[Page 123][Editor’s Note: This article is an updated and extended version of a presentation given at the Third Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference: The Temple on Mount Zion, November 5, 2016, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. For a video version of the presentation, see https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/2016-temple-on-mount-zion-conference-videos/]

Abstract: In chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus described spiritual rebirth as consisting of two parts: being “born of water and of the spirit.”¹ To this requirement of being “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit,” Moses 6:59–60 adds that one must “be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; … For … by the blood ye are sanctified.”² In this article, we will discuss the symbolism of water, spirit, and blood in scripture as they are actualized in the process of spiritual rebirth. We will highlight in particular the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of these ordinances within the allusive and sometimes enigmatic descriptions of John 3 and Moses 6. Moses 6:51–68, with its dense infusion of temple themes, was revealed to the Prophet in December 1830, when the Church was in its infancy and more than a decade before the fulness of priesthood ordinances was made available to the Saints in Nauvoo. Our study of these chapters informs our closing perspective on the meaning of the sacrament, which is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”³ We discuss the relationship of the sacrament to the shewbread of Israelite temples, and its anticipation of the heavenly feast that will be enjoyed by those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

 

Video presentation of paper with artwork

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Introduction: What Does It Mean To Be Born Again?

One of the most illuminating stories in the Gospel of John tells of Nicodemus’ confidential visit to inquire of Jesus.⁴ John portrays Nicodemus as a prime example of one of those who had initially “believed in [Christ’s] name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But,” as John explains, “Jesus did not commit himself unto [such], because he knew all men” and “he knew what was in man.”⁵ Though Nicodemus was one “of the Pharisees,”⁶ “a ruler of the Jews,”⁷ and a “master of Israel,”⁸ he struggled to grasp the meaning of what Jesus tried to teach him.

In contrast to the untutored woman of Samaria in the following chapter of John, who met the Lord in the brightness of high noon,⁹ Nicodemus, then a blind leader of the blind,¹⁰ came to Jesus in the darkness of night.¹¹ Happily, however, “the day dawn[ed], and the day star [arose] in [his heart].”¹² Eventually, Nicodemus must have experienced the “birth from above” that he did not at first comprehend, for John tells us that, at great personal risk, he later defended Jesus before the chief priests and Pharisees¹³ and helped prepare the Lord’s body for burial.¹⁴

Like the humble Peter, whose early foibles are candidly presented in the Gospels, Nicodemus was not ashamed to share the private story of his transformation from wondering skeptic to devoted disciple. Indeed, it is possible that he was John’s eyewitness source for the account that we will now discuss in more detail.[Page 125]

Nicodemus opened the conversation with Jesus. His use of the pronoun “we” in his statement that “we know that thou art a teacher come from God”¹⁵ revealed that he was not merely speaking for himself but also for the governing body of the Jews to which he belonged. As the basis for the council’s belief that Jesus was a “teacher come from God,” Nicodemus explained: “No one is able to do the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”¹⁶

Jesus did not affirm Nicodemus’ declaration. Instead, He countered it with a parallel assertion: “No one is able to see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”¹⁷ The Master was saying that Nicodemus and his brethren were mistaken in taking Jesus’ miracles as the basis for their confidence in Him as a divine teacher. Though they had seen these signs, they did not see the kingdom of God.

To see the kingdom of God — and eventually to enter within it, said Jesus — one must be born again.¹⁸ Indeed, Joseph Smith taught that seeing the kingdom of God is a prerequisite for permanently entering into it.¹⁹ He further clarified that even to begin to see the kingdom of God “from the outside”²⁰ (in the sense of acquiring an initial spiritual understanding of it), individuals must have a “change of heart,” “a portion of the Spirit” that would take “the vail from before their eyes,”²¹ as was later experienced by Cornelius.²² At first, however, Nicodemus resisted Jesus’ invitation to “behold” with an “eye of faith” those things that are “within the veil.”²³

That said, Nicodemus’ astonishment at Jesus’ teaching was not an entirely negative thing. In later rabbinic literature, “marveling or wondering … form[ed] an important part of the process of gaining[Page 126]

knowledge.”²⁴ For example, it was said of Rabbi Akiba that “his learning began with wonder and culminated with a crown, a symbol of his power … to bring hidden things to light.”²⁵ Thus, Jesus’ words to Nicodemus that night, “Marvel not,”²⁶ should not be understood as a peremptory dismissal of his interlocutor’s initial doubts but rather as a spur to his further faith and inquiry, as in His later directive to the wondering Thomas: “be not faithless, but believing.”²⁷

Nevertheless, up to that moment Nicodemus had not had a change of heart. His eyes were still veiled. As a test of Nicodemus’ powers of spiritual perception, Jesus had used a double entendre, or double meaning, in His discussion on the subject of being “born again.” The Greek word anōthen and the corresponding Aramaic/Syriac expressions bar derish (bar dĕrîš) and men derish (men dĕrîš) can mean both “again” — a second time — and also “from above” — literally, “from the head.”²⁸ Each time Jesus repeated the requirement for all men to be “born from above,” or in other words, “born of the Spirit,”²⁹ Nicodemus heard only the most obvious, superficial meaning of the Savior’s saying, namely, that one must be “born again,” or rather, “born of the flesh,”³⁰ mistakenly thinking that Jesus meant coming forth a “second time” from the “mother’s womb.”³¹

[Page 127]Gently rebuking Nicodemus’ lack of understanding,³² Jesus continued in verse 8 with a play on words that exploited the double meaning of “wind” and “Spirit” in both Greek (pneuma) and Hebrew (ruach). Although the invisible, immediate workings of the wind may be indirectly perceived by means of its “sound,”³³ it is beyond the power of physical sensation to reveal “whence it cometh” or “whither it goeth.”³⁴ This being the case with earthly wind, what hope has any mortal, save he is born from above, to understand movements that are governed by the unseen, divine “winds” of God’s Spirit, crucially including Jesus’ own celestial comings and goings?³⁵ Jesus’ description of those who are vaguely sensible to the evidences of the “earthly”³⁶ wind yet stone-blind to the hidden operations of the divinely discerned “heavenly”³⁷ Spirit parallel His prior disavowal, in verses 2 and 3, of those who see the superficial signs of His mission yet lack the spiritual vision required to see the kingdom of God.

Jesus then directed his remarks more pointedly at Nicodemus and his brethren. Indeed, John’s phrasing of verse 11 seems to connect Nicodemus’ prior use of “we” in reference to the earthly council to which he belonged with Jesus’ use of the pronoun “we” in his reference to Himself and those of His prophetic predecessors who had, like Him, borne eyewitness testimony of the heavenly council: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye [a plural pronoun referring to the Sanhedrin and its partisans] receive not our witness.”³⁸ As Nicodemus surely realized, Jesus’ testimony implied not merely that He had seen the divine council but also that He had there received a divine commission, as echoed in the experience of Isaiah 6:8: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”

[Page 128]Next, intensifying the drama of the dialogue, Jesus further described His commission. In doing so, He made it clear what it was not only to be justified and sanctified by water and the Spirit but also to be “lifted up” with power to traverse the veil in both directions as the “Son of man.”³⁹ Once again, the Lord’s elaboration simultaneously disclosed and obscured⁴⁰ His meaning:⁴¹

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,⁴² even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

To comprehend the meaning of “lifted up” (from the Greek verb hypsoō) in Jesus’ words, we must first realize that, in the story of Moses, neither the serpents that bit the Israelites nor the figure on the standard that was “lifted up” by Moses were meant to be seen only as ordinary desert snakes. Rather, they are described in the rich language of Old Testament symbolism with the same Hebrew terms used elsewhere in scripture to refer to the glorious seraphim — divine messengers, proximal attendants of God’s throne,⁴³ and preeminent members of the divine council. If we fail to connect the “fiery flying serpents”⁴⁴ that were both the plague and the salvation of the children of Israel with the burning, godlike seraphim of the heavenly temple, we will lack the interpretive key for Jesus’ central teaching to Nicodemus.

Once we realize that, in another double entendre,⁴⁵ Jesus has not only prophesied His atonement and death but also has compared Himself, as the “Son of Man,”⁴⁶ to the seraphim that surround in intimate proximity the throne of the Father, the meaning of His statement that He was to be “lifted up” becomes apparent. In temple contexts, the essential function of the seraphim was similar to the role of the cherubim at the entrance of the Garden of Eden:⁴⁷ they were to be sentinels or “keep[ers] [of] the way,”⁴⁸ guarding the[Page 129]

portals of the heavenly temple against unauthorized entry, governing subsequent access to increasingly secure compartments, and ultimately assisting in the determination of the fitness of worshipers to enter God’s presence.⁴⁹ Thus Jesus, “lifted up” to God’s throne as the better of all the seraphim and the innermost “keeper of the gate,”⁵⁰ could literally and legitimately assert: “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”⁵¹

Jesus’ application of the phrase “lifted up” to Himself is appropriate for other reasons. For example, the idea of His being “lifted up” ties back to Isaiah 52:13, a passage from a messianic “servant song”: “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.” Isaiah’s language in this chapter describes both the suffering and the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Significantly, however, in the Book of Mormon the resurrected Jesus Christ Himself applies Isaiah’s description of a “suffering servant” to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the book of Moses applies similar language to Enoch.⁵² Consequently, it is clear that others in addition to Jesus Christ can be “lifted up” — becoming sons of Man⁵³ and receiving “everlasting life”⁵⁴ — through unwavering faithfulness in “the trial of [their] faith.”⁵⁵ This is consistent with the explicit teaching in the first chapter of John that “as many as received [Christ], to them gave he power to become the sons of God”⁵⁶ — in other words, to be born of God in the ultimate sense.[Page 130]

Note that the Greek phrase for “sons of God” used here, tekna theou, as well as its Hebrew equivalent, bĕnê (hā-)ʾĕlōhîm, are gender neutral in this and similar contexts. Although it would be possible to substitute the neutral term “children of God” in its place, we prefer to use the term “sons of God” — or exceptionally, when citing the discourse of King Benjamin, “sons … and daughters”⁵⁷ of God. Although the Church teaches that every mortal, “in the beginning,”⁵⁸ was a child “of heavenly parents,”⁵⁹ there is a distinction made in the Gospel of John and elsewhere in scripture in which only the most faithful of God’s “offspring” are given “power to become the sons of God.”⁶⁰

In short, whereas some readers equate the lifting up of Christ exclusively with His suffering in Gethsemane and His death on the cross, the means by which “whosoever believeth in him”⁶¹ may be sanctified and receive “everlasting life” through the shedding of His blood, a more careful examination of the passage makes it clear that John is exploiting a double meaning in the term “lifted up.” Should there be any doubt about the presence of subtle literary artistry in John’s account, consider the explicit confirmation of similar, deliberate wordplay in 3 Nephi 27. Within two verses, the resurrected Savior shifts aptly and seemingly effortlessly among multiple senses of “lifted up,” including “lifted up upon the cross,”⁶² “lifted up by men”⁶³ in unrighteous judgment, “lifted up by the Father”⁶⁴ in righteous judgment, and, ultimately, “lifted up at the last day” in exaltation.⁶⁵

[Page 131]Similarly, in John 3 the “lifting up” of Jesus has as much to do with His heavenly ascent and glorious enthronement as it does with his ignominious death.⁶⁶ Hence, according to Herman Ridderbos, “the crucifixion is not presented [by John] as Jesus’ humiliation but as the exaltation of the Son of Man,”⁶⁷ a “birth from above” that He intended to share with His disciples. Thus, those who “look” and “begin to believe in the Son of God”⁶⁸ as He is typologically revealed in the seraphic figure that has been “lifted up” will themselves, if they “endure to the end,” receive “eternal life,”⁶⁹ being “lifted up” — in other words, exalted — with their Lord.

As a witness that the Prophet understood the implication of Jesus’ words to Nicodemus as we have interpreted them here, a note pinned to the nt2 manuscript of the Joseph Smith Translation of the last verse of John 3 reads in part:⁷¹

He who believeth on the Son hath everlasting life⁷² and shall receive of his fulness.

