Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, I have a question for you who are watching dawn, you don't get to answer this because you'll know. What was the very first temple ever built? Very first temple. Now, I thought I knew the answer to that. And I was so confident in my answer. And then Don let me know that, no, I was in a very kind way, Don, when you taught us the very first temple ever built. We're going to talk about that temple today. And I hope you're just as surprised by the answer as I was. Welcome to Jesus Christ in Scripture. Finding Christ on every page. I'm Tammy Usalak hall with my friend, Dr. Donald W. Perry. So grab your scriptures, turn to Genesis, chapter two. We're gonna go to verse eight. You wanna grab something to mark it with. And I'm going to have you circle the name Eden in here in Hebrew. This is kind of cool. Eden means delight or luxury. So you wanna know that. So I put that next to it. Luxury and delight. And, Don, I want you to teach us today. Why is Eden a place of luxury or delight?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: This is a subject I started studying in the 1980s.
And when I say that to my BYU students, they're like, 1980s.
That was before water was invented or something like that.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: I dressed up like that for Halloween one year.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah, 1980s. Most of them were born, what, 20 years ago or 22,000. Yeah, 2,000.
So it's a subject I love and it's been on my mind for all of that time. In the Genesis account, there are clues there that the Garden of Eden was actually a temple.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: That's the answer.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: And not a temple with walls or windows or doorways, but a temple, a sacred space. And it had temple symbolisms in it. So let's run through several of those.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Yes, indeed.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Shall we?
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I loved it when you taught this to me because now when I read the Genesis account, I find temple wording everywhere.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: So there are three temples of eternal significance. The Garden of Eden was one. The Garden of Gethsemane. There are temple symbols there. And of course, the ultimate sacrifice. That and the CR took place there. And then the Garden tomb, the Resurrection. So these are important, but we're going to look at just the first one.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Okay.
The Garden of Eden was the first sanctuary.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: So there's a quote right there in case someone says, no, I don't think it was.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: The next one is the Garden of eden narrative, Genesis 2 through 3 and others contains several powerful symbols and features that prefigured subsequent Israelite temples.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: All right, let's look at several Themes or examples?
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: There's 11 of them. We have tree of life, eastward direction, cherubim, revelation, sacrifice, sacred clothing, keep and work, Earth's creation, abundance, mountain and garden room.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: So let's just briefly look at some of these and maybe make a comment or two. As we wish. God planted the tree of life. So the idea is tree of Life, Genesis 2, 9.
Some scholars have said the menorah or the lampstand. In the Tabernacle, Moses and Solomon's temple was a tree of life.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: So there's the connection between Eden and Israelite temples.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: I like the eastern orientation, that Eden, the direction east, is part of the Garden of Eden narrative. And Israelite temples. The temple had an eastward orientation.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: I don't think it's coincidence.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: No, I don't either.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Cherubim. So in Eden, they had cherubs guard the way back to the Tree of Life. And then cherubim are found in the Israelite temples, both in the Tabernacle, Moses on the veil, and then on the Ark of the Covenant.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: And.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: And then in Solomon's Temple, they had examples of cherubim. Also.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Don, what exactly is a cherubim?
[00:03:28] Speaker B: They're some form of angel or living thing that protects God's sanctity.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Okay, and is this a Hebrew plural?
[00:03:37] Speaker B: It's a Hebrew plural because we've learned.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: The IM so far.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Okay. Very cool.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: You're seeing it.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Very good. Yeah. And we have a forthcoming episode on Elohim, also an im.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yes.
Revelation in Eden, God revealed many things to Adam and Eve in the garden and in the Israelite temples. The temple was a place of prayer and communion with God.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: The idea of sacrifice. Sacrifice was performed in the Garden of Eden, in my opinion, to make the coats of skins. Where are they going to get coats of skins if there's not death?
So I see a connection there. So do several others. But I think it's obvious to everyone else there's sacrifices performed in the temple. A lot of these are found in our temples. Not sacrifice of animals, but the law of sacrifice.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: And sacred vestments and. And some other things.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Yes. Sacred clothing. Eden, God gave Adam and Eve sacred clothing. And in the Israelite temples, God instructed the priests to wear sacred clothing. I love that you have this picture right here, because we'll get to this in Exodus, but it's very cool to see what it looked like.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: And the similarities with us.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Neat.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: I love it. Love it. All right. These are two Hebrew words that are found in the Garden of Eden and in Israelite temples. This is not my idea. I read about this from a scholarly work. The terms keep and work in the Hebrew Avad and shamar are found in both sets. And the scholars say these are two content words. It can't be a coincidence that they're found in both.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: In Eden, the garden is connected to the ritual creation drama which we've talked about. The theme is Earth's creation. And in Israelite temples, the creation sequence was reenacted in the temple. That was a fun discussion.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: I loved that the idea of abundance. The garden was paradise associated with abundance. And I have a friend named John Lundquist who wrote a dissertation. He wrote that the temple, ancient temples, are associated with abundance and prosperity. And we see that in the Israelite temples and some of the themes and some of the decorations.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Is that possibly a connection to the word luxury with the name Eden?
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I love it.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Okay, Very cool. Then we have the theme of the mountain. The garden was depicted as a mountain with rivers flowing downward. And Israelite temples, the temple is sometimes referred to as a mountain.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: This one, it was hard for some of my students to grasp at first until they realized there are four rivers flowing down.
And if the law of physics is in effect, and I think it is, then you have the idea, if they're flowing down, there must be a hill or a mountain. But when you read Exodus 28, it makes it more explicit. The garden itself. In some of our temples, we have a garden room.
In our temple, we do recall, remember, and reenact not only the creation of the world, but also the Adam and Eve narrative. Very sacred. And I wanted to. Just to support the idea of temples.
I've heard people say, well, the Tabernacle, Moses was the first temple. But listen to this verse. We're talking about my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.
Now, I've got a lot of evidence that there were other temples in ancient Israel other than Solomon's temple and the Tabernacle, Moses and Herod's temple. But this is important. My people are always commanded. Now, the Garden of Eden was not built by Adam or Eve, but as Elder Talmad said, it's the first sanctuary, first temple. I'm thankful for temples. I'm thankful for the first temple, the Garden of Eden temple, and for all of God's temples.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: I think this has been such a good discussion. I love that you ended with this verse of Scripture, because the whole time I'm thinking, like, why is it important to know that the Garden of Eden was like a temple. And right here I'm realizing when he says my people are always commanded to build in my holy name, he's not kidding. He says even from the very first creation Adam and Eve were commanded to build a temple and that that garden of Eden was a temple experience for them. So he really, he really does what he says he's going to do and I think that's pretty amazing. This has been a fun discussion. I love these themes and it'd be neat to see if other people find other themes and connections with. Yes, that'd be great with the garden and please share. We would love to hear that because this is, this is ongoing. I mean we just, I feel like you just touched the surface. I know from you you have taught me things before and talked about how the creation is a type of the temple. So thanks Don. What a great discussion. We hope you enjoyed it too. Shalom and goodbye Sam.
