He has some great insights on verse 3, focusing on eternal life and knowledge.

His work on verse 4 is excellent as well, looking at the concept of glory.

Not to be outdone by yesterday’s 360° Panoramas of Temple Square, Dr. Hamblin has produced probably the highest resolution photograph of the Salt Lake Temple ever made.  It is 0.41 gigapixels, which amounts to 410 megapixels.  Compared with most modern digital cameras which are capable of 2-8 megapixels, this is a super high resolution image.  The total file size of the image is 400 megabytes, but don’t worry, you don’t have to download all of that data to see it.

Dr. Hamblin used a new technology called Gigapan to create the gigapixel panorama.  The results are nothing short of amazing.  The image loads fast, and you can zoom into any portion of the temple and see exquisite details very close-up. I have embedded the photo below for your convenience (if you are reading this in email or RSS, it will only display on the website). If you’d like to see the photo fullscreen, click here.

Dr. Hamblin has also produced a short guided tour of some of the architectural features of the eastern facade of the temple in this photo. It includes the building dedicatory inscription or plaque, sun stones, star stones, clouds, squared-circle stones (sometimes called “Saturn” stones), all seeing eye, moon stones, Alpha and Omega, the Right Hand of Fellowship, and the Angel Moroni.  To see these, click here, and then click on the “Snapshots.”

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0.41 Gigapixel Photo of Salt Lake Temple

360° panoramas of Temple Square let you look around as if you were there.

Dr. William Hamblin has put together some very cool high resolution 360° panoramas of different locations on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  And they really are 360°.  You can look in all different directions, including up and down.  It gives the impression of standing on the spot.  Well done!

The locations he has included are:

• West of the Salt Lake Temple (next to Tabernacle)
• In between Assembly Hall and Tabernacle
• East of the Salt Lake Temple
• South of the Salt Lake Temple
• Near the South Visitor’s Center
• Christus statue in the North Visitor’s Center
• Conference Center auditorium
• Tabernacle interior

You get the best effect if you zoom in just a little.  You can zoom in and out by using the shift and Ctrl keys on your keyboard.  You can move around by clicking and dragging with your mouse.

I’ve always been impressed by how new technologies can take us places for fun or practical purposes.  I’ve written about visiting Utah temples with Google Street View, modeling temples in 3D with Google’s Sketchup, using Microsoft’s Photosynth technology to virtually zoom around Temple Square, or how the Church uses computer rendering to envision future temples.  Dr. Hamblin’s panoramas are a welcome addition!

See the 360° Panoramas of Temple Square

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360° Panoramas of Temple Square

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 7b (Temple in the Modern World)

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 7a (Location of the Temple)

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“So we know that somebody thought it was you are seeing the face of the Lord. Yea. Very interesting, very interesting. So someone has been at work, changing the docs, and we know which way.”  —Margaret Barker

“I think Melchizedek was a theophany of Yahweh. The Jewish interpretation, certainly the next passage, … Yahweh is the great high priest, and he is the one, as you have in the temple, you know, the great high priest is Yahweh, and he is the priest to God Most High. So you’ve got a hierarchy of priests. And I think that is how Genesis 15 was interpreted. Where, in the Apocalypse of Abraham, Abraham sees, mostly clearly, Melchizedek, but he describes him as … the angel Yahweh, and he is dressed as a high priest, with his purple and his… turban thing, and yes, it’s all very very interesting… all the other earlier sources… Melchizedek is the priest of El Elyon, almost certainly Yahweh, part of the great angel hierarchy. I mean, the implications of that for Melchizedek priesthood, is just mind boggling, absolutely mind boggling… So there is a lot of work for people to do, waiting to be done. Oh dear, it would be nice if we didn’t need sleep. We’d get such a lot more done!”  —Margaret Barker

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 6 (Seeing the Face of God)

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Posts on NothingWavering.org that link to this one:

• Temple Study - LDS Temples, Mormon Temples, Study Blog: New Mormon.org Website

“A single parent is actually a contradiction in terms.  What you’ve actually got is an abandonment.  But you’re not allowed to say that.  Because it is usually the mum who is bringing up the child.”  —Margaret Barker

