The Royal Progress ideally followed the course of the sun, setting out from the scene of the coronation at the winter solstice and ending up at the same spot exactly a year from the day of departure; it was so arranged that each of the major solar festivals would be celebrated at some important shrine along the way, each such celebration being a minor repetition of the coronation rite itself.66 The whole operation is astonishingly like that of Egypt, where the usages of the Royal Progress are well documented from the beginning.67 In Egypt as in the West the king’s purpose in going from place to place is to be recognized and acclaimed as the bringer of good things, but it is also very apparent that along with the festive and sacral aspects of the royal parousia (and that word establishes significant ties between eastern and western, Christian and pagan practices),68 the King’s Progress was meant to dramatize the original seizure and subduing of the land; it is always the triumphal procession of a victor, pacifying the land, receiving formal submission, suppressing rebellion, rewarding loyalty, imposing justice and order on the world.69 The Royal Progress goes back originally, according to Peyer, to the overrunning of “conquered farmers and herdsmen” by “cattle-owning nomadic tribes. Hence,” he concludes, “the journeys and entertainment of the ruler (Herrscherreise und Gastung) appear as the result of the superimposing of the authority of nomadic warriors over sedentary agrarians.” This, we have maintained, is exactly the situation attested by the evidence of the “marked arrow” in many parts of the world.71 The Royal Progress is a survival of the Völkerwanderung, an annual repetition of the Landnahme, with the king receiving the ecstatic (often compulsory)
The Triumphal Entry (Saturday)
Riding a colt into Jerusalem, Jesus enters as the King Zechariah foretold; the crowds spread their garments and palm branches and cry Hosanna, while he weeps over the city that does not know the time of its visitation.
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Note. All four Gospels record the entry.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
1And when they Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, and they had come to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying unto them, Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them a colt tied. Untie it and bring it unto me. 3And if any shall say anything unto you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them; and straightway he will send them it. And immediately he will send it. 4All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes unto you, and he is meek, and he is sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. 6And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, 7and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon the colt, and put on it their clothes. And Jesus took the colt and sat thereon, and they followed him. 8And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way. 9And the multitudes that went before, and also that followed after, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
10And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? 11And the multitude said, This is Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet of Galilee.
1And when they came near to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent forth two of his disciples 2and said unto them, Go your way into the village ahead of you; and as soon as you have entered into it, you shall find a colt tied, on which no man ever sat. Untie him and bring him to me. 3And if any man say unto you, Why are you doing this? — say that the Lord has need of him, and immediately he will send him here.
4And they went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside, in a place where two ways met. And they untied him. 5And certain of them who stood by said unto them the disciples, Why are you untying the colt? 6And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded, and they let them go. 7And they brought the colt to Jesus and cast their garments on it, and he Jesus sat upon it. 8And many spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches off of the trees and strewed them in the way.
9And they that went before him and they that followed after cried, saying, Hosanna! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, 10Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: that brings the kingdom of our father David! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! 11And Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple. And when he had looked round about upon all things and blessed the disciples, the hour had come. And he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.
28And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. 29And it came to pass, when he had come near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, 30saying, Go into the village ahead of you, in which, at your entering, you shall find a colt tied, on which man never yet sat; untie him and bring him to me. 31And if any man ask you, Why do you untie him the colt? — thus shall you say unto him: Because the Lord has need of him.
32And they who were sent went their way and found even as he had said unto them. 33And as they were untying the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why do you untie the colt? 34And they said, The Lord has need of him. 35And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they seated Jesus thereon. 36And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
37And when he had come near, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, 38saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in Heaven and glory in the highest. 39And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke your disciples. 40And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that,If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
41And when he had come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, 42saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace; but now they are hidden from your eyes. 43For the days shall come upon you that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and encompass you round, and keep you in on every side, 44and shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you. And they shall not leave in you one stone upon another, because you knew not the time of your visitation.
12On the next day, many people that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord. 14And Jesus, when he had found a young ass sent two of his disciples and got a young ass, sat thereon, as it is written: 15Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King comes sitting on an ass’ colt. 16These things understood not his disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him and that they had done these things unto him. 17The people therefore that were with him, when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead, bore record. 18For this cause, the people also met him, for they heard that he had done this miracle. 19The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Do you perceive how we accomplish nothing? Behold, the world is gone after him.