The experiences that allow disciples to “receive of his fulness” extend beyond the initial ordinances of divine rebirth and the accompanying spiritual enlightenment that would allow them to begin to discern the kingdom of God “from the outside,”⁷³ eventually permitting them to see it from within. Consistent with Jesus’ expectation that Nicodemus, as a “master of Israel”⁷⁴ should have already been familiar with this line of interpretation, there is evidence that “some early Jewish [exegetes] in the more mystic tradition may have also understood ‘seeing God’s kingdom’ in terms of visionary ascents to heaven, witnessing the enthroned King.” Moreover, the Jewish scholar Philo, a near contemporary of Jesus Christ, “declares that the Sinai revelation worked in Moses a second birth which transformed him from an earthly to a heavenly man; Jesus, by [way of] contrast, came from above to begin with and grants others a birth ‘from above.’”⁷⁵

Some scholars have argued that Philo’s ideas about a “new birth” that transforms earthly man to heavenly man may have been reflected in Jewish ritual at Qumran⁷⁶ and elsewhere. Such rituals seem to have enacted the liturgical equivalent of actual heavenly ascent.[Page 132]

As has been detailed elsewhere in connection with the third-century ad synagogue of Dura Europos,⁷⁷ one of several plausible narrative foundations for such rituals was the vision of the resurrection of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. Donald Carson observed that although many Old Testament writers “look forward to a time when God’s ‘spirit’ will be poured out on humankind,”⁷⁸ the most important of all these is Ezekiel. Carson points out that in Ezekiel 36:25–27, as in John 3, “water and spirit come together so forcefully, the first to signify cleansing from impurity, and the second to depict the transformation of heart that will enable people to follow God wholly. And it is no accident that the account of the valley of dry bones, where Ezekiel preaches and the Spirit brings life to dry bones, follows hard after Ezekiel’s water/spirit passage.”⁷⁹

The culminating passage of Ezekiel 37, like that of John 3, promises exaltation and eternal life to the faithful. This promise is to be fulfilled through a new and “everlasting covenant.”⁸⁰ In imagery that parallels chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation, the Lord promises that in the future day of their salvation Israel will be called His people — meaning that they will be called by His name⁸¹ — that they will be sanctified, and that His “sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”⁸²

Going further, Carson observes that “Israel, the covenant community, was properly called ‘God’s son,’”⁸³ an idea that can be extended not only corporately but also individually, as described, for example, in Psalm 2:7 and Moses 1:4; 6:68. In chapter 16, Ezekiel describes unfaithful Israel as an abandoned female child on whom He had taken pity. When first born, “thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee; [Page 133]thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.”⁸⁴ However, using the Israelite terminology of adoption and marriage, the Lord relates that He looked upon fledgling Israel with pity, spread His skirt over her to cover her nakedness, and entered into a covenant so that Israel could become His own.⁸⁵ The passage continues in terminology reminiscent of royal investiture and exaltation, with conceptual roots in the First Temple that will recall for Latter-day Saints the symbolism of modern temples: “Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with badger’s skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk, … And I put … a beautiful crown upon thine head.”⁸⁶ In reflecting on Jesus’ words, Nicodemus might have recalled prophetic passages like these that describe ritual rebirth in anticipation of the eventual fulfillment of God’s promise to Moses that Israel as a body eventually was to become “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”⁸⁷

In summary, a careful reading of John 3, using modern linguistic evidence and considering relevant threads in Jewish scripture and tradition, makes it clear that being “born again” — or, rather, being “born from above” or “born of God”⁸⁸ — is not a process that is completed when one is baptized by water and receives the gift of the Holy Ghost. Being ritually reborn requires receiving and keeping all the ordinances and covenants of the priesthood⁸⁹ “to the end.”⁹⁰ Being fully reborn in actuality happens only after traversing the heavenly veil “to know the [Page 134]only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent,”⁹¹ having both suffered in His likeness⁹² and also having been “lifted up” to “eternal life” and exaltation as He was. In other words, to qualify for eternal life, each of the Father’s children must be prepared to enter the kingdom of heaven as a son or daughter of God,⁹³ having first been born again by water and “by the Spirit of God through ordinances,”⁹⁴ and then, when sanctified, must be received personally by the Father — all this in similitude of their Redeemer, the Son of God,⁹⁵ their peerless, perfect prototype.⁹⁶

Having concluded from our study of chapter 3 of the Gospel of John that being born again, in its full sense, describes a process that begins before baptism, when one begins to “see the kingdom of God”⁹⁷ from “afar off”⁹⁸ and culminates with “the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come,”⁹⁹ the remainder of this article will draw out additional, complementary details concerning the process of spiritual rebirth that are available through a close reading of Moses 6:51–68 in light of relevant scripture and prophetic teachings. First, we will provide a brief overview of the setting, structure, and burden of these verses. Then we will conclude with deeper examination of issues and insights relating to the three key phrases of Moses 6:60 one by one: “by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified.”

When discussing temple-related matters, we will follow the model of Hugh W. Nibley, who was, according to his biographer Boyd Jay Petersen, “respectful of the covenants of secrecy safeguarding specific portions of the LDS endowment, usually describing parallels from other cultures without talking specifically about the Mormon ceremony.”¹⁰⁰

The Setting, Structure, and Burden of Moses 6:51–68

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[Page 136]Hugh Nibley describes Moses 6:51–68¹⁰¹ as an “excerpt from the Book of Adam.”¹⁰² Perhaps it formed part of the “book of remembrance” mentioned in Moses 6:46. The setting for these verses is a sermon by Enoch. A notation in the handwriting of John Whitmer on the ot1 manuscript above Moses 6:52b reads “The Plan of Salvation.”¹⁰³ The verses that follow were sometimes cited by early leaders of the Church as evidence for the continuity of the plan of salvation from the time of Adam and Eve to our day.¹⁰⁴

Verses 51–68 form a structure of several parts. The introduction (verses 51–52) is a firsthand statement from God the Father wherein He, as the Maker of the world and of men, summarizes the commandments underlying the plan of salvation — namely, to hearken, believe, repent, and be baptized. Then, in verses 53–60, He motivates the commandments one by one in reverse order within a succession of ladder-like rhetorical cascades that culminate in a promise of sanctification through “the blood of [His] Only Begotten.”¹⁰⁵

It should be understood that the sure knowledge provided by the “record of heaven”¹⁰⁶ that is promised to Adam and Eve and their posterity in verse 61 is more than the prefatory witness that comes to those who have “receive[d] the Holy Ghost.”¹⁰⁷ Indeed, elsewhere Joseph Smith equates the “power which records”¹⁰⁸ with the sealing power, or, in other words, the power that “binds on earth and binds in heaven.”¹⁰⁹ Consistent with this idea, in the ot2 manuscript of Moses 6:61, this “Comforter” is described as “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”¹¹⁰

In response to God’s explanation of the “plan of salvation,” as it is termed in verse 62, Adam hearkened wihout hesitation to the voice of the Father by obeying the commandments he had been given,¹¹¹ as outlined in verses 64–65. In return for the witness of Adam’s covenant given in his baptism, he receives the promised “record of heaven,”¹¹² described in more detail in verse 66 as the “record of the Father, and the Son” that was declared through “a voice out of heaven.”¹¹³ Having had “all things confirmed unto [him] by an holy ordinance,”¹¹⁴ Adam was “born again into the kingdom of heaven of water, and of the Spirit, and … cleansed by blood,” having become a “son of God”¹¹⁵ in the full sense of the term. Elder Theodore M. Burton’s explanation of the event leaves no room for doubt about the nature of the occurrence described in verse 68:¹¹⁶

Thus Adam was sealed a son of God by the priesthood, and this promise was taught among the fathers from that time forth as a glorious hope to men and women on the earth if they would listen and give heed to these promises.

[Page 137]Relating this event to the sequence of ordinances and blessings that led up to it, Hyrum L. Andrus further explains:¹¹⁷ “To receive such communion, ordinarily one must be justified, sanctified, and sealed by the powers of the Gospel ‘unto eternal life.’”¹¹⁸ In other words, Moses 6:68 witnesses that Adam received “the more sure word of prophecy.”¹¹⁹

After declaring the sonship of Adam, the Father solemnly averred that all the posterity of Adam and Eve, both men and women, must follow the same pattern in order to be born again: “Thus [in other words, by doing as Adam did] may all become my sons.”¹²⁰

Spiritual Rebirth by Water, Spirit, and Blood

Having outlined the meaning and import of Moses 6:51–68 as a whole, we will now examine the interrelated symbolism of water, Spirit, and blood that is highlighted in verse 60. Hugh Nibley summarizes the significance of these three elements as follows:¹²¹

The water is an easy act of obedience. … “By the water ye keep the commandment.”¹²² “I know not, save the Lord commanded me.”¹²³ That’s your sacrifice. Then “by the Spirit ye are justified.”¹²⁴ That’s the Holy Ghost. … You’ve got to be baptized physically, but then it goes beyond that to the Spirit, where[, after having been confirmed,] you [begin to] understand and [become] aware of what’s going on. … Then [Page 138]the last thing is “and by the blood ye are sanctified.”¹²⁵ You can’t sanctify yourself but by completely giving up life in this world, which means suffering death, which means the shedding of blood. … [T]he shedding of blood is your final declaration that you are willing to give up this life for the other.

As we will discuss in more detail later on, the temple sacrifices of ancient Israel — which pointed back to Isaac’s arrested sacrifice and pointed forward to Jesus’ unarrested sacrifice — the people were to “see” their own arrested sacrifice and redemption, having been spared the shedding of their own blood through the atonement of Christ. By means of these sacrifices, ancient Israel could be brought to ”see” the Kingdom of God. Likewise, Adam and Eve’s eyes were “opened”¹²⁶ after their transgression and they “saw” their redemption in the garments of skin that God made for them and also in the sacrifices that He commanded them to make.¹²⁷ In a similar manner, Latter-day Saints are meant to begin to “see” the Kingdom of God in the sacrament.

“By the Water Ye Keep the Commandment”

Let us now survey six topics that provide some idea of the richness of ancient traditions and modern revelation relating to the water ordinances of baptism and washing.

1. Baptism as a commandment and an introduction to the law of obedience. Baptism by water is often described in scripture as a commandment — both a means to demonstrate obedience to the divine directive to be baptized and also a sign of willingness to keep the law of obedience with respect to all God’s other commandments.¹²⁸

For example, Nephi described the baptism of the Savior as a witness to His Father “that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments.”¹²⁹ Alma exhorted the people of Gideon to “enter into a covenant [Page 139]with [God] to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.”¹³⁰ And Mormon taught that “baptism is unto repentance to the fulfilling the commandments unto the remission of sins.”¹³¹

Significantly, the blessing on the sacrament bread also specifies that those who partake witness in so doing “that they are willing to … keep his commandments.”¹³² This direct association between the sacramental bread and baptism is reinforced by the pointed omission of a reference to keeping the commandments in the companion blessing on the emblems of the Lord’s blood.¹³³ In addition, only the blessing on the bread mentions that those who partake must be “willing to take upon them the name of [the] Son,¹³⁴ an initial promise that, as Elder David A. Bednar taught, “clearly contemplates a future event or events and looks forward to the temple”¹³⁵ for its fulfillment. The distinctive symbolism of the two parts of the sacrament will be addressed later.

Loren Spendlove¹³⁶ points out that the first meaning of “partake” in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary is: “To take a part, portion or share in common with others; to have a share or part; to participate.”¹³⁷ He comments: “We all ‘share in common’ or ‘participate’ in the benefits that come from the death and resurrection of Christ (as symbolized by the bread), in that we all will resurrect from the dead.”¹³⁸ Of course, since we expect to partake in the common benefits of the atonement of Christ, we should expect to partake in the common effort to invite and persuade, by word and example, all men and women to enjoy the full blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This joint participation in the work of salvation is sometimes expressed in the kjv New Testament with the word “fellowship” (Greek koinonia). “Fellowship” describes the intimate relationship between the Savior and His disciples, who must partake of what He suffered in order to partake of His glory.¹³⁹

With all this in mind, the importance of the commandment for all people to be baptized cannot be overstated.¹⁴⁰ However, Joseph Smith taught that unless those who are baptized also have “truly repented of all their sins and … have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins”¹⁴¹ their baptism “is good for nothing,” being of no more use than if “a bag of sand” had been baptized in their place.¹⁴²

The teachings of the Prophet are a reminder that there is no magic in earthly elements to cleanse us from sin — neither in the water of baptism itself nor, strictly speaking, in the physical act of eating and drinking the emblems of the sacrament.¹⁴³ As President Brigham Young explained:¹⁴⁴

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Will the bread administered in [the] ordinance [of the sacrament] add life to you? Will the wine add life to you? Yes; if you are hungry and faint, it will sustain the natural strength of the body.¹⁴⁵ But suppose you have just eaten and drunk till you are full, so as not to require another particle of food to sustain the natural body. … In what consists [then] the benefit we derive from this ordinance? It is in obeying the commands of the Lord. When we obey the commandments of our Heavenly Father, if we have a correct understanding of the ordinances of the House of God, we receive all the promises attached to the obedience rendered to His commandments. …

It is the same in this as it is in the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins. Has water, in itself, any virtue to wash away sin? Certainly not, … but keeping the commandments of God will [open the way for the atoning blood of Christ to]¹⁴⁶ cleanse away the stain of sin.

2. Baptism as the gate to the pathway that leads to eternal life. Latter day Saints know that repentance and baptism are symbolized in scripture as a “gate,”¹⁴⁷ the essential access point to the “strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life.”¹⁴⁸ In order to eventually enter the Kingdom of God, to which that path leads, each disciple must additionally receive and keep every other law and ordinance of the priesthood “and continue in the path until the end of the day of probation.”¹⁴⁹ As Elder Bednar expressed this idea: “Total immersion and saturation with the Savior’s gospel are essential steps in the process of being born again.”¹⁵⁰

[Page 141]Associating the gate of baptism with all subsequent laws and ordinances of the Priesthood, Joseph Smith made it clear that baptism was not only a commandment but also a “sign”:¹⁵¹

Baptism is a sign ordained of God, for the believer in Christ to take upon himself in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. … It is a sign of command¹⁵² which God hath set for man to enter … [and] those who seek to enter in any other way will seek in vain; for God will not receive them, neither will the angels¹⁵³ … for they have not obeyed the ordinances, nor attended to the signs which God ordained for man to receive in order to receive a celestial glory. …

There are certain key words and signs belonging to the Priesthood which must be observed in order to obtain the blessing.¹⁵⁴ … Had [Cornelius] not taken [these] sign[s or] ordinances upon him … and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, according to the order of God, he could not have healed the sick or commanded an evil spirit to come out of a man, and it obey him;¹⁵⁵ for the spirits might say unto him, as they did to the sons of Sceva: “Paul we know and Jesus we know, but who are ye?”¹⁵⁶

3. The antiquity of water symbolism in rituals of rebirth. We will not attempt to summarize the varied and controversial histories of the water rituals of purification, penitence, and proselytism in Jewish and Christian traditions.¹⁵⁷ Suffice it to say that no credible scholar today doubts that immersion was practiced by Jews for various religious purposes in pre-Christian times, nor would deny that immersion was the standard form of baptism in the early Christian church.[Page 142]

With respect to traditions concerning the antiquity of baptism, we note in passing that not only the book of Moses but also several Islamic, Christian, Mandaean, and Manichaean accounts speak of the baptism of Adam and Eve.¹⁵⁹

Some scholars, including Stephen D. Ricks¹⁶⁰ and David J. Larsen,¹⁶¹ have argued that the water symbolism of baptism is better understood when it is compared and contrasted with separate rituals in ancient Israel wherein the king was washed and anointed, both prior to his initiation and also at regular renewals of his right to rule.

