Author: Bryce Haymond

School of the Prophets as a Temple Precursor

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The School of the Prophets was held in an upper room of the Whitney Store in Kirtland, OhioI 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 hints and shadows of the pending promises and revelations of an endowment of power from on high.  The School of the Prophets was preparing the Church for the temple.

I’m reading Dr. Richard Bushman’s excellent biography, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, and this impressed me when I read the following about the revelation of D&C 88 and the organization of this school: [Read more…]

John Welch on Margaret Barker’s Temple Studies

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John WelchThere is an interesting post at The T&T Clark Blog with a transcription of an address that BYU’s John Welch gave on March 5th in London at a conference about Margaret Barker’s latest book, Temple Themes in Christian Worship, and her scholarly work on temple subjects in ancient Christianity and Judaism. FARMS lists Welch as serving on the executive committee of the Biblical Law Section of the SBL, but in this review he also mentions that he has been selected as one of the organizers of a new section on Temple Studies in the SBL. I am not very familiar with the SBL, but this sounds like a fantastic leap forward in temple studies among biblical scholars.

Some highlights from this address are: [Read more…]

Why Don’t we Find Our Modern Temple in the Old Testament?

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The Tabernacle and the Temple - 1900 atlas from London (click for a larger view)I used to ask myself that question, and I believe that many others probably still do. We believe that our current temple ordinances as revealed by the prophet Joseph Smith are as old as the human race, and were first revealed to Adam, the Ancient of Days ((TPJS, 237)). So why don’t we read more about temple practices similar to our own today in the Old Testament? It can get very confusing trying to compare our modern-day temple ordinances to those of Moses in the Tabernacle, or Solomon’s temple, or even Herod’s temple at the time of Christ. And our critics also love to point out the dissimilarity.

The ordinances just aren’t the same. We might initially think that it is because of the sacredness of the temple that it was kept from being written about much by the ancient patriarchs. But this is not the case. Many details are given about the Tabernacle of Moses in the first books of the Bible. While there are still some similitudes in the structure of the temples, the priestly clothing, and even in the rites, if the ordinances were the same or very similar as we have them today we would find many more allusions to them. But they just aren’t there.

So where are they? [Read more…]

Priestly Initiations in the Testament of Levi

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Detail from A Levite Priest holds up Holy Hands - James Tissot (1836-1902)

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. It is also considered an apocalyptic work, relating visions similar to John’s book of Revelation. Fragments of this text have also been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, lending more credibility to them than some of the other “testaments.”

One particularly interesting passage is about Levi’s vision of his priestly ordination in heaven, including washings, anointings, and investiture: [Read more…]

Two More Temples

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In case you missed it, President Monson yesterday announced plans to build two more temples, both in Arizona. One will be in Gila Valley, and the other in Gilbert. The LDS Newsroom notes that this will bring the number of temples operating, and in planning or construction, to 139. These are also the first temples that have been announced by President Monson since becoming the prophet and president of the Church. President Monson is dedicated to continuing the legacy of temple building that his predecessor, President Hinckley, instituted:

It is my personal priority to make sure members of the Church have access to the blessings of the temple. It is here where members learn of their divine origin and destiny, where they are strengthened spiritually as individuals and as families. Temples are sanctuaries from the storms of life.

Here is a graph of the growth of the numbers of temples and membership since the organization of the Church in 1830. You can see that there is roughly one temple per every 100,000 members of the Church: