Meanings and Functions of Temples

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Meanings
and Functions of Temples

by Hugh W. Nibley

The temple is the primal central holy place dedicated to the

worship of God and the perfecting of his covenant
people. In the
temple his faithful may enter into covenants with the Lord and
call upon his holy name after the
manner that he has ordained and
in the pure and pristine manner restored and set apart from the
world. The temple is
built so as to represent the organizing
principles of the universe. It is the school where mortals learn
about these
things. The temple is a model, a presentation in
figurative terms, of the pattern and journey of life on earth. It
is a
stable model, which makes its comparison with other forms
and traditions, including the more ancient ones, valid
and
instructive.

THE COSMIC PLAN. From earliest times, temples

have been built as scale models of the universe. The first
known
mention of the Latin word templum is by Varro (116-27 B.C.), for
whom it designated a building specially
designed for interpreting
signs in the heavensa sort of observatory where one gets
one's bearings on the universe.
The root tem- in Greek and Latin
denotes a "cutting," or intersection of two lines at
right angles and hence the place
where the four regions of the
world come together, ancient temples being carefully oriented to
express "the idea of
pre-established harmony between a
celestial and a terrestrial image" (Jeremias, cited in CWHN
4:358). According to
Varro, there are three temples: one in
heaven, one on earth, and one beneath the earth (De Lingua Latina
7.8). In the
universal temple concept, these three are identical,
one being built exactly over the other, with the earth temple in
the
middle of everything, representing "the Pole of the
heavens, around which all heavenly motions revolve, the knot
that
ties earth and heaven together, the seat of universal
dominion" (Jeremias, cited in CWHN 4:358). Here the four
cardinal directions meet, and here the three worlds make contact.
Whether in the Old World or the New, the idea of
the three
vertical levels and four horizontal regions dominated the whole
economy of such temples and of the
societies they formed and
guided.

The essentials of Solomon's temple were not of pagan origin

but a point of contact with the other world, presenting
"rich cosmic symbolism which was largely lost in later
Israelite and Jewish tradition" (Albright, cited in CWHN
4:361). The twelve oxen (1 Kgs. 7:23-26) represent the circle of
the year, and the three stages of the great altar
represent the
three worlds. According to the Talmud, the temple at Jerusalem,
like God's throne and the law itself,
existed before the
foundations of the world (Pesahim 54a-b). Its measurements were
all sacred and prescribed, with
strict rules about it facing the
east.

Its nature as a cosmic center is vividly recalled in many

passages of the Old Testament and in medieval
representations of
the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher. These show the
temple as the exact center, or navel,
of the earth. It was in
conscious imitation of both Jewish and Christian ideas that the
Muslims conceived of the
Kaaba in Mecca as "not only the
centre of the earth, [but] the centre of the universe.
Every heaven and every earth
has its centre marked by a sanctuary
as its navel" (von Grunebaum, cited in CWHN 4:359). What is
bound on earth
is bound in heaven. From the temple at Jerusalem
went forth ideas and traditions that are found all over the
Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim worlds.

THE PLACE OF CONTACT. As the ritual center of

the universe, the temple was anciently viewed as the one
point on
earth at which men and women could establish contact with higher
spheres. The earliest temples were not,
as once supposed,
permanent dwelling places of divinity but were places at which
humans at specific times
attempted to make contact with the
powers above. The temple was a building "which the gods
transversed to pass
from their celestial habitation to their
earthly residence. The ziggurat is thus nothing but a
support for the edifice
on top of it, and the stairway that leads
between the upper and lower worlds"; it resembled a
mountain, for "the
mountain itself was originally a place of
contact between this and the upper world" (Parrot, cited in
CWHN 4:360).

Investigation of the oldest temples represented on prehistoric

seals concludes that these structures were also
"gigantic
altars," built both to attract the attention of the powers
above (the burnt offering being a sort of smoke
signal) and to
provide "the stairways which the God, in answer to prayers,
used in order to descend to the earth,
bringing a renewal of
life in all its forms" (Amiet, cited in CWHN 4:360). From
the first, it would seem, towers and
steps for altars were built
in the hope of establishing contact with heaven (Gen. 11:4).

