Kolob
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In Mormonism, Kolob is a star or planet mentioned in the Book of Abraham as being nearest to the throne of God. The literal existence and the exact nature of Kolob is a controversial topic in Mormon theology, as is the Book of Abraham. However, the idea of Kolob has had an influence in Mormon theology and culture, particularly within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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[edit] Description in the Book of Abraham
The first known reference to Kolob is found in the Book of Abraham (found in the Pearl of Great Price), which the LDS Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. claims to have translated from a set of Egyptian scrolls that accompanied a traveling mummy exhibition, which passed through Smith's town of Kirtland, Ohio in 1835. According to the Prophet, the scrolls described a vision of Abraham, in which Abraham:
- "saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God;....and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest." (Book of Abraham 3:2-3.)
In an explanation of an Egyptian hypocephalus that was part of the Book of Abraham scrolls, Joseph Smith interpreted one set of hieroglyphics as representing:
- "Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time. The measurement according to celestial time, which celestial time signifies one day to a cubit. One day in Kolob is equal to a thousand years according to the measurement of this earth, which is called by the Egyptians Jah-oh-eh." (Book of Abraham, Facsimile 2, Figure #1 explanation.)
The Book of Abraham describes a hierarchy of heavenly bodies, including the earth, its moon, and the sun, each with different movements and measurements of time, where at the pinnacle, the slowest-revolving body is Kolob, where one Kolob-day corresponds to 1000 earth-years:
- "...Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the Lord's time, according to the reckoning of Kolob.
- "... The planet which is the lesser light...is above or greater than that upon which thou standest in point of reckoning, for it moveth in order more slow; this is in order because it standeth above the earth upon which thou standest, therefore the reckoning of its time is not so many as to its number of days, and of months, and of years. [This is in reference to the moon: see Genesis 1:16.]
- "And where these two facts exist, there shall be another fact above them, that is, there shall be another planet whose reckoning of time shall be longer still; and thus there shall be the reckoning of the time of one planet above another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob, which Kolob is after the reckoning of the Lord’s time; which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God, to govern all those planets which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest." (Book of Abraham 3:4-9; see also Book of Abraham, Facsimile #2, explanation to Figure #2.)
[edit] Modern Mormon interpretations of Kolob
In modern Mormon theology, Kolob is interpreted either literally or symbolically. Judging from the volume of literature, the literal interpretation has always had the greater following.
[edit] Literal reading
According to the literal interpretation, Kolob is an actual star in this universe that is near to, or perhaps the sun of, the physical throne of God. This interpretation has significant formative impact on Mormon belief and criticism, leading to conceptions such as that the faithful will be made gods of planets in this universe, that God dwells within this universe rather than transcending it, and that the Biblical creation is a creation of the local earth, galaxy, or solar system rather than the entire known physical reality.
[edit] Symbolic reading
A symbolic interpretation—orthodox but relatively uncommon in Mormonism— suggests that Kolob represents Jesus Christ rather than a physical object and location in this universe. The symbolic interpretation was explained by Hugh Nibley in The Temple and The Cosmos (see Kolob, time and temples). Advocates of the symbolic interpretation believe it harmonizes better with other Mormon beliefs, and with beliefs in the greater Christian community, as it does not require that God have a physical throne within this universe.
[edit] Theories on the origin of the word Kolob
Some Latter Day Saint apologists assert that Kolob derives from a Semitic root. On the origin of the word, Michael D. Rhodes states:
- The word most likely derives from the common Semitic root QLB, which has the basic meaning of “heart, center, middle” (Arabic qalb “heart, center”; Hebrew qereb “middle, midst”, qarab “to draw near”; Egyptian m-q3b “in the midst of”). In fact, qalb forms part of the Arabic names of several of the brightest stars in the sky, including Antares, Regulus, and Canopus. [1]
Facsimile 2, the hypocephalus (meaning "under the head"), belongs to a class of Egyptian religious documents called hypocephali, which were amulets the Egyptians placed under the heads of their dead that were highly individualized for each of them (see Book of the Dead and Book of Abraham). Hypocephali first appeared during the Egyptian Saite Dynasty (664-525 B.C.), and it is in chapter 162 of the Saite version of the Book of the Dead that directions for the construction and use of hypocephali are given. The section to which this chapter belongs (chapters 162-165) contains many strange words and concepts, which some Egyptologists believe contain foreign influences, possibly Semitic or Nubian.
