A book I wish I’d written 2-26-10
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.