Tag Archives: Deification

Levi’s Initiation into the Angelic Priesthood

By David Larsen | Published: October 7, 2008
10/07/08 This post will cover our class discussion of the Testament of Levi, an important apocalyptic document. I will not go into an overview of all that the document contains of theological interest–there is a vast number of details that could potentially be interesting to the LDS reader. For a great overview of the relevant [...]
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The Human Form on God’s Throne

By David Larsen | Published: October 1, 2008
  Michelangelo’s Depiction of Moses on a Throne The following post represents research I did for Dr. Orlov’s Apocalyptic Literature class in preparation for a presentation I did on themes from the text of an ancient drama known as Exagoge, written by Ezekiel the Tragedian. This text is only known by fragments of the original [...]
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When the Angels Worshipped Adam

By David Larsen | Published: September 26, 2008
September 26, 2008 Earlier on this week in Dr. Orlov’s class we had an absolute smorgasbord of a discussion.  The subject was the text often called The Life of Adam and Eve, known from the many manuscripts extant in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Slavonic, Coptic (fragments), Georgian, and Armenian. This document is an apocryphal [...]
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The History of Heaven in Early Christianity

By David Larsen | Published: August 15, 2008
 As promised, here are the rest of the notes from Thomas Olmstead on A History of Heaven: The Singing Silence by Jeffrey Burton Russell. There is some really great information here regarding bodily resurrection, the state in which we return to heaven, and early Christian thought regarding intelligences. Chapter three: The Heaven of the Early Christians. [...]
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Moses, Enoch, and the Heavenly Ascent

By David Larsen | Published: August 1, 2008
Insights from Andrei Orlov’s “IN THE MIRROR OF THE DIVINE FACE:THE ENOCHIC FEATURES OF THE EXAGOGE OF EZEKIEL THE TRAGEDIAN” For Latter-day Saints, there is often a certain connection made in our minds between the prophets Moses and Enoch due to the inclusion of the story of Enoch in The Pearl of Great Price’s Book of [...]
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Baptism or Temple Initiation? Part III

By David Larsen | Published: July 3, 2008
 Another Word on Resurrection A great insight that Barker gives us that I did not include in my last post has to do with both the resurrection and the priesthood. In my last post, I cited a portion of the Gospel of Phillip: The Tree of Life is in the midst of Paradise, and from [...]
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Baptism or Temple Initiation? Part II

By David Larsen | Published: July 2, 2008
The Ancient Temple Initiation of the High Priesthood As I stated in my last post, Margaret Barker shows some interesting similarities between Christian baptism and the initiatory rites of the ancient royal high priesthood which generally took place at the temple. While she makes some good points, I think some caution is required. Barker herself states that [...]
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New Materials to Explore

By David Larsen | Published: June 25, 2008
Great Book on Deification I recently received an e-mail from my Church Educational System (CES) supervisor, Thomas F. Olmstead–I will soon be starting my second year as a volunteer early-morning seminary teacher–who informed me of a great book that deals with the doctrine of deification as it was passed on in the Greek Orthodox tradition. I [...]
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