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Temples of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." (Isaiah 2:1-3)
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is God's church here on the Earth. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I invite all to give heed to its message.
My Publications Relating to the Temple:
James L. Carroll, "Egyptian Craft Guild Initiations," in Studia Antiqua, The Journal of the Student Society for Ancient Studies, 2006.Initiation seems to have played an important role in Egyptian religion from the beginning of recorded history. Initiations are rites whereby the initiate is symbolically moved from one state of being into another or from one part of the temple into another, the passage involves various trials or tests of knowledge, the rites often deal with death and resurrection, various oaths are taken either of an ethical or of a sacramental nature, and the ceremony itself is usually secret. The initiation paradigm can be seen in the Egyptian funerary literature, the Daily Temple Liturgy, the initiations of the Egyptian priesthood, and the later Isis mystery cult initiations. All these elements of ritual initiations can also be seen in modern craft guild initiations, however it is unclear how early this paradigm became part of craft guild initiations. Although it can be shown that craft guilds existed in ancient Egypt from the earliest times, little direct evidence of their nature has remained. However, several elements from the earlier Egyptian initiations show evidence of having been influenced by guild initiations. This indicates that the guild traditions may have adopted the initiation paradigm at a very early stage. If this is the case, then it would have significant ramifications for the origins of modern guild initiations, and would indicate that they are connected to ancient traditions of initiation into the afterlife, and to ancient temple traditions.
DOC
James L. Carroll, "The Second
Coming of Christ as Covenant Renewal," in The Eighth Annual
BYU Religious Education Student Symposium, 2006.
The
second coming of Christ, especially his appearance at Jerusalem, can
be thought of as a covenant renewal ritual in which the people at
Jerusalem rediscover the identity of Jehovah, their God, and
recommit their lives to him. This covenant renewal ritual is
similar in form to the ancient covenant patterns found throughout
the ancient Near East and in the Old Testament accounts of Abraham
and Joshua. Viewing the second coming in this manner can help us to
understand several passages that would otherwise be difficult to
interpret, especially the division of the Mount of Olives. In this
context, the division of the Mount of Olives can be seen as a
re-creation of the sacred landscape that was present at Shechem when
the Israelites made their covenant with Jehovah before possessing
the Land of Promise.
Draft
James L. Carroll, "A
Revised Temple Typology" in Hagion Temenos, 2nd
Edition ed. Stephen Ricks, Provo Ut. BYU Press, 2005.
John M. Lundquist's "Temple Typology" has been highly influential in the past several years. This "Revised Temple Typology" attempts to build upon what he has created by synthesizing several of Lundquist's publications and by adding several new elements to the typology. Further, the typology is reordered, and organized into three main categories, "the Temple Space," "The Temple Rites," and "The Tempe and Community." Short titles have also been added to the typology elements. It is hoped that these changes will improve the use of the typology in teaching situations.
DOC
James L. Carroll, "An
Expanded View of the Israelite Scapegoat" in Selections
From the Seventh
Annual BYU Religious Education Student Symposium, 2005,
(Award Winning Paper).
There have been many divergent interpretations of the scapegoat
in LDS and other Christian commentaries. Some see the scapegoat as a
symbol of Christ, others as a symbol of Satan. In order to better
understand the spiritual significance of the scapegoat, this paper
analyzes several scriptural stories that are similar in form to the
Day of Atonement, specifically stories where one person or group is
put to death, and another person or group is cast out or released.
It is then possible to understand the Lord's goat and the scapegoat
in terms of physical and spiritual death respectively. Such an
interpretation can explain how the scapegoat can represent the
Savior, who took spiritual death upon himself for those who repent,
while at the same time representing Satan, who was cast out of the
Father's presence, thus suffering spiritual death for his unrepented
sins.
DOC
James L. Carroll, "The Reconciliation of Adam and Israelite
Temples," in Studia Antiqua, The Journal of the Student Society
for Ancient Studies, Winter 2003.
Modern researchers have shown that ancient temples were often
associated with the creation, the Garden of Eden, and
reconciliation. All three of these elements can be found in Genesis
1-3 if one assumes that Adam and Eve repented of their transgression
in the Garden as many apocryphal elements attest. The methods of
reconciliation that they record form a unifying principal for
understanding the significance of the tripartite divisions found in
Israelite temples which seem to have represented the heavenly throne
of God, the Garden of Eden, and the fallen world where Adam and Eve
worked out their reconciliation with God.
DOC
James L. Carroll, Elizabeth Siler, "Let My Prayer Be Set Before
Thee: The Burning of Incense in the Temple Cult of Ancient Israel,"
in Studia Antiqua, The Journal of the Student Society for Ancient
Studies, Fall 2002.
A survey paper concerning the burning of Incense in its relation to
the temple cult of Ancient Israel. We place the burning of incense
in its contexts from the religions surrounding Israel, attempt to
identify the ingredients mentioned in Ex. 30. We also survey
various rabbinic commentaries on the methods for burning incense,
and give an LDS interpretation for the meaning of this part of the
ancient Israelite temple ritual.
DOC
My Talks on the Temple:
FAQ:
Recommended references:
Links
The Official Website for the Church's Temples
The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies FARMS is the
hottest place for reliable LDS Research!
Forty Day Teachings of Christ...A Gnostic Endowment
Gnostic Virtual Library For those of you who, like me, like to poke around in old documents looking for gospel parallels.