NEW! — The Temple: Seership, Craftsmanship and Fellowship — Temple on Mount Zion Volume 8

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH INTERPRETER FOUNDATION, MATTHEW B. BROWN MEMORIAL CONFERENCE “THE TEMPLE ON MOUNT ZION”
SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

This is the eighth volume of the Temple on Mount Zion series published by The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books. The purpose of the series is to increase understanding and appreciation of temple rituals and doctrines, and to encourage participation in the redeeming work of family history and temple worship.

“The ancient Hebrews did not believe that the temple concept originated in the time of Moses. Rather, they taught that temple rituals and doctrines originated with Adam and were handed down among the biblical patriarchs. This is precisely what the Prophet Joseph Smith tried to teach the world during the early 1800s, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is eternal and has been on the earth since the beginning.”
—Matthew B. Brown, The Gate of Heaven, p. 44.

The temple is central to Latter-day Saint worship. Through modern revelation Joseph Smith restored the ancient tradition of temples and the ordinances performed therein. Studies of ancient temples can shed much light on latter-day temples and temple worship.

Several years ago Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Brown planned a conference entitled The Temple on Mount Zion and began to invite participants. Matthew Brown loved the temple and temple worship and studied and published on ancient and modern temples. His interests and knowledge were vast. When Matthew passed away very unexpectedly in 2011, his friends decided to organize a series of conferences in his memory. This volume, the eighth in the series, contains proceedings from the seventh memorial conference held September 28, 2024, and reflects many of the topics that Matthew loved, centered on the theme of the temple: seership, craftsmanship, and fellowship.

The purpose of the book series is to increase understanding and appreciation of temple rituals and doctrines, and to encourage participation in the redeeming work of family history and temple worship.

Stephen D. Ricks is Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Learning at Brigham Young University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1981. He has published extensively on the ancient temple. He and his wife, Shirley, have attended more than 130 operating temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). His religious writings have focused on the Book of Moses, Genesis, and temples in the ancient Near East. He is a vice president of the Interpreter Foundation.

Cover layout design by Bjorn Pendleton based on a design by Bryce Haymond.

3D re-creation of Herod’s Temple. Courtesy of Scripture Central and BYU Virtual Scriptures.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments …………………………………. vii

SEERSHIP

Proleptic Exaltation: Joseph Smith’s First Vision as Seer Initiation and Ritual Endowment
Donald Patrick Bradley Sr. …………………………………. 1

Abraham on the Bishop’s Throne: Egyptian Christianity and the Book of Abraham
David Calabro …………………………………. 23

Oracles against the Nations and Prophetic Imitation of Temple Liturgy
John S. Thompson …………………………………. 47

The Book of Revelation, the Temple, and the Bridegroom
Breck England …………………………………. 63

CRAFTSMANSHIP

From Plural Marriage to Exaltation: The Dynamics and Depth of Literary Craftsmanship in Doctrine and Covenants 132
Steven L. Olsen …………………………………. 77

Re-Creating the Most Detailed and Accurate 3D Model of Herod’s Temple
I. Daniel Smith …………………………………. 115

FELLOWSHIP

The Abrahamic Covenant, Then and Now
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw …………………………………. 132

Joy in the Harvest: Temple Language, Metaphors, and Allusions in Ammon’s Speech (Alma 26)
Matthew L. Bowen …………………………………. 279

The Right Hand as a Symbol of Covenantal Faithfulness in Ancient Mediterranean Temple Contexts
Brent J. Schmidt …………………………………. 347

“God Hath Shown unto Me a Vision”: The Sacred Handclasp and the Resurrection of the Dead
Spencer Kraus …………………………………. 369

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