Mystics know and experience God in a really different manner than the ordinary truster. Whereas the ordinary truster knows God in an aim. concrete mode as embodied in nature or via sacred Bibles. the mysterious knows God by personal. one to one contact between their ain spirit ( psyche ) and the spirit of God ; bosom to bosom. or as Augustine called it. “cor ad cor loquitur. ” Because of the one to one. extremely individualised nature of this experience. one might believe the mystic would be outside of the sphere of the major faiths of the universe. That. in fact. is non the instance. Mystics are most frequently allied with one of the major universe faiths. including ( but non limited to ) the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism. Islam and Christianity. The mystic’s constructs of God do non merely come from the little voice talking to him in the silence of his psyche. Alternatively. the mysterious combines these esoteric experiences with the instructions and traditions of their faith.
Much has been written on the comparison between the mystics of the differing universe faiths. observing that the lone differences between them stem from the underlying faith itself. The overarching pattern of seeking to really see what philosophers call the “Absolute truth” . ( what theologians refer to as God ) . seems to cognize no theological boundaries. A Christian mysterious seeks the same “beyond human” Communion with the Trinity as the Judaic mystic does with YWEH. and the Muslim mystic does with Allah.
The divinity of Christianity differs from the llm al-Kalam of Islam and the divinity of Judaism in the same ways. whether the truster is a mysterious or non. Hence. the chief differences that separate the mystics of the universe are the same as the differences that separate all trusters. My research seeks non to explicate. comparison. or contrast the mystics of the differing faiths. as I mentioned that much has been written on that topic already. but instead to analyze how the mystics of one faith ( Judaism ) influenced the foundation and theoretical model of another faith ( Christianity ) . 1. Authority
Mysticism is non a term that an ancient mystic himself would utilize to depict his kingdom of religionism. In that respect. mysticism as we have come to understand and cognize it through most primary beginnings is non emic ( or in their ain words ) . and hence really hard to accurately look into utilizing a hermeneutic attack. The Essenes. for illustration. did non label themselves “mystics” in antediluvian Jerusalem. Our history of them as mystics comes from a strictly etic ( outside perceivers ) point of view. In add-on. the literature on early Judaic and Christian mysticism is non the ownership of a individual spiritual community. or maintained by a individual spiritual community. While there is mounting grounds that the chief beginnings of mysterious tradition were in Jewish priestly circles. most of the literature on the topic of mysticism is from a assortment of esoteric Jews and Christians over the class of several centuries. Making the affair more hard is the sum of Pseudepigrapha in “primary” Judaic beginnings.
While this job besides exists in Christian beginnings. is seems to be more of a barrier to the pupil of Judaic mysticism. as most bookmans agree that the prevailing primary beginning on the subject. The Zohar. is pseudepigraphical. The Zohar is the primary piece of mention for a religious order of Judaic mystics called Kabbalaists. refers to historical events of the post-Talmudic period while purporting to be from an earlier clip. Because of the trouble. so f obtaining a primary beginning detailing what has come to be known as Judaic mysticism. sacred texts such as the Tanakh and the Bible themselves are used often as a chief beginning of information. Therefore. primary beginnings used for my research in the country of Judaic mysticism include The Talmud. including parts of the Midrash and the Tanakh ( The Hebrew Bible ) .
Contained within the Talmud is the Torah. Very helpful to my apprehension of these texts were Hagiographas by Josepus. a first century Jewish hagiographist. theologian and scholar. Christian primary beginnings include an Interlinear Greek-English New Testament of the Bible with a parallel column in the New Revised Standard Version. every bit good as extracts by Origen. and Gregory of Nyssa. both Fathers of the Early Christian Church. A basic model for my apprehension of Judaic and Christian mysticism includes secondary beginnings by Joshua Abelson and Evelyn Underhill. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth. Magic and Mysticism was helpful in clear uping Judaic footings that I was unfamiliar with.
2. Judaic Mysticism History
The beginning of Judaic mysticism is normally linked to the Essenes. a religious order of the Second Temple Jews. Known by the Greeks as the “Holy Ones” . these
cryptic Hebrews are now assumed to be the original keepers of the Dead Sea Scroll library. The religious order was closed to society. and was dominated by familial priests who had to travel through multiple rites of purification before being accepted into the religious order. Harmonizing to Josephus. the Essenes were one of three religious orders among the Hebrews at the clip of Christ who “ …Had different sentiments refering human actions ; the 1 was called the religious order of the Pharisees. another the religious order of the Sadducees. and the other the religious order of the Essenes.
