Who Shall acsent Flashcards
1
Q
Abstract: The Psalms were originally the text of the ancient Israelite temple services. Their poetry was woven into a magnificent eight day pageant-like temple drama that depicted the full eternal sweep of the Savior’s mission and his Atonement.
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2
Q
Ancient Israelite religion breathes a different spirit from that observed by the remnant
of the Israelites—the Jews who returned to Jerusalem and Judea after the Babylonian
exile. The Psalms are a mirror of that earlier religion. The Psalms reflect an interest in 1)
temple; 2) kingship (of God and man); 3) Messiah; 4) creation; and 5) priesthood. With
somewhat different shades of emphasis, the Book of Mormon also shows an interest in the
same things.
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3
Q
Creation is central tothe worship of ancient temples and other sacred places. “Ancient temples,” writes Hugh Nibley, “rehearsed the story of the creation, and the establishment of mankind and the royal government of God upon this earth.”1
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4
Q
These primal creative acts were seen by peoples of the ancient Near East as having a
dynamic and not a static quality. “What happened in the beginning,” observest he great
historian of religions Raffaele Pettazzoni, “has an exemplary and defining value for what is
happening in the future.”4
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5
Q
Psalm 24:3-6 contains
an “entrance liturgy”5
“temple entrance hymns”6
“instructions for temple visitors”7
; but which I call, somewhat less formally,
ancient “temple worthiness” questions (which should be compared with Psalm 15 and
Isaiah 33:14-17). Elements of each of these “worthiness” psalms or “temple entrance
hymns” include the “two questions”8
: in Psalm 24:3 the two questions asked are “who
shall ascend to the mountain of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?”
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6
Q
Palms 15:1 the questions are “Lord, who shall dwell in thy tent? Who shall reside on thy holy
mountain?” In Isaiah 33:14 they are “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who
of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” Following the “two questions” is the response:
“He who hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor
sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:4-5); Psalm 15:2-5 contains a lengthier response:
He who walks with integrity And works righteousness
And speaks truth in his heart.
Who has not tripped upon his tongue,
Who has not done evil to his neighbor,
And has not lifted up a reproach against his relative.
The reprobate, in his eyes, is despicable, but those who fear the Lord, he will honor.
He has sworn to do no evil,
And he will not falter.
His money he has not given at interest,
Nor has he taken a bribe against the innocent” (cf. Isaiah 33: 16)
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7
Q
Finally, the “blessing” is invoked: “He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and
righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah” (Psalm 24:5-6; cf. Psalm 15:5 and Isaiah 33: 17).
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8
Q
The Hymns of the Pearl presents, in elegant brevity and simplicity, man’s search for
salvation and joy. The rituals and beliefs of the pre-Exilic temple, as seen in the
Psalms—covenant, temple, Messiah, and kingship—gives a mirror of the ancient Israelites
quest for joy fulfilled.
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9
Q
these words attributed to the Saviour.
When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will
realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not
know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.”11
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10
Q
The most important worship service in Solomon’s Temple was a pageant-like drama
that was performed annually. Everyone in ancient Israel participated.
The world-view of that drama—and therefore, of necessity, the world-view of this
book—is eternal in both directions. The theme of both the drama and the book is the
Savior’s Atonement and its power to preserve, enhance, then finally to perfect our eternal
personalities.
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11
Q
Even though the ancient Jews no longer performed the drama after Solomon’s
Temple was destroyed, the Nephites preserved it. The purpose of the drama was to teach
each individual who he was, and why he is here—and do that in the context of the
Savior’s Atonement. Its principles and covenants are the theme of every sermon in the
Book of Mormon.
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12
Q
built in order that “those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from
before the world was” (D&C 124:38).28 Hence, the Lord’s people in these Old
Testament times had access to at least some temple ordinances. “One has only to
read the scriptures carefully, particularly the modern scriptures,” reasons Dr.
Sidney B. Sperry, “to discover that temples [or other holy sanctuaries] must have
been built and used in great antiquity, even in the days of the antediluvian
patriarchs.” He believed that the Lord’s requirements for exaltation, and
therefore the need for temples, were the same then as they are now.
Although vicarious service for the dead was not inaugurated until New
Testament times, ordinances for the living were available during earlier
dispensations.29
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13
Q
New Year’s day was like that, except the sacrifices were done under proper authority,
and the feasting was an expression of thankfulness to the Lord. It was a time of promise,
not at all unlike our own New Year’s celebrations, except they took their resolutions
much more seriously.
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14
Q
Feast of the Tabenat
The subject of the play covered the full panoramic scope of cosmic history—from the Council in Heaven before the foundation of the world, through linear time, and concluding with Jehovah’s ultimate triumph over evil, and his reign on a glorified paradisiacal earth.38
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15
Q
The ancient Hebrew temple rituals were a dramatic presentation of the cosmic myth.
In that presentation, the sense of aloneness and longing for home that we find in the Hymn of the Pearl is shown to be a consequence of the fall of Adam and Eve, when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden where they had walked and talked with God. They had unrestricted access to the fruit of the tree of life and to the waters of life.
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16
Q
The loss of all of these things—one’s personal relationship with God,
clothing that defined one as sacred space, food and drink that kept one’s body forever
young—the loss of those things left humankind naked, vulnerable, hungry, and
increasingly feeble until only death could release them from their infirmities. Yearning to
return home was the foundation principle of the ancient Israelite religion. It was an expression of hope that somehow they might regain access to the paradisiacal world, partake of the fruit, and participate in the society of the gods. (Essentially it was the hope whose fulfillment is described in the last three chapters of the Book of Revelation.) For mankind, the wish to return to the presence of God is the wish to return to sacred time in sacred space.186 Hauglid observes that the ritualized myth of the ancient temple drama enabled people symbolically to do that.
