''The Foundation for Indigenous Research and Mormonism''

[Guest]

There was an enormous investment of analysis and scholarship that went into tagging and creating a searchable database of the Hebrew- and Aramaic-language Dead Sea Scrolls. (Do you, incidentally, know a Semitic language? The morphological analysis required for identifying verbal and nominal forms across their various permutations and combinations took years by itself.)

I'm not trying to downplay the importance of the involvement, it is just that the initial information provided seemed to me to be a bit less than I had originally thought it might have been.

Without question, I'm sure it was difficult to create a searchable database to account for the verbal and nominal forms of the language.

The thing is, I thought there was more analysis of the actual text and the meaning derived therefrom, that was being accomplished.

Database management is a tedious, and thankless, job, but very important and invaluable to those who make use of those tools developed.

[_Daniel Peterson]

If you're interested in our Dead Sea Scrolls database, here's some information about it:

http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=18&pid=25695

And here's the Wikipedia entry on our friend and colleague Emanuel Tov:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Tov

[_AlmaBound]

If you're interested in our Dead Sea Scrolls database, here's some information about it:

http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=18&pid=25695

And here's the Wikipedia entry on our friend and colleague Emanuel Tov:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Tov

Excellent, thank you very much.

[_Mister Scratch]

Scratch, I'm not in the mood to gratify your perpetually conspiratorial suspicions that something sinister and underhanded was going on.

I've told the story. While, obviously, I could give more details -- it would require hours and hours to do so -- what I've written here is the essential outline.

Nothing I can do or say will ever convince you that I'm not a scoundrel, that we're not collectively up to something no good, etc. You're a lost cause. I don't write for you or for any of the other Scratches. I write for normal people.

Okay. All I'm asking is how/why apologetics managed to somehow scuttle in under the guise of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. I guess you are unwilling to provide an answer. Big surprise.

[_Daniel Peterson]

All I'm asking is how/why apologetics managed to somehow scuttle in under the guise of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. I guess you are unwilling to provide an answer. Big surprise.

To a rigged question like that one?

Nope. No surprise at all.




.

[_Mister Scratch]

All I'm asking is how/why apologetics managed to somehow scuttle in under the guise of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. I guess you are unwilling to provide an answer. Big surprise.

To a rigged question like that one?

Nope. No surprise at all.




.

How is it "rigged"?

[_Daniel Peterson]

How is it "rigged"?

You're no more as dense as you're pretending to be than you're the paranoiac that you often feign yourself to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_many_questions

[_harmony]

Bingo!

How shocking and shameful that a substantial project that I founded, created, and direct at BYU reflects my academic interests!

Exactly. Which is why I was supporting you once again.

[_Mister Scratch]

How is it "rigged"?

You're no more as dense as you're pretending to be than you're the paranoiac that you often feign yourself to be.

Obviously, this means that you cannot conceive of a way to "spin" this story. The simple truth ought to stand on its own. For you, apparently, this isn't the case. In any event, I'm sure that readers can see that you are being evasive yet again. A simple, honest answer would have sufficed. Instead, you refuse to provide it.

[_Gadianton]

have speculated for a long time that its chief function is first and foremost Mopologetics. The other stuff is a ruse, meant to help lend credibility to the true function, which is LDS apologetics

I'm inclined to agree. It's much like baking a fruitcake for the non-member a couple of doors down. the fruitcake delivery can stand on its own if it has to, but its intent always is a stepping stone to eventually "share the gospel" and baptize the neighbor.

I put up an old slide I had on my blog today describing the various tiers of apologetics.