1 Nephi 8 – The Vision of the Tree of Life

1 Nephi 8-11 Coming into the presence of God in his temple

There are multiple ways to read the story of the Tree of Life. Certainly this story is first and foremost about God’s love and invitation for all men to come into his presence through the Atonement of his Beloved Son. This is the overall message and purpose of the vision, and will be the thrust of our podcast as we discuss this vision.

But scripture, like a well cut gemstone, has many facets, or ways of seeing it. As many commentators have stated, there are 70 faces of Torah. One level of interpretation that Nephi leaves with us the notion that his entire vision is a temple experience, as well as a polemic or an attack against those forces of chaos that seek to thwart the work of God, covering themselves in the false robes of supposed priesthood authority.

To unpack this will take some time, and will require learning a few words that Nephi would have been using in the construction of his narrative. Understanding these terms is essential if we want to understand and envision the multifacted wasys of reading Nephi’s construction of this visionary experience. So much of this commentary would not be possible without help from an excellent author and linguist, D.J. Buter. His book, Plain and Precious Things: The Temple Religion of the Book of Mormon’s Visionary Men is a must read for those who want a more in-depth understanding regarding this amazing text here in these introductory chapters in the Book of Mormon. Butler’s knowledge of language is wonderful, and his explanation of how closely the Book of Mormon is following First Temple Israelite religion is amazing. If all that Joseph Smith produced were these chapters in 1 Nephi, he would be a prodigy beyond compare. Understanding and knowing the religious and political fights that were taking place in Jerusalem in the 7^th century B.C. is also critical to understanding the polemical nature of 1 Nephi 8-11. The author of this vision, in my opinion, clearly lived in this timeframe, as the author hits on so many of the major points of light that the Deuteronomists completely squashed in their religious reformation.

With this brief introduction, let us more closely examine the temple as it was in Nephi’s day and then compare it to the text of the vision that Lehi and Nephi leave us and see what parallels we can draw, and the messages that are imbedded in the text.

Mysteries inside the temple

In the very first verse of the Book of Mormon, Nephi informs his readers that he is going to get into the mysteries. Nephi writes:

… having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days. (1 Nephi 1.1)

In visionary, poetic, doctrinal and spiritual accounts of the interior of the temple, we consistently read about several ideas or symbols that are ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible. Much has been edited out of the text, but in the Psalms, Isaiah, and in some of what scholars call “The Priestly Literature” there remains enough breadcrumbs for a careful reader to pick out what the early Israelites believed. We also see much of this in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Revelation.

The first is the presence of the Lord. This was also a feature of the tabernacle: the Lord commanded Moses to have the Israelites build the tent sanctuary “so that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). In the J,E and P material of the Old Testament, the temple or the sanctuary was the place where God “dwelt”… later the Deuteronomistic editors of the Bible will write that the temple is only the place where the name of the Lord will dwell, an important distinction, especially as it relates to the notion that to the Deuteronomists, God was not anthropomorphic, so he certainly didn’t need a dwelling place! But to the authors of the book of Exodus, the Lord ‘dwelled’ or ‘rested’ or sat enthroned upon the Ark of the Covenant, both when it was in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:21-22) and when it was in Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8.12-13, 27, 30, 49, 43, 49). The Lord is present in the temple, and specifically in the Debir, or Holy of Holies.

The second is the image of rivers. Although the accounts of the construction of the temple and the tabernacle don’t specifically detail that water was associated with it, visionary reports of the temple frequently have flowing rivers in them. Consider the following examples:

Daniel 7.10 illustrates a fiery stream that comes out of the throne of the Ancient of Days. This same fiery water appears in 1 Enoch 14.19 as “rivers of flaming fire” coming from the throne on which the “Great Glory” sits, with “gown… whiter than any snow.” In Genesis, a river flows “out of Eden to water the garden,” splitting into four flows (Genesis 2.10-14). Ezekiel 47 is a vision of four rivers flowing from the restored future temple and healing the waters of the Dead Sea; similarly, in Revelation, the throne of God emits a “pure river of water of life” (Revelation 22.1); on the water’s bank grows a tree of life bearing twelve fruits (Revelation 22.2)—we’ll return to this. Zechariah tells us that in the future “living waters shall go out from Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14.8), which Jesus, standing in the temple courtyard to teach (John 7.14, 28), identifies with himself (John 7.37-38). In some ancient copies, Psalms 1 and 2 are a single text; read together, they have a very interesting collection of images, including a fruitful tree beside a river of water (Psalms 1.3), the anointing of the king (Psalms 2.6-7) and the shattering of the king’s enemies with a rod of iron (Psalms 2.9).

