Nevo

Prior to a stake conference with a visiting authority, the authority is provided with a confidential tithing report that lists the occupations and self-declared tithe-paying status of the stake presidency, executive secretary, stake clerks, high councilors, stake patriarch, and bishops (full, part, or non). The report does not list tithing amounts, nor does it identify the "15 or 20 highest tithe payers" in the stake. Brother Arrington was either misinformed or imagining things.

True, the term could just mean that she served in the church, but even Cranfield (a conservative NT scholar) thought an office was in view: "It is perhaps just conceivable that the word διάκονος should be understood here as as quite general reference to her service of the congregation; but it is very much more natural, particularly in view of the way in which Paul formulates his thought . . . to understand it as referring to a definite office" (Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, vol. 2 [ICC; London: T&T Clark, 1979], 781). But how much authority this position entailed, if any, remains an open question.

A number of prominent commentators in the last 50 years have held that Junia was an "apostle." Here are a few that I am aware of. C. E. B. Cranfield (1979): "Most probably Andronicus and Junia were husband and wife. . . . ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις has sometimes been understood as meaning 'outstanding in the eyes of the apostles' . . . ; on this view 'the apostles' could mean the apostles in the more limited sense of the word. While this must be judged grammatically possible, it is much more probable—we might well say, virtually certain—that the words mean 'outstanding among the apostles', that is, 'oustanding in the group who may be designated apostles', which is the way it was understood by the patristic commentators (it would seem, without exception)." Douglas J. Moo (1996): ". . . commentators before the thirteenth century were unanimous in favor of the feminine identification; and scholars have recently again inclined decisively to this same view. And probably with good reason. For while a contracted form of Junianus would fit quite well in this list of greetings (for Paul uses several other such contractions), we have no evidence elsewhere for this contracted form of the name. On the other hand, the Latin “Junia” was a very common name. Probably, then, “Junia” was the wife of Andronicus (note the other husband and wife pairs in this list, Prisca and Aquila [v. 3] and [probably], Philologus and Julia [v. 15]). . . . In two relative clauses Paul draws the attention of the Roman Christians to the stature of this husband and wife ministry team. The first description might mean that Andronicus and Junia were 'esteemed by the apostles.' But it is more natural to translate 'esteemed among the apostles.'" Robert Jewett (2006): "Junia is a Latin feminine name, ordinarily given to slaves or freedwomen of the Junia family, of which some 250 examples have been found in Roman evidence. The modern scholarly controversy over this name rests on the presumption that no woman could rank as an apostle, and thus that the accusative form must refer to a male by the name of Junias or Junianus. However, the evidence in favor of the feminine name 'Junia' is overwhelming. Not a single example of a masculine name 'Junias' has been found. . . . Given the pairing with the male name first, it is likely that Andronikos and Junia are a married couple. . . . The honorific expression ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις should be translated 'outstanding among the apostles' rather than 'remarkable in the judgment of the apostles,' because the adjective ἐπίσημος lifts up a person or thing as distinguished or marked in comparison with other representatives of the same class, in this instance with the other apostles. The Latin equivalent is honoratus, the acknowledgment of the distinction and honor earned by another. Thus τὸ ἐπίσημον was used to refer to the badge distinguishing one shield from another (Herodotus Hist. 9.74), the flag or figurehead that identifies one ship in comparison with an otherwise identical ship in the same class (Herodotus 8.88), or the device stamped on a coin to distinguish it from another (Plutarch Thes. 6.1). The adjective is used by 3 Macc 6:1 to identify Eleazar as ἐπίσημος τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς χώρας ἱερέων ('remarkable among the priests of the country') and by Josephus to describe Mary of Bethezuba as 'remarkable (ἐπίσημος) by reason of family and fortune' (Bell. 6.201). A striking confirmation of this interpretation is provided by Chrysostom’s comment about Junia: 'Even to be an apostle is great, but also to be prominent among them—consider how wonderful a song of honor that is!'" Joseph A. Fitzmyer (2008): "who are outstanding among the apostles. The prep. phrase en tois apostolois may mean 'those of mark (numbered) among the apostles' or 'those held in esteem by the apostles.' Barrett, Cranfield, Lagrange, Lietzmann, Michel, Rengstorf, Schlatter, Schlier, Schnackenburg, Zeller, and BAGD take it in the former sense, as did most of the patristic interpreters." (So does Fitzmyer.) Now, it should be noted that these commentators see the title "apostle" here as referring to a commissioned missionary/messenger/emissary or a witness of the resurrection. Moo and Fitzmyer opt for the former view. Jewett argues for the latter view: "Since Paul gives no evidence that they had been associated with a particular congregation, in contrast to Phoebe in 16:1–2, and since his usage of 'apostle' is oriented to resurrection witness unless otherwise indicated, it seems likely that he ranked them among 'all the apostles' who laid claim to being witnesses of the resurrection." Paul never uses the term "apostle" to refer to an office in the Melchizedek Priesthood. So, no, he's not claiming that Junia was "ordained to the priesthood." But Romans 16 provides ample evidence that women played a prominent role in the early Church. Given that early Christianity consisted of a network of house-churches, I think it is very likely that some women held leadership positions. Phoebe, whom Paul refers to as "a deacon of the church in Cenchreae," may well have been one of those.

