I’d like to share with you the notes I took at the SANE Conference on Temples and Ritual in Antiquity that took place this past Friday at Brigham Young University. As I was truly enthralled in what most of the presenters were saying and also paying great attention to the power-point presentations, my notes are very brief and hopelessly incomplete, so please excuse their very sketchy and partial nature.
Also, because I was presenting in the Ancient Israel section (there were also Early Christian, Egyptian, Classics sections), I ended up just staying in that section and watched only the presentations presented there. So, unfortunately, I will not be able to fill you in on all the other presentations that I’m sure were absolutely excellent. The ones that I did see were very well done and I really did learn a lot.
The good thing, however, is that most (but not all) of the presentations were videotaped and are being posted on YouTube. So far, they are being posted by FAIRLDS. As they are put up, I will post them here on Heavenly Ascents for your enlightenment.
Dr. Donald Parry — Eve, Eden, and the Temple
There are a number of books that talk about the Garden of Eden as a temple (e.g., G.K. Beale).
Dr. Parry compares Eve to the Temple. Genesis says that God “built” (Hebrew b’nah) Eve. Eve was built like a temple. Eve was built from a living creature–from Adam’s side–not necessarily from a rib, but from sela. Sela is not simply bone, but living tissue.
Eve = LIfe
Gen. 2:7 — Creation story is a temple text, not necessarily a scientific explanation of the creation.
Yahweh Elohim can be translated as “He creates gods,” per William Brownlee, a student of William Albright. Similarly, Yahweh Seba’ot is “He creates hosts/armies,” per Frank Moore Cross.
Gen. 2:9 — Tree of Life was in the center of the Garden–in the holiest place. Tree of Knowledge can be seen as Tree of Death. Tree of Life is a symbol to represent Deity.
Gen. 2:18 –Eve is help (‘ezer)–but help in what? Not in cultivating garden, naming animals or eating fruit, but in bringing forth life. Both Eve and God are called ‘ezer. Name Eliezer means “God is my help.” Like God, Eve helps in creating life.
Fig leaves used to cover reproductive parts. Fig leaves are a symbol of procreation. Fig leaves are full of seeds–symbol of reproductive powers.
Rom. 16:20–Eve’s perpetual offspring are a testimony of her life-giving powers
Eve = Life in Hebrew–name signifies the Mother of all living.
Eve is a symbol of Christ
- Body built as Temple
- ‘Ezer-Help
- Life
The Creation story is about the life-giving powers of Eve
****If you are interested in this topic, a great book to read is Donna B. Nielsen’s Beloved Bridegroom (Onyx Press, 1999), which explores a lot of the same imagery surrounding the figure of Eve. The book is about the metaphor of Christ as the Bridegroom, and how biblical covenant marriage imagery can teach us more about marriage, temple, and Christ. It really is a great book–very interesting, enlightening, and well-researched, without being difficult to get through for any LDS reader. Definitely worth a serious look!
Dan Belnap — The Role of Scent in the Rituals of Ancient Israel
Unfortunately, I didn’t get down too many notes on this great presentation. Here’s what I have:
Smell was a very important part of ancient sanctuary/rites. We have largely lost this aspect of worship–it doesn’t mean much to us anymore, but it was a significant part of the ancient Israelite temple/sacrificial system.
The daily procedure of animal sacrifice was a dirty, smelly process. The animal carcasses and rancid, accumulated blood would have smelled very bad. The Kidron valley, where much of this took place would have smelled like Hell.
When the sacrifice is actually burned, the smell improves. The burning of the sacrifice by fire transforms the aroma of the environs into the sweet smell of cooked meat–transformation by fire. The sacrificial process progresses from putrid smelling to a much nicer smell.
Incense was used in a daily offering, on the Day of Atonement, and for stopping plagues.
- Incense prepares priests to enter presence of God
- Incense creates a liminal state (a place between one state and another)–a more holy state
Incense was the smell of the presence of God. It was a sweet smell, using frankincense. Its purpose was to make the priest holy. It had transformational properties–the priest became angelic. This smell was used in other items–scented anointing oil, frankincense on bread priests ate in temple–all meant to transform the partaker to a more holy state.
Incense not meant just to protect priest or hide God, but to make the priest holy enough to be in presence.
Dr. William Hamblin — What is the “Chariot” in Ezekiel 1?
