Boldness to Enter

"Holiest" is again a bad translation here.  Hebrews says ten eisodon ton hagion, which is better rendered "the saints' [holy ones, angels] road leading in."

Hebrews connects the Day of Atonement and the Worship of the Shalems repeatedly.  The authors sees the Worship of the Shalems, identification as "perfection" or the "road of the holy ones," made efficacious or possible or meaningful by the one-time sacrifice of Christ, foretold in the yearly Day of Atonement rite.

One Sacrifice for Sins for Ever

Christ is the Day of Atonement sacrifice.  It is his once-for-all-time act that makes possible the process of becoming perfect.

The Blood of Bulls and of Goats

A bull and two goats are some of the Day of Atonement sacrifices recorded in Leviticus.  Hebrews then quotes several verses from Psalm 40, suggesting that the context for that Psalm is the Day of Atonement.

There Is a Remembrance

The Day of Atonement is a remembrance.  This is key, and a plain statement, because other passages connect the ideas of remembrance, the dressing of the high priest, and the incarnation of the Lord.  See, for instance: Leviticus, Luke, Exodus, and Matthew.

The Patterns of Things in the Heavens

The Day of Atonement rite pre-enacted Christ's once-for-all self-sacrifice.  The temple is heaven on earth, containing the presence of God.

Men die and face their judgment: this is the dressing and judgment at the veil within the temple.

Having made his sacrifice, Christ will now come spotless with salvation: this is the high priest-the Lord emerging from the temple on the Day of Atonement.

Neither by the Blood of Goats and Calves

Christ comes as the high priest and also the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement.  His coming is an element common to the Day of Atonement and the Worship of the Shalems, and it is that coming that gives both ordinances their power -- until then, they are just forms and figures, parables.

Every High Priest Taken From Among Men

This verse needs unpacking.  First, if he's taken from among men, that means he ceases to be a man -- he is now divine.  Second, the Greek says he's "ordained [appointed, placed] above men."  This is explicit temple imagery, the image of a man ascending to sit on God's throne in the Holy of Holies.  Third, from there he does two things: he brings gifts (the feast of bread and wine and the clothing of the Worship of the Shalems) and he makes sacrifice for sin (the Day of Atonement).

At Sundry Times and in Divers Manners

Hebrews starts with a distinction between God and the Son, and both are identified by their temple roles.  God speaks, as the unseen person behind the veil, in the Debir, which means "place of speech."  The Son is seen because he is the "image," he is the Word, and, as a Melchizedek priest, he acts in "power."  After purging our sins, the Son returns to the Debir to sit on the right hand of the Majesty.  The purging of sins may allude to the sacrifice of the Lord's goat (sheep) on the Day of Atonement, or the Shalem Feast of bread and wine, which are counterparts to each other in the counterpart ordinances.

Dwelt in Tents

Because they dwelt in tents, Abraham could say of his people "eternity was our covering and our rock and our salvation."  The rock and the salvation are the Worship of the Shalems and the Day of Atonement.  "Covering" is one way to understand the Hebrew root underlying the word we translate as "atone," "atonement."  "Eternity" is 'olam, the world, the cosmos, that which endures forever with God.

All this because they dwelt in tents.  What kinds of tents were these?  Were they the tents of the people of Shum?

Christmas, the Temple Holiday

Christmas as a Temple Holiday

Review

Three rooms of the temple.  Incense altar, veil, strait and narrow gate, tree-lamp, table of bread, the rock, throne-chariot of God.  Worship of the Shalems is entry (Matthew 5-7, Genesis 14, Exodus 24, Psalms 23, Isaiah 40), covenant making, instruction in prayer and fasting, being led forward by a priest, the Lord-Melchizedek descends, feast of bread and wine followed by the song of JOY (1 Nephi 8:12, Job 38:7, Isaiah 12), worshipper is dressed by the Lord, meeting the Lord at the veil, entry into the Holy of Holies.  “PEACE” or “WORSHIP OF THE PEACEABLE ONES” is the name of the ordinance (Leviticus 7:11), and the Prince of Peace is the Lord who descends to officiate at the feast and dressing (Isaiah 9:6, Alma 13:18, Abraham 1:2).  Holy of Holies is a place of vision (1 Nephi 1, 1 Nephi 8, Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1-2, Daniel 7, John 1 “come and see”). 

