Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Is there a play or a musical that you absolutely love? So I asked dawn this question, and I'm curious to know what your answer. Is there a play or musical you love?
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Yes, musical. The Sound of Music.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Oh, I love that one. Why do you love it? I've watched it so many times. It's just fresh and beautiful, and the backdrop, the acting is wonderful. Such great messages.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Perfect answer. Perfect answer. Mine is Les Mis, and I have to tell you why. So for years, I prided myself on the fact that I'd never seen it, and everybody talked about how good it was, and I, kind of out of my own pride, was like, I'm never going to see it, because I just wanted to not have to be like everybody else. But then I went to New York and my friends got tickets, and so I thought, all right, I'm going to go do this. I'm finally going to see Les Mis. Is it that great?
It is that great. Dawn. I was weeping throughout this play. I felt like a changed person after watching this.
And the reason why I ask you this question, and I want everyone to be thinking about a play or a musical that you absolutely love, is because we're going to discuss a play today that is so loved. And in fact, once I understood this idea behind this play, it really changed my life. And there have been times where I have been weeping when I've attended this play. And we are so excited to tell you what this play is. Welcome to Jesus Christ in Scripture. Finding Christ on Every Page. I'm Tammy usalak Hall with Dr. Donald W. Perry, and we are so excited to dig into our scriptures. So grab your scriptures and something to mark them with, and let's turn to Genesis chapter one. Are we ready to do this?
[00:01:27] Speaker B: I'm ready to go.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: I'm excited because, dawn, you're going to teach us about Genesis 1. And when I learned this really cool fact that you'll eventually get to, it just blew my mind. So go. Go for it.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: The objective of this podcast is to demonstrate that the creation narrative is an ancient ritual text. Okay. I didn't know that for years and years.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: It's a sacred ceremonial text that belongs both to ancient temples and modern temples. And I went through the temple for years and years without knowing it was temple text to the ancients as it is to us. Once I realized that it was also ancient, an ancient ceremonial text, it just changed everything. Wow.
So I have on the screen, as you know, I do the Dead Sea Scrolls. I work on the Dead Sea Scrolls. I've done so since 1994. And this is a beautiful image in Hebrew, Genesis chapter one, the very top line starts out with the very first words of Genesis chapter one. I just love it. And right next to you, if you reach out, Tammy, the first. Yeah, right there. That's the word Elohim, isn't that.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: I noticed that.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: You noticed that, yes.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: That is so fun.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Yep. So people wonder if the creation narrative is a scientific text. And the answer, no, it's a temple text. It's a ritual text. It wasn't designed to be a scientific text. That doesn't mean that it's not true.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: It's.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: It is a true text. God did create the worlds. So I have on this screen some scientific formulas. Just for fun, I suppose. Tammy, you learned all of this in, like third grade, maybe fourth grade? I don't know.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: I like how you said just for fun. I'm like, nothing about this is fun to me. I do not excel in the mathematical department at all. No skill set.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: I don't either. So if the creation narrative was a scientific text, I'd expect formulas, maybe. Or here I have some leaf key components. I'm not going to go through all of these, but these are just for leaf. Look at what's involved. Just for leaf.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: So if the creation narrative was a scientific text, I imagine it would be hundreds of thousands of pages long. If it's describing a tree and a leaf and water and so on. Here's another one. Here's some gold, a very nice gold nugget. And the symbol is AU. And I have the atomic structure, atomic number 79.
So the creation narrative is a ritual text. That's the bottom line. We're going to show you today that it was a ritual text in ancient and modern temples.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: That's the goal.
And first, I want to cite my colleague, Steven Ricks. He's there on the right hand side. He's right next door to me.
And we both teach the Hebrew Bible. We're the two that teach the Hebrew Bible at our university full time. And he provides evidence that the creation narrative was recited in ancient Israelite temples.
I have a quotation there. Furthermore, brother Hugh Nibley, he says all ancient temples rehearsed the story of the creation. Interesting.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Okay. I have to say this blew my mind because I read this article and I actually took a quote from it and put it in my scriptures right here in Genesis 1. So I've written what you said. I put the creation equals the temple text, ritual text. But in his article, this is what stood out to me. Can I read this quote from him?
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Oh, I'd love it. Yes.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: It's so cool. He says that this creation story in Genesis appears to have been the script of a drama in which certain key scenes were presented by actors while the story as a whole was recited and explained to the temple audience. I mean, that blew my mind. This concept that we see it acted out. They saw it act like this ritual. And I like how you've told us it's a temple text, because now when I attend the temple, it's. It's so much more deep for me. And to think about, like we talked about plays that changed our life, and now we have our own experience with a play right here in our own hands that has the ability to change our lives.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yes. And as far as it being a drama, we're going to look at that in the next episode.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Or the next one. I don't remember in the coming episode.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: It'll be great. But I like that you've taught us this.
It really gives a whole nother level to the creation.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Changes. It changes the whole thing.
