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Sustaining and Defending the LDS Temple

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The Degree Ceremonies of Oxford University – Part 2

June 29, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 10 Comments

Exterior, Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford University where most degree ceremonies take place - built 1664-1668

(Continued from Part 1)

Dr. Hugh Nibley’s opening remarks in his earthshaking address, “Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift,” given at the BYU commencement ceremony on August 19, 1983, would have fit even more perfectly in an Oxford setting. In refering to his statement in a commencement prayer he gave in 1960 in which he said, “We have met here today clothed in the black robes of a false priesthood,” he took this opportunity to explain:

Why a priesthood? Because these robes originally denoted those who had taken clerical orders; and a college was a “mystery,” with all the rites, secrets, oaths, degrees, tests, feasts, and solemnities that go with initiation into higher knowledge.

But why false? Because it is borrowed finery, coming down to us through a long line of unauthorized imitators. It was not until 1893 that “an intercollegiate commission was formed . . . to draft a uniform code for caps, gowns, and hoods” in the United States. Before that there were no rules. You could design your own; and that liberty goes as far back as these fixings can be traced. The late Roman emperors, as we learn from the infallible DuCange, marked each step in the decline of their power and glory by the addition of some new ornament to the resplendent vestments that proclaimed their sacred office and dominion. . . .  [Read more…]

Posted in: Practices Tagged: cap, ceremony, clothing, commencement, degrees, endowment, graduation, hands, hugh nibley, initiate, mace, money, oath, oxford, robe, test, university, vicarious

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

The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” – Part 3

June 23, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 1 Comment

(Continued from Part 2)

The ankh symbol appears frequently with several other hieroglyphics in certain formulas and invocations that immediately call our attention.  These are wedja, seneb, djed, & was.

This table summarizes the different possible explanations for these hieroglyphics that I have been able to find:  [Read more…]

Posted in: Artifacts, Scholarship, Texts Tagged: ankh, bible, coronation, egyptian, embrace, endowment, hieroglyph, hugh nibley, initiate, life, priesthood, rituals, rosetta stone, royal, symbols, translation

The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” – Part 2

June 22, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 1 Comment

(Continued from Part 1, which has been updated)

As I mentioned in Part 1, the more interesting aspects of the Egyptian ankh are not necessarily what it means standing alone, but how the Egyptians used it in their texts and illustrations.

There are three principal ways that the Egyptians used the ankh symbol, by itself, in their drawings:

  1. Detail from Papyrus of Ani - a god leads the initiate towards the throne (click for larger view)Probably the most common depiction of the ankh is being clutched in the hand by the gods and goddesses on the upper loop portion of the symbol.  Wikipedia notes:

    The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead person’s mummy… ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh))

    In other words, the Egyptians believed that their gods “held” eternal life in their hands, and could bestow it upon certain persons at their pleasing.  Chevalier and Gheerbrant note:  [Read more…]

Posted in: Artifacts, Scholarship Tagged: anointing, baptism, breath of life, chevalier, covenant, egyptian, endowment, gheerbrant, hieroglyph, hugh nibley, immortality, initiate, isis, life, oath, osiris, robe, secret, symbols, veil, washing, water

Searching for the Mysteries of Godliness

January 19, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 4 Comments

I received this LDS Daily Gem yesterday:

The temple is a place to know the Father and the Son. It is a place where we experience the divine presence. The Prophet Joseph Smith made this plea: ‘I advise all to . . . search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness‘ (History of the Church, 6:363). And where shall we search? In the house of God. (Richard H. Winkel, “The Temple Is About Families,” Ensign, Nov. 2006, 11)

One of the things that I have learned is that when the word mystery was used anciently, it had a very different meaning than it does today. As Hugh Nibley has explained: [Read more…]

Posted in: Scholarship Tagged: ceremony, initiate, mysterion, mystery, mystes, ordinances, rites, rituals
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