Andrei Orlov and Alexander Golitzin
"Many Lamps are Lightened from the One":
Paradigms of the Transformational Vision in Macarian Homilies
[published in: Vigiliae Christianae 55 (2001) 281-98]
Among mystical testimonies circulating in the Eastern Christian
tradition, two portentous descriptions of transformational
visions can be found.
The first account is drawn from 2 Enoch, a Jewish
apocalypse, apparently written in the first century CE and
preserved in the Eastern Christian environment in its Slavonic
translation. In this text the prediluvian patriarch Enoch
describes his luminous metamorphosis near the Throne of Glory:
"And Michael, the Lord's greatest archangel, lifted me up
and brought me in front of the face of the Lord ... And Michael
extracted me from my clothes. He anointed me with the delightful
oil; and the appearance of that oil is greater than the greatest
light, its ointment is like sweet dew, and its fragrance like
myrrh; and its shining is like the sun. And I gazed at all of
myself, and I had become like one of the glorious ones, and there
was no observable difference."[i]
The second account is written a thousand years later and comes
from Philokalia, a collection of Eastern Christian
writings compiled by Nicodemus Hagioretes, in which Pseudo-Symeon
conveys preparatory instructions for acquiring the vision of the
Taboric light:
"Then sit down in a quite cell, in corner by yourself, and
do what I tell you. Close the door, and withdraw your intellect
from everything worthless and transient. Rest your beard on your
chest, and focus your physical gaze, together with the whole of
your intellect, upon the centre of your belly or your navel.
Restrain the drawing-in of breath through your nostrils, so as
not to breathe easily, and search inside yourself with your
intellect so as to find the place of the heart, where all the
powers of the soul reside. To start with you will find there
darkness and an impenetrable density. Later, when you persist and
practice this task day and night, you will find, as though
miraculously, an unceasing joy. For as soon as the intellect
attains the place of the heart, at once it sees things of which
it previously knew nothing. It sees the open space within the
heart and it beholds itself entirely luminous and full of
discrimination."[ii]
It is apparent that these two descriptions belong to very
different symbolic worlds. In the first one, an adept, on his
celestial trip, finds himself before the glorious appearance of
the Lord, accompanied by the angels who extract the visitor from
his earthly garments and anoint him with delightful oil. In the
second one, he is led through darkness and "an impenetrable
density" on the inner journey to the depth of his heart. The
majesty of the celestial environment strikingly confronts the
monotonous quietness of the inner contemplation. Still, something
similar is recognizable in these two accounts. In both
descriptions the visionaries eventually come to the same
result--they behold themselves luminescent. Both accounts also
stress the totality of this metamorphosis - mystical adepts of
these visions become "entirely" luminous. It is,
however, observable that in the two accounts the source of the
divine light is different. In the first account, it comes from
outside, namely from the glorious appearance of the Lord,
depicted symbolically as the angelic anointing with shining oil.
The shining oil, the "covering" substance of the
transformation, serves as an additional detail which stresses the
outer nature of the visionary's luminous metamorphosis.
The important feature of the second account which differentiates
it from the first is the "inner" nature of the luminous
metamorphosis--the illumination comes from inside, from the
darkness of the soul, proceeding from the open space within the
heart of the visionary.
Separated by a millennium, these two accounts serve as
significant marks of the long-lasting theological journey from
the outer transformational vision to its inner counterpart. On
this journey the towering figure of the Syrian father, known to
us as Pseudo-Macarius, remains prominent. The purpose of this
article is to explore some of his concepts which in our opinion
play a formative role in the transition from outer to inner in
the transformational visions of Eastern Christian tradition.
The Background: Transformational Vision of the Kabod
In order to clarify the differences between the two
transformational visions mentioned earlier, we must return now to
the initial theological contexts which lie behind these two
accounts.
The origin of the Kabod paradigm, which is formative for
the vision in the Slavonic apocalypse, can be traced to Old
Testament materials where one can find various polemics for and
against the anthropomorphic understanding of God.[iii] Weinfeld observes that the
imagery of the enthroned divine glory known to us as the Lord's Kabod
was "crystallized" in the Priestly and Ezekielian
traditions.[iv]
Theological developments of the Priestly tradition demonstrate
that the anthropomorphism of the Priestly source is intimately
connected with the place of Divine habitation.[v] In this tradition, "in which
the Divinity is personalized and depicted in the most tangible
corporeal similitudes," God, who possesses a human form, has
a need for a house or tabernacle. [vi]
Weinfeld rightly observes that this anthropomorphic position was
not entirely an invention of the Priestly source[vii] but derived from early sacral
conceptions.[viii] In
these traditions the Deity was sitting in his house ensconced
between the two cherubim, and at his feet rests the ark, [ix]
his footstool.[x]
This motif of the enthroned Deity becomes a central image in the
book of Ezekiel, whose Kabod[xi] theology is similar[xii] to the Priestly doctrine.[xiii] Mettinger
observes that "in Ezekiel, the Kabod-conception
proved to represent an earlier phase than that discovered in the
P-materials."[xiv]
He further stresses that the iconography of Ezekiel is closely
connected with the idea of God's royal presence in his sanctuary.[xv] This connection of
the Kevod YHWH with the enthroned God can scarcely be
divorced from its previously established usage in early royal
contexts.[xvi]
Weinfeld notes that Ezekiel's persistent tendency to describe
God's Kabod as a brilliant and radiant fire encased in a
cloud is also a distinct characteristic of the Priestly writings.[xvii] He argues that in
the Priestly and Ezekielian writings the fire and cloud are
inseparable elements of the apparition of God's Glory, where the
cloud is the divine envelope which screens the Deity from mortal
view.[xviii] In later
Jewish and Christian traditions the radiant luminosity emitted by
various celestial beings fulfills the same function, protecting
against the direct vision of their true forms. In the Hebrew
Bible, as well as in later apocalyptic traditions, God's
"form" remains hidden behind His light. The hidden Kabod
is revealed through its light.[xix]
This situation explains the wide use of the Kabod paradigm
in the visions of light phenomena.
Kabod theology leads to the special type of
transformational visions that can be found in various biblical
and apocalyptic materials.[xx]
In the climactic points of these accounts, their visionaries
normally "see" the extend of the divine glory, often
portrayed as enthroned anthropomorphic figure. As a consequence
of this encounter, the visionary experiences a dramatic external
metamorphosis which often affects his face, limbs, and garments,
making them luminescent. A classic example of such a
transformational vision is the account of Moses' shining
countenance in Ex 34 after his encounter with the Lord's Kabod
on Mount Sinai. It is noteworthy that in the apocalyptic and
Merkabah traditions the vision of the Lord's Glory ("the
King in His beauty") increasingly become the main
teleological point of the heavenly ascents.
Enoch's transformation in the Slavonic apocalypse also belongs to
the Kabod paradigm. Enoch's luminous metamorphosis took
place in the front of the Lord's glorious "extent,"
labeled in 2 Enoch as the Lord's "Face."[xxi] From this Enochic
account we learn that the vision of the Divine "Face"
had dramatic consequences for Enoch's appearance. His body
endures radical changes as it becomes covered with the divine
light. A significant detail in this description is that Enoch is
not transformed into light but covered, "clothed," with
the light of God's Glory. The use of delightful oil as a covering
substance emphasizes this "covering nature" of the
luminous metamorphosis.
In Enoch's radiant metamorphosis before the Divine face, an
important detail can be found which links Enoch's transformation
with that of Moses' account in Exodus. In 2 Enoch 37 we
learn about the unusual procedure performed on Enoch's face in
the final stage of his encounter with the Lord. The text informs
that the Lord called one of his senior angels to chill the face
of Enoch. The text says that the angel appeared frigid; he was as
white as snow, and his hands were as cold as ice. The text
further depicts the angel chilling Enoch's face, who could not
endure the terror of the Lord, "just as it is not possible
to endure the fire of a stove and the heat of the sun..."[xxii] Right after this
"chilling procedure," the Lord informs Enoch that if
his face had not been chilled here, no human being would have
been able to look at his face.[xxiii]
This reference to the radiance of Enoch's face after his
encounter with the Lord is an apparent parallel to the
incandescent face of Moses after the Sinai experience in Ex 34.
In spite of the dominant role of the Kabod pattern in
biblical and apocalyptic theophanic accounts, it becomes
increasingly challenged in the postbiblical rabbinic[xxiv] and patristic
environments which offered new understandings of the
transformational vision. In these new developments, one can see a
growing emphasis on the interiorization of the visionary
experience.[xxv]
Among the new notions employed for the purposes of such a
paradigm shift was the prominent biblical concept of the image of
God after which Adam was created.
In the Likeness of God's Image
Gilles Quispel in his book Makarius, Das Thomasevangelium und
das Lied von der Perle[xxvi]
draws the reader's attention to an interesting tradition
preserved in Homily II.12[xxvii]
of Pseudo-Macarius. From the homily we learn that "Adam,
when he transgressed the commandment, lost two things. First, he
lost the pure possession of his nature, so lovely, created
according to the image and likeness of God. Second, he lost the
very image itself in which was laid up for him, according to
God's promise, the full heavenly inheritance"(II.12.1).[xxviii] Further,
another important passage in the homily informs the reader that
Adam and Eve before the Fall were clothed with God's glory in
place of clothing (II.12.8).[xxix]
The text reveals a certain continuity between Adam's "very
image itself" and his glorious clothing. An important detail
in the narrative is that the homilist makes a distinction between
Adam's nature, created according to the image and likeness of God[xxx] and Adam's
"very image itself," speaking about them as of two
separate entities which were lost during the Fall. This subtle
theological distinction shows the author's familiarity with the
Jewish aggadic traditions about tselem of Adam--the
luminous image of God's glory according to which Adam was
created.[xxxi]
The term "image" can be found in a number of
significant New Testament passages. The most important of them
for the purposes of the current investigation is the Pauline
description of Christ as the "image of the invisible
God" in Col 1:15, which has often been compared to the
account of the creation of Adam and seen as part of Paul's Adam
Christology.[xxxii]
This theological connection between Adam's creation after the
image of God and Christ as the image of God has opened several
possibilities for using ancient aggadic traditions about the
luminous tselem of Adam in new Christian theophanic
contexts. In Pauline writings we can also see peculiar
terminological parallels in which the notion of image becomes
closely associated with such important theophanic concepts,
prominent in traditional Kabod theology, as glory[xxxiii] and form. [xxxiv]
Other important theological developments in Gnostic[xxxv] and rabbinic
circles lead to a gradual "interiorization" of the tselem
imagery. In postbiblical Jewish accounts, tselem is often
identified with the luminous "clothing" of the human
heart. Scholem's research shows that in Jewish mysticism tselem
was also understood as a sort of "garment" of the soul,
which "floats" over it. He observes that "this
garment also becomes the soul's heavenly attire when it returns
to Paradise after death."[xxxvi]
This Jewish idea of the "inner" luminous tselem
might well be already known in Christian circles, particularly in
the Syriac environment.
It is also possible that Ephraem, Macarius, and some other Syrian
Christian writers might have acquired the notion of the luminous
human tselem through their familiarity with the Targums,
the Aramaic renderings of the Hebrew Bible, which attest to
traditions about the original luminosity of Adam and Eve.[xxxvii]
It is noticeable that in the Macarian homilies and other Eastern
Christian writings the notion of luminous tselem became
gradually employed for the purposes of the internalized beatific
vision. Tselem became utilized as a sort of theological
counterpart to the classic concept of the divine Kabod which
traditionally played a prominent role in Biblical and apocalyptic
visions. Sometimes both imageries were used interchangeably.
In the patristic environment the concept of the image of God
gradually became a "safer" way to convey visionary
experiences of the light phenomena, especially after the
anthropomorphite controversy of 399 CE,[xxxviii] when antianthropomorpic
polemics[xxxix] made
it increasingly difficult to employ the traditional
"anthropomorphic" language of beatific visions,
including the classical Kabod imagery.[xl] By the fourth century in
patristic trinitarian debates about the divine light the Kabod
terminology was almost completely substituted by the symbolism of
the divine image.