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Meanings and Functions of Temples

At the same time, the temple is the place of meeting with the
lower world and the one point at which passage
between the two is
possible. In the earliest Christian records, the gates and the
keys are closely connected with the
temple. Some scholars have
noted that the keys of Peter (Matt. 16:19) can only be the keys
of the temple, and many
studies have demonstrated the identity of
tomb, temple, and palace as the place where the powers of the
other world
are exercised for the eternal benefit of the human
race (cf. CWHN 4:361). The gates of hell do not prevail against
the one who holds these keys, however much the church on earth
may suffer. Invariably temple rites are those of the
ancestors,
and the chief characters are the first parents of the race (see,
for example, Huth, cited in CWHN 4:361, n.
37).

THE RITUAL DRAMA. The pristine and original

temple rites are dramatic repetitions of the events that marked
the beginning of the world. This creation drama was not a simple
one, for an indispensable part of the story is the
ritual death
and resurrection of the king, who represents the founder and
first parent of the race, and his ultimate
triumph over death as
priest and king, followed by some form of hieros gamos, or ritual
marriage, for the purpose of
begetting the race. This now
familiar "year-drama" is widely attestedin the
Memphite theology of Egypt, in the
Babylonian New Year's rites,
in the great secular celebration of the Romans, in the panagyris
and beginnings of
Greek drama, in the temple texts of Ras Shamra,
and in the Celtic mythological cycles. These rites were performed
"because the Divinitythe First Father of the Racedid
so once in the beginning, and commanded us to do the
same"
(Mowinckel, cited in CWHN 4:362).

The temple drama is essentially a problem play, featuring a

central combat, which may take various mimetic forms
games,
races, sham battles, mummings, dances, or plays. The hero is
temporarily beaten by the powers of
darkness and overcome by
death, but calling from the depths upon God, "he rises again
and puts the false king, the
false Messiah, to death"
(Weinsinck, cited in CWHN 4:363). This resurrection motif is
essential to these rites, whose
purpose is ultimate victory over
death. These rites are repeated annually because the problem of
evil and death
persists for the human race.

INITIATION. The individuals who toiled as

pilgrims to reach the waters of life that flowed from the temple
were
not passive spectators. They came to obtain knowledge and
regeneration, the personal attainment of eternal life and
glory.
This goal the individual attempted to achieve through
purification (washing), initiation, and rejuvenation,
which
symbolize death, rebirth, and resurrection.

In Solomon's temple, a large bronze font was used for ritual

washings, and in the Second Temple period, people at
Jerusalem
spent much of their time in immersions and ablutions. Baptism is
one specific ordinance always
mentioned in connection with the
temple. "When one is baptized one becomes a Christian,"
writes Cyril, "exactly as
in Egypt by the same rite one
becomes an Osiris" (Patrologiae Latinae 12:1031), that is,
by initiation into
immortality. The baptism in question is a
washing rather than a baptism, since it is not by immersion.
According to
Cyril, this is followed by an anointing, making
every candidate, as it were, a messiah. The anointing of the
brow,
face, ears, nose, breast, etc., represents "the
clothing of the candidate in the protective panoply of the Holy
Spirit,"
which however does not hinder the initiate from
receiving a real garment on the occasion (CWHN 4:364).
Furthermore, according to Cyril, the candidate was reminded that
the whole ordinance is "in imitation of the
sufferings of
Christ," in which "we suffer without pain by mere
imitation his receiving of the nails in his hands and
feet: the
antitype of Christ's sufferings" (Patrologiae Graecae
33:1081). The Jews once taught that Michael and
Gabriel will lead
all the sinners up out of the lower world: "they will wash
and anoint them, healing them of their
wounds of hell, and clothe
them with beautiful pure garments and bring them into the
presence of God" (R. Akiba,
cited in CWHN 4:364).

