2013 BYU Church History Symposium
Approaching Antiquity:
Joseph Smith's Study of the Ancient World
BYU CHURCH HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
March 7–8, 2013
Thursday, March 7 – Brigham Young University (Provo)
9:00-10:00 a.m. (HBLL Auditorium): Key Note Address
Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Welcome (10min)
Richard L. Bushman (History, Columbia University), "The Academic Study of Antiquity in Antebellum America" (45min)
10:15-11:45 (HBLL Auditorium): Scholars, Scripts, and Folklore of Antiquity
Andrew H. Hedges (LDS Church History Department), Moderator
Richard E. Bennett (Church History, BYU), "'To The Most Learned Men of this Generation': Martin Harris and His Visits East, 1828" (25min)
Michael Hubbard MacKay (LDS Church History Department), "'Git Them Translated': Joseph Smith, Ancient Characters, and Translating the Plates" (25min)
Steven C. Harper (LDS Church History Department), "Joseph Smith's Relationships to Hermeticism and Masonry" (25min)
Richard L. Bushman (History, Columbia University), Respondent (15min)
12:00-1:15 Break for Lunch
1:30-3:30 (HBLL Auditorium): Joseph Smith and Ancient Texts
Matthew J. Grey (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator
Jared Ludlow (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "Joseph Smith's Reading of Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha" (25min)
Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "What has Palmyra to do with Jerusalem? Joseph Smith and the Writings of Flavius Josephus" (25min)
Thomas A. Wayment (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "Joseph Smith and Early Christian Apocrypha" (25min)
Kristian S. Heal (Maxwell Institute, BYU), "Joseph Smith and the Early Church Fathers" (25min)
Benjamin E. Park (History, University of Cambridge), Respondent (15min)
3:45-4:45 (HBLL Auditorium): Joseph Smith's Interest in the Ancient Americas
Andrew H. Hedges (LDS Church History Department), Moderator
Mark Alan Wright (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "Joseph Smith and Native American Artifacts" (25min)
Matthew Roper (Maxwell Institute, BYU), "Joseph Smith and the Ruins: Central American Archaeology and Early Views about the Book of Mormon" (25min)
Andrew H. Hedges (LDS Church History Department), Respondent (10min)
5:00-6:30 Break for Dinner
7:00-8:30 (JSB Auditorium): Plenary Session
Elder Steven E. Snow (Church Historian and Recorder), Conducting
Opening Song, "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise"
Special Musical Number, "If You Could Hie to Kolob"
David F. Holland (History, UNLV), "Joseph Smith and Antiquity: Points of Contact between the Prophet and the Ancient Sources" (50min)
Friday, March 8 – LDS Conference Center Little Theater (Salt Lake City)
9:00-11:45 a.m.: Joseph Smith, the Bible, and 19th Century Biblical Scholarship
Steven C. Harper (LDS Church History Department), Moderator
Kent P. Jackson (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "Joseph Smith and the Bible" (25min)
Nicholas J. Frederick (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "Joseph Smith and the Gospel of John" (25min)
Justin R. Bray (LDS Church History Department), "The Seventy Disciples in Early 19th Century Christian Thought" (25min)
Break (10min)
Samuel Brown (Medical Ethics and Humanities, University of Utah School of Medicine), "The Prisca Theology in Early Mormonism" (25min)
Matthew B. Bowman (Religion, Hampden-Sydney College), "Joseph Smith and 19th c. Biblical Commentaries" (25min)
David F. Holland (History, UNLV), Respondent (20min)
12:00-1:30: Break for Lunch
1:45-3:15: Joseph Smith's Study of Biblical Languages
Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator
Matthew J. Grey (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "'The Word of God in the Original': Joseph Smith's Study of Hebrew and its Impact on His Translations, Thought, and Theology" (25min)
Craig K. Manscill (Church History, BYU), "'By the Help of God I Can Read in the Hebrew Bible': Hyrum Smith's Study of Hebrew" (25min)
John W. Welch (Law, BYU), "Joseph Smith's Awareness of Greek and Latin" (25min)
Kevin L. Barney (Independent Scholar), Respondent (15min)
3:30-5:00: Joseph Smith and 19th Century Egyptology
Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator
John Gee (Maxwell Institute, BYU), "Joseph Smith and Ancient Egypt" (25min)
Kerry Muhlestein (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "Joseph Smith and Egyptian Artifacts: Towards a Preliminary Paradigm for Evaluating Prophetic and Mundane Ideas Regarding Aspects of the Ancient World" (25min)
Brian M. Hauglid (Ancient Scripture, BYU), "'Endowed with a Knowledge of Hidden Languages': Joseph Smith and the Egyptian Project" (25min)
John S. Thompson (Egyptology, University of Pennsylvania), Respondent (15min)
Symposium Committee
Lincoln H. Blumell (Co-Chair), Department of Ancient Scripture
Matthew J. Grey (Co-Chair), Department of Ancient Scripture
Steven C. Harper, LDS Church History Department
Andrew H. Hedges, LDS Church History Department
Linda Godfrey (Secretary), Department of Church History and Doctrine
Jointly Sponsored by
The Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University
Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University
The Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
