Dr. David Bokovoy brings his formidable knowledge of Bible studies and textual analysis to bear on the Book of Abraham! How does the Book of Abraham hold up? This is one you don’t want to miss!!!
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Radio Free Mormon: 200: The David Bokovoy Interview, Part 2
Fantastic episode! Can’t wait for #3!
Another brilliant episode. Eagerly awaiting for episode 3
Worst episode of RFM > best talk in GC. (Actually that’s false because there are no good talks in GC and no bad episodes of RFM.)
PS love that song by J&D! Really takes me back.
Excellent. Question on Book of Enoch. A good friend of mine says that there is information in the Book of Abraham and Book of Moses that can be had nowhere else than in the Book of Enoch which was found and translated years after 1934. Therefore, JS is truly a prophet. Please comment
This was so interesting. I have to take a critical study class. No wonder anyone studying real biblical scholarship can not believe the bible is anything more than fables about Land and power/authority. What higher authority is there than God saying such and such. How freeing to know the bible is man made and not god breathed as it is named.
Thank you for this episode!
Dr. Bokovoy would you in a future episode detail the full extent of the different motivations of each of the different sources P and J etc as is gives the reasons they tell the story differently.
I would love to get a count and a list of each and every problem with the BoA from a textual criticism perspective.
Great episode! I look forward to the next one. One particular part stood out to me. It was “harmonizing two desperate documentary sources” and how the church is currently trying to blend older difficult versions of the first vision with the 1838 version. And like Joseph Smith, who left his fingerprints of authorship by blending P & J sources in the Book of Abraham, current leadership are also leaving fingerprints of authorship on Mormon history as they blend versions of the first vision. I find it fascinating to see this stuff happening in real time. This episode also makes me think about the lives of people back when P and J sources were combined in Bible times. If they could‘ve had a podcast what would they have been talking about? There must be some cognitive dissonance in there somewhere. Do a little mental gymnastics here and some blending there… and there you go. Somebody patched up some testimony on a shelf somewhere, sometime.
I have a feeling that when Mulestein suggested that we focus on the BoA text while ignoring how it came into being, he had no idea how problematic that would be. It’s this reality that make these discussions so important.
RFM, as always you are brilliant and insightful. Thank you for doing these interviews with David Bokovoy. He is also brilliant and provides a perspective on scriptures and Mormonism that few, if any, others have put forward.
It makes me wonder:What if, Dr.Bokovoy dad been there in 1922 when B. H. Roberts was presenting the problems with the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham, and had presented his views…and the church leaders had adopted them. What would the church be like today? What if the church adopted those ideas today, what would the church be like in 100 years?
One other point, Dr. Bokovoy talks about how ancient prophets/writers saw no problem with writing new scripture to fit with their times. This is a difficult concept for many Mormons to understand. Yesterday I watched a video of a professor discuss the differences in Odin as presented in the Sagas and the Odin in the Edda. After watch that short presentation it all made much more sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYD14W7zDU
Something like that might help Mormons understand that concept more easily.
Really great episode! Let’s have a few more!
David must have been a great seminary teacher, has a real gift of breaking down complicated concepts into digestible bits.