Abraham and the “Promises” of the Temple—Part 3
- Stephen Fluckiger
- 18 hours ago
- 33 min read
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we explored the miraculous preservation of the Egyptian papyri and the scholarly debates surrounding them. Parts 3 and 4 focus on how the Lord, by revealing the Book of Abraham to the Prophet Joseph Smith, further prepared him to restore ancient temple ordinances, which were “had . . . from before the world was” (D&C 124:38).
As I prepare to post this, we have just participated in a ritual of “great significance”[1]—a solemn assembly to sustain the Prophets, Seers and Revelators of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The gesture or action we took of raising “up” our arms or “hand[s] unto the Lord, the most high God,” as Abraham told the King of Sodom he had done (Genesis 14:22),[2] is familiar to us both from our congregational and temple worship. Our hands, raised to the square, are a sign of the promise or covenant we make to God, in the case this morning, to “uphold” the First Presidency by our “confidence, faith and prayers” (D&C 107:22).
Imagine what Joseph must have felt and learned as he recognized this and other sacred gestures in the Egyptian papyri. Thus, in this and my next and final blog on this chapter of Joseph Smith’s life, my primary interest lies in what the Lord was teaching Joseph Smith—and us—about the temple through the Book of Abraham.
To truly understand the temple's “endowment of power,” we need look no further than the lives of our covenant grandparents: Abraham and Sarah. As Stephen O. Smoot has insightfully pointed out, the Book of Abraham is profoundly a “temple text”—a record infused narratively, thematically, and structurally with the patterns of the temple.[3] Abraham’s journey is a masterclass in making and keeping covenants, and his repeated, intimate interactions with Jehovah provide a living example of the temple’s ultimate promise: returning to the presence of God.
Seeking the Blessings of the Fathers: Priesthood as Temple Service. Abraham begins his sacred record with a statement that resonates with every modern temple-goer:
Finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness . . .. (Abraham 1:2).
Abraham’s righteous desires and his faithfulness qualified him to be ordained “a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.” Smoot observes that Abraham’s desire for an “appointment unto the Priesthood" immediately casts his life in a temple context, as priesthood in the ancient Near East fundamentally involved “the performance of cultic duties and service in the temple.”[4]
That Abraham understood priesthood in this way is suggested by his desire to “be ordained to administer the same.” In other words, Abraham wanted to administer or share gospel ordinances that would enable his family members and others he shared the gospel with to receive the “blessings of the fathers” (Abraham 1:2). Such blessings, he notes, include “great” and “greater knowledge” and receiving “instructions,” including, most importantly, about “the commandments [or covenants] of God.” Endowed members of the Church associate these terms with their own temple experiences.
Just three years before receiving the Egyptian papyri, the Lord had revealed to Joseph Smith that the “greater,” or Melchizedek, priesthood that Abraham sought administers “the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God” (D&C 84:19). The ultimate mysteries and special knowledge God desires to give His children are found in temple ordinances.
As the Lord revealed to the Prophet (and as Abraham apparently well understood), in gospel (and especially temple) ordinances “the power of godliness is manifest” “unto men in the flesh.” Such power enables God’s people to be “sanctified,” “behold the face of God,” “endure” and “enter into his presence” (D&C 84:20-24).
Being thus sanctified, line upon line, a “rightful heir” is then able to become, as Abraham did, “a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace.”[5] They become part of “that order established by the fathers” (Abraham 1:26), even the “order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]” (D&C 131:2). They each (men and women) become part of “the Priesthood” by which they and their posterity receive all the “blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal” (Abraham 2:11; D&C 132:1-25, 29-32).
Who inspired Abraham to seek and qualify himself for these (temple) blessings? Who inspired Abraham to become a “follower of righteousness”? Who taught him about the “blessings of the fathers"? It was unlikely to have been his own father and grandfather, who embraced the idolatry or false religion of the Chaldeans (Abraham 1:3).
One clue lies in the account of Abraham’s genealogy in Genesis 11. Noah was Abraham’s 8th great-grandfather (ie., there were 10 generations between them). However, some chronologies indicate that Noah’s 950-year life (Genesis 9:2) overlapped Abraham’s life possibly by more than 50 years and that Shem outlived Abraham by more than 30 years.[6]
Further if Melchizedek was Shem, as some scholars have suggested[7] (and arguably the Church has tacitly acknowledged),[8] then this adds another hint as to who might have planted in Abraham’s heart his fervent desires for righteousness. As we know, Melchizedek, “the priest of the most high God” (Genesis 14:18), ordained Abraham a high priest (D&C 84:14). Moreover, according to Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of Genesis, Melchizedek, “the keeper of the storehouse of God,” “whom God [had] appointed to receive the tithes for the poor” (JST Genesis 14:37-38), presided over Abraham. Thus, it was to Melchizedek that Abraham paid tithes (Genesis 14:20; JST Genesis 14:39) and from whom he received a “sacrament” of bread and wine (Genesis 14:18).
