The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

The Interpreter Foundation Podcast
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The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

The Interpreter Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization focused on the scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, the Bible, and the Doctrine and Covenants), early LDS history, and related subjects. All publications in its journal, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, are peer-reviewed and made available as free internet downloads or through at-cost print-on-demand services. Other posts on the website are not necessarily peer-reviewed, but are approved by Interpreter’s Executive Board. Our goal is to increase understanding of scripture through careful scholarly investigation and analysis of the insights provided by a wide range of ancillary disciplines, including language, history, archaeology, literature, culture, ethnohistory, art, geography, law, politics, philosophy, statistics, etc. Interpreter will also publish articles advocating the authenticity and historicity of LDS scripture and the Restoration, along with scholarly responses to critics of the LDS faith. We hope to illuminate, by study and faith, the eternal spiritual message of the scriptures—that Jesus is the Christ. Although the Board fully supports the goals and teachings of the Church, The Interpreter Foundation is an independent entity and is not owned, controlled by, or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or with Brigham Young University. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of their respective authors, and should not be interpreted as the opinions of the Board nor as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief, or practice.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    Interpreter Radio Show — November 10, 2024: Discussion

    The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

    56 min

  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    Interpreter Radio Show — November 10, 2024

    In the November 10, 2024 episode of The Interpreter Radio Show, our hosts are Terry Hutchinson, Mark Johnson, and John Gee. They discuss Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson 49, the recent articles in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship by John, and faithfulness in podcasts. You can listen to or download the November 10th broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. These audio tracks are also included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Original air date: November 10, 2024. These recordings have been edited to remove commercial breaks. The Book of Mormon in Context Lesson 49: “To Keep Them in the Right Way” covering Moroni 1-6 Podcast: Download Discussion: “Verbal Punctuation in the Book of Mormon III—Behold” by John Gee in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and faithfulness in podcasts. Podcast: Download The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

    55 min

  3. 5 DAYS AGO

    A Closer Look at Transliterations in Divine Translations

    Abstract: The Book of Mormon contains many words left untranslated by Joseph Smith, such as cureloms, cumoms, senine, and ziff. While some might wonder why these words are left untranslated, a closer examination of the kinds of words that are simply transliterated as well as the frequency at which these phenomena occur provide evidence that Joseph Smith actually had an ancient record that he was translating into English. In this paper, I examine why some words have been transliterated in historical translations of the Bible or other ancient texts and compare these explanations to the Book of Mormon. In the end, I show that the Book of Mormon consistently transliterates the same types of words typically left untranslated in other works in ways that would have been unknown to Joseph Smith. In the Book of Mormon, it is reported that the Jaredites had tamed multiple animals. These are mentioned in a brief list: “And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms” (Ether 9:19). It is generally accepted by Latter-day Saint scholars that the words cureloms and cumoms are transliterations of words on the Book of Mormon plates. They may have been provided by Moroni2, Mosiah2, or by Joseph Smith, none of whom had any functionally equivalent words in their languages to designate these animals.1 Furthermore, while perhaps [Page 122]some of the most enigmatic examples, these are far from the only transliterations in the Book of Mormon. Multiple words are left untranslated in the text with no explanation ever given for this process by the Prophet Joseph Smith. The presence of transliterations may be surprising to readers who assume that the Book of Mormon, translated by the gift and power of God, should, by nature, provide clear English terms throughout the text. However, this assumption is reading something into the text that is not there, and a close look at the transliterated words of the Book of Mormon will show that their presence is fitting for a translation of an ancient text where certain words do not have clear meaning to the translator. Translators can face various challenges when determining whether or not to translate some words. These challenges are, * the low frequency at which the words appear in the text, * the general fact that not all words, especially technical terms, have a one-to-one correlation with words used in different cultures, and * the fact that rare animal or plant names can be a particular source of confusion when translating ancient texts. Frequency of Untranslated Words Untranslated words may generally reflect rare or unusual words in the source text. One example of these rare words would be hapax legomena, or “words (other than proper names) which occur only once” in the text.2 This is especially true of the Book of Mormon, in which various hapax legomena are present, such as the words sheum and neas (Mosiah 9:9). Other untranslated words in the Book of Mormon, including ziff (Mosiah 11:3, 8), cureloms, and cumoms, could technically be categorized as dis legomena, that is,

