Presence of God

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Sacred Space

May 2, 2010 in Uncategorized by Greg | 1 comment

In a recent video, David Larsen of Heavenly Ascents and David Tayman from Visions of the Kingdom, present a view of sacred space that was common among ancient temples. This is the first in a series of videos that seek to explore the nature, function, doctrine and ritual within these temples.

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Donald W. Parry discussed the difference between sacred and profane space. Sacred space is intimately connected with temple space, while profane space is chaos and means space that is outside the sanctuary or common. In “Demarcation between Sacred Space and Profane Space: The Temple of Herod Model” he wrote the following:

Sacred space is intimately connected with temple space—they are often one and the same. The very meaning of the term temple in the Hebrew language demonstrates this idea. In the Hebrew Bible1 one of the principal roots from which the English words sanctuary and temple originate is *QDS, which has the basic meaning of “separation” or “withdrawal” of sacred entities from profane things.2 Specifically, the Qal verbal form of *QDS denotes something that is “holy” or “withheld from profane use.” The Niphal form of the same root refers to showing or proving “oneself holy.” The Piel verbal form speaks of placing a thing or person “into the state of holiness” or declaring something holy. In the Hiphil verbal form, the root letters *QDS have reference to the dedication or sanctification of a person or thing to sacredness.3 In all instances, the meaning of the Hebrew root *QDS pertains to separation from the profane.

Definition of Profane Space: Sacred and profane are not conterminous but represent “two antithetical entities.”4 Sacred space is temple space, and profane space is chaos. However, as mentioned above, we can appreciate sacred space fully only when we understand its relationship to the profane. The Latin word profanum (English “profane”) literally means “before” or “outside” the temple, formed from pro (meaning “outside”) and fanum (meaning “temple”).5 The equivalent Hebrew word is hôl, which, according to Marcus Jastrow, has the meaning of “outside of the sanctuary, foreign, profane, common.”6 If the temple is the consecrated place created “by marking it out, by cutting it off from the profane space around it,”7 then the profane space represents unconsecrated space, the peripheral area that remains after the sacred has been removed… The Jews that belonged to the Second Temple period were well aware that sacred space was set amidst profane space.8

Sacred space is demarcated in a variety of ways. For example,

The enclosure, wall, or circle of stones surrounding a sacred place – these are among the most ancient of known forms of man-made sanctuary. They existed as early as the early Indus civilization (at Mohenjo-Daro, for instance, cf. § 97) and the Ægean civilization. The enclosure does not only imply and indeed signify the continued presence of a kratophany or hierophany within its bounds; it also serves the purpose of preserving profane man from the danger to which he would expose himself by entering it without due care. The sacred is always dangerous to anyone who comes into contact with it unprepared, without having gone through the “gestures of approach” that every religious act demands. “Come not nigh higher,” said the Lord to Moses, “put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”9 Hence the innumerable rites and prescriptions (bare feet, and so on) relative to entering the temple, of which we have plentiful evidence among the Semites and other Mediterranean peoples. The ritual importance of the thresholds of temple and house is also due to this same separating function of limits, though it may have taken on varying interpretations and values over the course of time.

The same is the case with city walls: long before they were military erections, they were a magic defence, for they marked out from the midst of  a “chaotic” space, peopled with demons and phantoms (see further on), an enclosure, a place that was organized, made cosmic, in other words, provided with a “centre”.10

Carrying on the temple motif, Margaret Barker began her seminal paper “Fragrance in the Making of Sacred Space – Jewish Temple Paradigms of Christian Worship” by stating:

Sacred Space Gold, frankincense and myrrh were the gifts brought to Jesus by the wise men. They were also the three symbols of worship in the original temple. The vessels and furnishings of the temple were made of gold; frankincense and myrrh were the main ingredients of the two perfumes used in the holy of holies. The specially blended incense – known as the incense of spices [qtrt smym]- was  based on frankincense, and the specially blended anointing oil [smn msht qds] was perfumed mainly with myrrh. . . .

