About & Contact

Welcome aboard!

This site is being designed to help simplify the complicated, especially concerning the world of the Old Testament and Intertestamental literature, but also concerning the History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As sad as it may be, not everyone has the time, desire, ability, or sheer willpower to study ancient texts, and to correlate their significance!

This is an exciting time for Biblical studies. In recent years, the discovery and study of many ancient manuscripts has greatly widened our ability to understand the World of the Old Testament, as well as many of the ‘missing links’ between the cultures and religious understanding concerning the Old and New Testaments.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as such, “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.” (Articles of Faith 1:9). As an extension of this,  I also believe that prophets, ancient and modern,  regularly applied contemporary stories and legends, as well as expanded older prophetic texts (creating, for all intents and purposes,  ‘new’ scriptures and scriptural interpretations from the old), and added and extrapolated additional truths and application from them specific to their present circumstances and message that , while not necessarily intended by the original authors, are highly beneficial and equally inspired.

An important part of the Scriptures is this very aspect of their timelessness – there is much that can be applied with today’s understanding and circumstances to the inspired words of the ancient writers that we are so far removed from!  However, in many cases, these useful and inspiring modern devotional readings of the text are often vastly different from how the original audience of these texts understood them. Symbolism and culture have changed, and in many cases elements necessary for viewing the text as it originally had been viewed has been completely lost through the years, and even more so through translation.

One of the key goals of this site will be to help open up one of many aspects of the scriptural texts: how they were understood when they were written. There is no desire to take away from the additional layers of meaning they have expressed in the centuries that came afterward. But that aspect of the scriptures is not within the scope of this site. While my primary focus will be the period of the Old Testament and with New Testament application, I will from time to time include references from the  Book of Mormon and other revelations of the Restoration to illustrate uses and application of the discussed symbols, as well as utilizing many additional contemporary non-canonical texts of import and interest.

I’ve learned by experience that sometimes, a picture, or a symbol, truly can speak a thousand words -or clarify the obscure!  And sometimes, a concept is simply needed to be broken down in simplified language. I will be attempting to do both on this site.

I am very open to receiving questions about anything found here, and I'll do my best to either  answer according to what I know, and/or  find the answers from someone who knows better! Again, welcome to the blog!