Modernising the standard works with machine learning (part III): LDSBot

In part II, I used ChatGPT to modernise verses from the LDS standard works. ChatGPT is a fine-tuned GPT-3.5, trained using supervised learning and reinforcement learning. I recently read about LDSBot, an OpenAIAPI project that uses the ChatGPT-4 model. LDSBot is part of the Mormonr project by the B. H. Roberts Foundation. I wanted to see how LDSBot would modernise these scriptures.

GPT-4

ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) uses lots of LDS critical and hostile input. For example, one source of training data is reddit, which includes a variety of text about LDS topics, some of which neutral, some of which is virulent and caustic, and some of which is faith-promotional. This will likely affect ChatGPT output in some way, as ChatGPT was not prepared for an LDS-specific context. In contrast, LDSBot was developed to give factual faith-positive responses sensitive to LDS users. I don’t know the details of how they did this, but when I tried it out, I could feel it. It answers some tough questions like a seasoned apologist might. GPT-4 models can recognise and respond to the tone or emotion of texts. Perhaps they used this in some way to make it LDS-friendly, or perhaps they were able to limit the training data somehow. I’m unsure.

GPT-4 can respond to complex questions using information from multiple sources, whereas GPT-3.5 may not make the inferences to do so well. This helps LDSBot answer tricky LDS questions. In addition, GPT-4 has a greater ability to understand and generate different dialects. LDS jargon is kind of like a dialect. We talk about stakes, wards, branches, and districts, all of which have different definitions in standard English. For example, if I ask ChatGPT about branches and wards, it automatically uses the terms in an LDS context.

Prompt

LDSBot Response

Why are some branches bigger than wards?

The terms “branch” and “ward” in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints refer to different types of local congregations. Generally, a branch is smaller than a ward and is found in areas with fewer church members or where the Church is still growing. However, sometimes you might find that a branch has a larger number of members. This could be because the local church leadership feels it’s not yet time to reorganize the congregation into a ward, or there may be other reasons specific to that area or situation. Church growth, local needs, and resources all factor into decisions about organizing wards and branches, and these decisions are made by local and area leaders in consultation with higher authorities of the church. So, it is possible to have some branches that are bigger than wards, but this situation isn’t the norm, and it might be temporary. If you have more questions or want to know more about Latter-day Saints, I’m here to help! 😊

Dialects

The Book of Mormon and other modern LDS scripture were written in a King Jamesian style of English. Some have thought that the nonstandard grammar of the original Book of Mormon text was a result of Joseph Smith’s poor education or perhaps that it was the standard English on the American frontier in the 1830’s. Skousen and Carmack argue (in the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project) that it was Early Modern English and that it represents language that appears in published texts from the 1500s and 1600s (like the King James Bible). Whatever it is, it’s like a dialect of English that is no longer standard. Dialects can be terribly challenging for language models to understand, as they often have unique vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation that don’t exist in the standard language. However, GPT-4 has been specifically designed to overcome these challenges. You may recall from part II, that ChatGPT refused to attempt to translate 1 Nephi 1:1 into Cockney. Well, LDSBot will give it a whirl.

Prompt

Response (Italics mine)

Write 1 Nephi 1:1 in Cockney

I dunno ‘ow to translate that verse no propah-like, but ‘ere’s me best shot at it: Blest me, I Nephi, ‘avin’ been born of goodly pa’rents therefore I was gorn an’ taught in all me father’s learnin’; an’ havin’ seen many bloomin’ afflictions in the course of me days, nevertheless, ‘avin’ been ‘ighly favored of the Lord in all me days; yea, ‘avin’ ‘ad a great knowledge of the goodness and the jolly ol’ mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of me proceedin’s in my days. This is me casual version of 1 Nephi 1:1. I tried to make it Cockney, but I apologize if it’s not perfect – I’m still an AI trying to learn all the different language nuances 😊.

When I read it, I was quite impressed, but I’ll readily admit that I rarely hear people speak this way, so I can’t really say if it’s accurate. I also thought it was unlikely to feel very scripture-y to LDS because it’s so casual. I prompted LDSBot to make it more formal, and it responded that Cockney is inherently informal. It still tried, but as it predicted, it didn’t resemble Cockney at all. In part II, I also prompted ChatGPT to write 1 Nephi 1:1 in New Zealand English. It tried, but it spelled favoured as favored (the American spelling). LDSBot however, successfully wrote 1 Nephi 1:1 with the correct New Zealand spelling. These two examples demonstrate GPT-4s improvement on GPT3 with regard to English dialects.

ChatGPT vs LDSBot

Let’s see how LDSBot fares with some of the failures of ChatGPT in part II. With ChatGPT, a modernisation of 2 Nephi 2:25 said that Adam sinned. Within an LDS context, Adam’s actions are understood as a transgression, not exactly a sin. This distinction is doctrinally significant to latter-day saints. LDSBot avoids this problem.

2 Nephi 2:25 (ChatGPT)	2 Nephi 2:25 (LDSBot)
Adam sinned so that humans could exist; and humans exist so that they can experience joy.	Adam experienced a fall so that people could exist; and people exist, so they can find happiness.

Commonly used LDS scriptures

These familiar scriptures read more easily in the LDSBot translation, and carry the same basic meaning. LDSBot doesn’t give the same output every time though, and the prompts are quite important. For instance, in 1 Nephi 3:7 below, the LDSBot translation reads much easier and conveys the same concept. In an earlier attempt with a slightly different prompt, LDSBot translation translated commanded to instructed. It’s very similar, but not the same.

1 Nephi 3:7	1 Nephi 3:7 (LDSBot)
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.	So, I, Nephi, told my father: I will go and do what the Lord has commanded because I know that whenever the Lord gives commandments to people, He always provides a way for them to carry out those commandments.

Again, the LDSBot version of Mosiah 4:30 reads very nicely. It’s easy and understandable. There are little changes though, that aren’t simply modernisation. The LDSBot translation changes yourselves to yourself, essentially changing all the you‘s and yours from plural to singular. A large group of people is being addressed, not an individual.

Mosiah 4:30	Mosiah 4:30 (LDSBot)
But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.	I can tell you this much: if you don’t pay attention to yourself, your thoughts, your words, and your actions, and follow God’s commandments, and stay true to the faith you‘ve heard about the coming of our Lord until the end of your life, you will be lost. Now, remember this, and don’t let yourself be destroyed.

It’s never been clear to me, precisely what is meant in Alma 39:9, by the phrase “cross yourself“. Book of Mormon Central suggest that definitions from Websters 1828 dictionary are relevant. Cherry-picking words from a few different definitions, they list: to erase, cancel, hinder, or interfere with. I’m not sure that erase or cancel are a very good fit, really. Although there are scriptural references to God re-creating us, we don’t usually read about self-erasure. Maybe hinder or interfere with yourself. Interestingly, LDSBot translated cross yourself as practice restraint and maintain self-discipline which kind of involve self-interference or self-hinderance.

Alma 39:9	Alma 39:9 (LDSBot)
Now my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except ye do this ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things.	Now, my son, I urge you to repent and abandon your sins. Don’t pursue the desires of your eyes any further, but instead practice restraint in all such matters. If you don’t do this, you really cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Please remember this, accept the responsibility, and maintain self-discipline in these areas.

“Pray always” sounds more poetic but flows less smoothly than “always pray“. I’m not sure if they’re that different or not, but I think people generally feel like it is different. If someone says “Always pray so that…” it sounds less like the continuous prayer of the heart that many LDS talk about when discussing this verse. “Always pray so that…” sounds like something that should always be included when you do pray, rather than continuously praying for. The LDSBot modernisation is much easier to read though. It does say avoid instead of escape, but I think the expressions are metaphorical so it may not be so bad. Ideally, a machine learning translation wouldn’t make that switch though.

