Some critics argue that 1 Kgs 8:27 contradicts Latter-day Saint theology. On this, see:
However,
let us grant the claim that the prayer in 1 Kgs 8 does teach what critics do—this
results in a genuine contradiction between the theology found in 1 Kgs 8 and
that of 2 Sam 7. Note the following from Marc Brettler:
1 Kings 8 shows a second deviation from its
source. A Leitwort of unit B is שׁם, ‘name’. It is reflected,
for example, in v. 16 לבנות בית להיות שׁמי שׁם, ‘to build a house to
that my name may be there’. The word is used again in vv. 17, 18, 19, and 20.
Even in v. 21, where it is absent, we find the words שָׁם (‘there’, twice) and ואשׂם (‘I placed’), which pun
on שׁם. This terminology clearly reflects the so-called
‘shem theology’, which has been studied by Mettinger (T.D. Mettinger, The
Dethronement of Sabaoth: Studies in the Shem and Kabon Theologies [ConBOT,
18; Lund: Gleerup, 1982], pp. 11-79). By contrast, 2 Sam. 7:5-6 says
לך ואמרת אל־עבדי אל־דוד כה אמר יהוה האתה תבנה־לי בית לשׁבתי
כי לא ישׁבתי בבית
Go and say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the
LORD: Are you the one to build a house for me to reside in? For I have
not resided in a house . . .’
Both לשׁבתי, ‘for my residence’ in v.
5 and ישׁבתי, ‘I resided’ in v. 6
indicate that the author of 2 Samuel 7 felt that the deity actually resides in
the Temple.
This contrasts with 1 Kgs. 8.14-21, our unit B, but agrees with the old pre-Dtr
poem in unit A, מכון לשׁבתך עולמים, ‘an established place
for your enthronement in perpetuity’. The disagreement between the source is
not merely terminological, but of central theological significance—unit A
and 2 Samuel 7 see the Temple as YHWH’s dwelling place, following a pattern
well attested throughout the ancient Near East, while B, rejecting this
notion, suggests that it is only YHWH’s name which dwells there. (Marc
Brettler, “Interpretation and Prayer: Notes on the Composition of 1 Kings
8.15-53,” in Marc Brettler and Michael Fishbane, eds., Minḥah le-Naḥum: Biblical
and Other Studies Presented to Nahum M. Sarna in Honour of his 70th Birthday
[Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 154; Sheffield:
JSOT Press, 1993], 17-35, here, pp. 19-20)
Critics
who believe in the inerrancy of the autographs of the Bible shoot themselves in
the foot by arguing that 1 Kgs 8 is problematic for Latter-day Saint theology. Furthermore, according to scholars such as Brettler, 2 Sam 7 affirms that God "actually resides in the Temple."
Further
Reading
Lynn
Wilder vs. Latter-day Saint (and Biblical) Theology on Divine Embodiment
