Proceedings of the Second Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference
“The Temple on Mount Zion,” 25 October 2014
Temple on Mount Zion Series 3
The hardcover is now available for purchasing from Amazon.com and AmazonSmile, for $24.99.
The temple is central to Latter-day Saint worship. rough modern revelation Joseph Smith restored the ancient tradition of temples and the ordinances performed therein. Studies of ancient temples can shed much light on latter-day temples and temple worship. The purpose of this book series is to increase understanding and appreciation of temple rituals and doctrines, and to encourage participation in the redeeming work of family history and temple worship.
Several years ago LDS author and researcher Matthew Brown planned a conference entitled e Temple on Mount Zion and began to invite the participants. Matthew Brown loved the temple and temple worship and studied and published on ancient and modern temples. His interests and knowledge were vast. When Matthew passed away very unexpectedly in 2011 his friends decided to organize a conference in his memory that was held in September 2012. The published volume containing the proceedings of that conference were published in 2014 as the second in the Temple on Mount Zion Series. This volume, the third in this series, contain proceedings from the
second conference held in his memory on 25 October 2014 and reflect many of the topics that Matthew loved.
The chapters explore what Joseph Smith knew about modern temple ordinances by 1836, the importance of an aesthetic in Israelite ritual, the coronation motif of Isaiah 60–62, how Moses 1–7 seems adapted to the physical features of the temple of Solomon, implications of temple ritual in the Egyptian Book of the Dead for the Book of Abraham, how Psalm 24 reveals two YHWHs at the gate of the Jerusalem Temple, Jacob 5 as a temple text, the temple program of Leviticus, how the gospel of John reveals the way of the temple in the life of Jesus, the Day of Atonement in Christian and Nephite scripture and practice, and the cosmic mountain in Islamic tradition.
Table of Contents:
- What Did Joseph Smith Know about Modern Temple
Ordinances by 1836? – Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
- “Let the Beauty of the Lord Our God Be upon Us”: The Importance of an Aesthetic in the Ritualized Visualizations of the Israelite Cult – Daniel L. Belnap
- Enthroning the Daughter of Zion: The Coronation Motif
of Isaiah 60-62 – Carli J. Anderson
- Joseph Smith and the Architecture of Genesis – David M. Calabro
- “The Book of the Dead as a Temple Text and the Implications
for the Book of Abraham – Stephen O. Smoot and Quinten Barney
- Psalm 24 and the Two YHWHs at the Gate of the Temple –
David J. Larsen
- “I Have Done According to My Will”: Reading Jacob 5
as a Temple Text – Matthew L. Bowen
- Experiencing the Presence of the Lord: The Temple Program of Leviticus – John W. Welch
- How John’s Gospel Portrays Jesus as
the Way of the Temple – John S. Thompson
- Representing the Divine Ascent: The Day of Atonement
in Christian and Nephite Scripture and Practice – Shon D. Hopkin
- The Cosmic Mountain in Islamic Tradition – Daniel C. Peterson


Stephen D. Ricks
Stephen D. Ricks completed his BA in Ancient Greek and MA in the Classics at Brigham Young University, and then received his PhD in ancient Near Eastern religions from the University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. While completing his doctoral work he spent two years studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is now professor of Hebrew and Cognate Learning at Brigham Young University where he has been a member of the faculty for nearly thirty years.

Donald W. Parry
Donald W. Parry, Abraham O. Smoot Professorship, is a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brigham Young University. Parry has authored or edited 40 books on the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and related topics. His latest title, Exploring the Isaiah Scrolls and Their Textual Variants, was published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, NDL, 2020. He has served as a member of the International Team of Translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jerusalem, since 1994. Parry is a member of several other professional organizations, including the International Organization of Qumran Studies, Groningen, NDL; The International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Groningen, NDL; the Society for Biblical Literature, Atlanta, GA; and the National Association of Professors of Hebrew, Madison, WI.