Mark your calendar!

The  first  annual  EXPOUND symposium will be held on Saturday, 14 May 2011 at the historic Brigham Young Academy building in Provo, Utah (only three blocks from the south edge of Brigham Young University). Come join us for engaging and insightful presentations related to the rich heritage of LDS history, scripture and belief. Drawings will be held for publications from some of the speakers.

Presenters and Presentations

Kurt Graham
The Future of the Church History Museum

Ugo A. Perego
Is Decrypting the Genetic Legacy of America’s Indigenous Populations Key to the Historicity of the Book of Mormon?

David J. Larsen
The Psalms as a Key to Understanding the Rituals of the First Temple

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
“Standing in the Holy Place”: Ancient and Modern Reverberations of an Enigmatic New Testament Prophecy

Mark Alan Wright
Nephite Daykeepers: Ritual Specialists in the Book of Mormon

David M. Calabro
Body Symbolism in Latter-day Saint Scripture

Larry E. Morris
“Such a Godless Place Would be Difficult to Imagine”: The Historical Setting for the Arrival of the First Mormon Missionaries in Missouri

Matthew B. Brown
Cube, Gate and Measuring Tools: A Biblical Pattern

____________________________

I really need to update my paper title and abstract, as my presentation will more nuanced than what the information on the site indicates.  That title and abstract was given months ago before I actually wrote the paper — but that’s my fault for not sending them an update.  I’ll try to do that soon.

I am really excited about this conference.  The organizers are great guys and I am very interested in hearing all the other presentations, which cover quite a wide variety of topics!

The symposium goes from 9am to 5:30pm. That may sound like a long day, but I encourage you to stay for the whole thing (especially because I’m not speaking until 3pm)! Seriously, I don’t think you’ll want to miss any of these speakers. If you can make it, I look forward to seeing you there!!

What motivated you to write “Temple Themes in the Book of Moses”?

Jeff Bradshaw: My hope in writing this new book was that readers would gain a greater appreciation for the depth and sophistication of temple teachings—and the implications of those teachings for our daily lives. We are naturally drawn to the temple because it is a place apart where we can feel the peace and joy of God’s presence as we participate in sacred ordinances for ourselves and others. We take our problems to the temple and pray for help and guidance, and we also engage in group prayer for others with particular needs. These things alone are great blessings.

Often less appreciated, however, is the fact that the temple is intended to be a place of profound and very personal learning, not only with respect to the answers we seek to prayers about our immediate concerns, but also about our place in the overall economy of our divine Father’s Creation. Noting the magnitude of our opportunities in this respect, Elder Neal A. Maxwell once remarked: “God is giving away the spiritual secrets of the universe,” and then asked: “but are we listening?”^[i]

To help prepare our minds and hearts to receive this divine instruction, we have been counseled to study the scriptures and the words of latter-day prophets. Allusions to temple themes can be found throughout these writings, but it is not always easy to recognize them. Efforts have been made to bridge this gap through books that explain the meaning of specific symbols used in scripture and temple worship. However, most of us not only struggle with the meaning of individual concepts and symbols, but also—and perhaps more crucially—in understanding how these concepts and symbols fit together as a whole system. The symbols and concepts of the temple are best understood, not in isolation, but within the full context of temple teachings to which they belong.

Chesterton has compared our position to that of a “sailor who awakens from a deep sleep and discovers treasure strewn about, relics from a civilization he can barely remember. One by one he picks up the relics—gold coins, a compass, fine clothing—and tries to discern their meaning.”[ii] The point is that the essential meaning is to be found not so much in the individual relics as in a true grasps of the milieu that produced them.

As Latter-day Saints, we have access to more knowledge about the temple than has been available generally in any other dispensation. As a result, we are in a privileged position to have “the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us.”^[iii]

Because its stories form such an important part of the LDS temple endowment, the book of Moses is an ideal starting point for a scripture-based study of temple themes. It is well known, for example, that the endowment, like the book of Moses, includes “a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period, the condition of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, their disobedience and consequent expulsion from that blissful abode, their condition in the lone and dreary world when doomed to live by labor and sweat, the plan of redemption by which the great transgression may be atoned.”^[iv] What is more rarely appreciated, however, is that the relationship between scripture and temple teachings goes two ways. Not only have many of the stories of the book of Moses been included in the endowment, but also, in striking abundance, themes echoing temple architecture, furnishings, ordinances, and covenants have been deeply woven into the text of the book of Moses itself.

In short, this book, though neither authoritative nor definitive, attempts to highlight a few of the temple themes that once seem to have been part of a widely-shared background of understanding for scriptural interpretation and to apply these themes as latent interpretive possibilities for the book of Moses. Though many of the arguments made will, no doubt, someday prove to have been ill-founded, my hope is that bringing such perspectives into discussion will, at the very least, help in some small way to spur deeper study and appreciation of the book of Moses and the temple.