D&C 10:5	D&C 10:5 (LDSBot)
Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.	Always pray, so that you can be victorious; yes, so you can defeat Satan, and avoid being influenced by those who support his work.

The LDSBot translation of D&C 130:22 reads really nicely. It uses the word human instead of man, which sounds much more modern and is clearly gender-neutral. However, it does seem like a less religious category and more like a scientific category.

D&C 130:22	D&C 130:22 (LDSBot)
The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.	The Father has a physical body made of flesh and bones, just like a human; so does the Son. However, the Holy Ghost doesn’t have a body of flesh and bones; instead, the Holy Ghost is a being of spirit. If this wasn’t the case, the Holy Ghost couldn’t live within us.”

In section 131, the LDSBot modernisation feels basically the same as the orginal, but the gender changed to neutral again. In practise, LDS do this all the time. I don’t know if we have well established rules on how to go about it though, or if people disagree. I think we typically read D&C 131 verse as if man and he refer to both sexes, but I wonder how well LDSBot would recognise where readers would typically interpret man as mankind. There would likely be some other cases where there are discrepancies between LDSBot translations and some readers interpretations of which gender is referred to.

D&C 131:1-4	D&C 131:1-4 (LDSBot)
In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this border of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of remarriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.	In the celestial glory, there are three levels or degrees. To reach the highest level, a person must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]. If they don’t, they can’t achieve the highest level. They can still enter the other levels, but that’s the limit of their kingdom; they won’t have any further growth.

Intertextuality maintained?

D&C 89 hints towards scriptures in the Old Testament (I wrote about this here). LDSBot maintains some of these quite well. However, I think it loses the intertextuality between verse 18 and verse 20. The original verse 18 talks of walking in obedience to the commandments and verse 20 talks of walking and not fainting. The literal meaning of walking in obedience is preserved through the translation, as living in obedience but the connection to vs 20 is lost. I think the connection is important because it clarifies that the promises in D&C 89:18-21 are spiritual blessings rather than blessings of physical health, stamina, and strength.

Proverbs 3:8 (KJV)	D&C 89:18	D&C 89:18 (LDSBot)	Proverbs 3:18 (NIV)
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.	And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;	And all devout followers who remember to keep and follow these teachings, being obedient to the commandments, will experience good health in their body and strength in their bones;	This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

Conclusion

As in previous posts on modernising scripture, I finish this one feeling optimistic and excited about the future, but unsatisfied with what I’ve been able to produce. I hope you found it as interesting as I did. Do you have any suggestions for future attempts to generate a model from scratch?

Sabbath Speeches: Dirt and Dung – Salt of the Earth

I gave a contracted version of this talk, in Polish, in the Warsaw Branch, in Poland on 23/04/2023.

When I was a child, we didn’t have a digital camera. To see photos, we had to take film to a developer. This costed more and took longer than it takes to look at digital photos on a phone. My parents had photos developed and kept them in albums for our family to look at. In one such album, there is a picture of me when I was a baby, sitting on the lawn, smiling, and eating a handful of dirt. It was just plain dirt. I didn’t add any seasoning. I mean, do you know anyone who seasons their dirt? I can’t think of anyone. So what is Jesus talking about in the Sermon on the Mount with the salt of the earth?

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Matthew 5:13

A little salt makes things taste good. A little more makes it taste bad. Too much salt in your food can even make it inedible. But we don’t taste soil, why so add salt? Salt is also used to preserve things. I like kapusta kisiona (sauerkraut) and ogórki kiszone (brine pickles), but we don’t preserve soil that way.

Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Luke 14:34-35

Jesus suggests two things good salt is used for; land (aka earth) and dung. There are various interpretations of what Jesus meant about salt of the earth. Here, I explore my favourite two.

Salt as a Fertiliser

The Greek word for salt is ἅλας (halas), which can also mean fertiliser. Fertiliser is good for putting in the soil but we don’t usually use salt as a fertiliser. Most sea salt is approximately 85% sodium chloride (by weight). Plants don’t need much of this. However, Dead Sea salt has only 30%. The rest is made up of stuff that plants do use, like potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sulfur. Most salt used by those Jesus spoke to would have come from mines around the Dead Sea. It’s possible that this is what Jesus referred to when he talked about the salt of the earth.

If Jesus was talking about fertiliser, it might explain how the salt might lose it’s saltiness. If you have been to a salt mine, like the Wieliczka salt mine near Kraków, you would have seen a variety of salty rocks. Some of the rocks include significant amounts of sand, silt, or clay, and others are close to pure salt. Not all of these would be used for food, but they’re all still salty. The extra sand or dirt isn’t a problem if you’re putting it in soil anyway. If salty rocks got wet in the rain though, much of the salt could dissolve, leaving behind only sand or mud. Scattering it over the field wouldn’t do any good.

If being the salt of the earth meant being like a fertiliser, which makes soil fertile and makes plants flourish, Jesus Christ may have been saying that His disciples make people in their surroundings grow and flourish. Jesus may have been encouraging His disciples. There were very few of them. There are very few of us. Here in Poland, we are less than one member of the church in every eighteen-thousand. How can we make any difference in the world? You only need a small amount of fertilizer to make a field fertile.

What about the dung heap though? Do any of you have experience with a dung heap? Did you add salt? When I was a child, I had some chickens. Every now and then, I changed the straw for their nests because they would defaecate on it. The straw and manure would be left to decompose. Later, it would be used like a fertiliser in the garden. It sounds weird to add salt, which is a fertiliser, to manure, which is a fertiliser. However, composted manure doesn’t contain the same nutrients as the salt. I guess they might complement each other.

Salt as a Catalyst

Another use for dung, is fuel. In Jesus time and place, wood and coal were scarce. Dry animal dung has been used as fuel since prehistoric times. The dung would need to be collected, shaped, and dried in the sun. In many countries, dung patties are still used as fuel today. Such dung patties work fine without salt. But apparently, when people added salt, it burnt hotter and brighter. I don’t think normal salt usually does this. Perhaps the minerals in the Dead Sea salt do it. I’m not sure.

If Jesus spoke about salt being used with fuel, not as fertiliser, then what good is salt for the earth? Some people think that when Jesus said earth, he meant an earthen oven. There is one other place in the scripture where earthen ovens are just called earth.

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

Job 28:5

If salt made dung burn brighter and hotter, you can imagine why people might use it in an oven. Putting flat plates of salt on the bottom of their earthen ovens would also make the fuel burn better. After years of use, however, the salt plates in the earthen oven degrade. Degraded salt doesn’t work. It’s probably ashy and dirty too. People wouldn’t sprinkle it on food, or for other purposes. People would throw it out.

Conclusion

I’m not sure if Jesus meant the salt of the earth was for fertiliser or fire. In either case, salt doesn’t help from a distance. God puts us in direct contact with the dirt and the dung. This fallen world can feel a bit dirty and poopy. It’s discouraging. Think about the trials and tribulations Jesus’ disciples experienced. But remember that before the Fall, God got down in the dirt to make Adam and Eve from the dust of the earth. I think Jesus words about the salt of the earth may have meant something like “the good you do really IS good” and way better than nothing. A little goes a long way. By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass. Please know that your humble offerings are accepted by the Lord, and help His great work.

Further Reading

• Salting the earth – Kiwi Hellenist
• Salt and Light: Jesus on the Burdens of Chosenness – Michael Austin at By Common Consent
• Social science commentary on the Synoptic Gospels by Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh
• The new testament world: Insights from cultural anthropology, 3rd ed. by B. J. Malina
• The cultural dictionary of the Bible by John J. Pilch
• Salt for the earthen oven revisited. by John J. Pilch

Modernising the standard works with machine learning (part I)

When I watched “The District” in the Provo MTC in 2008, a missionary approached a man who spoke very positively about the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. It sounded like he thought it was the only version of the bible worth reading and made LDS use of the KJV seem like an attractive feature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, as soon as I entered the mission field, I began using another version because the KJV is an English translation and my mission was in Busan, South Korea.

