near east

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…]

New Webpage for BYU SANE Symposium on Temples on November 7th

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Flyer

Flyer

The BYU Religious Studies Center has posted a new webpage with information about the Students of the Ancient Near East Symposium entitled “Temples and Ritual In Antiquity” that will be taking place at BYU on November 7th.  They have the date, time, location, maps, schedule, phone number, flyer, and other information available.  See it here:

http://www.rsc.byu.edu/comingSoonAntiqua.php

I’m really looking forward to this conference.  I am working with the organizers of the symposium to hopefully videotape all the presentations and make them available online later.  I might even be able to live broadcast one of the rooms to the internet, so those that are unable to attend can still participate.  Stay tuned…

“Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” SANE Symposium at BYU

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David Larsen posted a great notice over at Heavenly Ascents of the upcoming “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” Symposium that will be held at BYU on November 7th, 2008.  It is being presented by the Students of the Ancient Near East (SANE), and will have both students and top scholars presenting papers on the temple in antiquity.  In fact, David will be presenting there too, as well as Andrew Miller.  I will certainly be going to this symposium!  It will be like Christmas morning, a smorgasbord of insight in temple studies.

I will see if I can liveblog the event here on TempleStudy.com.  The FAIR Conference liveblog (Day 1 & Day 2) seemed to work out well and was beneficial to many people.  Unfortunately, they have three speakers going at once, so we’ll only be able to attend 1/3 of all the exceptional presentations that will be presented.  It’s a shame they had to consolidate since all of the presentations are no doubt going to be excellent.  It appears that a selection will be “printed in a publication from the Religious Studies Center, and several others will be printed in Studia Antiqua” (link).  (I’m still trying to find a way to go to Margaret Barker’s Temple Study Symposium in Oxford the next day, November 8th, and Bill Hamblin’s Temple Study SBL group in Boston a couple weeks later).

[Update 8/19/08: Dan McClellan has posted a nice schedule of the presentations, as well as short bios of the presenters, on his blog here.]

See the poll below (viewable only from the website):

Which presentations interest you most? (Pick one from each time slot, 8 total)

  • 9:00-9:30 - Andrew Miller–”The Mysteries in Pauline Christianity” (11%, 25 Votes)
  • 10:30-11:00 - Dr. John Gee–”Rituals of the Egyptian Temple: An Orientation” (10%, 23 Votes)
  • 10:00-10:30 - David Larsen–”Two High Priesthoods? Evidence for Changes in the Priesthood from First to Second Temple Judaism” (10%, 23 Votes)
  • 12:45-1:15 - Matthew Brown–”Kingship Initiation Motifs in Ancient Israel” (7%, 17 Votes)
  • 11:15-11:45 - James Carroll–”An Expanded View of the Israelite Scapegoat” (6%, 15 Votes)
  • 12:15-12:45 - Scott Preston Sukhan Nibley–”Ancient Southeast Asian Temples” (6%, 14 Votes)
  • 11:45-12:15 - Dr. David Seely–”Josephus and the Temple” (6%, 14 Votes)
  • 9:30-10:00 - Doug Marsh–”The Microcosmic Egyptian Temple” (5%, 12 Votes)
  • 11:45-12:15 - Mark Wright–”The Cultural Context of Nephite Apostasy” (5%, 12 Votes)
  • 12:45-1:15 - Joseph Petramalo–”The Samaritan Temple and Priesthood” (5%, 11 Votes)
  • 12:15-12:45 - Justin Robinson–”Covenants and Simile Curses” (4%, 10 Votes)
  • 10:00-10:30 - Daniel Becerra–”The Chrism in Early Christianity” (3%, 8 Votes)
  • 10:30-11:00 - Dr. Bill Hamblin–TBA (3%, 8 Votes)
  • 9:30-10:00 - Dr. Dan Belnap–”The Role of Scent in the Rituals of Ancient Israel” (3%, 8 Votes)
  • 10:30-11:00 - Rachel A. Grover–”The Paradise Garden and Messianic Age Imagery in the 5th to 7th Century Church Floor Mosaics of Jordan” (3%, 7 Votes)
  • 11:15-11:45 - Chris Dawe–”The Deification of Romulus” (3%, 6 Votes)
  • 12:15-12:45 - Dustin Simmons–”Emperor as God: Roman Imperial Cult Worship & Implications for Early Christians” (2%, 5 Votes)
  • 11:45-12:15 - Dr. Bryan Benson–”The Treatment of Temples in Plato’s Republic and Laws“ (2%, 5 Votes)
  • 11:15-11:45 - Jacob Moody–”Philistine Ritual Artifacts” (2%, 4 Votes)
  • 10:00-10:30 - Elliott Wise–”An Odor of Sanctity: The Iconography, Magic, and Liturgy of Egyptian Incense” (2%, 4 Votes)
  • 12:45-1:15 - Keith Fairbank–”The Eleusinian Mysteries: Greatest Conquest of Demetrios Poliorketes” (1%, 3 Votes)
  • 9:00-9:30 - Donald Parry–”Eve, Eden, and the Temple” (0%, 1 Votes)
  • 9:30-10:00 - Aaron Snyder–”The Prayer Circle in Early Christianity” (0%, 1 Votes)
  • 9:00-9:30 - Kerry Muhlestein with Alyssa Lewis–”The Role of Violent Rituals in the Egyptian Temple” (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 236