LOSS OF THE TEMPLE ORDINANCES. The

understanding of the temple and its ancient rites was eventually
corrupted and lost for several reasons.

Both Jews and Christians suffered greatly at the hands of

their enemies because of the secrecy of their rites, which
they
steadfastly refused to discuss or divulge because of their
sanctity. This caused misunderstanding and opened the
door to
unbridled fraud: Gnostic sects claimed to have the lost rites and
ordinances of the apostles and Patriarchs of
old. Splinter groups
and factions arose. A common cause of schism, among both Jews and
Christians, was the claim
of a particular group that it alone
still possessed the mysteries of God.

The rites became the object of various schools of

interpretation. Indeed, mythology is largely an attempt to
explain
the origin and meaning of rituals that people no longer
understand. For example, the Talmud tells of a pious Jew

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Meanings and Functions of Temples

who left
Jerusalem in disgust wondering, "What answer will the
Israelites give to Elijah when he comes?" since the
scholars
did not agree on the rites of the temple (Pesahim 70b; on the
role of Elijah, see A. Wiener, The Prophet
Elijah in the
Development of Judaism [London, 1978], pp. 68-69).

Ritual elements were widely copied and usurped. The early

Christian fathers claimed that pagan counterparts had
been stolen
from older legitimate sources, and virtually every major
mythology tells of a great usurper who rules the
world.

Comparative studies have discovered a common pattern in all

ancient religions and have traced processes of
diffusion that
spread ideas throughout the world. The task of reconstructing the
original prototype from the scattered
fragments has been a long
and laborious one, and it is far from complete, but an
unmistakable pattern emerges
(CWHN 4:367).

Reconstructions of great gatherings of people at imposing

ceremonial complexes for rites dedicated to the renewal of
life
on earth are surprisingly uniform. First, there is tangible
evidence, the scenery and properties of the drama:
megaliths;
artificial giant mounds or pyramids amounting to artificial
mountains; stone and ditch alignments of
mathematical
sophistication correlating time and space; passage graves and
great tholoi, or domed tombs; sacred
roads; remains of booths,
grandstands, processional ways, and gatesthese still
survive in awesome combination,
with all their cosmic symbolism.

Second is the less tangible evidence of customs, legends, folk

festivals, and ancient writings, which together conjure
up
memories of dramatic and choral celebrations of the Creation,
culminating in the great Creation Hymn; ritual
contests between
life and death, good and evil, and light and darkness, followed
by the triumphant coronation of the
king to rule for the new age,
the progenitor of the race by a sacred marriage; covenants;
initiations (including
washing and clothing); sacrifices and
scapegoats to rid the people of a year of guilt and pollution;
and various types
of divination and oracular consultation for the
new life cycle.

OTHER FUNCTIONS OF THE TEMPLE. Many things

surrounding the temple were not essential to its form and
function, but were the inevitable products of its existence. The
words "hotel," "hospital," and
"Templar" go back to
those charitable organizations
that took care of sick and weary pilgrims traveling to the holy
places. Banking
functions arose at the temple, since pilgrims
brought offerings and needed to exchange their money for animals
to be
sacrificed, and thus the word "money" comes from
the temple of Juno Moneta, the holy center of the Roman world.
Along with that, lively barter and exchange of goods at the great
year rites led to the yearly fair, when all contracts
had to be
renewed and where merchants, artisans, performers, and
mountebanks displayed their wares.

Actors, poets, singers, dancers, and athletes were also part

of temple life, the competitive element (the agonal) being
essential to the struggle with evil and providing the most
popular and exciting aspects of the festivals. The temple's
main
drama, the actio, was played by priestly temple actors and
royalty. Creation was celebrated with a creation
hymn, or
poemathe word "poem" meaning
"creation"sung by a chorus that, as the Greek
word shows, formed a
circle and danced as they sang (CWHN 4:380).