Not sure if anyone here has had a chance to read Christopher Blythe's article, "Was Jesus Married?" Among other things, he quotes a 2006 statement from Church spokesman Dale Bills: "The belief that Christ was married has never been official church doctrine. It is neither sanctioned nor taught by the church. While it is true that a few church leaders in the mid-1800s expressed their opinions on the matter, it was not then, and is not now, church doctrine." Further, Mark D. Ellison has noted that "during his ministry Jesus had no home of his own (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58), and it is not unreasonable to guess that his sacrifice of home and property extended also to marriage so that he might give single-minded devotion to his atoning mission (see Luke 12:50). Certainly in the period following the New Testament, early Christians remembered Jesus as celibate."

Yes, of course. There are many study bibles that affirm revelation and prophecy. Anything published by Zondervan, Nelson, or Crossway will fit the bill.

There is very little in the way of Latter-day Saint commentary on the Old Testament. I know of no equivalent to Kevin Barney's Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints, unfortunately. This Religious Educator article on study bibles recommends the two that you've already ruled out: https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-20-no-3-2019/study-bibles-introduction-latter-day-saints. It also recommends the Jewish Study Bible. If you're looking for something more conservative, try the NIV Study Bible. Give Keil and Delitzsch a try too: https://www.worthy.bible/commentaries/keil-delitzsch-commentary. It's old, but worthwhile. Personally, I like to read commentaries from a variety of perspectives—conservative, liberal, scholarly, devotional.

Gary Bergera has identified the three you mentioned, as well as a fourth: Lucina Cahoon, b. 1843, daughter of Reynolds Cahoon and Lucina Roberts Johnson. See Gary James Bergera, "Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-44," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 38, no. 3 (2005): 50.

So, your considered conclusion, based on careful analysis of the data, is that the Lord transmitted KJV quotations and paraphrases to Joseph Smith word for word, taking care to use an edition of the KJV published after the 1760s and making sure to include numerous anachronisms, errors, and textual corruptions? How did you rule out Joseph "altering the text paraphrastically from a biblically saturated memory"?

What they're pointing out is that the points of contact with Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Acts suggest that the Longer Ending was composed after those works began to circulate together—i.e., in the second century. As Darrell Bock puts it, "That the traditional longer version (16:9–20) contains mostly a combination of the other Gospels’ endings . . . suggests its secondary character" (Bock, 386). For example, Mark 16:12 ("After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking back into the country") seems to presuppose familiarity with Luke's Emmaus account. This suggests that "the verses were probably written at the beginning of the second century" (Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel according to Saint Mark [Black’s New Testament Commentary; London: Continuum, 1991], 389). Anyway, we seem to be the last two people in the thread arguing about a relatively minor point, so it's probably time to move on. If you want to believe that the Longer Ending is derived from traditional material independent of the Gospels, go for it. I'm just pointing out that most NT scholars disagree with that position. Those are commentaries I own, most of which are in digital form (via Logos Bible Software). Addendum: Raymond Brown, one of the greatest NT scholars of the last half of the 20th century, had this to say about the Longer Ending: "The material resembles resurrection accounts found in Matt and Luke-Acts (and perhaps in John [for Mary Magdalene]), but whether the copyist who composed it drew directly from those Gospels or simply from similar traditions is uncertain" (Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament [New York: Doubleday, 1997], 148n58). I was holding that back because it didn't help my case, but there it is. You're in good company.