Now we come to the third temple concept: the rod. In Psalm 2 the Lord defeats the king’s enemies with an iron rod (Psalm 2.9). In Psalm 23, the rod becomes instead an instrument of comfort—note here also the waters, though in this vision they are “still” (Psalms 23:2, 4). For Isaiah, the great temple prophet, the rod becomes a figure to prophesy about (Isaiah 11:1).

The rod is a perfect symbol for the authority of the king. The rod can in many ways represent the authority, power, majesty, and presence of the King. The rod is a symbol for kingship (In Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Hebrew 7626: “a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.) or (fig) a clan: – correction, dart, rod, sceptre, staff, tribe.”) George Widengren said this about the rod:

“The king, holding as his sceptre the twig from the Tree of Life or as we may say, the Plant of Life, stretches this rod or shoot towards the kneeling petitioners. We are reminded here of the fact that according to the Sumerian fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh the hero manufactures two instruments from the Huluppu-tree by means of which he intends to recall the dead to life.”^[1]George Widengren, The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Near Eastern Religion, Uppsala, 1951, p. 21.

Stephen Ricks and LeGrand Baker had this to say about the rod:

The relationship between the kingly authority of the rod and Melchizedek priesthood authority seem to have been established in the 110th Psalm, which we read earlier:

1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,

until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion:

rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,

in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning:

thou hast the dew of thy youth.

4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent,

Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:1-4).

In the Tanakh the “rod” of verse two is translated as “scepter”:

The Lord will stretch forth from Zion your mighty scepter;

Hold sway over your enemies!

Nephi described the rod as a source of power:

23 And they said unto me: What meaneth the rod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree? 24 And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction (1 Nephi 15:23-24).

There, Nephi may be suggesting the rod was scripture. He equates the rod with the word of God, which he also equates with defense against “fiery darts of the adversary.” That may suggest that the rod was also a symbol of the scepter of sacral kingship.^[2]Ricks and Baker, Who Shall Ascend to the Hill of the Lord?, Eborn Books, 2010, p. 446-448.

In a this sense, as the king was enthroned in the Debir, all of these symbols can be tied together into one concept of Heavenly ascent, enthronement, and authority of God.

The Throne of God

The cherubim who surround the celestial throne of God are represented as having wings, by Isaiah (6:2), Ezekiel (1:6-11), Daniel (7:4-6), and John (Revelation 4). But we were told by the Prophet Joseph that “wings are a representation of power, to move, to act, etc. (D&C 77.4).

Heavenly visions such as these are associated with the prophet being brought into the presence of God. This is the sod experience, or what some scholars call “a throne theophany.” Sigmund Mowinckel wrote:

“We know that Solomon had furnished the Temple with an (empty) cherub’s throne, which was certainly understood to be the throne of Yahweh. In the very old Psalm 110 Yahweh is the king, sitting on his throne and offering to his ‘son’, the earthly king, the seat of honor at his right side. In the likewise very old Psalm 68 the worshiper calls Yahweh ‘his king and his god.’”^[3]Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, Eerdmans, 2004, 1:125.

Symbolically we see the throne in Lehi’s vision, but it will take a closer look. When Nephi asks to see and understand the meaning of the tree he is shown the following:

And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown unto me the tree which is precious above all. And he said unto me: What desirest thou? And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof—for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.

And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look! And I looked as if to look upon him, and I saw him not; for he had gone from before my presence. And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white.

And it came to pass that I saw the heavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?

And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins. And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?

1And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things. And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.

And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look!

And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms. And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?

