KnoWhy #806 | August 7, 2025
How Does the Construction of the Kirtland Temple Follow Ancient Patterns?
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.” Doctrine and Covenants 88:119
The Know
In December 1832, the Lord commanded Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland to “establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:119). The Saints joyfully received this commandment to build a temple, but little work was made on it until June 1833, when the Lord reiterated, “I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high” (95:8). The very week this revelation was received, the Saints in Kirtland began building the temple.
In a significant study regarding the events surrounding the construction of the Kirtland Temple, Stephen D. Ricks and Michael A. Carter observed that building temples was an important feature in the ancient Near East and in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Moreover, “the construction of [the Church’s] temples follows a pattern that corresponds in many regards to that found in the ancient Near East,” as can especially be seen when the Kirtland Temple is considered.1
First, just as Joseph Smith received commandments in the two revelations noted above that a temple needed to be built in Kirtland, the ancient world temples were often built because a king received a similar revelation from the divine. In the Bible, for instance, the Lord commanded Moses, “Make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among [the Israelites]” (Exodus 25:8). Similarly, the prophet Nathan, the Lords’ representative, told David that his son Solomon would build a great temple to the Lord.2 In other ancient Near Eastern cultures, the temples in Lagash, Nippur, Larsa, and Ashur, for example, were also explicitly connected to divine revelation requiring a temple to be built.3
Next, the temple was then built according to plans shown to the prophet or king. When the Israelites made the tabernacle, the Lord instructed them, “According to all that I shew thee, . . . even so shall ye make it” (Exodus 25:9). A Mesopotamian text likewise indicates that the god Ningirsu revealed the plans for a temple to Gudea.4 This is also the case for the Kirtland Temple. The Lord told Joseph, “Let it be built after the manner which I shall show unto three of you, whom ye shall appoint and ordain unto this power” (Doctrine and Covenants 95:14).
These three were Joseph Smith, Frederick G. Williams, and Sidney Rigdon, the First Presidency of the Church.5 According to the temple architect Truman Angell, Joseph Smith said, “We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the Building appeared within viewing distance: I being the first to discover it. Then all of us view it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seem to come right over us, and the Makeup of this Hall seems to coincide with what I there saw to a minutia.”6
After the prophet (or, in the ancient world, the king) announced his plans to build the temple, the finest materials and greatest workmen would be employed to build the temple.7 In the Bible, Bezaleel and Aholiab were called because of their skill to construct the tabernacle, and skilled foremen were likewise employed to build the temple of Solomon.8 Similarly, Artemus Millett, a recent convert in Canada, was brought on to build the Kirtland Temple because of his great skill in masonry.9 Temples in both antiquity and this dispensation are built from the finest materials available through the sacrifice and consecration of the people.10
In the ancient world, once the temple was finished the people would assemble and offer sacrifices, and norms would be set for proper temple worship. This is shown throughout 1 Kings 8’s description of the temple of Solomon, and it is seen with the Kirtland Temple as well. As Ricks and Carter observed, “Before meetings were conducted in the new temple, rules and regulations to be observed in the sacred edifice were drafted by the Prophet and his colleagues. Following the fixing of norms, the people gathered for the dedication of the temple.”11 Similarly, the sacrament—an ordinance done in remembrance of the Savior’s Atonement and sacrifice—was also performed at the temple dedication.12
Finally, after the temple is dedicated, God comes to His new house in glory. When the children of Israel finished the tabernacle, “a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). Similarly, during the dedication of the temple of Solomon, “the cloud filled the house of the Lord, . . . for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10–11). Once God has entered the temple, great blessings of power and authority are bestowed on the prophet or king who built it. Moses heard the voice of God speaking from the mercy seat (Numbers 7:89). Likewise, the Lord promised Solomon, “I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever,” if he would continue to keep the Lord’s commandments and walk uprightly before God (1 Kings 9:5). This detail is also found throughout other temple dedication texts of the ancient Near East.13
Similar manifestations of God’s glory were likewise manifest at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. On the day the temple was dedicated, significant outpourings of spiritual manifestations were seen by many Latter-day Saints. According to Milton V. Backman Jr., “During a fifteen-week period, extending from January 21 to May 1, 1836, probably more Latter-day Saints beheld visions and witnessed other unusual spiritual manifestations than during any other era in the history of the Church.”14 This included visions of the Savior—Karl Ricks Anderson has documented eight different occasions in which the Savior appeared at the temple during this period.15
The most significant of these events occurred a week after the dedication of the temple. Joseph recorded that as he and Oliver Cowdery prayed,
we saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters. (Doctrine and Covenants 110:2–3)
After Jesus declared that He accepted the Kirtland Temple as His house, great blessings were poured out on Joseph and Oliver as Moses, Elias, and Elijah restored priesthood keys to them (110:7, 11–16).
