Old Testament Week 1: Introduction

1) Welcome! a) Please complete the sign-in sheet, and be sure to provide your email address if you want to be notified when lesson notes are available online. (One email per class week.) b) Personal introduction. 2) Review the syllabus. a) [SLIDE 2] Class schedule. i) Thursdays, 7:008:45 PM. ii) The class will meet for 29 sessions (13 September 201220 June 2013), with occasional weeks off. (1) The calendar may be modified as needed throughout the year for unscheduled business trips, etc. (2) Seven-week Thanksgiving/Christmas break (22 November through 27 December 2012). b) [SLIDE 3] Class web site. i) http://bit.ly/ldsarc ii) All the lesson notes, handouts, and PowerPoint presentations will be posted on the web site weekly. iii) Ill also include links for additional reading, if theres something interesting that throws more light on the lesson. iv) This is a personal web site, not an official web site of the Church or the Hurricane Institute program. 3) [SLIDE 4] Lesson schedule. i) On the syllabus. ii) Well approach the Old Testament chronologically, beginning at the creation accounts in Genesis and the Pearl of Great Price, down through Moses and the history of Israel, and finishing with the writings of the prophets. (1) When we get to the prophets, well cover them in the order in which their books were written, not as they appear in the Bible. (a) For example, well discuss Jonah, Amos, Micah, and Hosea before we cover Isaiah, even though those prophets writings are found in the Old Testament after Isaiahs. iii) Please read ahead and come prepared to participate in the discussion with questions and comments. Id like to have as interactive a class as possible. (1) Ill use PowerPoint presentations frequently when maps, photos, etc. are helpful to the lesson. 4) Materials. a) [SLIDE 5] Required: The Standard Works.
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i) I would hope that your copy is the one published by the Church since 1981.1 There are still some older copies floating around. b) Recommended: A modern English-translation study Bible to supplement your reading of the King James Version. i) I have several recommendations on the back of the syllabus. ii) Next week well discuss why I recommend a study Bible, and Ill bring copies of the ones I recommend so you can look through them. iii) To clarify: You do not need to purchase anything to attend and benefit from this class. Most of the resources Ill refer to, including modern translations of the Bible, are available for free on the Internet. Even if you dont have Internet access, your LDS standard works are sufficient. c) [SLIDE 6] Optional: Old Testament Student Manuals (Religion 301/302). (1) These manuals are used for Institute-level courses. (2) I will not be using them or referring to them in class. You do not need to have them, but they are occasionally helpful. (3) You can read and download them online for free at http://institute.lds.org/ (4) You can also buy them at the same link. The cost for both manuals together, with tax, is $14.00. Shipping is free. (a) You can probably get them at Deseret Book or Seagull Book in St. George. Id recommend calling the store to see if theyre in stock before driving into town. 5) [SLIDE 7] Approach. a) Ultimately the goal of every class in the restored Church should be to bring us to Christ. In this class were going to do that by examining the Lords commandments and promises in the Old Testament. b) This will be different than any other Old Testament church class youve taken. We are going to take a multidisciplinary approach and examine the Old Testament from the aspects of: i) History. What does the historical record tell us about when the events of the Old Testament took place and how the Israelite religion developed? ii) Textual development. How did the books in the Old Testament come to be written, compiled, and translated? What differences are there between various manuscripts of the Old Testament books? What can we learn from the original languages used to write it and from other English translations of the Bible? iii) Archeology. What do we know about the sites and locations of the events described in the Old Testament?

1 A revision to the 1981 edition was published in 2013. There are numerous differences in the headings, footnotes, and study aids, and some updates to the text of the King James Version of the Bible. For a list of changes in the 2013 edition, see

