The Temple Institute has released blueprints and architect’s rendition of the plan for the Chamber of Hewn Stone for their proposed Third Temple (see video at the bottom with architect’s 3d rendition). It’s definitely not your great-great-great-grandfather’s temple.
Monthly Archives: April 2011
New discussion of Sukkot and John 7:1-24
See Here.
Or download pdfs here: John 7:1-24
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New Discussion of John 6:51-71
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Χριστός ἀνέστη!
Χριστός ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!
Christ is Risen! Indeed, he is Risen!
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Reading Nibley Zb: OER 2, “What is the problem?”
Here are my notes and comments on One Eternal Round, chapter 2. Click Reading Nibley, One Eternal Round, 2, “What is the Problem for a pdf version.
Hugh Nibley and Michael D. Rhodes, One Eternal Round, (2010), CWHN 19
Chapter 2, “What is the Problem” (29-53)
This chapter summarizes and expands a bitmaterial from Nibley’s “The Terrible Questions” Temple and Cosmos, (1992) CWHN 12:336-378, where he mainly engages early Christian sources. Here he expands to Egyptian sources on a similar theme.
The “Terrible Question” is about Death and the afterlife. Nibley’s sources in the chapter are largely Egyptian funerary literature (29-37). Nibley often cites older translations or editions–or only Egyptian texts inaccessible to most–so I’ll include a more up-to-date introductory bibliography here. (EAE = Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt)
General Background on Egyptian funerary literature (EAE 1:570-575)
Hornung, Erik, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, tr. David Lorton, (1999); this book contains a chapter on each category of funerary literature, with bibliography.
Taylor, John, Death and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, (2001)
Pyramid Texts (EAE 3:95-7)
Allen, James, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, (2005)
Faulkner, R. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, (1969)
http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/Plan.htm
Coffin Texts (EAE 1:287-8)
Faulkner, Raymond O. The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, 3 vols. (Warminster, 1973-8, reprint, 1994)
Book of the Dead (“Going Forth By Day”) (EAE 1:193-5)
Allen, G. The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day, (1974)
Kemp, Barry, How to Read the Egyptian Book of the Dead, (2008)
Faulkner, Raymond O. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews (London, 1985)
von Dassow, Eva, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of the Going Forth by Day, (San Francisco, 1994)
Taylor, John, Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (Harvard, 2010)
Others (see details in Hornung, Books of the Afterlife, p. 23-152, and EAE 1:570-575)
Lesko, Leonard H. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Two Ways, UCBUCP 17 (Berkeley, 1972)
Piankoff, Alexandre, The Litany of Re, Bollingen Series 40/4 (New York, 1964)
Piankoff, Alexandre, The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon, Bollingen Series 40/2 (New York, 1954, rep 1962)
Piankoff, Alexandre, The Tomb of Ramesses VI, Bollingen Series 40/1 (New York, 1954)
Piankoff, Alexandre, The Wandering of the Soul, Bollingen Series 40/6 (New York, 1974)
A number of different devices/metaphors are used in Egyptian texts describing the celestial ascent of the soul. Nibley mentions a number of these, with some references to ancient sources (41-51):
• The stellar heavens is the realm of the gods (41-2).
• The souls journey to the heavens is a central theme of ancient Egyptian funerary literature (43-45).
• The problem is how to cross the “Great and Awful Gulf” (45-47).
• Following the Sun as his entourage (47).
- Rising on light, wind or smoke (47-48)
• Ladder or stairway (48-49)
• Bird-like flight; the phoenix (49-50)
• Cross the celestial waters on the “barque of Re” or other type of solar/celestial/stellar sailing vessels (50-51)
The chapter ends with a nice chart showing the different chronological relationships of the major categories of Egyptian funerary literature (53).
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Video Review of Bart Ehrman’s “Forged” 1
I’m experimenting with YouTube videos while reviewing Ehrman’s new book. Check it out here.
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