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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley
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Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life by Jay Peterson ∙ "Hugh Nibley is generally touted as one of Mormonism's greatest minds and perhaps its most prolific scholarly apologist. Just as hefty as some of Nibley's largest tomes, this authorized biography is delightfully accessible and full of the scholar's delicious wordplay and wit, not to mention some astonishing war stories and insights into Nibley's phenomenal acquisition of languages. Introduced by a personable foreword from the author's wife . . . the book is written with enthusiasm, respect and insight. It is organized into chapters alternating between chronological biography (childhood, mission to Germany, military service in WWII, etc.) and topical themes in Nibley's life (social criticism, faith, scholarship, Scripture and so on). A particularly powerful and timely chapter addresses Nibley's rather surprising views on war; he opposed the Vietnam War when it was very unpopular in LDS culture to do so. Although this format often results in repeated information, it also makes it easy to approach the book as a collection of stand-alone essays . . . It fills an important gap in LDS history and will appeal to a wide Mormon audience." Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc., Review by Publishers Weekly
This was included instead of a biography because this book says it better than I ever can. Hugh Nibley's knowledge, shared within each of these books, is precious to the LDS reader and study of theology. Every LDS library should hold the collected works of Hugh Nibley. |
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 1: Old Testament and Related Studies ∙ In December 1832, the Lord instructed the Prophet Joseph Smith, "Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith."
Few members of the Church have followed that admonition as faithfully as has Hugh Nibley, emeritus professor of ancient history at Brigham Young University. As a young man he memorized vast portions of Shakespeare and studied Old English, Latin Greek and other languages. As a student at Berkeley, he began reading the southwest corner of the ninth level of the library and worked his way down to the northeast corner of the first level, studying every significant book that caught his eye. And throughout his life, he has related everything he has learned to the greatest knowledge of all-the word of the Lord, as revealed in the scriptures and in the temple.
Not content with that, however, Dr. Nibley has dedicated himself to being a teacher, to sharing with others the knowledge he has gleaned through his vast studies. He has lectured and published widely, producing more than three hundred papers and books on a wide variety of subjects.
Old Testament and Related Studies is the first volume in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, published by Deseret Book Company and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. This collection of papers and lectures, many of which have never been published, includes papers on the earth before Adam, the historicity of the Bible, archaeology and religion, myths and the scriptures, patriarchy and matriarchy, apocryphal works, the message of Isaiah, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community, and other subjects, all in Dr. Nibley's fascinating and inimitable style.
Old Testament and Related Studies, which was complied and edited by John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum, and Don E. Norton, will be enjoyed by students of the Old Testament, gospel scholars, and history buffs--indeed, by anyone who desires to "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith."
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 2: Enoch the Prophet ∙ In the book of Moses, we find what Joseph Smith entitled "extracts from the prophecy of Enoch." Dr. Hugh Nibley says of these verses: "The excerpts... in the Pearl of Great Price supply us with the most valuable control yet on the bona fides of the Prophet.... We are to test... 'How does it compare with records known to be authentic?' The excerpts offer the nearest thing to a perfectly foolproof test--neat, clear-cut, and decisive--of Joseph Smith's claim to inspiration."
In Enoch the Prophet, Dr. Nibley examines and solidly defends that claim by examining Joseph Smith's translations in the context of recently discovered apocryphal sources. This second volume in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley includes four chapters: "Enoch the Prophet," "The Enoch Figure," "The Book of Enoch as Theodicy," and "A Strange Thing in The Land: The Return of the Book of Enoch."
Dr. Nibley writes: "We have been told that if we stop seeking, we shall not only find no more but lose the treasures we already have. That is why it is not only advisable but urgent that we begin to pay attention to that last astonishing outpouring of ancient writings that is the peculiar blessing of our generation. Among these writings, the first and most important is the book of Enoch."
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 3: The World and the Prophets ∙ In 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of weekly lectures on KSL Radio. The series called "Time Vindicates the Prophets," was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to call themselves Christians.
Just as the Church's beliefs and institutions were under attack when these lectures were first given, so today's critics are again attacking the Latter-day Saints' conception of God, their claim to continuous revelation, their belief in Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, their acceptance of the Book of Mormon as a true record, and their insistence that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ. The answers given by professor Nibley then are a valid today as they are timely.
