Kapelrud, Arvid S. “Temple Building, a Task for Gods and Kings.” Orientalia 32 (1963): 56-62. Also in God and His Friends in the Old Testament, 184-90. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1979. [Mesopotamia/Construction/
Generally the thesis of this article is there is a pattern in the ancient Middle East of temple building by victorious kings and Gods which, except for minor details, follows a similar pattern across several cultures. Temples were connections between the world of gods and men.
Webb, Jenny. “Records, Reading, and Writing in Doctrine and Covenants 128.” In Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Spiritual Theology, edited by James E. Faulconer and Joseph M. Spencer, 139-52. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2015. [Mormon/Salvation for the Dead/Theology]
This paper explores the relationship between scripture study, records and spiritual theology through a personal exegesis of the first 18 verses of D&C 128, a letter written by Joseph Smith on the subject of baptism for the dead which was later canonized. It is part of a collection of philosophical essays exploring the general subject of Mormon “Scriptural Theology.” This paper is written for Mormon philosophers and is not directed to the average Church member. In its analysis of the text it contains some very thought provoking ideas. However, they are couched in the jargon of theology and philosophy to such an extent that the glimmers of light found here are all but obscured by the ponderous verbiage and pseudo-intellectual style of the author. She does not share Nephi’s interest in or love for plainness. I suspect the style will turn off the majority of LDS readers rather than make her interesting ideas accessible to them. Because the paper is an exercise in personal study and interpretation it lacks the addition of further remarks from the Prophet Joseph Smith on several of the points she highlights. Continue reading
Haran, Menahem. “Temples and Cultic Open Areas as Reflected in the Bible.” In Temples and High Places in Biblical Times, 31-6. Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1981. [Israel/Canaan]
Haran discusses various special places of worship in Israel and differentiates between temples, high places, altars, and sanctuaries. He defines or explains different important terms, several of which referred to the temple, such as bet Yahweh or Bet elohim for house of God; miqdas, a place or object of holiness. He also carefully distinguishes between an altar and temple. About a dozen temples are referred to in the Bible. The “high place”bamah (bamot) is a distinct type of altar (p. 33). It is accepted in pre-Deuteronomic writings, but considered absolutely illegitimate and detestable by the Deuteronomists and were wiped out in Josiah’s reforms (2 Kgs. 23:8-20). There is very little real information about temples in the Bible. He concludes with a brief discussion of open-cult areas.
Jacqueline C. R. de Roo, “God’s Covenant with the Forefathers,” in The Concept of the Covenant in the Second Temple Period, edited by Stanley E. Porter and Jacqueline C. R. de Roo, 191-202. Supplement to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 71. Atlanta: SBL, 2003. [Israel/Covenant/Theology]
The main question examined in this paper is “In the minds of the Jews, what role did the obedience of the patriarchs play in God’s decision to grant mercy and bestow blessing upon his people with whom he had made a covenant?” De Roo who is apparently an evangelical Protestant, denies that the Old Testament makes any connection between Abraham’s obedience and the covenant. She shows how early Jewish literature does contain the concept of grace, though as she says, the link was not made in the Old Testament. The “merits of the fathers” which is a strong thread in this literature, is a strange mixture of the concept of grace and of works. The works of the patriarchs curried God’s favor and in the Jewish mind their “merits” were extended to chosen Israel. The majority of the paper details various bodies of Jewish literature of the Second Temple Period to show that the Abrahamic blessing was “redefined” or “expanded,” or “extended,” from what it was originally in the Old Testament. Many sources see the covenant as based on the patriarch’s obedience, particularly in the Akedah. She deduces that, although the Jews understood that God’s grace played a central role in Jewish concept of salvation, that “good deeds” were a crucial element as well. She concludes, “In Second Temple Judaism, there was an important relationship between good deeds, grace and the covenant. Grace played a crucial role in merit theology, because God graciously the good deeds of some to be salvific for others due to their membership in the same covenant.” (p. 202)
Gee, John. “Edfu and Exodus.” In Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference “The Temple on Mount Zion” 22 September 2012, edited by William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely, 67-82. Temple on Mount Zion Series 2. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation / Eborn Books, 2014. [Egypt/Israel/Tabernacle/
Egyptologist John Gee examines the potential relationship between the Tabernacle described in Exodus 25-28, with the Egyptian temples of the same and earlier periods and finds a number of parallels. There are more than 150 Egyptian temples of which many archaeological remains and inscriptions remain. Associated with some of these temples a book referred to as “The Book of the Temple” has been discovered. Many versions exist in hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, and Greek. Over twenty versions were found in one site. All but one date from the Roman Period, the outlier is from the Ptolemaic Period. These have not been collated and published as yet, but there are bandeau inscriptions on many temple walls which it is believed are adapted from this book. The bandeau inscription is basically a description of the building of the temple and of its rooms–something of a guidebook. Gee examines the bandeau inscription from the temple at Edfu, which is apparently the most extensive one extant and finds a number of similarities between the Exodus account of the Tabernacle and the Edfu inscription on literary, architectural, and ritual levels. Some of the rituals are found in “The Daily Temple Ritual” Egyptian text found in Berlin.
