5/13 - The doctrinal significance of "East"

I love the doctrines of the gospel, and I love Geography. How awesome it is when they both come together!!

1. Brother Satterfield began our discussion by advising us to always begin our studies with prayer, and on the knees if possible. I felt something special when he said this.
2. When translating, before tackling individual words, take a look at the grammatical whole of the verse. This is taking a 'macro' before 'micro' approach.
3. GEOGRAPHIC DIRECTIONS - Ancient people didn't have the concept of magnetic north, which is a relatively new way of thinking about geography. Ancient people oriented themselves using "East" in the way we think of "North" today. 

1. In Hebrew, compass directions have meaning rather than a geographic direction and are shown as follows: East = "Front" / West = "Behind" / South = "Right hand" / North = "Left hand". 
2. Old Testament had negative views of things "East". Babylon was East. The desert was East. Adam and Eve were driven out "Eastward". In new times East is positive. Some face east when praying. Temples often face east. Christ will come from the east.
3. Temple structure is spiritually symbolic. In the Israelite Tabernacle, the Holy of Holies (Kodesh - Kodesheem) was on the west side of the temple. The outer court (the world) was to the east (remember, east was negative). Therefore, God was to the west. Migrating through the temple happened in a westward fashion toward God. Temple worship takes us to God.
4. The Atonement occurred with directional significance: In ancient times there was only one sacrifice that did not occur in the temple, because it was so dirty, so messy, it wasn't fit for temple worship (read about the red heifer sacrifice here). In this sacrifice the entire animal was burned, intrals, feces, and all. This sacrifice was performed east of the temple (remember east is bad, dirty, etc). Gethsemane, where the Savior suffered for the dirty, filthy, iniquities of the world was east of the temple. Christ progressed westward to Golgotha where he sealed the atonement and was reunited with God.
5. Last Days. Christ will come from the east to the west. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west as a daily reminder of the coming of the son of God the second time.

5/11 - The mistranslation of the word "Tree" in Genesis 12:6

1. When I translate from Hebrew to English, I have to admit, I always double check my version against the King James version, just to see if I'm close. The translations usually agree, especially with Nouns. But not today...
2. Genesis 12: 6 refers to 'the plain of Moreh', a special land that eventually became basically the Hill where Jerusalem is, where Abraham offered Isaac, and not far from where the Savior was crucified. The King James translated אֵלוֹן (ehl-own) as "plain", but is clearly "tree". "Moreh" means "Teaching", so the translation might have been better as "To the tree of teaching", or at least "To the Tree of Moreh", but NOT the Plain. Interestingly, the "El" prefix has the divine derivative of "Elohim", or God, so the tree can also be rendered "Tree of God".
3. For a tree to have a name like this, and for the narrator to point this out means this was a special tree; a holy tree; a tree held in high regard and was famous. It was a sacred place to Israelites. Many covenants were made there, including by Abraham, Jacob, and possibly by Joshua many years later.
4. Oh yeah, one more thing. William Tyndale translated this word correctly, but the King James translators changed it to "Plain". A Greek professor was with us in class and said he has often found the King James version of the Bible has a Latin twist on many words, though primarily written in Hebrew. Translators were much more familiar with Latin than Hebrew, so when a word got difficult, they relied on their Latin expertise, which in this case could have been either Tree or Plain. But there is no question that in Hebrew, it's "Tree". 

5/6 - 5/8 - Spiritual Hardware Store / Slaves / Crossing Over

5/6

1. The Geography of Israel. An 80 mile strip of land strategically placed at the intersection of three continents. This is the promised land for Israelite's for a reason.
2. Abraham was led there by the Urim and Thummim. His story is very similar to Lehi's story (Book of Mormon), who was also led to a promised land by a curious instrument, the Liahona. The Jaredites also were lead through the wilderness by urim and thummim to a promised land. Bro. Satterfield joked that he would like access to that 'spiritual store' of such curious devices.
3. He suggested our current technological devices are similar to Urim and Thummim's, and are in a way, actually preparing us for the day when we will learn through these curious instruments.
4. The Abrahamic Covenant is to prepare the world for the Millenium (Something that has coincidentally been on my mind a great deal. See blog post). The Lord has been preparing us for the 'knowledge of all things', line upon line, precept upon precept.
5. The Lord work's through societal culture to bring about his purposes: Evidence of this is found in the Savior's words: Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts gave this law (that a bill of divorce must be given. See Matthew 19:8)
6. New Testament Apostles referred to themselves as "Slaves" (Greek). Old Testament prophets
   
