Kingship, Temple, Authority: Powerful Symbols of God’s Presence in Helaman 3.27-30

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Kingship and Temple in Helaman 3.27-30

Mormon pauses to give commentary towards the end of his historical narrative in Helaman 3.

Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name. Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked— And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out. (Helaman 3.27-30)

This commentary by Mormon is filled with temple imagery and icons of kingship in the Ancient Near East as well as in European history.^[1]Paul Douglas Callister, Kingship and Seer Stones: A Comparison of European Regalia and LDS Scriptural Accounts of Oracular Objects. This article was originally delivered as a much longer paper at … Continue reading

We need to identify these symbols. Mormon starts off by telling his readers that “the gate of heaven is open to all” who believe on Christ. Similar yet different from the Ancient Near Eastern temple dramas associated with creation where the king and queen would take upon themselves the symbols of kingship and ascension to the realm of the Gods, in Mormon’s view, all will “lay hold upon” the symbols of kingship, provided they are faithful to Yahweh.

The rod/sword. The rod or sword, though not specifically identified, are discussed in verse 29. Whoever will “may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful”… this is linked to a sword as it “divides asunder”… yet it also brings to mind the idea of laying hold upon the iron rod, which is the word of God in Nephi’s visions.

The sword is a powerful symbol of kingship, creation, and protection. Anciently, and even in some modern cultures, military, religious, and civil offices were often combined in the person of the king. These roles defined the king as one who was to protect society, “the guarantor of justice as judge and the right ordering of worship as priest.”^[2]Keith W, Whitelam, “Israelite Kingship: The Royal Ideology and Its Opponents,” in R. E, Clements, ed” The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Perspectives, … Continue reading

Indeed, in the Old Testament we find passages where Yahweh or El used a sword in the cosmic conflict associated with creation. For example, in Isaiah 27 we read:

In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea (Isaiah 27.1).

Throughout the Psalms there are allusions to Yahweh’s power to use his sword to pierce the dragon and divide the seas. For example we read the following in Psalm 74:

For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers (Psalm 74.12-15).^[3]John Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament, Cambridge University Press, 1985.

All throughout ancient history, both in the areas and cultures influencing the writers of the Hebrew Bible, to more recent European and Indian history, swords have been associated with kingship, power, and protection.^[4]Brett L. Holbrook, The Sword of Laban as a Symbol of Divine Authority and Kingship, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 2, No. 1, 1993.

The Liahona. Again, though he does not specifically use the word “liahona,” Mormon is talking about a director that will “lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course” across mortality. Orbs were associated with kingship throughout European history. These orbs were symbolic of the kings mastery of the world, his power to designate borders, and the ability to define nations. One author writes, “in both the Book of Mormon and Europe, claims to priesthood serve as the institutional aspect of the informational environment in which the royal orb and other sacred objects make their appearance and function in actuality as media or symbolically. Priesthood both legitimizes the kingship through anointing and ritual, and belongs to the nature of kingship itself.^[5]Paul Douglas Callister, Kingship and Seer Stones: A Comparison of European Regalia and LDS Scriptural Accounts of Oracular Objects, p. 10.

The ship of Nephi. Nephi’s ship, again, like the other objects alluded to in this commentary from Mormon, is not specifically mentioned, but Mormon’s readers will be attuned to the reference. What else in the text has “land(ed) their souls?” The metaphor of a ship crossing waters is found in many cultures. It is a metaphor for our crossing the boundaries of life on this world into the heavens, or to be allowed entrance into the life in the world of the gods. We see this specifically in Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts.  

