Brigham Young University’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute will host its third biennial symposium Friday, Aug. 31, in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium (HBLL 1080). The conference, sponsored by the institute’s Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Harold B. Lee Library, will begin at 1:30 p.m and end at 5:30 p.m.
Admission is free, and the public is welcome. For additional information, visit maxwellinstitute.byu.edu.
The topic for the lectures will be “Writing in Seventh Century BC Levant.” The seventh century BC spans the time between the Assyrian captivity and the impending Babylonian captivity, and it was also the century when Isaiah ended his work and Jeremiah started his. It is the time when Lehi's family was born and when he himself was the most active.
The program begins with Marvin Sweeney from Claremont Lincoln University, whose topic is “Seventh-Century Judean Historiography.” K. Lawson Younger Jr. from Trinity International University follows at 2:30 p.m. with a lecture titled “The Role of Aramaic in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.” At 3:30 p.m., Christopher Rollston from Emmanuel Christian Seminary will explores the topic “The State of Literacy in the Levant of the Seventh Century BC,” and at 4:30 p.m., Stefan Wimmer from the University of Munich concludes the symposium with his lecture, “Palestinian Hieratic.”
Established in April 2007, the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies promotes a concentrated study of the Book of Mormon both as an ancient text and as an important publication in the modern world. The center launched its Symbolism in the Scriptures Symposium in 2008 to teach individuals how to understand and apply sacred symbols.
For more information, visit maxwellinstitute.byu.edu or contact Paul Y. Hoskisson at (801) ß422-4329.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
