Sidney B. Sperry

Sidney Branton Sperry (1895 – 1977) was one of three scholars who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who began the scholarly and systematic study of the Book of Mormon in the mid-20th century — the other two being John L. Sorenson and Hugh W. Nibley. [Reynolds, Noel. "Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited". (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1991).] Sperry was also a leading Latter-day Saint scholar of the Bible. [Robinson, Stephen E. "Bible Scholarship" in Ludlow, Daneil H., ed., "Encyclopedia of Mormonism". (New York: MacMillan, 1992) p. 113]

Sperry was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory."Journal of Book of Mormon Studies" Vol. 4, no. 1, p. x]

In 1917, Sperry graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in Chemistry. For the next two years he worked for the United States Bureau of Metallurgical Research. Sperry then served as a Mormon missionary in the Southern States Mission of the LDS Church from 1919 to 1921. He was for much of this time president of the South Carolina District of the church. In September 1921, Sperry married Eva Lila Braithwaite. They eventually had eight children.

After returning from his mission, Sperry began work as a seminary and institute instructor for the Church Educational System of the LDS Church. He received an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1926 and a Ph.D. from that university's Oriental Language and Literatures Department in 1931. He then did a year of post-doctoral research in archeology at the American School of Oriental Research.

In 1932, Sperry joined the faculty of Brigham Young University. In May 1962, he was given the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Teaching Award. He retired in 1971.

Among his books were "Our Book of Mormon" (1947), "The Book of Mormon Testified" (1952) and "Book of Mormon Compendium" (1968). In 1960, Sperry's "Doctrine and Covenants Compendium" was published. ["Encyclopedia of Mormonism", p. 424]

He is credited in Mormon circles for giving the passages in 2 Nephi chapter 4 the popular name "The Psalm of Nephi" in his book "Our Book of Mormon". ["In his 1947 monograph Our Book of Mormon, Sidney Sperry christened this passage "The Psalm of Nephi," and it has carried that epithet ever since." -- Nickerson, Matthew, Nephi's Psalm: 2 Nephi 4:16-35 in the Light of Form-Critical Analysis, Matthew Nickerson, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 1997. Pp. 26–42.]

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