Scriptural Mormonism

Thursday, January 9, 2025

M. Russell Ballard on the Importance of Receiving Answers to Questions, Not Relying Upon Testimony and Spiritual Experiences Merely

Ten days later he returned to my office, and I was ready. I pulled out my papers to start answering his questions, but he stopped me.

"President," he said, "that isn't going to be necessary." Then, with tears in his eyes, he explained, "I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God."

I said, "That's wonderful news, Elder, but you're going to get answers to your questions anyway. I worked a long time on this, so you just sit here and listen." (M. Russell Ballard, "That We Might Know," BYU-Hawaii Devotional, January 25, 2001)

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When Travis Anderson Embarrassed Daniel Ortner

Taking some time out of spiritual child abuse with his wife, Daniel Ortner recently made a “Potshot” against Travis Anderson:

To see why Ortner is butt hurt, Travis destroyed him a while ago:

Daniel Ortner, Tim Jackson join a debacle.

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Origen on the two meaning of "to be without sin" in Scripture

“To be without sin” has two meanings in Scripture. One is never to have sinned at all; the other is to have ceased sinning. If they say that the phrase “to be without sin” describes someone who has never sinned at all, then we agree that no one is without sin. All of us have sinned at some time, even though we might have become virtuous afterwards. But, if they take the phrase “no one is without sin” as denying that anyone, after he has sinned, can return to the practice of virtues and never sin again, then their opinion is wrong. For, it can happen that someone who has previously sinned can stop sinning and be said to be “without sin.” (Origen, Homily 2 on the Gospel of Luke, in Homilies on Luke and Fragments on Luke, ed. Thomas P. Halton [trans. Joseph T. Lienhard; The Fathers of the Church 94; The Catholic University of America Press, 2009], 10)

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TDOT on Psalm 110:3 (LXX: 109:3)

The text of Ps. 110:3 is undoubtedly corrupt and requires emendation. Here we shall discuss the reference to dew. The passage in question can be read: mēreḥem šaḥar lēḵ k^eṭal y^eliḏtîḵā, “go forth from the womb of the dawn, I have given birth to you like the dew.” This statement is addressed to the king of Judah, probably at his enthronement and speaks of his birth—understood from the perspective of cultic ideology—in mythological language. The question is how the king, the dew, and the dawn are related. Widengren makes a radical proposal: the royal ceremony reflected in Ps. 110 dates from the Canaanite period of Jerusalem. Citing the Ugaritic text SS, he interprets v. 3 as follows: in KTU, 1.23, El begets the two deities Šaḥar and Šalem; the former (fem. according to Widengren) can be identified with the dawn, the latter with sunset and also with El Elyon of Jerusalem. Thus the Jerusalem king was thought of as the child of these two divine figures and himself identified with the dew (Widengren translates: “From the womb of the dawn, as dew I have begotten you”). Bentzen has a different interpretation of the prepositional phrase: “On holy mountains I have begotten him, from the womb, before the morning star and the dew.” It is probably best to take k^eṭal as nothing more than a simile, so that in its original (“Canaanite”) form the passage means that the Jerusalem king is the child of El and Šaḥar, just as the dew is the daughter of Baʿal (and the dawn Šaḥar?). In the royal cult of Israel and in Ps. 110, these mythological notions are quite veiled (although Isa. 14:12 can be very direct in saying much the same thing about the Babylonian king).

The names of two Judahite queens, Abital and Hamutal (cf. the masc. name yhwṭl), may contain the element ṭal, “dew.” Usually, however, they are taken as aramaizing forms (ṭl = ṣl, “shadow”). (Benedikt Otzen, “טַל,” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, 17 vols. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1986], 5: 329-30)

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TDOT on Isaiah 40:21

The text of Isa. 40:21 (môs^eḏôṯ hāʾāreṣ) is undoubtedly corrupt (mērōʾš as a parallel term; ʾereṣ with an article; môs^eḏôṯ used in a concrete sense). The emendation miyy^esuḏaṯ or mîsuḏaṯ hāʾāreṣ is often proposed, but runs against the familiar metonymous usage of y^esûḏâ/y^esôḏôṯ. A possible reading is (h^alōʾ h^aḇînōṯem) mimmûsaḏ hāʾāreṣ, “from the foundation of the earth,” assuming haplography of one of the three adjacent mems and assimilation of mûsāḏ, read as môsāḏ, to the otherwise common plural.(R. Mosis, “יָסַד,” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, 17 vols. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990], 6:114.)

