The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

Abstract: Here I address specific criticisms of Margaret Barker’s work. First, I set the stage by discussing Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as a map and compass for navigating this kind of controversy. I show how his observations cast light on debates about Jesus in the Gospel of John, which in turn resemble present debates. In this context, I then consider some notable criticisms of Barker’s work as “not mainstream” and consider an instructive appreciation of Barker by Father John McDade in his “Life of Jesus Research.” I then respond in detail to a recent BYU Studies essay that was critical of Barker’s work.

But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. (Luke 5:38–39)

By p[r]oving contrarieties, truth is made manifest. — Joseph Smith1

A 2012 interviewer asked Margaret Barker, “What do [you] say to independent scholars?” In reply, she wrote:

First, read Thomas S. Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, first published 50 years ago, and see how changes come about. Although written about a world very different [Page 32]from biblical studies, it shows how establishments resist changes until in the end the next generation [us!] forces a paradigm shift. The current paradigm is going towards a non-faith-based study, which has no future. By this I do not mean simply that the study is not faith-based; it is based on non-faith, and so criticism does not mean close study; it so often means destructive study. New paradigms emerge from those aware of the crisis, who recognize that the situation is not likely to be remedied by the methods that caused it.2

Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a careful study of how and why the background frameworks in which science is done changes, for example when going from the earth-centered Ptolemaic astronomy to the sun-centered Copernican astronomy. Kuhn has observed that in science “novelty ordinarily emerges only for the man who, knowing with precision what he should expect, is able to recognize that something has gone wrong. Anomaly appears only against the background provided by the paradigm.”3

While some readers may wish to ignore Kuhn and simply jump into a discussion of Barker and her critics, I have found Kuhn as an essential way to follow the advice of Jesus to first “cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). We ought not start out by supposing we have no beams in our eye to remove, that we could never see more clearly than we do now. A person who is not conscious of the existence and implications of their own paradigm cannot be self-critical of that paradigm but will be unconsciously subject to it for good or ill. A good example of that is the father of the scientific method, Bacon himself:

Bacon, the philosopher of science, was, quite consistently, an enemy of the Copernican hypothesis. Don’t theorize, he said, but open your eyes and observe without prejudice,

This panel, comprised of five Latter-day Saint scholars in the Life Sciences (Emily Bates, R. Paul Evans, Steven L. Peck, Michael R. Stark, and Trent D. Stephens), provides personal perspectives on the development of their ideas and their affinities for their professional work. Following these perspectives, they answer a pot pourri of audience questions.

Presented at:

2013 Interpreter Symposium on Science & Mormonism: Cosmos, Earth & ManSaturday, November 9, 2013https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2013-symposium-science-mormonism-cosmos-earth-man/

Article Reprint:

Life Sciences Panel, The Interpreter Foundation, February 17, 2020https://interpreterfoundation.org/reprint-sm1-17-life-sciences-panel/

Conference Proceedings:

Cosmos, Earth, and Man at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/science-and-mormonism-cosmos-earth-and-man/

Listen to an audio recording of this talk:

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In this episode, our hosts are Martin Tanner, Terry Hutchinson, and John Gee, discussing controversies around the Book of Abraham. You can listen to or download the January 29th broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. These audio tracks are also included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast).

The “New Testament in Context” portion of this show, for Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 9, covering Matthew 6–7, will be posted on Tuesday, February 14.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Call in to 801-254-1640 with your questions and comments during the live show.

Original air date: January 29, 2023. This recording has been edited to remove commercial breaks.

Restoration Advocacy: Controversies around the Book of Abraham

The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

 

 

In this episode, our hosts Steve Densley, Mark Johnson, and Dan Peterson discuss the Six Days in August film project, Dan’s recent article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and Joseph Smith’s First Vision. You can listen to or download the January 22th broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. These audio tracks will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast):

The “New Testament in Context” portion of this show, for Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 8, covering the first portion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, will be posted on Tuesday, February 7.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Call in to 801-254-1640 with your questions and comments during the live show.

Original air date: January 22, 2023. These recording have been edited to remove commercial breaks.

General Discussion: The Six Days in August film project, and Dan’s recent article “”Beautiful Patience”

Restoration Advocacy: Joseph Smith’s First Vision

The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

 

 

In this episode, our hosts Steve Densley, Mark Johnson, and Dan Peterson discuss the Six Days in August film project, Dan’s recent article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and Joseph Smith’s First Vision. You can listen to or download the January 22th broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. These audio tracks will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast):

The “New Testament in Context” portion of this show, for Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 8, covering the first portion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, will be posted on Tuesday, February 7.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Call in to 801-254-1640 with your questions and comments during the live show.

Original air date: January 22, 2023. These recording have been edited to remove commercial breaks.