For example, Larsen writes:¹⁶²

We learn from the Bible that the … king was washed and purified, likely at the spring of Gihon.¹⁶³ He was anointed on the head with a perfumed olive oil that was kept in a horn in[Page 143]

the sanctuary.¹⁶⁴ He was clothed in robes and also wore a priestly apron (ephod¹⁶⁵), sash,¹⁶⁶ and diadem/headdress.¹⁶⁷ Finally, the king was consecrated a priest “after the order of Melchizedek.”¹⁶⁸

Relevant context for understanding these practices also can be found in the religious literature of ancient Mesopotamia. For example, in the story of Atrahasis we can trace the basic conception that water, spirit, and blood — the latter derived from the body of a slain deity — were the life-giving elements used by the gods in the creation of humankind.¹⁶⁹

In the seal of Gudea shown above, the bareheaded and nearly naked Gudea is introduced by a mediating deity to a seated god. The mediating god presents a vase featuring a seedling and flowing water to the seated god. Water flows from the seated god himself into flowing vases, no doubt anticipating the sprouting of seedlings that have yet to appear. The scene suggested is one of rebirth and transformation: drawing on the phraseology of the Gospel of John we might conjecture that having been “born of water,” the king, in likeness both of the sprout within the flowing vase and the god to which he is being introduced, is also to become a “well of water springing up into everlasting life.” A sculpture of Gudea attests to just such an interpretation, where Gudea himself is shown, with his head now covered, holding a vase of flowing water in likeness of the seated god.

A comparative analysis of the full set of rituals of kingship at Mari in Old Babylon and in the Old Testament¹⁷⁰ concluded that none of the major themes of Mesopotamian kingship ritual, including the roles that water plays in those rites,¹⁷¹ should be unfamiliar to students of the Bible.[Page 144]

Indeed, as John Walton correctly observes, “the ideology of the temple is not noticeably different in Israel than it is in the ancient Near East. The difference is in the God, not in the way the temple functions in relation to the God.”¹⁷²

David Calabro has explored the possibility that a text with an outline similar to the book of Moses may have been used in Solomon’s Temple to instruct and guide initiates through specific areas where instruction was given and rituals were performed. Of relevance to the present discussion is the connection he suggests between the text of Moses 6 and the “molten sea” that stood in front of the temple.¹⁷³ After discussing several clues supporting his thesis from the book of Moses, Calabro concludes:

While there is no evidence that the temple laver was used as a baptismal font, it was definitely large enough to suggest such a use, and Joseph Smith’s specifications for a baptismal font modeled after the Solomonic laver for the Nauvoo temple show that he understood it in this connection.

It is evident that two distinct sorts of water ordinances — namely baptism by immersion and washing as part of priestly or kingly initiation — became confused in the first centuries after Christ, making it difficult to know which of which one is meant when Christian scripture or tradition mentions the use of water in religious ritual.¹⁷⁴ Indeed, as religious practices evolved, rituals resembling washing, anointing, and clothing were sometimes performed as part of “baptism.”

For example, in some Christian baptismal traditions the idea of “reversing the blows of death” was represented by a special anointing with the “oil of mercy” prior to (or sometimes after) “baptism,”[Page 145]

as the candidate was signed upon the brow, the nostrils, the breast, the ears, and so forth.¹⁷⁵

It was commonly accepted by some Christians that the precedent for such anointings went back to the beginning of time. For instance, in the pseudepigraphal Life of Adam and Eve, we can read an incident where Adam, as he lay on his deathbed, requested Eve and Seth to fetch him oil from the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden so that he could be restored to life.¹⁷⁶

[Page 146]

Some traditions describe how the baptismal candidate was “stripped of the garments inherited from Adam and vested with the token of those garments he or she shall enjoy at the resurrection.”¹⁷⁷ In other traditions, the baptismal candidates “stood [barefoot] on animal skins while they prayed, symbolizing the taking off of the garments of skin they had inherited from Adam” as well as figuratively enacting the putting of the serpent, the representative of death and sin, under one’s heel. Thus the serpent, his head crushed by the heel of the penitent relying on the mercies of Christ’s atonement, was by a single act renounced, defeated, and banished.[Page 147]

4. The context of circumcision in Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus about being “born again.” A passage from Joseph Smith’s translation of Genesis, discussed in more detail below, highlights the importance of the relationship between baptism as revealed in the beginning to Adam and Eve and the later institution of the Old Testament ordinance of circumcision through God’s command to Abraham. Samuel Zinner describes the relationship between baptism and circumcision as part of the generally underappreciated context for the dialogue of Jesus and Nicodemus about the importance of being “born again”:¹⁷⁸

It is perhaps not usually recognized that implicit in John 3’s discussion on the new birth and baptism is the topic of circumcision. Early Christian theology understood baptism as a spiritual circumcision for Gentile adherents of the Jesus sect.¹⁷⁹ Rabbinic sources also understand proselyte immersion as a new and spiritual birth. In John 3:4 Jesus’ teaching on rebirth in verse 3 naturally brings circumcision to Nicodemus’ mind, so that in effect he asks, how can a male adult return to the state of infancy and be circumcised again? The (rhetorical) confusion in the discussion arises because Jesus is teaching that a circumcised Jewish male adult must be reborn spiritually. Nicodemus’ thought is that Jewish males are already spiritually reborn from the time of their [Page 148]infant circumcision. Only Gentile proselytes stand in need of spiritual rebirth. In fact, Jesus is referring to John’s baptism of repentance¹⁸⁰ for Jews, and Jesus’ imperative, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” alludes to the necessity of John’s baptism of repentance, and forms part of the background of John 3:5’s “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” an allusion to John 1:26’s baptism with water and 1:33’s baptism with the Holy Spirit.¹⁸¹ Jesus’ point in John 3 is that Jews need spiritual circumcision in addition to the physical rite, a traditional enough prophetic tanakhic trope.¹⁸² In 1QS V we see that spiritual circumcision is demanded in the “community”: “circumcise in the Community the foreskin of his tendency and of his stiff neck” [1QS V 5]. This follows 1QS IV’s teaching on immersion, which matches the pattern established already by Ezekiel¹⁸³ who speaks of cleansing water followed by the insertion of a new spirit and heart: … [Such] Qumran passage[s], like John the [Baptist’s] and Jesus’ baptismal teachings, [do] not suggest that [baptism] replaces circumcision, but that it complements and perfects it.

5. Circumcision, covenant, and baptism in antiquity and in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Consistent with the linkages between circumcision, covenant, and baptism suggested by Zinner are many allusions to these subjects both in antiquity and in Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

For example, consider Isaiah 48:1 as it is quoted in 1 Nephi 20:1. This gloss (clarifying comment) by Joseph Smith first appeared in the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon:¹⁸⁴

Hearken and hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, or out of the waters of baptism, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, yet they swear not in truth nor in righteousness.

The term “waters” within the phrase “come forth out of the waters of Judah” might be more plainly rendered as “the belly or loins of Judah,” a poetical reference to the literal seed of the body out of which the corporeal descendants of Judah are propagated. For this reason, one might see in this phrase an allusion to the covenant of circumcision, a covenant that was not only made necessary for Abraham[Page 149]

and his biological posterity but also, significantly, something to which all those who had been “adopted” into his household were required to submit.¹⁸⁵ Joseph Smith’s gloss — the disjunctive phrase “or out of the waters of baptism” — expands Isaiah’s reference to include Gentiles who could become part of covenant Israel by adoption through proselyte baptism, consistent with 3 Nephi 30:2: “Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; … and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel.”¹⁸⁶

An even more pointed reference connecting the themes of circumcision and baptism can be found in the mention of the “blood of Abel” within Joseph Smith’s translation of the book of Genesis. The neglect of this passage by scholars argues for a detailed treatment here.

The story of Abel has always been linked with the idea of proper sacrifice¹⁸⁷ — indeed his name seems to be a deliberate pun on the richness of the sacrifice that he will make, in contrast to the stingy offering of Cain:¹⁸⁸ “And Abel [hebel], he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof” [ûmēḥelĕbēhen — in other words, from the fatlings, the richest or best part of the herd]. Not only does the Hebrew word ḥēleb denote “fat,” but also the word ûmēḥelĕbēhen “contains within itself the name of hbl [Abel] …reversed”— i.e., ûmēḥelĕbēhen, thus strengthening the pun.¹⁸⁹

[Page 150]

Remember that in the book of Hebrews, the shedding of Abel’s blood was seen as a type of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.¹⁹⁰ With respect to his place among the biblical canon of martyrs, Hamilton writes: “Abel is coupled with Zechariah¹⁹¹ as the first¹⁹² and the last¹⁹³ victims of murder mentioned in the Old Testament. … Understandably Abel is characterized as ‘innocent.’”¹⁹⁴

The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible connects the death of the righteous Abel to an anomalous ordinance for little children consisting of the sprinkling of blood coupled with “washing” that is denounced in jst Genesis 17:3–7:¹⁹⁵

[Page 151]And it came to pass, that Abram fell on his face, and called upon the name of the Lord.

And God talked to him, saying, My people have gone astray from my precepts, and have not kept mine ordinances, which I gave unto their fathers;

And they have not observed mine anointing,¹⁹⁶ and the burial, or baptism wherewith I commanded them;

But have turned from the commandment, and taken unto themselves the washing or baptism¹⁹⁷ of children, and the blood of sprinkling;¹⁹⁸

And have said that the blood of the righteous Abel was shed for sins; and have not known wherein they are accountable before me.

To counteract this practice, we are told that the Lord established the covenant of circumcision at the age of eight days,¹⁹⁹ “that thou mayest know for ever that children are not accountable before me till [they are] eight years old.”²⁰⁰ D&C 68:25–28, received later in the same year that jst Genesis 17 was translated, also emphasizes that children are not accountable until eight years old.²⁰¹

[Page 152]

In remarkable resonance with Joseph Smith’s translation, the central figure of Abel is associated with the rituals of water immersion among the Mandaeans.²⁰³ Indeed, Abel (often called Hibil Ziwa = Abel Splendor), who is often identified with the roles of redeemer and savior, was said to have performed the first baptism — that of Adam, who prefigures every later Mandaean candidate for these repeated rituals.²⁰⁴

Following the ceremonies of immersion, the Mandaeans still continue ritual practices that include anointing and the pronouncing of the names of the gods upon the individual.²⁰⁵ The kushta, a ceremonial handclasp, is given three times in the ritual, each one of which, according to Elizabeth Drower, “seems to mark the completion … of a stage in a ceremony.”²⁰⁶ At the moment of glorious resurrection, Mandaean scripture records that a final kushta will also take place, albeit in the form of an embrace, called the “key of the kushta of both arms.”²⁰⁷

The concept of an “atoning embrace”²⁰⁸ can be compared with similar imagery in Jacob’s wrestle with the angel²⁰⁹ and his subsequent encounter with Esau;²¹⁰ in the reconciliation of the father with his prodigal son in Jesus’ parable;²¹¹ and especially in the eschatological embraces of Enoch’s Zion and Latter-day Zion described in Moses 7:63: “Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other.”²¹²

[Page 153]

Equally relevant to jst Genesis 17:3–7 is Hebrews 12:24, which speaks of the saints coming “to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”²¹³ To Craig Koester, this suggests the idea that “Abel’s blood brought a limited atonement, while Jesus’ blood brought complete atonement.”²¹⁴ With reference to Hebrews 11:4, Joseph Smith said that Abel “holding still the keys of his dispensation … was sent down from heaven unto Paul to minister consoling words, and to commit unto him a knowledge of the mysteries of godliness.”²¹⁵

The practice of swearing “by the holy blood of Abel” is portrayed in early Christian and Islamic accounts of the efforts of the antediluvian patriarchs to dissuade their posterity from leaving the “holy mountain” to associate with the children of Cain.²¹⁶ Serge Ruzer interprets this as evidence for the existence of a group that looked to Abel rather than to Christ for salvation. He concludes that the “emphasis here [is] on the salvific quality of Abel’s blood. … Swearing by Abel’s blood … is presented in our text as sufficient for the salvation of the sons of Seth; those who dwell — thanks to swearing by Abel’s blood — on the holy mountain do not need any further salvation.”²¹⁷

[Page 154]

Additional evidence suggesting a belief in salvific power for Abel’s blood comes from a 1 Enoch description of Abel as a “red calf.” Patrick Tiller sees this as an allusion to the red heifer²¹⁸ of Numbers 19:1 10.²¹⁹ The great Jewish scholar Maimonides saw the ritual of the red heifer not merely as law of purity, but rather as a matter “of transcendent, even salvific weight and meaning.”²²⁰ The red heifer pointedly was a young animal used in purification rites (comprising a washing and a sprinkling of blood²²¹) for those who had come into contact with “one … found slain” and “lying in the field,”²²² as was Abel. A widely varying set of Islamic accounts attempt to explain the origin of a related Qur’anic story;²²³ what these accounts have in common is the idea that the murderer denied his crime but was identified by the voice of the dead man who was touched by the sacrificial animal.²²⁴ Could this be an echo of the righteous Abel, of whom scriptures says his “blood cries unto [God] from the ground”²²⁵ — wherein “he being dead yet speaketh”?²²⁶

In summary, there is ample evidence from a variety of sources dating to at least the Second Temple period to support the plausibility of the account in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible wherein anomalous rituals for little children purporting to cleanse them by washing and the sprinkling of blood are coupled with the erroneous idea that “the blood of the righteous Abel was shed for sins.”²²⁷ As a figure associated anciently with sacrifice, baptism, and innocent martyrdom, Abel arguably could have attracted religious notions of this character. Additionally, the rationale for the institution of circumcision in the Joseph Smith [Page 155]Translation is also consistent with Samuel Zinner’s conclusion about the symbolic connection between circumcision and baptism in its New Testament context: namely, that baptism was not meant to replace “circumcision, but [rather] that it complements and perfects it.”²²⁸

6. Digression: Baptism and ritual washings as illustrations of the nature of all ordinances. Before concluding our discussion of the symbolism of water in spiritual rebirth, we digress to show how baptism and ritual washings provide a paradigmatic illustration of the nature of all priesthood ordinances. We conclude from our brief discussion of baptism and ritual washings that they, when administered as authentic priesthood ordinances, are symbolic, salvific, interrelated and additive, retrospective, and anticipatory.