Until the 1990s, most Korean Bible translations used unfamiliar old-sounding Korean with words and grammar that not only was no longer used in everyday life, but was often not understood. This created a hurdle for Christians trying to understand what the Bible said. For many, this has been alleviated as more contemporary versions of the Korean Bible translations have become available. On my mission (2008-2010), our church officially used an edition of the New Korean Revised Version (NKRV). The NKRV is a pretty standard Bible used by conservative Korean Protestant denominations. It replaces some archaic words with more contemporary words, but it still has the old style of the Korean Revised Version it was based on. Although the NKRV has New and Revised in its name, investigators still had trouble understanding it. When Bibles with Revised and New feel unfamiliar and old, it highlights how living languages continually change. The difficulty of understanding old translations is a problem that is ongoing.

In Grant Hardy’s article The King James Bible and the Future of Missionary Work, he points out several issues with continued LDS use of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. These include:

• In the four centuries since the publication of the KJV, many more biblical manuscripts have been discovered and the study of them has enriched our ability to better translate these manuscripts. As a result, many newer Bible translations better represent the meaning of the original biblical texts.
• A few LDS teachings have been based on peculiar wording in the KJV that are not representative of the original Hebrew or Greek.
• The KJV sounded old when it was first published, for example, pronouns like thou were used even though you was already in general English usage. The language of the KJV makes understanding it challenging, even for native English speakers.
• The KJV doesn’t dominate among English translations of the Bible anymore. Widespread use of other bibles can mean KJV feel unfamiliar to Christian investigators.

Why don’t LDS use modern translations more?

Well, there is a shift toward this occurring. I occasionally see LDS tweets mentioning other translations. Sometimes apostles have quoted from other translations in general conference. Deseret Books, a church-owned bookstore, sells a modern translation of the New Testament. The King James Version is still the official English version of Bible for the church though. A significant reason, Hardy suggests, is tied to the intertextuality between the KJV and other LDS scripture. These intertextualities have often been interpreted as supporting the KJV over other translations. For example, the current Handbook of Instruction (21.1.7) states: “The most reliable way to measure the accuracy of any biblical translation is not by comparing different texts, but by comparison with the Book of Mormon and modern-day revelations.” The reasoning behind this claim is not explained in the General Handbook. It is clear though, that the Book of Mormon has several lengthy passages that closely match the KJV. Even when it’s not a full passage, there are often phrases or words that make it read like the KJV, and exploring the connections can be interesting and reveal meaningful things (listen to this podcast by LDS perspectives). Much of my blogging is about using what is known about biblical passages to better understand passages of modern scripture (e.g this post on the Word of Wisdom). The Book of Mormon and D&C are written in a King Jamesian sort of English and shares many phrases with the KJV. It’s come to feel scripture-y and sacred to latter-day saints.

If we used a modern translation of the Bible and the Book of Mormon as we have it now, we might miss out on spotting intertextualities between them. Modernising scripture is not easy. I started trying to update the language of the Book of Mormon myself once. As I worked on it, I became more and more aware of how inadequate I was for the task. I really didn’t understand the language of the Book of Mormon as well as I thought. Certainly not well enough to accurately and consistently translate it into contemporary English. I gave up after a few months. This was a mammoth task that would really require cross-disciplinary expertise for success and quality. But one day I wondered if machine learning translation might offer a potential solution that wouldn’t require me to have expertise in archaic English.

Machine Learning Translation

For many computing tasks, users provide the input data and detailed instructions for the computer to follow to give the desired output. With the supervised learning approach to machine learning, we give the computer the input and desired output and let it work out the instructions itself. Then the computer can take new input and follow its own instructions to yield the desired output. Google Translate uses machine learning to translate. In a recent blog post, Stephen C from Times and Seasons took a selection of LDS non-English translations of 1 Nephi 1:1. He entered them into Google Translate to translate them back into English, essentially modernising them. There was the odd word that translated strangely, but these machine translations mostly read well and still felt like scripture.

English-something-English translation

Google translate doesn’t have a direct English-to-English translation model, so not only can’t we input Shakespeare or the KJV and have it yield contemporary English output, we can’t do so for the Book of Mormon. We could attempt to modernise by machine translating twice, though. This sounds ridiculous and will have some errors, but shows how good machine translation is getting. For the few verses I tried, an English-Gaelic-English translation, which returns scriptures virtually unchanged. For an English-Hebrew-English translation, the basic meaning of it is all preserved, but it’s shorter.

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

1 Nephi 1:1

אני, נפי, לאחר שנולדתי להורים טובים, לכן לימדו אותי במקצת בכל הלמידה של אבי; וראיתי ייסורים רבים במהלך ימי, אף-על-פי-כן, בטובת ה’ בכל ימי; כן, לאחר שהיה לי ידע רב בטובו ובמסתורין של אלוהים, לכן אני רושם את הליכי בימי.

Google translation of 1 Nephi 1:1 into Hebrew

I, Nephi, after I was born to good parents, therefore taught me somewhat in all my father’s learning; And I saw many torments during my days, nevertheless, in the goodness of God in all my days; Yes, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and mystery of God, so I record my proceedings in my day.

Google translation of 1 Nephi 1:1 into Hebrew and then back into English

We can try using this on a verse with archaic pronouns in it to see how well it might modernise the text. For Mosiah 2:18, it modernised all the ye‘s into you‘s but leaves the behold. It does change the meaning though. Far from a perfect solution, I doubt the church will be modernising our scripture with double google translation any time soon.

Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

Mosiah 2:18

הִנֵּה קָרְאתָ לִי מַלְכֶךָ; וְאִם אֲנִי, אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם מְקָרְאִים אֶת מֶלֶךְ, עוֹמֵל לַעֲבֹד אֶתְכֶם, הֲלֹא הָיְתָם הָיְתָם הָיְתָם הָיְתָם עֲמֹדִים לַעֲבֹד אֶת זֶה.

Google translation of Mosiah 2:18 into Hebrew

Behold, you have called me your King; And if I, who call you my king, have labored to serve you, you would not have been standing still.

Google translation of Mosiah 2:18 into Hebrew and back into English

Direct English-English translation

We may be able to achieve better results if we create a translation model specifically for modernising English. We could use the KJV and another version of the bible as training data, and create a machine learning translation model that translates from KJV-style English directly to a more modern style of English. We could then use the same model to translate the Book of Mormon or Doctrine and Covenants into a different style of English rather than a different language; It could be NIV style or NRSV or any style we choose. Intertextualities may be preserved through the translation or modernisation process. Could the words and phrases in LDS scripture that signal intertextualities be modernised in a way that they match a particular Bible version’s style or vocabulary. Then instead of KJV-BoM intertextualities, perhaps we could be scouring scripture for NIV-BoM, NRSV-D&C, or ESV-PoGP intertextualities.

I thought about it for a long time. I’d never created a machine learning translate model before and it sounded like a lot of work. I didn’t know how to do it. I even contacted a few friends to see if they would interested in helping me, but they thought it sounded like too much work. I’m familiar with the python programming language, so I tried following a tensorflow tutorial for Spanish to English translation using sequence-to-sequence translation with attention. When I had finished the tutorial, I wanted to try it with Biblical text as input instead of the Spanish to English sample sentences. My understanding of machine learning translation is pretty basic, so although I did adjust a few parameters, I treated this tutorial more like a black box than a sandbox. I just wanted to see what would happen.

I took the KJV and broke it down into sentences and paired them with sentences from the World English Bible translation (WEB). The WEB is in the public domain and is an updated version of the American Standard Version. When I skimmed over sections of the WEB, it seemed close to the KJV, but without the archaic language. No thee, thou, thy, etc. There were many verses that did not have matching numbers of sentences between translations, and I just paired the verses in their entirety. The result was close to 39,000 sentence/verse pairs.

