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BYU Studies

BYU Studies publishes scholarship informed by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Contributions from all disciplines.

BYU Studies publishes scholarship that is informed by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Submissions are invited from all scholars who seek truth “by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118), discern the harmony between revelation and research, value both academic and spiritual inquiry, and recognize that knowledge without charity is nothing (1 Cor. 13:2). BYU Studies Quarterly features learned per

spectives relevant to Latter-day Saints. We also publish personal essays, short studies, poetry, art, and significant historical documents. Comments are moderated and will remain posted if they are on topic, use clean language, and show respect for others. Please note that comments that are profane, crude, insensitive, off topic, or contain personal attacks will be removed. BYU Studies also reserves the right to remove comments that contain commercial solicitations.

07/05/2025

Happy Independence Day!
From “The Book of Mormon and the American Revolution” by Richard Lyman Bushman.

06/19/2025

Happy Juneteenth! To learn more about Len and Mary Hope, read the full article, “Recorded in Heaven: The Testimonies of Len and Mary Hope” by Scott Hales on our website!

https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/recorded-in-heaven

05/19/2025

There are generally two kinds of feelings that trigger rigorous thinking—the sense that something is wrong, and the sense of wonder. Wonder can be described as “a feeling that the marvelous mystery of what is cries out for devoted reflection.”

In the Book of Mosiah, King Mosiah reads sacred records to his people. In response to these records, the people are “struck with wonder and amazement.” It is possible that Mormon, acting as a both a prophet of God and a literary architect, included this scene to act as a mis en abyme.

Mis en abyme is a French name for the “inclusion, within a work of art, of smaller version of the same larger work of art.” This could be something as obvious as a picture of a gallery that includes a smaller picture of the very picture you are looking at. Alternatively, a more subtle form of a mis en abyme could be a novel about a struggling novelist.

By including a mis en abyme in the Book of Mormon, Mormon may have been encouraging us, as readers, to reflect on our own response to scripture. Do we, like the people of Mosiah, treat sacred scripture with "wonder or amazement?”

From “Struck With Wonder and Amazement”: On Reading the Book of Mosiah by Joseph M. Spencer.

How do you react to the scriptures? How did Mormon hope we would react to the
scriptures? Read the full article by Joseph M. Spencer (.spencer.961) on our
website!

05/05/2025

In literature, situational translation occurs when the reader enters the world they
are reading about and comes back to their own reality inspired to change it. In the context of scripture, as we read, we are “translated into the word of God, [and] we can [then] translate that word into our world. In short, we can open the book, enter the page, and come back different.”

Nephi informed us that scriptures are intended for our profit, learning and joy. We access all these blessings of scripture as we liken them to ourselves through situational translation. Rather than simply reading the scriptures, we can enter them, experience their imagery, and “identify with [their]...transformative intent.”

The experience we have with scriptures is the very thing that makes them
scripture. In fact, the word ‘scripture’ implies a relationship. “This relationship is one of speaker and hearer, of writer and reader, or reader and person being read.” Without bothparties participating in this relationship, scripture ceases to exist.

Thus, when we continue to study scripture with wonder and purpose, we “help it ‘retain its brightness’ by polishing it with practice. For the wonder is scripture, and we are its witnesses."

From "The Wonder is Scripture" by Jared Halverson.

Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

05/01/2025

Seam Allowance

Sarah Hafen d’Evegnée

“I think I might be stealing. A two-bit Gen-X criminal in leggings and Birkenstocks. I’m making off with nearly every dress shirt and some of his jeans...I only pause when I see the navy gingham shirt. ‘Wow! That shirt looks so good on you!’ I had bubbled, noting the way the compliment both pained and pleased him...he wore the shirt more often after that.”

“There’s a long list of grievances I would like to share with my father-in-law...I want to be angry at him for not being a better father, but what good will it do to be angry at someone who is an exceptional grandfather to my children?”

“I don’t have to fabricate any of the ways he made my children feel loved...he made himself a near and present presence in my children’s lives. He never forgot a birthday or an interest or a hobby...good grandparenting should probably qualify as some kind of repentance for bad parenting.”

“So I help myself to his shirts. I take apart one thing and make it into something else. I reconstruct practical, lived-in shirts of the past and make them into a present-day comforter...once the quilt is finished, I find a box to mail it to our missionary daughter.”

When she opens it over facetime on Christmas morning, “we’re both...crying, sharing nearly identical smiles. But the slight gap between her front teeth comes from her grandpa.”

From “Seam Allowance” by Sarah Hafen d’Evegnee

04/29/2025

Alma 32:33 teaches that “[God] imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also”. To some people, this may seem to be at odds with the fact that overall, the Book of Mormon does not seem to place a focus on women. Many of these concerns come from the lack of female representation and the frequent use of masculine-focused language in the Book of Mormon.

The critique of the Book of Mormon primarily using masculine-focused language (man, men, mankind, brethren, etc.) is not unfounded, but comes from a modern interpretation of those words. Perhaps this text is not as exclusionary as it may seem.