• Symbolic. Hugh Nibley defined the endowment as “a model, a presentation in figurative terms.”²²⁹ The same can be said for baptism, which Paul described as a symbol of death and resurrection.²³⁰ Like the parables of Jesus, the ordinances are meant to provide both an understanding of the spiritual universe in which we live and a model for personal conduct within that context. This is why the Lord condemns in such strong terms those who take their fundamental bearings from other, less perfect “instruments.” Such individuals are described as those who have “strayed from [His] ordinances,” who “seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness” but rather “walk in [their] own way and after the image of [their] own god, whose image is in the likeness of the [telestial, rather than the celestial,] world.”²³¹When our understanding of the universe and our place within it is based on our own warped conceptions instead of the blueprint of the celestial world provided in the ordinances, we will experience the frustration of mistaken ambitions and stunted growth in the personal and social characteristics that matter most in eternity. On the other hand, repeated participation in sacred ordinances over the course of a lifetime allows us to deepen our understanding of “who we are, and who God is, and what our relationship to Him [and to His children] is.”²³²
• Salvific. President Joseph F. Smith taught:²³³
  

  I frequently hear people say, “All that is required of a man in this world is to be honest and square,” and that such a man will attain to exaltation and glory. But [Page 156]those who say this do not remember the saying of the Lord, that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of [God].”²³⁴

  While recognizing the superior forms of pedagogy embodied in the symbolism of the ordinances,²³⁵ Elder Bednar taught that we err if we think that their value is limited to inspired instruction. He said, citing D&C 84:19–21:²³⁶

  The ordinances of salvation and exaltation administered in the Lord’s restored Church are far more than rituals or symbolic performances. Rather, they constitute authorized channels through which the blessings and powers of heaven can flow into our individual lives.

  In other words, the realization of the promised endowment of knowledge and power promised in the ordinances requires that one be both informed and transformed.²³⁷ Indeed, the blessing of being “born again by the Spirit of God through ordinances,”²³⁸ in conjunction with the strengthening power of the atonement of Christ, is obtained only as individuals live for it — in a continual effort of obedience and service that strengthens the ties of covenant with which they are freely and lovingly bound to their Heavenly Father.²³⁹ Only by both understanding and conforming to the divine pattern given in the ordinances may individuals gradually experience an increasing measure of the joy of becoming all that God now is.

• Interrelated and additive. Elder Bednar explained:²⁴⁰
  

  The ordinances of baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament are not isolated and discrete events; rather, they are elements in an interrelated and additive pattern of redemptive progress. Each successive ordinance elevates and enlarges our spiritual purpose, desire, and performance. The Father’s plan, the Savior’s Atonement, and the ordinances of the Gospel provide the grace we need to press forward and progress line upon line and precept upon precept toward our eternal destiny.

  That the ordinances must be closely interrelated should be obvious — after all, each one is based on the same doctrine of Christ. Illustrating this point, Elder Bruce R. McConkie noted that three different ordinances — baptism, the sacrament, and [Page 157]animal sacrifice — were instituted at different times, are enacted using different symbolism, and are employed in different settings, however all are performed in association with one and the same covenant.²⁴¹ In other words, although each of these three ordinances fulfills a unique purpose and varies somewhat in what it signifies, all are “performed in similitude of the atoning sacrifice by which salvation comes.”²⁴² As an aside, we note in this connection that any adaptation of an ordinance to different times, cultures, and practical circumstances must be made by proper authority in order to minimize the possibility of changes that may alter it in crucial ways.

  It is likewise essential that the ordinances be additive. For example, just as baptism must be preceded by faith in Jesus Christ and sincere repentance,²⁴³ so the ongoing process of sanctification — made available to those who are confirmed, receive, and retain the gift of the Holy Ghost — can come only to those who have been prepared previously through baptism. Likewise, the initial budding of “the power of godliness” that is increasingly “manifest”²⁴⁴ in the lives of faithful members of the Church as they renew their prior covenants through the sacrament prepares them for the additional ordinances and covenants they will later receive in the temple.

  

  Figure 32. Greek Orthodox Icon Depicting the Ladder of Virtues, Thessaloniki, Macedonia.

  Further illustrating the additive nature of the ordinances, we note that faith, hope, and charity served anciently both as symbols of the three degrees of glory represented in the temple and also as stages in the disciple’s earthly experience marked by progression in the ordinances and the keeping of covenants. This same triad was represented both anciently and in the teachings, translations, and revelations of Joseph Smith as a ladder of heavenly ascent that must be mounted rung by rung.²⁴⁵

  

  Figure 33. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890): Le Moissonneur, 1889.

  [Page 158]Elder Bednar’s characterization of the “additive pattern of redemptive progress”²⁴⁶ suggests that those who are striving to become saints are passionate, not passive, about their discipleship. Like Abraham,²⁴⁷ they are driven by “divine discontent,”²⁴⁸ not being satisfied with the sort of minimal, negative obedience which requires only that they avoid the “appearance of sin,”²⁴⁹ but rather, seeking to be “anxiously engaged”²⁵⁰ in furthering the Father’s work with “all [their] heart, might, mind and strength.”²⁵¹ By this means, they eventually become capable of enduring all things, being filled with perfect faith, hope, and charity, their will “being swallowed up in the will of the Father”²⁵² to the point that, after a lifetime of faithfulness to every covenant they have received and through the strengthening power of the Atonement, they begin to approach the “measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”²⁵³

• Retrospective. An appreciation of the retrospective regard of the ordinances clears up any confusion about the relationship between baptism and other water ordinances.²⁵⁴ Since the time of Adam, baptism has been the first,²⁵⁵ introductory²⁵⁶ saving ordinance of the Gospel given in mortal life, and any similarities between baptism and later ordinances of washing are meant to highlight and build upon that resemblance retrospectively.Further illustrating the retrospective regard of later washing ordinances, we would suggest that their significance harks back before baptism, echoing earlier events that occurred in the premortal life. For example, it appears that the ordinance received[Page 159]

by Aaron when he was “wash[ed],” “anoint[ed],” and clothed in “holy garments … so that he [might] minister unto [the Lord] in the priest’s office”²⁵⁷ recapitulated his foreordination to this priesthood calling when he was “wash’d and set apart”²⁵⁸ in the premortal world. Consistent with the teachings of Joseph Smith,²⁵⁹ Alma 13 states that “[high] priests were ordained after the order of [God’s] Son, … being called and prepared from the foundation of the world … with that holy calling … according to a preparatory redemption for such.”²⁶⁰ Similarly, President Spencer W. Kimball taught that in premortal life, faithful women were also given assignments to be carried out later on earth.²⁶¹

Speaking of Christ as the premortal prototype for all those who were foreordained to priestly offices and subsequently ordained in mortal life, the Gospel of Philip suggests that the general meaning, symbolism, and sequence of the ordinances has always been the same: “He who … [was begotten] before everything was begotten anew [i.e., “by the water”²⁶²]. He [who was] once [anointed] was anointed anew [i.e., “by the Spirit”²⁶³]. He who was redeemed in turn redeemed (others) [i.e., “by the blood”²⁶⁴].”²⁶⁵

• Anticipatory. [Page 160]Because the round of eternity²⁶⁶ is embedded in the ordinances, we would expect them not only to be retrospective but also anticipatory in nature. For example, in Moses 5 Adam learns that the ordinance of animal sacrifice was instituted in explicit anticipation of the sacrifice “of the Only Begotten of the Father”²⁶⁷ — just as, of course, the ordinance of the sacrament looks back retrospectively on that same expiatory sacrifice. With regard to the sacrifice of Isaac, Hugh Nibley asked:
  

  Is it surprising that the sacrifice of Isaac looked both forward and back, as “Isaac thought of himself as the type of offerings to come, while Abraham thought of himself as atoning for the guilt of Adam,” or that “as Isaac was being bound on the altar, the spirit of Adam, the first man, was being bound with him”?²⁶⁸ It was natural for Christians to view the sacrifice of Isaac as a type of the crucifixion, yet it is the Jewish sources that comment most impressively on the sacrifice of the Son. When at the creation of the world angels asked, “What is man that You should remember him?”²⁶⁹ God replied: “You shall see a father slay his son, and the son consenting to be slain, to sanctify My Name.”²⁷⁰

  In this regard, we note that Abraham is unique in scripture in that he came to understand Christ’s atonement both from the perspective of a father²⁷¹ and also from that of a son.²⁷²
  As another example of the anticipatory nature of the ordinances, recall the witness of jst Genesis 17:11 that the divine introduction of circumcision in the time of Abraham, somewhat like the ordinance of naming and blessing of little children in our day, was important not only in its own right, but also because it pointed forward to the ordinance of baptism. Remember that a primary reason for the institution of the practice of circumcision was “that thou mayest know for ever that children are not accountable before me till [they are] eight years old.”²⁷³ The blood shed in circumcision, whose mark remained in the child as a permanent “sign” in the flesh,²⁷⁴ could be understood as a symbol of arrested sacrifice²⁷⁵ that invited retrospective reflection on the universal salvation of little children through the blood of Christ’s atonement. At the same time, the symbolism of[Page 161]

  

  Figure 35. Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651): The Circumcision, 1601.

  circumcision also implicitly facilitated a correct, anticipatory understanding of the necessity of justification accomplished through “the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins”²⁷⁶ that was meant to accompany the baptism of children when they reach the age of accountability.
  Note also that the symbolism of death and resurrection in the ordinance of baptism anticipates the instruction and covenants of the temple endowment that further detail the responsibilities and blessings of those who will pass through the veil to rise in the first resurrection.²⁷⁷ Similarly, the initiatory ordinance of washing, anointing, and clothing²⁷⁸ provides an anticipatory, capsule summary of all the ordinances. More specifically, one might conclude that the structure of the initiatory ordinance of the temple reflects the threefold symbolism of water, spirit, and blood found in Moses 6, thus outlining the path of exaltation that is further elaborated in the endowment. In addition, the anticipatory nature of the initiatory ordinance is captured in Truman G. Madsen’s description of it as “a patriarchal blessing to every organ and attribute and power of our being, a blessing that is to be fulfilled in this world and the next.”²⁷⁹

  [Page 162]

  

  Figure 36. Linda McCarthy (1947–): City of Enoch, 2002.

  Going further — and consistent with the idea that the temple is a model or analog rather than an actual picture of reality — Elder John A. Widtsoe taught that the essential earthly ordinances anticipate or, perhaps more precisely, prefigure heavenly ordinances in which eternal truths and blessings will be taught and bestowed in a more perfect and finished form:²⁸⁰

  Great eternal truths make up the Gospel plan. All regulations for man’s earthly guidance have their eternal spiritual counterparts. The earthly ordinances of the Gospel are themselves only reflections of heavenly ordinances. For instance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and temple work are merely earthly symbols of realities that prevail throughout the universe; but they are symbols of truths that must be recognized if the Great Plan is to be fulfilled. The acceptance of these earthly symbols is part and parcel of correct earth life, but being earthly symbols they are distinctly of the earth and cannot be accepted elsewhere than on earth. [Page 163]In order that absolute fairness may prevail and eternal justice may be satisfied, all men. to attain the fulness of their joy, must accept these earthly ordinances. There is no water baptism in the next estate nor any conferring of the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of earthly hands. The equivalents of these ordinances prevail no doubt in every estate, but only as they are given on this earth can they be made to aid, in their onward progress, those who have dwelt on earth.

  The distinction between earthly and heavenly ordinances is perfectly expressed in the ot1 manuscript version of Moses 6:59. It is true that the first part of the verse might seem to imply that the culminating earthly ordinances, whose cleansing power is provided by “the blood of mine Only Begotten,” provide a complete initiation “into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” in this life. However, the verse closes by making a distinction between the “words of eternal life” — meaning both the revelations of the Holy Spirit with regard to temple ordinances and, ultimately, the sure promise of exaltation that can only be received in an anticipatory way “in this world” — and “eternal life” itself, which can only be granted “in the world to come.”²⁸¹

 

By way of summary, we might say that the ordinances associated with water, spirit and blood are saturated with symbolism. Indeed, Elder John A. Widtsoe specifically described the endowment as being “so packed full of revelations … that no human words can explain or make [them] clear.”²⁸² More specifically, we might say that the ordinances are overloaded with a superabundant profusion of meanings, overdetermined in the tangible forms that they take, and deliberately overlaid in successive refinement so as to facilitate incremental growth of understanding and practical application in the lives of those who receive them. Like the cruse of oil blessed by Elijah and the inexhaustible pitcher of Baucis and Philemon, study of and participation in the ordinances will continually pour out new depths of meaning to those who are spiritually prepared to receive them.²⁸³

As the joint purport of the ordinances is gradually revealed to faithful disciples, they begin to see how their several meanings function as keys to the dense conceptual and practical nexus at the heart of the Gospel; reverberating in harmony throughout the parallel yet interwoven conceptual realms of doctrines, ordinances, and covenants; and ultimately, in their transformative power, unlocking the “power of godliness”²⁸⁴ that constitutes the supreme significance and purpose of Creation.[Page 164]

Both in their additive auto-resemblance and in their Janus-like anticipatory and retrospective regard, the fractal nature of the ordinances is made apparent, with the beauty of their self-similar patterns becoming even more impressive under bright light and increasingly closer examination. There is glory in the details.

