Book of Moses Essay #45 Moses 1 With contribution of Mark J. Johnson This Essay examines the ancient literary form of chiasmus within Moses 1. Chiasmus includes “several types of inverted parallelisms, short or long, in which words first appear in one order and then in the opposite order.”1 In

Book of Moses Essay #44 Moses 1 With contribution by Mark J. Johnson This Essay continues our look at the literary features of Moses 1. Since Moses 1 leads directly into the narrative flow of JST Genesis, it is natural that it should share stylistic and literary features of the

Book of Moses Essay #43 Moses 1:25-26 With contribution by Matthew L. Bowen and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw In the immediately preceding set of Essays,1  we focused on the narrative of Moses 1 and its interpretation. However, beginning with this Essay, we will turn our attention to some of the beautiful

Book of Moses Essay #42 Moses 1:1–7, 35, 40–42 With contribution by Matthew L. Bowen and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Moses 1 constitutes a self-contained literary unit and prologue1  to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, demarcated by an inclusio.2  The Latin word inclusio (literally, an “inclosing” or “closing-in”) serves

Book of Moses Essay #41 Moses 1:31, chapters 2-4 With contribution by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, David J. Larsen, and Stephen T. Whitlock In this Essay, we will discuss how Moses and Abraham speak with the Lord, and how both are given a vision of the Creation, the

Book of Moses Essay #40 Moses 1:27-30 With contribution from Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, David J. Larsen, and Stephen T. Whitlock Having traversed the veil, Moses and Abraham experience a comprehensive vision of the earth and its mortal inhabitants through the ages. In both texts, this raises questions

Book of Moses Essay #39 Moses 1:25 With contribution by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Matthew L. Bowen, David J. Larsen, and Stephen T. Whitlock Temple Names as Signposts on the Covenant Pathway The use of temple names as signposts on the covenant pathway is ancient. It is reflected in the second-century

Book of Moses Essay #38 Moses 1:25-27 With contribution by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David J. Larsen, and Stephen T. Whitlock In light of our cultural and conceptual distance from the milieu of Moses 1, we are fortunate that imperfect documents from antiquity like the Apocalypse of Abraham (ApAb) may nevertheless