Michael Oman-Reagan writes, “The religious traditions of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were born on the banks of rivers. How did this alluvial geography contribute to their notions of death and the afterlife?” Oman-Reagan examines texts from both cultures regarding rivers, water and boat journeys, demonstrating how bodies of water became a metaphors for the journey into the afterlife. The “utterances” and instructions of The Pyramid Texts describe the journey of deceased royalty into the afterlife. In Utterance 2141, the ka of the dead (essentially a person’s double, or spirit body. The ka was what looked like you and left your body when you died) prepares to ascend “up to the place” where his “father abides.” The direction of travel is ambiguous and seems to be both up into the sky and toward the west. Utterance 2171 describes a journey with Re-Atum across the underworld “united in the darkness. After travelling through the underworld, they “rise on the horizon” together, the resurrection of the deceased coinciding with the daily re-emergence of the Sun. In Utterance 3641 the deceased is commanded to “Stand up now!”, he has been placed in the Sarcophagus, “Nut has embraced [him] in her name of ‘Sarcophagus’” and his mouth has been opened. He has been brought back to life; more precisely he is reborn. The resurrection is complete, the ‘deceased’ will now “live and travel every day” with the solar barque, rising in the east, crossing over the Nile and setting in the west. This journey after death recounted by The Pyramid Texts reflects the bisection of Egypt by the Nile. The deceased goes west like the setting Sun, crosses the underworld and is then resurrected, rising in the east like the dawn, crossing the sky over the Nile and setting in the west again ad infinitum. The journey of the dead is also described in the pyramid texts as crossing the “river of heaven.” Utterance 4731 describes a ferry launching from the east, “The ferries of heaven have been launched…Pepi will go forth on the east side of heaven where the gods are born.”This supernatural travel by ferry echoes daily life on the Nile; the Sun setting and rising, boats traversing the river and the waters flooding and receding. The cyclical patterns of the sun rising and setting are reflected in both the journey of the deceased and the direction of travel leading to resurrection.

Water also divides the temporal and divine worlds in Mesopotamian texts. In his search for immortality, Gilgamesh arrives at the end of the world and discovers an ocean. The tavern-keeper/goddess warns him, “The crossing is perilous…once you have crossed the ocean, when you reach the Waters of Death, what then will you do?” In two fragmentary tablets reportedly from a city on the Euphrates, the tavern-keeper/goddess also suggests that only the Sun god can cross the waters, “Who [but Shamash] can travel [that journey?].” As in the Egyptian pyramid texts, the Mesopotamian myth suggests the Sun or Sun god is able to travel where others cannot.^[6]Michael P. Oman-Reagan, Crossing the River: The Journey of Death in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

It is important to also note that Nephi’s ship is patterned after the tabernacle that Moses was commanded to build in Exodus. George S. Tate identifies this when he states, “He repeatedly receives instruction from the Lord on a mountain (see 1 Ne. 16:30; 17:7) and builds a ship not “after the manner of men; but . . . after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me” just as Moses had received the design for the tabernacle (see 1 Ne. 18:1–3; Exod. 26). (Both ship and tabernacle are types of the church in Christian typology.)”^[7]George S. Tate, “The Typology of the Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon,” Literature of Belief: Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience, 1981.

All of these items: the rod, the sword, the Liahona, Nephi’s ship, are all associated with our journey in mortality, kingship, and ascension back into God’s presence. Mormon is using all of these symbols in their ancient context, and through the process of translation modern readers can see how seamlessy these ideas are woven into Mormon’s commentary, and we might even miss the fact that Mormon is mentioning these specific instruments. Certainly their association with kingship has been lost to modern readers.

The Nephite Relics and the Ark of the Covenant

Don Bradley (among others) has made the case that Nephi and his contemporaries were exiles that worked to recreate Israel in the New World. They had lost their king, their sacred temple, the relics associated with God’s presence in the temple, their king, and access to their high priest. So what did Nephi do? He, under the direction of Yahweh, created afresh another Israel, a branch of Israel in a new land with kings, temples, priesthood as well as sacred relics that testified to his people that Yahweh was mindful of them, relics that were literally touched by the finger of God, like the stone tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain. This new Israel would be just as legitimate in the eyes of Yahweh and the people that believed on his name. They would have priesthood, temples, prophets and kings. And with these things they would have physical reminders of God’s love for them.

Don Bradley writes much on this topic. I have found his commentary extraordinary. He writes:

The temple was, in one sense, a house for the Ark of the Covenant, which in turn housed Moses’s stone tablets that God touched with His finger on Sinai during the Exodus and provided Israel with an embodiment of His presence. The First Temple was structured in concentric zones of sacredness, around the Ark, with the chamber that contained the Ark being the holiest place of all, “the Holy of Holies.” There, the Ark served as the temple’s holiest altar, where on the Day of Atonement the high priest sprinkled sacrificial blood to secure forgiveness for his people’s sins (Leviticus 16).

