Is the Temple Troubling?
Someone recently asked me the following:
Perhaps you can explain how a person who finds the [temple experience] to be … troubling should express those feelings.
This was my reply, with additional edits: [Read more…]
Month: July 2008
Video Inside the New Twin Falls Temple
The Church has produced a short video for the media describing the newest temple of the Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, and the open house that will be occurring there from July 11th through August 16th, 2008 (8am-8pm, except Sundays and Mondays after 6pm).
This video comes from Times-News at MagicValley.com. It is introduced by Elder William Walker, member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and includes some commentary from the construction company (Big D Construction), Brent Nielson (Chairman of the Twin Falls Temple Committee), and some other members of the Church. It also includes some video of the inside of the temple. Typically the Church publishes photos of the interior, but this is the first time I’ve seen short video clips produced in connection with the opening of a new temple, which include the celestial room, baptistery, ordinance rooms, sealing rooms, and lobby. The temple is a beautiful sacred place.
Asking for Her Hand in Marriage, Tying the Knot, and Handfasting
I was thinking yesterday that there might be more to the common saying “asking for her hand in marriage.” Doing a few searches and I found that some believe it comes from a medieval ritual known as handfasting. Today it has been adopted by certain Neopagan groups as part of their engagement or marriage rituals, but it has a history which dates back to the Middle Ages in the Christian context, and is certainly much more ancient still ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handfasting)). Apparently this practice has fallen out of usage and been lost among most of mainstream Christianity, except in Eastern Orthodoxy.
The modern handfasting ritual typically consists of tying the right hands of the couple to be betrothed or wed with a ribbon or cord while the couples exchange their vows. This is also probably the origin of the common phrase, “tying the knot.” In some cases, all four hands are tied together to make a figure 8 when viewed from above, the symbol of infinity or eternity (as in the photo on the right) ((http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_hand.htm)).
There is a good treatment on the history of Medieval handfasting on MedievalScotland.org, in which the author quotes from A.E. Anton:
Among the people who came to inhabit Northumbria and the Lothians, as well as among other Germanic peoples, the nuptials were completed in two distinct phases. There was first the betrothal ceremony and later the giving-away of the wife to the husband. The betrothal ceremony was called the beweddung in Anglo-Saxon because in it the future husband gave weds or sureties to the woman’s relatives, initially for payment to them of a suitable price for his bride but later for payment to her of suitable dower and morning-gift. The parties plighted their troth and the contract was sealed, like any other contract, by a hand-shake. This joining of hands was called a handfæstung in Anglo-Saxon, and the same word is found in different forms in the German, Swedish and Danish languages. In each it means a pledge by the giving of the hand. …. [Read more…]
What Do You Want To See on TempleStudy.com?
Some of you may remember the survey I posted here on TempleStudy.com back in May. It was a huge success. Many of you responded to my request for feedback, even those of you who don’t normally comment. Some of you gave me great compliments, for which I am very thankful, and many also gave suggestions of improvements to the blog and topics that you’d would like to see addressed here, including many “other” requests. I have taken those suggestions to heart and have already written on several of the topics that you submitted. Thank you for your participation!
The feedback went so well that I would like to make it a more permanent feature of the site. I have integrated a service called skribit that will allow just that. This new service will facilitate interaction with all of you in multiple ways, including the following:
- Submit Suggestions – You may submit any topic that you’d like to see addressed on TempleStudy.com – i.e., themes you’d like me to write about, ideas that you have, questions you may have, suggestions for improvement to the site, etc. I have already added 15 suggestions that were given in the prior feedback (some of which I’ve already blogged about somewhat).
- Vote – Once suggestions are added, you can all vote on them. If you see a suggestion that you’d also like to see written about or changed on the site, then just click the little green arrow next to that item to add your vote. Those items that receive the most votes will be higher on my list to write about or do on TempleStudy.com.
All of the above can be done anonymously. You don’t need an account or a login to submit suggestions or vote on them – anyone can add suggestions or vote. If you sign up for an account with skribit, you can also do the following:
- Discuss – Each suggestion allows a discussion for that item. If you’d like to add your comments to a suggestion, click on the suggestion or on the “discuss” link next to it, and then add your comments in the box provided.
- Notification – If you submit a suggestion or question while you are logged in, then you will be notified by email when I write a post about it, or do whatever thing the suggestion is about. This will help you easily stay on top of whatever you submit, and be made aware if I ever address it.
To access the suggestions feature, go to this link, or just click on “Suggestions” on the top navigation bar. I only ask that you skim the already listed suggestions first before adding a suggestion, in case yours has already been added by someone else.
Let me know if you like this new feature or not in the comments below.
The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” – Part 4
In the last parts of our series on the Egyptian hieroglyph of the ankh, and other related symbols, I’d like to look at where these symbols are found on the extant portions of the Joseph Smith Papyri, related documents, and the facsimiles of the Book of Abraham, to see if Joseph Smith was correct in any of his interpretations, or even on the right track. I’ve written a brief into to these documents here.
As we’ve noted before, the themes that show up in the rituals of the Egyptians have unique parallels to our modern temple practices and ordinances. This is not to be interpreted as an adoption of pagan rites, plagiarism of ancient rituals, or a belief in Egyptian polytheism, for the Egyptians had a corrupt imitation of the true order of God, and Joseph knew it. Indeed, such attacks leveled at Joseph might actually be counterintuitive to our critics’ position, for such would mean that Joseph understood what he was looking at in the papyri, yet such inspired translation is precisely what our critics claim he could not do. Note that the field of Egyptology had just recently been born in the 1820s, and the reading of hieroglyphics was only barely in its infancy in Europe at the time Joseph was translating the papyri in the 1830s, ruling out any scholarly approach to reading the papyri. The critics have yet to explain, therefore, if Joseph did not receive the temple ordinances by revelation from God, and he could not read the papyri, then how did he teach temple rites that have remarkable parallels to the Egyptians which were written on the papyri? Could he read the papyri or couldn’t he? Either way our critics find themselves in a quandary.
Instead of being detrimental to Joseph, such a connection between the papyri and the temple actually serves as evidence of his divine calling, and that he was inspired to translate the papyri. As in many instances of the early experiences of the prophet, Joseph had a question about something that he experienced in his life, and inquired of the Lord about it ((See the history behind the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood and baptism)). What followed was a restoration, through revelation, of the true and perfect ordinance or teaching of that particular thing. The papyri quite possibly were such a springboard for the restoration of the temple endowment, as H. Donl Peterson has noted: [Read more…]