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17
Q
The ultimate sacred space is God’s temple in Kolob, where God’s throne is, and
where the Council of Heaven took place.188 However, in this world, sacred space is where God and his children can come to meet together. It is the mountain top to which man must ascend, and to which God may descend.189 It is separate and apart from the profane world. It is the pinnacle of the earth. Perhaps the greatest gift that Hugh Nibley gave to Latterday Saints was that he taught us that the poetry of the Psalms and Isaiah are not just vaguely symbolic, but are carefully encoded—and Nibley has taught us much of the code—“mountain” frequently means “temple,”190
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18
Q
In contrast, God’s time imposes no limitations. In our physical world, we have the
ability to move back and forth in space, but not in time. In God’s world, he can move from
past to present or future as though there were neither past nor future, only an eternal Now
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19
Q
About the nature of our time, Neal A. Maxwell observes, “We also live in the dimension of time which, by its very nature, creates vexing suspense for us. Life is so designed that we use our moral agency by choosing for ourselves daily. This steady stream of our responses forms a cumulative record out of which wewill later be judged. This same plan, a framework for life, ensures that we are to overcome by faith, not by perfect knowledge”
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20
Q
by its very nature sacred time is reversible in the sense that, properly
speaking, it is a premordial mythical time made present. Every religious festival,
any liturgical time, represents the reactualization of a sacred event that took place
in a mythical past “in the beginning.” Religious participation in a festival implies
emerging from ordinary temporal duration and reintegration of the mythical time
reactualized by the festival itself. Hence sacred time is indefinitely recoverable,
indefinitely repeatable. From one point of view it could be said that it does not
“pass,” that it does not constitute an irreversible duration.210
Most relevant to each of us, personally, is that true love and eternal friendships
originate and continue in sacred space and sacred time.
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21
Q
The ancient Israelites understood there was a heavenly temple where the scenes of the
Council of Heaven took place.214 That Temple contained God’s heavenly throne (“the
Lord’s throne is in heaven”215)
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22
Q
The purpose of the ancient festival’s temple drama was to invite each participant into
sacred time where each could learn his or her own place in the universe, and see from afar the purposes of this physical space and linear time—to demonstrate that their being in this world was neither haphazard nor coincidental, but that each came here by design. Their purpose was defined by God’s covenants with all of Israel as a nation, but more
specifically by God’s covenants with each individual member of the group through the
ceremonial actions of the king.
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23
Q
In terms of the nation, the covenants had to do with God’s promising to secure an
environment of peace and prosperity in which the people would be free to keep their
individual covenants—a promised land.
In terms of the individual, the drama taught each one his or her own place in the plan.
The drama was important because the plan was most easily understood in the drama’s
actualizing—as an ever-new reality—the events described by the pattern of the great
cosmic myth. Thus the scenes of the drama showed why it was necessary that they leave
their celestial home to face the uncertainties of this life.It also showed that before they came here, they were, or were promised that they would be, equipped with all of the priesthood and kingship powers necessary to guarantee their success.218
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24
Q
While the denotations of the covenants and instructions given in the festival drama were spoken generically (that is, given in such broad terms that they were equally applicable to
everyone), the connotations could be focused on the single needs and responsibilities of
every individual—for their meanings were left to the interpretation of each individual.
A
25
When one makes those requests, one asks to enter the realm of the divine—in sacred space and sacred time. He had ascended the holy mountain and could turn and look back on the events of the drama that had brought him to the veil that now blocked his way into the Holy of Holies. Implicit in his requests was anmassertion that he had fulfilled each aspect of his assignment and he had come honestly to the mountain’s summit—he was worthy to be there.
26
The veil was made of fine linen. It was embroidered with threads of blue, purple and
crimson with representations of cherubim—probably representing the angels and members of the Council who stood guard before the gates of heaven. It was these guards through whom the king and each of his subjects must pass in order to approach the throne of God in the Holy of Holies
27
It was then, in sacred time, at the ancient temple veil, that the whole drama became
alive with meaning. The purpose of the drama was not just to reaffirm one’s eternal
identity and relationship with God. It had first been that when they were expelled from the
Garden. But its primary purpose was to provide instruction—to teach each individual how
to come to this sacred place in sacred time, and to show them how they might actualize
the final chapter of the cosmic myth—to teach each one about the way to come home
again
28
Ultimately, the power of the ancient temple drama lay, not in what happened and
what was said, but in what did not happen and what was not said. That is, its richness lay
in what the participants understood—just as is so with reading the scriptures. The new
initiate to the ceremonies, and the seasoned participant, each heard the same words, but the words themselves were defined by the experience and understanding that each
individual brought to bear on them.
29
The drama of the Feast of Tabernacles focused on the overriding power of Jehovah.
The expanse of time represented in the drama began when Jehovah, the people of Israel,
and their reigning king first made covenants in the premortal world. Then it shepherded
them through the darkness of this earthly experience to the light beyond, into the far
distant future when Jehovah himself would reign in a world of peace and security.