Sure, there are people out there who think it's possible that the author of the Longer Ending could have used oral tradition. But this generally requires backdating it into the first century, as Yang does here. Notice that Yang doesn't actually engage any of the evidence for a second-century date. He simply declares that he thinks "it cannot be guaranteed whether the LE's author really knew the four gospels and composed the LE by using them; it is possible that he might have used other (oral) traditions that other gospel authors used in order to recount their Appearance story." Well, yes, that's true. It's not guaranteed that the Longer Ending was composed in the second century. But that's where the preponderance of evidence points: "Perhaps part of a longer work something like a gospel harmony, Mark 16:9–20 was very likely composed in the second century C.E. and was attached to Mark’s Gospel by someone who thought the text needed a better ending, especially in light of the promises about a resurrection appearance in Galilee in Mark 14:28 and 16:7. A major theme in the first part of the Longer Ending is the disbelief shown by the Eleven regarding the reports about appearances of the risen Jesus (see 16:11, 13, 14). The third section (16:14–18) is noteworthy for the risen Jesus’ discourse about proclaiming the gospel to 'every creature' (or, 'all creation'), his insistence on faith and baptism as necessary for salvation, and the list of 'signs' that will accompany those who believe: exorcisms (see Mark 6:7, 13), speaking in new tongues (Acts 2:6; 1 Cor 14:2–5), handling serpents (Acts 28:3–5), drinking poison without harm (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.39), and healing through the imposition of hands (Mark 6:13; Jas 5:14–15)" (John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Mark [Sacra Pagina 2; Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002], 463). "The parts of the Longer Ending not accounted for in this list are those which go beyond the resurrection appearances as such to describe the subsequent preaching and activity of the church. Thus in v. 16 we have a summary of a basic baptismal soteriology, which has the flavour of Johannine dualism (and possibly draws on the baptism element in Mt. 28:19–20), in vv. 17–18 some of the ‘signs’ which are related in Acts are summarised, and v. 20 is virtually a summary of the whole book of Acts in a nutshell. In the whole of the Longer Ending the only element which is not easily accounted for on the basis of familiarity with the other gospels and Acts is the emphasis in v. 18 on handling poisonous snakes and drinking poison: the former perhaps reflects the single instance of (involuntary) snake-handling in Acts 28:3–6, but the expectation of these two activities as regular ‘signs’ is the one distinctive contribution which the Longer Ending makes. In all other respects vv. 9–20 have something of a ‘secondhand’ flavour, and look like a pastiche of elements drawn from the other gospels and Acts. . . . For these reasons, the almost unanimous conclusion of modern scholarship is that both the Shorter and Longer Endings, in their different ways, represent well-meaning attempts, probably sometime in the second century, to fill the perceived gap left by the ‘unfinished’ ending at 16:8, in the case of the Longer Ending by drawing eclectically on what had by then become the familiar traditions of the post-apostolic church" (R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 2002], 686–687). "Like the shorter (additional) ending, the longer ending was appended to Mark because 16:8 seemed to be a deficient conclusion in comparison with those of Matthew, Luke, and John. It was composed by the adaptation of ideas and motifs from Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Acts. It affirms that one of the three women who discovered the empty tomb, Mary of Magdala, also received an appearance of the risen Jesus. It is perhaps implied that it was this appearance that enabled her to overcome her fear and report to the disciples. The first appearance account (vv. 9–11) is a partial harmonization of (extended) Mark with John 20. In both texts, Mary is the first one to see the risen Lord. Unlike the longer ending, John 20:8 speaks about the belief of 'the other disciple' (ὁ ἄλλος μαθητής), although the statement in v. 9 qualifies his belief. The second appearance account (vv. 12–13) is, in effect, a partial harmonization of Mark with Luke, since it summarizes the story of the appearance at Emmaus in Luke 24:13–35. The third appearance account is the most distinctive, although it also had its literary models. It harmonizes Mark with Matthew, Luke, and John insofar as it, like them, presents an appearance of the risen Jesus to the eleven remaining disciples of the inner circle" (Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark [Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007], 817–818). "Overall, 16:9–20 gives the impression of being a compressed digest of resurrection appearances narrated in other Gospels (John 20:14–18; Luke 24:13–43; John 20:27–29; Matt 28:18–20; Luke 24:50–51; Acts 1:9–11). Theoretically, to be sure, the resurrection narratives in the other Gospels could be expansions of the notices in Mark 16:9–20. But Mark is generally more detailed than Matthew and Luke in the passages that all three share. By contrast, the narratives in 16:9–20 are sketchy, and at least one of them, the story of the appearance to two travelers 'in another form' (Mark 16:12–13), is so compressed that it would not make sense to readers who did not know Luke's Emmaus story (Luke 24:13–35)" (Joel Marcus, Mark 8–16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [Anchor Yale Bible 27A; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009], 1090). "The longer text of 16:9–20 looks mostly like a summary of the ends of the other Gospels. It has an appearance to Mary Magdalene, who, when she tells the story, is not believed (vv 9–11). This echoes John 20:11–18 and Luke 24:11. Jesus appears to two as they travel to the country, and when they return, they are not believed (vv 12–13). This looks like an allusion to the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13–35), but with a different end. Appearing to the eleven, he rebukes them for their lack of faith and gives them a commission to go into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He notes that signs will accompany their message (vv 14–18). This echoes Luke 24:38–41 and/or John 20:19, 26. The commission is a variation on Matthew’s commission in Matt 28:19–20. The remarks on salvation are like John 3:18 and 36. The mention of tongues points to Acts 2:4, 10:46, whereas serpents and poison look like Acts 28:3–5. The laying on of hands for the sick parallels Acts 9:17 and 28:8. Then Jesus is taken up into heaven to sit at God’s right hand (v 19). This is an allusion to Acts 1:9–11 and the Peter’s speech context at Acts 2:32–36" (Darrell Bock, Mark [New Cambridge Biblical Commentary; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015], 382–383).