Several historical sources suggest that the early brethren, and possibly the Prophet himself, understood and accepted the idea that Abraham was a contemporary of Noah and Shem and may have been personally tutored by one or both.[9] For example, Lecture 2 of the Lectures on Faith, which were published in 1835 and “in part written by the Prophet and in the whole approved by him,”[10] sets forth a detailed analysis of relationships among the patriarchs based on the genealogies set forth in Genesis. “From this account,” the author(s) note, “Nahor, the brother of Abraham, Terah [and his father and grandfathers back to] Shem, and Noah, all lived on the earth at the same time.” Further, they note, Shem and his descendants “were all acquainted with both Noah and Abraham.”[11]
Moreover, it appears that the early Saints, including the Prophet, accepted as accurate Jewish traditions that Abraham spent years in the house of Noah and his son Shem, learning “the instruction of the Lord and His ways”. [12] This would perfectly explain Abraham’s deep desire to receive the priesthood and temple blessings passed down from Adam and explain how he might have been ordained in his early manhood while he yet lived “in the land of the Chaldeans” (Abraham 1:1-2).[13]
How did Abraham develop such an intimate relationship with Jehovah?
Becoming “one in” God begins with baptism. How has God decreed that man comes to comprehend, to draw near to, even to become “one in” Him (Moses 6:68)? President Russell M. Nelson taught, “we create a relationship with God” when we enter the covenant path.[14] From the very beginning, to Adam and Eve, God explained that to be “one in” Him, to have the closest of all possible relationships with Him, even as a “son” or daughter (Moses 6:68), we must “believe” in Him, “repent,” “be baptized, even in water,” and “receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Moses 6:52, 57, 59-62).
What about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Were they baptized and confirmed? Did they each “enter into the narrow gate, and walk in the strait path,” even the covenant path, which “leads to life” eternal (2 Nephi 33:9)? If, as President Nelson taught, “the Abrahamic covenant” is “essentially the same” as “the new and everlasting covenant” of the gospel,[15] then the answer is surely “yes!”
After all, we know that “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). And Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have entered that kingdom since the Lord Himself declared “they [each] have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods” (D&C 132:37).
Surely, when Abraham said he was a “follower of righteousness” (Abraham 1:2) and “sought . . . [to] be ordained to administer” the ordinances of the gospel, the next step for a man on the covenant path, then he would have been baptized.
Moreover, as a dispensation head, Abraham had been entrusted with “the records of the fathers, even the patriarchs,” which would have included the “book of remembrance” and “the book of the generations of Adam” mentioned in the Book of Moses (6:5, 8), as well as the Book of Enoch (D&C 107:57).[16] As noted earlier, these records included the fulness of “the Gospel” (Moses 8:19), including the first principles and ordinances of the gospel (see Moses 6:52-68; 8:16-20).
While neither Genesis nor the Book of Abraham mention Abraham baptizing or being baptized, we know from Joseph Smith’s translation of Abraham’s story in Genesis that baptism at the age of “accountability” at age eight was then, as it had been from the beginning of time, a requirement of the gospel. The law of circumcision, the Lord explained to Abraham, was not only to be a “token” of the Abrahamic covenant, but a reminder of “the burial, or baptism wherewith I commanded them; . . . that children are not accountable before me [and thus not to be baptized] until they are eight years old” (JST, Genesis 17:3–7, 11).[17]
We deepen our relationship with God in the temple. After baptism and an appropriate period to develop and demonstrate our capacity to keep our baptismal covenant,[18] God invites us to deepen our relationship with Him by “more completely” “tak[ing] upon ourselves the sacred name of Jesus Christ” in the temple.[19] Indeed, each week when we renew our baptismal covenant, we witness to God that we are “willing to take upon” us “the name” of Jesus Christ (D&C 20:77). This means, as President Oaks has taught, that we covenant “to take upon us the authority of Jesus Christ,” meaning that we agree “to participate in [or receive] the sacred ordinances of the temple.”[20]
Doing so, as President Nelson taught repeatedly throughout his ministry, give us “direct access to the power of God.”[21] Each of Abraham’s, Isaac’s, and Jacob’s lives serve as the ultimate blueprint for what this looks like. These three patriarchs did not merely read about God; they experienced Him. Their lives were punctuated by profound theophanies, visions, and intimate conversations with Jehovah.
One of the best ways I have found to understand what it means to be "endowed with power from on high" is to carefully study the lives of the prophets and their spiritual experiences, past and present. As we do so, we can see the Lord sanctifying and purifying them over time. What follows is a chronological list of each recorded scriptural reference to Jehovah’s interactions with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, drawn from the Book of Abraham and the book of Genesis, together with a brief overview of what was going on in their lives at the time.
The Divine Encounters of Abraham
God Covenants with Abraham in Response to his Prayer of Deliverance at the Altar in Ur (Abraham 1:15–19): Hugh Nibley pointed out that “it was [Abraham’s] preaching that got [him] into trouble in the first place—[his ‘fathers’] ‘hearkened not unto my voice, but endeavored to take away my life’ (Abraham 1: 7).”[22] No doubt in these missionary efforts, as in many other things, Abraham was influenced by Melchizedek. From Joseph Smith’s inspired translation, we learn—
[Melchizedek] “was a priest of this order [of the Son of God]; therefore he obtained peace in Salem, and was called the Prince of peace. And his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken . . . And this Melchizedek . . . was called the king of heaven by his people, or in other words, the King of peace (JST Genesis 14:33-34, 36).
Owing to Abraham’s overt opposition to the religion of his day, the “priest of Elkanah, [who] was also the priest of Pharaoh,” bound Abraham to their pagan altar. As he and the priests assisting him “lifted up their hands” to kill him, Abraham “lifted up [his] voice unto the Lord [his] God.” “The Lord hearkened and heard” Abraham’s plea for deliverance and “filled” him “with the vision of the Almighty” (Abraham 1:15).
