The First Temple?

[rosie321]

When was the first earthly temple? Was there some kind of temple at the time of Adam where he offered his sacrifice? What was it like?

From what I've understood the Arc of the Covenant at the time of Moses was like the temple in that it housed the Holy and served the same purpose.

It seems that many of the ordinances we follow today origionate at the time of Moses. Its at this time we see a House for the Holies, the passover, the manna, etc. All carry over into ordinances followed today. There were sacrifices made previously but do we have any knowledge of other "ordinances" being performed previously?

The first physical temple as we know about it today seems to be at the time of Solomon.

Thoughts?

[CrimsonKairos]

As for ordinances, the Law of Moses made provision for washings and anointings in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Many will find the following verses interestingly familiar:

Leviticus 8

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;

3 And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

4 And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

5 And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done.

6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.

8 And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim.

9 And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the LORD commanded Moses.

10 And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them.

11 And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them.

12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

13 And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, and put bonnets upon them; as the LORD commanded Moses.

[MaidservantX]

I suppose it depends on how we define temple. One way to think of it is where heaven and earth meet (just one way to say it, maybe not even the best way).

You will laugh at me, and this is purely a thought in my mind of curiosity, but I have often wondered, or even gone so far as to assume, that the garden of Eden remained a place that Adam and Eve could access once they repented and that it served as their temple. Again, this may be pure fantasy, but has anyone else even thought this before at all?

One also wonders, in considering the ancient civilizations, such as Enoch's city, what they would have had or built as far as temples. As it turns out, the whole city became a temple, anyway. Another interesting clue would actually be Nimrod's insistence in building the abomination that he did (Tower of Babel) -- but occasionally I also wonder if a small part of this dynamic was that there was on the earth God's house already to arouse a longing in Nimord that quickly turned to greed etc, since he might have been barred from God's house because he lacked repentence -- he had no desire to follow God's way to receive heaven's mysteries and powers -- he decided to attempt it in his own way. Again, I have no basis for this other than I quite often try to imagine what the 'in between the lines' and the blanks are in some of these ancient scripture stories.

I also personally think that there would have needed to be temples, or places where what we consider to be the temple ordinances were being administered, because we see the effect of what usually comes from those temple ordinances that were being enjoyed by Adam and his (early) posterity.

[a-train]

I'm claiming Enoch's Zion for the first brick and mortar.

With a little math, we can calculate from Genesis chapter five that Adam was alive for five hundred and eight years after Enoch's birth. This is manifested in Enoch's statement to Mahijah concerning the fathers: 'we know them, and cannot deny, and even the first of all we know, even Adam.' (Moses 6:45)

Enoch only lived three hundred and sixty five years from his birth until the time that the city of Zion was caught up to God. (Genesis 5:24) So, Zion was contemporary with man's first generation until 'it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, ZION IS Fled.' (Moses 7:69) Adam would have lived one hundred and forty three years after this event.

Questions could be asked about why Adam and other patriarchs were not caught up with Zion, but let's not get into all that right now.

There are many extra-canonical assertions that Enoch's Zion had a temple full of the mysteries of God. Do a google search for 'temple of Enoch' and you'll run into that.

In a quick search, I found no modern revelation that expressly denies or confirms the existance of a temple in Enoch's Zion. I'll look more thoroughly later.

However, in Revelation 21, John sees the return of Zion, and says: 'I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.'

This has a wonderful significance to endowed LDS.

ZION in the LORD's presence needs no temple, but typifications and symbolisms shrink into insignificance in the presence of those things which they are designed to direct our minds toward.

[LT04]

That’s a good question.

Here is what I have come to conclude about the LDS church, and this quote is by me:

“Every thing the LDS church practices except making every qualified male member a priesthood holder is not original to the LDS church. It has already been incorporated into the early church.” –LT04

The priesthood thing is the only thing that makes us unique. Every thing else like:

The quorum of the 12 (Christ’s time)

The quorum of the 70 (Moses’s time)

Temple functions like endowments (King Solomon’s time)

Missionaries (Christ’s time)

Different levels of priesthood (Moses’s time)

Baptism (Christ’s time)

You can see the list goes on. You might argue that temple work for the dead couldn’t happen until Christ came and only then could those ordnances be preformed. Yes you are correct; however, the early Jewish church new that those would one day need to be preformed and to this day keep every thing ready waiting for Christ to come because of this I disqualify this as unique to the LDS church.

That’s my two cents on the matter,

-LT04

[MaidservantX]

This is a good post, LT; however, I would say that giving the Melchizedek priesthood to every qualified male member is also not new or unique. This took place in many times and ages. It took place before and after the law of Moses. It may not have been quite as ubiquitous as it is now, but there were always many Melchizedek priesthood holders, even as the Aaronic and or the Levitical Priesthood was busy with the law of Moses. Setting aside the Book of Mormon, which definitely had that going on, I will point you to Jethro of Midian who was the person that ordained Moses, in fact. Well, who the heck was this guy??? Almost no one ever talks about him, but there is an incredible implication here. First of all, "from Midian" most likely means that he was descended from Midian. Midian was one of five sons of Abraham from his third wife Keturah, a young woman he married after Sarah died. If Jethro had the Melchizedek priesthood, where did he get it?? Was he all by his lonesome?? I doubt it. He was part of a society, albeit perhaps a loose nomadic one (????maybe?). I'm sure the fact that there was this one gentleman with the priesthood represents at least several more who also had it. As well, when you get into the story of Elijah, for example, when Jezebel is killing the prophets (hundreds of them) of God, how many prophets do you need? I personally have come to believe this is simply a reference to those who held the Melchizedek priesthood in the church organization at the time. Just to get you thinking . . .

[thread high jack??]

[LT04]

Xhenli,

Thanks for the info. I know a lot of things from the early church have manifested them selves in other ways in many other faiths. Since you brought up the point that having several priesthood holders at any one time wasn’t uncommon are you aware of other faiths that have been around for a substantial amount of time that also practice this concept?

Thanks,

-Lt04