I walked into my first Hugh Nibley class, totally unaware of the man and his work. It was the 70s. I sat down, opened my Pearl of Great Price and it was at that point that the scriptures became intriguing. Nibley was the first professor to offer a semester course on The Pearl of Great Price. Before that no one thought there was enough material for 16 weeks of study.

We spent all class on only a few verses. I remember Nibley talking about the creation, we were in Abraham 4: 1-2. It’s the part where the Lord said, let us go down and organize the earth, and after it was formed, it was empty and desolate, nothing was on the earth and it was dark and the

“Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the waters.”

Nibley explained that brooding is a word that means the same thing as when a hen sits on her eggs, waiting for them to hatch. In other words, there was a long passage of time. I always think of him when I read those passages.

I met Nibley another time, my hubby and I went with my sister and brother-in-law over to his house in Provo for family night. We sat there in his family room, his wife was working on some needlework and there were books all over. His youngest daughter, Zina was sprawled out in another chair. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t want to appear stupid. My hubby, dear that he is, asked some controversial gospel question — and Nibley side-stepped it.

Another time, we helped pay for him to fly down and speak at one of our firesides in Irvine, CA. Brother  Nibley stayed with my sister and brother-in-law at their house. She recalls he went for a walk, was gone a long time, and sat on the sofa reading a book to her children and being amused with Richard Scary.  One thing that did not amuse him were the large number of attorneys in our stake.

I continue to learn from Nibley, because I always hear something new when I read or listen to his talks.

Hugh Nibley progressed to the next life on Feb 24, 2005. He was almost 95 and anxious to move on. His daughter, Zina, shared at his funeral, that towards the end of his life, when he was ready for bed he would say “Tonight may be the night!”

The next morning he would wake up and say, “Damn!”

Two of my sons attended his funeral because they were at school at BYU. Elder Holland and Elder Oaks attended. And Elder Holland left an Apostolic blessing upon the family and Hugh Nibley’s work. Later, Nibley’s son-in-law, Boyd Petersen, married to Zina, talked about what he had learned from Nibley, What I Learned About Life, the Church, and the Cosmos from Hugh Nibley:

Briefly here is the list:

  1. To proclaim peace,
  2. To consecrate everything we have to the building up of Zion,
  3. To remember that there are only two things we can be good at; things the angels envy us for: our ability to forgive and to repent.
hugh nibley