Benjamín Urrutia (born January 24, 1950) is an author and scholar. WithGuy Davenport, Urrutia editedThe Logia of Yeshua, which collected what Urrutia and Davenport consider to beJesus' authentic sayings from a variety ofcanonical and non-canonical sources. Urrutia interprets Jesus' mission as a leadership role in the "Israelitenonviolent resistance toRoman oppression".
Urrutia was born inGuayaquil,Ecuador. He lived in Ecuador until 1968, and has since been a resident of the United States of America, except for the period from May 1974 to July 1977, when he lived inIsrael. AtBrigham Young University, he studied underHugh Nibley. Learning from Nibley that the Book of Mormon namesShiblon andShiblom may be derived from the Arabic rootshibl, "lion cub," Urrutia connected this to the "Jaguar Cub" imagery of theOlmec people.[1][2]
Urrutia has also elaborated on Nibley's argument that the wordMakhshava, usually translated as "thought," is more correctly translated as "plan." Urrutia has made some contributions to the study ofEgyptian Names in the Book of Mormon.
Over the years, Urrutia has written and published a number of articles, letters, poems and reviews on matters related to the work ofJ. R. R. Tolkien.[3]
Benjamin Urrutia contributed stories to every volume of theLDSF series – anthologies of Science Fiction with LDS themes. He edited the second[4] and third[5] volumes of the series.
Urrutia has been a book reviewer since 1970 and a film critic since 1981. As of 2017, he is a book reviewer and the principal film critic forThe Peaceable Table.[6] He is a strong advocate ofChristian vegetarianism.
Urrutia contends that RabbiYeshua Bar Abba was the historical Jesus of Nazareth and was the leader of the successful nonviolent Jewish resistance toPontius Pilate's attempt to place Roman eagles—symbols of the worship ofJupiter—onJerusalem'sTemple Mount.Josephus, who relates this episode, does not say who the leader of this resistance was, but shortly afterwards states that Pilate had Jesus crucified. (Many scholars believe this passage of Josephus may have been slightly but significantly altered by later editors.)[7]
TheGospel of the Hebrews says that the suggestion to be baptized by John came from the mother and brothers of Jesus, and Jesus himself agreed only reluctantly. Contrary to the common opinion, Urrutia insists that this version must be the authentic one because 1) it is strongly supported by theCriterion of Embarrassment (Jesus changes his mind and agrees to somebody else's idea) and 2) the gospel was produced by the community that included the family of Jesus and therefore is the most likely to include authentic family traditions.[8]
ATalmudic legend describes a rabbi who encounters theMessiah at the gates of Rome, where the Messiah is tending to the wounds of homeless individuals. When asked about the timing of his arrival, the Messiah responds, "Today!" This statement can be interpreted to imply that the expectation of a future arrival of the Messiah may not be necessary, suggesting instead that he is present in the current moment, particularly among those who are homeless, wounded, hungry, and oppressed.[9]
Inchapter 8 of theGospel of John, "the Jews who believed in Jesus" state that as children of Abraham, they have never been slaves. However, Jews observing mainstreamSecond Temple Judaism and laterRabbinic Judaism recited prayers atPassover, everyShabbat, and throughout the year, evoking the memory of their ancestors having been slaves inEgypt as told in the biblicalBook of Exodus. This portion of John is likely the fictional creation of an editor unaware of Jewish culture and religion.[10] (Note: John 8:33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone;…” does not belong to the phrase/category of Jesus' comments to the Jews who believed. (30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. 31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”) Rather, "They answered him" should be read as the ongoing oppositional faction of Jewish leadership (The Jews who believed, in John 8:31, rightly follows the previous verse, whereas verse 33 continues the context of Jesus' conflict with the unbelieving Jews… (the edit of John 8 by some uninformed redaction is extremely unlikely and the effort to reconcile this is simple, parse verses 31-32 with 29, then continue 33 with the rest of the narrative of Jesus' conversation/conflict with… John 8:3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman… a simpler reading and not requiring later assumptions of redaction.)[excessive detail?]
Urrutia applied theStructuralist theories ofClaude Lévi-Strauss to the first chapter of theHebrew Bible in the article "The Structure of Genesis, Chapter One."[11]
Accepting Jeff Popick's theory that theForbidden fruit is a symbolic reference to animal flesh, Uritia offered an additional argument in favor of his exegesis: "Whetherthe serpent ... is the 'most subtle' of beasts or not, he certainly is a most carnivorous one. If Mr. Serpent taught our ancestors to eat forbidden food, he taught it by example. And nothing he eats is vegan orkosher."[12]
Urrutia found connections between the Israelite heroJoseph and the Greek heroTheseus. These include carnivorous cattle and thenumber seven.[13][non sequitur]
Urrutia found and pointed out similarities betweenNimrod and pharaohAmenhotep III (known asNimmuria in theAmarna Letters).[14][non sequitur]
Urrutia examined Kabbalistic and other sources and found evidenceYahweh was anciently considered the son ofEl.[15][non sequitur]
Urrutia pointed out parallels between the Nuer's relationship to the Dinka and that of the Israelites to the Canaanites and suggested a glottochronological approach.[16][non sequitur]
Urrutia wrote a brief article on theEgyptian religious ritual of theOpening of the Mouth. In it, he traces common themes between the Opening of the Mouth and Psalm 51, such as opening the mouth (or of the lips, in Psalm 51), healing broken bones, and washing the inner organs with special cleansing spices.[17]
Urrutia pointed out that there are hints in the Bible that the authors may have known that not all the sons ofZedekiah perished in theChaldean invasion.[18]
The nameMormon is explained by Urrutia as derived from the Egyptian wordsMor ("love") andMon ("firmly established").[1]
In 1984, Urrutia produced the first translation of the "Spangler Nodule," an iron nodule allegedly found in Ohio in 1800 with an inscription carved on it. According to Urrutia, the text says YHWWY (which, Urrutia suggests, may be a variant of theTetragrammaton).[19][relevant?]
Urrutia was influenced by the Structuralism ofClaude Lévi-Strauss but took exception to the French anthropologist's too-easy acceptance of anti-Mormon slanders.[20]
In a review of a book that presents cases of children who have made substantial and even complete recoveries from autism spectrum disorder with a dairy-free diet, Urrutia avers that considering 1) that most humans cannot digest cow's milk and 2) that "an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure," "all parents should cease and desist from feeding cow's milk to their infants and children before they develop autism (not to mention childhood-onset diabetes)."[21]
A reviewer inThe Washington Post wrote: "In general, Davenport and scholar Benjamin Urrutia translate as plainly as possible, often giving familiar phrases a contemporary lilt: 'No one can work for two bosses...' Throughout,The Logia of Yeshua freshens familiar New Testament injunctions, encouraging us to think anew about their meanings."[22]
Robert Jonas wrote in theShambhala Sun: "Davenport and Urrutia must be applauded for their desire to awaken the reader by offering these new, bare translations of Jesus' sayings."[23]
ProfessorRaphael Patai responded to Urrutia's ideas, and the two scholars had a lively dialogue for two issues ofAmerican Anthropologist.[24]
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