Hugh Winder Nibley

SUNSTONE IN MEMORIAM the housing office. From this point until the end of his life, he became an iconic fixture on the Provo campus. HE story of Hugh’s contributions to HUGH WINDER NIBLEY Mormon thought is told mainly T through his publications.2 The list runs to more than 250 items, and many were serial articles, which, if counted individually, By Kevin L. Barney would push the number much higher. Many publications from early in his career, though always infused with his Mormon sensibilities and usually with at least tangential Mormon relevance, were not on specifically LDS sub- jects. These include “New Light on Scaliger” (published before his entrance to World War II) and “Sparsiones,” in the Classical Journal; “The Hierocentric State,” “The Unsolved Loyalty Problem,” and “Tenting, Toll, and Taxing,” in Western Political Quarterly; “Victoriosa Loquacitas: The Rise of Rhetoric and the Decline of Everything Else,”3 in How are the mighty fallen! more than a bedroll, a canteen, and a bag of Western Speech; “Christian Envy of the —2 SAMUEL 1:19 wheat and raisins. Except for an occasional Temple,” in Jewish Quarterly Review; “The ranger, he did not encounter another human Passing of the Church: Forty Variations on an UGH NIBLEY, DEAN of modern being the whole time. He did encounter Unpopular Theme,” in Church History; Mormon scriptural studies, passed cougars, bears, and wolves, but he never felt “Qumran and the Companions of the Cave,” H away 24 February 2005, just shy of in danger. He did recount hearing one ranger in Revue de Qumran; “Evangelium Quadraginta his ninety-fifth birthday. During his long and say to another when they met Hugh, “You Dierum,” in Vigiliae Christianae; and productive life, he attained the stature of know, I wouldn’t sleep in there [the woods “Jerusalem: In Christianity,” in Encyclopedia Mormonism’s pantheon of intellectual giants where Hugh had been sleeping] for a hun- Judaica. If Hugh’s aim had been worldly aca- such as Orson Pratt, B.H. Roberts, James dred dollars.” On his way back to Medford to demic success, he could have simply kept Talmage, and John Widtsoe. Yet, remarkably, catch the bus to California, the canvas and rolling out titles like these. he did so without ever holding any high ec- crepe soles of Hugh’s shoes finally gave out, But simply piling up academic publica- clesiastical office. His scholarship, his and he walked the last forty miles barefoot. tions was too easy, too pedestrian, and too writing, his teaching, his speaking, and, From 1927 through 1929, he served an meaningless for Hugh. As he recalled: above all, the exemplary force of his remark- LDS mission to Germany (visiting Greece I sent out articles to a wide variety able life were the sources of his considerable and Italy on the way home), sometimes of prestigious journals and they authority among Latter-day Saints. Legions of sleeping under trees and subsisting by were all printed. So I lost interest; Nibleyophiloi, spanning three and four gener- sucking on kernels of wheat he kept in his what those people were after is not ations worldwide, count Hugh as someone suit pocket. An undergraduate degree in his- what I was after. Above all, I could who “blew their minds” and opened to them tory from UCLA in 1934 (summa cum laude) see no point to going on through new ways of understanding the scriptures was followed by a Ph.D. in ancient history the years marshalling an ever- and other spiritual matters. from Berkeley in 1938. Hugh wrote his dis- lengthening array of titles to stand Hugh was the ultimate embodiment of sertation, The Roman Games as a Survival of at attention someday at the foot of Sunstone’s motto (borrowed from St. an Archaic Year Cult, during a six-week an obituary. That is what they were Anselm), fides quaerens intellectum—”faith marathon, surviving on wilted carrots he all working for, and they were wel- seeking understanding.” Indeed, Hugh was a purchased for a penny a bunch and canned come to it.4 friend to the independent scholarly commu- milk for which he paid eight cents a can. Hugh was interested not in intellectual nity at times when it was not popular to be Hugh then taught for several years at the pedantry but in matters of ultimate religious so—but then popular convention was just Claremont Colleges, in Claremont, significance. So he directed most of his about the last consideration ever to influence California. In 1942, he enlisted in the army, writing not to the academic marketplace, but his thinking. where he received training first in weather to the Saints themselves, both as a consecra- Hugh was born on 27 March 1910, in observation and then in military intelligence. tion of his talents to the Church he so loved, Portland, Oregon, to Alexander “El” and On