As many
know, I am currently researching a volume on sacramental theology with a focus
on baptism and the Eucharist. One of the topics one has been looking into is
the changes and developments to the form (wording) as well as “essential forms”
(what has to be done, physically, not just verbally, to validly confect an ordinance/sacrament, etc). One such example is the topic of one-handed ordination
to the priesthood (as opposed to two-hands being part of the “essential form”
thereof). It appears that the Nephites, at least in the early years, practised
one-handed ordination to the (Melchizedek) Priesthood:
For I Jacob and my brother Joseph had been
consecrated priests and teachers of this people by the hand of Nephi.
(Jacob 1:18)
That such a
practise continued centuries later can be seen in Alma 4:4:
And they began to establish the church more
fully; yea, and many were baptized in the waters of Sidon and were joined to
the church of God; yea, they were baptized by the hand of Alma, who had been
consecrated by the high priest over the people of the church, by the hand of
his father Alma.
Perhaps some
will claim that "by the hand of" is a way of expressing "by the
agency of" or "by the allowance of" and the like, and that the use of "hand" (singular) is not to be seen as having any theological
importance. While possible and should not be discounted a priori, and this seems to be the face for “by his
[Abraham’s] own hand” vis-à-vis the relationship between the patriarch
Abraham and the authorship of the Book of Abraham, the prima facie reading is that Jacob and Joseph were consecrated/set
apart as priests and teachers by Nephi using a hand to do such (one could also
claim that Jacob was being clumsy as, theologically, one could be misled by his
use of the singular, especially as he is discussing, albeit in passing, an
important ecclesiastical practice). The same could be said of Alma 4:4—the people
were indeed baptised by the person of Alma by his “hand” (a singular hand would
have been used to place them into the water—cf. the modern LDS practice) and it
was by the (singular) hand that his father Alma the Elder used to ordain Alma
the Younger to the priesthood.
Anthony
Cekada, a traditionalist/Sedevacantist Priest and author of the (excellent)
book, Work of Human Hands: A Theological Critique of the Mass of Paul VI, has
an interesting article on one-handed ordination to the priesthood in the Roman
Catholic tradition:
