Dean Jessee - an awesome historian

 Dean Jessee has passed away. Dean was one of a handful of important, influential LDS historians who were a big influence on me. 

When I first delved into Church history with the research that led to my book The Lost City of Zarahemla, which among other things discussed the origin of the 1842 Times and Seasons articles that launched M2C, I met with Dean and showed him what I had discovered. He was enthusiastic and strongly encouraged me to keep working on Church history, which I did. He even wanted me to come teach his High Priests Quorum someday, but I had too many other Sunday commitments and never was able to do that.

Dean wanted to make original documents available to Latter-day Saints everywhere, which led to the Joseph Smith Papers. 

He was not interested in pursuing or promoting specific narratives the way so many other LDS historians do today.

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Here's an excellent article about Dean Jessee.

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2026/01/05/latter-day-saint-historian-dean-jessee-dies-joseph-smith-papers/

As the article notes, 

In the nearly 40 years Jessee then proceeded to work in the office and Church History Department, he published several works including a series of journal articles for BYU Studies, a book titled “The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith,” and two volumes of “The Papers of Joseph Smith.” These scholarly works were among the first published on Joseph Smith’s documents, Esplin said.

I still remember the day I was reading these books and saw, for the first time, the letter Joseph wrote to Emma that included this passage:

The whole of our journey, in the midst of so large a company of social honest men and sincere men, wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity...

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letterbook-2/62

I thought, why haven't I heard about this before?

And if Joseph Smith considered the mounds of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois as "proof of the divine authenticity" of the Book of Mormon, why do modern LDS scholars reject what he said?

Those questions led me to do more research and eventually write Moroni's America.

Naturally, the M2Cers have a rationale for rejecting what Joseph wrote. They say he was merely speculating and he was wrong. Or else he was talking about the "hinterlands" of Book of Mormon events.

M2C is such a farce.

If more LDS historians and other intellectuals followed Dean Jessee's example of seeking truth instead of promoting narratives, Latter-day Saints around the world would be far better informed, less confused, and would share with Joseph Smith the realization that the setting of the Book of Mormon is proof of its divine authenticity.

Blessings to Dean's family.

Retrospective on President Holland

Let's start the year 2026 with a retrospective.

President Holland wrote his Masters Thesis in 1966 about the Book of Mormon. Among other things, he included comments about the translation. 

I found his thesis more useful and relevant than the Gospel Topics Essays and the writings of all the modern SITH scholars (SITH = stone-in-the-hat theory).

I posted comments about it here:

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2026/01/president-hollands-masters-thesis-on.html

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:)

Gift ideas and other things to read

Due to heavy travel, I haven't posted for a while. I have some cool new stuff but I'll wait until January to post it.

In the meantime, here are my two favorite books of 2025.

Expressions of Jesus

Cultural Representations of the Savior of the World

https://www.deseretbook.com/product/6080309.html?cgid=books

The Rational Restoration: Reframes in the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding.

Second Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Restoration-Jonathan-Neville/dp/1964978319

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When people email me with questions, I usually refer them to the Museum of the Book of Mormon (MOBOM) which has lots of resources:

https://www.mobom.org/

Those interested in art can see some great pieces at my art blog, here:

https://artandartistsonline.blogspot.com/

For a discussion of LDS historical narratives, go here:

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/

The Jonathan Edwards blog is here:

https://dailyjonathanedwards.blogspot.com/

The Zion blog is here:

https://howtozion.blogspot.com/

Most popular post and page

As of today, this blog has had 2,115,698 page views. 

The most popular post, both in the last year and overall, continues to be the one on "Simplicity" that I posted 9 years ago.

https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2016/05/simplicity.html

In the ensuring years, not much has changed. 

Beliefs about the setting of the Book of Mormon still hinge on whether we accept or reject the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. Discussion of extrinsic evidence from archaeology, anthropology, geology, etc., as well as interpretations of the text, all derive from whether or not we accept or reject the New York Cumorah. 

That's how bias confirmation works, no matter how much people dress up their theories. 

That's why we can read Brant Gardner's work, or John Sorenson's, or any number of "Interpreters," and see the obvious bias confirmation at play. And I readily admit that my own views, explained in both editions of Moroni's America, reflect my own bias in favor of the teachings of the prophets.

Some people avoid this obvious point by directly rejecting what the prophets have taught. Some avoid it by ignoring Cumorah altogether (the way the Gospel Topics entry does). 

See https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/book-of-mormon-geography-essay.html

And all of that is fine. People can believe whatever they want.

But every Latter-day Saint ought to make informed decisions, and no one can make an informed decision without knowing the facts.

In this case, at a minimum every Latter-day Saint should read Letter VII in his/her own language. This is why we are making it available in multiple languages soon. 

Along with the "Simplicity" post that continues to resonate.