A simple incense of pure frankincense was used in the outer part of the temple, set with the shewbread (Leviticus 24.7). The blended incense, however, was only used in the holy of holies (Exodus 31.11). Since the holy of holies was the place of the presence of God, the blended incense must have been associated with the presence of God. In fact, both the perfumed oil and the incense were entrusted only to the high priests (Numbers 4.16). The blended incense was ‘most holy’ (Exodus 30.36), which means that it imparted holiness. Anything touched by the incense became holy, consecrated.

The high priest took the blended incense into the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement, and the smoke from the incense covered the mercy seat above the ark. It was there, in the cloud of incense, that the Lord appeared to the high priest. The perfume of the incense summoned the presence of the Lord, and presumably that is why it was not to be used for other purposes.11

Sacred places are often characterized by sacrifice. In fact, the word sacrifice means literally “to make sacred” or “to render sacred.” Dennis B. Neuenschwander taught:

The words sacred and sacrifice come from the same root. One may not have the sacred without first sacrificing something for it. There can be no sacredness without personal sacrifice. Sacrifice sanctifies the sacred.12

Under this expanded definition, whole nations, cities, temples, sanctuaries, churches and even homes can become sacred space. Perhaps that is what Zechariah had in mind when he wrote:

In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 14:20-21.)

Please leave your comments at New Article on Sacred and Profane Space.

Sources:

  1. See Yehoshua M. Grintz, “Bet ha-Miqdas” (in Hebrew), Encyclopedia Hebraica, ed. B. Natanyahu, 20 vols. (Jerusalem: Encyclopaedia Printing, 1957), 8:555, where the different names of the temple as they appear in the Hebrew Bible are listed: bet Yhwh, bet E’lôhîm, hekal qôdes (Jonah 2:5[4]); hekal Yhwh (2 Kings 24:13); and miqdas. The usual name in the Mishnah and related literature, i.e., the Tosephta, is Bet ha-Miqdas. Of this name the encyclopedia states, “this name is found only one time in the Bible” (555). The Targum of Jeremiah calls the temple the “house of the Shekinah” (2:7; 3:17; 7:15; 14:10; 15:1).↩
  2. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1977), 871.↩
  3. See Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, eds., Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (Leiden: Brill, 1953), 825-26.↩
  4. Davies, “Architecture,” 1:384.↩
  5. Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 372.↩
  6. Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature (New York: Judaica, 1975), 433.↩
  7. Mircea Eliade, Patterns of Comparative Religion (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1958), 368; hereafter Patterns.↩
  8. Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994. 416-417.↩
  9. Exodus 3:5.↩
  10. Patterns. 370-371.↩
  11. This paper was read at the conference on Sacred Spaces convened by the Research Centre for Eastern Christian Culture, Moscow, 2004.↩
  12. “Holy Place, Sacred Space”. May 2003. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2 May 2010.↩

Gift of the Holy Ghost a Higher Endowment

August 22, 2009 in Holy Ghost by Greg | 2 comments

In 1902, the First Presidency responded to a question about the Holy Ghost, specifically, when did the apostles in the New Testament receive this sacred gift? The following is their reply:

The following inquiry has been received from an elder residing in Tooele County, with the request for a reply:

“There is a dispute here among the brethren as to when the Holy Ghost was received; was it at, or before the day of Pentecost?”

Pentecost by Jean II Restout The answer to this question depends on what is meant by “receiving” the Holy Ghost. If reference is made to the promise of Jesus to His apostles about the endowment or gift of the Holy Ghost by the presence and ministration of the “personage of spirit,” called the Holy Ghost by revelation in Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 130, verse 22, then the answer is, it was not until the day of Pentecost that the promise was fulfilled. But the Divine essence, called the Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost by which God created or organized all things, and by which the prophets wrote and spoke, was bestowed in former ages and inspired the apostles in their ministry long before the days of Pentecost. The words “Ghost and Spirit” are often used synonymously, and this causes some confusion, when the difference between the “personage of spirit” and the spirit “poured out from on high” is not taken into consideration. There is a universally diffused essence which is the light and life of the world, which proceedeth forth from the presence of God throughout the immensity of space, the light and power of which God bestows in different degrees to “them that ask him,” according to their faith and obedience, but the Holy Ghost, which Christ said He would send to His apostles from the Father (John 14:26) was and is a “personage of spirit,” and was not to come until Christ went away (John 16:7). Also the endowment from that divine being, the third person in the Holy Trinity, called “the gift of the Holy Ghost,” is a special blessing sealed upon baptized repentant believers in Jesus Christ, and is “an abiding witness.” The spirit of God may be enjoyed as a temporary influence by which divine light and power come to mankind for special purposes and occasions. But the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was received by the apostles on the day of Pentecost, and is bestowed in confirmation, is a permanent witness and higher endowment than the ordinary manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

