Moses 5:4 records that after being “shut out of [God’s] presence” that Adam and Eve “called upon the name of the Lord” The wording, “called upon the name of Lord” is interesting. It does not say that Adam and Eve prayed to the Lord nor that they simply called on the Lord. It specifically says they called up the NAME of the Lord suggesting they are calling for God by his personal name; and when Adam and Eve called out God’s personal name “they heard the voice of the Lord from the way towards the Garden of Eden.””Moses 5:4-5” wrote:[b[MOS 5:4[/b] And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the NAME OF THE LORD, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence.
MOS 5:5 And he GAVE UNTO THEM COMMANDMENTS, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should OFFER THE FIRSTLINGS OF THEIR FLOCKS, for an offering unto the Lord.
Within the Hebrew Bible the personal name of God is spelled using the four characters יהוה and this name is often known as the Tetragrammaton. According to Jewish custom when יהוה is read in scripture the sacred name is not pronounced but Adonai (Lord) or HaShem (The Name) is substituted instead. The Old Testament records that the personal name of God was first revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Moses 3:13-15) and later in Egypt Moses is told ”And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name (JEHOVAH ( יהוה ) was I not known to them.” (Exodus 6:3). The claim of Moses 5:4 that Adam and Eve knew the “name of the Lord” is problematic in light of these scriptural passages.
Interestingly, this claim is also made in Antiquities of Freemasonry in its discussion of Moses receiving the name of God. According to Antiquities of Freemasonry the sacred personal name of God ( יהוה ) was part of the Masonic secrets passed on by Adam to his progeny.
Moses 5:5 explains that the Lord “gave unto them commandments” that Adam and Eve should “worship Lord their God” and to “offer the firstlings of their flocks” as burnt offerings. This verse adds several new pieces of information to the Genesis narrative. First, it records Cain and Abel were not unique in offering sacrifices but that this was also the practice of Adam and Eve. Second, the passage asserts that the offering of sacrifices was not a notion conjured up by early biblical figures to appease deity, but instead it was a commandment given by God to Adam and his posterity. Third, the Law of Sacrifice dictated by God to Adam and Eve clarifies the nature of the sacrifice - the firstlings of their flocks. Thus Moses 5 substantially elaborates on the narrative presented in Genesis.”Antiquities of Freemasonry” wrote:In a subsequent revelation, God said to Moses, “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my JEHOVAH was I not known unto them.” And yet in Jacob’s vision of the ladder God revealed to him his name, as he had before done to his forefathers Abraham and Isaac; “I am JEHOVAH, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.” And we have the most satisfactory evidence to prove that this was the same name which was revealed to Adam, and afterwards to Enoch. (AoF, 231-2)
The relevant passage from Antiquities of Freemasonry recorded that, “One grand principle of antient Masonry was the preserve alive in men’s minds the true knowledge of God” and “the great idea of an atonement for sin by animal sacrifice.” Thus according to Antiquities of Freemasonry one of the grand fundamentals principles of Masonry propagated by God to Adam and Eve was the nature of God and law of sacrifice. Thus it recorded that “their first object, on passing from the ineffable light to the temporary darkness” precipitated by the Fall was “clothe themselves with the skins of beasts slain by sacrifice, according to the immediate command of God.”
The nature of the burnt animal sacrifice is also delineated in Antiquities of Freemasonry. The burnt animal sacrifice was to be “typical of the one sacrifice of the lamb without spot” and offering was to be given “as a propitiation for sin”. It then notes that animal sacrifice was the “animating idea which increased man's faith, wheresoever Masonry was practiced.”
Moses 5:4-5 echoes Antiquities of Freemasonry in this passage in five aspects. First, both make the potentially anachronistic claim that Adam and Eve knew the personal name of God. Second, both passages record God issued a commandment to Adam and Eve to give burnt offerings as means of worshiping the Lord their God. Third, in both texts the nature of the burnt sacrifice is specifically commanded to be an animal sacrifice. Fourth, both discuss how, by the time that Cain conspired to murder Abel, that Adam’s family had become numerous upon the earth. Fifth, Antiquities of Freemasonry describes this commandment - The Law of Sacrifice - to be part of Masonic teachings given to Adam. While this is not specifically described in Moses, it was a notable part of Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo endowment. The use of Antiquities of Freemasonry in the revision of Genesis 4 opens the possibility, even the probability, that Joseph Smith was thinking about Adam as a Mason in 1830 - 12 years before he would officially teach this doctrine in Nauvoo in 1842. As we shall see, a further exploration of Moses 5 demonstrates that Joseph Smith was in fact aware of this idea in 1830 as the book of Moses was dictated.”Antiquities of Freemasonry” wrote:ONE GRAND PRINCIPLE OF ANTIENT MASONRY was to preserve alive in men’s minds the TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, and the great idea of an ATONEMENT FOR SIN BY ANIMAL SACRIFICES; typical of the one SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB WITHOUT SPOT, as a propitiation from the sins of the world. This was the ANIMATING IDEA WHICH INCREASED MAN’S FAITH, WHERESOEVER MASONRY WAS PRACTICED; and idea which was never entirely obliterated, even amongst the idolatrous nations, by whom our science was most deplorably prostituted, and reduced to something worse than the shadow of its image. (AoF, 44-5)