Coloe, Mary L.  “Raising the Johannine Temple (John 19.19-37).”  Australian  Biblical Review 28 (2000): 47-58.  [Israel/Herod/New Temple]

Review:  In this article Johannine scholar Mary Coloe adopts and promotes the popular Christian temple “replacement theology.”  She argues that the passage found in John 2:19 at the conclusion of the temple cleansing “action” wherein Jesus says that they will destroy the temple and in three days he will rebuild it, is important to the “plot” of John’s gospel.  John goes to the trouble to tell his readers that Jesus was referring to the destruction of his own body. Continue reading →

Grassi, Joseph A.  “The Five Loaves of the High Priest.”  Novum Testamentum 7, no. 2 (1964): 119-22. [Israel/Priesthood/Ritual/Liturgy/Worship]

This brief article suggests that there is a relationship between the story of Jesus’ discussion following eating some wheat plucked on the Sabbath and the story of David’s eating the shewbread.  He justified it in terms of David eating the bread of the presence in 1 Sam. 21:1-6.  Grassi suggests there are a number of parallels between these stories and the multiplication of the loaves in Mk. 6 that lead him to believe the 1 Samuel story may have been used for Eucharistic purposes by the early Church.  The similarities are pointed out by a chart with the stories in parallel columns.  An interesting, but not entirely compelling theory.

Roth, Cecil.  “The Cleansing of the Temple and Zechariah XIV.21.”  Novum Testamentum 4 (1960): 174-81. [Israel/Herod/Christian]

A strong persistent influence of the prophecies of Zechariah 9-14 is found in the New Testament, especially in Luke.  This article focuses on Zechariah 14:21 which says, “In that day there shall be no more trafficker (lit. ‘Canaanite’) in the House of the Lord of Hosts.” Continue reading →

Gaskill, Alonzo L.  “The Seal of Melchizedek?”  Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 11, no. 3 (2010): 95-121. [Mormon/Symbolism/Melchizedek]

Through extensive research and regular writing, Alonzo Gaskill is establishing himself as one of Mormonism’s foremost authorities on Gospel symbolism, especially symbols relating to the temple.  In this essay he provides a needed and important corrective to the meaning given by some  Mormons to a symbol found in ancient mosaics. Continue reading →

Gaskill, Alonzo L.  “Clothed in Holy Garments: The Apparel of the Temple Officiants of Ancient Israel.”  In Ascending the Mountain of the Lord: Temple, Praise, and Worship in the Old Testament, edited by David R. Seely, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, and Matthew J. Grey, 85-104.  The 42d Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium.  Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2013.

In this discussion of the symbolism of the priestly clothing Gaskill goes one step further in his ongoing study of biblical and particularly temple symbolism and its application within Mormonism. Continue reading →

Goldenberg, Robert.  “The Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple: Its Meaning and Its Consequences.”  In The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume IV, The Late Roman Period, edited by Steven T. Kats, 191-205.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. [Israel/Herod/Destruction]

Review:  In this article author Robert Goldenberg studies the rabbinical literature relative to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 C.E., but as the following facts show Rabbinic literature has its deficiencies. Continue reading →

Ricks, Stephen D., and Shirley S. Ricks.  “‘With Her Gauzy Veil before Her Face’:” The Veiling of Women in Antiquity.”  In Bountiful Harvest: Essays in Honor of S. Kent Brown, edited by Andrew C. Skinner, D. Morgan Davis, and Carl Griffin, 245-56.  Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2011. [Near East/Israel/Sacred Vestments]

Review:  In this brief article Steve and Shirley Ricks survey the use and symbolic meaning of women’s face veils in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.  As is apparent from their footnotes, their research is based largely in the work of other scholars.  According to them face veiling was first mentioned in a 13^th Century B.C. Assyrian text which specified that veils were restricted to noble women, but was apparently later expanded to include free married women, widows and concubines.  Common women and prostitutes were prohibited from wearing veils. Continue reading →

Geraty, Lawrence T.  “The Jerusalem Temple of the Hebrew Bible in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context.”  In The Sanctuary and the Atonement: Biblical, Historical, and Theological Studies, edited by Arnold V. Wallenkampf and W. Richard Lesher, 37-66.  Washington, D.C.: The Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1981.  [Israel/Solomon/Second Temple/Canaan]

Abstract:  Given the scholarly notion that Israel’s temple was a syncretic development from older temples in the ancient Near East, this article reviews the fundamentals of Solomon’s Temple along with a short review of non-Israelite temples with the ultimate purpose of comparing and contrasting them. Continue reading →