   referred to their children, 'handmaids', concubines, etc. as "Slaves" (Hebrew). The English word has negative overtones but did not exist in old times. Mary (Jesus' mother), when she spoke to the Angel Gabriel said "Behold thy Slave"... NOT "Behold thy handmaid". 
7. We were born into this world as 'slaves' to the devil. Christ came to deliver us from the devil's captivity ("Ye are bought with a price", see 1 Corinthians 7:23; 1 Corinthians 6:20). Which means we then become Christ's slaves, but are then made co-heirs with Christ see Romans 8:17). "I would be a slave to Christ any day. He takes care of his slaves".
8. Slaves in old days were tatoo'd on their foreheads, and would often say essentially "This is so and so, who belongs to so and so... please return him". Later this was considered a desecration to the body which was considered a temple and tatooing became outlawed. Slaves could ultimately buy their freedom in those days. Interesting that the book of Revelation and D&C refers to those in the last days who have Christ written in their forheads (see Revelation 14:1; D&C 133:18), because they are his slaves.
9. At the LDS Sacrament table, we take our master's name upon us (When done properly, we fully submit to his will, as a slave submits to his master). Through Him we buy our freedom. 

5/8

1. Genesis 12:6 - עֲבֹר (Aber) means to "pass through" or "cross over". It is the same word used for sin/transgression.
2. Two types of crossing over: Exodus 34 refers to the forgiveness of iniquities of the Israelite's (who had 'crossed over', or sinned). 
3. There is also the sin against the moral law of the world, or the Light of Christ within all of us. One is SIN, the other is TRANSGRESSION. (I missed which was which)

May 1 - May 4 - Covenants, and family relationships

• The word ברך (bah-rach) means "Bless", and also has reference to the word "Kneel". 
• Abraham's name is known by 3 major religions (Christian, Islam, Judaism) 4,000 years later. That is significant!! Who else is so well known after that much time? Why? Because of his faithfulness. Because he was great.
• Genesis 12: 3 says those who Bless and make Abraham's name great will become great! Those who curse Abraham will be cursed. DO WE BLESS ABRAHAM? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints blesses Abraham, but it's members may or may not bless Abraham. Those who do are blessed!

• Marriage covenants in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have very specific reference to Abraham. Do members know what that significance is? Are they trying to understand? Do they find Abraham significant? Do they bless his name? Do they think he is great? Do they kneel to him (respect, honor, etc. NOT Worship)? If they do, the blessings of Abraham are theirs.

May 4

• Scriptures often introduce the main characters at the beginning of the narrative. Abraham chapters 12-22+ are a story of two outcomes for two different people, both of which are immediately introduced in Genesis 12 - Abraham, and Lot. The author clearly intended to highlight these two outcomes for the readers sake.
• FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS in Hebrew culture: There are no words for most family relationships we have today, such as Cousin, Nephew (Brother's son), Grandfather (Father's father). I Find this fascinating. At first I thought this was a limitation of Hebrew compared to English, but I see differently now. Imagine the intimate closeness of calling your grandpa "Father", and him calling you "My Son" (or "My Daughter"). 
• The head of a household often had many wives and concubines. There would be a house (tent) for each wife (And her servants, even if her servants bore children to the head of household). All combined would be considered a "Clan", but each wife's family would be considered a 'house". The picture above shows a Clan consisting of two wives, and therefore, two houses.

April 29 - Righteous Cities

What started as a boring Hebrew Grammar conversation got really interesting and ended in an amazing doctrinal discussion of righteous cities. Here's how it went:

1. The Hebrew word גָּדוֹל (Gah-dohl) means "Great". But what kind of Great? The kind related to size. Abram was told in Genesis 12: 2 that his posterity would be that kind of great. 
2. Abraham wanted a City. He had heard about Enoch's city, and Melchizedek's city of Salem. He knew how Melchizedek through some hardship was able to persuade a wicked city, like Sodom, to repent and become righteous. But the Lord was able to do better than a city, as he promised Abraham would be a father of many 'nations'. 
3. The sad thing for Abraham was, he would live near where his city would be established, but would never actually acquire it (Hebrews 11: 8-10, 13 describes this further, and shows the exceptional faith he and his family had). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's covenant wives were all barren, yet each miraculously bore children who became the covenant lines. They did it all by faith.
4. The first shot at a righteous nation through Abraham was when Moses established Israel. David and Solomon did a pretty good job at it but then blew it through sin. Jerusalem was a geographically strategic place for spreading the gospel, for standing out and converting the world, but instead, they let the world persuade them. 
5. The second shot at it came in the 1830's when Joseph Smith tried to establish a righteous nation, but they blew it again, or the timing wasn't right.
6. We live in the third attempt at a righteous nation. The elect are gathering in all the time. We know at the time of the Lord's second coming, Israel will be gathered as a righteous nation (actually, many righteous nations) - even a global city of righteousness, and the Abrahamic Covenant will be complete. At this time, the earth will be translated from a temporal state, and will remain translated for 1,000 years until it is resurrected and becomes the celestial city. 
7. We go into the Celestial Kingdom as Cities, not as individuals.