“The image of God.  That is what we were created in, isn’t it?  … That is the basis of human dignity.  And if you deny that image in yourself, you are denying the most precious thing.  If you say, I am no more than the skin and bones, … you’d have lost the most important thing of all.  … I don’t know if you have this in America, but in magazines you have all this ‘Let’s give you a new image!’ You know, and you have your hair dyed and plastic surgery, and all the rest of it.  You don’t need a new image!  You know, we’ve got the greatest image already, but most people don’t know that.  You are the image of God… and that defines your rights and your responsibilities.”  —Margaret Barker

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 5 (Social Implications)

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“…is it profitable, is it viable, is this a business proposition? When business propositions have got us into a bit of a mess. There’s got to be other ways of discourse. And the awful thing is, because religion has been so sidelined in so many areas now, people no longer have that vocabulary to talk with. And so if you have an environment problem, you can talk about it in terms of economics because people have got that vocabulary, those words, or politics, because people have got those words. If you talk about it in terms of responsibility or religion, people don’t know the words, and if people don’t know the words, you’ve got nothing to talk with. And so this discourse, this element of discourse, this dimension, is completely missing, because people don’t know that the ideas are there.” —Margaret Barker

“If there are no moral restraints upon the use of knowledge, well, look what we’ve got. And the interesting thing is that this is sold to the world as enlightenment and liberation. Ha!” —Margaret Barker

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 4 (Environmentalism and the Temple)

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“I’ll be interested to see how the public reacts to it, because, the Christmas story is something that’s got a lot of emotional capital tied up in it.  I think if I were to write radical book about Obadiah, no one would worry as much.  But when you’re doing a Christmas story people [...], oh hands off, [...] don’t touch.  But I hope I have set it in its real historical and cultural sensing, so that people can glimpse maybe what the authors were really writing…” —Margaret Barker

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 3b (Christmas)

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“It’s a lovely early [Christmas] icon, because it shows the three wise men coming, dressed as three high priests.” —Margaret Barker

“Those three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the old tradition was, that Adam, the original high priest, the angels had given him those three gifts as souvenirs to remind him of the paradise that he had been expelled from, the paradise was code for the temple.  So gold, frankincense, and myrrh were symbols of the temple that had been lost, and the three wise men were bringing those symbols to the new Adam, talking about building the new temple.  I mean it’s all there.” —Margaret Barker

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 3a (Christmas)

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Posts on NothingWavering.org that link to this one:

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From MargaretBarker.com:

Margaret Barker and others are setting up a Temple Studies Group, to convene one-day symposia on temple themes. These are open to anyone interested in Temple Studies. The first, Melchizedek in Scripture, Liturgy and Tradition, will be held on Saturday 8 November 2008, 10am-4pm, in Oxford.  Speakers so far are Crispin Fletcher Louis, Robert Hayward, Laurence Hemming, Margaret Barker.  Details of venue and cost to be announced here soon.

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Margaret Barker Interview - Part 2 (Temple Studies)

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An interesting side-note by Dr. Hamblin about this conversation:

We ate at the “Eagle and Child” pub in Oxford, where the Inklings (C S Lewis, Tolkein, etc.) used to meet.

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William Hamblin Video Interview with Margaret Barker - Part 1

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Cartoon for St. Paul Preaching in Athens - Raphael. c1513-1514. Mixed media on paper, mounted on canvas. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.

A respectful evangelical protestant reader of TempleStudy.com has asked this question:

Paul tells us in the sermon at Mars Hill that the Lord does not “dwell in houses built by hands” (Acts 17:24-25, Stephen echoes this in ch 7 of the same book) but rather that the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us; that is, that WE are His temples (1 Cor. 3:16-17). Interestingly, not only is this a contradiction to D&C teachings regarding the temple (see D&C 97), but it also appears to be a strong witness to the Trinity, at least in part (demonstrating an equivalency between the Father and the Spirit - “you are a temple of God [...] the Spirit of God dwells in you”). I am curious how you interpret these scriptures.