A thousand years later, in Hesychast transformational visions of
the Taboric light, the concept of the image of God still
continued to play a crucial theological role. It is especially
noticeable in Gregory Palamas' theology of the divine image which
shows amazing parallels to the concepts and imagery of Macarius.
Among them is an open employment of the Adamic Gestalt.
Palamas, following Macarius, draws heavily on ancient traditions
about the luminous tselem of Adam. In One Hundred and
Fifty Texts, he argues that "Adam, before the fall, also
participated in this divine illumination and resplendence, and
because he was truly clothed in a garment of glory he was not
naked, nor was he unseemly by reason of his nakedness."[xli] The Syrian
background of Palamas' speculation about Adam is evident.[xlii] Recognizing the
tragic consequences which Adam's fall had for the condition of
the human tselem, [xliii]
he reaffirms its irrevocable value for the inner transformational
vision: "Leaving aside other matters for the present, I
shall simply say that perfection of the divine likeness is
accomplished by means of the divine illumination that issues from
God."[xliv]
The theme of regaining this lost luminous image of God, "the
dimmer reflection," which is still mysteriously extant in
the human physical body (sometimes in the form of a luminous
"clothing" of the heart) and can be eventually
"restored," had a number of interesting theological
ramifications in the Hesychast tradition. [xlv] The Hesychast idea
of the light-like sensitive nature of man[xlvi] shows clear similarities with
this early Syrian understanding of the luminous tselem as
a reflection of God's Glory.
Internalization of the Kabod
It was mentioned earlier that in some biblical accounts the
figure of Moses is often connected with Kabod theology.[xlvii] This tendency is
traceable both in the Old Testament Exodus stories and in New
Testament accounts of Christ's Transfiguration where Moses serves
as a significant "theophanic" reminder. In postbiblical
Jewish and Christian writings the Moses Gestalt, however,
gradually became utilized for the purposes of internalized
visions. It cannot be a coincidence that in these new theological
"developments," the Moses account was also linked with
the tselem imagery.
These tendencies are noticeable in the Macarian Homilies where
Moses is often portrayed as Adam's luminous counterpart.
Following the already mentioned Adamic narrative of Homily II.12,
which tells us how Adam lost his luminous status and "obeyed
his darker side," Macarius gives us Moses' example who
"had a glory shining on his countenance." The homily
refers to Moses' Sinai experience, expanding this tradition and
adding some new significant details:
Indeed, the Word of God was his food and he had a glory shining
on his countenance. All this, which happened to him, was a figure
of something else. For that glory now shines splendidly from
within the hearts of Christians. At the resurrection their
bodies, as they rise, will be covered with another vesture, one
that is divine, and they will be nourished with a heavenly food
(II.12.14).[xlviii]
It is noticeable that the passage serves as a bridge between the
symbolic worlds of the Kabod and tselem. Macarius
openly "internalizes" the Moses account, stressing that
Moses' glory now "shines splendidly from within the hearts
of Christians." On the other hand, some features of the
Kabod's paradigm are still noticeable: the homilist understands
Moses' luminosity as a covering with God's glory.[xlix] The author's further
discussion in II.12.15 about the clothing of Christians and
wrapping them in "divine and glorious garments" gives
additional strength to this motif of Moses, covered with the
luminous garments of God's glory.
The tendencies for internalizing the Kabod paradigm
through implications of the concept of God's image found in
Macarian Homilies demonstrate amazing similarities to some Jewish
developments. The late Rabbinic midrashim attest to such
traditions.[l] The
origin of such theological innovations can be found in its
rudimentary form already in some Jewish apocalypses, notably in 2
Enoch from which we learn that the Lord created Adam after
His face. F. Andersen stresses the theological uniqueness of such
creational imagery. He, however, does not clarify what the
creation after the Lord's face means in the broader textual
context of the Slavonic apocalypse. The Lord's face plays an
important role in 2 Enoch's theophanic descriptions being
identified with the Lord's glorious form--His Kabod. In
chapter 22 of 2 Enoch the Lord's face emits light and fire
and serves as the source of Enoch's luminous metamorphosis. In
this context, the creation of Adam after the Lord's Face
demonstrates a remarkable effort toward merging the Kabod
and tselem paradigms of the transformational vision.
The previous investigation shows the important role of Adam/Moses
connection in the evolution from outer to inner in Kabod imagery.
It is clear, however, that in the Macarian writings the
internalizing of the Kabod paradigm is not confined solely
to the reevaluation of Moses' Gestalt. The effort is much
more radical. In fact, it is so revolutionary, that it strikes
even distinguished students of the mystical traditions. One of
them, Gershom Scholem, points to the amazing Macarian tendency
for mystical "reinterpretation" of the Merkabah vision
of Ezekiel in which the human soul become itself the throne of
glory.[li] In Homily
II.1.1-2 Macarius writes:
When Ezekiel the prophet beheld the divinely glorious vision, he
described it in human terms but in a way full of mysteries that
completely surpass the powers of the human mind... And all of
this which the prophet saw in ecstasy or in a trance was indeed
true and certain, but it was only signifying and foreshadowing
something no less hidden, something divine and mysterious,
"a mystery hidden for generations" (Col 1:26) but that
"has been revealed only in our time, the end of the
ages," (1 Pt 1:20) when Christ appeared. For the prophet was
viewing the mystery of the human soul that would receive its Lord
and would become his throne of glory. For the soul that is deemed
to be judged worthy to participate in the light of the Holy
Spirit by becoming his throne and habitation, and is covered with
the beauty of ineffable glory of the Spirit, becomes all light,
all face, all eye.[lii]
Scholem, observing such a radical rethinking of classic Kabod
imagery, further asks the legitimate question: "was there
not a temptation to regard man himself as the representative of
divinity, his soul as the throne of glory?"[liii] Interestingly enough, this
query directs us to the very heart of the Macarian theological
enterprise in which the Kabod internalization become
possible only as a consequence of the unique interrelationships
between human and divine in the event of Christ's
transfiguration.
