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Unto the Isles of the Sea

Unto the Isles of the Sea

Last updated on: April 10, 2026 at 4:36 pm by Dan Peterson

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Unto the Isles of the Sea 2026-04-10T16:36:00-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Laie, Hawaii, from the air. This is where the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University is located, and where Professor Matthew L. Bowen teaches. (a public domain photograph from the BYU-H website)

A new article, written by Professor Matthew L. Bowen, went up earlier today on the never-changing website of the Interpreter Foundation: ““The Travail of His Soul”: The Narratological Use of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant Typology in Mosiah 14–24” (Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 68 [2026]: 289-310):

Abstract: The narrative account of Abinadi, king Noah and his priests, and Alma1—the lone believer in Abinadi’s words among Noah’s priests—ends with Alma1’s people being brought into bondage by the aptly-named Amulon (Hebrew, “man of travail,” “man of labor”) and his collaborators. Amulon, Alma1’s former priestly colleague, imposed Egypt-like bondage on Alma1’s people, with “tasks” overseen by “taskmasters” (Mosiah 24:9). Abinadi had quoted Isaiah’s poem of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53) in Mosiah 14 to answer the question from one of Noah’s priests about the meaning of Isaiah 52:7–10. Isaiah 53:11 foretells that the suffering servant would experience “travail” (ʿ>āmāl) that would give him experiential “knowledge” that would make many righteous. Alma1 and his people’s fulfillment of the messianic suffering servant typology of Isaiah 53/Mosiah 14, which gave them experiential knowledge to “stand as witnesses,” helps us better appreciate how covenant Israel at other times fulfills this typology. A recognition of the validity of this approach can help Latter-day Saints extend more Christ-like empathy to ethnicities, faith groups, communities, and individuals who suffer persecution.

It was accompanied online by Interpreting Interpreter: “A Suffering People,” which was written by Kyler Rasmussen:

This post is a summary of the article ““The Travail of His Soul”: The Narratological Use of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant Typology in Mosiah 14–24” by Matthew L. Bowen in Volume 68 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the Interpreting Interpreter articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https:/interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/.

A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https://youtube.com/shorts/E6ZRX3D-fNU.

The Takeaway: Bowen reflects on “suffering servant” imagery and wordplay in Mosiah 14-24, connecting the bondage of Alma’s people with the experiential knowledge that Christ would gain through his atonement-oriented suffering.

Also newly posted on the long-dead website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Interpreter Insights Podcast — 9 April 2026: Moses literature and sources for study as well as Interpreter resources on Moses, with Terry Hutchinson and Mark Johnson

Canterbury Cathedral, shown here in a 2006 Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph by Antony McCallum, who is the uploader, photographer, full copyright owner, and proprietor of WyrdLight.com, is currently undergoing an exterior cleaning and renovation that has already made its twin towers gleam as if they had been completed just a few days ago.

In my blog entry yesterday (“Historical Notes About England And Hawaii”), I mentioned the Interpreter Foundation travel study tour to England that I’m scheduled to accompany in May. Naturally, in some minds, this tour should call forth an investigation into my personal finances. So here’s the scoop:

Bountiful Travel will be reimbursing the cost of my transportation, food, and lodging for the tour. (By contrast, neither the Interpreter Foundation nor its donors will be putting up a single cent.). Bountiful Travel is a for-profit business. Whether rightly or wrongly, the folks who run it evidently see some sort of commercial advantage for the company in covering my expenses. Beyond such reimbursement, I will not be paid for accompanying this tour. Nor will my wife’s expenses be covered — except that she will be sharing my hotel rooms.

Having academics accompany tours is commonplace in certain sectors of the tour industry; it isn’t a scam that is uniquely mine or that of the Interpreter Foundation. And it’s likely that the academics who accompany these groups aren’t paying all of their own expenses out of their own pockets. (In fact, as I happen to personally know, some of them are — rather unlike Yr Obdt Servant — quite well compensated for their time and effort.) Here are some examples chosen effectively at random from various tour operators. More examples are readily and easily available:

One principal focus of Latter-day Saint humanitarian work is providing accessible and clean water in third-world countries. (LDS Media Library)

I don’t believe that I’ve ever heard of this before: “Good Deeds Day: What you can do to give back: Companies and individuals in Utah and around the world will participate in a day of service”

Unfortunately for Latter-day Saints, the fact that “Good Deeds Day” falls on a Sunday complicates things more than a little bit, although ways around that fact can easily be found — e.g., perhaps, by observing the day on Saturday. But it’s a great idea.

Of course, as is well known in certain circles, I personally would rather gargle with razor blades or intervene between a lioness and her cub with a toothbrush than be caught doing a kind or generous deed. But I definitely think that others should do them. In fact, the more the merrier.

A wonderful source of excellent practical ideas for good things to do is the JustServe program that is sponsored and administered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although, as I say, it’s sponsored by the Church, people who want to use it in order to find opportunities for service absolutely needn’t be Church members, and they certainly don’t need to live within the State of Utah.

The temple in Neiafu will be the second in the Kingdom of Tonga. (Wikimedia Commons public domain map)

I understand that Tukia-’I-Vava’U Havea and Linita Fekitoa Havea of the Neiafu Vava’u Tonga West Stake have been called as president and matron of the new and soon-to-be-dedicated Neiafu Tonga Temple. I love their names. I love what this temple and their names say about the ever-increasing internationalization of the Church.

For the same reason, I was pleased to see Elder Benjamin Ming Zhe Tai, from Hong Kong, called into the presidency of the Seventy, and I was gratified that, of the eight new General Authority Seventies called at the just-concluded General Conference of the Church, one is from Nigeria, one is from the Philippines, and one is from Soweto (South Africa). The only one of them who was born in Utah is Tongan. And I was delighted that the new president of the Church’s Primary organization for children, Rosemary K. Chibota, is of Malawian origin and was raised in Zimbabwe. (And her first counselor is half Japanese. See “Meet the New Leaders Sustained at the April 2026 General Conference.”)

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