It may also be noted that the Egyptian and the Semitic language families are believed to derive from a common ancestor (Proto-Afro-Asiatic), thus both branches are included as members of the Afro-Asiatic super-group. Concerning their relationship, John A. Tvedtnes writes:
- Egyptian hieroglyphs were used to transliterate Semitic words borrowed during the late period, as Albright's study of the "Egyptian Syllabic Orthography" shows. Moreover, it was Egyptian symbols that were used in the Proto-Sinaitic script that became the ancestor of the Hebrew and other alphabets. [2]
Most Egyptian language scholars (who are neither critical nor interested in Mormon theology) believe that while Kolob may be of Semitic origin, it was not translated (rendered) from the papyri Smith possessed, but merely transliterated from a word he allegedly heard M. H. Chandler, the previous owner, use; and this prior to Smith's translation of some of the papyri's characters. The word is specifically claimed to be the Arabic "qalb" (plural "qulob"), meaning "heart" or "center." It is contended that M. Antonio Lebolo, the one who found the mummies with the papyri in Egypt, must have heard an Arabic speaker there use the word to describe the "center" figure (Kolob) of the hypocephalus. Lebolo later related the word to his nephew Chandler, and in turn Chandler related the word to Smith. Smith then transliterated the word as Kolob and managed to successfully present it as the actual translated name of the figure. This issue is complex as Chandler had not spoken with Lebolo, his relative (a claimed uncle), after obtaining the mummies left to him upon Lebolo's death.
Arabic was the language most widely spoken in Egypt during the 19th century when the mummies were discovered there. Archaeology, and especially Egyptology, was not an established discipline at the time of Smith's procurement of the hypocephalus, and the ancient Egyptian language had not yet been translated into English when Smith produced the Book of Abraham. It was common for Arabic speakers to assist English and French treasure hunters, and also for ancient Egyptian artifacts to be sold to English and American collectors with embellished stories, or legends surrounding them. The hypocephalus was one such artifact, with almost one hundred known similar examples.
The hypocephalus was written with hieroglyphs and hieratic script. No instance of the Semitic root "qlb" is known to have been found on any other actual hypocephalus, and although no two such documents are the same, some share certain hieroglyphs and hieratic characters with the one Smith obtained. There is little evidence to support the position that the word was translated from any of the hieroglyphs themselves, although some have attempted to show correlation. Although many hypocephali do have additional languages written on them such as Greek, this particular hypocephalus does not exhibit a strong Semitic influence, nor is a possible root for Kolob found in any other Egyptian writings.
There is a second theory proposed attempting to account for Kolob. They allege Smith's own knowledge of Hebrew due to his experiences with Andrew Seixas reveal a habit of modifying Hebrew words, by either inserting or changing a letter in a particular word. For example, changing the Hebrew kokob for "stars" into Kolob for "the star nearest to the celestial."
Some critics supporting and discounting Smith are apt to find legitimate Semitic origins and relations to the hypocephalus in order to empathize a non-African presence in Egypt. This has caused widespread controversy.
Figure 1 in the Facsimile is referenced directly from the pictograph in the center, and has none of the hieroglyphs anywhere in the papyrus as a reference. However, Joseph Smith's notes, Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar, contain exact replications of the hieroglyphs in the hypocephalus with corresponding English translations made by Joseph Smith. This 'key' to translating the facsimile is useless in any other Egyptian document or artifact.
Although Smith stated the translation he gave "was given" to him (thus not giving any insight into how the translation was accomplished), he indicates clearly that he was following an already established linguistic system, and not a uniquely given process. According to Joseph Smith, quoted from the Documented History of the Church 2:238:
- The remainder of this month (July, 1835) I was continually engaged in translating an alphabet to the Book of Abraham and arranging a grammar of the Egyptian language as practiced by the ancients.
Therefore according to Smith he was translating Kolob from the hieroglyphs, as the pictographs themselves, although interpretable, are by their nature beyond the realm of translation.
[edit] Representationalism
There is considerable discourse from adherents of Joseph Smith's translation that Kolob was translated through the pseudo-scientific method of representationalism. The actual intent of the original author may or may not have been known, but through the representational theory, Kolob, being nearest to the center of the hypocephalus, represents God because the pictograph itself is "near the center" of the document. This method does not take into account a variety of facts and assumptions: The non-Semitic nature of the Egyptian language, the content and context of the hypocephalus itself, the origin of the hypocephalus, and the link between the origin of the word and the way it was allegedly and more likely to have been conveyed to Smith. The rendering, if given to Smith, would not have been called a translation, as most of the glyphs were interpreted by the pictographs and most of the hieratic was left alone by Smith.
The use of Kolob in an Egyptian papyrus as symbolism of the God of Christianity has furthered divisions between Mormons and other Christians, and has actually created a new theory of connecting Mormonism to Islam, as both share many other similarities.
[edit] Kolob in pop culture
- Some of the elements of the two Battlestar Galactica science-fiction television shows seem to be derived from the Mormon beliefs of its creator, Glen A. Larson. In both the original series from 1978, and the 2003 new series, the planet Kobol is the ancient and distant homeworld of the human race, and the "Lords of Kobol" are sacred figures to the human race (treated as elders or patriarchs in the old series, and versions of the Twelve Olympians in the new series). According to Jana Reiss, author of What Would Buffy Do? [3] Kobol as an anagram of Kolob is only one of many plot points borrowed from Mormonism by Larson.
- Kolob was the name of a short-lived record label founded by the Osmond Brothers in the 1970s. The Osmonds also recorded an album called The Plan which deals with themes in Mormonism related to Kolob.
- Zion National Park has a region known as Kolob Canyons.
- Daniel Steven Crafts has a movement called The Great Arches of Kolob in his Southwest Sinfonia, originally named after Kolob Canyons in Zion National Park.