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/adjustments

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iv) Culture. What were the cultural expectations and assumptions of the people who wrote the Old Testament? What cultural expectations and assumptions do we bring to the text? Do we sometimes misread or misunderstand the text because we assume the people of the Old Testament believed and thought like we do? v) Science. How do we harmonize what we know from science with the claims of the Old Testament, particularly the opening chapters of Genesis? vi) Modern revelation. How do the revelations to Joseph Smith and other modern prophets help us understand the prophets, people, and events in the Old Testament? vii) (Most importantly) Faith. What do we learn about God the Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the plan of salvation from the writing of the Old Testament prophets, and how can we apply that understanding in our lives? 6) [SLIDE 8] Latter-day revelation and the Old Testament. a) Latter-day Saints have a unique understanding of the message of the Old Testament because of the revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith. i) Because of this additional prophetic information, we differ from many of our Jewish and Christian brethren on how to contextualize and interpret the message of the Old Testament. b) [8.1] Some of the unique ways we understand the Old Testament: i) Human beings lived in a premortal existence with God, and came to earth as part of a plan that will allow us become like God is. ii) The fall of Adam and Eve was not a tragedy, but necessary to carry out Gods plan of salvation.2 iii) Many of the covenants in the Old Testament, including what we call the Abrahamic Covenant, are actually eternal covenants that apply in all ages. iv) Jehovah, the God of Israel, was the pre-mortal Jesus Christ.3 v) Satan, who is only mentioned directly in the opening chapters of the book of Job, is an actual personage who has been operating on earth since the beginning.4 vi) The ancient prophets held the priesthood authority of God.5 vii) The ancient prophets understood and foretold the coming of the Messiah. (1) Although there are hints of this in the existing text of the Old Testament, Joseph Smith revealed that the Old Testament prophets from the beginning knew much more than the text describes.6 (2) In the Book of Mormon, around 600 B.C., the prophet Lehi had detailed revelations about the coming of a Messiaha Savior of the world. The brass plates Lehi brought with him to the Western Hemisphere also contained extensive prophecies of the future ministry of Jesus Christ.7
See Moses 5:1011. See 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Nephi 19:10; 3 Nephi 11:14; 15:5; Mosiah 3:5; D&C 110:13. 4 See Moses 4:16; 5:1352. 5 See Moses 6:7; Abraham 1:14; D&C 84:627. 6 See Moses 5:9; 6:52, 59; 7:50, 53; 8:24. 7 See 1 Nephi 10:26; 19:2223; Alma 37:110.
2 3

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c) [8.2] We need to be careful, however, to distinguish between eternal truths that have been revealed in various ages, and elements of the Old Testament (or the Church today) that simply reflect the culture of the times. i) It is a mistake to think of Old Testament prophets as proto-Mormons,8 with wards, Relief Societies, the Word of Wisdom, and other ideas unique to the modern LDS Church. (1) Outside of a core set of revealed beliefs that we share, the ancient Israelite people had very different assumptions and expectations about theology, the world, and how to live ones life. Were going to explore some of these cultural differences this year. ii) Its also important to keep in mind that not all the things we know today were revealed in ancient times. Our scriptures are very explicit that some doctrines have been withheld from previous dispensations and revealed in our day for the first time.9 7) Before in the beginning. a) Before we begin our study of the Old Testament, it seems fitting to begin before the beginning. b) [SLIDE 9] On Sunday, 7 April 1844less than three months before his deathJoseph Smith gave a sermon at the funeral of Elder King Follett.10 He spoke for over two hours. i) The topics in the discourse were not new to Josephs preaching: Nearly all the subjects treated were continuing threads from earlier sermons. However, this discourse brought these ideas together in one connected narrative. ii) This address has come to be known as the King Follett Discourse. It is probably the Prophets best-known and most-published sermon. 11 iii) Although it is not technically a revelation, and has not been included in our scriptures, it has been quoted frequently by Church leaders and is widely considered to be doctrinally authoritative.12
8 This phrase was coined by Carl Mosser and Paul Owen in their paper, Mormon Scholarship, Apologetics, and Evangelical Neglect: Losing the Battle and Not Knowing It? Trinity Journal, n.s., 19/2 (1998), 179205 (http://www.academia.edu/185247/_Mormon_Scholarship_Apologetics_and_Evangelical_Neglect_Losing_the_Battle_and_N ot_Knowing_It_). Mosser and Owen argued that recent Latter-day Saint New Testament scholarship was not attempting to show that the early Christians were proto-Mormons but rather that remnants of true pre-Hellenized belief remained for a time after the apostasy. 9 See D&C 121:26; 124:41; 128:18. 10 King Follett died on 9 March 1844. He was crushed to death when a tub of rock fell on him as he was digging a well. His funeral was attended by about 10,000 Saints in Nauvoo, according to Wilford Woodruffs account. 11 Of all the speeches given by Joseph Smith, this one has the greatest contemporary manuscript support: Thomas Bullock, William Clayton, Willard Richards, and Wilford Woodruff all were present and took notes during the sermon. Bullock and Claytons accounts are the most detailed, and were compiled into a single account that was published at Nauvoo in Times and Seasons 5/15 (15 August 1844), 61217 (http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/8293). In 1855 Jonathan Grimshaw created an amalgamation of all four accounts; his text was printed in Journal of Discourses 6:111 (http://en.fairmormon.org/Journal_of_Discourses/6/1), History of the Church 6:30217 (http://byustudies.byu.edu/hc/6/15.html), and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith 34262 (http://scriptures.byu.edu/stpjs.html#342). My preferred text, and the one from which I will quote, is Stan Larson, The King Follett Discourse: A Newly Amalgamated Text, BYU Studies 18/2 (Winter 1978), 193208 (https://byustudies.byu.edu/showtitle.aspx?title=5321). Larsons version more accurately reflects the source material and removes later editorial insertions. You can read the original accounts, side-byside, at the Book of Abraham Project web site (http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1844/7Apr44.html), and the individual accounts in The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph , Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, comps. (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980), 34062.