    27 min

  4. 5 DAYS AGO

    A Plain Exposition of Book of Mormon English by Means of Short Questions and Informed Answers

    Abstract: Because many questions have arisen regarding the discovery of real early modern influence in the dictated language of the Book of Mormon, some of these are considered and answered in this essay. The answers reflect insights from an exploration of the data that drove the conclusions published in previous papers. Numerous considerations independently indicate that the Book of Mormon was dictated in language that cannot be explained as a mere imitation of King James linguistic style, nor as Joseph Smith’s Yankee dialect. While the reasons for this and the processes that may have led to such results are open for debate, the implications of the data themselves cannot be lightly brushed aside. An examination of the language of the original Book of Mormon text by Royal Skousen (since 1988), and also by the writer of this essay (since 2014), has generated a large amount of unexpected linguistic data that undermine common assumptions about Book of Mormon English and translation, including the assumption that Joseph must have used his own archaic and uneducated grammar in constructing its language. The discovery of a strong current of nonbiblical earlier English in the Book of Mormon was driven by the data, since the initial hypothesis for both Skousen and this author was that its English usage might approximate that of the King James Bible, and that it might be similar to what is found in roughly contemporaneous pseudo-archaic texts. But the data showed otherwise. [Page 108]While discoveries in this area have made some uncomfortable, the data deserve to be considered (text-critical volumes contain analyses of a large amount of relevant data, and later papers may present additional unpublished treatments of the English-language data). Various questions and some objections have been raised in response, some of which seem to ignore much of the data. While we can’t establish exactly why so much nonbiblical Early Modern English is in the text that Joseph Smith dictated, we can answer a number of questions with clarity. Questions and Answers The answers presented here to a number of questions on Book of Mormon English (and translation) are based on extensive research and comparative study.1 Unfortunately, that has not been true of most comments made about Book of Mormon English through time. Thus, there has been an accumulation of layers of underinformed opinions. Some of these are incorporated in the questions found in this essay. In the balance of this essay, I present each question as a heading for ease of reference and follow all the questions with a short summary. Did Joseph Smith speak an ultra-archaic dialect in 1829, at the time he dictated the Book of Mormon? No, his early writings (mainly as personal letters: 1829–1833)2 indicate that he di...

    24 min

  5. 1 DAY AGO

    Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon — Ether 12-15

    This week for Come, Follow Me lesson 48 covering Ether 12-15, we have lecture 110 from Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering Ether 7-14. During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week. All 112 lectures are immediately available in PDF, audio, video, and electronic formats, as well as in paperback books that are available for purchase. Links for all of the available online sources can be found in the Complete Bibliography for Hugh Nibley at https://interpreterfoundation.org/bibliographies/hugh-w-nibley/lectures/.   Lecture 110: Book of Mormon—Ether 7-14. Also called “Struggle for Power.” Everybody was moving around. (The first few minutes of this lecture were not recorded.) Watch on YouTubeDownload AudioDownload PDF

    43 min

  6. NOV 11

    Interpreter Radio Show — November 3, 2024: Discussion

    The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

    56 min

  7. NOV 11

    Interpreter Radio Show — November 3, 2024

    In the November 3, 2024 episode of The Interpreter Radio Show, our hosts are Martin Tanner, Brent Schmidt, and Hales Swift. They discuss Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson 48, the Margaret Barker Seminars, Saints Volume 4, the new Church garments, the recent articles in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship by Diane E. Wirth and Matthew Bowen, and other topics. You can listen to or download the November 3rd broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. These audio tracks are also included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Original air date: November 3, 2024. These recordings have been edited to remove commercial breaks. The Book of Mormon in Context Lesson 48: “By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled” covering Ether 12-15 Podcast: Download Discussion: The Margaret Barker Seminars, Saints Volume 4, the new Church garments, the recent articles in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship by Diane E. Wirth and Matthew Bowen, and other topics. Podcast: Download The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