30
These were the secrets that were hidden from the foundation of the world. They had
always been hidden and they will always be hidden. For that reason they might not be
spoken except in symbols and code. All the world might be able to see the symbols, but
they may only be read and understood by those who already know the code—and the code
can only be known in the context of sacred space and sacred time.224 But it can be known.
As is recorded in the apocrypha, “Jesus said, ‘Recognize what is before you, and what is
hidden from you will be revealed to you; for there is nothing hidden that will not be
revealed.’”225
31
In the storyline of the ancient temple drama, as in the Hymn of the Pearl, the person
who leaves home still retains his sacredness, notwithstanding his struggle with the profane.
In the Pearl, the story of Job, even the storyline of First Nephi, and all other versions of
the cosmic myth whether they are historically true or not, it is the struggle that brings
success and qualifies one to come home again.
32
its question of whether Job will “inherit the earth,”
broadens, until it is a cosmic test that challenges every reader with the ultimate
provocation: “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die” (Job 2:9).
Job was challenged with loss of family and wealth, with physical pain and academic
snobbery, but his integrity remained intact. The great bulk of the book recounts his
struggles, but in doing so, it always reminds its reader that Job’s innate princely nature
was the underpinning of his enduring sense of Self. The story is an ever unfolding
reaffirmation of the phrase found in the Pearl: “I remembered that I was a son of kings,
And my noble birth asserted itself.” Job is a perfect example of the cosmic myth.
33
What is true of Job is equally true of many sacred texts and conversations. Even though written or spoken in apparently vague generalities, to the initiated the words ring with beautiful tones that resonate in eternal truth.
34
Nibley said it more clearly: “Myth and reality meet in ritual, a ritual that, while
rehearsing something that is supposed to have happened far away and long ago, is
nonetheless an overt act, an actual historical event in its own right.”232
35
hesed (covenant love; i.e. the love relationship between parties whose actions express their mutual feelings and are-not merely prescribed by the terms of their contract)
36
Aubrey Johnson, during his discussion of Psalm 72, observed, “What is more, it is
clear from the outset that the king is both dependent upon and responsible to Yahweh for
the right exercise of his power; for his subjects, whatever their status in society, are one
and all Yahweh’s people.”246
37
Ultimately, for those who participated in the drama, one recognized one’s Self as an
eternal Truth in sacred time. The creation that was envisioned was a recurring re-creation
of that Self through a series of experiences: first as an intelligence, then a spirit person,
and a mortal human. Its conclusion betokened the projection of one’s shining Self to a
more glorious eternal fulfillment. The drama began, as Paul observes, at the Council with
“God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ,” and it will conclude—just as it began—“according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:3-4).255
38
The drama began in the heavenly court, where Elohim presided and Jehovah
conducted the affairs of the Council of the gods. It showed that the king had a prominent
place in that Council. In conjunction with that, it included an account of the creation. The
story of the creation was an indispensable part of the drama because it identified Jehovah
as the Creator God and Lord of the Universe.259 Then followed the events in the Garden of
Eden. It was essential because it established the eternal relationships between Elohim,
Jehovah, the premortal gods, and the mortals who inhabit this world. It was that
relationship that was the divine pivotal truth of the Israelite cosmic myth.
39
The story—the one told by the ritual and the songs of the ancient Israelite temple drama, as well as in Third Nephi by the prophet Mormon—was about the relationship between the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth.
40
What Amos was saying is that the Lord will do nothing in this world unless he first calls his human prophets back to the Council in a vision where they renew their covenants
and review conditions of where and how, in human history, they are to fulfil those
covenants. Thus a true prophet knows his own place in the past, present, and future; and
he can speak of them with certitude and authority.
For the people of ancient Israel, a sode experience was a necessary criterion for a
prophet’s legitimacy
41
In the sode experience the prophet reviews his assignments for his earth-life. From
there it seems strikingly like the story of the hero in the cosmic myth. There, the hero
understands why and what his assignment is, and the difficulties he will encounter in
seeking to accomplish it. He is promised that he will be able to succeed and that he will
return home triumphant. As that is the same story told in the ancient temple drama,
42
Because the Feast of Tabernacles drama followed essentially the same pattern, and
conveyed essentially the same information that the prophets learned during their sode
experiences, the play might also be understood to be a representation of the eternal
biographies of its participants; that is, of the Savior, the king and queen, and the people. It
might be understood as representing the promises given in a sode experience, for the
participants were symbolically returned to the Council, were shown the events and circumstances of earth life, renewed the covenants they received in conjunction with their
own assignments—and were promised that they will have the power to succeed and return
triumphantly to be with Jehovah again.
43
The drama lasted eight days and was divided into three major segments, like three
acts of a play with multiple scenes. The three acts were the premortal experience, this
world, and promises of the world to come.
The cosmic myth enacted during the ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles temple drama
taught a story that explained the origin and purpose of life. In the first act, it told of the
events of the Council in Heaven, and reiterated the assignments and covenants made
among the gods in that premortal Council, including the extended story of some of the
heroes who participated there.
44
The next day, the last day of the festival, the king provided a great feast that
represented the beginning of a new age that would extend into the eternities. The
conclusion of the second act and full representation of the third act were told by the same
story (just as they are the same in the 23rd Psalm’s “I shall dwell in the house of the house
of the Lord forever.”)—the ultimate salvation of Israel—for God had kept all his promises
and instituted a time of eternal peace.
