Onchsheshonqy 7/4

Do not instruct a fool lest he hate you (P. Onch. 7/4).

The term translated instruct can also mean to bear witness as in giving testimony in court. The term for fool refers not so much to the uninformed as to the willfully misinformed.

On the one hand, Onchsheshonqy is right.  It often seems counterproductive to try to reason with fools. They do not seem to learn anything. They rarely change their ways. And they just hate and despise anyone who tries to teach them what is right.

On the other hand, Onchsheshonqy may be wrong here. Even an idiot deserves a chance to change his mind. (We might recall that Greek metanoia refers to both changing one's mind and repentance.) Though that may not lessen the hatred, at least it lessens the culpability that we have to try to warn our neighbor, even when they choose to deliberately ignore the warning.

Jesus teaches something similar in Matthew 7:6 when he talks about the folly of casting pearls before swine. We tend to overlook, however, the less common metaphor immediately before that, the one about giving things that are holy to the dogs. The holiness aspect is probably the more important one for Jesus.While we may not give that which is holy unto the dogs, the dogs can still eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master's table (Matthew 15:27).

Today's Maxwell Quote

From "But for a Small Moment" (1985), 65-66:

As one begins to appreciate further the Book of Mormon, both as a historical record and as a witnessing, religious volume, another parallel out of human history comes to mind. In the book, earnest prophets who witnessed social deterioration, including terrible slaughters, were moved upon to make a record of those things.

But behold, the land was filled with robbers and with Lamanites; and notwithstanding the great destruction which hung over my people, they did not repent of their evil doings; therefore there was blood and carnage spread throughout all the face of the land, both on the part of the Nephites and also on the part of the Lamanites; and it was one complete revolution throughout all the face of the land (Mormon 2:8).

‎And it came to pass that my sorrow did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; for I saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God, and heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. And thus three hundred and forty and four years had passed away. (Mormon 2:15.)

For Mormon, seeing thousands of bodies "heaped up as dung upon the face of the land" must have produced profound emotions within him, not unlike those a British journalist experienced when he went to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of World War II, the opening lines of whose dispatch were, "It is my duty to describe something beyond the imagination of mankind" (Time Magazine, April 29, 1985, p. 133, International Edition).

Onchsheshonqy 6/10

Do not covet another's property, saying "I will live on it." Acquire your own. (P. Onch. 6/10)

From the Ptolemaic Egypt from which the manuscript of Onchsheshonqy comes, we have records of lengthy lawsuits fighting over the ownership of property, usually considerable amounts. The choachyte archive, for example, preserves the records of one side of a lengthy legal dispute where one side of the dispute was clearly trying to live on the property of the other.

During the reign of Augustus, however, things got worse, when the powers that be took over the endowments that had been set aside for charitable purposes by others, and used them for their own gain, saying, in effect, "I will live on it."

Covetousness has been with the human race since the beginning. In some sense we live off the capital inherited from others. An illustration of this comes from the fifteenth century A.D.:

By the middle of the fifteenth century the population of Europe was half what it had been a hundred years before. . . . When the plague was over, however, everybody was better off in gross terms, since those who survived took what had belonged to those who had died. (James Burke, Connections, 2nd ed. [New York : Simon & Schuster, 1995], 98).

The children of Israel were warned that they would live in

great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
(For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 6:10–15)

But in real ways we have the opportunity by our labor to add to the collective sum of human capital. We have an obligation to make things better for those who follow us.

To live off the human capital that others accumulated obligates those who do so with a debt of gratitude, whether or not they realize it. To rob someone of the living that they earned and live off it instead not only shows a want of gratitude, it shows a want of human decency.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

I do not, therefore, worry about your generation's lack of adventure. Before you are through, you are likely to appreciate, in those lines from Fiddler on the Roof, what Tevye said when he wished aloud that the Lord would choose someone else for a change. You will become very conscious of who you are. However, today I will not stress the extraordinariness of your times but the immense possibilities which lie within the seeming ordinariness of your lives.

