Bennett, Richard E.  “‘Which Is the Wisest Course?’: The Transformation in Mormon Temple Consciousness, 1870-1898.”  Brigham Young University Studies 52, no. 2  (2013): 4-43. [Mormon/St. George/Salvation of the Dead/Ritual/Liturgy/Worship]

If not creating a paradigm shift, this article is certainly path breaking.  Its thesis places many important elements of LDS Church History between the Martyrdom and the death of Brigham Young, indeed, to the end of his century, in an completely new light. Continue reading →

Johns, Loren L.  “Atonement and Sacrifice in the Book of Revelation.”  In The Work of Jesus in Anabaptist Perspective: Essays in Honor of J. Denny Weaver, edited by Alain Epp Weaver and Gerald J. Mast, 124-46.  Telford, PA: Cascadia Publishing House, 2008.  Book 38. [Israel/Christian/Sacrifice/Offerings/Theology]

This essay examines atonement and sacrifice in the book of Revelation, seeking to uncover the primary theological significance of Christ’s death in the book.  Johns discovers that it is not as is commonly thought. Continue reading →

Hayward, C. T. Robert.  “Understandings of the Temple Service in the Septuagint Pentateuch.”   In Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel.  Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar, edited by John Day, 385-400.  London: T&T Clark, 2007. [Israel/Canaan/Priesthood]

Hayward examines the differences between the LXX and the MT regarding temple service in books of Pentateuch.  In general the LXX translators lavished a great deal of work on the portions of the Pentateuch relating to Temple service.  Moreover, they rendered many passages relating to the temple differently than in the MT, showing they were either using a different Vorlage, made mistakes, or took translator liberty to include their own view of things.  In any case, they viewed the temple as equivalent to Sinai and Bethel, sacred space where God may be seen, his name invoked, and he is made known to Israel.  They also emphasized the importance of prayer in the daily Tamid sacrifice, something surprisingly not given attention in the MT Pentateuch, but which is also stressed in Sirach 50.  Moreover, the priest blessed the people and their prayer was a petition that the face of the Lord be revealed.  The LXX also shows that the Temple was a place prepared by God on earth, patterned after the heavenly sanctuary, and thus merited being referred to as hagiasma, a word restricted to things of the highest degree of sanctity.

Parry, Donald W.  “Key to Detecting False Spirits.”  In Angels Agents of Light, Love, and Power, 188-96.  Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013. [Mormon/Priesthood/Ritual/Liturgy/Worship]

This chapter begins with a discussion of the deceptive nature of Satan, especially his ability to appear to some people as an angel of light. Continue reading →

Avi-Yonah, Michael.  “Editor’s Note.”  Israel Exploration Journal 20, nos. 1-2 (1970): 73-74. [Israel/Herod/Synagogue/Architecture]

In an article in the Israel Exploration Journal I. Renov argues that the so-called “Aaron panel” of the Dura-Europos synagogue depicts Herod’s Temple.  As editor of the journal, Avi-Yonah attached a two page “Editor’s Note” in which he pointed out five major flaws, including glaring misreadings of Rabbinical literature, in Renov’s analysis.

Renov, I.  “A View of Herod’s Temple from Nicanor’s Gate in a Mural Panel of the Dura-Europos Synagogue.”  Israel Exploration Journal 20, nos. 1-2 (1970): 67-72. [Israel/Herod/Synagogue/Architecture]

Renov argues that the so-called “Aaron panel” of the Dura-Europos Synagogue depicts the Jerusalem Temple, Nicanor Gate and East wall of the temple courtyard.

Foster, Craig L.  “Doctrine and Covenants Section 132 and Joseph Smith’s Expanding Concept of Family.”  ”  In The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy, edited by Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster, 87-98.  Independence, MO: John Whitmer Books, 2010. [Mormon/Theology/Family/Sealings/Priesthood/Ritual/Liturgy/Worship]

This brief article summarizes teachings of the Nauvoo period and Section 132 relative to the eternal nature of the family and the necessity of an eternal marriage to create the eternal family.  The first part of the article keys off of the 1989 study of David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), which discusses how the nuclear family was viewed in various sections of early America.  The tight nuclear family defined by blood relations was predominant in Puritan New England; other views dominated the South.  Foster argues that the New England model “most influenced Joseph Smith and other early Mormons as they brought these concepts of the family and kinship into their new religious movement.”  (p. 91)   Joseph Smith’s revelations taught how such a family could be eternal.

Fowler, Mervyn D.  “Cultic Community at Tirzah?  A Re-examination of the Archaeological Evidence.”  Palestine Exploration Quarterly 113 (January 1981): 27-31. [Israel/Canaan]

Roland de Vaux excavated what was thought to be Biblical Terzah in the mid-Twentieth Century and claimed to have discovered what he thought was a cultic site that continued over several archaeological periods.  Fowler argues that de Vaux’s theory is based on minimal evidence which can easily be interpreted in others ways, and concludes that his conjecture of both the cultic place and its continuity over time is “unfounded.”  (p. 31.)

Parunak, H.  “Was Solomon’s Temple Aligned to the Sun?”  Palestine Exploration Quarterly 110 (1978): 29-33. [Israel/Canaan/Solomon/Cosmology]

The purpose of this article is to apply spherical trigonometry to determine if  Solomon’s temple was oriented so that the rising sun on certain astronomically significant days of the year would shine through the Eastern Gate or into the Holy of Holies.  These theories that it did became popular during the first four decades of the 20^th century, but apparently nobody actually engaged in the necessary “Astro Archaeology” to determine if the theories worked.  It turns out they do not.

Bringhurst, Newell G. “Section 132 of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants: Its Complex Contents and Controversial Legacy.”  In The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy, edited by Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster, 59-86.  Independence, MO: John Whitmer Books, 2010. [Mormon/Theology/Family/Sealings/Priesthood/Ritual/Liturgy/Worship]

This article tracks the general history of the publication and use of Section 132, especially since the public announcement of plural marriage in 1852.  It contains a review and some analysis of the major themes of doctrine in the section, following loosely my article about the three questions the section answers [see, Danel W. Bachman, “New Light on an Old Hypothesis: The Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage,” Journal of Mormon History, 5 (1978):  19-32.] Continue reading →