BHodges Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 I have an extra review copy of the Maxwell Institute's new study edition of the Book of Mormon, which we published last month together with BYU's Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book. I thought someone from the board here might volunteer to review it for the benefit of everyone else. Please sound off here and I'll pick somebody at random later this week. Has anyone already seen Hardy's earlier Reader's Edition? Still quite useful, but I think this one is much improved. As I've written elsewhere, this edition is the first ever to combine the Church’s current official version of the text (2013) with the results of Royal Skousen’s groundbreaking Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Footnotes identify important around 200 substantive variants from the original and printer’s manuscripts up through its current English editions. Hardy also thoroughly revised the headings, paragraphing, punctuation, and poetic forms from the Reader’s Edition. The footnotes are somewhat sparse, but deliberately so. They point to intertextual elements, variants, and cross reference the declaration and fulfillment of prophesies. The whole volume is informed by decades of scholarship produced by FARMS, BYU Studies, the Religious Studies Center, the Maxwell Institute, and others. Hardy says the Book of Mormon’s narrative complexity and coherence—highlighted in this edition—offer some of the strongest evidences of its historicity and miraculous translation. It also has newly commissioned charts and appendices to help readers keep straight the names and relationships of various individuals, places, and records, in addition to examples of chiasmus and testimonies from Joseph Smith and other witnesses—including several women—of the text and its translation. Not to mention 20 original pieces of art, woodcuts, by Brian Kershisnik. So who would like the opportunity to review the book here? 1 Link to comment
ksfisher Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 I wouldn't have the time or the expertise to review it, but I am interested in purchasing it. As far as ebooks go it looks like it is available to preorder on Amazon for Kindle. Will the book be available on Apple iBooks as well? Link to comment
clarkgoble Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 (edited) 32 minutes ago, BHodges said: I have an extra review copy of the Maxwell Institute's new study edition of the Book of Mormon, which we published last month together with BYU's Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book. I thought someone from the board here might volunteer to review it for the benefit of everyone else. Please sound off here and I'll pick somebody at random later this week. I'll review it for Times and Seasons if you'd like and post the review here as well. 7 minutes ago, ksfisher said: I wouldn't have the time or the expertise to review it, but I am interested in purchasing it. As far as ebooks go it looks like it is available to preorder on Amazon for Kindle. Will the book be available on Apple iBooks as well? If you download Calibre you can convert Kindle books to ePub to use in iBooks, Google Play or other ePub readers. I've started doing that for all my Amazon purchases. Edited January 10, 2019 by clarkgoble 1 Link to comment
BHodges Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 3 minutes ago, ksfisher said: I wouldn't have the time or the expertise to review it, but I am interested in purchasing it. As far as ebooks go it looks like it is available to preorder on Amazon for Kindle. Will the book be available on Apple iBooks as well? It should already be available on Kindle, but we aren't doing Apple. Sorry, Steve Jobs. Link to comment
ksfisher Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 29 minutes ago, BHodges said: It should already be available on Kindle, but we aren't doing Apple. Sorry, Steve Jobs. On Kindle it says available Jan 31. It looks like they're trying to time the release of the kindle version with the availability of the paper book. I prefer the layout of the iBooks screen over that of Kindle. Enough so that I repurchased a few books on iBooks that I'd previously bought on Kindle. Link to comment
BHodges Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 1 minute ago, clarkgoble said: I'll review it for Times and Seasons if you'd like. We already got a T&S reviewer lined up! Link to comment
clarkgoble Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Just now, BHodges said: We already got a T&S reviewer lined up! K. Give it to one of the other people who asked so someone else gets a chance then. Link to comment
Robert F. Smith Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 I am very glad to hear about this, Blair. I've wanted to see something like this for years, and recently purchased The Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon edited by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum (FIRM Foundation/Digital Legend, 2018). I'll be purchasing a copy of this new Maxwell Institute Study BofM, so no need for a free review copy. It'll be interesting to compare the two. Your description fairly whets my appetite. 2 Link to comment
DispensatorMysteriorum Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 I'd be more than happy to review it on Amazon, Deseretbook, and maybe could get my friends at FairMormon to post a review. Link to comment
T-Shirt Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 The e-book is available now at Deseret Book for use with their Bookshelf app. 1 Link to comment
