latterdaytemplar wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 6:44 pm
Unfortunately, it will probably be another day until I can respond to your latest large post; work has picked up and, shortly afterward, I'll be directing a degree practice.
Dear Brother LatterDayTemplar- In rereading your response to my previous comments, I noticed a couple of things about your responses. In some aspects we see the relevance of the Royal Arch and George Oliver to different degrees because of other research I have done with regards to the Mormon-Masonic connection. As opposed to directly responding to concerns you have raised, I think a foray into some of my other research might be helpful. I hope you don't mind if I share with you some of my unpublished work. After I have shared that information, I think you may reconsider your concerns.
However, before doing that, let me give a plug for a book that is coming out this year -
Method Infinite. A number of aspects of your comments should be addressed in that book. It is currently available for preorder. The authors Cheryl Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, and Nicholas Literski have been hard at work for many years to get it published. I had the pleasure of reading several of the chapters to make suggestions and give feedback before they were submitted to the editor. One of the groundbreaking finds in the book is that Joseph Smith was likely aware of George Oliver's publication
Antiquities of Freemasonry (1823) and that contents informed his doctrinal works in the 1830s. In other words, Joseph's theology and scriptural works were being informed by Masonic works in the 1830s, long before he became a Freemason in the 1840s. What they have found is phenomenal, but it only scratches the surface of what Joseph Smith did with
Antiquities of Freemasonry.
Let's back away from the discussion of the Mormon Temple ritual and instead turn to the Book of Moses and focus on Chapter 5 of the Book of Moses. Remember that Joseph Smith’s work on this began and ended in1830. A careful analysis suggests that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were using
Antiquities of Freemasonry to revise the Book of Genesis and they were “reinserting” Masonic legends that they believed had been lost in antiquity “back” into the Bible. Yes I just said that!
To understand what is happening, it helps to compare the relevant Genesis text with the matching Moses text.
”Comparison of Genesis 3:24-4:2 and Moses 4:31-517 wrote:
GEN 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
GEN 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
GEN 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
MOS 4:31 So I drove out the man, and I placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.
MOS 4:32 (And these are the words which I spake unto my servant Moses, and they are true even as I will; and I have spoken them unto you. See thou show them unto no man, until I command you, except to them that believe. Amen.)
MOS 5:1 And it came to pass that after I, the Lord God, had driven them out, that Adam began to till the earth, and to have dominion over all the beasts of the field, and to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow, as I the Lord had commanded him. And Eve, also, his wife, did labor with him.
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MOS 5:15 And as many as believed in the Son, and repented of their sins, should be saved; and as many as believed not and repented not, should be damned; and the words went forth out of the mouth of God in a firm decree; wherefore they must be fulfilled.
MOS 5:16 And Adam and Eve, his wife, ceased not to call upon God. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words. But behold, Cain hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him?
MOS 5:17 And she again conceived and bare his brother Abel. And Abel hearkened unto the voice of the Lord. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
During the translation of this section of the Book of Moses, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery added one verse to transition between Genesis 3 and Genesis 4 with an additional 15 verse preface to Genesis 4:1. These additional verses add interesting preferatory details to the story of Adam and Eve from the time they were expelled from the Garden of Eden before the text discusses the birth of Cain and Abel. Below is a summary of the additional material.
① ADAM AND EVE TILLED THE EARTH AND HAD A LARGE EXTENDED FAMILY AT THE TIME OF CAIN’S CONSPIRACY TO MURDER ABEL. (Moses 5:1-3)
② ADAM AND EVE CALLED UPON “THE NAME OF THE LORD” AND FROM EDEN THEY WERE GIVEN THE LAW OF SACRIFICE. ADAM OFFERED THE “FIRSTLINGS OF THEIR FLOCK” AS A SACRIFICE. (Moses 5:4-5)
③ AN “ANGEL OF THE LORD” APPEARED UNTO ADAM AND EXPLAINED THE SECRET MEANING OF THESE SACRIFICES DONE IN THE NAME OF THE SON. (Moses 5:6-9)
④ ADAM PROPHESIED CONCERNING ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH AND MADE ALL THINGS KNOWN UNTO THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS. (Moses 5:10-12)
⑤ AND SATAN CAME AMONG THEM. MEN BECAME CARNAL, SENSUAL, AND DEVILISH. (Moses 5:13-15)
As mentioned before, George Oliver wrote
Antiquities of Freemasonry as a retelling of portions of the Old Testament story which creatively reinterpreted and reinvented these stories with both the heroes and villains of the story as ancient Freemasons. Interestingly, if you carefully compare Moses 5:1-15 with George Oliver’s
Antiquities of Freemasonry, there is substantial overlap. Joseph Smith and Cowdery were not plagiarizing
Antiquities of Freemasonry, but instead were injecting the lost Masonic legends and esoteric religious wisdom which they likely believed had been lost from the Bible back into Mormon scripture in the vernacular of the King James English. In other words, they were restoring that which was lost.