45
Inasmuch as the king’s odyssey through the drama represented the experiences of all
the people, the drama provided for each one, a kind of generic version of a vision of their
own eternal and earth-life experiences. It began by showing how this life is a meaningful
and necessary extension, and an amplification of the promises made at the Council in
Heaven. Throughout the drama, the people—individually, but acting in unison as part of
the group—reaffirmed their relationship with Jehovah. For it was shown in the drama, as
in a real sode experience, that while each personal mission would be filled with difficulty,
each received the overriding promise that in the final outcome, the righteous would return
again to be with God.
46
Just as a major theme of the ancient temple drama was the sanctity of legitimate
priesthood and sacral kingship, so its purpose was to help each person understand his and her eternal Self in the context of its myth and ritual. Its implication was that one could never know one’s Self—the eternal law of one’s own being—except in the context of this universal panorama.
47
To achieve its end, the drama began, as all universal stories must, by recounting the circumstances of the beginning when the heroes and heroines were required to leave their security in order to perform seemingly impossible tasks.
48
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught the same thing, promising, on God’s behalf:
I’ll surely reveal all my myst’ries to them—
The great hidden myst’ries in my kingdom stor’d;
From the council in Kolob, to time on the earth,
And for ages to come unto them I will show
My pleasure and will, what the kingdom will do
Eternity’s wonders they truly shall know.
49
In the scriptures, the members of the Council are often called “stars” or “the
heavens.”300 An example is Lord’s question to Job:
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast
understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the
line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone
thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
(Job 38:1-7)
50
In the ancient Israelite temple drama, Act One depicted the activities, decisions,
assignments, and covenants made by the members of the Council. In these scenes, as in the
rest of the drama, the then-reigning king and queen played the major roles.
51
There was apparently a threefold purpose for including the premortal scenes in the
ancient temple drama. The first was to show that Jehovah is the Creator-God, and that he
has chosen Israel for his special protection. The second was to affirm that the then-present
ruling king was chosen by God by covenant, and that because the king kept those
covenants God continued to sustain him. The third was to give to the masses a sense of
their own belonging—that is, to demonstrate that not just the king, and not just the nation
as a generic whole, but that each individual was chosen by Jehovah, and that the same
covenants that applied to the nation generally, and to the ruling monarchs specifically, also
applied to each man and woman in the congregation.
52
When discussing the organization of the people in the premortal spirit world,
President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:
It is reasonable to believe that there was a Church organization there. The heavenly beings were living in a perfectly arranged society. Every person knew his place. Priesthood, without any question, had been conferred and the leaders were chosen to officiate. Ordinances pertaining to that pre-existence were
required and the love of God prevailed. Under such conditions it was natural for
our Father to discern and choose those who were most worthy and evaluate the
talents of each individual. He knew not only what each of us could do, but also
what each of us would do when put to the test and when responsibility was given
us to accomplish our respective missions. Paul writes to the Ephesian Saints:
Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
(Ephesians 1:3-4).310
53
“As we have seen, the idea of a council (assembly) of gods
belongs to the festival of new year and enthronement. It was in such an assembly of ‘sons
of gods’ and ‘saints’, i.e. divine beings, that Yahweh once portioned out amongst the
‘sons of gods’ whom he made governors over them.”311 The Prophet Joseph Smith
understood the same principle. He said, “Every man who has a calling to minister to the
inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven
before this world was. I suppose I was ordained to this very office in that Grand
Council.
54
Given what the scriptures and the prophets have said, zedek—righteousness—was
understood to denote the correctness in performing the ancient priesthood functions in the
ancient temple—either to administer its blessings, or to receive them, or both. Thus when
the ancients were described as acting “in righteousness,” it meant one was acting—either
in or out of the Temple—in accordance with the ordinances, covenants, and ceremonies of
the priesthood. Therefore, “righteousness” might simply be defined as “temple and
priesthood correctness.”
55
These promises of invulnerability are usually found in those psalms that speak of the
king’s approaching God.361 They are a reminder of the promise received in the Council
that God is the guarantor that one will have the power to fulfill one’s eternal covenants.
That promise of invulnerability is important because, as is always so in the cosmic myth,
the assignment is impossible and only the intercession of the heavens can make a path
through the obstacles that would prevent its fulfillment. The obstacles and the
impossibility of the task are ever-present but then so is the guarantee that the Father will
fulfill his part of the covenant.362
It is the same guarantee as the prayer that concludes the first chapter of Ephesians,
after Paul reminded his readers of their premortal relationship with their Father in Heaven, and of the covenants and instructions they received before they left home.363
56
The oil was, of course, olive oil, the product of the fruit of the olive tree, which in ancient Israel represented the Tree of Life. Myrrh is a perfume made from the sap of a bush or small tree. Aloes is a
perfume made from the heartwood of another tree, and cassia is a perfume made from the
bark of still a different tree.367 So on the stage, one representing Jehovah had just been
anointed with a sacred oil whose fragrance were a composite of all the parts of a
tree—either an acknowledgment or a declaration that Jehovah is the Tree of Life
57
The premortal work of Jehovah and the other members of the Council in Heaven, that
is most frequently discussed in the scriptures, was the creation of the heavens and the
earth.374 It was important that the account of creation be told and retold every year in the
Jerusalem Temple drama, because, to the ancients, it explained who and what God
is—Jehovah: the God of Salvation, of Creation, of Light, and of Rain.