The New Testament Nativity narratives are full of the images of this temple worship.

Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12)

Temple door faces east.  To come FROM THE EAST is to enter into the temple and ascend within it.  Stars and angels are both priests within the temple.  To FOLLOW A STAR is to be led within the temple by a priest (this is the scene of John 1, where John the Baptist leads his disciples forward and introduces Christ).  Magoi are themselves priests of some kind, in particular Persian astrologer-priests who interpret dreams.  The dream-interpreter and temple visionary Daniel was in charge of Babyon’s Magoi (Daniel 2:48).  GOLD covered all the temple furnishings, and the entire Holy of Holies (1 Kings 7); FRANKINCENSE topped the shewbread (Leviticus 24); MYRRH is in the anointing oil (Exodus 30).  The Lord who descended was THE KING (Melchizedek = king of righteousness) who was WORSHIPPED.  In 1 Kings 7, the rooms of the temple are “houses” – in the HOUSE, they FELL DOWN (compare with 1 Nephi 8:30).  BETHLEHEM = house of bread, and the second room of the temple was where worshippers ate the bread of the Lord.  The wise men experience JOY.  A DREAM (vision) warns them.

Shepherds (Luke 2:4-20)

BETHLEHEM again.  Mother DRESSES Jesus; “swaddling” clothes don’t necessarily mean “baby” clothes, they just mean loose clothes you wrap around someone (compare Job 38:9).  Jesus is laid in a phatne, which can mean a “stall,” but is also a “feed trough” (Isaiah 1:3 “crib”) – Jesus is dressed and that makes him FOOD (compare Isaiah 4:1, where the woman provides bread and clothing so that the man can be someone whose name can be taken by others).  SHEPHERDS are also priests (Psalms 23), and so are ANGELS.  These shepherds are faithfully watching their flock, so the shepherds in the field are faithful temple priests being taught by another priest within the temple, priests who waited for the Lord recognizing his arrival (story is the same as Matthew 2 and also John 1).  The babe is a SIGN (semeion), just like the Virgin and her children would be signs (semeia; Isaiah 8:18).  Angel-stars (and shepherds) SING in the temple (Isaiah 6:3, 1 Nephi 1:8-10), which is JOY, the song of the Lord’s coming (Isaiah 12).  PEACE on earth is the arrival of the Peaceable King, the Prince of Peace (Genesis 14, Isaiah 9). 

The folklore and practices of Christmas are also saturated with half-remembered temple images.

Extra-Scriptural Christmas Traditions

TREE OF LIGHT is the temple tree (Exodus 25, 1 Nephi 8).  CANDY CANES are the rod/staff of the Melchizedek priest (Psalms 23, 110, 1 Nephi 8).  GIFTS are the gifts of the magi, gifts brought to the altar (Matthew 5 = tithing of Genesis 14:20, Malachi 3:8-10), and the gifts you receive from the Lord (Matthew 7).  SINGING makes us part of the choir of angels, announcing the arrival of the Lord.  DECEMBER 25 is just after the moment of greatest darkness, and the return of the light (the winter solstice) = opening of the veil and the appearance of the Lord (John 1:5, Isaiah 9:2).  SANTA / FATHER CHRISTMAS is a dressed priestly figure who enters through the light of the house (John 8:12).  He lives at the top of the world and descends through the air to meet us, assisted by elves (1 Nephi 1:8-10) and riding in a SLEIGH (a chariot, like the throne of God in Ezekiel 1:4-28), pulled by eight REINDEER (the four cherubim in Ezekiel 1 have beast features and multiple faces).  JINGLE BELLS are the timbrels used in temple worship (Exodus 15:20, Psalms 149:3).