And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul. And after he had said these words, he said unto me: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him. (1 Nephi 11.9-24)

Several things must be noted. 1) Nephi sees the heavens opened. In one sense, he sees the heavenly temple in this vision. 2) Nephi sees the son, who, since he is king, will sit on a throne. 3) Nephi sees the king on the lap of his mother. Anciently Isis was the mother goddess of Horus, a god that has many characteristics similar to Jesus Christ. Isis can be easily identified due to the fact that in many depictions of her, she has a literal throne on her head. The image of Horus on the lap of his mother was known anciently to be a depiction of the throne. According to one scholar, “she was often depicted with the throne symbol on her head. To sit on the throne was to sit on the lap of Isis.”^[4]Margaret Barker, The Mother of the Lord, T&T Clark, 2012, p. 159. Finally, 4) The people who approach Jesus in the vision “fall down at his feet” and worship him (1 Nephi 11.24), a clear indication of a subject approaching a king on his throne. It is interesting to note that in the original vision in 1 Nephi 8, we are told that when people came to the tree they “came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree” (1 Nephi 8.30). This verse directly correlates to 1 Nephi 11.24, where people “fall down” and worship the king. These hints are directly related to the idea of a throne in the holy place.

Now we will move on to the architecture of the temple and see how Lehi’s vision approximates the temple as well as the political and religious climate of his day.

The Ulam or the Porch of the Holy Temple

The Ulam is the first room, or area of the temple. If the passage from the outside into the center of the temple is a journey, it starts in the Ulam. The Ulam, may be roofless or it may be a very tall tower or it may be both things. The following verses are the relevant passages from Lehi’s vision that talk about the journey to the tree of life that relate to this word:

And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field… And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a world. (1 Nephi 8:9, 19-20)

How can this field in the dream be related to the Ulam of the temple? There are several reasons. First, the field is the beginning of the journey in what we will determine to be a temple vision, and a journey into the interior of the temple begins at the Ulam. Second, it is a “large and spacious field,” which is an appropriate depiction for a roofless porch beyond which lies the greater temple courtyard, as well as a fitting characterization for the part of the building that may be viewed as an immense tower. Third, one Hebrew word that means ‘world’ is עוֹלָם olam (this word is used 5 times in the Tanakh – Ps. 73.12, 90.2; Ecc. 3.11; Isa 45.17, 64.4. Another commonly used word is tebel תֵּבֵל  which is usually used to describe land that is inhabitable) so I think when Lehi points out the field as big as the world, he’s punning on the name of the temple’s porch (that Ulam is as big as an olam). It’s a single letter away from the word אוּלָם Ulam (aleph-vav-lamed-mem), and the one letter that differs is so similar that in modern Hebrew that the two letters are pronounced the same.

All the days of old, Olam as man going through time

The word olam is used almost 500 times in the Hebrew Bible, most often to describe time, the everlasting nature of time, etc. For example, in Isaiah 63:9, the prophet reminds his readers that the Lord carried his people “all the days of old.” “Of old” here translates olam, and the phrase could just as easily read that the Lord “carried them all the days of the world.” Another way to think about this translation point is this: for the ancient Hebrews, the vast space implied in the definition ‘world’ and the vast time implied in the definition ‘of old’ were not different things—they were both olam, and only in later texts and in translations are those meanings teased apart. The field in Lehi’s dream was also vast, “large and spacious,” an olam.

There’s more; olam turns out to be a striking. It’s the same word as Joseph Smith’s “gnolaum” (Abraham 3:18), and the root from which it’s formed (‘ayin-lamed-mem) bears a lot of really interesting meanings. Alam means ‘conceal,’ and a ta‘alumah is a secret—it’s the word that appears in Job 11: “Oh that God would speak… and that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom” (Job 11:5-6). Alma is a ‘young woman’ or ‘virgin,’ an interesting association given Isaiah 7 and 1 Nephi 11. Finally, things that are olam exist continuously or divinely, such as God, who is called אֵל עֹולָֽם El Olam in Genesis 21:33—translated in the KJV as “the everlasting God”… though here, again, this could be read as Abraham calling upon the name of “Yahweh, god of the world.”