Now for the Pharisees. they say that some actions. but non all. are the work of destiny. and that some of them are in our ain power. and that they are apt to destine. but are non caused by destiny. But the religious order of the Essenes affirms that fate governs all things. and that nil befalls work forces but what is harmonizing to its finding. And for the Sadducees. they take off destiny. and they say there is no such thing. and that the events of human personal businesss are non at it’s disposal ; but they suppose that all of our actions are in our power. so that we ourselves are the cause of what is good. and receive immorality from our ain folly. ”
This clearly illustrates pronounced difference between the three religious orders. Josephus subsequently stated that the Essenes were translators of dreams. and were really persevering in the reading of the sacred books. Philo of Alexandria. who frequently tried to accommodate Judaic exegesis with Stoic doctrine. wrote this of the Essenes:
“Of natural doctrine. the Essenes merely analyze that which pertains to the being of God and the beginning of all things. otherwise they devote all their attending to moralss. utilizing as teachers the Torahs of their male parents. which. without the spring of the Divine Spirit. the human head could non hold devised…for. following their ancient traditions. they obtain their doctrine by agencies of allegorical interpretations…
Of the love of God they exhibit myriads of illustrations. inasmuch as they strive for a continued uninterrupted life of pureness and sanctity ; they avoid cursing and falsity. and they declare God causes merely good and no evil whatsoever…no one possesses a house perfectly as his ain. one which does non at the same clip belong to all ; for. in add-on to populating together in companies. their houses are unfastened besides to their disciples coming from other quarters. They have a depot for all. and the same diet ; their garments belong to all in common. and their repasts are taken in common. ”
Clearly. this religious order of Judaism combined mystical guess with an ascetic manner of life. Merkabah ( chariot ) mysticism came into being in the early 2nd century. Merkabah mysticism used as its model a vision of God experienced by Ezekiel. and told in great item in Ezekiel Chapters 1-5. “In my 30th twelvemonth. in the 4th month on the 5th twenty-four hours. while I was among the expatriates by the Kebar River. the celestial spheres were opened and I saw visions of God. 2 On the fifth of the month—it was the 5th twelvemonth of the expatriate of King Jehoiachin— 3 the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest. the boy of Buzi. by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the manus of the LORD was on him. 4 I looked. and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an huge cloud with blinking lightning and surrounded by superb visible radiation.
The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal. 5 and in the fire was what looked like four life animals. In visual aspect their signifier was human. 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were directly ; their pess were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human custodies. All four of them had faces and wings. 9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went consecutive in front ; they did non turn as they moved. 10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being. and on the right side each had the face of a king of beasts. and on the left the face of an ox ; each besides had the face of an bird of Jove. 11 Such were their faces. They each had two wings distributing out upward. each flying touching that of the animal on either side ; and each had two other wings covering its organic structure. 12 Each one went consecutive in front. Wherever the spirit would travel. they would travel. without turning as they went.
13 The visual aspect of the life animals was like firing coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and Forth among the animals ; it was bright. and lightning flashed out of it. 14 The animals sped back and Forth like flashes of lightning. 15 As I looked at the life animals. I saw a wheel on the land beside each animal with its four faces. 16 This was the visual aspect and construction of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz. and all four looked likewise. Each appeared to be made like a wheel crossing a wheel. 17 As they moved. they would travel in any one of the four waies the animals faced ; the wheels did non alter way as the animals went. 18 Their rims were high and amazing. and all four rims were full of eyes all about. 19 When the life creatures moved. the wheels beside them moved ; and when the life animals rose from the land. the wheels besides rose.
20 Wherever the spirit would travel. they would travel. and the wheels would lift along with them. because the spirit of the life animals was in the wheels. 21 When the animals moved. they besides moved ; when the animals stood still. they besides stood still ; and when the animals rose from the land. the wheels rose along with them. because the spirit of the life animals was in the wheels. 22 Spread out above the caputs of the life animals was what looked something like a vault. scintillating like crystal. and amazing. 23 Under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward the other. and each had two wings covering its organic structure.
24 When the animals moved. I heard the sound of their wings. like the boom of hotfooting Waterss. like the voice of the Almighty. like the uproar of an ground forces. When they stood still. they lowered their wings. 25 Then there came a voice from above the vault over their caputs as they stood with lowered wings. 26 Above the vault over their caputs was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli. and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a adult male. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal. as if full of fire. and that from there down he looked like fire ; and brilliant visible radiation surrounded him. 28 Like the visual aspect of a rainbow in the clouds on a showery twenty-four hours. so was the glow around him. This was the visual aspect of the similitude of the glorification of the LORD. ”
For the Judaic mystics of the 1st and 2nd centuries. Ezekiel’s image of YWEH siting upon a chariot of the “living creatures” was outside the scope of the deepest esoteric experiences of all of the other Old Testament personages. The chariot was interpreted as an invitation from the Divine to adult male to come and see the secret which he so urgently seeks: the experience of the Absolute. the being of God himself. The thought that God is the first one to originate a brotherhood of adult male and God. or has “called” one’s psyche to unify with the Godhead. is of import to all mystics. The chariot. so. is a allegorical vehicle to transport one to the unobserved. Every mysterious wants to be the chariot rider. to be carried to his ultimate brotherhood with the Godhead.
