Difference between revisions of "Moses 6:6-10"

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The Pearl of Great Price > The Book of Moses > Chapter 6

Questions

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Verse 7

This verse is ultimately ambiguous, because the Priesthood mentioned here seems to be cut off somewhat from its referent. As a result, it may refer to any one of several things:

• the keeping of a "book of remembrance"
• speaking "a language which was pure and undefiled"
• teaching "their children... to read and write"
• the power "to write by the spirit of inspiration"
• the ability "to call upon the name of the Lord"
• offering "an acceptable sacrifice"
• being the "appointed... seed"
• or even the general patriarchal order.

Perhaps all of these possibilities should be grouped under the category of "general patriarchal order." If so, then it seems to be quite important that these things will be had again "in the end of the world also," and that one of the keys of this patriarchal order of the priesthood is an ability to "write, having a language which was pure and undefiled," "to write," that is, "by the spirit of inspiration" in "a book of remembrance."

These themes seem to echo those of D&C 128, where we read of

• "an acceptable sacrifice" (cf. D&C 128:24)
• the ability "to call upon the name of the Lord" (cf. D&C 128:11)
• and an "appointed seed" (cf. D&C 128:15)
• as well as the more obvious themes of records and remembrance (cf. D&C 128:8 especially).

These common themes suggests that there is some profound connection between this patriarchal priesthood and "the subject of the baptism for the dead" revealed to Joseph Smith in D&C 128. The return of a priesthood, "which was in the beginning," at the very "end of the world also" seems to be the precise concern of that section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Could baptism for the dead be an eternal ordinance practiced by Adam in securing his own Patriarchal Order?

If so, it may shed light on how one should read Moses 5. Perhaps the "holy ordinance" mentioned in Moses 5:59 was a vicarious baptism of Adam for Abel, performed as a symbolic resurrection to assure that Abel would be resurrected to continue Adam's "appointed seed." Adam may have performed this early baptism for the dead to secure his own Patriarchal Order by ensuring Abel a place in the events of the Last Day, an ordinance he performed so that Abel, who would not have seed at the Last Day, would be available to call Adam out of the grave in the resurrection. Perhaps baptism for repentance is such a dramatic portrayal of the resurrection because it is a reflection of the ordinance of baptism for the dead, first performed by Adam in order to ensure that both he and Abel would be resurrected and able to enjoy eternal posterity according to the patriarchal order. The interpretation is perhaps more suggestive than secure, but it does open up perhaps a greater understanding of the link between baptism for the dead, baptism for repentance, the resurrection, and the patriarchal order of the priesthood, as suggested by D&C 128.

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