On January 31, 2020, Pearl of Great Price Central published its fortieth Insight related to the Book of Abraham. The publication of Book of Abraham Insight #40 ( “The Relationship Between the Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri” ) marks the culmination of an initial run of articles exploring the Book of Abraham from textual, historical, narrative, linguistic, and doctrinal perspectives...

When Lehi embarked on his journey around 600 B.C., little did he know that millions of people would read and wonder about his story thousands of years later. While there is still much to learn about the people and stories in the Book of Mormon, some of the best archaeological evidence to support the Book of Mormon comes from Lehi’s journey to the promised land. Seven notable locations are...

On Wednesday, January 15, 2020, Royal Skousen will be presenting a lecture on the history of the text of the Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University. Royal Skousen is a professor of Linguistics at Brigham Young University and has spent years studying the text of the Book of Mormon to look for variants and textual patterns. This lecture will particularly explore the King James Quotations in the...

At the turn of the new year, the BYU Studies Quarterly officially removed its paywall, making all its content available free immediately upon publication. This is a blessing to those Latter-day Saints studying 1 Nephi 1–7 right now for their Come Follow Me study. The latest issue—which would normally be behind a paywall for non-subscribers—includes an excellent article by Warren Aston,...

Watch New Book of Abraham Video Cross-posted from Pearl of Great Price Central. Published serially from 1 March 1842 to 16 May 1842 and canonized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 10 October 1880, the Book of Abraham has been valued by Latter-day Saints for its important teachings on the nature of the Abrahamic covenant, the pre-mortal existence of humanity, the...

Last week Pearl of Great Price Central published a Book of Abraham Insight that explores the very real probability that the word Shinehah in the Book of Abraham is attested in ancient Egyptian texts from Abraham’s day. According to the opening paragraph of the Insight: One of the astronomical terms defined in the Book of Abraham is Shinehah, which is said to be the sun ( Abraham 3:13 )...

While the majority of the events described in the Book of Mormon took place in the Americas, the opening chapters are set in the ancient Near East. They tell of a prophet named Lehi, who, with his family and others, fled from Jerusalem. After traveling for years through a harsh wilderness, they reached a lush coastal region where they set sail across the ocean. Fortunately, the prophetic author...

New evidence for the Book of Mormon name Sariah ( 1 Nephi 2:5 ) was published today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship . In the paper “Revisiting ‘Sariah’ at Elephantine,” Neal Rappleye, a research project manager here at Book of Mormon Central, explains that scholars have identified a Jewish woman named ŚRYH, which can be translated as ...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently released a Gospel Topics essay which reiterates the Church’s neutrality on the subject of Book of Mormon geography. “The Church takes no position on the specific geographic location of Book of Mormon events in the ancient Americas,” the essay reads. “Church members are asked not to teach theories about Book of Mormon geography in Church...

Nephi says he wrote using “the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians” (1 Nephi 1:2). This idea was disputed almost the moment the Book of Mormon came off the press. In 1831, one critic wrote: “The plates were inscribed in the language of the Egyptians …. As Nephi was a descendant from Joseph, probably Smith would have us understand, that the Egyptian language was retained in the...