The three degrees of glory

[Ego]

I have more on this subject I want to talk about but I’ll start with specifically addressing Paul and the three degrees of glory:

1 Corinthians 15
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

JST, 1 Corinthians 15:40. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:40
(There are three degrees of glory in the Resurrection.)
40 Also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial, and bodies telestial; but the glory of the celestial, one; and the terrestrial, another; and the telestial, another.

The Greek word translated Terrestrial is epigeios
From Bullinger Greek dictionary
ἐπίγειος (epigeios 1919)
earthly [KJV]
upon the earth, terrestrial.
terrestrial [KJV]
upon earth, that is earthly, terrestrial, belonging to the earth (that is to earth as opposed to heaven, or land as opposed to water).
earth (in) [KJV]
upon the earth, extant in the earth.

The Greek word translated Celestial is epouranios
Again from Bullinger Greek dictionary
ἐπουράνιος (epouranios 2032)
heavenly [KJV]
(οὐράνιος (ouranios 3770) with ἐπί (epi 1909) upon, in, heavenly, what pertains to, or is in heaven).
celestial [KJV]
upon or above the heavens, that is to say in heaven, heavenly.
heaven (in) [KJV]
heavenly, what pertains to or is in heaven; οἱ ἐπουράνιοι (hoi epouranioi) here denotes beings which come within the heavenly order.

I’m not gonna go hunt down obscure quotes from the brethren that say this in public sermons, I’m just going to reference the temple directly and say that the Church teaches that this world is the telestial world, the glory of our bodies right now is telestial.
Now ignore for a moment that Joseph Smith erroneously applied the terms celestial and terrestrial to tiers of heaven and then made up the word telestial to describe another tier. Even if that were all he were to do then it would just be a really annoying semantic thing, but the fact that the teaching evolved such that this earth here and now is considered to be of telestial glory is not at all how I’m sure Paul saw things. Consider Paul’s conception of the heavens above. He would not have had access to anything more than a Ptolemaic and Aristotelian model of the cosmos. The sun, the moon, and the stars were the heavens above, the celestial. The bodies of heaven were those. And the bodies of the earth were the flesh of animals, birds, and fish as he said in the verse prior.
If we interpret Paul’s words to mean that in the resurrection there will be degrees of glory, there is no reason to believe that he would have considered this earthly existence to be of that lowest degree of glory.

[drumdude]

Glen Ostlund pointed this out many times on Mormon Expression and Infants on Thrones. Joseph Smith misunderstood Paul completely, Paul was indeed setting up a binary juxtaposition.

The JST revision is a childish addition, much like Joseph's scribbles on the Book of Abraham Papyrus.

[Ego]

Glen Ostlund pointed this out many times on Mormon Expression and Infants on Thrones. Joseph Smith misunderstood Paul completely, Paul was indeed setting up a binary juxtaposition.

The JST revision is a childish addition, much like Joseph's scribbles on the Book of Abraham Papyrus.

I had never heard of him nor those podcasts, but thank you for that!