Royal Skousen's Book of Mormon project needs new home

[_sock puppet]

$40,000 to keep that dig into the Cumorah hillside active seems like a bargain. Hope Dr. Peterson and the Interpreter is able to find the patrons to make this happen.

They'll find LDS patrons, but won't find any evidence.

[_Zub Zool oan]

Didn't Skousen go outside of the Mormon publishing system? Maybe he's being punished. The church, one would think, would use the Joseph Smith Translation - I mean first hand, from the prophet of the restoration - but it is published by the other guys and the church doesn't receive royalties. It couldn't be that trite could it?

[_Rollo Tomasi]

"[O]wing to unwelcome external circumstances"? Now that sounds interesting (and possibly even scandalous).

[_Bazooka]

"[O]wing to unwelcome external circumstances"? Now that sounds interesting (and possibly even scandalous).

I have a transcript of the exchange that prompted that comment.

Mystery Voice 1 - "Can I have some more money?"
Mystery Voice 2 - "No"

[Guest]

Does anyone have any idea why Royal Skousen would need $40,000.00 for a year? I thought the project was done and therefore required no further money.

Assuming he gets the funding, what will he do over the next year, and will another donation be required next year, too, in an ongoing fashion?

I assume the funding is needed in connection with Volume 3 of the Critical Text Project, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, which has not been published yet (mentioned here). Volume 5, a computerized collation, has also not yet been released.

I would note some possibly related developments in October. In early October, the Interpreter Foundation posted the six parts of Volume 4, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, on its website. At the end of October, the Maxwell Institute posted Volumes 1 (a typographical facsimile of the extant text of the Original Manuscript), 2 (a typographical facsimile of the entire text of the Printer's Manuscript, in two parts), and 4 on its website. Why would results of the Critical Text Project be posted online by competing organizations in the same month?

Daniel Peterson's recent fundraising letter may contain some clues:

In October 2014, at his initiative and with his kind cooperation, Interpreter made the six massive books of Volume 4 of Royal Skousen’s magisterial Book of Mormon Critical Text Project easily accessible online, at no charge. (See http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/books/ ... of-mormon/ .) Crucially, too, we did it in a way that respects his copyright and intellectual property rights to the greatest extent possible. This represented an unparalleled opportunity for us; his project, perhaps the most impressive and sustained single scholarly effort of an individual Latter-day Saint since the original publication of the Book of Mormon, represents nearly thirty years of devoted, faithful, painstaking, and meticulous work.

(emphasis added)

[_Tom]

Didn't Skousen go outside of the Mormon publishing system? Maybe he's being punished. The church, one would think, would use the Joseph Smith Translation - I mean first hand, from the prophet of the restoration - but it is published by the other guys and the church doesn't receive royalties. It couldn't be that trite could it?

It does seem to be some dispute over intellectual property rights. In this connection, I would also note that Skousen's publication of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text with Yale University Press in 2009 seemed to make some people at BYU and in SLC unhappy.

[_Analytics]

I assume the funding is needed in connection with Volume 3 of the Critical Text Project, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon...

In other words, Skousen simply doesn't want to give his intellectual property rights to the MI and/or BYU and/or the Church?

It reminds me of how after a lifetime of service to the Church, Leonard Arrington donated all of his papers to USU rather than to the Church.

It is clear that the Church no longer wishes to fund this research, neither directly nor indirectly. But why? Is that because they see no upside in this research, or is it because they'd be willing to fund it, but only if they own the intellectual property that results?

[_kairos]

It is very sad but darkly humorous that skousen could not see the scam mo'ism is and the fiction of the BOM-instead he spent his LIFE trying to make sense and to find the earliest true version. Too bad he did not have a vision to tell him this is all bullS&^t.
I can only come up with mental illness as causing skousen to proceed on this path. and now he wants 40k to continue. another thing i cannot believe is that oxford university printed his "masterpiece"-they are sick or had their arm twisted- i bet there is a Mormon connection in there somewhere.

Sad and sick- mo'ism has screwed a perhaps legit scholar into a contributor to the greatest scom on earth.

just sayin
k

[_Yahoo Bot]

Begging for donations is becoming a fairly common event for DCP.

I am a board member of a non-profit. Begging for donations constitutes about 90 percent of our existence.

[_Chap]

Begging for donations is becoming a fairly common event for DCP.

I am a board member of a non-profit. Begging for donations constitutes about 90 percent of our existence.

Yup. I know about that. But in this case, the OP makes it clear something unusual and unexpected is happening:

In a lengthy appeal for funding to keep the Interpreter Foundation afloat, Daniel Peterson indicates that, "owing to unwelcome external circumstances," Royal Skousen's Book of Mormon Critical Text Project "suddenly needs to find a new home." Skousen is now seeking $40,000 for a year to continue the project outside the auspices of the Maxwell Institute and has gone so far as to approach the Interpreter Foundation for help. (Peterson reports on Facebook that Skousen "wants nothing more to do with the Maxwell Institute.")