The Staff of the Gods

(The church website is down as I write this, so I won't have the usual links.  I'm not going to come back and add them later, so you'll just have to look the verses up yourself.)

I mentioned in class and have written elsewhere that the Melchizedek priest bears a staff (see Psalms 110 and 23, as well as the "rod" of 1 Nephi 8, and elsewhere).  The staff imagery in the Book of Exodus is really interesting.

When the Lord commissions Moses from the burning bush, He asks Moses "What's that in your hand?" and Moses says "A staff" (Exodus 4:2).  Not my staff, just a staff.  That's interesting, because it leaves open the possibility that the Lord has just given the staff to Moses.  This possibility becomes an outright probability when we read Exodus 4:20 and 17:9, both of which call this same staff matteh haElohim.  The KJV translates this as "the staff of God," but for grammatical reasons (the ha is the article "the," which is unnecessary in front of a singular name), a better reading is "the staff of the gods."  The Lord gives Moses the staff of the Gods -- He confers on Moses the Melchizedek priesthood.

The appearance of this staff is especially interesting in Exodus 17.  In a battle against Amalek, Moses' role is to stand on top of a hill (= temple?) holding the staff in his hands.  There he sits on a Rock (enthroned like God on the Foundation Stone) with helpers (Cherubim) to his left and right.  The image here is of the Lord going to war with his people enthroned on the Ark of the Covenant, as He does for instance in 1 Samuel 4.  When he holds the staff of office, Moses is Melchizedek / the Lord.

Numerous passage connect this staff with serpents, suggesting maybe that it was a caduceus.  See Exodus 4:3-4, 7:8-10; Numbers 21:49 (in connection with which, John 3:14 and 1 Nephi 17:41), and Isaiah 14:29 (in which a murdered (righteous) priest is equated with a broken staff, which is also a defeated serpent).

The Reformers and the Rest

From today's lesson:

This Shall Be a Token unto Thee

I have suggested above that the Hebrew 'ot, meaning "sign" or "token" appears in number of contexts connected with priesthood, in other words, that the priests themselves were or bore the tokens.  We saw this in the creation account, in the covenant of the rainbow, in the story of Cain, and a propos of the Virgin and her sons.

The same idea appears in the story of the burning bush.  God tells Moses that the token of his calling will be priestly service on what Exodus calls (in the Hebrew) the "mountain of the Gods."

This Is the Token

I suggested earlier that various texts use the word 'sign' or 'mark' (Hebrew 'ot or Greek semeion) to refer to priests (specifically, Genesis 1, Genesis 4, and Isaiah 8).  Now Genesis 9 give us an interesting test, where it identifies the 'token' (again, 'ot and semeion -- the English translation is different, but the Hebrew and Greek are the same term as the other texts) of the eternal covenant (brit 'olam), as a bow set in the clouds.  A rainbow.

Cloud imagery is common of texts set inside the temple: for starters, the Mount of Transfiguration, Daniel 7, and Lehi's dream.  This reflects the incense altar that was set in the hekal, the middle room of Solomon's Temple.  But are there any texts that corroborate the idea that a rainbow might refer to a priestly figure?

Turns out there's at least one.  Chapter 50 of Sirach, a book preserved in the LXX but not the MT, shows the coming forth of a priest named Simon son of Onias in a temple setting (scholars think on the Day of Atonement).  Verses 5-7 read like this: "...how he was glorified as he spun around the shrine, as he exited from the house of the veil.  Like a morning star in the midst of a cloud, like the full moon in the days of a feast, like the sun shining on the shrine of the most high, like the rainbow gleaming in clouds of glory..."

We have: the specified location in the temple; clouds; comparison of the priest with astral bodies, like 1 Nephi 1 (stars = angels = priests); and the identification of the priest with the rainbow.

So I think the message of Genesis 9 is not that as long as you see rainbows, God won't flood the earth, but when rainbows cease, we might be in trouble (this was the folklore I knew as a kid, and believe me, I looked for rainbows with great anxiety).  I think the message of Genesis 9 is that the sign, 'ot, of the eternal covenant, is that the Lord appears to his people in the temple.  In ordinances, he does this in the person of his authorized messenger, the Melchizedek priest.

Before the Flood

I'm doing my OT reading this year out of the Hebrew and Greek versions of the OT, side by side.  This is a large undertaking for me, which involves getting up early and committing real time, but so far I'm on track.  The immediate fruit has been to see that the vocabulary in the first seven chapters of the OT is heavy in terms that have priestly and temple significance, even if that doesn't always come through in translation.  There's way too much to capture in this blog, but let me throw just out a few points:

