The Psalms’ Role in Mormon’s 3 Nephi Narrative and Israelite Temple Rites

I imagine that many readers of these blogs, like me, thrill at the many references to the temple that are found in the Psalms[1]. But what if, as scholars generally agree, the Psalms not only talk about the temple, but were, as one scholar put it, “originally designed or later adapted for use in (or in connection with) the Temple”?[2] What if, further, Lehi and Nephi, who as faithful temple patrons, so to speak, brought with them a first-hand knowledge (and a record) of these temple ceremonies and the Psalms (in their order and form at the time) that were part of them?[3]

Young David playing the harp with sheep, Generative AI

If the Psalms were in fact a central part of the “performances and . . . ordinances” ancient Israelites (including the Nephites) utilized to keep the law of Moses (Mosiah 13:27-30), then it should not surprise us, as other scholars have argued, that Mormon structured his

narrative in 3 Nephi 1–10 (indeed, possibly even the entire Book of Mormon) to reflect the narrative outline of these pre-exilic Israelite temple ceremonies [4].

1.       Overview of the Ancient Israelite Temple Drama. LDS scholars LeGrand Baker and Stephen D. Ricks have reconstructed the pageant-like drama reenacted annually in Solomon’s Temple courts for some 400 years prior to the Babylonian captivity. Scholars have found evidences of this drama or temple liturgy throughout the Book of Mormon, including King Benjamin’s temple sermon[5] and Alma’s temple text.[6] This annual Year-Rite drama, enacted over eight days at the Feast of Tabernacles, was structured with three acts that  symbolically traced man’s spiritual journey, a journey Latter-day Saints associate with the Plan of Salvation[7]:

• Act I (the premortal realm) began with a dramatic representation of the Council in Heaven (utilizing Psalm 82)—where Elohim presented His plan of redemption to His spirit children, Jehovah was chosen and anointed as Savior and King, and participants in the Council made premortal covenants. The participants then participated in the Creation of the earth and watched as Elohim placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

• Act II (the mortal probation) cast the reigning king of Israel as Everyman, leading him through the trials of the fallen world, priesthood ordinations, and a grueling ritual combat against the forces of satanic rebellion, chaos, and death. Following his symbolic ritual death and descent into the underworld, the king was rescued by Jehovah, and a “new temple” was symbolically created in a grand processional ascent around the city of Jerusalem to redefine sacred space. The king then entered the doors of the temple, passed through the heavy veil into the Holy of Holies, and was crowned and enthroned on Jehovah’s seat as His authorized representative on earth.

• Finally, Act III (return to Heaven and exaltation) celebrated the beginning of an age of eternal peace, culminating on the eighth day with the “Day of the Great Feast”—a magnificent, king-provided banquet of bread and wine (as represented in Psalm 23) that symbolized a return to paradise, where participants could eat freely of the Tree of Life and drink of the waters of life in the immediate presence of God.

  
  

What might Joseph Smith have learned about the temple as he translated Mormon’s allusions to this sacred “endowment” or temple drama in the Book of Mormon?[8]

2.       In Mormon’s Narrative of 3 Nephi, Joseph Smith Discovers the Temple’s Central Importance to Christ’s Gospel. In the spring of 1829, during a rapid period of translation between April 25 and May 21, twenty-three-year-old Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery transcribed approximately 52 chapters of the Book of Mormon, moving from Alma 14 to the end of 3 Nephi. Working "from morning till night," translating an average of 7.4 pages per day,[9] they experienced "days never to be forgotten" as the voice of inspiration dictated the account of the Savior’s appearance to His temple in Bountiful.[10]

It would not have escaped the Prophet’s notice that, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland observed, this text constitutes the “focal point, the supreme moment, in the entire history of the Book of Mormon” [11]. But who were the righteous "two thousand and five hundred souls" gathered at the Bountiful temple to witness this climactic event? Commentators agree they were not there by mere coincidence; they were fiercely loyal to Jehovah and His gospel. In effect, they were “temple-worthy” patrons [12]. They had intentionally gathered "round about the temple" (3 Nephi 11:1), possibly in connection with one of the multi-day temple festivals required by the Law of Moses.[13]

