A friend of mine, Steve Reed, has put together a great collection of scriptures that relate to the temple. He has entitled it, “Through the Veil: Pondering the Temple Experience Through Scripture.” It is simply a collection of scriptures, from all books of the LDS canon, that have been arranged according to the temple context. There is no commentary or interjected opinion; there is only scripture. It is interesting to read these scriptures in this way, and in this order, and could be a good tool in temple preparation or in general study of the temple.
Of course there are many more scriptures that could be added to Steve’s collection, that are either the same scriptures repeated in other books of scripture, or that address the same topics from more esoteric angles or language. Some of the most fascinating scriptures relating to the temple might be found in the book of Job, which I once wrote a post about, which has subsequently been addressed at length also by Mack Stirling at “The Temple on Mount Zion” Conference held last September 2012, in a presentation entitled “Job: An LDS Reading.” As Mack notes in his abstract, “Many points of contact with the temple support the thesis that the book of Job is a literary analogue of the endowment ritual” (emphasis added).
Here is Steve’s paper.
Thanks for the post! I’m going to have to check out that Job video. There were so many scriptures that could have been added but I was trying to keep it concise for the sake of the reader. It would be interesting to create an exhaustive version and put it out there as well, but I’ll leave that to someone else much more qualified.
Most members of the church are unfamiliar with ancient temple practices and much of the things covered here at TempleStudy.com. When they experience the temple, they don’t have any context in which to place what they have experienced. I feel that the current “Temple Prep” class is very inadequate, the word “Initiatory” never even appears in the manual!
I’ve thought about putting together my own Temple Prep course for family members, etc. but that’s when I had the idea putting this list of scriptures together. It isn’t a class or an in-depth paper, but to the novice it can give context through the most trusted source out there: the scriptures.
We live in an age of so much wonderful information about the temple that most people are just completely ignorant of. My dream is to see the church or someone come out with a really good temple prep course that can give the average person the tools to understand and apply the blessings of the temple into their lives and study at a much higher level. Until then, I suppose we’ll have to just keep blogging!
Thanks for the posts on the scriptures and the temple ordinances. They are good so far as they go. Having read
and researched the Standard Works I have found at least 29 references related to the ordinances . There are indeed that many,not just the first chapters of Genesis ,Moses,and Abraham. I will give you four: Isa. 22:20-25;
Exodus 40:12-15 and Gal. 6:17.
This is simply a beautiful compilation of scriptures! Thank you for sharing this!
I have been waiting for someone to compile these. Thanks so much Steve and Bryce!
Is this scripture list available anywhere today in 2020?