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Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American author, Mormon apologist, and professor at Brigham Young University (BYU). His works, while not official positions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), mainly attempt to demonstrate archaeological, linguistic, and historical evidence for the claims of Joseph Smith, and are highly regarded within the LDS community. A prolific author and professor of Biblical and Mormon scripture at BYU, he was skilled in numerous languages, including Classical Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, Coptic, Arabic, German, French, English, Italian, and Spanish. He studied Dutch and Russian during World War II. He also studied Old Bulgarian and Old English, and his fluency in Old Norse was reportedly sufficient to enable him to read an entire encyclopedia in Norwegian. Nibley wrote and lectured on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, publishing many articles in LDS Church magazines. His ''An Approach to the Book of Mormon'' was adopted in 1957 as a religious lesson manual by the LDS Church. ==Biography== Hugh Nibley was born in Portland, Oregon, a son of Alexander Nibley and Agnes Sloan. Among their other sons were Sloan Nibley, Richard Nibley, and Reid N. Nibley. Their father Alexander served from 1906-1907 as president of the Netherlands Mission of the LDS Church, and was the son of Charles W. Nibley, Presiding Bishop of the church and later member of the First Presidency, and his wife Rebecca Neibaur.〔Jenson, Andrew. ''LDS Biographical Encyclopedia'', Vol 4, p. 355〕 Rebecca was the daughter of Alexander Neibaur a Jewish native of Alsace who had moved to England and converted to Mormonism. She later joined the LDS church and emigrated to America.〔Cornwall, J. Spencer. ''Stories of Our Mormon Hymns'', p. 246-247〕 Hugh Nibley married Phyllis Draper in September 1946 and the couple had eight children. At age seventeen, Nibley became an LDS missionary in Germany, and served for two-and-a-half years, from 1927 to 1930. Nibley's war memoirs, edited by his son, state that as he was sent off on his mission, LDS Apostle Melvin Ballard told the missionaries to warn the Germans that if they did not repent they would be burnt by fire.〔''Sergeant Nibley Ph.D. by Hugh and Alex Nibley, ISBN 978-1-57345-845-0 -page 7,8,9.〕 A woman in Karlsruhe was so angry at this prophecy that she chased Nibley with a butcher's cleaver. But when Nibley returned to town in 1945, he found that the prophecy had been literally fulfilled. Many German cities had been destroyed, and almost nothing remained of that butcher's shop.〔''Sergeant Nibley, Ph. D.'' Pages 276-279.〕 Nibley began his studies at University of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude, and earned a doctorate as a University Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in 1938. He wanted to explore the phenomenon of the mob in ancient Rome for his thesis, but his graduate committee rejected it as irrelevant to modern civilization.〔Hugh Nibley and Alex Nibley, ''Sergeant Nibley PhD.: Memories of an Unlikely Screaming Eagle'', Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 2006, p 12.〕 During World War II, he enlisted as a private, but eventually became a Master Sergeant working in military intelligence for the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army, the famed "Screaming Eagles". He was with the division behind Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion, landed by glider at Eindhoven as part of Operation Market Garden, and witnessed the aftermath of Nazi concentration camps. A fellow sergeant once said: "Everything happens to Nibley, but nothing happens to him." That is, he had many close shaves and narrow escapes - shells falling almost on him, enemy soldiers passing too close to where he was hiding - but he was never captured, killed or wounded.〔''Sergeant Nibley, Ph.D.'' -pages 194, 224.'' ISBN 978-1-57345-845-0.〕 At the request of Apostle John A. Widtsoe, he became a professor at Brigham Young University in 1946, teaching history, languages, and religion. Nibley served as a faculty member at the LDS Church owned school until his official retirement in 1975, but he continued teaching until 1994. During his final years as a professor emeritus, and prior to his last illness, Nibley maintained a small office in the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU, where he worked on his magnum opus titled ''One Eternal Round'', which focuses on the hypocephalus ("Facsimile 2") in the Book of Abraham. He turned over the materials for his last book to FARMS in the late months of 2002. It was published in March 2010 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.〔("Contributions Sought for Completion of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley" ) ''Insights,'' Volume 27, Issue 2. Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute〕 Late in his life, Nibley gave authorization to have his biography written, and it was published just two years before his death. This was followed in 2006 by a detailed account of his World War II years, edited by his son Alex Nibley.〔Nibley, Alex, "Sergeant Nibley PhD: Memories of an Unlikely Screaming Eagle". Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 2006. ISBN 1-57345-845-7.〕 After being confined to bed by illness for over two years, Nibley died on February 24, 2005 in his home in Provo, Utah at the age of 94.〔 Just after his death, Nibley's daughter Martha Beck published a book, ''Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith'', describing the circumstances of how she left the LDS Church, and saying that in 1990 she had recovered repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse by her father. The allegations received national publicity.〔 〕 Nibley had long been aware of the allegations and denied them. Beck's seven siblings responded to the book, issuing a statement saying that these accusations against their father were false.〔 (Statement released by the Nibley family)〕〔 (Reactions of individual siblings)〕 Boyd Petersen, Nibley's biographer and son-in-law, also rejected Beck's claims. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hugh Nibley」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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