So this is from the Mishnah Ta'. Anit. That's the source. The Mishnah is a very important record that was put together between 200 BC and 200 AD. Okay. And a man named Judah, the Prince Judah Hanassi, is the one that finalized the putting together the Mishnah. But it's a very important text.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Can I ask, what exactly is the Mishnah? Is it another book of scripture or is it commentary?
[00:06:05] Speaker B: It's commentary mostly on the Pentateuch or the five books of Moses. Great.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: And the five books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Yep. The Mishnah is used by different Jewish groups throughout the world. Yeah. It's important to this date.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: So important. Yeah.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: And one of the classes that I teach is Mishnaic. Mishnah, Mishnaik, Hebrew.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: So at three times in the year, priests raised their hands and I put the Hebrew there to recite the priestly benediction. When the Israelite members of the guard, parallel to the priestly watch, come and read the act of the creation from the Torah. I love that.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: What does it say in Hebrew?
[00:06:43] Speaker B: It says, no, Saim et Kapehen.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: What does that mean?
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Raise their. Kaph is actually a palm. So raise their palms. Now, in other texts, it'll say yod, or hand.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: When the time arrived for the members of a certain priestly watch to ascend the priests and Levites of that watch would ascend to Jerusalem to perform the temple service. And as for the Israelites assigned to that priestly watch, some of them went up to Jerusalem while the rest of them assembled in their towns and read the act of the creation. That's so cool.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: More evidence. Yes, that's what I'm doing is giving evidence.
So now we're going to look at a commentator, Rabbi Obadiah Ben Avraham, and he's commenting on the passage you and I just read. Those who were far from Jerusalem and were not able to go up and stand over their sacrifice with their division, we gather in the synagogues, in their cities and, and fast and pray and read from the Torah the five books of Moses each day in the creation story to announce that the world stand on the divine service that they do in the temple. Now let's look at the modern. And I could have given much more evidence ancient, other than those three or four quotes, Absolutely.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: So this is the creation narrative recited in modern temples. Latter Day saints hold sacred four creation narratives.
Three written Genesis 1, Moses, 2, Abraham, 4. The fourth belongs to the temple. Four instead of just one underscores the import.
The creation narrative is a significant part of the temple endowment. The temple endowment includes a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: The reason I wanted to cite Elder Talmadge is lest anyone think that I, or you and I are revealing something that's too sacred, and that is we do.
The temple endowment does include a recital of the creation narrative.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Well, and I appreciate you putting these quotes in and the history you've taught us, because for anyone who's ever wondered, why do we have to do it? And why are we going. And a lot of times people think it takes forever to get through this story. And now knowing that it's a ritual, an ancient text, something that's always existed for me, it strengthens my testimony in the prophet Joseph Smith, because he couldn't have known that this young, uneducated farm boy would not have known that the creation was an ancient text. And so again, it proves, like, all of the things he's done to restore truth back onto the earth. And so this is just another example of the restoration process that we're living in. Very cool.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: And I'm aware of 28 correspondences between ancient and modern temples.
And you're absolutely right. I do not think the prophet Joseph, when he restored our temple and temple ordinances and ceremonies, knew that there were that many correspondences between ancient modern temples. And one of them is the creation narrative being recited very Cool.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: So as we go through the creation, tell us what are some key factors or three things that you think we need to know about the structure of the creation?
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Well, the structure is very interesting. Some scholars have said the structural framework is an indication that it was a ritual text. Okay. Now, I can't give a lot of evidence in that direction, but I'll show you the structural framework, the announcement, and notice the pattern here. First day, and God said. Second day, and God said, see, there's a pattern here. Number two is the commandment. And they use what we call in the Hebrew, the justif grammatical form, which is let or may, let there be light. Day one, Let there be a firmament, let the waters be, and so on. But you see, the important framework. Number three is the report. The first day and there was light, and it was so. And it was so. And God created and God made the beast. And then the fourth day is the evaluation of each day. So the first and second day do not have the evaluation, but the third day, and God saw that it was good. And the fourth day and God saw that it was good. The fifth, and so on.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Okay, so here's my final question for you, then. What does it teach you about God knowing that he has patterns, that he uses patterns?
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Well, he uses patterns throughout the temple, which are very fascinating and powerful. And they teach us about God being.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Organized, because God is so organized. And the thing I've loved about our discussion today is what he did anciently, he still does today. Like, he is the same today, yesterday, and forever. And that gives me great comfort that he's not going to throw a fast one at you. And so going into this.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: I like that.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Thank you. So going into the temple with this idea that this has always existed, that this is part of his plan, it helps me to sit with a little more peace and a little more patience, I should say, because sometimes I go to the temple and I'm like, all right, I got to do this. Let's. Maybe this time I'll go, oh, this is ritual. This is a play.
This is something that I need to absorb and hopefully be affected in the same way I was when I saw Les Mis. So.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Oh, yes.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Or when you watch sound and music. But anyway, great discussion. Thank you so much, dawn, for preparing this, and we look forward to hearing your comments, and we challenge you to take the time to read the creation narrative and as a play, as something that God really wants us to invest in and become one with and look for patterns as you study the Scriptures. So thank you. For joining us. Have a wonderful week. Shalom and goodbye.