D-Day, Hugh was among the first to drive and also perhaps because plowing new Agnes “Sloanie” Nibley, the second of their a jeep onto Utah Beach. ground in LDS scripture was a far greater six children.1 In 1926, the family moved to Following his return to the States, Hugh challenge (not to mention more interesting Glendale, California. worked briefly at The Improvement Era in and just plain fun) than joining the ever- An early indication of Hugh’s indepen- 1946 before John Widtsoe recommended growing ranks of the scholarly orthodox. dent spirit and love of nature was the six him for a position at BYU. There he became Anyone with a little knowledge of Greek and weeks he spent by himself camping in the an assistant professor of history and religion Hebrew could call himself a Bible scholar, Crater Lake wilderness of Oregon with little and also met his soon-to-be wife, Phyllis, in but to turn the Book of Mormon into a fertile PAGE 10 MAY 2005 SUNSTONE and flowering field of academic study year (1966–67) of advanced study of in its own right required the rarefied Egyptian under John A. Wilson and genius that few in this world possess. Klaus Bauer at University of Chicago’s Hugh’s initial foray into directly Oriental Institute. From January 1968 apologetic material came in the wake through May 1970, Hugh published a of Fawn Brodie’s 1945 biography of lengthy serial in the Improvement Era Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My called “A New Look at the Pearl of History, with his cleverly titled 1946 re- Great Price.” These articles began with joinder, No Ma’am, That’s Not History: A a review of the 1912 Spalding pam- Brief Review of Mrs. Brodie’s Reluctant phlet (an indirect attack on the Book of Vindication of a Prophet She Seeks to Mormon in the form of a direct attack Expose. Like much of Hugh’s work, on the Facsimiles and their published from half a century’s remove, this is a interpretations). Hugh then continued very dated effort that has been super- with a study of Facsimile 1 from the seded by more mature Mormon histor- Book of Abraham. He also published a ical scholarship. Indeed, I would not dozen or so additional articles on Book claim that LDS history was ever one of of Abraham topics, many in the pages Hugh’s particular strengths, at least of BYU Studies. In 1975, he published judged by today’s standards. But for The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: many in the Church, this book was An Egyptian Endowment, a translation of their first introduction to Hugh’s and commentary on the Book of grounded faith as expressed by means Breathings. (In the not too distant fu- of his rapier wit. Pity the poor soul ture, this book will be reissued by who found himself engaged in a battle FARMS as part of the Collected Works of wits with Hugh! Although Hugh of Hugh Nibley series). He then pub- wrote a few other generally apologetic lished Abraham in Egypt (1981), which pieces, such as The Mythmakers (1961) is largely devoted to comparing the and Sounding Brass (1963), most of his Book of Abraham with other ancient work was focused on the peculiar Abraham texts and to studying scriptures of Mormonism. Facsimile 3. His final contribution to Hugh’s greatest achievement therein Book of Abraham studies will be One is probably his work on the Book of Eternal Round, a study of the Joseph Mormon. In the first half of the twen- Smith Hypocephalus (Facsimile 2), to tieth century, interest in and study of be published posthumously by the Book of Mormon had waned and FARMS. was demonstrably at an all-time low.5 His published writings are so exten- Almost single-handedly, Hugh changed sive that it is impossible to do them that with a number of lengthy even minimal justice in so brief a sum- Improvement Era serials, which were mary. Other topics he treated include later published in book form, resulting temples, the Old Testament, the early in a trilogy of sorts. First was Lehi in the Church, patristics, and Brigham Young. Desert, followed by The World of the A publication remarkable for where it Jaredites (which were combined as a ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE NIBLEY FAMILY appeared as much as for its content is single book). Second came An his long serial, “A Strange Thing in the Approach to the Book of Mormon, which be- studies fun and interesting, something that Land: The Return of the Book of Enoch,” came the 1957 Melchizedek Priesthood not long before had seemed impossible.6 which was published in the Ensign and surely Study Guide, a somewhat controversial Hugh’s influence was also significant in will be the first, last, and only such long, choice since it was written at a level clearly studies of the Book of Abraham.

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