2024 Temple on Mount Zion — Program & Abstracts

Saturday September 28, 8:30 am: Morning Session

Morning Session Chair: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

8:30

Welcome and Opening Prayer

8:35

Don Bradley
Acquiring an All-Seeing Eye: Joseph Smith’s First Vision as Seer Initiation and Deification Ritual

9:15

Break

Session Chair: Jasmin Rappleye

9:30

10:00

David Calabro
Abraham on the Bishop’s Throne: Egyptian Christianity and the Book of Abraham

10:30

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
The Abrahamic Covenant: Then and Now

11:00

Break

11:15

John S. Thompson
Oracles Against the Nations and Prophetic Imitation of Temple Liturgy

11:45

Breck England
The Bright and Morning Star: The Book of Revelation through the Lens of the Temple

12:15

Lunch break

Saturday September 28, 1:15 pm: Afternoon Session

Session Chair: Neal Rappleye

1:15

Daniel Smith
Re-creating the Most Detailed and Accurate 3D Model of Herod’s Temple

1:45

Matthew L. Bowen
Joy in the Harvest: Temple Metaphors and Allusions in Ammon’s Speech (Alma 26)

2:15

Steven L. Olsen
The Literary Craftmanship of Doctrine and Covenants 132

2:45

Stephen D. Ricks
Premortal Existence in Ancient Jewish Tradition

3:15

Break

Session Chair: Stephen D. Ricks

3:30

Brent Schmidt
How Are Faithfulness and Grace Connected to the Right Hand of Fellowship?

4:00

Spencer Kraus
“God Hath Shown unto Me a Vision”: The Sacred Handclasp and the Resurrection of the Dead

4:30

Closing Remarks and Prayer

Abstracts

Acquiring an All-Seeing Eye: Joseph Smith’s First Vision as Seer Initiation and Deification Ritual

Don Bradley

The theology implicit in Joseph Smith’s First Vision is not that of the revivalists of the Second Great Awakening. Though it incorporates a good deal of their doctrine, including conviction for sin, divine mercy, and the redemptive role of Jesus Christ, it rejects the ontological gulf between the human being and God. Even the traditional Latter-day Saint understanding that the vision reveals a God who is like human beings understates its theological radicalism. The First Vision is not only the revelation of an anthropomorphic God, but also of theomorphic man. For Smith, the visitation of God did not reveal human beings as hopelessly “other” from him, nor as creatures that must shatter in his presence, but as fit vessels for his power and attributes, to be filled up with divinity.

Abraham on the Bishop’s Throne: Egyptian Christianity and the Book of Abraham

David Calabro

The proposed paper is part of a project to investigate the historical and ritual context of the Book of Abraham. Several elements of the Book of Abraham, including occasional use of New Testament phraseology and concepts (Abraham 2:9-11; 3:21-28), point to an early Christian hand in what may have been a complex textual history. At the same time, the Book of Abraham shows evidence of being oriented to a ritual context, possibly one having to do with priesthood initiation (as Abraham’s obtaining of the priesthood is a major theme of the book). This paper will focus on comparisons between the Book of Abraham and the Coptic enthronement rite of the Patriarch of Alexandria as described in liturgical books, in order to support the thesis that a text like the Book of Abraham influenced the Coptic rite. The evidence discussed in this paper may also suggest that the Book of Abraham functioned liturgically in an early Egyptian Christian enthronement rite, although other explanations are possible, as I will discuss in the conclusion of the paper.

The Abrahamic Covenant: Then and Now

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

No greater tribute to the first patriarch of the Bible can be paid than in the fact that so many of the world’s diverse peoples revere him as “our father Abraham.” Through Abraham’s faithfulness, he merited the stunningly universal promise of God that “in [him] shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Latter-day Saints, in common with those in many other religious traditions, rejoice in the ongoing fulfillment of that promise. However, though the blessings patiently and painfully secured by his family through unwavering faith in the face of trial and heartache are well-documented in scripture, the wealth of insights that ancient and modern scholarship can shed on these scriptural accounts is generally underappreciated.

In this two-part presentation, I will review the foundational principles that underlie this all-encompassing covenant and outline what is required of each of God’s children to fully embrace its blessings. In the first part of the presentation, I will focus on understanding the Abrahamic covenant. I will illustrate how covenants can be seen as a walk with God, an assurance of faith, a partnership, and a family relationship that amounts to full friendship and fellowship with Deity. In the second part of the presentation, I will focus specifically on how Abraham walked the covenant path through priesthood ordinances that are understood by Latter-day Saints as having been established before the foundation of the world. From this perspective, Abraham’s spiritual journey of covenant making and keeping provides the backbone his story in both the book of Genesis and the book of Abraham.

Oracles Against the Nations and Prophetic Imitation of Temple Liturgy

John S. Thompson

The Major Prophets have a segment of their writings that prophecy the demise of several foreign nations. The Egyptians and other ancient societies also have texts and art containing curses against and the demise of foreign nations or enemies; however, these often appear in the context of temple/tomb rituals. Because of the temple context for the smiting or destruction of enemies in antiquity, this paper explores whether the oracles against the nations found in the prophetic books are part of a larger temple structure in the text as a whole.

The Bright and Morning Star: The Book of Revelation through the Lens of the Temple

Breck England

The interpretive history of Revelation is as varied and colorful as the book itself. From Augustine, who declared it an elaborate allegory, to Bart Ehrman’s textual criticism and the feverish speculations of evangelicals, throngs of explainers have worked over what N.T. Wright calls “this most wonderful and puzzling of books.”