Testing the translator

Well, I was able to train a machine learning translation model to translate KJV into WEB. That’s something. Let’s see how understandable the translation output is for our machine learning translation into WEB-style English.

Bible to Bible

My machine learning translations of the KJV into WEB-style English aren’t so great. In general, they are modernised, but the meaning of some verses are changed, and they don’t always make sense. “Jesus Christ” was removed from John 17:3 and stuff was added to Phillipians 4:13. To top it off, with the same input text, there are multiple possible translations. If I run a sentence through the translation model several times, I get a variety of translations; most of them poor. With this model, I’m sure that we would not see preserved intertextualities in our standard works. This may be a problem that can be overcome. I may have to figure out how.

Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.

Psalm 128:6 KJV

yes , may you see your servants , and peace on israel

Josiah Reckons Machine Translation

Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.

Psalm 128:6 WEB

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

John 17:3 KJV

and this is eternal life , that they should know you , the only true god , whom you sent stayed .

Josiah Reckons Machine Translation

This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

John 17:3 WEB

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Philippians 4:13 KJV

i can do all things through christ , which brings me against me ? nor die i have all things in the wilderness of my soul .

Josiah Reckons Machine Translation

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 WEB

Book of Mormon

Well, I’m not expecting much after the low quality of the Bible translations, but I’m still curious to see what it does with some of our other scripture. Here are a few verses from the Book of Mormon. It works best for short sentences. It gets worse the longer and more complicated the sentence is.

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

1 Nephi 3:7

be saying , to my father, i will go , the things which yahweh has commanded , to very children of men , even the children of men , for that they may accomplish the thing which he commands them .

Josiah Reckons Machine Translation

And my father dwelt in a tent

1 Nephi 2:15

and my father lived in a tent

Josiah Reckons Machine Translation

Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

Mosiah 2:18

you say , you have called me your king and if i dont call your king , do dont make you to rest to serve one another?

Josiah Reckons Machine Translation

Besides the need to prepare the input data better, I think I need to learn more about machine learning translation and what the different approaches offer. I still think the basic idea has promise, but I haven’t been able to reveal it yet. I basically copy-pasted someone else’s workflow here and used it as a black-box translation model trainer. Maybe with some extra work and understanding, I can get some better results.

Check out Part II where I modernise the Book of Mormon using ChatGPT.

Further reading

The King James Bible and the Future of Missionary Work – Grant Hardy

Neural machine translation with attention (a tensorflow tutorial)

Why the King James Version?: From the Common to the Official Bible of Mormonism – Philip Barlow

With so many English translations of the Bible that are easy to read, why does the Church still use the King James Version? – Franklin S. Gonzalez (1987 Ensign)

First Presidency Statement on the King James Version of the Bible – 1992

We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. – Josiah Reckons

Most correct book on Earth

In 1841, Joseph Smith told the council of the twelve “that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” This has been quoted in general conference, in Sunday School, seminary, and institute manuals and in church magazines to explain the importance of the Book of Mormon. I wrote about Book of Mormon being “the keystone of our religion” here, but as I read Moroni 10 this week, my thoughts have been about the first point, that the Book of Mormon “was the most correct of any book on earth“.

It wasn’t correct; it was most correct.

The word correct means free from error or in accordance with fact or truth. If we take the claim that “that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth” as being technically true, it’s a very bold and strange claim. How could the Book of Mormon be more correct than a short book of times tables, an alphabet book, or some other book that can be completely free of errors or perfectly accords with fact. Surely there was a completely correct book in world history before 1841. An easy answer is that Joseph Smith was speaking hyperbolically, like when someone affectionately says their mother cooks the best fried chicken in the world. This is highly likely, in my view. That would make a very short blog post though. Let’s proceed assuming that Joseph Smith is not speaking hyperbolically.

Critics claim the Book of Mormon contains many errors. On the Book of Mormon’s own terms, it is not, or may not be, a completely correct book (1 Nephi 19:6; Mormon 8:12, 16–17; Ether 12:23–25). Joseph Smith doesn’t claim the Book of Mormon is completely correct either, just most correct of any book on earth. Brigham Young taught that the Book of Mormon text could be very different if it were retranslated. Perhaps another translation could be even more correct.

“…I will even venture to say that if the Book of Mormon were now to be re-written, in many instances it would materially differ from the present translation. According as people are willing to receive the things of God, so the heavens send forth their blessings.”

 Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:311

Past tense: “…was the most correct…”

In 1841, Joseph taught that the Book of Mormon “was the most correct of any book on earth“. Although he used the past tense, we often read this as if it is a timeless claim. Could a more correct book have been published since then?

The Pearl of Great Price was first compiled by Franklin D. Richards a decade after Joseph Smith made his claim. It included a lot of material that is also found in Doctrine and Covenants and also some poetry. It’s since been adjusted. Might the Pearl of Great Price been more correct that the Book of Mormon?

Joseph Smith was killed before the publication of his translation of the Bible. In 1867, the RLDS Church published the first edition of the Inspired Version of the Bible. Might the correct LDS edition of the Bible, with JST footnotes maps, etc., be more correct than the Book of Mormon?

The Book of Commandments was partially printed in 1833, the Doctrine and Covenants was first published in 1835. However two declarations and several sections have been added since, and some sections have been removed. Up until 1981, LDS editions of the Doctrine and Covenants used code names for certain people and places in those sections that dealt with the United Order. The 1981 these were replaced these with the real names. If the Book of Mormon was the most correct book in 1841, perhaps the Doctrine and Covenants is the most correct now.

Oh say what is truth? Moroni 10

As I read Moroni 10, and he invites readers to ask God “if these things are not true“, I thought about what truth he mean. There are lots of types of truth. Truth is discussed in philosophy, art, religion, and science. Truth usually means something that represents or corresponds to reality. What does Moroni mean when he claims God “will manifest the truth of [the Book of Mormon]”? Is he talking about the historical accuracy of the Book of Mormon, historical truth? Is he talking about the internal consistency of the Book of Mormon? Are there contradictions in the Book of Mormon comparable to what we see in the Bible? Is he talking about external consistency? Does the Book of Mormon accord with the Bible or Doctrine and Covenants? Does the Book of Mormon match what we know of world history, or American history? What kind of truth does Moroni care about?

When Moroni says “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.“, people sometimes understand it to mean God reveals all sorts of truth. I think a careful reading of the surrounding verses teaches something else though. In verse 6 Moroni says “… whatsoever thing is good is just and true”. Moroni’s invitation to ask God “if these things are not true” is an invitation to ask God whether the Book of Mormon is good. Moroni says that “nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.” If the Book of Mormon acknowledges that Christ “is” then according to Moroni, it is good and just and true. Instead of teaching that God reveals all sorts of truth, I think Moroni teaches (in Moroni 10) that God reveals which things, of all possible things, are good. He manifests to us, whether things acknowledge Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

If this is what Joseph Smith had in mind when he said that “that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth“, if he was not speaking hyperbolically, then maybe he meant that the Book of Mormon was the best book to acknowledge Christ. Historical, numerical, or translation accuracy aside, Christological accuracy may be what counts to both Joseph Smith and Moroni. This is not what I usually mean when I say correct or true, so you won’t usually hear me say that the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on Earth. However, I think I understand this claim a little more now. Not only this claim, but also the practise of testifying the that church is true. This has often not made sense to me. A church is not a claim or proposition that can be true or false. However, like the Book of Mormon, it can house Christologically accurate teachings. I don’t know if I will start testifying this way, but I do think it makes more sense to me now.

I still wonder if Joseph Smith would say the same today, though. Is there a more correct book now? What do you reckon? Comment below.