Abraham does not describe what he saw in vision. Instantly responding to his desperate plea, however, the Lord sent “the angel of his presence,” who “stood by” Abraham and “immediately unloosed [his] bands.” Then, speaking by divine investiture,[23] the angel spoke words signaling the initiation of a covenantal relationship:[24]
Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father's house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land which thou knowest not of;
And this because they have turned their hearts away from me, to worship [other gods]; therefore I have come down to visit them, and to destroy him who hath lifted up his hand against thee, Abraham, my son, to take away thy life.
Behold, I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee, to put upon thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy father, and my power shall be over thee.
As it was with Noah so shall it be with thee; but through thy ministry my name shall be known in the earth forever, for I am thy God. (Abraham 1:16-19; cf. Facsimile 1, Figs. 1-3).
Smoot highlights the temple overtones in the pattern of “theophany, name, and covenant” conveyed by the angel. Immediately after the angel reveal’s the Lord’s name, the language shifts to “unmistakable covenant connotations.” “In ancient Egypt and Israel,” Smoot points out, “the ritual gesture of giving and receiving the hand” “or placing offerings in the hand(s) play[ed] an important role.”[25] While Abraham's enemies "lifted up their hands" to take his life, Jehovah promises, "I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee, to put upon thee my name" (Abraham 1:18).
God Renews His Covenant in Response to Abraham’s Prayer at Haran (Abraham 2:6–13; Genesis 12:1–3). During his missionary labors to the people of Ur, Abraham had prophesied that if they failed to heed the Lord’s call to repent, “there should be a famine in the land” (Abraham 1:29). And so, it was. So “sore” did God “cause” “the famine to wax in the land of Ur” (Abraham 2:1) that Abraham’s oldest brother, Haran, died (Abraham 2:1). Moreover, his “father was sorely tormented” thereby, so much so that “he repented of the evil which he had determined” against his own son (Abraham 1:30)—at least for a time. Abraham is silent on how the famine affected him. But it could not have been easy.[26]
After marrying Sarai,[27] it appears that the Lord again commanded Abraham to “get out” of Ur and to go to “a land that I will show thee” (Abraham 2:3; cf. Abraham 1:16), which Abraham then identifies as “the land of Canaan” (Abraham 2:4). Is it possible that the Lord showed Abraham where He wanted him to go through the Urim and Thummim, “which the Lord” gave him “in Ur of the Chaldees” (Abraham 3:1)?
Obeying the Lord’s command, Abraham “took” his wife and his nephew (and possible adopted son) Lot,[28] leaving his “country,” “his kindred” and his “father’s house,” where he doubtless had lived for many years (Abraham 2:3). Notably, Abraham does not say he “took” his father with him. Rather, Terah “followed after” his son, perhaps because he recognized that the Lord was with him (or, given his desperation due to the famine, he simply decided it was better than the alternative).
Abraham recounts that when they “left the land of Ur,”[29] he planned “to go into the land of Caanan.” However, “they came unto Haran,” stopping for a season to “[dwell] there” (Genesis 11:31; Abraham 2:4). Abraham, in his characteristic fashion, immediately began to “minister” the gospel (Abraham 2:6) to the inhabitants of that ancient city.[30] When it came time to leave, Abraham noted that he “took . . . the souls that we had won in Haran” with him (Abraham 2:15; Genesis 12:5).[31]
We do not know how long they stayed in Haran. But we do learn something significant about the timing of their departure. Abraham recorded that he and Lot “prayed unto the Lord” (Abraham 2:6). Prayer, of course, is a temple principle. Abraham does not indicate what prompted their prayer. From the record of his life, however, Abraham had a consistent and “devout” prayer life (see Abraham 2:17, 18, 20).
In response to their prayer (either immediately or sometime later), Abraham states that “the Lord appeared unto me” (Abraham 2:6), meaning that he saw the Lord’s “face” (Abraham 2:12). The Lord said to him:
I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains—Depart hence—and behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly. My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood) for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal (Abraham 2:6-12).
In this familiar recitation of the Abrahamic covenant, the Lord repeats the temple elements Smoot identifies of “theophany, name, and covenant”—
Theophany (meaning a visible manifestation of God),[32] indicated not only by Abraham’s face-to-face conversation with God in this account, but by the promise of “life eternal” to all who receive and keep the Abrahamic covenant. In the temple this is symbolically depicted by passing through, or as Paul put it, entering “within the veil” (Heb. 6:18-20).[33] When Christ died and the veil of the temple was rent, President Nelson taught, Jesus Christ “had passed through the veil of death,” “would soon enter the presence of His Father, and had opened to all the opportunity of likewise passing through the veil into God’s eternal presence.”[34]
Name. The Lord, as He did in His covenantal communication in Abraham 1:15-19, declares “my name is Jehovah” (Abraham 2:8). He also declares His “purpose” to “make of [Abraham] a minister to bear my name in “Canaan, the land which He covenants to give to Abraham’s seed “for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice” (Abraham 2:6). As Presidents Oaks and Nelson taught, we take Christ’s (Jehovah’s) name, or authority, upon us at baptism and more completely in the temple.