While post-exilic Jewish editors (including the Deuteronomists) removed the rites enacted during these festivals and rearranged the Psalms to obscure the covenants renewed therein[14], the Nephites—who carried the pre-exilic brass plates of Laban—faithfully preserved this temple drama [15]. Mormon, a historian and Nephite scholar, would have been intimately familiar with everything related to (and perhaps even have administered) these temple ordinances—both the Mosaic ordinances administered before Christ and the fulness of the temple ordinances restored by the Savior.

3. Parallels in Mormon’s Structuring of 3 Nephi to the Ancient Israelite Temple Drama. Baker and Ricks show how the events Mormon describes leading up to the Savior’s appearance in 3 Nephi and their order parallel the scenes in Acts 1 and 2 of the ancient Israelite temple drama:

• Act 1, Scenes 1 & 2: The Council in Heaven corresponds to Mormon’s account at the beginning of 3 Nephi of the heavens testifying of Christ’s birth and role as Savior and Redeemer. “At the going down of the sun there was no darkness” and “it was as light as though it was mid-day” (3 Nephi 1:15, 19). Christ declared the purpose of His coming: to do "the will, both of the Father and of the Son" (3 Nephi 1:13–14). The Council in Heaven theme is readily recognizable in Psalms 82 (which might have served as one of the texts for the scene). When coupled with the understanding we receive in Abraham 3:22-23 (among “the intelligences that were organized before the  world was . . . were many of  the noble and great ones”), the psalm depicts—          

1 God [Elohim] standeth in the congregation of the mighty; 

           he judgeth [or chooses] among the gods [ie., from among the “intelligences” those spirits whom He would foreordain to be His leaders].               

Then, in 82:2-5, Elohim counsels His spirit children, the assembled “congregation,” about what will befall them in mortality and what they are being set apart to do—to not “judge unjustly” (v.2), or by outward appearances; to “defend the poor and fatherless” (v. 3) and “deliver the poor” “out of the hand” of those “who know not” (v. 4-5), an allusion to the priesthood power His foreordained leaders would receive and were covenanting to exercise to deliver from spiritual ignorance those who would be ignorant of the Father’s plan.     

6 I have said, Ye are gods;   

           and all of you are children of the most High.       7 But [surely] ye shall die like men,               and fall like one of the princes.

In other words, the Father explained, once they came to mortality, God’s spirit children would no longer recognize themselves, or be recognized or perceived by others, as “gods” or sons and daughters of God ("children of the most High"), but mere humans ("men"), most all of whom would "surely" die in natural course (or become martyrs “like one of the princes”).

Elohim then invites His spirit children there assembled to stand (as He is standing, as all Israelites did) to make a covenant—        

8 Arise, O [ “gods”, “an equally valid translation” of the Hebrew word for God, Elohim], judge the earth:             for thou shalt inherit all nations. 

In other words, the Father promised each of us in that Divine Council that those who would be faithful to their premortal covenants would inherit eternal life ("all nations").[16]

• Next comes the War in Heaven, which in Mormon’s narrative corresponds to the earthly combat and Gadianton warfare described in 3 Nephi 3–4.

  
  

• Scenes 3 & 4: Creation and the Garden (Eden) of the temple drama parallel the Nephites’ brief era of pure peace (3 Nephi 5), which was quickly shattered by the gradual return to wickedness (3 Nephi 6–7).

  
  

• Act 2: The Mortal World in which We are "Called" to Hold and Exercise Melchizedek Priesthood Authority,[23] according to Baker and Ricks’ analysis, is reflected in Mormon’s declaration of his priesthood authority (3 Nephi 5:12–26) and Nephi’s correction of doctrinal errors concerning the Law of Moses (3 Nephi 1:24–25).