Gee postulates that an examination of temples contemporary with and earlier than Edfu, would help scholars determine if “The Book of the Temple” was used to construct earlier temples. If their architecture, decorations, and rituals are similar this would be an argument that the text was older than the extant versions. Though there are 150 Egyptian temples, the problem is not as easy to solve as might first appear. Nevertheless, Gee does find some evidence that the pylon of the Medinet Habu temple which goes back to the New Kingdom, was constructed and decorated the same as Edfu. Thus, he believes that at least a portion of “The Book of the Temple” may go back that far, and also suggests a possible connection between it and the book of Exodus.
Ryken, Leland, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds., “Assembly, Divine.” In Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 50-51. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998.
In the Bible the view of the heavenly world “focuses primarily on the divine throne room and related elements of divine royalty.” These images described their subject and engaged the imagination of the reader. They were largely borrowed from neighboring cultures. The Divine Assembly customarily spoke of the high gods as kingly figures in a heavenly palace where they had a “heavenly assembly, or council, a deliberative body invested with the task of guiding the fate of the cosmos.” For example, in Ugarit the high god El presided over the major and minor gods and addressed them as “gods” or “my sons.” The dwelling place of God was imagined as a cosmic mountain. The divine assembly is the celestial counterpart to the social institution of the “elders in the gate.” (Deut. 21:19; Ruth. 4:1-11; Ps. 107:32; Prov. 31:23). Biblical prophets were admitted to the assembly through the process of vision and ascent. The prophets Micaiah, Isaiah, Job, and Daniel were granted such admittance. “In the NT the inner circle of the divine assembly consists of angels who surround the heavenly throne. The primary theme is worship, and there is an implied understanding that the worship of the church mirrors the worship of heaven.” NT discussions of the divine assembly are most prevalent in the writings of Paul, but most fully developed in Revelation 4-5.
Ryken, Leland, James C. Wilhoit and Tremper Longman III, eds. “Aaron’s Rod.” In Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 1. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998. [Israel/Tabernacle/Priesthood/
Following the miraculous uses of Aaron’s Rod it was placed in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle as a memorial (Num. 20:9) It is associated with and symbolizes authority and power: supernatural power, power to “transform physical reality,” political and priestly authority and as a scepter-like instrument of royalty. Its blossoming coincided with the establishment of the house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi in priestly roles. Being housed in the Holy of Holies gave it “sacral significance.”
Brown, Lisle G. “Tamid: Zacharias and the Second Temple.” In Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference “The Temple on Mount Zion” 22 September 2012, e`dited by William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely, 241-77. Temple on Mount Zion Series 2. Orem and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation / Eborn Books, 2014. [Israel/Herod/Priesthood/
I think the best summary of this article is Brown’s own at the conclusion of the article: “This paper has briefly described the episodes leading up to Zacharias burning incense on the Inner Altar in the second temple. I have covered the probable events of Zacharias’s temple service from his investiture as a priest to his vision of Gabriel when he burned the incense in the Holy Room. I have shown that the act of burning incense by Zacharias was a once-in-a-lifetime event – one that under even normal circumstances Zacharias would have remembered and cherished throughout the rest of his life. But on this extraordinary occasion in Zacharias’s life, there came an even more astounding event–th vision of Gabriel and his singular message to the elderly priest and his wife, Elizabeth, about their son, John. It is truly an extraordinary story, yet so briefly recounted by Luke, who simply focused on Gabriel’s visitation and important message. It becomes even more memorable when one comes to see the “rest of the story.” (pp. 260-261)
Brown’s descriptions of the priesthood, it courses, the examination Zacharias would have gone through to qualify as a priest, and the details of the rituals during the morning Tamid are very helpful in understanding how the ceremony took place. However, he does not deal with the purpose of burning incense nor its relationship to prayer. The paper is well documented with 111 footnotes occupying 15 more pages!
Meyers, Carol. “Framing Aaron: Incense Altar and Lamp Oil in The Tabernacle Texts.” In Sacred History, Sacred Literature: Essays on Ancient Israel, the Bible, and Religion in Honor of R. E. Friedman on His Sixtieth Birthday, edited by Shawna Dolansky, 13-21. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008. [Israel/Tabernacle/Furniture/
This brief article is another installment in a long-standing scholarly argument about an arcane issue. It concerns why certain portions of the text of Exodus relating to the incense altar are not where scholars anticipate them to be in relationship to the other appurtenances in the holy place, namely the lamp and the table for the shewbread. This led Wellhausen to postulate that the incense altar was a late invention in the late Preexilic or Exilic periods. Various other theories are reviewed and Meyers offers her own which Jacob Milgrom has taken issue with causing her to modify her views. The best she can bring out of this thicket is that scholars often fail to remember that their notions of literary structure, organization of the narrative units, and logical sequences “may not coincide with the artistry of biblical writers.” (p. 21)
Hanks, Marion D. “Christ Manifested to His People.” In Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism, edited by Donald W. Parry, 3-28. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994. [Christian/Mormon/Presence]
From several perspectives this is an insightful and powerful talk about the temple. Elder Hanks’ special emphasis here is to discuss the blessings of the temple to the living and he begins with a fairly well known quotation from Elder John A. Widtsoe, which enumerates a number of benefits temple worshippers may enjoy. In the temple setting of instruction and reflection spoken of by President Hinckley, Elder Hanks says we can come to know the Father and Son and begin to glimpse our “own eternal possibilities and present imperfections.” In this respect many of us are “shallow vessels” who can and may grow through regular, thoughtful, prayerful temple worship. He affirms, “For me every proceeding and principle of the temple points to Christ….” (p. 6) Continue reading