RevTestament Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 We would be interested but it would not be some 4 week turnaround, so maybe best if we just get the digital version for ourselves. Nevertheless, my wife has a degree in professional and technical writing. and I am in the process of closely evaluating the text of the Book of Mormon from a Hebraic context for the purpose of evaluating the original intent. I am probably surely not the ideal candidate for that, but that is where my interest lies. Anyway, it is something I would be interested in studying for a bout a year. 1 Link to comment
PacMan Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 I’d be interested and happy to give a review. Link to comment
Peppermint Patty Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 I would love to give it a review on goodreads.com. Link to comment
BHodges Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 OK, I assigned each of you a number and ran it through an online number generator. DispensatorMysteriorum's lot was cast. Please send me an email (blairhodges at byu dot edu) with your name and mailing address. I'll dispatch the review copy from Deseret Book. You can review in all those venues you named, but I would especially like you to post a review here on the forum! If you've changed your mind, let me know and I'll cast lots again. 1 Link to comment
BHodges Posted January 16, 2019 Author Share Posted January 16, 2019 Bump for DispensatorMysteriorum. If I don't hear back by next week we'll re-pick! Link to comment
BHodges Posted January 22, 2019 Author Share Posted January 22, 2019 OK, I never heard back so I chose a new name at random. @Peppermint Patty, you are the one! Please email me (blairhodges at byu dot edu) and we'll arrange the review copy. Link to comment
Robert F. Smith Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 REVIEW OF HARDY STUDY BOOK OF MORMON Review by Robert F. Smith of Grant Hardy, ed., The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ: Maxwell Institute Study Edition (Provo, Utah: BYU Maxwell Institute, 2018); 648pp + xxi; with 20 original woodcuts by Brian Kershisnik. paperback $34.99; eBook $17.99. ISBN 9781944394653. MISE • Text follows the 1981/2013 official Book of Mormon text published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Beginning on page 599, Hardy provides some very helpful maps, charts, and appendices useful to any serious student of the Book of Mormon. Stephen Smoot1 and Brant Gardner2 have each effectively presented the positive qualities of the new MISE, but I would like to mention a few of the disappointments I have with it — despite my initial great hopes, based on Grant Hardy’s previous 2003 Reader’s Edition. My major criticism of this new MISE edition is that Grant was too timid and thus (1) did not include the requisite number of explanations, illustrations, and textual improvements, and (2) failed to exclude irrelevant material. In addition, there are a number of embarrassing errors not caught in the editing process. As a consequence, we have yet to see an adequate Study Edition of the Book of Mormon. I would have much preferred Grant’s 17-page Introduction to the Reader’s Edition in place of the less helpful 1981/2013 Introduction to the official LDS edition (which is not part of the Book of Mormon text). I appreciate the boldness Grant showed in improving the text at Alma 11:18-19, where he reversed the mistaken verse sequence. This is something which should have been done in the official LDS edition. However, at the same time, Grant was too timid to make the requisite change at Alma 12:13-16 (in which verse 16 should immediately follow verse 13 — a discovery which Grant himself made). He ought also to have corrected the wrong homonym for “Sun” at 2 Nephi 26:9, 3 Nephi 25:2, and Ether 9:22 (a misspelling also present in LDS Hymn #209), since he is well aware of all of them. When I think of any study Book of Mormon, I consider what that has meant for study Bibles in general, as well as for the recent David Hocking & Rod Meldrum hardbound Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Digital Legend, 2018),3 and would like to see something equally serious for a MISE. On page 224 of MISE, for example, a "flashback" is mentioned, while Hocking & Meldrum actually insert a beautiful color chart of the complex flashbacks on their page 158, so that it can be immediately useful. What else can we learn from their work? Hardy’s “Index of Names” (634-643) contains a number of errors: Ammonites should be cited for Alma 56:67; Amnor at Alma 2:22; Amulonites at Alma 21:3; Hamath at 2 Nephi 20:9, Jeberechiah at 2 Nephi 18:2; Nazareth at 1 Nephi 11:13; he left out a second Shim hill at Ether 9:3; he left out several biblical names, such as Cush, Sodom, Syria, Tabeal, and Zebulon. Still, this edition is useful as the next step to such improvements, some of which could be made on computer for the next printing. Hopefully, the official LDS Scriptures Publication Committee is also watching and taking note. 1 Stephen O. Smoot, “Feasting on the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter, 31 (2019): 143-150, online at https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/feasting-on-the-book-of-mormon/ . 2 Brant A. Gardner, “Read This Book: A Review of the Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter, 31 (2019): 139-142, online at https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/read-this-book-a-review-of-the-maxwell-institute-study-edition-of-the-book-of-mormon/ . 3 Book of Mormon Central provides a review at https://bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/documents/Blog entry/2018/Executive Summary.pdf ; see also the Sherry Ann Miller review for AML, online at http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/reviews/older-reviews/hocking-et-al-annotated-edition-of-the-book-of-mormon-reviewed-by-sherry-ann-miller-2/ . 2 Link to comment