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iv) In this discourse, the Prophet Joseph Smith presented eight principles about the nature of God and our relationship to him. [9.1] He told his audience:
I wish to go back to the beginning of creation. There is the starting point in order to know and be fully acquainted with the mind, purposes, decrees, and ordinations of the great Elohim that sits in the heavens. For us to take up beginning at the creation it is necessary for us to understand something of God Himself in the beginning. There are but very few beings in the world who understand rightly the character of God. If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend their own character.13

(1) [SLIDE 10] Principle 1: God is a man like us.

What kind of a being was God in the beginning, before the world was? I will go back to the beginning to show you. God Himself who sits enthroned in yonder heavens is a Man like unto one of yourselvesthat is the great secret! If the veil were rent today and the great God that holds this world in its sphere and the planets in their orbit and who upholds all things by His powerif you were to see Him today, you would see Him in all the person, image, fashion, and very form of a man, like yourselves.14

(a) This principle completely overturns the traditional Christian belief in the separation of Creator and creature. (i) For most Christians, God is not a material being, much less a being anything like man. But that idea is not Biblical. It arose after the New Testament when Christianity encountered Greek philosophymore specifically, Platonismwhich taught that nothing that is physical can be perfect.15 (ii) [SLIDE 11] The Old Testament consistently represents God as and embodied being in the form of a man, after whose image man is created.16 The earliest Christians also believed that God had a divine, physical body. 17 Joseph restored this teaching, which had been mostly lost to Christianity during the post-New Testament apostasy.18
12 Many Latter-day Saints are familiar with the ideas in the King Follett Discourse, even if they havent read it or heard of it by name. It has been published in its entirety in official Church curriculum as recently as 1987. The address or the principles in it have been mentioned in General Conference many times, most recently in Bishop Keith B. McMullins October 2008 address, God Loves and Helps All of His Children (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/god-loves-and-helps-all-of-his-children). With regard to the King Follett Discourse and Wilford Woodruffs couplet As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become, BYU professor Stephen E. Robinson has written: Neither statement is scriptural or canonized in the technical sense, and neither has been explained or elucidated to the church in any official manner, but they are so widely accepted by Latterday Saints that this technical point has become moot. Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson, How Wide the Divide? A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1997), 8586. 13 Larson, 199. 14 Larson, 200. 15 The primary philosophical text on this is Platos Allegory of the Cave, from his work The Republic (c. 380 B.C.). Plato asserted that Forms (or Ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possessed the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. The complete text is available at http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.8.vii.html 16 See, for example, Genesis 1:27; 3:8; 5:1; 9:6:32:30; Exodus 24:10; Exodus 31:18; 33:11. 17 See David L. Paulsen, Divine Embodiment: The Earliest Christian Understanding of God , Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy, Noel B. Reynolds, ed. (Provo, Utah: BYU Press and FARMS, 2005), 23993 (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=42&chapid=208). 18 Some Christians, most notably Open Theists, are not opposed to the concept of an embodied God. See Clark H. Pinnock and David L. Paulsen, Open and Relational Theology: An Evangelical in Dialogue with a Latter-day Saint, BYU Studies 48/2 (2009), 63, 6973 (https://byustudies.byu.edu/showtitle.aspx?title=8757). Pinnock, an evangelical Christian, quotes the

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(2) [SLIDE 12] Principle 2: God once dwelled on an earth the same as Jesus Christ did, and as we do now.
We have imagined that God was God from the beginning of all eternity. I will refute that idea. He once was a man like one of us and that God Himself, the Father of us all, once dwelled on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did in the flesh and like us.19

