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Kristian S. Heal. Genesis 37 and 39 in the Early Syriac Tradition. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2023. In the late 1990s, when I first thought about writing a PhD thesis on the figure of Joseph in the Syriac tradition, I did what most aspiring graduate students did at that time and consulted Sebastian Brock. He suggested focusing on the long and especially beautiful narrative poem on Joseph written in the fifth century and attributed to both Balai and Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373).

“To be a prophet is both a distinction and an affliction,” writes Abraham Heschel. “The prophet bears scorn and reproach. He is stigmatized as a madman by his contemporaries, and, by some modern scholars, as abnormal.”

The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship is seeking original art created by BYU students for the 2nd Annual Book of Mormon Art Contest. Artwork will be featured in the new Book of Mormon Art Catalog, in an art display on BYU campus, and winners will receive prize money.

Those words have always stood out as a peculiar formulation. We generally assume that we know when we are happy. The context of this scripture leaves unclear whether the enjoyment of which Jacob speaks is a present bliss or a future inheritance.

This artwork and its accompanying caption were created by Meranda Brodowski, a student artist and designer at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Meranda is from California and has worked at the Maxwell Institute since January. She is a Fine Arts Major at Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in technology. She strives to create inspiring artwork that represents her faith and testimony.

The central fact in the history of Israel is the exodus from Egypt and the settling of the Promised Land. Millennia later, the Puritans who settled in America would see themselves as exiles from the Old World, figurative Israelites who were guided to this Promised Land to establish a spiritual Zion.

I'm Rosalynde Welch, host of the new Maxwell Institute Book of Mormon Studies podcast. I've been on a lifelong journey not only to understand the meaning of the Book of Mormon, but to let its message change my heart. The words of prophets and the influence of the Spirit have lit the way.

At dinner one evening, I asked Andrew Teal, a lecturer and Anglican chaplain at Oxford University, about his longstanding interest in and affection for the Latter-day Saints and their teachings. What was the catalyst that first intrigued him?

This artwork and it's accompanying caption were created by Meranda Brodowski, a student artist and designer at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Meranda is from California, and has worked at the Maxwell Institute since January. She is a Fine Arts Major at Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in technology. She strives to create inspiring artwork that represents her faith and testimony.

The journey of faith was not easy. Yes, the ball directed them to the “most fertile parts of the wilderness” (1 Nephi 16:14), but still, the travelers were “much fatigued … because of their sufferings and afflictions” (1 Nephi 16: 19-20).

A central theme of the small plates of Nephi is that God speaks to his children. The plates are filled with the ministering of angels, prophecies, and revelations.

The urgency and difficulty of creating the conditions under which faith can take root in one’s children is a major theme in these chapters of 1 Nephi, and it’s a theme that resonates powerfully today.

To encounter scripture is to encounter God’s generosity. And God knows how to give generously, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” (Luke 6:38). The purpose of God’s generosity is to nourish and reinforce his relationship with his children.

In 2024, the Maxwell Institute will offer a weekly series of short essays on the Book of Mormon, in support of the Church-wide Come, Follow Me study curriculum. Each week, the Maxwell Institute blog will feature a post by a member of the Institute faculty exploring an aspect of the week’s reading block. We hope these explorations will enrich your study and teaching of the Book of Mormon throughout the coming year.

A short Christmas message from J.B. Haws, the Executive Director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Merry Christmas!

Approaching the Tree: Interpreting 1 Nephi 8 is coming out on December 12! Look at one of the most familiar texts in the Book of Mormon with a new perspective through various artists and scholars. Pre-order your copy now.

"If the Book of Mormon is rather generally revealing itself to be a source for rich and sustained theological reflection, then the theological interpretation of Lehi's dream must become a load-bearing wall in the edifice that is now being built."

Adam Miller and Rosalynde Welch's book, Seven Gospels: The Many Lives of Christ in the Book of Mormon, was released in October 2023. Seven Gospels is a collection of letters from the authors to each other that explore seven unique witnesses in the Book of Mormon. How do these witnesses vary from one another? And what are we to learn from each particular account?