"Idle Tales" by Kayla Gisseman (artwork titled "O My Mother" by Cynthia Lewis Clark
One day while studying in the Book of Mormon, I was reading in Ether 3 about the account of the Brother of Jared (BoJ) in which he sees the finger of the Lord. Verse 19 says, "And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, which, when he saw, he fell with fear; for he knew that it was the finger of the Lord; and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting.
20 Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore he saw Jesus; and he did minister unto him."
The main question I asked myself is what does it mean to have a perfect knowledge of God? Was it just that the BoJ had seen Christ...or had he seen something more for this to be a perfect knowledge? As I kept reading verse 25 struck me: "And when the Lord had said these words, he showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth."
We see from this verse that not only was the BoJ allowed to see the Lord in his spiritual body before he was born and crucified, but that the BoJ was also allowed to see all the inhabitants of the earth, even until the end. I want to also note that in verse 17, Moroni is held back from writing more about Christ's appearance to the BoJ, but it seemed very important to Christ to convey to the BoJ that he was made in the image of Christ, who was made in the image of his eternal parents a Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. If you follow footnote "a" in verse 17, it takes you to Ether 1:5, which tells of the destruction of the tower of Babel. If you recall, during that time the king was trying to make a temple that was a corruption of the ways of God.
"Nimrod and his people were building their own temple, their gate to heaven, without divine approval or priesthood keys. The Babylonians, an apostate people, had some understanding of temple ordinances and temple purpose, so they constructed an edifice symbolizing to them their connection to God. And using their own contrived ceremonies to imitate true temple worship, they attempted to duplicate the process of preparation for the hereafter." The Tower of Babel by Lee Donaldson, V. Dan Rogers, and David Rolph Seely.
During this time, the language of the world had not yet been confounded and many truths that have been lost to us of which the people of Adam were aware of were still present in the world. One of these truths was the idea of a polytheistic God. The Canaanite people understood God to be feminine and masculine, as denoted by their worship of El and Asherah (later known as the consort of Yahweh). They also made a distinction between Jesus Christ (yahweh) and Heavenly Father (El). Before the rise of Israel, Asherah was the wife of El, the head god of the Canaanite pantheon.
"According to the archeological evidence, the people who became Israelites were mostly native Canaanites who settled in the hills of what is now the West Bank, while it seems that small but influential groups also migrated there from the south in the Midian (in and around the Araba Valley in Sinai). As the Bible itself testifies, that is where Yahweh veneration appears to have originated, and, in a process that in this respect resonates with the Moses story, the migrants introduced Yahweh to the native Canaanites who were becoming Israelites. Over time, El declined and merged into Yahweh. As part of that process, Yahweh inherited Asherah from El as his wife." Yahweh’s Divorce from the Goddess Asherah in the Garden of Eden by Arthur George.
So Asherah was not originally the wife of Yahweh, whom we know to be Jesus Christ, but the wife of El. "Generally, two Hebrew words for God are used throughout the Old Testament. These are Elohim and Jehovah, as it is presently pronounced. (Since the original Hebrew was written without vowels, scholars disagree on the original pronunciation of the name written YHWH in Hebrew. In modern revelation, however, Jesus accepted the title Jehovah." Enrichment Section A: Who Is the God of the Old Testament.
Elder James E. Talmage tells us, "Jehovah is the Anglicized rendering of the Hebrew, Yahveh or Jahveh, signifying the Self-existent One, or The Eternal. This name is generally rendered in our English version of the Old Testament as Lord printed in capitals. The Hebrew, Ehyeh, signifying I Am, is related in meaning and through derivation with the term Yahveh or Jehovah.”..."The Jews regarded the name of Jehovah as so sacred that it could not be spoken. Instead, they substituted for Jehovah the word Adonai, which signifies 'The Lord'." Enrichment Section A: Who Is the God of the Old Testament?
Talmage continues, "If we pursue the Hebrew text further, it reads,...'The head one of the Gods said, Let us make a man in our own image.’ I (Talmage) once asked a learned Jew, ‘If the Hebrew language compels us to render all words ending in heim in the plural, why not render the first Eloheim plural?’ He replied, ‘That is the rule with few exceptions; but in this case it would ruin the Bible.’ He acknowledged I was right.
“In the very beginning the Bible shows there is a plurality of Gods beyond the power of refutation. It is a great subject I am dwelling on. The word Eloheim ought to be in the plural all the way through—Gods. The heads of the Gods appointed one God for us; and when you take [that] view of the subject, it sets one free to see all the beauty, holiness and perfection of the Gods.”
After Israel was scattered, Abraham began pushing monotheism, which was a struggle for the Israelites because of their Caananite origins and they were accustomed to worshiping Asherah within their temples, as well as idolatrous gods like Baal. Nonetheless, after the destruction of Babel and scattering of Israel the original practices and theocratic knowledge changed dramatically among the people of Israel, especially with the adoption of the Abrahamic covenant. Clearly, a shift towards the idea of salvation through Christ had to become the primary focus.
The scriptures outline many examples when the chosen people of God struggle with keeping the commandments and their theocratic knowledge and practice is often whittled down to the foundation in order to take the onus of responsibility off of them when they transgress, for example the people of Moses having to live the lesser laws because they could not understand or keep the greater laws. This prevented them from receiving further light and knowledge and having a perfect knowledge of God. We see that some individuals are too righteous to be kept from viewing God like that of the BoJ.
