Scriptural Redaction

I am taking a really great Old Testament class right now. In this class we have been learning about something called Scriptural Redaction. The concept is pretty simple: Alma writes a whole lot of scriptures, several hundred years later Mormon comes along and sums them up with some quotes from the original text and a little commentary. I just finished a writing assignment were I was supposed to redact 2 chapters from the Old Testament : Exodus 19 and 24. I was assigned to redact these chapters into only 2 paragraphs. This assignment was to get us to really think about how The Old Testament doctrines apply today, the redaction process and to realize the miracles of the scriptures. I really enjoyed the assignment so I decided to share it with you.

Modern Redaction of Ancient Scriptures: Exodus 19 and 24

And it came to pass that in the days of Moses a commandment came from God for the tribes of Israel to cleanse themselves from sin, and to purify themselves from iniquity, through priesthood ordinances whereby they were able to make and keep sacred personal covenants with God. This commandment came from God unto the tribes of Israel that the people might prepare themselves to enter into His Holy presence and see Him as He is, while they still dwelt in the wilderness.

And in those days Moses, an authorized servant of God, went forth declaring repentance unto the people and performing ordinances of salvation among the people; and seventy and two of them came upon Mount Sinai, prepared by obedience to these sacred ordinances and covenants, and they saw the God of Israel, even in his glory did they see Him. And so it is even unto this day that any member of the Lords kingdom upon the earth can see God in His Glory, even while they dwell in the flesh, if they are first prepared by obedience to all of the Laws and Ordinances of Christ's gospel, walking humbly before God.

The Garden Tomb, and Golgatha

Today we went on a tour of The Garden Tomb and Golgotha. It was very impressive. There were a few things that impressed me more than anything else: Our tour guides (employee's at The Garden Tomb) made it perfectly clear that 'We do not worship the rocks, we worship The God of the whole world. However, the Lord has said that when his children are not able to bear witness of Him, even the rocks of the earth shall bear witness of Him... We do not worship the tomb because his body once lay there; we worship The God who visits this garden every day through his Holy Spirit.' These guides bore a powerful witness of Jesus Christ as The Living God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords; and the testimonies of these guides were verified by The Holy Ghost.

Some things I didn't realize before coming was how close the tomb was to Skull Hill or Golgatha. The tomb is literally only a few hundred yards from The Hill. Another thing I didn't realize was the great risk that Joseph of Arimathea took upon himself when he asked for permission to burry our Lord: by asking permission to take Christ's body Joseph risked his position in politics (He was a member of The Sanhedrin which is kind of like saying he was a member of the legislature), He risked his position in business, He risked losing all that he had to give a proper burial for Jesus of Nazareth. Our guide pointed out that Joseph would not have done these things just because Jesus was a good man, but he likely did these things because he knew that Jesus was more than just man, but the God of this whole earth.

A realization of time

I began this blog with the intent to share my full with respects to my journey to and in The Holy Land; However, I have realized that I will not likely make daily entries so I will sum many things up and go further into detail on other matters. I hope you will forgive me for my brevity on certain matters. Especially if you have been here and seen the things I have seen and the things I will see, because you know how amazing this experience really is. In fact many of the details I will leave out were more spectacular than I ever could have imagined. To assist in this process of "summing things up" I will include exerps from an email I sent to one of my sisters as a result of her curiosities:

"When we arrived in Israel on Friday. We flew into the Tel Aviv Airport. My friend (using your camera) took some really cool pictures of Jumbo Jets with The Star of David on them. When we arrived in Jerusalem I walked through the BYU Jerusalem Center, on Mount Scopus, to the west side or the building and looked out over Jerusalem. I can see quite clearly the Old City Walls and The Dome of the Rock.

   "On The Sabbath (Saturday) we had church. Before church we had ward choir practice in our chapel followed almost immediately by sacrament meeting where we performed. After church we went on a tour through much of The Old City. I was very excited about going through the Arab market (It was really kind of crazy: tons of people in a very tight space. Possibly the coolest thing about our tour was we were stopped by several merchants who all said basically the same thing "It's the Mormons! You have to be blessed of God to be a Mormon." I was very touched because they recognized who we were without us even saying anything—this is all the more impressive because millions of people visit Jerusalem every year as tourists, but we stand out among them all as being different in a good way; a way were the people would say "you have to be blessed of God."

"We entered The Old City through Damascus Gate. Once on the other side of the gate we were in Old Jerusalem. We left old Jerusalem through another gate and entered West Jerusalem. The difference between East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem is greater than the difference between the posh neighborhoods of Sandy and the poorest neighborhoods of Rose Park. Not that the people are poor, it's just a completely different environment. The one environment in East Jerusalem is very loud, enclosed, dirty, and busy: The environment in West Jerusalem is very quiet, open, and modern.

"In the evening on Sunday we had what they called "a musical discovery." This wasn't exactly a talent show, or an audition, but it was kind of a mixture of both. What the musical directors of BYU Jerusalem said about it was "we are trying to get a feel for the musical talents of your group so we can plan ensembles, and other activities were we can utilize your talents." It was AMAIZING many of my class mates are so talented and The Spirit was so strong during our evening of music, that I was completely taken back. I performed part of a song I've been writing called "Do you know the way to Jerusalem." I hope to complete it while I am here. They did ask me to write a choir peace to be performed before church as the prelude music. "

The past few days have been absolutely amazing. In the last two weeks I have seen: The Garden Tomb; Golgotha; The Church of The Holy Sepulcher; the ruins of the biblical city of Jericho (In case you are wondering, the walls really did come tumbling down, and archaeologists have found them.) a tree memorializing one of our Saviors miracles-- when he healed the blind man on the way to Jericho; a Bar Mitzvah; The Western Wall; The Dome of The Rock; the ruins of Herrod the Great's Winter Palace; The St. George monastery; Bedouins offering camel, donkey, and horse rides to tourists in the Judean wilderness, a herd of camels running through the Waddie Qelt .

I also had a birthday and was sung "Happy Birthday" followed by a Hebrew tradition where a couple of guy's lifted me up on a chair and quickly hoisted me up and down for each year I have been alive. (For a man of my stature this was quite a feat for these men to accomplish.) For my Birthday, besides doing homework and going to class discussions, I went shopping in "The Old City" ('The Old City' means the part of Jerusalem contained inside some ancient city walls.) and purchased a leather backpack from a shop keeper that is trusted by both the students and administration of BYU Jerusalem. I went shopping with several of my lady friends and they went cloths and jewelry shopping. I enjoyed shopping with these women because: They are just amaizing people; and the womens clothing in this part of the world is absolutly amaizing--the clothes are modest, fashonable, decorative, and all around fun.

In the beginning there was a feeling, a feeling that compelled me to travel thousands of miles

My journey to The Holy Land began last winter when I had an important feeling: this feeling was telling me that it was vital for me to travel to The Holy Land. I have had feelings like this before and I have learned never to dismiss them. After a long process of applications, essays and interviews, I was finally accepted into the BYU Jerusalem study abroad program--centered in Jerusalem, Israel.

I made arrangements with my employer to take the necessary 4 months off from work to go to Israel, saved my pennies, and took a small loan to cover the rest. I also had to follow an extensive shopping list to acquire new cloths, and other travel equipment, that are suitable for both the environment and the culture.

On Tuesday August 30th we set off to Israel from Salt Lake International Airport on 2 planes: One headed via New York, NY, and the other via Phenix AZ. I was on the latter of the two flights. Much to our surprise we ended up spending an extended stay in Phenix due to a matinance issue on our conecting flight. This turned out to be a great oprotunity because several of us were able to attent the Mesa, AZ Temple.