temple studies

Margaret Barker on The Holy Anointing Oil

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Samuel anointing David. Stained glass.

Samuel anointing David. Stained glass.

My friend David Larsen has some great notes at Heavenly Ascents on the presentation given by Dr. Margaret Barker at the Temple Studies Symposium III in London this past weekend.  Her words were an introduction to the symposium which focused on the topic of “The Holy Anointing Oil”:

Anointing with myrrh oil was the most holy mystery of the Jerusalem temple. It passed into Christianity and gave the faith its name. This symposium will explore the temple rite and its meaning, and then look at some of the ways in which Christians preserved the ancient tradition. ((TempleStudiesGroup.com))

David’s notes on Barker’s presentation include some interesting facets of anointing:

  • The Messiah, the Christ, was the Anointed One, and so the holy anointing oil is central to Christian identity. It gives the Christians their name.
  • Christian teaching concerning anointing is a conscious continuation of the ancient temple teaching.
  • The oil was understood to impart holiness… It was part of the secret teaching of the high priesthood.
  • The anointing with oil was a part of the “secret teaching” passed on to Christianity from Christ through the apostles.
  • The high priests were “christs” — they represented Yahweh by being anointed and wearing name “YHWH” on forehead.

See the Heavenly Ascents blog for David’s full notes on Barker’s presentation.  Hopefully her presentation will also become available on TempleStudiesGroup.com.  Other speakers included Dr. John F. Hall (Professor from BYU), Archimandrite Ephrem, The Rev. Dr Richard Price, Dr Sebastian Brock, and Rev. Dr Laurence Hemming.  David has some notes on their presentations here, and will post more notes about their presentations soon.

Attaining the Resurrection in Mortality

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Margaret Barker

Margaret Barker

The use of those two words together, resurrection in mortality, appears to be perfectly incongruous at first glance.  In our common parlance in the Church we understand resurrection to be something that can only happen after mortality.  The resurrection “consists in the uniting of a spirit body with a body of flesh and bones, never again to be divided” ((“Resurrection.” LDS Bible Dictionary. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bd/r/28)).  This is an event which happens only after there has been a separation of the spirit body from the mortal body through the process called death.  In my reading over the weekend, however, I came across a fascinating perspective from Margaret Barker which gives added meaning to the word resurrection, and our understanding of it, a meaning which can apply to us while still in our mortal estate. [Read more…]

John Welch on Margaret Barker’s Temple Studies

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John WelchThere is an interesting post at The T&T Clark Blog with a transcription of an address that BYU’s John Welch gave on March 5th in London at a conference about Margaret Barker’s latest book, Temple Themes in Christian Worship, and her scholarly work on temple subjects in ancient Christianity and Judaism. FARMS lists Welch as serving on the executive committee of the Biblical Law Section of the SBL, but in this review he also mentions that he has been selected as one of the organizers of a new section on Temple Studies in the SBL. I am not very familiar with the SBL, but this sounds like a fantastic leap forward in temple studies among biblical scholars.

Some highlights from this address are: [Read more…]