The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

In the March 5, 2026 episode of The Interpreter Insights Podcast, our host Terry Hutchinson and his guest Brent Schmidt discuss BYU’s New Testament Commentary series, which Brent has been involved in.

The post Interpreter Insights Podcast — March 5, 2026 with Brent Schmidt first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

We tend to think of Brigham Young as the stern-faced old man from the few existing photos. But what was he like during his formative years? Our hosts explore this question, and Camrey interviews Susan Easton Black to get the historian's perspective on the young Brigham.

The post Becoming Brigham Episode 6: Young Brigham Young, Part One first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

In this episode, Avram and Thora interview Matthew L. Bowen, a professor of Religious Education from Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Bowen has published numerous studies on ancient wordplay in the Book of Mormon. Bowen discusses his study recently published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship which explores Mormon’s use of the Hebrew root ḥayil/ḥêl, a root that has a wide range of meanings, including “wealth,” “abundance,” and “army.” Bowen argues that Mormon deploys this in a variety of ways in his portrayal of the people of Helam in Mosiah 23, providing new perspectives on the idea of prosperity in the Book of Mormon. Building off of Bowen’s paper, this episode talks about how this helps us better understand other ancient aspects of Nephite culture like orality and the centrality of the Exodus narrative.

The post Conversations with Interpreter Episode 5: Matthew Bowen, “Naming and Narrative Irony in Mosiah 23” first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Review of Patrick Q. Mason and J. David Pulsipher, Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021). 290 pages. $19.99 (paperback).

Abstract: Proclaim Peace is a very timely and serious engagement with questions of peace. Consisting of roughly equal parts challenging scriptural exegesis, well-documented historical research, and earnest social activism, it may be taken as exemplary of current LDS academic opinion and institutional action on the interface between religion and politics. This work compels us to consider a critical question: Do we interpret the core meaning of peace as a temporal project of seeking justice? Or do we understand, contextualize, and moderate our passion for temporal justice relative to a promise of eternal peace? If we are intent on unifying heaven and earth, we should be careful from which direction we are working.

The post Where Will We Turn for Peace? first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Abstract: God didn’t “set a mark” on Cain. Instead, he gave Cain a sign. The unfortunate translation of Genesis 4:15 in the King James Bible (KJV) has been the source of much misunderstanding over the years. This article is about the English words that the King James translators chose in Genesis 4:15 and the Hebrew words from which they are translated. It shows that the renderings of the words in that verse are inconsistent with how the KJV treats the same words and grammatical features in other passages. The result is a translation that cannot be justified from the Hebrew Bible.

The post The Lord Gave Cain a Sign first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.