The Nephite sacred relics handed down from the king to king included the sword of Laban, brass plates, Liahona, Jaredite breastplate, and the interpreters… each of these Nephite high priestly heirlooms parallels relics associated with the biblical Ark of the Covenant, including both the implements used by the Ark’s custodian (the high priest) and the objects placed in or near the Ark. The Nephite high priest-king used divining instruments parallel to the biblical high priest’s Urim and Thummim- first the Liahona, which paralleled it in function, and then the interpreters, which paralleled it in both function and form. This parallel was not lost on early Mormons, who quickly began calling the interpreters “the Urim and Thummim” (cf. D&C 17.1) and conflated the Nephite high priestly breastplate with that of Aaron. Similarly, the Nephites’ cache of regal and high priestly treasures included at least one relic parallel to those kept in or with the biblical ark. The Liahona paralleled aspects of both Aaron’s rod and the pot of manna. It paralleled Aaron’s budding rod in function and paralleled the preserved manna in its function (sustenance), in its form (a round ball), and in the way it was introduced into the narrative (being found on the ground in the morning).

Likewise, the two sets of metal plates (brass and gold) inscribed with the sacred word parallel the two sets of stone tablets housed in the Ark of the Covenant. The later golden plates of the Nephites have an additional connection to the Bible’s Ark-related heirlooms. The Ark was built of acacia wood but covered in gold plates (Exodus 37.1-2). The Ark’s custodian, the high priest, wore a gold plate on his crown engraved with the sacred words: “holiness to the LORD” (Exodus 39.30). Indeed, the plate on the the priest’s miter is the only engraved golden plate in the entire Bible, making it the biblical object most similar to the Nephite golden plates.

The final relic passed down in the Nephite regal and high priestly cache of treasures is the sword of Laban. The story of Nephi killing Laban is of great political importance for the narrative of Nephi’s dynasty. It highlights the superior faithfulness that marked Nephi as ruler over his brothers, and, perhaps more importantly, connects Nephi’s ascension to the Nephite throne with David’s ascent to being the Israelite king… Observing Nephi narrate his encounter with Laban in language sometimes identical to the account of David slaying Goliath, we are able to watch Nephi follow precisely in the footprints and sword strokes of King David with this first and symbolic victory.

Laban’s sword became a relic Nephi passed on to his priest-king successors. According to the First Book of Samuel, after David’s anointing by Samuel and rise to prominence, he becomes a rival to Saul for the throne. At one point David, bereft of wherewithal to defend himself, took refuge in the Tabernacle (at that point still the residence of the Ark of the Covenant) and asked the high priest for a weapon:

And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slowest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; If thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me. (1 Samuel 21.8-9)

The sword’s location and custodian are telling. It is kept by the high priest in the Tabernacle, behind the ephod – one of the sacred garments the high priest wore when performing rites, and to which he attached the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim. In other words, Goliath’s sword was kept with the high priestly vestments. It was a temple relic.

The sword of Laban may also parallel the Ark of the Covenant in its battle function. The Israelites took the ark out to battle with them, believing that the presence of God that went with it would ensure their victory (1 Samuel 4.3). The Nephite kings who fight against the Lamanites are similarly described as wielding the heirloom sword in battle, possibly with the idea that employing this sacred implement in battle would similarly ensure victory (2 Nephi 5.14; Jacob 1.10; Words of Mormon 1.13). In any case, it is significant that one of the artifacts in the Nephite reliquary that paralleled the Ark of the Covenant was, like the Ark itself, taken to battle.

One by one, each of the heirlooms in the sacred cache of the Nephite high priest-kings parallels relics housed in the Ark of the Covenant or held by the high priest. The systematic parallels manifest that the Book of Mormon’s sacred treasury was gathered to deliberately parallel that of the biblical high priest and Solomon’s temple. Thus, the Nephite king, who acted as custodian of these relics and consulted his own Urim and Thummim, possessed the revelatory power and authority over the temple that in the Bible belongs to the high priest…

The published Book of Mormon omits where the high priestly relics- what Alma would call the “sacred things” – were kept (Alma 37.47). The natural location, and also the one that would continue the Book of Mormon’s echoing of the biblical pattern, would have been the high priest’s own domain, the temple. Storing these objects in the Book of Mormon temple would reinforce that temple’s likeness to and claim to equal sacredness with the Jerusalem temple. It would further underscore a key purpose of the Nephite temple, like the Jerusalem temple, of housing the divine presence. Just as the Israelite temple held the two stone tablets touched by the Lord on Mount Sinai (Exodus 31.18), the Nephite temple would have held the two stone interpreters that were touched by the premortal Christ on Mount Shelem (Ether 3.6, 23-24). With these sacred objects at its center, the Nephite temple could be held as sacred as Solomon’s.

