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Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith and the Ancient World

Lincoln H. Blumell, Matthew J. Grey, and Andrew H. Hedges, Editors
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Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Joseph Smith’s Place in the Study of Antiquity in Antebellum America
    Richard L. Bushman
  • American Visionaries and Their Approaches to the Past
    David F. Holland
  • “A Very Particular Friend”—Luther Bradish
    Richard E. Bennett
  • “Git Them Translated”: Translating the Characters on the Gold Plates
    Michael Hubbard MacKay
  • Joseph Smith and Native American Artifacts
    Mark Alan Wright
  • Joseph Smith, Central American Ruins, and the Book of Mormon
    Matthew P. Roper
  • Joseph Smith’s Biblical Antiquity
    Kent P. Jackson
  • Of “Life Eternal” and “Eternal Lives”: Joseph Smith’s Engagement with the Gospel of John
    Nicholas J. Frederick
  • The Spectrum of Apostasy: Mormonism, Early Christianity and the Quest for True Religion in Antebellum America
    Matthew Bowman
  • “The Word of the Lord in the Original”: Joseph Smith’s Study of Hebrew in Kirtland
    Matthew J. Grey
  • Joseph Smith’s Awareness of Greek and Latin
    John W. Welch
  • Joseph Smith’s Developing Relationship with the Apocrypha
    Thomas A. Wayment
  • Palmyra and Jerusalem: Joseph Smith’s Scriptural Texts and the Writings of Flavius Josephus
    Lincoln H. Blumell
  • Patristic Writings in Early Mormon Periodicals
    Kristian S. Heal
  • Joseph Smith and Ancient Egypt
    John Gee
  • Joseph Smith’s Biblical View of Egypt
    Kerry Muhlestein
  • The Book of Abraham and the Egyptian Project: “A Knowledge of Hidden Languages”
    Brian M. Hauglid

About the Book

The 2013 BYU Church History Symposium

This volume is a collection of essays by prominent LDS scholars–including keynote speakers Richard Bushman and David Holland–that discuss the interest in the ancient world shared by Joseph Smith and the early Latter-day Saints. Topics include Joseph Smith’s fascination with the ancient Americas, his interaction with the Bible, his study of Hebrew and Greek, his reading of Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings, and his work with the Book of Abraham in the context of nineteenth-century Egyptology. Together, these essays demonstrate that Joseph Smith’s interests in antiquity played an important role in his prophetic development as he sought to recover ancient scripture, restore the ancient Church, and bring the Latter-day Saints into fellowship with the sacred past.

ISBN 978‐0‐8425‐2966‐2

Published in 2015

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