Crystallization of the New Paradigm: The Macarian Account of
the Lord's Transfiguration
The previous analysis shows that in the Macarian homilies Moses'
shining countenance and the luminosity of Adam's prelapsarian tselem
serve as metaphors for major paradigms of the transformational
vision.
In the Macarian writings, one can also encounter a third paradigm
of luminous transformation which is radically different from the
previous two traditions. In a peculiar Macarian understanding of
Christ's transfiguration[liv]
on Mt. Tabor, the duality of inner and outer in visio Dei
is attempted through in a new metaphor of the transformational
vision--Christ's "Body[lv]
of Light.”[lvi]
Macarius makes an important theological statement when he
observes that in His Transfiguration Christ was not just covered
by the Glory but "was transfigured into divine glory and
into infinite light" (II.15.38).[lvii]
In II.15.38 the homilist elaborates this ingenious understanding
of Christ's transfiguration in which the internal and external
aspects of transformational mystical experience are absolutely
resolved:
For as the body of the Lord was glorified when he climbed the
mount and was transfigured into the divine glory and into
infinite light, so also the bodies of the saints are glorified
and shine like lightning.[lviii]
Just as the interior glory of Christ covered his body and shone
completely, in the same way also in the saints the interior power
of Christ in them in the day will be poured out exteriorly upon
their bodies...(II.15.38).[lix]
The language of the passage further reinforces the totality of
this transformational vision--Christ's internal glory serves as
the teleological source of his complete, luminous metamorphosis.
In the articulation of the newness of Christ's condition,
Macarius thus offers a completely new paradigm of the beatific
vision--the bodies of visionaries are now not simply covered
externally with the divine light but are "lightened"[lx] in the way as many
lamps are lightened from the one:
Similarly, as many lamps are lighted from the one, same fire, so
also it is necessary that the bodies of the saints, which are
members of Christ, become the same which Christ himself is.
(II.15.38).[lxi]
In this new concept of the transformational vision, Macarius,
however, sets a significant distinction between Christ's
Transfiguration and human luminous transformation. In contrast to
the Lord's metamorphosis, the bodies of mortals cannot be
completely "transfigured into the divine glory" but
rather simply become "glorified."
The hypostatic quality of Christ's luminous form is what
differentiates Him from transformed Christians who are only
predestined to participate in the light of His Glory and
"have put on the raiment of ineffable light."[lxii] This articulation
of the distinction between Christ's hypostasis and His light will
play later an important role in Palamas' dialectics of God's
essence and the divine energies.
Conclusion
It is time to return to the passage from the Philokalia
which began this investigation. In comparison with the
"traditional" cases of transformational visions, this
account might look quite ambiguous. It demonstrates the absence
of significant details of such visions in which the luminous
metamorphosis of a visionary becomes possible as the consequence
of the beatific vision of the glorious "form" of the
Deity. The teleological necessity of such a divine form, in its
external or internal manifestations, seems to presuppose the very
possibility of any luminous metamorphosis. On the contrary, in
the Philokalia account a visionary does not see any
luminous form, but "the open space within the heart,"
which, however, makes him entirely luminous.
The answer to this strange situation can be found in the Macarian
understanding of Christ's transfiguration on Mount Tabor which
plays a paradigmatic role in later Hesychastic visions of the
divine light. Macarius' position implies that Christ in the Tabor
story represents both aspects of the transformational vision.
First, He is the Glory after which a visionary is transformed.
Second, He is also the visionary himself, whose face and garments[lxiii] are transformed.
In the Macarian writings Christ's interior glory is poured out
upon his external body, making it luminous.
For as the body of the Lord was glorified when he climbed the
mount and was transfigured into the divine glory and into
infinite light, so also the bodies of the saints are glorified
and shine like lightning. Just as the interior glory of Christ
covered his body and shone completely, in the same way also in
the saints the interior power of Christ in them in the day will
be poured out exteriorly upon their bodies...(II.15.38).[lxiv]
In the light of the Macarian account of Christ's transfiguration,
the requirement for the divine glorious form as the transforming
source of the visionary experience becomes substituted by the
notion of the divine energies. It becomes possible since the
locus of the visionary's perspective now is not external to the
divine luminous form, but is rather immanent within it. In this
situation the dichotomy between the subject of the beautific
vision and the object of the beautific vision can be easily
overcome.
A Hesychast in his transformational vision intends to resemble
Christ in the Transfiguration. He focuses his physical and
intellectual gaze not on the outside but on the inside, upon his
heart, "where all the powers of the soul reside,"
waiting patiently that the interior power of Christ will lighten
him as a lamp, so he can "become the same which Christ
himself is." Divine glory here, just as in the Kabod
tradition, is still confined within the anthropomorphic form, but
there is a substantial difference--this human form is now the
visionary himself, who imitates Christ's transfiguration, whose
inner glory pours out exteriorly upon the body.
[i]
2 Enoch 22:6-10. F. Andersen, "2 (Slavonic Apocalypse
of) Enoch," The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (ed. J.
H. Charlesworth; New York: Doubleday, 1985 [1983]) 139.
[ii]Pseudo-Simeon,
"The Three Methods of Prayer," in: The Philokalia
(5 vols.; tr. G.E.H. Palmer, P. Sherrard, and K. Ware; London:
Faber and Faber, 1995) 4.72-3.
[iii] On the issue of
Old Testament's anthropomorphism see: J. Barr, "Theophany
and Anthropomorphism in the Old Testament," VT Suppl.
7 (1960) 31-8; J. Hempel, "Die Grenzen des
Anthropomorphismus Jahwes im Alten Testament," ZAW 57
(1939) 75-85; F. Michaeli, Dieu à l'image de l'homme: Étude
de la notion anthropomorphique de Dieu dans l'Ancient Testament
(Neuchâtel: Delachaux, 1950); W. Eichrodt, Theology of the
Old Testament (2 vols.; Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,
1961) 1.210-20; M.C.A. Korpel, A Rift in the Clouds. Ugaritic
and Hebrew Descriptions of the Divine (Münster:
UGARIT-Verlag, 1990) 87-590; T.N.D. Mettinger, The
Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem and Kabod Theologies
(Coniectanea Biblica. Old Testament Series, 18; Lund: Wallin
& Dalholm, 1982); M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the
Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972) 191-209.
