יסף - Isaiah 29:14

Isaiah 29:14 (KJV)

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

This morning as I was studying the scriptures I noticed a really interesting detail from Isaiah 29:14. As Latter-Day Saints we understand this verse to be a prophecy of the restoration of the Lord's church in modern times. The book of Isaiah was originally written in Hebrew and Hebrew authors often used various literary devices in their writings. One common device they used was wordplay. I believe that Isaiah intentionally used a play on words in this verse to teach his readers additional information about the restoration of the Gospel.

The key player in the restoration was the prophet Joseph Smith. We know from the Book of Mormon that the Joseph who was sold into Egypt was aware of Joseph Smith and even knew what his name would be (see 2 Nephi 3). Presumably Isaiah had access to Joseph's writings and was also aware that the great latter-day prophet's name would be Joseph.

In Isaiah 29:14 the Hebrew word which was translated into English as proceed is the word יסף yâsaph (or יסף .*(יסוף means "to add or augment" (Strong's Bible Lexicon) and is the Hebrew form of the name Joseph.

Isaiah in saying that he would "add" a marvelous work and a wonder was cleverly teaching his readers of the latter-day mission of the prophet Joseph Smith.

*יסוף and יסף are the same word. The ו in יסוף is known as a matres lectiones. matres lectiones are consonantal vowel points and the ו is there only to fit the word into it's context and does not change it's meaning.

P.S. (7/26/10) - I just found out this has been written about. Here is the article: "He Shall Add: Wordplay on the Name Joseph and an Early Instance of Gezera Shawa in the Book of Mormon" by Matthew Bowen

The Bronze Laver

Jesus, Yahweh and the Temple

1 Nephi 14:2 ;15:20

Webster's 1828 English Dictionary

CONFOUND', verb transitive [French confondre; Latin confundo; con and fundo, to pour out; Italian confondere; Spanish Portugese confundir. Literally, to pour or throw together.]

1. To mingle and blend different things, so that their forms or natures cannot be distinguished; to mix in a mass or crowd, so that individuals cannot be distinguished.

2. To throw into disorder.

3. To mix or blend, so as to occasion a mistake of one thing for another.

4. To perplex; to disturb the apprehension by indistinctnes of ideas or words.

5. To abash; to throw the mind into disorder; to cast down; to make ashamed.

6. To perplex with terror; to terrify; to dismay; to astonish; to throw into consternation; to stupify with amazement.:

7. To destroy; to overthrow.

"It seems to have been Tiglath-pileser who originated large-scale deportations of conquered peoples. By deporting a conquered people en masse to a foreign land, Tiglath-pileser hoped to break their unity and destroy their national identity….How long Israel remained in Assyria after they had been carried away captive by Sargon II is not known. It is likely that many accepted the life and culture of their captors and lost their identity."
-Old Testament Institute Manual 2:113-114

"The Assyrians seemed to find satisfaction—or a necessary tutelage for their sons—in torturing captives, blinding children before the eyes of their parents, flaying men alive, roasting them in kilns, chaining them in cages for the amusement of the populace, and then sending the survivors off to execution. Ashurnasirpal tells how ‘all the chiefs who had revolted I flayed, with their skins I covered the pillar, some in the midst I walled up, others on stakes I impaled, still others I arranged around the pillar on stakes. . . . As for the chieftains and royal officers who had rebelled, I cut off their members.’ Ashurbanipal boasts that ‘I burned three thousand captives with fire, I left not a single one among them alive to serve as a hostage.’ Another of his inscriptions reads: ‘These warriors who had sinned against Ashur and had plotted evil against me . . . from their hostile mouths have I torn their tongues, and I have compassed their destruction. As for the others who remained alive, I offered them as a funerary sacrifice; . . . their lacerated members have I given unto the dogs, the swine, the wolves. . . . By accomplishing these deeds I have rejoiced the heart of the great gods.’ Another monarch instructs his artisans to engrave upon the bricks these claims on the admiration of posterity: ‘My war chariots crush men and beasts. . . . The monuments which I erect are made of human corpses from which I have cut the head and limbs. I cut off the hands of all those whom I capture alive.’ Reliefs at Nineveh show men being impaled or flayed, or having their tongues torn out; one shows a king gouging out the eyes of prisoners with a lance while he holds their heads conveniently in place with a cord passed through their lips.” (Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, 1:271, 275–76.)
-Old Testament Institute Manual 2:112-113

Evil?