Dr. Nibley writes: "We make no attempt to argue out the position of the Church... Here we are simply indicating briefly that for better or worse, the Mormons consistently find themselves in a company of ancient Saints and, accordingly far removed from the ways of conventional Christians... It is an historical, not a theological or philosophical, vindication of our prophets."
But Professor Nibley does far more than point out identities of doctrines, practices, and institutions between Latter-day Saints and Christians. He also describes with great clarity how the Church changed from an organization with inspired prophets into a thoroughly different and alien institution built upon the learning of men. He shows how prophecy was replaced with self-induced mystical experience, and how the magical wonder-making of the pagans was substituted for the gifts of the spirit.
The World and the Prophets demonstrates that the whole philosophical theological enterprise, however well intended, is incompatible with the existence of continuing revelation. As Joseph Smith wrote, "Persecutions may rage, mobs may continue, armies may assemble, calumny may defame," but there will always be an unbridgeable gap between the world and the prophets.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 4: Mormonism and Early Christianity ∙ From the outset of his career, Dr. Hugh Nibley has been centrally concerned with primitive Christianity, especially the shadowy era between the New Testament proper and the emergence and the triumph of the Catholic Church and Holy Roman Empire. That is the era treated in the nine essays collected in this volume. The essays cover such subjects as early accounts of Jesus' childhood, the Savior's forty-day ministry after his resurrection, baptism for the dead in ancient times, the passing of the primitive church, and the early Christian prayer circle. Each essay examines the close connection between the practices and the doctrines of the early Church and the Church of the latter days. Each essay has been reedited, and all the original sources have been rechecked.
Many of the conclusions and arguments in these articles will stand in future scholarship; others will be discarded. But Hugh Nibley's work has laid the foundation for all further discussion. These studies are an inspiring invitation to learning and thought and scholarly inquiry; they will deepen our interest in and our understanding of the apostolic church, and the church in the troubled centuries that immediately followed New Testament times.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 5: Lehi in the Desert / The World of the Jaredites ∙ Hugh Nibley is probably still best known for his groundbreaking investigations into the ancient Near Eastern backgrounds of Lehi and of the Jaredites. Those classic studies are contained in this volume--the first of several books to appear in the volumes of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley that deal with the Book of Mormon.
Dr. Nibley's broad knowledge of the ancient Near East, and especially his fluent Arabic, allowed him to reconstruct the probable cultural backgrounds of people like Lehi and Nephi and to read between the lines in the Book of Mormon to identify evidences of their cultural world. Much of that evidence is quite direct and strong; other times it is subtle and more remote. In either case, no one else has even thought of seeing such things; yet without such insights, the lives of Lehi and the Jaredites would "remain in the shadows," as Elder John A. Widtsoe said in his foreword to the 1952 publication of Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites.
This book began in 1948 with Dr. Nibley's article "The Book of Mormon as a Mirror of the East," which soon grew into three lengthy serials, "Lehi in the Desert" in 1950, "The World of the Jaredites" in 1951-52, and "There Were Jaredites" in 1956-57, all of which were published in the Improvement Era. In 1952, the first two serials were published as a book entitled Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites. That volume has enjoyed wide circulation for thirty-five years.
In the present volume, the work of the editors has been confined largely to technical tasks. The earlier texts remain substantially unchanged, but they have been edited lightly. All the information found in "The Book of Mormon as a Mirror of the East" has been worked into the text and notes of "Lehi in the Desert." In addition, the series "There Were Jaredites" is included here for the first time, and all footnotes in this enlarged edition have been verified and made more readable.
The kinds of ancient Near Eastern facts and observations Dr. Nibley correlates with details in the Book of Mormon are drawn from areas of language and literature, archaeology and history, culture and politics. Taken alone, few single factors are overwhelming impressive, but all together they fit very convincingly into what Dr. Nibley calls "The Big Picture."
As he writes at the conclusion of his findings: "There is no point at all to the question: Who wrote the Book of Mormon? It would have been quite as impossible for the most learned man alive in 1830 as it was for Joseph Smith."
