The Cosmic Person in the New Testament - Part 4

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

In Part 3 of " The Cosmic Person in the New Testament " , we concluded with these

words:

 

" Significant here are the passages in St. John's Gospel where Jesus uses the

phrase " I am " . " I am " is, of course, the name by which Yahweh revealed himself

to Moses and it has become customary to think that by using this phrase Jesus is

identifying himself with God. The phrase " before Abraham was I am " , (John 8:58),

has certainly been taken to indicate that he must be God. This, I suggest, is

not necessarily so. The primordial man was before Abraham and before all men,

and I think it is probable that Jesus is identifying himself there with this

primordial or heavenly man, who is prior to all creation. "

 

Here now, is Part 4.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

The Cosmic Person in the New Testament - Part 4

 

(p.120) The evidence from Jewish tradition is very interesting. In that

tradition, it is true, there is very little evidence of this primordial man

until the Book of Enoch which was written a little before the time of Christ. It

was certainly circulating during his time and could therefore have been known to

Jesus. In the Book of Enoch the figure of the Son of Man appears and is

identified with the Ancient of Days, who is the primordial ancient one who

existed before creation. This supports the understanding that when Jesus said,

" Before Abraham was, I am, " he was identifying himself with that Son of Man,

before creation. The text of Enoch also goes on to say that this Son of Man was

hidden until his manifestation at the end. He was hidden from the world and

would be manifested at the end, and that links him with the Son of Man in

Daniel. (P.121) Here then there is a Son of Man who existed from the beginning

but who would come at the eschaton, the end, and is present now in the world

today as the incarnate one. Another point here is that the Son of Man in the

Book of Enoch is also identified with the Messiah, and that goes further in

corroborating the idea that Jesus would have seen himself in those terms.

Although Jesus was reluctant to accept the title of Messiah because it was open

to being understood in a purely political sense, yet he could accept it in a

transcendent sense.

 

There was a serious problem for the Jews concerning the Son of Man and Adam.

Adam was a fallen man and they therefore found it very difficult to identify the

original, primordial Son of Man with Adam, the first man. They did reach a

stage, however, when this identification was made. Philo, the great Jewish

philosopher who wrote in the first century AD , had an interesting, although

quite unacceptable, theory that there were two Adams. The first chapter of

Genesis speaks of a man, Adam, made from the dust of the earth and it was this

Adam who fell and brought sin into the world. This theory of Philo's is

artificial but it does show the problem presented for the Jew by this concept of

the heavenly man, and it provides a clue as to why the theme of the heavenly Man

was not much developed.

 

In contrast to the Jews the Gnostics generally took up the concept of the

heavenly man and gave it their own interpretation. They held that Adam, the

first man, was perfect. He was the archetypal man. The world had fallen away

from him and redemption consisted in restoring everything as it had been in the

beginning. The end, in other words, was the restoration of the original state.

That is typically Gnostic. In Judeo-Christian tradition, however, there is

always a movement of ascent towards an end. (P.122) The world is understood as

moving forward in an evolutionary ascent towards its ultimate fulfilment and

there is no question of simply going back to the beginning.

 

The archetypal man is said to have been made in the image of God. In the New

Testament Jesus is conceived as the 'eikon tou theou', the image of God. He is

the one who, as primordial man, comes from heaven. Thus Jesus says in St. John's

Gospel, " No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the

Son of Man. " (John 3:13)

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs.120-122