This presentation analyzes the visions of Ezekiel 1 and 10. Although Ezekiel never calls it this, the “vehicle” that Ezekiel sees is later called the merkavah or “chariot.” As we compare the merkavah to the temple, as described in the Hebrew Bible, we can see that the merkavah appears to be a “portable Holy of Holies.”
The living creatures described in Ezek. 1 are called “cherubim” in ch. 10. There are four of these cherubim, which corresponds to the four cherubim in the Holy of Holies (two on ark and two larger ones behind/over ark).
The living creatures had multiple types of faces–human, lion, eagle, oxen. The oxen that held up the “brazen sea” were possibly cherubim as well. There are examples of lavers with wheels and the figures of cherubim on them. These types of creatures can be seen in many examples of ANE art. They are often depicted holding up the heavens–raukeeya=the firmament of the heavens, as seen under throne in Ezekiel.
The fire/coals seen in Ezekiel’s vision correspond to coals on altar in Isaiah 6:6.
According to Jewish tradition, there was a “chariot” inside the temple. We are not sure exactly what this was (I think it was the throne itself). Sirach 49:8 mentions a “chariot of the cherubim.” 2 Kings 23:11 mentions that King Josiah removed and burned the chariot of the sun from the temple.
The wheels within wheels (wheelwork) can be interpreted as “skull-shaped” or spherical. There are later depictions of solar figures holding the moon sphere in hand. The god Appollo is often depicted in this manner. The earliest known depiction of Jesus shows him riding a solar chariot in this same way. Also comparable are Egyptian solar barques. Often these solar vehicles are pulled by horses or cherubim.
Apollo Sun Chariot
Christ Sun Chariot
In the Jerusalem Temple, the veil was decorated with images of cherubim. Traditions states that the heavens/constellations were also depicted. It is likely that the cherubim were depicted as constellations. The image of the cherubim in Ezekiel’s vision being full of “eyes” likely refers to them being full of stars (eyes=stars). Angels are traditionally seen as stars/constellations. Much of the rest of the symbolism in Ezekiel is astronomical.
Even today, there is a tradition in India of a “chariot pilgrimage.” For this festival, “temples on wheels” are built and paraded through the streets, surrounded by crowds of people. Prominent is the temple of the Sun God Suria. (Dr. Hamblin showed many images of these impressive temple-chariots and also magdala images that represent such wheeled temples)
The Sun Temple, Konark: Wheels carrying the chariot of Sun
Rath Yatra Chariot Procession
Rath Yatra Chariot Wheel Detail
Burma Temple Chariot
There is a Jewish example of such a model wheeled-temple from 4th Century AD Capernaum.
The merkavah is a wheeled Holy of Holies. The Jerusalem temple contained an earthly model of the heavenly reality that Ezekiel saw in exile.
*****I actually wrote a post treating this topic (although my version is much more simple and less profound) a while back called Understanding Ezekiel’s Remarkable Merkabah Vision.
I will post notes from James Carroll, David Seely, Brian Hauglid, and Matthew Brown next time…
DearScriptures.com
5 Comments
David:
Thanks for the post and this great information! I wish I could have attended and I am really looking forward to the YouTube videos.
-Littlefield
I really wish I could have seen Dr. Parry’s presentation, but I was presenting in the other room at that time. Your notes are very helpful, however!
David–Yeah, too bad you couldn’t have been there! You’ll have to organize a similar conference for California!
Andrew–Dr. Parry’s presentation was very good. Sorry my notes are so brief. He said lots more interesting things. Too bad he didn’t want the presentation filmed. I imagine it will be published, though.
Your presentation, Andrew, was very well done! The “mysteries” are an important topic. It is funny how Christians today (my fellow classmates here included) work so hard to deny that they ever existed. I have often heard: “well Ignatius lived soon after the apostles and he didn’t know of any mysteries.” From your research, it is obvious that many of those early saints did know of the mysteries. Thanks for your hard work on that!
“Tree of Knowledge can be seen as Tree of Death.”
I’ve been looking for information on the Tree of Knowledge, what it symbolizes, etc. All of the LDS resources I find talk about the Tree of Life, but don’t address the ToK. Do you know of any good sources?
Thanks,
Ferreira
Would you be able to inform me if the picture/symbol of the tree of life in this article is copyrighted or can it be used?
Please e-mail me at lbloque@aol.com
One Trackback
[...] to date). You can see short bios of each presenter here or here. David Larsen also took some great notes in the Ancient Israel sessions. Note: I will update this post with links to more of the videos [...]