“By the Spirit Ye Are Justified”

Now we turn our attention to the second phrase in Moses 6:60: “by the Spirit ye are justified.” As in the previous discussion of the water ordinances of baptism and washings, the symbolic, salvific, interrelated, additive, retrospective, and anticipatory nature of the ordinances of spiritual rebirth associated with the Spirit will become apparent.

Before delving deeper into this subject, we will discuss four fundamental questions about justification and sanctification:

1. What does it mean to be justified? [Page 165]Simply put, individuals become “just” — in other words, innocent before God and ready for a covenant relationship with Him — when they demonstrate sufficient repentance to qualify for an “initial cleansing from sin”²⁸⁵ “by the Spirit,”²⁸⁶ thus having had the demands of justice satisfied on their behalf through the Savior’s atoning blood.²⁸⁷

2. But don’t the scriptures refer specifically to “baptism for the remission of sins”?²⁸⁸ Because “baptism” and “remission of sins”²⁸⁹ occur together so often in telescoped scripture references, the role of the Spirit as the agent for the process of justification is easily forgotten. However, a survey of scripture will reveal that “remission of sins” is mentioned most frequently in verses that omit any mention of baptism. In these and other references, remission of sins is typically coupled with the preparatory principles of faith or repentance rather than with the ordinance of baptism itself.²⁹⁰

Although baptism by proper authority is a commandment that must be strictly observed to meet the divine requirement for entrance into the kingdom of God, it is but the necessary, outward sign of one’s willingness to take upon oneself the name of Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. A significant phrase in D&C 20:37 explains with precision that it is not the performance of the baptismal ordinance that cleanses, but rather the individuals’ having “truly manifest[ed] by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto a remission of their sins” — a requirement that, according to this verse, is clearly intended to precede water baptism.²⁹¹ In other words, strictly speaking, it is not baptism but rather the fact of having “received of the Spirit of Christ” as the result of faith and repentance that is responsible for the mighty “change of state” wherewith individuals are “wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost”²⁹² — for “by the Spirit ye are justified.”²⁹³

3. How do the ongoing processes of justification and sanctification complement and sustain one another? To adapt imagery from C. S. Lewis,²⁹⁴ it might be said that the interwoven processes of justification and sanctification are as complementary and mutually necessary as the two blades of a pair of scissors. Just as the Spirit of Christ should be received prior to baptism so that individuals may receive an initial, justificatory remission of sins, so the Holy Ghost should be received and cherished after baptism and confirmation, so that individuals may benefit from the availability of its constant,²⁹⁵ ongoing²⁹⁶ sanctifying influence.[Page 166]

Without justification, the sanctifying “companionship and power of the Holy Ghost”²⁹⁷ are not operative. For just as “no unclean thing can dwell … in [God’s] presence,”²⁹⁸ so the “Holy Ghost [cannot] dwell in”²⁹⁹ unclean individuals.³⁰⁰ And without sanctification, those who have been made clean through the justifying Spirit of Christ could never gain access to the strengthening power that will enable them “to keep the commandments of God and grow in holiness.”³⁰¹

The “companionship and power of the Holy Ghost”³⁰² are available for the ongoing work of sanctification only so long as individuals live worthy to maintain its presence. When those on the path of sanctification fail to keep the commandments, they must repent and be made clean again before they can continue their onward growth along the path of sanctification. In this fashion, the complementary processes of justification (remission of sins) and sanctification (the gradual changing of one’s nature that allows individuals to become “new creatures”³⁰³ in Christ) may operate, if we so choose, throughout our lives, preparing us eventually to be spiritually reborn in the ultimate sense.³⁰⁴

Aided by repeated preparation for and participation in the ordinance of the sacrament, we can “always retain [a justificatory] remission of our sins”³⁰⁵ and we can “always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us”³⁰⁶ for the ongoing work of sanctification.[Page 167]

This figure superposes the sequence of justification, sanctification, and exaltation upon the layout of ordinance rooms on the second floor of the Salt Lake Temple. It is meant to illustrate how justification and sanctification can be seen from a different but equally valid perspective as sequential steps instead of as interwoven parts of a parallel process.³⁰⁷ Justification and sanctification, the two initial steps of this sequence, are described in imagery from King Benjamin’s speech. He exhorts his people, first, to “[put] off the natural man” (without which one cannot be “clothed upon with robes of righteousness”³⁰⁸) and, second, for each to “become a saint,” “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him.” He emphasizes that this fundamental transformation, by which a “natural man” may become a “saint” if he so chooses, is made possible “through the atonement of Christ the Lord.”³⁰⁹

From this perspective, we might consider the initial remission of sins through the Spirit, the ordinance of baptism (distinct from washing, yet related to it through the use of water), and the receiving of the gift of the Holy Ghost after confirmation as accomplishing the first step of justification, by which we “put off the natural man.”³¹⁰ Through their continued faith³¹¹ in Jesus Christ and faithfulness³¹² in keeping the commandments, individuals living in a telestial world may progress to a point where they can be “quickened by a portion of the terrestrial glory.”³¹³

[Page 168]In the process of sanctification associated with progress of a terrestrial nature, individuals may become “saints”³¹⁴ in very deed. Having been “quickened by a portion of the terrestrial glory,” they continue to “receive of the same” unto “a fulness”³¹⁵ through additional ordinances and the ongoing, sanctifying anointing,³¹⁶ as it were, of the Spirit of the Lord. Finally — having received a “fulness” of the terrestrial glory, having experienced a “perfect brightness of hope”³¹⁷ (as described by Nephi), “a more excellent hope”³¹⁸ (as described by Mormon), or “the full assurance of hope”³¹⁹ (as described by Paul),³²⁰ and having demonstrated their capacity for supreme self-sacrifice as required by the law of consecration, and being filled with “charity[,] … the pure love of Christ,”³²¹ — these individuals can be “sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood.”³²² In this manner, they are sanctified by the blood, “quickened by a portion of the celestial glory”³²³ and made ready to “behold the face of God.”³²⁴

In the process of exaltation, individuals who have been previously “cleansed by blood, even the blood of [the] Only Begotten; that [they] might be sanctified from all sin”³²⁵ may then go on to receive additional blessings in the celestial world, being “crowned with honor, … glory, … immortality,”³²⁶ and “eternal lives.”³²⁷ The Lord declared that these individuals shall be “clothed upon, even as I am, to be one with me, that we may be one.”³²⁸

4. Do justification and sanctification come by the Spirit or through the Savior? Justification and sanctification are accomplished through the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost³²⁹ and, at the same time, made possible through the atonement of Christ. Therefore, it is no contradiction when scripture testifies both that we are “sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost”³³⁰ and also that it is “by the blood [we] are sanctified.”³³¹ D&C 20:30–31 states that both “justification” and “sanctification” come “through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”³³²

Confirmation, Anointing, and the Sanctifying Influence of the Holy Ghost. Specific gestures have been divinely prescribed for the ordinance of confirmation and for subsequent ordinances of anointing. While the form of baptism recalls the symbolism of death and resurrection, the laying of hands on the head³³³ that is used in confirmation suggests a retrospective regard toward the scriptural account of the creation of Adam wherein God “breathed into his nostrils[Page 169]

the breath of life.”³³⁴ In this respect, recall also the account in John 20:22, when Jesus “breathed on [His disciples], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” As Joseph Smith highlighted the importance of the manner in which baptism is performed, describing it as a “sign,” so did he refer to the symbolic evocation of the breath of life in “the laying on of hands,” by which the Holy Ghost is given, ordinations are performed, and the sick are healed, as a “sign.” He said pointedly that if such ordinances were not performed in the way God had appointed they “would fail.”³³⁵

In this context, we might recall what Jesus said when Peter wanted him to wash his head and hands in addition to his feet: “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”³³⁶ The Lord’s reply to Peter suggests why, in similar fashion, the laying of hands on the head within various ordinances equates to a blessing for the entire body.

With regard to ordinances of anointing that are associated with the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, biblical and Egyptian sources associate the receiving of “divine breath” not merely with an infusion of life, but also with royal status.³³⁷ For example, Isaiah attributes the presence of the Spirit of the Lord to a prior messianic anointing — the anointing oil, like divine breath, being a symbol of new life: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me.”³³⁸

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Anointing followed by an outpouring of the Spirit is documented as part of the rites of kingship in ancient Israel, as when Samuel anointed David “and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.”³³⁹

Note that in Israelite practice, as witnessed in the examples of David and Solomon, the moment when the individual was made king would not necessarily have been the time of his first anointing. The culminating anointing of the king corresponding to his definite investiture was sometimes preceded by a prior princely anointing. LeGrand Baker and Stephen Ricks describe “several incidents in the Old Testament where a prince was first anointed to become king, and later, after he had proven himself, was anointed again — this time as actual king.”³⁴⁰ Modern Latter-day Saints can compare this idea to the conditional promises they receive in association with ordinances and blessings, which are to be realized only through their continued faithfulness. Further emphasizing the anticipatory nature of this ordinance, Brigham Young explained that “a person may be anointed king and priest long before he receives his kingdom.”³⁴¹

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In modern times one can still see vestiges of the symbolism of anointing, royal status, and the Holy Spirit brought together. For example, prior to the British ceremonies of coronation, in the holiest rite of that service, the monarch is “divested of … robes,” clothed in simple white linen, and “screened from the general view” to be “imbued with grace” through the Archbishop’s anointing with holy oil “on hand, breast and forehead.”³⁴²

Just as the separate yet interrelated rites of baptism and subsequent washings with water became blurred in early Christianity, so also the distinctive ordinances of confirmation and anointing have become confused in some religious traditions. For example, the Armenian liturgy includes two anointings — “one with unperfumed oil before the baptism and the other, after it, with the myron or perfumed oil.”³⁴³

From modern revelation it is clear that just as baptism is the first ordinance of the Gospel, administered by the authority of the Aaronic Priesthood, with later ordinances of washing looking back retrospectively upon it, so confirmation for the gift of the Holy Ghost is the first ordinance administered by the Melchizedek Priesthood. In “interrelated” and “additive”³⁴⁴ fashion, temple initiatory ordinances of washing and anointing echo and build upon the ordinances of baptism and confirmation. Substantiating the idea that anointing ordinances were not meant to be restricted only to a small subset of disciples, Tertullian described how in his day all newly “baptized” Christians[Page 172]

were anointed. He stated that this was “a practice derived from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, men were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses. Whence Aaron is called ‘christ,’ from the ‘chrism,’ which is the unction [or oil of anointing].”³⁴⁵

The initiatory anointing is not only retrospective but also looks forward in anticipation to subsequent confirmatory anointings and sealing blessings wherein disciples imitate the Christ. Indeed, Pseudo-Clement’s Recognitions 1:45:2 defines the Greek title “Christ” (equivalent to the Hebrew “Messiah,” meaning “Anointed One”) with reference to an anointing of oil administered by God Himself: “Although indeed He was the Son of God, and the beginning of all things, He became man; Him first God anointed with oil which was taken from the wood of the Tree of Life: from that anointing therefore He is called Christ.”³⁴⁶

C. S. Lewis succinctly expressed the principle behind the practice of anointing all Christians: “Every Christian is to become a little christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”³⁴⁷

“By the Blood Ye Are Sanctified”

Of course, becoming a “little christ” is not a process that ends with an anticipatory anointing. There is a double meaning in the phrase “by the blood ye are sanctified,”³⁴⁸ as was expressed in the previously cited words about Christ from the Gospel of Philip: “He who was redeemed in turn redeemed (others).”³⁴⁹ Although redemption itself comes only “in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son,”³⁵⁰ it might also be said regarding those who have been “ordained after the[Page 173]

order of [the] Son”:³⁵¹ He who was redeemed with “a preparatory redemption”³⁵² in turn must assist “with all [his] heart, might, mind and strength”³⁵³ to bring about the redemption of others. In brief, those who would follow Christ “to the end,”³⁵⁴ must continue to move beyond the keeping of the initiatory law of obedience and sacrifice toward the complete dedication required by the law of consecration.³⁵⁵

Before saying more on this point, we will examine the role of blood in the context of the ordinances — for “by the blood ye are sanctified.”³⁵⁶

Blood as a Symbol of Sanctification. The first explicit mention of “blood” in the Bible is Genesis 4:10–11, when Abel’s blood cried to God from the ground as a plea of redress for Cain’s murder, and the earth in turn from thenceforth refused to yield its strength to the perpetrator of the crime.³⁵⁷

The deliberate consumption of blood has been practiced in many cultures because “popular thought had it that one could renew or reinforce one’s vitality through its absorption of blood.”³⁵⁸ Intriguingly, an alternate reading of Moses 6:29 given in the ot1 manuscript, describes a wicked Cain-like people who, “by their oaths, … have eat[en] unto themselves death.”³⁵⁹ If this variant is not a scribal error, it may indicate a corrupt practice where participation by those who were ritually unclean was condemned,³⁶⁰ or perhaps even the “eating” of blood itself. Later, God said to Noah: “the blood of all flesh which I have given you for meat shall be shed upon the ground which taketh the life thereof and the blood ye shall not eat.”³⁶¹

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Because blood was a symbol of life,³⁶² it was used in Israelite temples for “the altar [of sacrifice] to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul”³⁶³ — thus symbolizing justification.

Consistent with this temple symbolism, Exodus 24:8 recounts how blood was sprinkled on Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai to ratify the divine covenant, thus making it binding. In contrast to this lesser, justificatory sprinkling on all the people, an additional sprinkling of blood on the group that accompanied Moses on his ascent of the mountain symbolized sanctification. As a result of this second sprinkling, they were enabled immediately thereafter to see Jehovah standing above what seems to be the kapporet or mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, where the High Priest applied atoning blood to the Ark of the Covenant.³⁶⁴ Following a similar description of the appearance of the Lord in the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were told: “your sins are forgiven you [in other words, they were justified]; you are clean before me [in other words, they were sanctified].”³⁶⁵

Related symbolism is apparent in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. When Isaiah was taken up to the presence of God to receive his prophetic commission, “one of the seraphims” flew to him:³⁶⁶

having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

[Page 175]Presumably the coal, “taken … off the altar”³⁶⁷ of incense that “purged” (literally “atoned for”³⁶⁸) Isaiah’s sin previously had been sprinkled with sacrificial blood. Thus, symbolically, his lips had been sanctified by blood of Jesus Christ (who, arguably, may have been the very “one of the seraphims” mentioned in the verse), preparing him to speak with God.

