Recently my wife was reading a book entitled A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith when she came across a passage which was interesting that she shared with me:
One day, Hildy asked Johnny to bring someone for Katie, her girl friend, the next time they went dancing. Johnny obliged. The four of them [...]
Egypt figures a central role in the religion of the ancient Near East, where much of our canon of scripture owes its narrative and existence to this locale. Even the Book of Mormon tells us it was written in “reformed Egyptian” (Mormon 9:32). The most interesting aspect, to me, is the adoption into Egypt of [...]
While there is undoubtedly an abundance of temple allusions in the whole of Enoch apocryphal literature, I came across a good example today. I will certainly add more as I learn about them.
This example is from 2 Enoch. This apocrypha text is a pseudepigraphon, meaning its authorship is unknown, but is considered part [...]
The other article that impressed me from the latest Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 16/2 (2007), was Donald W. Parry’s “Service and Temple in King Benjamin’s Speech.” Why did it impress me? Because it related subjects in the Book of Mormon to the temple, something that we haven’t seen a lot of [...]
I hadn’t made this connection before, but it seems to jump out at me now like red ink. I knew that the School of the Prophets was a select group of brethren who participated in an effort to prepare themselves for the missionary work, but it also had a much more spiritual side with [...]
The Testament of Levi is one of the books in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and is an apocryphal and pseudopigraphal work so we do not know its original author or source. The Testament of Levi, as we have it today, was composed in its final form in the second century B.C. [...]
I was first introduced to Cyril’s Catechetical Lectures by Hugh Nibley in his phenomenal work The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri. Cyril of Jerusalem is a prominent early Christian theologian, and is considered a saint by many. His most famous writings are set of twenty-three catechetical lectures which he delivered around 347 [...]
There is an interesting passage, of many, in Matthew Brown’s study of the temple, The Gate of Heaven, that caught my attention with regard to ancient crowns:
It is not known exactly what type of crown was worn by the Israelite kings, but we do know that the high priest of the temple wore a crown [...]
The sacred ceremonies in which new monarchs are crowned kings and queens in the United Kingdom have significant parallels to the LDS Mormon endowment. These traditions stem from ancient times in English history, and have remained relatively unchanged in form throughout ages. The most recent coronation ceremony was on June 2, 1953, when [...]
The temples on earth are reflections of the temple in heaven. They mirror each other both in form and content. Consider the following points that I pull from Matthew Brown’s exceptional and classic book on the temple, The Gate of Heaven:
John saw “the temple which is in heaven” (Rev. 14:15, 17; Rev. 15:5-8).
Other [...]
Genesis 37 recounts the story of when Jacob gave a special coat to his son Joseph, which was said to have “many colours.” Later, Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brothers, his coat stripped from him, and returned to his father Jacob. Hugh Nibley gives us some interesting insight into this episode, [...]
For the last few decades Brigham Young University has been involved in the excavation and study of ancient ruins and tombs in the Fayum region of Egypt, particularly in the Fag El Gamous cemetery. Some of the remains there have been noted as early Christian. One of the reports of these findings was [...]
Mormons wear sacred undergarments as part of our religious worship. I thought it might be good today to take a look at a well-known religious tradition, Judaism, and the very similar practice that they have, like us, of wearing certain sacred clothing. I, for one, highly respect the Jews’ practice of this in [...]
In a recent June 2007 Ensign article entitled “Oil in Our Lamps” Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy wrote an excellent commentary on the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 and its connection with our latter-day temple worship and worthiness. As Elder Robbins notes, one way to “liken [these parables] unto [...]
There was an article published yesterday on Beehive Standard Weekly by Emerson Chase on the subject of “The Sacred Garment of Mormon Theology.” I think that the author is generally sincere in his object of attempting to combat the barrage of criticism and ridicule that the members of the LDS Church receive for what [...]
There is an old church in Ravenna, Italy, called the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo. It was built in the late fifth or early sixth century, and was originally dedicated to Christ. One of the most singular and unique things about this church is the appearance of gammadia on many of the vestments of the [...]
An exhibition back in 2000 at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, which was curated by Yael Israeli and David Mevorah, shows artifacts from the early years of the Christian church. The exhibition was entitled “The Cradle of Christianity“:
The exhibition attempts to synthesize the literary sources with finds that have been excavated in this country, particularly [...]
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