*Can you tell me how your Temple Themes book differs from the material in the “In God’s Image” book? If someone has one of the books, would it still be helpful to get the other?

Bradshaw: Originally, “Temple Themes in the Book of Moses” was intended to be a slim and simply-worded synopsis of some of the temple-related material in the commentary that someone like my mother could pick up and enjoy reading. In the end, it turned out to be nothing like that. Perhaps the sole bit of progress I’ve made toward my goal is that at least this book is short enough that my mother can lift it—in contrast to the nine-pound hardback commentary that many found difficult to heft and read comfortably. Despite my failure on this book, I am still hoping to get a slim and simple summary volume together in the coming months.

In writing “Temple Themes,” I was freed from the obligatory chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse organizational scheme of the commentary, and was able to bring together related material on a given theme that was often inconveniently scattered throughout the text, endnotes, and excursus sections of the book. Moreover, I was able both to update some of the previous topics with illuminating new findings and also to branch out into subjects that had not been previously discussed.

An appendix covers frequent questions on the relationships among Genesis, the book of Moses, and the Joseph Smith Translation, as well as issues relating to authorship and translation.

Of course, the process adding in over a hundred full color images and photographs, many published here for the first time, was also a delight. The great majority of these were not included in the previously-published book of Moses commentary.

*

What are some examples of new and updated material found in this volume?

Bradshaw: As an example of updating previously-treated topics, I’ve added significant new material on the concept of the Tree of Knowledge as the veil of the sanctuary. Allusions to this idea, which I first found in rabbinic commentary and in the writings of Ephrem the Syrian, and the related association of the Tree of Knowledge with themes of death and resurrection, has proven to be much more widespread in the ancient literature than I could have ever imagined, not only appearing in the biblical stories of Noah, Babel, King Uzziah, and Esther, but also showing up in Islamic, Egyptian, Mesoamerican, and pseudepigraphal variations.

Once having understood the relevance of these sources, it is hard to imagine that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge could have ever been construed as anything other than—obviously—knowledge! Whether speaking of the heavenly temple or of its earthly models, the theme of access to hidden knowledge is inseparably connected with the passage through the veil. For example, Jewish and Christian accounts speak of a “blueprint” of eternity that is worked out in advance and shown on the inside of the veil to prophetic figures as part of their heavenly ascent. In his final book, One Eternal Round (and, previously, in Abraham in Egypt), Nibley gave the “great round” of the hypocephalus as an example of an attempt to capture the essence of such pictures of eternity among the Egyptians, and showed how similar concepts pervade the literature of other ancient cultures.

Another subject that has been treated in much more depth is the vision of Moses (Moses 1). As you know (as a co-author of that chapter), the discussion in the new book goes far beyond what was included in the book of Moses commentary to include a thorough discussion of striking parallels in the Apocalypse of Abraham, as well as the first known publication in more than a hundred years of the full set of illustrations from the Sylvester Codex, a fourteenth-century Slavonic manuscript of that work.

In my opinion, one of the most significant new topics treated in the book is the question of how much Eve understood when she took of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. In light of the LDS understanding that the Fall was a necessary prerequisite for mankind’s further progression and our rejection of the generally negative portrayals of Eve in historical Christianity, Mormon authors typically emphasize her perceptiveness and interpret her role as ultimately constructive. A few have, however, taken this view to what I take to be an untenable extreme, not only rightfully exonerating her from full accountability for her transgression and honoring her lifelong faithfulness, but in addition arguing that, for various reasons, she was not actually “beguiled” by Satan in her decision to take of the forbidden fruit. One of the chapters in the new book is dedicated to correcting what I take to be as some misconceptions relating to this important topic that bears on some of our foundational doctrines.

Another favorite new chapter has to do with the surprisingly ubiquitous ancient theme of “standing in holy places.” Though this idea is explicitly found only once in the New Testament[v]—and that in a context that seems a difficult fit to current LDS construal of the phrase—it turns up frequently in modern scripture. In surprising echoes of modern revelation, the theme of one’s fitness to stand in holy places can be shown to be of paramount importance in the Old and New Testament—not to mention its particular relevance for our own time. Indeed, Avivah Zornberg has argued that to “hold [one’s] ground” in sacred circumstances is the meaning of being itself—“kiyyum: to rise up (la-koom), to be tall (koma zokufa) in the presence of God.”^[vi]

In another chapter, drawing on the arguments of Sarah Ruden and LDS scholar Lynne H. Wilson, I counter George Berrnard Shaw’s conclusion that the apostle Paul was “the eternal enemy of Woman.^”[vii] For example, in Paul’s description of the veiling of women during prayer, there seems to be no question of the woman being presented as a second-class participant in the ordinances or, for that matter, in eternal life, as some have erroneously concluded. Rather, by way of analogy to the divine radiance of Moses in Exodus 34:33–34, the veil might be understood not only as a woman’s sign of authority, necessary for her own exaltation, but also as a witness of womanhood’s glory, a glory that must eventually be shared with man if he is to attain completeness in God’s sight.