Now a wave of interest in a ritual reading of the Apocalypse seems to be gaining strength. Some scholars argue that “heavenly liturgies” mirroring the rites and ordinances of the ancient temple make up the framework of the book. Such scholars as Leonard Thompson, Allan T. Georgia, Richard Herbert Wilkinson, and Margaret Barker seek to make explicit “the implicit importance of temple ritual for conceptualizing the practices, expositions, and narratives” (Georgia’s words) of Revelation.

In my project, The Bright and Morning Star: Finding and Following Jesus Through the Book of Revelation, I have tried to combine the insights of these and other scholars with ancient and modern temple theology and apocryphal materials to recuperate the Apocalypse as a ritual text. I outline how it depicts the sacred drama of the temple, from the initiatory stage through the primordial heavenly council, through the “great tribulation” of mortality to the “unveiling” (apokalypsis) of the divine presence. I show how redemptive temple ordinances mark the progress of the pilgrim John along the path to the idealized Holy of Holies that is the New Jerusalem.

Re-creating the Most Detailed and Accurate 3D Model of Herod’s Temple

Daniel Smith

In the Talmud it states “Whoever has not seen Herod’s Temple has not seen a beautiful building” (Bava Basra 4a). During the life of Jesus, the disciples admired the remarkable stone details of the temple (Luke 21:5). Yet, every 3D model of Herod’s temple lacks the beauty and grandeur of this remarkable building. These models generally have the overall layout and design, with occasionally a few design motifs pulled from archaeology or creative liberties. However, no model truly shows the beauty of what the great temple might have looked like.

Over the last two years, Scripture Central and the BYU Virtual Scriptures team have collaborated to build the most detailed and accurate model of Herod’s temple ever built. In this presentation I will discuss the history of some of these 3D models and how they compare to our current project. I will also show the process whereby we created the many details for the temple, every detail coming from the archaeological remains of the temple. I will also share insights that came through developing the 3D model of the temple, showing why creating a model of significant sites can add to our understanding of not only the location, but especially the stories that occurred there.

Joy in the Harvest: Temple Metaphors and Allusions in Ammon’s Speech (Alma 26)

Matthew L. Bowen

Ammon’s speech (“the words of Ammon to his brethren”) in Alma 26 is filled with temple metaphors and allusions. For example, Ammon’s harvest metaphor (Alma 26:5-7), with its description of bound sheaves, and “garners” into which bound items are gathered and protected is directly connected with the ʾôṣār of the Jerusalem temple. The language of sealing is used in the analogy (e.g., “they are his,” Alma 26:7). The ancient Israelite autumn festival complex, with its temple-centric sacred times, was inseparably connected with the harvest as a season of joy and rejoicing. The term rejoice recurs seven times, and the term joy—a key-word in Mormon’s account of Jesus’s ministry at the temple in Bountiful—recurs eight times.

Ammon’s speech is filled with language from the Psalms (see, e.g., Alma 26:8, 12-16), the hymns of the Jerusalem temple. What’s more, there are also echoes of temple rituals (including divine reception, Alma 26:15), temple architecture and ritual design (Alma 26:20), esoteric language (mysteries, Alma 26:22), and references to Lamanite and Amlicite/Amalekite sacred spaces (Alma 26:29), and (Abrahamic) covenant fidelity, human (Alma 26:32-34) and divine (Alma 26:35-37). Thus, Alma 26 is yet another Book of Mormon text that helps us make meaningful connections to Jesus Christ through Ammon’s temple-consonant language.

Psalm 89 in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran Reflections on the Coming Messiah and the “True Service” of the Temple

Steven L. Olsen

The revelation known by Latter-day Saints as Doctrine and Covenants 132 is arguably Joseph Smith’s most far-reaching and controversial writing. It defines a concept of life eternal so revolutionary that it required new vocabulary to express it (exaltation), new rituals to enact it (endowment, sealing, baptism for the dead), and expanded built forms to contain it (house of the Lord). At the same time, it contributed as much as anything else to the eventual martyrdom of the Prophet of the Restoration.

This study focuses on the literary craftsmanship of the revelation, not the historical origins of the text or the social practices it motivated, to examine its layered, nuanced, and complex meanings. Of particular interest are the complementary conventions of diction, tone, structural logic, and pedagogy that use language to articulate and implement an expansive worldview centered on the covenant of eternal life.

Premortal Existence in Ancient Jewish Tradition

Stephen D. Ricks

How Are Faithfulness and Grace Connected to the Right Hand of Fellowship?

Brent Schmidt

Right-hand clasps symbolized covenantal faithfulness in the Greco-Roman world in many temple-related settings. The right-hand symbolized faith (pistis in Greek; fides in Latin) expressed as loyalty through ancient texts, mosaics and coins. This presentation will summarize the findings of my recent work Relational Faith regarding how apostolic faith (pistis) was not an abstract feeling or emotion as conventionally understood in later Christian history. Ancient faith was a token of action in an ongoing, covenantal relationship with God the Father through his Son Jesus Christ.

“God Hath Shown unto Me a Vision”: The Sacred Handclasp and the Resurrection of the Dead

Spencer Kraus

In Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo sermons, the Prophet would refer to a vision he had received of the resurrection, in which the saints took each other by the hand and lifted the dead up to life, glory, and joy. Furthermore, Joseph taught that the order of resurrection by which we could become gods was to be revealed in the most holy place in a temple prepared for that purpose. The sacred handclasp used to raise the saints to become gods is an ancient ritual gesture, and a similar handclasp has been utilized by early Christians to depict Jesus Christ raising others to life. This ritual gesture is found in both the New Testament and early Christian literature, and reflects a wider use of a sacred handclasp in ancient Near Eastern temple practices, allowing the petitioner to be raised to eternal life and enter the presence of God. This ritual action is therefore best understood as a restored practice of ancient temple worship, both in this life and the next.

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