Covenant. Those who receive the gospel covenant “also receive the patriarch’s name as a token of their own entry into the covenant: ‘And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father’ (v. 10).”[35]
In other words, the Father’s plan not only includes the means through which the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be shared with all His children—through a covenant relationship formalized in baptism, confirmation, ordination and temple ordinances—but by whom this covenant will shared. God declares that Abraham’s seed, both his “lawful heirs” or direct descendants (D&C 86:9) and those adopted into Abraham’s lineage, “shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations” (Abraham 2:9).[36] In the Church we generally refer to this ministry under two overarching heads, “missionary work” and “temple and family history work.” Elder Bednar, however, has repeatedly taught that they are “one work”[37] or one “ministry” we are each—as “children of the covenant”[38]—called to perform.
Emphasizing the role prayer played in the development of his relationship with Jehovah, Abraham declares, “Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee” (Abraham 2:12).
Appearance at Sechem (Abraham 2:18-19; Genesis 12:7): As Abraham traveled into the land of Canaan, he built an altar in the plains of Moreh and “called on the Lord devoutly.” In answer to his prayers, the Lord “appeared unto” him again, promising, “unto thy seed will I give this land.”
Warning Before Entering Egypt (Abraham 2:21–25; Genesis 12:11–13): Because of a grievous famine, Abraham “concluded to go down into Egypt, to sojourn there.” As he “came near to enter into Egypt,” the Lord spoke to him, warning him that the Egyptians would see his wife Sarah’s beauty and kill him. Abraham does not mention on this occasion that the Lord’s direction came in response to a specific plea for protection. Nevertheless, God had promised to protect him as He does all who enter a covenant relationship with Him. According to scholars, “ancient Egyptian texts depict pharaohs as taking any women they wanted, and given the capacity for callousness in ancient royalty, Abraham’s fear was not unrealistic.” [39]
“See that ye do on this wise,” the Lord forewarns Abraham. “Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live” (Abraham 2:23-24). Abraham then tells his wife “all that the Lord had said unto” him. But Sarah’s decision to obey the Lord’s counsel as she received it from her husband did not come without cost. Kerry Mulstein explains:
If [Sarah] obeys God, it was almost certain that she would be taken from her husband and become part of a foreign king’s harem. In this way, before Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah was asked to go through her own Abrahamic sacrifice. By agreeing to do what God asked of her, she was signaling a willingness to lose the person she loved the most in life, to lose all those she was close to, to lose everything she knew, and to spend the rest of her life in a foreign place as part of another man’s harem, observing foreign cultural practices. In other words, she signaled that she was willing to give up everything she had, knew, and loved in order to do what God asked of her. That is a true Abrahamic sacrifice.[40]
Trusting that Abraham’s counsel came from the Lord, Sarah obeys. When queried by “the princes of Pharaoh” (Genesis 12:15) about her relationship to Abraham, her answer, scholars suggest, took advantage of an ambiguity in ancient Egyptian language and culture. In ancient Egyptian, the word for wife (ḥmt) meant “wife,” but the word for sister (snt) could mean either “sister” or “wife.” [41]
As a devoted follower of Jehovah, Sarah showed that she was a spiritual equal to her husband. Recall President Nelson’s teaching that Sarah, as well as Abraham, “received the same ordinances that we as members of the Lord’s restored Church today” receive, “at baptism and in the temple.”[42] Her whole-souled obedience at such great cost suggests that she understood the nature of her covenants, as the Lord no doubt had revealed them to her in their day, and restored it through the Prophet Joseph Smith in our day.
In Part 4, we will complete our exploration of additional "temple lessons" the Lord no doubt knew his Servant, Joseph Smith, would be picking up during his translation of the Book of Abraham.
[1] “Saturday Morning Session Summary for the April 2026 General Conference,” Church Newsroom April 4, 2026, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/april-2026-general-conference-saturday-morning-session-summary.
[2] See Alonzo L. Gaskill, Sacred Symbols: Finding Meaning in Rites, Rituals, and Ordinances (Springville, Utah: CFI, 2011), ch. 6, “Covenant-Making Rituals” & text accompanying notes 24-26 (“the raising of the arm to the square,” for Christians, can represent “one’s willingness to sustain another” or “one’s entrance into a covenant, [with] the raised right hand . . . understood to be ‘a sign of power and command.’ The right arm raised was known as the ‘right hand of power.’ When raised, it symbolized receiving the ‘gift’ God was offering (and that which God offers us through rituals or ordinances is a portion of His power). One LDS source suggested that the ‘sign’ or ‘gesture’ of raising the arm to the square was a Christocentric symbol. ‘The square in the carpenter’s toolbox (remember who the Carpenter is) represents exactness in all we do. Christ, as the only person who was perfectly exact in his mortal life, could himself be symbolized as a square. When we participate in covenants involving the symbol of the square, we are reaching up to God in a way that reminds us of Christ, in whose name the covenants are made.”); Stephen D. Ricks, “Oaths and Oath Taking in the Old Testament,” in The Temple in Time and Eternity, eds., Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University 1999), 49https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/sites/default/files/archive-files/pdf/ricks/2023-11-13/02_stephen_d._ricks_oaths_and_oath_taking_in_the_old_testament_43-53.pdf. For an overview of how scholars interpret this and other ancient gestures, see David Calabro, "Understanding Ritual Hand Gestures of the Ancient World: Some Basic Tools," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, vol. 37, Article 13 (2020), https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol37/iss1/13; David Rolph Seely, “The Raised Hand of God as an Oath Gesture,” in Fortunate the Eyes that See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Astrid B. Beck et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 417, no. 3.