(a) The traditional Christian notion is that God is uncreated, that he existed as God from all eternity and that nothing exists in this or any other universe that he did not create. (b) Joseph Smith rejected that notion, and replaced it with the idea that God himself is eternally progressing.20 (3) [SLIDE 13] Principle 3: Jesus did the same things his Father did; they both died and were resurrected.
What did Jesus say? As the Father has power in Himself, even so has the Son power in himself.21 To do what? Why, what the Father did. That answer is obvious; even in a manner to lay down His body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life as my Father laid down His body that I might take it up again.22

(a) Joseph stated in his last public discourse, given two months later:
The Savior says, The work that my Father did do I also. And those are the works. He took himself a body and then laid down his life that he might take it up again.23

(b) The implication here is that God the Father was once himself a Redeemer, having worked out the salvation of souls of whom he was a brother.24 (4) [SLIDE 14] Principle 4: Man is coeternal with God.
We say that God Himself is a self-existent God. Who told you so? It's correct enough, but how did it get into your heads? Who told you that man did not exist in like manner upon the same principle? God made the tabernacle of man out of the earth and put into him Adam's spirit (which was created before), and then it became a living body or human soul. Man existed in spirit; the mind of manthe intelligent partis as immortal as, and is coequal25 with, God Himself.
famous Christian scholar C. S. Lewis: What soul ever perished from believing that God the Father really has a beard? Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harvest-Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1964), 22. 19 Larson, 201. 20 This prompts the question if God himself has a Father whom he worships. There has been lots of conjecture about this, but no revelation on the subject. See this treatment for a brief introduction to the issues:
http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_the_nature_of_God/Infinite_regress_of_Gods
21 Here Joseph quoted John 5:26, changing life to power. In the context of the passage (resurrection of the dead), the two are synonymous. 22 Larson, 201. 23 Joseph Smith, 16 June 1844. Recorded by George Laub; spelling and punctuation modernized. WJS 382; cf. HC 6:476 77 (http://byustudies.byu.edu/hc/6/24.html#476); TPJS 312 (http://scriptures.byu.edu/stpjs.html#312). 24 This is, I believe, the most logical interpretation of Joseph Smiths words. See Truman Madsen, Joseph Smith the Prophet (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1989), 13. 25 The Woodruff and Clayton journalsas well as Willard Richards summary in Joseph Smiths journalall read coequal with God himself at this point, as does Grimshaws 1855 amalgamation. In the version published in History of the Church, B. H. Roberts put, in brackets, [co-eternal] following co-equal, and included a footnote explaining that it is obvious that it should have been written co-eternal, citing D&C 88:41 and Abraham 3:19 as his doctrinal justification. HC 6:31011 (http://byustudies.byu.edu/hc/6/15.html#310). Joseph Fielding Smith, editor of Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,

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God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God Himself could not create Himself. Intelligence26 is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age and there is no creation about it. The first principles of man are self-existent with God.27

(a) [SLIDE 15] The idea that man is an intelligent, eternal being was revealed to Joseph at least as early as May 1833:
Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. (D&C 93:29.)

(b) And in July 1835, as part of the translation of the Book of Abraham, he learned:
If there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent that the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum,28 or eternal. (Abraham 3:18.)