Incidentally, the English word “blood” has an interesting derivation that leads back from Old English to a Proto-Germanic term.³⁶⁹ The Old Norse noun blót (verb blóta), which derives from the same Proto Germanic root, was the term for both “sacrifice” and “worship.”³⁷⁰ The old roots are also connected with the modern English terms “bliss” and “bless,”³⁷¹ the latter by means of pre-Christian rites where blood was sprinkled on pagan altars or other objects to make them holy.³⁷²

Being “Sealed Up to Eternal Life.” Elder Bednar has explained: “Purifying and sealing by the Holy Spirit of Promise constitute the culminating steps in the process of being born again.”³⁷³ Those who are sanctified have “their garments

washed white through the blood of the Lamb.”³⁷⁴ Note that the Hebrew word for washing clothes — kābas (כָּבַס) — is very similar in sound to a word for “lamb” — kebeś (ׂכֶּ֫בֶש), suggesting a possible word play.

Although it is not unusual for lesser blessings, ordinances, and ordinations to be sealed upon the heads of individuals,³⁷⁵ the supreme manifestation of the sealing power occurs when one’s calling and election is “made sure” or, in other words, when one is “sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy.”³⁷⁶ To be sealed in this ultimate sense requires taking upon oneself both the divine name and the divine form — just as Jesus Christ was “the express image”³⁷⁷ of the Father.

[Page 176]In former times, seals provided a unique stamp of identity on important documents — the image of the author being transferred, as it were, to the document itself.³⁷⁸ Similarly, Luke T. Johnson sees the scriptural concept of sealing as both an empowering and an “imprinting” process,³⁷⁹ recalling Alma’s words about receiving God’s “image” in our countenances.³⁸⁰

Using similar imagery, Paul described his beloved Corinthian saints as “the epistle of Christ … , written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” These saints, “with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord” were to be “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”³⁸¹

The Substitute Sacrifice of the Suffering Servant. “Properly, of course, the sinner’s own blood must be used [on the altar of sacrifice],” explained Hugh Nibley, “unless a go’el, a representative substitute advocate or redeemer, could be found to take one’s place. The willingness of the candidate to sacrifice his own life (the akedah) is symbolized by the blood on the right thumb and right earlobe, where the blood would be if the throat had been cut.”³⁸²

In the case of Isaac’s near sacrifice by Abraham, a sacrificial ram was supplied in his stead at the last moment.³⁸³

More significant, however, is the fact that:³⁸⁴

Isaac himself was a substitute. “In Jewish tradition,” writes Rosenberg, “Isaac is the prototype of the ‘Suffering Servant,’ bound upon the altar as a sacrifice.”³⁸⁵ Rosenberg has shown that the title of Suffering Servant was used in the ancient East to designate “the substitute king” — the noble victim. [Page 177]Accordingly, the “new Isaac” mentioned in Maccabees must be “a ‘substitute king’ who dies that the people might live.”³⁸⁶ The starting point in Rosenberg’s investigation is Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12, which “seems to constitute a portion of a ritual drama centering about a similar humiliation, culminating in death, of a ‘substitute’ for the figure of the king of the Jews.” … The [rite of] sacrifice of the substitute king is found all over the ancient world.

We have already observed that the servant song of Isaiah 52 applies not only to Jesus Christ, but also to others who may eventually qualify to become sons of Man or sons of God (with a small ‘s’). While the initial blessing of justification comes exclusively by means of a substitutionary offering on the altar of sacrifice in the temple courtyard — “relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save”³⁸⁷ — the culminating step of the process of sanctification is a joint effort,³⁸⁸ symbolized by a “second sacrifice” made on the altar of incense that stands before the veil. While that second sacrfice is no less dependent on the “merits, and mercy, and grace” of Christ and the ongoing endowment of His strengthening power, it requires in addition that individuals grow in their capacity to meet the stringent measure of self-sacrifice enjoined by the law of consecration — “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”³⁸⁹

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In light of these considerations, it clear that, although the Saints cannot be made clean without God’s own sanctifying power, they must in addition fulfill His requirement to “sanctify themselves.”³⁹⁰ This they do by “purify[ing their] hearts, and cleans[ing their] hands and [their] feet” in order that “I[, the Lord,] may make [them] clean … from the blood of this wicked generation; that I may fulfill … this great and last promise”³⁹¹ to “unveil [my] face unto [them].”³⁹² Explaining the need for disciples to be made “clean every whit”³⁹³ that they may be ready to stand in the presence of God,³⁹⁴ John W. Welch described the change in law that was announced by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount:³⁹⁵

The old law of sacrifice was explicitly replaced by that of the “broken heart and contrite spirit,”³⁹⁶ and whereas previously the sacrificial animal was to be pure and without blemish [haplous], now the disciples themselves are to become “single” [haplous] to the glory of God.³⁹⁷

Within modern temple ordinances, as within the sacrament, animal sacrifice is replaced by the offering of oneself. Such offerings are “memorials of … sacrifices by the sons of Levi”³⁹⁸ — in other words, symbolic rather than literal reenactments of ancient temple practices that required the shedding of blood. Illuminating the difference between the ordinances of the “preparatory”³⁹⁹ Aaronic priesthood and those of the “holy” Melchizedek priesthood “after the Order of the Son of [Page 179]God,”⁴⁰⁰ Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that “real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!”⁴⁰¹

Spiritual Rebirth Within the Succession of Ordinances. We return to the statement of the Prophet Joseph Smith that being “born again comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances.”⁴⁰² Indeed, through the ordinances we are repeatedly “reborn,” our nature transformed over and over, as we experience the cleansing justification of “the Spirit of Christ,”⁴⁰³ the symbolism of death and resurrection through baptism of water,⁴⁰⁴ the new life granted us when we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost,⁴⁰⁵ the spiritual and physical “renew[al]”⁴⁰⁶ of the initiatory ordinances, and the unfolding stages of the drama of our existence in the endowment. Indeed, the endowment itself enacts our individual progress through multiple “rebirths” — from the spirit world to mortal life, and from thence to becoming the sons and daughters of Christ — and ultimately of the Father Himself, receiving all the blessings of the Firstborn.⁴⁰⁷

Similarly, by the end of Moses 6, Adam had been not only born of water and of the Spirit, but also “born of God,” having entered His presence in the same manner described by Alma:⁴⁰⁸

For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God.

Changes in Name and Relationship That Accompany Changes in State. For each change of state that is meant to accompany one’s progression through the ordinances, the Father grants a corresponding change in name and relationship to Him. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, “God turns tools into servants[, servants into friends,] and [friends] into sons.”⁴⁰⁹ Moses 6:67–68 makes it clear that to receive the fulness of the priesthood is to become, when divinely ratified, “a son of God” “after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years.”⁴¹⁰ This is consistent with the experience of Adam in Moses 6:68 and the royal rebirth formula of Psalm 2:7: “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”

In Mosiah 5:7, King Benjamin uses a temple setting and context to explain the same general concept: “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.”[Page 180]

Significantly, King Benjamin not only goes on to say that those who keep the covenant will be “found at the right hand of God,”⁴¹¹ thus, in essence, receiving the name of their king, “Benjamin” (meaning “son of the right hand”), but also that they were taking upon them, as royal sons and daughters, a title of the true “Son of the right hand,” namely “Christ.” In so doing, they were also to become, in likeness of Benjamin’s son, little Mosiahs (meaning “saviors”) and, in likeness of the Only Begotten Son of God, little messiahs (meaning “anointed ones”).⁴¹² Having thus qualified, the Father might then appropriately “seal” them “his.”⁴¹³

Identification of the High Priest with the Lord Himself. To further emphasize that those who enter into the “oath and covenant … [of] the priesthood”⁴¹⁴ do so in similitude of the Son of God, we note Margaret Barker’s description of how the concept of becoming a son of God relates both to ordinances in earthly temples and to actual ascents to the heavenly temple:⁴¹⁵

The high priests and kings of ancient Jerusalem entered the Holy of Holies and then emerged as messengers, angels of the Lord. They had been raised up, that is, resurrected; they were sons of God, that is, angels; and they were anointed ones, that is, messiahs. … Human beings could become angels, and then[Page 181]

continue to live in the material world. This transformation did not just happen after physical death; it marked the passage from the life in the material world to the life of eternity.

Speaking of the figurative heavenly journey that was enacted in ancient temple ordinances, Matthew Bowen has argued elsewhere that both the king and the high priest, emerging from the Holy of Holies, were seen and worshiped as Yahweh, the Lord.⁴¹⁶ Consistent with this identification, Alma 13 specifically states that high priests were ordained “in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to [God’s] Son for redemption.”⁴¹⁷ Moreover, the reason the ancient ordinances of the high priesthood associated with the temple were given was so “that thereby the people might look forward on the Son of God … for a remission of their sins.”⁴¹⁸

The Ontological Change Accompanying Sonship Is Meant To Be Universal. Significantly, the last verse of Moses 6 includes the words “and thus may all become my sons.”⁴¹⁹ This statement relating to Adam’s exaltation presages the account in the book of Moses of Enoch’s adoption as a son of God, with a right to God’s throne.⁴²⁰ At the end of Moses 7:3 we read: “and as I stood upon the mount, I beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with glory.”[Page 182]

The pseudepigraphal books of 2 and 3 Enoch purport to describe in detail the process by which Enoch was literally “clothed upon with glory.” As a prelude to Enoch’s introduction to the secrets of creation, both accounts describe a “two-step initiatory procedure” whereby “the patriarch was first initiated by angel(s) and after this by the Lord”⁴²¹ Himself. In a culminating scene of 2 Enoch, God commanded his angels to “extract Enoch from [his] earthly clothing. And anoint him with My delightful oil, and put him into the clothes of My glory.”⁴²² Philip S. Alexander speaks of this event as an “ontological transformation [that] blurred the distinction between human and divine,” amounting to “deification.”⁴²³ In the first chapter of the book of Moses, Moses underwent a similar transformation.⁴²⁴ He explained that had he seen God without such a change, he would have “withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and … I was transfigured before him.”⁴²⁵ After Enoch was changed, he is said to have resembled God so exactly that he was mistaken for Him by the angels.⁴²⁶

Summarizing the ancient Jewish literature relevant to this passage, Charles Mopsik concludes that the exaltation of Enoch should not be seen as a unique event. Rather, he writes that the “enthronement of Enoch is a prelude to the transfiguration of the righteous — and at their head the Messiah — in the world to come, a transfiguration that is the restoration of the figure of the perfect Man.”⁴²⁷

In LDS theology, such a transfiguration is not the result of a capricious act of God but rather a sign of love and trust made in response to an individual’s demonstration of a determination to serve [Page 183]Him “at all hazard.”⁴²⁸ Only such will be privileged to hear the personal oath in the Father’s own voice⁴²⁹ that they shall obtain the fulness of the joys of the celestial kingdom “for ever and ever.”⁴³⁰

Sanctification, Consecration, Shewbread, and the Sacrament

Giving our all. Hugh Nibley sums up the principle of sanctification “by the blood”⁴³¹ as follows:⁴³²

The gospel is more than a catalogue of moral platitudes; these are matters of either eternal life or nothing. Nothing less than the sacrifice of Abraham is demanded of us.⁴³³ But how do we make it? In the way Abraham, Isaac, and Sarah all did. Each was willing and expected to be sacrificed, and each committed his or her all to prove it. In each case the sacrifice was interrupted at the last moment and a substitute provided: to their relief, someone else had been willing to pay the price, but not until after they had shown their good faith and willingness to go all the way — “lay not thy hand on the lad … for now I know.”⁴³⁴ Abraham had gone far enough; he had proven to himself and the angels who stood witness (we are told) that he was actually willing to perform the act. Therefore the Lord was satisfied with the token then, for he knew the heart of Abraham. This is the same for Isaac and Sarah and for us. And whoever is willing to make the sacrifice of

[Page 184]Abraham to receive eternal life will show it by the same signs and tokens as Abraham, but he or she must do it in good faith and with real intent.

Understanding the self-sacrifice required to become “a saint”⁴³⁵ enhances the meaning one can take away when participating in the ordinance of the sacrament. As we have argued earlier, the symbolism of the broken bread is strongly coupled to the initial covenant of baptism. Both ordinances are a witness of one’s intention to “keep [God’s] commandments.”⁴³⁶ However, in light of the preceding discussion, we suggest that the emblems of the Lord’s sanctifying blood seem to provide a natural correspondence to the last and most difficult covenant of consecration.⁴³⁷ As Ugo A. Perego succinctly expressed it: “through the partaking of consecrated bread and wine, we also consecrate ourselves.”⁴³⁸ Such an understanding is consistent with the recent re-emphasis of Church leaders that the “sacrament is a beautiful time to not just renew our baptismal covenants, but to commit to Him to renew all our covenants.”⁴³⁹

It is evident that the Saints witness in the sacrament that they are willing to take the Savior’s name upon them in the essential (though strictly limited) sense of accepting the blessing of justification made possible by His submitting His will to the will of His Father “even unto death.”⁴⁴⁰ However, in the same ordinance they also affirm their personal willingness⁴⁴¹ “to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [them], even as a child doth submit to his father,”⁴⁴² “even unto death,”⁴⁴³ thus preparing themselves for the blessings of sanctification that result from keeping the law of consecration. In short, they covenant not only to “give away all [their] sins to know [God]”⁴⁴⁴ but also to undertake a deliberate and sustained effort to know God through giving their all.⁴⁴⁵

In the carefully measured, specifically tailored manner that God has ordained for those who would endeavor to follow Jesus to the end, disciples of Christ must be willing to suffer — sometimes unjustly and [Page 185]always uncomplainingly⁴⁴⁶ — that they, in likeness of Christ, “might bring [others] to God.”⁴⁴⁷

In the richly symbolic act wherein the Saints drink the emblems of sanctifying blood, they not only express their remembrance of and gratitude for the “bitter cup”⁴⁴⁸ that the Savior drank on their behalf⁴⁴⁹ but also acknowledge that they are willing to drink to the dregs the individually prepared cup they themselves have been given.⁴⁵⁰ Similarly, in John 19:28–30 it is recorded that Jesus — as His last mortal act before He declared “It is finished” and “gave up the ghost” — in voluntary humiliation swallowed a mouthful of cheap wine from a sponge to fufill the last iota of His prophetically foretold mission, “knowing that all things were now accomplished.”