  
  

• Scene 6: The Ritual Combat & Deliverance corresponds to the open satanic rebellion and plots of violence (3 Nephi 6–7), during which the righteous cried for deliverance. David’s plea in Psalms 64 expresses perfectly this portion of the drama: “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve  my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked;  from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity” (vv. 1-2).[16]

  
  

• Days 4, 5, & 6 of the Drama: The King in the Underworld & Conquering Death. In the Feast of Tabernacles drama, the king descended to the underworld and was rescued by Jehovah. In Mormon’s narrative, however, during the three days of darkness, Christ Himself, then in the Spirit world, speaks to the faithful survivors of the cataclysms that accompanied His death.

  
  

Psalms 22, one of the texts upon which these portions of the ritual drama may have been drawn, documents the dramatic  events of Christ’s suffering and atoning sacrifice, including His cry on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (v. 1); the mockery by those at the foot of the cross, “He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver  him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him” (v. 7); the agony in Gethsemane and on the cross (v. 14); His unimagniable thirst, “my  tongue cleaveth to my jaws” (v. 15);[17] the parting of and casting lots for His garment (v.18).

Then, after His death, the Psalmist describes Christ’s triumphant descent to the Spirit World during the three days of darkness. There He fulfills the Psalmist’s prophecy, “I [Christ] will declare thy [the Father’s] name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee,” referring to Christ’s acknowledgement of His Father’s perfect plan for His children (v. 22). The Psalmist then describes how the Saints assembled in the Spirit World, “all the  seed of Jacob” and “all the  seed of Israel,” in short all those  who had “fear[ed] the LORD” in mortality, welcomed their Redeemer—“prais[ing]” and  “glorify[ing] him” (v. 23).

Joseph F. Smith perfectly captures the Psalmist’s vision in his own: “the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and  bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the  chains of hell. Their countenances shone, and the radiance  from the presence of the Lord rested upon them and  they sang praises unto his holy name” (D&C 138:23-24).  

Mormon’s narrative of the catastrophic storms in the New World, three days of tangible darkness, and Christ's subsequent voice from heaven in 3 Nephi 8-10 perfectly parallels the themes treated in days 4, 5 and 6 of the Israelite temple drama.[18]

4. Christ Renews the Law of Sacrifice in His Fulfillment of the Law of Moses. Speaking from heaven during the three days of darkness in a voice “heard . . . upon all the face of [the] land” (3 Nephi 9:1), Christ prepared the minds of His faithful disciples for His imminent appearance by giving renewed emphasis to the first principle not only of the Mosaic Law but of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—faith in Jesus Christ, which includes a correct understanding of who He is:

Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I  created the heavens and the earth, and all things  that in them are. I was with the Father from the  beginning (3 Nephi 9:15).

The Savior then drew upon two Psalms that would have been familiar to every faithful Israelite to highlight the second foundational (and temple) principle and law of the gospel—repentance and the Law of Sacrifice:

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:        thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart,        O God, thou wilt not despise (Psalm 51:16–17).

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart;        and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit (Psalm 34:18; see also 2 Nephi 2:5-7; 4:31-32).

Instead of renewing the Law of Moses, however, Christ announced its fulfillment: “The scriptures concerning my coming are  fulfilled” (3 Nephi 9:16), He declared. In other words, every animal sacrificed from Adam to Nephi₃’s day in “similitude,” or as a type and foreshadowing “of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father” (Moses 5:7), was fulfilled in Christ’s death and imminent resurrection. Thus, He declared—

Ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your  burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept  none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings. And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit (3 Nephi 9:19–20).

Christ reminded the Nephites that the central purpose of the Law of Sacrifice, as the angel taught Adam and Eve, was not only to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ, in whose similitude each sacrifice was to be made, but to “repent” (Moses 5:8), which has always been a temple principle, even with a “broken and contrite spirit.”