There is also new material relating to what I call Adam and Eve’s “temple work.” In contrast to frequent attempts to draw parallels between modern “secular employments” and the work required of the first couple in Paradise, I believe that the very point of the scriptural injunction in Moses 4:15 is to inform Adam and Eve that no labor of the ordinary kind was required in Eden so long as they qualified to remain in that place. In this view, any conception that they were to focus their energies on digging and pruning the trees of Eden is surely mistaken, since the account makes clear that “man’s food was ever ready at hand.”^[viii] Instead, I argue that a different, and even more strenuous and demanding kind of work was required of Adam and Eve while they lived in the Garden of Eden. Moreover, I attempt to show that the divine injunctions given there to the first couple have not changed in their priority since mankind fell from Paradise.

*

What is the relationship between this book and the weekly columns you wrote for Meridian Magazine during the first half of 2010?

Bradshaw: Some of the challenging questions raised in the “Temple Themes” book were first addressed in Meridian Magazine. Though some links and articles have been lost due to problems with a recent Web site update at Meridian, we’ve updated the links to this series on http://www.imageandlikeness.net so they can still be freely accessed. The new book has allowed me to correct, expand, and more fully illustrate the subjects treated in these articles.

Regretfully, I had to give up the weekly column in May 2010, due to a recall to service as a bishop, and the consequent reprogramming of my early-morning reading and writing time to nearly-full-time shepherding matters. My first day as a bishop, I received 79 email messages! Happily, my scripture study is still just as intense as it was when I was writing for Meridian—but my time and attention are now spread among many more topics!

*

Where can the new book be found? What about “In God’s Image and Likeness,” now that the hardbound edition is sold out?

Bradshaw: “Temple Themes in the Book of Moses” is published by Eborn Publishing. It’s available at any of the Eborn bookstores and at Amazon.com. It’s in stock and available for purchase in both inexpensive black and white ( $19.95) and full-color two-volume ($59.95) editions at the FAIR Online Bookstore and the BYU Bookstore. Full-color PDF versions ($19.95) of both “In God’s Image and Likeness” and “Temple Themes in the Book of Moses” for laptops, the iPad, Kindle, and virtually any other reading device are also available at BYU and FAIR, as well as at www.imageandlikeness.net.

A four-part softcover version, of “In God’s Image and Likeness” is also available for $19.95/volume or $59.95 for the four volume set. It incorporates corrections of many typographical errors and minor mistakes of other sorts, and adds several new and updated sources.

The key thing in all these new publications was to keep them as inexpensive as possible. Unlike the now-sold-out hardcover edition of the commentary, we did not have benefactors to subsidize the cost of publication—thus some compromises in print quality had to be made. Though the softcover volumes do not fully match the beauty and servicability of the single-volume hardcover edition, I am happy to have both the book of Moses commentary and the “Temple Themes” book in print in editions that are as affordable as we could possibly make them.

At the other end of the spectrum, a handful of copies of the limited leather edition of “In God’s Image and Likeness” are still available for $5000 each—certainly out of my own price range! Twenty-five pounds in the clamshell box, with beautifully-tooled gold decorations adorning the fine English leather–certainly not something you’d want to read in bed, but it is reputed by Eborn Publishing to be the most beautiful LDS book ever printed.

*

What are your personal feelings about the book of Moses?

Bradshaw: It is my firm witness that the book of Moses is a priceless prophetic reworking of the book of Genesis, made with painstaking effort under divine direction. While neither “complete” nor “inerrant,” it is a text of inestimable value that should be a centerpiece of our gospel study. With respect to yet unrevealed portions of the book of Abraham, a companion to the book of Moses, Hugh Nibley reminds us:^[ix]

Important parts of the Pearl of Great Price which are still being held back include “writings that cannot be revealed unto the world; but is [sic] to be had in the holy Temple of God,”^[x] “ought not to be revealed at the present time.”^[xi] Years ago, when we cited some passages from what we called an Egyptian endowment,^[xii] without elaborating, many Latter-day Saints quietly recognized their own temple endowment. Important things are still expressly withheld which “ought not to be revealed at the present time”; these include Facsimile 2, figures 12-21. For some of the secrets there is a standing invitation: “If the world can find out these numbers, so let it be. Amen.”^[xiii] That was over a century and a half ago, and the invitation to search is still open.

*

References

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. 1908. Orthodoxy. New York City, NY: Image Books / Doubleday, 2001.

Maxwell, Neal A. “Our Creator’s Cosmos.” Presented at the Church Educational System Conference on the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, August 13, 2002, 2002, 1-8.

