All; By way of explanation for the quote from Hugh Nibley that I put at the bottom of my last message I offer the following: In 1951 I transferred to BYU (open enrollment; I would not have made the cut today) as a Physics and Math major. As such my instructors were all intelligent or very intelligent people. As a treat to myself I enrolled in "Early Oriental History" by Dr. Hugh Nibley. I soon decided that he was the most intelligent man I had ever met. In all of my other classes I was able to take comprehensive notes while the instructor was lecturing. In Bro. Nibley's class I immediately found that the information content of his lecture was so dense that it was necessary for me to alternately listen and then write my notes (thus missing much of what he said). He did not speak rapidly, but the information content of his words was high. One day he came in and in his usual manner began the lecture as he entered the doorway. This time to my surprise I was able to write my notes while he was talking. He was reading from a book and speaking slowly and deliberately. After a few minutes one of the guys put up his hand and asked: "Dr. Nibley What are you reading?". Answer: "Don't worry about it." A few minutes later the same person again requested the title of the book in Dr. Nibley's hand. Answer: "It wouldn't do you any good." Finally the same person (dummy) insisted upon the title stating that he wanted to read it for himself. Bro. Nibley then turned the book so that we could see the pages from which he was reading. It was a copy of the Book of the Dead in the original hieroglyphic! At that time I was very impressed. Since then I have read much more on the subject of translating the Egyptian writing and have a better understanding of just how difficult it is to do. In fact Nibley himself has said that while we know what words those glyphs represent, we have not been able to translate one single document from Egyptian Hieroglyphic! And to think that I complain at the problems I have in researching my genealogy! Cheers, Richard L. Halliday "If the Lord wanted a job perfectly done He would not let me help. "However, that does not excuse me from doing the best job that I can."

Richard Halliday wrote: > All; > By way of explanation for the quote from Hugh Nibley that I put at (G) Thanks. Cheryl -- There should be no attachments on this message, unless I specifically mentioned them above.

My condolences Richard and all. I see Dr. Nibley died in April 2005 and was put to rest in a casket his son handmade for him. He was 94. It must be hard to lose someone you admire. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Halliday" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 4:07 PM Subject: [PAF-5] Hugh Nibley & PAF 5 > All; > By way of explanation for the quote from Hugh Nibley that I put at > the bottom of my last message I offer the following: > In 1951 I transferred to BYU (open enrollment; I would not have > made the cut today) as a Physics and Math major. As such my instructors > were all intelligent or very intelligent people. As a treat to myself I > enrolled in "Early Oriental History" by Dr. Hugh Nibley. I soon decided > that he was the most intelligent man I had ever met. > In all of my other classes I was able to take comprehensive notes > while the instructor was lecturing. In Bro. Nibley's class I > immediately found that the information content of his lecture was so > dense that it was necessary for me to alternately listen and then write > my notes (thus missing much of what he said). He did not speak rapidly, > but the information content of his words was high. > One day he came in and in his usual manner began the lecture as he > entered the doorway. This time to my surprise I was able to write my > notes while he was talking. He was reading from a book and speaking > slowly and deliberately. > After a few minutes one of the guys put up his hand and asked: "Dr. > Nibley What are you reading?". Answer: "Don't worry about it." A few > minutes later the same person again requested the title of the book in > Dr. Nibley's hand. Answer: "It wouldn't do you any good." Finally the > same person (dummy) insisted upon the title stating that he wanted to > read it for himself. Bro. Nibley then turned the book so that we could > see the pages from which he was reading. It was a copy of the Book of > the Dead in the original hieroglyphic! At that time I was very > impressed. Since then I have read much more on the subject of > translating the Egyptian writing and have a better understanding of just > how difficult it is to do. In fact Nibley himself has said that while > we know what words those glyphs represent, we have not been able to > translate one single document from Egyptian Hieroglyphic! > And to think that I complain at the problems I have in researching > my genealogy! > Cheers, > Richard L. Halliday > "If the Lord wanted a job perfectly done He would > not let me help. > "However, that does not excuse me from doing the > best job that I can."