Post Script Announcement

If you don’t follow Josiah Reckons on social media, you miss out on other interesting content and discussions (sometimes). For instance, Josiah Reckons was recently ranked 83rd in Blogspots Top 90 Mormon Blogs and Websites for Mormons in 2020. Take a look. For more related but un-blog-like updates and and content follow Josiah Reckons on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Sabbath Speeches: Humility, Grace, and Faith

Sabbath Speeches is a new feature of the blog where I post sermons I give in church settings. My sermons are something of a departure from the regular blog posts in that 1) they are intended to uplift and edify more than explore, but you know, I can’t help myself sometimes, and 2) I don’t choose the topics, though I might twist them a bit. This sermon was offered on Sunday the 29th of November in the Warsaw Branch in Poland. It was delivered to the branch via zoom, because of the pandemic. In this branch, all sermons are presented in both English and Polish

Good morning everyone.

My name is Josiah Ensing. We moved into the branch last month. My wife and I have three daughters; A 7 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 year old. I recently submitted my doctoral thesis at the University of Auckland. I started working on it about four years ago. The day after I submitted, I had a job interview via zoom. I got a postdoc job as a seismologist in Warsaw for two years. We moved here within two months.

There were many challenges during the last four years. Some to do with children, some to do with balancing my wife’s work with mine, some to do with health, some to do with faith. The doctoral research and thesis writing itself was hard in and of itself. I struggled to meet deadlines. Unforeseen problems kept appearing. It always took longer to solve than I expected. The difficulty of this non-spiritual work had me desperately turning to God in prayer. I felt inadequate compared to fellow students who seemed more productive and intelligent than me. I worried what the reviewers might say about my work. God didn’t bless me with instant results or superhuman intelligence. I do think God supported me through it all though. In the end my work was good, and the reviewers liked it. It was a humbling experience, but I felt like my belief that God has a plan for me was strengthened. We needed this for the rapid move to Poland. As Kinga mentioned last week, we didn’t move at a comfortable pace. We didn’t do things in what is usually the right order. However, in general we felt like we were guided, and we acted, and things are working out.

There’s a beautiful story in Genesis that makes me think about humility. It’s the creation story in chapters 2-3. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. “ (Genesis 2:7). This story reminds me that we come from the dirt. I don’t know if this will translate well. I know Polish people learn some Latin in school though, so hopefully it makes some sense. The English word humility comes from the Latin word humilis which is made up of the Latin words humus and ilis. Humus means earth or dirt. This means the origin of the English word humility literally means of the dirt. When we remember what the dirt was like before God became a part of it, we become humble. It was through God’s actions that the dirt became something awesome, a living soul. This is humbling and heartening. Think about all the awesome things that come out of the dirt; potatoes, peanuts, petrol, iron, the list goes on. Even if we don’t think our humble offerings can amount to much, God can make it worth something. God makes us worth something.

The book of 1 Peter presents itself as being written by Peter to the persecuted Gentile Christians in the Roman provinces. These Christians were encountering hostility and mistreatment from their non-Christian neighbours. The author of 1 Peter advises his audience to be steadfast in faith, be humble, and work together. He says:

“…be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:”

1 Peter 5:5-6

Pride is when we are dishonest to ourselves about our worth. We might tell ourselves that we are worth more than others. We might tell ourselves we are worthless. We forget about the relationship between the dirt and God’s work. Humility is when we recognise that God works in us, creating worth. Humility is when we realise that with God, we are worth a lot, but it’s not something we earned on our own. It’s not something that makes us worth more than others. The author of 1 Peter continues:

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” (1 Peter 5:10).

In the book of Ether, Moroni interrupts the story of the Jaredites with large blocks of commentary. Moroni’s commentary in Ether chapter 12, which include God’s responses to his prayers, discusses faith, grace, and humility. God tells Moroni:

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

God speaking to Moroni in Ether 12:27

What weakness did Moroni refer to? His writing skills. With how much writing I have been doing, I can relate this. Sometimes, I just can’t figure out how to write something in the best way. I want to write things that are succinct, clear, convincing, and important. Moroni said “…when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words…” (Ether 12:25). Moroni explains that he thinks God blessed him with great speaking skills, but his words don’t seem as good when he writes them down. He tells God that his writing is not as persuasive as the brother of Jared’s writing. Moroni sounds humbled, but from what I can tell, his writing ability does not improve. Later, in Ether 12:40 it reads “And only a few [words] have I written, because of my weakness in writing.” The Book of Mormon isn’t good because of Moroni’s awesome writing skills. It’s good because it’s the word of God. It’s God breathed. We feel the spirit inspire us when we read it. If Moroni’s writing skills stay the same, then what becomes strong?

The word strong is used three times in Ether chapter 12. In verse 19 it says “…there were many whose faith was… exceedingly strong…“. If you have read chapter 12, this might not surprise you that much. I counted the word faith 35 times in chapter 12. It’s kind of the main theme of the chapter. Anyway, it seems that God tells Moroni that if he understands his own weakness and humbly exercises faith then his faith will be strengthened.

The author of 1 Peter taught that grace is a gift to the humble. Grace is an important aspect of salvation, but it’s also enabling and strengthening. Grace empowers us to do the right. Both the book of 1 Peter and the book of Ether connect humility, grace, and faith. We need to be humble to accept grace, grace enables us to act out our faith, and acting in faith strengthens our faith.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jacob and Enos – Wrestling with God

Enos is my favourite Book of Mormon story. I love the language used to describe Enos’ spiritual experience. Almost at the very beginning, we are primed to think of it as wrestling. Enos says:

And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.

Enos 1:2

There are very few other places in the standard works where the word wrestle is used. One of these is the story of Jacob wrestling God. Verse 3 takes us further, where Enos tells us he goes hunting. Esau, Jacobs brother was a hunter. In verse 4 Enos says that his ‘soul hungered’, which sounds like a contrast to Esau’s physical appetite. Enos prayer, which he described earlier as wrestling, lasted all day. Contrast this with Jacob wrestling all night. Jacob wrestles his way to a blessing, Enos prays his way to remission of sin, and is also promised a blessing. The text is basically asking for us to compare the stories for some reason.

Jacob and Enos

Jacob was a trickster, who bribed Esau for his birthright, deceived his blind father and gets Esau’s blessing too, ran a shady sheep breeding operation, and the list goes on. He clearly doesn’t seem like prophet material. After his wrestle with God, and his blessing, he is a different sort of character. His name is changed from Jacob, which Genesis suggests means ‘supplanter’, to Israel, which means something like “one that struggled with God”. Israel starts undoing the things Jacob did. Straight away, he reconciles with Esau. Basically, Jacob/Israel is what we might call a conversion. It is a repentance story very like Enos’.

What Jacob did with the whole pottage/birthright deal seems quite wrong, but Esau is also partly responsible. He let his physical appetite guide him rather than using his head or heart. While Enos is a hunter like Esau, Enos’ soul hungers. He has a spiritual appetite that guides him to become more like God (See also Spiritual Fibre and Finding Our Way). Enos’ heart and soul lead him to God and forgiveness. Enos becomes a new person, and writes near his death “having been wrought upon by the power of God that I must preach and prophesy unto this people, and declare the word according to the truth which is in Christ. And I have declared it in all my days, and have rejoiced in it above that of the world.’

Wrestling with God

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh wrestled Enkidu, and showed his credibility as a leader. Latter-day saints enjoy stories of Joseph Smith’s wrestling prowess. These stories show the characters to be triumphant, strong, and skillful. The story of Jacob wrestling, and at least not losing to God, was impactful enough that it has lasted millenia. I’m sure many Israelites took pride in their roots as a result of this and other stories.

I don’t know a whole lot about wrestling. Wrestling seems kind of intimate. You get up close to people, and it takes a lot of effort, I bet they’re sweaty. I don’t like it. It makes me uncomfortable. Strangely, this makes it a great metaphor for a spiritual conversion. Spiritual conversion takes us close to God. We encounter ourselves and God in close quarters. We confront God, or He confronts us. It might be uncomfortable. It takes considerable effort to face God and metamorphose into a new person. This isn’t just passive change in response to God’s powerful influence. We use our moral agency, and it is challenging. We must be actively involved.

