God's Word or Human Words - Part 10

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Part 9 concluded with the following:

 

(p.100) " Those who wrote, translated, and carefully copied works such as the

Secret Book of James and the Prayer of the Apostle Paul may have known about

techniques that certain Jewish groups used to induce a state of ecstasy and

invoke visions. For example, one group of Jewish ascetics living in Egypt at the

time of Jesus, called the Therapeutae, practiced a rigorous regimen of prayer,

celibacy, fasting, and singing to prepare themselves to receive " the vision of

God. " Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls also offer prayers and rituals apparently

intended to help the devout enter God's presence and join in worship with

angels. " [72]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 3, p. 100

 

Note:

 

[72] Carol Newsom, 'Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition'

(Atlanta, 1985).

 

Here now, is Part 10.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

 

God's Word or Human Words - Part 10

 

(p.100) We do not know precisely what was meant by " the vision of God. "

Different people probably conceived it differently. Some scholars take this

phrase to mean that such people sought to experience God's presence through

ecstatic trance. [73] Paul's account of his own ascent into Paradise suggests

that this happened to him, although, as we noted, he claims that his vision

occurred spontaneously and admits that " whether in the body or out of the body,

I do not know; God knows. " [74] Other scholars, however, point out that those

who say they are seeking a vision of God may be referring to what happens in

devotional practices and worship. [75] (p.101) For to this day many Jews and

Christians use mystical language in worship services every week--or even every

day--at a culminating moment understood to unite the human congregation with the

angels, as they join in singing what the prophet Isaiah says angels sing in

heaven: " Holy, holy, holy; Lord God almighty; heaven and earth are full of your

glory. " Isaiah says that he heard this song when he himself received a vision

and was taken into God's presence. [76]

 

Scholars of Jewish history and literature are also investigating an enormous

wealth of mystical literature that flourished for about a thousand years

preceding 'kabbalah'. Some of these so-called 'hekalot' texts focus upon the

figure of Enoch, who, according to Genesis, " walked with God " and, without

dying, was taken up into God's presence. [77] Even before the first century

B.C.E., Enoch had become a paradigm for those seeking access to heavenly wisdom.

[78] Other groups of Jews were devoted to the so-called Merkabah (chariot)

literature, which thrived from the second century through the sixth. These

writings emerged from Jewish teachers and their disciples who tried to act upon

hints they found in the prophet Ezekiel's marvelous vision of God enthroned upon

a chariot shining like fire, borne by winged cherubim, and praised by the

angelic host. [79]

 

Some of those who described visions like the ones found in the Secret Book of

James seem to imply that they themselves, like the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel,

received such visions. Some of the books discovered at Nag Hammadi offer

specific techniques for invoking revelations; others suggest that such

techniques did not always work. The Apocalypse of Peter, for example, tells how

Peter saw people running toward him and his fellow apostles, threatening them

with stones " as if they would kill us. " (p.102) Peter immediately appealed to

the risen Jesus--probably in prayer--who told his terrified disciple to

 

" put your hands over your eyes, and tell what you see. " But when I had done it,

I did not see anything. I said, " No one sees [this way]. " Again he told me, " Do

it again. " And there came into me fear and joy, for I saw a new light, greater

than the light of day. [80]

 

 

During a moment suspended in time, while Peter hears the crowd shouting, he is

shocked to see a vision of Jesus being crucified. After he cries out in fear and

anguish, Peter learns from the " living Jesus " that what is spiritual cannot die.

Finally, an astonished Peter sees a vision of Jesus " glad and laughing on the

cross...and he was filled with a holy spirit...and there was a great, ineffable

light around them, and a multitude of ineffable and invisible angels blessing

them. " [81] The anonymous author of the Apocalypse of Peter says that this

vision encouraged Peter to face his own death with equanimity, knowing that the

spirit within him may overcome death, as those facing persecution in later

generations might do as well.

 

But how are visions received, and which are divinely inspired? Practically

speaking, who is to judge? This central--and perplexing--question is what

Christians since ancient times have called the problem of discerning spirits:

how to tell which apparent inspirations come from God, which from the power of

evil, and which from an overheated imagination. Although most people at the

time--Jews, pagans, and Christians alike--assumed that the divine reveals itself

in dreams, many people then, as now, recognized that dreams may also express

only wishes and hopes, and that some may lead to fatal delusions. We have seen

that Irenaeus recognized God's power in certain prophets, healers, and teachers,

perhaps especially in those whose teaching agreed with what many Christians

accepted in common. In others, however, he saw Satan at work--for example, in

the case of Marcus, whom he called " Satan's apostle " and accused of inventing

visions in order to deceive his followers and to exploit them for sexual favours

and money.

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas), Chapter 3, p. 100-103

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

 

Notes:

 

[73] See Note 69 for references:

 

[69] II Corinthians 12:1-4. April De Conick and Jarl Fossum, " Stripped Before

God: A New Interpretation of Logion 37 of the Gospel of Thomas, " 'Vigiliae

Christianae' 45 (1991), 123-150; see also Alan F. Segal, " Heavenly Ascent in

Hellenistic Judaism, Early Christianity, and Their Environment, " 'Aufstieg und

Niedergang der Romischen Welt' 2:23:2 (1980), 1333-94; 'Paul the Convert: The

Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul the Pharisee' (New Haven and London, 1990); and

C.R.A. Morray-Jones, " Paradise Revisited (2 Cor. 12:1-12): The Jewish Mystical

Background of Paul's Apostolate, Part 2: Paul's Heavenly Ascent and Its

Significance, " 'Harvard Theological Review' 86.3 (1993), 265-292. For a major

critical perspective, see Martha Himmelfarb, 'Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and

Christian Apocalypses' (New York, 1993); " The Practice of Ascent in the Ancient

Mediterranean World, " in John J. Collins and M. Fishbane, eds., 'Death, Ecstasy,

and Other Worldly Journeys' (Albany, 1995); " Revelation and Rapture: The

Transformation of the Visionary in the Ascent Apocalypses, " in John J. Collins

and James H. Charlesworth, eds., 'Mysteries and Revelation: Apocalyptic Studies

Since the Uppsala Colloquium', JSP Supplements 9 (Sheffield, 1991); and Peter

Schafer, ed., 'Synpose zur Hekhalot-Literatur' (Texte und Studien zum Antiken

Judentum 2, Tubingen, 1981); 'Mystik und Theologie des rabbinischen Judentums'

(ed., with M. Schluter, New York, 1992); and especially 'The Hidden and Manifest

God: Some Major Themes in Early Jewish Mysticism' (Albany, 1992).

 

[74] 2 Corinthians 12:3.

 

[75] See references in note 69.

 

[76] Isaiah 6:1-5.

 

[77] This, at any rate, is what many took Genesis 5:24 to mean.

 

[78] See, for example, the Books of Enoch.

 

[79] David J. Halperin, 'The Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to

Ezekiel's Vision' (Tubingen, 1988); Wolfson, 'Through a Speculum That Shines'.

 

[80] Apocalypse of Peter 71:15-25, in NHL 341.

 

[81] Ibid., 81.10-82.15, in NHL 344.