tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post2048299939234292549..comments2023-11-02T07:25:45.884-05:00Comments on Mormanity - a blog for those interested in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Video of My Presentation with Noel Reynolds, “'Strong Like Unto Moses': The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses"Jeff Lindsayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08776493593387402607noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post-71782514209169182412020-11-22T11:31:15.427-06:002020-11-22T11:31:15.427-06:00Anonymous @9:34, yep, looks like that's might ...Anonymous @9:34, yep, looks like that's might be what his message could do. Getting people to turn away from strife and stir up waves of recognition of gratitude could lead people to be grateful for freedom, life, each other, etc., and help offset the rage and tantrums that threaten so much. Join with us and let's see what we can do. Jeff Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08776493593387402607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post-59448754024450987482020-11-20T09:34:45.133-06:002020-11-20T09:34:45.133-06:00Excited about Russ' big special message today?...Excited about Russ' big special message today? Think god's own Living Prophet is going to provide the wisdom to dealt with global pandemic and political temper tantrums that are having a destabilizing effect on Western democracies? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post-58487770282794804952020-11-16T10:40:50.792-06:002020-11-16T10:40:50.792-06:00And yet a Mushite priestly line is no longer discu...And yet a Mushite priestly line is no longer discussed, and somehow this important order lost in time but evidences of a Mushite line have been hypothesized.<br /><br />Here is an LDS based article discussing the Mushite line:<br /><br />https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/lehi-joseph-and-the-kingdom-of-israel/<br /><br />If it can happen to a priestly line, then it can happen to other theologically important ideas.<br /><br />Steve<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post-73633986079878467522020-11-15T15:03:58.665-06:002020-11-15T15:03:58.665-06:00I like that you admit there is a more plausible ex...I like that you admit there is a more plausible explanation for your findings, but continue to argue for the less likely explanation. Another example of seeing what you want to see in the text and ignoring what doesn’t bolster your own theory. <br /><br />“In exploring intertextuality between two revealed texts, there is certainly the <br />possibility that some parallels may simply reflect Joseph’s preference for <br />wording in describing common themes and concepts. Indeed, it is possible that <br />some of the parallels discussed below, especially when dealing with relatively <br />common concepts, may be a reflection of Joseph’s choice in wording, particularly <br />if the method of receiving revelation about a text involved using his own words <br />to express revealed impressions or ideas, as has often been proposed. “Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post-7377773574181404582020-11-15T07:05:11.047-06:002020-11-15T07:05:11.047-06:00It is like a Matryoshka doll. A mask, no top of a...It is like a Matryoshka doll. A mask, no top of a mask, on top of yet another mask. For a simpleton farmer it was genius. A sort of simulacra turning simple assertions into a complex flowery images. Does being a natural born artist make someone a prophet?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7139169.post-84957290085043773612020-11-14T12:09:05.161-06:002020-11-14T12:09:05.161-06:00I've always been struck by the explicitness wi... <br />I've always been struck by the explicitness with which the LDS Church retrojects Christianity into ancient Israelite scripture and history. Mainstream Christianity engages in such retrojection in a circumspect way, via typology (e.g., when it interprets Adam as a type of Christ), via strained or just plain mistaken readings (e.g., when it misreads Isaiah 7:14 as prophesying a "virgin" rather than a "young woman" giving birth), etc.<br /><br />But the Mormon scriptures just lay it out there, telling us explicitly that early 19th-century Christian/Protestant/Mormon theology has been revealed repeatedly to humankind since the very beginning, thousands of years before Jesus walked the earth. Rather awkwardly, these revelations did not appear in any known pre-NT texts, so Joseph Smith, with an audacity one cannot help but admire, simply created the needed scriptures himself, and his followers, with a not-so-admirable willingness to believe, accepted his claims that they are ancient.<br /><br />Perhaps the best example of such retrojection is Moses 6:52: <br /><br /><i>And he [God] also said unto him [Adam]: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you.</i><br /><br />Smith would have us believe that God revealed this crucial information to the Israelite leader Moses, and that then, who knows how, it disappeared from the ancient Israelite archive. The Israelites possessed the most crucial knowledge there is, the essential key to salvation, and they lost it. How careless! As a Jew, I find this imputation of cosmic carelessness vaguely insulting (though mostly amusing) -- an act of cultural appropriation almost as disrespectful as the wholesale replacement of real Native American origins with Church mythology.<br /><br />Re-reading the Book of Moses this morning, I was also struck by its narrative complexity. If I'm following the entire chain correctly, in Moses 6:52, Joseph Smith is telling us readers that God told Smith that some unknown narrator is telling us that God told Moses that Enoch told the people that God told Enoch that God told Adam that Adam should be a believing and practicing Christian.<br /><br />What should we make of this complexity? I'm not sure.<br /><br />-- OKAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com