To all ancient agrarian people, the most immediately relevant power of their local
chief god was his ability to bring or to withhold rain.375 The god’s power to control the
elements was most clearly shown by his ability to provide sufficient rain to insure a good
harvest. That same belief was fundamental to the religion of the Israelites, who also
depended on rain for their yearly food supply. Psalm 65 was a celebration of Jehovah’s
power over the elements. Whether it was sung at the beginning of the festival drama in
conjunction with promises relating to the creation, or at the conclusion as a celebration of
an abundant harvest, it acknowledged Jehovah’s power to bless his people in the most practical way.
58
At Yahweh’s festival of enthronement all this receives a more personal touch.
The almighty creator is coming to his people, renewing the covenant and
securing to them all the ‘blessing’ which belongs to ‘life’ and ‘peace’ and
‘salvation’. All the gifts of the ‘kingdom of God’ may indeed be summed up in
these words. In fact, to secure all this was the real intention of the festal cult.
59
Cosmos is order that expresses beauty. It is the perfect structure of the stars in the
heavens. It is the precise and predictable movement of the planets that foretell the seasons,
show the time for planting, and demonstrate the unchanging power of God. It is the tree
and the fruit in Lehi’s vision. It is the Zion of Fourth Nephi. It is the promise of eternal
family, found on the last page of the Book of Mormon.383
60
Creation is organization—arranging, classifying, separating, and restructuring until
the result is cosmos—perfect symmetry, balanced proportion, and symphonic harmony.
The object of the physical creation is to achieve that end.
61
President John Taylor discussed that psalm, and the wondrous meaning behind its words:
“What is man, that thou are mindful of him?”
What is he? Let us look again and view him in another aspect. Why, he is an
eternal being, and possesses within him a principle that is destined to exist “while
life and thought and being last, or immortality endures.” What is he? He had his
being in the eternal worlds; he existed before he came here. He is not only the
son of man, but he is the son of God also. He is a God in embryo, and possesses
within him a spark of that eternal flame which was struck from the blaze of God’s
eternal fire in the eternal world, and is placed here upon the earth that he may
possess true intelligence, true light, true knowledge,—that he may know
himself—that he may know God—that he may know something about what he
was before he came here—that he may know something about what he is
destined to enjoy in the eternal worlds—that he may be fully acquainted with his
origin, with his present existence, and with his future destiny—that he may know
something about the strength and weakness of human nature—that he may
understand the divine law, and learn to conquer his passions, and bring into
subjection every principle that is at variance with the law of God—that he may
understand his true relationship to God; and finally, that he may learn how to
subdue, to conquer, subject all wrong, seek after, obtain, and possess every true,
holy, virtuous, and heavenly principle; and, as he is only a sojourner, that he may
fulfil the measure of his creation, help himself and family, be a benefit to the present and future generations, and go back to God, having accomplished the
work he came here to perform.
62
The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden was an essential part of the drama in much
the same way that the story of events in the Council were necessary. The scenes in the
drama about the Council defined the king, queen, and members of the audience in terms of
their eternal covenants—a projection of the definition of their purposes for being on the
earth. The scenes about Adam and Eve told about their receiving the empowering symbols
of earthly priesthood and kingship so that they could fulfill their premortal covenants. The
first consequence of that empowerment was the academic and spiritual experience they
would receive as the result of their eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
63
The fruit was of the tree of knowledge—not simply an accumulation of
information—but of contrasting knowledge that gives one the power to choose—of good
from evil. Satan had lied to Eve when he instructed her:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5).
The first part of what the Devil told Eve was true enough. Life on the earth would
give her the wisdom of the gods, but the rest of what he told her was a carefully structured
lie. His lie was this: the quality of godhood is not to know “good and evil,” but rather it is
the ability to distinguish “good from evil,” and to have the wisdom and knowledge to choose the good. It is he, Satan, who knows good and evil, and has no compunction about
using either to accomplish his purposes. He was telling Eve that she would become like
him, but that was not true either.
64
If both Lehi and Alma were expressing information they had gained from the brass
plates and from the Feast of Tabernacles temple drama, then we can surmise that one of
the major lessons the participants learned at the drama was that by eating the fruit, Adam
and Eve had been empowered to experience and distinguish between good and evil. And,
contrary to what Satan had told them, when they learned the difference, and chose only
the good, then they would become again like the gods of the Council.
65
They had also been given the promise that when they chose to eat that fruit, they
would die. That promise is the first covenant that God made with his earthly children.
Death is one of the greatest blessings of the Atonement. It is the promise that if God’s
children chose to come to this earth, he would guarantee that there would be a way out
again. Being here forever, living in this world’s tensions between good and evil, would be
perpetual hell. We needed the experience of knowing and choosing, but there also had to
be a promise that we wouldn’t have to be here forever. So Adam and Eve left the Garden
with the knowledge that they could also leave this world, and that when that time came,
the Atonement would make it possible that they take no baggage out with them, except
the products of their own choices.
66
There are ancient Jewish and Christian traditions that when Adam and Eve came to
the Garden they were clothed with garments of light.399 When they ate the fruit, they lost
the garment of light. They were naked and ashamed, and sought to replace the light with
something made from the elements of this earth
67
The Jewish tradition is that, initially, Satan had taught them to clothe themselves
according to his standards, defining them by their uniforms as people of this world. When
God found them devoid of their garments of light, he made temporary garments of skins
for them (Genesis 3:21). These would protect both their modesty and their persons until
the light was returned. God had re-defined his children again, by dressing them in clothing
that represented his promise that they could regain their former glory.