Onchsheshonqy 6/7

Study a matter so that you may learn it. (P. Onch. 6/7)

The word translated as study is also used for to investigate. The sense is not so much one of a casual inquiry but a more thorough searching for information. While the term translated as learn can also mean to know, the idea is really more one of learning something.

What Onchsheshonqy advocates here is more than a superficial perusal, like looking something up in Wikipedia, but a thorough investigation of the subject that produces something more than superficial knowledge.

At the Symposium today, there were many who talked about others' study of the ancient world because those others thought there was something useful to be learned from the ancient world. For all of the talk of these people, they had not done any study of the ancient world themselves. Thus one speaker who feigned much learning informed his audience that Latin prisca came from Greek and that Patristic authors ceased in the fourth century. Those who think that the ancient world actually has something to offer, do the study themselves.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Selfishness is much more than an ordinary problem because it activates all the cardinal sins! It is the detonator in the breaking of the Ten Commandments.

By focusing on oneself, it is naturally easier to bear false witness if it serves one’s purpose. It is easier to ignore one’s parents instead of honoring them. It is easier to steal, because what one wants prevails. It is easier to covet, since the selfish conclude that nothing should be denied them.

It is easier to commit sexual sins, because to please oneself is the name of that deadly game in which others are often cruelly used. The Sabbath day is easily neglected, since one day soon becomes just like another. If selfish, it is easier to lie, because the truth is conveniently subordinated.

The selfish individual thus seeks to please not God, but himself. He will even break a covenant in order to fix an appetite.

Selfishness has little time to regard the sufferings of others seriously, hence the love of many waxes cold. (See Moses 6:27; Matt. 24:12; D&C 45:27.)

Betraying Our Sins

The nineteenth chapter of 2 Esdras contains a scene of repentance on a large scale:

And they stood and betrayed (ἐξηγόρευσαν) their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood at their places and they read in the scrolls of the Law of the Lord their God and they were announcing (ἐξαγορεύσοντες) to the Lord and worshiping the Lord their God (2 Esdras 19:2-3).

The key term here comes from the ἀγορά, the Greek market place, where people bought and sold their wares, and there people came to hear the latest thought and news. So the verb to buy was ἀγοράζω and to speak in public was ἀγοράομαι which became in Koine Greek ἀγορεύω.To publish news or announce something in public was ἐξαγορεύω. To publicly announce a secret or conspiracy was to betray it, so ἐξαγορεύω could also mean to betray.

The Hebrew term used here (Nehemiah 9:2) is yitwaddu (mitwaddim in verse 3) which is usually translated confess and is part of repentance under the Law of Moses (Leviticus 5:5). So according to Esdras sins are not just to be admitted, they are to be betrayed.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From The Promise of Discipleship (2001), 9:

In today's relativistic society, we see indulgence masquerading as tolerance. We see the primacy of the "politically correct" substituting for righteous indignation and for moral outrage. Instead of genuine and pervasive concern for the public good, we see intense devotion paid to niche causes. People are often viewed as advocates of causes rather than as neighbors, being stereotyped because of their interest groups. It is anemic enough to know neighbors and others only as functions but worse still to regard them so much more narrowly. Because all others are actually the spirit sons and daughters of God, the new math of the new morality is even more disturbing than it is fuzzy.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

A real university does not oscillate in response to all the political, social, and educational trends and fashions of a particular time. Six decades ago, thought there were a few notable exceptions, German universities failed as providers of perspective. They were too concerned with becoming “politically correct.” Just after World War II, one commentator wrote of Hitler’s rise and of the decline of Germany’s universities, bemoaning that

Nothing occurred in 1933 in the way of spiritual upheaval, and examples of weakness and corruption were abundant. . . . The invention of “German” mathematics and other forms of intellectual prostitution, as well as the numerous “somersaults” of scholars and writers, one can only recall with shame. It is also undoubtedly true that many trends in German academic life had paved the way for an excessive nationalism and an “anarchy of values” upon which the brutality of Nazi dictatorship . . . could thrive. [Hans Rothfels, The German Opposition to Hitler (Hinsdale, Illinois: Henry Regnery Company, 1948), pp. 34-35]

In our period of human history, traditional values are being challenged, and some are even being inverted.

