New Book of Abraham Video!

[Ryan Dahle]

For those interested in Book of Abraham studies, this new video may be worth your time:

https://www.pearlofgreatpricecentral.org/new-video-explores-the-historical-credibility-of-the-book-of-abraham/

 

It doesn't really add anything new to what is already known about the Book of Abraham's historicity, but it does offer visuals and summaries of content that will be helpful for those less familiar with these topics. At least two more videos like this one will be published in coming months (I'm not sure about the timeline on those, though). 

[Robert F. Smith]

Nice video, Ryan, and David Snell is an excellent narrator (just doesn't know how to pronounce "Chaldea").  Graphics are certainly worth a thousand words.

I enjoyed seeing, for example, that the city Ulisim (Olishem) in line 13 of the Naram-Sin Inscription is accompanied by Ebla in line 6.  Both in the same proper neighborhood.

Professor Gee's recognition of Egyptian snt "wife, sister," rather than ḥmt "wife," are nice, but ignore the lack of need for any subterfuge in the fact that Sarah was actually both wife and sister to Abraham (both offspring of Terah, but with different mothers, Gen 20:12).  Such cultural attributes are completely foreign to us in modern times, but all too common then.  See E. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (1964), 91-94.

I see nothing geocentric in the BofA.  The text is far too complex, with too many characteristics fitting modern cosmology.  Key here is the governance of God’s whole system via Kolob (Abr 3:3, facs 2:1-2).  This may be accomplished via the mechanism of “clumps and strands in a vast ‘cosmic web’” of dark matter and hydrogen gas flowing “along the filaments to feed the growing galaxies.”

Quote

Astronomers have seen how the gravity of the web’s filaments distort the images of more distant galaxies, making them align slightly, like fish swimming in a school. Other scientists have detected huge intergalactic clouds of hydrogen by noting how they absorb light from very distant, bright galaxies called quasars.[1]

The material seems to lie along a connected structure, a vast cosmic web connecting the galaxies.  Such filaments are held together by dark matter, the unknown material thought to make up roughly 80 percent of the universe.    * * *  As massive galaxies interact with one another, their tidal forces can pull gas out into the region between them.[2]

Physicist Anton Petrov points out that one way to explain how dark matter holds the galaxies together is via theoretical Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPS), and various experiments are being conducted in order to find just such a particle.[3]

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[1] Adrian Cho, “Astronomers spot the filaments of gas that feed the galaxies,” Science, Oct 3, 2019, online at  https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/astronomers-map-galaxy-feeding-hydrogen-filaments-first-time . 

[2] Nola Taylor Redd, “Giant Gas Clouds Found In Void Between Nearby Galaxies,” Space.com, May 8, 2013, online at https://www.space.com/21027-giant-gas-clouds-nearby-galaxies.html ;  Joon Hyeop Lee, et al., “Mysterious Coherence in Several-megaparsec Scales Between Galaxy Rotation and Neighbor Motion,” Astrophysical Journal, 884/2 (Oct 15, 2019), online at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab3fa3/pdf ; Petrov, “More Scientific Proof That Everything in The Universe is Connected,” What Da Math, Dec 1, 2019, online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCmAQz6E_rg

[3] Petrov.  “While Looking for Dark Matter, Scientists Discover Something Way Cooler,” What Da Math, May 4, 2019, online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VUMjJJBtuA .

[Ryan Dahle]

3 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Nice video, Ryan, and David Snell is an excellent narrator (just doesn't know how to pronounce "Chaldea").  Graphics are certainly worth a thousand words.

Thanks. I played a minimal role in this, btw.  

3 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Professor Gee's recognition of Egyptian snt "wife, sister," rather than ḥmt "wife," are nice, but ignore the lack of need for any subterfuge in the fact that Sarah was actually both wife and sister to Abraham (both offspring of Terah, but with different mothers, Gen 20:12).  Such cultural attributes are completely foreign to us in modern times, but all too common then.  See E. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (1964), 91-94.

It certainly doesn't hurt, though, that the ambiguity can be looked at from two different angles. 

3 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

I see nothing geocentric in the BofA.  The text is far too complex, with too many characteristics fitting modern cosmology.  Key here is the governance of God’s whole system via Kolob (Abr 3:3, facs 2:1-2).  This may be accomplished via the mechanism of “clumps and strands in a vast ‘cosmic web’” of dark matter and hydrogen gas flowing “along the filaments to feed the growing galaxies.”

The associated article upon which the research in the video is based, is able to better explain the fact that different approaches to interpreting the text's astronomy have been taken.

https://www.pearlofgreatpricecentral.org/abrahamic-astronomy/

I personally don't know enough about the topic to have an informed opinion.  

Edited December 5, 2019 by Ryan Dahle

[Robert F. Smith]

6 hours ago, Ryan Dahle said:

................................................

I personally don't know enough about the topic to have an informed opinion.  

Neither do I.