incense

The Relationship between the Ancient Israelite Temple and the Endowment

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Ancient Israelite temple vestiture and ritual offering of incense

Ancient Israelite temple vestiture and ritual. The High Priest wears his special linen garments, sash and turban during his once per year entry into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. He approaches the Ark of the Covenant beyond the veil with the incense shovel in one hand, the smoke representing the prayers of the Israelites, and small vessel of bull’s blood in the other hand, the sin offering (atonement) on behalf of all the Israelites. Image based on Leviticus 16 and Exodus 25-31 and Exodus 35-40.

Professor William J. Hamblin has offered some good starting points in considering the relationship between the ancient Israelite temple ritual and the modern day LDS temple endowment.  It is from this vantage point that we should approach trying to understand these ancient ritual systems and the connections they might have with the Latter-day Saints temple ritual.

“When considering the possible relationship between ancient Israelite temple system and the LDS Endowment, the first thing to note is the basic purpose of the ancient temple was to reconcile Israel with God and bring all Israel (represented by the twelve stones inscribed with the tribal names) back into the presence of God (that is recapitulating the Sinai theophany), symbolically represented by the Holy Place and Holy of Holies within the veil.

“The second thing to note is that Israel had exoteric rituals in the outer courtyard of the temple which could be witnessed by all (though only priests officiated). Esoteric rituals performed inside the temple itself could only be performed and witnessed by priests. LDS Endowment broadly corresponds to the esoteric rituals performed inside the temple, not the exoteric rituals performed outside. The ancient exoteric Israelite temple rituals correspond with the LDS weekly sacrament (the bread/wine offering of the Israelite temple).” (William Hamblin, Mormon Scripture Explorations)

Another important point to realize is that Christ was the last great blood sacrifice when He came in the meridian of time and offered the Atonement, which ended sacrifice by the shedding of blood (3 Ne. 9:19; cf. Mosiah 13:27; Alma 34:13; 3 Ne. 15:2-10). Since Christ was the last blood sacrifice (all precursors pointing to Him), from that point onward the outward nature of sacrificial ritual changed, but still pointing towards Christ, and still a sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit (3 Ne. 9:20-22; Psalms 51:16-17; Psalms 34:18).

See the gallery below for various artists’ depictions of the rituals inside the ancient Israelite temple. Click each image to enlarge. [Read more…]

Mosaic Tabernacle as an Aaronic Temple

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The Tabernacle at Sunset - by Pat Marvenko Smith

The Tabernacle at Sunset - by Pat Marvenko Smith (click for larger view)

Note: I taught our Elders Quorum class today, and was assigned the topic of the Mosaic Tabernacle as a Temple.  Below are the notes and illustrations I used for my lesson.

Review of prior lesson on the exodus:

  • Children of Israel escape Egyptian bondage (Ex. 14)
  • Moses leads them out
  • Parting of the Red Sea, Pharoah’s armies are drowned
  • Lord begins to organize his people
  • Manna rains down from heaven, sends Quail for meat (Ex. 16)
  • Moses strikes the rock, and water comes out
  • Lord covenants to Israel a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, an holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6)
  • 10 commandments and Mount Sinai (Ex. 20)
  • The people start to refuse to become what the Lord had offered them – “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (Ex. 20:19).  Foreshadowing…
  • Many instructions, laws, covenants, etc. are delivered to Moses, which he delivers to the people, who all answer with one voice, “Yes, we will be obedient (Ex. 24:3, 7)

Moses goes up Mount Sinai again to receive instructions for 40 days and nights (Ex. 24:18).  Matthew Brown – “As part of his ascension experience, Moses is said to have been washed, anointed, clothed in heavenly garments, called with names of honor, enthroned, and initiated into heavenly secrets” ((Brown, Matthew B. The Gate of Heaven: Insights on the Doctrines and Symbols of the Temple. American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communication, 1999. 58)).  Joseph Smith noted that Moses received the “keys of the Kingdom,” and “certain signs and words” ((ibid.)).  [Read more…]

Videos of SANE Symposium Lectures on “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity”

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Last Friday I was able to attend the symposium entitled “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity,” sponsored by The Students of the Ancient Near East (SANE) and the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University.  It was an excellent symposium about the temple, with a wide range of topics related to the temple presented by students and scholars.  I was also fortunate to help organize videotaping the symposium so that it will be preserved and available online for many others to see and study.  In addition to the great things that were shared, I was also able to meet several of the people I have become acquainted with online, such as David Larsen, “Particle Man,” Kathy Larsen, Donna Nielsen, and several others.  It was a great experience.  I hope SANE will continue to sponsor such symposiums in the future.

I am grateful for the SANE organizers for allowing us to videotape the symposium and make it available online, particularly Dan McLellan for his support.  I’d also like to thank Steve Smoot and Tyler Livingston for their help with the video cameras, digitizing and uploading.

Below are all the videos that we were able to record at the symposium (that have been uploaded to date).  You can see short bios of each presenter here or here.  David Larsen also took some great notes in the Ancient Israel sessions.  Note:  I will update this post with links to more of the videos as soon as they become available.  Enjoy! [Read more…]

Levi Rightmyer on “Kings and Priests of the order of Melchisedec”

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Title Page

Title Page

I was doing some research this morning when I stumbled upon a very interesting passage from a book published in 1916 by Levi Rightmyer entitled, The Light of Truth as Revealed in the Holy Scriptures.  The entire text of the book is available for perusal on Google Books here.  The author is not LDS, although he appears to have known something of the Church (see page 482 for his reference to “Joseph Smith and the Mormons of Utah”).

What I found was a passage which discusses Christ, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and that “all who are called to God’s kingdom and glory are called to fill the positions of Melchisedec kings and priests in the ages to come under the Lord Jesus Christ…” and if this truth is not so today it is because of apostasy:

…mankind have been deceived by false and ignorant teachers who in the early days of the church corrupted the way of the Lord as the antediluvian sons of God did before the flood, who walked after the vain imaginations of their own evil hearts even as it is now.  The world is full of religion, but nearly empty of the true knowledge of God. There are many great revivals in which are developed a high degree of religious feeling, but unfortunately they are attended with a very low degree of scriptural knowledge and true religious intelligence. (p. 740)

[Read more…]

Consecrate = “A Filled Hand” in Hebrew

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The High Priest in the Holy of Holies - Incense offering on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Temple Institute.One of our readers, Dr. Kathy Larsen, pointed out a scripture yesterday that intrigued me. It is Leviticus 21:10:

And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes;

There is a footnote on the second instance of the word “that” in our LDS King James Version. The footnote reads “HEB (literally) whose hand is filled; i.e. who is equipped, or authorized.” This means that the original Hebrew would have read something like, “and whose hand is filled to put on the garments.” Apparently the word translated as “consecrated” came from a Hebrew phrase for “a filled hand” or “a full hand.”

I did a little bit of digging into this, and found some more interesting things related to this. [Read more…]