I thought this was an interesting little video.

Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith

This is one of the best Conference Talks I have ever heard. I was fortunate enough to be present in the main auditorium of the Conference Center when Elder Holland gave this talk. The feeling there was electric. I hope you enjoy watching it.

Jesus Christ as High Priest

The High Priest

"As a result of the failure of the Israelites to observe the gospel law administered by Moses under the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Lord gave an additional law of performances and ordinances and 'confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed, throughout all their generations' (D&C 84: 18) to administer it. This priesthood was of lesser power and authority than the priesthood of Melchizedek, and was used to administer the outward ordinances, particularly as characterized by the ceremonies of the law of Moses. The terms Aaronic and Levitical are sometimes used synonymously (D&C 107: 1, 6, 10), although there are some specific differences in the offices existing within the Levitical Priesthood. For example, the lesser priesthood was conferred only upon men of the tribe of Levi. However, within the tribe, only Aaron and his sons could hold the office of priest. And, still further, from the firstborn of Aaron’s sons (after Aaron) was selected the high priest (or president of the priests). Thus Aaron and his sons after him had greater offices in the Levitical Priesthood than did the other Levites."
-"Aaronic Priesthood" LDS Bible Dictionary, LDS edition of the Holy Bible p.599

This afternoon I read an interesting blog post on http://ancient-wisdom-lds-temple.blogspot.com/ that talks about how the Christians around the time of the Savior viewed Jesus Christ as the temple High Priest (see Hebrews 4:14-15). Here are the highlights:

"The earliest Christians viewed Jesus Christ in the role of the High Priest of the temple (Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 5:10). He is even described as wearing a seamless robe similar to the one worn by the high priest (John 19:23; compare Exodus 28:31-32). He pronounced a blessing on his disciples after the manner of the high priest with uplifted hands (Luke 24:50; compare Leviticus 9:22-23; Numbers 6:23-27. He was baptized at age 30, which was the age when temple priest began to serve (Luke 3:21-23; compare Numbers 4:1-4). The prayer that Christ utters in the seventeenth chapter of the book of John is regarded by many biblical scholars to be a high priestly prayer. Christ is also depicted in Revelation 1:12-13 standing in the heavenly temple wearing 'the royal and high-priestly garb.' (see The Gate of Heaven, Matthew B. Brown, pg. 168-169)"

Tokens

Acts 1:1-3
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Verse 3 talks about the appearance of Jesus Christ to his apostles following his resurrection. Luke, the writer of the book of Acts, says that the Lord showed himself "by many infallible proofs". What were these infallible proofs?

The original language of the New Testament is Greek. The Greek word which was translated into "infallible truths" is τεκμήριον (tekmērion) which can also be translated as "token". This brings to mind the words of verse 7 of the hymn "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief":

Then in a moment to my view
The stranger started from disguise
The tokens in his hands I knew;
The Savior stood before my eyes.
He spake and my poor name he named,
"Of me thou hast not been ashamed.
These deeds shall thy memorial be;
Fear not thou didst them unto me"

In the case of Acts 1:3 the tokens were most likely the nail prints in the hands and feet of the Savior and the wound in his side. It is interesting however to look at the definition of the word "token" to find out other possible meanings.

Here is the definition of token as given in the 1828 edition of Webster's dictionary:

TOKEN, n. to'kn. [L. signum, dialetically varied, or from the same radix.]

1. A sign; something intended to represent or indicate another thing or an event. Thus the rainbow is a token of God's covenant established with Noah. The blood of the paschal lamb, sprinkled on the doors of the Hebrews, was a token to the destroying angel of God's will that he should pass by those houses. Gen 9. Exo 12.

Show me a token for good. Psa 86.

