Eating Raw Meat  Nephi mentions in 1 Nephi 17:2 that his party ate raw meat while in the wilderness. To the modern reader, living on “raw meat” designates a tremendous hardship, something that would be disgusting to a modern reader of the text. If we look at Nephi’s purpose inContinue Reading

I have come to appreciate these words by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin regarding the principle of compensation, and have seen this evident in my life: The third thing we can do is understand the principle of compensation. The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken awayContinue Reading

Discovered in western Thebes, Egypt, in 1896 by W.F. Petrie, the hieroglyphic inscription on this stele from 1208 B.C.E. contains the earliest surviving reference to “Israel” outside of the text of the Bible. The text on the stele commemorates a military campaign against Libya in the fifth regnal year ofContinue Reading

We have a partial account in the Gospel of Matthew of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration, but we are clearly missing some things that happened here. Elder McConkie stated: “Our Synoptic authors make brief mention of-in reality it is scarcely more than an allusion to-what happened on theContinue Reading

Isaiah 22:15-25 The Prophecy about the Prime Minister Victor Ludlow writes: After portraying the unconcerned and sinful condition of Jerusalem’s inhabitants, Isaiah singles out a leading citizen and describes his selfish, vain actions. The individual selected is Shebna, the leader of the king’s court, a position similar to present-day secretaryContinue Reading

Nephi’s Political Testament Author: Noel B. Reynolds Source: Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, FARMS, 1991, p. 220-229. The writers of the Book of Mormon talked a lot about their government and political beliefs. Most of us look only at the Nephite system of judges and the Gadianton robbers, however. FewContinue Reading

The Amarna Letters are diplomatic correspondence on cuneiform tablets, most of which were discovered in 1887 at Tel el-Amarna, about 180 miles south of Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian king Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV, 1352-1336 B.C.) founded Amarna, called Akhetaten anciently, as his new capital city. While the majority of these 380+Continue Reading

The doublets in the Pentateuch Have you ever read parts of the first five books of Moses in the Old Testament and thought, “Didn’t I just read this story? Why is it happening again?” Whether we are talking about the creation of the world, or Jacob getting a name change,Continue Reading