EXPANDED REPORTS NOW AVAILABLE

Four reports previously made available through the foundation have recently been upgraded, each in the following way:

(1) Keith Meservy's 1978 article on Ezekiel 37, "Discoveries at Nimrud and the 'Sticks' of Ezekiel," is now available together with his recent installment from the Ensign (February 1987). The Ensign article, entitled "Ezekiel's Sticks and the Gathering of Israel," reports new developments in the understanding of Ezekiel's prophecy. For instance, the article details substantial evidence, building upon the idea proposed in the 1978 report, that the sticks to which Ezekiel refers were wax writing boards. Anciently, wooden or ivory boards were filled with wax, inscribed with a stylus, then bound together to protect the writing surfaces, making them "one in the hand" of the scribe. The article recounts several discoveries of wax writing boards. The most recent as well as the oldest example, dating from the 14th century B.C., was reported found last year in a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey.

(2) George Tate's report on "The Typology of the Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon" has been augmented by a recent note in the Ensign entitled "Nephi and the Exodus." The earlier article focuses on the theme of Exodus typology as central to the Book of Mormon. Tate points out that Nephi not only was conscious of the parallels between his family's exodus from Jerusalem and the account of Israel's liberation from Egypt, but he uses them in a powerful way to unify and inspire his people. The more recent article indicates that the use of the Exodus as a pattern for historical events is distinctively Jewish. It is significant to understand the way New World prophets viewed the Exodus as a type of God's deliverance of his children from all kinds of bondage, including spiritual bondage (Alma 36:27-28). Many details show that the Exodus was viewed by Nephi as a prototype of the deliverance of Lehi and his group from the destruction of Jerusalem. This supplement has been added to the earlier piece at no additional price increase.

(3) John Tvedtnes' lengthy article on the "Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon" has now been upgraded with a helpful and more readable overview of the highly technical 140-page paper. The supplement, entitled "The Isaiah Texts in the Book of Mormon," was printed in Isaiah and the Prophets, edited by Monte S. Nyman and published by the BYU Religious Studies Center. The combined report, exhaustively listing every Isaiah passage in the Book of Mormon that differs from the KJV in light of other Isaiah variants from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Vulgate, and other ancient translations, is still available for the original price of $5.00.

(4) In 1984, the Foundation reprinted Grant Underwood's paper, "Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology" That article subsequently was honored by Dialogue as its best article of the year. A year later, Underwood published a sequel, entitled "The Earliest Reference Guides to the Book of Mormon," in the Journal of Mormon History. That article is now available as a separate report. In the subsequent article, Underwood discusses the ways in which the Book of Mormon was understood by the editors who compiled the first summaries and synopses of the book for L.D.S. use. For example, Underwood demonstrates that three prominent motifs emerge among non-narrative references: a clear preoccupation with prophecy, an intense interest in the miraculous, and an explicit, though sometimes unconscious, link with the Bible.