Nibley, Hugh W., and Michael D. Rhodes. One Eternal Round. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 19. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2010.

Nibley, Hugh W. 1975. The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005.

Ruden, Sarah. Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time. New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 2010.

Sarna, Nahum M., ed. Genesis. The JPS Torah Commentary, ed. Nahum M. Sarna. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 1989.

Talmage, James E. 1912. The House of the Lord. Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1998.

Wyatt, Nicolas. “When Adam delved: The meaning of Genesis 3:23.” In ‘There’s Such Divnity Doth Hedge a King’: Selected Essays of Nicolas Wyatt on Royal Ideology in Ugaritic and Old Testament Literature, edited by Nicolas Wyatt. Society for Old Testament Study Monographs, ed. Margaret Barker, 55-59. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2005.

Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb. Genesis: The Beginning of Desire. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1995.

Endnotes

[ii] P. Yancey, introduction to G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. xiii.

[iii] Joseph Smith—History 1:74.

[iv] J. E. Talmage, House of the Lord, 4, p. 54.

[v] Compare Matthew 24:15.

[vi] A. G. Zornberg, Genesis, p. 21.

[vii] See S. Ruden, Paul, p. 73.

[viii] N. M. Sarna, Genesis, p. 18. But see the interesting discussion in N. Wyatt, When Adam.

[ix] H. W. Nibley et al., One Eternal Round, pp. 18-19.

[x] Abraham, Facsimile 2, figure 8.

[xi] Abraham, Facsimile 2, figure 9.

[xii] H. W. Nibley, Message 2005.

[xiii] Abraham, Facsimile 2, figure 11.

If you were not able to attend the symposium, or would like to go back and listen to any of the great presentations, you can do so here.

The session of the symposium that was most in line with my interests was the Saturday Morning session entitled: Priests, Kings, and Temples.

The presentations at that session were the following:

“The Anointing of the Gods: Sanctification and Authority from Egyptian Pharaohs to Hebrew Priest Kings and Beyond” –John F. Hall, Brigham Young University (listen to mp3)

“The Ezekiel Mural at Dura Europos and the Mysteries of Aaron, Moses, and Melchizedek” — Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Independent Scholar, Florida; David Larsen, PhD student, University of St Andrews (listen to mp3)

“Kingship and Seer Stones: A Comparison of European Regalia and Scriptural Accounts of the Urim and Thummim and Liahona” –Paul Callister, University of Missouri-Kansas City (listen to mp3)

Although I am still struggling to decide exactly what format my notes on the Sunday School lessons should take and what would be the most helpful type of information to provide, I wanted to make sure I got started with this series of posts and provided something. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the style, format, and content of these posts is subject to change as I get a feel for how I want to do this. Please bear with me. For those readers who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this series of posts is based on lessons from the LDS Church’s Sunday School program, which is focused on (this year) the Old Testament.

This week’s lesson covers Moses 4; 5:1-15; 6:48-62 (from Selections from the Book of Moses in The Pearl of Great Price)

From the Lesson Manual:

Helpful Links:

Lesson 4 – Meridian Magazine article by Bruce Satterfield

The Temple Symbolism of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge – another excellent article by Jeff Bradshaw

Adam in Ancient Texts and the Restoration – a remarkable article by Matthew Roper which gives a significant analysis of ancient materials related to Adam and how they contain many ideas which support Joseph Smith’s additional insights on the patriarch of the human race.  Many of the aspects of the Book of Moses which today’s Christians may find odd or unfamiliar were known to ancient Christians.

Extra-canonical texts that retell the story of Adam and Eve (with many similarities to the Book of Moses):

The Testament of Adam – Thought to be a 4th Century Jewish pseudepigraphal text that retells the story of Genesis. This text is thought to have been reused by Christians and contributed to some of the later texts below. 

The Book of Adam and Eve (or The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan) — A Christian pseudepigraphical text thought to date from the 6th century AD. Although it is quite drawn out, it is at times strikingly similar in structure to our Book of Moses.

The Apocalypse of Adam – A Gnostic work retelling Adam’s last words to his son Seth, including prophecies regarding future generations. A Coptic work found among the Nag Hammadi texts.

The Life of Adam and Eve (Vita Adam et Evae) – A very interesting early Christian text (poss. 6th century) that has many parallels to the Book of Moses. A more detailed account of the story of the Fall in Genesis which preserves some insightful ancient traditions. On the linked site they have provided English translations from the known versions, originally in Armenian, Georgian, Latin, Greek, and Slavonic.

The Cave of Treasures – A colorful retelling of the Adam and Eve story with many similarities to The Book of Adam and Eve (mentioned above). Also dated to the 6th century AD.

