Hello All: A while back I had posted this background story to the Isaiah Institute website, offering a little history regarding the origins of the Hebraeus Foundation. As many of you are new and may not be familiar with me or the story, here goes…
After hearing Hugh Nibley talk about Avraham while a student in his honors Book of Mormon class, I was taken by his endorsement as he opined that Avraham was, quote, “the only LDS scholar I know who is thoroughly prepared to enter into serious and proper study and teaching of the words of Isaiah.” Wanting to know more about this Gileadi, I made contact to meet him in early September of 1990. We met for lunch at the BYU cafeteria and discussed his situation and plans to continue writing.
At the time, I believe that only his book, The Book of Isaiah: A New Isaiah Translation with Interpretive Keys from the Book of Mormon, was in print and he was working on several other key Isaiah projects. It became apparent in our meeting that if he had additional support to pursue all these other works fulltime, wonderful advancements in bringing out the full message of Isaiah could be realized. At this time, Avraham held an occasional fireside to promote his work, in addition to the benefit of his Isaiah translation being published by Deseret Book.
But despite these things, it was obvious that more was needed to advance his work further. Having a background in Business Finance I discussed setting up a foundation whereby we could solicit funding and provide the additional means needed to finance this great work of unlocking and understanding Isaiah. We then held several meetings to put together a Board of Directors, which included two supportive BYU professors and other like-minded officers. Our first task was to write the required bylaws and the articles of incorporation. Later that first month, Avraham came up with the name and logo for the Hebraeus Foundation. I then filed the necessary documents for the Foundation, which was eventually granted non-profit 501(c)(3) status.
Now that the Hebraeus Foundation was an official entity, I and others then went and solicited contributions and grants from several prominent people and institutions with enough success to get us going. In addition, we set up a periodic evening lecture series by booking rooms in several libraries, high schools, and other civic venues where we could hold lectures and take in donations. We would typically hold 2-4 lectures per month. Most of the lectures were held in either Salt Lake or Bountiful, with one as far as Las Vegas.
Our first lecture was attended by 20 people, of which five were associated with the Foundation! Advertising for these events was mostly by word of mouth. Soon, however, as word got around, we were up to well over 100 attendees. The first lecture Avraham discussed was his literary methodology and analysis, then on to the Book of Isaiah, starting with Chapter 1. These initial lectures lasted for almost two years and covered the book in its entirety.
From our funding sources and from recording these lectures we were able to offer VHS and cassette tapes and publish The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and Book of Mormon and The Literary Message of Isaiah and set in motion several other key works that would come from this most gifted and timely scholar. Eventually, other more capable individuals took over the Hebraeus Foundation, and in 2000 it became this awesome Isaiah Institute. Little did I know that a lunch at BYU would evolve to realize the vision of bringing the critical end-time message of Isaiah to such a large audience.
Ed Godlewski, St. George, Utah.