However. as Joshua Ableson points out in his commentary on the Merkavah mystics “it was believed that he could merely set about this Merkavah-ride. who was in ownership of all spiritual cognition. observed all the commandments and principles and was about superhuman in the pureness of his life. ” While these roots of Merkavah mysticism were planted steadfastly in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. they did non bloom and flourish until the 7th- eleventh centuries. Since that clip. much has been speculated about the significance of the chariot. Be it a true vision or an experiential event? Does the text clasp concealed significance with each description keeping significance for the hereafter? Is the text eschatological? Some modern twenty-four hours supernatural claim the Merkavah was non a chariot but an foreign starship! It is apprehensible why this transition. in the thick of literature that is otherwise barren of dramatic and colourful descriptions would pull such attending and guess.
Although it is outside the range of the clip period this article seeks to analyze. a reference must be made to the ultimate look of Judaic mysticism: Kabbalah. Kabbalah is an esoteric Gnostic supernatural that emerged in medieval Spain in the twelfth century. Cabalistic instructions look to The Zohar as their primary beginning of inspiration. The Zohar is a commentary of the Torah. ( the first five books of the Old Testament ) . A Spanish Jew by the name of Moses de Leon attributed the book to a second century Rabbi by the name of Shimon saloon Yochai. but bookmans are now in general understanding that de Leon penned the work himself.
The patterns and beliefs of fifteenth century Cabalists had much influence on Christian mystics and the Humanist motion ( every bit good modern twenty-four hours New-Age Hollywood! ) The Kabbalah school of idea efforts to explicate the relationship between an unchanging external. cryptic YWEH ( known as Ein Sof ) and the person. finite existence. by seeking to specify the nature of the existence and the human being. the nature and intent of being. and assorted other ontological inquiries. Given. nevertheless that this article seeks to analyze the influence of the Judaic mystics on the early Christian Church. I will lodge to religious orders of Judaic mysticism that took topographic point between 500 BCE and 400 CE. that is. the Essenes and the Merkavah. 3. Connections
It is easy to happen the similarities between the three Abrahamic faiths. The mere fact that they are categorized together under the same header within universe faiths indicates enough of a resemblance to one another. even beyond their homogenous beginnings. It would non be new or even controversial for me to propose a consecutive. additive patterned advance from Judaism to Christianity to Islam. My research does non take to reenforce these statements. but instead to look deeper. What specific facets of Judaism continue on into the Christian religion?
It is here where I draw a differentiation in that there are. as mentioned above. cardinal differences between the religious orders of Judaism at the clip of Christ. I argue that the mysterious religious orders of Judaism. ( the Essenes and the Merkavah’s ) . are the cabals of Judaism that influenced the formation and patterns of early Christianity the most. Specifically. there are three chief dimensions of early Judaic mysticism that are besides primary in early Christian religion. These dimensions are an incorporation of the speculative. the experiential and the practical.
3a. The Bad
The first dimension of the two faiths is guess. that is. the hunt for the absolute truth and revealed nature of the individuality of God. This guess besides includes a pursuit for both the cosmology ( beginnings ) and the cosmology ( organisation ) of the existence. This dimension is most realized in the esoteric followings of both faiths.
The centrepiece of the cosmology of the individuality of God in mysterious Judaism is that God has a “body. ” This organic structure is known as the Kavod of YHWH. The esoteric reading of the Kavod is that of a vision of a godly signifier created by the unseeable. formless God that is really seeable to the human oculus. This organic structure of God can take the signifiers of visible radiation. clouds. angles. or be felt in merely its presence. known as the Shekhinah ( the Holy Spirit. )
The Essenes believed that complete devotedness to the sacred texts. abstention from sex and certain nutrients. and communal supplication might convey the truster to the ultimate experience of the Kavod ( which literally means “glory. ” ) The Kavod must be “experienced” or perceived. as it was believed at the clip that no 1 could look straight at the face of God and unrecorded. This is illustrated in Moses’ brush with God: “So the Lord said to Moses. “While my Glory base on ballss by I will set you in a cleft of the stone. and I will cover you with my manus until I have passed by ; so I will take away my manus and you shall see my dorsum. But my face shall non be seen. ”
The construct of Kavod had a profound impact on the formation of the Christologies of the early Christian Church. John was the most prolific of authors in his belief that Jesus was the revealed Kavod descended here on Earth. John wrote in Chapter One.
