jeffbradshawIn God’s Image and Likeness: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Book of Moses is a newly published work by Senior Research Scientist and LDS author Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, PhD.  I have, in the past couple of years, come to know Dr. Bradshaw and his excellent work in religious studies, and am very excited about the release of this new book.  I now have the opportunity to present to you an interview that he has granted me concerning his compelling and powerful analysis of the Book of Moses.

A few words of background… I have had the pleasure of working with Jeff on a number of issues, especially concerning the similarities between the Book of Moses and ancient pseudepigraphal texts such as the Apocalypse of Abraham. He presented some of our findings (I must admit that he did most of the work!) at the FAIR conferences in both France and Germany earlier this year, and later at an Eborn Books event in August, under the title  ”The Apocalypse of Abraham: An Ancient Witness for the Book of Moses.” We are currently preparing a related article under the working title: “The Vision of Moses as a heavenly ascent: New light from the Apocalypse of Abraham.”

In all my many interactions with Jeff, I have found him to be extremely knowledgeable and informed on a vast array of topics, from LDS doctrine and history to ancient Jewish and Christian religious texts and quite literally everything in between! He is a constant and dependable source of insights — and I have found that when I have questions and problems in my own research, I can always go to Jeff to find some hidden treasure that helps unlock the mysteries. On a personal note, I have found Jeff to be a very kind individual, and while highly dedicated to his work, he is very generous with his time. He is both well-informed in biblical scholarship and profoundly committed to his faith. I definitely expect to see more great things to come from Jeff, just because that is his nature.

This new book, as I’ve come to know, has been the work of countless hours of research, deep thought, and, I’m sure, a good amount of prayer.  Although still working hard as a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida, which has him travelling all over the world,  he has made time to produce an enormous work of well over a thousand pages of concise, relevant and highly significant findings on the first chapters of the Book of Moses (from the LDS Pearl of Great Price), including in his analysis prophetic insights, excerpts from ancient texts, current scientific perspectives, and up-to-date biblical scholarship relevant to this profound revelation. He looks at the stories of the Grand Councils in Heaven, the Creation, the Fall, the Plan of Salvation and other doctrines that are foundational to our faith and which are given especial clarity in the Book of Moses.  Dr. Bradshaw puts this all into perspective by taking into account the vast ancient literature provided by Jewish commentators, Islamic scholars, and early Christian Fathers, and adds to it his own expertise on these matters and his insights into the perennial controversies over science and religion.

This volume is amazingly comprehensive, covering an incredible array of doctrinal issues, and will prove to be an invaluable and irreplaceable resource on the Book of Moses and other related issues for the foreseeable future. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

From the website dedicated to the book, http://www.imageandlikeness.net:

The central message of the book of Moses is not revealed in its stories of the Creation and the Fall, as essential as these accounts may be, but rather in its description of the foundations of human perfection. In God’s Image and Likeness is the most comprehensive commentary ever published on the beautiful and doctrinally-rich Joseph Smith Translation of the early chapters of Genesis.

The book has been printed and limited quantities will begin to appear in selected bookstores by Christmas 2009. It can currently be ordered directly from the publisher, Eborn Books, at Amazon.com (link). The retail price is $49.99.

It is with great gratitude and sincere pleasure that I share with you the first post of a multi-part conversation with Jeffrey Bradshaw regarding his thoughts on the Book of Moses and the upcoming release of his publication.

bradshawbook

Questions for Jeff Bradshaw on In God’s Image and Likeness

[David] What were some of the reasons you decided to make the Book of Moses your subject? What did you hope to contribute with your volume that previous treatments have not covered?

[Dr. Jeffrey Bradshaw] I have loved the book of Genesis since I was a child. I’ve tried to write the kind of book that I should have liked to have had at the beginning of my own study, if only it had been, in addition, written by someone with better credentials in the relevant fields of scholarship than I can claim. I wanted to make as many of the relevant resources—both from inside and outside the LDS tradition—available and accessible to amateurs like myself.

The beauty and richness of the book of Moses is incredible and intimidating. Not only do we have in these few pages the foundations of LDS doctrine about the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement, but also, from a literary perspective, we are looking at one of the most subtly-written prose accounts ever composed. Apart from the life of Christ, these stories of the beginning have been the subject of more commentary, art, and music than any other subject in the Bible, and parallel accounts of great interest have been found in religious traditions around the world. Many of the ancient documents have only come to light in recent decades. The basic questions raised by science are also found here, and cannot be ignored in any serious treatment of this book of scripture. I felt that all of these major sources and perspectives—the prophetic commentary, the traditions of world religions, the art, the scholarship, the science—needed to be adequately represented in the commentary.

Of very personal significance is the extent to which a careful study of the book of Moses has enriched my experience of temple worship. In return, insights received in the course of temple worship have added immeasurably to my appreciation and understanding of the book of Moses.