So when Lehi compares the field to a world, it is highly probable that he is using the word olam, and he is doing it on purpose. It sounds similar to and is spelled like Ulam, the name of the temple porch, which makes it a pun, and the word olam has multiple temple associations.

The Hekal

The entire building of the temple is the hekal, and the temple in its entirety is a hekal, and the main middle room of the building is also the Hekal, and a large and spatial palace can also be called a hekal. The word ultimately comes from the Sumerian term E.GAL, meaning ‘great (or large) house.’ Here are the important verses from Lehi’s vision:

And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth. And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit. (1 Nephi 8:26-27)

A case can be made that the great and spacious building is the Hekal, the middle room of the temple, and also as the temple generally in this vision.

There are several reasons that this assumption can be made. First, this obstacle lies beside the iron rod, midway along the journey from the field to the tree. This is a journey with three stations, and the great and spacious building is the second. Spatially, this corresponds to the nave of the temple, the Hekal.

Second, the word hekal means a large building. This is why, in the journey to “heaven” in 1 Enoch 14.14-21, the Hekal is described as a “great house.” In the underlying Hebrew in which Nephi thought and probably wrote his account of the vision, the most obvious word choice for him to use to describe the great and spacious building was, simply, hekal—even if he didn’t mean to make a temple connection.

Third, the temple as a whole is appropriately described as being above the earth: the temple is seen as a mountain, or as ‘heaven,’ and in Hebrew one always ‘goes up’ (alah) to the next inner room or level of the temple and ‘comes down’ (yarad) from it. This is common in ascent literature, the person brought into the heavenly temple comes “up” to meet the heavenly beings and then comes back “down” to earth. For example, to Isaiah, the Lord’s throne is “high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1); Ezekiel sees his vision when the “heavens were opened” (Ezekiel 1:1) and sees a throne “above” a firmament (Ezekiel 1:26); Daniel’s vision is in “heaven” and one “like the son of man” comes “with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:2, 13); Enoch has to “fly” up to the temple (1 Enoch 14:8); and Lehi must be looking up at the throne because then he sees “One descending” from it (1 Nephi 1:8-9). The temple, as a whole called the Hekal, is ‘up’… as is the great and spacious building.

Fourth, the inhabitants of the great and spacious building dress in a manner that the vision describes as “exceedingly fine” (1 Nephi 8:27). “Fine” is the King James translation’s adjective par excellence for things that are made for use in the temple. In the text of Exodus: the word ‘fine’ sheysh  שֵׁשׁ appears several times in Exodus, and when it does it refers to something placed or used in the temple. In particular: Aaron’s coat and mitre to wear in the temple are made of fine linen (Exodus 28:39); similarly, his and his sons’ coats, bonnets, breeches and girdle are of “fine” or “fine twined” linen (Exodus 39:27-29); and the ephod, worn by the high priest, was the same (Exodus 28:5-8).

Who wore ‘fine’ clothing? Priests in the temple, and in particular the high priests.

This interpretation might trouble us for a moment, but it shouldn’t. Nephi has already told us that the Jerusalem elite, whom he calls “the Jews,” “did mock” Lehi and “were angry with him” (1 Nephi 1:19-20); seeing the same behavior from the same people in visionary form only confirms to us that we’re on the right track. This vision is a polemic against the corrupt priesthood in Lehi’s day. Lehi and Nephi are punning on this group of corrupt priests, demonstrating to their listeners that these corrupt priests have no foundation and they do not have access to the presence of the Lord. This is something we see throughout sacred texts: a line of demarcation is drawn so that the faithful can easily see who the real authorities are. This vision has many levels, or layers of meaning, and on one level it is a strong message to both Laman and Lemuel: the priests in Jerusalem, though they have access to the temple, by this time period (600 B.C.), it is a false temple, with no access to the glory of God. These wicked priests have no access to holiness of any sort.