14 The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glorification. the glorification of the 1 and merely Son. who came from the Father. full of grace and truth.
and once more in Chapter 11. straight citing Christ instantly following the Resurrection of Lazarus. 38 Jesus. one time more deeply moved. came to the grave. It was a cave with a rock laid across the entryway. 39 “Take off the rock. ” he said. “ But. Lord. ” said Martha. the sister of the dead adult male. “by this clip there is a bad olfactory property. for he has been at that place four yearss. ” 40 Then Jesus said. “Did I non state you that if you believe. you will see the glorification of God? ”
In entire. John refers to the glorification or Kavad of God revealed through Christ seven times in the Book of John. Paul besides mentions Christ as the canonized image of God in II Corinthians: 4 The God of this age has blinded the heads of disbelievers. so that they can non see the visible radiation of the Gospel that displays the glorification of Christ. who is the image of God.
And even in a more powerful manner in Colossians:
15 The Son is the image of the unseeable God. the eldest over all creative activity.
Clearly. the construct of Kavod was a theologically cardinal principal of the esoteric Essenes that became a foundational key factor in the overall Christian apprehension of the nature and individuality of Christ. Thereby. the guess about the individuality and nature of God and the hunt for absolute cosmology and cosmology of God was carried from the mystics to the early Christians. 3b. The Experiential
The pursuit for a direct brush with a divinity is the experiential dimension of both the mysterious Jews and the early Christians. The Judaic mystics sought non merely cognition of God. but besides an esoteric experience with him. This is clear in the revelatory literature of both faiths. Second Temple eschatology relates that the mystical. the belief in the immediate and direct experience of God. is an of import portion of the last yearss. This spiritual experience. an brush with God that is an act of disclosure itself. consequences in the devotee’s immediate personal transmutation and the denudation of God’s enigmas. Harmonizing to War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness. ( one of the coils found of the Dead Sea Scrolls. or Qumran Scrolls ) . the Essenes were expecting the cataclysmal battle between the Sons of Light ( themselves ) and the Sons of Darkness ( everybody else ) .
This conflict was to happen non merely between the earthly existences. but besides fall ining them would be the cosmic forces of good and evil. and would signal the terminal of yearss. Paul wrote in item of the faithful who experienced Christ’s spirit. He felt these Christians could get down their transmutation into the image of God while still on Earth but that the complete transmutation would merely happen after decease. Paul states in Romans: 10 But if Christ is in you. so even though your organic structure is capable to decease because of wickedness. the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. This is but one illustration of many ( 1000s ) of mentions to the Holy Spirit changing or impacting of the Early Christians. For these mystical Hebrews and Christians. sing a vision of the Kavod. ( the Image of the Glory of God ) . stamped God’s image on the psyche.
Wordss used to depict these experiences included “glorified. ” “exalted. ” or “angelic. ” The revelatory literatures describe trusters clothed in reflecting white garments. as angels idolizing God before his throne. transformed into existences of fire or visible radiation. and enthroned with God’s name or image. This is but one illustration of many shared constructs between the revelatory literatures of the mystics of Judaism ( such as The Apocalypse of Abraham and The Testament of Levi ) and the book of Revelation in the Christian Canon. Comparisons could besides be made between cosmic disclosures such as descriptions of Eden. snake pit and events at the terminal of clip. every bit good as several symbolic symbols such as custodies. bowls. coils. angels. or firedrakes.
Once once more. we see an of import construct of the mystics carried into the indispensable model of early Christianity. It is of import to observe. that in the instances of both faiths. this displacement of idea to sing God in the present may hold been due to neglect eschatological outlooks. Hopes for the long anticipated conflict between the forces of visible radiation and the forces of dark for the mystics. and the at hand return of Christ for the Christians had non gone as antecedently thought. Traveling these hope for the hereafter to existent experiences of the present made the wages of Kavod available to all trusters. and a possible world.