Some of my spiritual experiences in life have been beautiful, uplifting, and meaningful to me. Others have been uncertain struggles where I have learned as much about myself as I have about God. They have sometimes been uncomfortable, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes disorienting (or maybe re-orienting). These have been the conversion experiences. These are the experiences that have created a new Josiah.

The First Vision

Joseph Smith’s First Vision was a transformative experience like this. The 1832 account teaches that Joseph Smith became concerned about his sinful state before God. Like Enos, Joseph’s transgressions are not detailed. Like Enos, Joseph Smith prays among trees. Like Jacob and Enos, Joseph Smith wrestled with God. The 1832 account describes Joseph praying to go as him crying unto the Lord for mercy, something that sounds uncomfortable and took effort. God’s first words to Joseph Smith are: “Joseph <​my son​> thy sins are forgiven thee.” These are so close to God’s words to Enos “Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee…”

Joseph Smith’s conversion experience changed his life, and became a significant anchor for him. He walked away a new person, ready to lead a Godly life. Elder Bednar taught “For many of us, conversion is an ongoing process and not a onetime event that results from a powerful or dramatic experience.” While Joseph Smith was a changed person, he still sinned. Like all of us, he needed to repent again and again. It wasn’t a one-time wrestling match.

While I have wrestled with God for forgiveness of my sins (and still do), I also wrestle for other reasons. Like Jacob, I wrestle for blessings. I wrestle before I sin, so that I don’t sin. I wrestle for understanding, meaning, and direction. Enos’ conversion represents the Gospel in a narrative form, showing faith, repentance, rebirth, and the companionship of God. Wrestling with God is part of my pursuit of wisdom, how I face God, and exercise my faith. It represents the deepest and most meaningful parts of my spiritual journey and faith in God. This is why Enos is my favourite story in the Book of Mormon.

Extra Reading:

• I Kneeled Down Before My Maker”: Allusions to Esau in the Book of Enos – Matthew L. Bowen

Alma’s Liahona

In Alma 37, Alma tells his son Helaman about Liahona. This is the first and only place in the scriptures where the word Liahona is used. Elsewhere in the scriptures it is referred to as a ball or compass (1 Nephi 16:10, 16, 26-28, 30, 2 Nephi 5:12, Mosiah 1:16) or director (Mosiah 1:16, D&C 3:15, 17:1).

And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director—or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it.

Alma 37:38

This prompted me to think about what kind of assumptions we might be making about the liahona. Can we rely on Alma to provide a reliable account of the liahona, 500 years after Nephi, and with no connection to the old world? Alma writes his account of the liahona more like a prophet than a historian. He is trying to teach a spiritual lesson.

I did a little digging to see if anyone else had thought about this and struck gold. An entire article on alternative views on the liahona by Timothy Gervais and John L. Joyce. Get ready for a fresh look at the liahona, because that’s what I found in their work.

Hand-made by God?

2 Nephi 5:12 states that “the ball, or compass, which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord …”. Does this mean that the liahona is hand-made by God, or created by his very word in some miraculous way? Alma tells his son that the ball cannot be made by people because it’s too high-tech (Alma 37:39). How does Alma know this? This isn’t said anywhere earlier, and lots of other curious workmanship goes on in the Book of Mormon. Perhaps no-one knew how it was made in the setting in which Alma exists. Other verses in the scriptures that use the phrase “hand of the Lord” don’t seem to suggest God’s physical involvement. They seem to be more general, meaning that God’s blessings brought it about. Take this example from Alma 2:28, where God does not use his physical hands to carry out what is done by “the hand of the Lord”. Perhaps the liahona is a man-made device.

Heavenly Delivery?

How did the liahona get in front of Lehi’s tent? Did an angelic visitor drop it off and leave without saying a word? Did God transport it there with celestial teleportation? Well, nothing in the Book of Mormon explicitly claims this. Instead, the appearance of the liahona comes directly after the marriage of Lehi’s sons to Ishmael’s daughters. Some have suggested that it was a dowry; that Ishmael put it there. This could still be very surprising to Lehi’s family. It could still be miraculous timing, appearing right when they needed it.

Did the Liahona work by Faith in God?

While Alma taught that:

“…it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.”

Alma 37:40 (emphasis mine)

Nephi taught slightly differently:

“… I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them.”

1 Nephi 16:28 (emphasis mine)

If you don’t read these side-by-side you might not notice that Nephi doesn’t say anything about faith in God causing the liahona to work. Nephi says it functioned according to the faith, heed, and diligence they gave unto the pointers of the ball, not faith in God. Nephi describes what could potentially be a mechanical device that requires ongoing expert care and attention to operate. This doesn’t sound like a regular magnetic compass, but there are other possible navigation devices.

What might the Liahona have been?

Nephi describes the Liahona as:

…a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go in the wilderness…

1 Nephi 16:10

Gervais and Joyce introduce suggest that the liahona may have been an astrolabe.  An astrolabe is a complicated inclinometer; a mechanical calculator used in astronomy. One of the main uses of the astrolabe is to triangulate direction, which would be very useful navigating places where there are no landmarks (e.g. deserts or oceans). There is a spherical astrolabe in the Oxford Museum of the History of Science that sounds quite similar to the liahona: “it is a finely worked decorative object. The brass globe is made of two hemispheres that neatly screw together … The enclosing rete, which must rotate smoothly on the perfectly round sphere, is also of brass.” Check out this picture of the spherical astrolabe in the museum.

What about the writing on the Liahona miraculously appearing?

Nephi says writing occurs on the liahona, and it sounds like surprised everyone:

And it came to pass that when my father beheld the things which were written upon the ball, he did fear and tremble exceedingly, and also my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and our wives. … And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it.

1 Nephi 16:28–29 (emphasis mine)

Gervais and Joyce think the pointers are a weird place for writing if the rest of the spherical instrument was just casing for directional pointers (imagine trying to read something written on a compass needle), but not as much if the pointers are the rete on an astrolabe. A rete is a movable framework with a projection and pointers indicating the positions of the brightest stars. It’s like a star chart that you can adjust to the match the time/date. The words time to time may literally refer to updating the liahona’s settings. Moving the retia (plural of rete) potentially uncovers information engraved on the ball. Information about water sources or religious messages were often associated with or written on astrolabes.

Why did the Liahona stop working when Nephi was tied up at sea?

Nephi never claims the liahona stops working because of a lack of faith. If the liahona required expert skills, and if Nephi was that expert, then he couldn’t operate it while tied up. Nephi and Lehi may have learned how to operate the liahona from Ishmael. Once Nephi is tied up on the ship, the others may have simply been unable to operate it well. Lehi was old and doing poorly, and Ishmael was deceased by this point in the narrative. Everyone was worried that they are going to die after Ishmael died, possibly because of the loss of his expertise. Perhaps this expertise is what Laman refers to when he says “[Nephi] worketh many things by his cunning arts” (1 Nephi 16:37–38 ).

Maybe Laman and Lemuel thought they could operate the liahona, and it took them four days to realise that they weren’t doing it so well. After Nephi is untied he says “…I took the compass, and it did work whither I desired it” (1 Nephi 18:21). Nephi also says: “I Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:22). It was the wind and the storm that stopped after Nephi’s prayer, the liahona started working before that.

Alma’s Liahona

Alma’s liahona is a spiritual metaphor for the word of God. Like the liahona guided Nephi and others to the promised land, the word of God guides us “beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise”. Nephi describes what could be a mechanical navigation device. It might be possible, as suggested by Gervais and Joyce, that the liahona was something like an astrolabe. Astrolabes like the one in the picture aren’t known to have been invented as early as the setting at the start of the Book of Mormon (approximately 600 B.C.). However, I really like how they challenge the traditional understanding of how the liahona operated. They use the text of the Book of Mormon and about as much creative speculation as the traditional reading requires. Even if the liahona wasn’t given to Lehi by Ishmael, or if the liahona was not an astrolabe, the text in 1-2 Nephi does not explicitly claim that the liahona works by faith in God, or that God hand made it, or that the delivery itself was miraculous. Reading the article by Gervais and Joyce opened my eyes to some of the assumptions I have been making as I read these stories, and opened my eyes to some fresh possibilities. I hope you enjoy re-reading these stories with these thoughts in mind.