[3] Stephen O. Smoot, “Temple Themes in the Book of Abraham,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, v. 60 (2024), 213. [4] Ibid. 215-16 (emphasis added). [5] That Abraham specifically identifies his desire to become a “prince of peace” reflects the strong influence Melchizedek had in Abraham’s life. As Joseph Smith learned in his translation of Genesis in the early 1830’s, Melchizedek “was a priest [after the order of the Son of God]; therefor he obtained peace in Salem [which later became Jerusalem] and was called the Prince of Peace” (JST Genesis 14:28,33). See also W. Cleon Skousen, The First 2,000 Years (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1953), 265 (“Abraham had contact with Melchizedek during his early manhood and was ordained by him” before he left Ur, as he indicated in Abraham 1:1-2). [6] To ascertain how at least one source the Church provides in its Gospel Library app views this possible chronology, see “Old Testament Chronology,” Old Testament Study Guide for Home-Study Seminary Students (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2015), https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-study-guide-for-home-study-seminary-students-2015/old-testament-chronology?lang=eng, which graphically shows both Noah and Shem’s lives overlapping with Abraham’s. In connection with his excellent recounting of the story of Abraham, Cleon Skousen concludes in his analysis of the scriptural genealogical record that Abraham was about 47 when Noah died and Shem, who was 108 at the time of the flood and lived another 502 years, outlived Abraham by about five years. “Appendix— Explanatory Notes on the Chronological Time Table Covering the Period of the Patriarchs” in Skousen, 346–51.
[7] Alma E. Gygi, in “Is it possible that Shem and Melchizedek are the same person?” Ensign, November 1973, cites the following as evidence that Melchizedek was Shem:
(i) the “inheritance given to Shem included the land of Salem. Melchizedek appears in scripture as the king of Salem, who reigns over this area”; (ii) “Shem, according to later revelation, reigned in righteousness and the priesthood came through him. Melchizedek appears on the scene with a title that means ‘king of righteousness’”;
(iii) Shem was the great high priest of his day, [whom] Abraham honored . . . by seeking a blessing at his hands and paying him tithes”; (iv) “Abraham stands next to Shem in the patriarchal order of the priesthood and would surely have received the priesthood from Shem; but Doctrine and Covenants 84:5–17 says Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek”; (v) “Jewish tradition identifies Shem as Melchizedek” [“When Abraham returned from the war, Shem, or, as he is sometimes called, Melchizedek, the king of righteousness, priest of the Most High God. …” (Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews, 233); “Jewish tradition pronounces Melchizedek to be a survivor of the Deluge, the patriarch Shem.” (Smith’s Bible Dictionary, 393); “And Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, the same was Shem. …” (Book of Jasher 16:11)]; (vi) “President Joseph F. Smith’s remarkable vision names Shem among the great patriarchs, but no mention is made of Melchizedek” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:41); (vii) Joseph Smith speaks of “Shem, who was Melchizedek” in Times and Seasons (vol. 5, 746).
Some read Doctrine and Covenants 84:14, Gygi notes, which states that “Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah,” as indicating that there are perhaps several generations between Melchizedek and Noah. However, this language could as easily be interpreted to mean that “priesthood authority commenced with and came through the fathers, even till Noah, and then to Shem.” See “Genesis 14:18. Who Was Melchizedek?” Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel. If Melchizedek were Shem, he would have been 465 years old when Abram was 75.
In addition to Abraham’s recorded interactions with Shem, Monte S. Nyman argued that because “Abraham’s life overlapped the life of Noah,” the two possibly had an important “tie.” If, as various sources suggest, Noah might have been not only a contemporary but a mentor (or Priesthood leader) of Abraham, such relationship would support, in Nyman’s view, the opinion expressed by President Joseph Fielding Smith and others that the Elias who appeared in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 to restore the keys of the “dispensation of the gospel of Abraham” was, in fact, Noah. In short, President Smith believed that the keys the Lord describes of “bringing to pass the restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began” in D&C 27:6, which He noted were held by the angel Gabriel (or Noah) who visited Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, are the same keys of the “dispensation of the gospel of Abraham” that Elias (or Noah, according to President Smith) restored to Joseph Smith. Monte S. Nyman, “The Covenant of Abraham,” BYU Religious Studies Center, note 1, https://rsc.byu.edu/pearl-great-price-revelations-god/covenant-abraham#_edn1.
[8] “In latter-day revelation Shem is referred to as ‘the great high priest’ (D&C 138:41). See also Melchizedek.” Bible Dictionary, “Shem,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bd/shem?lang=eng (emphasis added).
[9] Joseph Smith himself was “tutored” by Noah to the extent that the Prophet heard “the voice of Gabriel,” that is, received instruction from him. Together with Michael, Raphael (possibly Enoch according to Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 618) and other “diverse angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time,” they each declared “their dispensation, their rights, their keys, their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood; giving line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little; giving us consolation by holding forth that which is to come, confirming our hope!” (D&C 128:21).
[10] The Lectures on Faith in Historical Perspective, Larry E. Dahl and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1990, 3.
[11] Ibid., 50. Genesis 11:26 states that when Terah had “lived seventy years,” he “begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” Later passages indicate, however , that their actual birth order was Haran, Nahor and Abraham. Skousen estimates that Haran was “at least twenty or thirty years older than Abraham.” Skousen, 350. According to Jewish tradition, Haran had a daughter, Iscah (Genesis 11:29), also known as Saria, who was ten years younger than Abraham and whom Abraham later married (Genesis 17:17). Thus, Nahor would not have been more than a few decades older than Abraham.
