Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of the Expound Symposium (The Temple on Mount Zion vol. 1)

The temple is central to Latter-day Saint worship. Through modern revelation Joseph Smith restored the ancient tradition of temples and the ordinances performed therein. Studies of ancient temples can shed much light on latter-day temples and temple worship. On 14 May 2011, LDS author and researcher Matthew B. Brown organized and held The Expound Symposium. Matt loved the temple and temple worship, and focused much of his research on ancient and modern temples. His interests and knowledge were vast. This volume is a collection of the invited papers presented at the conference along with a selection of additional articles. Most of the chapters focus on the temple-related topics that Matt loved. They explore the biblical pattern that relates the symbols of the cube, the gate, and measuring tools; the Tabernacle as a Mountain of God; ancient reverberations with Joseph Smith’s statements about standing in the holy place; ritual hand gestures in the ancient world; the sacred embrace and the sacred handclasp; the theme of ascent in the Psalms; the sôd of YHWH and the endowment; the mir‘aj of Muhammad; Egyptian tree goddess iconography; Nephite daykeepers; and issues relating to the genetics of indigenous populations and the historicity of the Book of Mormon.

about the authors:

Matthew B. Brown (1964–2011) was an author and historian whose emphasis was on the history and doctrine of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. He wrote several books published by Covenant Communications, and also published articles for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at BYU and FAIR (now FairMormon).

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw is a senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida. His books and articles have focused on the books of Moses and Genesis, temple studies, and the ancient Near East. Jeff serves as a Vice President of The Interpreter Foundation and as a member of the Academy for Temple Studies Advisory Board.

Stephen D. Ricks is a professor of Hebrew and cognate learning at Brigham Young University, where he has been on the faculty of Brigham Young University for thirty-two years. He is the author or editor of twenty books and more than one hundred articles, volume chapters, and reviews focusing on the ancient temple, the religious and social institutions of ancient Israel, the Book of Mormon, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

John S. Thompson successfully defended his dissertation in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania and currently coordinates and teaches full-time in Boston, MA for the LDS Seminaries and Institutes. He and his wife Stacey have nine children.