The sword of Laban plays a prominent role in the Book of Mormon narrative as a Nephite national t... more The sword of Laban plays a prominent role in the Book of Mormon narrative as a Nephite national treasure. Scholarly analysis of this regal heirloom has primarily concentrated upon its physical construction in relation to ancient Near Eastern metallurgical technology. However, when examined within the cultural milieu of the ancient world, along with data from Church history, the scriptures, and Jewish tradition, the sword of Laban takes on new significance. Though the Book of Mormon reveals that the sword of Laban served as an ancestral and hereditary sword of the ancient Nephite prophets, evidence suggests that the weapon may have been the birthright sword of biblical tradition, a sacred heirloom that may have been wielded by the patriarchs up until the time of Joseph of Egypt. Laban, being a descendant of Joseph, inherited the birthright sword and the plates of brass, both treasures eventually coming into the possession of Nephi, who was both a prophet and a descendant of Joseph, a...
... all I thank William C. Davis and the Edi-torial Board for responding positively to this work,... more ... all I thank William C. Davis and the Edi-torial Board for responding positively to this work, but particularly to edi-tor Leigh Ann Berry, with ... A relative of the author, Jackson Brewer, a prisoner of war at both Libby Prison in Virginia and at Andersonville, Georgia, who served in Co. ...
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1998
This fascinating intellectual biography of Benjamin Franklin embodies persuasive ideas about his ... more This fascinating intellectual biography of Benjamin Franklin embodies persuasive ideas about his career from 1722 to approximately 1760. Anderson's study has several major aims: it primarily emphasizes the great familiarity of Franklin with the literary techniques and tenets of Lord Shaftesbury, Daniel Defoe, and other seventeenth-and eighteenth-century British writers. Anderson as well lucidly examines the development of Franklin's religious, scientific, and political thinking. The author, who recognizes the importance of Margaret Jacob's study of the Radical Enlightenment, develops the thesis that as a result of his involvement in these fields, the Philadelphia sage assumed an active part in shaping major ideologies of the transatlantic cultural movement. Anderson's study is both chronologically and topically arranged and consists of eight evenly balanced chapters. The first three chapters of the book focus on the literary dimensions and on the ethical and religious concepts of Franklin's early life. In the first chapter, Anderson devotes considerable attention to an analysis of select letters of "Silence Dogood." Issued in 1722, the year before Franklin went to Philadelphia, these letters illustrate the influence of ideas and techniques found in Defoe's Essay on Projects. The author, moreover, perceptively notes that these casual letters reveal Franklin's views concerning hypocrisy, jealousy, anger, wit, pride, and humility, Franklin's concept of benevolence also appears in one of these letters and closely resembles that advanced in a Letter concerning Enthusiasm by Shaftesbury. The chapter also contains a detailed examination of Franklin's Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure andPain y published in 1725. Franklin mentions various forms of pleasure and pain found in civil society and is indebted to Lord Shaftesbury and James Ralph for their thinking about these two pertinent concepts. The Dissertation is also important for delineating Franklin's views on the attributes of Deity, the orderly operations of nature, the power of human reason, and the immortality of the soul. The second chapter contains sections outlining his ethico-religious doctrines; Anderson depicts Franklin as an ethical activist, claiming that such virtues as
The sword of Laban plays a prominent role in the Book of Mormon narrative as a Nephite national t... more The sword of Laban plays a prominent role in the Book of Mormon narrative as a Nephite national treasure. Scholarly analysis of this regal heirloom has primarily concentrated upon its physical construction in relation to ancient Near Eastern metallurgical technology. However, when examined within the cultural milieu of the ancient world, along with data from Church history, the scriptures, and Jewish tradition, the sword of Laban takes on new significance. Though the Book of Mormon reveals that the sword of Laban served as an ancestral and hereditary sword of the ancient Nephite prophets, evidence suggests that the weapon may have been the birthright sword of biblical tradition, a sacred heirloom that may have been wielded by the patriarchs up until the time of Joseph of Egypt. Laban, being a descendant of Joseph, inherited the birthright sword and the plates of brass, both treasures eventually coming into the possession of Nephi, who was both a prophet and a descendant of Joseph, a...
... all I thank William C. Davis and the Edi-torial Board for responding positively to this work,... more ... all I thank William C. Davis and the Edi-torial Board for responding positively to this work, but particularly to edi-tor Leigh Ann Berry, with ... A relative of the author, Jackson Brewer, a prisoner of war at both Libby Prison in Virginia and at Andersonville, Georgia, who served in Co. ...
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1998
This fascinating intellectual biography of Benjamin Franklin embodies persuasive ideas about his ... more This fascinating intellectual biography of Benjamin Franklin embodies persuasive ideas about his career from 1722 to approximately 1760. Anderson's study has several major aims: it primarily emphasizes the great familiarity of Franklin with the literary techniques and tenets of Lord Shaftesbury, Daniel Defoe, and other seventeenth-and eighteenth-century British writers. Anderson as well lucidly examines the development of Franklin's religious, scientific, and political thinking. The author, who recognizes the importance of Margaret Jacob's study of the Radical Enlightenment, develops the thesis that as a result of his involvement in these fields, the Philadelphia sage assumed an active part in shaping major ideologies of the transatlantic cultural movement. Anderson's study is both chronologically and topically arranged and consists of eight evenly balanced chapters. The first three chapters of the book focus on the literary dimensions and on the ethical and religious concepts of Franklin's early life. In the first chapter, Anderson devotes considerable attention to an analysis of select letters of "Silence Dogood." Issued in 1722, the year before Franklin went to Philadelphia, these letters illustrate the influence of ideas and techniques found in Defoe's Essay on Projects. The author, moreover, perceptively notes that these casual letters reveal Franklin's views concerning hypocrisy, jealousy, anger, wit, pride, and humility, Franklin's concept of benevolence also appears in one of these letters and closely resembles that advanced in a Letter concerning Enthusiasm by Shaftesbury. The chapter also contains a detailed examination of Franklin's Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure andPain y published in 1725. Franklin mentions various forms of pleasure and pain found in civil society and is indebted to Lord Shaftesbury and James Ralph for their thinking about these two pertinent concepts. The Dissertation is also important for delineating Franklin's views on the attributes of Deity, the orderly operations of nature, the power of human reason, and the immortality of the soul. The second chapter contains sections outlining his ethico-religious doctrines; Anderson depicts Franklin as an ethical activist, claiming that such virtues as
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