The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

In this, the inaugural episode of Conversations with Interpreter, our hosts, Avram and Thora Shannon speak with Dennis Newton about his article, “The Islamic Jesus” in Volume 66 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. The article is a review of the book by Mustafa Akyol, The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims. Dennis is a long-time student of world religions and a p...

Abstract: The name Helam, attested as a place name in the Bible is also attested as a personal and place name in the Book of Mormon. Evidence suggests that this name is derived from the Hebrew noun ḥayil/ḥêl, which has a wide range of meaning, including “wealth,” “abundance,” “power,” and even “army” (including Pharaoh’s “army” or “host”). The form of Helam suggests the meaning, “[God is] their wealth,” “[God is] their abundance,” ...

Abstract: This article seeks to shed light on an under-researched subject: the more negative public responses to the first five years of the Latter-day Saint mission in Britain, from 1837 to 1842. Sufficient research attention has not been given, to date, to the full range of responses of the British people to the arrival of the new Church on their shores. These responses were often—although by no means exclusively—unfavorable. In ...

Abstract: In exploring the connections between the texts of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses, several updates to previously published parallels need to be made, including the discovery of even more apparent parallels. The total number of proposed parallels that cannot readily be explained by the language of the King James Bible now stands at 146. In this article I present the current list and the updates. Of particular impo...

Abstract: In previous work, unexpected textual relationships between the Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses that seem consistent with a brass-plates version of Genesis with similarities to the modern Book of Moses were explored. However, there is a need for further research to examine the nature of the distribution of the parallels in the Book of Mormon to the Book of Moses to assess, for example, whether the connections are scat...

Abstract: The Christmas season evokes tender feelings within us as we contemplate the newborn Christ child, whose life and mission would change the world forever. Many retellings of the nativity story include the unusual—the awkward boy/innkeeper who impulsively offers his own room to Mary and Joseph or the Herdman kids who unwittingly impart a realistic view of the Christ child’s birth. The Christmas star of Bethlehem, leading the...

Abstract: Political legitimacy is a key concept related to the exercise of political power. Legitimacy was especially critical for “irregular kings,” so named because they were not automatically legitimated by the existing political structure. There are many examples of apologetics from the literature of the Ancient Near East that sought to bolster the legitimacy of irregular kings. The Book of Mormon uses similar apologetics to le...

Abstract: One of the most notable features of Nephi’s small plates rendition of Isaiah chapter 2 (2 Nephi 12) is the prominent expansion of the nations theme with two additional clauses with the word nations (Hebrew gôyim) that are not found in the Masoretic text (from which the KJV has been translated). Nephi’s text preserves the use of nations from Isaiah 2:2, 4 in 2 Nephi 12:2, 4, but also attests significant additional referenc...