Some Comments:

Some of the distinct LDS doctrines that are learned from these sections of the Book of Moses are here summarized by Robert Millet (Man Adam, 1990):

1. Adam and Eve were vital parts of God’s purpose and plan-the plan of salvation-which plan has been in existence since the days that they first walked the earth. The Saints today, and all who will listen, become privy to a foundational truth concerning Christ’s eternal gospel-the knowledge that Christian prophets have taught Christian doctrine and administered Christian ordinances since the days of Eden.

2. Adam and Eve’s doings in Eden are not to be understood in a spiritual vacuum. And Lucifer’s actions in the garden must be seen as a part of his malevolent mischief begun in the premortal councils. The War in Heaven simply continues on earth. (See Moses 4.)

3. The fall of Adam and Eve was an essential part of God’s plan. Thus the Fall is viewed by Latter-day Saints with an optimism that is uncharacteristic of traditional Christianity. Simply stated, Adam and Eve came into the Garden of Eden to fall. In fact, their partaking of the fruit was as much a part of the foreordained plan as the atonement of Christ. “Because that Adam fell,” Enoch explained, “we are” (Moses 6:48; compare 2 Ne. 2:25).

4. God forgave Adam and Eve their transgression in the Garden of Eden. Though children are “conceived in sin”-though conception becomes the vehicle through which the effects of the Fall are transmitted to man- they are free from any original sin or guilt. Little children are whole from the foundation of the world. These blessings come as unconditional benefits of the atonement of Jesus Christ. (Moses 6:53-55.)

5. Through the redemptive labors of Christ and their own repentance, Adam and Eve were forgiven of their sins, born again, changed from a carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness; they were justified, sanctified, and made ready for an entrance into the eternal presence (Moses 6:57-60). We can receive these blessings as well. Through the ordinances of salvation, Adam, Eve, and their posterity are “quickened in the inner man,” are born of the Spirit, and thus become the sons and daughters of Christ (Moses 6:64-68). Then, through receiving the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, these Saints may ultimately qualify to become sons and daughters of God the Father and receive, as joint-heirs with Christ, all that the Father has. 3

In summary, much of what we know of the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement-the three pillars of eternity-we know in large measure because of what God has revealed, principally in the latter days, regarding our first parents.

We read in Moses 5: 10–12, after Adam and Eve have been expelled from the Garden and have had time to contemplate the significance of  their new fallen state:

10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was afilled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the fflesh I shall see God.

11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.

These few lines contain some major theological statements that contribute greatly to the LDS understanding of the nature of the Fall of Adam and Eve. From my experience studying theology at non-LDS institutions, I can attest to the fact that these ideas represent a significant difference from the understanding of the Fall held by most Christians. As far as I understand it, while most Christians would say that God certainly, in his omniscient foreknowledge, knew what Adam and Eve would end up doing, they don’t seem to view Adam’s transgression as part of God’s initial designs for mankind and his Fall and departure from the Garden certainly wasn’t a positive consequence for the first couple. Although traditions vary, many would say that Adam and Eve were meant to stay in Paradise forever and that they were meant to “multiply and replenish” right there in the Garden, where their descendents (all of us) would have enjoyed a glorious and peaceful existence in the presence of God.

However, from the Book of Moses and other LDS Scriptures we learn that the Fall was an essential part of God’s plan for mankind. The reason that the earth was created was so that God’s spirit children (all of us)  could be sent here to be tested (Abr. 3: 24–25). By partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve gained the knowledge they need to choose between good and evil, which was essential to the exercising of their agency — their ability to distinguish between right and wrong and choose the right. If they would have remained in the Garden in their state of innocence, they would never have had experienced the opposition necessary to create an opportunity to choose the right.

I will continue on this topic after I introduce a second question from the text that many other Christians have difficulty with; that is the question of procreation in the Garden. In the above quoted passage, Eve makes it explicitly clear that if it were not for their transgression, she and Adam would have never multiplied and produced children (see also 2 Ne. 2:22–23). But didn’t God specifically command them, in the Garden of Eden, to “multiply and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28)? A reader of this blog from France who is familiar with the Book of Moses and LDS teachings recently asked me about this apparent contradiction between the biblical text and LDS scripture. The following was my response to him:

You are correct that LDS teaching is that Adam and Eve could not multiply in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall. You are also correct that God, in Genesis, does command Adam and Eve to multiply before the Fall. We believe that this is one of the great paradoxes of Adam and Eve’s situation before the Fall, and why God fully expected and planned for the Fall to take place. I will tell you why I believe there is no “distortion” between LDS teachings and the book of Genesis.

God’s first commandment to Adam and Eve was to multiply and replenish the Earth. Did they obey this commandment while in the Garden of Eden? No, according to Genesis, they did not. Genesis, unfortunately, is silent on the matter of why they did not. Nevertheless, according to Genesis, they only obeyed this commandment after the Fall. LDS believe that the reason that they did not multiply before the Fall is because they could not (or perhaps they did not know how). One possible clue from Genesis is the fact that the text states that before they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they did not even know that they were naked. This is a rather odd circumstance and it is possible that there is some other meaning behind what the text says. Whatever the case may be, we believe that Adam and Eve, in the state that they were in before the Fall, did not have the knowledge or capacity to reproduce.