[12] As editor of the Times and Seasons, Joseph Smith would have sanctioned (if he did not author) the following assessment of the reliability of the Book of Jasher’s accounts from the early life of Abraham: “If we believe in present revelation, as published in the Times and Seasons last spring, Abraham, the prophet of the Lord, was laid upon the bedstead for slaughter; and the book of Jasher, which has not been disproved as a bad author, says he was cast into the fire of the Chaldeas.” Times and Seasons (Nauvoo, Hancock Co., IL), 1 Sept. 1842, vol. 3, no. 21, 895–910; edited by JS, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-1-september-1842/8#source-note (emphasis added).
The first English translation of the Book of Jasher appeared in 1840, “after Joseph Smith had already produced the text we have of the Book of Abraham but before its publication (in 1842).” This book of Jasher “is a narration containing some rather old Jewish traditions about the book of Genesis; the Jewish name for the book is Sefer ha-Yashar. The author is unknown, but it is thought that his teacher may have been Nathan ben Joel Falaquera, a thirteenth-century Spanish Jew.” John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, John Gee, eds., Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2001), xvi, 138, https://archive.org/details/traditionsaboute0000unse/page/n25/mode/2up.
The editors note that early Church leaders, including John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, also approvingly repeated in their public discourses the story referred to from the Book of Jasher cited in the Times and Seasons article quoted above. Indeed, Franklin D. Richards, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (1849-99), related the Book of Jasher’s account of how Abraham came to be tutored by Noah and Shem in October 1892 general conference:
The Bible tells us but very little about [the early life of Father Abraham]. Other histories inform us that so severe was his persecution, while yet an infant, that his mother had to take him and hide away in a cave [where his father] sustained him and his mother for a long time. The sorcerers and the astrologers [in King Nimrod’s court] were stirred up to anxiety and curiosity, because there had another star appeared in the heavens at the birth of that boy Abraham [, which they interpreted as a sign that he would pose a threat to the king]. . . The king . . . [then] tried to get [buy] the boy [and have him killed]. Abraham’s father, Terah, brought forth a child, by the king’s command, from another one of his other women, that was born just about the same time, and the king caused it to be destroyed. . . .
After awhile . . . [Abraham was sent] to dwell with Shem, the good old patriarch, and lived several years with him, hid up and secluded, studying the things of God. He loved righteousness, hungering for more righteousness, got away from the idolatry of his relations, and even of his father’s house, and was for some time studying the things of God in the houses of those early patriarchs.
Ibid., 26. To Elder Richard’s summary, the Book of Jasher adds these vivid details:
And the Lord was with Terah in this matter, that Nimrod might not cause Abram’s death, and the king took the child [which Terah’s handmaid had born to him] from Terah and with all his might dashed his head to the ground, for he thought it had been Abram; and this was concealed from him that day, and it was forgotten by the king, as it was the will of Providence not to suffer Abram’s death.
And Terah took his son secretly, together with his mother and nurse, and he concealed them in a cave, and he brought provisions monthly. And the Lord was with Abram in the cave and he grew up, and Abram was in the cave ten years, and the king and his princes, soothsayers and sages, thought that the king had killed Abram.
[Chapter 9] And Haran, the son of Terah, Abram’s oldest brother, took a wife in those days. Haran was thirty-nine years old when he took her; and the wife of Haran conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Lot. And she conceived again and bare a daughter, and she called her name Milca; and she again conceived and bare a daughter, and she called her name Sarai. Haran was 42 years old when he begat Sarai, which was in the tenth year of the life of Abram; and in those days Abram and his mother and nurse went out from the cave, as the king and his subjects had forgotten the affair of Abram.
And when Abram came out of the cave, he went to Noah and his son Shem, and he remained with them to learn the instruction of the Lord and his ways, and no man knew where Abram was . . .. And Abram was in Noah’s house thirty-nine years, and Abram knew the Lord from three years old, and he went in the ways of the Lord until the day of his death, as Noah and his son Shem had taught him [Ibid. 138] (emphasis added).
[16] “Some apocryphal Jewish works depict Abraham as having had ancestral records from which he gained knowledge and wisdom. In one of these works, Abraham teaches the Egyptians out of the book of Enoch, while in another he learns from ancestral records the language of Adam (said to be Hebrew) and of the Creation.” Stephen O. Smoot, The Pearl of Great Price: A Study Edition for Latter-day Saints (American Fork, Utah: Book of Mormon Central, 2022), 62, note 1:31.
[17] “Genesis 17:2–14. What Is the Significance of Circumcision as a Token of the Covenant?” Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel.
[18] In December 2020, the First Presidency announced an important change in policy about when young people could be endowed. See “The Latest Changes to the General Handbook,” https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/general-handbook-update-december-2020#:~:text=The%20text%20is%20designed%20to,work%20of%20salvation%20and%20exaltation. In the media clips provided in connection with this announcement, Elder Kevin R. Duncan, who was then serving as Executive Director of the Temple Department, explained that the new policy was intended to shift the focus to an individual’s “own choice” rather than “specific criteria such as reaching a certain age.” The new policy set forth in General Handbook, 27.2.2 now provides that members must be “at least 18 years old;” “have completed or are no longer attending high school, secondary school, or the equivalent;” have passed one year “since their confirmation;” and “feel a desire to receive and honor sacred temple covenants throughout their lives.” See also General Handbook 27.1.1 (“Members should prepare themselves spiritually to receive temple ordinances and to make and honor temple covenants”). Before this time, church leaders were instructed to recommend young single adults for the temple primarily in connection with a mission call or temple marriage. Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops (2010), 3.3.3, “Members Receiving Their Own Endowment.”
