Comments on: “The Long-Promised Day”

By: Stephen Taylor

Stephen Taylor — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:22:12 +0000

Re #32. Glad this came up again. It is so easy to assume we understand something when there may exist a larger context of which we are unaware.

I expect this is true of most things we are sure we fully understand.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:36:54 +0000

That’s how I understand it, too, Eric.

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:28:16 +0000

I thought Esau’s wives were not favored by his parents due to their culture’s idolatry, not their lineage. Of course Rachel seems to have leaned a little in that direction herself. . .

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:38:50 +0000

Thank you for these later comments.

With the current three-week Gospel Doctrine focus on Abraham, I wonder how many people are thoughtlessly repeating the old conclusions about Abraham 1, without realizing that the scriptures *do*not*say* what we have used them to show, that our old interpretation came from the need to find scriptural support for a practice we did not understand.

It came up in my ward last week where a very knowledgeable woman indicated that “we know” Esau couldn’t pass on the birthright because his wife was of “ineligible lineage.” Trying not to embarrass her, I cut her off a little abruptly and said that we would be talking about that again (next week), and that there were new understandings of those verses since 1978 when we realized just how strongly we were wresting those verses. I don’t know yet how that discussion is going to go.

By: Ugly Mahana

Ugly Mahana — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:45:15 +0000

Ardis,

Thank you for your comment numbered 32. The discussion in Abraham regarding Pharaoh has always made me wonder. Your conclusion has cleared up a question for me.

By: Of-The-Sea

Of-The-Sea — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:19:40 +0000

That was beautiful. Period.

By: Juvenile Instructor » Elijah Abel and his family in census records

Juvenile Instructor » Elijah Abel and his family in census records — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:47:34 +0000

[...] should have noticed her name previously, as Ardis Parshall mentioned her in the great Sunday School lesson that she delivered late last year (don’t you wish that all Sunday School lessons could be [...]

By: Meghan

Meghan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:58:18 +0000

Thanks! I’ll try to get a hold of some of these.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:38:52 +0000

Meghan, the L. John Nuttal diary (he was present at the meeting) is the usual source for the events of 1879, supplemented with minutes that are not available to rank-and-file researchers in the original but which are quoted/transcribed in the Adam S. Bennion papers. Bush and Mauss, in Neither Black Nor White (Signature, 1984), round up the available sources in the most easily accessible way. I think some of their evidence is wrenched out of context (e.g., they rely on the "house rules" of the Kirtland Temple as evidence that Joseph Smith intended that temple to be open to blacks, but I think the context of the "house rules" makes the statement rhetorical, especially since their interpretation has to allow for the participation of unbelievers as well as blacks; not that the Kirtland temple was not open to blacks, just that Lester/Mauss's evidence is hardly persuasive there), but they do lay out all the sources for you to consider.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:56:06 +0000

Hey Ardis, I just got around to reading this. Great lesson. Where did you find the information about John Taylor’s uncertainty when Elijah Abel asked for the priviledge of attending the temple as well as the subsequent discussions by church leaders on the subject? I’d love to see your sources for that so I can read more.