[David]At over 1000 pages long, a comprehensive commentary, hundreds of notes, an amazing array of colorful images and instructive diagrams, dozens of excurses and a long appendix, an incredible bibliography, and exhaustive (and very helpful) indices, this is a truly monumental and formidable piece of writing. May I ask how long you have worked on this project and what kind of time commitment went into its production? How do you feel now that it is finished and prepared for publication?

[Dr. Jeffrey Bradshaw] The project came to be during a year-long stay in Toulouse, France. Our family’s move there came unexpectedly, on the heels of Hurricane Ivan which destroyed our home in Pensacola, Florida. The whole experience turned out to be a blessing in many ways.

Being in Europe allowed me to have a few hours of study and writing each morning before my colleagues in the USA woke up. In addition, my work requires quite a bit of travel. Because I could sometimes squeeze in a little extra time when I was traveling, I got used to taking an extra bag with seventy pounds of books along with me wherever I went. (Fortunately, the airlines were a bit more generous on baggage allowances at that time than they are now.)

Once the idea took hold, the book almost wrote itself. I’ve never had another writing project where the words and ideas came so easily. I started writing the overview of Moses 1 in September 2005, and by the end of 2006, a little over a year from when I began, I had a fairly complete draft in hand of all the commentary chapters and significant portions of the excursus, appendix, and annotated bibliography.

[David] What were some of the main obstacles that you encountered as you were working on this project?

[Dr. Jeffrey Bradshaw] Publication turned out to be the most challenging part of the process. In the spring of 2006, I signed an agreement with an LDS publisher, and had expected that the book would appear sometime in 2007. Eventually, given continuing uncertainties about schedule, price, and production quality, I proposed that we part ways.

When I approached Bret Eborn about the project in January 2009, he was immediately enthusiastic. There was no question in his mind that this had to be a publication of the highest quality, including 1100 offset-printed pages in large 8 ½ x 11 format, a substantial color plates section, a durable hardcover binding, and a beautiful full-color dust jacket. Moreover, when we realized that the demanding production requirements and the relatively small size of the print run would normally entail a retail price of about $120, he came up with a creative solution to subsidize the printing costs so we could keep the price below $50. A handful of very generous benefactors purchased copies of a deluxe leather edition of the book that made this price reduction possible. I don’t know of any other LDS publisher besides Eborn who would have been able and willing to take on such a large and complex project on such an aggressive schedule.

In retrospect, the previous publication delays turned out to be a blessing, allowing my son Samuel and I to take on the responsibility ourselves for book design, typesetting, and indexing. I can’t imagine anyone else being willing to go through what we did in order to execute our vision for the look and feel of the volume. In addition, the delays allowed me to continue to tinker with the content of the manuscript itself up to the very last minute: adding new ideas and sources, correcting errors, and smoothing out awkward phrasing.

[David] What is the significance of the title In God’s Image and Likeness? What aspects of the Book of Moses do you hope to emphasize?

[Dr. Jeffrey Bradshaw] A wonderful book by Gary A. Anderson, called The Genesis of Perfection, provided the spark of inspiration for the title. His premise is that the story of Adam and Eve “is not an account of sin alone but the beginning of a drama about becoming a being who fully reflects God’s very own image. Genesis is not only about the origins of sin; it is also about the foundations of human perfection. The work that God has begun in Creation He will bring to completion.… [E]arly Jewish and Christian readers [were] aware of this while most of their modern counterparts have not been” (p. 8).

In reading that passage, I realized that no group of Christians are more fully justified in believing such assertions than we are. No other body of contemporary Christians takes more seriously than we do the words of Christ when He commanded His followers to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect (see Matthew 5:48; 3 Nephi 12:48). By this we mean not only wholly like Him in character, but also, eventually, fully resembling Him in glorious resurrected bodily form.

In considering these ideas, it also became clear to me that the stories of the Creation and the Fall in Moses 1-4, as essential as they are, are but prologue to the account of the unfolding of a progressive series of covenants given in Moses 5-8. In the book of Moses, we read that through faithfulness to each of these covenants, including the final covenant of consecration, Enoch and his people became “of one heart and one mind” (Moses 7:18), and were taken up to walk in the presence of God. With similar intent, the book of Moses seems to have been expressly written to “call [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Note Mercy Fielding Thompson’s recollection that the Prophet Joseph Smith specifically applied these words to the blessings of the temple endowment (“Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Juvenile Instructor, 1 July 1892, p. 400, cited in Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, p. 414).

To be continued…

Please check back soon for more from Dr. Jeffrey Bradshaw on this powerful and enlightening new book. Please see www.imageandlikeness.net for more information about the book and its author.




Continue reading at the original source →