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The most popular Page on this blog is the one that explain acronyms. The second most popular Page is a video. Thus, the most popular substantive Page is one that correlates to the "Simplicity" post.

https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/p/psychology-of-central-american-theory.html

This is a legacy Page posted before the shift away from the term "Mormon" and the changes to the Church website, etc. But it still works because it explains how confirmation bias has operated all these years.

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End of M2C and psychology

The pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding proceeds nicely for those who have an open mind, who value transparency, and who embrace the FAITH analysis, distinguishing Facts from Assumptions, Inferences, Theories and Hypotheses.

Another way to say it: If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Here's another way to express the value of flexibility in the pursuit of truth:

Monday, September 2. There is much folly, when I am quite sure I am in the right, and others are positive in contradicting me, in entering into a vehement or long debate upon it. 

Monday, September 23. I observe that old men seldom have any advantage of new discoveries; because these are beside a way of thinking they have been so long used to. Resolved, if ever I live to years, that I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them, if rational, how long soever I have been used to another way of thinking.

Monday, Feb. 3. Let every thing have the value now, that it will have on a sick bed; and frequently in my pursuits of whatever kind, let this come into my mind; “How much shall I value this on my deathbed?” 

D&C 132

This topic of Section 132 relates to the Come Follow Me lesson. I posted comments on lds historical narratives here:

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2025/11/corroborating-josephs-production-of-d.html

Somewhat related to the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon, I did a review of another Interpreter article, this one on D&C 132, here:

https://interpreterpeerreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/more-stylometry-d-132.html

Let's all hope that at some point, LDS scholars will focus on what Joseph and Oliver said about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon, not what their detractors claimed.

And definitely not what certain modern scholars think, especially those who claim to know more than Joseph and Oliver did about those topics.

:)

Perpetuating errors

The Deseret News reported about a BYU professor who discovered a significant error in translations of the Bible that was perpetuated for centuries.  

A BYU researcher has conclusively recovered the name of the woman who received the New Testament letter known as 2 John, according to a new book.

Meet Electa, an early Christian woman whose identity was concealed for nearly 2,000 years due to corrupted Greek texts and centuries of New Testament commentaries that mistakenly believed the original writer called her only “an elect lady.”

Her name has been considered a mystery because scribes copying original Greek texts accidentally dropped two letters, says Lincoln Blumell, associate dean of research in the BYU Department of Ancient Scripture.

Part of the problem was that every study of the past 150 years universally accepted the mistake without questioning the manuscript texts.

Everyone should read the full article, at https://www.deseret.com/education/2025/11/08/stunning-find-meet-the-missing-woman-in-the-bible-rediscovered-by-a-byu-researcher/

Now that the error has been corrected, we wonder how it was perpetuated for so long?

From the article:

The lesson is that scholars should avoid repeating what others write without testing it, Blumell said.

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That lesson would go a long way to correcting errors that have "crept in" regarding the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.

Instead, many promising young LDS scholars merely repeat what their teachers have told them. That's why we see SITH and M2C persisting.

Maybe this example of how to correct long-held beliefs can prompt young LDS scholars to think for themselves and avoid repeating what their predecessors have written without testing...

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Another ramification of the error was how it led to "wild theories."

The mistake also led to centuries of wild theories in biblical studies, Blumell said. Some argued the unnamed elect lady might be Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary.

One said it might be a love letter. Some even argued the letter was fictional.

“No,” Blumell said, “the Greek just got corrupted. I give dozens of examples of the same kind of error occurring in early Christian manuscripts or papyri, where two are duplicated letters get dropped.”

We can all see the parallel to today's situation in which Latter-day Saint scholars have (i) erased what Joseph and Oliver taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon and (ii) developed "wild theories" about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. 

This table shows the parallel between the Deseret News article and the teachings of certain modern LDS scholars and their followers.

2 John and Electa	Origin and setting of the Book of Mormon
The mistake also led to centuries of wild theories in biblical studies, Blumell said.	The mistake also led to decades of wild theories about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.
Some argued the unnamed elect lady might be Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary. One said it might be a love letter. Some even argued the letter was fictional.	Some argued the Hill Cumorah might be in Mexico (M2C), or Baja, or anywhere else except western New York. Some even argued the Hill Cumorah was fictional. Some argued that Joseph Smith did not really translate the engravings on the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, as he and Oliver always said, but instead Joseph read words off a stone in the hat (SITH) without even referring to the plates.
“No,” Blumell said, “the Greek just got corrupted. I give dozens of examples of the same kind of error occurring in early Christian manuscripts or papyri, where two are duplicated letters get dropped.”	No, the scholars just ignored, forgot and/or repudiated what Joseph and Oliver said about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon and the narrative just got corrupted. There is abundant extrinsic evidence that corroborates what they said.

Looking north from Cumorah