In April 1843, Joseph Smith stood on the Nauvoo temple grounds and described a vision he had received: he had seen the resurrected dead take each other by the hand and embrace one another, reuniting families across the veil. Most Latter-day Saints know that handclasps carry sacred significance in temple worship — but very few know that this exact motif runs through the entire ancient world, from the Hebrew Bible to early Christianity to Byzantine art to Egyptian temple ritual.
In this episode, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Spencer Kraus to discuss his paper "God Hath Shown Unto Me a Vision: The Sacred Handclasp and the Resurrection of the Dead," published in Temple Insights: Scholarship, Craftsmanship, and Fellowship (The Interpreter Foundation / Temple on Mount Zion Symposium).
===Informed Saints Credits===
Produced by The Ancient America Foundation
Producer: Spencer Clark
Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
Spencer Kraus, “‘God Hath Shown unto Me a Vision’: The Sacred Handclasp and the Resurrection of the Dead,” in The Temple: Seership, Craftsmanship, and Fellowship., ed. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Stephen D. Ricks (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2025), 369–393.
David M. Calabro, “The Divine Handclasp in the Hebrew Bible and in Near Eastern Iconography,” in Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 88–92; https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-divine-handclasp-in-the-hebrew-bible-and-in-near-eastern-iconography.
Matthew B. Brown, “The Handclasp, the Temple, and the King,” in Hamblin and Seely, Temple Insights, 5–10; https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-handclasp-the-temple-and-the-king.
Stephen D. Ricks, “Dexiosis and Dextrarum Iunctio: The Sacred Handclasp in the Classical and Early Christian World,” FARMS Review 18, no. 1 (2006): 431–436; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1673&context=msr.
Brent J. Schmidt, Relational Faith: The Transformation and Restoration of Pistis as Knowledge, Trust, Confidence, and Covenantal Faithfulness (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2022), 87–118.
David M. Calabro, “The Reach, the Handclasp, and the Embrace: Gestures of the Gods in the Ancient Egyptian Abydos Formula,” in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, ed. Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2020), 291–310; https://interpreterfoundation.org/reprint-the-reach-the-handclasp-and-the-embrace.
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Chapters
(00:00:00) - The hand clasp and the resurrection
(00:01:11) - Joseph Smith and Handclasps
(00:08:42) - The Sacred Hand Clasp
(00:14:22) - Handclasps in the Resurrection
(00:20:24) - The Early Mormon Death Culture
(00:26:09) - The Temple and the Resurrection
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