The sacrament and the temple shewbread. The sacrament, like every ordinance, is retrospective. It looks back on all the covenants one has already made and, in addition, invites one to remember the unleavened bread of the Passover,⁴⁵¹ the manna from heaven,⁴⁵² and, most pointedly, the life and atonement of Jesus Christ, the “Lamb of God”⁴⁵³ and the “true bread from heaven.”⁴⁵⁴ Less recognized and discussed is the fact that the sacrament is also anticipatory, looking forward to the bounteous table of the heavenly feast that someday will be shared by sanctified souls.⁴⁵⁵ This feast has been the subject of prophecy from Old Testament times to the present.⁴⁵⁶

The bread and wine that will be shared at this eschatological event were symbolized in the furniture of Israelite temples. On the table of the shewbread or “bread of the presence [of the Lord],”⁴⁵⁷ twelve loaves of unleavened bread and utensils for libations of wine and offerings of frankincense were continually set out within the Holy Place of the temple. A meal of this sacred bread and wine, anticipating a future feast that will take place in the full glory of the “presence” of God,⁴⁵⁸ was consumed each Sabbath by the temple priests.⁴⁵⁹

In contrast to the bread offered at the altar of sacrifice in the temple courtyard,⁴⁶⁰ which John S. Thompson views as a preparatory, Aaronic ordinance,⁴⁶¹ the offering of shewbread and wine set out in the temple proper emulates the Melchizedek feast of bread and wine provided by the priest and king of that name when Abraham received the fulness of the high priesthood at his hands.⁴⁶²

It is likely that the feast shared by Moses and his companions when he was called to meet Jehovah face to face at the top of Mount Sinai was seen as the literal equivalent of the meal that was later ritually typified at the table in the Holy Place. In Exodus, we read that Moses took with him “Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,” and that together they saw “the God of Israel” and “ate and drank” with Him.⁴⁶³

[Page 186]

According to Brant Pitre, who has ably summarized the current scholarly consensus that the descriptions of Jesus’ actions in the Gospels mirror the profile of the long-awaited new “prophet-like-Moses” who was described in Deuteronomy 18:15,⁴⁶⁴ Jesus’ blessing of the bread and wine at the Last Supper did not merely follow the pattern of Passover traditions but also paralleled in significant ways the experience of Moses and his fellows in their ascent of Sinai to feast at the divine table.⁴⁶⁵ Note that in contemporaneous Jewish writings, Moses was described not only as a prophet, priest, and king, but also (like Jesus) as a god, having been “changed into the divine” through his initiation into the “mysteries.”⁴⁶⁶ [Page 187]Like Jesus, Moses was described as a hierophant, leading his disciples through these same mysteries so that they could also see God.⁴⁶⁷

The deliberate conflation of the offerings on the temple table of shewbread with the sacrament of the Lord’s supper by the early Christian church is demonstrated in the image at left. The three registers represent respectively the temple courtyard (bottom), the Holy Place (middle), and the Holy of Holies (top). The ostensible subject of this illustration is Moses (shown as a type of Christ) who, in the top register, “accompanied by Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu [shown as types of Peter, James, and John⁴⁶⁸], approaches the Lord, whose head appears in a cloud at the top of Mount Sinai.”⁴⁶⁹ Within the cave in the middle scene, is a gathering of Christians who, following the pattern of ancient Israel, hear a reading the law and make covenants under the direction of Christ, shown here as the new Moses.⁴⁷⁰ The “items on the altar clearly indicate a Christian Eucharist,” which is here equated to the offerings on the table of shewbread.⁴⁷¹

In the bottom register, a Christianized version of the Tabernacle courtyard is shown.⁴⁷² Note the prominent gammadia (squares) at the corners of the altar cloth, and its central, circular rosette. The same rosette with a border matching the gammadia is repeated on the parted veil. The pattern of the cloth strongly resembles depictions of altar cloths in two sixth-century Ravenna mosaics.⁴⁷³ In Roman Catholic tradition, the cloth used for church altars is said to have been patterned after the burial garment of Christ, and garments with similar motifs have been found in Christian burial grounds in Egypt.⁴⁷⁴ In the scene shown here, the Christian leaders of the new Israel part the outer veil, earnestly inviting all those outside the covenant to enter and begin their ascent.

An earlier link between the shewbread and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper appears in the Gospels as part of a passage where Jesus “speaks explicitly about the bread of the presence with reference to His disciples’ act of plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath.”⁴⁷⁵ According to Pitre, Jesus’ words explicitly linked “the priestly identity of Himself and His disciples with the sacrificial bread of the presence,”⁴⁷⁶ just as He later equated His body and blood with the bread and wine He blessed in the Upper Room.⁴⁷⁷

In light of all these considerations, we conclude that the symbolism of the bread and wine blessed by the Lord at the Last Supper, while not inappropriately taken up in the modern LDS sacrament administered by those holding the Aaronic priesthood, should also be studied in connection with ritual practices at the temple table of shewbread and its symbolic association with the priesthood of Melchizedek.[Page 188]

In the early years of the restored Church, the symbolism of the eschatological heavenly feast typified by the priestly meal of the temple shewbread seems to have been carried forward in priesthood gatherings where the portions of bread used for the sacrament were sometimes large enough to constitute a meal. For example, Zebedee Coltrin stated that at meetings of the School of the Prophets in Kirtland:⁴⁷⁸

the sacrament was also administered at times when Joseph appointed, after the ancient order; that is, warm bread to break easy was provided and broken into pieces as large as my fist and each person had a glass of wine and sat and ate the bread and drank the wine; and Joseph said that was the way that Jesus and his disciples partook of the bread and wine. And this was the order of the church anciently and until the church went into darkness.

When the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in 1893, one witness recorded in his journal that “Each participant was given a large tumbler with the Salt Lake temple etched into it and a napkin. Presiding Bishop Preston blessed the bread and ‘Dixie’ wine [from southern Utah], and the brethren were invited to eat till they were filled⁴⁷⁹ but to use caution and not indulge in wine to excess.”⁴⁸⁰

There are other reasons, besides the substantial meal of bread and wine that was sometimes consumed for the sacrament on sacred occasions, to believe that Joseph Smith might have viewed the administration of the ordinance of the sacrament in temple contexts under the direction of [Page 189]the presiding high priest of the modern Church as part of what Ugo A. Perego calls a “pre-sanctification experience.”⁴⁸¹ Such experiences were meant to resemble in additional respects the events of the Last Supper. Elaborating on this point, Perego notes that:⁴⁸²

in the Kirtland Temple and in the School of the Prophets, the ordinance of washing of feet was accompanied by the partaking of the sacrament, just like the events that took place in the Upper Room as recorded in the New Testament.⁴⁸³ The partaking of the bread and wine in remembrance of the Savior could not therefore be extrapolated as a stand-alone ritual but as an intrinsic and vital component with all other rites introduced while “feasting” on that last meal.

Conclusion: Anticipating the Heavenly Feast

One of the most stunning archaeological finds of the last century was the accidental discovery in 1920 of the ruins of Dura Europos, located on a cliff ninety meters above the Euphrates River in what is now Syria. Among the structures uncovered by excavation was a small Jewish synagogue with elaborately painted walls, preserved only because the building had been filled with earth as a fortification during the city’s destruction by siege. The art of the Dura Europos synagogue constitutes the most convincing physical evidence available that the Jewish mysteries described in ancient sources had a tangible expression in ritual.⁴⁸⁴ As a conclusion to the present study, we will describe the most prominent mural of the synagogue, which highlights the participation of gathered Israel in the heavenly feast as the high point of Jewish anticipation for the last days.

After a study of the paintings of the synagogue, Hugh Nibley concluded that “the most important representation of all is the central composition that crowns the Torah shrine, the ritual center of the synagogue.”⁴⁸⁵ This mural had been “repainted several times, until it finally pleased whoever was designing it.”⁴⁸⁶ The “successive alterations show that great attention was paid to the problem of what should be represented in it.”⁴⁸⁷ Although the mural represents a single overall scene, it is divided into upper and lower parts by a horizontal band. The lower part depicts key events from Israel’s past and the upper part its future as envisioned by prophecy.[Page 190]

The major theme of the composition is the restoration and exaltation of gathered Israel in the last days in fulfillment of God’s everlasting covenant. At lower left, Jacob is shown lying on his bed while he gives a last blessing to his twelve sons. At lower right, his blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh is depicted.⁴⁸⁸ The top portion of the mural depicts the realization of these promised blessings: the thirteen who had been blessed by Jacob—the sons of Israel with Ephraim and Manasseh representing [Page 191]Joseph in double measure— are exalted in the presence of God and his two divine throne attendants,⁴⁸⁹ equivalent in function to the seraphim.

Spanning the upper and lower scenes is a tree. It is rooted in the foundational stories of the covenants and promised blessings of Israel and leads to the throne on high.⁴⁹⁰ In this respect it might be seen as an arboreal “rod of iron,”⁴⁹¹ akin to the symbolism of ancient Jewish and Christian wooden ladders of ascent.⁴⁹² Erwin Goodenough concluded that this central figure represents both a tree and a vine, and Hugh Nibley agreed, observing that such imagery is paralleled in the Book of Mormon:⁴⁹³ “The olive tree that stands for Israel in the Book of Mormon imagery is also a vine; it grows in a vineyard, is planted, cultivated, and owned ‘by the lord of the vineyard.’”⁴⁹⁴

The potential for double meaning in the tree-vine was highlighted by Goodenough. He maintained that it might have been more natural for Jewish and Christian viewers alike to conclude that it represented the power of the “hope of Israel”⁴⁹⁵ that was to be demonstrated in the manifestation of the messianic “Redeemer of Israel”⁴⁹⁶ than it would have been for them to see the tree-vine as representing Israel itself generally as a people:⁴⁹⁷

If … the vine referred to the divine power made available to take one to heaven, … the chances are overwhelming that the vine meant here not Israel itself but the hope of Israel, the hope that Jews would come to salvation through the Jewish God who was to His people what the vine represented to others. “I am the Vine, ye are the branches”⁴⁹⁸ may originally have been a mystic description of the relation between God and Israel.

The Gospel of John goes further with this kind of imagery when it explicitly describes the person of Jesus as the only means by which disciples could make their climb to heaven. Alluding to the multiple deceits practiced in the story of Israel/Jacob and Laban, Jesus praised the approaching Nathanael at their first meeting, saying, “Behold an Israelite [i.e., descendant of Jacob] indeed, in whom is no guile!”⁴⁹⁹ Then, referring to the “ladder”⁵⁰⁰ of Jacob’s dream, on which angels ascended and descended,⁵⁰¹ Jesus solemnly asserted His preeminence over the revered patriarch, declaring that He was the ladder of heavenly ascent personified: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”⁵⁰² Later in John, when Thomas asked Jesus how His disciples would know the way to His Father’s House, Jesus replied: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”⁵⁰³

[Page 192]In further consideration of the messianic significance of the central feature of the most important mural of the synagogue, we should not neglect the additional clues about priesthood and kingship that are embedded within the depiction of the tree-vine. Goodenough concluded that the Orpheus figure seated in the branches at left and playing a harp, “was probably called David” who, as shown here in a priestly role, provided “heavenly, saving … music” through which “Israel could be glorified.”⁵⁰⁴

Kurt Schubert, stressing the aspects of the mural relating to kingship, saw the Lion to the right of David as a symbol of the King Messiah figure seated on the throne in the upper register. It was out of the tribe of Judah, the “lion’s whelp” of Jacob’s blessing, that this King Messiah, the literal descendant and regal heir of David, was to come.⁵⁰⁵ In addition, Schubert saw the depiction of the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh as a probable reference to the “second messianic figure, … the Messiah from the house of Joseph-Ephraim who was destined to suffer and die.”⁵⁰⁶

The beauty and comprehensiveness of the mural in its representation of the past and future of gathered, glorified Israel is stunning. All we are missing is the bread and wine of the heavenly feast. Or are we? In his careful examination of the layers of repainting in the mural, Gute recognized an intermediate design that included figures flanking each side of the tree-vine.⁵⁰⁷ Goodenough saw ritual significance in these figures, taking the objects on a table to the left of the trunk to represent ceremonial bread, and the serpent-topped felines to the right as decorations for a wine bowl. In the later, final version of the mural, concluded Goodenough, “the symbol of bread and wine could be assumed,”⁵⁰⁸ having been assimilated into the tree-vine itself. In Israel’s exalted state, standing at the top of the tree-vine, they could partake continually of its fruit, the dualized eschatological tree-vine having now merged with the Tree of Life, its protological counterpart.