Why would God command them to multiply if they were incapable of doing so? Because he fully expected them to eat of the forbidden fruit and experience the Fall. LDS believe that this was part of his eternal plan of salvation from the very beginning. Men and women were supposed to come into the world to be tested, to see if they would be obedient to God’s commandments and thus prove worthy to return to his presence. They could not do this in Eden — in Eden, Adam and Eve were immortal and innocent — they did not know sin. Unless they were forced to leave Eden and the presence of God, they would not experience adversity — the opposition necessary to provide for them choices between good and evil. Outside of Eden, they would have to make these choices between right and wrong, to follow God or Satan. Likewise, their children would be born into a world where these choices were available, which would not be the case if they were born in Eden. By making right choices, we would progress and become more like God — we can experience the triumph over sin that merits enthronement beside the Son and the Father (Rev. 3:21).

However, God knew that we would not always make the right choices, so that is why he provided a Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus was appointed before the Creation of the World to be our Savior, to reverse the effects of the Fall that Adam and Eve would bring upon the world. This was not an afterthought — a quick response by God to redeem the damage that Adam had caused. All went according to the plan that God had established from the beginning.

Sorry for the long answer — to summarize, we acknowledge the fact that God gave the commandment to multiply before the Fall, but believe He knew that they would not be able to comply with that commandment until after the Fall. According to God’s great plan, the children of Adam and Eve needed to be born into a mortal world, not the immortal paradise of Eden.

 The reasons for our belief that Adam and Eve could not have children in the Garden, then, are inextricably tied to our beliefs regarding God’s Plan of Salvation.  All of this is quite well illustrated in 2 Ne. 2:5–30. 

After reading the email that I sent, my friend then wondered why the animals apparently multiplied after receiving that same commandment from God. My simple answer was that we don’t know that they did multiply — the text doesn’t specifically say that they obeyed that command. If they did multiply, that doesn’t necessarily reflect on Adam and Eve’s situation. For more on the topic of procreation before the Fall, see here.

Here are some more insights on these topics from Matthew Roper’s article:

Foreknowledge of God and the necessity for a Savior

Another theme found in the ancient literature on Adam is the teaching that God knew before hand that Adam would fall and in Christian literature, the idea that knowing before-hand of man’s future transgression, God would provide a Savior by which man could be saved. In a Coptic Christian work, the Discourse on the Abbaton, at the creation God sends an angel to retrieve clay from the earth to form man’s body. The earth objects, complaining of the wickedness that will be committed by man if he is created and placed upon the earth.

If thou takest me to Him, He will mould me into a form, and I shall become a man, and a living soul. And very many sins shall come forth from my heart (or, body), and many fornications, ans slanderous abuse, and jealousy, and hatred and contention shall come forth from his hand, and many murders and sheddings of blood shall come forth from his hand…. Let me stay here and go back to the ground and be quiet.23

In spite of the earth’s objections, the angel carries some clay to God for the formation of Adam’s body. After God creates Adam’s body, however, there is a discussion in heaven between the Father and the Son about what to do about man. According to this text

He left him lying for forty days and forty nights without putting breath into him. And he heaved sighs over him daily saying, “If I put breath into this [man], he must suffer many pains.” And I said unto my Father, “Put breath into him; I will be an advocate for him.” And my Father said unto Me, “If I put breath into him, My Beloved Son, Thou wilt be obliged to go down into the world, and to suffer many pains for him before Thou shalt have redeemed him, and made him come back to his primal state.” And I said unto my Father, “Put breath into him; I will be his advocate, and I will go down into the world, and will fulfil thy command.”24

It is clear from this text that God knows before-hand that man will transgress and that it is necessary to appoint an advocate for man, and that Jesus willingly offered to suffer the pains of man’s redemption, even before man was given life.

Adam in the Garden

Recent studies by Michael Stone, W. Lipscomb, Gary Anderson and others have focused on a set of Armenian Christian Adam and Eve texts. These texts were first published in Armenian in 1898 and only in English in the last several decades.25 These texts discuss the events which took place in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. In one of these entitled, Adam and Eve and the Incarnation, the serpent tells Eve, “God was a man like you. When he ate of the fruit of this tree he became God of all”26 In The History of the Creation and Transgression of Adam, the serpent states, “God was like you, because he had not eaten of that fruit, When he ate it, he attained the glory of divinity.” Speaking of devil’s words to Eve, Michael Stone, the editor and translator of the recently published Armenian and Georgian Adam and Eve texts observes, “The formulation in our text says not just that humans will become like God (gods)” but also that “God was himself originally human and became divine through eating the fruit.”27 This variation on the serpent’s words is also found in several later medieval Jewish texts about Adam and Eve.28 In the Transgression of Adam, after Eve partakes of the fruit, Adam asks her, “Why have you eaten the fruit?” Eve responds by saying, “The fruit is very sweet. Take and you taste, and notice the sweetness of this fruit” but Adam refuses, saying, ‘I cannot taste it.” According to this particular account Eve the begins to cry and beg Adam to eat and “do not separate me from you.” After some deliberation (three hours according to one account) Adam reasons, “It is better for me to die than to become separated and detached from this woman.” Then he partakes of the fruit as well.

