The Mormon Monk

A few weeks ago, while I was in Boston for a conference, Daddy Monk--who's a sealer in the Boston Temple--asked me whether I knew of any connection between the temple and the tree of life. He was interested, at least in part, because the Boston Temple is decorated on the interior with a tree of life motif; all of the woodwork represents that theme. I didn't have my sources with me on my trip, but since I'm home and since today is Father's Day, now seems like an appropriate time to answer his question. I love you Daddy Monk! Temples and the Tree of Life The first point that needs to be made is that temples have always been thought of as a representation of the garden of Eden. As Lawrence Stager explains, "the Temple of Solomon--indeed, the Temple Mount and all Jerusalem--was a symbol as well as a reality, a mythopoeic realization of heaven on earth, Paradise, the Garden of Eden" ( BAR 26:03 ). The apocryphal Book of Jubilees also bears testament to the truth...

A week or so ago I had occasion to teach my students about an amazing conversion experience. We read the account of a relatively young person who was quite anxious about the state of his soul. In the midst of this anxiety, he began praying, but was overcome by darkness and pain during an attack by Satan. Eventually, however, the skies seemed to open, revealing her Savior behind the dark clouds that had obscured him. Wait, what’s that you say? You think I’m talking about Joseph Smith? Oh, right—you were probably remembering this account in Smith’s History : “. . . amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. . . . I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I ...

Stop what you're doing. Go read THIS really important statement  just released by the Church. Now that you're back, let me note that the position advocated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, I would argue, substantially the same position that I articulated a few months ago  with one important difference: while the Church supports policies that would allow illegal immigrants to remain within the country permanently, it is not necessarily committed to providing a path to citizenship (which is how I had interpreted its earlier, more vague statement regarding the Utah Compact --and, I should note, this still seems the prevailing sentiment, even if the Church is willing to compromise on it). The bottom line--and I'm talking to you, Publius Sakharov--is that "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned that any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating ea...

In his talk at Ohio State University ’s conference on “The King James Bible and Its Cultural Afterlife,” David Richter  pointed out several glaring inaccuries in the KJV translation . However, the more interesting aspect of his presentation—at least to me—was his work detailing the Hebrew word play lost in this (and, frankly, every other) English translation. The trouble with translating Hebrew is that the language has a VERY limited vocabulary. Because there are so few Hebrew lexemes, every word carries multiple significations; the language uses variations of the same word to represent many different ideas. For this reason, reading Hebrew is more an art of interpretation than a science of translation/substitution. (Incidentally, during the conference one speaker pointed out that the ambiguity of Hebrew is so significant that some scholars wonder whether it was originally intended to be a spoken language. Can you imagine listening to someone speak and wondering which of five ...

The story of David and Jonathan--their friendship and loyalty in the face of danger and almost certain death has inspired men and women for millennia. A seventeenth-century poet and distant ancestor of mine, Anne Bradstreet, commemorated their love and mutual respect in these words, spoken by David: "O lovely Jonathan! how wast thou slain? In places high, full low thou didst remain Distrest for thee I am, dear Jonathan, Thy love was wonderfull, surpassing man, Exceeding all the love that's Feminine, So pleasant hast thou been, dear brother mine." Recently, I learned of another prominent early American figure who idealized the friendship between David and Jonathan, calling on that bond as a way to sanctify one of his own friendships. When John Adams was studying law under the tutelage of Colonel James Putnam, he met another young lawyer named Jonathan Sewall. As lawyers Adams and Sewall rode the Massachusetts circuit together, traveling with a judge from one small town t...

In chapter forty-five, Isaiah develops and extends the temple imagery he introduced in chapter forty-four ; the chapter division is a modern imposition on a seamless section of text. After rebuking Israel for corrupting the temple ordinances the Lord promises that Cyrus, a future king of Babylon, will help Israel to rebuild the temple (44:28), introducing this unborn leader as a type of all temple worshippers: “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden [. . .] I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places [. . . for] I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee [. . . and] I girded thee” (45:1-5) Cyrus has been anointed and clothed, as Aaron and his sons were anointed and clothed preparatory to entering the temple , and he has received a new name signifying his entrance into covenants with the Lord, as Abraham and Sarah received new names (Genesis 17:5-7, 15). After describing Cyrus’s entry into the temp...

At Ohio State University ’s recent conference on “The King James Bible and Its Cultural Afterlife,” David Richter gave a fantastic paper on “Misleading Moments in the KJV” that helped to clarify several potentially confounding passages in Genesis. Jacob’s deception of Isaac (with Rebekah’s help!), when he steals Esau’s blessing, has always troubled me, but before Richter’s talk I had never noticed before that, according to the King James Version, Esau really doesn’t have cause to be upset. You’ll remember that when, after Jacob has tricked Isaac into thinking that he’s Esau by covering his arms in goat’s hair and cooking him some goat meat, Esau returns to the house he begs Isaac for another blessing: “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father” (Genesis 27:38). Isaac does bless him, and Esau’s blessing is, at least in the KJV, substantially the same as Jacob’s. In Jacob’s blessing, Isaac pronounces, “God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fa...