Tidbits – Page 5 – Temple Study

Hugh Nibley Weekly Lecture Series Beginning Tonight at BYU

January 14, 2010 by Bryce Haymond 10 Comments

Dr. Richard Bushman

The Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), in conjunction with Religious Education and the Harold B. Lee library, are hosting a weekly lecture series that begins tonight, January 14th, 2010, at 7:00pm, and extends through Winter Semester 2010 on Thursday evenings in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium at BYU.

This lecture series is in honor of the 100th anniversary of Hugh Nibley’s birth this year. Hugh Nibley was born on March 27, 1910.

The presenters at these lectures will include Richard Bushman, Robert Millet, Terry Ball, Daniel Peterson, Zina Petersen, Ann Madsen, Alex Nibley, Bert Wilson, John Welch, Marilyn Arnold, Eric Huntsman, and Gaballa Ali Gaballa.

Tonight’s lecture is by Richard Bushman, biographer of Joseph Smith (Rough Stone Rolling), and an editor of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. His topic is “Nibley and Joseph Smith.” Next week’s lecture, January 21st, will be by Robert Millet who will present on “Nibley and the Church.”

I’m looking forward to these lectures. Hugh Nibley catapulted LDS scholarship and apologetics into a new dimension, and his work will affect many generations of Latter-day Saints to come. His work on the temple has particularly influenced me, and many others I know.

Update 1/15/10: The lecture was wonderful last night. And there’s good news! There were three cameras there filming it, which I think they will continue for the series, which means that they are planning on putting it all on TV or making it available somehow for later viewing (perhaps online). They also gave the rest of the series schedule of lectures:

14 Jan – “Nibley and Joseph Smith” – Richard Bushman
21 Jan – “Nibley and the Church” – Robert Millet
28 Jan – “Nibley’s Early Education” – Zina Petersen
4 Feb – “Nibley as Apologist” – Daniel Peterson
11 Feb – “Nibley and the environment” – Terry Ball
18 Feb – “Graduate School through BYU” – Alex Nibley
25 Feb – “Nibley on the Bible” – Ann Madsen
4 Mar – “Folklore on Nibley” – Bert Wilson
11 Mar – “The Lasting Legacies of Hugh W. Nibley” – John W. Welch
18 Mar – “Nibley and Classical Scholarship” – Eric Huntsman
25 Mar – “Nibley on the Book of Mormon” – Marilyn Arnold
1 Apr – “Nibley the Mentor” – Wilfred Griggs
8 Apr – “Nibley, Egyptology & the Book of Abraham” – TBA

These lectures will all be held in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium (Level 1) at 7:00pm. This is a great lineup! If you plan on coming to these lectures, make sure you come early to get a seat, as the room was filled to overflowing last night.

New WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin for Bloggers

January 12, 2010 by Bryce Haymond 4 Comments

Example of a popup using the new WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin by DearScriptures.com

For some time I’ve been using the excellent LDS Linker WordPress plugin, developed by Joey Day, to automatically link all scripture references on TempleStudy.com directly to the Church’s online scriptures at scriptures.lds.org. It worked very well, and continues to be one of the most popular WordPress plugins for LDS bloggers to link their scripture references to the online scriptures.

Recently I was thinking how much easier it would be to just hover your mouse over a scripture reference and see a popup with the scripture reference written out. It would make reading the scripture references that much quicker in a blog post, rather than clicking a link to another site. [Read more…]

FollowTheProphet.net website launches!

November 24, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 3 Comments

FollowTheProphet.net logo, a portrait by LDS artist Ken Corbett of President Thomas S. Monson. Used with permission. KenCorbettArt.com

My brother and I are pleased to announce the launch of our latest project—the FollowTheProphet.net website! This new website has been in design and development for the past month, and we are happy to finally be able to announce today that it is available.

FollowTheProphet.net is a website that allows members of the Church to follow the living prophet more closely. We go from General Conference to General Conference often not hearing or knowing what the prophet is doing, saying, or teaching. Not long ago, the activities of the prophet were much more well known among the membership of the Church. The prophet and members lived very close geographically, and members could even meet personally with the prophet. Today, with over 13 million members scattered worldwide, the activities of the prophet are much lesser known. Members who don’t live in Utah may only know what the prophet is doing every six months at General Conference.

FollowTheProphet.net helps to fill that gap of knowledge. With advances in search technology, we are able to aggregate all public information we find about where the prophet is, what he is doing, saying, teaching, visiting, etc., and post it all in one central place at FollowTheProphet.net. Any talks or speeches he gives, we will post links to his words. Any trips he goes on, we will post information about his visits. Any temples he dedicates, we will inform you about the events. Hopefully this will help you feel a closer connection with God’s living prophet, and stay up-to-date about his activities and his counsel. We believe that in these turbulent times, we will be safe if we stay close to the living prophet of God and heed his word.

More information about the new website can be found on the About page at FollowTheProphet.net, such as the ability to “follow the prophet” via Twitter, RSS, email, or Facebook.

We are excited to bring you this new service, and hope you will enjoy it! Please give us any tips, suggestions, or feedback that you may have that would help us improve the site.

Poll – Top Things that Interfere with Regular Temple Attendance?

November 4, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 24 Comments

Elder Richard G. Scott

In the April General Conference earlier this year Elder Richard G. Scott spoke about the temple. He said:

I have seen that many times individuals have made great sacrifices to go to a distant temple. But when a temple is built close by, within a short time, many do not visit it regularly. I have a suggestion: When a temple is conveniently nearby, small things may interrupt your plans to go to the temple. Set specific goals, considering your circumstances, of when you can and will participate in temple ordinances. Then do not allow anything to interfere with that plan. This pattern will guarantee that those who live in the shadow of a temple will be as blessed as are those who plan far ahead and make a long trip to the temple. ((Elder Scott, “Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Times of Need,” April 2009 General Conference.))

As Elder Scott suggested, one way to succeed in attending the temple regularly is to identity those things that interfere, and either eliminate them, work around them, or correct them.

So, we come to the poll below (only visible on the website). This poll is completely anonymous. Feel free to explain your choices, or “other” selection, in the comments, and how you plan to overcome your interferences.

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Ancient Israelite Temples Timeline (1300 BC—AD 100)

October 29, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 12 Comments

Ancient Israelite Temples Timeline (1300 BC—AD 100). Click on image for hi-res version.

Ancient Israelite Temples Timeline (1300 BC—AD 100) by Bryce Haymond is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. That means you can use this graphic however you please, as long as you attribute the original work to me and this website, and any derivatives must be licensed the same. See the Creative Commons link above for more details.

I am a visual learner in many ways, so sometimes I like to put things together visually so I can get a better grasp of them, and understand them more thoroughly. The history of the ancient Israelite temples is one of those things that I wanted to learn better, so I created this timeline to help me visualize it.

The timeline shows the basic history of the ancient Israelite temples from the Tabernacle of Moses, through Solomon’s Temple (First Temple Period), the Babylonian Exile, and Zerubbabel’s and Herod’s Temples (Second Temple Period). This spans about 1400 years. Major temple structures are noted, as well as lesser known Israelite temples. Major events which affected temple worship are marked and labeled, as well as other important dates.

The information on the timeline is sourced primarily from William Hamblin and David Seely’s excellent 2007 book, Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History (pages 9-49, 210). Other information was found at various sources online.

I’m sure there are many details I’ve left out, and probably some errors. If there are items that you think should be included (such as additional Israelite temples), please let me know. If there are errors, please tell me those as well. Just leave notes in the comments, and I will continually update the timeline here as I receive feedback. Thanks!

Update (10/31/2009): I’ve updated the timeline. I’ve added some temples in the New World, including the temple in the city of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Bountiful. I’ve also added several more Old World temples including Arad, Meggido, Lachish, Beersheba, Gilgal, Ebal, Shechem, Shiloh, Kirjath-jearim, and Gibeon. Many of the dates are approximated. There are still more to add, as soon as I find more details.

Update (11/2/2009): I’ve decided to make this strictly an Old World temples timeline, so I’ve removed the few references to temples in the New World. I may make a separate timeline which compiles what we know of temples in the Book of Mormon. I’ve added some details about the ruling parties in Judea between 515 BC and AD 100. I’ve also added a visual reconstruction of what the Elephantine Temple may have looked like. Other small details have also been added.