For the Jews of Dura Europos, the dual, anticipatory roles of David, the anointed king who had eaten the priestly shewbread and later was made “a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,”⁵⁰⁹ were actualized in the messianic figure on the mural’s throne. For Christians, this long-awaited Messiah had already appeared in the person of Jesus Christ, the long looked-for “Root of David”⁵¹⁰ who was also the “Son of David,”⁵¹¹ the kingly “Lion of the tribe of Judah”⁵¹² and the “high priest after the order of Melchisedec,”⁵¹³ whose body and blood, typified in bread and wine, would sanctify not only His disciples but also the very earth.⁵¹⁴

It is this same Jesus Christ who is destined to “come quickly,”⁵¹⁵ “in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”⁵¹⁶ May we keep every ordinance and covenant we have received, that when that time comes we may be numbered with the sanctified⁵¹⁷ who will “drink of the fruit of the vine,” the emblems of His blood, “with [Him] on the earth.”⁵¹⁸

Acknowledgements

[Page 193]We appreciate the kind invitation of Stephen D. Ricks to prepare the original version of this article for presentation. We are also grateful for the helpful and generous comments and suggestions on earlier drafts by Benjamin L. McGuire, Ugo A. Perego, Noel B. Reynolds, Loren B. Spendlove, and John S. Thompson. We also appreciate the expert help of Thomas M. Bradshaw on source checking, Samuel H. Bradshaw for his rendering of Figure 39, Tim Guymon on typesetting, Kelsey F. Avery on figure permissions, Jolie Griffin on the arduous task of technical editing, and Allen Wyatt and Tanya Spackman for coordinating the editing and production process. Appreciation is also due to Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for her role in obtaining rights to use citations and images for this article.[Page 194]

 

Figure Credits

Figure 1. Nicodemus Comes to Jesus by Night. https://churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/bible-videos/videos/jesus-teaches-of-being-born-again/images/nicodemus-comes-to-jesus-at-night.jpg (accessed August 24, 2016). © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 2. Nicodemus Is Confused by Jesus’ Words. https://churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/bible-videos/videos/jesus-teaches-of-being-born-again/images/nicodemus-listens-to-jesus-large.jpg (accessed August 24, 2016). © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 3. Firoozeh Navab: All Things Move from Darkness to Light. IMG_2877–1.jpg. Permission granted as a generous gift of the artist to Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, 16 September 2016.

Figure 4. “We Speak That We Do Know, and Testify That We Have Seen” (John 3:11). https://churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/images/pictures-of-jesus-nicodemus-949325?lang=eng (accessed November 19, 2016). © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 5. J. James Tissot (1836–1902): The Brazen Serpent, ca. 1896–1902. The Jewish Museum, New York. http://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/26395-the-brazen-serpent (accessed January 31, 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 6. Marc Chagall (1887–1985): L’Exode, 1952–1966. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. http://lespeintrescelebres.free.fr/peintre_chagall/tableau_004.php (accessed 31 January 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 7. Harry Anderson (1906–1996): The Ascension of Jesus. http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/gospel-art/new-testament/the-ascension-of-jesus-39614-wallpaper.jpg (accessed November 19, 2016). © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 8. Note pinned to the jst nt2 manuscript for John 3:36. © Community of Christ 2011. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Rachel Killebrew, librarian and archivist.

Figure 9. Ezekiel and the Resurrection in the Valley of Life, Jewish Synagogue at Dura Europos, ca. ad 254. C. H. Kraeling et al., Synagogue, Plate 71. Permission granted by Yale University Press, with the kind assistance of Donna Anstey, Permissions and Ancillary Rights Manager.

Figure 10. J. James Tissot (1836–1902): Jesus Goes Up Alone unto a Mountain to Pray (detail), 1886–1894. From J. F. Dolkart, James Tissot, p. 150. The Brooklyn Museum (https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4512). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 11. jst ot1 manuscript of Moses 6:42–58a. © Community of Christ 2011. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Rachel Killebrew, librarian and archivist.

Figure 12. jst ot1 manuscript of Moses 6:58b-64a, p. 2. © Community of Christ 2011. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Rachel Killebrew, librarian and archivist.

Figure 13. Ron Richmond (1963-): Triplus, Number 3 (detail), 2005. © Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Clyda Ludlow and Trevor Weight, MOA Registration Department.

Figure 14. J. Kirk Richards (1977-): The Baptism of Jesus Christ by John. Published in J. D. Cornish, Gate, p. 44. © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 15. Broken Bread. https://zomarah.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/family-home-evening-lesson-1-the-sacrament/ (accessed October 9, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 16. J. Kirk Richards (1977-): The Salt Lake Temple. © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Published in J. D. Cornish, Gate, p. 47. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 17. Ancient Mikveh at the Jerusalem Temple Mount, 2011. Photo by Rudko, 8 August 2011. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Jerusalem_08.08.2011_14–04–17.JPG (accessed September 11, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 18. The Penitent Baptism of Adam and Eve. 1340–1351. West façade, detail of the upper tympanum, middle archivolt, Church of St. Théobald, Thann, France. From A. Pinkus, Impact, p. 5. Permisison previously granted by the author.

Figure 19. Impression of Seal of Gudea, Tello, Iraq, ca. 2150 bce. Image reproduced in J. V. Canby, Ur-Nammu, Plate 14a. http://sumerianshakespeare.com/25401/ (accessed January 31, 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 20. David Calabro: Floor Plan of the Temple of Solomon, with Suggested Locations of the Ritual in Moses 2–6. D. Calabro, Joseph Smith and the architecture of Genesis, p. 166, Figure 1.

Figure 21. Viktor Vasnetsov (1848–1926): The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, 1890. Sketch for the fresco of St. Vladimir’s Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Vasnetsov_Bapt_Vladimir.jpg (accessed September 11, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 22. The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Mercy, 1351–1360. Heilig Kreuz Münster (Holy Cross Minster) in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. Photograph by Assaf Pinkus. In A. Pinkus, Impact, p. 167 and A. Pinkus, Workshops, Illustration 63. Original located at the Heiligkreuz minster in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, south-east portal. Permission previously granted by the author.

Figure 23. Early Christian Painting of a Baptism, Saint Calixte Catacomb, 3rd century. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Baptism_-_Saint_Calixte.jpg (accessed September 11, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 24. Jesus and Nicodemus. © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 25. 1 Nephi VI [1 Nephi 20:1], 1840 Edition of the Book of Mormon, p. 53. J. Smith, Jr., JS Papers Web Site, The Book of Mormon, 1840, http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/book-of-mormon-1840#!/paperSummary/book-of-mormon-1840&p=57 (accessed September 12, 2016). Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 26. Jan van Eyck (ca. 1395–1441): The Offering of Abel and Cain, 1425–1429. Art Resource, Inc., Image Reference: ART185028, with the kind assistance of Joyce Faust. Original in the Cathedral of St. Bavon at Ghent, Belgium.

Figure 27. J. James Tissot (1836–1902): Zacharias Killed Between the Temple and the Altar, ca. 1896–1894. Published in J. F. Dolkart, James Tissot, p. 162. The Brooklyn Museum (https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4525). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 28. jst ot1 manuscript of Genesis 17. © Community of Christ 2011. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Rachel Killebrew, librarian and archivist.

Figure 29. E. S. Drower, 1879–1972: The Kushta, 1956. See http://ldsmag.com/wp-content/uploads/images/stories/image/2012/May/05_25_12/05.%20Kusta.jpeg. From the frontispiece of E. S. Drower, Water. No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 30. Adam and Eve Outside Paradise, Cain and Abel, 12th century. Images copyright Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. From a 12th century illuminated version of the Homilies of James of Kokkinobaphos from Byzantium (Vat. gr. 1162, fol. 35v.). Published in A. Eastmond, Narratives, plate 14. http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1162 (accessed January 31, 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 31. Red Heifer Being Raised in Israel by The Temple Institute and an Israeli Cattleman. Tapzit News Agency, 2015. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4681306,00.html (accessed November 19, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 32. Greek Orthodox Icon Depicting the Ladder of Virtues, Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Licensed from Alamy.com. Image ID: BM2KC6.

Figure 33. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890): Le Moissonneur, 1889. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_The_Reaper.jpg. No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 34. Harry Anderson, 1906–1996: Moses Calls Aaron to the Ministry. © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Published in “Moses: Deliverer and Lawgiver,” Ensign, April 2006, https://churchofjesuschrist.org/ensign/2006/04/moses-deliverer-and-law-giver?lang=eng. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 35. Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651): The Circumcision, 1601. See Abraham Bloemaert: The Circumcision. In Art Institute of Chicago. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/215326. (accessed September 12, 2016). http://www.wikigallery.org/paintings/386501-387000/386683/painting1.jpg (accessed January 31, 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 36. Linda McCarthy (1947-): City of Enoch, 2002. © Linda McCarthy. With kind permission of the artist granted to Jeffrey M. Bradshaw.

Figure 37. Unfurling Heart-Shaped Fern Frond, a Symbol of New Life in the Maori Culture (Koru) and a Manifestation of the Fibonacci Sequence in Nature. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b4/22/95/b4229589b12375b3ebf3a00f60c6005d.jpg (accessed January 31, 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 38. Justification and Sanctification as Complementary, Interwoven Processes. http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/scissors-clip-art-vector-clip-15674945 (accessed November 19, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 39. Adapted from Samuel H. Bradshaw (1990-): Second Floor of the Salt Lake Temple. Compare photograph of original 1893 plans in C. M. Hamilton, Salt Lake Temple, p. 78. © Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, 2016.

Figure 40. William Blake (1757–1827): Elohim Creating Adam, 1795–ca. 1805. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-elohim-creating-adam-n05055 (October 8, 2016). https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-blake/and-elohim-created-adam-1795 (January 31, 2017). Public domain.

Figure 41. Samuel Anoints David. Dura Europos Synagogue, ca. 250. From C. H. Kraeling et al., Synagogue, plate LXVI. Permission granted by Yale University Press, with the kind assistance of Donna Anstey, Permissions and Ancillary Rights Manager.

Figure 42. Queen Elizabeth II, Dressed in White Linen, Is “Screened from the General View” in Preparation for Her Anointing. BBC – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0wuIcGSD8g (accessed November 19, 2016), at approximately 1:07:53. No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 43. Ampulla 11, with inscription “Oil from the Tree of Life,” 5th-6th century. Basilica di S. Giovanni Battista in Monza, Italy. No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 44. Vasily Perov (1833–1882): Christ in Gethsemane, 1878. https://www.flickr.com/photos/waitingfortheword/5602449417 (21 September 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 45. The Sanctuary. GoodSalt.com. Image ID: lwjas0595. No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 46. Benjamin West (1738–1820): Isaiah’s Lips Anointed with Fire, after 1772. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Isaiah%27s_Lips_Anointed_with_Fire.jpg (accessed November 19, 2016). From the collection of seven of the twelve extant works from Benjamin West’s series The Progress of Revealed Religion. Museum and Gallery at Bob Jones University and at Heritage Green, New Memorial Chapel at Bob Jones University (http://www.bjumg.org/the-benjamin-west-collection/). Public domain.

Figure 47. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669): The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1634. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Abraham_en_Isaac,_1634.jpg (accessed 16 February 2014). Public domain.

Figure 48. The High Priest Sprinkles Blood on the Altar of Incense That Stood Before the Veil http://www.templeinstitute.org/yom_kippur/sprinkle_altar.htm (accessed October 9, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 49. Minerva Teichert (1888–1976): Alma Baptizes in the Waters of Mormon, 1949–1951. Courtesy of Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Minerva Teichert (1888–1976), Alma Baptizes in the Waters of Mormon, 1949–1951, oil on masonite, 35 7/8 x 48 inches, 820038109. Appears in J. W. Welch et al., Book of Mormon Paintings, p. 93. © Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Clyda Ludlow and Trevor Weight, MOA Registration Department.

Figure 50. Minerva Teichert (1888–1976): King Benjamin’s Farewell Address, 1949-1951. Courtesy of Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Appears in J. W. Welchet al., Book of Mormon Paintings, p. 85. © Brigham Young University Museum of Art. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Clyda Ludlow and Trevor Weight, MOA Registration Department.

Figure 51. Worshiping the High Priest. http://www.templeinstitute.org/beged/priestly_garments-2.htm (accessed November 19, 2016). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 52. Viktor Vasnetsov (1848–1926): God of Hosts, 1885–1896. Viktor Vanetzov, WikiArt, http://www.wikiart.org/en/viktor-vasnetsov/god-of-hosts-1896 (accessed January 31, 2017). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the USA.

Figure 53. Alonso Berruguete (1488–1561): Sacrificio de Isaac, Museo Nacional del Prado. http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/slideshow-photo/sculpture-of-abraham … od-member-lindzlu-tudela-de-duero-spain.html?sid=11045092&fid=tp-12 (accessed February 16, 2014). No known copyright restrictions. This work may be in the public domain in the United States.

Figure 54. J. Kirk Richards (1977-): The Sacramental Emblems. Published in J. D. Cornish, Gate, p. 46. Permission granted with the kind assistance of Hailey Walker, Correlation Intellectual Property, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Figure 55. Mount Sinai and the Christianized Tabernacle, Tours Pentateuch, ca. 600. Public domain, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/AshburnPenatuchtFolio076rMosesReceivingLaw.jpg. Bibliothèque Nationale, nouv. acq. lat., no. 2334, folio 76 recto.

Figure 56. Sacrament Bread Baked for a Priesthood Leadership Meeting Following the Dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, 1893. Courtesy of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum. Item #7274. The description reads: “Bread blessed for sacramental purposes at the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. President Wilford Woodruff brought it to daughter-in-law Naomi Butterworth Woodruff who was ill at the time. Donor is granddaughter Emmarose Woodruff Christiansen. Maker: Unknown.”

Figure 57. Composition Above the Torah Shrine as Reconstructed by Herbert Gute. Dura Europa Synagogue, ca. 254. Image from E. R. Goodenough, Dura Symbolism, 11:323. Usage deemed permissible under the fair use policy of Princeton University Press under for non-profit organizations. http://press.princeton.edu/permissions.html#fair (accessed January 31, 2017).

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