The Book of Exodus: An Israelite Endowment

By John Kammeyer

This book examines the Book of Exodus in light of Temple Theology, as well as the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Sections 84 and 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants. In light of Temple Theology, the Decalogue is properly seen as a covenant, rather than as a moral code alone. In that context, and along with the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, it is clear Exodus also involves the Endowment. From beginning to end it depicts Moses’ effort to bring the ordinances and covenants of the temple to the Israelites, and their rejection of those covenants and the Higher Priesthood. The loss of the priesthood was recognized in ancient times, and its restoration eagerly anticipated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Kammeyer
• Release date: Feb 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310225840

John Kammeyer

Former Mormon missionaryFormer reserve Army officerTotally Believing Mormonrecovering lawyerdoting father

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The Book of Exodus: An Israelite Endowment

by

John E. Kammeyer, BA, JD.

Published by Far West Publications at Smashwords.

Copyright 2014 John E. Kammeyer

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Exodus as a Temple Text

Where it All Began

Sons of the Covenant

Chapter 2: The Sinai Covenant

The Ten Commandments

Chapter 3: Temple Theology

The Temple

Controlling the Past

The Year Festivals

Chapter 4: The Sinai Covenant and the Temple

Esoteric and Exoteric

The Initiation

The Lecture

Chapter 5: the Seventy Elders (Exodus 24)

We, the Am

Chapter 6: The Loss of the Priesthood

The Rejection of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 5)

The Tabernacle (Exodus 25-31)

The Ritual Dialogue (Exodus 34 :5-26)

Chapter 7: The Ten Commandments After Moses

The Old Testament

The New Testament

Chapter 8: The Ten Commandments in Modern Scripture

The Book of Mormon

The Doctrine and Covenants

Conclusion

Appendix: Mosiah 2-6 in a Sukkot Context

Bibliography

For Further Reading

Smashwords Books by This Author

Introduction

This essay is a study of the Book of Exodus as a temple text.

A doctrine called perspicuity is a staple of Protestant Bible doctrine. This means, what you see is what you get, the message of the Bible is on the surface for all to read. In terms of text analysis, this is idiocy; no one can understand an ancient text without insight into the minds of those who wrote it.

Dr. Margaret Barker’s Temple Theology argues that our present Old Testament is a product of massive editing, starting with King Josiah in the late 7th Century BC and proceeding through the next several centuries. The present Old Testament texts, and the present interpretation of those texts, are both quite different from what existed earlier.

This book examines the Book of Exodus in light of Temple Theology, as well as the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Sections 84 and 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants. My argument is that Exodus depicts an Israelite endowment ceremony.

All previous discussions of Exodus see it only as the Sinai Covenant, establishing the Children of Israel as God’s chosen people. Seeing Exodus in terms of Temple Theology adds another dimension to the text. I’ve been through LDS commentaries on the Old Testament and find nothing resembling what I am proposing here. I find myself far out on a limb, but once we lay out the elements of a temple initiation, we find there is sufficient evidence in Exodus, and the Bible in general, to recognize this type of ritual in practice.

Chapter 1: Exodus as a Temple Text

Where it all Began

I bought a copy of The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, by Hugh Nibley, when it was hot off the press in 1974. It cost me $14.00, which was a lot of money for a teenager, and I didn’t understand a thing. However, I went through the temple when I went on my mission, and everything came together. I was thrilled, I knew I’d found the gateway from here to eternity.

On my mission, I read the New Testament and immediately saw how the temple was the conceptual framework for the entire book. When I heard of Dr. Margaret Barkers’ Temple Theology, I recognized a concept I already knew. She, however, has pursued it far beyond anything I understood.

Sons of the Covenant

Covenants:

A covenant is a partnership between man and God, and many different types can be described; the earliest known are diplomatic covenants establishing overlord-vassal relationships.

According to Daniel J. Elazar, a covenant is a freely-made binding agreement between equal parties, for joint activities or obligations.(1) In such a relationship, according to Zeba A. Crook, friendships give way to the patron-client tie, and the recipient becomes subservient to the giver, giving honor, loyalty and gratitude. It involved a formal and legally binding oath, [an]…explicit reference to obligations, and…are entered into [by] parties of unequal status, for example king and subject.(2) There are covenants where God is the witness, but in Biblical covenants, God is an active partner. Compare Mosiah 2:22—

And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

Exodus as a Political Covenant:

LDS commentaries define the Ten Commandments as a moral code.(3) They are definitely that, and rightly interpreted by all Judao-Christian believers as the behavioral basis of a civil society. Yet why would God put on such a sound-and-light show to give them just a moral code?

This picture of Exodus 20 is right if we add the concept of a covenant. So what is the difference? A moral code defines rules for conduct between man and man. A covenant is a moral code mediated by God. The usual analysis of Exodus 20 completely overlooks the covenant portion, the duty to God, which in turn becomes the duty to our fellow men. Seeing the Ten Commandments as a moral code is the second half of the equation, but ignoring the first half renders the whole thing meaningless.

Politics and religion cannot be divided in the Bible—or in the Book of Mormon—because government is based on a covenant with, and given by, and supervised by, God.(4) As we shall see, the Ten Commandments have three basic elements.

The covenant between man and God: I am the Lord thy God…

The covenant to be God’s representatives on earth, doing God’s work to take care of the earth: Six days shalt thou labor…

The covenant between man and man as a community: Thou shalt not….

According to Elazar:

Ancient constitutionalism addresses the way of life of the polity as a whole, including matters no longer deemed to be of public concern, having to do with the behavior of individuals and families, as of critical importance to the body politic. The Torah for example, is concerned with the holiness of the Israelites as foundation to the holy commonwealth. Because this holiness is both individual and collective; it is an important constitutional issue.(5)

The transition between elements two and three brings in the concept of chesed, or, in New Testament terms, charity. We have more than just a legal obligation to our neighbors; we have also a positive duty to do good to one another. According to Cyril of Jerusalem:

(Preparatory Lecture: 13) Ye who have been enrolled, are become the sons and daughters of one Mother. When ye have entered in before the hour of exorcising, let one of you speak what may promote godliness: and if any of your number be not present, seek for him. If thou wert called to a banquet, wouldst thou not wait for thy fellow guest? If thou hadst a brother, would thou not seek for thy brother’s good?

Covenants are both individual and communal. This is Zion, where the pure in heart dwell.

(Deuteronomy 29:9) Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. (10) Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, (11) Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: (12) That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: (13) That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Two verses of scripture need to be seen together, because they illustrate Elazar’s concept of holiness as the basis of the covenant community.

In D&C 29:35 the Lord states that he has given no commandments which are purely temporal, everything has a spiritual, i.e. cosmic, purpose.

In the book of Mosiah we read:

(Mosiah 2:17) And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

This is chesed, the obligation of loving kindness toward one another. Putting these verses together, we find that, for practical reasons, service owed to God is usually rendered by service to man. When this is done under a covenant, God becomes a partner in the daily life of the community.

(Mosiah 18:8) And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light; (9a) Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death,

Service to man has