Interpreter, Moses, and Ancient Money

Last updated on: March 15, 2020 at 11:15 pm by Dan Peterson

Interpreter, Moses, and Ancient Money 2020-03-15T23:15:50-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The official poster for our upcoming conference. We hope that you’ll be able to attend, even if only virtually.

A new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship has just been posted for your enjoyment. As always, thanks to the wonderful generosity of donors and volunteers, it is accessible to you free of charge. To modify slightly the words of Herodotus that have often served as something of any unofficial motto for the United States Postal Service, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor the coronavirus stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”:

“Was the Denarius a Daily Wage? A Note on the Parable of the Two Debtors in Luke 7:40–43”

Abstract: This note provides a brief overview of Roman economic history and currency in order to throw light on the value and significance of the two debts illustratively used by Jesus in his parable to Simon the Pharisee. Though we cannot with accuracy make the claim that a Roman denarius was always the daily wage, we can determine that the debtors of Jesus’s parable owed something on the order of a year’s worth of wages and ten years’ worth of wages.

***

One of the facets of the Interpreter Foundation that I most treasure is its agility. Another perhaps related facet that I appreciate is its ability to reach people at a distance and at no charge. Given the current coronavirus situation, the Foundation’s agility and its outreach ability are going to come in handy for our approaching conference on the Book of Moses, which has been scheduled for 1-2 May 2020. It may, now, not occur physically — that is, as a conventional conference with an audience — on the BYU campus. We shall see, but my current guess is that it won’t. However, it will still occur:

“Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: 2020 Interpreter Foundation Conference”

We have tools at our disposal of which, just a decade or two ago, most of us could scarcely have dreamed. Candidly, much as we value a live audience and enjoy interactions with people in the conference venue, the larger and permanent audience is always that beyond the room where the speakers hold forth.

***

Over the past year or more, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has pivoted toward what Church leaders call a “home centered-church supported” model. As we enter an indeterminate period during which our public worship services are cancelled, I suspect that I may not be the only one who sees providential significance in the timing of that pivot.

***

I know, I know. In some ways, it could scarcely have come out at a less opportune time. Are people still going to movies?

“Why “Heart of Africa” will Grab Your Heart”

I haven’t seen it yet, but I look forward to doing so.

Interpreter Foundation

Moses

Pearl of Great Price

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