When Shall the Day of the Lord Come?

The Day of Atonement is the day the Melchizedek priest himself will be the sacrifice.

"Day of Vengeance" is a phrase used by Isaiah here, though it's translated as "visitation."

Yea, Greatly Afflicted

I noticed this while reading with my kids.

The fifth year of the reign of the judges ends.  Immediately, the people are afflicted and worry about judgment.  "Affliction" is what you feel on the Day of Atonement, the great holiday forecasting the Lord's judgments, which comes ten days after the start of the new year.

A Place at the Right Hand

Ether appears to know and teach the doctrines of the Day of Atonement: two flocks at the judgment, under the right and left hands of the Lord.

Know Ye

In addressing future remnants of his people, Mormon alludes to the twin ordinances of the Visionary Men.  You can't wait for salvation -- the Day of Atonement -- you have to "come unto repentance."

O Ye Fair Ones

Mormon's elegiac poem to his people contrasts two possible meetings with Christ.  On the one hand, Christ "stood with open arms to receive them"; in other words, in the imagery of the Worship of the Shalems, he called them to meet him through the strait and narrow gate.  Instead of ascending like Shalems, though, the Nephites fell, out of grace and out of the temple.

It's still the case that their "mortal must put on immortality" (dressing imagery) and they must "stand before the judgment-seat of Christ," but now it won't be as disciples, coming unto the Lord in his house, but as sheep waiting to be assigned to one flock or the other.

They Had Christ for their Shepherd

Having Christ as one's shepherd is an image that resonates in both of the great ordinances of the visionary men.

In the Worship of the Shalems, the high priest who emerges from the holy of holies with his staff to provide the feast of bread and wine is Melchizedek and Yahweh, the shepherd with his crook (which is the iron rod, and the one who bears it is the Word of God).

In the Day of Atonement, all the sheep are gathered into two flocks: the flock of the Lord, and the flock of Azazel.

Prepare to Stand Before the Judgment-Seat

On the Day of Atonement, Yahweh comes with universal judgment.

But the image of the individual repenting and preparing to stand before Christ on his judgment-seat is an image from the Worship of the Shalems.  After passing through the strait and narrow gate and seeing the tree with good fruits, the Shalem is in the holy of holies, the place of the throne (the rock).  Here, he is judged by Christ.

At That Day

The coming forth of the BoM precedes "that day," the day of "judgment" when everyone is sorted under the right or the left hand -- the Day of Atonement.

More Blessed Are Ye

Throughout the BoM, we see the two great rites of the visionary men, the Worship of the Shalems and the Day of Atonement, appear paired together.  They are the visions of 1 Nephi 8 and 1 Nephi 11-15; they are reflected in 1 Nephi 20 and 21; they are the rock and the salvation.

They appear again, paired in the wishes of the twelve Nephite disciples.  The nine desired to come into the kingdom and rest; this is the Worship of the Shalems.  The three desire to remain on earth until the Lord returns; this is the Day of Atonement.

This Is the Gospel Which I Have Given unto You

Christ summarizes the "gospel" for his disciples, and does so entirely in terms of the Worship of the Shalems and the Day of Atonement.  Christ is lifted up and draws others to follow him (the doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31 climaxes in temple worship, described as speaking with the tongues of angels, standing in the strait and narrow path and doing what you have seen the Lord do; to go up is to ascend into the temple).  You must be washed and dressed to enter into the kingdom.  The "commandment" is the same as the "doctrine of Christ": repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and "stand spotless before me" (this last is a temple image; one passes through the veil and meets the Lord).  The end of the process is the Day of Atonement's judgment, with the wicked hewn down and burned.