3c. The Practical
The most obvious shared dimension between the Judaic mystics and the Early Christians was that of their shared practical application of their experiences in order to consequence alteration. This was illustrated in their communal patterns. which served as an avenue for mystical transmutation. Examples of these patterns include asceticism ( denying oneself of secular pleasances ) . induction rites ( such as January 1 for the Jews and Baptism for the Christians ) . rinsing ( such as pes rinsing for Christians and purification rites for the Jews ) . the anointment of the organic structure and hair with sacramental oil. spirit ownership. sexual asceticism. and sacramental ritual behaviour. ( such as the Passover repast and the Eucharist. )
The transmutation of the mystical ideals into the sacramental rites of the early Christian Church and the “Gnostic” schools is intriguing. The sacraments seem to normalise the mystical. doing the presence of God on a regular basis available to trusters. Baptism. anointment. and the Eucharist all involve the integrating of the Holy Spirit and the Christ into the psyche. These rites were understood as the vehicle that elevates and transports the individual into the sacred kingdom so that he or she can come into the really presence of God. This is the ultimate combination of the bad divinity experienced through the practical ; and one time once more illustrates how the mystics of Judaism influenced the early Christians.
While it is clear to me that many patterns and beliefs Christians are straight taken from the patterns and beliefs of the Judaic mystics. it remains ill-defined to me if Christianity was a continuum of the Jewish mysterious religious order of the Essenes. ( with the add-on of the long-awaited Messiah ) . or a wholly new faith that simply borrowed a few cardinal dimensions from the Essenes. What. if anything did the other non-mystic Judaic religious orders lend? How many of the Essenes converted to Christianity in comparing to the other Judaic religious orders? Was Jesus himself an Essene? All of these remain subjects for farther research. However. there is arguably no inquiry that the Judaic religion and specifically the mystics of Judaism influenced the divinity. model and Christology of the Christian Church.
Mentions
O’Donnell. James. “Augustine’s Confessions: An Electronic Edition. ” The STOA Consortium. The STOA Consortium. 1992. Web. 03 Mar 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. stoa. org/hippo/ & gt ; .
Barclay. Joseph. “The Talmud. ” Sacred Texts. London1878. Web. 6 Mar 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sacred-texts. com/jud/bar/bar000. htm & gt ; .
Rapaport. Samuel. “Tales and Maxims from the Midrash. ” Sacred Texts. George Routledge & A ; Sons Limited. 1907. Web. 10 Mar 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sacred-texts. com/jud/tmm/tmm00. htm & gt ; .
Kimball. Christopher V. “The Tanach. ” Sacred Texts. Westminster Hebrew Institute. 20 OCT 2006. Web. 06 Mar 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sacred-texts. com/bib/tan/index. htm
Whiston. William. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. 5th. 1. Peabody. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers. 1985. Print.
Brown. Robert K. . and Phillip W. Comfort. The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament. UBS 4th Edition ; Nestle-Aland 26th Edition. Munster/Westphalia: Tindale. 1990. Print.
McGinn. Bernard. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism: Origen:
Commentary on the Song of Songs. New York. New York: Random House. 20006. Print.
McGinn. Bernard. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism: Gregory of Nyssa: the Life of Moses. New York. New York: Random House. 2006. Print.
Abelson. Joshua. Judaic Mysticism. First Published in 1913: Forgotten Books. 2008. Print.
Underhill. Evelyn. Mysticism. 12th. Lexington. KY: 2011. Print.
Dennis. Rabbi Geoffrey. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth. Magic and Mysticism. 1st erectile dysfunction. Woodbury. Manganese: llewellyn Publications. 2011. Print.
Whiston. William. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. 5th. 1. Peabody. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers. 1985. Print. “Antiquities of the Jews. ” pp. 274. Book Xiii. Chapter V. Section 9.
Coleson. F. H. . “The Brooding Life. ” Early Judaic Hagiographas. pp. 53. 206. 2011. Web. 15 Mar 2012. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www. earlyjewishwritings. com/text/philo/book34. hypertext markup language & gt ; .
E. Wolfson. “Yeridah la-Merkavah: Typology of Ecstasy and Enthronement in Ancient Jewish Mysticism. ” in R. Herrera ( ed. ) . Mystics of the Book: Subjects. Topics. and Typologies ( New York: Lang. 1993 ) pp. 13-44
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[ 1 ] . O’Donnell. James. “Augustine’s Confessions: An Electronic Edition. ” The STOA Consortium. The STOA Consortium. 1992. Web. 03 Mar 2012. . [ 2 ] . Barclay. Joseph. “The Talmud. ” Sacred Texts. London1878. Web. 6 Mar 2012. . [ 3 ] . Rapaport. Samuel. “Tales and Maxims from the Midrash. ” Sacred Texts. George Routledge & A ; Sons Limited. 1907. Web. 10 Mar 2012. . [ 4 ] . Kimball. Christopher V. “The Tanach. ” Sacred Texts. Westminster Hebrew Institute. 20 OCT 2006. Web. 06 Mar 2012.