Thus, we see the Lord “hastening” His work in our time by lowering the ages for youth moving into Young Men and Young Women, serving in the temple, including as ordinance workers, and going on missions. President Nelson described the youth of our day as God’s “most noble spirits,” “His finest team,” whom He has “reserved . . . for this final phase.” “Hope of Israel,” Worldwide Youth Devotional, June 3, 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults/2018/06/hope-of-israel?lang=eng. Elder Neil L. Andersen told a BYU-I audience “the endowment comes to us as we are entering adulthood, leaving our childhood and adolescence behind.” He then shared his “definition of an adult”:
If you have been endowed in the temple, if you have served a mission, or if you are of the age to have returned from a mission, you are an adult. We sometimes refer to you as young adults. I am an old adult; you are a young adult. We are both adults. (“Facing Mortality as Adults: Marriage, Children, and the Temple,” BYU-I Devotional, May 19, 2024, https://www.byui.edu/speeches/devotionals/neil-l-andersen/facing-mortality-as-adults-marriage-children-and-the-temple)
In other words, contrary to trends in society in general, by lowering ages for them to be endowed and to serve missions, the Lord seems to telling his faithful sons and daughter of this rising generation that at these (lower) divinely designated ages they can be ready to leave their childhoods and adolescence behind and not fear to become “adults,” accepting all of the responsibilities (and opportunities) associated therewith, including temple, marriage and family responsibilities. See also Jorge M. Alvarado, “Your Covenant Love,” BYU-I Devotional, March 18, 2025, https://www.byui.edu/speeches/devotionals/jorge-m-alvarado/your-covenant-love-march-2025#:~:text=They%20are%20at%20least%2018,seeing%20what%20I'm%20seeing%3F ( after reciting Handbook 27.2.2, Elder Alvarado asked, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing? The Lord, who is thinking of you, continues to reveal inspired adjustments through His prophet. His gospel is a gospel of continuous revelation”); J. Anette Dennis, “Put Ye On the Lord Jesus Christ,” Liahona, Mary 2024, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/14dennis?lang=eng (“If you have not yet done so, I invite you to choose a deeper relationship with God by making covenants with Him in the house of the Lord. . . .[I]t is not required to have a mission call or be engaged to be married to make temple covenants”); John Austin Janson, “How Do You Know When You’re Ready to Receive the Temple Endowment?” Liahona (October 29, 2021), https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/inspiration/how-do-you-know-when-youre-ready-to-receive-the-temple-endowment?lang=eng.
[21] Nelson, “Spiritual Treasures,” 77 (emphasis in original), quoting Doctrine and Covenants 107:18 (“The power and authority of the higher, or Melchizedek Priesthood, is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church”). See also Russell M. Nelson, “The Power of Spiritual Momentum,” Liahona, May2022 (“Ordinances and covenants give us access to godly power”); Russell M. Nelson, “Peacemakers Needed,” Liahona, May 2023 (in the temple “we are endowed with God’s power, giving us the ability to overcome Satan”). See generally, Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple, xvi-xvii, 12, 32-33, 34 note1, 42-43, 48, 52 note 31, 81-82, 88 note 50, 92, 96, 99, 114, 122, 130, 135-36.
[22] Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Abraham (Maxwell Institute Publications, 2010), 442, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/6 (“The oldest traditions agree with this: ‘Abraham having overcome them by argument, the king wanted to put him to death; but thanks to a miracle, he removed to Haran, where he began to declare unto the multitude with a loud voice.’”)
[23] Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, Kindle 4216 (“It seems that it was actually an angel rather than Jehovah who appeared here to Abraham and loosed his bonds. This angel is referred to again in 2:13 and 3:20. That the angel in the next verse says his name is Jehovah does not necessarily contradict this point. For example, in Revelation 22:6-7 the angel who is talking to John says, ‘Behold, I come quickly’ (Revelation 22:6-7), referring, of course, to Christ. When John then falls down to worship him, he says, ‘See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets’ (Revelation 22:9). These are both examples of divine investiture of authority whereby a divinely authorized agent can speak for and in behalf of God.”)
[24] See Fluckiger 220 & n. 19 (citing Kerry Muhlestein, who pointed out ” that Jehovah’s identification of
Himself by name and Abraham by name signals the beginnings of the covenantal
relationship that is described throughout the history of Abraham,” Scripture Central’s Come, Follow Me
lesson on “Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssiOVNImLZY (accessed February 8, 2022). The Lord followed a similar pattern in calling Moses, as He does with each of us (see Fluckiger, chapters 5 and 11).
[25] Smoot, 227, citing David Calabro, “The Reach, the Handclasp, and the Embrace: Gestures of the Gods in the Ancient Egyptian Abydos Formula,” in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, ed. Donald W. Parry, 291–310; Stephen O. Smoot, “The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact,” in The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation,
2023), 99–116.
[26] From the circumstances we do know of his brother’s death and no doubt the deaths of many others, Skousen’s suggestion that “the distress of Abraham in these terrible days must have been acute” rings true. Skousen, 271.