How and when was the instruction to “do away” with blood sacrifices implemented? Mormon does not say. However, as scholars have surmised, extensive remodeling at the Bountiful temple would have been required—dismantling the outer courtyard's great sacrificial altar, putting away tools of slaughter, closing animal barns, and ceasing the sprinkling of blood and burning of incense.[19]

Temple of Palenque, Mexico, Isabel Hawkins, https://maya.nmai.si.edu/gallery/palenque

5. Christ’s “Coronation” at the Temple. Jesus Christ’s appearance at the temple in Bountiful in 3 Nephi 11 serves as the literal fulfillment of the concluding scenes of the pre-exilic Israelite temple drama enacted during the final days of the Feast of Tabernacles celebration, described  very briefly below.

• Act 2, Scene 9: The Coronation Ceremony (Psalm 2:6–7; Isaiah 61) is fulfilled when Christ descends from heaven clothed in a royal "white robe" and the Father proclaims “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well  pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye Him (3 Nephi 11:7). Psalms describing Jehovah’s enthronement would have resonated with the Nephites:

  
  

Yet have I set my king        upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me,         Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” (Psalm 2:6-7).

The LORD hath made known his salvation:         his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen... Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth:         with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. (Psalm 98:2, 9).

“The whole multitude fell to the earth” (3 Nephi 11:12), as Nephites and Lamanites had bowed alike before their kings throughout their history.[20]

• Scenes 10–12: Entering the Holy of Holies & Establishing the King's Feet are realized as the veil is symbolically pulled back. The resurrected Lord—proclaiming, "I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth" (3 Nephi 11:14)—stands by His throne. One by one, the 2,500 Nephites pass by to feel the marks in His hands, feet, and side. Baker and Ricks envision that His feet would have rested upon an elevated platform akin to the footstool of the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the sacred emblems of kingship and priesthood (the sword of Laban, Liahona, and the brass plates), fulfilling the psalmist’s prophecy:

  
  

We will go into his tabernacles:         we will worship at his footstool. Arise, O LORD, into thy rest;         thou, and the ark of thy strength (Psalm 132:7-8).

As the Nephites waited their turn in a sacred processional line, might they have sung the coronation hymn, “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth . . .. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness” (Psalm 47:1-2, 8)?

• Scene 13: The Lecture from the Throne corresponds directly to the Sermon at the Temple (3 Nephi 12–16), where Christ delivers His higher law to the assembly.

  
  

• Act 3: The Day of the Great Feast (relying on Psalm 23) is fulfilled on the second day when Christ miraculously provides bread and wine (3 Nephi 20:6–7). This represents a literal return to paradise, where His covenant people eat of the Tree of Life and drink of the waters of life in His immediate presence, fulfilling the comforting pastoral promise of the Good Shepherd:

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:         thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:        and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.[21]

6. Ancient Endowments, Priesthood, and the Restoration. Were worthy participants in the ancient Israelite temple drama "endowed" and "sealed" as we understand those terms today? While we know some things, we do not know enough to fully answer this question.

President Nelson’s revealing April 2019 statement that “Adam and Eve, Noah and his wife, Abraham and Sarah, Lehi and Sariah, and all other devoted disciples of Jesus Christ . . . have received the same ordinances that we as members of the Lord’s restored Church today have made: those covenants that we receive at baptism and in the temple” suggests, to me, that the ordinances of exaltation in prior dispensations may have been more accessible than we generally understand.  

The Lord revealed in D&C 124:37–38 that Moses’s Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple were specifically built to reveal “those ordinances which had been hid from before the world was," including "washings," "anointings," "solemn assemblies," and an "endowment". Furthermore, the sealing keys of the "new and everlasting covenant of marriage" were held and exercised anciently by prophets like Nathan, who sealed wives and concubines to David and Solomon within these holy structures (D&C 132:1, 19, 39)[22].