General Discussion: The Six Days in August film project, and Dan’s recent article “”Beautiful Patience”

Restoration Advocacy: Joseph Smith’s First Vision

The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

 

 

In this episode, our hosts Steve Densley, Mark Johnson, and Dan Peterson discuss the Six Days in August film project, Dan’s recent article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and Joseph Smith’s First Vision. You can listen to or download the January 22th broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. These audio tracks will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast):

The “New Testament in Context” portion of this show, for Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 8, covering the first portion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, will be posted on Tuesday, February 7.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Call in to 801-254-1640 with your questions and comments during the live show.

Original air date: January 22, 2023. These recording have been edited to remove commercial breaks.

General Discussion: The Six Days in August film project, and Dan’s recent article “”Beautiful Patience”

Restoration Advocacy: Joseph Smith’s First Vision

The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

 

 

In the January 15 Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Radio Show, our hosts Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Martin Tanner discuss New Testament lesson 7 covering John 2–4, “Ye Must Be Born Again”.

You can listen to or download the New Testament in Context segment of the January 15 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. It will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). The other segments of the January 15 radio show can be accessed at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-january-15-2023.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Call in to 801-254-1640 with your questions and comments during the live show.

 

Original air date: January 15, 2023. This recording has been edited to remove commercial breaks.

The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.

 

Abstract: The Book of Mormon begins at a pivotal point in Israelite history and in the history of the ancient Near East more broadly. With the fall of Assyria and the power vacuum that grew out of Assyria’s demise, questions of sovereignty were of paramount concern. It was at that time that Lehi led his family into the wilderness after witnessing the impending destruction of Jerusalem in vision. Nephi, “desir[ing] to know the things that his father had seen” (1 Nephi 11:1), describes his own vision, where he saw the coming of the “Son of God” (1 Nephi 11:7), the destruction of his own people, and the “formation of a great church” (1 Nephi 13:4) that would “destroy the saints of God” (1 Nephi 13:9). These elements, along with others in Nephi’s vision, seem to reflect the underlying insecurity of the time concerning divinely appointed sovereignty and the right to rule. Because of the deeply personal nature of Nephi’s vision and its pressing relevance, we might expect it to contain elements that represent the cultural and social realities of his time. When we approach Nephi’s vision in this way, surprising parallels can be found between the “great church” of his vision and the Assyrian Empire. These parallels help provide a new context for viewing Nephi’s vision that can heighten our awareness of the loving kindness the “Son of God” displays as the universal sovereign.

For centuries, the recording and transmission of Assyria’s ideology played an important part in maintaining Assyria’s dominance in the ancient Near East. This has led many scholars such as Lawson Younger to assert that the history of Israel and Judah1 “is inextricably bound to the history of Assyria … and is profitably analysed in this light.”2 Prior to the Babylonian exile, Biblical writers often used the Assyrian Empire as the dominant foil when crafting their records.3 Shawn Aster points out that Isaiah uses a “sort of ‘replacement theology’ in which [Page 2]the universal sovereignty of YHWH is imagined and described based on Assyrian claims of universal dominion.” Aster further claims that there is a “consistent use of Neo-Assyrian4 royal motifs throughout [Isaiah,] … motifs which are borrowed, subverted, and adapted to fit the prophet’s message.”

Steven Peck, a BYU Professor of Biology, takes it as “axiomatic that evolution in its broad sense is the way the biological world works, although details are still being worked out and amazing discoveries will continue for centuries.” Using vivid examples, he explains both the compelling nature and the complexity of evolution. He also describes the weak science behind what is popularly called the “Intelligent Design” movement. However, “evolution does not negate by one iota the idea of a purposeful universe that was organized by a loving, intelligent God.”

Presented at:

2013 Interpreter Symposium on Science & Mormonism: Cosmos, Earth & ManSaturday, November 9, 2013https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2013-symposium-science-mormonism-cosmos-earth-man/

Article Reprint:

Understanding Evolution: An LDS Scientific Perspective, The Interpreter Foundation, January 20, 2020https://interpreterfoundation.org/reprint-sm1-13-understanding-evolution-an-lds-scientific-perspective/

Conference Proceedings:

Cosmos, Earth, and Man at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/science-and-mormonism-cosmos-earth-and-man/

Listen to an audio recording of this talk:

Download PDF

  Download audio recording

 

 

In the January 8 Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Radio Show, our hosts Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen discuss New Testament lesson 6 covering Matthew 4 and Luke 4–5, “The Spirit of the Lord Is upon Me.”

You can listen to or download the New Testament in Context segment of the January 8 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show below. It will also be included in our podcast feed (https://interpreterfoundation.org/feeds/podcast). The other segments of the January 8 radio show can be accessed at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-january-8-2023.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Call in to 801-254-1640 with your questions and comments during the live show.

 

Original air date: January 8, 2023. This recording has been edited to remove commercial breaks.

The Interpreter Radio Show is a weekly discussion of matters of interest to the hosts, guests, and callers of the show. The views expressed on the Interpreter Radio Show are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Interpreter Foundation, nor should statements made on the show be construed as official doctrinal statements of the Church.