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Holy Order in the Book of Mormon

August 20, 2009 in Priesthood by Greg | No comments

The Book of Mormon contains a number of references to the holy order – or the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God -1, many of which are found in the book of Alma. In “The Holy Order of God”, Robert L. Millet wrote:

Priest entering the Holy of Holies To the wayward people of Ammonihah, Amulek had delivered a poignant testimony of Christ as God, had borne witness of the necessity of repentance, and had held out the hope of redemption from sin and death through the merits and mercy of the coming Messiah (see Alma 11:26-46). Alma then delivered a companion and confirming witness of the reality of the Savior and the manner in which men and women can, through faith, pass from death unto eternal life. “Therefore,” he said, quoting the Lord to the ancients, “whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.” Alma then pleaded: “And now, my brethren, seeing we know these things, and they are true, let us repent, and harden not our hearts, . . . but let us enter into the rest of God, which is prepared according to his word” (Alma 12:34, 37). It is in the context of Alma’s discussion of how the Saints can, through applying the atoning blood of Christ, enter into the rest of God, that Alma begins a discussion of the holy order of God. His discussion is a deep and ponderous and insightful prophetic declaration as to how, through the blessings of the priesthood—those called and prepared from the foundation of the world—the people of God may be sanctified from sin and enjoy the “words of eternal life” in this mortal sphere, all in preparation for eternal life with God and holy beings hereafter (see Moses 6:59).2

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  1. See D&C 107:3; for a more thorough review of the priesthood and its orders, see Ellsworth, Richard G. “Priesthood”. 1992. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. 2009.↩
  2. Millet, Robert L. “The Holy Order of God”. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds. Alma, The Testimony of the Word. Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1992. 61-86.↩

Hebrews – To Ascend the Holy Mount

December 30, 2008 in Temple by Greg | 3 comments

Hebrews – To Ascend the Holy Mount is an extract of a chapter from Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism.1 This past weekend, Carrie and I had the opportunity to meet with a small group of people to renew friendships and remind us of the ties that bind people together. As I reflected upon that experience, I was reminded of this testimony:

Mount Sinai Hebrews is, to use Paul’s2 words, “strong meat” (Hebrews 5:14). Paul wants to preach strong meat, but he addresses members who will not digest it (see Hebrews 5:12). Nevertheless, he broaches doctrines that deal with the upper reaches of spiritual experience and Melchizedek Priesthood temple ordinances. My purpose will be to identify several passages that have relevance to temple ordinances. Paul’s letter might be divided into two main ideas: the promise of the temple and the price exacted to obtain the promise. At several points I will add the Prophet Joseph Smith’s commentary, without which much of the temple significance of the apostle’s remarks in Hebrews would elude us.

The Promise

Paul urges the Hebrews, “Let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance…and of faith” (Hebrews 6:1–2; italics added). They had tarried too long in the foothills of spiritual experience. Having “tasted of the heavenly gift, …the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come” (Hebrews 6:4–6), they could no longer delay resuming the climb lest they lose the promise. Paul warns, “Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit [or, are inheriting] the promises” (Hebrews 6:12).

The promise that Paul refers to repeatedly is that same promise explained in Doctrine and Covenants 88:68–69: “Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will. Remember the great and last promise which I have made unto you” (italics added). Paul uses several different terms in Hebrews for the experiences associated with this promise: for example, obtaining a good report (11:39), entering into the Lord’s rest (4:3, 10), going on to perfection (6:1), entering into the holiest (10:19), being made a high priest forever (7:17), knowing the Lord (8:11; D&C 84:98), pleasing God (Hebrews 11:5), obtaining a witness of being righteous (11:4), and having the law written in the heart (8:10; 10:16; Jeremiah 31:31–34). He speaks of boldly pursuing the fulfillment of the promise: Grasp, he says, the hope that is set before you, which enters behind the veil, where Jesus, as a forerunner, has already entered (see Hebrews 6:18–20, NIV).