What we can be assured of, however, is that those who lived worthily in ancient Israel (in the Old and the New Worlds) and sang the Psalms of ascent as they approached the gates of the temple  had feelings toward the temple and its ordinances (whatever their nature) with which we can readily identify: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart... He shall receive the blessing from the LORD" (Psalm 24:3–5).

Understanding that the ancient Nephites and pre-exilic Israelites utilized the Psalms as their temple liturgy—rehearsing the Gospel of Jehovah as He had revealed it to them (and as He has restored it to us)—helps us appreciate how central the Psalms are to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The psalms are not merely personal meditations of an inspired poet; they are an enduring witness of the eternal covenant path, linking ancient saints with modern temple patrons in our shared worship of Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest and King of Kings.

1.         Explicit references to the temple (including as a "hill," "holy place," “holy temple,” "house of the LORD," "sanctuary," "tabernacle," or "courts") are abundant in the Psalms. Examples include: Psalms 5:7 ("But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple."); Psalms 11:4 ("The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men."); Psalms 15:1 ("LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?"); Psalms 20:2 ("Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion."); Psalms 24:3 ("Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?"); Psalms 26:8 ("LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth."); Psalms 27:4 ("One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple."); Psalms 48:9 ("We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple."); Psalms 63:2 ("To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary."); Psalms 65:4 ("Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple."); Psalms 73:17 ("Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end."); Psalms 84:4 ("Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee."); Psalms 84:10 ("For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."); Psalms 92:13 ("Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God."); Psalms 138:2 ("I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth...").

2.         Andrew C. Skinner, "Seeing God in His Temple: A Significant Theme in Israel's Psalms," in Ascending the Mountain of the Lord: Temple, Praise, and Worship in the Old Testament (2013 Sperry Symposium), ed. Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Matthew J. Grey, and David Rolph Seely (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), 271, citing John W. Welch, The Sermon on the Mount in the Light of the Temple (Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2009), 43. Perhaps the most extensive LDS scholarly treatment of the thesis that the Psalms were “designed” or “adapted” for use in ancient Israel’s temple ceremonies is LeGrand Baker and Stephen D. Ricks’ Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord? The Psalms in Israel's Temple Worship In Old Testament Times (Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2011), https://www.legrandlbaker.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Who-Shall-Ascend-into-the-Hill-of-the-Lord-reduced.pdf. Baker and Ricks build on extensive non-LDS Bible scholarship, including such seminal works as Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962); Aubrey R. Johnson, Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1955); John H. Eaton, Kingship and the Psalms (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986); and Margaret Barker, The Gate of Heaven (London: SPCK, 1991). See generally the sources cited in Baker and Ricks,  “Pioneering Word of Old Testament Scholars,” 40-42. They identify that the Psalms, in their pre-exilic form and order, “were originally used as the words of this ancient temple ceremony.” Who Shall Ascend, 23; see also ibid. 150–457.

3.         See Stephen L. Fluckiger, “Temples in the Book of Lehi” (September 18, 2025), https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/temples-in-the-book-of-mormon-part-1, in which I argue that if, as Jospeh Smith and other Church leaders have asserted, Lehi and Nephi held the Melchizedek Priesthood and if, as President Nelson has declared, Lehi and Sariah (“and  all other devoted disciples of Jesus Christ—since the world was created”) [Russell M. Nelson, “Come, Follow Me,” Ensign, May 2019] received the same temple ordinances we receive, then it is likely that they brought the pre-exilic temple rites pursuant to which such ordinances were administered with them to the New World. That Nephi built a temple patterned after Solomon's (2 Nephi 5:16) further evidences the Lord’s intention that such temple ordinances be administered to His faithful people on this Continent throughout their history.