Point by point, the Nephites replaced the relics lost with the plundering and destruction of Solomon’s temple. However, this description of the Nephite temple system is only completed after the time of Mosiah, who acquired the interpreters that the extinct Jaredite nation had left behind. Prior to this discovery, the instrument of revelation used by the Nephite priest-kings in their tabernacle and then their first temple was the Liahona.^[8]Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories, Greg Kofford Books, 2019, p. 200-203.

Nephi as king

Paul Callister makes the connection between the Liahona and oracular objects in history, especially as it relates to kings and their right to rule. He connects Ancient Near Eastern practices with Israel and then on to European kings and Christian art. He writes:

While Nephi is loath to accept kingship over his people, he ultimately acknowledges that the people “look [to him] as a king or a protector . . . on whom ye depend for safety . . . .” It is noteworthy that Nephi carries with him all of the regalia necessary for a European king —the sword of Laban and an orb of brass (which acts as both compass and medium).

Indeed it is the brass ball which ultimately leads Nephi to a land of promise to establish his own kingdom. He also has the sacred records (codices of the four gospels and the Bible play an important role in European icons and regalia)… Much later, when Mosiah is made king and is charged with keeping the records (both the plates of brass and Nephi), he is also given the sword of Laban and the “ball or director.” Considering it is over 400 years from Nephi to Mosiah’s coronation, a well-set ritual is being followed.

What can be said for Joseph Smith who opened this dispensation with that self-same regalia as the Nephites and Jaredites of old? In Section Seventeen verse one of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Three Witnesses are promised:

view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.

The whole of the Nephite and Jaredite regalia and oracular objects operate to bear symbolic testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s authority as a seer… Regardless of the how the factors influence one another or are to be balanced, there is a common, preeminent feature of both Book of Mormon and medieval societies–the relative scarcity of knowledge, including limited access to maps, sacred records, codex books, and the sacred objects themselves. Access to such resources granted a certain stature of authority to the possessor. From Mesopotamian myth, to the Nephite and Jaredite seer stones and the Liahona, to the regal orb of the Romans, Franks, and Saxons, the message is the same–anyone who possessed the sacred Tablets of Destiny, had access to “the destiny of the Universe, . . . the law of the whole world, . . . supreme wisdom, . . . and . . . the mystery of heaven and earth” –the whole package necessary for rulership.

The evidence of European imagery of the orb as medium is difficult to ignore. What is most remarkable about the European monarchs is their symbolic use of the orb in regalia and in a manner reminiscent of the Israelite Urim and Thummim. Aaron, as depicted on the title page of the King James Bible, holds the orb in the manner of European kings. The question frequently raised by scholars of the middle ages is why the Frankish kingdoms identify with the Israelites, rather than their previous Roman masters. Describing the Frankish kings, one scholar observes “they endeavored, as it were, to wheel into Church history as the continuators of Israel’s exploits rather than into Roman history as the heirs of pagan Rome.” The reason for this is attributed to the victory of the Franks over the Arab invaders in the eighth century, which led to the Franks considering themselves as “a new people chosen by God.” Latter-day Saints may wish to push the matter further, especially considering their doctrines concerning the dispersal and gathering of Israel, knowledge of which comes to us by way of the Book of Mormon, translated by aid of the seer stone. Perhaps additional investigation into regalia, traditions, beliefs, and legal systems of the European and British tribes will yield additional clues.

The implication of Joseph’s translating the Book of Mormon through use of a seer stone is that it places the book on a different footing than the Bible. The very words come through a source independent of Joseph, one that will only work for one who has authority and is worthy. It is not Joseph that is to be tested–he is after all a flawed human being–but the book itself. Indeed, the claim to translation by and possession of the seer stone is a sign of a claim to authority, a veritable ensign, that must accompany the Book of Mormon. Furthermore, the book is linked to the mythical “Tablets of Destiny” in the sense, that it is THE BOOK, whose possessor can master all things and have access to all knowledge.^[9]Callister, Kingship, p. 16-17.