Paul compares these Israelites to their ancestors of twelve hundred years earlier. He refers to the early Israelites’ rejection of God’s invitation to enter into his rest as the “provocation”; that is, Israel provoked God by refusing to enter his presence. Paul quotes from Psalm 95:8–11: “Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said…they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest” (Hebrews 3:8–11; italics added).

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  1. Thomas, M. Catherine. Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994. Please be aware I have omitted one or two footnotes and have inserted links where appropriate – Ed.↩
  2. The basic premise in this paper is that the apostle Paul is the author of Hebrews, a fact that the Prophet Joseph Smith acknowledged on several occasions.↩

Brother of Jared at the Veil

December 28, 2008 in Temple by Greg | 18 comments

The Brother of Jared at the Veil is an extract of a chapter from the Selected Writings of M. Catherine Thomas. The story of the brother of Jared is found in the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Dr. Thomas begins the story this way:

The temple is the narrow channel through which one must pass to reenter the Lord’s presence. A mighty power pulls us through that channel, and it is the sealing power of the at-one-ment of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior’s at-one-ment is another word for the sealing power. By the power of the at-one-ment, the Lord draws and seals his children to himself in the holy temples.

In scripture we can study how the ancient great ones were drawn through that narrow channel to find their heart’s desire: we find, for example, Adam, cast out, bereft of his Lord’s presence, searching relentlessly in the lonely world until he finds the keys to that passage to the Lord. Abraham searches for his priesthood privileges (see Abraham 1:1) and after a diligent quest exclaims, “Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee” (Abraham 2:12). Moses on Horeb, Lehi at the tree, Nephi on the mountain top—all these men conducted that search which is outlined and empowered in the temple endowment, gradually increasing the hold, the seal, between themselves and their Lord.

This was the very search for which they were put on earth: to rend the veil of unbelief, to yield to the pull of the Savior’s sealing power, to stand in the Lord’s presence, encircled about in the arms of his love (see D&C 6:20; 2 Nephi 1:15). This then is the temple endowment: having been cast out, to search diligently according to the revealed path, and at last to be clasped in the arms of Jesus (see Mormon 5:11).

In particular, I wish to focus briefly on some of the temple elements in the experience of the brother of Jared: (1) the tower of Babel, (2) his period of probation, (3) his experience at the cloud-veil, and (4) some observations on faith and knowledge as revealed in the brother of Jared’s search for the heavenly gift. One can see that these four elements follow a temple pattern: a false religion is offered; a period of probation or trial of faith is provided; and upon obedience, light and knowledge are granted.1

Following “the brother of Jared’s rejection of the spiritual chaos at the tower of Babel” and the “successful navigation of . . . tests”, these experiences “brought the brother of Jared to the need for more light and thus to the mount Shelem” (see Ether 2 & 3). She continues:

The word shelem has three main Hebrew consonants forming a root word that spans a wide spectrum of meanings: peace, tranquility, contentment, safety, completeness, being sound, finished, full, or perfect. Shelem (and shalom) signify peace with God, especially in the covenant relationship. It also connotes submission to God, which we see in the Arabic words muslim and islam. In particular, shelem has reference to the peace offering of the law of sacrifice, which corresponds to the seeking of fellowship with God,2 and thereby has a relationship to the meanings of the at-one-ment; that is, shelem, fellowship, sealing, and at-one-ment have an obvious relationship. When the brother of Jared carried the stones in his hands to the top of the mount, whether or not a temple peace offering is implied, he sought a closer fellowship or at-one-ment with the Lord. Therefore, the mount is called shelem because of its exceeding height (see Ether 3:1), not because shelem means great height, but rather that it suggests a place that is suitably high for temple activity.

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  1. Thomas, M. Catherine. Selected Writings of M. Catherine Thomas. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000. 388-397.↩
  2. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, Charles A. Briggs. The New Brown, Driver, and Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1907. 1022-24; also LDS Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Sacrifices,” 767.↩

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