Since the majority of our information about Jesus comes from the Gospels, when we try to work out the details of the historical Jesus, we are obliged to sift and weigh these sources. In Part 3, we opened a discussion of John Meier’s ten criteria for this effort with the three strongest. Today, we continue with the remaining two strong criteria, then summarize the five weak ones.
The Return of Historical Mormon Smackdown: Prophetic Spouse edition!
When last we checked, more people were disturbed by possible polyandry than polygyny on the part of the Prophet Joseph. This week, we continue my personal campaign to put things in perspective:
Who is more influential in the church today: Emma Hale Smith or Marjorie Pay Hinckley?
Emma Smith: wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, recipient of D&C 25, subject of two books and several pieces of variable quality artwork at deseretbook.com.
Marjorie Hinckley: wife of the current prophet, recipient of degrees, subject of three books at deseretbook.com (but no variable quality artwork).
Take a side in this fight below and post your thoughts on the process.
In Sorrow Shalt Thou Bring Forth Children
This little narrative describes opposition to the use of chloroform to ease the pain of delivery based on the divine decree that childbirth was to be painful. If it’s true, it’s one for the “stranger than fiction” file. I’ll try to run down more on it over the week. In the meantime, I see no author explicitly listed on the site I took it from, but the URL is here:
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Guest Post – Clothes Make the Man Part Two
This is the second part of the first post from Dan Belnap.
Clothing and Definitions
But the Garden story is not wholly concerned with nakedness, or rather remaining in a state of nakedness. There are also two scenes concerning the preparation and presentation of clothing. If nakedness represents the loss of one’s identity, which Adam and Eve have, then clothing represents one’s identity, and changes of clothing may represent new identities. It has long been recognized that clothing are powerful symbols as to the status and authority of an individual by defining the individual. The choice of clothing by the individual tells us both how he or she views him or herself, and how they wish to be defined by others. As others have noted, clothing acts as like a language, silently providing clues as to how this individual is to be perceived and therefore interacted with. As one scholar put it, “more than any other material product, clothing plays a symbolic role in mediating the relationship between nature, man, and his sociocultural environment.” Therefore, understanding the symbolic role that clothing plays in the definition of the individual is particularly important when clothing is presented in the text. This can done in two ways: 1) by reviewing the way in which the wearing of clothing represented the identity, including new identities with changes of clothing, and 2) and by studying the act of giving clothing to others thereby providing new identities and definitions.
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Classical Figures in the Creation and Fall Narratives
Anthropopatheia is the name of the figure used to describe the ascription of human passions, actions, or attributes to God. Interestingly enough, at the time Bullinger was writing his Figures, another term for this was Condescension. Readers of the BoM will be familiar with the idea. Anyway, consider Gen 22:7
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Secular Sam’s Guide to the Old Testament: The Septuagint
The Septuagint generally refers to the books of the Old Testament in their old Greek translation. Some scholars only use the term to refer to the Pentateuch section, although mostly the term is used to represent the Greek translation of the entire Old Testament. The correct pronunciation of the term, and the one used by Septuagint scholars, is SEP-tu-jent, the ultimate and penultimate syllables almost sounding as one. Most other folks, however, continue to pronounce the term sep-TU-a-jint.
The origin of the Septuagint is unclear due to fictitious stories surrounding its inception. The most popular is from the letter of Aristeas which describes King Ptolemy Philadelphus’ desire to build a library containing all the books in the world. He requested a copy of the “laws of the Jews” (the OT), and so word was sent to Jerusalem to send 72 elders (6 from each tribe) to work on the translation from the Hebrew to the Greek. Legend states that the Septuagint was written in Ptolemaic Egypt (probably true) from the ancient Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament (also probably true). There were 70 (sometimes 72) Jewish elders who independently, and without consultation one with another, each produced their own translation of the entire OT (probably not true). Once completed, the texts were compared with each other, and miraculously none of the translations deviated from each other, but were all in complete and total accordance (total bogus). Various other stories regarding the translation exist, and the reader is encouraged to seek secondary literature on the subject for more. This Greek translation of the OT often goes by the abbreviation “LXX,” the Roman numeral for “70.”
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Christ the Mediate Creator
One of the interesting things about reading the last half of the NT is seeing how each author seems to “open up” OT language about God in order to include Christ. Since this is Creation Week at FPR, I thought I’d contribute a little something on the way the NT talks about Christ and creation.
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.
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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.
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.
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