retained Roberts bracketed [co-eternal], and objected to co-equal in even stronger terms, claiming it illustrates the imperfection of the report made of the sermon, even though three separate sources all used the word co-equal. TPJS 353 (http://scriptures.byu.edu/stpjs.html#353). 26 Its important to note here that Joseph Smith used the terms intelligence, spirit, and mind interchangeably to refer to a native intelligence that existed in us from all eternity: The modern Church custom often uses the term intelligences for our state before spirit birth, and spirits for our state after spirit birth. However, the scriptures and the statements of the Prophet Joseph Smith do not support this distinction. From Abraham 3:2223, which contains the only occurrence of the word intelligences as a plural noun in scripture, it is clear that spirit children (souls or spirits) are meant. Similarly, Joseph Smith sometimes used the term spirit to refer to the native state in which we existed before our spirit birth. Modern Saints should avoid becoming too technical in their use of these terms that are only broadly defined by the prophets or the scriptures. Stephen E. Robinson and H. Dean Garrett, Doctrine and Covenants Commentary (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 3:188; italics in the original. The idea that the entire universe is filled with intelligences that are organized into animals, plants, rocks, and other matter originated with Orson Pratt: As eternity was filled as it were with particles of intelligence who had there Agency, two of these particles in process of time might have joined their interest together[,] exchanged ideas[, and] found by persueing this course that they gained [double?] strength to what one particle of intelligence would have[,] & afterwards were joined by other particles & continued untill they formed A combination or body through a long process. Yet they had power over other intelligences in consequence of their combination, organization[,] & strength[.] And in process of time[,] this being[,] body[,] or God[,] seeing the Advantage of such an organization[,] desires company[,] or A companion[,] And Having some experiance goes to work & organizes other beings by prevailing [on] intelligences to come to gether & [in the hope that they] may form sumthing better than at the first. And After trails of this kind[,] & the most perfect way sought[, a]ught it was found [that]the most expeditious & best way to recieve there formations or bodies[,] either spiritual or temporal[, was] through a womb. Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruffs Journal (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 9 vols., 198385), 3:21618, original spelling and Kenneys editorial insertions retained; quoted in Gary James Bergera, Conflict In the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 90. Orson Pratts theory has been promoted and popularized by W. Cleon Skousen; see Why Was the Atonement Necessary?, appendix to The First 2,000 Years (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1953), 35262. See also Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992), s.v. Intelligence, 2:692 (http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Intelligence) and Intelligences, 2:69293 (http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Intelligences). 27 Larson, 20304. 28 Gnolaum is an English transliteration of the Hebrew ( owlam), which means forever, everlasting, perpetual, or ancient. It appears in the Old Testament 439 times in 414 verses (e.g., Genesis 3:22; 9:16; 17:7; Exodus 3:15). 2013, Mike Parker http://bit.ly/ldsarc For personal use only. Not a Church publication.

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(c) [SLIDE 16] Joseph taught in the summer of 1839:

The spirit of man is not a created being; it existed from eternity and will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be eternal, and earth, water, etc.all these had their existence in an elementary state from eternity.29

(d) [SLIDE 17] Again Joseph ran counter to traditional Christian orthodoxy, which teaches that God created everythingmatter, space, time, and our spiritsfrom nothing (Latin: creatio ex nihilo). (i) This is going to become very important when we study the creation in two weeks, because the account in Genesis strongly supports the idea that God created the world from preexisting matter which was unorganized and chaotic. (5) [SLIDE 18] Principle 5: God called a council of the Gods to plan for a creation.
The Head One of the Gods called together the Gods and the grand councillors sat in grand council at the head in yonder heavens to bring forth the world and contemplated the creation of the worlds that were created at that time. . In the beginning the Head of the Gods called a council of the Gods. The Gods came together and concocted a scheme to create this world and the inhabitants.30

(a) Of all the ideas Joseph mentioned in the King Follett Discourse, this one has the greatest support from the Old Testament, as well as from scholarship that has emerged since his time. (b) [SLIDE 19] The overwhelming view among scholars today is that the God of the Old Testament ruled over a divine councilan assembly of gods who met to make decisions about events in heaven and on earth.31 (i) This view of a divine pantheon was not unique to Israel, but was also found in the religious literature of Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Phoenicia, and Egypt.32 (ii) [19.1] The divine council is spoken of throughout the Old Testament, where they are referred to as sons of God,33 sons of the Most High,34 holy ones,35 the host of heaven,36 or simply gods.37

29 WJS 9; spelling and punctuation modernized. Compare HC 3:387 (http://byustudies.byu.edu/hc/3/27.html#387); TPJS 158 (http://scriptures.byu.edu/stpjs.html#158). The dating of this discourse is difficult to identify; it was given in the summer of 1839, sometime before 8 August (see WJS 17, note 1.) 30 Larson, 20203. 31 This has been the case since the discovery of the Ras Shamra tablets in 1928, Cyrus H. Gordons landmark article on Psalm 82Elohim in its Reputed Meaning of Rulers, Judges, Journal of Biblical Literature 54/3 (1935), 13944 and various other discoveries, including the Dead Sea Scrolls. For the state of current scholarship, see E. Theodore Mullen Jr., Divine Assembly, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, David Noel Freedman, ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 2:21417. Dr. Michael S. Heiser, a non-Mormon Evangelical scholar, maintains web site on this subject (http://www.thedivinecouncil.com). The Old Testament view of the divine council continued into New Testament Christian belief: Compare Jude 1:6 with Genesis 6:14 and Johns throne theophany in Revelation 4:15:14. For an LDS view of the divine council and early Christian thought, see David Bokovoy, Joseph Smith and the Biblical Council of Gods, FAIR Apologetics Conference, 5 August 2010 (http://www.fairlds.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2010-David-Bokovoy.pdf). 32 The drawing in the Book of Abraham that we call Facsimile 3 represents the deceased individual Hor being introduced by the gods Maat and Anubis to Osiris and Isis in the afterworld. See Michael D. Rhodes, The Hor Book of Breathings: A Translation and Commentary (Studies in the Book of Abraham, vol. 2), (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002), 23.

