Reprint: The Sacred and the Temple in Ancient Christianity

C. Wilfred Griggs

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-plates-patterns-patriarchs/. For video and audio recording of this conference talk, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2022-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/videos/griggs/.

“The Latin term sacer (and related forms, e.g., sacred) means something consecrated to God (or to a god or goddess), and templum (Greek temenos) refers to land “cut off” or set aside from common use and dedicated to a deity. Putting it another way, a sacred area or a temple designates restricted space, and the activities performed in that ground dedicated to a god or goddess are likewise limited to those authorized to be there.”

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About the Interpreter Foundation Book Chapter Reprint Series

The purpose of this reprint series is to make individual chapters from books published by The Interpreter Foundation more accessible to readers. Although in some instances the formatting and pagination may have been changed, the content of this chapter, like others in this reprint series, is identical to what appeared in its original book publication. It has not been updated to incorporate research that has appeared subsequently nor to reflect the current practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the full name of the Church and to avoid terms such as “Mormon” and “LDS.”

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