The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

How did Brigham Young’s rejection of his father’s harsh discipline shape daily life and family rituals in the Lion House?

In what concrete ways did women such as Eliza R. Snow exercise leadership and autonomy under Brigham Young?

Why do the historians argue that judging Brigham Young solely by modern standards risks missing both the complexity of his character and the reasons so many people willingly followed him?

The post Becoming Brigham Episode 31: Lives of Their Own first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

This episode of Conversations with Interpreter explores Spencer Kraus’s article, “A Closer Look at Transliteration in Divine Translations.” Kraus picks up the question about transliterated words like ziff in the Book of Mormon. Because the Book of Mormon was translated by “the gift and power of God,” it can raise questions about why words like this appear in the Book of Mormon. Kraus convincingly argues that the distribution and types of words that appear in the Book of Mormon are in continuity with transliteration patterns in other ancient texts. As part of this we talk about the implications of Kraus’s research for understanding the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s translation project in general.

The post Conversations with Interpreter: Spencer Kraus: Transliteration in the Book of Mormon and Other Translations first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Abstract: Sidney Sperry identified 2 Nephi 4:15–35 as “Nephi’s Psalm.” Using form-critical analysis, Matthew Nickerson classified it as a personal lament psalm. In this article, I build on biblical turns of phrase, imagery, symbolism, and the archaeological record established by previous scholarship to demonstrate how verses 32–35 constitute Nephi’s movement through gradations of increasing holiness in the temple. Nephi’s movement also exemplifies the use of thematic and rhetorical intensification, a method used by biblical poets. The ordered presentation of temple elements through those four verses suggests intentional artistry rather than random borrowing and affirms the literary sophistication of the Book of Mormon. This article adds to the substantial body of work demonstrating that Book of Mormon authors possessed a sophisticated command of Hebrew literary conventions.

The post Progressing through Gradations of Holiness in the Temple: 2 Nephi 4:32–35 as a Hymn Inspired by Ritual first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

In the August 20, 2026, 2026 episode of The Interpreter Insights Podcast, our host Terry Hutchinson interviews the President of The Interpreter Foundation, Dan Peterson, about volumes 7 & 8 of the Interpreter Journal, the Interpreter birthday and its accomplishments in the past year, including information about the Becoming Brigham video series.

The post Interpreter Insights Podcast — August 20, 2026 first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

How did the early revelation to Emma Smith and the organization of the Relief Society challenge the 19th-century cultural expectation of male leadership?

What does Brigham Young’s journal language about his wife being “admitted to the priesthood,” combined with his lifelong focus on temple ordinances, reveal about how he understood women’s spiritual authority?

The post Becoming Brigham Episode 30: Shared Burden, Shared Strength first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.