On late Jewish anthropomorphism see: M. Fishbane, "The
'Measures' of God's Glory in the Ancient Midrash," in I.
Gruenwald et al. (eds.), Messiah and Christos: Studies
in the Jewish Origins of Christianity. Presented to David Flusser
on the Occasion of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday (Tübingen:
Mohr/Siebeck, 1992) 53-74; Arthur Marmorstein, The Old
Rabbinic Doctrine of God: Essays in Anthropomorphism (New
York: KTAV, 1937).
[iv] M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy
and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)
191.
[v] T.N.D. Mettinger, The
Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem and Kabod Theologies
(Coniectanea Biblica. Old Testament Series, 18; Lund: Wallin
& Dalholm, 1982) 24.
[vi] Weinfeld, Deuteronomy
and the Deuteronomic School, 191.
[vii] For the roots of
the theology of the priestly tabernacle see: T.N.D. Mettinger, The
Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem and Kabod Theologies,
81-3.
[viii] Weinfeld shows
that "the notion of God sitting enthroned upon the cherubim
was prevalent in ancient Israel (1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; Ps 80:2; 2
Kgs 19:15)." Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic
School, 192.
[ix] Mettinger stresses
that "the most important aspect of the Ark in Solomon's
Temple was that it served as the footstool of God." T.N.D.
Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem
and Kabod Theologies, 87.
[x] M. Haran,
"The Ark and the Cherubim," IEJ 9 (1959) 30-8.
[xi] The term Kabod
(Heb. kbwd) occurs 199 times in the OT (24 occurences in
the Pentateuch, 7 in the Deuteronomistic history, 18 in the
Chronicler’s history, 38 in Isaiah, 19 in Ezekiel,
occasionaly in Jeremiah and the Minor Prophets, 51 occurences in
the Psalms and 16 in Proverbs). The term kbwd can be
translated as "substance," "body,"
"mass," "power," "might,"
"honor," "glory," "splendor." In
its meaning as "glory" Kabod usually refers to
God, his sanctuary, his city, or sacred paraphernalia. The
Priestly tradition uses the term in connection with God's
appearences in the tabernacle. P and Ezekiel describe Kabod
as a blazing fire surrounded by radiance and a great cloud. M.
Weinfeld, " kbwd"
TDOT, 7.22-38.
[xii] It is also
noteworthy that Ezekiel and the materials of the Priestly
tradition, such as Gen 5:1, share similar terminology, namely the
term dmwt. The term dmwt appears 12 times in the
Book of Ezekiel where it becomes a favorite terminology for the
description of various divine and angelic
"appearances." It occupies a prominent place in
Biblical anthropomorphic debates. Both terms kbwd and dmwt
are intimately connected through the notion of
"hiddeness" of the Divine form/glory. Later Jewish Shiur
Qomah traditions stress the aspect of the hiddeness of dmwt:
"His dmwt is hidden from everyone, but no one's dmwt
is hidden from Him." M.S. Cohen, The Shiur Qomah: Liturgy
and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Mysticism (Lanham:
University Press of America, 1983) 113. For a fuller discussion
see A. De Conick, Seek to See Him: Ascent and Vision Mysticism
in the Gospel of Thomas (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae,
33; Leiden: Brill, 1996) 102-4.
[xiii] On the
connections between P and Ezekiel see B. Stein, Der Begriff
"Kebod Jahweh" (Emsdetten; Lechte, 1939) 299. See
also T.N.D. Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in
the Shem and Kabod Theologies, 107-11.
[xiv] T.N.D.
Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem
and Kabod Theologies, 116-17.
[xv] T.N.D.
Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem
and Kabod Theologies, 117.
[xvi] T.N.D.
Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth. Studies in the Shem
and Kabod Theologies, 117.
[xvii] Weinfeld, Deuteronomy
and the Deuteronomic School, 201.
[xviii] Weinfeld, Deuteronomy
and the Deuteronomic School, 202.
[xix] De Conick, Seek
to See Him, 104-5. De Conick's research investigates the
relationships between God's form and God's light, showing their
complexity. She argues that in some traditions God's form remains
hidden behind His light. The hidden Kabod is revealed
through its light. "The visionary can only gain access to a
vision of the deity through the deity's light." De Conick, Seek
to See Him, 104-5.
[xx] G. Quispel,
"Ezekiel 1:26 in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosis," VC 34
(1980) 1-13.
[xxi] "I saw the
view of the face of the Lord, like iron made burning hot in a
fire and brought out, and it emits sparks and is incandescent.
Thus even I saw the face of the Lord. But the face of the Lord is
not to be talked about, it is so very marvelous and supremely
awesome and supremely frightening. And who am I to give an
account of the incomprehensible being of the Lord, and of his
face, so extremely strange and indescribable? And how many are
his commands, and his multiple voice, and the Lord's throne,
supremely great and not made by hands, and the choir stalls all
around him, the cherubim and the seraphim armies, and their
never-silent singing. Who can give an account of his beautiful
appearance, never changing and indescribable, and his great
glory? And I fell down flat and did obeisance to the Lord" (2
Enoch 22:1-4, the longer recension). Andersen, 136.
[xxii] Andersen, 160.
[xxiii] Andersen,
160.
[xxiv] It becomes
especially notable in Hekhaloth mysticism, where the teleology of
the mystical journeys came to be expressed in terms of descent
into the Merkabah. On Merkabah and Hekhaloth mysticism see.: P.
Alexander, "The Historical Settings of the Hebrew Book of
Enoch," JJS 28 (1977) 156-80; D. Blumenthal, Understanding
Jewish Mysticism, a Source Reader: The Merkabah tradition and the
Zoharic tradition (New York: KTAV, 1978); I. Chernus, Mysticism
in Rabbinic Judaism (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1982); M.
