In the Book of Mormon, Nephi addresses a major need for the Restoration of the Gospel and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Speaking of the Bible, Nephi said, “These things go forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles, according to the truth which is in God.” Then, a problem occurs. Nephi calls it “the formation of that great and abominable church.” I don’t believe Nephi is targeting any particular church or religion. He is speaking of plain and precious doctrines that get lost. Much of this occurred in the 1st century A.D.
The apostle John writes about the physical reality of Jesus Christ, who was seen, heard, and handled with hands (1 John 1:1-3). This was to counter the philosophies of Docetism and Gnosticism, which promoted the belief that the physical body is inherently corrupt and evil, so Christ could not be a perfect being with a physical body. These philosophies maintained that Jesus was just an image without physical substance, like a hologram. Biblical translations were adapted to concur with early Hellenistic ideas.
Fast forward to the First Vision. Joseph Smith sees two glorified Personages with tangible physical bodies. He learns that their physical nature is a major part of their glory with doctrines from the Book of Mormon such as this one taught by Jacob:
“O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.” (2 Nephi 9:8)
In the temple we perform ordinances for our deceased ancestors so “that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit” (1 Peter 4:6). But it requires a living physical body to stand in proxy. Nephi said, “And also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away” (1 Nephi 13:26). These covenants are necessary to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. That reminds me of a joke:
Q: Why did the temple workers cross the road?
A: To help the people on the other side.
Okay, just checking to see if you watched Conference. Wasn’t it great, though? And this talk of Elder Gong’s especially emphasized the importance of the temple. He said, “Covenant belonging unites a husband, wife, and children, not until death do we part, not until convenience or attraction fade, but by covenant commitment, sacrifice, and consecration.”
Thank goodness for the Restoration to fill the gaps—including a gross mistranslation in this week’s Come Follow Me chapters. And this gross error occurs in Isaiah 56:5:
“Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”
The Lord is making this promise to eunuchs, but it applies to everyone. Eunuchs were men who could not “multiply and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28) either because of birth defects or because their reproductive organs had been surgically removed. They often served as custodians at the royal palaces since they could not pose a threat to the royal lineage. Hege and Shaashgaz were eunuchs mentioned in Esther 2:3,14, who were “keepers of the women.” This emphasizes the importance of royal bloodlines in ancient Israel. Eunuchs were barred from entering the assembly of the Lord or fully participating in temple worship.
The promise of “a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters” is confusing. Elder Gong spoke of temple covenants in General Conference and the sealing power that unites husband, wife, and children. And previous posts have dealt with the Songs of Ascents and the chiastic center of Psalm 127:3: “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” This phrase in Isaiah 56 must be about the doctrine in the Family Proclamation that “the divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave.” Eternal relationships really are better than mere mortal relationships.
But there is another problem with this verse. The Lord said, “Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree” (Isaiah 56:3). The promise in verse 5 is that within the walls of the temple, the Lord will give them a “place” and “an everlasting name.” The word place in the King James Version is a mistranslation. The Hebrew word is yad, clearly meaning “hand.”
Apparently, the Bible translators did not know what to do with this word. It didn’t make sense to them that the Lord would give them a name and a hand in the temple, so the King James translators changed this word to place. I looked up several other translations, and most often yad was translated as memorial and in some versions as monument.
But Truman Madsen, in his book, The Temple, Where Heaven Meets Earth, said this verse should read, “Unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a handclasp and a new name.”
