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Guest Post: Clothes Make the Man – Part One

This is the first post of two from Dan Belnap. We greatly appreciate his contribution.

One of the most fascinating scenes in the scriptures is that detailing the actors and exchanges found in the Garden of Eden. From their creation to their expulsion the actions and conversations experienced by Adam and Eve, these events continue to provide those of us living millennia later insights and knowledge concerning who we are and how God sees us. Of particular interest, is the juxtaposition that is presented between nakedness and the state of being clothed. The relationship between these two opposing states and the symbolic nature of both the clothing and the act of clothing, especially exemplifies those questions concerning our nature, both as we appear and as we really are.
Continue reading “Guest Post: Clothes Make the Man – Part One”

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Introducing Guest-poster Dan Belnap

Dan is a colleague and is the sort of person who, when asked if they would like to publish an article on a blog, responds by saying, “Sure, I have five already written.” I love that. Here he is, in his own words:

My name is Dan Belnap. I am currently a graduate student at the University of Chicago working on my degree in Northwest Semitics. I teach at BYU part time in Ancient Scripture. I am married, happily, with two kids.

Please welcome Bro. Belnap to FPR.

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Guest Post: What’s in a name?

Ben Spackman is well-known about the bloggernacle and he has kindly consented to write an article for us. He can also be found at Millenial Star. Thanks again, Ben.

Names have meaning. As a result of their archaic or foreign origin, today’s English names are often simply a nice fashionable collection of sounds devoid of any inherent meaning to an English speaker. Many of our names thus have meaning that we’re unaware of. Thomas, for
example, is anglicised Aramaic (via the Greek of the New Testament) meaning “twin,” and Benjamin from Hebrew “son of the south” or “son of the right hand.” Israelites seem to have understood what names meant, and utilized that meaning for literary and teaching purposes.
Understanding what these names meant to an Israelite can increase our appreciation of the scriptures.
Continue reading “Guest Post: What’s in a name?”

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Flagellation of a Deceased Equine

    Or, Trying to Bring FPR Down Off Its High Horse
    😉

    So, my wife and I are having a discussion about stuff I’ve read on the blogs and I mention the predestination / foreordination issue. I had posited earlier that in my view of how things are, as long as you personally don’t know what your final destination is, you still have free agency to make choices.

    However, what happens when you are told? Consider Peter, told by Jesus “this night, before the #### crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” (Matt 26:34) And then, of course, he does. Here’s the question though – what else could Peter have done? Suppose he had answered the questioners, “Yes, I knew him.” and then was beaten or killed. Pretty bad for Peter, but it would essentially have made liar out of Jesus (or at least, a false prophet.) Well, that couldn’t happen, right? In this case, it seems like Peter was stripped of his agency. Realistically, he still made the choices that caused him to fulfill Christ’s words, but what else could he have done? Was it even possible for him to make different choices?

    Beats me. Along similar lines (my wife’s contribution to this enigma), what about people in the pre-existence? Some of them apparently come to Earth in angelic (?) form and later, when they do come to be mortals, they have some sort of leadership position. I’m shaky on this ground because I can’t keep track of who the various named angels are, or were or will be, as mortals. It’s like you have special circumstances in the pre-existence, and then you have special circumstances on Earth. What about everybody else? What was Adolph Hitler like as a pre-mortal? Were there hints of what he would become? If so, why do we come to Earth, after all? So that we can actually make the choices that decide our eternal fate and satisfy Justice? (sorry Mogget)

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Secular Sam’s Guide to the Old Testament: Moses and Satan

At Faith-Promoting Rumor, we are inagurating a new series entitled “Secular Sam’s Guide to the Old Testament.” In this series, our goal is to make the insights of secular scholarship regarding the Old Testament available to the you, our loyal readers. There is some discussion within church society regarding the relative worth of secular training; we are not seeking to replace revealed truth, but rather we are trying to provide a summary of current scholarly thought regarding the Bible and its history (both the history of the text and the history depicted within). As we are reading the Old Testament in Sunday School this year, we decided to relate these posts to the weekly readings from the Old Testament and the Pearl of Great Price that the church will be encountering this year. We’re calling it “Secular Sam’s Guide” because it sounded better than anything else we could come up with. We hope that you will find this helpful.

As modern scholarship has yet to seriously address Moses 1 from a literary-historical standpoint, I have decided to focus my discussion on some of the figures involved, rather than on the text itself.
Continue reading “Secular Sam’s Guide to the Old Testament: Moses and Satan”

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Historical Mormon Smackdown: Multiple spouse edition!

Okay folks, back to the show!

What is the more personally disturbing form of plural marriage to you: Polygyny vs. Polyandry?

Vote early, but don’t…er…vote often.

ed. corrected per will’s suggestion (polygamy equates with polygyny for the purpose of the poll, though).

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Introducing Chris H.

We are proud to welcome another addition to the FPR staff. Chris H is a colleague of mine at a college where I teach and he was excited to come here and discuss that thing that we spend most of our time here discussing: political philosophy. He introduces himself as follows:

I am political philosopher with a BA and MA in political science for the University of Utah. I also have an associates degree from Ricks College. I specialize in liberal theory with primary interest in the works of the late John Rawls, who you will surely hear more about. I also have interests in Kant, Locke, and Hobbes, though I am convinced that Rawls is the greatest. I have special interest in looking at Mormon political and moral theory. What does Mormonism theology have to say about justice? This is my question and I feel that it has been neglected within Mormon intellectual circles.

I am married to Lyndee, a social worker and super mom. We have three kids (2 boys, 1 girl).

I served my mission in Anaheim, California — Vietnamese speaking.

Please welcome Chris H. to FPR.

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Introducing Mogget

Faith-Promoting Rumor is please to announce the addition of another perma-blogger to the staff. Please welcome Mogget to our blog. Mogget is a graduate student in New Testament Exegesis back east, working on her dissertation (as I ought to be doing, instead of blogging) and she graciously agreed to class up the place over a pizza in Philadelphia. I haven’t asked her if she would like her real name or interesting history revealed, so I will let her make that decision. I can say that she has a greater probability of having killed a man than I have. With that, please give a warm reception to Mogget.

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Millenial Model?

If it is appropriate to take the events and calamities leading up to the death and resurrection of Christ in the Book of Mormon as a model for the period prior to the second coming, is it then appropriate to take the events of 3rd Nephi 11-4th Nephi 1:18 as a model for the millenium?