To hold that Lehi, Nephi and other faithful Nephites (or other Israelites) were endowed or sealed to their spouses (as the Lord’s asserted that David and Solomon were in D&C 132:39) “is not to say, however, that the temple ordinances Lehi and Sariah received . . . were presented in a form identical to the format temple ordinances are presented in our temples today.” Fluckiger, “Temples in the Book of Lehi.” Whatever form these ordinances took, however, including whether as argued by scholars such as those cited in note 2 above that preexilic temple ordinances may have relied heavily on the Psalms, it seems certain that Lehi, as a prophet called to lead a dispensation in the New World, and his successor, Nephi, would have understood and been authorized to administer such ordinances to their posterity (that is, they would have held priesthood keys). Baker and Ricks, Who Shall Ascend, 23-24; see also ibid.150–457.

4.         For a briefer overview of Baker and Ricks’ thesis, see LeGrand L. Baker, “3 Nephi 5:12-18 — 3 Nephi as a temple text,” posted on October 3, 2012, https://www.legrandlbaker.org/2012/10/03/3-nephi-512-18-legrand-baker-3-nephi-as-a-temple-text/, which is more fully developed in Baker and Ricks, “Part 2: The Temple Drama of the Ancient Israelite Feast of Tabernacles in the Book of Mormon, 459-724.

5.         See Stephen L. Fluckiger, “King Benjamin’s Temple Sermon—Parts 1, 2 and 3 (September 20, 29 and October 25, 2025), https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/king-benjamin-s-temple-sermon-part-1; https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/king-benjamin-s-temple-sermon-part-2; and https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/king-benjamin-s-temple-sermon-part-3. See also M. Catherine Thomas, “Benjamin and the Mysteries of God,” in King Benjamin's Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom,” eds. John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks, Maxwell Institute Publications, 1998, 212, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/45; Andrew I. Miller’s article, “King Benjamin’s Sermon as a Type of Temple Endowment,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 64 (2024), 34, https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/king-benjamins-sermon-as-a-type-of-temple-endowment/.

6.         See Stephen L. Fluckiger, “Alma’s Temple Text on the Priesthood—Parts 1 and 2 (November 2 and 5, 2025), https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/alma-s-temple-text-on-the-priesthood-part-1; and https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/alma-s-temple-text-on-the-priesthood-part-2.

7.         Baker and Ricks, Who Shall Ascend, 69-75, 148-50.

8.         This blog is a summary of my previous blogs that can be found at Temple Spiritual Treasures, https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/blog, which, in turn, is part of my ongoing study of how the Lord restored modern-day LDS temple ordinances and doctrine through the Prophet Joseph Smith, "line upon line" throughout his ministry, beginning with the First Vision. See the blog posts “Joseph Smith and the Restoration of Temple Doctrine and Ordinances: The First Visions Part 1,” https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/joseph-smith-and-the-restoration-of-temple-doctrine-and-ordinances-the-first-visions,  and “Part 2,” https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/joseph-smith-and-the-restoration-of-temple-doctrine-and-ordinances-the-first-visions-part-2.

9.         John W. Welch, "The Translation of the Book of Mormon," in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844, ed. John W. Welch (Provo, UT: BYU Press, 2005), 76–115.

10.    Oliver Cowdery, Letter I, Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1 (October 1834), 14.

11.    Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997), 250.

12.    Stephen L. Fluckiger, “The Book of Mormon’s Pinnacle Temple Text: 3 Nephi—Part 1” (December 26, 2025), https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/the-book-of-mormon-s-pinnacle-temple-text-3-nephi-part-1. 