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(c) The divine council appears early in Joseph Smiths revelations, during his translation of the Bible in the summer of 1830. He described a pre-mortal meeting of the sons of God, where Satan offered himself as a redeemer, but Gods Beloved Son, which was [his] Beloved and Chosen from the beginning was given the assignment instead. (Moses 4:14.) (d) [SLIDE 20] Joseph Smith taught in the King Follett Discourse:
The devil came to save the world and stood up as a savior. The contention in heaven was that Jesus contended that there would be certain souls that would be condemned and not saved, but the devil said, I am a savior, and that he could save them all. As the grand council gave in for Jesus Christ, the lot fell on him. So the devil rose up, rebelled against God, fell, and was thrust down, with all who put up their heads for him.38

(e) [SLIDE 21] The divine council appears again in Josephs translation of the Book of Abraham, where God is described as dwelling in the midst of other intelligences,39 of which he is the greatest:
Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; and God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. (Abraham 3:2223; for context, see 3:16 28.)

(i) Its interesting that the Book of Abraham has God saying these [intelligences] I will make my rulers, because thats exactly what the divine council is: An assembly or synod of divine beings to whom God has given authority and with whom he counsels in making decisions.40 (6) [SLIDE 22] Principle 6: We must learn how to become Gods ourselves.
You have got to learn how to make yourselves Gods in order to save yourselves and be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have doneby going from a small capacity to a great capacity, from a small degree to another, from grace to grace, until the resurrection of the dead, from exaltation to
See Genesis 6:14; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. Deuteronomy 32:8 reads sons of Israel (children of Israel in the KJV) in the Masoretic text, but a fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran reads sons of God, which is undoubtedly the original reading. (Several prominent Bible translationsincluding the NRSV and NEThave adopted the DSS reading.) 34 See Psalm 82:6. 35 This is obscured in the King James Version of the Bible, which translates this phrase as saints, sons of the mighty, or just the holy. See Deuteronomy 33:23; Job 5:1; 15:15; Psalms 16:3; 89:7; Proverbs 9:10; 30:3; Zechariah 14:5. 36 This phrase appears repeatedly in the Old Testament; see, for example, 1 Kings 22:19; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 89:8. The difficulty in interpreting it lies in that it is often used to describe the sun, moon, and stars. Context is key to interpretation of these passages. 37 The Old Testament typically uses gods to refer to idols or foreign gods (e.g., Genesis 35:24; Exodus 12:12; Deuteronomy 6:14), but a few passages use the term to mean beings in the Lords divine council (e.g., Genesis 3:5; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalms 82:18; 97:7; 138:1). 38 Larson, 20506. 39 On the meaning of the word intelligences, see footnote 26. 40 The ancient Israelite notion, found in Dead Sea Scrolls reading of Deuteronomy 32:89, is that the Most High God (El Elyon) delegated jurisdiction over the nations of the earth to the members of his divine council, while reserving Israel for Jehovah (YHWH / the Lord). See Michael S. Heiser, Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God, Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (2001), 5274 (http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/DT32BibSac.pdf).
33

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Old Testament: Introduction

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exaltationtill you are able to sit in everlasting burnings and everlasting power and glory as those who have gone before, sit enthroned. . Contemplate the saying that they will be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.41 What is it? To inherit and enjoy the same glory, powers, and exaltation until you ascend a throne of eternal power and arrive at the station of a God, the same as those who have gone before.42

(a) This is another of Josephs revelations that restored an ancient doctrine that was almost completely lost in the great apostasy: [SLIDE 23] That of apotheosis,43 the idea that human beings can become gods.44 (i) In the early 4th century A.D., the Christian writer Athanasius of Alexandria (A.D. 293?373) wrote simply that God became man so that man might become God.45 (ii) The doctrine of apotheosis has been almost completely lost in Western Catholicism and Protestant Christianity, but has been preserved in Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition.46 (b) [SLIDE 24] This is the Latter-day Saint doctrine of exaltation:
[If a married couple] abide in my covenantthey shall pass by the angels, and the godsto their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. (D&C 132:19b20.)

