On July 30, 2024, I posted about how some academics appear to have been declaring their innermost thoughts on some controversial subjects via relatively simple alphabet-based codes in their academic publication titles. See https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2024/07/some-ways-literate-people-covertly.html.
Because of some suspicion-raising interactions (including a handshake that was out of place, if you know what I mean) I personally have had with relatives of Jeffrey R. Holland, who is currently the President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I looked at Holland's academic publications. Holland's 1966 masters thesis at Brigham Young University was on the numerous (but almost all tiny) changes made in the Book of Mormon since it was first published in 1830. It was entitled "An Analysis of Selected Changes in Major Editions of the Book of Mormon - 1830-1920." (https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4800/)
Doing the doubles-cancel algorithm on the letters of that thesis title, I ended up with:
y g a j s t B k f m o
To me, this looks like "Y GA JST Bk f Mo." Perhaps I have been primed to see it by my culture, but to me that looks like "Why Gaea (i.e., the world)? Joseph Smith Translation Book of Mormon."
A scholarly criticism of the Book of Mormon is that Joseph Smith included Isaiah and Malachi passages in the Book of Mormon without changes from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, but that later, when studying the Bible and making inspired changes/clarifications/additions to it (we call this effort of Smith's the "JST"), he changed passages in the JST that he had earlier included without change in the Book of Mormon. (For an example of this criticism, which is easy to find on the internet, see https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/joseph-smiths-interpretation-of-isaiah-in-the-book-of-mormon/).
While I personally do not struggle with this issue--the Book of Mormon teaches that God gives people revelations in their own languages, and the KJV version of the Bible was the only scriptural language that the young and relatively uneducated Joseph Smith knew before 1830--the issue is often presented in a faith-destroying way.
Also, as I have become aware of the importance of many of the details in the Isaiah passages that are included in the Book of Mormon and the watering down and even destruction of God's revelations to his prophets carried out by unbelieving scribes (something that I think Jesus repeatedly tried to warn of, per his many critical mentions of scribes in the Four Gospels), I have come to appreciate God's wisdom in not initially giving Joseph Smith changed versions of those texts. We are meant to study and dig into those Isaiah and Malachi prophecies. The King James Version of the Bible contains many older words that have had their meanings shift over the last four centuries. The Book of Mormon tells us that the prophecies of Isaiah are great, we should study them, and that we will understand them as they are being fulfilled.
But back to Elder Holland's thesis title. The "1830-1920" tacked on to the end of the thesis title also appears to have significance. Using alphabetical order, 1 = A, 8 = H, 30 = D, 1 = A, 9 = I, 20 = T, which turns "1830-1920" into "AHD -AIT," which to me looks like "Add negative eight." When I do that, "ygajstbkfmo" becomes "q y s b k l t c x e g." I think that looks like it has the words "keys," "be," "Celtics" and "eg" in it. Keys are very important symbols in Masonry (https://www.universalfreemasonry.org/en/encyclopedia/key), and much has been made of Joseph Smith's real and alleged ties to Masonic groups. Much has also been made of Joseph Smith's supposed practice of folk magic (https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/cunning-and-disorderly-early-nineteenth-century-witch-trials-of-joseph-smith/), and his mother was of Scottish (i.e., Celtic) heritage (https://eom.byu.edu/index.php?title=Smith,_Joseph). Finally, "eg" can be a reference to quartersawing a log, which results in an "X" shape:
Apparent references to Masons, Celts, and pirates/robbers in a possible decoded message in Holland's thesis certainly raise my eyebrows. Are they unintentional and coincidental? Perhaps. My interactions with his relatives cause me to lean to the "intentional" side, though. I think at the least they deserve investigation, especially if the "y g a j s t b k f m o" is a quiet declaration of his choice of "the world" over the issue of scholarly criticisms of the Book of Mormon. Holland has been in high church leadership positions for several decades now.
The Book of Mormon warns that throughout society (and it doesn't exempt the churches that have the Book of Mormon), there will be people who are in high ecclesiastical places who don't do the Lord's will, even as they point to the beautiful buildings and works they have done in the Lord's name. We are under no scriptural obligation to "look no further" when we stumble across suspicion-raising things. To the contrary, the Book of Mormon clearly says that we are supposed to learn how to judge righteously between that which is of God and that which isn't.
[Update 8/13/2024: I've been thinking about what technology would help people hide messages in article titles, and I think they're most likely passing around macros that show them various possibilities using the key words they need to include in the article title. However, passing around macros from unknown sources is an unwise thing to do. A macro might have deeper functionality that also encodes other messages at "higher levels." An academic using such a macro might easily look like they are involved in things they are not involved in.]
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