(CM)2

Another great article in the New Era this month is about the (CM)2 project. This is a great idea. Now where can I get one of those T-shirts?

Don't Wear Masks

This month's New Era has a great article by Elder Quentin L. Cook entitled, "Don't Wear Masks." The following are some highlights:

It is common today to hide one’s identity when writing hateful, vitriolic, bigoted communications anonymously online.

This is very true. I refer to it as people lacking the courage of their convictions. If they really believed that what they were saying was true, then why don't they have the courage to attach their name to it?

What we are seeing in society is that when people wear the mask of anonymity, they are more likely to engage in this kind of conduct, which is so destructive of civil discourse. 

I had other things to say about that at the beginning of the blog.

One of your greatest protections against making bad choices is to not put on any mask of anonymity. If you ever find yourself wanting to do so, please know it is a serious sign of danger and one of the adversary’s tools to get you to do something you should not do.

I often wonder about the motivations of those who post anonymously. Why exactly are they trying to hide? What do they have to hide?

It is interesting that people who are involved with [bad behavior] often assume a false identity and hides their participation. They mask their conduct, which they know is reprehensible and destructive to everyone they care about.

Of course, with some people the mask is what they wear every day and they take it off in private.

I have a colleague, who works at another university. A friend of mine used to praise him for his open-mindedness and fairness. Another friend spoke well of him. I had always found him very congenial. About a month or so ago, however, the mask dropped off and I got to see a side of him that I had not seen before. Gone was the congeniality, the tolerance, and the open-mindedness. Instead I got to see a small-minded bigot who was so upset that he could not read straight. It is very sad. What I had known was the mask, the face beneath was ugly.

The righteous need not wear masks to hide their identity.

 In most cases, the righteous need not wear masks of any sort.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Personal righteousness, worship, prayer, and scripture study are so crucial in order to “[put] off the natural man” (Mosiah 3:19). Be wary, therefore, when some demand public tolerance for whatever their private indulgences are!

The Interconnected Ancient World III: Harald the Tyrant

Harald Fairhair, king of Norway (c. 859-928), has a somewhat mixed reputation in the Norse sagas. He united the petty kingdoms of Norway into a single country. The sagas tend to treat this event somewhat ambivalently. Egils Saga explains the situation in this way:

Once King Harald had taken over the kingdoms he had recently won, he kept a close watch on the landholders and powerful farmers and everyone else he suspected would be likely to rebel, and gave them options of entering his service or leaving the country, or a third choice of suffering hardship or paying with their lives; some had their arms and legs maimed. In each province King Harald took over all the estates and all the land, habited or uninhabited, and even the sea and lakes. All the farmers were made his tenants, and everyone who worked the forests or dried salt, or hunted on land or at sea, was made to pay tribute to him.

Many people fled the country to escape this tyranny and settled various uninhabited parts of many places, to the east in Jamtland and Halsingland, and to the west in the Hebrides, the shire of Dublin, Ireland, Normandy in France, Caithness in Scotland, the Orkney Isles and Shetland Isles, and the Faroe Islands. And at this time, Iceland was discovered. (Egils Saga, chapter 4, translation of Bernard Scudder) 

King Harald’s conquest of Norway figures large in the sagas as an important event in the background of many of them.

In Laxdaela Saga this was not a positive development. As the saga opens, Ketil tells his kinsmen “I have true tidings of Harald’s enmity (fjándskap) to us; so it seems to me that we cannot ask for succor (trausts) thence.” The Norse term fjándskap would be fiendship in English. Harald was a fiend. The term traust is cognate with English trust. One can put one’s trust in someone who will help, aid or succor someone else. Those who will not cannot be trusted.