Unfortunately, that PDF isn't the whole book (I wish!). But quite a bit of it is available on Google Books.

Thanks for this. I hadn't heard of Guelaguetza before. I probably should have included the rest of Brant Gardner's discussion. Here is his full comment: Gardner's qualifier, "in the same sense that we see in the New Testament," is important here. I assume he wouldn't disagree with your comments.

Kelhoffer's book is 530 pages long, with over half of it dedicated to attempting to reconstruct the Sitz im Leben of Mark 16:17–18. So it's not as though nothing can be said about those verses. Kelhoffer considers the possibility that they derive from a first-century oral tradition, but ends up concluding that the verses fit better into a second-century context. You may disagree with that conclusion, but we shouldn't suppose that there is no evidence to consider or that all arguments are equally valid.

So, if I understand you correctly, you're saying that you don't have any evidence that the Longer Ending drew on an independent body of oral tradition that survived into the second century, but you don't see that as a problem because, in your view, all positions are "equally valid" since there is no "proof" for any of them. In that case, all of the scholarly arguments on this subject can be thrown in the bin, as none of it makes any difference.

If the scholarly consensus is correct that the Longer Ending was composed in the second century CE, that hardly counts as evidence that it conveys authentic words of Jesus from a century earlier. You and webbles seem to be implying that the author of the Longer Ending drew on an independent body of oral tradition that survived intact into the second century. Where is the evidence for that? For what it's worth, James Kelhoffer, who has written the most influential study of the Longer Ending of the last 20 years, notes that "the thesis that the LE's miracle list ever existed in an oral form is suspect, for it is dubious that the second and fourth couplets—γλώσσαις λαλήσουσιν and χεῖρας ἐπιθήσουσιν ('in languages they will speak' and 'hands they will lay on')—would be intelligible as spoken statements" (Kelhoffer, Miracle and Mission: The Authentication of Missionaries and Their Message in the Longer Ending of Mark [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000], 202). I think this is a stronger position. The reality is that the Book of Mormon ascribes a number of statements to Jesus that he almost certainly didn't utter. For example, 3 Nephi 13:13 has Jesus ending the Lord's Prayer with "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen," which is clearly based on KJV Matthew 6:13. As Thomas Wayment candidly admits, "the passage . . . is not defensible on historical grounds as belonging to the most original text of the New Testament." He continues: "Initially, it may seem simple enough to propose that the Book of Mormon preserves a second historical event where the prayer was repeated in a new setting with different wording and potentially new meaning. That would be possible, theoretically, although such a solution would create difficulties in explaining how a late Byzantine (fourth to fifth centuries AD) passage from a Greek text made its way into the Book of Mormon historical setting. Strangely, in this situation the Book of Mormon would be the first text to record the reading, and then one would have to suppose that Byzantine copyists came up with the exact same reading several hundred years later" (Wayment, "Textual Criticism and the New Testament," 665). Then there is the absurdity of other aspects of the Sermon on the Mount being transferred to a New World context. As Brant Gardner points out in his book, The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon, Mesoamericans would not have understood the reference to debts (there was no monetized economy); bread (there was no bread, or even tortillas); pigs (there were no pigs); lamps (there were no lamps); or doors that could be knocked (Mesoamerican doors were made of fabric). Indeed, "the majority of the text continues to depend upon Old World culture" (Gardner, 191–192), which suggests to me that we're looking at something other than a straightforward translation of Jesus' words.