Canon

Should We Credit Luther for the Apocrypha?

By Mormon Heretic March 26, 2011 14 Comments

There are many Christian stories not contained in the Bible.  For example, I have reviewed the First Infancy Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of the Birth of Mary, and the Gospel of Judas (to name a few).  These writings are referred to as apocryphal writings.  Some Christians have referred to the Book of Mormon as […]

A Letter Written by Jesus

By Mormon Heretic December 19, 2010 8 Comments

No writings have ever been attributed to Jesus in the Bible.  However, there is an ancient manuscript that claims to be letters written between Abgarus, King of Edessa, and Jesus.  It’s a very short “book”, so I will quote it entirely.  But first, here’s a bit of background.  The official name of the document is […]

Stories about Jesus’ Childhood

By Mormon Heretic December 12, 2010 7 Comments

Ever wondered what kind of a child Jesus was?  Well, The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ tells us that Jesus was part healer, part genius, part brat.  It starts out with some interesting stories about happened to the holy family in Egypt (following Herod’s edict to kill all boys age 2 and under), […]

The Untold Story of Joseph and Mary

By Mormon Heretic December 5, 2010 16 Comments

The biblical account of the interactions between Joseph and Mary is very small.  To me, it almost makes Joseph and Mary appear 2-dimensional, and I never feel like I know them very well.  When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant before their wedding, we know that he considered cancelling the betrothal.  An angel intervened, and […]

Gospel of the Birth of Mary

By Mormon Heretic November 27, 2010 19 Comments

A few months ago, I picked up a book called Lost Books of the Bible by William Hone on the clearance rack at Barnes and Noble.  It is one of the coolest books I have ever picked up.  There are 26 ancient books included in the compilation, dating to the earliest centuries after Christ.  These […]

Women with the Priesthood in Ancient Christianity

By Mormon Heretic October 19, 2010 18 Comments

I attended Sunstone back in August.  Bridget Jack Jeffries (who runs a blog called Clobberblog), gave a fascinating presentation on female priesthood holders in the ancient Christian church.  Bridget is a “never Mormon” that attended BYU, graduating in 2005.  She “seduced” (her words, not mine) and married a BYU priesthood holder while there, and she is […]

Religious Archaeology and Evidence

By Mormon Heretic June 24, 2010 36 Comments

I don’t ever think I’ve done 2 posts in one day before, but I want to address this other issue that we have been discussing in the Strangite post.  I’d like to discuss both Biblical and Book of Mormon archaeology.  Most people believe the Bible is on solid archaeological footing, but that isn’t actually true. […]

Top 24 Book of Mormon Stories

By Mormon Heretic February 7, 2010 13 Comments

We have a Childrens Bible that my children love.  It has 25 Bible stories: David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion’s den, Abraham, Joseph, etc.  I asked my children about some Book of Mormon stories such as Ammon and the sheep, Nephi’s boat, and realized that my children weren’t familiar with these stories.  So, I […]

Did Moses Copy Hammurabi’s 10 Commandments?

By Mormon Heretic August 22, 2009 34 Comments

A friend of mine let me know about this news item at Signature Books.  Apparently, one of their authors (David Wright) has a new book published by Oxford University Press.  For those of you who don’t know, Oxford is known as a pretty tough place to publish.  They have pretty high scholarly standards, so getting […]

The Documentary Hypothesis

By Mormon Heretic July 19, 2009 82 Comments

The 8th Article of Faith for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints states: 8 We believe the aBible to be the bword of God as far as it is translated ccorrectly; This has to be one of the most oft-quoted articles of faith by members of the LDS church.  In one of my […]