This has been a rather lengthy tangent, but an important one in understanding how the identity and nature of God has changed over time. If we view God as polytheistic, then perhaps it is not too far of a reach to say that there is some truth that Asherah is the wife of El, or that there at least is truth in the idea of a female mother goddess that stands next to El, the mother of our spirits, and therefore perhaps worship of this goddess had some real foundation.
Back to Ether 3:25, while Moroni had to withhold some things from the reader, nothing was withheld from the BoJ. Knowing what we know now, it is interesting to me that the word "withheld" (footnote c) leads us to Luke 24:10-24. In these verses it describes the attempts of women to testify of Christ's resurrection to the apostles, "10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. "11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not." These women attempted to open the eyes of the apostles, "16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him." It was not until Christ had been sitting with some of these apostles, spoke with them, and ate and prayed with them, that their eyes were finally opened. These women knew the Savior because they had the spirit of revelation. They had wisdom in their hearts and Christ called the apostles fools for not knowing him and not having faith enough to listen to these women.
There is a time now, when women again are crying out, exhorting our brethren and sisters to listen to us and not treat our experiences as "idle tales" as we testify of our Heavenly Mother. She may not be known as Asherah, but it is plausible to assume that She is a goddess and the wife of El, and that together, they are known as Elohim. It is not a reach to say that we have a Mother in Heaven. This has been confirmed to us by prophets and expounded upon in the gospel topics essay, "Mother in Heaven," which cites many quotes from the BYU research article, "A Mother There," which has over 600 quotes from leaders of the Church about our Heavenly Mother. Is it possible that when all was revealed to the BoJ and he had a "perfect knowledge" of God, that this truth of a Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father was also confirmed to him, which was why Moroni withheld writing further? It's just a guess, perhaps even a speculation (gasp). But maybe something to ponder. Maybe it means something that Christ wanted so desperately and enthusiastically for the BoJ to recognize that he was made in God's image, so that the BoJ could understand his eternal identity as a spirit child of God, and better understand Christ's purpose, which is to bring us back into the presence of God the Father and the Mother.
I'm not trying to assert here that I'm more righteous than my brethren in the Church. I do think it says something that so many women, and even men within and without the Church are seeking the feminine divine. When the mouths of 2 or more are testifying of the same thing, doesn't that mean that we should at least see if there is some truth or reason to what they're saying? Aren't we innocent until proven guilty and all that? We should assume that these women have good intentions and not immediately brand them as false prophets and hysterical feminists with some hidden agenda. Perhaps these women are not just telling "idle tales," but have had a real personal witness from the spirit testifying to them of the importance of the restoration of Heavenly Mother in our day. Perhaps these women, like Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, as well as The Mother of All Living, our sister Eve, only seek to help open the eyes of others as they share their wisdom. Perhaps it is our desire, like the wise virgins, to announce the coming of the Bridegroom, our Savior, as we gather our oil in preparation to light our lamps. Clearly, the heavens cannot be opened to us if we do not first have a foundational testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior. Perhaps in coming to know the Savior some of the oil we have been gathering is the knowledge of our Heavenly Mother. I should think we all need our mother. Is that not a true sentiment throughout the world?
The queen in Alma 19:9 is yet another wonderful female example of faith, "and [the queen] said unto him: I have had no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said. 10 And Ammon said unto her: Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites."
Like the queen in the Book of Mormon, aren't we considered more righteous when we have exceeding faith and need not a tangible witness? Are we not blessed by our faith to receive further light and knowledge and to one day have a perfect knowledge? Are we fools, or do we seek for wisdom? Will these righteous women continue to sound their horn in vain, or will you finally catch on to the glorious notes they're playing? Are we building our foundations and creating a house, or do we have to stop at the foundation because we're not ready for the house? Christ is telling us to knock on the door and that as we seek we shall find! I hope what we will find is that our Mother is in that house, preparing a feast for us to all sit at Her table. Don't you want to go inside and find out? I know I do.
Works Cited
Donaldson, Lee, et al. “The Tower of Babel.” Liahona Magazine, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Mar. 1998, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/1998/03/i-have-a-question/the-tower-of-babel?lang=eng&adobe_mc_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.churchofjesuschrist.org%2Fstudy%2Fliahona%2F1998%2F03%2Fi-have-a-question%2Fthe-tower-of-babel%3Flang%3Deng&adobe_mc_sdid=SDID%3D6210F4E42F580EFF-7B39F3744n.d.7571%7CMCORGID%3D66C5485451E56AAE0A490D45%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1649342710.
“Enrichment Section A: Who Is the God of the Old Testament.” Old Testament Student Manual, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2003, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-student-manual-genesis-2-samuel/enrichment-section-a-who-is-the-god-of-the-old-testament?lang=eng&adobe_mc_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.churchofjesuschrist.org%2Fstudy%2Fmanual%2Fold-testament-student-manual-genesis-2-samuel%2Fenrichment-section-a-who-is-the-god-of-the-old-testament%3Flang%3Deng&adobe_mc_sdid=SDID%3D36408DD6867EA61A-45BF53B1E43C1245%7CMCORGID%3D66C5485451E56AAE0A490D45%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1649343031.
George, Arthur. “Yahweh's Divorce from the Goddess Asherah in the Garden of Eden.” Mythology Matters, Word Press, 6 Oct. 2014, https://mythologymatters.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/yahwehs-divorce-from-the-goddess-asherah-in-the-garden-of-eden/.
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