Jump to content
Seriously No Politics ×

Claremont Journal Of Mormon Studies


Chris Smith

Recommended Posts

It can be downloaded for free in PDF format, and will soon be available through print-on-demand.

http://www.claremontmormonstudies.org/journal/index.html

Articles in the inaugural issue include,

"Where Is the 'Mormon' in Mormon Studies?" by Loyd Ericson.

"The Inspired Fictionalization of the 1835 United Firm Revelations" by Christopher C. Smith

"The Great God, the Divine Mind, and the Ideal Absolute: Orson Pratt's Intelligent-Matter Theory and the Gods of Emerson and James" by Jordan Watkins

"Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon" by Joseph M. Spencer

You are all required to read my article, at least. The others are optional, but those who read them get a gold star and possibly cookies.

Peace,

-Chris

Link to comment

It can be downloaded for free in PDF format, and will soon be available through print-on-demand.

http://www.claremont...rnal/index.html

Articles in the inaugural issue include,

"Where Is the 'Mormon' in Mormon Studies?" by Loyd Ericson.

"The Inspired Fictionalization of the 1835 United Firm Revelations" by Christopher C. Smith

"The Great God, the Divine Mind, and the Ideal Absolute: Orson Pratt's Intelligent-Matter Theory and the Gods of Emerson and James" by Jordan Watkins

"Prolegomena to Any Future Study of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon" by Joseph M. Spencer

You are all required to read my article, at least. The others are optional, but those who read them get a gold star and possibly cookies.

Peace,

-Chris

I am very excited.

Link to comment

Chris, your article is fantastic, and a perfect companion to the appendix in JSP:RT2, 'Substitute Words in the 1835 and 1844 Doctrine and Covenants'

It's an article I've been waiting to see - from someone, somewhere - ever since I went through the Revelation Manuscript Books and took note of the extensive "Enochization" of the text, turning it, for all intents and purpose, to an Enoch Pseudepigriphon. (Which I touched upon in the second half of my blog entry here )

I think this is very important to consider when interpreting the material in the JST - especially the Enochic material.

Thanks again for the great paper.

Link to comment
Gold star... as in, made of actual gold? Or just having the appearance of gold... gold in color?

Gold in color, obviously. Stars of real gold are a notion preposterous in our day.

What do I get if I only read Lloyd's?

You shall have joy in your works for a season, but in the last day you shall be hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return.

Link to comment

You are all required to read my article, at least. The others are optional, but those who read them get a gold star and possibly cookies.

I prefer chocolate chip.

Enjoyed your article immensely, finding it well-written and balanced -- perhaps in the best tradition of the Jan Shipps' approach. Your doctorate will be well-deserved and I hope to see more such work from you.

p. 29, on the real reasons for the assassination of Joseph, you might want to examine Robert Wicks & Fred Foister, Junius & Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet (Logan: USU Press, 2005).

I only have a few corrective remark about the pathbreaking article by the late Louis Zucker in 1968. Good as it was, Zucker made several errors on Hebrew words in that article (much as Fawn Brodie had earlier done in declaring Nauvoo not to be Hebrew);

Zucker, p. 49, erred on Baurak Ale, which does occur at Job 32:2,6 (the KJV has a different, non-Sephardic mode of transliteration), of which Zucker should have been aware. Another aspect of this, which I cannot discuss, has to do with LDS temple rites.

Zucker, p. 51, errs on both Shaumau and Shagreel. He says that Shaumau is an invented singular and doesn't occur in the Bible -- however, according the the late Mitchell Dahood, it is an archaic singular in Ps 68:5, while van Selms discusses that singular in both Hebrew & Ugaritic (Ugarit-Forschungen, II:264), which was later taken over as a singular loan-word into Aramaic. Likewise Zucker says that Shagreel is not Hebrew. He might have taken a closer look at Gnolaum, which he admits is Hebrew, and recognize the -gn- as hard 'gayin, which would lead one to read Shagreel as "Gates of El," which compares well with the Hebrew of Psalm 118:20 "gate of the Lord," or Babylonian Bab-ili "Gate of God," etc.

Zucker, p. 55, gets Jewish history wrong on polygyny.

Link to comment
Enjoyed your article immensely, finding it well-written and balanced -- perhaps in the best tradition of the Jan Shipps' approach. Your doctorate will be well-deserved and I hope to see more such work from you.

Wow. Thanks! That's high praise!

p. 29, on the real reasons for the assassination of Joseph, you might want to examine Robert Wicks & Fred Foister, Junius & Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet (Logan: USU Press, 2005).

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out.

Likewise Zucker says that Shagreel is not Hebrew. He might have taken a closer look at Gnolaum, which he admits is Hebrew, and recognize the -gn- as hard 'gayin, which would lead one to read Shagreel as "Gates of El," which compares well with the Hebrew of Psalm 118:20 "gate of the Lord," or Babylonian Bab-ili "Gate of God," etc.

An interesting suggestion, but Abr. 1:9 was translated before Joseph studied Hebrew, so unlike the Hebrew words in chapters 3-5, I don't think he had any particular etymology in mind for Shagreel.

That's not to say Shagreel can't be an authentic ancient Hebrew deity name-- just that it doesn't seem to have been informed by Joseph's own study of Hebrew like the Hebrew words in the later chapters were.

Link to comment

An interesting suggestion, but Abr. 1:9 was translated before Joseph studied Hebrew, so unlike the Hebrew words in chapters 3-5, I don't think he had any particular etymology in mind for Shagreel.

That's not to say Shagreel can't be an authentic ancient Hebrew deity name-- just that it doesn't seem to have been informed by Joseph's own study of Hebrew like the Hebrew words in the later chapters were.

I agree with your observations here, but bear in mind that I am only refuting Zucker. My comments might also go to a much more fundamental issue: Could Abraham himself have used such a NW Semitic term? In the case of hard -gn-, we would expect not Hebrew but proto-Hebrew of some sort since it is only in the more archaic period that the -gn- would show up in Shagreel and Gnolaum. On the other hand, the Sephardic style of transliteration might obviate that as pristine evidence. In any case, Joseph need not have had any etymology in mind if he was receiving these items via inspired translation. Indeed, that Shagreel was not likely to have been informed by Joseph's study of Hebrew may make it all the more remarkable -- in proper context, of course.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...