68
It contains some striking allusions to priesthood
power, such as “To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious
majesty of his kingdom,” and “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his
works.” (In the New Testament and the Book of Mormon, the word “works” tends to be
code for ordinances.)
69
The covenant was about priesthood responsibilities and blessings. It was that God
would bless those whom Abraham blessed, and make him invulnerable to his enemies’
designs. Above all else it was a blessing of family—eternal family—but first this world’s
family and a promise that they will be secure in the land the Lord had given to Abraham.
70
The Lord’s covenant with Abram, which he sealed by giving him the new name of
Abraham, included the fulness of the gospel blessings of the Savior’s atonement. They are
priesthood and all of the ordinances and covenants that are associated with it, family and
the blessings of earthly posterity, land with promise of security that it brings, and
invulnerability in the assurance that Abraham would be able to fulfill his eternal covenants.
When those blessings are projected into the hereafter they remain the same: the new
covenant name is a “son of God”; the bond of charity is the sealing power that is also the
promise of eternal posterity; the land is the celestial world for the righteous who “shall
inherit the earth”; priesthood and invulnerability map to the everlasting blessings of
celestial glory and peace.
71
Notwithstanding the people’s rejection of the Lord at Sinai, he continued to bless
them. Those blessings are celebrated in Psalm 103. In that psalm we find a sharp contrast
between the lovingkindness of the pre-exilic God of Israel, and the unkind God of the
historical books of the Old Testament that were written by post-exilic scholars and priests.
It is that marked difference in the personality of God that constitutes one of the major
evidences of the post-exilic apostasy.
72
In the cosmic myth, the next step after the hero-prince had been given his assignment
along with all the necessary preparations and powers to fulfill it—was that he must go on
his quest alone. It would be dangerous, potentially deadly, and he would require all the
help the supernatural powers could give him if he were to succeed. We are now at that
same juncture in the festival temple drama. The king has been given all of the priesthood ordinances and kingly authorities requisite for his success, and now—alone—he must
confront the great twin monsters of death and hell.
**The Feast of Tabernacles drama was, above all else, a moralistic play that demonstrated the invincibility of the light of truth and righteousness when challenged by the darkness of evil. The ultimate power of darkness was chaos, personified by the twin
monsters of death and hell. Our anointed prince must now confront them both in all their
final fury.**
73
These were not imaginary monsters, neither were they considered to be in the psalms.
Later in the drama, after the king and his people have triumphantly met and, with the
power of Jehovah, defeated their eternal enemies, the king will remember:
3 The sorrows of death compassed me,
and the pains of hell gat hold upon me:
I found trouble and sorrow (Psalm 116:3).
4 The sorrows of death compassed me,
and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about:
the snares of death prevented me (Psalm 18:4-5).
74
This is the place in the cosmic myth where the hero goes out into the dreary world, and is overcome by deadly obstacles that preclude even the possibility that he might
succeed.
75
Nibley observes:
The boldest and clearest recent statement embracing the world landscape of culture and religion is in the works of M. Eliade, and he brings it all back to the temple. ‘The Temple ...preeminently the sacred place ...a celestial prototype” and holy mountain, typifies “the act of Creation ...[which] brought the ordered cosmos
out of chaos’; it is the scene of the sacred marriage, the ritual confrontation with evil appearing as the dragon, serpent, or other figures of death and destruction, ending in the victory of the king, whose triumphant coronation inaugurates the New Year and a new age of the world. The combat is an expression of that
‘ambivalence and polarity’ which characterize the rites in which all things must have their opposite, and where an atoning sacrifice is necessary ‘to restore theprimal unity’ between God and man, and enable the latter to regain the divine
presence. The whole, according to Eliade, is suffused with ‘memories of paradise,’
the loss of which is the result of sin, converting this world into a testing ground in which ‘suffering always has meaning.’514
76
Verse 2, “he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods,” is a remembering of the first creation when Eden arose from the chaotic waters to become the paradisiacal home for Adam and Eve. Now, in this triumphal procession, the people walk
and dance their way around the city, measuring it with their steps and recreating it as sacred space. It is as though they are returning to their original Eden, but from this one they will not be expelled. In their characters as Adam and Eve, **they have done all they
were asked to do** and can symbolically return in -triumph- to their first and eternal home where they will have access to the fruit of the tree of life and to the waters of life, and regain their -garment- of light and be in the presence of God.
77
In verse 2, “comfort” is an important word whose meaning is difficult for us to capture because it has changed since the King James Version was translated. In 1622, when the English word was nearer in time to its Latin origins, the first definition of “comfort” meant just exactly what the Latin said: “with strength,” to strengthen, or to empower.
78
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me. Psalm 51:1-
79
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice;
else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psalm 51:16-17).
80
“to give unto them beauty instead of ashes”
The denotation of the Hebrew word translated as “beauty” is the beauty of a hat or turban, rather than a direct reference to the hat itself. The connotation is the glory of a crown. Some translations accept the connotation and use a word for the hat, often "diadem” or “crown,” rather than the more literal “beauty” as is found in the King James Version. In either case, the meaning is that the ashes were removed and then replaced by a crown.539 The removal of the ashes necessarily implies a ceremonial washing.