(7) [SLIDE 25] Principle 7: The spirits that are enlarged, improve themselves, and follow Gods laws become like God.
All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement and improvement. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. God Himself found Himself in the midst of
A quote from Romans 8:17. Larson, 201. 43 Apotheosis came into English directly from the Greek , change [into] God. 44 The recent Latter-day Saint literature on apotheosis is vast. For a good starting point, see Daniel C. Peterson, Ye Are Gods: Psalm 82 and John 10 as Witnesses to the Divine Nature of Humankind, in The Disciple as Scholar: Essays on Scripture and the Ancient World in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges, eds. (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 471594 (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=46&chapid=258). Evangelical scholar Michael S Heiser (referred to in footnotes 31 and 40) responded to Peterson in You've Seen One Elohim, You've Seen Them All? A Critique of Mormonisms Use of Psalm 82, FARMS Review 19/1 (2007), 22166 (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=19&num=1&id=643). LDS scholar David E. Bokovoy replied to Heiser in the same publication: Ye Really Are Gods: A Response to Michael Heiser concerning the LDS Use of Psalm 82 and the Gospel of John, 267313 (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=19&num=1&id=644). For more quotes and references on apotheosis, see
41 42

http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_the_nature_of_God/Deification_of_man

45 Or, He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God. On the Incarnation 54:3, PG 25:192B (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.ix.html). See also Keith Edward Norman, Deification: The Content of Athanasian Soteriology, FARMS Occasional Papers #1 (2000) (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/papers/?paperID=5). 46 See Jordan Vajda, Partakers of the Divine Nature, FARMS Occasional Papers #3 (2002) (http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/papers/?paperID=7).

2013, Mike Parker

http://bit.ly/ldsarc

For personal use only. Not a Church publication.

Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class

Old Testament: Introduction

Week 1, Page 11

spirits and glory. Because He was greater He saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest, who were less in intelligence, could have a privilege to advance like Himself and be exalted with Him, so that they might have one glory upon another in all that knowledge, power, and glory.47

(a) According to Joseph, apotheosisthe process of becoming like Godisnt just a special program created for us; its part of an eternal plan whereby all intelligent spirits can progress and become divine. (8) [SLIDE 26] Principle 8: When we are exalted, the Father is exalted above us, and our kingdoms are added to his.
What did Jesus Christ do? Why I do the same things that I saw my Father do when worlds came rolling into existence. Saw the Father do what? I saw the Father work out His kingdom with fear and trembling and I am doing the same, too. When I get my kingdom, I will give it to the Father and it will add to and exalt His glory. He will take a higher exaltation and I will take His place and I am also exalted, so that He obtains kingdom rolling upon kingdom. So that Jesus treads in His tracks as He had gone before and then inherits what God did before. God is glorified in the salvation and exaltation of His creatures.48

(a) With this last principle, Joseph Smith summed up his entire view of the cosmos: Each intelligence that is expanding in knowledge, power, and influence also increases and expands the knowledge, power, and influence of God the Father.49 v) All of this provides a backdrop to our study of the Old Testament this year. vi) How grateful I am for the expansive mind of Joseph Smith and the revelations he received, that overthrow the narrowness of Christian creeds and dogmas, and restore the understanding that we are literal children of God, and that we are on a course to not just come back into his presence, but to become like him. 8) [SLIDE 27] Next week: a) The origin, development, and translation of the Old Testament. i) There is no specific reading for next week. ii) Please take a look at the class web site where youll find my notes and PowerPoint presentation, as well as some links for additional reading.

Larson, 204. Larson, 201. 49 This idea was put to song in the second verse of The Spirit of God (Hymn #2, 1985): The knowledge and power of God are expanding. Although the idea that Gods knowledge was constantly expanding was taught by Joseph Smith and his contemporaries, some later LDS authorities have rejected the idea. For example, see Bruce R. McConkie, The Seven Deadly Heresies, fireside address given at Brigham Young University, 1 June 1980 (http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=658).
47 48

2013, Mike Parker

http://bit.ly/ldsarc

For personal use only. Not a Church publication.