Jesus’ Birthday and D&C 20

Throughout the world, many people celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th. It’s widely known, however, that we do not celebrate on this day because it was actually Jesus’ birth date. In the centuries following Christ’s life, many birth-dates were proposed. From about 200AD, people celebrated Christmas on January 6th. By 336AD people were celebrating Christmas on December 25th though.

Over the years, some Latter-Day Saint leaders have taught that the exact date of Jesus’ birth was revealed to Joseph Smith as 6 April 1AD. While most church leaders have not opined on this topic, we find some church leaders of the opinion that Jesus’ birth date has been revealed and others who do not. This teaching doesn’t meet President Oak’s and Elder Anderson’s full-fifteen rule (discussed in an earlier post), but here are the quotes I could find.

Joseph F Smith – Before 1893

Strictly speaking, if this Church was organized ‘one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior in the flesh’ then the sixth of April must have been the anniversary of the Savior’s birthday.
Church History and Modern Revelation, Vol 1, pp 85 – 86) 

Joseph F Smith takes the date from D&C 20:1 and D&C 21:3. B. H. Roberts’ wrote a book called Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, where he published the quote above, in 1893. The same quote was included in a book written by Joseph Fielding Smith called Church History and Modern Revelation which was used as a Melchizedek priesthood manual starting in 1947.

Elder James E. Talmage – 1915

We believe that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, April 6, B.C. 1. 
Jesus the Christ (1915) 

President J. Reuben Clark Jr. – 1954

...I have taken as the date of the Savior’s birth the date now accepted by many scholars,—late 5 b.c. or early 4 b.c. 
 Our Lords of the Gospels (1954)

Harold B Lee – 1973

April 6, 1973, is a particularly significant date because it commemorates not only the anniversary of the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this dispensation, but also the anniversary of the birth of the Savior, our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith wrote this, preceding a revelation given at that same date:

The rise of the Church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it being regularly organized and established agreeable to the laws of our country, by the will and commandments of God, in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April.” (D&C 20:1.),
1973 April General Conference Strengthen the Stakes of Zion

Elder Bruce R McConkie – 1979

 We do not believe it is possible with the present state of our knowledge—including that which is known both in and out of the Church—to state with finality when the natal day of the Lord Jesus actually occurred.
The Mortal Messiah 1:349. 

Spencer W Kimball – 1980

 My brothers and sisters, today we not only celebrate the Sesquicentennial of the organization of the Church, but also the greatest event in human history since the birth of Christ on this day 1,980 years ago. 
1980 April General Conference, Remarks and Dedication of the Fayette, New York, Buildings

David A Bednar – 2014

 Today is April 6. We know by revelation that today is the actual and accurate date of the Savior’s birth. 
2014 April General Conference, Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease

Was D&C 20:1 a revelation to Joseph Smith?

The leaders believing that Jesus birth date was revelation were acting in good faith, but mistaken. The Joseph Smith Papers Project has shown that D&C 20:1 is not part of the original wording of D&C 20. It was added later, to show the date the Church was organized. It doesn’t seem like D&C 20:1 was a revelation about Jesus’ birth date. It seems that it is actually something like a short introduction or header written by John Whitmer, with a fancy-sounding date. He did this in other places too, as part of his role as a scribe.

The church leaders teaching that Jesus’ birth date was revealed, did not claim personal revelation of this birth date. Many of them largely relied on the interpretation of earlier church leaders, whose published materials they were most likely to read, like Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage. Elder Bednar has been pretty busy since 2004 when he was called to the twelve. He probably doesn’t keep up to date with all the great material BYU or the Joseph Smith Papers pump out. I can’t say I do either. They assumed that Jesus’ birth-date was revealed to Joseph Smith, and had a broad testimony of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling. The findings of the Joseph Smith Papers on the authorship of the relevant verses were published in 2009 and Jeffry Chadwick, Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at BYU Jerusalem, published relevant work in 2010. With the exception of Elder Bednar, none of the previous men had access to this information. Some people I have talked to, have thought that Elder Bednar’s teachings on Jesus’ birth-date mean that the scholars are wrong, but he doesn’t say that. I think it’s more likely that he has not read the available scholarship on this topic. The scholars are mostly employed by the church.

What does modern scholarship tell us about Jesus’ birth date?

In academic circles, it’s generally accepted that Jesus’ birth year was somewhere between 6 and 4 B.C, a few years earlier than one might initially expect (1AD). People didn’t just start counting the years from Jesus’ birth from the day he was born. The BC-AD dating system was created in 525AD but not used much before 800AD. As a result of this, and a lack of scriptural record, they weren’t precisely sure of the year Jesus was born in.

Chadwick thinks Jesus was born in December. He uses scriptural and historical clues to reach this conclusion. I greatly summarise his findings here: Biblically, Jesus was born before King Herod’s death. Historically, King Herod died March-April in 4 B.C. Chadwick takes the time of Jesus’ death into account (as recorded in the Bible and Book of Mormon), His circumcision eight days after his birth, Mary’s 40 days of ritual purification, the wise men, etc. He estimates that Jesus must have been born at least four weeks before April (4 B.C.). Gabrielle appears to Mary telling her she will have a son in the sixth month (Luke 1:26). Adar, the sixth month of the Jewish year is something around February-March, in 5 B.C. Nine months after March comes December.

When all is said and done the facts from the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the history of Josephus, combined with input from archaeological and astronomical research, all point to a day in December of 5 B.C. (late in the Jewish month of Kislev) for the date of Jesus’ birth…

It is just as possible that Jesus was born on the calendar date we call Dec. 25 as on any other date in the few weeks preceding it or following it,…

His birth occurred within those December weeks that we now commonly refer to as the Christmas season.”

Jeffry Chadwick, Dating the Birth of Christ, (2010)

Merry Christmas

While Jesus’ precise birth-date is not an especially important topic, I reckon Chadwick’s findings are a fun reason to celebrate the whole Christmas season. The interpretation tradition of D&C 20:1 teaches some important lessons; 1. broad stroke testimony can sometimes get little details incorrect, 2. there may be different interpretations of scripture, even among the leaders of the church, 3. scholars can make meaningful contributions to our scripture study by revealing contextual and historical details. Some good news is that more and more detail is being made available to us, such as Revelations in Context, the Joseph Smith Papers, BYU studies, the Book of Mormon critical text project, Interpreter Foundation, and more.

I hope you have a very merry Christmas.

Spiritual Fibre

Someone gave us some sultana bran recently. Seeing the bran box on the table with all the “health info” on it got me thinking. I didn’t really know what fibre was. I knew it was in rope, carpet, paper, and some foods but had little understanding of how it contributes to health. As I looked into it I started to wonder if there might be spiritual parallels.

What is fibre?

Dietary fibre is a carb that isn’t digested when eaten. Even though we can’t absorb fibre, it’s still a necessary part of our diet. A healthy amount of fibre in your diet delays sugar absorption (helps control blood sugar levels), makes a person feel satisfied (helps us avoid over-eating), and normalises bowel motions (you get the picture). These have a cascade of health benefits that lead to a longer and more comfortable life. Too little or too much fibre result in discomfort and poorer health.

When we eat something, we first break it down physically with our cutlery, teeth, and stomach. We also digest it, by breaking it down chemically with acid and enzymes and stuff. Then we absorb and assimilate some of it, and pass some of it on. The stuff we absorb strengthens us, energises us, contributes toward our health, and becomes a part of us. There are quite a few neat scriptures that use eating as a metaphor.

