(Photograph by James Jordan)
The Interpreter Foundation continues to make useful and interesting materials available in a variety of formats and media for students of the scriptures and doctrines of the Restoration — usually for free, sometimes at cost. Here are three of the latest examples:
Abstract: On the Mount of Olives, just prior to the culminating events of the Passion week, Jesus gave one of the most controversial prophecies of the New Testament, saying, among other things, that the “abomination of desolation” will “stand in the holy place.” In Joseph Smith-Matthew the Prophet renders this passage in a way that radically changes its meaning. Rather than describing how the “abomination of desolation” will “stand in the holy place,” the JSTversion enjoins the apostles to “stand in the holy place” when the “abomination of desolation” appears. Though several Latter-day Saint scholars have offered interpretations and personal applications of these words as given in modern scripture, it appears that no one has heretofore seriously explored how this change in meaning might be explained and defended. This article will show that other passages in the Bible, in connection with the light shed by Jewish midrash and contemporary scholarship, demonstrate that the idea behind Joseph Smith’s revision of the passage, far from being a modern invention, reverberates throughout the religious thought of earlier times. The article concludes with an appendix that tries to draw out a possibility for a specific interpretation of the prophecy about the “abomination of desolation” at the time of Christ and in the latter days.
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
See Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, “Standing in the Holy Place: Ancient and Modern Reverberations of an Enigmatic New Testament Prophecy,” in [Page 164]Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of The Expound Symposium 14 May 2011, ed. Matthew B. Brown, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Stephen D. Ricks, and John S. Thompson (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 71–142. Further information athttps://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-temple-worship/.]
Interpreter Radio Show — May 24, 2020
The 24 May 2020 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show has now been archived and is available online, at no charge. Shorn of commercial and other interruptions, it features Steve Densley, Matthew Bowen, and Kevin Christensen discussing Kevin’s review of the book Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon. Also featured is a roundtable on the upcoming Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson #25 on Alma 17-22.
“Alma’s Testimony of Christ’s Birth and Mission (Alma 7)”
A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 22: “Have Ye Experienced This Mighty Change in Your Hearts?” (Alma 5-7)
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