Latest from the New Blog at AriseFromtheDust.com
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
1y ago
In late June 2022, Mormanity officially moved to Arise From the Dust at AriseFromtheDust.com. If you are a subscriber here, I hope you will subscribe at the new site and link there as well. Recent posts you may have missed include: "Nahom/NHM: Only a Tribe, Not a Place?"  Here I address the latest argument against the significance of the Arabian Peninsula evidence, namely, the notion that the place which was called "Nahom" in the Book of Mormon cannot be related to the archaeological inscriptions in Yemen bearing the NHM name (corresponding to Nihm tribe) because NHM/Nihm is just a trib ..read more
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Mormanity is Moving to AriseFromTheDust.com
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
1y ago
  I've been wondering how to abandon the name "Mormanity" for a while. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I understand how important it is to reflect the proper name of the Church, but finding a good approach was difficult. Finally, after overcoming some of the technical problems in moving from Blogger to a new domain, I'm ready to make the switch to "Arise from the Dust" at AriseFromTheDust.com. This new name for the blog reflects my passion for the Book of Mormon, where the theme of arising from the dust permeates the book, and my deep testimony of the rea ..read more
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Preparing for Inflation and Yearning for Zion: Thoughts From My Visit to Turkey
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
The New Mosque (Yeni Cami) in the EminönĂ¼ quarter of Istanbul, on the Golden Horn at the southern end of the Galata Bridge. For over a decade, I've been convinced that Shanghai was the most exciting and perhaps most glorious city I've ever seen. Now the title of "the world's most glorious city" in my mind goes to Istanbul, and I'll explain why in a moment. But Shanghai was the top contender for that title starting almost as soon as I  began living there in 2011. We were there at a golden time when Shanghai was remarkably free, prosperous, bustling, and beautiful. Today it is a p ..read more
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Lessons from Bulgaria: The Dangers of Censorship
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
During the Communist era in Bulgaria, the annual May Day parade was a major spectacle that drew huge crowds to the streets of Sofia. The crowds would come to 9th September Square and see their Communist Party leaders lined up on the balcony of the massive mausoleum for Georgi Dimitrov, the first Communist leader of Bulgaria who led the nation from 1946 to 1949. The leaders would salute the soldiers and others marching in the parade and wave to the masses. But in 1986, the assembled people of Sophia were puzzled. Where did the leaders go? The balcony was empty. This only happened once during th ..read more
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What Day Was Christ Crucified? Dr. Jeffrey Chadwick Argues That the Book of Mormon Provides Valuable Information
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
An archaeologist and professor at BYU, Dr. Jeffrey R. Chadwick, published an article in  that provides a great example of how the Book of Mormon can help us better understand the Bible: "Dating the Death of Jesus Christ," BYU Studies 54, no. 4 (2015): 135-91 (PDF also at BookofMormonCentral.org). In this case, he takes up the debate on which day Christ was crucified. The standard answer we've grown up with, one that is also favored by many scholars, is that Christ was crucified on Friday. But there are also a fair number of scholars who argue for Thursday, and even some who think it was W ..read more
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What to Make of "Plagiarism" of the Bible in a Purportedly Ancient Text? A Jewish Scholar Offers a Thoughtful Perspective
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
The Book of Mormon's frequent "plagiarism" of passages from the Bible is one of the most common criticisms raised against it's authenticity and antiquity. It's actually not very much like the way plagiarism is done in modern times, when an author uses someone else's words as if they were the author's creation. The Book of Mormon usually explicitly indicates that Isaiah or some other writer is about to be cited, or when, for example, Christ repeats the Beatitudes for His New World audience, it is clear what is being done: Christ is the author of those words, not Joseph Smith, with King James la ..read more
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About That Burial Marker in Yemen for a Man Named Ishmael: Impossible That He Was a Hebrew?
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
In a November 2021 post, "Recent Discoveries and Advances Published by Interpreter, Part 1," I discussed a recent publication by Neal Rappleye, "An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom," in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  He reported an intriguing find among roughly 400 burial markers in Wadi Jawf, a place very near or within ancient tribal lands for the Nihm tribe, whose influence and name in Yemen during Lehi's day is now attested in 3 ancient altars bearing the NHM name given as gifts to a temple at Marib, raising the possibility that the rare place name "Nahom ..read more
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Prayers for China
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
  A view from Xi'an, China, the beginning of the Silk Road China has been in my prayers daily for a long time. It's a land I love and respect with marvelous people, strong family values, great diversity, and many people of faith, including local and foreign members of the Church. It's a land of beautiful culture and traditions. And contrary to what you have probably heard, it's a land of creativity and innovation, in spite of a recent history of rampant intellectual property theft,. China actually has some of the best intellectual property laws and systems on the planet, having m ..read more
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The Words of Gad the Seer: Thoughts on a "Lost Book" Preserved by the Jews at Cochin, India
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
The cover of the Hebrew edition of Meir Bar-Ilan's The Words of Gad the Seer Gad was a prophet living at the time of David who seemed to have special status based on 2 Samuel 24:11, which speaks of "Gad, David's seer." But like many prophets, Gad was not afraid to speak unpleasant things to his King (e.g., see 2 Samuel 12:1-13). One of the very few mentions of Gad occurs in 1 Chronicles 29:29 when it mentions that the acts of David the king were written "in the book of Gad the seer." I have occasionally cited that verse in discussing the scriptures with others who accept the Bible to ..read more
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News from Mount Ebal: An Ancient Hebraic Inscription on Metal, a Chiasmus, Possibly Dating to the 13th Century BC or Earlier
Mormanity - A Mormon Blog
by Jeff Lindsay
2y ago
An ancient Hebraic text dating to the 13th to 14th century BCE has been discovered by sifting through the detritus of an archaeological dig at Mount Ebal in Israel. The text was inside an amulet, a tablet of lead, and was revealed with painstaking high-tech scanning known as tomography (this involves computational analysis of numerous x-rays at various angles to create a 3D model of an object) to show the writing inside. The finding may result in revision to theories about the origins of written Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible. Latter-day Saints may be intrigued that metal was the medium for one o ..read more
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