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 6: An Approach to the Book of Mormon ∙ Readers of An Approach to the Book of Mormon, the sixth volume in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, will find erudite and sometimes unexpected insights into this book of scripture--as evidenced by this excerpt from the preface to the 1964 edition. (p.xii-xiii)
When in 1946 this writer composed a little treatise called Lehi in the Desert from limited materials then available in Utah, he had never knowingly set eyes on a real Arab. Within the last five years Aneze tribesmen and citizens of Mecca, including even guides to the Holy Places, have been his students, in Provo, of all places, while Utah has suddenly been enriched with a magnificent Arabic library, thanks to the inspired efforts of Professor Aziz Atiya of the University of Utah. As if it were not enough for the mountain to come to Mohammed, those sons of the desert who came to Provo found themselves taking a required class in the Book of Mormon from the compiler of this manual. Naturally he was more than curious to see how these young men would react to the Book of Mormon treatment of desert themes, and invited and even required them to report frankly on their impressions. To date, with only one exception, no fault has been found with Nephi on technical grounds. The one exception deserves the attention of all would-be critics of the Book of Mormon.
It was in the first class ever held in "Book of Mormon for Near Eastern Students," and the semester had barely begun when of course we ran smack into the story of how Nephi found Laban dead drunk in a dark alley and cut off his head--a grisly tale that upsets Nephi himself in telling it. As we rehearsed the somber episode, I could detect visible signs of annoyance among the Arab students--whispered remarks, head-shakings, and frowns of dissent. Finally, toward the end of the hour, a smart young man from Jordan could hold out no longer. "Mr. Nibley," he said, plainly speaking for the others, "there is one thing wrong here. It doesn't sound right. Why did this Nephi wait so long to cut off Laban's head?" Since I had been expecting the routine protests of shock and disgust with which Western critics react to the Laban story, I was stunned by this surprise attack--stunned with a new insight into the Book of Mormon as a message from another age and another culture.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 7: Since Cumorah ∙ A hundred years ago, the Book of Mormon was regarded by the scholarly world as an odd text that simply did not fit their understanding of the ancient world. Since that time, however, numerous ancient records have come to light, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts. These discoveries have forced scholars to change their views of history, and they place the Book of Mormon in a new light as well.
That is why respected Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley wrote Since Cumorah, a brilliant literary, theological, and historical evaluation of the Book of Mormon as an ancient book. Drawing upon a multitude of Hebrew, Coptic, and early Christian texts, Dr. Nibley looks at both the background and the text of the Book of Mormon. He compares the Book of Mormon with the Bible, the Apocrypha, and the records of the primitive church and related or apostate groups. He examines its philologically; that is, he examines its language and literature and their relationship. He deals with a number of scientific questions that it poses. Historically, he covers major events, such as the great earthquake; prophetic figures, such as Zenos; and wars, especially during the military career of Moroni. Finally, he discusses the Book of Mormon as prophecy: its themes, warnings, and promises.
Since Cumorah has become, since its first printing, a standard in Book of Mormon scholarship. In this new edition, the text and notes have been checked and reedited, and the editors have restored substantial blocks of material published in the magazine version of this work but not included in the first edition of the book.
Although Dr. Nibley stresses that our knowledge of the ancient world will remain forever tentative, he shows that the book once ridiculed by scholars has a right to be taken seriously and to be reevaluated in light of the documents discovered since the publication of the Book of Mormon.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 8: The Prophetic Book of Mormon ∙ The Book of Mormon is a prophetic book. It was written by prophets and about prophets. It was foreseen by prophets and foresees our day. It was brought forth by prophetic gifts for prophetic purposes. It speaks in a clarion voice of warning to those who would survive the last days. The articles in this volume, brought together under one cover for the first time, approach the Book of Mormon through a variety of prophetic themes. They speak out incisively on such topics as the prophecy of Ezekiel 37, internal and external evidences of the divine origin of the Book of Mormon, literary style in the Book of Mormon, ancient temples and the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Mormon's teachings for the last days.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 9: Approaching Zion ∙ Hugh Nibley, one of the most gifted scholars in the LDS church today, gives new perspectives on economics and modern society in Approaching Zion, a collection of articles, speeches, and essays on contemporary issues. Chapters in the book include: * The Law of Consecration * Deny Not the Gifts of God * Work We Must, but the Lunch Is Free * But What Kind of Work? * Goods of First and Second Intent * Breakthroughs I Would Like to See * The Meaning of the Atonement * Zeal without Knowledge * How to Get Rich.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 10: The Ancient State ∙ One important key to understanding modern civilization is a familiarity with its ancient background. Many modern principles and practices--social, political, and even economic--have cleared parallels and antiquity. A careful study of these forerunners of our traditions, particularity as they contributed to the downfall of earlier civilizations, may help us avoid some of the mistakes of our predecessors.
