Institute of Ancient Studies

The Institute of Ancient Studies has grown out of a desire to create awareness of prophetic records originating with ancient Israelite prophets that shed light on modern times. The Book of Mormon—here translated into Hebrew—is one such prophetic record. Although covering a thousand-year history ending in A.D. 421, it singularly foreshadows many conditions unfolding in church and synagogue today and in the world at large. The spiritual history it claims to be, in other words, is itself prophetic of what prophets call aharit hayyamim—the end of days or times. 

Indeed, the prophets and visionaries who fashioned this record retained in its history only those segments that most typified what they had seen in vision that would repeat themselves at the end of the world. The rest, they recorded in secular records kept by kings and leaders of their people. As a redaction of writings by many authors, its carefully crafted wording displays a familiarity with Jewish prophetic patterns such as parallel and chiastic structures, rhetorical definitions of terms, linking words and expressions, and many Hebraisms discovered only in recent years.

And yet, the Book of Mormon has been vilified by religionists who remain adamantly aloof of its prophetic treasures. For believers cognizant of the Bible’s literary subtleties, on the other hand, quite a different experience typically occurs. To their surprise and delight, the Book of Mormon genuinely resonates with scriptural records they already believe and are familiar with. Not that the Book of Mormon seeks to imitate other sacred texts. Rather, while possessing its own unique character, it complements existing scriptural records and offers another witness of their truth.