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Benjamin Urrutia

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Benjamin Urrutia or Benjamín Urrutia (born January 24, 1950), author and scholar, was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador. According to the Mormon Literature Database[1], Urrutia is "the only LDS Basque Israeli American anthropologist, linguist, and science fiction writer in the universe." Urrutia co-edited, with Guy Davenport, The Logia of Yeshua, which collected what they consider to be Jesus' authentic sayings from a variety of canonical and non-canonical sources. Urrutia interprets Jesus' mission as a leadership role in the "Israelite nonviolent resistance to Roman oppression".

Biography

Urrutia contends that Rabbi Yeshua Bar Abba was the historical Jesus of Nazareth and was the leader of the successful nonviolent Jewish resistance to Pilate's attempt to place Roman eagles — symbols of the worship of Jupiter — on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Josephus, who relates this episode, does not say who the leader of this resistance was, but shortly afterwards states that Pontius Pilate had Jesus crucified. (Some scholars believe this passage of Josephus may have been slightly but significantly altered by later editors. The Arabic version of Josephus is free from the apparent Christian interpolations, but still makes it clear that Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.)

Benjamin Urrutia lived in Ecuador until 1968, and has lived since in the United States of America, save for the years 1974-1977, when he resided in Israel, studying the cultural and historical background of the life of Jesus. During this period he also participated in an archaeological excavation near Beersheba, contributed to the writings of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was interviewed by The Jerusalem Post.

At Brigham Young University, he studied under Dr. Hugh Nibley. Learning from Nibley that the Book of Mormon names Shiblon and Shiblom may be derived from the Arabic root shibl, "lion cub," Urrutia connected this idiom to the "Jaguar Cub" imagery of the Olmec people. This theory has been widely accepted among LDS scholars.[1]

Over the years, Urrutia has written and published a number of articles, letters, poems and reviews on matters related to the work of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

Benjamin Urrutia has been a book reviewer since 1970 and a film critic since 1981. As of 2007, he is a book reviewer and the principal film critic for The Peaceable Table ([2]).


Bibliography

  • The Logia of Yeshua: The Sayings of Jesus. Translated and edited in collaboration with Guy Davenport (1996). ISBN 1887178708

Book reviews

Articles

Poems

Stories

Film reviews

  1. ^ Benjamin Urrutia, “The Name Connection,” New Era, Jun 1983, 39
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