    1h 3m

  8. NOV 8

    A Deep Dive on War

    Review of Morgan Deane, To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon (Middletown, DE: Morgan Deane, 2024). 138 pages. $14.99 (paperback). Abstract: Morgan Deane’s To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon defines and discusses the concepts of war in the Book of Mormon and places “just war” within a larger context. The various aspects of just war and its impact are compared to the teachings and writings of scholars and philosophers from the early Church Fathers to Chinese military strategists. This interesting and informative book helps Latter-day Saints understand when war is necessary and justified. William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union army general in the Civil War, is credited with saying, “War is hell.”1 War is hell, but according to Morgan Deane in To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon, there are times it is necessary. Indeed, war at times is not only needed, but it can and should be just. The purpose of To Stop a Slaughter is to discuss a “powerful, animating, Christlike love that motivates the use of force” (p. 5) at times when it is truly needed. With that said, I’m going to do what I haven’t done in any previous book review—I’m going to start with the negatives of the book. Deane’s book, which is self-published, needed an extra set of editing [Page 104]eyes, or perhaps two. There were noticeable grammar and punctuation errors that could have been avoided with some professional editing. And, incomprehensibly, there was no printed pagination. I went through and manually wrote page numbers for the purpose of this review. Page numbers could have and should have been added to the text, and an index would have been helpful. These few negatives are literally my only complaints, and these quibbles should not dissuade any potential reader. The book, which isn’t long, was an enjoyable and interesting read as the author discusses the concept of “just war,” defined as “love compelling the reluctant use of arms to stop a slaughter” (p. 6). Morgan Deane, a military historian and former U.S. Marine, demonstrates an excellent knowledge of the literature pertaining to war, the philosophical and theological reasons for war, and the conduct of war. This is not surprising, given that some of his earlier publications include Offensive Warfare in The Book of Mormon and a Defense of the Bush Doctrine (2011) and Bleached Bones and Wicked Serpents: Ancient Warfare in the Book of Mormon (2014). In To Stop a Slaughter, he equally quotes and analyzes the writings of early Church Fathers and Chinese and other philosophers as he interweaves the writings of Book of Mormon prophets and warriors like Captain Moroni. Among the chapters in the book are some provocative topics that encourage fascinating and meaningful discussion. These chapters include “Loving Your Neighbors by Standing Up to Their Slaughter,” “More than Angry: The Debates in Moroni’s Letter,” “Waiting for Revolution: Gideon’s Lessons,” “Kishkummen’s Dagger, Helaman’s Servant, and First Strike,” and “Renounce Peace and Proclaim War, Mormon 4 and Doctrine and Covenants 98.” Near the beginning of the book, Deane succinctly sets the parameters of the discussion: Just war flows from two central impulses that people recognize to varying degrees but rarely articulate. Most people understand on a fundamental level that some situations justly demand the use of force. At the same time, most [people] instinctively realize that war is an evil that should be avoided [altogether].

    11 min
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out of 5
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About

The Interpreter Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization focused on the scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, the Bible, and the Doctrine and Covenants), early LDS history, and related subjects. All publications in its journal, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, are peer-reviewed and made available as free internet downloads or through at-cost print-on-demand services. Other posts on the website are not necessarily peer-reviewed, but are approved by Interpreter’s Executive Board. Our goal is to increase understanding of scripture through careful scholarly investigation and analysis of the insights provided by a wide range of ancillary disciplines, including language, history, archaeology, literature, culture, ethnohistory, art, geography, law, politics, philosophy, statistics, etc. Interpreter will also publish articles advocating the authenticity and historicity of LDS scripture and the Restoration, along with scholarly responses to critics of the LDS faith. We hope to illuminate, by study and faith, the eternal spiritual message of the scriptures—that Jesus is the Christ. Although the Board fully supports the goals and teachings of the Church, The Interpreter Foundation is an independent entity and is not owned, controlled by, or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or with Brigham Young University. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of their respective authors, and should not be interpreted as the opinions of the Board nor as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief, or practice.

Information

  • Creator
    The Interpreter Foundation Podcast
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2024
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©2019 The Interpreter Foundation. Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 Unported license.
  • Show Website
    The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

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