April 3 - Tying the Law of Moses to the LDS Sacrament Table

1. *There were three kinds of sacrifice under the Law of Moses, and an order by which they were carried out. These are outlined as follows with regard to sin. When one committed a sin, they would follow the steps outlined below. But first, it is important to understand that food and the eating of it represents a feeling of being satisfied. The consuming of sacrifices whether by eating or burning representing the satisfying of the demands of justice.
1. The Chatat חטאת. An animal was killed upon the altar and divided two ways. The first half was for the priest and his family and represented becoming reconciled with the church, and with the Savior (represented by the priest). The second half was consumed on the altar, and went up in smoke, symbolically going up to God. Scriptures often refer to the sweet savor, or smell, etc, that a burnt offering was to God. 
2. The Olah עֹלָה. (The one God asked Abraham to perform with Isaac) The animal is slaughtered, divided, washed, annointed, and burned completely. This sacrifice belonged entirely to God. The entire aspect of this sacrifice represents the total consecration necessary to satisfy God, and fully repent.
3. The Shalom. An animal is slaughtered and divided 3 ways; The first was eaten by the offender; the 2nd by the priest, and the 3rd was consumed by God. This three way participation represents oneness and unity that follows true repentance among the offender, the priest (the church/Christ), and God.
2. *Genesis 22:16 - Grammatical mistranslations: Extra emphasis on the me/I pronoun. Should be translated more like "I am swearing to myself...". Then there were many words and Direct Object Markers that created repetition and emphasis. The message in Hebrew that was lost in English was "This Covenant is a DONE DEAL, absolutely, completely, wholly."
3. *Once again, the covenant with Abraham involved the following: 1) A city (the worldwide Zion that is yet to be built) 2) Become a God and have endless posterity, and so will his children 3) Priesthood/ordinances/covenant marriage ordinance of exaltation.

April 1 - Intelligence, Visions, and Intergalactic time travel

1. Genesis 22:12 - The Lord says "Now I know that...", wait a minute! Doesn't God already know all things? Yes, but He speaks to us according to our understanding, and according to our time reckoning. God can SEE the timeline, he does not MAKE the timeline. The Hebrew name, יְהוָה (Jehovah) has the imperfect verb form meaning it has never had a beginning or and end. Like as in "I AM", rather than "I WAS". Yes, God always knew Abraham would make the choices he did, but NOW he is seeing it. A slightly missed translation here points out that Abraham did not only prove that he learned to fear God, but God recognized that Abraham actually IS the Fear of God. 
2. Big discussion on Fear, and what that means in English vs. what that means in Hebrew. In short, they really are very much the same. There really is a bit of the English "FEAR" in the real Hebrew word, meaning, if you are afraid of a certain consequence, then you don't do that thing. Elder Christofferson has a talk on Fear "A sense of the Sacred" (Part 5 entitled "Godly fear". When you fear God, you depart from evil. We don't' naturally want bad consequences in our lives.
3. There are many scriptural synonyms terms for light: Glory, Intelligence, Power, Light, Truth, Power, Life, The Light of Christ.Gods learn to control this perfectly and completely, and have FULL CONTROL over it. (As a side note, I recently read a talk by Cleon Skousen who taught that these particles of intelligence respect God, and God respects them). The Lord is ALL POWERFUL within parameters/natural laws. D&C 88 - Light is in everything, priesthood, ordinances, etc.
4. We have had a lot of light infused into this world, especially since the 1700's. This light will continue to grow until we make this world the Terrestrial Kingdom, and Christ's light will be added through the Millennium until this world becomes the Celestial Kingdom. The purpose of this dispensation is to PREPARE FOR THE MILLENNIUM!! 
5. The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, at 2.5 Million Light years away. This means, as we look and behold the galaxy with our naked eyes, we are literally beholding it as it was 2.5 M years ago, in the present. Energy/Light/Intelligence/Power/Truth/Etc left that sphere all that time ago, and we are now seeing what was recorded on those energy particles with our mortal eyes in the present. This is how God can use light to show things past, present, and future. If he wants to give someone a vision of the Savior's atonement, he controls the light/energy/etc, etc which directly witnessed that event and calls it to the attention of the person beholding the vision. 
6. Abraham was faithful to all the tests presented to him. If WE want to be as Abraham, and be promised all that was promised to him, then WE must be tried as Abraham!
7. The Holy Ghost Administers the Light of Christ
8. Marion Romney spoke of light coming to us in three phases. The first is the light that comes to us at birth; the second is the Gift of the Holy Ghost; the last phase is The more sure word of prophecy, and is directly administered by Christ. (The Light of Christ - Marion G Romney, April 1977)