Cohen, The Shiur Qomah: Liturgy and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic
Jewish Mysticism (Lanham: University Press of America, 1983);
J. Greenfield, "Prolegomenon," in: H.Odeberg, 3
Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch (New York: KTAV, 1973)
xi-xlvii; I. Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism
(AGJU, 14; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980); Gruenwald, I. and M. Smith,
The Hekhaloth Literature in English (Chico, CA: Scholars
Press, 1983); D. Halperin, The Faces of Chariot: Early Jewish
Responses to Ezekiel's Vision (TSAJ, 16; Tübingen:
Mohr/Siebeck, 1988); D. Halperin, The Merkavah in Rabbinic
Literature (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1980); M.
Idel, "Enoch is Metatron," Immanuel 24/25 (1990)
220-40; L. Jacobs, Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York:
Schocken Books, 1977); N. Janowitz, The Poetics of Ascent:
Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1989); M. Morgan, Sepher
ha-Razim: The Book of Mysteries (Chico, CA: Scholars Press,
1983); C. Morray-Jones, "Hekhaloth Literature and
TalmudicTradition; Alexander's Three Test Cases," JJS
22 (1991) 1-39; C. Newsom, Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice: A
Critical Edition (HSS, 27; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985);
A.Orlov, “Titles of Enoch-Metatron in 2 Enoch,” JSP
18 (1998) 71-86; P. Schäfer with M. Schlüter and H.G. von
Mutius, Synopse zur Hekhaloth-Literatur (TSAJ, 2;
Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1981); P. Schäfer, The Hidden and
Manifest God (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1992); P. Schäfer et al., Übersetzung der
Hekhaloth-Literatur (4 vols.; TSAJ, 17, 22, 29, 46;
Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr/Siebeck, 1987-95); G. Scholem, Jewish
Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic tradition (New
York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1965); G. Scholem, Major
Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1954);
N. Séd, "Les traditions secrètes et les disciples de
Rabban Yohannan ben Zakkai," RHR 184 (1973) 49-66; M.
Swartz, Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism: An Analysis of
Maaseh Merkavah (Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1992).
[xxv] On the issue of
the interiorization of transformational visions see: A. Golitzin,
"Liturgy and Mysticism: The Experience of God in Eastern
Orthodox Christianity," Pro Ecclesia 2 (1999) 159-86;
Ieromonah Alexander (Golitzin), "Forma lui Dumnezeu si
Vedera Slavei. Reflectii Asupra Contraversei Antropomorfite Din
Anul 399 D. Hr.," in: Ieromonah Alexander (Golitzin), Mistagogia.
Experienta lui Dumnezeu în Ortodoxie (Sibiu: Deisis, 1998)
184-267; N. Séd, "La shekinta et ses amis araméens," Cahiers
d'Orientalisme XX (1988) 133-42.
[xxvi] G. Quispel, Makarius,
Das Thomasevangelium und das Lied von der Perle (SNT, 15;
Leiden: Brill, 1967) 57-8.
[xxvii] There are
four Byzantine medieval collections of Macarian Homilies. Three
of them appeared in critical editions. Collection I was published
in Makarios/Simeon: Reden und Briefe. Die Sammlung I des
Vaticanus Graecus 694 (B) (2 vols.; ed. H. Bertold, GCS;
Berlin: Academie-Verlag, 1973). Collection II appeared in: H.
Dörries, E. Klostermann, and M. Kroeger Die 50 Geistlichen
Homilien des Makarios (PTS, 4; Berlin: De Gruyter, 1964).
Collection III appeared in Neue Homilien des Makarios/Simeon
aus Typus III (eds. E. Klostermann and H. Berthold; TU, 72;
Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1961) and Pseudo-Macaire. Oeuvres
spirituelles. Vol. I: Homelies propres a la Collection III
(ed. V. Desprez; SC, 275; Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1980). In our
references to the Macarian homilies the first uppercase Roman
numeral will designate the Collection, following arabic numerals
will designate the specific homily and its subsections.
[xxviii]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter (tr. G.A. Maloney, S.J.; New York: Paulist Press,
1992) 97. H. Dörries et al. Die 50 Geistlichen
Homilien des Makarios (PTS, 4; Berlin: De Gruyter, 1964)
107-8.
[xxix]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 100.
[xxx] It is important
that Genesis 1:26 stresses that Adam's tselem was created
after God's own tselem, being some sort of luminous
"imitation" of the glorious tselem of God. Some
scholars even argue that "in this way, the likeness that
Adam and God shared is not physicality - in the normal sense of
having a body - but luminescence." David Aaron,
"Shedding Light on God's Body," 303.
[xxxi] For
discussions about the luminous garment/image/body of Adam see:
David H. Aaron, "Shedding Light on God's Body in Rabbinic
Midrashim: Reflections on the Theory of a Luminous Adam," HTR
90 (1997) 299-314; S. Brock, "Clothing Metaphors as a Means
of Theological Expression in Syriac Tradition," Typus,
Symbol, Allegorie bei den östlichen Vätern und ihren Parallelen
im Mittelalter (Eichstätter Beiträge, 4; Regensburg:
Friedrich Pustet, 1982) 11-40; A.D. De Conick and J. Fossum,
"Stripped before God: A New Interpretation of Logion 37 in
the Gospel of Thomas," VC 45 (1991) 141; L. Ginzberg,
The Legends of the Jews (7 vols.; Philadelphia: The Jewish
Publication Society of America, 1955) 5.97; Alon Goshen
Gottstein, "The Body as Image of God in Rabbinic
Literature," HTR 87 (1994) 171-95; B. Murmelstein,
"Adam, ein Beitrag zur Messiaslehre," Wiener
Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 35 (1928) 255; W.
Staerk, Die Erlösererwartung in den östlichen Religionen
(Stuttgart and Berlin, 1938) 11.
[xxxii] J. Fossum,
The Image of the Invisible God (Novum Testamentum et Orbis
Antiquus, 30; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995) 15.
Cf. also: A. Schlatter, Die Theologie der Apostel
(Stuttgart: Calwer, 1922) 299; M. Black, "The Pauline
Doctrine of the Second Adam," SJT 7 (1954) 174-9; R.
Scroggs, The Last Adam (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966)
97-9.
[xxxiii] See for
example 2 Cor 4:4: "...the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God..."