[27] Sarai was Haran’s daughter (thus Abraham’s niece, who was ten years younger than Abraham).Terah legally adopted Sarai after Haran’s death (thus becoming Abraham’s half-sister).See Genesis 20:12. The Chronicles of JerahmeeI contains this interesting account not only of the lineage of Sarai, but of the death of Haran:
These are the generations of Terah, etc.: Haran, the firstborn, begat Lot and Yiskah, i.e., Sarai, and Milkah. And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in Ur of the Chaldees. On account of the idols of Terah he died in the fire of the Chaldeans, for the Chaldeans worshipped the fire. Terah used to make the idols of their gods, and Haran, his eldest son, used to sell them. But Abram did not worship them. The Chaldeans came to dip both Haran and Abram in the fire, for they were accustomed to dip them in the fire, just as some nations dip their sons in the water. Abram, who did not worship, and who did not bow down to the idol, was saved from the fire of the
Chaldeans and was not burnt but Haran, who feared the idols, who honoured them and sold them for worship, was burnt in the fire of the Chaldeans and died. When Terah saw that God delivered Abram, he deserted his former faith, and went forth with him (Abram) to dwell in a foreign country; and he gave Milkah, the daughter of Haran, to Nahor, his son, to wife, and Yiskah, that is Sarai, he gave to Abram, his youngest son, after he had weaned her and brought her up in his own house on the death of her father Haran. And he gave Lot, the son of Haran, to Abram as an adopted son, for Sarai was barren. And they went forth towards the land of Canaan. (Jewish Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, 133.)
[29] Stephen O. Smoot's conclusion that Abraham's "Ur of the Chaldees" was in the north (Syria or northern Mesopotamia) is not completely settled among all Latter-day Saint scholars, although it is strongly favored by many prominent LDS academics. Smoot himself acknowledges that "the evidence at this point, admittedly, does not definitively settle the debate one way or the other" and advises that "the wisest course for now is caution and open-mindedness." Stephen O. Smoot, “’In the Land of the Chaldeans’: The Search for Abraham's Homeland Revisited,” BYU Studies: Vol. 56: Iss. 3, Article 3 (2017), 32 & note 121, 36-37, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol56/iss3/3.
The archaeological and inscriptional evidence presented by Latter-day Saint scholars strongly indicates the connection between Olishem and Ulišum is more than just accidental, since the two converge geographically and chronologically as well as phonetically. Additionally, while it is true that Haran appears to lie east of Olishem/Ulišum, Woods’s complaint that this would effectively force Abraham to backtrack from Haran to get into Canaan is by no means fatally problematic. Haran is not so far out of the way in the east that it would be a great impediment to any subsequent migration southward. In fact, if Abraham was trying to escape not only the famine that had overtaken his home (Abr. 1:30–2:5) but also the hostile local (Egyptian?) priesthood that had just attempted to take his life (Abr. 1:12, 15), it would make sense that he would first skip east across the river to let the heat die down and gather supporters and provisions before eventually making his way into Canaan. And indeed, this appears to be precisely what is depicted in Abraham 2:14–15.
See also John Gee, “Abraham and Idrimi,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration
Scripture 22/1 (2013), 36, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1511&context=jbms;
Serge Frolov, “In Search of Abraham’s Birthplace: Between Urfa and Ur,” The Torah.com (2024), https://thetorah.com/article/in-search-of-abrahams-birthplace-between-urfa-and-ur.
[30] Folov, “In Search of Abraham’s Birthplace” (“according to both written sources and archeological data, Ḥarran existed since at least the third millennium B.C.E., well before Abram’s time, not to mention that of the biblical authors”).
[31] See Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “Abraham’s Converts in Haran,” in A Guide to the Book of Abraham, BYU Studies 61:4 (2022), 113-16, https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/abrahams-converts-in-haran. Notably, the Pesikta Rabbati adds this explanation about the “souls that [Abraham and Sarah] had gotten in Haran (Genesis 12:5): “What is meant is that Abraham converted men to faith in the one God and Sarah converted women.” Jewish Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, 83. This is one more indication that, considering obvious differences between the culture of their times from ours, Abraham and Sarah were “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; Matt. 19:6; Mark 10:8; Ephesians 5:31; D&C 49:16) in terms of their united covenantal commitment to the Lord.
[32] “Theophony” from Oxford Languages, https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&sca_esv=63d44ac5fb776b6b&sxsrf=ANbL-n6Lgv35195_7BxEAfSrpnfD0LE0Fg:1773955594967&q=theophany+meaning&si=AL3DRZFMbfNz5B-X5EnYw7wt0oW6c2yeXoMRxkJpK0L5ONE4F11JHciM-Uhj2XQcLpn-d9uDiOCNwp-6IktL7zAdG4abwP_zDkqvQRgG54raaGtvYK7GCzhTu0SCjyXfmJ4QkZzgpK4Y&ved=2ahUKEwiY0tbI86yTAxVWnGoFHcEYEtAQyNoBKAB6BAgdEAA&ictx=1&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1.
“that contains allusions to the most sacred teachings and ordinances of the plan of salvation” and conveys “divine powers through symbolic or ceremonial means, presented together with commandments that are or will be received by sacred oaths that allow the recipient to stand ritually in the presence of God” (Welch, Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple & the Sermon on the Mount, 24 and note 1; 99 and note 126).
[34] Russell M. Nelson, “Jesus Christ Is Our Savior,” Liahona, April 2023. See Fluckiger, 211;D&C 107:18-19.
[36] See “The Foreordination of Covenant Israel and Their Responsibilities,” Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, chapter 21 (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2010), https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-student-manual/title-page?lang=eng.
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