I just got home this morning from yesterday’s Temple Studies Group symposium at the Temple Church in London. In fact, my dear wife picked up from the train station this morning on her way to Church. I can’t complain at all, however, about the trip, as it was so much better than if I had to try to come from the U.S. to get there.
Speaking of coming from the U.S., I was so happy to meet so many fine people who did come from “across the pond” to be there. I had the great pleasure of meeting Gary Anderson, Steve Nielsen, and Professor John Hall of BYU there. It was also wonderful to finally meet Laurence Hemming and Susan Parsons, who, together with Margaret Barker and others, helped to organize the Temple Studies Group. It was also great to see Dr. Richard Wellington again, whom I met at the last meeting here. Richard is the co-author of the wonderfully documented Lehi in the Wilderness with George Potter.
The symposium was, as my title indicates, greatly enlightening. The theme, as I have mentioned previously, was “The Holy Anointing Oil” and the presenters covered that topic wonderfully, detailing traditions of anointing from the rituals of ancient Egypt and the ancient Near East, Solomon’s temple and succeeding Jewish traditions, early Christianity, and modern Christian liturgy.
Margaret Barker’s presentation was first, which seems to be the standard procedure for these meetings — and rightly so as she gave a most interesting and amazing description of the nature and use of the holy anointing oil in the Temple of Jerusalem. The oil was kept in a flask in the Holy of Holies and was used to anoint priests and kings — it was one of the secrets of the High Priesthood. It was meant to represent that heavenly oil that flows from the Tree of Life which is instrumental in the rebirth into eternal life (resurrection) and deification. Although the holy oil was hidden away in the time of King Josiah, it was restored in Christianity. It is where the word Messiah, or Christ, comes from (some traditions still call it chrism), and so is what gives Christians their name (they are “anointed ones”). Dr. Barker’s speech served as a powerful outline and background that gave us the “big picture” essential for our understanding of the following presentations.
The next paper was given by Dr. John F. Hall, Eliza R. Snow Distinguished Professor of Classical Languages and Ancient History at Brigham Young University. It’s hard to describe how good Dr. Hall’s presentation was, and how much it helped answer a great number of questions I’ve had on my mind recently. It really reinforced a lot of what I’ve been studying in my own research recently — but from a different and illuminating perspective. Dr. Hall talked about Egyptian temple rites and the role of anointing in them and how these traditions may have influenced Israelite practices. He gave a very detailed description of some of the different enthronement and temple rituals that we know about from ancient Egyptian inscriptions. The anointing oil, put simply, gave the king or initiate the authority and ability to make the ascent to heaven where he/she would overcome death, following the example of the god Osiris, and be crowned and enthroned on the god’s throne for all eternity. There was so much good material in this presentation and I will be sharing my notes from it (and also Margaret’s and the others’) very soon.
I meant to give only a brief overview of what went on at the conference, but I am still so excited about it that I am having a hard time keeping my descriptions brief. However, since I will be subsequently sharing the notes I took here, I will restrain myself for now. After Drs. Barker and Hall, we heard from:
- Archimandrite Ephrem — on the Holy Oil in the Orthodox Church
- The Rev. Dr Richard Price — on its use in Early Christianity
- Dr Sebastian Brock — on the Syriac tradition
And last but certainly not least was the Rev. Dr Laurence Hemming on the anointing with oil in the Roman Catholic Tradition. I make more especial mention of Dr Hemming as he is one of the co-founders of the Temple Study Group, and excellent scholar, and friend of Frederick Huchel (whom I have mentioned a number of times on this blog). It is interesting to note that Dr Hemming told me of his fondness for Utah — he has a good number of friends there and has spent much time there as well. Dr Hemming gave a very interesting paper on how the anointing oil is used in the Catholic liturgy, which preserves much of the ancient temple tradition. I will, of course, be sharing my notes from his presentation, as well as the others mentioned.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the Temple Studies Symposium once again and am already looking forward to the next one. Unfortunately, there will not be one this coming may, as there was last May, so the next meeting will be in November 2010 and will cover another very important topic: “Vestments: the Garments of Glory.”
9 Comments
David:
Thanks for your summaries. You serve such a good purpose.
Excellent! Very much looking forward to your notes! (I got tired of waiting for the prices of the Barker books I haven’t read yet to come down in price, so I started requesting them on Inter-library loan – The Older Testament is already on its way!)