The temple was also the center of learning, beginning with the
heavenly instructions received there. It was the
Museon, or home
of the Muses, representing every branch of study: astronomy,
mathematics, architecture, and fine
arts. People would travel
from shrine to shrine exchanging wisdom with the wise, as Abraham
did in Egypt. Since
the Garden of Eden, or "golden age"
motif, was essential to this ritual paradise, temple grounds
contained trees and
animals, often collected from distant places.
Central to the temple school was the library, containing sacred
records,
including the "Books of Life," the names of
all the living and the dead, as well as liturgical and scientific
works.

The temple rites acknowledged the rule of God on earth through

his agent and offspring, the king, who represented
both the first
man and every man as he sat in judgment, making the temple the
ultimate seat and sanction of law and
government. People met at
the holy place for contracts and covenants and to settle
disputes.

THE TEMPLE AND CIVILIZATION. All this

indicates that the temple is the source, and not a derivative, of
the
civilizing process. If there is no temple, there is no true
Israel; and where there is no true temple, civilization itself is
but an empty shella material structure of expediency and
tradition alone, bereft of the living organism at its center
that
once gave it life and made it flourish.

Many secular institutions today occupy structures faithfully

copied from ancient temples. The temple economy has

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Meanings and Functions of Temples

been
perverted along with the rest: feasts of joy and abundance became
orgies; sacred rites of marriage were
perverted; teachers of
wisdom became haughty and self-righteous, demonstrating that
anything can be corrupted in
this world, and as Aristotle notes,
the better the original, the more vicious the corrupted version.

THE RESTORATION AND THE TEMPLE. Latter-day

Saint temples fully embody the uncorrupted functions
and meanings
of the temple. Did the Prophet Joseph Smith reinvent all this by
reassembling the fragmentsJewish,
Orthodox, Masonic,
Gnostic, Hindu, Egyptian, and so forth? In fact, few of the
fragments were available in his day,
and those poor fragments do
not come together of themselves to make a whole. Latter-day
Saints see in the
completeness and perfection of Joseph Smith's
teachings regarding the temple a sure indication of divine
revelation.
This is also seen in the design of the Salt Lake
Temple. One can note its three levels; eastward orientation;
central
location in Zion; brazen sea on the back of twelve oxen
holding the waters through which the dead, by proxy, pass to
eternal life; rooms appointed for ceremonies rehearsing the
creation of the world; and many other symbolic features.

The actual work done within the temple exemplifies the temple
idea, with thousands of men and women serving
with no ulterior
motive. Here time and space come together; barriers vanish
between this world and the next,
between past, present, and
future. Solemn prayers are offered in the name of Jesus Christ to
the Almighty. What is
bound here is bound beyond, and only here
can the gates be opened to release the dead who are awaiting the
saving
ordinances. Here the whole human family meets in a common
enterprise; the records of the race are assembled as far
back in
time as research has taken them, for a work performed by the
present generation to assure that they and their
kindred dead
shall spend the eternities together in the future. Here, for the
first time in many centuries, one may
behold a genuine temple,
functioning as a temple in the fullest and purest sense of the
word.

(See Basic Beliefs home page; Teachings About Temples home page)

Bibliography

Nibley, Hugh W. "Christian Envy of the Temple." In

CWHN 4:391-434.

Nibley, Hugh W. "What Is a Temple?" In CWHN

4:355-87.

Nibley, Hugh W. "The Hierocentric State." Western

Political Quarterly 4 (June 1951):226-53.

Nibley, Hugh W. Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri. Salt Lake

City, 1975.

Packer, Boyd K. The Holy Temple. Salt Lake City, 1980.

Talmage, James E. The House of the Lord. Salt Lake City, 1962.

For a lengthy bibliography on temples, see Donald W. Parry,

Stephen D. Ricks, and John W. Welch, Temple
Bibliography,
Lewiston, N.Y., 1991.

Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 4, Temples

Copyright 1992 by Macmillan Publishing

Company

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About Mormons

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