These and other extra-canonical texts indicate that after the redemption of Christ that Adam would be taken to paradise and that after the resurrection he would be restored to his former inheritance which he had lost at the Fall. The significance here is that Adam’s restoration to his pre-mortal inheritance, where according to these texts he once reigned under God as a king and at God’s specific command was even worshiped by the angels, suggests a return to a state where he could again receive such adoration, a state clearly suggestive of deification. The theme of deification in fact is explicit in the Syriac Testament of Adam. There Adam explains to his son Seth that God would eventually fulfil Adam’s desire for deification. Just before being cast out of the Garden, the Lord tells him, “Adam, Adam, do not fear. You wanted to be a god; I will make you a god, not right now, but after the space of many years.”

For your sake I will taste death and enter into the house of the dead…. And after three days, while I am in the tomb, I will raise up the body I received from you. And I will set you at the right hand of my divinity, and I will make you a god just like you wanted.”*

More details on the exchange between Satan and Eve regarding God’s deification:

Michael Stone, in Armenian Apocrypha relating to Adam and Eve (p. 25), provides us with three manuscript versions (from the Armenian text Adam, Eve, and the Incarnation) of this exhange:

4 The serpent spoke with Eve: ‘(That is) not so! God was a man like you. when he ate of the fruit of this tree he became God of all. Because of that God said to you not to eat, lest you become an equal god, like himself.

4 The serpent said, ‘Because God was a man like you, when he ate of this fruit he became God of all. Because of this matter he said, “Do not eat!” Lest you become god.’

4 But the serpent said. ‘(That is) not so! Bec cause God himself was a man like you when he ate of it, and he became God of all. Because of that he said not to eat of that, because you knew that when you eat of it, you will become a god, his equal. Because of that he said for you not to eat.’

From the similar text in The Cycle of Four Weeks: Transgression, 16-17:

The serpent said, ‘God wants to deceive you. For God was like you, because he had not eaten the fruit. When he ate it he achieved the glory of Divinity. For this reason he said to you not to eat of that fruit, so that you should (not) become equal, sharers both of God’s glory and his throne.’

Some thoughts on the “nakedness” of Adam and Eve after their transgression, from Jeff Bradshaw’s In God’s Image and Likeness (2010, pp. 234-237):

The Nakedness and the Clothing of Adam and Eve

Moses’ account depicts Adam and Eve as naked and without shame in the Garden,”’– and clothed by God in coats of skin only later, after the Fall.”` However, many of the earliest artistic depictions of the story show a surprising reversal of the situation, portraying Adam and Eve clothed in regal glory within Eden, and naked after their expulsion.124 How can this be?

Recalling the parallels between the Garden of Eden and Israelite Houses of God, Anderson points out that “the vestments of the priest matched exactly those particular areas of the Temple to which he had access… Each time the high priest moved from one gradient of holiness to another, he had to remove one set of clothes and put on another to mark the change”:125′

(a) Outside the Tabernacle priests wear ordinary clothes. (b) When on duty in the Tabernacle, they wear four pieces of clothing whose material and quality of workmanship match that of the fabrics found on the outer walls of the courtyard.’126 (c) The High Priest wears those four pieces plus four additional ones-these added garments match the fabric of the Holy Chamber where he must go daily to tend the incense altar.

In Eden a similar set of vestments is found, again each set suited to its particular space. (a) Adam and Eve were, at creation, vested like priests and granted access to most of Eden. (b) Had they been found worthy, an even more glorious set of garments would have been theirs (and according to St. Ephrem, they would have entered even holier ground). (c) But having [transgressed], they were stripped of their angelic garments and put on mortal flesh. Thus, when their feet met ordinary earth-the realm of the animals-their constitution had become “fleshly;’ or mortal.’127

Consistent with this schema, each stage in the sequence of changes in Adam and Eve’s status in the book of Moses is marked by a change in their appearance.128 The imagery of clothing is “a means of linking together in a dynamic fashion the whole of salvation history; it is a means of indicating the interrelatedness between every stage in this continuing working out of divine Providence;” including “the place of each individual Christian^‘s [ordinances1²⁹] within the divine economy as a whole.”¹³⁰ Note the chiastic structure of the sequence, which begins and ends in glory:¹³¹

