Original title: The "Why" of Worship
In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the third lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (January 9-15) covers Matthew 2 and Luke 2 - and is titled "We Have Come To Worship Him."
CORRECTION: Brendon mentioned the Dead Sea Scroll discovery had "multiple full Isaiah scrolls." The correct information is that the findings included one full Isaiah scroll, with a few small damaged spots, and several more fragments of Isaiah in addition to the full scroll. The point stands that scholars recovered nearly the full text of Isaiah, and the "plain and precious things" apparently recovered by Smith are not in the text. Smith's claim that truths were lost from Isaiah, therefore, should be considered false.
Moreover, some of the italics (added by the KJV translators) and even some of the errors from the 1769 edition of the KJV translation of Joseph Smith's day were copied over into the Book of Mormon. Along similar lines, the Sermon on the Mount which is fully copied into the Book of Mormon was later "corrected" by Joseph Smith in the JST, thus leaving alleged errors from Matthew in the Book of Mormon, as well.
LDS sources mentioned:
Manual for Individuals and Families (under section Ideas for Personal Scripture Study)
The Light of Christ (Boyd K. Packer)
Two Lines of Communication (Dallin H. Oaks)
Resources:
Pastor Brendon's recent sermon on Matthew 2: The Wise Will Worship
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek
American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time by Joshua Mitchell
The Person of Jesus by J. Gresham Machen
Confessions by Augustine
Podcasts: The Visit of the Magi, and The Exodus of the Son of God
Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey (also: here, here, here, and here)
Sermons: Simeon's Gift and Hopes and Fears
Documentary: Fragments of Truth
For a visual presentation of an example of the trustworthiness of a key part of Isaiah, see 22:07-25:14 of this. (Jason Wallace)
A few good articles here, here, and here.
Scribes and Scripture by John Meade and Peter Gurry
Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, edited by Elijah Hixson and Peter Gurry
On the general issue of historical reliability: here, here, here, here and here - and on Matthew's citations: here.
Contrary to some voices out there, Matthew is (itself) a historical source of the killing of the innocents in Bethlehem. Even within his own family, King Herod killed his own brother-in-law, mother-in-law, his "favorite" wife and three of his own sons based on (real or imagined) threats to his own power. This reportedly became even a joke in Rome when Augustus quipped that he would rather be Herod's pig than his son. Quoting scholar R.T. France - these events do, in fact, "fit in general terms into our knowledge of the history of the period...[T]he nature of the events (Herod's ruthless and paranoid defense of his throne and the attraction of Egypt as a place of political asylum) fits well with what we know of the period."
