Hugh Nibley

Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American scholar and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) for nearly 50 years.

He was a prolific author, and wrote apologetic works supporting the archaeological, linguistic, and historical claims of Joseph Smith.

He was a member of the LDS Church, and wrote and lectured on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, publishing many articles in the LDS Church magazines.

In 1917, Nibley's family moved to Medford, Oregon, where his father started to manage his father's sugar beet company.

The next year at age eight, Nibley was baptized into the LDS Church.

The family returned to Portland after the sugar beet factory failed in 1919.

In 1920, the principal at Nibley's elementary school gave all of his students an IQ test.

After seeing Nibley's high scores, the principal decided to privately tutor Nibley.

Nibley's parents employed a music tutor and a French tutor for their children as well.

Nibley was born in Portland, Oregon, and his family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1921, where Nibley attended middle school and high school.

Nibley served an LDS mission in Germany, where he learned German.

Nibley's family moved to Los Angeles in 1921, where Nibley's father participated in the burgeoning real-estate market and was part of Los Angeles's high society.

Nibley attended Alta Loma Middle School from 1921 until 1923.

He spent the summer of 1925 working in a lumber mill.

He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1927, where he was friends with John Cage.

Nibley was particularly interested in astronomy, art, and English.

In order to see through his telescope unimpeded, he cut off his eyelashes.

His interest in literature led him to study Old and Middle English, German, Latin, and Greek.

After his mission, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he graduated in 1934.

He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 1938.

He taught various subjects at Claremont Colleges until he enlisted in the United States Army in 1942, where he was trained as an intelligence officer.

Nibley became a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1946, where he taught foreign languages and Christian church history.

Nibley published multiple series of articles in the Improvement Era as well as An Approach to the Book of Mormon, which was the lesson manual for Melchizedek priesthood lessons in 1957.

Nibley also published a response to the Joseph Smith Papyri as well as other articles on the Pearl of Great Price.

In addition to Nibley's church publications, he also published social commentary, often aimed at LDS culture.

Nibley's work is controversial.

Kent P. Jackson and Douglas F. Salmon have argued that the parallels Nibley finds between ancient culture and LDS works are selective or imprecise.

Nibley's defenders like Louis C. Midgley and Shirley S. Ricks argue that his parallels are meaningful.

Hugh Nibley's son Alex organized a documentary on Hugh entitled Faith of an Observer.

Hugh Nibley's complete works were published jointly by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and Deseret Book.

He continued to study Egyptian and Coptic, and became the figurehead of the Institute for Ancient Studies at BYU in 1973.

During his professorship, Nibley wrote articles for scholarly publications and for official LDS Church publications.

Around the time of Nibley's death in 2005, his daughter Martha Beck published a memoir where she claimed to have recovered repressed memories of Nibley sexually abusing her.

Immediate family members and some book reviewers of Beck's memoirs considered her claims to be false.

Hugh Nibley was born in Portland, Oregon, son of Alexander ("El") Nibley and Agnes Sloan.

Among their other sons were Sloan Nibley, Richard Nibley, and Reid N. Nibley.

Their father, Alexander, was the son of Charles W. Nibley, Presiding Bishop of the church.

Alexander's mother, wife of Charles, was Rebecca Neibaur.

Rebecca was the daughter of Alexander Neibaur, one of the first Jewish people to convert to Mormonism.

Alexander Nibley served as mission president of the Liège Conference.