81
“the oil of joy instead of mourning” 544
Inasmuch as the early scenes of the drama had already shown that the king had been
foreordained at the Council in Heaven, this concluding anointing was a re-affirmation of that
premortal ordinance. As Borsch believed, “The ceremony is said to take place in the
heavenly realms just as the royal ritual was often described as though it were taking place in
heaven. Let us notice, too, that the anointing act here is not associated primarily with
cleansing or healing, but rather with a rite like King David’s. It is said that the ceremony
makes the pneumatic into a god as well, just like the one above. In other words he will be a
royal god.”545
82
Widengren quoted Pseudo-Clement to show that the anointing oil was symbolically a
product of the Tree of Life:
This idea of an anointing with oil from the Tree of Life
his father in the beginning anointed him with oil which was from the Tree of Life.
Primordial Man, who had received the anointing, thanks to which he had been
installed in the threefold office of king, high priest, and prophet, is then paralleled
with every man who has received such anointing:
The same, however, is every man who has been anointed with the oil that has
been prepared, so that he has been made a participant of that which is possessed of
power, even being worth the royal office or the prophet’s office or the high priest’s
office.546
83
The apocryphal Gospel of Philip, teaches the same. It reads, “But the tree of life stands
in the midst of paradise. And indeed (it is) the olive-tree. From it came the chrism [anointing
oil]. Through it came the resurrection.”547 On the nest page Philip added:
The chrism [anointing oil] is superior to baptism. For from the chrism [anointing
oil] we were called “Christians,” [that is, “anointed ones”] not from the baptism.
Christ also was so called because of the anointing. For the Father anointed the Son.
But the Son anointed the apostles. And the apostles anointed us. He who is
anointed possesses all things. He has the resurrection, the light, the cross.548 Borsch
mentioned other facets of the coronation ceremony that are not explicitly
mentioned in the Isaiah passage, but which were very important. In the following,
he wrote that the king was “initiated into heavenly secrets and given wisdom.”549
84
That initiation may have been part of what Johnson and Mowinckel understood to
be an “endowment with the spirit.”550 It is what Nibley described in his analysis of
Moses chapter one, quoted above.551 It was this spiritual empowerment—not just
the physical ordinances—that qualified one to be king. Borsch writes,
The king is anointed. The holy garment is put on him together with the crown and
other royal regalia. He is said to be radiant, to shine like the sun just as does the
king-god. He is initiated into heavenly secrets and given wisdom. He is permitted
to sit upon the throne, often regarded as the very throne of the god. He rules and
judges; all enemies are subservient. All do him obeisance.”552
85
“the garment of praise instead of
the spirit of heaviness” 554
Nibley translated this line a bit differently, and in doing so, he expanded its meaning by
projecting its implications to the marriage ceremony that follows in verse 10. He writes:
After you put off the old garments and put on those of spiritual white, you should
keep them always thus spotless white. That is not to say that you must always go
around in white clothes, but rather that you should be always clothed in what is
really white and glorious, that you may say with the blessed Isaiah 61:10), “Let my
soul exult in the Lord, for he hath clothed me in a robe of salvation and clothing of rejoicing.” (The word here used for “clothe” is endy, to place a garment on one,
and is the ultimate source of our word “endowment,” derived in the Oxford
English Dictionary from both induere, to invest with a garment, and inducere, to
lead into or initiate.)555
86
This same ritual clothing—or something very much like it—was worn by the early
Christians. Paul described the sacral garments as the protective “armor of God.”562
The scriptures often speak of the clothing in terms of their meaning rather than of their
physical appearance. Thus, the outer one is usually called “majesty,” representing the
powers of kingship, and the other “glory,” representing the authority of priesthood.
87
There is a fragment of an ancient text of the Book of Job that suggests the clothing is a
replacement for something else that he must first “remove” (as in the Hymn of the Pearl). It
reads:
Or have you an arm like God?
Or with voice like his can you thunder?
Remove now pride and haughty spirit
And with splendor, glory, and honor be clothed.563
88
There is a similar description in Psalm 21, and it was apparently sung during a similar
ceremony to the one described in Job 40:1-17. After the coronation ceremony, before the
king entered God’s presence, he was dressed in clothing called “honour and majesty” (Psalm
21:5). We will discuss this psalm more fully below.
The important thing is that there are always two, and they always seem to represent
royal and priestly authority, and with rare exceptions, they are always worn together.564 A
similar idea is in the Doctrine and Covenants, where two ideas, “perfectness and peace,” are
joined together as “charity:”
125 And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a
mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace.
126 Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. Behold, and lo, I will come
quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen (D&C 88:125-126
89
It is significant that these sacred royal garments were patterned after those worn by
Jehovah himself, as is shown in two of the psalms. One of those is Psalm 93:
1 The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty;
the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself:
the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.
2 Thy throne is established of old:
thou art from everlasting (Psalm 93:1-2).
90
The other is Psalm 104 where Jehovah’s royal clothing is described as honor and majesty, only there Jehovah wears an additional garment of light:565
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, thou art very great;
thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:
who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain (Psalm 104:1-2).
91
The interpretation of Figure 3 in Facsimile No. 2 in the Book of Abraham shows that the
clothing given to earthly holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood is symbolic of the clothing
worn by God. It reads:
Fig. 3. Is made to represent God, sitting upon his throne, clothed with power and
authority; with a crown of eternal light upon his head; representing also the grand Keywords of the Holy Priesthood, as revealed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, as also to
Seth, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, and all to whom the Priesthood was revealed.
