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That is a good point. Josephus’s account of the Herod Antipas household differs quite a bit from the gospel writers’ narrative. I do note on page 16 of this article the point you make about the origin of the name Salome.
Alan,
I always enjoy reading your thoughtful scholarship. Will we see these essays in book-form someday?
I have submitted all five of the chapters with an introduction and conclusion to a book publisher for publication. I would like to see the collected material in book form for the Book of Mormon curriculum turn in 2024. Thank you for your positive comments.
Would it be possible for archetypes to be created and understood by the sons of Lehi without harkening back to the Israelite scriptures and traditions? Could they have created their own archetypes? Also, and I may have missed this in one of your papers, would a reader need to beware about reading archetypes into simple parallels? I am a layman that enjoys reading the Book of Mormon and worry that I have a tendency of making too much of things that I see.
For instance I see the account of Nephi in Helaman 8 as a parallel story to what happened to Alma & Amulek in Alma 8-16. In essence a failed mission drives towards a confrontation between a prophet and the antagonistic lawyers & judges. Those lawyers & judges charge the prophet with reviling against the law and proclaiming the destruction of the people, which then seems to foreshadow the spiritual showdown of power between the prophet and those combatting against the gospel’s progress. This, in turn, seems to point me to Lehi and his confrontation with the Jews in Jerusalem as well as the Lord’s confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees. Am I making too much of my reading of those scriptures?
I enjoy your articles and look forward to your book when it’s available.
I find repetitions of earlier Nephite narratives in later parts of the book. The promises made to the fathers to possess the land and prosper owes much to similar promises in Deuteronomy are repeated throughout the text. Various narratives have prophets with divinely illuminated faces. Prophets disappear, like Moses, either dying or being taken up by God. So, yes, the Nephites inherit the typological worldview from the biblical heritage. The Nephites also develop some cultural features indigenous to their own experience and history, but they maintain the biblical view of history. Those are all observations for another book, though. I treat the preaching of Alma and Amulek at Ammonihah in an upcoming article already submitted to Interpreter, called “Deciphering God’s Graffiti.” I connect that story of Amulek’s ancestry to the biblical Joseph (sold into Egypt), Esther, and Daniel interpreting the writing on the wall. The Book of Mormon writers expect their readers to catch the allusions to other earlier biblical and Nephite narratives.
Good article, but I would point out that there the Bible never names the daughter of Herodias who danced before Herod. Josephus tell us that Herodias did have a daughter named Salome, but she may well have had other daughters as well.
I regard it as probable, but far from certain that the dancer in question was Salome.