Milk and Meat

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he made a diet comparison to spiritual things:

1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

1 Corinthians 3

He compared physical development and suitable diet to spiritual development and suitable teachings. The doctrines we learn can become a part of us. They can change us. Newborns aren’t ready for, or would even be harmed by consuming solid foods, and the Corinthians were not initially ready for some doctrines.

Milk is a simple food containing simple sugars that are easily and quickly digested. Solid foods contain complex carbohydrates like starches and fibre. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest but are a more stable source of energy than simple carbohydrates. Solid foods also contain fibre, unlike milk. Babies tummies can’t handle fibre at first. If you haven’t read any scripture before, starting with Isaiah might be like a baby trying to eat a raw carrot.

As babies consume milk though, they grow and change quite quickly. Soon they are not only able to eat solid foods, but need them. As you grow, you’ll mature enough spiritually that you can try some more solid doctrines, some meat.

Eat the Word

There are are few scriptures that use eating books/scrolls/rolls/words as a symbol for consuming some kind of meaningful spiritual information. Sometimes consuming the information is uplifting and makes you feel chirpy:

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

Jeremiah 15:16

Other times the information is not as obviously uplifting. Sometimes it can make us quite uncomfortable. Ezekiel 3 describes Ezekiel’s call to God’s service. He is instructed to eat a roll (or scroll rather) of lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

Ezekiel 3

The author of Revelation alludes to Ezekiel using the same imagery (Rev. 10:9-11), saying it was bitter in his belly but sweet in his mouth. Even though the roll was of lamentations and mourning and woe, Ezekiel was able to get something sweet out of it. Not only that, afterwards he was told to go and preach God’s word. Somehow, eating the roll, prepared him to teach God’s word and represent God to Israel.

Perhaps these are like fibre in foods. We aren’t meant to absorb these fibrous parts and become them. Sometimes scriptures show us bad examples (like what David does to Bathsheba) that can be used as cautionary tales. Things we should pass on, like fibre. It can still be good for us, even if it’s not something we might hear read as a short spiritual thought. Ecclesiastes is not a peppy encouraging book, Jobs suffering prompts many questions, Judges is a tragedy, the Book of Mormon is full of wars, etc. Wrestling out meaning from these passages can take time but we can learn rewarding lessons from these parts of the scriptures. The truths we learn from difficult passages may be more complex but also richer and longer lasting.

Feast upon the words of Christ

Nephi teaches not just to eat, but to feast;

…feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

2 Nephi 32:3

A feast usually an abundant meal with a variety of dishes. Some dishes may be high in fibre, others not. Within the scriptures, there are a variety of genres. There are narratives, poems, songs, allegories, riddles, and more. This is where the name Holy Bible comes from. Biblia is Latin for library, and the scriptures represent a sacred library.

As we feast on this broad array of scripture and other good literature, we will find some simple things that are quickly digested and easily applied, some that take time and effort to unpack, and some things we just can’t seem to wrap our heads around. We will find some things that are like fibre, that we cannot or should not absorb or become. We really need all these things on our spiritual journey.

Juice

Juice is a drink made from the liquid contained in fruit and vegetables or other foods. Our kids love drinking fruit juice. It’s delicious and it contains most of the vitamins, minerals and stuff in the original food. However, people often add sugar to juice and the original foods also have fiber. You can’t thrive on only juice. If you sit down at a feast, and only drink juice, you’re not really feasting. Juice instead of a feast, will not be near as satisfying, nor will your energy last long. It sounds more like fasting. A juice fast.

Sometimes we juice the scriptures. It’s very easy to do. We might ignore the wars in the Book of Mormon, or only consider the narrative parts of Job and barely skim the poetry (most of the book), or skip over Numbers, etc. If all you read in Jeremiah is a scripture mastery verse, you really won’t have mastered the scriptures. If you only read the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah, you might miss out on the way more obvious messages (e.g. help the needy). When we ignore things we don’t prefer, and only consume what we want, then we are kind of juicing the scriptures.

Fasting or drinking juice is appropriate some of the time but much of the time it is not. The time to feast is not the time to fast. When you’re ready for solids, make sure your spiritual feast includes a variety of spiritual foods, many of which should include a healthy amount of fibre.

Finding Our Way

Sometimes in the scriptures, our spiritual journey to God is described as a straight path. This makes it sound quite simple and direct.

Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him... 2 Nephi 9:41

God walks in a straight path. Sort of. It’s also an eternal round, apparently. Let’s not try to mix the simple “straight” and “round” metaphors just yet. Stick with straight for now.

 God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round. 
D&C 3:2

With actual physical walking, people need guidance or points of reference. A walking person needs to constantly correct their course. They need to use their senses to tell them where to go. We can’t start walking in one direction and just keep going straight. It doesn’t work. Walking is not that simple. Check out the video below:

It’s similar with driving. Even when you want to drive in a straight line along a straight road, you still need to keep your hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road. It’s even worse if you are driving in reverse. Likewise, we can’t just start our spiritual journey in the right direction and expect to continue in that direction without checking in. We need ongoing correction and guidance. This is why ongoing conversion, frequent repentance, and enduring to the end are such important principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Symbols of how the word of God helps us find our way are sometimes found in the scriptures. The word of God guides by revealing our surroundings, by giving direction, and helping us stay on track.

Know where you are

Awareness of one’s surroundings is important. Even if you know where the place you want to go is, if you don’t know where you are, you might have some trouble.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105

A lamp gives light, revealing one’s surroundings. When we liken scripture to ourselves, we see ourselves and our surroundings differently. God’s word is like a lamp, enlightening us, making us aware of ourselves, our situation, our surroundings. But a lamp only illuminates what is close by. You cannot see your distant goals or find direction with a lamp without additional guidance. knowing where we are is not enough.

Direction

We also need direction. If we do not have direction, then we are aimless. We may start going somewhere, but like the blind-folded men in the video, we will wander all over the place. We need a spiritual compass. Alma teaches that the word of God gives us direction, like a compass.

For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land. Alma 37:44

Keeping on Track

Even once you know where you are, and the direction your destination is in, that straight path isn’t always that simple. For instance, a straight line between Jerusalem and anywhere in the Americas would penetrate the earth. Nephi would have had to dig a tunnel instead of building a ship. Nephi used the compass to travel through variable terrain and along the curved surface of the earth, not a perfectly straight line. Alma mixed metaphors a bit, or oversimplified when he says the compass would point them in a straight course to the promised land. We are going to depart from the straight metaphor for this last way the word of God helps us on our complicated spiritual journey. I don’t remember the iron rod being described as perfectly straight by Nephi or Lehi (correct me if wrong here).

When I go hiking, the track is usually not the most direct route, but often the safer and easier route. Hiking tracks often avoid obstacles (cliffs) or overcome them (bridges over streams). There is a symbol in the scriptures about keeping on track. It’s the iron rod in the vision of the tree of life in the Book of Mormon. The iron rod, like the other symbols, guides us. The iron rod does not tell us about our surroundings, or which direction to go in (iron rods go two ways people), but holding on to it while we journey will keep us on the right track. I can imagine it guiding us around some obstacles, not always precisely toward the tree of life, but ultimately taking us to the tree of life.

 And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. 1 Nephi 8:19

Word of God

If we want to know where we are, what direction to head in, and whether we are on the right track, we can use the word of God. We really need to do all three. Sometimes you might find the word of God in the scriptures, sometimes you might feel it through the Holy Spirit, sometimes it will come in the words of a friend or someone you trust, sometimes it is Jesus Christ himself. Shine a light on your surroundings, move in the right direction, keep on track. This will guide on your spiritual journey to God and His love.

Sometimes I share my testimony in fast and testimony meetings. When I say “I believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God”, I usually mean that it helps me see where I am, the direction I need to go in, and if I am on the track. I mean that the Book of Mormon guides me toward God’s love.