Jacob on Resurrection and the Tree

The Gifts of God

Since I'm not teaching Sunday School, I haven't updated this blog recently. I continue to read the MT and the LXX side by side. Today I read Leviticus 21, and was floored. 

Where the MT has "bread of God," the LXX consistently has "gifts of God."  This connects to Matthew 6 and 7 and shows that the bread of God brought out by the Melchizedek priest in Matt 6 was a gift, that is to say, an endowment. 

Come Up to Me in the Mount

I have noted before in class, and also in Plain and Precious Things, I think Exodus 24 shows a feast in the temple, the same feast with the Lord that is shown in Psalm 23, Genesis 14, Matthew 6, and 1 Nephi 8.

What I only noticed on this re-reading (this is why I have to read this stuff over and over again; I am dense) is that the feast of Exodus 24 happens in three-part sacred space, and the feast is in the middle of the three parts, exactly as in the Sermon on the Mount (where Matthew 5 is the first room, Matthew 6 is the second, and Matthew 7 is the third).

Three Times a Year

Exodus 23 has some interesting glimpses into what the religion of Israel was before the reformers got hold of it.

Exodus 23:14-17 sets out the requirement that three times a year the men of Israel went to the temple.  Even as the KJV translates it, the fact that they appear in the presence of the Lord three times a year is interesting.  But since "presence" is literally pen, "face," and "appear" could also be read "see," there's an even more provocative possibility: that three times a year, the men of Israel saw the face of the Lord.

Exodus 23:25 is also very suggestive.  To "serve" here is 'avadtem, meaning worship in liturgy, perform ordinances.  What ordinance is it?  It appears to be an ordinance in which the Lord will bless the people's bread and water (cf. Matthew 6).  The LXX here adds "wine," suggesting that the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria knew that this was a specific ordinance being referred to, and that ordinance, as they knew it, was a feast of bread and wine.

Shall Surely Make Restitution

Exodus 22 contains a number of laws governing situations in which one Israelite will be required to make restitution to another (for instance, if your animal gets into someone else's field (v. 4), if a fire on your land spreads to a neighbor's (v. 5), if an animal in your care is stolen (v. 11)).

In English, this stuff is dry and doesn't seem relevant, but a look at the Hebrew shows something interesting.  "Restitution" comes from the root SH-L-M, and the repeated phrases in Exodus 22 are yeshalem (he shall make restitution) and shalem yeshalem (he's really going to make restitution, emphatic).  Restitution is paying back, making whole, redeeming.

This is really interesting, because I think that Matthew 5:48 in Hebrew, as Nephi knew it, had people pronounced shalems as they transitioned to the second room of the temple.  With Exodus 22 as the background, one of the associations the initiates made must have been that they were becoming redeemers.  Similarly, Melchizedek, melekh shalem, must have been heard to be the redeeming king, as well as the initiated king and the peaceable king.

The Temple Roots of Tithing

The first appearance in the OT of the institution of tithing is in Genesis 14.  Abram pays tithing to Melchizedek ("my king is righteousness"), the shalem (peaceable) king (Alma knows this pun), after a feast of bread and wine.  This is a temple passage, also shown in the Sermon on the Mount: those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Melchizedek) are filled when they share a feast with God (the Lord, Melchizedek).

Jacob also pays tithing.  He commits to it after an experience in which he sees God and angels ascending and descending to and from "heaven," sets up a standing stone and anoints it, makes the covenant of Abraham, changes the name of the place from "Ulam Luz" (the KJV mysteriously drops "Ulam," which is the name of the first room of the temple) to Beth-El (the "house of God," which he also describes as the "gate of heaven"), and agrees that God will keep him in the way and give him bread and clothing.  The result of this covenant will be shalom, "peace."  This is also manifestly a temple passage.

Finally, Malachi's famous passage about tithing is set in a context in which the Israelites are chastised for abandoning the Lord's true pattern of worship.  They are promised (warned?) that the Lord still appears, and that he will do so, as he has always done, in his temple, preceded by an angel priest.