I think this gets to the heart of the doctrinal argument over the necessity/validity of the temple in the post-Messianic age. I know where I stand, but I welcome your counterpoint!

This is an honest question; unfortunately the scriptures in question to support the claim are misunderstood.

I’m unsure about how these scriptures are evidence for the Trinity, particularly between the Father and the Spirit, for if that were the meaning we would have to be the Father and the Spirit dwelling in us, which seems incongruous. But even then, the Spirit of God would be dwelling in us, instead of being us, depicting the Holy Spirit’s own traits of individuality. Rather, the scripture says that we are “a temple of God,” meaning a sacred place where His Spirit, the Holy Ghost, may dwell when invited by righteousness and obedience to God’s commandments.

But the root of this question is in regard to the validity or necessity of a physical temple since the time of the sacrifice, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if this atoning work wrought by the Savior superseded the physical temple and made it obsolete forevermore. First let’s examine the scriptures in question, namely Acts 17:24-25 and 1 Cor. 3:16-17, during which we will look to history to see if this interpretation is in concert with the ancient Israelite nation in the Old Testament, and the early Christian disciples of the New.

Mars Hill (Areopagus) in Athens, Greece

23 …Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
24 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:23-31)

Paul makes it very clear here that the Athenians were idol worshipers, believing that their god or gods were in idols made of “gold, or silver, or stone,” made by man. It was these idols that the Greeks worshiped, instead of that God who “made the world and all things therein.” Indeed, at least one of the gods that they worshiped they believed to be “unknown,” or perhaps unknowable, something akin to what traditional orthodox Christianity believes today from what became known as the Nicene Creed, undoubtedly influenced by Greek philosophy:

These various evolutions and iterations of creeds—and others to come over the centuries—declared the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be abstract, absolute, transcendent, immanent, consubstantial, coeternal, and unknowable, without body, parts, or passions and dwelling outside space and time. In such creeds all three members are separate persons, but they are a single being, the oft-noted “mystery of the trinity.” They are three distinct persons, yet not three Gods but one. All three persons are incomprehensible, yet it is one God who is incomprehensible.

We agree with our critics on at least that point—that such a formulation for divinity is truly incomprehensible.²

Yet Paul declared just the opposite to the Greeks, that God was not in idols, was a real being, could be known, and began describing Him in a very detailed language, including indicating our very literal familial relationship to Him as His offspring.

I believe that the meaning of Paul’s words are two-fold. Not only is he telling the Athenians where God is not, he tells them where He is:

1. When Paul says that God “dwelleth not in temples made with hands,” he is making allusion to those man-made idols to which the Greeks were making their devotions. That isn’t where God was found, he says. God made the heavens and the very earth whereupon we stand, and is not found in the small objects made by man from the materials with which he organized the earth, the planets, and the stars. God is superior to and above his creation. From the beginning man has been commanded:
   

   3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

   4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

   5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:3-5)

2. Paul is also teaching where God’s literal dwelling place is. He is giving the same lesson about God’s heavenly temple which Stephen gave:
   

   48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

   49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

   50 Hath not my hand made all these things? (Acts 7:48-50)

   Paul also taught this in another place:

   11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; . . .

   23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

   24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: (Hebrews 9:11, 23-24)

But do Paul’s words suggest that God’s presence cannot be had within earthly temples which mirror the heavenly temple? I don’t believe so, because I don’t believe they are earthly. Dr. John Tvedtnes has explained that the words “‘without hands’ suggest something not made by mortals, but by God” (cf. Col. 2:11)³. In every case of God’s dealing with man on earth He has commanded his servants to build sacred sanctuaries (temples) wherein He may reveal Himself and His will to His people. In such cases God has been the director of the building of these structures, not man. The very detailed instructions God gave to Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness is a great example. Hence, even these physical temple buildings are really not “made with hands,” at least not mortal ones. God reveals His will to man, and man obeys. It is God’s holy house, even a “mountain of the Lord’s house” (Isa. 2:2-3). We are taught as much by Paul in Hebrews 8:

1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices . . .

5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. (Hebrews 8:1-3, 5)

It is interesting to note at this point that D&C 97, which section our reader believes to be in contradiction to the Bible, uses very similar language when describing the divine direction of the building of the Kirtland temple:

10 Verily I say unto you, that it is my will that a house should be built unto me in the land of Zion, like unto the pattern which I have given you. . . .

15 And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it;

16 Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God.

17 But if it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples. (D&C 97:10, 15-17. See especially 2 Chr. 5:14; Lev. 16:2; Matt. 5:8; 1 Kings 8:10-11)

Dr. Lawrence H. Schiffmann, the Director of Judaic Studies at New York University, has explained the very purpose of temples on earth:

When it comes to the temple, I think one of the ideas is that a person that comes into the structure is supposed to be overcome spiritually, to feel that he or she is literally in the presence of God.⁴

If God “dwelleth not” in these temples which He commanded and instructed His people on earth to construct for the very purpose of being in the divine presence, then why did Christ refer to the temple in Jerusalem as his “Father’s house”? What of Paul’s own worship and practice in the temple following the ascension of Christ, including a theophanic vision. Dr. Bill Hamblin has shown:

… it is quite clear that the New Testament apostles continued to worship in the Jerusalem temple after Christ’s ascension (Acts 2:46, Acts 3:1-10, Acts 5:20-42). Even Paul worshipped there (Acts 21:26-30, Acts 22:17, Acts 24:6-18, Acts 25:8, Acts 26:21). Paul is explicitly said to have performed purification rituals (Acts 21:26, Acts 24:18), and prayed in the temple (Acts 22:17, cf. Acts 3:1); he claims that he has not offended “against the temple,” implying he accepts its sanctity (Acts 25:8). Indeed, Paul also offered sacrifice (prosfora) in the temple (Acts 21:26, cf. Num 6:14-18), a very odd thing for him to do if the temple had been completely superceded after Christ’s ascension. Finally, and most importantly, Paul had a vision of Christ (”The Just One” ton dikaion) in the temple (Acts 22:14-21), paralleling Old Testament temple theophanies, and strongly implying a special sanctity in the temple, where God still appears to men even after Christ’s ascension.⁵

If Paul’s words to the Athenians were to be taken at face value, Paul would have no regard for the temple structure whatsoever, let alone be found worshiping there or having the divine presence being made manifest to him there.

(Continued in Part 2)

Post from: Temple Study - Sustaining and Defending the LDS (Mormon) Temple

God Dwelleth Not in Temples Made with Hands? - Part 1

1. cf. Areopagus, Bible Dictionary
2. Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent,” October 2007 General Conference, http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-15,00.html.
3. John Tvedtnes, “The Temple of God,” Meridian Magazine, http://www.meridianmagazine.com/gospeldoctrine/nt/070816nt33sf.html.
4. “Between Heaven and Earth,” DVD.
5. Bill Hamblin, “Temple Obsolete After Christ,” FAIR, http://en.fairmormon.org/Temple_obsolete_after_Christ.

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• Consecrate = “A Filled Hand” in Hebrew
• The Altar of Incense as an Altar of Prayer
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• Why Don’t we Find Our Modern Temple in the Old Testament?

Early Byzantine Veil in Agios Eleftherios church, Athens

We have examined the iconostasis on this blog previously, an icon wall which stemmed from an earlier chancel screen or templon, a barrier or partition which separated the holy area where only the priests could go from the area of the laity.

This ancient Athens church retains its original chancel screen, including a curtain or veil. This veil is particularly interesting in that it includes the original gammadia marks, right-angled symbols like the Greek letter gamma (Γ), which we’ve also mentioned before. As Dr. Hamblin notes, these gammadia were often used to mark veils, altar cloths, and priestly robes in early Byzantine Christianity. Almost all of these veils have now been replaced by iconostases in modern churches.

Read the whole post at Bill Hamblin’s Things Unutterable. Thanks Reed!

Post from: Temple Study - Sustaining and Defending the LDS (Mormon) Temple

Early Byzantine Veil with Gammadia

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