92
“Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother,” the Lord tells Moses
(cf. Exodus 28:2), lokabod ultip’eret, “both for glory and for magnificence”—to
give an impression, to fill one with awe. And the Lord instructed Moses to say to
all the people of “thoughtful-mindedness” and intelligence “that they shall do so,
and make such garments for Aaron, for holiness, and for his priesthood, to
represent his priesthood to me” (cf. Exodus 28:3). “And these are the garments
which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ‘epod [the much disputed ephod!], and
the mo’il,” a “cloak, a covering, a long garment”; “a kotonet,” the “shirt”; “a
tashbe,” a thing elaborately woven in a checkerboard pattern, or something similar;
“a mitre,” mi .z ne -p e -t, “a turban,” “a round cap”; “and a girdle” or “sash”; “and
these garments they shall make holy for Aaron, thy brother, and for his sons, to
serve me in the priesthood” (Exodus 28:4).566
93
The patriarch Levi reported that during his sode experience he was dressed in similar
sacred robes. His account reads:
And there again I saw a vision as the former, after we had spent there seventy days.
And I saw seven men in white raiment saying unto me: Arise, put on the robe of
the priesthood, and the crown of righteousness, and the breastplate of
understanding, and the garment of truth, and the plate of faith, and the turban of
the head, and the ephod of prophecy. And they severally carried (these things) and
put (them) on me, and said unto me: From henceforth become a priest of the Lord,
thou and thy seed forever. And the first anointed me with holy oil, and gave to me
the staff of judgment. The second washed me with pure water, and fed me with
bread and wine (even) the most holy things, and clad, me with a holy and glorious
robe. The third clothed me with a linen vestment like an ephod. The, fourth put
round me a girdle like unto purple. The fifth gave me a branch of rich olive. The
sixth placed a crown on my head. The seventh placed on my head a diadem of priesthood, and filled my hands with incense, that I might serve as priest to the
Lord God. And they said to me: Levi, thy seed shall be divided into three offices,
for a sign of the glory of the Lord who is to come. And the first portion shall be
great; yea, greater than it shall none be. The second shall be in the priesthood. And
the third shall be called by a new name, because a king shall arise in Judah, and
shall establish a new priesthood, after the fashion of the Gentiles [to all the
Gentiles].
94
Sacred garments are not unique to Hebrew literature. Ostler explains, “The idea of the
garment is completely at home throughout the ancient world, always in connection with
ordinances of initiation related to the “endowment of the Spirit.” The garment is usually
mentioned in relation with other ordinances, especially the anointing.”568 Rubin and Kosman
explain further:
This clothing assumed special attributes of its own, independent of its wearer.
Wearing regal clothing added authority and a dimension of the regal. The Bible
also stressed the transfer of Aaron’s priestly garments to his son Eleazar. There
were also garments unique to prophets, such as Samuel’s special coat and Elijah’s distinctive mantle. The holy garments of the Bible thus help link the world above to
that below. Here the garment does not function for personal territorial separation
and defense of selfhood, but for linking the worlds. This special quality requires the
wearer to be ritually pure. Otherwise, the garment can have a deleterious effect.
The garment represents the charisma of a formal position without a direct reference
to the quality of the priest wearing it. As these garments denote a formal position,
their design is also formal and unalterable.56
95
“that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified”
One is “called” by one’s name. Similarly, here to be “called” is to be given a new
name.572 One finds the same usage in the Beatitudes: “And blessed are all the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God” (3 Nephi 12:9); and in Isaiah: “and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). A new name is a new covenantal identity.573 In our verse, it denotes
one’s new relationship with God, much as Nibley writes, “In Egyptian initiation rites one
puts off his former nature by discarding his name, after which he receives a new name.”574
Truman Madsen explains,
In antiquity, several ideas about names recur, among which are the following:
1. In names, especially divine names, is concentrated divine power.
2. Through ritual processes one may gain access to these names and take them
upon oneself 3. These ritual processes are often explicitly temple-related.575
96
A new name is a new covenantal identity.
97
The king’s adoption as a son of Jehovah made him a legal heir, both to
his earthly throne and to his rightful place in the eternities. This annual re-enactment of the
king’s adoption renewed and affirmed the original covenant relationships between Jehovah
and the king; between Jehovah and the people; and also between Jehovah, the king, and the
people in the recreation of the Kingdom of God
98
Even though this new king-name was reaffirmed each year, conferring it upon the king
was more than symbolic, as Porter and Ricks explain: “The name change or new name
marks a turning point in the life of the initiate: he is ‘re-created,’ so to speak, and becomes a new man.”592 It was typical of ancient Near Eastern practices that kings should receive a
new covenant name in connection with their coronation ceremonies—often, more names
than one, but, as Porter and Ricks observed, not all the new names were known to
everyone. “New names were frequently conferred upon individuals at the time of their
enthronement. The giving or possessing of a second name, to be kept hidden from others, is
widely attested in antiquity among both mortals and divinities.”593
99
Not all new covenant names were secret, but they were all sacred. In his study of
Hebrew royal names, A. M. Honeyman found that the religious practice of giving and
receiving a new name “is based upon the belief that the name is or symbolizes the self or
soul, and that an alteration of the name will effect or symbolize and perpetuate an alteration
of the self; on this supposition a man whose name has been changed is no longer quite the
same man, for he has been cut off from his own past, or from certain aspects of it, and the
future belongs to a different being.”595
100
Nibley reminded us, “Every name is an epithet designating some peculiar attribute or
function of an individual. It is possible for persons even in our society to have more than one
name, each name calling attention to a different aspect of the individual: for to have many
forms and functions is to have many names.”598