The Ancient State, by Hugh Nibley, is a thought-provoking examination of aspects of ancient culture, from the use of marked arrows to the surprisingly universal conception of kinship, from argument from various schools of philosophy to the rise of rhetoric. Author Hugh Nibley brings his usual meticulous research and scholarship to bear in this enlightening collection of essays and lectures.
It has been said that only by learning the lessons of history can we hope to avoid repeating them. For scholar and novice alike, The Ancient State is a valuable source of such learning.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 11: Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass ∙ The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1). Since then, the terms "tinkling cymbals" and "sounding brass" have often been used to signify words of emptiness and confusion - describing perfectly most writings critical of the Latter-day Saints. Trained in history and interested in classical rhetoric, Hugh Nibley brings a broad perspective to his study of anti-Mormon writings.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 12: Temple and the Cosmos ∙ Renowned scholar Hugh Nibley presents a fascinating work written in two distinct yet related sections. In "Temple," Nibley discusses the meaning of the temple, the history and origin of ordinances and sacred vestments, and the temple's necessity in the Lord's work today.
In "Cosmos," Nibley explores man's place in the cosmos, or the expanse of Heavenly Father's kingdom, and how the temple fits into this divine realm of existence. he also writes about the importance and significance of language and writing in a chapter entitled "Genesis of the Written Word."
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 13: Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints ∙ presents Hugh Nibley's reflections on the thoughts of Brigham Young on politics, education, leadership, and the environment. The timeliness of Brigham's counsel on these topics will quickly become apparent to readers, as will the unique insights that Nibley adds. This volume will amuse, provoke, and challenge--and, above all, educate.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 14: Abraham in Egypt ∙ Considered by many to be a classic in LDS literature, Abraham in Egypt is coming back to print in an enlarged edition published in association with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). In 1968-1970, Hugh Nibley wrote a series of articles for the Improvement Era titled "A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price." Brother Nibley asked that some of these articles be made into chapters to be added to Abraham in Egypt. This is what constitutes the new edition; no changes were made to the original chapters. For the articles, Nibley drew from many Jewish and rabbinical sources, while his work in the first edition was based on Egyptian material.
This book defends the Book of Abraham against the critics, showing the similarities between ancient sources and the Book of Abraham. Nibley's research reveals the religious message of the Book of Abraham to the modern world and the Church.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 15: Apostles and Bishops in Early Christianity ∙ Much can be learned from the New Testament and other early Christian sources about the powers, duties, and desired attributes of those who originally held the offices of apostle and bishop. Catholics claim that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, and Eastern Orthodox Christians assert that he was the first bishop of Antioch. But does either position reflect the apostolic or episcopal offices completely or correctly? What, really was the role of bishops, and what was their relationship with apostles in the early Christian church? It is hard to imagine anyone better than Hugh Nibley to shed light on this challenging and intriguing topic.
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The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 16: The Messages of the Joseph Smith Papyri ∙ This is the first-- and still the only book-length commentary on the Joseph Smith Papyri. In this long-awaited new edition, with expanded text and numerous illustrations, Professor Nibley shows that the papyri are not the source of the Book of Abraham. Rather than focusing on what the papyri are not, as most commentators have done, Nibley masterfully explores what the papyri are and what they meant in ancient times. He demonstrates how these ancient Egyptian papyri contain a message that is of particular interest to Latter-day Saints.
Click on picture of book to order from Deseret Book.
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