caspianrex Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 On 2/19/2019 at 10:01 PM, Robert F. Smith said: REVIEW OF HARDY STUDY BOOK OF MORMON Review by Robert F. Smith of Grant Hardy, ed., The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ: Maxwell Institute Study Edition (Provo, Utah: BYU Maxwell Institute, 2018); 648pp + xxi; with 20 original woodcuts by Brian Kershisnik. paperback $34.99; eBook $17.99. ISBN 9781944394653. MISE • Text follows the 1981/2013 official Book of Mormon text published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Beginning on page 599, Hardy provides some very helpful maps, charts, and appendices useful to any serious student of the Book of Mormon. Stephen Smoot1 and Brant Gardner2 have each effectively presented the positive qualities of the new MISE, but I would like to mention a few of the disappointments I have with it — despite my initial great hopes, based on Grant Hardy’s previous 2003 Reader’s Edition. My major criticism of this new MISE edition is that Grant was too timid and thus (1) did not include the requisite number of explanations, illustrations, and textual improvements, and (2) failed to exclude irrelevant material. In addition, there are a number of embarrassing errors not caught in the editing process. As a consequence, we have yet to see an adequate Study Edition of the Book of Mormon. I would have much preferred Grant’s 17-page Introduction to the Reader’s Edition in place of the less helpful 1981/2013 Introduction to the official LDS edition (which is not part of the Book of Mormon text). I appreciate the boldness Grant showed in improving the text at Alma 11:18-19, where he reversed the mistaken verse sequence. This is something which should have been done in the official LDS edition. However, at the same time, Grant was too timid to make the requisite change at Alma 12:13-16 (in which verse 16 should immediately follow verse 13 — a discovery which Grant himself made). He ought also to have corrected the wrong homonym for “Sun” at 2 Nephi 26:9, 3 Nephi 25:2, and Ether 9:22 (a misspelling also present in LDS Hymn #209), since he is well aware of all of them. When I think of any study Book of Mormon, I consider what that has meant for study Bibles in general, as well as for the recent David Hocking & Rod Meldrum hardbound Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Digital Legend, 2018),3 and would like to see something equally serious for a MISE. On page 224 of MISE, for example, a "flashback" is mentioned, while Hocking & Meldrum actually insert a beautiful color chart of the complex flashbacks on their page 158, so that it can be immediately useful. What else can we learn from their work? Hardy’s “Index of Names” (634-643) contains a number of errors: Ammonites should be cited for Alma 56:67; Amnor at Alma 2:22; Amulonites at Alma 21:3; Hamath at 2 Nephi 20:9, Jeberechiah at 2 Nephi 18:2; Nazareth at 1 Nephi 11:13; he left out a second Shim hill at Ether 9:3; he left out several biblical names, such as Cush, Sodom, Syria, Tabeal, and Zebulon. Still, this edition is useful as the next step to such improvements, some of which could be made on computer for the next printing. Hopefully, the official LDS Scriptures Publication Committee is also watching and taking note. 1 Stephen O. Smoot, “Feasting on the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter, 31 (2019): 143-150, online at https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/feasting-on-the-book-of-mormon/ . 2 Brant A. Gardner, “Read This Book: A Review of the Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter, 31 (2019): 139-142, online at https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/read-this-book-a-review-of-the-maxwell-institute-study-edition-of-the-book-of-mormon/ . 3 Book of Mormon Central provides a review at https://bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/documents/Blog entry/2018/Executive Summary.pdf ; see also the Sherry Ann Miller review for AML, online at http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/reviews/older-reviews/hocking-et-al-annotated-edition-of-the-book-of-mormon-reviewed-by-sherry-ann-miller-2/ . I shall keep this review in mind as I begin to read my new copy of the MISE, which I received 2 days ago. The only disappointment I currently have is that the only available print edition, as far as I can tell, is in paperback. It's a fairly sturdy paperback, to be sure, but I'm hoping they will eventually release a hardcover edition. My papeback copy of Hardy's Reader's Edition is beginning to fall apart, so I just ordered a hardcover edition of that book. Maybe the Maxwell Institute will follow suit someday. Link to comment
Robert F. Smith Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 1 hour ago, caspianrex said: .................. My papeback copy of Hardy's Reader's Edition is beginning to fall apart, so I just ordered a hardcover edition of that book. Maybe the Maxwell Institute will follow suit someday. Seems that you actually read the BofM. How novel. 2 Link to comment
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