[xxxiv] Biblical
scholars argue that morfhv and eijkwvn are used as interchangeable
terms in the LXX and in Paul. For example, an investigation of
the Old Testament's connection between terms tselem and dmwt in the light of their translation in
the LXX as morphe lead scholars to believe that "morfhv in Philippians 2:6 is immediately
related to the concept eikon, since the Semitic root word tselem
can correspond to either of the two Greek words." R.P.
Martin, Carmen Christi. Philippians 2.5-11 in Recent
Interpretation and in the Setting of Early Christian Worship
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), 108. For the
discussion of the body/image of Christ in Pauline thought see
Jarl Fossum, The Image of the Invisible God (Novum
Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus, 30; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1995).
[xxxv] J. Fossum
observes that in some Gnostic circles "'the shining,'
'image,' or 'likeness' of God, after which the body of the
earthly man was fashioned appears as a separate entity, even some
form of hypostasis." Fossum, The Image of the Invisible
God, 16.
[xxxvi] Gershom
Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (New York:
Schocken Books, 1976) 264.
[xxxvii] Cf. S.
Brock, "Clothing Metaphors as a Means of Theological
Expression in Syriac Tradition," Typus, Symbol, Allegorie
bei den östlichen Vätern und ihren Parallelen im Mittelalter
(Eichstätter Beiträge, 4; Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1982)
11-40.
[xxxviii] On the
anthropomorphite controversy see: Elizabeth A. Clark, The
Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early
Christian Debate (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1992); Graham Gould, "The Image of God and the
Anthropomorphite Controversy in Fourth Century Monasticism,"
in Robert J. Daly (ed.), Origeniana Quinta (Bibliotheca
Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, CV; Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 1992) 549-57.
[xxxix] On
antianthropomorphic polemics see.: Elizabeth A. Clark, "New
Perspectives on the Origenist Controversy: Human Embodiment and
Ascetic Strategies," Church History 59 (1990) 145-62;
Lawrence Hennessey, "A Philosophical Issue of Origen's
Eschatology: The Three Senses of Incorporeality," in Robert
J. Daly (ed.), Origeniana Quinta (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum
Theologicarum Lovaniensium, CV; Leuven: Leuven University Press,
1992) 373-80; John A. McGuckin, "The Changing Forms of
Jesus," in Lothar Lies (ed.), Origeniana Quarta
(Innsbrucker Theologische Studien, Bd. 19; Innsbruck; Wien:
Tyrola-Verlag, 1987) 215-222; David L. Paulsen, "Early
Christian Belief in a Corporeal Deity: Origen and Augustine as
Reluctant Witnesses," HTR 83:2 (1990) 105-16;
Gedaliahu Stroumsa, "The Incorporiality of God: Context and
Implications of Origen's Position," Religion (1983)
345-58.
[xl] Similar
antropomorphic developments are also noticiable in postbiblical
Jewish mysticism, with its gradual elaboration of the tselem concept.
In Jewish tradition tselem played an important role in
anthropomorphic developments. It was understood not simply as an
abstract likeness but had a strong "corporeal meaning."
See Alon Goshen Gottstein, "The Body as Image of God in
Rabbinic Literature," HTR 87 (1994) 174. See also:
Gershom Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (New
York: Schocken Books, 1976) 251-73. Gottstein's research deals
with a number of rabbinic texts that reveal this
"corporeal" understanding of tselem.. He argues
that in some instances it is interchangeable with other Hebrew
terms for the designation of "body," like the term dmwt.
Speaking about these corporeal meanings of tselem Gottstein
notes that "... Adam's tselem is his luminous body.
In other sources, such as the story of Hillel washing his body [Lev.R.
34.3], the tselem referred to the physical body. Tselem
can be thus refer to various levels, or aspects, all of which
bear a resemblance to the physical body. I would propose that
these various levels, or various bodies, reflect one another. The
physical body is a reflection of the body of light. This
reflection may translate itself down to the details of
circumcision. The kind of graded devolutionary process that we
encountered above may be a model for two ways of talking about tselem.
The tselem in its original form may be lost, but the
dimmer reflection of this form is extant in the physical body,
which may still be spoken of as tselem." Alon Goshen
Gottstein, "The Body as Image of God in Rabbinic
Literature," 188. Rabbinic literature gives a number of
references to traditions about the luminosity of the original tselem
of Adam. One of them can be found in Lev. R. 20.2. in
which "Resh Lakish, in the name of R. Simeon the son of
Menasya, said: The apple of Adam's heel outshone the globe of the
sun; how much more so the brightness of his face! Nor need you
wonder. In the ordinary way if a person makes salvers, one for
himself and one for his household, whose will he make more
beautiful? Not his own? Similarly, Adam was created for the
service of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the globe of the sun
for the service of mankind." H. Freedman and M. Simon (tr.),
Midrash Rabbah (10 vols.; London: Soncino Press, 1939) 4.
252. Another important passage which can be found in Gen. R.
20.12 tells us that the scroll of Rabbi Meir reads "garments
of light" instead of "garments of skin," stressing
thus that Adam has not lost completely his luminous quality even
after the Fall: "In R. Meir's Torah it was found written,
'Garments of light (or)': this refers to Adam's garments, which
were like a torch [shedding radiance], broad at the bottom and
narrow at the top." H. Freedman and M. Simon (tr.), Midrash
Rabbah (10 vols.; London: Soncino Press, 1939) 1. 171.
[xli] The
Philokalia, 4.377.
[xlii] An aggadic
tradition, which survived in the Syriac environment, explains why
Adam and Eve discovered their nakedness only after the Fall.
According to the tradition, it happened because after their
transgression they lost their original radiance--the
"garments of light" which prevented them from seeing
their naked "physical" bodies. Luminosity thus served
for the prelapsarian humankind as a sort of screen which
concealed their original form. Gregory Palamas clearly employs
this tradition.
[xliii] "Even
though we still bear God's image to a greater degree than the
angels, yet as regards the likeness of God we fall far short of
them." Philokalia, 4.376.
[xliv] Philokalia,
4.376.
[xlv] Cf. John S.
