richard L. Bushman’s Joseph Smith:  Rough Stone Rolling and also Terryl B. Givens’ By the Hand of Mormon.

The real advantage of a Penguin Classics edition is that the Classics are sold all around the world, particularly where the British Empire used to be. They are huge in places like India where the Book of Mormon has had little exposure. Whether Penguin has used the current version or not really is not important. It’s the words of the Book that will speak ultimately speak for themselves and Penguin will add to the more than 100 million copies worldwide.

Last week I mentioned that the Book of Mormon will be the course of study for the Sunday School of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There are two books on the Book of Mormon that are head and shoulders above everything else. The first is called By The Hand of Mormon by Teryl Givens and the second is the Book of Mormon Reference Companion edited by Dennis Largey. I also mentioned a couple of significant, scholarly projects that are in the works. One of those just began to come out yesterday. Its called Second Witness. It’s the first volume of a six volume commentary on the Book of Mormon by Brant Gardner which covers 1^st Nephi. This is an analytical and contextual commentary on the Book of Mormon. This first volume is published by Greg Kofford Books and it retails for $39.95. This is only the most recent of several multi-volume works on the Book of Mormon. This series is the one that looks most interesting to me, particularly because of its approach in using the work of serious scholars on the Book of Mormon like Hugh Nibley and John L. Sorenson.

Having said that, Second Witness is still just a commentary. I use commentaries on the scriptures sparingly, looking for information regarding language and historical practices that I could never figure out for myself. Generally, I view commentaries the same way my Grandfather did. He said it was kind of like drinking from the stream after the horses had waded through it. Of course, I would never want to discourage someone from looking at a book that inspires them to understand their scriptures better, and many commentaries do just that.

For the same price as Second Witness, you can buy the first of two volumes called Commentaries and Insights on the Book of Mormon by Ed J. Pinegar and Richard J.Allen. This book is put out by Covenant and is one of a similar series on the other standard works of the LDS Church. This one is kind of a combination of a doctrinal commentary and some scholarly material. It tries to explain much of the Book of Mormon in simpler terms (an approach which I find less useful for the majority of readers).

A couple of cheaper books are out in softcover from Cedar Fort Publishers. The first is called Doctrinal Insights to the Book of Mormon compiled by Douglas K. Bassett. Bassett wrote a similar book in 1999, this appears to be an expansion of his premise to include statements relating to various passages by general authorities of the LDS church and others. Its not really a commentary in the true sense of the word.

Neither is the other softcover, which is called Making Precious Things Plain, by Randal S. Chase. Chase’s book is subtitled A Book of Mormon Study Guide, but its really a supplement to the lesson material for teaching the Book of Mormon put out by the LDS Church Sunday School. Chase, who is a local teacher, has done a good job in fleshing out the passages for the weekly reading of the Church. He has added references to other scriptures, statements of LDS leaders and even brief passages from scholarly works explaining certain terms. As I said, Second Witness is the one that appeals to me, but that shouldn’t stop others from benefitting from the hard work of the other authors if they think it will help them.