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Matthew being called κεχαριτωμενον in “Martyrium Matthaei”

Source: “Martyrium Matthaei,” in Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, ed. Maximilianus Bonnet, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Apud Hermannum Mendelssohn, 1898): 2:218

Είρήνη σοι Ματθαϊε. Χάρις σοι καί είρήνη ώ παιδίον κεχαριτωμένον· καί τί ώδε έλήλυθας έπ' εμοί, καταλιπών τούς ψάλλοντας έν τώ παρα- δείσω καί τήν έκεϊ τρυφήν; ότι όδε ό τόπος έρημός έστιν, καί δποίαν παραθήσω σοι τράπεζαν ώ παιδίον άγνοω, ότι άρτος ούκ έστιν μοι οΐτε έν άγγείω έλαιον, καί άνεμοι ήσυχάζουσιν καταβαλεϊν έκ των δένδρων τι έπί τήν γήν είς τροφήν· ότι μόνον είς συμπλήρωσιν της νηστείας μου τών τεσσαράκοντα ήμερών τη κινήσει τών άνέμων των πιπτόντων | καρπών μετα- λαμβάνων δοξάζω μου τόν Ίησουν. νυν ούν τί προσενέγκω σοι παιδίον καλόν; άλλ' ούτε ύδωρ έγγύς ϊνα νίψω σου πόδας.

Peace be to you, Matthew. Grace and peace to you, O blessed child. And why have you come here to me, leaving those who sing in paradise and the delight there? For this place is desolate, and what kind of table shall I set for you, O child, who are pure and innocent? For I have neither bread nor oil in a jar, and the winds are quiet, not casting anything from the trees to the ground for food. For only to complete my fast of forty days do I partake of the fruits fallen by the movement of the winds, glorifying my Jesus. Now then, what shall I offer you, beautiful child? But neither is there water nearby to wash your feet.

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St. Anne (Mother of Mary) being called χαριτωνυμος by Tarasios of Constantinople (d. 806)

Source:

Tarasios of Constantinople, “Sermon in Memory of the Presentation of the Mother of God at the Temple” (PG 98:1488-9)

Η'. Ταϋτα καί τα τούτοις όμοια ή χαριτώνυμος Άννα λέξασα, τό της Τριάδος κειμήλιον, χαίρουσα τη σαρκί τριετίζουσαν τήν Παρθένον καl Θεοτόχον είς τόν ναδν Κυρίου προέπεμψε, καί σύν τψ Ίωα- κείμ ώδας εύχαριστηρίους άναπέμπουσα, καί δήμον τών παρθένων λαμπαδηφορούντα συγκαλεσαμένη, κατέλαβε τά τών άγίων "Άγια· καί τέν Ζαχαρίαν χαρμονικοίς χείλεσι, καί αγαλλιάσει στόματος, άτε προφήτην καί Ιερέα καί συγγενή και λειω τουργόν της νομικής διαθήκης, προσεκαλεΐτο ή τιμία ξυνωρίς των γεννητορων, βοωσα. Δεχου την σεμνην, τνη αμιαντον δεχου, ιερευ, την ακηλιδωτον πασταδα του Λογου . . .

After saying these things and others like them, the gracious Anna, rejoicing, entrusted the Virgin and Mother of God, who was three years old in the flesh, to the Lord’s temple as a treasure of the Trinity. Along with Joachim, she offered songs of thanksgiving and summoned a procession of maidens bearing lamps. Together, they reached the holy of holies. Zacharias, with joyous lips and exultation of mouth—as a prophet, priest, relative, and minister of the legal covenant—was called upon by the revered couple of parents, crying out: "Receive the sacred one, the pure one; receive, priest, the immaculate bridal chamber of the Word…"

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