Book sale. 30% off.

I know you’ve all be waiting to buy my book on D&C 132 because you believe there will be some kind of excellent holiday deal. Well, you’re correct. If you order the book on December 1 or December 6, you’ll get 30% off. You have to buy it from http://www.gregkofford.com to get the deal. If you feel like giving it to your friends (or perhaps even enemies) too, you can pull off free shipping. Here’s the link:
https://gregkofford.com/…/p…/textual-studies-plural-marriage

Remember, the deal is only good on those two days. If you’re interested in an ebook instead, stay tuned for a sale on December 12.

New Joseph Smith Papers Bulletin

Latest from the Joseph Smith Papers here:

https://mailchi.mp/ldschurch/book-of-abraham-volume-now-available?e=e07d0d0a1f

Book of Abraham Manuscripts. Revelations and Translations Vol. 4 of the Joseph Smith Papers on the shelf.

[Cross-posted at By Common Consent]

A permanent identical “I” is a fiction—we are not what we believe ourselves to be—the truth is very different from what we are inclined to believe —-Derek Parfit [1]

The Book of Abraham has been both a puzzle and a sort of definition of ultimate reality. At least one such definition. The text of the book arises out of a milieu where many believed that Egypt like the Hebrew language (what many at the time thought of as a near descendant of the tongue of Eden) held answers to ultimate mysteries of self and time and being. Even though few Americans at least had any real notion of what things like hieroglyphics meant. When Michael Chandler brought his traveling mummy show to Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph Smith and a number of his friends saw deep value hidden in the artifacts and purchased them for a handsome sum even though they were already submerged in an expensive and daunting temple building project. In fits and starts through the last half of the year 1835 they (Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, William Phelps, and Warren Parrish) worked to construct some kind of logic that made sense of ancient writings found in the collection. These scrolls date from roughly the period of the book of Daniel (ca. 200 BCE) to the time of Christ (that is, the second temple period).