Thank you S. Faux and David for your kind comments.
S. Faux–I apologize I didn’t respond to your questions about the Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice. For some reason, I am not receiving email notifications anymore when someone comments on the blog. I will make sure I respond shortly.
David–I’m sure you’ll enjoy the Older Testament. I found it a bit more difficult to get through than her more recent books, but its likely because it was meant for scholarly circles, more so than some of the others. But it lays a great foundation for what she later expounds upon in richer detail in later research. Tell me what you think of it when you get it!
Anointing is a particular area of research for me, thanks for the notes. Do you know if these papers will be published? There is an extensive literature on anointing in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Syriac, and early Christian Churches. Do you know if these presentations expanded on that precedent?
J. Stapley,
I really don’t know if the papers will be published or not. In the past, some of the papers (only a few), or at least abstracts/outlines have been posted on the Temple Studies Group’s website, http://www.templestudiesgroup.com. I will post further notes here on my blog, but hopefully a full version of all or most will eventually come to light. I will let you know if I ever hear of a published version. The papers on the various traditions you mention were very informative, but I don’t know if they included anything that you have not already read about. Again, I will post my notes, such as they are, and you can get an idea of what they covered.
Thanks,
David
Thanks David.
Here is a footnote from a presentation I gave involving the anointing:
The Anointing Provides Knowledge
The endowment, as described above, is knowledge (D & C 84:20) of how to enter the presence of God. Symbolically, the anointing with oil provides this knowledge. “But ye have an unction [GR anointing] from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20). “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” (1 John 2:27). An extended analysis of this is contained in Strecker, Georg, trans., Maloney, Linda M., The Johannine Letters: A Commentary on 1, 2 and 3 John, Hermeneia, Fortress Press, (1996), electronic CD version. This is summarized as follows: This anointing can be viewed in two ways: the first is simply the revelation of knowledge by the Holy Spirit and the second is an actual anointing by God or Jesus. The second is actually the favored usage and v. 20 and 27 are the only place where the Greek word for anointing is used in the New Testament. The underlying Greek verb which anointing is the root of apparently is used in 2 Cor. 2:21 “who has sealed us”. There is a grammatical distinction which supports the view of the anointing being from God and/or Christ rather than the Holy Spirit, although the commentator says there is really no distinction [something I disagree with]. The exact Greek word in 1 John 2: 20, 27 is used 9 times in the LXX (Greek version of the Old Testament), particularly where the “oil of anointing” is used. See Ex. 29:7; 30:25, 35:14, 19,;38:25; 40:9, 15 Sirach 38:30 and Dan. 9:26. Its is interpreted as the “oil of life that flows from the tree of life in paradise [see 2 Enoch 22:8-9; Apocalypse of Moses 9:3; Life of Adam and Eve (Vita) 36. There is a report of early Christians anointing with oil after baptism “After this, when we have issued form the font, we are thoroughly anointed with blessed oil.” Tertullian Bapt. (PL 1.1206-7).
This anointing is important for entry into the presence of the Lord. “And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water.” “Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.” (Ex. 29:4, 7).
At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue a Messianic scripture:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified (Isa. 61:1–3).
The reaction of the populace was to attempt to throw him from a cliff (Luke 4:16–30). Notice the reference to the “oil of joy for mourning” and the “garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”. The issue of garments in the temple for the High Priest and others (Ex. 28:2; 29:5-6) is an area to be explored in greater detail.
I started on Barker’s Older Testament this week. It makes me wish I’d started with this book. It is now filling in the details of a lot of the references she makes in her later books. Her books really should be read chronologically. She establishes such a solid foundation.
Although she references it in nearly all her books, and it already had jumpstarted additional ideas and research for me, reading this one clicked for me some of the further implications of the angel/king/star symbolism. Every time I read one of her books I want to start reading the Old Testament over again.
T. Hutchinson — thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on anointing. You make some very interesting points! Good luck with your research!
David — I’m glad you’re reading the Older Testament. I’ve been looking over it myself again recently. It really does fill in a lot of details, providing background for things she no longer feels she needs to provide full references for in later books. I agree with you that, because of this, her books really should be read chronologically.
I am very much interested in her ideas regarding kingship, as well. It certainly helps to understand important themes in the Old Testament and make essential connections with Christianity.
Thanks for your comments!
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