Peace and Salvation

In Genesis 26, the description of the covenant-making feast between Abimelech and Isaac contains an intriguing translation point.  In verses 29 and 31, the word shalom appears, translated by the KJV both times as "peace."

Provocatively, the LXX translates the first instance as eirene ("peace"), but translates the second instead as soteria ("salvation").  This suggests that the soter ("savior"), a title the NT gives to Jesus, is the bringer of "peace," the Lord who appears in worship of the peaceable ones / the peace offerings.

Thou Shalt Go Before

Zacharias again tells us the role of the Elias priest, a role his son will fulfill.  The Elias priest goes before the Lord to prepare the way, gives knowledge of (announces) salvation, which is the imminent dawn, which will give to those in the valley of the shadow of death.  Finally, Elias will set the feet of those people in the path of "peace."  In this description, Zacharias quotes from Worship of the Shalems texts: Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 40.

Luke, like Matthew, is a temple man and a follower of Isaiah.

My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord

The Threshingfloor Marriage continues with a hymn.  The "blessed" status of the "handmaid" is noted again, as is the power "might" of the Lord, and the manifestation of blessing in "seed."  Notice the Sermon on the Mount Ordinance motifs: the Lord shows his arm, fills the hungry, exalts the low, and grants mercy.

In the Spirit and Power of Elias

Luke gives us a succinct description of the role of the Elias priest, who prepares people and turns them to the Lord, but doesn't drink because the wine is provided by one greater than he.

On the Right Side of the Altar

Zacharias has a vision, explicitly in the temple.  The angel (angelos, messenger) of the Lord appears to one side of the incense altar.  This is a telling detail that speaks to the angel's message: the angel is the angel / messenger of the hekal.  In the Worship of the Shalems, that makes the angel the Elias priest.  Is Zacharias' reaction the reaction of the worshippers to the coming of Elias?

Now the God of Peace

The God of Hebrews is the God of "peace."

The author had previously identified Christ as Melchizedek; now he also identified Christ as the "great shepherd of the sheep."

Make Straight Paths

The call to "make straight paths" is another sign that the author of Hebrews imagines his audience as standing in the hekal.  References to "peace" and seeing the Lord are consistent.

Afterward It Yieldeth

The education provided by the shalems' heavenly father leads to the "peaceable fruit of righteousness," which seems also to give joy.

If Ye Endure Chastening

"Chastening" and "chastisement" are translations of paideia, a Greek word meaning instruction or training.  The Worship of the Shalems is the process of being trained to be God's children.

Despise Not Thou the Chastening

It's interesting that in the context of exhorting us to move forward towards Christ on his throne, Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3, a famous poem about moving forward along paths of peace towards the tree of life and wisdom, who gives happiness and has filled hands (a sign of priesthood and also a possible allusion to sacred gestures).

Author and Finisher

"Author" is archegos, captain, the one having arche, or dominion.  Having arche marks Jesus as a Melchizedek priest.

"Finisher" is teleiotes, the one who makes perfect.

Let Us Run

A cloud, witnesses, and running a gauntlet looking forward to Jesus, who has sat upon the throne of God, all go together in the hekal, in the moment when the shalems resolve to move forward to the veil.

He That Cometh to God

Faith is the motive power by which one approaches God, "seeks" him, and asks for a reward.  This is the same thing we are told by the Brother of Jared and also by Matthew.

Faith Is the Substance

"Substance" is a mechanical rendering of the underlying Greek word, which is hypostasis.  "Understanding" would have been a similarly mechanical rendering, and similarly uninformative.  Hypostasis is a word that refers to a shared substance or reality; it has been adopted by Christian theologians to refer to each/any member of the Trinity.  Christ, the Logos, or Aramaic Memra are said to be (or not be, in some case) a hypostasis, an appearance of divinity sharing divinity's substance.

So "incarnation" is a word that could translate hypostasis, and shed more light.  Faith is the incarnation of things hoped for, the "coming to light" of deeds not seen.  "In faith" (not by faith) the elders have "been witnessed" (not obtained a good report).

This is ordinance language.  In faith, Hebrews  has seen incarnated and brought to light that which is ordinarily behind the veil, and also the elders.  In this same context, "we" understand God's creation of the earth.