The King’s Triumphal Progress into the City
Nibley never treats Palm Sunday directly, but his studies of the ancient royal procession and the great festal assembly, with its showering of branches and its unison shouts, frame the entry as a coronation-procession into Zion.
At a recent general conference we heard of plans for building a larger “tabernacle.” 1 That word taken literally denotes the opposite of an assembly hall, where everybody meets. A tabernacle (Latin tabernaculum) is “a little house made of boards,” a quick shelter or booth put together from boards, branches, and bits of clothing. The roots behind the English word booth describe its purpose: it is the Semitic bayt from the verb bāta-yabītu meaning “to spend the night” and certainly suggests our word bide or abide. The Hebrew sukkāh is the same as the Egyptian seh (sḥ), with an ideogram depicting the booth that provided shelter—“shadow in the daytime from the heat, and . . . covert from the storm and from rain” (Isaiah 4:6 [Isa. 1:12])—for an individual family living in the open during the Passover (see Leviticus 23:42–43; Nehemiah 8:17). “Thou mayest not eat within thy gates” (Deuteronomy 12:17; cf. 12:18).
The people whom Benjamin commanded to assemble “gathered themselves together throughout all the land” (Mosiah 2:1 [Mos. 1:5]). And yet they all enjoyed a private family outing, for they “pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family, . . . every family being separate one from another” (Mosiah 2:5 [Mos. 1:6]). This was the practice observed at the Feast of Tabernacles, and booths are one of the characteristic features of great national assemblies of the ancients throughout the world. At the culmination of the celebration we have both the vast unison of the hallelujah shouts and the private thoughts, secret names, and whispered exchanges of the initiation that preceded and followed with name, seal, mark, and personal registration.
Some today have trouble making the distinction between what is strictly private in one’s thinking—after all, we are commanded to pray in secret—and what is necessarily shared among members of the Church. Some would have uniform political commitment required of all members, and some would have mission and stake presidents prescribe what books may be read and what music may be heard by the individual members. How far does free agency go? How far can individual tastes be assigned? No one was a more stalwart exponent of temperance than Brigham Young; yet when his father asked him to sign the Temperance Pledge, he resolutely refused. What he objected to of course was being officiously told what his principles were.
Ellipses mark omissions within Nibley’s own sentences.
Hosanna: The King Comes with the Name
Barker reads the entry as a Tabernacles procession: the palm branches and Psalm 118 belong to that festival, and the crowd’s “Hosanna” acclaims Jesus as the high priest and King who comes “with the Name of the Lord.”
The Mishnah describes the rituals for Tabernacles in the time of Jesus: how the branches of palm, myrtle and willow had to be cut and tied into bundles. People carried them in procession into the temple whilst singing Psalm 118. The whole bundle was called a lûlab, literally a palm, and when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey it must have looked like a Tabernacles procession (Mark 11.1-11 [Mark 5:30-32]).
The people who accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday acclaimed him as the high priest by quoting from Psalm 118:25–26: “Hosanna” — which means “save us” — “Blessed is he who comes with the Name of the Lord.” This “he” was the high priest who would save them.
Thus, in the Chronicler’s account of Solomon’s coronation, but not in the Deuteronomists’, “the people bowed their heads and worshipped the-Lord-and-the-king” (1 Chr. 29:20). This is what the Hebrew actually says. The Lord and the human king were One. It is stated but not explained. Modern translations such as the RSV alter the Hebrew text to “They bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord, and did obeisance to the king,” implying two distinct actions: one for the Lord and another for the king. By changing the text, such translations remove one of the most important pieces of evidence in the Hebrew scriptures for how the king became divine. … The phrase “Lord-and-Christ” is similar: he was both the divine Lord and the transformed human anointed one. The ancient kings were known as “the Lord and his anointed” (Ps. 2:2 [Ps. 2:1]). When the seventh angel blew his trumpet, the voices in heaven proclaimed, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15 [Rev. 3:19]); and Peter preached, “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36 [Acts 1:11]). The heavenly Lord and the earthly Messiah were One.
The crowd’s acclamation is not flattery paid to a man. Barker’s point about 1 Chronicles 29:20 is that the older Hebrew makes the LORD and the king a single object of worship, so a crowd worshiping the one riding in is doing what Solomon’s coronation had them do, and the modern translations that split the two into “worshipped the Lord, and did obeisance to the king” remove the evidence.