The Debir or the Holy of Holies

The journey ends where Lehi is standing, at the tree. When he sees his family, he reacts like this:

And it came to pass that I beckoned unto them; and I also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me, and partake of the fruit, which was desirable above all other fruit. (1 Nephi 8:15)

This is the end of the journey, so spatially it should correspond to the Debir. There is another subtle hint that this is the Debir, in this moment above, paralleled in Ezekiel’s vision. Remember that the Debir is the ‘place of speaking,’ and when Ezekiel sees the Lord on his throne, he falls on his face and hears “a voice of one that spake” (Ezekiel 1:26-28). Similarly Lehi, standing at the end of the temple journey and therefore in the speaking-place, “did say… with a loud voice” instructions to his family.

And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy (1 Nephi 8.10)

The tree is a representation of the presence of the Lord. Here in 1 Nephi we read that the tree is something that will make individuals “happy” אָשַׁר  ashar, a word closely related to אָשֵׁר Asher, the name given to the son of Leah in Genesis 30.13. Genesis 30 is punning on the name Asher, by telling us that Asher made his mother ashar, or happy. This word also means to progress along a straight path. This is literally what is going on throughout the vision of Lehi. Why does this matter? Because the tree that in many cases represented the consort of El, the high god, the father of Yahweh (at least before the Old Testament texts were radically edited by the Deuteronomists) was named אֲשֵׁרָה Asherah. Asherah is translated out of the KJV texts, with the translators usually giving the word “grove” for her, but she is there, at least 40 times.

The Incense Altar

In Isaiah and Ezekiel, the incense clouds were smoke and glory; in Daniel and First Enoch they were clouds of heaven. Here the image is, much more dim:

And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost. And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree. (1 Nephi 8:23-24)

This parallel is straightforward and by now should seem obvious. The mists plague the middle part of the journey, corresponding to the Hekal, where the incense was burned. It can be difficult to envision the temple in Lehi’s day transformed into a vision wherein lies a “mist of darkness,” but this was the spiritual condition of the Jews at this time of the Jewish apostasy.

Burning incense daily in the Hekal was initially the task of the high priest (Exodus 30:7-8), and at some point became the job of the rank and file priesthood (Luke 1:8-9). This was therefore one of the basic, most often repeated and most characteristic tasks of the temple priesthood. Since Nephi has already told us at least twice that the Jerusalem hierarchy was wicked and oppressed the visionary men, this image that the priests’ daily work led astray people who wished to come to the tree and partake of its fruit shouldn’t surprise us at all. Nephi is telling a very consistent story.

The Waters of the Temple

And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit… And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a world… And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth… And it came to pass that many were drowned in the depths of the fountain; and many were lost from his view, wandering in strange roads. (1 Nephi 8:13, 20, 26, 32)

Here in Nephi’s account of the journey, people who were led astray by these corrupt priests were led into confusion, into watery chaos and were lost. The priesthood was corrupt, and God was calling Lehi and Nephi out of the chaos and into a new world order. They were being invited by God to leave the chaos and come into the light.

Reasons behind Lehi’s attack of the Jewish Priesthood

Nephi tells us that Lehi’s enemies were the “Jews who were at Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 2:13). In Lehi’s vision, the great and spacious building, which is the central room or Hekal, and which is also the entire temple, is full of jeering deceivers, whose daily activity leads away innocent seekers after joy and who had made filthy the pure waters springing from the throne of God. This image gives us so much more information about the Jews in Lehi’s day. Lehi’s enemies weren’t ordinary citizens, simple members of the tribe of Judah who happened to live at Jerusalem—they were the temple hierarchy closely associated with the royal tribe of Judah and complicit in the reform agenda, or what is generally called the Deuteronomistic reformation. These Jews were opposed to the ‘prophets’ and ‘visionary men’ who held to the old, temple-based religion of vision and prophesy. Considering the history and prophecy seem to continually repeat themselves (see 3 Nephi 23.3), I find it relevant that the entire vision of a prophet being instructed by God in the midst of corrupt priests come to a young man in 1820, called out of the sea of chaos, surrounded by a corrupt priesthood, and being asked by God to establish order and a temple so that his children might return to him. The parallels are astounding in my opinion.

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