Benjamin Urrutia

Benjamin Urrutia (born January 24 1950 in Guayaquil, Ecuador) is an author and scholar. According to the "Mormon Literature Database", Urrutia is "the only LDS Basque Israeli American anthropologist, linguist, and science fiction writer in the universe." [ [http://mormonlit.byu.edu/lit_author.php?a_id=702&PHPSESSID=d51b8bc92cfe06c3cdc3d5dc313d8742 Benjamin Urrutia] from Mormon Literature & Creative Arts (hosted by BYU)] 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 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 (including an entire year at Ein Hashofet), studying the cultural and historical background of the life of Jesus. During this period he also participated in an archaeological excavation near Beersheba and was interviewed by The Jerusalem Post.

At Brigham Young University, he studied under Dr. Hugh Nibley. Learning Nibley's claim 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.Benjamin Urrutia, “The Name Connection”, "New Era", Jun 1983, 39 This theory has been widely accepted among LDS scholars.Fact|date=April 2008 Urrutia has also elaborated on Nibley's argument that the word Makhshava, usually translated as "thought," is more correctly translated as "plan." Urrutia has made some contributions to the study of Egyptian 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 of J. R. R. Tolkien. [See "Mythlore" from 1978 to 1986, e.g.]

Urrutia has been a book reviewer since 1970 and a film critic since 1981. As of 2008, he is a book reviewer and the principal film critic for "The Peaceable Table". [ [http://www.vegetarianfriends.net VegetarianFriends.net] ] He is a strong advocate of Christian vegetarianism.

Urrutia has the condition known as Anosmia: a total lack of a sense of smell.

Ideas

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. (Many scholars believe this passage of Josephus may have been slightly but significantly altered by later editors.)

Urrutia wrote a brief article on the Egyptian religious ritual of the Opening 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 of broken bones, and washing the inner organs with special cleansing spices. [Urrutia, "Psalm 51 and the Egyptian Opening of the Mouth Ceremony," in Sarah Israelit-Groll (editor), "Scripta Hierosolymitana - Egyptological Studies" - Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Magnes Press, pages 222-223 (1982). ]

In 1984, Benjamin Urrutia claimed to have translated the 'Spangler Nodule', allegedly an iron nodule found in Ohio in 1800 which was reported to have an inscription carved on it. According to Urrutia, the text says YHWWY (which, Urrutia suggests, may be a variant of the Tetragrammaton). [ Benjamin Urrutia, "Translation of the Spangler Nodule," "Newsletter and Proceedings of the Society for Early Historic Archaeology", number 155 (1984). ]

Bibliography

* "The Logia of Yeshua: The Sayings of Jesus". Translated and edited in collaboration with Guy Davenport (1996). ISBN 1-887178-70-8

References

ee also

*Josephus on Jesus
*List of Basques
*Urrutia

External links

* [http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/ The Peaceable Table] , including a number of articles, cartoons, poems, reviews and stories by Benjamin Urrutia, plus this classic interview:
* [http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/issue13.html#3 Article by Benjamin Urrutia:Interview with Master Yoda."]
*According to the website [http://howmanyofme.com] , there are six people in the USA named Benjamin Urrutia. This one and five others.
* [http://www.dialoguejournal.com/old index/j.asp]
* [http://www.mormonsf.org/poetry.html#u]
* [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=727]