So it is that Ketil and his kin depart Norway. Ketil, himself, settles in Scotland, but the saga follows his daughter Unn to Iceland (as many of the sagas do). The event also figures into the settlement of Greenland, and Vinland, and one branch of the family expelled by Harald’s conquest settled in Normandy and produced William the conqueror, who may nominally have been French, but his heritage was that of a Viking.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Only an excellent university can really help the Church much. Mediocrity won’t do either academically or spiritually. A unique Church deserves a unique university!

Nehemiah's Hope

From 2 Esdras 9:9 comes a hopeful thought:

δοῦλοί ἐσμεν καὶ ἐν τῇ δουείᾳ ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπεν ἡμᾶς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν.

We are servants, and in our service the Lord our God has not abandoned us.

Yet, this same verb, ἐγκατέλιπες, appears in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, when Jesus cries from the cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." Jesus is quoting Psalm 22:1 (Psalm 21:1 in the Septuagint), which is a Psalm particularly appropriate for many aspects of the crucifixion, and one which is quoted eight times in the New Testament and alluded to another twelve times. It is a reminder that God does indeed, at least for a time, abandon his servants. (So are D&C 121 and the great apostasy.)

Jesus, at least, knows what it is like when your friends, who should stand by you, do not, and what it is like when those whom you thought were your friends betray you to your enemies. It is interesting that while Jesus forgave the Roman soldiers who did not know any better and were only doing what their superiors commanded (Luke 23:34), he did not forgive Pilate who gave the order of execution, he did not forgive those Jewish leaders who plotted and schemed his death, and he said that there could never be forgiveness for Judas who betrayed him.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From One More Strain of Praise (1999), 63:

Mercy, even so, is not naiveté. Nor is it uncaring indulgence. Nor is mercy to be mistaken for today's standardless and indulgent tolerance. Divine mercy has its fixed divine standards intact. When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," He was mercifully and forgivingly acknowledging what was, nevertheless, an ignorantly induced but terrible wrong! (Luke 23:34.)

Mine Intent

Along with the thoughts on parallelomania, one of the quotes that I have always tried to keep in the back of my mind in studying the ancient world comes from C. S. Lewis's devil Screwtape:

Only the learned read old books, and we have now so dealt with the learned that they are of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so. (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, chapter 27).

I have known many learned scholars who are very knowledgeable about the ancient world, but are not very wise. The great Egyptologist, Jan Assmann, put it this way:

Today we know infinitely more about Egypt than did the experts of the eighteenth century. But we are also infinitely less sure of what to do with that knowledge.

This is the problem articulated by C. S. Lewis, knowledge without wisdom. I suspect that part of the problem is that the discipline required to master the languages and other information necessary crowds out the pondering about what it means and why we are pursuing the study. Time after time in graduate school, we would go through the motions of translating a text and moved on even if the result were gibberish. It may not mean anything, but we had translated it, whether or not we had understood it. We moved on none the wiser.

I would hope that those reading this, likely not experts in the ancient world, could gain snippets of why this study matters.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

There is not reason for the tithe payers of the Church to fund another secular university since, as taxpayers, they are already helping to fund useful systems of public higher education.

On Commendations

The Oxford English Dictionary notes that in modern English the object of the verb to commend must be a person. People are commended. Things, ideas, and inanimate objects are not. We commend those who do good things. We do not commend the good things themselves, though we might commend people for the good things that they do.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Today, in place of some traditionally shared values is a demanding conformity pushed, ironically, by those who eventually will not tolerate those who once tolerated them. While incremental iniquity may not cause a huge decline all at once, the same somber direction is nevertheless continued, subtly and carefully, with no arousing jolts or jars (see 2 Ne. 28:21).