1. From glory to nakedness.¹³² Though “naked” because their knowledge of their premortal state had been taken away by a veil of forgetfulness,¹³³ Adam and Eve had come to Eden nonetheless ^“trailing clouds of glory.”‘” While the couple, as yet, were free from transgression, they could stand ^“naked^“ in God^‘s presence without shame,¹³⁵ being ^“clothed with purity’ in what early commentators called ^“garments of light^“137‘ or ^“garments of contentment.^“138 In one source, Eve describes her appearance by saying: “I was decked out like a bride, And I reclined in a wedding-chamber of light”¹³⁹

In the context of rituals and ordinances based on the experiences of Adam and Eve, Nibley ex­plained: ^“The garment [of light] represents the preexistent glory of the candidate… When he leaves on his earthly mission, it is laid up for him in heaven to await his return. It thus serves as security and lends urgency and weight to the need for following righteous ways on earth. For if one fails here, one loses not only one^‘s glorious future in the eternities to come, but also the whole accumulation of past deeds and accomplishments in the long ages of preexistence.’

1. From innocence to transgression.’”‘ Rabbinical tradition taught that, following his transgression, “Adam… lost his [heavenly] clothing-God stripped it off him.. “¹⁴² and similarly that Eve ^“was stripped of the righteousness in which [she] had been clothed..”143 Likewise, the Discourse on Abbaton records that both Adam and Eve ^“became naked” upon eating the forbidden fruit.¹⁴⁴ According to the Life of Adam and Eve, God then ^“sent seventy plagues upon us, to our eyes, and to our ears and as far as our feet, plagues and portents laid up in his treasuries.^“145 Anderson takes this to mean that “Adam has exchanged an angelic constitution for a mortal one,” in other words that he has been “clothed with flesh”¹⁴⁶ Shamed by their loss of glory, Adam and Eve covered their earthly bodies with fig leaf aprons.¹⁴⁷

Rabbinical writings describe how, in likeness of Adam and Eve, each soul descending to earth ^“divests itself of its heavenly garment, and is clothed in a garment of flesh and blood; ¹⁴⁸ the prior glory being, as it were, “veiled… in flesh”149 The various “afflictions” of mortality initially giv¬en to Adam and now bestowed upon “all… generations”150 frequently number seven rather than the seventy mentioned above: “They are against the ‘seven natures: the flesh for hearing, the eyes for seeing, the breath to smell, the veins to touch, the blood for taste, and bones for endurance, and the intelligence for joy’;151 or against life, sight, hearing, smell, speech, taste, procreation”‘” Though Adam and Eve were protected from fatal harm at the time of extremity, ancient texts recount that Satan had been allowed to hurt them, and the “wounds;” foreshad-owing the later wounds received by Christ at His crucifixion,153 “remained on their bodies””4 Nibley sees the wounds of nature and of Satan to various parts_ of the body as figuratively corresponding to the “blows of death” taught by Satan to Cain.’” He describes their enact¬ment in Jewish ritual as follows: “The wages of sin is death, and the dead body is chided at an old-fashioned Jewish funeral because its members no longer function, and each one is struck an impatient and accusing blow. This is the chibut ha-keber. `On the third day the departed is treated with increased rigor. Blows are struck on his eyes because he would not see, on his ears because he would not hear, on his lips because they uttered profanities, on his tongue because it bore false testimony against his neighbor, on his feet because they ran toward evil doing”’156

Again, I am sorry for the poor formatting and organization of this post — I was trying to get in as much information as I could in the very little time I had to prepare this. Of course there is so much more that could be said of these rich passages from the Book of Moses, but hopefully some of this will be helpful.  I will try to make my next post more organized and aesthetically pleasing.

I think it would be fun and exciting to study and share some thoughts on these Old Testament lessons.  I assume this will be somewhat time-consuming and I won’t promise to post something in-depth every week, nor can I promise to keep up with the curriculum for the whole year, but I think I will give it a try (does it sound like I’m afraid to commit myself?).

Unfortunately, for this week’s lesson (I believe it’s lesson 3: The Creation, covering Moses 1:27–42; 2; 3), I haven’t had much time to prepare anything, so I will just share a few good internet links that I hope will be helpful to you in your study of this lesson.

The following are from the LDS-themed online magazine Meridian:

The Creation and the Garden of Eden as Models for Temple Architecture — by Dr. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (who I’m sure readers of this blog are well familiar with, by now)

Lesson 3 — pretty self-explanatory, by Scot Proctor

The Vision of Moses as a Heavenly Ascent — by Dr. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

The Book of Moses: The Most Surprising and Neglected Scripture — also by Dr. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (this guy is good!)

In the future, I will make efforts to post some of my own thoughts on these lessons, and continue to provide links that I hope will be useful for your personal study and enrichment.