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Sustaining and Defending the LDS Temple

eternal

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

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.

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.

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

Posted in: Artifacts Tagged: adam and eve, art, clothing, compass, creation, eternal, garments, handclasp, marriage, square, symbolism

The Importance of Temple Work

November 30, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 3 Comments
The sealing power has been compared to links in a chain which bind families together eternally.

The sealing power is compared to links in a chain which bind families together eternally all the way back to our father Adam.

Last week I was asked by our bishop to present a 10-15 minute portion of a lesson today on the importance of temple work in our combined priesthood/relief society meeting.

Our stake is preparing for a “temple month” theme for January, and our meeting today was meant to inspire us to be thinking about family history, genealogy and temple work and to do more of it.  Our bishop wanted me to present some general information about the reason for the temple and why the work performed there is of such supernal import. After my part of the lesson, two sisters were to give instruction on family history work, FamilySearch, indexing, and preparing and submitting names to the temple.

Since I only had about 10 minutes, I considered carefully what I wanted to present to introduce this topic.  Below are the notes from my portion of the lesson:  [Read more…]

Posted in: General Authorities, Temples Today Tagged: altar, ancestors, boyd k. packer, brigham young, bruce r. mcconkie, creation, elijah, eternal, exaltation, family, family history, genealogy, general conference, gordon b. hinckley, joseph smith, ordinance work, ordinances, organization, priesthood, seal, sealing

Time and Eternity: An Egyptian Dualism

June 25, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 4 Comments

King Tut's Burial Chamber - Osiris embracing Tutankhamun, "Giving all life for time and eternity." The ankh, neheh, and djet symbols are highlighted in yellow.As I was researching for the posts on the ankh, I came across some information which was interesting, describing the Egyptian concept of “time” and “eternity.” These concepts almost seem repetitive and redundant to our modern way of thinking, but to the Egyptians each of these terms represented something concrete and distinct, and both were invoked in certain rituals, texts, and illustrations.  It is clear that the Egyptians considered these two ideas as unique, but they often used them together, and so it seems difficult for our present Egyptologists to distinguish or disambiguate what the Egyptians meant by them individually.  There has been plenty of speculation.

The two symbols used for the commonly translated “time” and “eternity” are neheh (nhh) and djet (dt), respectively, and looked something like this:

from Kemet.org Daily Devotions (http://daily.kemet.org/archives/archive-052003.html)

Jan Assmann described the difficulty of pinning down an understanding of these hieroglyphics:  [Read more…]

Posted in: Artifacts, Scholarship, Texts Tagged: abraham, ancients, book of the dead, djet, egyptian, endowment, eternal, eternity, hieroglyph, hugh nibley, initiate, joseph smith, life, model, neheh, ordinances, symbols, time, translation, tutankhamun

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