David Bokovoy

Recently, while teaching the attestation of creation imagery in the Book of Mormon (one of my personal favorite topics), I shared with a couple of classes what in my estimation represents a wonderful insight concerning “scriptural language” from Israeli scholar Moshe Seidel.  As a result of some interest in the quote, I’m providing an English translation of Seidel’s comments.  Enjoy!

“The words a person reads and hears and repeats become his own, enter his verbal storehouse. When needed they become, even if he does not know it, the clothing for the thoughts to which he gives birth. Sacred literature, the inheritance of earlier generations, is incised on the heart of the prophets and sacred poets; it is their fount and the object of their musing, something they have contemplated many a day. Therefore the idea which appeared to them through the holy spirit finds expression in the same linguistic forms and phrases that were impressed in their hearts, became habitual on their lips and were made a part of the prophets themselves.”[1]

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[1] Moshe Seidel, “Parallels Between the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Psalms,” Sinai 38 [1955-56], 149 [Hebrew].

For the serious student of the Bible, the book of Leviticus holds countless treasures.  Far from merely a boring compilation of Priestly legislation and purification ritual, the book of Leviticus reveals important theological issues connected with temple worship, holiness, and the biblical mandate for humanity to become like God.  The Biblical call to holiness relies upon an extremely subtle view connecting life with deity and death with the unclean/profane.  Interestingly, via the Priestly author Jacob, the Book of Mormon reflects this extremely subtle Old Testament perspective.

It’s my hope that the following four part series exploring the relationship between the Bible and the Book of Mormon in terms of the doctrine of holiness will prove well worth the time taken by listeners to understand this extraordinary theological/literary link between modern revelation and the ancient world.

Here are the links to this series:

Click here for part 1

Click here for part 2

Click here for part 3

Click here for part 4

The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship has begun to publish a new academic journal entitled Studies in the Bible and in Antiquity. I had an opportunity to contribute to the first edition, with an article devoted to a ritual analysis of Genesis 27.  I wrote the initial version of this paper to fulfill portions of the requirements for a course on ritual in the Hebrew Bible I took as a doctoral student at Brandeis University with Professor David P. Wright.   The article illustrates how understanding the importance of ritual performances can help readers interpret literary texts.  An online link to the article can be found here:

Genesis 27 article link

As a student of the Bible, much of my interest revolves around the attestation and function of the Divine Council.   Here is a link to an article I wrote for the Journal of Biblical Literature concerning the invocation of the Council as witnesses in the divine decision making process. Clicking on the picture of the journal takes you directly to the website: