compass – Temple Study

The Seal of Melchizedek – Part 5

July 14, 2012 by Bryce Haymond 16 Comments

The seal of Melchizedek as seen on the entrance doors of the Salt Lake Temple. (Click for larger view)

It’s been a long time coming, since September 2008 to be exact, and I’d like to finally complete this series of posts on the seal of Melchizedek. It is probably one of the most trafficked series of posts on this website. It’s drawn a lot of attention, and may have even been part of what compelled a BYU scholar, Alonzo L. Gaskill, to publish an article about it in The Religious Educator at BYU in 2010, which article I’d like to talk about.

But first, there are a few other artifacts related to the symbol that I’d like to share. As I pointed out in Part 2, this seal is most prominently found as displayed in the mosaics and iconography in the basilicas of Ravenna, Italy. Indeed, this is very likely where Hugh Nibley saw this symbol originally, as perhaps did Michael Lyon, and where he may have coined the name the “seal of Melchizedek.” The symbol is shown on the altar cloths in these mosaics, shown next to Melchizedek, Abel, and Abraham, in making sacrificial offerings to God. The altar cloth also shows gammadia in the corners, right-angle marks like the Greek letter gamma, which is also very interesting, and worthy of a study in and of itself.

To begin, I want to note again that to date I have not found any evidence for this symbol being called the “seal of Melchizedek” by any other scholar, historian, or historical figure in recorded history before Hugh Nibley and Michael Lyon. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it is likely a conception that began with the Latter-day Saints, making a logical connection between the symbol and the Biblical figure found adjacent to it in the mosaics. [Read more…]

Ancient markings excavated in Jerusalem stump experts

December 9, 2011 by Bryce Haymond 12 Comments

Matti Friedman of the Associated Press published news about a recent excavation in the City of David in Jerusalem, near the Gihon Spring. The excavation revealed an interesting set of markings carved into the stone floor of a room, and expert archeologists cannot determine what their meaning or use was. The markings consist of three “V” marks, or perhaps gammadia “Γ,” although one is inverted from the other two, plus a straight line mark. They date to about 800 B.C. [Read more…]

The Creation, God Introducing Adam and Eve – An Illustration by Jean Fouquet

April 18, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 20 Comments

Ms Fr 247 f.3 The Creation, God Introducing Adam and Eve, from 'Antiquites Judaiques', c.1470-76, Jean Fouquet, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France

Every once and a while I’ll come upon an antiquarian painting, print, fresco, sculpture or other art piece that peaks my interest. This is one of them.

This is an illustration by Jean Fouquet from a french translation manuscript of Josephus‘ Jewish Antiquities. It is entitled, “The Creation, God Introducing Adam and Eve,” and dates to 1470-76 C.E. Currently it is maintained at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France.

There are several things that are interesting about this illustration:

God is portrayed in the center, joining the right hands of Adam and Eve in a sacred handclasp, likely the dextrarum iunctio, a symbol of the eternal marriage of the two.
Angels on both sides of the group seem to clothe Adam and Eve in the sacred garments worn by God.
The Garden of Eden is symbolized as a walled city/fortress, with the rivers beginning at a fountain and exiting through the walls.
Since this is also representative of the Creation, we note God and his angels at the top holding the instruments or tools of creation, including God holding a compass and one of the angels a square. (See Isa. 44:13)
Is God represented here twice, or are there 2 Gods?
God is depicted as a man, in both cases.

You can see a similar representation in a 16th century sculpture called The Garden of Eden or Love.

Anything else interesting that you see in this illustration? Does anyone know anything else about this particular work, or similar ones?

Update (4/20/09): I found a scan of the entire page from a book entitled “Jehan Foucquet, native of Tours” by Trenchard Cox (page 88). You can see the full page image here. It is interesting to note that in this book the title of the illustration is “The Marriage of Adam and Eve.”

Update (4/20/09): I found another very similar illumination from the same time period. This one is entitled “The Marriage of Adam and Eve” from “Des Proprietes De Chozes” by Jean Corbechon around 1415 C.E. You can see very similar symbolism here.

The marriage of Adam and Eve, from 'Des Proprietes De Chozes' by Jean Corbechon, c.1415.

Update (4/20/09): Here is a detail of an engraving by Jean Duvet cerca 1540-1555 which depicts the same – “The Marriage of Adam and Eve.” You can see the full engraving here.

Detail from engraving "The Marriage of Adam and Eve" by Jean Duvet, cerca 1540-1555.

Nüwa and Fuxi in Chinese Mythology: Compass & Square

September 17, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 37 Comments

An ancient painting of Nüwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang, holding the tools of creation - compass and square.

Hugh Nibley gave a lecture in 1975 on “Sacred Vestments” which was later transcribed and included in the collected works volume Temple and Cosmos (pgs. 91-132). The entire paper is fascinating, and highly recommended reading. One of the things he wrote about were certain Chinese artifacts which had been found depicting two mythological gods, Nüwa and Fuxi, and the tools they hold:

Most challenging are the veils from Taoist-Buddhist tombs at Astana, in Central Asia, originally Nestorian (Christian) country, discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in 1925… We see the king and queen embracing at their wedding, the king holding the square on high, the queen a compass. As it is explained, the instruments are taking the measurements of the universe, at the founding of a new world and a new age. Above the couple’s head is the sun surrounded by twelve disks, meaning the circle of the year or the navel of the universe. Among the stars depicted, Stein and his assistant identified the Big Dipper alone as clearly discernable. As noted above, the garment draped over the coffin and the veil hung on the wall had the same marks; they were placed on the garment as reminders of personal commitment, while on the veil they represent man’s place in the cosmos. (pg. 111-12)

Nibley included drawings of this depiction found on veils in the Astana Tombs in Xinjiang, China, with a caption that reads:

In the underground tomb of Fan Yen-Shih, d. A.D. 689, two painted silk veils show the First Ancestors of the Chinese, their entwined serpect bodies rotating around the invisible vertical axis mundi. Fu Hsi holds the set-square and plumb bob … as he rules the four-cornered earth, while his sister-wife Nü-wa holds the compass pointing up, as she rules the circling heavens. The phrase kuci chü is used by modern Chinese to signify “the way things should be, the moral standard”; it literally means the compass and the square. (pg. 115)

See the photos at the end of the post for more examples of this icon. The veil redrawn in Temple and Cosmos is shown photographed in the second row, fourth from the left. [Read more…]