13.    John W. Welch states that “although we cannot be sure what festival it might have been, it seems likely to me that some holy festival was involved at the time the Nephites gathered in 3 Nephi.” The Lord commanded Israel to gather at the temple three times each year —Passover or Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:15–20; Leviticus 23:5–8); the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost,  celebrated “in June fifty days after Passover” (that is, 50 days after Christ was crucified, if the Nephite festival calendar followed the Israelite calendar)(Exodus 23:16–17; Leviticus 23:15–21), which John W. Welch argues was the festival the Nephites were celebrating when Jesus visited them (Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and Sermon on the Mount (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 36-41; or the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33–43; Deuteronomy 16:13–15), which Baker, Ricks and others support, which would have been closer to “the ending of the thirty and fourth year” (3 Nephi 10:18). Baker and Ricks, Who Shall Ascend, 607-12. For a summary of scholarly views about the timing of Christ’s appearance, see Stephen L. Fluckiger, “The Book of Mormon’s Pinnacle Temple Text: 3 Nephi—Part 2” (December 28, 2025), including note 2 https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/the-book-of-mormon-s-pinnacle-temple-text-3-nephi-part-2. 

14.    Baker and Ricks, 47-65.

15.    Ibid. 631-95.

16.    Baker and Ricks, Who Shall Ascend, 165-74.

17.    See C. Thomas Black, “The Pathophysiology of the Death of Jesus the Christ,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 62 (2024), 479, Table 1.  Dr. Black, a board-certified adult and pediatric surgeon, provides a detailed clinical analysis of Psalm 22:15, explaining that the Savior’s grueling physical and spiritual ordeal from Gethsemane to Golgotha completely depleted His available energy stores (glycogen) and caused severe hemorrhagic hypovolemia (acute blood loss) and dehydration. Under these conditions, the extreme loss of bodily fluids manifests pathologically as the excruciating, deep-seated thirst described by the Psalmist as a tongue cleaving to the jaws.

18.    Baker and Ricks, 631-95.

19.    Ibid. 620-25.

20.    Ibid. 635.

21.    Ibid. 150.

22.    For a more extensive treatment of the possible nature of temple ordinances received by former-day Saints, see Stephen L. Fluckiger, “Were worthy participants in the Israelite temple drama ‘endowed’ as we understand it?, in “The Book of Mormon’s Pinnacle Temple Text: 3 Nephi—Part 3” (December 30, 2025), https://www.temple-spiritual-treasures.com/post/the-book-of-mormon-s-pinnacle-temple-text-3-nephi-part-3. 23. The idea of men holding and exercising priesthood authority in the Church is and has been well understood for generations. But the idea that women can and do hold and exercise priesthood authority (which they were foreordained to do, just like men) has only been taught more consistently and openly in General Conference and by leaders of the Church relatively recently, beginning perhaps most notably by President Dallin H. Oaks in his seminal address, “Priesthood Authority in the Family and the Church,”Ensign, November 2005, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2005/10/priesthood-authority-in-the-family-and-the-church?lang=eng: We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is

set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an

officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.

For a discussion about how women, as well as men, receive and exercise priesthood authority, see Stephen L. Fluckiger, "How Do Faithful Women Receive and Exercise Priesthood Authority and Power?" Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple (Springville, Utah: CFI, an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc. 2024), 256-60 and notes 19-23. See also Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” Ensign, May 2014, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/the-keys-and-authority-of-the-priesthood?lang=eng; Russell M. Nelson, “A Plea to My Sisters,” Ensign, November 2015, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/10/a-plea-to-my-sisters?lang=eng; Russell M. Nelson, “Ministering with the Power and Authority of God,” Ensign, May 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/ministering-with-the-power-and-authority-of-god?lang=eng; Quentin L. Cook, “Great Love for Our Father’s Children,” Ensign, May 2019, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/great-love-for-our-fathers-children?lang=eng; Russell M. Nelson, “Spiritual Treasures,” Ensign, November 2019, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/10/spiritual-treasures?lang=eng; Joy D. Jones, “An Especially Noble Calling,” Ensign, May 2020, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/04/an-especially-noble-calling?lang=eng; Jean B. Bingham, “Women and Covenant Power,” Liahona, January 2021, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/women-and-covenant-power?lang=eng; and Ulisses Soares, “In Partnership with the Lord,” Liahona, November 2022, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10/25soares?lang=eng.