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The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” – Part 1

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Detail of Hathor shrine at Hatshepsut's temple in Luxor, Egypt

Egypt figures a central role in the religion of the ancient Near East, where much of our canon of scripture owes its narrative and existence to this locale.  Even the Book of Mormon tells us it was written in “reformed Egyptian” (Mormon 9:32).  The most interesting aspect, to me, is the adoption into Egypt of traces of the rites and ordinances of the temple of God, and its priesthood.  Unfortunately, the ordinances were apostate forms, the priesthood invalid, and all was done in imitation of the true order:

Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood. (Abraham 1:26)

But even so, the fragments of the ordinances that are extant in artifacts and texts are very educational.  In Hugh Nibley’s classic work The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment he says:  [Read more…]

John Gee (June 19) and Avraham Gileadi (June 26)

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There are a couple good firesides/lectures coming up, for those of you who are in the Salt Lake/Provo area.

Dr. John GeeFirst off, there will be a lecture given by John Gee this Thursday, June 19th, at 7:00pm at the Olivewood Bookstore in Provo (3330 N. University Ave., Suite C).  He will be speaking about the message of the Joseph Smith Papyri.  Dr. Gee received his doctorate degree from Yale University in Egyptology.  He is currently William “Bill” Gay Assistant Research Professor of Egyptology at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, where he is a series editor for Studies in the Book of Abraham and a member of the editorial board of the Eastern Christian Texts series. He is also on the board of directors for the Aziz S. Atiya Fund for Coptic Studies at the University of Utah.  I have read his short book A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri, and it was a great learning experience and introduction to the Joseph Smith Papyri.  Anyone who is familiar with Hugh Nibley’s classic Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment knows that this papyri has a lot to do with the temple.  This will certainly be a great lecture.  If permitted, FAIR might videotape it and put it on YouTube.  Seating is based on a first-come, first-served basis, so make sure to arrive there early.

Dr. Avraham GileadiSecondly, the Isaiah Institute (which I haven’t heard of before) is presenting a fireside with Avraham Gileadi on Thursday, June 26th, at 7:00pm at the ScenicView Academy in Provo (Room 245, 5455 North River Run Drive).  He will be speaking on “The Learning of the Jews: Isaiah’s Impact on the Book of Mormon.”  Dr. Gileadi obtained a Ph.D. in ancient Near Eastern studies and Hebrew Bible from BYU under the tutelage of professor R.K. Harrison of Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada, with Hugh Nibley as chairman. He has translated and published the book of Isaiah into modern English and published it with analyses of many literary patterns in Isaiah’s prophecy discovered during many years of postdoctoral research.  This fireside has been described thus:Map to Scenic View Academy

Book of Mormon prophets don’t just quote Isaiah. Isaiah shapes their entire world view, their concept of God’s covenant people, and their understanding of the latter days. The learning of the Jews is key to interpreting the words of Isaiah and the Book of Mormon. Come and learn the learning of the Jews!

You are asked to RSVP to orders@isaiahinstitute.com to make sure there are enough refreshments.