Focusing on Alma the Younger and his sermons, he addresses his people as “brethren” and only specifically acknowledges women 5 times. To modern-day readers, this seems to clearly be exclusionary to women. While today, we may be accustomed to “brothers and sisters” or “people” to encompass a mixed audience, 200 years ago the term “brethren” was used and understood to apply to both men and women in certain situations.

Additionally, using the word “brethren” carries a more personal tone than “people”. In Mosiah 29 when King Mosiah is issuing a proclamation to his subjects, he begins by saying “Behold, O ye my people, or my brethren, for I esteem you as such”, here “brethren” is used to esteem his subjects and is not excluding anyone from the group he had just called his “people”.

Like with King Mosiah, in these chapters “my people” as a way to refer to a group of individuals is used for kings and their subjects, so it connotes rulership and superiority. Alma himself never calls his audience his “people”, and opts to call them his “brethren”, likely to communicate that they are equals as he renounced his chief judgeship.

When there is no possessive pronoun before “people” in these chapters, it is almost exclusively referring to the people being talked about, not the people being talked to. So again, “brethren” implies a closeness and familiarity that “people” does not.

With this understanding, we see that the Book of Mormon is more inclusive of women than it may appear at first. In addition to specific references and addresses to women, many words which we would understand today to be exclusionary actually refer to all people. So perhaps the exclusion comes from our interpretation rather than the text itself.

From Not Only Men but For Women Also: An Argument for Alma’s International Inclusion of Women by Cassidy Nichole Pyper.

Cassidy Nichole Pyper’s Not Only Men but Women Also: An Argument for Alma’s International Inclusion of Women explores possible ways to reframe and understand the seemingly gender-exclusionary language in the Book of Mormon as inclusive. Read the full article on our website.

04/25/2025

11:1- “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Of this verse, President Dieter F. Utchdorf taught that “Hope comes of faith, for without faith, there is no hope. In like manner faith comes of hope, for faith is ‘the substance of things hoped for.’”

On a later occasion, President Utchdorf quoted the New International Version of this verse, stating that “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Thus, rather than simply using this verse to define faith, President Utchdorf points to this verse to illustrate that hope and faith are closely connected.

From Epistle to the Hebrews: BYU New Testament Commentary Series by Richard D. Draper and Michael D. Rhodes

The New Testament Commentary series published by BYU Studies is designed to support Latter-Day Saints in their New Testament study. Learn more on our website.

https://byustudies.byu.edu/byu-new-testament-commentary

04/20/2025

Mark 16: 1-7
“2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
4 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away; for it was very great.
5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in long white garment; and they were affrighted.
6 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
7 But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.”

In verse 7, Peter is mentioned separately from the disciples, suggesting that he is distanced from them by his denial of Jesus. However, the words of the young man suggest that Peter “is invited to return to the way by following Jesus...he is given the opportunity to return to full fellowship.”

From The Gospel According to Mark: BYU New Testament Commentary Series by Julie M. Smith.

04/19/2025

Mark 15: 44-47
“44 An Pilate marvelled if he were already dead; and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.”

Throughout his account of Christ’s crucifixion, Mark emphasizes the witnessing function of women. The women not only watch Jesus on the cross, but also follow to ensure that His body is entombed, unlike the bodies of most crucifixion victims. Thus, “’The women have done [what]...the males in the community found impossible...they continued to follow Jesus even after he was arrested and executed.’”

From The Gospel According to Mark: BYU New Testament Commentary Series by Julie M. Smith.

04/18/2025

Mark 15: 34-39
“34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
35 And some of them stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
36 And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Christ’s question to God in verse 34 references Psalm in 22:1, and reflect a sincere feeling of abandonment. However, these words may also anticipate future vindication by referencing Psalm 22, a chapter that begins with abandonment but ends with reconciliation.

From The Gospel According to Mark: BYU New Testament Commentary Series by Julie M. Smith.

04/17/2025

Mark 14: 34-36
“34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.
35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”

As Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane, he instructs Peter, James, and John to tarry and watch (verse 34). There are several possible explanations for why Jesus may have instructed his disciples to watch. Perhaps, had the disciples been awake and watching, they might have protected Jesus from being arrested. Thus, “their sleeping becomes a symbol of their weakness...it is human weakness that causes Jesus’ death.”

From The Gospel According to Mark: BYU New Testament Commentary Series by Julie M. Smith.

04/16/2025

Mark 14: 3-8
“3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the l***r, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.
4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me.
7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.”

Verse three places this story in the home of “Simon the l***r;” however, this is the only mention made of him. At this time, l***rs were “regarded as the equivalent of dead.” Thus, Jesus’ words in this story regarding his burial take on a new dimension as he says them in the figurative realm of the dead.

Further, the lack of clarity provided by Mark as to whether Simon has died or has been healed of his leprosy emphasizes how death and life intertwine through Christ’s Atonement.

From The Gospel According to Mark: BYU New Testament Commentary Series by Julie M. Smith.

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