2. A mark. In pestilential diseases, tokens are livid spots upon the body, which indicate the approach of death.

3. A memorial of friendship; something by which the friendship of another person is to be kept in mind.

4. In coinage, tokens were coins struck in the reign of Elizabeth in the cities of Bristol, Oxford and Worcester, and also by private persons, which were put into circulation, and upon being returned,the issuer gave the value of them in current money.

5. In printing, ten quires of paper; an extra quire is usually added to every other token, when counted out for the press.

Additionally, it is interesting to consider these verses in a temple context. Brigham Young made this statement:

"Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell." -JD 2:31

Facsimile 2, Figure 2

For the past week or two I've been reading the new Hugh Nibley book "One Eternal Round". There is a paragraph or two that talks about figure 2 in facsimile number 2 (the hypocephalus) on pages 109 - 110 that I thought was really interesting. Here it is:

"Any point on the rim of a speeding wheel is going either up or down, and no matter how fast the vehicle is moving, that point must stand dead still when it touches the earth - or else the wheel would be skidding. One might call it a singularity, moving up and down at the same time. Yet it is clearly displayed in the important 17th chapter of the Book of the Dead. There we see the sun on the horizon, but it is neither yesterday nor tomorrow...

"The same idea is expressed in Facsimile 2, Figure 2, the two faced god that represents the sun at the zenith and symbolizes the joining together of Re and Osiris... The two come together at, and only at, the indefinable instant of time when the sun reverses its course from a southerly to northerly direction. The Egyptian text explains that this is indeed the combined oneness of Re (who looks forward to the day) with Osiris (who is looking back on it). At that moment his two faces are in both worlds at once, and on some hypocephali the figure is drawn with a double body as well. But it is only for an unthinkable instant, the passing of time from past to future, the fatal paradox or the moment in which we are all living."

I also thought I would add Joseph Smith's commentary on this figure:

"Fig. 2. Stands next to Kolob, called by the Egyptians Oliblish, which is the next grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides; holding the key of power also, pertaining to other planets; as revealed from God to Abraham, as he offered sacrifice upon an altar, which he had built unto the Lord."

In BYU Studies, vol. 17 (1976-1977) p. 268 Michael Rhodes gave a translation of facsimile 2 and this is what he had to say about figure 2:

"A two-headed deity wearing the double-plumed crown of Amen, with Ram's horns mounted on it. On his shoulders are jackalheads, and he is holding the jackal standard of Wepwawet. To his right is an altar with offerings on and around it. In most hypocephali, he is holding the ankh, or symbol of life, in his right hand. Also to his right a line of hieroglyphics reading: "The name of this Mighty God.

"P.J. de Horrack considers this to be Amen-Re; the two heads illustrating the hidden and mysterious power of Amen combined with the visible and luminous power of Re. fn William Petrie agrees that it is Amen-Re, but sees the two heads as representing the rising and setting sun. fn That the deity is a form of Amen is clear from the fact that he is wearing the double plume crown mentioned in chapter 162 of the Book of the Dead, but why he has jackals' heads on his shoulders and is holding a jackal standard is not so evident. The jackal is generally is used as a symbol of Anubis and Wepwawet, both funerary gods. Anubis being specifically the god assigned to guide the dead through the afterworld to the throne of Osiris. Perhaps due to the funerary character of the hypocephalus, it was thought that Amen should also carry emblems indicative of his power over that realm as well.

"Again, we can compare here the significance ascribed to these characters by Joseph Smith. Where the hypocephalus depicts the two-headed deity holding the symbol of life or power over death, Joseph mentions "holding the key of power." Where an altar is shown, Joseph identifies the principle of "sacrifice upon an altar" as revealed by God to Abraham. A hidden power seems to be associated with the name of the two-headed God, who probably serves as a guide for the dead bring them into the presence of God. This might concur with Joseph's explanation that this figure "stands next to Kolob," as a guide surely must do if the is going to be able to lead the dead to God."

Tel Dan High Place

This video by BYU professor Bill Hamblin is about the high place at Tel Dan in northern Israel. The structure was made by Jeroboam who was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel following the death of Solomon. He had the structure built to prevent his people from traveling to Jerusalem to visit the temple there. Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah and the two kingdoms were bitter rivals at times.