Romanides, "Notes on the Palamite Controversy and Related
Topics," The Greek Orthodox Theological Review 6
(1960-61) 186-205 and The Greek Orthodox Theological Review
9 (1963-64) 225-70.
[xlvi] See John S.
Romanides, "Notes on the Palamite Controversy and Related
Topics," The Greek Orthodox Theological Review 9
(1963-64) 235.
[xlvii] On
Moses’ connection with Kabod theology see: A. Orlov,
“Ex 33 on God’s Face: A Lesson from the Enochic
Tradition,” Society of Biblical Literature 2000
Seminar Papers (SBLSP, 39; Atlanta: Scholars, 2000) 130-47.
[xlviii]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 102. H. Dörries et al. Die 50 Geistlichen
Homilien des Makarios, 114.
[xlix] The motif of
covering with the Glory is also prominent in another Macarian
passage which depicts Moses' shining countenance: "For
blessed Moses provided us with a certain type through the glory
of the Spirit which covered his countenance upon which no one
could look with steadfast gaze (II.15.10)." Pseudo-Macarius,
The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, 74.
[l] In Rabbinic
literature the traditions about Moses as a luminous conterpart of
Adam also can be found. Gottstein stresses that "the
luminescent quality of the tselem is the basis for
comparison between Moses and Adam in several rabbinical
materials." Alon Goshen Gottstein, "The Body as Image
of God in Rabbinic Literature," 182. Deut. R. 11.3
attests to such traditions: “Adam said to Moses: ‘I am
greater than you because I have been created in the image of
God.’ Whence this? For it is said, ‘and God created man
in his own image’ (Gen. 1,27). Moses replied to him: ‘I
am far superior to you, for the honor which was given to you has
been taken away from you, as it is said: but man (Adam) abideth
not in honor, (Ps. XLIX, 13) but as for me, the radiant
countenance which God gave me still remains with me.’
Whence? For it is said: ‘his eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated’ (Deut. 34,7).” H. Freedman and M.
Simon (tr.), Midrash Rabbah (10 vols.; London: Soncino
Press, 1939) 7. 173. Gottstein also gives another midrashic
passage from Midrash Tadshe 4 in which Moses is again
Adam's luminous counterpart: "In the likeness of the
creation of the world the Holy One blessed be he performed
miracles for Israel when they came out of Egypt... In the
beginning: 'and God created man in his image,' and in the desert:
'and Moshe knew not that the skin of his face shone.'" Cf.
Adolph Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash (6 vols.; Jerusalem:
Wahrmann, 1967) 3. 168.
[li] G. Scholem,
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism ( New York: Schoken, 1961)
79.
[lii]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 37.
[liii] G. Scholem,
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism ( New York: Schoken, 1961)
79.
[liv] The original
Synoptic accounts of Christ's transfiguration seem influenced by
the Kabod paradigm in its classical Exodus' form. Several details
of the account serve as important reminders: the vision took
place on a mountain, the presence of Moses, a bright cloud that
enveloped the visionaries, a voice which came out of the cloud,
and the shining face of Christ. On Moses typology in the Synoptic
accounts of the Transfiguration see: J.A. McGuckin, The
Transfiguration of Christ in Scripture and Tradition (Studies
in the Bible and Early Christianity, 9; Lewiston: The Edwin
Mellen Press, 1986) 1-19; J. Markus, The Way of the Lord
(Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1992) 80-93; M.E. Thrall,
"Elijah and Moses in Mark's Account of the
Transfiguration," NTS 16 (1969-70) 305-17.
[lv] The verb from
the Synoptic account implies that Jesus' body was changed. Cf. J.
Behm, TDNT, 4.755-7.
[lvi] Another
important testimony to the Lord's Body of Light is Pseudo-Clementine
Homily 17.7 which pictures the brilliant radiance of Christ's
body in connection with Christ's image:"For He has shape,
and He has every limb primarily and solely for beauty's sake, and
not for use. For He has not eyes that He may see with them; for
He sees on every side, since He is incomparably more brilliant in
His body than the visual spirit which is in us, and He is more
splendid than everything, so that in comparison with Him the
light of the sun may be reckoned as darkness. Nor has He ears
that He may hear; for He hears, perceives, moves, energizes, acts
on every side. But He has the most beautiful shape on account of
man, that the pure in heart may be able to see Him, that they may
rejoice because they suffered. For He molded man in His own shape
as in the grandest seal, in order that he may be the ruler and
lord of all, and that all may be subject to him. Wherefore,
judging that He is the universe, and that man is His image (for
He is Himself invisible, but His image man is visible), the man
who wishes to worship Him honours His visible image, which is
man." A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene
Fathers (10 vols.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950-51) 8.
319-20. It is important that here Christ's luminosity is placed
into the account of Adam's creation after God's image. The phrase
"He is incomparably more brilliant in his body than the
visual spirit which is in us" deserves particular attention
since it can refer to the correspondence between the Lord's
luminous "body" and the Adamic tselem.
[lvii]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 122-3. H. Dörries et al. Die 50
Geistlichen Homilien des Makarios, 149-50.
[lviii] Origen in Princ.
2.3.7 remarks that the best and purest spirits must have some
kind of body, being changed according to their degree of merit
into an ethereal condition, and interprets "change" in
1 Cor 15:52 as "shining with light."
[lix]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 122-3. H. Dörries et al. Die 50
Geistlichen Homilien des Makarios, 149-50.
[lx] It is noteworthy
that the homilist applies the imagery of "covering" not
only to the physical bodies of these Christians but also to their
souls which according to him will be "covered with the
beauty of the ineffable glory of the light of Christ."
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 37.
[lxi]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 122-3. H. Dörries et al. Die 50
Geistlichen Homilien des Makarios, 149-50.
[lxii]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 44.
[lxiii] The luminous
face and the transformed garments of Christ in the Synoptic
accounts of the Transfiguration may stress the role of Christ as
a visionary of His own glory. It parallels the shining face of
Moses after his visionary experience on Mount Sinai and to the
transformation of visionaries' garments in Jewish and Christian
apocalypses.
[lxiv]
Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter, 122-3. H. Dörries et al. Die 50
Geistlichen Homilien des Makarios, 149-50.