The Why
From the very beginning, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples where they could worship Him. The Lord has similarly commanded The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build temples so He could “endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high” (Doctrine and Covenants 95:8). Furthermore, ancient ordinances of the gospel, such as “your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, . . . are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name” (124:39). As such, the temple is the focal point of the Restoration, allowing God’s children to make sacred covenants with Him.
Just as temple worship is ancient, so too are the means whereby the Lord can command that temples be built. Today, the Church of Jesus Christ is focused on building temples around the world to make them more accessible to God’s children. These temples are announced by the prophet, who is able to receive the revelation needed to know where temples can and should be built. When each temple is dedicated, it is accepted as a house of the Lord and is a place where sacred ordinances can be performed.
Stephen D. Ricks and Michael A. Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs: Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Ugarit, and Kirtland,” in Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism, ed. Donald W. Parry (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies; Deseret Book, 1994), 152–76.
- 1. Stephen D. Ricks and Michael A. Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs: Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Ugarit, and Kirtland,” in Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism, ed. Donald W. Parry (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies; Deseret Book, 1994), 153. A list of this criteria can be found on page 152, citing Arvid S. Kapelrud, “Temple Building: A Task for Gods and Kings,” Orientalia 32 (1963): 62.
- 2. 2 Samuel 7:4–17. A comparison between the accounts of building the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon can be found in Victor (Avigdor) Hurowitz, “The Priestly Account of Building the Tabernacle,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 105, no. 1 (1985): 23–25; see also Victor (Avigdor) Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House: Temple Building in the Bible in Light of Mesopotamian and Northwest Semitic Writings (Sheffield Academic, 1992), 106–28.
- 3. See Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 153–55; Kapelrud, “Temple Building,” 57–58; Hurowitz, “Priestly Account of Building the Tabernacle,” 25–29.
- 4. See Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 158; Kapelrud, “Temple Building,” 57; Hurowitz, “Priestly Account of Building the Tabernacle,” 25–29.
- 5. They were also appointed to receive “a draft or construction” of the temple, as recorded in “Minutes, circa 1 June 1833,” p. 12, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 6. Truman O. Angell, autobiography, 1884, MS 12334, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; as cited in Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 159. Ricks and Carter also note (on page 160) that other early Saints and even a newspaper article by a non-Latter-day Saint also observed that the temple’s design was revealed by God.
- 7. For a discussion on announcing the plans to build a temple, see Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 160–61.
- 8. Exodus 35:30–35; 1 Kings 5:16. For accounts of ancient Near Eastern temple builders similarly employing skilled workmen, see Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 161–63. For accounts of these workmen and the finest material being procured in ancient Near Eastern texts, see Kapelrud, “Temple Building,” 57–60; Hurowitz, “Priestly Account of Building the Tabernacle,” 25–29; Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House, 171–259.
- 9. While the story is often told (frequently citing Millett’s son’s account of his father’s life) that Joseph instructed Brigham Young to go to Canada to baptize Artemus Millett and then bring him to Kirtland to work on the temple, this was not the case. Brigham Young left on his mission a month before Joseph received the revelation to build a temple in Kirtland, and he baptized Millett four months before the site for the temple was even located and any plans for the temple had been made. For a discussion on Millett’s conversion and this story, see Keith A. Erekson and Lloyd D. Newell, “The Conversion of Artemus Millet and His Call to Kirtland,” BYU Studies 41, no. 2 (2002): 78–115.
- 10. Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 163–65.
- 11. Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 167; see also Kapelrud, “Temple Building,” 59–60; Hurowitz, “Priestly Account of Building the Tabernacle,” 25–29; Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House, 260–300.
- 12. Ricks and Carter, “Temple-Building Motifs,” 168.
- 13. See Kapelrud, “Temple Building,” 58–59; Hurowitz, “Priestly Account of Building the Tabernacle,” 25–29; Hurowitz, I Have Built You an Exalted House, 301–10.
- 14. Milton V. Backman Jr., The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838 (Deseret Book, 1983), 285. For a discussion on the Pentecostal-like experience of Kirtland, see Scripture Central. “Why Is the ‘Pentecostal’ Season in Kirtland Believable? (Doctrine and Covenants 110:1),” KnoWhy 619 (October 8, 2021).
- 15. Karl Ricks Anderson, The Savior in Kirtland: Personal Accounts of Divine Manifestations (Deseret Book, 2012), 225–47, esp. 228–29. For a discussion on many of these experiences of visions of the resurrected Christ, see Scripture Central, “How Did Saints in Kirtland Testify of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection? (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22–23),” KnoWhy 787 (April 8, 2025).