1. The ritual actions in Genesis 3 are unmistakable, but maybe we haven't thought all the way through them.  For one thing, the garment of 'skin' in Genesis 3:21 is a garment of 'or in Hebrew, spelled 'ayin-vav-resh (the names of the three Hebrew letters in the word).  Well, 'or, spelled aleph-vav-resh, means 'light.'  These two words are pronounced identically in modern Hebrew, and have always been pronounced very similarly.  God clothes Eve and Adam in garments of light.  In verse 22, "Yahweh of the Gods" pronounces that "Man has become like one of us."
2. In the same segment, Adam is cursed that he will eat his bread by the sweat of his brow.  Eating bread and being dressed by God are both temple ritual actions, and connected in the Sermon on the Mount (more about this in the next class, for those of you who don't already know what I'm talking about).  This suggests that the curse is the sweat, not the bread part.  Similarly, it suggests that childbirth is not a curse -- the curse is the sorrow.  If anything, the implication is that childbirth, at least in some circumstances, is a sacred act.
3. Adam is commanded to 'work' ('avad in Hebrew) and 'keep' (shamar) the Garden.  These are temple-priestly verbs -- 'avad means to perform ordinances, and shamar means to keep covenants.  It is very striking, then, that the same words reappear in the story of Cain.  Cain, first of all, is given to Eve by the Lord (like Samuel and Jesus), punning on the sound of the name 'Cain' in Hebrew (Hebrew prophets, including Nephi, thrive on puns and wordplay).  In Hebrew, Cain is an 'oved of the earth -- not a 'tiller,' but a 'worker,' using the same word that means 'perform ordinances.'  Interestingly, his brother Abel is a shepherd, a common image for priests and kings.  In terms of vocabulary, the story we're told here is about a rivalry between two priests.  After Cain kills Abel, he justifies himself by asking 'am I my brother's keeper?', where 'keeper' is shomer.  Cain is an 'oved, a temple priest, but he does not shamar, keep his covenants. 
4. After this incident, God marks Cain with a 'sign' ('ot in Hebrew).  Elsewhere, the heavenly bodies are said to be or provide an 'ot.  So are the Virgin and her sons.  Here's another piece of vocabulary for understanding the Visionary Men: stars = angels = priests.  Nephi knows this vocabulary.  Cain is a priest who falls from his station, but who still should not be killed, because of his priestly status.

Keep up the study!

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.

I Am Gabriel

The angel who brings the news to Zacharias is the Melchizedek priest -- he has come from the presence of God and he bears the name Gabriel = El Gibbor, the mighty God.

Was the giving of curses as signs a special power of the Melchizedek priest?  I am reminded of Abinadi and Alma.  Maybe this is how we should read Isaiah 10-14, as a curse/sign from the rightful and righteous Melchizedek priest.

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.

By Two Immutable Things

In this course Hebrews describes, God and man swear mutual oaths.  This is because God wants to show man the unchangeability of his "counsel."  In Greek this is boule, which is the word used in Isaiah to translate the Hebrew etza, where it manifestly means the tree of the temple menorah (for instance, Isaiah 11:2 and 5:18-19).  See also Isaiah 9:6, where the Greek LXX provides as the sole title of the descending Melchizedek priest the "angel of great counsel."  The course ends with grasping something described as "hope" and entering within the veil, where one has been preceded by Jesus, the Melchizedek priest.

Seeing Ye Are Dull of Hearing

The audience is dull of hearing, like those who will not understand the writings of Isaiah.  Milk is for those who don't understand the "word of righteousness," and "unskilful" here is the Greek apeiros, meaning "inexperienced."  Those who will get strong meat are those who "by reason of use have their senses exercised."  Like Nephi, Isaiah, and John, the author of Hebrews proposes that sensory experience of the temple is key to being able to receive and understand stronger doctrine.

I Will Declare Thy Name

The writer continues with liturgical quotations.  Psalm 22 appears to be the collective cry of a congregation urging the Lord to appear to them.  That makes it a good complement to Isaiah 8, in which the Melchizedek priest who is the Lord is still hiding, but he -- the child of the Virgin -- will be a sign and a wonder for Israel.  This reminds us of Hebrews 2:4 and suggests what signs and wonders the writer is there referring to: the appearance of the Virgin's Son.

The Herb Yielding Seed

The temple includes Grass, Herb, and Fruit.

Fruit is the bread, the fruit of the tree of life.

Grass is what the shalems compare themselves to in self-humiliation before being dressed by the Lord.

What is Herb?

I Will Bless Them Through Thy Name

If people who receive "this" [temple and priesthood] Gospel" are called after Abraham's name, that must mean that Abraham is a Melchizedek priest, who stands in for the Lord, whose name worshippers take on themselves.

The Blessings of the Fathers

This verse is astonishingly clear.  The man writing under the name Abraham is a shalem, because he has had happiness (joy), peace, and rest.  He has followed Righteousness behind the veil.  He wants knowledge, instructions, and to keep the commandments.  He wants to be a prince of peace, a title whose only other possessors in ancient scripture are Melchizedek and the Lord.  He wants ordination in the higher order of temple priesthood.

The King of Zion

God tells Enoch some of the titles of the great Melchizedek Priest.  These shouldn't surprise us: the Anointed, the King (Isaiah, Alma, Genesis), the Rock (Helaman, Isaiah, Matthew).

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."

Prophesy Unto This People

The spiritual condition of the people in Enoch's day is described in a similar fashion to the spiritual condition of Isaiah's contemporaries.  Heart, ears, and eyes, in that order, fail to perceive.

Ye Shall Be as Gods

Eating the fruit of the tree makes a human know good from evil, and be like the gods.  This makes them different from the apostates of Isaiah's day, and like the Son of the Virgin.

Let the Earth Bring Forth Grass

The earth brings forth grass (as it does in Genesis).  This is provocative because in Isaiah 40, following the revelation of the "glory of the Lord" the shalems collectively compare themselves, and all flesh, to grass.  The self-humiliating comparison to grass is part of the Worship of the Shalems, connected with the appearance of the Lord and the shalems' clothing at his hands.

Darkness for Light

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20)

I read this verse today and realized that this is the moment when the lamp of the holy of holies was moved into the hekal, switching light and darkness, and the bitter and sweet waters. Cf. Exodus 15 and 1 Nephi 8.

Book coming in October.